Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Chapter 726 Baihui's Myth

During the 1996 Hong Kong Spring Festival, Storm Riders was the biggest hit, grossing 5230 million locally.

It surpassed Stephen Chow's "Forbidden City Cop" and took first place in the Spring Festival box office.

Other film companies can only watch with envy and do nothing about it.

Whenever there is any awesome movie coming out in Hong Kong, everyone follows suit and makes movies about the same subject matter to pieces.

Some of Yang Ye's early films were also widely followed, but most of them were poorly made and not well received by the audience.

Later, the films he made became more and more difficult, and it became even harder to keep up.

As Ziqi Company's technology has improved, it has now begun to take orders from Hollywood, and its Hong Kong film colleagues can only watch with envy.

Because they have no market. After losing the Taiwan market, they cannot support large-scale productions relying solely on the Southeast Asian market.

Even Stephen Chow’s big production failed, let alone others.

Due to Yang Ye’s special contribution, Yang Ji has access to ten films in the mainland every year.

Naturally, it has one more market than other film companies, and it has not lost the Taiwanese market and has maintained it well.

This means that even if it is not a movie produced by box office giants such as Yang Ye, Chen Long, and Jet Li themselves.

Yangji's products can still be sold freely in the Asian market, and this time's "Feng Yun" is a clear proof of this.

"Storm Warriors" used computer special effects on a large scale, and the production cost alone reached 50 million Hong Kong dollars. The profits in Hong Kong could not cover the costs at all.

However, although other companies cannot follow suit, they can still make a fortune by bringing in leading actors to shoot a few low-budget movies.

That's how it is for actors, once a movie becomes popular, they can reap a lot of bonuses.

Take the opportunity to sell a few bad movies to make money, and the audience will pay for it.

As long as you don’t keep making bad movies, you can become the king of bad movies.

……

Although Yang Ye wanted to make a movie for Liu Xiaoli and her daughter, he didn't have time to do it for the time being.

He has produced several film series this year. Although he is not the director, he still controls them personally.

"The Perfect Match" is expected to start filming in the second half of the year, so the release date is set for next year's Spring Festival.

In this way, starting from this year's resurrection period, Yang Ye will have movies released in every period, and he will have to fight for a whole year.

Liu Xiaoli used to be a dancer and she had never acted in a movie.

I can use this time to take acting classes, study scripts, etc.

Although "The Perfect Match" is just a family popcorn movie, there is nothing much to study.

……

A few days later, "Crime City" officially started filming.

Yang Ye attended the opening ceremony and worshipped gods with director Johnnie To and leading actors Sammo Hung, Zhao Wenzhuo and Anita Mui.

Before the filming of this movie started, the action style had already been decided, and Yang Ye came to confirm it personally.

After worshipping the gods, we started shooting the first shot.

This is a chase scene. A gangster is running wildly in a residential area, and his movements are very agile.

Hong Jingbao was fat and couldn't catch up at all.

Then the scene changes, and the gangster runs into an alley and is suddenly knocked out.

Then Hong Jingbao came out of the alley panting and cursing, "My knees hurt so much, you bastard."

The gangster took out a dagger and started shouting wildly, making all kinds of gestures towards Hong Jingbao.

Hong Jingbao calmly took out an evidence bag and said, "You used this dagger to commit the crime, right? Here, put it in."

"I'm going to kill Lei Laomou!" the young and dangerous guy yelled and stabbed Hong Jingbao with a knife.

Hong Jingbao grabbed the gangster's knife-holding hand with his left hand, and with his right hand, he beat the gangster to the ground and made him faint.

Hong Jingbao calmly picked up the dagger, put it into the evidence bag, and said, "You poor bastard, why didn't you listen to me?"

After filming this segment, Hong Jingbao began to doubt his life.

Normally, the two would have a fight first, and the gangster would dangerously cut Hong Jingbao's clothes with a dagger.

Then Hong Jingbao used his bare-handed kung fu to knock away his dagger and then subdued him.

Now it has been simplified to a direct fight where the person is knocked unconscious and that’s it.

Is this even possible?

Yang Ye explained to Hong Jingbao: "Sanmao, in fact, with your physique, those fancy moves are not necessary at all.

"It should be the case that strength defeats skill, and the bricks are thrown with great force. Fuck you, it's just a big slap in the face."

As Yang Ye spoke, he threw a big fan at him, and Hong Jingbao dodged nimbly.

Unexpectedly, Yang Yeqi was as fast as the wind, and his fingertips still brushed his fat face.

"I know you are very flexible, the most flexible fat man in the world, but are you more flexible than me? Are you more flexible than Aaron?

You are showing others how flexible you are, but you are actually entering a misunderstanding. This is your weakness, not your strength. "

Hong Jingbao thought about it carefully and it seemed to be true.

If a powerful punch can knock someone down, then what's the point of jumping up and down?
When they made action movies in the past, they didn't pursue realism, but made sure the fighting looked good.

Yang Ye told him that a simple, direct, unpretentious fight that showed strength might not necessarily be a bad thing.

“There are too many action movies on the market now. It is difficult to break through with action alone. If you want to make a profit at the box office, you need to innovate.

I added science fiction elements into the movie, and Aaron's various ways of dying are all great highlights.

I made this movie, "Criminal City", to simplify things and give the audience a sense of novelty."

……

Soon after, it was awards season.

Since he hasn’t released any albums in many years, there are almost no people like Yang Ye in the music industry.

However, he was in Hong Kong and attended the Golden Melody Awards ceremony out of respect.

In 1995, several outstanding newcomers emerged in the Chinese music scene.

Dr. Chen, Kelly Chen, A-Mei Chang and others, these are the backbone of the music scene in later generations, and they were all strongly supported.

Zhang Xueyou, Wang Fei and others who currently dominate the music scene feel overwhelmed.

However, compared with the Chinese music scene, the "Spice Girls" created by Yang Ye on the other side of the ocean has attracted more attention and has been widely reported by Chinese media.

As soon as the Spice Girls' first album "Spice" was released, it became an instant global hit. In just two or three months, sales exceeded 10 million copies and continued to grow.

Rolling Stone, an authoritative music magazine in the United States, praised Spice for bringing about the return of the Teen Pop style around the world.

"Spice" not only announced the emergence of the Spice Girls, but also brought a new atmosphere to singing groups in the music industry.

At the beginning, Yang Ye mobilized all his connections to help them attend various activities.

For example, Michael Jackson's MJ Day, Madonna's concert, and various TV shows.

After the album sold out, all kinds of media started chasing after the Spice Girls. Wherever they went, they created a whirlwind and were crazily sought after by young people.

They were also invited to perform at this year's Grammy Awards.

Since they released their album in January this year, there is currently no way they can receive recognition from European and American music awards. They will have to wait until next year.

However, Yang Ye has already asked his public relations team to prepare for the event, and strive to win a few awards at the British and American music awards ceremony next year. As the only yellow-skinned member of the group, Li Wen grew up in the United States and has a very cheerful personality. She has been doing very well recently.

This makes many Chinese singers very envious.

At the Golden Melody Awards ceremony, some people even called out to Yang Ye, hoping that he would help more Chinese singers enter the mainstream music scene in Europe and the United States.

Yang Ye was very helpless about this: "CoCo was able to achieve this effect only by debuting as a group with a few British people.

If I promote her alone, the effect will be greatly reduced. I have promoted Girls' Generation and Japan's Seiko Matsuda before, but they all ended hastily.

This is not because they are not strong, but because of the current situation in the world where the West is strong and the East is weak. This is the reality and it is difficult to change for the time being. "

……

This year's Academy Awards were held later, after the Golden Melody Awards, and entered the Easter period.

"The Green Cop", which Yang Ye specially created to promote Ayumi Hamasaki, was released first.

This movie is not that great, Yang Ye chose it purely because it is suitable.

But the premiere still has to be held, as it is his trademark as a superstar.

At the premiere, Ayumi Hamasaki, with dyed blonde hair and dressed like a doll, walked onto the red carpet arm in arm with Yang Ye, and a large number of reporters immediately swarmed over.

The media enthusiastically took pictures of Yang Ye's new favorite Sakura girl and asked her all kinds of questions.

Although Ayumi Hamasaki has been in Hong Kong for two years, her language environment is not as good as that of Akina Nakamori and others before her, and she can only speak Cantonese barely.

However, this actually gave her a shield. Whenever she encountered a question that was difficult to answer, she would pretend to be stupid and say she didn't understand.

The reporter asked in English, and she directly said that she could not speak English, trying to get away with it, and then Yang Ye helped her out.

Although she was pretending, the media praised her for being very cute.

When the two of them walked into the theater, Ayumi Hamasaki said to Yang Ye happily: "The Hong Kong media is great!"

Yang Ye was convinced that foreign friends were the best. The media were not so nice to local celebrities and were full of venomous words.

There's not much to say about the movie "Green Cop", the plot is relatively smooth and a bit humorous, and Ayumi Hamasaki's performance in the movie is also very cute, that's it.

However, after Yang Ye and his team re-arranged the battle scenes in the movie, the overall look and feel is much better than the original.

First of all, the fighting scenes in the original version were rather lame and not as exciting as the current version.

Then, it is hard to believe that Renault, a Frenchman, had to play the father of the Sakura girl Hirosue Ryoko.

It would be much more convincing if Yang Ye played Ayumi Hamasaki's father.

And in this plot, a Chinese man picks up a Japanese girl.

Twenty years later, the other party left her a lovely daughter and 200 million US dollars.

For Chinese people, it is really a refreshing feeling.

So the overall evaluation is still good.

Yang Ye also let Yamaguchi Momoe appear in the movie and play Ayumi Hamasaki's mother.

Although it only appeared on camera for a few dozen seconds, it still caused a stir, especially after it spread to Japan.

Yamaguchi Momoe, who had retired for 16 years, appeared in a movie again, which quickly caused a sensation and triggered a wave of nostalgia.

Countless fans of Yamaguchi Momoe in Japan rushed into the cinema to see their idol in person. Seeing that she was still as charming as ever, they were all sighing with admiration.

Unlike the original version where the character just lay there motionless as a corpse, this version adds a flashback shot.

This reminiscent shot was not taken on the spot, but was a video of Yang Ye and Yamaguchi Momoe under a cherry tree at Yamaguchi Momoe's home in Hong Kong more than ten years ago.

Due to the widespread discussion caused by this wave of nostalgia, Yamaguchi Momoe's former company immediately launched various commemorative products about her.

DVDs, records, etc. were all sold out.

This is not an exaggeration.

In the original time and space, Yamaguchi Momoe's son Miura Yuutarou entered the entertainment industry after he became an adult and became a member of the rock band PeakySALT.

Since Yuutaro Miura didn't want to rely on his parents, he changed his real name and performed under the stage name Yuu. As a result, no one was interested in the albums released by the band.

Until one day, it was revealed that Yuutarou Miura was the son of Momoe Yamaguchi.

A few hours after the news was published, the phones of major record stores in Tokyo were flooded with calls, and orders from Amazon Japan's online bookstore also skyrocketed.

The record that no one was interested in was sold out in an instant and was reprinted continuously.

This time, Yamaguchi Momoe appeared in person. Although she only appeared for a few dozen seconds, her power was not comparable to that of her son.

Some Japanese media commented that Yamaguchi Momoe, who retired at the age of 20, left a mark on a generation in Japan and East Asia as a whole.

The six or seven years when Yamaguchi Momoe was in her prime were also the years when Japan's economy developed most rapidly.

Faced with the sluggish national economic development today, many Japanese have been missing the "Yamaguchi Momoe era."

The revival of the "Momoe myth" undoubtedly brings hope and courage to those Japanese who listened to Momoe's songs on their way to and from get off work during the period of rapid economic development in Japan.

During the release of "Green Cop", many Japanese media flocked to Hong Kong and asked the White Poplar Film Company whether Yamaguchi Momoe would make a comeback.

The answer was no. Yamaguchi Momoe made an exception and showed up this time just to support her husband's movie.

When the news reached Japan, Yamaguchi Momoe's fans were greatly disappointed, as the movie's box office suddenly stopped selling.

Many Japanese cursed, saying that although Yamaguchi Momoe supported Yang Ye's career so much and even gave birth to a son for Yang Ye, Yang Ye was unfaithful to her. They felt sorry for her.

Yang Ye, who got the news, didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and sighed that Baihui's power was so strong.

Inexplicably, I felt a little proud. "If they knew that Akina was also pregnant and was about to give birth to my child, I wonder how they would react?"

During this period, Yang Ye worked hard on his wives' bellies every day, trying to make them pregnant, and finally succeeded in making Moon Lee and Akina Nakamori pregnant.

By next year, the Yang family will have another baby.

"Oh, I have so many children. I need to make more money!"

Yang Ye planned to gradually buy back the shares held by his children, leaving only a very small portion to them.

All others will be included in the Yang Fund and managed in a unified manner.

Of course, the shares that were given out before cannot be taken back for free, and you have to spend money to buy them.

As for other children who had not received shares before, Yang Ye would also allocate a certain proportion of the company's shares to them, trying to treat them equally.

These shares are very small and are all held by their mother to provide them with basic security.

However, Yang Ye would not touch the shares of the film and music companies held by Xu Feng, Hu Yinmeng, Deng Lijun and others.

That was what they deserved after working for many years. For example, Xu Feng had been the general manager of Baiyang Film Company.

Hu Yinmeng maintains relations with Taiwan and has also been involved in managing the affairs of the German company.

Some are simply original shares, such as the shares of a record company held by Teresa Tang.

That originally belonged to her, Yang Ye had no right to take it away.

After overall planning, all major group companies under Yang Ye’s name were controlled by the Yang Foundation.

All of Yang Ye’s children have benefited from the Yang Foundation.

Over the years, the Yang Foundation has attracted funds from many powerful people around the world.

With the advent of the Internet age, Yang Ye will gain enormous wealth with his ability to predict the future.

Yang Ye wants to use this fund to bind everyone together and eventually form a huge community of interests.

(End of this chapter)