1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 197 The next generation is terrible
Most of the media reviews for "God of Gamblers" were positive, with a few being rational and objective, believing that the film was a commercial success but that the plot was a bit old-fashioned.

But no one dared to sing a different tune or throw dirty water, and the treatment was very different from that of "A Better Tomorrow" produced by Jiuyi Entertainment.

The gossip tabloids are more informed than anyone else and they must know that Xinji is behind Sanhe Film Company. They are simply talking nonsense and deliberately singing a different tune to attract attention and sales. No one dares to pick on this movie.

Amidst all the praise, the attendance rate of the second midnight preview of "God of Gamblers" that night finally broke through the 90% mark.

"What a great gambler! Pick that mother! I'm itching to play after watching this movie, so I'm going to cross the sea to go to Macau to gamble tonight!"

"That Japanese woman is amazing, so pretty and beautiful. It's a pity that I didn't buy a ticket to enter the venue last night, otherwise I could have seen her in person."

"Wait for me here for a while. I'm going to buy a can of God of Gamblers chocolate..."

Ye Zhiming walked out of Theater 1024, and the audience around him was still discussing the plot of the movie.

A new display case has been added near the ticket counter, filled with the same Feodora dark chocolate that Gao Jin wore in the movie.

This chocolate imported from West Germany is sold for ten yuan outside, but is sold for fifteen yuan at 1024 because Wan Ziliang's photo is printed on the wrapping paper.

He walked to the ticket counter and saw a pile of unopened gambling cards on the cabinet behind the ticket seller. He smiled and asked, "Are these the cards Gao Jin used? How much are they?"

The ticket seller pointed to a 'Not for Sale' sign on the side and politely answered the question he had been asked countless times today: "Excuse me sir, this deck of cards is not for sale. After the movie is officially released, please come and get a free copy with your ticket stub."

Ye Zhiming suddenly felt that his title of "Bridge King of Business" was about to be lost.

"The film is well made, but it's a pity that there are so few theaters running it. It's the exact opposite of what happened when I was there."

After exiting the theater, Ye Zhiming glanced back at the giant poster behind him, feeling a little melancholy. "If Lianhua didn't schedule it this time, and it only relied on 1024 and those independent theaters, this movie would probably only recoup its production costs in mainland China. I wonder what this Bridge King feels like now."

The next second, he seemed to suddenly think of something, and the expression on his face slowly froze.

Staring at the huge poster of "God of Gamblers" above his head, Ye Zhiming's mind flashed back to the plot of the movie he had just watched.

He swallowed and murmured, "I choose!"

…………

Zhai Yuan was in a bad mood, mainly because Huang Minghui, the manager of the theater in Ngau Tau Kok, called him in the middle of the night and woke him up again just after he fell asleep.

That’s right, Huang Minghui, who was a ticket seller a few months ago, has now been promoted to manager because of his meritorious service in taking the blame.

"What's the matter?"

Deng Leling was also woken up by the doorbell. She muttered something and hugged Zhai Yuan with her plump body.

Mr. Zhai has been eating too much Little White Rabbit recently, so he came to Kowloon Tong today to change his taste.

He pressed the answer button and said, "No problem, I'm on the phone."

Upon hearing this, Deng Leling's sleepy eyes cleared up a little, and she moved closer to eavesdrop.

When she heard a man's voice in the receiver, she yawned listlessly and crawled back into bed.

"Boss, there's a man in the theater who wants to see you. He says he's from Lianhua Cinema..."

Before Huang Minghui could finish his words, the phone seemed to be snatched away by someone, and then a strange voice came on.

"My last name is Ye, Ye Zhiming."

…………

Zhai Yuan was unfamiliar with the name Ye Zhiming.

Since he entered the film industry, the biggest boss of Lianhua was the mainland Chinese capital that controlled the Shuangnan Cinema Line, followed by Qiu Degen and Chen Songqing. As for Ye Zhiming, this was the first time he had heard of him.

"Mr. Zhai, I have asked for you."

Early in the morning, Chen Lan pushed the door open, her eyes bloodshot, obviously she did not get enough rest last night.

After Zhai Yuan hung up on Ye Zhiming last night, he called her again around 1:00 a.m. to inquire about the background of the former boss of Lianhua Cinemas.

Chen Lan came from Taiwan and also didn't know much about Ye Zhiming. She asked someone overnight and finally found out something.

She said to Zhai Yuan, "Have you heard of BangBang jeans? They were made by Mr. Ye."

Zhai Yuan looked surprised.

He was indeed familiar with the brand BangBang, not because Zhai Yuan was paying attention to the clothing market, but because it was Deng Leling's favorite denim brand, and he remembered it because of what he had heard and seen.

"This Mr. Ye is nicknamed the Bridge King of Hong Kong Business. He just turned 40 this year. He started a yacht rental business in Saigon in the 1960s. He contacted yacht owners and rented out idle yachts to ordinary people for sightseeing, earning the difference. After saving up money, he switched to the wig business, selling wigs collected and produced in Southeast Asia to the United States. He made millions in just three years."

"In the 1970s, he started an oil business, but lost everything. People thought it would be hard for him to make a comeback, but Ye Zhiming quickly used the 40,000 yuan he earned from selling his ancestral home to start a new business in the clothing industry. He created BangBang jeans, which are among the best-selling brands in Southeast Asia. Newspapers said he made at least HK$1 billion in the clothing industry."

"In 76, he founded Colorful Pictures, recruiting talent and preparing to enter the film industry. His first film, "Jumping Ashes," was a critical and commercial success. Newspapers said it injected new vitality into the Cantonese film industry, which had been struggling, and opened up a whole new genre. In 79, Colorful Pictures took third place at the box office with "Inside and Outside the Wall." Capitalizing on this momentum, Ye Zhiming joined forces with Shuangnan, Far East Theater, and several independent theaters, investing over million yuan to form the current Lianhua Cinema Chain. However, Colorful Pictures' annual output was too low, and Ye Zhiming persisted for more than a year without making enough money to finally liquidate and exit the industry along with Colorful Pictures."

After listening to the legendary experience of Boss Ye, Zhai Yuan felt that he was worthy of the title of Bridge King.

However, the Hong Kong films he paid attention to in his previous life were mostly from the 1980s and 1990s, so he had no impression of Ye Zhiming.

He asked Chen Lan: "What is this Boss Ye doing now?"

Chen Lan said: "After failing in the film industry, he invested hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars to develop Sai Kung's Sharp Island, intending to build a tourist resort, but there has been no improvement so far. In addition, BangBang jeans have been impacted by major overseas brands in the past two years, and sales have been declining. People outside are speculating that Ye Zhiming's capital chain will not last long."

Zhai Yuan felt that this guess was very likely to be true.

From setting up cinema chains to building resorts, the investment often involves hundreds of millions of dollars. Even if he really has a billion-dollar fortune, he can't afford such a hassle.

Zhai Yuan figured out Ye Zhiming's business trajectory over the past two years and gradually understood why he called him so late last night.

After Chen Lan finished explaining everything, she asked hopefully, "Can Mr. Ye help arrange screenings for God of Gamblers?"

Zhai Yuan nodded and said, "He said on the phone that he could at least help us get five theaters with his previous connections."

Chen Lan's face suddenly showed an expression of relief. She took a long breath and leaned back on the sofa.

"A Better Tomorrow" took over seven theaters at Lianhua last year. Although five is a little less, it is better than nothing.

She belatedly asked, "But why does Mr. Ye want to help us?"

Zhai Yuan thought of the request Ye Zhiming made on the phone last night and couldn't help but smile. He said, "This Mr. Ye thinks too highly of me. There was something he clearly thought of before me, but he thought I had already started the preparations... This may be a case of being too clever and making mistakes."

Chen Lan frowned, not understanding what he was saying. Seeing that Zhai Yuan had no intention of explaining, she did not ask any further questions.

As long as you get the theater schedule, the rest has nothing to do with you.

Zhai Yuan looked up at the clock on the wall. The hands pointed to ten o'clock in the morning, which was still an hour before the time he and Ye Zhiming had agreed to meet.

…………

Before 11 a.m., the front desk called to inform Zhai Yuan that Ye Zhiming had already entered the company.

Zhai Yuan went out to greet him personally and met this bridge king of the business world for the first time at the entrance of Jiuyi Entertainment.

He has short hair, a broad forehead, a pair of thick raised eyebrows, slightly sunken eye sockets, and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on his nose.

Ye Zhiming looked peaceful and lazy, with a slight smile on his face all the time, and he didn't look worried at all about the breaking of capital chain.

After shaking hands with Zhai Yuan and saying hello, he smiled and said, "You are really this young. What should I call you, Mr. Zhai or Boss Zhai?"

Zhai Yuan smiled and said, "Mr. Ye, just call me A Yuan."

Ye Zhiming nodded and said, "Okay, Ayuan."

Zhai Yuan thought that Lao Deng was really rude. He invited him into his office and asked his employees to make a pot of tea and bring it in.

The two sat on the sofa drinking tea and chatting.

The topics of the conversation were all over the place, but they were mainly focused on the film industry. Zhai Yuan didn't know much about Mr. Ye, who was worth billions. It was through the conversation that he learned that familiar faces such as Chen Xinjian, Wu Ma, Yuan Heping, Zhou Runfa, and Xu Shaoqiang had all worked under him.

"When I founded Lianhua Cinemas, the cooperation agreement I signed with the mainland stipulated that I would be in charge of 60% of the screenings each year, and they were free to schedule the rest."

Ye Zhiming said to Zhai Yuan, "Later, due to a lack of film sources, I organized a screening of two Taiwan films. The Information Bureau over there immediately sent a letter warning the Hong Kong Film Censorship Office, prohibiting any Chinese-funded theaters from showing any Taiwanese films. I spent millions to buy out the screening rights to ten Taiwan films, but in the end, it was all wasted."

Zhai Yuan smiled and said, "Mr. Ye is a big businessman, why would he care about these millions?"

Ye Zhiming glanced at him and blinked: "I'm telling you this to tell you that the film industry is very complicated. Some things can't be controlled by money. Don't develop too fast, otherwise you will follow in my footsteps."

Zhai Yuan asked, “For example, the movie ‘God of Gamblers’ was banned by the jury this time?”

Ye Zhiming smiled and nodded, then changed the subject and said, "But don't worry, this matter has been settled. I came here today to inform you of the news."

Zhai Yuan asked curiously, "Will the jury approve this film?"

Ye Zhiming nodded, and then told Zhai Yuan what happened at Yindu Organization yesterday.

Xia Meng is a man of swift and decisive actions. After the meeting yesterday, he immediately passed the news to the Xiangjiang-Majiao office.

This morning, news came back from Yanjing City that some powerful person had issued an order for the Hong Kong Review Committee to ban the screening of "God of Gamblers":

What should be brief is detailed but is not, and what should be detailed is brief but is not detailed. This is putting the cart before the horse and is really confusing!

After Ye Zhiming finished speaking, he saw Zhai Yuan's eyes shining, and he sighed with a bit of regret.

He originally wanted to use his connections to help the other party arrange the screening, but Yan Jing's response was too quick, leaving him no chance to build a closer relationship with Zhai Yuan.

"I'm not taking credit for this. This was all thanks to Sister Meng, but she also has a request. You have to compose the theme song for her new film, 'Like Water Flowing Years.'"

"Like flowing water?"

Zhai Yuan raised his eyebrows, and the melody that was first sung by singers such as Anita Mui, Zhang Guorong, and Tan Yonglin immediately played automatically in his mind.

"Well, I'll send a copy of the movie over later, you can watch the movie first."

Seeing Zhai Yuan's thoughtful expression, Ye Zhiming asked, "Why, are you scared?"

Zhai Yuan smiled and shook his head, thinking that he just didn't expect it to be so relaxing. This song just hit the back of his hand.

"I don't know anything about composing music, but I have explained the whole story to you. The movie God of Gamblers will not be affected and will be released in Lianhua Cinemas as usual."

Ye Zhiming took a deep breath and stared at Zhai Yuan with a serious expression. "Let's get back to the point. Do you have any thoughts on running a gambling boat?"

This idea came to Qiao Wang after he watched "God of Gamblers" last night, and he was immediately unstoppable.

In the plot of "God of Gamblers", the decisive battle between Gao Jin and Singapore's gambling king Chen Jincheng took place on a cruise ship bound for the high seas.

At that time, gambling was completely banned in almost all regions of Southeast Asia, except Malaysia, where casinos were everywhere and almost monopolized the gambling business. Casinos in other regions were mostly opened secretly underground. For example, Xin Ji used some nightclubs as cover, but actually decorated the interior into a gambling hall.

However, this type of underground casino mostly attracts retail investors. The really wealthy people will still cross the sea to the Ma Jiao Casino, where not only the environment is comfortable, but they don’t have to worry about being checked by the police.

But if it were like in "God of Gamblers", where a luxury cruise ship only docked in Hong Kong and then unrestrained gambling began on the high seas, not to mention the police checking the cards, even if the gambling king contacted both the black and white worlds, he would only be worried.

"If I didn't run a gambling ship, why would I make a movie called God of Gamblers?"

Zhai Yuan looked at Ye Zhiming with an inscrutable expression on his face. "First, use the movie for publicity, and then feed back to the gambling boat. How much do you think you can earn every year?"

Make hundreds of millions!
Ye Zhiming unconsciously straightened his back and sighed, "I knew you wouldn't just focus on a small business like the movie business. You're really going to be a rising star!"

"Thank you." Zhai Yuan's expression remained unchanged, but his heart was pounding.

Damn it! Is this a good idea? If the business king hadn't mentioned the gambling boat, I wouldn't have even considered it!
On another timeline, the original script of "God of Gamblers", which was released in 1990, was based on the gambling ship business that emerged in 1988.

The prototype of the God of Gamblers Gao Jin was based on the ancestor of high seas gambling ships, Ye Han, who was known as the God of Horse Racing.

God of Gamblers Ip Hon and King of Gamblers Ho Wang Sing fought for most of their lives, but they always lost more than they won. In 88, they lost more than billion in the battle for the racecourse.

It was not until the same year when Ye Han was visiting Monte Carlo, Monaco, that he discovered that the locals would open casinos on cruise ships. He immediately built the world's first gambling ship to sail to the high seas, the "Oriental Princess", which started the gambling ship craze in Southeast Asia.

Afterwards, 85-year-old Ye Han made a fortune on the gambling ship and sold the Oriental Princess to Xinji Xu Jiasheng. Xinji then let Axe Jun personally take charge of the gambling ship. The business was booming and customers were continuously attracted from the Lisboa Casino in Malaysia.

In order to avoid serious consequences, gambling king Ho Hong Sheng had to give up a source of income to Sun Kee in exchange for its withdrawal of the Oriental Princess from the high seas. Only then did the cruise ship become a prop in the filming of "God of Gamblers".

But Zhai Yuan knew nothing about the gossip and stories about this matter.

(End of this chapter)