Unscientific Movie King

Chapter 50 Why Don’t You Dare to Fight?
1992 was the peak year for Hong Kong films, with more than 700 films produced that year, mostly sold to Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

The Hong Kong entertainment industry was indeed prosperous at that time. The two Mondays became the annual box office champions all year round, and many first-line actors received over 10 million yuan in pay.

At the same time, food coupons had not yet been abolished in the mainland, and actors were all contract workers, receiving monthly salaries, and their pay was even lower than that of extras in Hong Kong.

But in 1993, the situation changed.

Before 1993, Taiwan had an import quota system for films, and only eight copies could be imported each year, which was definitely not enough.

Because everyone was Chinese, Hong Kong films were not on the quota list at that time.

Therefore, before 1993, many of the movies Wanwan watched were from Hong Kong Island, which is also the largest sales base for Hong Kong films.

How big is the market demand?

Let’s just say that Chow Yun-fat finished filming the movie Heroes in just two months, and it became a huge hit in Taiwan right after it was filmed.

After the sale, Long Wu felt that there were too many leftovers in the post-editing, which was a pity.

So they asked Tam Wing-lin to shoot the side plot, and with some heroic bits and pieces, a film about the martial arts world came out. After the filming was over, it got involved with Wan Wan, and the film earned over 20 million at the box office.

Taiwan was a complete movie desert at that time. The import quota system meant that ordinary people had few good movies to watch. They would watch whatever movies were sold in Hong Kong and were not picky.

Even bad movies are still enjoyable to watch.

After 1993, Taiwan, which had been cheated for many years, lifted the import quota system and began to embrace the Western market. A large number of European and American films entered Taiwan.

Film producers are no longer willing to buy Hong Kong films.

With the loss of its largest employer, Hong Kong film sales have been halved.

Only one last buyer remains, Southeast Asia.

As a result, the Southeast Asian financial crisis occurred in 1997, and that place also went bankrupt.

Hong Kong films cannot be sold and cannot be fully consumed internally, so production has been reduced again and again. As of this year, the annual output is only more than 70 films.

Our own people can hardly afford to eat, and the business is about to close.

Despite this terrible situation, Wu Jing gave up the mainland market and came to Hong Kong Island to develop. Isn't this pure idiocy?

They don't have any movies to shoot for themselves, so how could they give it to you, a mainlander?

To put it bluntly, Wu Jing's actions are no different from when he joined the Guo Army in 1949.

Wu Jingqiang smiled and patted Qin Chuan on the shoulder: "We are different. I have been in the industry longer than you, so you don't have to envy me."

Qin Chuan: "..."

Man, I don't envy you at all.

Knowing history, he understood clearly that Wu Jing's career in the Hong Kong circle was doomed to fail, a waste of youth and a loss of popularity.

It is not easy to replicate Li Lianjie's legend.

Wu Jing became popular again, still as Wolf Warrior, but that was more than ten years later.

More than ten years later, Qin Chuan might be more popular than him, so Qin Chuan has no intention of clinging to this support.

The two chatted for a while, and other actors who had fighting scenes also arrived one after another, and martial arts instructor Cheng Xiaodong also arrived.

"Everyone gather!"

In addition to the actors performing the martial arts scenes, there were also more than a dozen martial artists from the Cheng Clan on the scene.

Cheng Xiaodong held a document in his hand. After briefly greeting everyone, he began to assign tasks:
"Wu Jing, Wang Yang, you two form a group."

"Qin Chuan, Lu Daneng, you two should form a team."

"Shen Xiaohai, Ouyang, you two should form a team."

Each martial artist is paired with an actor, who is responsible for teaching the martial arts moves.

Everyone practices different kung fu, some practice sword, some practice gun, and some practice palm.

Soon, after the assignments were in place, each group found a corner to practice their moves.

Qin Chuan learned swordsmanship, and he unlocked the profession of Wusheng. He has good physical resilience and coordination, and he has a foundation in martial arts. He learns the moves quickly and his techniques are very standard.

But there are people who learn faster than him.

Wu Jing.

In his hand, he could use a long spear in many different ways, including stabbing, blocking and thrusting. His basic skills were very solid and he could also use the counter-attack, fancy spear and shaking spear with ease.

The level is obviously much higher than that of the Cheng family's martial arts.

After practicing for a while, they started to guide the shortcomings in the martial arts movements.

There's nothing we can do about it, since he is a three-time national martial arts champion and his marksmanship is the best.

Wu Jing was satisfied that he learned quickly, but Wu Xing was unhappy.

"Will you teach me or should I teach you?"

"You think you're so awesome? I won't teach you anymore. Just play by yourself." So before noon, Wu Jing became an unemployed vagrant, wandering around here and there.

……

At noon, the crew had lunch and several actors from the mainland sat at one table.

On Qin Chuan's side are Wu Jing and Shen Xiaohai, who plays the villain Jin Guang.

Seeing Wu Jing eating without talking, Qin Chuan joked: "Brother Jing, I'm not saying anything bad about you, but Wu Xing was so arrogant this morning, why didn't you fight him?"

A martial artist dares to give the second male lead the cold shoulder. This kind of situation would never happen in mainland China.

Wu Jing rolled his eyes: "Just try to do it, there are so many of them, believe it or not, they will beat me up in an instant."

The martial artists in this crew are all from the Cheng Clan. Two fists are no match for four hands. If he fights here, he will probably get kicked in the head by a donkey.

This is not his territory. If he really wants to fight, tomorrow's newspaper will definitely report that mainland actors beat up Hong Kong martial artists.

Qin Chuan couldn't bear to see his fellow countryman suffer, so he said, "If I were you, I would return to the mainland to develop my career after filming this movie."

"With your fame and connections, it won't be long before you're back on top."

Wu Jing has been in Hong Kong for less than two years, but the popularity he had accumulated before has not completely dissipated. Now when he returns, there are still directors willing to invite him to play the leading male role.

Life is much better here than in Hong Kong Island.

Wu Jing shook his head: "I won't go back until I make a name for myself."

Qin Chuan is drunk, but you are still stubborn. If you don’t fall down, who will?

After swallowing a few mouthfuls of food, Wu Jing smiled and said, "I know that the film and television industry in Hong Kong is not in a good environment, but looking at the overall situation, the prospects are still good."

"You know the WTO, after our country joined, the quota for imported films increased by ten more."

"I heard that in order to save the Hong Kong film market, the country will lift the restrictions on the subject matter of Hong Kong films, allowing Hong Kong films to enter the mainland and enjoy the same treatment as mainland films."

"Brother Jing, is this true?" Shen Xiaohai was shocked and didn't even bother to eat.

The mainland, like Taiwan before 1993, has an import quota system that limits imported films to ten per year.

Hong Kong films are not restricted.

But why are there so few Hong Kong films released in mainland China over the years?
Because it's not cost-effective.

The mainland generally adopts the method of buyout and profit-sharing when purchasing films.

The buyout money is very little, the asking price is very low, and the profit sharing is even more unprofitable. It is completely different from the treatment of mainland films.

A few years ago, a director sold his film to mainland China, but not only did he not make any money, he even had to pay for advertising.

The key is that the mainland is very strict about the subject matter of the films it purchases, and they have to have positive energy.

Therefore, from the 1970s to the present, the mainland has never been a market for Hong Kong films.

But if Hong Kong films are really introduced in large quantities and enjoy the same box office sharing treatment as in the mainland, then Hong Kong films will definitely take off.

In the past, relying on the Taiwanese market, Hong Kong films could produce more than 700 films a year.

How big is the mainland market? Dozens of times bigger than Taiwan's.

Doesn’t this mean that Hong Kong will produce at least two to three thousand films a year in the future?

Who wouldn’t be jealous?
It’s the real golden age. No wonder Wu Jing doesn’t want to leave.

Shen Xiaohai wanted to stay.

Wu Jing saw that Qin Chuan was indifferent and said, "You don't believe it?"

Qin Chuan nodded: "I believe it!"

He believed it too much.

The facts are similar to what Wu Jing said. A year later, Hong Kong films began to embrace the mainland market.

But there are many rules and regulations, for example, only cross-strait co-productions can enjoy the same profit-sharing treatment as mainland films.

It is required that the proportion of mainland actors should not be less than one-third of the total number of main actors.

In other words, even if he was not in Hong Kong Island, Wu Jing would still have the opportunity to make Hong Kong films.

It would be better to develop in the mainland and take the best of both Hong Kong and mainland films.

Moreover, in a few years, with the rise of mainland films, the balance pattern of Hong Kong stars as male protagonists and mainland actors as male supporting actors will be broken and turned upside down.

After lunch, while Shen Xiaohai was away, Wu Jing whispered to Qin Chuan: "If you trust me, you can consider staying in Hong Kong Island. We are all from the mainland, and we can take care of each other in the future."

"I don't take him with ordinary people."

Qin Chuan's smile is uglier than crying. Thank you so much.

"let me consider it."

(End of this chapter)