Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

On the big screen, Zhang Guorong shouted crazily, "We are talking about a lifetime! One year, one month, one day, one hour less, it doesn't count as a lifetime!"

In the screening room, the audience was infected by the emotions of the movie and were all caught up in it. Even when the movie was over and the lights came on, there was still silence.

After a long while, sparse applause finally broke out.

Then there was continuous applause.

Brother Kaizi's heart finally settled down.

"This is a lucky movie!" Yang Ye said.

"Such a good script, such a good director, such a good leading actor, and such a good producer, supervisor, and photographer... all came together to create such a masterpiece. This film will definitely... go down in film history!"

When Yang Ye was praising others, he also did not forget to praise the sisters Xu Feng and Xu Jie.

Xu Jie is fine, even though she is the producer of this film, she is just helping her sister.

But without Xu Feng's persistence, there would be no movie "Farewell My Concubine".

She was determined that the director and the leading actor had to be Kaizi Ge and Zhang Guorong, and she persuaded them with every effort and finally succeeded.

There is a rumor on the Internet that the original choice was Zun Long.

Xu Feng said personally that the first choice was Zhang Guorong.

At that time, John Lone also wanted to act in this movie, so he asked some friends in the Hong Kong and Taiwan film industry to find Xu Feng and told him that he really wanted to act in this movie.

Xu Feng's talks with Zhang Guorong were not going smoothly at that time, because Zhang Guorong's agent made a lot of demands, which were very difficult to deal with, making Xu Feng very tired.

So Xu Feng called John Lone. At that time, John Lone was very famous because of "The Last Emperor".

Xu Feng thought that since Zhang Guorong couldn't be negotiated, then he would do it with Zunlong.

Not long after, at that year's Golden Horse Film Festival, Zhang Guorong and Zun Long were both guests.

After meeting the two, Xu Feng felt that Zun Long's facial lines were too angular and he was not suitable to play Cheng Dieyi, while Zhang Guorong was more gentle and was the best candidate.

Xu Feng was very annoyed because she had already promised Zunlong that people should keep their word.

Later, Zun Long's American agent sent the contract. Xu Feng took a look and found a lot of terms. They were more demanding than Zhang Guorong's agent and more difficult to deal with.

Now I finally have an excuse for Xu Feng. It's not that I don't keep my promise, it's that you're too much of a troublemaker. Bye!

Xu Feng went back to his old love and looked for Zhang Guorong again, and this time he finally got her.

Of course, this is all about the original time and space. In this time and space, Zun Long did not play "The Last Emperor", so he has no right to sit at the table.

Zhang Guorong was made famous by Yang Ye and is one of the pillars of Yangji.

We are all family, so there are no difficult problems.

Xu Feng thought Zhang Guorong was suitable for the role, and Zhang Guorong himself liked the story very much, so he decided on the role right away.

However, in order to get Brother Kaizi to take on this movie, Xu Feng actually made several trips to Beijing.

In fact, there was a version of "Farewell My Concubine" in the 1980s, directed by Law Kei-luk, and he wanted to find Cheung Kwok-yung at that time.

However, the atmosphere at that time was not as open as it was in the 1990s, and Zhang Guorong refused considering the social impact.

……

After watching the movie, we started negotiating the release date.

The original version of "Farewell My Concubine" premiered on New Year's Day in 1993 as the opening film of the Oriental Cinema Chain.

"Farewell My Concubine" was released for 19 days and grossed 914 million. It may not seem very high, but it's actually quite impressive.

People in the industry are all knowledgeable. When "Farewell My Concubine" came out, everyone knew it was a masterpiece.

At that time, there were four cinema chains in Hong Kong: Golden Harvest, D&B, Sun Hung Kai and Wing Ko, and they all wanted to grab Farewell My Concubine.

As a result, Wong Jing suddenly emerged. He spent a week signing contracts with 20 scattered cinemas in Hong Kong and established the fifth cinema chain in Hong Kong... Oriental Cinemas!
Wong Jing has a bargaining chip in his hand, that is, Zhang Guorong is his contracted artist.

Wong Jing went to find Xu Feng and told her that only if she gave the movie to her would Zhang Guorong come out to promote it.

So Oriental Cinemas got "Farewell My Concubine" and gained a firm foothold with it.

It is already amazing that a new cinema chain formed temporarily can achieve this box office result.

In this time and space, all cinemas in Hong Kong are controlled by the cinema alliance. New cinema chains cannot emerge at all, and there is no such thing as the five major cinema chains.

……

The movies to be released during the 1993 Spring Festival have been decided.

They are "All's Well, All's Well" starring Zhang Guorong and Xu Guanjie, "City Hunter" starring Chen Long and Wang Zuxian, "Fight Back to School 3: Year of the Rooster" starring Stephen Chow and Anita Mui, "New Meteor Butterfly Sword" starring Leung Cho-wai and Yang Ziqiong, "Bodyguard from Beijing" starring Yang Ye, and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2: The Storm Riders" starring Lin Qingxia.

All the representative figures of Hong Kong films are gathered here. It can be said that this is the strongest Spring Festival period in Hong Kong's history.

No matter how well "Farewell My Concubine" is filmed, plunging into it at this point will be a dead end.

Yang Ye said: "Don't release it for now, send it to Cannes for awards. I think this movie has a great chance of winning an award."

Yang Ye said that this movie would win an award, which made Xu Feng very happy. She asked, "Cannes seems to be very difficult. Would it be better to send it to Venice or Berlin?"

Yang Ye shook his head and said, "It is said that with Lao Ma in Venice, it is easier to win awards. But in the past few years, we have already won three Golden Lions. We can't rely on one award to win. I see that Kaige has been going to Cannes in recent years and is very familiar with the place, so we should go to Cannes."

Yang Ye had Farewell My Concubine go to Cannes first and then release it after returning, naturally for the purpose of maximizing profits.

In the original time and space, nine of the top ten Chinese-language films released in the 1990s at the global box office were Chen Long's films.

The movie that disrupted the formation was "Farewell My Concubine", which ranked ninth. It had a global box office of 3300 million US dollars and was a model of both artistic and commercial success.

But Yang Ye believes that the box office of "Farewell My Concubine" can be even higher, and if it is managed properly, it can double.

Because although Xu Feng in the original time and space produced "Farewell My Concubine", she did not have the ability to distribute it. After winning the award in Cannes and selling the copyright, she could no longer control what happened afterwards.

In this time and space, Baiyang Pictures has a complete distribution network and can formulate better release plans to maximize profits.

Take Hong Kong for example, Farewell My Concubine was originally released on the Oriental Cinema Circuit on New Year's Day, and the box office was only 9 million.

However, if a film wins an award at Cannes and then has a comprehensive publicity plan before being released, it won't be difficult to gross over 20 million.

For example, in the United States, "Farewell My Concubine" was originally released in October and grossed over 10 million U.S. dollars.

If it had been released in December, it would have won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film a month later.

The movie is currently in theaters and the final box office will definitely be over tens of millions of dollars.

If the film does some more public relations and wins the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, it could increase the box office by about $2000 million.

In this way, not only will the North American box office exceed 30 million, but the revenue from audio-visual copyrights will also increase significantly.

The profits generated by this movie are conservatively estimated to be three times that of the original time and space.

Do business and focus on money, why not do it?

As for whether Brother Kaizi will become so inflated that he will self-destruct, who cares!
……

Soon, the Spring Festival movie season began.

Because there are too many blockbuster movies, the theater alliance arranged for these movies to be released at intervals. Starting from January 1, two days before the Chinese New Year, one movie will be released every two days.

Stephen Chow's "Fight Back to School 3: Year of the Rooster" was the first to appear.

This sequel directed by Wang Jing plagiarizes too many parts from the Hollywood movie "Basic Instinct" and is not as good as the first two films directed by Gordon Chan.

"Basic Instinct" is a global hit movie. When it was released in Hong Kong in 92, it grossed 2900 million at the box office. Many citizens have seen it.

Therefore, after the release of "Fight Back to School 3: Year of the Rooster", it received a lot of criticism and its reputation collapsed.

Fortunately, thanks to Stephen Chow's strong appeal, the local box office grossed over 20 million, which managed to maintain the status of The King of Comedy.

"Fighting School 3" was produced by Stephen Chow for Yongsheng and had nothing to do with Yang Ye. However, two days later, "City Hunter" was released on the New Year's Eve, and Yang Ye showed up in person to support it.

The cast of this movie is similar to the original time and space, with Chen Long, Wang Zuxian, Qiu Shuzhen and Leon Lai still starring.

The only difference is that the actress who plays the Japanese girl Kiyoko was changed from Goto Kumiko in the original version to Aikawa Nanase.

This is to leverage Chen Long's popularity to help the future rock queen make her official debut.

The box office of "City Hunter" in the original time and space in Japan was more than 700 million yen. In this time and space, Yang Ji's distribution capabilities are stronger, so it is no problem to get 1 billion, which is enough for Nanase Aikawa to become a familiar face.

"City Hunter" has nothing to do with the original manga by Hojo Tsukasa, and the plot was made up by Fatty Wang.

However, the fight scene where he transformed into a Street Fighter was truly a famous scene.

Chen Long’s cosplay of Chun-Li is top-notch, whether it’s the facial expressions and movements or the thick muscular thighs, it can be said to be a perfect reproduction.

If it were replaced with Moon Lee's face, it would be even more perfect.

The audience in the cinema were all laughing so hard that they almost choked. Yang Ye suddenly asked Wang Jing, "Is this clip authorized by Capcom?"

Wang Jing said: "Yes!"

Yang Ye thought for a moment and said, "Do you think it's feasible to make a movie called "The Story of Chun Li"?"

“Did you make a successful kung fu movie?”

"Yes, let A-Man act!"

"A-Man is pretty and good at fighting. If there is a good script, I think it will be possible."

Yang Ye nodded: "Then give it a try."

Wang Jing said: "Actually, I wanted to make Street Fighter, but Capcom sold the film adaptation rights to Columbia, and now they are making a movie together."

Yang Ye said: "Even if you buy the copyright, you won't shoot it according to the original version. Why spend that money? I suggest you spend some money and let them authorize the character image, and then use your expertise to shoot a spoof version."

Wang Jing's eyes lit up: "Yes, Sir, you are very thoughtful."

"City Hunter" combines Chen Long's action and Wang Jing's spoofs, with the help of handsome men and beautiful women such as Leon Lai and Wang Zuxian. The local box office was 30 million, which is pretty good.

The subsequent film "New Meteor Butterfly Sword" was a complete flop.

This movie was made by Taiwan's Chang Hong Company to take advantage of the popularity of Hong Kong martial arts films.

Liang Caowei was the male lead, but in this era when there are so many great actors, his performance was really not very impressive, and the box office was only tens of millions.

Liang Caowei was originally just an actor in art films, and he didn't make much commercial achievements. He was brought out to fill the role of a celebrity because all the great actors in Long Jiexingfa had left or reduced their production.

Then comes "Happy Events in Flower Fields".

After the filming of "All's Well, Ends Well", Wong Jing and investor Roger Cheng had a falling out.

Because Roger admitted that it was too easy to make a movie. Just find a group of stars, come up with an idea, and it would be a box office hit. It was really not cost-effective for Wong Jing to take so many shares.

Wong Jing had been in the film industry for more than ten years, but was still looked down upon. He was very unhappy and simply quit.

He then immigrated to Singapore, planning to retire and enjoy life.

At this time, Qiu Degen had already sold the "Songcheng" in Hong Kong to Yang Ji, but built a "Tangcheng" in Singapore.

He wanted to boost his popularity, so he invited Wong Jing to visit, and promised that if Wong Jing filmed in Tang City, he would not charge him and would let him shoot for free.

Huang Baiming thought, is there such a good thing? So he came back to the screen and made this "Flower Field" to compete in the Spring Festival again.

"All's Well, All's Well" is Wong Jing's usual routine, finding a bunch of stars, laughing and joking, and celebrating the New Year with laughter.

During the Chinese New Year, everyone wants to have fun. If the whole family walks into the cinema happily and comes out laughing, your movie is a success.

"All's Well That Ends Well" grossed 3500 million at the box office.

Then came "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2", which had a bad reputation and everyone was keen on watching "All's Well, All's Well", so it flopped at the box office.

On New Year’s Eve, Yang Ye’s whole family gathered together to celebrate the New Year, and it was very lively.

In previous years, only those with children would gather together, and this year Akina Nakamori also joined in.

She looked at Yang Ye, who was playing and fighting with the children in the living room, and her heart was actually a little bitter.

Today, she has retired from the Japanese entertainment industry and lives in Hong Kong.

Although Yang Ye would try his best to make time to accompany her, he traveled all over the world all year round and did not spend much time in Hong Kong, which had to be shared with other people. So, all in all, the two of them did not have much time together in a year.

This made Akina Nakamori feel a little lonely and even a little regretful.

In the past, she had a career, so it was okay for us not to be together. But now it’s not possible anymore.

Yamaguchi Momoe came out with a box of sumptuous Osechi cuisine, and seeing Nakamori Akina sitting there alone, she walked over.

"If you feel lonely, why not give him a child!"

"what?"

Nakamori Akina was stunned for a moment. She had indeed thought about having children after getting married.

However, given her current situation with Yang Ye, she gave up the idea.

Yamaguchi Baihui smiled as she looked at Yang Ye who was playing with the children in the living room and said:
“Ye Jun, is like a daimyo in ancient times who had many wives.

In this modern society, maintaining such family relationships is a very strange thing.

But he is a genius and cannot be constrained by worldly rules.

I want to be with him because I can feel that his love for me is sincere.

I love him too, so I gave birth to little Mud with him.

Being a mother is a very tedious but very happy thing.

Watching my child grow up little by little from a baby under my care.

That sense of accomplishment far exceeds being a singer.

I just said the wrong thing, and it wasn't because I felt lonely.

But, if you love him, have a child with him!" (End of this chapter)