Reborn in 1970, I thrived in Hong Kong.

On June 30, 1970, Li Huai-ren and Wang Tian-lin arrived at Tseung Kwan O.

Li Huai-ren pointed to the desolate hills and wilderness he had bought for HK$0.06 per square foot and said to Wang Tian-lin:

"Starting from Penglai Path in the north, extending south along the coast to the former customs house of Fo Tou Chau, west to the sea, and including the four areas of Da Chi Sha, Tin Wan Tsai, Sheung Lau Wan, and Tin Ha Wan in the east, a total of 1000 hectares, all belong to us!"

Uncle Tianlin, I'm planning to turn this into Phoenix Cinema. What do you think?

Upon hearing this, Wang Tianlin stood there speechless, his mouth agape for a long time.

After a long silence, he said, his words slurred:

"One, a thousand hectares? All of it, all of it, to build a film studio? My God, that's fantastic!"

This thousand-acre barren mountain area was officially priced at HK$0.1 per square foot. Li Huai-ren directly asked Zhu You-zai to help him buy it. Including the fees of Zhu You-zai and the British, the final price was HK$0.06 per square foot, for a total cost of more than HK$43 million to obtain the land title.

This desolate mountain area includes the 1.2-square-meter Tseung Kwan O TV City site that Mr. Shaw bought in 1988 for HK$10.5 million.

Of course, the few residents living in this desolate mountain area were relocated by the Hong Kong British government, which sold the land.

Li Huai-ren agreed to give these residents priority in joining the construction teams of Phoenix Film City, and to prioritize their employment after the film city is completed.

Li Huai-ren nodded and smiled as he said to Wang Tian-lin:

"That's right, Uncle Tianlin, all these thousand acres of barren mountains and wilderness are used to build our own Phoenix Film City."

I have already spoken to my fourth uncle, Li Zhaoji, and decided to have his construction company undertake the project.

Uncle Tianlin, the budget for building Phoenix Film City is only HK$100 million for now. As for the specifics of what to build first and what to repair later, you are an expert in these matters, so we should leave it to you and my fourth uncle's construction company to plan together.

I only have a few suggestions:

Firstly, the restaurants and inns built in Phoenix Film City should actually be places for dining and lodging. I intend to operate the film city as a tourist attraction so that such a large film city can be sustained in the long term.

Secondly, preparations should be made to allow tourists to experience the various aspects of filming, such as having them participate in the filming of scenes requiring a large number of extras, which would achieve multiple benefits...

Thirdly, the major palaces of the Qin, Han, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties will be restored to a one-to-one scale as much as possible; the buildings from all over the country, from the northern deserts to the southern regions, will be restored to their original state.

Don't get them mixed up and make a fool of yourself...

Fourth, the costumes and props must be based on the styles of each dynasty; otherwise, they will look like a hodgepodge and become a laughing stock…

Wang Tianlin's biggest worry was the film set issue. Now that Li Huai-ren had actually acquired a thousand hectares of land to build the Phoenix Film City, he was overjoyed. He agreed to everything Li Huai-ren said.

That very day, Wang Tianlin rushed to Li Zhaoji's construction company to discuss how to plan and build the Phoenix Film City.

A few days later, after considering all factors, Li Huai-ren and Wang Tian-lin decided to build a wall to enclose Phoenix Film City, killing two birds with one stone. The earthwork used was exactly the soil and sand removed from the barren mountain.

As for film sets, Wang Tianlin suggested that Phoenix TV and Phoenix Film invest in large-scale productions and build them on the designated land according to the projects they are filming, without having to rush into it.

This led to the plan to divert part of the HK$100 million allocated for the construction of Phoenix Film City to film movies. After filming was completed, some film sets were also repaired.

This was a great opportunity to "kill two birds with one stone: peeing and catching dog fleas," so Li Huai-ren naturally agreed.

Thus, Phoenix Cinemas was established, boasting seventeen grand cinemas in prime locations throughout Hong Kong, all currently undergoing renovations. Wang Tianlin, with his immense wealth and ambition, also launched the Phoenix Film City project.

"All the directors submitted their shooting plans, with big-budget productions receiving priority in review, funding, crew preparation, and screenings on Phoenix TV's theatrical circuit!"

Chang Cheh was well-prepared, and he was also the most cunning. He had already adapted Li Huai-ren's "written" novels, "The Sentimental Swordsman and the Ruthless Sword" and "The Magic Blade," into screenplays and submitted both screenplays. He also directly cast Ti Lung as the male lead in both plays.

Wang Tianlin sought Li Huai-ren's opinion on the matter.

Li Huai-ren thought about it and felt that it was not the time to shoot movies like "Star Wars" or "Jaws" yet. On the contrary, it was the time when martial arts movies were most popular. Moreover, Zhang Che had just switched to Phoenix Film Company. Considering the idea of ​​"spending a lot of money to buy a horse's bones", he couldn't refuse, so he agreed.

In order to build more film studios of different types, Li Huai-ren thought it was necessary to adapt the Four Great Classical Novels and "Investiture of the Gods" into TV series. This would also allow Phoenix TV to accumulate and improve a lot of filming and production techniques.

And the director most suitable to adapt the Four Great Classical Novels right now is none other than Li Hanxiang.

At this time, Li Hanxiang had just finished directing the Taiwanese film "Tiying", which starred Zhen Zhen, Wang Yin, Xie Xian, and others. Due to various disputes, he repeatedly encountered difficulties when entering and leaving customs.

So, he took the opportunity of working on the post-production of the film to leave Taiwan and go to Japan.

In his previous life, after finishing the post-production work on "Ti Ying" in 1971, he returned to Hong Kong and founded New Union Film Company.

On July 2, at Wang Tianlin's repeated invitation, Li Hanxiang made a special trip back to Hong Kong from Japan to meet with Li Huai Ren.

During the meeting, both parties had a very pleasant conversation and confirmed the plan to co-produce the Four Great Classical Novels and "Investiture of the Gods". Due to the limitations of current filming and production technology, both parties decided to film "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin" and "Dream of the Red Chamber" first, while "Journey to the West" and "Investiture of the Gods" can only be discussed after the filming technology has reached the required level.

To facilitate Li Hanxiang's personal supervision of the construction of numerous film sets for "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," Li Huai-ren directly agreed to allow Li Hanxiang to transfer the post-production of "Ti Ying" to Hong Kong, providing all necessary support free of charge.

On the other hand, Shaw Brothers was certain that Phoenix Films and Phoenix TV would both have to come to him for help, asking his Shaw Brothers studio to be rented out to them for filming.

Therefore, he has been quite composed these days, and when he is in a very good mood, he will hum a few lines of the Yue Opera "The West Chamber" from his hometown in Zhejiang.

But all of this came to an abrupt end with something he learned while having afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel on the afternoon of July 6.

On the afternoon of July 6, Mr. Shao was having afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel as usual when he overheard some British men at the next table talking about how someone had bought thousands of acres of barren hills and wilderness in the Tseung Kwan O area of ​​Clear Water Bay Peninsula. The Hong Kong government was planning to build a road directly to the area according to the land purchase agreement!

He was very curious about who had the audacity to acquire thousands of acres of land in one go. After listening carefully, he learned that it was Li Huai-ren who bought it.

Old Shao frowned, immediately sensing something was amiss:

"Strange, why would Li Huai-ren, that good-for-nothing, buy such a large plot of land? This spoiled brat is good at eating, drinking, gambling and whoring, why would he invest so much in land?"

He previously invested in real estate, which I tricked him into buying three years ago. Where did he get the business acumen to invest in such a large plot of land?

By the way, what does he need such a large piece of land for?

Oh wait, is that good-for-nothing Li Huai-ren planning to use this land to build a film set?

I had someone investigate him a long time ago; he simply doesn't have the money to buy land or build a film set.

"Damn it, where did this bastard get so much money?"