1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 110 Ban Order

"Jiahui, there's a call from Hong Kong for you."

Yanjing City, the filming site of "The Last Emperor".

Before Liang Jiahui had time to change out of his costume, he heard the crew members calling him.

"Hey, the girl is here."

Walking to the table with the landline phone, the staff handed him the receiver and smiled a smile that every man would understand: "Don't worry, I won't tell Alang. Remember to treat me to dinner tonight."

All the staff from Hong Kong knew that Liang Jiahui was dating Li Dianlang, the daughter of director Li Hanxiang, at the time. It was his future father-in-law who took the initiative to invite him to Yanjing to film, and there was a hint of teasing in his words.

"Neuropathy."

Liang Jiahui cursed with a smile, and was still curious about who was calling him when a familiar woman's voice was heard from the other end.

"Hello, Mr. Liang. I invited you to join us on behalf of the Jiuyi Entertainment Film Production Company. What do you think of this?"

It’s the female director named Peng.

Liang Jiahui immediately recognized that the other party was Pang Jiayan, who had called him twice last month.

He showed an unhappy look on his face and said, "Director Peng, I have made it very clear. I am now an employee of Hong Kong Television, and Director Li Hanxiang is willing to give me a role. I have no intention of changing my schedule for the time being."

"Oh."

Peng Jiayan on the other end of the phone said indifferently: "Find a Hong Kong newspaper and read it when you have time. If you have any new ideas, remember to call me. That's it."

Then just hang up the phone.

Liang Jiahui couldn't help but frown. What does this mean?

He glanced at director Li Hanxiang who was still busy in front of the camera, reached out and grabbed a crew member and asked:
"Hey, do you have today's Hong Kong newspaper?"

Soon a copy of Oriental Daily was delivered to me.

Liang Jiahui quickly turned to the entertainment section, and after just a few glances, he suddenly felt a black screen before his eyes.

"The president of the Freedom Association, Tong Lejuan, has suggested to Taiwan that Li Hanxiang and Liang Jiahui be banned from entering Taiwan, and all films starring these two should be banned."

"Honorary President of the Freedom Association, Shaw Yi-fu: I respect the decision of the association, but I have reservations on whether the film market should be subject to a ban."

"Honorary Vice President of the Freedom Association Feng Cuifan: I am a native Cantonese in the Republic of China, and I firmly support the country's ban."

It's over! I have to write a letter of repentance!
……

Zhai Yuan didn't expect that by creating a marketing news, before anyone else could do anything, he would step on the tail of the Freedom Association first, which accelerated the ban on Li and Liang.

In theory, this ban should be implemented after they finish filming the movie "Fire Dragon".

Especially that Feng Cuifan, who was jumping up and down like a fool and openly opposing Shao Yifu in the newspaper. If I were your sixth uncle, I would drag you to plant lotus flowers tonight.

Most of the other actors joined the Freedom Association just to make a living, which is understandable. But for those who are more stubborn like Liang Xiaolong and Sister Wang, the worst that can happen is that they just don't want to do this job.

Only Feng Cuifan really treats this as a career, no wonder he has risen to the position of honorary vice president.

"Silly X."

Zhai Yuan shook his head, put the matter aside for the time being, and continued to focus on the distribution of the film.

With Guan Weiming as a tool standing in front, "This Man From Earth" has now become extremely popular.

Audiences with money in their pockets couldn't help but buy tickets to watch the film overseas, and most of them gave positive reviews after returning.

For this purpose, the new issue of "Film Biweekly" magazine specially published a two-page article to evaluate the film, and did not hesitate to praise it.

Even if you want to say something bad, you have to hold it in. Now this movie is not just a simple movie. In addition to representing the mighty image of local filmmakers punching America and kicking Great Britain, the so-called director Guan Weiming also publicly stated in the newspaper that after the release of the video cassette, he will first donate 1,000 boxes of proceeds to local churches, welfare homes, reformatory schools and other institutions, and stack up all the buffs that can be stacked.

Under the influence of this public opinion, Jiuyi Entertainment finally released an announcement in mid-April that the film would be released on International Labor Day and would be officially released simultaneously in Hong Kong and Taiwan on May 1st.

"The Freedom League gave me a list of names, and it was expressly forbidden that the films should not be shown in these theaters when they were shown."

Guan Weiming handed a long list to Zhai Yuan. At a glance, they were all theaters with red backgrounds, such as Changfeng, the newly reorganized Yindu Theater Chain, and other theaters.

"Okay, okay, this helps me make statistics in advance."

Zhai Yuan looked at the names of the theaters that were banned from showing films and planned to visit them one by one after this matter was over.

If the red cinema chains and the suppressed Western cinema chains could unite, the fourth large local cinema chain would emerge after Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest, and Golden Princess.

……

Time quickly arrived at May Day.

"This Man From Earth" skipped the preview stage and went straight to release.

Audiences were eager to see the film at the gates of major theaters in Hong Kong. Before dawn, large groups of people lined up in front of the theaters to wait for tickets. The popularity was so great that all the movies that Golden Harvest and Golden Princess had originally planned to show on that day were withdrawn from the schedule, as they did not want to collide with Zhai Yuan's new film.

Local filmmakers have long since reacted and realized that this is a despicable film marketing exercise. There are also directors who have gone abroad to watch movies, and most of them said that the quality of the films was acceptable, but not as outrageous as the media boasted.

But even if it's filmed like shit, the audience is willing to pay for it. Most people are too lazy to verify the authenticity of the news, as long as the emotions are there.

Zhai Yuan's action this time directly provided many filmmakers with a new idea. It turns out that this kind of marketing method of taking things out of context and spreading rumors can be used.

Our previous moral standards were too high.

"You can't learn it. That new director named Guan Weiming only has one cassette factory. He can use any despicable marketing methods. The worst that can happen is that he will close the factory and run away."

A theater under the Golden Harvest Cinema was crowded with people and noisy, and all of the more than 2,000 seats were occupied.

In a corner of the theater, Golden Harvest's boss Zou Wenhuai said to his right-hand man, Ho Kwan-chang, "But our company is already established and it is too big to fail. We have to do marketing in an aboveboard way, otherwise if something goes wrong, it will implicate too many people."

"I know. I told the guys in the marketing department a long time ago. But I'm afraid other independent production companies will do the same thing in the future."

Ho Kwan-chang said with some concern: "In the end, the content of a movie still matters. Relying solely on marketing tricks to deceive the audience is no different from the Cantonese-language scraps of Seven Days Fresh back then."

"It's not always possible to do this kind of marketing successfully. The local market is still growing, and the audience's tastes are becoming more and more picky. This little trick won't work many times."

Zou Wenhuai smiled nonchalantly, thinking that he was worrying too much, and added: "Besides, if the movie is good enough, marketing may not be a bad thing. Anyway, we have been scheduling old movies for the past two months, but the two new movies from Princess Golden have been withdrawn one after another. Let's see how they arrange the schedule later."

The two films that Princess Golden was forced to withdraw from the schedule were "I Come to the Night Jasmine" and "Young Master Weiwei". The former had been released for some time, and the latter was just about to be released, but was frightened by the huge momentum of "This Man From Earth", and the later screening schedule will be affected to some extent.

"It's time to start. Let's see what this movie is like."

As the theater lights went out.

The noisy discussions among the audience gradually died down.

The two big guys, Zou and He, also narrowed their eyes and looked at the lit screen.

Accompanied by majestic drum beats, nine flames lit up on the screen, and finally gathered together to form a black and yellow logo.

91 Entertainment!

"Ninety-nine equals oneness, a good omen."

Zou Wenhuai looked at the company's opening logo and nodded thoughtfully.

The movie opens.

After the history professor played by Norton resigns from the university, his colleagues come to his home to hold a farewell party for him...

The film was dubbed in Cantonese locally, and the audience was very interested in watching it at first.

After five minutes of the plot, they gradually realized that something was wrong.

Why are these actors still talking in their rooms? Didn't Movie Weekly say this was a religious film? Why hasn't the plot of foreign gods fighting blood-sucking demons appeared yet?

Ten minutes passed and the actors were still chatting, the only difference was that they had beer in their hands.

Then there was a commotion among the audience.

"Why are you still chatting after such a long time?"

"Did you play the wrong movie?"

"What the hell? I spent dozens of dollars to come in here just to watch this?"

But since they had already bought the tickets, the audience could only force themselves to watch.

Then the core theme of the movie appeared. The protagonist is a caveman who has lived for 14,000 years.

After bringing up this theme, the atmosphere of the movie becomes more eerie.

The audience's commotion gradually died down. As the plot developed, more and more people became more and more involved in it, and finally even the whispers of discussion gradually disappeared.

Zou Wenhuai and He Guanchang looked at each other and saw the surprise in each other's eyes.

They are seniors who joined the film industry since the Shaw Brothers era and later founded the Golden Harvest Cinemas. Their vision is definitely sharp enough.

This is the first time I have seen the shooting technique of this movie.

The plot is driven purely by dialogue and it also keeps the audience hooked. This script is quite interesting.

In the cinema, the plot of the film continues to advance.

This was the first day of the film's release, and in addition to Hong Kong, ticket sales in places like Taiwan were also packed.

At the same time, all the shots that Zhai Yuan specially shot for the videotape have been completed.

(End of this chapter)