Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Cheng Yi-kin signed a contract with Wang Pangzi and became famous with the "Young and Dangerous" series.

This is equivalent to snatching Liu Hua's job in the Young and Dangerous circle.

In the past, whenever there was a movie of this type, the first person the producers thought of was Liu Hua.

Now with the younger Zheng Yijian, Liu Hua can only be a backup.

Yang Ye had known that this situation would occur, but he didn't take it to heart.

Yang Ye's "The Man from Nowhere" further developed Liu Huamei's strong and tragic character.

He was called back to Yangji and opened Liu Hua Studio.

The next step is to create an ace movie series for him, which is the "Fast and Furious" series.

"Fast and Furious" is one of the most popular Hollywood film series in China and once broke China's box office records.

To be honest, if this series is to be translated into Chinese, the most suitable combination is Zhou Runfa and Liu Hua.

Chow Yun-fat plays Vin Diesel's role and Liu Hua plays Paul Walker's role.

However, Zhou Runfa had a grudge against Yang Ye for stealing his wife. After he refused "A Better Tomorrow" and "An Autumn's Tale", Yang Ye no longer had the possibility to cooperate with him.

Yang Ye settled for the second best and let Liu Hua play Vin Diesel's role and Gu Tianle play Paul Walker's role.

If this series is successfully translated into Chinese, Liu Hua and Gu Tianle can enjoy it for the rest of their lives.

Yang Ye then introduced the third series, "Taxi Express".

"Taxi" is also a racing series, but unlike "Fast and Furious", it is a comedy version.

This series was created for Liang Jiahui, who has been working at Yangji for many years, like a workhorse, working diligently and taking filming seriously.

But despite his superb acting skills, he could never carry the box office and become a superstar.

The most popular movies in Hong Kong are comedies, and Leung Ka Fai cannot beat Stephen Chow in comedy.

The most popular movies abroad are action movies, but Leung Ka-wai is not very good at acting in action movies.

As for acting in art films and romance films, he can't perform better than Leung Cao-wei and Cheung Kuo-jong.

In every way, he is the secondary choice.

When the cost of movies was not high, he could play the leading male role.

When it comes to big productions, he can only play the supporting role next to the main lead and be the second male lead.

For example, in the movie "Black Gold", Liang Jiahui's acting skills are superb, and he can beat Liu Hua, but Liu Hua is the male number one.

Yang Ye thought, Liang Jiahui has such good acting skills and comedy skills, it would be a good idea to make him a low-cost "Taxi Express".

"Taxi Express" is a very long-lived series and can be enjoyed for ten years without any problems.

The only regret is that "Taxi" is a French movie. The protagonist drives a Peugeot and vilifies Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi and other cars. It is very funny.

It's normal for French movies to praise French cars and criticize cars from other countries.

But China does not have any well-known car companies and can only use foreign cars, which is a pity.

To make this kind of movie, you must cooperate with car companies. As long as the box office is good, the sponsorship alone will be enough to make a profit.

Yang Ye is endorsed by Citroen, so it is convenient for him to discuss cooperation with Peugeot.

But all taxis in Hong Kong are old Toyota Crowns, so it is not realistic to use Peugeot.

Although it is unpleasant, the only thing they can do is to ask Toyota for help.

Regarding movie product placement, Yangji has a special department to take charge of this matter, so just leave it to them.

The fourth series is "The Legend of Shushan".

Xu Ke listened to Yang Ye and first filmed "Chinese Hero" and "Storm and Cloud" to accumulate experience.

Both films were box office hits, and Xu Ke could no longer control his desire to make another film, The Legend of Zu.

Yang Ye didn't want to hinder his creative enthusiasm, so he just went ahead and shot it. Even if it flopped, Yang Ye could afford it.

After Yang Ye talked with Xu Ke, he found that there were so many things he wanted to shoot that they couldn't fit into one movie.

Finally, we decided to expand it and split it into two parts.

As for why it wasn't made into a trilogy, it's because that would be too fragmented.

It would be impossible for Xu Ke to come up with whatever he wanted for a movie with such a huge investment.

Yang Ye strictly stipulates that there must be a script first, good pre-planning, and then the process must be carried out step by step, following the Hollywood model.

As for why the film was not filmed according to the original novel of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", it is because the original novel has no plot.

It is not really a novel, not even a collection of stories, but a collection of settings.

As a set of settings, it is not as good as "The Investiture of the Gods".

Although "The Investiture of the Gods" is a work of plagiarism, it fuses Chinese myths and legends into one, and to a certain extent reshapes ancient mythology.

Many of the household names are mythological characters, which are directly from "The Investiture of the Gods", such as Nezha.

The influence of "Swordsman of Shu Mountain" was much smaller, and it did not create any household names.

But the writing style is excellent and the imagination is rich, far surpassing "The Investiture of the Gods".

Therefore, all the adaptations throughout the ages simply selected some settings from the book and then made up their own stories.

Most of these stories are poorly written. For example, the two Shushan series written by Xu Ke have very fragmented plots.

But even with such a fragmented plot, it is much better than the original.

The original work has a lot of legacy from The Investiture of the Gods, and the Emei Sect is equivalent to the Chan Sect.

The protagonists are stubborn and self-willed, often doing things without asking why.

As long as they are not from the Emei group, they are all cults or heterodox sects.

For cults, they will be killed directly; for dissenters, it depends on your performance, whether you kneel down and lick my boots.

If you don't lick it, you deserve this disaster, which is very much like the legacy of "The Investiture of the Gods".

Just like Nezha, he kills people for no reason, no matter whether the people he kills are good or evil, it is his fate.

Being decent doesn’t require intelligence, because decent people can tell fortunes and predict everything completely without the slightest deviation.

Therefore, being upright does not require any cleverness or wit. Even if you are stubborn and stubborn and make mistakes by disobeying your teachers, everything is doomed.

This fortune-telling ability is somewhat similar to Yang Ye's with divine power.

But Yang Ye is a reasonable person and has his own bottom line.

Whether it is killing or saving people, or doing anything or dealing with anyone, there is a reason.

Besides, the villains in "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", or those who are not from the Emei group, all have negative IQs and low combat capabilities.

Not only is he unable to predict the future, but during duels he is often either careless or forgets that the other side has magic weapons to restrain him.

How the hell could I forget this?
Some people even scheduled a fight right next to the cave where the strongest predecessor of the righteous sect once lived. Halfway through the fight, he suddenly remembered and died.

How the hell could I forget this?
Sometimes, when it is really hard to make up a story, we simply say that a certain decent person should not suffer this disaster, and a certain evil person should suffer this disaster.

In short, the people of Emei cannot die, but the people of the evil sect must die.

The tragedy of the evil faction is that the good people have even figured out the color of your underwear, but you know nothing about it.

The righteous faction basically has all the information about the evil faction, but the evil faction knows nothing about the righteous faction.

The decent people talk about benevolence, righteousness and morality every day, but when it comes to actual implementation, it's terrible.

For example, on Xiankong Island, the dwarves of Emei wanted to see if they could fight the ice bear without using mana. In the end, they found that they couldn't beat it, so they just used mana to kill it. Is this what is called a decent cultivator?
This kind of plot just can't make it to the big screen.

Also, the characters in it have no personality, no difference between men and women.

Except for their names and genders, each character is similar in terms of how they speak and behave.

No matter whether the villains are men or women, they are all walking genitals. Even when they are fighting with the protagonists and their lives are hanging by a thread, they are still thinking about that thing.

Later generations of online writers named "The Legend of Swordsman of Shu Mountain" the ancestor of fairy-tale novels because it can be regarded as the original collection of settings for fairy-tale novels.

Jin Yong also used many settings from "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" when he wrote martial arts novels.

The techniques are Western, and many of the plots are copied from Alexandre Dumas, the originator of cool fiction.

In other words, Jin Yong uses Chinese settings and Western techniques to create his novels, which is a model of the combination of Chinese and Western cultures.

This is also how online literature started out.

Around the turn of the millennium, many classic Western fantasy novels such as The Lord of the Rings and Dragonlance flowed into China through the Internet, opening the eyes of Chinese authors.

At that time, the most popular categories of online novels were fantasy novels and Western fantasy themes.

Later, the essence of fantasy novels was slowly absorbed by online writers and integrated into the settings of Fengshen, Shushan and martial arts novels, becoming the fantasy novels that became popular in later generations.

Twenty years later, fantasy novels and martial arts novels are the two least popular tracks on Qidian.com, and almost no one cares about them.

Because their advantages have been absorbed by fantasy novels.

Tang San originally wrote Western fantasy novels, and even in his fantasy novel "Douluo Dalu", you can still see many remnants of Western fantasy.

Yang Ye was asked to adapt "The Legend of Swordsman of Shu Mountain", but he did not have the ability to do so.

Some people say that Shenwei can be used for optimization, but Shenwei does not have this ability. It just records a lot of information from the original time and space.

For existing things, it is still possible for Yang Ye to translate them into Chinese.

But without information, he has no way to create.

Regarding this point, just look at the novels written by AI in later generations and you will know what shit they are.

Moreover, AI may never have the ability to write novels because it has already read all the literary works accumulated by humans over thousands of years.

Humans have nothing more to feed it or train it.

So, how could Yang Ye help Xu Ke to revise The Legend of Shushan?

He could only gather everyone's strength, rewrite the script, and expand the original 104-minute plot.

Because the original film has so many things to express, immortals, demons, and humans, and the connection between them is not close.

Each paragraph is explained hastily, and then the story rushes to the next scene.

The final effect is that the settings are very rich and the special effects are very gorgeous.

The settings of magic weapons such as Haotian Mirror, Tianlei Twin Swords, Sun and Moon Sutra Wheel, and Double-Winged Flying Dragon Slash are all very cool.

But it has the same problem as the original novel of "Swordsman of Shu Mountain", it is just a collection of settings.

How to expand and add excitement to the plot can only be achieved by taking advantage of the fantasy novels of later generations.

Yang Ye still doesn't have a mature script for this movie.

……

Yang Ye launched four series of movies in one go, plus the "Ghost Blows Out the Light" series currently being filmed, which is equivalent to extending the life of Chinese-language films.

The staff in front of and behind the scenes of these films will cover both sides of the Taiwan Strait and four places.

With constant interaction, a large number of film talents will be cultivated.

In addition, Jet Li and Donnie Yen will also have new works released this year.

Donnie Yen has been working hard in the past few years, traveling all over the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong, and finally put together his own Yan Family Class. "SPL 2" has officially started.

This "SPL 2" is actually the original "Flash Point", and the original "SPL 2" was planned to be "SPL 3".

Because "Flash Point" was originally the sequel to "SPL", called "SPL: Po Jun".

However, due to frequent accidents and deaths during the filming, the film was renamed "Flash Point" after the White Dragon King was invited to perform a ritual.

On the other hand, Yang Ye’s “Asian Rising Star Director” program launched Wilson Yip, and Donnie Yen also has a partner.

"SPL 2" is directed by Wilson Yip, who is responsible for the literary scenes and Donnie Yen for the martial arts scenes.

Jet Li’s new film is the long-hidden "The Lost Tomb".

The "Ghost Blows Out the Light" series is going to change its cast again.

Cherie Chung is tired of it. She doesn't want to stay in the entertainment industry anymore and plans to retire.

Since Cherie Chung decided not to act, Yuen Biao also quit.

Because if you want to change CP, you have to change both of them, changing just one is not a good idea.

Yuen Biao previously took over from Yang Ye to play Hu Bayi, but the audience did not approve of it and thought that he and Cherie Chung did not have a good CP feeling.

After performing "The Yellow Skin Grave", he offered to quit.

But after "The Yellow Skin Grave", the next film to start filming was "The Wrath of the West Hunan". This movie does not tell the story of the tomb raiders, and does not feature Hu Bayi and Shirley Young.

So Yang Ye asked Yuen Biao to continue to star in "The Lost Tomb" and look for a new candidate for Hu Bayi at the same time.

In the end, it was decided that Jet Li would replace Yuen Biao and play the leading male role Chen Xiazi in "The Wrath of the Gods", while Yuen Biao would play the second male role Partridge Whistle.

This is equivalent to a hint that Yuen Biao is giving way to Jet Li.

In fact, Jet Li is more suitable for Hu Bayi than Yuen Biao. His image, acting skills and skills are better than Yuen Biao. He is also from Beijing and his status is closer.

Yang Ye previously asked Yuen Biao to replace him in playing Hu Bayi because he considered that he and Hong Jingbao were fellow apprentices and had a better understanding of each other.

In fact, it was a wrong decision, but now things have been put right.

After "The Lost Tomb: The Wrath of the West Hunan", the story of "Ghost Blows Out the Light" will return to the main line in the future to tell the story of "The Mysterious City of Jingjue".

After talking for so long, they are all other people's projects. What about Yang Ye's own project?
……

When Liu Xiaoli got home from get off work, she found Yang Ye teaching Liu Yifei how to play the piano.

The father and daughter sat together, the piano music poured out like flowing water, very harmonious.

After the song was over, the two clapped their hands happily, and Yang Ye praised, "You played well!"

Turning back to see Liu Xiaoli, he asked with a smile, "Are you done with work?"

"Well, keep playing, I'll cook for you."

Yang Ye shook his head: "Just let the servants do it. I want to discuss something with you."

"Okay, what's the matter?"

"After Xiaofeng filmed The Man from Nowhere, she became very popular, and many people wanted to invite her to film, but I rejected them all.

Actually, I had originally prepared that movie for myself, but because I was too busy at the time and because I wanted to help Andy, I gave up.

Now that I think about it, it’s quite a pity, so I made another movie, this time, our family of three will shoot it together, what do you think?”

Liu Xiaoli asked curiously: "Do I shoot it too? I don't know how to shoot a movie!"

"Acting is very simple, I will teach you. This time we will play a family of three, I will play the father and you will play the mother. Xiaofeng will play two roles, our twin daughters."

"what movie?"

"'A Perfect Match'!" (End of this chapter)