Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

New Tokyo International Airport!
As soon as Yang Ye and his group got off the plane, they saw a huge poster of "The Matrix Reloaded".

Ayumi Hamasaki looked at the poster of Yang Ye, who was wearing sunglasses and a windbreaker, and was very cool, and exclaimed: "So handsome!"

Yang Ye laughed dumbly: "The real person is here, why are you staring at the poster?"

"I haven't seen The Matrix 2 yet."

Yang Ye said in a somewhat strange tone: "Ah, it's been out for more than a week, you didn't go to see it!"

Ayumi Hamasaki said helplessly: "I can't buy a ticket at all."

"Oh, I'm going to participate in the promotion of The Matrix 2 in a couple of days, you can come with me then."

"Really? That's great!"

Yang Ye broke out with four movies in 1993, and in 1994 he released The Matrix. This year's The Matrix 2 once again revolutionized action movies.

Cool moves, dazzling special effects, and explosive word of mouth allowed Yang Ye to completely break down racial barriers and his popularity soared to the extreme.

The film was released simultaneously in 63 markets around the world, and the box office instantly went through the roof. In less than ten days, the global box office had exceeded $ million.

US media commented: "Compared to what the first film offered, The Matrix Reloaded develops its unique world with more details."

"A worthy sequel! A beautiful Kung Fu movie!"

In Hong Kong, Yang Ye's home base, tickets for "The Matrix 2" have become so hard to come by that many scalpers are raising the price, with the price at one point reaching yuan per ticket, a tenfold increase.

In 1995, the average annual income of Hong Kong residents was HK$18.3, and the average movie ticket price was HK$30.

In fact, the box office of the original version of "The Matrix 2" in Hong Kong was not very high, only more than 2300 million Hong Kong dollars.

But this was shot by Yang Ye, so it was completely different, and people supported it crazily.

Not only in Hong Kong, but throughout the Chinese world, people flocked to cinemas to see the film.

There is no way, Yang Ye’s popularity is really too high, and the Chinese media is praising him crazily.

"Second-rate Tabloid" published an article saying: The coolest hacker in the world and his friends have once again shown their coolest poses.

The article even used words like "impossible moves", "impossible techniques", "impossible scenes" and so on to disparage and praise the game.

Touting the action in the film, it said that “the movements look real, yet are impossible for humans to do.”

Then he explained in detail how these actions were filmed.

These detailed information were naturally provided to them by Yang Ye's team.

The News Broadcast even spent five minutes giving a detailed report on the release of "The Matrix 2".

The news not only introduced the grand occasion of the film's global release, but also introduced that the coolest highway chase scene in the film was filmed on the newly opened Beijing-Hong Kong Line.

Once such an authoritative media reported the event, coupled with Yang Ye's extremely high popularity, people immediately flocked to the cinema like a tide.

The section of the Beijing-Hong Kong Line in Shenzhen where the movie was filmed also became a popular tourist attraction.

So many people went there specifically to check in that the government had to build a temporary service station nearby to facilitate the influx of tourists.

Later, this temporary service station became permanent and was named "The Matrix Station".

Yang Ye also attended the opening ceremony and donated some movie props to be exhibited inside.

In Japan and South Korea, Yang Ye is defined as the pride of East Asians and is widely praised.

There is nothing strange about this. In later generations, Japan loved to praise Fei Ren Xiang.

Su Bingtian ran 9 seconds, which still caused a sensation in Japan. Japanese media called it "a great historic achievement that makes people's blood boil."

When Yang Ye came to Japan this time, his fans immediately came out, and thousands of fans gathered outside the airport to welcome him.

Even though Yang Ye took the VIP channel, he was still blocked.

No matter where you go, you always have to leave the airport, and fans are well aware of this.

Many male fans imitated Yang Ye's look in the movie, wearing windbreakers and sunglasses.

Some female fans imitated Lin Qingxia and wore sexy leather jackets because she was Yang Ye’s favorite woman in the movie.

Even though it is winter, Japanese people are not afraid of the cold.

Their houses don't have heating, and girls have to wear short skirts and expose their thighs in winter.

The car could only move forward slowly due to being blocked by fans.

When Yang Ye saw the fans holding up his photos and shouting his name, he asked the driver to open the sunroof of the car and got out.

He stood on the roof of the car and waved enthusiastically to the fans, who immediately cheered excitedly, and some of them crossed the cordon set up by security personnel and ran after the car.

After finally getting out of the crowd, Yang Ye returned to the car.

He looked at Ayumi Hamasaki in the car with an expression of envy and admiration, and said with a smile: "Keep going, one day you will become a superstar that everyone will pay attention to."

The new Tokyo International Airport is far away from downtown Tokyo, and fans were chasing and blocking them all the way. It took more than two hours to arrive at the Tokyo Imperial Hotel in Ginza, where they were surrounded by fans again.

Yang Ye is well versed in fan management. Regardless of the danger and the staff's attempts to stop him, he took the initiative to greet and interact with fans.

After a lot of trouble, I finally got into the hotel, and Haruki Kadokawa was already waiting there.

Kadokawa Haruki smiled and said, "I wanted to pick you up at the airport in person, but I thought that would only cause you trouble, so I waited for you at the hotel."

Yang Ye said indifferently: "We have been friends for decades, no need to be polite."

Haruki Kadokawa then shook hands with Teddy Robin, who was also a celebrity in the Hong Kong film industry and the two had known each other for a long time.

In order to film "Green Cop", Teddy Robin traveled back and forth to Japan many times to discuss with Haruki Kadokawa, and the two have become friends.

After the two exchanged greetings, Yang Ye introduced Ayumi Hamasaki and Haruki Kadokawa to each other.

Haruki Kadokawa is a big name in the Japanese entertainment industry. He has produced many well-known Japanese idols such as Hiroko Yakushimaru, Tomoyo Harada, and Noriko Watanabe.

Ayumi Hamasaki had heard of your name for a long time and bowed to him respectfully to greet him.

Although Ayumi Hamasaki is a nobody now, Haruki Kadokawa looks at her differently because she is the one chosen by Yang Ye.

"Yang Sang is an expert in the art of judging people. Every time he chooses a girl, she will shine and become famous. Miss Bu, seeing you, I have to admire Yang Sang's vision once again."

Ayumi Hamasaki said modestly: "Thank you for the compliment!"

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Yang Ye and his group returned to their room, put down their luggage, and headed to the restaurant for dinner.

This time, "Green Cop" was filmed in Japan and co-invested with Kadokawa Pictures.

All the preliminary preparations in Japan, including communication on filming locations, were handled by Kadokawa Pictures.

For example, the Imperial Hotel where Yang Ye stayed this time will also become the filming location of the movie.

All of Yang Ye's crew's accommodation at the Empire Hotel was sponsored by the Empire Hotel.

As long as the Empire Hotel appears in the movie at that time, it will be fine.

In addition, the scene of the shopping mall battle in the movie was chosen to be Takashimaya in Yokohama.

Takashimaya is the second largest department store chain in Japan and is also a sponsor of "The Green Cop". One advantage of shooting an urban film is that you can get sponsorship everywhere, which saves a lot of money.

The mobile phone used in "The Matrix" was sponsored by Motorola and cost three million US dollars.

As soon as the movie was released, the same model of mobile phone instantly became a hot-selling model.

……

In a private room, Yang Ye, Ayumi Hamasaki, Haruki Kadokawa, and Teddy Robin sat opposite each other, slowly and leisurely savoring the exquisite Kaiseki cuisine.

As for the martial arts staff and other staff brought by Yang Ye, they were arranged to stay in a separate box.

Haruki Kadokawa drank his tea and said, "Mr. Yang's marketing strategy of releasing the film simultaneously around the world is really well done.

All over the world, people are competing to report the grand opening of The Matrix 2, which has invisibly boosted the box office."

Yang Ye smiled and said, "I just learned it from Hollywood."

"Even so, you're the only one who can learn it."

In the 1990s, with the process of economic and cultural globalization, Hollywood began to engage in global marketing.

They view the global film market as a whole and hope to implement a more unified and standardized marketing approach.

To do this, they weakened the autonomy of the film companies' international marketing departments and brought them under the management of domestic marketing executives in the United States.

After entering the Internet age, news spreads very quickly. The weekly box office champion in the North American market will quickly be reported by global media, which is equivalent to free publicity!

Yang Ye benefited greatly from this process because he was the only non-Hollywood filmmaker whose movies would appear on the North American box office charts as soon as they were released.

It's like a firefly in the darkness, so bright and outstanding, so easy to remember, and also drove up the box office of his movies.

Regarding the huge box office success of "The Matrix 2", many local media are predicting whether it will surpass "Jurassic Park" and set a new box office record.

Haruki Kadokawa said: "It seems that the box office this time is going to surpass Jurassic Park."

Yang Ye said noncommittally: "It's hard to say. After all, I'm an Asian. My box office in the European and American markets can never compare to Hollywood."

Kadokawa Haruki said: "The Chinese mainland market is developing very fast now. I am very optimistic that it will be able to rival the North American box office in the future."

Yang Ye said admiringly: "Mr. Kadokawa has a long-term vision!"

Today, the box office market in the mainland is very different from the original time and space.

原时空在1992年达到23.6亿人民币的巅峰之后就开始一路下滑，到了1996年，就只有11.5亿了，1999年甚至跌到了8.1亿。

This time and space is due to better economic development, more complete cinema construction, and early entry of overseas films.

Despite the problem of piracy, the annual box office still slowly increased, reaching 1995 billion by 36.

Every time Yang Ye's movies were released in the mainland market, they easily earned over 100 million yuan. In recent years, "Kung Fu", which has the best reputation, even earned over 300 million yuan in the mainland, setting a new box office record.

The film producers predicted that the box office in mainland China might exceed 100 billion in the year , so they were very optimistic about this emerging film market.

Haruki Kadokawa also hopes to bring his films into the mainland Chinese market.

To this end, he increased his investment in Chinese mainland films.

Yang Ye did not allow Xu Feng to invest in Kaizi Ge's "Feng Yue", so later it was Kadokawa Haruki who paid for it.

He doesn't care whether he makes a loss or not, since it won't cost him much anyway.

……

After Yang Ye arrived in Japan, he first went to inspect Avex Music.

The company's senior executives Katsuto Matsuura, Tetsuya Komuro, Tetsuro Oda, and singers Namie Amuro, Izumi Sakai, Nanase Aikawa and others were invited to the dinner.

He then participated in the promotional activities of "The Matrix 2" in Tokyo.

On the day of the event, tens of thousands of fans gathered in Ginza.

Since Yang Ye had been assassinated in Tokyo, the Tokyo police treated him as a formidable enemy every time he made a public appearance in Tokyo.

This time they even came to film a movie, which is really a death sentence. The Tokyo police are all complaining.

A few days later, "Green Mustard Detective" held a press conference in Tokyo to announce the start of filming, and hundreds of media attended.

Yang Ye personally introduced the heroine of this film, Ayumi Hamasaki, to the media.

This little girl seemed to be born for this job. Facing hundreds of media outlets, she was not at all stage nervous and greeted them very naturally.

Yang Ye had to admit that she was only eighteen years old, but she already had the aura of a superstar.

The media naturally asked Yang Ye why he chose Ayumi Hamasaki, who appeared out of nowhere, to be the heroine of this movie.

Yang Ye lied, "In 1993, I came to Japan on a business trip and accidentally saw Ms. Hamasaki Ayumi's performance in a TV series called "Twin Teachers".

I thought she was very talented, so I met her. I felt that she had great potential, so I invited her to join my company as a graduate student.

Now, she has achieved excellent results in all aspects, so this movie was specially created to help her debut! "

Later, Hirosue Ryoko was spotted by Luc Besson and caused a sensation in Japan.

Yang Ye is much more famous than Luc Besson. As soon as he made this statement, Ayumi Hamasaki became famous before her debut and immediately became the focus of Japanese media.

This is the celebrity effect!
However, this celebrity effect can also become a great pressure.

Because you have already gained too much traffic before you even deliver any results.

If you mess up, you will face overwhelming abuse and ridicule.

People who have low psychological endurance can easily collapse.

But Yang Ye is not worried about Ayumi Hamasaki. She has been active in the Japanese entertainment industry for decades and, like Seiko Matsushima, she is born with a big heart.

However, after Yang Ye's observation, Ayumi Hamasaki and Seiko Matsuda are still different.

Seiko Matsuda is mentally tough, very good at pretending, and super capable of acting. For example, her fake crying is very famous.

When this guy seduced Yang Ye for the first time, he also started pretending to cry.

The media often exposes her pretending, but she doesn't care and will continue pretending next time.

Ayumi Hamasaki is rebellious and strong-willed. She works long and intensively and is determined to do her best.

Therefore, facing the media's doubts or some malicious speculations, she was not frustrated, but was determined to make this movie well.

……

After the press conference, the crew came to the presidential suite where Yang Ye was staying and held a start-up ceremony in the room.

Yang Ye and Teddy Robin, together with the Chinese and Japanese staff, offered incense to the Second Master.

Teddy Robin was very satisfied to find that the Japanese worshipped very devoutly, and whispered to martial arts director Yuan Bin: "These little devils are very smart."

Yuan Bin said as a matter of course: "It's normal. The Japanese worship Guan Gong the most. Twenty years ago, when I followed the Lord to film "Fist of Fury", they worshipped Guan Gong very seriously."

After that, they cut the pig's head, divided the pork, and unveiled the red cloth, announcing the official launch of "Green Cop"! (End of this chapter)