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

At the end of December, Li Jiangbo, Zhu Lin, and Zhu Lin's father boarded a plane to Hong Kong.

Looking out the window at the familiar scenery, Zhu Lin couldn't help but feel a little melancholy, as she was leaving this place today.

However, she doesn't regret leaving with Li Jiangbo, because she loves acting so much.

You can tell from her decision to resign and take the entrance exam for the Beijing Film Academy that she loves acting at heart.

However, it took Li Jiangbo a great deal of effort to take Zhu Lin away.

After the audition that day, Li Jiangbo approached Zhu Lin and told her that she could only play a supporting role in the film.

Zhu Lin was somewhat disappointed upon hearing the result. But what Li Jiangbo said next made her mind explode.

Li Jiangbo told her that she now had two choices: one was to participate in "The Burning of the Yuanmingyuan" as a supporting actor, and the other was to go with him to Hong Kong, to act in a higher paradise.

It took Zhu Lin a long time to react, and then he happily agreed.

However, Li Jiangbo suffered a lot at Zhu Lin's parents' place.

When Li Jiangbo first visited Zhu Lin's parents, she was turned away because her husband had come to ask her to remarry him.

When Li Jiangbo visited Zhu Lin's parents for the second time, they didn't believe he was a big boss in Hong Kong. They thought that some scoundrel had bewitched their daughter!

On his third visit, Li Jiangbo brought Wu Yinxian from Beijing Film Studio, Qin Zheng, deputy director of Huayuan Group, and Li Hanxiang with him, which finally convinced Zhu Lin's parents of Li Jiangbo's identity.

Zhu Lin's father was a professor at Yenching University of Science and Technology, and her mother was a doctor at a research institute. They were well aware of their daughter's aspirations. Seeing Li Jiangbo's sincerity, they reluctantly agreed.

However, Zhu Lin's father also made three requests.

First, Li Jiangbo must ensure that Zhu Lin does not change his nationality.

Secondly, Li Jiangbo must agree to properly train Zhu Lin.

Third, they can visit Zhu Lin in Hong Kong at any time.

Li Jiangbo readily agreed to these three points. Changing nationality was a simple matter; Li Jiangbo could simply issue a work visa under the name of Time Pictures.

Cultivating Zhu Lin was originally Li Jiangbo's job. As for them going to see Zhu Lin, that was even simpler; Li Jiangbo covered all their round-trip airfare, accommodation, and meals.

An hour later, the plane came to a smooth stop at Kai Tak Airport.

The three of them followed the flow of people off the plane. As soon as they got off the plane, Zhu Lin and her father looked around curiously.

Li Jiangbo led the two men into the car driven by his bodyguard, Awei.

The two looked at Li Jiangbo with surprise, thinking to themselves: It seems that Director Li, who is not very old, is not bragging.

When they arrived at Li Jiangbo's company, the two were even more dumbfounded.

This entire floor is the office space of Time Pictures. Not only is the decoration luxurious, but the company employees are also dressed fashionably, with countless handsome men and beautiful women.

Li Jiangbo led the two men to his office, asked his secretary to pour them two cups of tea, and then began discussing the contract with them.

For Zhu Lin, Li Jiangbo offered the same five-year contract as Rosamund Kwan and Cherie Chung, with a basic monthly salary of 2800 yuan, a guarantee of at least one film per year, and benefits such as box office revenue sharing.

Seeing how much Li Jiangbo was offering, Zhu Lin signed the contract without saying a word.

Li Jiangbo was incredibly excited as he watched Zhu Lin sign his name on the contract.

I already have three female artists under my management. If I find one more who can sing, she can debut right away after a period of training.

Li Jiangbo planned to leave Zhu Lin in the care of Chung Chu-hung, as Rosamund Kwan was somewhat unreliable.

He then called Cherie Chung's dormitory.

"Hey, Ah Hong, come to the company."

"Okay, Brother Li, I'm coming right now."

After hanging up the phone, Li Jiangbo said to Zhu Lin, "An actress from the company will be coming over later. You two can have a chat."

Zhu Lin was still a little shy, and she asked in a low voice, "Boss, I don't speak Cantonese."

Li Jiangbo said seriously, "That's why I'm asking you to communicate and learn more. If you want to make it in Hong Kong, you have to learn Cantonese."

"By the way, Linlin, have you ever studied traditional opera before?"

Zhu Lin shook his head. "I haven't studied it. I learned to dance in the troupe."

Li Jiangbo nodded. It seemed they would have to ask a traditional opera teacher to instruct these people.

However, Hong Kong has many opera artists, and they are easy to invite. For example, there's the famous Peking Opera artist Yu Zhanyuan, and Fen Juhua, Lin Zhengying's teacher, etc...

Actually, there are quite a few actors who can speak Mandarin these days. Most of the Shaw Brothers movie actors can speak Mandarin. Cherie Chung can also speak Mandarin, but she's not very fluent.

After chatting for a while, Li Jiangbo had someone take Zhu Lin's father to the hotel, while Zhu Lin asked Chung Chu-hung to take him to the company dormitory.

Before Li Jiangbo could catch his breath, Wang Jing and Zhao Yazhi came looking for him.

Wang Jing rushed into Li Jiangbo's office, "Boss, you're finally back!"

Li Jiangbo laughed and said, "Brother Jing, you missed me! So, what's up?"

Wang Jing rubbed his hands together. "The movie 'Chasing Girls' has been in production for a week now. When is it going to be released?"

Li Jiangbo tossed a cigarette to Wang Jing, lit his own, took a puff, and said, "Take the film copy with you tomorrow and come to TVB with Uncle Six to talk about the release date."

Wang Jing nodded. "No problem."

"However, don't even think about it being released in January. Uncle Six will definitely reserve that time slot for their movies."

Wang Jing thought about it and agreed. With such a good release window in January, Uncle Six would definitely reserve it for his own company. His movie would probably be scheduled until February.

As the two were chatting, Zhao Yazhi arrived.

"Boss, we've already acquired two newspapers that were on the verge of bankruptcy, and we're in talks with another one."

This was the task Li Jiangbo left for Zhao Yazhi before heading north, and it seems that Zhao Yazhi completed it very well.

Li Jiangbo nodded. "Okay, get in touch quickly. Let me know when you've reached an agreement."

"Also, post-production on 'A Better Tomorrow' needs to start, otherwise it won't make it to the January release date."

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

Zhao Yazhi closed the document in her hand. "Also, 'Happy Ghost' has been completely pulled from theaters outside of mainland China."

Li Jiangbo responded with an "Oh," and then asked, "How much money did you make?"

"For box office revenue outside of mainland China, we split it 30/70 with Shaw Brothers. The box office revenue in Southeast Asia is only around 30 million. I called Shaw Brothers to urge them to settle the accounts, but they said it would take three months."

Li Jiangbo nodded. He understood Shaw Brothers' intentions all too well. They only split the box office revenue from outside the local area every six months, which was only because Li Jiangbo had a decent relationship with Uncle Six; otherwise...

Compared to Golden Harvest, Shaw Brothers was much better. Shaw Brothers would at least pay you, while Golden Harvest would simply refuse to pay.

For example, Hung Kin-po became popular later on with the Lucky Stars series. When people came to Golden Harvest to ask for a share of the profits from other regions, Golden Harvest kept delaying.

They delayed paying for two or three years without success. What's even more outrageous is that when Hung Kam Po last asked Golden Harvest for the money...

The person in charge said directly, "You've sold all those films to Wang Jing's company. If you want your money, go ask Wang Jing."

This completely baffled Hung Kin-po. He couldn't understand why he had to ask Wong Jing for a share of the profits from other regions when he was making a movie for Golden Harvest.

This is absolutely outrageous—it's outrageous to the extreme.

"Sister Zhi, you don't need to worry about this. I'll handle the communication with Shaw Brothers. You focus on getting things settled with the newspaper."

Zhao Yazhi nodded and turned to attend to her own business.

Wang Jing asked in confusion, "Why did the boss suddenly decide to buy the newspaper company?"

Li Jiangbo smiled slightly, offering no further explanation; this was a backup plan left for those wealthy individuals.