Reborn in 1970, I thrived in Hong Kong.

On the evening of June 21, 1970, London time, Li Huai-ren watched the entire live television broadcast of the Mexico World Cup football final at the Savoy Hotel in London.

At the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, Brazil faced Italy. Pelé scored a header in the 18th minute, netting Brazil's 100th World Cup goal. Gerson, Jairzinho, and Carlos Alberto followed with goals, bringing the final score to 4-1.

This World Cup marked the first time that global satellite signal transmission and color television broadcasting were achieved, allowing nearly 10 billion viewers worldwide to watch the matches simultaneously, greatly enhancing the World Cup's influence.

It also greatly facilitates bettors who have already placed bets to know the results of each match as soon as possible.

Rewinding to June 6th, when Wang Tianlin approached Li Huai-ren and told him that Shao Laokou was poaching artists and employees from Phoenix TV with high salaries on behalf of TVB, Li Huai-ren immediately remembered something important:

Phoenix TV and Phoenix Film Company do not have their own film studios!

Without their own film studio, they could only rent Shaw Brothers studios and Golden Harvest studios, which was tantamount to handing a knife to the not-so-good Shaw Brothers stingy boss and Zou Lao Lai.

It's true that these two held extremely high positions in the Hong Kong film industry in their past lives, but their reputations weren't very good:

Old Shao is incredibly stingy, the kind of person who'd pluck a feather from a passing goose, and wouldn't give away a single penny. He's so stingy, he'd squeeze every last penny out of people. He's the kind of person who'd charge money even for the smell of a fart!

Zou Laolai is a master at defaulting on debts, a master at it all! It's estimated that, apart from Fang Shi (Chen Chenglong), he has also evaded a lot of small amounts of box office revenue from people like Hui Koon-man, Hung King-po, and Wong Jing (Jing).

In theory, it shouldn't be a problem for Phoenix TV and Phoenix Movies to rent Shaw Brothers Studios and Golden Harvest Studios for filming. However, the various prohibitions, regulations, and exorbitant rents will make you question your life choices.

Taking Shaw Brothers' Clearwater Bay film studio as an example:

In the 1970s, Clearwater Bay Studios (Shaw Brothers Studios) was a fortress of a hierarchical film empire, and its leasing rules were a microcosm of the power struggles in the Hong Kong film industry.

According to the original Shaw Brothers Studio "Set Management Regulations" and court litigation files, the leasing ban conceals three hidden constraints:

I. Political Prohibition:

The ban on left-wing film companies renting the space was ostensibly due to "non-compliance with fire prevention regulations," but in reality, it was to prevent the north from accessing the space... Those in the know understand which side Shao Lao Kou was on at that moment.

……

II. Business Ban:

Shaw Brothers had an ironclad rule of monopoly: it kept a blacklist of competitors, and refused to rent to rivals, Yonghua Films, former film crew members, Li Hanxiang's Guolian Company, etc., or charged double the rent.

Secondly, Shaw Brothers established an exorbitant threshold system, with a basic venue rental fee of HK$5000 per day, an equipment surcharge of HK$2000, and a three-fold increase for non-Shaw Brothers partners, totaling approximately HK$6000.

In addition, the "cleaning deposit" is HK$10000, while for left-wing companies it is 10 times that, approximately HK$100000. Note: In 1970, the monthly salary of a Hong Kong worker was HK$300, and the cost of entry for an independent film production was equivalent to 33 years of a worker's monthly salary.

III. Gang Prohibitions:

According to underworld rules, a 14K (Hong Kong triad) access permit system is in place. The underground rule is that film crews must pay HK$500 per day to "Golden Tooth Bing" of Yuen Long as protection money. Martial arts performers must be members of the "Loyalty Hall," a branch of the 14K.

The actor background screening excludes actors from companies such as RTV and Golden Harvest unless they pay a "switcheroo fee." Those who graduated from Shaw Brothers' training program but switched companies before their contracts expired are considered traitors and are treated the same way.

IV. Creative control and content taboos.

A list of banned themes was compiled, including films alluding to internal strife within Shaw Brothers, and scripts were subject to pre-screening and editing. Even Chu Yuan's blockbuster film, *The House of 72 Tenants*, had to be set in Shanghai. Films exposing exploitation on set were also subject to 24-hour surveillance by production staff.

When Li Hanxiang secretly filmed the scene of the dragon robe in the early hours of the morning, the monitor screen reflected the flashlight beam of the security guard; and on the film reel of "Shaolin Temple" which John Woo filmed after breaking his bone, there are still scattered bloodstains visible to this day—these desperate creations under the iron curtain of prohibition have instead forged the most ruthless genes of Hong Kong films.

Today, the warmth of tourists touching the blood-stained wall at the Cultural City, along with the digitized images of old Shaw Brothers films on their phones, constitutes the most ironic cycle in Hong Kong cinema: art born of oppression will eventually be enshrined in the temple.

Therefore, Li Huai-ren, remembering all this, naturally did not want to be controlled by others in matters concerning the film set, and thus decided to build his own film set.

However, building a film set is not something that can be done on a whim. The most crucial issue is that because Li Huai-ren established several companies at once, his business expanded too much, and he no longer had the money to buy land to build the film set.

正好今年是世界盃年，第9届国际足联世界盃足球赛于1970年5月31日至6月21日在墨西哥举行。

As a football fan in his previous life, Li Huai-ren naturally knew who won this World Cup, that Peru had actually finished seventh, and the results of some key matches.

So, short of money, Li Huai-ren set his sights on the ongoing World Cup.

On June 7, Li Huai-ren raised $6 and funds for his trip to London, and immediately flew to London.

As for why Li Huai-ren exchanged Hong Kong dollars for US dollars instead of British pounds, it is related to the colonial code behind the exchange rate.

In its previous life, in 1970, the exchange rate between the Hong Kong dollar and the British pound was on the eve of a dramatic change in the colonial financial system. Impacted by the British economic crisis and the first decoupling of the Hong Kong dollar from its currency, the exchange rate experienced dramatic fluctuations.

The colonial code behind exchange rates is first and foremost a complete system of exploitation. Hong Kong implements a pound sterling reserve system, with 65% of Hong Kong's foreign exchange reserves held in London, and the British government mandating the purchase of bonds with an annual interest rate of 2% (market interest rate of 9%).

HSBC, however, enjoyed a unique privilege: it could exchange currency at the official rate of 1:14.6 and then resell it on the black market to profit from the difference.

On "Black Tuesday" June 22, 1970 alone, HSBC sold £5 million worth of foreign currency to support the market, triggering a bank run with queues stretching to Statue Square. The Hong Kong government limited each person to exchanging only £50 in foreign currency per day.

In November 1970, Financial Secretary Xia Dingji secretly flew to London with one ton of gold reserves to pledge at the Federal Reserve, implementing the decoupling of the Hong Kong dollar from the British pound.

In this case, RTHK deliberately delayed reporting exchange rates by 12 hours, with the aim of facilitating arbitrage for Hong Kong's elites.

When the HSBC manager stamped the "redeemed" stamp on a citizen's passport with a red pen, next to the still-wet ink of the stamp, were the tears of a housewife over the rising price of baby formula; and on Xia Dingji's private plane to New York, the ton of gold reflected the cold light of Hong Kong's foreign exchange reserves being drained—these exchange rate figures were soaked with the blood and gold of the colony.

The exchange rates of British pounds that flash on the mobile phones of white-collar workers in Central today still linger in the shadow of the iron bars of black market exchange shops from 1970, a birthmark of the bloodthirsty nature of capital that will never fade.

而李怀仁离开香港前往伦敦时，英镑兑港元的汇率是1：14.6，6月22日之后，汇率便跌至1：10左右。

He could easily solve such a simple math problem; he must have exchanged all his Hong Kong dollars for US dollars.

Watching the score on TV, Brazil and Italy were tied at 4-1, Li Huai-ren smiled happily. The $500,000 he brought had now turned into £15 million after betting on a series of matches!

Even if the exchange rate between the pound and the Hong Kong dollar falls to 1:10, the 15 million pounds he wins that is tax-free is still 150 million Hong Kong dollars!

Phoenix Films and Phoenix TV already have the funds to build their own film studios!