Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

The Yang Ye version of "Kung Fu" is more clever than the Zhou Xingchi original version in the following aspects:

At the end, Stephen Chow paid tribute to his idol Bruce Lee's classic image in "Enter the Dragon".

But because it happened so long ago, the audience at that time didn't really feel anything.

However, Yang Ye paid tribute to the classic image of Monk Jueyuan in the movie "Shaolin Temple" in which he made his debut.

It has only been ten years since "Shaolin Temple" was released in mainland China, but it has immediately evoked memories of countless viewers.

Moreover, the bald man Mo Ming and the Tathagata Palm are more suitable for each other, giving people the feeling that at that moment, he became a Buddha.

At the first Shanghai International Film Festival, countless audiences flocked to Shanghai Film City to watch "Kung Fu".

When people saw Yang Ye recreate the image of Jueyuan in the movie, they applauded and cheered, shouting "My youth is back".

Because it was so popular, the other 19 nominated films were relatively unpopular and had few viewers.

Yang Ye has been very busy these days. As the world's most famous Chinese-language filmmaker, he is equivalent to half a host.

When Sophia Loren, Deborah Raffin, Momoi Kaoru, and Nakano Yoshiko appeared at the film festival, this guy was always there to accompany them, and he also considerately served as an interpreter for these beauties, making him a real friend of women.

The film festival lasted for eight days, screened nearly 600 films, and attracted nearly 300,000 people. It was rare for the first session to have such a scale.

But the organizing committee is most concerned about the film trading market.

The results were encouraging, with several co-production projects agreed upon, the largest of which was worth as much as US$2700 million.

German producer Dunnyock purchased more than a dozen animated films from Shanghai Animation Film Studio, Germany's Durma company purchased 15 Chinese films, and Brazil, Austria, Singapore and other countries also purchased some domestic films, and there were even more transactions between them.

Baiyang Pictures also brought several of this year's new films to set up a booth. As one of the world's nine major film companies and the leader of Hong Kong films, it is naturally a heavyweight.

Among them, "Once Upon a Time in China 4: The Legend of Huang Fei", the latest masterpiece produced by Xu Ke and directed by Yuan Bin, attracted countless audiences as soon as it was released and aroused the interest of many film producers.

This movie had nothing to do with Zhao Wenzhuo, and was still starred by Jet Li. In the end, more than 40 copyrights were sold, and almost all film producers from various countries that attended the exhibition made a move.

Beleson, vice president of the International Producers Guild, visited the scene several times and was amazed at the prosperous trading market.

He said: "Whether a film festival is important depends on whether the film festival market is attractive. If the market is booming, it will attract more films to participate in the exhibition."

Finally, the Shanghai Film Festival passed the assessment of the International Producers Association, and Belysson personally announced: "The Shanghai International Film Festival is an international A-level film festival and is listed among the world's nine major international film festivals."

With this certification, actors who win the Best Actor and Best Actress at the Shanghai Film Festival can rightfully be called International Film King and International Film Queen.

The difference between an international film festival and a local film festival is that it only has a general list of films shortlisted for the main competition unit, but no detailed category shortlist.

For example, when awarding the Best Actor at the Academy Awards, there will be nominations first, and then who will be shortlisted, and then the competition will take place.

There are very few awards at international film festivals, basically Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor and Actress.

Then there is usually a jury award.

The so-called jury grand prize probably means that the judges like it very much, but it is not good enough for the gold medal, so they give out an award as encouragement, which is equivalent to the second place.

For example, the Berlin Film Festival will award a Silver Bear to the film that wins the Grand Jury Prize.

The competition system of this Shanghai Film Festival basically adopts the model of the Berlin Film Festival, and the award setting is also the same as that of Berlin.

Before the Shanghai Film Festival was held, the festival's chairman Wu Yigong went to Berlin for a special inspection.

On the evening of June 6, the award ceremony was held as scheduled.

Yang Ye walked calmly across the red carpet arm in arm with Chen Hong, the heroine of "Kung Fu", amid the cheers of the crowd.

Yang Ye was arranged to sit in the first row, and Chen Hong, his heroine, was arranged to sit behind him in the second row.

Chen Hong whispered to Yang Ye: "I was so nervous just now that my palms were sweating."

Yang Ye smiled slightly and said, "You'll get used to it. After Kung Fu is released, you'll be a household name!"

Chen Hong was very happy and said, "Thanks to you!"

Yang Ye accepted it calmly. He had made many women famous, so Chen Hong was nothing.

However, Chen Hong has little understanding of acting and will not achieve much in the acting industry. She can try to become a producer in the future.

Paramount Pictures' female president Shirley Lansing was tonight's guest, and she sat next to Yang Ye.

"Nick, Kung Fu is such a masterpiece!" She praised Yang Ye.

Yang Ye smiled and said, "Thank you for the compliment!"

"But what I admire most is your vision for movies. A year ago, you made a bet with Ryan that The Bodyguard, starring Kevin and Whitney, would make $300 million at the box office, and you won."

Yang Ye spread his hands and said with some regret: "But "The Bodyguard" did not win the box office championship."

"The Bodyguard" grossed $4.1 million worldwide, ranking second in the 1992 global box office. The champion was Disney's animated film "Aladdin," which grossed over $5 million worldwide.

However, in North America, "The Bodyguard" only ranked fourth.

Shirley laughed and said, "It was a surprise. No one expected that the champion would be a cartoon."

"All right!"

"In short, you have really become the target of investors this time. Your fund income should have increased a lot!"

"Although I predicted that The Bodyguard would be a big hit at the box office, there was still one last step to make those investors believe me."

"Which step?"

“Jurassic Park is coming out in three days!”

“Do you think it will explode at the box office?”

"I have great confidence in Steven, it's a given! If you've seen the dailies, you'll know it's a fantastic film."

"God, I'm so jealous of your talent."

"Are you interested in managing my fund?" Yang Ye suddenly extended an olive branch to Shirley.

Shirley smiled: "Are you trying to recruit me?"

"Of course!"

“But I don’t understand how the fund works.”

"I will divide the Yang Fund into several parts, and Paulson will be responsible for the traditional financial investment. I admire your talent in movies, and I hope you can be in charge of the film part. If you are willing, I will make you one of the most powerful people in Hollywood." As the president of Paramount, Shirley Lansing is already one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. In her opinion, Yang Ye's words are redundant.

Seeing that she didn't comment, Yang Ye continued, "The big companies in Hollywood are very powerful now, but they will soon not be so powerful anymore."

Shirley Lansing asked curiously, "Why do you say that?"

"United Artists' model for filming Jurassic Park was to cooperate with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Company, with United Artists responsible for investment and distribution and Amblin responsible for production.

There are still some independent film companies as powerful as Abelin in Hollywood, such as Orion Pictures and Lucasfilm, and there will be more in the future."

Shirley Lansing did not interrupt, but listened quietly.

Yang Ye continued, "The future model of the Yang Fund is to invest in talented filmmakers and help them set up independent production companies. Attracted by money, more and more directors, producers, and actors will leave large companies and work on their own. What do you think will happen to the future of Hollywood?"

Shirley Lansing's face changed drastically. After "The Bodyguard" was a huge hit at the box office, many investors no longer doubted Yang Ye's vision. It was said that Yang's private equity fund had reached a scale of 500 million US dollars.

If Jurassic Park becomes a big hit again, the size of this fund will be pushed up again.

Once this hot money flows into the market, it will inevitably push up the income of film practitioners. Not only will the production costs of large companies increase dramatically, but the filmmakers under them will also become difficult to control.

Hollywood has a long history of seeking external capital. Early newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst was a famous Hollywood investor. Hollywood even made a super awesome movie "Citizen Kane" based on him.

Historically, many private equity funds entered the film industry in the late 1990s, and some of them chose to cooperate with Hollywood studios.

For example, Melrose Partners, a private equity fund led by Merrill Lynch, invested $2.3 million in 26 films that Paramount was about to start shooting, accounting for 18% of the investment.

This is a good thing for Hollywood studios, because this kind of cooperation is actually an unequal treaty. Hollywood studios can take advantage of investors by leveraging their position in the industry.

Even if a Hollywood studio and an investor each invest equal amounts of money in a movie, the Hollywood studio will ultimately receive much more profit than the investor.

Because only Hollywood studios have the ability to distribute movies globally, after a movie is released, Hollywood studios will first deduct 10-15% of the total box office in distribution fees and other marketing expenses, and then share the rest with investors.

This approach seems fair, but for major Hollywood studios, collecting distribution fees is equivalent to turning a risky business into a relatively safe one.

Coupled with various accounting strategies, false cost reporting and other tricks, investors are the leeks of Hollywood studios.

Hollywood studios eat the meat, while investors drink the soup.

Other private equity funds are not satisfied with being dogs for Hollywood studios and just eating the leftovers.

They began to discover talented filmmakers, funding them to set up independent production companies, and poach talent from major Hollywood studios.

This wave of popularity not only caused the income of Hollywood professionals to soar, but also gave birth to many powerful independent film companies.

Legendary Pictures was born at that time, and was lucky enough to get Nolan's "Batman", which led to a surge in popularity.

If the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008 had not caused heavy losses to those private equity funds, Hollywood's major studios might have been destroyed by these private equity funds.

No one can predict what is happening in the world. Originally, these private equity funds were trying to please the Hollywood giants, but overnight, they were the ones who took advantage of them.

China's Wang Jingwei also got involved. He once acquired Legendary Pictures for $35 billion.

As a result, the films such as "The Great Wall" and "World of Warcraft" that they invested in and produced were all fucking failures.

A few years later, unable to bear the losses and with problems at the headquarters, they had to sell off the business.

In the end, it was sold for less than $1 billion, and Hollywood made a lot of money out of it.

Yang Ye recruited Shirley Lansing because this woman was extremely awesome. She was the first woman in Hollywood history to lead one of the eight major film companies.

The annual "Hollywood Women's Power List" specially established the "Shirley Lansing Leadership Award" named after her.

When she took over Paramount, it was already at the bottom among the eight major companies.

As a result, as soon as she took office, Paramount seemed to be on a roll. "Forrest Gump", "Braveheart", "Mission Impossible", "Face/Off" and many other blockbuster films were released, which brought Paramount to the top.

One of the major businesses of Yang Fund is investing in movies, but Yang Ye doesn't have the time to evaluate the profit prospects of each movie project one by one, that would be exhausting for him.

Therefore, he needs to find a visionary leader to do this, and he himself only needs to find and fill in the gaps.

In fact, investment could be done directly by United Artists, but Yang Ye deliberately distinguished the two.

The Yang Foundation is responsible for investing in films and funding talented filmmakers to produce independent films.

All these films were handed over to United Artists for distribution, so the studio could just sit back and collect the money, making a guaranteed profit, and reaping the benefits of the investors.

After listening to Yang Ye's words, Shirley Lansing seemed to be thinking about something, but did not reply to Yang Ye. Instead, she talked to him about entering the Chinese market.

Yang Ye was not in a hurry either. Poaching was something that needed to be done slowly.

In the past year, Shirley Lansing has visited China three times and has reached a preliminary agreement with the Ministry of Film and Television that China Film Group will officially introduce Hollywood blockbusters in the form of profit-sharing in 1994.

However, there is no agreement on the number of films to be introduced and how to divide them. Hollywood has a big appetite, while China Film is relatively conservative and the share it offers is too small.

This is also the reason why Hollywood gave so much face to China when it hosted the Shanghai Film Festival this time. Shirley Lansing brought a group of Hollywood big names to personally help, which made the International Film Association directly classify the Shanghai Film Festival as an international A category, making it one of the nine major international film festivals in the world.

In the original time and space, the Shanghai Film Festival was held twice, and it was not until 1995 that it was officially certified as an international A-level festival.

Most things in this world are exchanges of interests. As long as there are benefits, everyone can sit down and talk.

Shirley Lansing told Yang Ye: "The American Film Association (MAPP) has decided to send a delegation to China at the end of this year to formally negotiate with China Film Group."

Yang Ye knew that it was his turn to play.

This token of allegiance must be paid. As a player in one of the eight major Hollywood companies, he must fight for the interests of Hollywood.

However, Yang Ye does not have any psychological burden, because even without him, the Chinese film market will still be open to the outside world.

Reform and opening up is not just empty talk, but a commitment to the Chinese people and the world, which is constantly deepening.

He just changed from a spectator in his previous life to a player sitting on the stage now.

"When the time comes, I will become a member of the delegation." Yang Ye said.

Shirley Lansing was very happy and said with a smile: "Then I wish our negotiations go smoothly!"

At this time, the award ceremony officially began, and Shirley Lansing was invited as the guest of honor to present the award for Best Actress.

Shirley Lansing gladly came on stage, said a few polite words, and then announced the list of winners.

"The winner of the Best Actress award is... Choi Jin-sil, from the Korean film "A Song of Elegy"!" (End of this chapter)