Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Although the premiere received rave reviews, whether "The Man from Nowhere" will be a hit still needs to be tested by the market.

Because compared to Hong Kong's traditional action and gun battle films, the contrast of this movie is too great.

The protagonist's look is not the coolest in Hong Kong movies, with a windbreaker and two guns in hand.

There are no infinite bullets, no slow motion, and no close-ups of various objects being shattered by bullets.

There are no fancy moves in hand-to-hand combat, just close combat, and every blow draws blood.

Liu Hua appeared in a cold and aloof image, with a stern face and pretending to be cool throughout.

Only in the last shot, when he hugged Xiaomi, did he show a smile.

To be on the safe side, Yang Ye specially organized a premiere for this movie.

It's said that Johnnie To and Liu Hua have been working so hard in the past two years. It's good enough for them to have a movie to shoot, but what's the point of having a crappy premiere?

Yang Ye not only arranged a premiere for them, but also invited a large number of industry insiders to watch the ceremony.

Then the publicity began, and a group of writers went back and started writing reviews of "The Man from Nowhere", saying that it was a unique and particularly classic film.

Some of the remarks and opinions expressed at the premiere were also constantly quoted by the media and spread everywhere.

Huang Zhan's words, "Being cool is also a kind of acting" and "After filming this movie, more women will love you", made Liu Hua's fans very excited.

After all, Liu Hua has been unsuccessful for two years, and they all hope that Liu Hua can make a comeback this time.

As a result, everyone became a human propaganda machine, promoting the Dharma everywhere.

Yang Ye's remarks such as "the literary scenes in today's Hong Kong films are too rushed, and the martial arts scenes are too dragged out", "I hope the literary scenes will lay a solid foundation, and the martial arts scenes will be just right", etc., hoping to change the film landscape, have resonated with countless movie fans.

In fact, there were many blockbuster movies of this era, such as "The Sword of Stained Blood", "The Heroic Trio", "A Cut of the Sword"... If they were released in later generations, they would all be very good action movies.

But today's audiences are really tired of good things and are in urgent need of a change of taste, so they can't help but look forward to Liu Hua's "The Man from Lone Star".

If it weren't for Yang Ye, even if Johnnie To of this era really had this script, it would be difficult to film it because investors might not dare to invest.

Even if they invest, it will be on a very small scale, and they will barely get it made, and they won’t dare to promote it on a large scale.

In the end, they can only rely on word of mouth to make a comeback, but a comeback based on word of mouth is a very metaphysical thing. A movie of good quality may not necessarily succeed in making a comeback.

For example, one of Johnnie To’s later representative works, "Gunfire".

The investment was only 250 million, and the actors were all hired using his own faces. The production period was only three weeks.

In order to save money, he required the main actors to do it in one take, and only Lin Xue, who had just started filming, was allowed to do NGs.

But with Yang Ye as his cheat, everything he came up with had been tested by the market and had been successful before.

Therefore, the scale of production and publicity can be expanded, and perfection can be achieved during filming.

Moreover, Yang Ye's undefeated experience over the years has also given many people endless confidence.

In 93, every movie Johnnie To made failed. His company went bankrupt and no one wanted him to make any more movies. He took a break in 94.

But when Yang Ye found him, he immediately revived to full health and turned into a great director, as if he had never failed before.

When inviting actors, no matter how famous they were, no one refused or postponed. They all tried to free up their schedule to cooperate with him.

Even Liang Jiahui, who was filming in the United States, took a week off to return to Hong Kong for a cameo appearance.

Over the years, Yang Ye has formed a stereotype among people.

As long as it is a movie directed by Yang Ye, firstly, it has no shortage of money, and secondly, it has a huge box office.

It's both profitable and famous, and everyone is rushing to take pictures. Only a fool would refuse.

……

As of August, "The Matrix" has been released in corners of the world and has grossed $5 million.

This is his third film to have grossed over $2 million worldwide, following Terminator 3 and Terminator .

The accumulated reputation over the years has allowed him to break racial boundaries to a certain extent.

For a film with more oriental imagery like "Kung Fu", the box office revenue when it was made by Stephen Chow in the original time and space was only $1 million, but when it was made by Yang Ye, it was $3.8 million.

In addition to the fact that the film was released early and special effects were not yet prevalent in that era, giving it a sense of freshness, its strong box office appeal is naturally also an important factor.

"The Matrix" continues the gorgeous style of "Kung Fu" in terms of action.

The addition of science fiction elements not only makes the visual effects more gorgeous, but also keeps abreast of the times and discusses computer issues that people are most concerned about.

The core of the film incorporates philosophical elements from all over the world, making it look very profound.

The trilogy was excellent in both internal and external aspects, and finally the first part of the trilogy broke the 500 million mark.

At this time, the circulation of "Headline Daily" has exceeded 700,000 copies, reaching the height of "Headline Daily" in the original time and space.

But it was the 1990s, the Internet had not yet been widely deployed, and people's demand for newspapers was much greater than after the millennium, so it was still rising.

Some predict that it could become the first newspaper in Hong Kong to have a circulation of over one million.

In 1995, the population of Hong Kong was only 600 million.

With such a newspaper with overwhelming circulation, you can naturally do a lot of things, such as bringing traffic to "The Man from Nowhere".

In this era, to promote a movie, those who have money will go on TV, put up street posters, and use all kinds of hard advertising to push the movie, spending a lot of money.

That's what happened with "The Human Torch," which was released in August.

Those who don’t have money can just put up small ads in newspapers. That’s how the previous movie “My Date with Spring” was done.

Yang Ye used "Headline Daily" as his Weibo. During the promotion of "The Man from Nowhere", he would post some inside information, highlights, and film reviews every day during the release period, just like he was on the hot search list.

He also personally took action and published a film review of "The Man from Nowhere" in Headline Daily.

They also asked Johnnie To, Liu Hua and other main creators to write a film review or share their mental journey during the filming of the movie.

Even the eight-year-old Liu Yifei published an elementary school essay and posted a cute photo of her, which attracted countless weird uncles.

This new approach directly confused Golden Harvest and several other film companies.

Others have to spend money to promote their movies, but "The Man from Lone Star" doesn't spend a penny and still makes money.

They all get paid for writing short essays.

……

At Golden Harvest, Zou Wenhuai put down the newspaper and said helplessly: "This Ah Ye always comes up with something new every time."

Ho Kuan Chang said: "I never thought that Hua Zai could follow Ah Long so closely."

Although "Thunderbolt" had some quality issues, Hong Kong audiences still loved Chen Long. The local box office soared all the way, exceeding 40 million Hong Kong dollars in one month.

When "The Man from Nowhere" was first released, some viewers complained about its slow pace and were not used to it.

However, some viewers found it very innovative and liked it more and more as they watched it, and even bought tickets to watch it again and again.

In this way, the word of mouth became better and better, and it slowly went on a long track. One month after its release, the local box office exceeded 3500 million Hong Kong dollars, allowing Liu Hua to successfully turn things around.

Zou Wenhuai said gloomily: "Their cost was only 20 million, and they could make back their investment in Hong Kong and Taiwan alone, and all other places were profitable. But our cost was 200 million. Although the box office in Hong Kong was very good, the performance in Taiwan was not satisfactory, with only more than 30 million Taiwan dollars.

"Pili Fire" didn't sell well in Taiwan, and overseas film producers were unwilling to pay a high price. I'm afraid the loss this time will be huge."

He Guanchang sighed: "More importantly, it also affects the stock price. It's not easy to take advantage of Ah Ye!"

Hong Kong films were at their peak in the past few years, with a large amount of hot money pouring in, leading to several leading film companies going public one after another.

After going public last year, Golden Harvest was eager to achieve good results to boost its stock price, so it took the initiative to fight for it even though Yang Kee gave up on "Pili Fire".

Not only did it provide the main investment, it also paid Chen Long a huge salary of 25 million Hong Kong dollars.

As for Gordon Chan's script, they also felt that it was too tragic, so during the filming process, they advocated revising the script.

Gordon Chan didn't insist too much. He just changed the script according to what his boss said and left after finishing filming the drama.

In the end, the tragedy was changed into a comedy, trying to return to Chen Long's style, but unexpectedly it was a shocking failure.

At this point, Zou Wenhuai suddenly began to doubt his life: "Liu Hua's film is a departure from the style of Hong Kong gunfight films, but it has been very popular.

If we had not intervened and let Gordon Chan finish the film in his tragic style, would there have been a different outcome? "

Ho Kuan Chang said: "When I was chatting with Ah Long, he said that he asked Ah Ye, is this script really not good?"

"What did Ye say?"

"Aye said that this script is too different from A-Long's style, and he can't tell it!"

……

"You really can't tell?"

Yang Ye, Yang Yu, Xu Feng, and Xu Jie, a family of four, were sitting together having dinner when Xu Feng suddenly asked this question.

Yang Ye was stunned: "What can't you see for sure?"

"Aaron's Thunderbolt, you knew he was going to lose money, right?"

"Didn't you refuse?"

“I think the style has changed too much. Aaron’s previous movies were all kung fu comedies, but suddenly there is no kung fu anymore and it’s just racing, or tragedy.

I suggested to Aaron that he change the script, but he said he wanted to transform and didn't want to change, so I wanted you to persuade him.

Who knew you didn't try to persuade him at all, but rejected him directly, and then made another movie called Men in Black for him. "

Yang Ye smiled and said, "Do you know why Aaron insisted on filming Thunderbolt?"

"Didn't you say you wanted to transform?"

"Transformation is only one aspect. Aaron has always loved racing. He even organized a racing charity in his name. Every year, he invites a large number of celebrities to support him. Many beautiful celebrities from the Hong Kong entertainment industry have participated. Xiaojie, have you been there?"

Xu Jie said: "I'm not a star, nor am I beautiful, so of course I haven't been there."

Yang Ye said to Yang Tu Dou: "Look at your aunt, she is so beautiful that she doesn't even know it."

Yang Tu Dou said, "That's right. Last time my aunt came to pick me up from school, my classmates all said, your sister is so pretty!"

Xu Jie put a peeled shrimp into Yang Tu Dou's bowl and scolded, "Eat your meal!"

"Thank you, aunt!"

Xu Jie asked, "Isn't the box office of Thunderbolt quite good?"

Xu Feng said: "Hong Kong is not bad, but it doesn't sell well overseas. Let's listen to your brother-in-law continue."

Yang Ye said: "Aaron has played a lot of racing, so he hopes to make a movie related to racing, but unfortunately there is no suitable project.

It wasn't until I saw Gordon Chan's script that Mitsubishi was willing to sponsor racing.

It can not only fulfill a dream, but also take the opportunity for transformation, the "Thunderbolt" movie project has been officially launched.

He just didn’t expect that you would refuse to invest, but he didn’t really care because he didn’t need investment at all.”

Yang Tudou suddenly interrupted, "Daddy, you've been talking for a long time, but you haven't answered Mommy's question."

"You kid, why are you more anxious than your mother to hear some gossip?"

Yang Ye retorted to Tu Dou and began to answer Xu Feng's question seriously: "As you said, this script is too different from A Long's style. There are no action scenes, only racing and tragedy.

So I told Aaron the truth. I don’t know whether the movie will be a hit or not. I’m not sure. But…”

Yang Ye changed the subject: "I am sure that Aaron will make this movie. Because he really wants to make it, and he is not short of investment. As long as he says a word, many people will rush to give him money."

Xu Jie suddenly realized: "Okay, brother-in-law, so you threw this bomb out on purpose to harm others?"

"I already said I couldn't see clearly, how could it be harmful to others?"

"I don't believe it. You are so sinister. You must know that this movie will lose money."

As Xu Jie spoke, he put a freshly peeled shrimp into Yang Ye's bowl.

Yang Ye ate the shrimp that Xu Jie peeled and said, "You are right."

Yang Tudou was confused: "Daddy, you said you couldn't tell for sure in the last sentence, and then you said my aunt was right in the next sentence. Isn't this contradictory?"

Yang Ye said: "Have you seen Thunderbolt? Is it a tragedy or a comedy?"

"I've seen it. It's an action comedy with car racing. I think it's a mess."

“So, what I mean is, if this movie is made according to Gordon Chan’s original script, I can’t see how it will turn out because the style is so different from that of Chen Long.

But I can guess that this movie will definitely be invested in, it will definitely start filming, and after filming starts, the script will definitely be revised.

Sure enough, after the filming started, Aaron added some of his own elements into it.

Zou Wenhuai was worried that the tragedy would affect the box office, so he forcibly changed the script into a comedy.

In this way, the whole movie will inevitably become incoherent, with a serious sense of disconnection between the beginning and the end.

In the end, it is inevitable that the results will not be satisfactory, or even that there will be a loss. "

Yang Tudou suddenly realized and said admiringly: "Dad, you are really insidious!"

Xu Jie said: "I said that the bomb was thrown out on purpose."

"Thunderbolt" did well in Chinese-speaking regions, but it did not sell well in the United States and Japan. The global box office was about 2000 million US dollars. After all the calculations, the loss reached million Hong Kong dollars.

Yang Ye said: "After this battle, Golden Harvest was seriously injured. In order to boost the confidence of shareholders, they will definitely make another effort and increase investment in the film.

But haste is bound to lead to mistakes. I predict that they will continue to make losses next year. Wife, be prepared to buy Golden Harvest's film library. I have been eyeing it for a long time. "

Xu Feng was surprised and said, "So this pit was planned from the beginning and was reserved for Jiahe?"

"You said, let me solve it perfectly, how could I let you down? In fact, the failure of "Thunderbolt" is not without positive significance.

It has allowed us to accumulate a lot of experience in shooting racing movies. Racing is a very good film subject, and I plan to make our own racing movie next year."

Xu Feng was convinced. Not only did Yang Ye trick Jia He, but he also used Jia He to train his own troops? (End of this chapter)