The world begins with Hong Kong movies

Chapter 403 A Brand New Version of Stephen Chow's Movie (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
Wu Fan was unaware that his undercover identity had been exposed during his secret meeting with his superior.

In the new residential area of ​​Saigon, Wu Feng's residence is a standalone five-story building.

The building isn't tall, but it's quite spacious, with each floor measuring 2,000 square meters and three large basement levels.

It is fully equipped with communication, medical, exercise, and recuperation facilities.

Naturally, there are outdoor and indoor swimming pools, since Hong Kong's wealthy all like this kind of thing, and Wu Feng doesn't intend to be different.

At this moment, in the lounge/office, Wu Feng, dressed in loose casual clothes, was sitting in front of a large color TV watching the latest high-quality movies produced in Hong Kong.

Because of his meddling, the development of the Hong Kong film and television industry has become very different from that in normal times.

Putting aside other things, several high-quality films that never appeared in normal time and space are emerging every year.

Moreover, most of them are action movies that are easy to adapt into arcade games.

Whether it's a period drama set in the Republican era, an urban action film, a gunfight film, or an adventure action film, they all have to be related to action and kung fu.

Police and gangster films have also been upgraded, starting to promote series films instead of single films that focused on plot.

Of course, other types of films will also be made, but the production costs and the level of dedication will be incomparable.

Just like movies, TV series also feature many exciting episodes that never appeared in normal times.

Of course, these wonderful dramas that never appeared in normal time and space were mostly adapted from excellent novels by ATV.

In response to the challenge from ATV, TVB was frantically developing scripts and producing new films, while also learning from ATV's approach of adapting high-quality or influential novels into finished TV dramas.

Originally, TVB's main focus was on Jin Yong's martial arts dramas.

But facing the formidable ATV, they couldn't just keep making a series of Jin Yong martial arts dramas every few years; the audience wouldn't agree to that.

This is so perfunctory...

In addition, TV series can be linked with other cultural products, and most importantly, they can be adapted into arcade games and cartridge games.

This is not something to be taken lightly. If we strongly support Jin Yong's martial arts dramas, or even create arcade games and cartridge games based on Jin Yong's martial arts series, the adaptation rights fees will be no small sum.

Moreover, it is estimated that a fee will be charged for each adaptation.

Given Uncle Shao's business model of drastically reducing costs, how could he possibly do something so "disadvantaging"?

Even if he had a good relationship with Jin Yong, he would never agree to it.

There's no other way but to focus on original screenplays.

With Wu Feng as a precedent, isn't it easy to imitate and learn from him?
Given Uncle Shao's status and connections in the underworld, it wouldn't be difficult for him to collaborate with several major newspapers with considerable circulation to solicit articles in mainland China, or even among the Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia.

Just then, a group of powerful watch shops on Hong Kong Island had just acquired a newspaper with a considerable circulation and needed a media tycoon like Uncle Siu to help them maintain the newspaper's sales.

At the same time, it was through such cooperation that we gradually figured out how newspapers worked, at least to have a clear understanding of the process.

Wu Feng felt that arcade games and cartridge games were like the internet in later generations, as if they could contain a lot of things.

This is a good thing, at least for the Hong Kong film and television industry as a whole. Wu Feng also secretly helped to promote it, while also giving him fresh and high-quality movies and TV series to watch in his spare time.

At that time, the Hong Kong film and television industry was full of talent, and many professionals from the mainland were seconded to work there, resulting in film and television works of very high quality and standard.

At least, when he's resting, he's happy to watch a movie or two, or a few episodes of a TV series to clear his head.

If we're talking about the most outrageous movie star of last year, it would undoubtedly be Stephen Chow.

Given the current popularity of Hong Kong's film and television industry, Stephen Chow naturally has opportunities to play supporting roles or even lead roles.

His nonsensical style had not yet taken shape at this time, but he was still very good at performing comedy.

In fact, there are very few real comedians on Hong Kong Island.

The pairing of Chen Xiaoer and Zhu Shimao, brought in by Wu Feng, is currently in the process of script polishing and determining their specific style.

These two, especially Chen Xiaoer, truly have the potential to become comedy kings; at least his sketches are popular throughout China and the South.

In fact, Zhao Lirong also possessed such talent and wit, but unfortunately she was too old to withstand the rigors of filming movies.

On the contrary, Uncle Benshan's Northeastern flavor became stronger as the series progressed, which was not friendly to some viewers from the South.

In fact, Stephen Chow in the normal timeline only really broke out last year and became a box office star.

However, Hong Kong Island is not currently producing a movie like "God of Gamblers" featuring Ko Chun. Instead, there are movies similar to "The Winner Takes All," which are somewhat fantasy-oriented and specifically designed to mess with the mentality of the person from Macau.

Even a fool knows that Wu Feng, this Hong Kong film tycoon, has a rather low opinion of movies, at least his film companies don't treat them as important films.

Consequently, a sudden surge in movie-blocking incidents did not occur in the Hong Kong film industry.

As Stephen Chow's breakthrough film, and even the first film to break the Hong Kong box office record of over 40 million, "The Gambler's Duckling" is naturally unlikely to be made.

However, Stephen Chow is Stephen Chow.

Instead of following the trend and making a film like "The Gambler's Dinner," he capitalized on the hot football hype that lasted from summer to autumn with his starring role in "Shaolin Soccer," which became the first film in Hong Kong to break the HK$40 million mark at the box office.

Most importantly, this film has also been introduced to countries such as the United States, Southeast Asia, and even Europe.

This football film has also been imported by South American countries, as well as Mexico in North America and Costa Rica in Central America.

It's said that the overseas copyrights alone sold for 15 million US dollars, which is quite staggering.

There's no way around it; Stephen Chow's "Shaolin Soccer" capitalized on one of the biggest global trends last year, and with its high quality, it was bound to be a huge hit.

This starting point is much better than "The Gambling Saint" in normal time and space.

"The Gambling Saint" only has some influence in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Southeast Asian Chinese communities, and there is still a significant gap in audience appeal.

At this time, Stephen Chow was not an artist under Fengrui Films, and the movie "Kung Fu Soccer" was not produced by his own film company.

Instead, it was Wu Siyuan, a veteran filmmaker who discovered Chen Shilong, who, together with Wang Jing and other capable filmmakers, created this film.

It was obviously just an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the World Cup and Asian Games football matches. Who knew it would suddenly go viral, and become such a massive phenomenon?
(End of this chapter)