The world begins with Hong Kong movies

Chapter 339 A sour feeling!

For some reason, after listening to Xiong Xingxing's explanation, Zhou Ye and his wife were much calmer when they looked at Zhang Yimou again.

It's safe to say that for a long time to come, Zhou Ye and Zhang Yimou will have no interaction in film production.

He has been in Hong Kong Island for over a year and has become accustomed to the commercial production style here, which he quite approves of.

Whether making a movie or a TV series, the first consideration should be recouping costs and making a profit; otherwise, you're just cheating investors.

Zhou Ye and his wife looked around the other parts of the exchange meeting and unexpectedly spotted Zhu Shimao, who has become very popular in mainland China for his sketch comedy in recent years.

Xiong Xingxing, who had just left, was now standing next to Zhu Shimao, and the two were chatting and laughing in a very harmonious atmosphere.

The couple walked over in perfect unison. When they were still two meters apart, Zhou Ye quickly asked with a smile, "Brother Xiong, what are you doing with Brother Zhu?"

These two are such a mismatch in terms of looks and demeanor.

"Haha, Brother Zhu has joined Fengrui Films!"

Upon seeing Zhou Ye and his wife, Xiong Xingxing smiled and explained, "From now on, we'll all be colleagues in the same company!"

Turning his head, he introduced Zhou Yemang and his wife to Zhu Shimao.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. Since we'll all be working on Hong Kong Island from now on, let's exchange ideas and make progress together when we have time!"

Zhu Shimao didn't put on airs and said with a light laugh, "I'm new here and quite unfamiliar with the environment on Hong Kong Island. I'm afraid I'll have to trouble my mainland colleagues here a lot in the future!"

"Helping each other is only right, Brother Zhu, you're too kind!"

Zhou Ye and his wife dared not be negligent and hurriedly spoke modestly.

Just kidding, Zhu Shimao is much more famous than the couple.

He was already a well-known actor in mainland China at a young age. In terms of fame and status, if ranked according to the Hong Kong entertainment industry, he would be considered a top-tier actor in mainland China.

In later generations, besides the enduring popularity of his and Chen Xiaoer's comedy sketches, the most famous line is: "Old Xu, want a wife?"

That's right, Zhu Shimao is the male lead in the movie "The Herdsman," and the famous "Old Xu" in the short video era.

In terms of looks, temperament, and acting skills, he is undoubtedly a top-tier leading man, not to mention his current fame is at its peak.

His collaboration with Chen Xiaoer in a skit made Chen Xiaoer the first generation of skit king, and he himself became a household name in mainland China.

You might not know this!

At this moment, Xiong Xingxing interjected mysteriously, saying, "The company is going to groom Brother Zhu as its star!"

"How did Brother Xiong know?"

Zhou Ye was quite surprised and only trusted Xiong Xingxing's words to a certain extent.

"Hehe, our company lacks a leading male celebrity to keep things in check!"

Xiong Xingxing, however, spoke eloquently: "Cinema City has Chow Yun-fat, so they are very tightly bound to the company and it's impossible for them to accept roles from other companies!"

"Michael Hui and Cheng Shilong of Golden Harvest Company are their leading stars, and it's very difficult to hire them from outside."

"Brother Jia Hui is too close to Yindu Group. He's practically their star performer. Our company can't keep asking them for help!"

"So many excellent novels are going to be adapted into movies and TV series. Many of the male leads in these excellent novels need to be young actors with superb acting skills, good looks and temperament!"

At this point, a look of understanding appeared on his ugly face.

Zhou Ye and his wife suddenly realized what was happening, and felt a pang of envy and jealousy.

Zhu Shimao simply smiled and didn't say anything more; that would seem too hypocritical and unnecessary. In fact, not only Zhu Shimao, but also the male lead of "Romance on Lushan Mountain," who was once hailed as the top leading man in mainland China, was being courted by Fengrui Film & Television.

In terms of acting skills, which of these mainland actors who became famous in the 1980s was worse than Chow Yun-fat? They just didn't have many opportunities to perform.

Wu Feng didn't like 'Runfat', but fortunately, he was already completely tied to Cinema City, which hadn't collapsed yet.

Following Wu Baige, they are currently stuck in the quagmire of gunfight action films, and there is no sign of them jumping out yet.

Similarly, 'Runfat' did not have the opportunity to participate in a series of classic films in the normal timeline, and his fame did not reach the peak of the normal timeline.

Anyway, he made a lot of money working with Cinema City, and there are several arcade characters based on him. Cinema City paid him a lot of portrait rights fees.

It just so happens that Fengrui Company is indeed lacking a leading male star who can carry the company.

Therefore, we'll poach talent directly from the mainland!
It's believed that it won't be long before Zhu Shimao and others become big stars renowned throughout East and Southeast Asia.

Fengrui Films has that kind of capability!

"Brother Zhu, are you still going to perform in the Spring Festival Gala skit?"

Zhou Ye asked curiously, "Will you shift your career focus to Hong Kong Island in the future?"

"We will not be focusing on Hong Kong Island for the time being!"

Zhu Shimao was quite frank: "I will continue to perform sketches for the Spring Festival Gala, and I can come and act in other free time!"

"Not only me, but my partner was also invited to join Fengrui Films!"

"What? Brother Chen has also joined Fengrui Films?"

Zhou Ye was even more surprised and asked curiously, "How come I've never heard of it?"

"My partner is very ambitious about making movies!"

Zhu Shimao smiled and said, "Fengrui Films has agreed to give him a free creative environment, and we hope he can have a good development in the field of comedy films!"

Wu Feng isn't stupid!
In my past life, when I was a child, I watched the comedy TV series written and directed by Chen Xiaoer, and the comedic effect was quite good.

Wu Feng was originally from the South in his previous life, and when he was a child, he watched comedy TV series starring Chen Xiaoer and found them quite funny.

In addition, his self-written and self-directed sketches did not suffer from any cultural or artistic incompatibility, and Wu Feng was very optimistic about his talent for comedy films.

There's only one Stephen Chow on Hong Kong Island!

The other comedians in Hong Kong are more skilled at using scatological humor and slapstick, which has little to do with their so-called comedic talent.

Aside from Stephen Chow's nonsensical comedies, the toilet humor comedies of other Hong Kong comedians can easily become tiresome for audiences.

Recruiting Chen Xiaoer is an experiment to see if it's possible to establish a benchmark for a comedy king in mainland China.

The exchange meeting was quite lively, with more than a hundred people attending.

In the same time period of normal time and space, this would be quite incredible, but it has actually happened.

There are directors, actors, screenwriters, and all kinds of behind-the-scenes staff here. They can easily put together several film crews without any problem.

Everyone was doing well, so the overall atmosphere of the exchange meeting was quite harmonious. On the contrary, Li Lianjie's somewhat lonely figure seemed out of place with the atmosphere around him, which made him feel very uncomfortable.

It shouldn't be like this!

(End of this chapter)