Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 358 369 [Acquisition of Ming Pao, Invitation of Fan Liu]

Qingxia was very sad about her friend's sudden death without any warning. She hugged Li Yishu tightly and cried silently, "Lijun... Lijun was so young, only two years older than me. How could she... she suddenly pass away?"

"Woooo..."

Li Yishu patted her on the back and comforted her, "Qingxia, no one knows which will come first, tomorrow or the accident, so we must cherish the present."

The death of Teresa Teresa also made Lee Yi-su very sad, as he liked this female singer very much.

But just like the late Wong Ka Kui, there are many things he cannot control.

Li Yishu had at least met Wong Ka Kui once, at the Tokyo Film Festival in 1992.

Who could have thought that Huang Jiaju would suddenly pass away in June of the following year?

Even though Lee Yi-su was a reborn person, he had many, many things to do and it was impossible for him to stare at these celebrities who passed away suddenly all day long.

Of course, he wouldn't mind helping if it was possible.

Li Yishu stayed with Qingxia the whole night.

the next morning.

The news of Deng Lijun's death, as reported by the media, caused a huge response across both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong.

As a singer who was popular in both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong and Macau in the 1980s, even though some people commented that Deng Lijun's singing voice was decadent, it is undeniable that she is the most popular and well-known female singer among Chinese singers.

She was only 42 years old this year, and her sudden death made countless fans cry.

Perhaps because she had been sad all night, Qingxia's mood gradually eased. With her older son around, she also smiled a little.

Originally planning to meet Xu Ke today, Li Yishu simply asked Qingxia to call Xu Ke and Shi Nansheng directly and ask the couple to come over directly.

When the two arrived, they saw Li Yishu was there too. Xu Ke was a little surprised, but Shi Nansheng seemed to have thought of something and looked at Li Yishu with a little surprise.

Although the news of Qingxia's pregnancy and childbirth has always been kept secret, it is possible that it will be exposed unless it happens abroad.

Shi Nansheng heard people say that Qingxia retired from the film industry because she got married and had children.

She didn't quite believe it at first, but now seeing Lee Yi-su suddenly here, combined with the fact that she had previously collaborated with Brigitte Lin on a movie, Brigitte Lin announced her retirement from the film industry just a few months later.

This couldn't help but make Shi Nansheng suspicious.

But suspicion is just suspicion, and Shi Nansheng is not a talkative person, so he neither asked nor mentioned it.

They were all acquaintances, and after exchanging some pleasantries, they sat down and started talking about the news of Deng Lijun's sudden death yesterday.

"What a pity." Xu Ke sighed and said, "I still like Teresa Teresa's songs very much. I didn't expect that she passed away so suddenly."

"Yes."

Shi Nansheng nodded, "I heard from a friend last night that Deng Lijun had an accident in the hotel. She had an asthma attack, and because of the traffic jam and excessive use of bronchodilator spray, she suffered from severe brain hypoxia and cardiac arrest."

"Where is the assistant? Isn't her assistant here?" Qingxia frowned.

"It seems she's not here. It is said that Deng Lijun went on vacation alone with her foreign boyfriend..."

Seeing that Qingxia was in a bad mood again, Li Yishu interrupted and said, "Okay, Miss Deng Lijun has unfortunately passed away. Let's not discuss this here. Let's go back and send her off at the memorial service."

Xu Ke understood and said, "Yes, Nan Sheng and I plan to attend the memorial service in person after Miss Deng's body is sent back to Taiwan."

After changing the topic, several people began to talk about the script of "Knife".

Qingxia gradually came out of her sadness.

"This script is quite interesting." Li Yishu said, "Director Xu, how much investment are you going to ask for?"

"Twenty million!"

Xu Ke held up two fingers and said, "Director Li, I am confident that this movie will be a big hit."

Now the production costs of Hong Kong films are rising year by year. Zhou Xingchi's salary is as high as eight million. The salary of one person is so high, not to mention other actors.

"Twenty million isn't much..." Li Yishu asked, "Who are you going to let play the leading male role?"

"Zhao Wenzhuo." Xu Ke blurted out: "I think Zhao Wenzhuo is the most suitable for this role."

It’s not that Xu Ke wants to give the male lead role to an artist under Li Yishu, but because Zhao Wenzhuo is really suitable for Li Dingan.

Among Hong Kong's kung fu actors, Jackie Chan is not suitable, and Jet Li is neither tall nor strong, and has a baby face, so they are unable to play such a tough guy role.

On the other hand, Zhao Wenzhuo is different. With a height of 176cm, he is not tall, but he is tall among kung fu actors. With his sturdy figure and resolute face, it is not out of place for him to play a tough guy.

As for Yuen Biao and the newly emerging Yuzhou Dan, they are not famous enough.

Zhao Wenzhuo has long been a new generation kung fu superstar in Hong Kong thanks to movies such as "Sword Rain", "Green Snake" and "Once Upon a Time in China". He is more familiar to people overseas than Jet Li.

It was Lee Yi-su's "Sword Rain" that was a big hit that allowed Zhao Wenzhuo to catch up, and each of his movies can sell a lot of box office results and copyrights overseas.

"Well, Zhao Wenzhuo is quite suitable, so let him play the role."

Li Yishu still admires Zhao Wenzhuo during this period. He is handsome, has extraordinary skills, and his fighting scenes are very smooth. Most importantly, he is a contracted artist under Wen Yi Shi Dai.

Although the other party has a great degree of autonomy, they still have to give the company a commission.

If there is a suitable movie, how can we not promote our own artists?
After finalizing the investment and the male lead, Xu Ke hurried away with Shi Nansheng. He had to contact Zhao Wenzhuo as soon as possible to ask if the other party had any schedule recently.

The two of them left the mansion. Xu Ke drove the car while Shi Nansheng sat in the passenger seat. Hesitantly, he said, "Old Xu, Director Li and Qingxia..."

"What's wrong?" Xu Ke glanced at her sideways: "What's wrong with them?"

"nothing."

Shi Nansheng didn't say it in the end, for she was afraid that the big mouth Xu Ke would spread the news.

That afternoon.

Seeing that Qingxia had recovered a lot, Li Yishu drove to the Hong Kong branch of Art Entertainment Group.

Amy has returned from the United States.

Huo Wenxi also went there.

“It’s great to have the Asian Film Awards!”

In the United States, Amy, who was used to peripheral copyright income being greater than box office revenue, naturally supported ATV's plan to hold the Asian Film Awards when she heard about it.

Once the Asian Film Awards is successfully held, Amy will be able to use the advantages of being the organizer to sign copyright contracts with high-quality Asian films in the future.

As long as the purchase cost is not high, she is confident that she can recover the cost in the North American market and make a small profit.

One movie makes a small profit, but ten movies make a big profit.

Amy, who has spent two years in the United States, is well aware that North American audiences have a wide range of interests. Unlike Hong Kong audiences, most of them only like to watch commercial entertainment films. After so many years of development, North America has already cultivated a group of art film fans and niche film fans.

There are many North American audiences who particularly like to watch Asian movies, the most representative of which is Quentin.

He once publicly stated that his favorite Hong Kong martial arts films were the Hong Kong martial arts films, and the later famous "Kill Bill" absorbed the essence of these Hong Kong martial arts films.

"I'll leave the Asian Film Awards to you."

Li Yishu looked at Amy and said, "Invite those international film producers and North American low-budget film companies in advance. I believe they will be happy to have another channel to purchase film copyrights."

Every year when various film festivals open, a large number of small film companies and film producers in North America will go to participate, trying to find one or two interesting films that are worth releasing in North America. Amy nodded: "No problem, boss, I will send out invitations in advance when I return to the United States."

"I will go to Japan in a few days to invite people from Toho Co., Ltd. to participate in the Asian Film Awards."

Li Yishu looked at Huo Wenxi and said, "Go back and send an invitation to the Beijing Film Studio in the name of ATV."

At the Beijing Film Studio, Li Yishu could certainly say hello to Han Sanping, but it would definitely not be as formal as an invitation from Asia Television.

As for the Film Bureau, Li Yishu will have to go and discuss it in person after returning to the mainland.

The Shanghai International Film Festival does not conflict with the Asian Film Awards, so I don’t think they will mind having one more cultural symbol.

"Amy, please try to contact South Korea and invite them to participate in our Asian Film Awards."

Even though Korean films were still a mess at that time and not as dark and bold as they were later, given the population of Korea, if they didn't send anyone, the copyright transaction at the Asian Film Awards would ultimately be a bit lacking.

He planned to make the first session a grand one, and it would be best if directors from most Asian countries could participate.

But there is no rush for this matter. It has not been implemented yet. If we really want to have an idea, we have to wait until next year at the latest.

11 number.

Deng Lijun's body was transported to Taiwan.

Qingxia had a very good relationship with her. After hearing the news, she immediately returned to Taiwan with Li Yishu.

According to Deng Lijun's family, the memorial service is tentatively scheduled for May 5th.

Li Yishu calculated the time and found that she would be in time. The Cannes Film Festival would open on the 17th and close on the 28th.

I think Deng Lijun’s memorial service will last for a few days.

After staying in Taiwan for another day, Li Yishu and Qingxia returned to Hong Kong.

The latter was responsible for the investment of "The Swordsman", while Li Yishu learned about "Ming Pao".

Ever since Jin Yong sold his shares in Ming Pao, Ming Pao has been affected to a certain extent.

The current boss, Yu Pinhai, is a typical businessman without any literati ideas. Originally, Ming Pao followed the elitist route. After he took over, although the positioning was still for the elite class, in fact, a large number of gimmicky articles began to appear in the content of the newspaper.

This also caused Ming Pao's share price to start falling.

When Ming Pao went public in 1991, its market value had reached HK$8 million, with Jin Yong alone owning 7% of it.

In 1992, Ming Pao's annual profit had reached 12 million Hong Kong dollars, and Jin Yong ranked 64th on the Hong Kong Rich List with assets of billion Hong Kong dollars.

Three years later, the market value of Ming Pao began to decline, with its peak being only HK$20 billion and its lowest being only HK$16 billion.

The reason for such a huge difference is not entirely Yu Pinhai’s problem, but the advent of the Internet era.

Hong Kong is an international metropolis, and the use of computers in buildings is comparable to that in the United States.

Many young people no longer read newspapers and have turned to Internet portals.

Riding on the momentum of the portal website, Yahoo in the United States is now carrying out its second round of financing with a financing amount of up to US$1 million.

This is different from the previous life.

Just because of Li Yishu's involvement, Yahoo was able to obtain funds faster, add more servers, and provide services to the vast number of Internet users.

However, the market value of more than one billion Hong Kong dollars makes Li Yishu less willing to acquire Ming Pao.

Others don’t know that newspapers will be supplied exclusively to government agencies in the future, but Li Yishu knows it.

If Li Yishu wants to acquire a majority stake in Ming Pao, he must pay a premium. It is 10 Hong Kong dollars to acquire a newspaper that he knows has no future prospects.

It's a loss no matter how you think about it.

But Ming Pao is indeed worth that much now, with an annual income of over 100 million Hong Kong dollars, and is definitely a high-quality industry in Hong Kong.

Just when Li Yishu was worried.

Huo Wenxi said: "Boss, if you really want to buy Ming Pao, you'd better not make a move and find someone else!"

"Change someone?" Li Yishu was surprised: "What do you mean?"

Huo Wenxi hesitated and said, "After you took over ATV, the newspapers in Hong Kong..."

Hearing this, Li Yishu realized that they were afraid that the British capitalists would take advantage of this momentum to attack again.

First it was the TV station, then Ming Pao. Will it acquire something else next?
By then, will Hong Kong completely belong to these mainlanders?

Although Li Yishu didn't care, he didn't want to let these guys succeed. He thought about it and thought, if he found someone to buy Ming Pao, would it be Yang Shoucheng?
No, many people know that he has invested in Yang Shoucheng's Eagle King Entertainment.

As soon as Yang Shoucheng took action, the outside world knew about it.

Fan Liu!
Suddenly, Li Yishu thought of Liu Luanxiong!

This guy is known as a stock market sniper. If we ask him for help, we can acquire some Ming Pao shares in advance.

It wouldn't be too late to wait a few more years, until the Asian financial crisis of 97 and the financial defense war of 98, and then win it in one fell swoop?

But no!
The next two years were the peak period of the Hong Kong stock market.

Li Yishu also wanted to push the Arts Entertainment Group to be listed in Hong Kong, raise funds through IPO before the 97 financial crisis, and start buying sprees in 98.

As for the post-98 financial crisis, the group's stock may plummet.

This is actually a good thing for Li Yishu.

At that time, you can buy at the bottom, which can not only push up the stock price, but also make a lot of money.

After all, the financial crisis was only temporary. It was a malicious target, and with the support of the mainland, Hong Kong's economy recovered within two years.

After figuring this out, Li Yishu took out the phone book, found Fan Liu's cell phone number and called him.

"Mr. Liu, it's me, Li Yishu!"

Fan Liu on the other end of the phone was surprised: "Director Li?!"

"It's me. I have something I want to ask Mr. Liu for help. I wonder if Mr. Liu has time?"

"Yes, of course there is time."

"How about I host you tonight at the Peninsula Hotel?"

"No problem, Director Li..."

Fan Liu suddenly asked, "By the way, Director Li, can you bring a female companion tonight?"

He also wanted to introduce some movie resources to Cai Shaofen.

There is no better film resource than Lee Yi-su.

"no problem."

After chatting for a few words, Li Yishu hung up the phone. He was looking for Fan Liu, naturally, to acquire Ming Pao.