Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 455 Salted Fish Wants to Turn Back

On the last day before leaving Beijing, Lin Chaoyang called all his family members together to have a meal together.

Du Feng even came over specially. When we met again a week later, he was in much better condition than before. He didn't look so gloomy anymore and looked much more energetic.

Lin Chaoyang asked about the situation in the clothing city, and Du Feng smiled easily.

"Not bad. Business is steadily increasing, and word of mouth is getting better and better."

In less than a week, Asia-Europe Clothing City will have been open for a month.

Over the past month, the clothing city first experienced a flourishing few days before its opening, but then its customer flow and sales were cut in half again and again.

After customer flow and sales reached their lowest point, the clothing mall's business remained stable for more than a week, and then began to slowly rise again.

In the past two days, the clothing city's daily sales have been over 40,000. Although this sales volume is still a certain distance away from Du Feng's ideal, it gives him hope.

He would patrol the store every day, chat with customers from time to time, and give them small gifts after the chat, which was a bit similar to the market research done by many companies in later generations.

After communicating with dozens of customers, Du Feng discovered that the consumers who came to the Asia-Europe Clothing City to buy clothes were not all high-income groups as he had imagined.

Among them are also many ordinary working-class people who earn forty or fifty yuan a month.

It may cost one month's salary to buy a piece of clothing in Asia-Europe Clothing City. Some expensive clothes may even cost three or four months' salary. However, these customers are still willing to spend money in Asia-Europe Clothing City.

The reason is simple. Everyone thinks it is safe to buy clothes in Asia-Europe Clothing City.

You don't have to worry about buying fakes or inferior products. There is quality assurance and after-sales service, and the salesperson's service attitude is also good.

The Asia-Europe Clothing City was established less than a month ago. Even if the service is good and the quality is high, the word-of-mouth effect would not ferment so quickly.

But this is a world of rottenness.

In today's Yanjing, larger state-owned shopping malls like Xidan Shopping Mall are still better, but many smaller state-owned service-oriented units have service attitudes that are even more domineering than those of uncles, and the customers who go there to shop are treated like grandchildren.

A business called Asia-Europe Clothing City that makes customers feel at home suddenly appeared in Yanjing City, so naturally everyone spread the word by word of mouth, and the speed at which word of mouth spread was incredibly fast.

Another very important reason is that counterfeit and inferior goods have become rampant in the past two years.

At the beginning of reform and opening up, the word "fake" did not exist in the Chinese dictionary at all.

But by 1984, in just six years, the number of counterfeit trademark cases in China had reached more than 1000. These were the cases that were discovered and dealt with. The majority were not dealt with.

After 84, counterfeit goods had become an unstoppable trend in the country. From the mid-to-late s to after , Chinese consumers were troubled by counterfeit goods.

In the early to mid-2291s when counterfeit goods were most rampant, prosecutors across the country handled cases of counterfeit trademarks in just six months. The rampant counterfeiting had reached a level that was outrageous to both humans and gods.

In this wave of counterfeiting that has lasted for decades, the most terrifying thing is not the counterfeiting itself, which uses inferior goods to defraud consumers, but the fact that you cannot crack down on those unscrupulous counterfeiters.

In 85, a counterfeit drug case occurred in a certain place. There were 45 counterfeit drug companies in just one small town.

Since the 80s, the local area has been using low-quality white fungus and sugar to make fake medicines such as "blood pressure-lowering granules" and "lung-regulating granules" to make huge profits.

Most of these fake drug factories are co-run by local farmers JZ. They have no pharmaceutical technicians, no quality inspection agencies, and no pharmaceutical equipment.

They used primitive tools such as stoves, iron pots, and bamboo utensils. The factories were all old rural houses. There were flies flying around, garbage piled up, and the packaging tables were covered with dust.

You can even find it hard to imagine how such unscrupulous workshops could deliver their shoddy medicines to hospitals and pharmacies across the country, but they did it.

Because this town is a typical example of support, it is the first township in a certain province with an industrial and agricultural output value of more than 1 million yuan.

The difficulty with counterfeit goods lies not in their “fakeness” but in their “management”.

It is said that people were simple-minded in the 1980s, and there is nothing wrong with this.

But human hearts cannot withstand temptation. Sima Yi's oath at Luoshui and Lu Meng's crossing the river in white clothes, the collapse of morality and faith often starts with the rotten rat shit and the rotten fish.

In just a few years, the domestic business environment has undergone tremendous changes. Although counterfeit and inferior goods have not yet reached the rampant trend of the 1990s, they have made many ordinary people more vigilant.

Therefore, in such an environment, the high quality and quality assurance commitment of Asia-Europe Clothing City can easily capture a group of consumers who hope to spend money to buy peace of mind.

Du Feng excitedly talked about his discoveries and experiences during this period of time. Finally, he looked at Lin Chaoyang with gratitude.

"Brother-in-law, now I finally understand what you meant by what you said to me."

Lin Chaoyang said with relief: "What I said is not important. What is important is that you can do it. I believe that the business of the clothing city will definitely get better and better in the future."

Du Feng's face was full of confidence, "I definitely will!"

After expressing his inner feelings, Du Feng felt a lot more relaxed.

Tao Yucheng said to him, "Don't just focus on the clothing store, you have to take care of the video hall as well!"

"What happened to the video room?" Du Feng asked.

Ever since he came up with the idea of ​​opening a clothing mall, Du Feng no longer paid much attention to the affairs of the video hall. He basically just checked the accounts every month and left many matters to his subordinates.

"Business is not as good as last year," said Tao Yucheng.

Last year, many small video halls opened by individuals appeared in Yanjing City.

They may only have a VCR, a TV, and a room, and the hardware conditions are definitely not comparable to Du Feng and his video room.

But the ticket prices are cheap. In some small video halls, you can watch a movie for only one cent.

Although there are fewer film sources, audiences are still willing to watch them if they haven't seen them before, since it's not expensive at just one cent.

This naturally affected Du Feng and his team's business.

Du Feng listened to Tao Yucheng's description but didn't care too much. Long before opening the video hall, Lin Chaoyang had told him about the situation that this business might face next.

"There's no way to avoid this. People are satisfied with making a hundred or eighty yuan a month. What can you do?"

"I'm afraid that if they do this, fewer and fewer people will come here in the future." Tao Yucheng said worriedly.

"Then let's lower the price too. We were making money without doing anything before, but this will be the norm in the future."

I don’t know if it’s because of the ups and downs he experienced when opening the clothing city, but Du Feng looked calm when talking about the video hall business.

Tao Yucheng sighed unwillingly, "Ah! What do you think these people are thinking?"

"They also want to make money. The ticket prices are the same, so why should the audience choose them? In fact, this is the same as us and the cinema.

You have to have something that can attract people to come to your place, right?"

"That's right." Tao Yucheng smiled and stopped worrying about it.

Anyway, the couple has earned 18,000 yuan in the past year. With his salary level, he may not be able to earn that much in ten years just by working. What is there to be dissatisfied about?
Besides, it’s not like video halls won’t make money in the future, they just make less.

"Brother, if you want to make more money, you don't have to just focus on the video hall. You can try doing something else." Du Feng suggested.

"It's good like this now. Your business is big and you make a lot of money, but you're busy all day long. How can you have time for yourself? You don't even have a girlfriend."

Du Feng gave advice with good intentions, but he didn't expect to be hit hard by Tao Yucheng.

"Eat your food."

Zhao Li, who was standing by, pulled Tao Yucheng and asked him to shut up. Everyone in the family was amused by this scene.

The next day, Lin Chaoyang and his family of five flew to Hong Kong. The temperature in Hong Kong in April was over 20 degrees Celsius, the sun was shining, and the weather was very comfortable.

The family first returned to Oriental Garden and took a rest. Then Lin Chaoyang called Tsui Hark. Upon hearing that he had returned to Hong Kong, Tsui Hark could not wait to invite him to meet him at the film studio.

So the next day, Lin Chaoyang and Tao Yushu came to the film studio in Kowloon Tong.

Although the current film studio has already produced two films written and directed by Tsui Hark, it is still a small workshop in the Hong Kong film industry.

The company is small, with only three employees, and the only relatively spacious room is the conference room.

When Lin Chaoyang and his wife arrived, a middle-aged man with a slightly bald head was already sitting in the conference room. It was John Woo, who had just returned from Taiwan Island.

Tsui Hark introduced both parties enthusiastically, and then talked about the movie.

For the current film studios, it is very difficult to invest in and produce two films at the same time.

Tsui Hark has been busy filming "Swordsman" since the second half of last year. It was only recently after the filming of "Swordsman" was completed that he made time to prepare for "A Better Tomorrow".

After the meeting, the first thing he did was not to discuss the script, but to set the budget.

When he heard that the budget was only HK$400 million, John Woo immediately started complaining.

"400 million is not enough for a gunfight movie!"

"Four million is already a lot."

Tsui Hark seemed to be comforting John Woo, but in fact he was also convincing himself.

It is true that there is Boss Lei and Cinema City behind the film studio, but the boss invests money in you to make you money, not to suck your blood.

"Swordsman" invited three popular actresses, Sally Yeh, Brigitte Lin and Cherie Chung to star in the film, and the pay of the three alone amounted to more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars.

It has been more than half a year since the preparation, but it has not yet been released, which is rare in the fast-paced Hong Kong film market.

The movie had not yet shown any profits, and Tsui Hark was about to make a new film, so Cinema City naturally did not want to make another big bet. The HK$400 million was something Tsui Hark had worked hard to get from them.

"To make a movie, you have to hire one or two stars. The actors' salaries alone will take up more than half of the 400 million yuan investment. How can this movie be made?" John Woo said pitifully.

The current Hong Kong film market is somewhat similar to the mainland film market after 2015. The market is booming and hot money continues to pour in.

The production level has not improved much, but the investment has doubled, and a large proportion of this investment is the stars' pay.

In the past two years, any star who has played a major role in one or two of the top ten annual box office movies has received a starting salary of 500,000 or 600,000 Hong Kong dollars, and those who can carry the most important role can easily receive a salary of more than 1 million Hong Kong dollars.

If the male and female protagonists of a movie are both popular stars, and there are a few second- or third-tier supporting actors, the actors' salaries alone will cost three to four million Hong Kong dollars.

As a result, the investment amount of the film was suddenly increased, and an investment of seven or eight million was just common.

According to this investment, the box office must be at least 16 or 17 million to recover the investment. Based on the local box office of Hong Kong movies, a box office of more than 17 million in the past two years can basically enter the top ten of the annual box office.

Of course, film companies and investors will not do anything that loses money. The reason why they are willing to pay stars high salaries is that they value the stars' box office appeal in other places.

It doesn’t matter if the box office in Hong Kong doesn’t make back the money, there are still Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand…

Today, Hong Kong films are becoming more and more influential in East Asia and Southeast Asia. There is always a way to make money, not only back the investment, but also a huge profit.

John Woo kept nagging Tsui Hark in his ear. Tsui Hark was annoyed for a long time and finally said helplessly: "Okay, okay, I will talk to Cinema City later and ask them to add some more investment."

Seeing that Xu Ke was in such a dilemma, Lin Chaoyang said, "If they don't agree to make additional investments, we at Lin's Pictures can invest a little."

Tsui Hark looked at Lin Chaoyang with some surprise. Before, Lin Chaoyang had used the script as investment, and now he was going to invest real money in "A Better Tomorrow". Why did it feel like he had more confidence in this movie than himself?
Another thing he was curious about was that Lin Chaoyang was born in the mainland and his main job was a writer. Even if he had any savings, it would probably not be much.

Movie investments can easily amount to several million Hong Kong dollars. Does he really have that much money?
"Mr. Lin wants to invest? How much do you plan to invest?" asked Tsui Hark.

"We at Lin's Films have limited resources. We don't have much more, but one or two million Hong Kong dollars is fine. I'm mainly thinking that with our investment, it might be easier to negotiate with Cinema City."

Xu Ke couldn't help but nodded after listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, and his eyes looked at Lin Chaoyang with a little more tenderness. He understood that Lin Chaoyang did this to help him.

He thought for a moment and said, "Thank you Mr. Lin for your kindness. How about Mr. Lin invest 100 million Hong Kong dollars first, and I will talk to Cinema City about the rest."

"fair enough."

After talking about investment, John Woo had the opportunity to chat with Lin Chaoyang about the script and several main characters. He really wanted to hear Lin Chaoyang's opinions on these characters.

When the filming of "A Better Tomorrow" started, there was not even a script. Tsui Hark and John Woo just wrote an outline based on the 67 version of "A Better Tomorrow", and the rest was all improvisation on the spot.

One of the very important factors is the on-the-spot performance of the actors. For example, Chow Yun-fat played Mark, who was originally just a guest star in the crew.

But John Woo thought he acted well, so he kept adding more scenes for him. As a result, Chow Yun-fat, who was making a guest appearance, was promoted to the leading role, while the leading actor played by Mark Cheng was eliminated due to the added scenes.

In this time and space, Zheng Haonan was equally miserable. Originally, the male lead role in "Swordsman and Lady" was his, but it was snatched away by Tony Leung Ka Fai.

Now that Lin Chaoyang has "copied homework" and produced a classic enough script, John Woo is naturally very satisfied and wants to know more about Lin Chaoyang's thoughts when he created these characters.

The two chatted for more than an hour, and John Woo was full of confidence and excited.

Lin Chaoyang doesn't have any profound understanding of film shooting, but he is still very good. Others start with the fog of war, but he starts with open cards in the Landlord game. He has a better grasp of John Woo's imagination.

For some scenes and lines, John Woo could feel the blood boiling just through his language description.

Having a screenwriter like Lin Chaoyang is really a blessing for the director!
"Mr. Lin, after listening to you for so long, I can see that you have such a mature idea for the movie. Do you have any suggestions for the actors?" John Woo asked.

"Director Wu, you are the director, you can decide on the actors' matters," said Lin Chaoyang.

"No, no, no, we can discuss the casting together. What I want is for the actors to fit the role and add luster to the film."

In John Woo's opinion, the reason why Lin Chaoyang was able to bring several main characters in the script to life so vividly and lifelike was not only because he had a deep understanding of the characters, but most importantly, he must have his own imagination about the characters.

John Woo now urgently wants to know what these character images in Lin Chaoyang's mind will look like when projected into reality.

"Is that so..." Lin Chaoyang pondered for a moment before saying, "Then let me talk about my personal opinion. Let's start with the two brothers Song Zihao and Song Zijie..."

Lin Chaoyang would have been fine if he hadn't said anything, but once he started talking he couldn't stop. He talked for a long time, first analyzing the background and personality of each important actor, and then proposed actors he thought were suitable.

Ti Lung plays Song Zihao, Leslie Cheung plays Song Zijie, Chow Yun-fat plays Xiao Ma Ge, and Yue Hua plays Tan Cheng.

There is only one difference between the list of actors he recommended and the later "A Better Tomorrow", and that is the actor who played the villain Tan Cheng.

The actor who played Tan Cheng in the later version of "A Better Tomorrow" was Li Zixiong. He had excellent acting skills and portrayed Tan Cheng, who appeared weak and honest on the surface but was insidious and cunning inside, to perfection.

As for why he did not recommend him but recommended Yue Hua, it was of course because Lin Chaoyang was familiar with Yue Hua.

Besides, after Yue Hua became out of fashion, he played many villains, so it was not difficult for him to play a role like Tan Cheng.

After Lin Chaoyang finished talking about all the actors, John Woo imagined in his mind how these actors would look like in their costumes.

He thought about it for a long time and found that the actors recommended by Lin Chaoyang were indeed quite suitable for the temperament of the characters.

For example, the character of Song Zijie, his brother is a gang leader, but he is a graduate of the police academy and is full of justice and professionalism.

We had to find a popular star to play the role so that he could show his high-spirited and high-spirited character. Leslie Cheung was very suitable because he was handsome and popular enough.

However, John Woo had some concerns about the candidates recommended by Lin Chaoyang, because he recommended four people, and none of them was a truly first-line movie star at this stage.

Ti Lung and Yue Hua were popular back then, but they have become out of fashion in recent years.

Chow Yun-fat was a popular TVB actor. He was very famous and well-known, but he switched to the film industry and starred in many movies, but none of them was a box office success.

The audience's impression of him is still limited to the TV screen, and some film producers have even labeled him as "box office poison."

Leslie Cheung is very popular now, but his popularity is more concentrated in his singing career, and his performance in film and television is mediocre.

After analyzing the situations of these actors, John Woo couldn't help but wonder in his heart. He suspected that Lin Chaoyang didn't understand the current film market very well. After all, there should be a movie star here!

Lin Chaoyang observed John Woo's expression and could roughly guess what he was thinking.

"Director Wu, I don't know if you feel this, but in fact, compared to the plot and characters, the more important thing about our movie is the emotion."

Some things can only be understood, not expressed in words. Lin Chaoyang's words were vague, but John Woo felt as if he could understand their meaning.

He thought of the line from Xiao Ma Ge in the script.

"I don't want to be stepped on by others all my life!
Do you think I'm a beggar?
I have been unlucky for three years, just waiting for an opportunity!
I want to fight for my own reputation, not to prove that I am better than others, but to tell others that I must take back what I lost with my own hands!"

John Woo thought about his own experiences over the past few years, and suddenly he felt a sense of empathy, as well as a strange thought that he had never had before.

I just want to take this group of actors who are not favored by anyone and turn the Hong Kong film industry upside down!

As soon as the thought came to his mind, John Woo was shocked by himself. He didn't know why such a thought came to his mind.

But when his eyes met Lin Chaoyang's, John Woo understood everything.

This is what Lin Chaoyang calls “emotion”!
He was thinking back to the actors chosen by Lin Chaoyang. Didn’t they fit the mood of the movie perfectly?
At this moment, John Woo felt that he had unprecedented confidence in this film.

"Okay! The actors will do as you say, Mr. Lin. For this movie, we must bring a unique shock to Hong Kong movies!"

Seeing John Woo’s high-spirited state, Lin Chaoyang smiled with satisfaction. That’s right!
It would be impossible to make a film like "A Better Tomorrow" without this attitude.

Tsui Hark listened to the two people talking for a long time and didn't understand why John Woo suddenly became emotional, but he felt relieved to see that the two of them communicated so well.

The director and the screenwriter have a good understanding, so the final result of the movie will definitely not be bad.

Lin Chaoyang and his wife stayed in the film studio for almost the entire day. In the evening, Shi Nansheng helped everyone reserve a table for dinner at the Sevva Western Restaurant in Prince's Building to celebrate the important progress in the preparations for "A Better Tomorrow".

After finishing the meal, they parted ways.

Nansun Shi and Tsui Hark walked along the brightly lit Queen's Road Central.

She looked at Xu Ke, hesitant to speak, "Do you really want to take Lin Sheng's investment?"

Xu Ke looked back at her and asked, "Are you afraid of the Freedom Association?"

"Yes." Shi Nansheng frowned slightly and said, "Before, Lin Sheng only participated in the investment with the script, but this time it is different. He took real money. What if the Freedom Association..."

"I've thought about this, and I think it should be fine. Hasn't the ban on Ah Hui been lifted?
After all, Mr. and Mrs. Lin have no official status. The news about that incident two years ago was reported so fiercely, but in the end, it was nothing!
If the Freedom Association is really nitpicking, Jiahe will be the first to suffer. Boss Zou is not that stupid. "

Throughout the 1950s to 1970s, the Hong Kong film industry was a battlefield between Taiwan and the mainland.

In the mid-1950s, in order to respond to the challenge, the Taiwan News Bureau funded the establishment of the unofficial organization "Freedom Association" in Hong Kong.

The purpose is to win over people in Hong Kong's cultural circles and exclude pro-mainland people.

The first thing this organization did after its establishment was to announce to all sectors of Hong Kong: without the approval of the "Freedom Federation", no film could enter Taiwan.

But in the first decade or so of the fight between the two sides, mainland capital and Z-school filmmakers have always been in an advantageous position.

During the heyday of the Z-school, the three film companies, Chang, Feng and Sun, produced a total of 262 films, which put a heavy pressure on Taiwanese and Y-school filmmakers in the s and s.

Not only was the number astonishing, but they also dominated the most popular Hong Kong films at the time. While competing against each other, the two sides also cultivated a group of outstanding literary and artistic workers for Hong Kong.

Unfortunately, the wave in 67 ruined this good situation.

In addition, the mainland market was closed in those years, while the Taiwan market was open to Hong Kong, and the balance of the battle between the two sides continued to tilt. Many pro-mainland Z-school filmmakers have gradually died out in recent years.

By the mid-to-late 1970s, the Freedom Federation had become the emperor of the Hong Kong film industry as a bridge between the Hong Kong film industry and the Taiwan News Bureau, Cultural Bureau, and film market.

If they cough, many Hong Kong film companies will tremble.

It was their doing that Tony Leung Chiu-fai was banned.

From Tsui Hark's perspective, he is not the first one to work with Lin Chaoyang, and with Tony Leung's ban lifted last year, it is reasonable for him to think that the Freedom Federation will not cause trouble for him.

"Besides, didn't Mr. Xiao J give a speech last month? Now that cross-strait relations are gradually easing, there shouldn't be any problem."

Listening to Tsui Hark's words, Nansun Shi nodded slightly. Her husband's words did make some sense.

While Tsui Hark and his wife were worried about the Freedom Association, Lin Chaoyang and his wife were thinking about money.

In the afternoon, Lin Chaoyang and Tsui Hark finalized the investment of HK$100 million for "A Better Tomorrow", which was a considerable sum for them at this stage.

After purchasing Lam Films’ property in Prince’s Building last year, they had exactly HK$100 million left.

Now that more than half a year has passed, Ming Pao Publishing House has settled several royalties with Lin Chaoyang, the largest of which was the first royalty for "The Truman Show" last month.

Since its publication in September last year, the sales of "The Truman Show" have remained high, with sales of nearly 9 copies in half a year, and also brought Lin Chaoyang a royalty income of 6 Hong Kong dollars.

Together with the royalties from several other novels published in Hong Kong, the couple now has just over HK$210 million on hand.

Tao Yushu was still a little nervous about having to invest 100 million yuan in a movie all at once.

Her biggest hope now is that "The Truman Show" can be a hit!

(End of this chapter)