Chinese Entertainment Intelligence King

Chapter 161: The annual information explosion and participation in "Bright Sword"

At the beginning of 2005, the most popular film and television was "Kung Fu", which was released at the end of last year.

After only 4 days of release, it broke the 7000 million box office, and soon broke the 2004 million, surpassing the earlier released "A World Without Thieves" and aiming for the box office champion of .

In addition to its strong box office performance in mainland China, what is more worth mentioning about "Kung Fu" is that it also performed well in other regions.

After nine days of release in Taiwan, the box office exceeded NT$1 million, setting a new record for the fastest box office in Taiwan, which is equivalent to about 2500 million yuan.

The box office in Hong Kong is expected to exceed 6000 million Hong Kong dollars, making it the second Hong Kong film to reach 6000 million+ after "Shaolin Soccer".

The box office in North America and Japan is expected to exceed 10 million US dollars, and in countries with box office exceeding 1 million, the number is expected to exceed double digits.

Although it may not reach the achievements of "Hero" two years ago, it is still a small milestone in Chinese-language films.

The lead actor and director Zhou Xingchi was deified.

Many supporting characters in the movie, such as the landlord, the landlady, the Fire Cloud Evil God, and the Axe Gang boss, became very famous.

The newly emerged star girl Huang Shengyi became famous overnight for her role as a pure and infatuated mute girl in the movie and became the dream goddess of countless people.

Even Yan Li, who took the time to watch the movie "Kung Fu", was amazed by Huang Shengyi.

I have to say that Zhou Xingchi is really good at filming. He has slept with his junior sister many times, and it was the first time he felt that the other person was so beautiful.

Yan Li even felt a little regretful. If he had known that they should wait until the movie was released before breaking up, he also wanted to treat the mute girl to a lollipop.

But it was too late to regret. Huang Shengyi became famous and became a popular young actress with just one movie. She also had a backer and her future was bright.

Of course, with Yan Li's current wealth and status, it wouldn't be difficult to salvage the relationship, but it's unnecessary.

It’s good to have a little regret. If it is really saved, it may not be so beautiful.

Compared with Huang Shengyi, Yan Li attaches more importance to the success of "A World Without Thieves" and "Kung Fu" and their promotion and development to the film industry and even the entire film and television industry.

Since the mainland film market took shape, there have been only five Chinese-language films that have grossed over 100 million yuan.

In 2000, many units and factories booked out theaters to watch the film "Life and Death Choice", so strictly speaking, it was not a commercial success of million yuan.

After that came two films by Zhang Yimou, "Hero" in 2002 and "House of Flying Daggers" in the summer of 2004, and then "Kung Fu Hustle" and "A World Without Thieves" in the Lunar New Year period.

Among the five Chinese-language films, three were released in 2004, which shows that the film market is prospering year by year.

A box office exceeding 100 million yuan is no longer a special product that requires the right time, place and people, but is gradually becoming the norm.

There is no need to say much about the significance of this to the film market!
Relying on the powerful influence of the film and television industry, I am afraid that many wealthy people have turned their attention to the film and television industry.

This is a good thing for Yan Li. The more rich people there are, the easier it will be to attract investment.

Not only the investment in the crew project, but also the investment in other aspects is more convincing.

For example...cinema.

Last year's annual intelligence talked about Wanda's cinema layout. Perhaps Yan Li did a lot of research in private, and this year's annual intelligence system once again triggered relevant intelligence for him.

[Annual Intelligence ①: A 20-Year Retrospective Research Report on China’s Cinema Reform…]

Really, if the Film Bureau could see this report, they would be so happy.

Yan Li wasn't much better, he covered his face and laughed for nearly ten minutes.

This report, combined with last year's intelligence from Wanda, is enough for Yan Li to roughly understand the development of China's cinema market in the next 20 years.

Even if one is a fool, if given the opportunity, he can use these two pieces of information to become a senior executive in a certain cinema, or at least a senior consultant.

For Yan Li, who is capable and ambitious, it is even more powerful.

Yan Li, who had originally considered setting up a cinema chain, further strengthened his determination.

However, investing in cinemas is not an ordinary business. Yan Li cannot handle it alone, so he needs to find investors to join.

So now Yan Li wants the film market to prosper more than anyone else. The more prosperous the market is, the easier it will be for him to convince investors to invest heavily and set up theaters.

In addition to planning the theater chain, another piece of annual intelligence also gave Yan Li a new idea.

[Yearly Intelligence ②: How Enlight Media emerged from a difficult situation to become the top film and television stock in 2020…]

Yan Li had heard of Light Media.

However, I had the impression that they were producing variety shows, such as "China Entertainment Report" and "Music Billboard". The crew of "The Seven Fairies" had recorded their show once before. I didn't expect that they would be so successful in the transition to film and television later.

After carefully studying the development of light, Yan Li discovered some "new worlds".

The reason why Yan Li set up a cinema chain is that he felt that the current film market was too small and the risk of investing in film production was high.

As a terminal, cinema chains can generate stable income regardless of market conditions and do not face as high risks as film producers. Although short-term losses are inevitable due to the overall market, they have great prospects for long-term development.

However, Yan Li is not Wanda after all. Wanda has a mature business layout. He can only get a piece of the pie at most, and it is difficult for him to actually compete with Wanda.

The emergence of Guangxian has opened up new ideas for Yan Li. In addition to theaters, he can also start with distribution.

There are many companies that started out as film distribution companies. There are many examples in Hollywood and Hong Kong, and there is also Bona in mainland China.

Bona’s boss, Fatty Yu, was the deputy section chief of the distribution department of the Beijing Film Studio in the early days. He carried copies to cinemas across the country. Later, he went into business and Bona became the first company to have a film distribution license.

Afterwards, Fatty Yu took over the Hong Kong business and brought Hong Kong films to the mainland for distribution. Relying on his many years of connections in the industry, he made Bona bigger and stronger.

Yan Li relies on distribution for his career in the field of TV dramas, so how could he not have considered film distribution?

But film distribution and TV series distribution are two different industries.

When it comes to TV series distribution, many times, you just need to sell the show to the TV station and then you don’t have to worry about it anymore.

Film distribution not only requires close cooperation with upstream producers and downstream theater chains, but also requires various coordination and publicity to interact with the audience.

Especially the last one, one allows the audience to turn on the TV at home, and the other allows the audience to go to the cinema and buy tickets with real money.

You can imagine the difficulty and complexity involved!

Yan Li believes that his connections in the film industry are limited, and that film distribution is not an easy business to enter.

But the distribution method of Guangxian made Yan Li see the differences from traditional distribution.

When the intelligence team first transformed into the film and television industry, they did not have many film connections, but they made full use of their advantages.

The rich distribution network and integrated marketing resources accumulated when making TV programs.

Channels such as television stations and the Internet can provide Guangxian with extremely strong publicity and promotion capabilities, easily crushing traditional film distribution companies.

At the same time, Guangxian implemented a ground-based marketing strategy.

Today's cinema market has not yet formed an effective management model, the Internet is not well developed, and cinemas have a certain degree of autonomy in scheduling films.

At that time, Guangxian established the only resident distribution system in the country. In 70 cities across the country, employees followed up on the theater schedules every day, greatly improving efficiency.

Combined with Guangxian's own media resources, it can increase box office revenue by 30% at a lower cost.

Yan Li felt that although he could not copy the way the light was distributed, he could imitate it a little.

He also has television distribution networks and media resources. Ground promotion may not be as efficient as organizing events for many years, but it can still be tried.

More importantly, he is involved in the layout of cinema chains and holds a certain terminal market, which gives him more advantages than Guangxian in some aspects.

Yan Li thought it was worth a try.

The advantage of film distribution is that the risk is relatively low, and you have control over the channels. When necessary, you can calmly move into upstream film production, which is very beneficial for medium- and long-term development.

At the same time, Guangguang likes small investments and is good at making small investments to gain big returns, which is also worth learning from Yan Li.

Big-budget movies are high-risk, but if you come across the right low-budget project, you can invest in it. If you make money, you'll be happy, and if you lose, it won't be much. You can just consider it as gaining experience.

As for the later online distribution on the Internet, it is still a bit far away for the time being. Yan Li kept it in mind and will not consider it for the time being.

In short, the development analysis of a successful future entertainment giant is of great significance to Yan Li. If he can learn a thing or two from it, it may play a key role in Yi'an's development.

...

The above two have the greatest intelligence value each year, and the rest also have some use to varying degrees.

[Annual Intelligence ④: Wang Qi waited twelve years to finally marry the 200 billion movie star, but Shen Teng had his own "unresolved feelings"...]

Wang Qi?

Yan Li was confused when he first saw this information. It took him a while to remember that Wang Qi was Lan Ni, the second female lead in "Railway Guerrillas".

I didn't expect that after just a few encounters, she could reveal such a big piece of news to him.

The 200 billion movie star!

Tsk tsk, Yan Li thought about how King Liu’s two billion-dollar movies this year were almost praised to the sky by the media. What a difference a world has made in just over a decade.

Unfortunately, this information focuses more on the entanglement between Shen Teng and Ma Li/Wang Qi. Apart from some key points such as Shen Teng and Happy Twist, the information is limited.

[Annual Information ⑥: Qin Lan's Personal History as of 2024...]

Yan Li took this information very seriously.

What surprised and not surprised him was that Qin Lan's career development was indeed rather ordinary.

In the early days, she was barely a second-tier star. Later, after she became popular again with "Story of Yanxi Palace", she began to take the so-called "queen route" and finally made her way forward.

Compared to his career, Yan Li cares more about other things and remembers certain people.

[Annual Report ⑧: Revisiting the Impact of the 2008 Financial Crisis…]

Yan Li was a little surprised when he saw this information, because this number of years should have been monthly information.

The fact that this information is released every year shows that the financial crisis has indeed had a huge impact.

After taking a quick look at the information, Yan Li felt that it was still useful. At least with this reminder, he would pay more attention when planning theaters and various investments.

Avoid taking too big a step or investing in risky projects and suffering a major setback.

A financial crisis of this magnitude could easily trigger a series of chain reactions if the company were to stumble, so serious damage or even bankruptcy is not impossible.

[Yearly Intelligence ⑩: When did the Spring Festival Gala go from being highly anticipated to being universally hated?]

No way, the Spring Festival Gala is also useless?
Yan Li took a quick look and felt relieved. It would take a few years for the Spring Festival Gala to decline from its peak. As long as it didn't delay the promotion of the Seven Fairies, it would be fine. As for whether the Spring Festival Gala would be abolished or not, Yan Li was not the leader of CCTV, so it was not his turn to worry about it.

...

Every year's new [Annual Intelligence] always takes Yan Li a while to digest, and then he makes adjustments to his career layout to varying degrees.

While Yan Li was in "semi-seclusion", "The Emperor Wu of Han" was finally broadcast on CCTV.

As soon as the TV series was aired, it immediately became the most popular TV series in January due to its excellent and grand production. The ratings continued to rise and dominated the entire New Year season.

Yan Li's friends also showed their support and turned on the TV to catch a glimpse of Boss Yan.

Then I realized... where are the people?!

Yan Li was speechless. What a bunch of history illiterates. Emperor Wu of Han was still young and trying to seize power. Wei Qing hadn't risen yet, so how could there be a story about Huo Qubing?

His role starts after episode 40, and it will be almost February when the show airs.

There is also "The Seven Fairies", in which he also appeared relatively late, and it was almost 20 episodes before his first appearance. If you want to support him, you have to be patient.

But no matter what, the two TV series he participated in are about to be released, and the roles he plays are also quite outstanding, so Yan Li still has certain expectations.

Maybe after these two dramas are finished, he can become a popular young actor.

Whenever the media reports on him, they always call him XXX producer, usually using titles like Zhang Da Huzi and others, which makes him sound old.

Yan Li Ke just turned 24 not long ago, but he still thinks calling him a popular young actor sounds better...

In mid-January, Yan Li considered that he would be very busy later, so he discussed with the crew of "Bright Sword" and took out half a month's schedule to join the crew early.

Sun Desheng doesn't have many scenes, so with the crew taking care of him, Yan Li can finish filming and concentrate on his own work.

The filming location of the "Bright Sword" crew is a rural area with earthen walls and dirt roads, which is a bit of the style of that period.

As soon as he joined the crew, Yan Li was taken away by the makeup artist to finalize his makeup.

His outfit was very simple, just an old Eighth Route Army uniform, his head was shaved, his face was smeared with some black, and his beard was trimmed.

After dressing up, Yan Li looked in the mirror to get a feel for the character.

Then Chen Jian, the director of "Bright Sword", saw an Eighth Route Army company commander with a firm and fierce look, and a somewhat sloppy and rough demeanor.

To be honest, Chen Jian was a little dissatisfied with Yan Li's decision to play the role of Sun Desheng.

Although this character does not have many scenes, he is an important role in showing the "Sword Spirit" of the whole drama and is considered one of the highlights of the drama.

It would be such a waste if such a role was messed up by an investor who was just playing around.

However, as soon as he saw Yan Li's appearance and temperament, he knew that the other party must have studied this role seriously and even read the entire script of the play. Otherwise, he would not have grasped the character's feeling so directly as soon as he joined the group.

Different from general main theme themes, the soldiers of the independent regiment in "Bright Sword" are wild and fierce. To use the lines in the play, they are a group of howling wolves.

Sun Desheng values honor and always takes the lead in every battle. He is willing to challenge the regiment commander in order to fight. He is also considered a vicious wolf among the wolves of the independent regiment.

Chen Jian has actually seen Yan Li’s films, and he did a good job in portraying Wu Tian in “Conquer”.

But he was afraid that Yan Li would act out the role but not take it seriously. Now that he has seen it, he is half relieved.

If you can capture the character's feeling, your acting can't be too bad!

Yan Li just arrived and was just doing his makeup today. He had no scenes to act in, so he just wandered around the set.

He doesn't have many acquaintances on the crew of "Drawing Sword".

Although the leading actors Li Youbin (Li Yunlong), He Zhengjun (Zhao Gang), and Zhang Beiguang (Chu Yunfei) knew each other, they had never dealt with each other.

As for Tong Lei, who plays Tian Yu, she has not joined the crew yet, and the two have no rival scenes, so it is highly likely that we will not see her.

This also saves some embarrassment!
Thinking about it, he felt a little sorry for Sun Desheng. Because of the plot between Yuwen Chengdu and Li Rongrong, some viewers might make fun of him and Tian Yu.

Thinking of this, Yan Li felt a little regretful. If he had known earlier, he would have found a way to replace Tong Lei. Qin Lan and Dong Xuan would also be suitable to play Tian Yu.

No, if one day his relationship with Qin and Dong is exposed, people will still make fun of him, and he will not be able to escape the "sleeping with sister-in-law" joke.

Yan Li had no good solution for this problem. He could only try his best to play the role of Sun Desheng well and make people ignore the off-stage factors.

After that, Yan Li did not wander around, but pulled Lin Jiachuan back to the room to rehearse.

Lin Jiachuan is no longer Yan Li's assistant, as he focuses on filming. However, if he doesn't have any filming, he is willing to stay by Yan Li's side to make his presence felt.

He had just finished filming a drama when Yan Li pulled him to help out on the set of "Bright Sword".

When it comes to assistant work, Lin Jiachuan is actually average.

But he has a skill that other assistants don't have, that is, he is a professional actor and can act together. Moreover, he and Yan Li were classmates for two years, rehearsing every day, and they have a tacit understanding of each other.

This is also the reason why Yan Li asked him to join the crew of "Bright Sword", so that he could practice and prepare more in private.

The next day, Yan Li filmed in real time. In the morning, he asked Li Yunlong to fight, and in the afternoon, he visited the cavalry company training with Li Yunlong and Zhao Gang.

On the third day, he filmed some miscellaneous personal scenes, and the rest of his scenes were the encirclement and suppression of the Yamazaki Battalion, the decisive battle of the cavalry company, and some group scenes.

The encirclement and suppression of the Yamazaki Battalion is a large group scene, which will be filmed together in a few days. Sun Desheng and Wei Heshang fight side by side, report casualties, etc.

The scenes of the cavalry company were separate, so they could be filmed directly.

...

The Spring Festival is in early February this year, and now it is already the cold winter of the twelfth lunar month.

On the plains outside Hebei Province, the cold wind was howling and water was freezing. The costumes, which were not very warm, could not keep out the cold, and riding on a galloping horse was even more painful.

The first scene shot was a chase scene, in which the cavalry company was discovered by the Japanese cavalry regiment during a counter-mopping-up operation.

In order to cover the retreat of the main force, the cavalry company decided to delay this group of Japanese cavalry.

After a long pursuit, the cavalry company ran out of bullets, and the physical strength of the men and horses had reached the limit. The main force also evacuated successfully. Sun Desheng decided to take the remaining cavalry to fight a decisive battle with the devils.

Cold Wilderness
Sun Desheng, played by Yan Li, and more than ten Eighth Route Army soldiers lined up in a row, but the Japanese cavalry opposite them outnumbered them by dozens of times.

The Japanese officer realized what the cavalry company wanted to do, and was impressed by the courage and bloodiness of Sun Desheng and others, and ordered everyone to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the cavalry company.

The cold wind was howling, and only the sound of horses' hooves and heavy breathing could be heard. Yan Li ordered his men to throw away their guns and draw their swords.

There was no sensationalism or slogans. Yan Li held up the knife with one arm and shouted loudly.

"Cavalry Company, follow my orders and attack the enemy."

"Go ahead."

"Kill."

Yan Li took the lead, and the other cavalry soldiers shouted, rode their horses and brandished their swords to charge towards the enemy formation.

"Ji Qi Ge (Attack)!"

The Japanese cavalry also rushed forward under the orders of their commander.

The two groups collided fiercely, with the rumbling of horses' hooves and the waving of swords. The shouts of fighting resounded throughout the wilderness. People kept falling down, and the blood stained their uniforms and sabers red.

It may only be a few minutes in the TV series, but it took a whole morning to shoot.

Afterwards, the director team ordered the two sides to separate, and the Japanese side was on hold while Yan Li and others were constantly putting on makeup.

When the camera was turned on again, there were only five people left on Yan Li's side. All of them had blood on their faces and looked at each other fiercely.

Except for Yan Li, the remaining four are not professional actors, but hired extras and staff.

No one told them how to act. At this time, they were completely immersed in the role and instinctively looked at the Japanese devils opposite.

Yan Li was breathing heavily, and his hand holding the knife was shaking slightly. It was unclear whether he was tired or cold. He stared at the other person.

He took off his hat, wiped the enemy blood off his saber, threw it hard to the ground, and roared loudly.

"Cavalry Company, continue the attack."

Five men and five horses rushed towards the opposite side again.

Compared to the last time, this time it ended the fastest, and Yan Li also added a shot of his arm being chopped off.

The director team separated the two sides again, the Japanese cavalry formed a battle formation, and Yan Li sat alone on the other side quietly, with the makeup artist putting makeup on him.

Not long after, the camera was turned on again, and Yan Li, with one arm, was standing alone on horseback, looking at the Japanese cavalry from afar.

Yan Li's eyes were no longer as fierce as before. They were a little distracted due to his injuries. Sweat and blood were flowing on his face, but he was still looking straight at the opposite side.

After taking a few breaths, Yan Li slowly raised his knife again. Even the horse he was riding seemed to have anticipated something, snorted, and pawed its hooves in preparation.

"Cavalry Company, attack!!!"

Using all his strength, he roared out the last line, and Yan Li continued to charge forward with one arm, like an army of one man.

The two sides crossed each other, Sun Desheng died, and then a shot of Yan Li lying on the ground was added.

After filming this shot, Yan Li's part ended for the day. The director shouted "Cut", but he didn't get up. This scared Lin Jiachuan and he rushed towards Yan Li frantically.

"Brother, are you okay?"

Yan Li lay on the ground without moving, and answered aloud: "I'm fine. Is it over?"

Lin Jiachuan looked at the director, shouted twice, got an accurate answer, and then said to Yan Li.

"The director said you acted very well."

"Ah."

Yan Li nodded and exhaled: "Give me a cigarette."

Lin Jiachuan hurriedly took out a cigarette and lit it for Yan Li. Yan Li held the cigarette upright with his one arm, saluted upwards and downwards, and then stuck it into the ground.

Then Yan Li stood up, brushed the dirt off his body, picked up the saber on the ground, and greeted Lin Jiachuan while leading his horse.

"Let's go."

(End of this chapter)