Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

The 1994 film "Bodyguard from Beijing" starring Jet Li and Christy Chung was inspired by the 1992 Hollywood film "The Bodyguard".

Its story structure and character personalities have borrowed a lot from "The Bodyguard".

Both movies are about a super bodyguard going to a mansion to protect a woman.

The woman also had a child with her, Rachel was with her son and Michelle was with her nephew.

Even the choice of the heroine for "Bodyguard from Beijing" might have been because of Christy Chung's plump lips, which are somewhat similar to Whitney Houston's.

The only difference is that the identities of the heroines are slightly different: Rachel is a big star, and Michelle is the girlfriend of a rich man.

The heroine doesn't care about her situation at all and is very dissatisfied with the bodyguard's interference in her life.

Until an accident happened, the bodyguard strongly protected the heroine. The heroine's attitude towards the bodyguard changed greatly, and she began to actively approach the bodyguard.

The difference is that "The Bodyguard" is more passionate and unrestrained in a Western way, and the bodyguard goes directly to bed with Rachel.

"Bodyguard from Beijing" is an Eastern-style subtlety and restraint. The bodyguard is moved but restrains himself.

In the end, the bodyguard blocks the bullet for the heroine and takes the opportunity to kill the enemy.

After the bodyguard recovered from his injuries, Rachel rushed down from the plane, threw herself into the bodyguard's arms, and the two kissed passionately.

Michelle could only stand at one end of the bridge and helplessly watch the bodyguard's car go away.

Fortunately, the bodyguard left his watch behind, so it was an open ending.

In terms of dramatic conflict, "The Bodyguard" is slightly better.

Because the heroine in "The Bodyguard" is a big star, she has no boyfriend, and the two of them can have sex.

But after the sex, the bodyguard felt that he had violated the rules because he was emotionally moved and could not complete his mission.

Therefore, the bodyguard chose to pull out the rope ruthlessly and keep his distance from Rachel.

This made Rachel very angry. She felt like she was being played, and conflicts arose.

In "Bodyguard from Beijing", Michelle has a wealthy boyfriend, and she cannot have sex with the bodyguard because it is immoral.

So the only way to find plot conflict is to look for other places, and the screenwriter chose to make a fuss about the villain.

In "The Bodyguard", the killer is always hidden, and the answer is only revealed at the last moment.

However, in "Bodyguard from Beijing", the villain is set as a deserter in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, and a large number of fighting scenes between bodyguards and killers are increased.

This makes the climax of the movie more tense and exciting, rather than a one-shot kill like in The Bodyguard.

But the disadvantage is that the killer has too many scenes, and the interaction between the bodyguard and the heroine becomes less.

Moreover, the heroine of "The Bodyguard" is Whitney Houston. The theme song "I Will Always Love You" she sang in the movie is sad and profound, and it became popular all over the world and became the best-selling single by a female singer in history, which is something that "Bodyguard from Beijing" cannot replicate.

1994 marked the th anniversary of the birth of film, and directors from all over the world gave their all, trying hard to leave their names in film history.

As a result, various classic movies were released one after another, and audiences around the world couldn't stop watching them.

1994 was also the heyday of Hong Kong films. Although "Bodyguard from Beijing" was of good quality, it was not very eye-catching among a lot of masterpieces. The local box office was only 1100 million Hong Kong dollars, which was a terrible flop.

However, Yang Ye is not worried that his film "Bodyguard from Beijing" will fail. After leading the crowd in Chinatown to resist the black riots, he has become a spiritual totem in the Chinese world.

Even if the movie he releases is a piece of crap, there will still be a lot of people buying it, not to mention that "Bodyguard from Beijing" is not bad.

In addition, "Bodyguard from Beijing" was banned from release in mainland China at the time due to its sensitive subject matter, thus losing a box office.

Once this movie is released in mainland China, it will definitely be a big hit and will definitely be a box office hit.

Yang Ye is confident that he can get this movie released in mainland China, as his connections are beyond the reach of Jet Li.

This movie does not smear the mainland, so there is no need for the mainland to block the release of his movie over such a trivial matter.

However, Yang Ye still made some slight changes to the plot. The killer organization in "Bodyguard from Zhongnanhai" is composed of retired PLA soldiers, which seems to be a discredit to the PLA.

Yang Ye changed it into a Vietnamese who had been to the battlefield and hated the Chinese, so he had to kill the bodyguard.

Of course, he was always beaten by the bodyguards in the movie and never got any advantage. In the end, he could only use women to threaten the bodyguards.

Once the project is finalized, the next step is to select the actors.

First of all, the heroine, Christy Chung is still studying at the University of California, Los Angeles and has not made her debut yet.

It was impossible for Yang Ye to go to Canada to find her, so he planned to just pick one of his women.

The killer is of course Chang Wei, no, Chou Zhaolong.

There are two policemen, Fat Cat has great acting skills, so count him as one.

The handsome guy who plays the other policeman hasn't made his debut yet. I'm too lazy to find one, so I'll just see which male actor in the company has time and can be cast.

It's just so perfunctory!

……

Li Jiaxin walked down from the plane with Zhang Yimou, Hong Jingbao, Yuen Biao and others. They had just finished filming "The Yellow Skin Grave 2".

This was Li Jiaxin’s second trip to the grassland. Although she was still filming "Ghost Blows Out the Light", Hu Bayi was replaced by Yuen Biao.

Shirley Yang has not appeared yet. Li Jiaxin plays Ding Sitian, the heroine of "The Yellow Skin Grave 2".

As soon as I walked out of the gate, I saw a group of reporters gathered outside.

Li Jiaxin was startled and asked, "Director, have you notified the reporters?"

Zhang Yimou shook his head: "No, did you notify me, Brother Bao?"

Hong Jingbao shook his head: "Me neither!"

"Never mind, just go ahead!"

A group of people walked up, and when the reporters saw them, some of them came forward to greet them, calling them Brother Bao and Brother Biao.

Someone asked, "Did you just come back from filming a movie?"

Hong Jingbao replied: "Yes, we just came back from filming Ghost Blows Out the Light."

"Why didn't I see Hong Gu?"

"The heroine of this movie is Jia Xin, and Ah Hong has not appeared yet."

Li Jiaxin stood up and waved to everyone, smiling sweetly, "Hello, everyone!"

When "Mojin: The Lost Legend" was released, Li Jiaxin stunned everyone with her image of the Queen of Jingjue and became an instant hit.

But she hasn't made many movies in the past two years. She has no talent in acting and is not willing to put in the effort.

Her professional ability is far inferior to that of Rosamund Kwan. Although Rosamund Kwan is also very lazy, many of the roles she played are very popular, such as Thirteenth Aunt.

However, due to Li Jiaxin's beautiful appearance, she soon attracted the attention of the fashion industry after becoming famous through movies.

She is often invited to attend various fashion events and has appeared on the covers of fashion magazines across Asia, becoming a darling of the fashion industry.

In fact, she was supported by Yang Ye and didn't have to worry about money at all, but Yang Ye told her more than once that a woman still had to have her own career.

So she made fashion her main career and movies became her side job.

It was quite pleasant to be in the fashion circle. The only trouble was that Yang Ye had not made his relationship with Li Jiaxin public, and Li Jiaxin herself did not dare to tell anyone about it.

So when facing interviews with reporters, she always said that she was single, which attracted a lot of suitors to buzz around her.

For Li Jiaxin, Yang Ye was very good to her except that he had little time to accompany her. However, she now understood that her dream of becoming Mrs. Yang was doomed to be impossible.

Young girls always have some unrealistic fantasies.

After her fantasy was shattered, she also thought about breaking up with Yang Ye.

However, it is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. She is reluctant to give up her current life of luxury unless she can find another financial sponsor.

However, although the men who pursued her were all rich, most of them had families and were just attracted by her beauty.

Following these people is also being a lover, so it’s better to follow Yang Ye. Li Jiaxin is not stupid.

Of course, there are also young men like Ni Zhen, but their financial resources are far inferior to his, and Li Jiaxin doesn't look down on them at all.

Now that they were caught by the reporters, everyone cheered up and accepted the interview.

Not long into the interview, someone suddenly shouted, "Here comes Sir Alex!"

Li Jiaxin turned around and saw Yang Ye walking towards them from a distance, holding a bouquet of flowers in her hand.

Li Jiaxin didn't expect Yang Ye to come to pick her up, and she immediately smiled and was overjoyed.

Yang Ye walked up to the crowd and greeted them, but he didn't talk to Li Jiaxin. Instead, he asked Zhang Yimou, "Have you finished filming? Did it go well?"

Zhang Yimou smiled and said, "It went very smoothly!"

"You're going to Venice to exhibit next month, right?"

"Yes!"

"I also need to go!"

"You're going to the exhibition, too?"

Yang Ye shook his head: "I'll go judge the awards!"

Zhang Yimou was shocked. With Yang Ye's status in the film industry, if he went to Venice to judge the awards, there would be no doubt that... he would be the chairman of the jury.

Yang Ye nodded: "They invited me last month and I agreed!"

Zhang Yimou suddenly felt overwhelmed. Yang Ye was the chairman of the jury. Would he avoid suspicion? If he did, wouldn't my award be ruined?

As if understanding Zhang Yimou's thoughts, Yang Ye patted Zhang Yimou on the shoulder and said with a smile: "I will take care of you!"

Yang Ye was indebted to the Venice Film Festival. Due to many factors including World War II, the Venice Film Festival did not give any awards for a long time.

During that period, Venice became very weak. Every year during the exhibition, it could not invite any decent films to participate, and the film trading market was in name only.

When they finally resumed awarding prizes, Yang Ye not only brought "Seediq Bale" to show his support, but also brought a large number of film producers, which quickly made the Venice Film Festival flourish.

……

Li Jiaxin looked eagerly at the flowers in Yang Ye's hand.

She was looking forward to Yang Ye handing her the flowers and announcing their relationship to the world under the watchful eyes of everyone.

However, Yang Ye seemed not to notice her and was chatting happily with Zhang Yimou.

After Yang Ye finished talking about the Venice Film Festival with Zhang Yimou, he chatted with Hong Jingbao and Yuen Biao for a while before finally turning to Li Jiaxin.

"Jiaxin, are you used to going to the grassland this time?"

Li Jiaxin saw that the bouquet of flowers was still in Yang Ye's hand and did not seem to be given to her. She felt disappointed. She forced a smile and said, "It's okay. It's not my first time going there!"

"Yes, I went there once before when I was filming Mojin: The Lost Legend. You are familiar with the place!"

There were many reporters at the scene, so Yang Ye didn't know what to say to her, so he just chatted with her for a few words.

Li Jiaxin thought that Yang Ye was making such a big fuss, wondering which woman he was here to pick up. She felt jealous and the atmosphere was a little awkward.

Seeing this, Yuen Biao asked directly: "Boss, are you here to pick someone up?"

"Yes, I'm here to pick up my daughter. She should be here soon." Yang Ye looked at his watch.

……

"father!"

A teenage girl walked out of the gate and ran towards Yang Ye quickly.

Yang Ye walked forward, picked up the girl, turned around twice, and then put her down, saying with a smile: "Welcome to Hong Kong, my baby!"

The reporters were waiting for this moment. They immediately raised their cameras, and with a flash of white light, they captured the scene with a series of clicks.

"Isn't your mother here?"

Yang Ye looked back and saw Paramount's female president Shirley Lansing and several entourages walking out of the gate, but did not see Ajani.

Yang Xi spread her hands and said helplessly, "She said she had something urgent to do, so I could only come with Aunt Shirley."

Yang Ye guessed that Ajani didn't want to see his women, so she only sent her daughter to him.

"Okay, I'll take you out to play tomorrow!"

"Okay, I've always wanted to see Victoria Harbour."

Yang Ye took Yang Xi by the hand and walked to Shirley Lansing, gave her the bouquet of flowers, and said, "Welcome to Hong Kong, Ms. Lansing!"

"Thank you, sir, for the beautiful flowers!"

Yang Ye turned around and said to the reporters, "Let me introduce you to everyone. This is the president of Paramount Pictures, Ms. Shirley Lansing."

Then he pointed at Yang Xi and said, "This is my daughter Irene Yang Xi. I'm sure you've seen her photo in the newspaper."

A group of reporters swarmed over and started interviewing two women, one old and one young.

"Ms. Lansing, what is the purpose of your visit to Hong Kong this time?"

"We have an important cooperation to discuss, but we can't disclose it to the public for the time being. Sorry!"

"Elena, is this your first time back to Hong Kong?"

Yang Xi said in fluent Cantonese: "Yes! I lived in Paris when I was a child, and then I went to Los Angeles. Now, I am finally home!"

Not only did Yang Xi answer the questions in Cantonese, she also said that coming to Hong Kong was like going home, and the media immediately became more favorable towards her.

In the entertainment news of the next day, many people expressed their praise for Yang Xi.

After a brief interview with the media, Yang Ye sent Shirley Lansing to the Peninsula Hotel where she was staying.

Before leaving, he said to Zhang Yimou, "I'm busy these two days, but I'll treat you to dinner the day after tomorrow to celebrate your completion. Remember to come!"

After saying that, he glanced at Li Jiaxin, then took Yang Xi's hand and walked away.

Li Jiaxin looked at Yang Ye's receding back, thinking about how he doted on Yang Xi, and suddenly realized something.

As far as she knew, Yang Ye's two daughters, Yang Xi and Yang Qing, held shares in United Artists Pictures and BMG Music respectively.

Although I don’t know what the other children got specifically, I think they were treated well.

Since Yang Ye is so good to his children.

Well, as long as I give birth to a child for him, I won't have to worry about anything, right?

Whether or not you become Mrs. Yang is actually not very important! (End of this chapter)