Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 125: The Amazing Woman Shi Nansheng
Zhang Chen had a great time speaking in "Super Interview", and the host and the audience also enjoyed it.

The spectators love to watch people fighting.

After politely declining the two hosts' invitation to dinner, they left the studio.

At this moment, Fan Jiuyi looked at Zhang Chen with eyes full of admiration.

"What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Fan Jiuyi blinked his beautiful eyes and said, "Nothing, I'm just curious. You're really not afraid of his revenge when you criticize Lu Chuan so much?"

Zhang Chen shrugged: "Revenge? How can he retaliate? And he was the one who started the fight."

"But his father is Lu Tianming, a well-known writer and a senior."

"Only those who are highly respected and virtuous can be called seniors..."

Zhang Chen didn't continue the topic, as Dong Jianqiang called at this moment.

After talking for a while, the phone was hung up. Zhang Chen said unhappily, "Come on, I thought I could finally take a two-day break, but now it's gone."

"what happened?"

"The boss said that The Shallows did surprisingly well at the box office in Hong Kong, and Universe strongly invited us to help promote it..."

When The Shallows was released, Zhang Chen originally wanted to release it simultaneously in both places, but it didn't work out in the end, and Hong Kong Island released it two days later than the mainland.

"Is it selling well? How much have you sold?" Fan Jiuyi was curious.

"800 million. It was said that it sold 800 million Hong Kong dollars in the first weekend."

"Wow, that's really good."

In fact, at that time, mainland movies didn’t pay much attention to the Hong Kong box office. Didn’t they count the Hong Kong box office when they looked at the statistical box office data?
Because it's really not that big, the media would dare to praise it as a big hit if the box office could reach 1000 million.

"The Shallows" earned 800 million Hong Kong dollars in its first weekend, which is already very good. You should know that Jackie Chan's "New Police Story" only earned 700 million in Hong Kong in its first week.

Everyone in Media Asia was delighted.

Following this trend, there will be no problem for "The Shallows" to break 2000 million in Hong Kong box office. It will be another blockbuster movie, and its box office will be no worse than "The Dark Side".

What's more, what Media Asia bought out at one time was not only the film copyright, but also the DVD copyright. The latter is their main business and can make more money than the film.

Fan Jiuyi has been in the Hong Kong entertainment industry, so he knows what an opening weekend box office of 800 million Hong Kong dollars means, and he couldn't help but sigh.

When she first started hanging out in the Hong Kong circle, she wanted to learn from people like Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi to gain fame in the Hong Kong circle, and then go overseas.

Unfortunately, he failed in the end and had to return to the mainland in disgrace.

This time, by chance, it was accomplished with "The Shallows".

"The Shallows" grossed HK$800 million in its first weekend, which made a name for itself in Hong Kong and it finally became a masterpiece.

At the same time, I think back to the days when I was working hard in the Hong Kong circle. It was so difficult that it is beyond words.

The discrimination of Hong Kong Islanders against mainlanders is ingrained in their bones. Even though they all share the same roots, they just feel they are superior.

This can be seen from the name "Beigu".

Carina Lau and Lizhi have both been called Northern Girls. Fan Jiuyi is not even as good as them, so he is naturally not immune.

She was looked down upon a lot in those days.

Even though Zhang Ziyi has become an international star, she was still ridiculed in public by Chow Yun-fat and Carol Cheng at the Academy Awards ceremony.

Although Zhang Ziyi's behavior is indeed despicable, the arrogance and disrespect of Hong Kong people are also true.

"When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow afternoon, I have some things to deal with at the company in the morning."

"Okay, let me know when you've booked the flight."

……

The online debate is still going on, with some praising The Shallows and others criticizing it.

"Super Interview" is a recorded program and it has not been aired yet, so not many people know about it and its influence has not yet been realized.

Zhang Chen felt that there would be two possible outcomes after the show was aired.

First, Lu Chuan was directly beaten into silence. After all, Zhang Chen criticized her too harshly in the show, which was almost equivalent to stripping Lu Chuan naked in front of the people of the whole country.

Regardless of whether "The Shallows" succeeds or fails, Lu Chuan will become a topic of conversation among people.

The second is to cause a bigger war of words.

As long as Lu Chuan is not stupid, she will definitely fight back against what Zhang Chen said, otherwise she will really become a laughing stock.

The next morning, Zhang Chen appeared in the company.

"It's been hard work during this period, but we have to work hard for another two days."

Dong Jianqiang understands very well that doing a roadshow is really tiring and there is no time even for sleep.

Half an hour later, Zhang Chen called the screenwriters from the screenwriting team to a meeting.

"I have a story, please help me complete it..."

Our ancestors once said that sharing happiness with others is worse than enjoying it alone.

If there is free labor, of course you should try to use it as much as possible. Why bother writing the script yourself?

This was the first time that the young screenwriters A, B, C, and D had direct contact with Zhang Chen, and they were a little excited.

"The tentative name of the story is "Manslaughter by Mistaken Appearance", and it tells the story of..."

Zhang Chen roughly told the story of "The Accidental Murderer". Yes, this is what he plans to make in his next movie.

"The Darkness" is a horror film, "The Shallows" is a thriller, and Zhang Chen plans to make a suspense film for his next film.

This film was actually not difficult to shoot. What really stood out was the script, so Zhang Chen needed the entire screenwriter team to help improve it.

"The general framework has been given. In one month, I need you to help me improve the plot, fill in the gaps, and consider the issue of approval."

The original time and space "The Accidental Murderer" is a remake of Bai Xiang's "The Accidental Murderer", but the ending was changed. The original version of the ending of "Get Away with Murder" would definitely not pass the review in China, even if you put the place of the incident abroad.

"Shinjuku Incident" is a Japanese film, and its lead actor Jackie Chan is an international movie star. It would have failed the censorship anyway, so Zhang Chen was not prepared to be stubborn.

It’s just that everything has to make sense and have an internal logic.

The original version of "Manslaughter" was quite clever in its handling of the father's surrender in the end. He had clearly escaped legal punishment and could have simply not surrendered.

But the director deliberately arranged a detail, that is, the test paper of the protagonist's youngest daughter, An An, clearly scored 70 points, but it was changed to 100. The father's actions will subtly influence the young child. In order for the child to grow up healthily in the future, the protagonist chose to surrender.

This is exactly what Zhang Chen wants. The success of this kind of movie depends entirely on the script, so the script must be carefully polished and there cannot be any major flaws.

……

When the plane landed at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport, the lights were already on.

Zhang Chen originally thought he would meet Peter Lam or someone like that, but he was overthinking it.

Peter Lam is the son of Peter Lam, a wealthy man in Hong Kong. Although Media Asia is doing well in the Hong Kong film and television industry, it is just one of his listed companies. Zhang Chen and Fan Jiuyi are not high enough for Peter Lam to receive them personally.

The person who came to pick them up was Shi Nansheng. Zhang Chen didn't know that Shi Nansheng was actually the vice president of Media Asia.

Nansun Shi is a remarkable woman. She first worked at Rediffusion Television, where she was spotted by Mak Dang-hung and appointed as its executive director.

The three years she spent at ATV were the fastest years of ATV's development. The company produced countless high-quality TV dramas, and its ratings once surpassed those of TVB, making her a strong rival of Shaw Brothers.

Later, when ATV went bankrupt, she joined the newly established Cinema City and became one of the "Seven Monsters of Cinema City", marking the beginning of Cinema City's decade of rapid growth.

At that time, the Seven Freaks of Xinyicheng were jokingly called Snow White and the six dwarfs in the industry. Nansun Shi was the housekeeper, and the other six were responsible for creation, and every year there were hot-selling masterpieces.

At its most glorious time, Cinema City alone was competing against Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers. The latter two companies were obviously mortal enemies, but they were forced to join forces and carry out dual-channel screenings, but they still could not win.

Later, due to the unequal distribution of profits, the Seven Monsters became dissatisfied and left. Nansun Shi and Tsui Hark also left and set up a film studio.

Tsui Hark was responsible for production, while Nansun Shi was responsible for attracting investment and distribution.

Later, the Hong Kong film market shrank, and film companies such as Cinema City, Bowes, and Vanderbilt all went bankrupt one after another. Only Tsui Hark's Film Studio remained thriving.

Once Upon a Time in China series, Invincible East series, A Chinese Ghost Story series...

There are endless fine products.

Sure enough, gold will shine wherever it is.

It was Nansun Shi who insisted on getting "The Shallows" this time, and it was also Nansun Shi who hoped that they would come to Hong Kong to cooperate in the promotion.

"Mr. Shi~"

The two sides met and greeted each other. Shi Nansheng is a very extroverted person, and people who can do publishing are not introverted.

"Mr. Shi is too polite. You can call me Nan Sheng or Mrs. Xu."

At that time, Nansun Shi was still Tsui Hark's wife, and the two did not officially announce their divorce until 2015.

"You two must be tired after traveling so long. Please get in the car first. I have arranged a hotel for you to stay and have a good time."

The three of them were riding in a car, and along the way Shi Nansheng was leading the topic and chatting casually.

It can be seen that this woman is very talkative and extremely friendly, otherwise she would not be able to become friends with so many celebrities.

Brigitte Lin, Leslie Cheung, Yi Shu and Sylvia Chang all have a good relationship with her.

Since Shi Nansheng was so easy to talk to, Zhang Chen simply said, "Sister Nansheng, let's not have a welcoming banquet. If possible, Binbin and I would like to try the special food of Hong Kong Island."

This was what he and Fan Jiuyi had discussed on the plane.

Business banquets are the most boring thing. Now that you are in Hong Kong Island, of course you have to try the local specialties.

He had long been craving for those familiar Hong Kong snacks seen in movies.

I have heard of the famous cart noodles, chicken wings, Jiuji beef brisket, Rongji rice noodle rolls, Sham Tseng roast goose and the like for a long time.

"Wouldn't this be... impolite?"

"Of course not. We would love to."

"Okay then, Uncle Gui, let's turn around and go to Central."

Seeing that Zhang Chen and the other man were eager to try, Shi Nansheng immediately ordered the driver to change the route.

Central, Gough Street, Jiu Kee Beef Brisket

This long-renowned clear soup beef brisket restaurant in Hong Kong may not have a big storefront, but it is a beef brisket restaurant where people have to queue up all year round.

When the three of them arrived, it was already past mealtime, but they still had to wait in line for a while before they could eat.

It is said that many Hong Kong stars are frequent visitors here.

It's really delicious, with a rich soup base and plenty of ingredients.

The three of them ate and chatted, talking about tomorrow's promotion.

Movie promotion in Hong Kong is actually quite simple because it is so small.

When a movie is released, basically everyone in Hong Kong will know about it after a few posters are posted. If the creators can also interact with the audience in the cinema, they will basically become famous.

And things turned out pretty much as he expected, and their roadshow went on like that over the next two days.

Theater. In Hong Kong, movie theaters are called cinemas.

Go to the theater, meet the audience, and then answer questions from the audience and the media.

This was the first time that Fan Binbin truly felt that he had become famous in Hong Kong Island.

In fact, "My Fair Princess" was also very popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but that was about Xiaoyanzi and Ziwei. He, who played the maid, didn't even have a CP, so he didn't get much attention.

But "The Shallows" is different, she is the undisputed protagonist, so many media are paying attention to her now.

It’s just that the Hong Kong media focuses more on gossip…

"Excuse me, are you dating the director of this movie?"

(End of this chapter)