Entertainment tycoon since 83

Chapter 142 I'm Not Doing It For Money
When the two of them arrived in Hong Kong Island, Huang Ze was in the hospital.

Ten days before Gong Xing's due date, she had already been living in the hospital to avoid any emergencies. Huang Ze stayed in the hospital with her when he was free, waiting for the birth of the little life together.

"Mr. Huang, phone call!"

The bodyguard handed the ringing mobile phone to Huang Ze.

"Hello?" Huang Ze picked up the phone. "Who is it?"

"Mr. Huang, it's me, Zhenwei. Two Taiwanese filmmakers came to the company and said they wanted to visit you and talk to you about movies."

"I'm very busy now, so you just..."

"By the way, what are their names?"

Huang Ze decided to listen to who was coming.

If he is an unknown person, then I can have time and meet him casually when I go to the company.

If he's famous and has potential, it's not impossible to go over and have a chat with him now.

Huang Ze was actually not that busy, he was simply too lazy to go to the company.

"One is Yang Dechang, the other is Hou Xiaoxian."

"Oh!"

These two people.

In Huang Ze's opinion, it is not an exaggeration to say that the two of them are the two carriages of the Taiwanese film industry. In their previous lives, when ranking among the more professional directors in Asia, both of them could be ranked among the top ten.

If it weren't for me, the first Chinese-language film to win the Venice Golden Lion would have been Hou Hsiao-hsien's "A City of Sadness."

Edward Yang's "The Boys from Muguling" and "Yi Yi" are both highly praised films, and Huang Ze also likes to watch them.

Since the two of them came to Hong Kong Island to show themselves, it is necessary to meet them.

"Let them wait in the company. I'll be back soon."

After hanging up the phone and handing it to the bodyguard, Huang Ze said something to Gong Xi and returned to Xinghai.

Seeing the slightly younger version of the two, Huang Ze smiled and extended his hand, "Welcome!"

"I've admired you for a long time, I've admired you for a long time!"

The two nodded, "We are indeed being presumptuous. After watching your movie, we really have a lot to talk about. Let's discuss it together."

"Okay! You're most welcome!" Huang Ze said with a smile, "Since we're all filmmakers, how about we chat while watching a movie?"

"Being respectful is worse than obeying orders."

Then the three of them came to the company's screening room.

"Is there a copy of 'Taste of Cherry' here?" Hou Xiaoxian asked.

"Of course, I keep two copies of all the movies I've shot!" Huang Ze waved his hand and instructed the employees to start installing the film for projection.

While the movie was being screened, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Yang Dechang kept asking all sorts of questions. Huang Ze also thought about a lot of them while filming, so even though he was a plagiarist, he spoke very clearly.

Plus the current identity.

Even though some parts were vague, they still seemed powerful to those two people!

During the conversation, Hou Xiaoxian talked about his new work, "I want to make a new movie, but I always feel that some parts are not in place. I wonder if Director Huang can help me with some advice?"

"Where's the script?"

"Then thank you, Director Huang." Hou Xiaoxian opened the bag he was carrying and handed it to Huang Ze.

Stopping the movie and turning on the lights, Huang Ze took a look at the cover of the script.

"A City of Sadness".

"Originally I wanted to use a smuggling family in Jilong as the background, and wanted to film Yang Lihua's story, and even use Yang Lihua and Chow Yun-fat to play the role. Later, I had no choice but to change the script." "Why?"

"Is there something wrong with the script? Or is it because Chow Yun-fat's salary was too high after the huge success of A Better Tomorrow?"

Huang Ze hit the nail on the head. Before "A Better Tomorrow", Chow Yun-fat had a nickname called Poison Fat. As the name suggests, he was a box office poison and his pay was less than 500,000 yuan.

But "A Better Tomorrow" is so popular, can it be stopped at 500,000? I'm afraid it will be 2-3 million.

This is not something an art film can sustain.

Besides, they can shoot a movie in Hong Kong Island in one or two months and earn millions in salary. How could they possibly work with you to make a movie?

Huang Ze glanced at Hou Xiaoxian.

This guy's filming habits are no different from those of the King of Sunglasses.

He is famous for taking his time to do things carefully and he likes to procrastinate.

"It's a bit of both." Hou Xiaoxian laughed bitterly. "This kind of movie won't make much money at the box office. No matter if it's compared to Hollywood or Hong Kong commercial movies, the audience doesn't like to watch it. It's better over there. We can't sell much at the box office in other places."

"Also, Golden Harvest wanted us to shoot in Hong Kong Island, but this is a film about Taiwanese people, how can we shoot it in Hong Kong Island? This matter was shelved."

“So the best thing to do is to go to film festivals and earn some US dollars,” Huang Ze said.

"That's the idea."

“I don’t know if I can be shortlisted for the main competition unit by then.”

"There's hope." Huang Ze nodded, and without saying anything more, he read the script carefully. After reading it, he smacked his lips, as if he was savoring something. "228 Incident?"

"Yes." Hou Xiaoxian nodded. "It happened to be the year I was born. I also collected a lot of information and found a lot of information asked by the elderly."

“If it’s filmed well, it will have an epic feel!” Huang Ze nodded, recalled the original film of “A City of Sadness”, and then told Hou Hsiao-hsien about the differences from the script.

Then he asked, "Have you found the investment?"

"The script hasn't been finalized yet, so the investment is even more." Hou Xiaoxian and Yang Dechang smiled at each other, feeling unspeakable pain in their hearts.

If the movie doesn’t do well, no one will invest in it!
Every time I have to beg for help from everyone, or even mortgage my house.
Hou Hsiao-hsien sold his house to make "Dong Dong's Holiday". He thought he could make it for 4 million, but ended up spending 6 million. The box office was also very poor after the film was released. Selling copyrights? The copyrights of films that did not win any awards could not be sold. It can be said that he directly fell into a financial crisis.

However, I thought that was the low point, but who knew that was just the beginning.

The box office performance of each film was average.

I don’t know what will happen to “Daughter of the Nile” which will be released this year.

If the box office remains bad, I don’t know how this movie “A City of Sadness” will get investment.

"If I can't find investment, I will invest in "A City of Sadness"!" Huang Ze was very generous.

"It doesn't matter whether it makes money or not. The key is that I make art films and I like this kind of movies."

“I think this world can’t just be about commercial films.”

"And you, Old Yang, come to me if you need investment in the future!" Huang Ze laid the bait directly.

"By the way, how much investment does "A City of Sadness" require?"

"This..." Hou Xiaoxian was stunned for a moment, "I don't know either, but if I want to achieve the effect I want, it might cost 40 to 50 million New Taiwan dollars?"

"..."

Huang Ze converted it and it was about one million US dollars. Even if it could overspend, it couldn't possibly reach three million US dollars, right?

If I can also win the Golden Lion Award, it will still be very profitable!

If we think about the film A City of Sadness and Hou Hsiao-hsien's patience in making films, he probably didn't deceive himself with the cost.

So Huang Ze said directly, "I voted!"

"Really?" Hou Xiaoxian felt his heart pounding. It was the first time that he found investment so smoothly!
(End of this chapter)