Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

The characteristic of "Men in Black" is that it brings serious science fiction themes back to relaxed daily life.

Although it is a science fiction film, the plot in the movie is based on reality.

The conflict between aliens and humans on Earth can be replaced by the conflict between indigenous people and immigrants.

Every year, countless people come to international metropolises like Hong Kong and New York to pursue their dreams.

It is naturally impossible for the indigenous people and the immigrants to live in harmony; there will inevitably be various contradictions and conflicts.

The indigenous people often dislike immigrants, are arrogant and sarcastic, which is the so-called regional discrimination.

The essence of regional discrimination is the uneven social development. People in developed areas are the first to get on the bus, and they would like to weld the bus doors shut to prevent latecomers from taking away their jobs and benefits.

Those who engage in regional discrimination are often the lower-class citizens who are not doing well in the city.

They have no abilities themselves, but have an inexplicable sense of superiority.

They have received decent treatment through reincarnation, so naturally they are afraid that new immigrants will take away their benefits, so they discriminate and try to drive others away in this way.

As for the rich, they discriminate against every poor person equally, no matter if you are from the bottom of the city or a farmer in the countryside.

For example, Sicong once said, "It's 9012, and there are still idiots who have never been abroad."

In "Men in Black", aliens who come to Earth also have to go through entry procedures and work hard to get an ID card.

The second-year agency MIB is the Immigration Administration, with a "bureaucratic agency" style. The security guard always reads the newspaper calmly, and all the agents are office workers who work overtime. It is like an everyday professional drama.

At the same time, Men in Black is a carnival of classic science fiction settings.

The butterfly effect, time travel, aliens, first contact, interstellar war, alien orange cats...it encompasses all fantasies, gathers all stereotyped impressions, and overturns them all.

Are aliens a third-rate urban legend? No, they are serious and there are people on Earth who are responsible for managing them.

Is an organization like MIB cool? No, the agents are just ordinary civil servants who are busy catching illegal immigrants and are looked down upon by others on a daily basis.

Such deconstruction makes the audience's viewing experience very easy.

And because Chen Long is the lead actor, a humorous style is inevitable.

Yang Ye once again sold a wave of sentiment with "ET the Extraterrestrial".

It means that while maintaining Chen Long's style, some additions have been made, and the overall viewing is still good.

Visually, all kinds of strange aliens and cool weapons are added.

MIB's weapons are cool, all with silver streamlined full metal shells and a slightly steampunk retro style. They range from quantum cannons the size of shotguns to as small as a memory stick.

The famous prop "Memory Stick" is a sad weapon that can be used on others as well as on oneself.

It has come to the rescue countless times on the scene, erased the memories of witnesses, and concealed the existence of aliens. However, when a Man in Black retires, he will also turn the memory stick on himself.

The settings of aliens are even more diverse.

The old gentleman lifted the blanket and saw an alien holding a human head.

Cockroach aliens in human skin, alien princes hiding in the brain, alien office workers in the tea room, multi-armed aliens hiding in the post office that automatically sort letters... I can remember every one of them.

The final step is to de-humanize and open up the structure.

There is a famous line in the movie: "1000 years ago, people believed that the earth was the center of the universe.

500 years ago, people believed that the earth was flat.

15 minutes ago, you thought humans were the only people on Earth.

What we take for granted as truth may not necessarily be true.”

Although it is a comedy, it also carries a hint of sadness.

Becoming the Man in Black can open the door to a new world, allow you to see distant galaxies, and meet life from the end of the universe. The price is to give up your identity as an ordinary person and be alone.

There is also an oath when joining the company: "This uniform is your last piece of clothing, you do not exist to the world, your name is Anonymous, silence is your language..."

At the end of the movie, the camera travels across the vast universe, and the audience is surprised to find that our galaxy, and even the entire universe, is just a marble in the vast universe.

Chen Long's films often do not focus on the plot; the story is just a clue connecting the fighting actions.

This time, with the addition of a humorous and fashionable story, the viewing experience was greatly improved. The film producers at the scene were all optimistic and believed that it would have great box office potential.

So, as soon as the movie screening ended, film producers from all over the world rushed to sign contracts.

Shi Nansheng was in charge of the distribution, so Yang Ye didn't have to worry about it. The group returned to Hong Kong.

Yang Ye had said before that he would show the script of "Wushuang" to Zhang Guorong after he came back, but he regretted it right after he said it.

Because he just didn't want Zhang Guorong to film "Happy Together", so he just made up a movie "Wushuang" for him to film.

Only afterwards did I realize that I had made a mistake.

Because the movie "Wushuang" tells the story of a counterfeit money gang printing new US dollar bills after the new US dollar bills were issued in March 1996.

But it is only 1996 and the new dollar has only been issued for two months.

The plot of this story takes about three years.

In other words, if we shoot now, the timeline is a bit too early.

You have to wait at least two years.

So, when Zhang Guorong came back to Hong Kong and enthusiastically asked Yang Ye for the script, Yang Ye could only helplessly spread his hands and said, "It's not finished yet!"

Zhang Guorong was stunned: "Didn't you say you would come back and show me the script?"

Yang Ye said helplessly: "I want to, but I suddenly found that there is a huge bug in this story, and I haven't figured out how to solve it yet, so... I can only talk about it later."

Zhang Guorong was even more helpless: "I had a quarrel with Wong Kar-wai, and now my schedule is free, so I have nothing to do."

Yang Ye thought about it and decided that since "Wushuang" couldn't be filmed for a while, he might as well continue to adapt "Harry Potter".

He said, "I have something to do. I am going to start filming "Happy Journey" and I hope you can participate."

Zhang Guorong had known for a long time that Yang Ye was developing "Xiao Yao You", and he even went to visit the model of Shushan.

He was surprised and asked, "Isn't that a story about a group of children? What can I play?"

"Play the role of teacher. I hope you can play Li Yan."

Li Yan is actually Severus Snape in "Harry Potter".

Snape is a very popular character. He is the head of Slytherin House and the teacher of Harry, Hermione and Ron.

This kind of popular role needs to be played by a big star, who should be handsome and have a melancholy temperament. Yang Ye thought of Zhang Guorong.

In "Harry Potter", there are four major colleges in Holtswogh School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw.

The four colleges represent the four elements of fire, earth, water and wind.

Yang Ye transformed it into the four peaks of Shu Mountain, representing the four elements of earth, fire, water and wind. There is also a guardian beast in each peak.

Li Yan, played by Zhang Guorong, is the chief of the water mountain Biquan Peak. He is proficient in water and ice spells. The guardian beast of Biquan Peak is the water unicorn.

Of course Zhang Guorong had read Yang Ye's novels, and he was very interested in the character of Li Yan.

This character's story is very rich, and she dies tragically in the end, which is absolutely beautiful, strong and tragic. Zhang Guorong asked: "Did you find Ah Yu again? Who will she play?"

"She plays Wen Hui, the head of Chiyan Peak."

The Red Flame Peak corresponds to Gryffindor in "Harry Potter" and symbolizes fire.

Minerva McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor, is a woman, so the head of the Red Flame Peak created by Yang Ye is also a woman, and the guardian beast of the Red Flame Peak is the Vermillion Bird.

This is also a very important role, so Yang Ye asked Zhang Manyu, who has superb acting skills, to play it.

Minerva McGonagall is an avid Quidditch fan in Harry Potter and the Harry Potter series.

Quidditch was transformed by Yang Ye into the "Fairyland Cuju Competition".

In the Quidditch competition in "Harry Potter", the players compete on magic broomsticks. In the fairy world's Cuju competition, the players naturally compete on flying swords.

As for collisions during the game, would the flying swords stab someone to death or something?

This won’t happen, because Yang Ye added some physical settings in the novel, such as flying too fast will produce a sonic boom.

When flying with a sword, an invisible air shield will be generated, wrapping both the person and the sword to prevent them from being hurt.

……

After several months, more than half of the Shushan model has been completed and the results look good.

Yang Ye officially announced the launch of the "Xiao Yao You" project and began to form his own team.

This project is extremely large, and compared to Yang Ye’s previous works, it is extremely difficult to change Western fantasy into Eastern fantasy.

The costumes, makeup, and visual effects in the original version cannot be used and must be modified into Eastern style.

This is a huge challenge for Yang Ye, who has always been a plagiarist.

If one fails to do it properly, one will be ruined.

Fortunately, Yang Ye has great appeal and can use the strongest talents to support himself.

Yang Ye invited Xia Meng, who had already retired, to come out and serve as producer.

Tim Yip served as the art director, Pauline Ng as the costume director, Ching Siu-tung as the action director, and Christopher Doyle as the photography director.

With these people protecting the film, the quality of the film is basically guaranteed.

Christopher Doyle was originally going to go to Argentina with Wong Kar-wai to film Happy Together.

As a result, after returning to Hong Kong, Zhang Guorong had an argument with Wong Kar-wai, accusing Wong Kar-wai of deceiving him, and the two fell out.

Without Zhang Guorong, "Happy Together" could not be filmed for a while, so we had to hire someone else.

Sunglasses found Liu Hua, but Liu Hua was currently working on "Fast and Furious" and had no schedule unless Wong Kar-wai was willing to wait.

What's more, "Happy Together" was exposed by Yang Ye as a gay movie. Liu Hua didn't want to damage his image and directly refused.

Yang Ye also invited Wong Kar-wai's good partner Du Kefeng to work on "Easy Journey".

As a result, the production of "Happy Together" is in jeopardy, and it is unknown when it can start filming.

Wong Kar-wai was extremely depressed, but there was nothing he could do.

Du Kefeng greeted him and said that he was going to film "Xiao Yao You" with Yang Ye.

Wong Kar-wai said, "Please help me find out how Yang Ye knew that I was going to make a gay movie."

Du Kefeng would not ask, he spread his hands and said: "I can't help you!"

……

This is different from when filming of Harry Potter started, where child actors were auditioned across the UK.

The actors for the most important roles, Ye Xiao and Yang Yao, had already been chosen to play Liu Yifei.

As she made movies one after another, she slowly grew from a little girl into a fairy, and her popularity absolutely exploded.

As for male actors, Yang Ye didn't have any suitable candidates.

The more famous male stars born in the 80s in later generations are probably Nicholas Tse and Hu Ge, but they are too old, they must have been born around 86 or 87.

There are basically no people in this age group who can fight, so we have to start auditions.

If there were auditions, Yang Ye would certainly not say that the heroine Yang Yao had already been chosen, but would choose all the minor roles together.

As soon as the news of the auditions came out, the entire Chinese world was shocked.

"Xiao Yao You" is a set of seven novels published by Yang Ye. Now it is adapted into a movie by Yang Ye himself. What does this mean?
The crew set up registration offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Taipei, and parents who brought their children to apply were scrambling to get in.

Yang Ye didn't need to worry about this kind of primary selection, he only needed to focus on the final group of people.

There are many characters in the whole movie, and some adult roles are also very important.

For example, the role of Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogtsovorg School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was transplanted to Changmei Zhenren, the leader of Shushan, and an actor with a fairy-like appearance was needed to play it.

The long eyebrows of Hong Jingbao in "The Legend of Zu" are very well-shaped.

But Hong Jingbao has played too many roles, including Fatty Wang in "Ghost Blows Out the Light" and Bi Dou Xia in "Crime City".

He couldn't have all the good things happen to him, so Yang Ye finally chose the contemporary swordsman Yu Chenghui.

This old man's beard is very stylish. Although it is black now, he can just dye it white.

The interview takes a long time, and Xia Meng is mainly responsible for coordinating it, while the casting director is responsible for screening.

Yang Ye only needs to make the final decision on the candidate who stays.

In order to better devote himself to the filming, Yang Ye decided to finish "The Perfect Match" in advance.

This was filmed very quickly. Liu Yifei was the only one playing two roles, so it was a bit troublesome when they needed to appear on stage at the same time.

You need to use the lens to cover the frame and then shoot twice, which takes a little time.

Yang Ye's team was very efficient, and by early June, the preliminary work for "A Perfect Match" was ready.

Yang Ye gathered people and prayed to the gods to start the machine.

"The Perfect Match" started filming in a low-key manner without notifying any reporters.

On a farm in the New Territories, actors including Yang Ye, Liu Xiaoli, Liu Yifei, Li Jiaxin, Sandra Ng, and crew members gathered together.

In addition to Yang Ye, Liu Xiaoli, Liu Yifei, and others played a family of four. Li Jiaxin played Yang Ye's girlfriend, and Sandra Ng played Yang Ye's housekeeper.

As for why Li Jiaxin came into being, she has been pestering Yang Ye recently, wanting to have a baby.

Of course Yang Ye fulfilled her wish and simply let her play a role in the movie.

Everyone works together, so it is easier to have children.

As for Liu Xiaoli and Li Jiaxin being together...it’s exciting just to think about it!

……

I wish you all a happy new year and great fortune in the Year of the Snake! (End of this chapter)