1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 284: Fooling Chen Shilong

The three heroines of "Damadan".

Qingxia, Qianwen and Chunhong.

Mr. Zhai can’t find any one now.

An actor from Taiwan, whose career focuses on Taiwan, and finally, although Zhong Chuhong is one of our own, she was pulled overseas by Wu Yusen to film "Along the Way".

"This movie should have been the most outstanding of Xu's commercial films, but it's a pity that it can't be fully reproduced."

After the filming of "Once Upon a Time in China" and "Mr. Vampire" was completed, the crew had a dinner at the Yanjing Hotel, and the main creators and actors from Hong Kong began to disband one after another.

Zhai Yuan left a group of people to continue working.

I don’t remember many Peking Opera movies, and I couldn’t bear to show the two plays by Zhang Guorong and Zun Long, so I had to sacrifice Xu Kui’s "Swordsman and Female" first.

"Sister Lin, Sister Xiaofeng, and Sister Saifeng, the other three, stay."

Zhai Yuan selected the actors and said, "The male actors will stay with Liang Jiahui and Luo Jiaying, and the martial arts team will also stay to help design the movements. This play is about Peking Opera. If we need consultants, we can choose any Peking Opera master from Yanjing..."

Having not intended to put much thought into this play, Zhai Yuan acted very casually throughout.

Xu Qi asked: "Mr. Zhai, what is the budget for this play?"

Zhai Yuan has been a hands-off boss for a long time, so he asked, "I don't remember calling Shi Nansheng to ask how much "Huang Feihong" cost this time?"

Xu Qi said: "About 1.6 million Hong Kong dollars."

Zhai Yuan was surprised when he heard this: "So cheap?"

Xu Qi nodded in agreement: "After I calculated this, I also find it incredible. The salaries of actors like Jet Li and Rosamund Kwan, plus the doubles for the martial arts directors, cost less than 300,000 yuan. The rest was used to buy film. The costumes, props and sets in the mainland are so cheap that they seem to be given away for free."

It is of course impossible to give it away for free, but it is certainly not possible to sell it at a high price, after all, the current prices in the mainland are there.

On the other hand, in Hong Kong, if you hire a big star, the cost of producing a movie will soar exponentially.

Zhai Yuan thought for a moment and asked, "Use the script I gave you to do it. Is one million enough for the play "Dagger-sword Woman"?"

Among the three leading actresses, Rosamund Kwan is the cheapest. Jiuyi reimburses her travel expenses plus a film salary of 40,000 yuan.

After all, Moon Lee debuted earlier and even played the leading role in "Bo Niu" with a salary of 50,000 yuan.

Wang Xiaofeng won the Best Actress Award at the Academy Awards, which should have been the most expensive award, but she was afraid that no one would hire her, so she did not dare to raise the price. This time, she only charged 50,000 yuan.

Xu Qi thought about it for a moment, then looked up and said to Zhai Yuan, "Add an extra 100,000 yuan. It's easy to waste film when shooting action scenes."

In just a few words, the shooting plan of "Damadan" was finalized.

Zhai Yuan called Zhou Xuejun and asked the Federation of Literary and Art Circles to help with the procedures for project establishment and filming application.

The news spread like wildfire.

Early the next morning.

Two secretaries from the National Peking Opera Theater came and cordially invited Zhai Yuan to visit the theater to guide its work.

…………

Hong Kong.

Nine One Entertainment.

As soon as Liu Zhenwei returned to the company, he was surrounded by people who had received the news in advance.

"Gian, did your idol ask you to bring me a gift?"

Ye Yuqing directly called Liu Zhenwei by his pen name, which is also the translated name of Fat Tiger in the Hong Kong version of "Doraemon".

"Are you used to living in Yanjing?" Zhou Huimin beat around the bush and got to the point: "When will Mr. Zhai come back?"

Lan Juying: "Yes, when will he come back? He said he would make a movie for me this year."

Li Lizhen pulled Annie Bai over and kept asking about Zhai Yuan's whereabouts.

Shi Nansheng walked out of the office and greeted Liu Zhenwei: "Why are you the only one back? Where's Ah Xu?"

Liu Zhenwei suddenly felt isolated. No one among so many people cared about him.

"Hey, Wei, when did you come back?"

Wang Jiawei passed by with dark circles under his eyes and looked at Liu Zhenwei who suddenly appeared in surprise: "Is Paris fun?"

Liu Zhenwei didn't dare to offend the women around him, so he caught Wang Jiawei and scolded him directly: "Damn you! The one who went to Paris was Wu Yusen, and I just came back from Yanjing. "

Wang Jiawei nodded thoughtfully: "Oh, is Yanjing fun? I'll go do some work first, and I'll show you a new story in the evening. It will definitely work this time!"

Liu Zhenwei did not answer his thoughts, and it seemed that Wang Jiawei was just casually greeting him. After asking, he waited for two seconds and then returned to his workstation and began to chew the tip of his pen to think about the "greatest script" he often talked about.

"Alas!" Liu Zhenwei sighed hard, looked around at the beautiful women around him, and answered in unison: "Mr. Zhai and Xu Qi have a new movie to shoot, so they can't return to Hong Kong for the time being."

After saying that, he shook the videotape in his hand and said, "But he asked me to bring back a new song, and he plans to let Huang Zhan compose the music. Would you like to listen to the soundtrack first?"

The crowd surrounded Liu Zhenwei and walked into the recording studio.

Turn on the machine and play the tape.

Zhai Yuan's singing voice could be heard from the tape recorder, sometimes in a low octave, sometimes in a high octave and then quickly dropped.

"I face the waves with pride, my blood is as hot as the sun, my courage is as strong as iron, my bones are as strong as steel, my mind is as broad as a thousand miles, my vision is as far as a thousand miles, I will work hard to be a good man..."

The song is over.

Everyone in the studio fell silent.

Ye Yuqing was the first to speak up and break the silence: "Who does the idol ask to compose the music?"

Liu Zhenwei said: "James Wong and Joseph Koo."

Ye Yuqing nodded silently, took out the videotape and put it in her pocket: "I'll take the tape first, and then I'll personally supervise Huang Zhan and the others to compose the music. I must not let the recording spread out and affect the image of my idol."

There was laughter in the studio.

"I was just about to say that Mr. Zhai's singing of this song is really awful."

"The God of Songs suffered a setback. Fortunately, he was not allowed to hold a concert, otherwise he would have been booed off the stage by the fans."

"There are quite a few broken notes, and I can't even reach the high notes, hahaha~"

Ye Yuqing said dissatisfiedly: "What do you know? With my many years of music experience, this song is very difficult. If someone else sings it, they won't be as good as my idol."

As he spoke, he looked at Zhou Huimin and said, "Amin, you are also a singer, right?"

Zhou Huimin nodded like a chicken pecking at rice: "He is a creative type. In fact, the lyrics and melody of this song are very good. It can be the main theme song if it is replaced by a talented singer."

Shi Nansheng couldn't help but smile as she watched the two girls defending Zhai Yuan. She turned around and asked Liu Zhenwei, "Is this the theme song of Ah Xu's Once Upon a Time in China?"

Liu Zhenwei nodded in agreement.

Shi Nansheng continued to ask: "Did Mr. Zhai tell me who will sing this theme song?"

Liu Zhenwei's expression was slightly strange: "He said to give it to Chen Shilong."

…………

"No, Sister Nan?"

In a western restaurant in North Point, Shi Nansheng and Chen Shilong sat opposite each other in a private room.

Chen Shilong had his signature helpless expression on his face, his facial features were squeezed together, making his nose look even bigger.

He looked at the talented Hong Kong woman who was three years older than him and said in an exaggerated tone, "Let me sing the theme song for your 91st movie? Don't play with me!"

"Really!" Shi Nansheng said, "Mr. Zhai specifically asked you to sing this song. He said that for a song full of male hormones, there is no other suitable person in Hong Kong except you, Brother Chen Shilong."

Chen Shilong shouted again: "No way! Zhai Yuan would have such a high opinion of me?"

"Really!" Shi Nansheng complimented Chen Shilong and looked at him sincerely, "I'm afraid you don't know that Mr. Zhai is actually a loyal fan of yours. This song called "A Man Should Be Self-reliant" was created based on you."

Chen Shilong had an expression of disbelief on his face, as if to say "Stop teasing me", but he was secretly happy in his heart and praised Zhai Yuan for his vision.

After all, he is now the undisputed No. 1 superstar in Asia, so it is normal for him to have young fans like Zhai Yuan. So what even if he is a big fan?
"A man should be self-reliant. That sounds interesting."

Chen Shilong pretended to be reserved and thought about it, but did not express his opinion for the time being.

Seeing this, Shi Nansheng took out the lyrics he had prepared long ago and handed them over: "Brother Long, take a look at the lyrics Mr. Zhai wrote for you first."

Chen Shilong nodded, took the lyrics paper, looked at it for a few seconds, and handed it back to Shi Nansheng.

He scratched his head and laughed, "To be honest, I didn't read books when I was a kid. Many of the words here recognize me, but I don't recognize them."

Shi Nansheng didn't expect Chen Shilong to be illiterate. He was slightly surprised, then smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. I'll tell you."

Shi Nansheng explained to Chen Shilong the lyrics of the song "A Man Should Be Self-reliant" word by word, expressing its uplifting momentum and chivalrous spirit.

Chen Shilon Culture Co., Ltd. could not understand too much, but the frequently appearing words like "be a good man", "good man", and "hot-blooded and warm-hearted" made him quite satisfied.

"Zhai Yuan still has some talent. Nowadays, the lyrics of songs are all about love, which I don't like."

"Brother Long, let me play the original soundtrack recorded by our company's singer for you again."

Shi Nansheng then asked the waiter to bring a tape recorder. Zhai Yuan's original soundtrack was not good enough, so he asked Ye Yuqing to sing a new version in advance.

James Wong and Joseph Koo joined forces to create the accompaniment for "A Man Should Be Self-reliant" in three days.

It is worth mentioning that in later generations, people often took the accompaniment of this song and forcibly attributed it to the so-called famous Tang Dynasty song "General's Order", but in fact, "General's Order" has not been circulated in the world, and it may not even be a song from the Tang Dynasty. After all, there is a trace that this song appeared in the plot where Jia Mu ordered the song in the novel "Dream of Red Mansions".

This kind of fabrication is a common practice used by modern record companies to deliberately exaggerate the age of the music to raise its own value.

In fact, when Huang Zhan was composing the accompaniment for this song, he drew on Li Fangyuan's "New Pipa Scores of Thirteen Great Sets of the Northern and Southern Schools" from the late Qing Dynasty and Hua Qiuping's "The True Transmission of Pipa Scores of the Secret Books of the Two Schools of the Northern and Southern Schools", both of which are representative pieces of the Pinghu School of Pipa, and were later adapted into Zhejiang School of Zheng music.

It took James Wong and Joseph Koo three days to adapt the guzheng and pipa into a majestic orchestral piece, in accordance with Zhai Yuan's passionate and generous requirements, with dull and magnificent drum beats.

As soon as the classical and orchestral music of the prelude sounded.

Chen Shilong couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, feeling a sense of heroism coming towards him.

Immediately afterwards, Ye Yuqing's singing sounded from the loudspeaker. Her pitch and breath were certainly better than Zhai Yuan's, but her weak female voice was obviously not suitable for singing this song.

Chen Shilong listened and wondered: What would it feel like if I were to sing it myself?
So much so that at the end of the song, he couldn't help but hum along with the accompaniment.

As the song ended, the recorder button rebounded.

Shi Nansheng raised his lips and said, "How about it, Brother Long? Are you interested in this song?"

Chen Shilong's face was slightly moved, and he was also a little embarrassed: "After all, I am from Jiahe. Besides, your "Invisible Woman" just beat "Summer Lucky Stars". The two companies are competitors..."

In the summer blockbuster battle in July, "The Invisible Woman" narrowly defeated "My Lucky Stars" and led by 200,000 at the box office.

However, Chen Shilong did not care about it. This movie was not directed by him, and he was tired of making this kind of skit-style movies with no plot and relying entirely on jokes.

Otherwise, Shi Nansheng wouldn't have asked me out to chat with him until now.

Shi Nansheng saw Chen Shilong's dilemma and provoked him, "It's just a song. You don't need to ask Boss Zou for permission for even such a thing, do you?"

Chen Shilong was not willing to lose face in front of a woman, so he slammed the table and said, "Of course not! I can make the decision on such a small matter myself."

Shi Nansheng immediately took out a red envelope of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars from his bag, handed it to Chen Shilong and said, "Then I'll trouble you, Brother Long. You've heard this song, and I can't think of anyone else who would be suitable to sing it except you."

With constant encouragement and praise, Chen Shilong was in a difficult situation.

"Okay, since Zhai Yuan asked me for help, you should give me, your junior uncle, some face."

As soon as he finished speaking, Shi Nansheng took out another contract paper from his bag without hesitation.

"It's a deal. Let's sign a contract first..."

…………

Yanjing City.

Before Zhai Yuan left for the National Peking Opera Theater, he received a call from Shi Nansheng in Hong Kong on the hotel landline.

Shi Nansheng got straight to the point on the phone: "Mr. Zhai, Chen Shilong has signed the contract and agreed to help us record that song."

"Well done." Zhai Yuan held the receiver with a smile on his face. "I'll spend 100,000 yuan to hire Chen Shilong to help record the song. This time, the box office of Once Upon a Time in China will at least double. Prepare the movie poster in advance and find a way to get Chen Shilong to take a big head shot. Then put it in the most eye-catching position on the poster."

Shi Nansheng sighed softly on the other end of the phone.

So despicable!

This boss was in the mainland and actually controlled the situation remotely, deceiving Chen Shilon and even Jiahe.

Chen Shilong's influence in the Japanese market is unquestionable. Even if he only sang a song, his Japanese single "Tokyo Saturday Night" entered the Oricon charts as soon as it was released in 83, dominating the charts for 14 weeks and selling more than records, which is almost equivalent to ten platinum sales in the Hong Kong market.

And now Zhai Yuan not only wants him to sing, but also writes an inconspicuous clause in the contract that "the singer is obliged to cooperate with Jiuyi Entertainment's publicity and promotion."

The natural way to coordinate is to cover the movie poster of "Once Upon a Time in China" with Chen Shilong's face.

Then write a line of tiny words at the bottom of the poster, for example: Chen Shilong did not participate in the film, he only sang the theme song~
Just like when Sony released the movie "Kung Fu" later, it didn't matter whether there was a leading actor on the poster, but it must say "A Jackie Chan-style movie", and the letters "Jackie Chan" must be big, bold and marked in red.

"I really went to great lengths to help your Xu Qi promote his new film!"

Zhai Yuan raised his wrist to check the time and said to the person on the other end of the phone: "Okay, I won't tell you now. I have to go to an important meeting now. That's it~"

(End of this chapter)