Exciting 1979!

Chapter 475 Two Kings and Two Queens
The first song that Sam Hui played was "Iron Tower Soaring into the Clouds," his first Cantonese song composed by himself. This song is considered the pioneering work of Cantonese pop music and is of great significance to both Sam Hui and Cantonese pop music.

Next up is his most popular recent hit, the theme song of the same name, "Aces Go Places".

"Your name is Dingdang, your face is like honey, approachable, refreshing, and cheerful. My name is KingKong, my style is like James Bond. Best partners, you make the coffee, I add milk and sugar..."

Gong Xue said that he had heard this song before because he watched the movie "Aces Go Places" on videotape with Wei Ming and Zhu Lin at home.

She always thought Sam Hui was a top actor in Hong Kong, but she didn't expect him to be a top singer as well.

In addition to classic old songs such as "Games Gamblers Play", "Half a Catty Eight Taels", and "The Heart of a Prodigal Son", Sam Hui also prepared a special surprise, performing the title track "A New Beginning" from his unreleased new album for the first time.

"A New Beginning" is the first album he released after leaving PolyGram and joining Concord Records.

This newly established record company, founded just last year, has managed to attract three top singers—Sam Hui, Paula Tsui, and Michael Kwan—in a short period of time, which is quite impressive.

Sam Hui is also a singer-songwriter. He wrote and composed the lyrics for the song "A New Beginning," and he also participated in 10 of the 12 songs on the new album.

Vivian Chow knows she is still far behind Sam Hui, but being able to create original works really makes people look at her with more respect, which is a very happy thing.

She will have participated in three or four songs on her new album, and the rest will be left to Ah Ming. If that's still not enough, we'll have to rely on Hong Kong musicians to make up the 12 songs.

After a very enjoyable two-plus hours, the concert came to a successful end, and the audience left in an orderly manner.

At the exit, Zhou Huimin saw Brother Long and Sister-in-law Long, and then her gaze naturally fell on the woman who looked somewhat like Gong Ying, but was even more beautiful and elegant. She seemed to be surrounded by starlight.

Ah Long also saw Vivian Chow and the others. Although Vivian Chow was wearing a mask, neither Vivian Chow's mother nor Grandma Ni were.

He originally intended to pretend he was blind, but the other person had already come over and greeted him, speaking in Mandarin: "Brother Long and Sister Long, this must be Sister Xue, we've spoken on the phone."

Gong Xue nodded, looking directly into Zhou Huimin's eyes, eager to see if she looked exactly like the person on the album cover.

Amin also felt that this was impolite, and seeing that there weren't many people around, she took off her mask to talk.

The fresh scent of a young girl wafted over, causing Gong Xue a brief moment of loss and sorrow, because she knew she could never present Gong Xue at this age to Wei Ming.

Sixteen or seventeen years old is the most beautiful time of one's life, but unfortunately, Xiao Wei will never see it.

Although she only had some doubts about the relationship between Wei Ming and Zhou Huimin, if she were to stand next to Zhou Huimin, who was sixteen or seventeen, at the age of thirty, and if she put herself in a man's shoes, she would probably choose the latter.

Sixteen years old means that a man has plenty of time to mold her into his ideal woman and spend more time with her, allowing the two of them to become perfectly compatible.

"Sister Xue, I thought you had already left Hong Kong. I didn't expect you to still be here. Let's have a meal together sometime." Zhou Huimin extended an invitation. She was also curious about the connection between her Ah Ming and this popular mainland actress. Why did she star in all the movies he wrote?

“Great! I’ll be living in Hong Kong for a while longer, so I have plenty of time,” Gong Xue bravely accepted the challenge.

Upon hearing that the two wanted to have dinner together and were about to set a time and place, Liu Rulong started sweating. He was starting to lose control of the situation. If the two of them sat down together and talked about their boyfriends, it would be easy to find out that they were the same person!
Why don't we just confront Aying and persuade her to help Aming keep it a secret from his second sister?

Just then, someone shouted "Amin".

When Vivian Chow turned around, she saw Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung, who had come to the concert with her. They had just been in the VIP section.

Zhou Huimin had no choice but to chat with her two friends for a few more minutes. When she turned around, Gong Xue and Gong Ying had already been pulled away by A Long.

"If we don't leave now, the road will be blocked. Let's talk another day," Ah Long said, quick-wittedly.

"Amin, what are you looking at?" Anita Mui asked curiously from the other side.

"Oh, a friend I just met." After they left, Vivian Chow chatted with the two of them for a few more minutes, mainly about music.

Anita Mui laughed and said, "The three of us have all released albums recently, and we're just waiting for yours. When is your Mandarin album coming out?"

"The three of us" refers to three popular young singers who are currently enjoying great popularity: Alan Tam, Leslie Cheung, and Anita Mui.

Anita Mui wasn't originally on the list, but her album "Red Anita Mui," released last month, sold like hotcakes and is now quadruple platinum. She has already shown her diva status and her personal style has begun to take shape.

As for Danny Chan, he went to the United States to study music and became a stay-at-home dad. He hasn't appeared in Hong Kong for more than half a year and seems to have fallen behind at the moment.

Besides "Red Anita Mui", Tam Yung-lun also released a new album last month called "Late Spring", which was also very successful, producing two hit songs, "Late Spring" and "Phantom".

Earlier this month, Leslie Cheung released his new album "The Wind Continues to Blow," which also garnered significant attention, rivaling the previous two releases. It seems that the new generation of Hong Kong's music scene has quietly taken shape.

Vivian Chow humbly smiled and said, "I only have a Mandarin album, it's definitely not comparable to yours."

However, the two did not think so. Although Mandarin records were slightly inferior to Cantonese records in Hong Kong, if Wei Ming were to take the lead, these slight disadvantages would definitely disappear.

Moreover, Vivian's appeal to teenage audiences can lead them to make blind purchases, regardless of whether it's Mandarin or Cantonese; they'll buy any song by Vivian without hesitation.

Because her mother and grandmother were still waiting for her, Vivian Chow said goodbye after a few words, as she still had to write songs tomorrow.

On the way home, Amin played Zhang Guorong's "The Wind Continues to Blow". She really liked this title track by Rong Shao. Although it was a ballad and not as popular as the other dance tracks on the album, she still liked it. She felt that this was what Zhang Guorong really wanted to sing.

However, "Melinda" led him down the path of a singing and dancing idol, which was somewhat beyond his control. Capital Artists continued to work hard in this direction, and this album "The Wind Continues to Blow" unexpectedly caught the new hot topic of breakdancing, so its sales were no less than those of "Red Anita Mui" and "Late Spring".

The competition among the new generation of singers is fierce. Amin thought about the songs he had written, and wondered how many songs Amin had written for him, and what Amin was doing now.

Wei Ming had already arrived in Shanghai. He had gone ahead of his two companions and was waiting for them there.

I came to Shanghai mainly to check on the production of Transformers Season 2. The first season was a huge success in North America and had a great effect on sales, so a second season was bound to happen.

Moreover, the balance of power has been reversed. This time, Wei Lingling is preparing to collect money from the TV station; they will only allow them to air the show if they are paid.

I heard that Transformers is very popular in the United States. The Shanghai Animation Film Studio, which once did not want the film to be labeled as such, has now readily put its logo at the beginning, after DreamWorks Animation.

DreamWorks Animation is an animation company registered in Hong Kong by DreamWorks, responsible for promoting "Transformers". Currently, it is basically an empty shell.

However, DreamWorks Animation's logo is quite beautiful, featuring a little boy sitting on a crescent moon fishing, which was designed by Wei Ming himself.

At the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, Wei Ming also saw director Dai Tielang, who seemed to be doing nothing, holding a package of letters he had received from the gatekeeper.

Wei Ming saw it and asked, "Is it another call for more updates?"

Director Dai smiled helplessly. "Black Cat Detective" ended with the twelfth episode. Before the Spring Festival, the last episode of "Black Cat Detective" was broadcast. One-Ear went to jail, and then their small crew disbanded.

However, the young readers were not satisfied and wrote letters requesting that more content be produced.

Because they all knew that later, he got a hole in one ear, escaped from prison, and learned more advanced criminal techniques. He had attained enlightenment in Longchang.

Moreover, the later plot is even more exciting. Teacher Wei not only incorporated some unique phenomena in the animal kingdom into the story, increasing everyone's knowledge, but also began to satirize reality through animal stories. In the most recent story, he incorporated the Changchun spring orchid incident into the plot and even predicted that the orchid would eventually explode.

From then on, Black Cat Detective had more social significance, but unfortunately, the demands of young readers could not move the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

Wei Ming was willing to take over the business, but he was waiting. He was waiting for the film studio to be reformed so that the Shanghai Animation Film Studio could no longer receive government funding and had to be responsible for its own profits and losses. That would be the best opportunity for him to make his move.

As for when the system reform will take place, perhaps that leader from the Film Bureau can provide some clues.

There were three people in total who went to Cannes this time: Wei Ming, Li Baotian, and Bao Tongzhi, deputy director of the Film Bureau.

Bao Tongzhi is 52 years old this year. After his debut, he served as the director of the office of the Film Bureau. In 82, he became the deputy director of the Film Bureau. He is also a senior economist. He participated in the formulation of cultural construction plans for several five-year plans in my country. He was responsible for film system reform, film legislation, and film exchanges with foreign countries for a long time in the Film Bureau.

Wei Ming arrived at the airport early in the morning to wait for them. Then they all transferred to Paris together. This time they didn't have to transfer in Hong Kong. Communication between China and the outside world is becoming more and more convenient.

However, when Wei Ming entered, the security check was noticeably stricter than before. He, Wei Ming, a nationally renowned writer and musician, and a famous passenger exempt from inspection, had his luggage thoroughly checked inside and out this time. Luckily, he didn't bring condoms this time.

Of course, it wasn't that the airport staff were deliberately targeting him; the same was true for everyone else.

Wei Ming knew something was wrong just by looking at the situation.

After meeting with Deputy Director Bao Tongzhi and Li Baotian, Wei Ming learned from Bao that a plane had been hijacked the day before.

It was a flight originally scheduled to fly from Shenyang to Shanghai, but it was driven away by several people who held a pistol to the captain's head.

Ultimately, the plane was forced to land in South Korea, which has no diplomatic relations with China. More than 100 passengers, crew members, and hijackers are now stranded in South Korea, including three Japanese nationals.

Deputy Director Bao, being a leader of a certain rank, already knew about the news before it spread, so he wasn't surprised by the stricter inspections. He just kept complaining: "The matter of the two kings of the Northeast isn't over yet, and now there's another hijacking case in the Northeast. The image of us Northeasterners has been completely ruined."

Deputy Director Bao's ancestral home is Shandong. He was born in Liudaogouzi Village, Jilin Province. He joined the revolution at the age of sixteen and worked in Northeast China until he was thirty. He still has some local accent, but he doesn't admit it: "I don't think I speak Northeastern dialect."

Once on the plane, the three of them sat together. Not only did they sit together, but they also planned to sleep together when they arrived in Cannes.

It wasn't that the officials didn't trust Wei Ming; it was mainly to save money. Prices in Cannes had skyrocketed, and hotel room rates were high, so every penny saved counted.

The journey was long, and Li Baotian was a quiet and reserved person, so Wei Ming had no choice but to chat with Bao Tongzhi. It was easy to have a lively conversation with a Northeasterner.

Wei Ming really wanted to talk to him about film system reform, but he didn't know if the authorities hadn't thought about it at all, or if there were already small sparks of discussion.

However, Deputy Director Bao wanted to talk to Wei Ming more about whether he was confident of winning an award at Cannes. They had high hopes for "The Shepherd's Class" this time because they could feel that this film was qualitatively different from the films they had submitted before.

Wei Ming could understand Lao Bao and the Film Bureau. On a smaller scale, it was about Chinese cinema; on a larger scale, it was about how China desperately needed international recognition at that time.

Unlike later generations, when Cannes and the Oscars were considered worthless, and people showed strong disdain, indifference, and even aversion towards them.

Now, if Wei Ming can actually win an award from the Cannes Film Festival, the film industry will treat him like royalty and have all the fifth-generation directors listen to his lectures.

However, winning an award is not so easy. Wei Ming replied, "The Cannes Film Festival's jury system determines whether an award is won or not by just a few people. Their preferences are very important and are also closely related to the quality of the competing films. We don't know any of these things. Moreover, with more than twenty films competing for five or six awards, the probability of winning is actually very small."

“I know!” Bao Tongzhi took out two sheets of fax paper. “This is the list of judges, and this is the list of those shortlisted for the main competition. They were sent by my colleagues in France.”

Wei Ming glanced at the list of judges. There were eight judges in total, including the chairman of the judging panel. All of them had English names. Bao Tongzhi was afraid that Wei Ming wouldn't recognize them, so he introduced them.

"This Sergei Bondarchuk was a Soviet director and also an actor. I saw his films when I was young."

Wei Ming: "I know, it's War and Peace."

That was the most expensive film in film history, and also one of the greatest. It was made in 1968, took five years to make, cost $560 million, and had a total runtime of 400 minutes. It also had the most extras in film history, and the Soviet army was at his disposal.

Sergei Bondarchuk served as screenwriter, director, and lead actor, and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film during the Cold War. Based on this alone, Wei Ming believes that Sergei Bondarchuk is fully qualified to sit in the position of president of the jury.

Although the United States also made a version, starring superstars like Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda, it didn't have the same impact on Wei Ming as the Soviet version.

After introducing Sergei, Deputy Director Bao fell silent, because he didn't recognize the others either.

Wei Ming didn't know most of them either. Henri Alejandro, how would he know him if he weren't told that he was the cinematographer of "Wings of Desire"? Karel Reiz, how would he know him if he weren't told that he was the director of "The French Lieutenant's Woman"?

As for the other judges, even though they mentioned their works, Wei Ming didn't recognize them; they were all directors from Egypt or Africa.

The only person Wei Ming actually knew was the chairman of the jury, William Stellen. The chairman of the jury had the final say on the decision, and knowing his preferences was more reliable than anything else.

"So what does he do? What works has he created?" Director Bao asked curiously, and even Li Baotian looked over and listened attentively.

Wei Ming: "He is a writer."

"Oh? A writer, your colleague?"

Wei Ming nodded. Deputy Director Bao found it unbelievable that a writer could become the chairman of the film festival's jury.

In fact, Wei Ming hadn't expected this either, but then he thought about it again and realized that given William Stylon's status in the American and European literary circles, and the European film festivals' groveling to Hollywood, it seemed to make sense.

William Styron is an American writer who has lived in Europe for a long time. He has won the Pulitzer Prize and holds a prominent position in contemporary literature. His most famous work is called "Sophie's Choice," which was adapted into a film. Two months ago, the film received five nominations at the Academy Awards in the United States and ultimately won the Best Actress award.

The actress who played the female lead is Meryl Streep, and this was her first Oscar for Best Actress.

Bao Tongzhi asked expectantly, "Since you're all in the same industry, you must have a good relationship, right?"

Wei Ming shook his head: "I've never met him, but I know he was a soldier who participated in World War II and the Korean War."

"Oh no?!" Bao Tongzhi thought to himself, "This is bad."

Then Wei Ming turned to the second page and saw the shortlist. Now he not only shook his head but also gave a wry smile. This round, it's the group of death!
(End of this chapter)