Hong Kong 1990: From stuntman to King of Kung Fu

Chapter 104 The High-Level Talent, Princess Jin, Departs

Tang Long gave Cui Baozhu a general account of Derek Yee's situation and "New Endless Love".

"Everything else is negotiable. At present, Er Dongsheng has no choice but to invest in Tangde. We must acquire the copyright completely."

Besides that, find a reason to recommend Yammie Lam for the second female lead role in "C'est la vie, mon chéri".

"You've been messing with women again? Three aren't enough?"

Cui Baozhu is very knowledgeable about Tang Long's love life, and as Tang Long's manager, she sometimes needs to cover for him.

"I'm in good health."

"You'll die from exhaustion one day."

As Cui Baozhu spoke, she stood up and, before leaving, asked again, "You really aren't going to show up?"

"If you're not going to show up, then you go and talk to him; you're the professional."

"Sister Baozhu, I have no relationship with him. Just do as you normally would."

"It'll be done quickly."

It really happened very quickly. The tea that Tang Long had brewed after Cui Baozhu left was still warm when she returned with two documents.

"So fast?" Tang Long was astonished.

"This negotiation is very simple. We have absolute initiative. Since you have decided to invest, I have no stakes on it."

The film is exclusively produced by Tangde Pictures. We bought the script for 50,000 yuan, and the contract has already been signed.

I told him to go back and work on the project plan and finalize the cast.

I will personally serve as the producer of "New Endless Love".

"Sister Baozhu, are you managing all this?"

"I have to keep busy even if I'm too busy. There's no one else in the company who can handle things on their own right now except for me."

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Tang Long fell silent upon hearing this.

The company needs to hire more people; otherwise, expansion is out of the question.

"How's Huo Wenxi's training going?"

Huo Wenxi came to Tangde Film Studio for an interview by chance, and was hired by Cui Baozhu and assigned to be Tang Long's assistant.

But afterwards, Tang Long was either filming or on his way to promote a movie.

Most things are handled by Choi Bo-joo, the acting agent, so there's not much that the assistant needs to do.

Tang Long didn't want to waste Huo Wenxi's talent, so he returned her to Cui Baozhu.

He always felt that Huo Wenxi was only an agent, even though he had become the head of the agent department at Emperor Entertainment Group, which was still a waste of his talents.

If she were to start learning from Cui Baozhu now, she would certainly achieve even greater things in the future.

"She studies very hard and is very talented, but she is still young and needs to study for a while longer before she can become a master."

"Alright then, the 'New Endless Love' project will allow her to do more things."

Cui Baozhu sat down opposite Tang Long, took a sip of tea, and asked, "By the way, besides 'New Endless Love,' what other movie is there, and who's the director?"

"It's called 'Beast Cops,' directed by Huang Zhiqiang, and the film was co-invested by us and Director Xu's film studio."

We are in charge of the film, and I will be the lead actor.

"Call Shi Nansheng later or have him send someone over. Huang Zhiqiang should be here soon."

"Huang Zhiqiang? I've heard of him. He's a director with a very distinctive personal style."

That's good. I think Ah Long, you should work with more different directors and make more films.

"I was just about to tell you about this. Besides this big... 'Beast Cops,' the name 'Beast Cops' is too awful. We'll have Huang Zhiqiang change the name to 'Major Crime Squad.'"

"Fine, I'll have him change it." Cui Baozhu chuckled. "Besides this 'Major Crime Squad,' what else?"

"Then I will also prepare for 'Black Mask'. After finishing 'Crime Story', I will start filming 'Black Mask'."

Previously, Tang Long had Cui Baozhu purchase the film and television adaptation rights to several comics, including "Black Mask," "Storm Riders," "Chinese Hero," and "Dragon Tiger Gate."

The copyrights for these four comics cost Tangde Film & Television two million yuan.

The main reason is that "Storm Riders" is expensive. This comic is currently being serialized and is undoubtedly the most popular among all Hong Kong comics.

At first, Ma Rongcheng was reluctant to sell, fearing that the film adaptation would be a mess and damage the reputation of his comics.

It was only after much persuasion from Cui Baozhu, who assured him that the film adaptation would only begin once the special effects technology was up to par, and also guaranteed that Ma Rongcheng would personally participate in the screenwriting, and invested HK$1.2 million, that he finally relented.

The remaining two are not so expensive. "Black Mask" is not very popular, but someone is willing to pay for the copyright, so the author and the magazine have no reason not to sell it.

Cui Baozhu easily acquired it for HK$300,000.

"Chinese Hero" was quite well-known in Hong Kong and was once the most popular comic in Hong Kong.

However, the copyright of this comic is not in Ma Rongcheng's hands, but in the hands of his former boss Huang Yulang.

In the early 1980s, he acquired Shangguan Xiaobao's "Good News" and almost monopolized the Hong Kong comic book market.

Leveraging the enormous profits from his monopolistic comic book business, he began a major offensive in the media industry, acquiring dozens of newspapers and magazines in succession.

Among them are well-known and high-volume media outlets such as the Daily News, Hong Kong Daily, and Fresh Weekly.

In particular, the Daily News was one of the top five newspapers in Hong Kong in terms of sales at the time.

Dissatisfied with his treatment at Yulang International, Ma Rongcheng left after finishing "Chinese Hero" to found Tianxia Publishing and serialize a new comic, "Fengyun".

Not long after, the sensational attack on Ma Rongcheng occurred, and his right hand was almost cut off.

Rumors circulated that the mastermind was connected to Wong Yuk-long, but in fact, it was him who did it; there was just no evidence.

Huang Yulang has a triad background and acts arrogantly and domineeringly. This is not the first time he has used such methods to eliminate his competitors.

It's just that Ma Rongcheng's fame is too great, which caused this matter to escalate.

However, Ma Rongcheng's departure did not cripple Yulang International, but it did make Huang Yulang feel a little embarrassed.

At that time, he had already successfully listed Yulang International on the stock exchange, had money in hand, and was also investing in real estate.

However, he was unlucky and happened to be caught in the 1987 stock market crash, which caused Yulang International to suffer heavy losses.

Sing Tao Group took advantage of the situation to try and acquire Jade Long International. In order to save the company, Wong Yuk-long forged false accounts, which were then exposed by Hu Xian.

The company was suspended from trading, and the other individuals involved were also arrested.

The collapse of Jade International and the departure of its key personnel ironically led to the current flourishing of diverse Hong Kong comics.

Huang Yulang remained clear-headed until the end, realizing he couldn't save Yulang International. Before the incident, he sold off all the comic book copyrights, understanding that comics were his foundation.

Therefore, he was able to make a quick comeback after his release from prison, and his "Jade Dynasty" magazine went toe-to-toe with Ma Rongcheng's "Tianxia Publishing".

Wong Yuk-long is currently still in Stanley and will not be released until next year. The copyrights of those comics are temporarily held by his family.

Wong Yuk-long is currently in a slump, and he's selling the film and television adaptation rights to his comics whenever he can get the money.

Cui Baozhu directly purchased the film and television rights to "Chinese Hero" and "Dragon Tiger Gate" for HK$500,000.

"No problem, you should have done this a long time ago. Seeing others making one film after another while you're taking it so slowly makes me anxious."

"With the addition of 'Black Mask,' we will be working on three films simultaneously, and the company is clearly short-staffed."

"Sister Baozhu, we need to hire more people."

"Recruit, recruit right away, recruiting is easy."

As the company's general manager, Cui Baozhu was eager to expand the company's scale.

"Sister Baozhu, do you have any suitable candidates to recommend? We're not just hiring mid-to-low-level employees, we're also looking for high-end talent."

Cui Baozhu pondered for a moment and said, "I do have someone in mind, someone with outstanding abilities, but I don't know if she'd be willing to come."

"Who is it that Sister Baozhu speaks so highly of?"

"Lak Yee-ling started out as a screenwriter and director at Li-Di Films, and later switched to the film industry, working her way up to become a producer, just like me."

She was the production coordinator for "To Be Number One".

"In that case, Baozhu, you should go and poach her. You can offer her the position of vice president of the company. If you need me to intervene, just let me know."

Although Virginia Lok is not an artist, she is quite famous.

But not now, but after I join TVB in a few years.

TVB's dramas are excellent, and the power struggles among its top executives are equally captivating.

Virginia Lok was a major figure at TVB, having nurtured generations of actors such as Louis Koo and Charmaine Sheh, and eventually rose to become an executive director of TVB.

Her abilities are beyond doubt, and her overall capabilities are even stronger than those of Choi Bo-joo.

"We also need to move our office. We definitely won't have enough space to hire more people. If Virginia Lok is willing to come, we can't let her work in the main office area."

"Your annual salary of HK$500,000 is really hard to come by."

Tang Long suddenly realized that Cui Baozhu really had a lot of work to do, and laughed, "It's because you're so capable, Sister Baozhu. I'll give you a raise next year, double the salary."

Things can be done gradually; they don't necessarily have to be done all at once. Let Huo Wenxi handle some of the less important tasks.

"You've put so much effort into raising her, don't let her run away later."

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"So what if she ran away? Our company can do without anyone except Sister Baozhu."

Besides, I'm not training her to keep her indefinitely; I want her to do things, and she's already accomplished quite a bit during the training process.

Cui Baozhu was clearly pleased with Tang Long's words, and the corners of her mouth turned up: "Okay, you have a big vision."

"I almost forgot, Sister Baozhu, you just said you've also been looking at a project?"

1

Cui Baozhu slapped her forehead and said, "You've arranged so many things for me that I forgot about them."

Do you remember the drama "The Bride with White Hair" that wanted you to play the male lead?

"Of course I remember. I was quite optimistic about this movie. If it had been a year earlier, I would have taken the role."

"After you refused, Yu Rentai brought in Zhang Guorong as the male lead, but just as he finished preparing the crew, Golden Princess withdrew its investment."

"I heard that Lei Juekun's two sons are planning to invest in the real estate industry and want to sell Golden Princess Cinemas, so Yu Rentai has been affected?"

"That's right. Lei Juekun's two sons were never interested in the film industry, otherwise they wouldn't have shut down New City."

Now they seem to want to withdraw completely, ceasing all film investment, and Yu Rentai's "The White-Haired Witch" has been put on hold.

After the huge success of "Swordsman II", our Tangde Film Industry's reputation soared, and Yu Rentai came to us.

I expressed my investment intentions to him, and I was just about to report to you for a final decision.

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