Hong Kong Entertainment 1979: A Beating Up the Manager at the Start

the next morning.

Zhao Yazhi woke up from her sleep, sat up in bed, and rubbed her slightly aching back.

I checked the time; it was already 10 a.m.

Oh no, I had an appointment with Director Wang Tianlin today to discuss the new drama.

She hurriedly got up and found the dress she had worn yesterday on the bed, only to discover that it had been torn into strips of cloth.

She stomped her foot in annoyance, threw down the dress in her hand, and hurriedly went to the wardrobe to find a new outfit.

Unfortunately, the wardrobe only contained men's clothes, so she chose a smaller shirt and trousers, put them on, and hurried out the door.

......

Kowloon Tong Hotel.

Wang Tianlin checked the time; it was already eleven o'clock. The other actors had already arrived and taken their seats, but why hadn't Zhao Yazhi arrived yet?

After waiting another twenty minutes, Wang Tianlin saw Zhao Yazhi walking towards them, supporting her back and limping.

Wang Tianlin greeted her with surprise, "Ah Zhi! What happened to you?"

It would have been better if she hadn't asked; once she did, a blush appeared on both sides of Zhao Yazhi's cheeks.

"Uh... um!? It's nothing, I just accidentally strained my back."

Wang Tianlin asked worriedly, "Is he alright? Does he need to go to the hospital?"

Zhao Yazhi shook her head, "It's alright, I'm really sorry to have kept everyone waiting for so long."

After exchanging a few pleasantries, the two took their seats.

This was a dinner party organized by Wang Tianlin, mainly for the TV series "Legend of Chu Liuxiang" which was scheduled to start filming a week later.

After Wang Tianlin's impassioned speech, the dinner officially began.

Zhao Yazhi absentmindedly picked at the food on the table, her mind still replaying yesterday's events.

Yesterday, she invited Li Jiangbo to dinner. The two chatted and laughed at the table until they drank a bit too much.

Zhao Yazhi felt like she had found a confidante and began to pour out her troubles to Li Jiangbo.

As she continued drinking, under the influence of alcohol, Zhao Yazhi went straight home with Li Jiangbo.

At Li Jiangbo's home, Zhao Yazhi pretended to be stupid, saying she needed to go to the toilet, then she wanted to take a bath, and asked Director Li to scrub her back.

After seeing Li Jiangbo's face turn dark, she didn't dare to cause any more trouble. She obediently went to the bathroom to wash her face, and somehow ended up getting her clothes wet...

Zhao Yazhi herself never imagined that she would take such a initiative.

Thinking of this, a blush rose on her cheeks again. Oh dear! How embarrassing!

But then I recalled Li Jiangbo's bulging eight-pack abs, and the waves of water crashing against my body, that feeling...

However, Zhao Yazhi had a question: why did Li Jiangbo make her shout "Da" when he was excited?

She didn't quite understand the word, but she was sure it wasn't a good word.

This cannot be blamed on Zhao Yazhi. Although her ancestral home is Kaifeng, Henan, she has never lived in Kaifeng, so it is understandable that she does not understand Shaanxi dialect.

Just as Zhao Yazhi was lost in thought, Qiu Guan nudged her, pulling her out of her reverie.

She looked at Adam Cheng with a puzzled expression. "What's wrong?"

Adam Cheng subtly raised his head without saying a word.

Zhao Yazhi suddenly looked up and realized that everyone's eyes were on her, which made her extremely embarrassed.

Everyone burst into laughter upon seeing this, and it took a while before Wang Tianlin spoke up to smooth things over.

"Alright! Stop laughing, everyone."

The group stopped joking around, and Wang Tianlin spoke up again, "Ah Zhi! You're injured, won't that delay the filming a week from now?"

Zhao Yazhi blushed and shook her head, "It will be fine in two or three days."

Wang Tianlin nodded. "Okay, then you'll play Su Rongrong. A-Quan will play Shen Shanshan. Is that alright?"

Zhao Yazhi and Liza Wang answered in unison, "No problem."

This meal took half an hour.

After finishing her meal, Zhao Yazhi, supporting her back, limped out of the restaurant with the others.

Seeing Zhao Yazhi's pained expression, Adam Cheng felt a pang of sympathy.

"Ah Zhi! How's your back injury? Do you want me to take you home?"

Zhao Yazhi turned around and saw that it was Adam Cheng. "No, no, I can go back by myself."

Suddenly, something occurred to her, and she cautiously asked, "Adam Cheng, I have a question for you. What does the Shaanxi dialect word 'da' mean?"

Adam Cheng was completely bewildered. Although he had previously been accepted into the training programs of TVB, Tong Man, and Nan Kwok, it didn't mean he understood Shaanxi dialect! This was truly a challenge for him.

Adam Cheng scratched his head, thought for a moment, and said, "I really don't know about this. You'll have to ask someone from Shaanxi to know."

"Does your company have any employees from Shaanxi?"

Adam Cheng pointed to a photographer in front of him and said, "Hey! Perfect timing, Ah Yuan is from Shaanxi."

Zhao Yazhi nodded, then called out to A Yuan in front of her and asked him about the meaning of the character "Da".

Upon learning that "Da" meant "father," Zhao Yazhi was utterly stunned, her expression shifting rapidly.

After making up a lame excuse, Zhao Yazhi fled in a panic. For a moment, her back pain disappeared, and she walked with a brisk pace.

......

On the other side, Li Jiangbo was instructing Rosamund Kwan, Cherie Chung, and Wong Cho-si on how to take promotional photos.

With five days left until the release of his movie, Li Jiangbo plans to publish a promotional article for "Happy Ghost" in the Oriental Daily News.

After all, Hong Kong is now an era where distribution channels are king, and he was able to get the film released thanks to Shaw Yi-fu's appreciation of his talent.

In Li Jiangbo's memory, Hong Kong's box office performance in 79 was not outstanding. The highest-grossing film was "The Fearless Hyena," directed and starring Jackie Chan, which only grossed about 500 million HKD.

He doesn't remember much of the rest of the films.

However, Li Jiangbo still looked into the competitors in the same period, which included films such as "Lin Yazhen: Tiger Fish Shrimp Crab", "Fighting for Life with a Single Blade", and "Nameless Soldier", some of which he had never even heard of.

Of these films, the most famous is probably Golden Harvest's "The Deadly Sword and the Deadly Gun," which, judging from the title, is a period drama. It was directed by Lau Kar-wing and starred Hung Kam-po, Leung Ka-yan, and others.

Li Jiangbo had absolutely no memory of this film, and he didn't care about such things.

The release date has been set. Next, it will be used as Shaw Brothers' weapon to fight against Golden Harvest.

Just then, Mr. Ma from Oriental Daily arrived.

Upon seeing Li Jiangbo, Ma Chengkun burst into laughter, "Director Li, how have you been lately? I heard you started a film and television company, but I haven't had a chance to congratulate you yet."

Li Jiangbo chuckled, "It's just small-scale stuff, nothing compared to Mr. Ma's business."

After exchanging pleasantries, Ma Chengkun straightened his expression and asked in a low voice, "Director Li, I'd like to ask you who the screenwriter of 'Shanghai Bund' is? Is there any chance of acquiring the novel rights to this TV series?"

Li Jiangbo was a little confused. Didn't TVB credit him in the scriptwriting section?

He asked instinctively, "Mr. Ma, don't you know who the screenwriter is?"

Ma Chengkun shook his head. "The screenwriter for the TV series is anonymous. Recently, a reader wrote to our newspaper asking us to ask you if you could adapt the TV series 'Shanghai Bund' into a novel and then change the ending."

After learning more about it, Li Jiangbo discovered that those people had sent the letters here because he had published a novel in the Oriental Daily.

The reason for changing the ending is that some people felt that the TV series killed off Xu Wenqiang, and they were not satisfied with that.

Li Jiangbo shook his head. "I can't help you with this, Mr. Ma, because the copyright has already been sold to TVB."

Ma Chengkun sighed inwardly at the pity, but said nothing more.

Li Jiangbo came to discuss film promotion with Ma Chengkun; everything else was secondary.

After a friendly discussion, Li Jiangbo finally rented a page in the supplement of the Oriental Daily for 50,000 yuan to promote "Happy Ghost".