Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Some pitfalls have to be stepped on.

Previously, Xu Feng thought that the plot of "Pili Fire" was too tragic and did not fit Chen Long's personality, so he refused to invest.

But when Chen Long wanted to transform, the two had differences.

When the matter came to Yang Ye, he played a balancing act.

Zhan Xufeng did not invest in "Thunderbolt", but personally created "Men in Black" for Chen Long and Yuen Biao.

This incident caused a huge uproar in the Hong Kong entertainment circle, with all kinds of comments.

For example, Yang Ye chose a woman over his brother.

Seeing this, Jiahe analyzed it carefully and thought that the disagreement actually came from between Xu Feng and Chen Long, and Yang Ye was trying to smooth things over.

Chen Long is the most famous actor in Hong Kong film industry after Yang Ye, and his films rarely lose money.

This incident is an opportunity for Jiahe.

With the momentum of the global hit "Rumble in the Bronx", even if this "Firestorm" doesn't do well, how big of a loss can it be?

To put it another way, it's okay to make a small loss, just think of it as buying a horse bone with a lot of gold.

Therefore, Golden Harvest took the initiative to extend an olive branch to Chen Long and expressed its willingness to invest in "Pili Fire".

Because "Men in Black" was scheduled to start filming in late July, Yang Ye took advantage of this time to help Tom Cruise shoot "Mission Impossible".

Chen Long thought, if that’s the case, then I might as well go and shoot “Pili Fire”.

As a result, Golden Harvest and Chen Long hit it off and "Thunderbolt" was launched.

What happened next inexplicably went in the direction of the original time and space.

Xu Feng had previously rejected "Pili Fire" because the plot was too tragic, and Yang Ye also said he was unsure.

Golden Harvest and Chen Long himself became less and less confident as the film went on, and finally they started to change the plot.

The tragedy was changed into a comedy, Chen Long was given a girl, and Anita Yuen was brought into the group.

As a result, the first part of the movie was still a Chen Long-style police and gangster film, but the latter part suddenly turned into a pure racing film.

Some fighting scenes were added to support the scenes, which made the plot extremely unsmooth, as if it was forced together.

Because the literary drama became dispensable after the revision, Gordon Chan withdrew midway.

Chen Long also invited Chen Xunqi, Yuan Kui, Hong Jingbao and Tang Jili to be responsible for action design and large-scale scene shooting.

In order to release the film in time for the summer vacation, each director led a team and started work at the same time.

Chen Long was unable to handle the scene in two places at once, so he found a bunch of stand-ins to complete the actions, and then shot some close-up shots later.

Since there were too many stand-ins, in order to avoid mistakes, frame extraction and editing techniques were used to cover the stand-ins, resulting in incoherent and unsmooth movements.

In the end, the whole movie looks like it was cobbled together, the plot is incoherent, and the fighting scenes are mediocre.

After its release, the film did well at the Hong Kong box office, but performed poorly overseas, with the final global box office grossing 20 million US dollars, less than one-fifth of Rumble in the Bronx.

Golden Harvest suffered a huge loss of 100 million Hong Kong dollars because of "Thunderbolt", and Raymond Chow and Ho Kuan-chang almost vomited blood.

……

Yang Ye was too lazy to care about these things. As soon as he returned to Hong Kong, he was busy visiting Guan Zhilin.

Rosamund Kwan has been pregnant for more than three months. When Yang Ye got the news, he was in Europe and was unable to spare any time, so he could only wait until the filming was completed.

It’s good to be pregnant. It would be a waste of genes for such a stunning beauty not to have a child.

At Guan Zhilin's house, Yang Ye stroked Guan Zhilin's slightly bulging belly and said softly, "I'm sorry, Jiahui, I'm late!"

Guan Zhilin pouted and said, "Are you the first person to come and see me when you come back?"

"Of course, I ran here as soon as I got off the plane!"

"Well, I forgive you!"

Guan Zhilin said as she leaned into Yang Ye's arms.

Yang Ye looked at her moist red lips, and quickly lowered his head to kiss her.

After kissing for a while, they didn't dare to continue and let go.

"Brother Ye, do you think our baby is a boy or a girl?"

"Didn't the doctor tell you?"

"I didn't ask!"

"Why don't you ask?"

"I remember you said before that there would be no surprise after knowing it!"

"Um...I did say that. But if you ask me to guess, I can't guess it!"

"So do you want it to be a boy or a girl?"

Yang Ye thought for a moment and said, "A boy, maybe!"

"Hey, you obviously love your daughter more!"

Yang Ye sighed: "Hey, I went to Europe to promote a movie some time ago, and Xi'er was with me. She was sixteen years old and looked like a fairy.

I'm worried. She should be in love. I wonder which boy she'll end up with.

Jiahui, you are so beautiful. If we have a daughter, if she looks like you, she will be extremely beautiful.

I feel upset when I think about her growing up and wanting to fall in love and get married. It would be better to have a son."

Guan Zhilin also wished to have a son, and said with a smile: "If you give birth to a son, he can harm other girls, and you will have less worries, right?"

"How can that be a disaster? Believe me, our children will definitely be excellent."

But I thought to myself, no matter how much harm he does, can he be more harmful than his father?

Guan Zhilin hugged Yang Ye's arm and said happily, "Brother Ye, when our baby is born, I will definitely teach him well."

Yang Ye stayed with Guan Zhilin for two days, and then went to see Anita Mui, who was also pregnant.

Yang Ye saved Anita Mui and was indebted to her. Later, the White Dragon King read Anita Mui's fortune and used some tricks on her.

From then on, Anita Mui decided that Yang Ye was her destined man and was completely devoted to him.

Speaking of which, Yang Ye used the White Dragon King to trick Anita Mui, which was a bit despicable.

But the effect is very good. She now lives a carefree life, which is better than her original fate of living on the streets and dying alone.

After spending another two days with Lan Jieying, Yang Ye came out of her house and sighed, "Your shooting skills are not very accurate. Only two of them got pregnant."

So I ran to find Akina Nakamori.

Throughout July, in addition to checking the post-production of "The Matrix 2" and preparing for the early stages of "Men in Black", Yang Ye was juggling between family and women, continuing to sow seeds diligently.

……

The animated film "Mulan" produced by Bluebird Animation Studio has been released in major Asian film markets since July and has achieved impressive box office results.

In addition to "Mulan", another animated film released by Yangji, "Whisper of the Heart" by Studio Ghibli, was also released in major theaters.

Relatively speaking, films suitable for the whole family to watch, such as "Mulan", are more popular, while romantic animations such as "Whisper of the Heart" have a much smaller audience.

"Mulan" was released in Hong Kong for one month and grossed 2700 million Hong Kong dollars.

Released in the same period is Stephen Chow's "The Soul Returns at Night".

"The Soul Returns" played with black humor, but the audience couldn't adapt to it, and the box office was only over 1.3 million, which was a disastrous failure for Zhou Xingchi. "Mulan" made 3 million New Taiwan dollars in Taiwan, second only to "Die Hard " with a box office of million among the movies released in Taiwan this year, which was astonishing.

Even Yang Ye didn't expect it to be so fierce.

However, the Disney version of Mulan is very popular in Taiwan, and it is not surprising that the current Mulan looks like Lin Qingxia.

"Mulan" also had very encouraging box office in mainland China, earning 6300 million RMB.

In general, the box office of "Mulan" in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong is one quarter higher than the original Disney version, while it is roughly the same in Taiwan and several times higher in the Mainland.

This is naturally because the production team is all from China, the audience is emotionally closer, and the current theater construction in the mainland is better than the original time and space.

Outside of China, the box office in Asian countries is also very encouraging. Many children now know that in ancient China, there was a heroine named Mulan.

Mulan has also become an idol for many little girls.

At the end of July, the preparations for "Men in Black" were completed and filming officially started.

"Mulan" will also be released in European and American theaters in August.

After several months of training, the Spice Girls came to Hong Kong and began recording the English theme song "Reflection" for "Mulan".

The "Spice Girls" will also go to Guangming Film and Television City in Shenzhen to shoot a MV, and then take advantage of the release of "Mulan" in Europe and the United States to officially debut.

The Chinese version of "Reflection", "Self", was recorded half a year ago and sung by Li Wen.

Well, the original Disney version was also sung by Li Wen.

In addition, when "Mulan" was released in Japan and South Korea, corresponding Japanese and Korean versions of the theme songs were also released.

……

Many reporters came to the launch conference of "Men in Black".

The previous disagreement between Chen Long and Xu Feng caused a lot of controversy in the circle.

This time Yang Ye and Chen Long appeared together, so they naturally would not let go of this topic.

"Sir Yang, Brother Long chose to cooperate with Golden Harvest for Thunderbolt. Is it because you don't think highly of this movie?"

This kind of thing is difficult to explain, Yang Ye can only fool around.

“It was a company decision, I was in Europe promoting The Matrix at the time and it was too late when I found out.

I happened to be preparing for Men in Black, so I decided to work with A Long and A Biao on this film.

But I believe in Aaron's ability. He will definitely make a wonderful movie and will not disappoint everyone.

As for some people saying that Aaron and I had a falling out, that is purely wishful thinking.

We have been in the film industry together for 20 years and we will always be good brothers.”

Chen Long said, "Do you all know the Japanese arcade game "The King of Fighters"? There is a team in it called the Chinese Dragon Team. At first glance, it is Brother Ye, me and A Biao. Even the Japanese know that we are good brothers!"

"The King of Fighters 94" is the first work in the King of Fighters series.

It brings together characters from SNK's "Fatal Fury", "Art of War", "Psychonauts" and "Rage".

Originally there were only eight teams, but now there is one more team, which is the "Chinese Dragon Team" created using the images of Yang Ye, Chen Long and Yuen Biao.

Yang Ye had already gotten used to becoming a character in Japanese anime and games, or even a big boss.

Even though the Japanese company was suspected of infringing Yang Ye's portrait rights, he pretended not to see it.

They didn't say it was you, and you may not win the lawsuit, and you won't make much money even if you win.

It is better to be more generous, which can also increase your influence in disguise.

When Chen Long mentioned "The King of Fighters", everyone smiled knowingly.

Afterwards, Yuen Biao also expressed his gratitude to the two big guys for protecting him, and said that they will always be good brothers.

Then there were questions about "Mulan", such as whether one was confident that it would sell well in Europe and the United States.

Yang Ye took the opportunity to introduce the third group he created, "Spice Girls", after "Girls' Generation" and "F4".

However, he refused to say more about the relevant content, which aroused the curiosity of the reporters.

Just when Yang Ye was about to bring up the topic of Men in Black, a reporter at the scene suddenly asked: How long will Headline Daily's free strategy continue?
Yang Ye said curiously: "Headline Daily is permanently free. It was stated when it was first published."

The Hong Kong newspaper industry is really about to be driven crazy by Yang Ye.

Headline Daily has been online for more than half a year, and its circulation has continued to increase, exceeding 600,000 copies, making it the newspaper with the largest circulation in Hong Kong.

However, not only did it not make a profit, it also lost 500 million yuan.

At the same time, the circulation of major newspapers in Hong Kong has plummeted.

The circulation of Oriental Daily News dropped from 45 to 30, and the circulation of Sing Pao dropped from 18.7 to 14.

The number of copies of Tiantian Daily and Xinbao dropped from 17.4 and 12.8 respectively to 11.

The circulation of Ming Pao, which Yang Ye controlled, also dropped to 12 copies.

Yang Ye even beat his own people, what can others do?

The Hong Kong press often uses the phrase "one chicken dies, another crows" to describe the frequent birth and death of newspapers, and this is indeed the actual situation.

The rise of Headline News was accompanied by the demise of many newspapers.

The entertainment newspaper TV Daily, which had been published for 27 years, as well as the Hong Kong United Daily News, South China Economic News and several other publications, were overwhelmed and soon closed down.

The Express, which has a 33-year history, announced that it would cease publication.

Although major newspapers such as Oriental Daily News are still alive, they started to implement sales promotions in order to survive. When the promotions did not work, they started to cut prices.

The Oriental Daily and Daily Times both reduced their selling price from $5 to $2 per copy. The New Paper added fuel to the fire by reducing its selling price to $1.

Of course, only Chinese newspapers were affected, with the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's largest-circulation English newspaper, increasing its price from 6 yuan to 7 yuan.

The price reduction strategy of Chinese newspapers is totally useless, because even if you only sell it for one cent, it still costs money, and you can never beat the free version of Headline Daily.

"Headline Daily" also held advertising promotions, snatching away a large number of advertising users.

As soon as the price cuts began, the share prices of the seven listed newspaper groups plummeted, with the average decline reaching more than 7%.

The strategy of Toutiao Daily is too bad. It doesn't make any money at all. It publicly announced that it would "burn through 1 billion yuan" first.

If that’s still not enough, then “spend another ten billion”!
For a while, all major newspapers in Hong Kong hated Yang Ye to the core.

No wonder there was a lot of hype some time ago about Yang Ye and Chen Long not getting along and the two of them going their separate ways.

For Yang Ye, this kind of "land grabbing" is very common in later generations.

This is how many industries played out in later generations: first, they spent money madly to subsidize users, squeezed out all competitors, and then reaped the benefits calmly.

Facing the criticism from the reporters on the scene, Yang Ye said calmly: "When a new thing appears, the best choice is to join it, or at least to adapt to it.

Free newspapers are the trend of the times. It's not that I, Yang, have a lot of money to burn or that I'm deliberately making things difficult for you. Some of you here actually publish free newspapers.

As far as I know, newspapers such as Wen Wei Po, Sing Tao Daily and Nan Hua Daily are all online and have launched electronic versions that can be viewed free of charge.

However, only a few people have access to the Internet now, and the electronic version you release is not fast enough.

But with the popularization of the Internet and the advancement of technology, it will become the norm for people to read news online for free.

I suggest that you don’t focus on the Daily Headlines. The Internet is the biggest enemy you have to face!”

Yang Ye talked nonsense and shifted the topic to the Internet.

Without waiting for the reporters to react, he immediately announced to worship the gods, burn incense, chop off the pig's head, and start filming! (End of this chapter)