1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 429: Fu Yi Follows the Trend Again

In late May, "The Silence of the Lambs" landed in Hong Kong.

After reaping a round of box office success in Taiwan, Hopkins and Zhang Manyu set off a new round of box office boom in Hong Kong.

Taiwan’s box office statistics have always only published data for the northern part of the island, although the box office statistics for the entire island have not been fully compiled.

However, based on the performance of more than 10 million in the north of the island, it can be roughly estimated that the box office of this movie in the entire island will be about three times.

As a film that was released overseas for the first time, the amount converted into Hong Kong dollars was enough to cover the production costs. It sounds like just reversing the order, but it attracted the attention of many Hong Kong filmmakers.

This is the second time that Jiuyi Entertainment has used overseas locations as a touchstone since "Hiroshima Monster", and it has proven that as long as the quality is high enough, there is no need to sharpen the knife against Hong Kong as a touchstone. Instead, it can use publicity in overseas locations as a selling point and feed back to the local film market.

'In the darkness, the only light is the courage to face oneself. The price of redemption is to face one's deepest fear.'

In order to cope with local censorship rules, the "Jiuyi Daily" was quite restrained in its publicity in the Xingjiaopo area, intensifying the suspense and philosophical depth of the film.

Finally, "The Silence of the Lambs", a movie with a villain as the protagonist, deleted some bloody scenes like the Taiwan version, but added a scene where Hannibal was arrested before boarding the plane, and successfully obtained the approval for release from the relevant authorities.

But in Hong Kong there are no such concerns at all.

The entire film remained uncut, and the news coverage was quite bold, pushing the ratings system to the extreme.

'Hong Kong on alert! A cannibal ate the prison guard's face alive and escaped from Stanley Prison. He scared you to death on the streets at midnight!'

'Evil professor vs. new senior sister, Zhang Manyu's legs went weak at the words "I smell your private parts".'

'Hollywood superstar Hopkins joins the cast, the brain-eating professor plays a useless policeman, a human skin tailor + live dissection, heart disease patients beware! '

Even though the rating system has been introduced for two and a half years under the promotion of the Film Association, no one has ever played with it so wildly.

Therefore, Zhai Yuan feels that Hong Kong filmmakers really lack creativity.

They must be given a topic to write on so that their thinking can be expanded. Otherwise, they will just be constantly following the trend and rehashing old ideas.

This "Silence of the Lambs" alone was later followed by many other films such as "Rainy Night Devil" and "Moonlight Shining", in which Francis Ng and Ray Lui successively "paid tribute" to Hannibal's high-IQ criminal.

Be innovative, don’t just follow the trend!
Zhai Yuan told Shi Nansheng about this idea.

The next day, Sister Nan gathered all her colleagues in the company to convey Boss Zhai’s original spirit.

First comes the director, then the publicity and promotion.

"91 Entertainment used to make pornographic Category III films, and they have been copied from the publicity to the content of the films until now."

Shi Nansheng looked at the exaggerated slogans in the newspaper and said, "Once The Silence of the Lambs is released, there will probably be a large number of copycat crime-themed movies in Hong Kong, which will continue to use these sensational headlines."

When the colleagues in the publicity department were swept by Manager Shi's gaze, they all smiled awkwardly and kept silent.

In the past, everyone's work was based on a template routine. The promotion of a kung fu film must be "punch to the flesh", a horror film must be "scared to the point of pissing", a comedy must be "laughing until you fall to the ground"... there was a specific set of vocabulary.

"Read more gossip tabloids or the headlines of the September 1st Daily. Times have changed. Now that rivals are introducing Western films, audiences are becoming more and more discerning. It's not like in the past that just printing a few posters of big stars can attract audiences."

Shi Nansheng mentioned the newly established independent distribution company. Since becoming a shareholder of the entertainment group, Sister Nan's aura has become stronger and stronger.

The two heads of the distribution department, Cai Lan, who has extensive connections, and Zeng Zhiwei, who is good at dealing with people, one is responsible for the Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand markets, while the other is responsible for the Hong Kong and Formosa markets, both nodded to show that they understood. They exchanged glances with smiles on their faces, and had already made up their minds to go back and remove a group of conservative people who are not conservative and let young people who can keep up with the trend take over.

……

"It doesn't have to be as ugly as layoffs and dismissals."

After learning that Shi Nansheng had criticized his colleagues in the publicity department with "The Silence of the Lambs",

Zhai Yuan smiled noncommittally and said, "In the future, if the film is to be released in the north, the distribution company can be divided into two groups. Uncle Cai Lan will be responsible for the mainland and Singapore and Malaysia, while Zeng Zhiwei will continue to make gimmicks in places like Hong Kong and Formosa."

Establishing his own distribution company is the last wall that Zhai Yuan has added to the house of Jiuyi Entertainment. In addition to promoting the content, he is also responsible for the distribution of the disc market.

Prior to this, Jiuyi Entertainment outsourced its publicity and promotion expenses to outside companies, which often took around 10% of the commission for each play, which was more expensive than the copying cost, and the opaque pricing made it easier for a premium to be generated.

"For now, we can maintain the two teams, but once we enter the American, Japanese and Korean markets, the distribution department will have to continue to expand... There's no need to rush for now."

After becoming the boss of a listed company, Zhai Yuan rarely interfered in the company's business and almost became a tool man only responsible for signing.

After briefly explaining the future direction of the distribution business, he continued to ask Shi Nansheng: "Besides the third-level film "The Silence of the Lambs" this month, is there another pornographic film missing?"

"Xia Wenxi was the lead actress, and a few Japanese porn stars were invited to film the movie 'Jin Ping Mei: The Legend of the Condor Heroes'."

Shi Nansheng added: "The director is Li Dawei."

Zhai Yuan thought about it briefly and had no impression of this drama at all. However, the Film Association now has sufficient support, and many Hong Kong films are different from the parallel timeline. There are often original masterpieces that have never been heard of. Although they failed to become a box office phenomenon, they have enriched the disc inventory of Qvod Film Company.

"Let's focus on promoting The Silence of the Lambs. Pornographic films were a gimmick when the cinema chain was first established. It's enough to maintain a production of about three films per year. The big screens in the cinemas will be reserved for the stars who can be promoted, and the porn stars can just shine in the disc market."

Three pornographic films every year, until the discs flood the mainland, it can accumulate to a considerable number.

Boss Zhai feels that he has done his best to live up to the future mainland audiences.

Anyway, he himself doesn't watch it now, and he has no interest in the discs produced by his own ToKyo Hot in Japan. He makes pornographic movies purely to give back to the audience and do charity.

"Okay, I'll contact Manager Qian."

Shi Nansheng took note of this, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "After the release of Fuyi Film Company's "A Better Tomorrow," they set their sights on Leung Ka Fai and Jet Li."

Zhai Yuan heard this and asked curiously, "Tell me about it."

"The quality of 'A Better Tomorrow' is better than the previous film 'God of Gamblers'. Fuyi seems to think that filming underworld culture is a new track."

Shi Nansheng frowned and said dissatisfiedly: "So this time they targeted Lam Ling Tung's Prison on Fire, and brought together Wan Ziliang, Liang Jiahui and Li Lianjie to create a so-called "New Prison on Fire."

With Zhai Yuan's tacit approval, Shi Nansheng no longer interferes with the actors' film contracts. Of course, it's useless to interfere. Cai Ziming still uses guns to pave the way, which is more than enough to threaten a few actors.

With Zhou Xingchi and Wan Ziliang as two role models, other actors also felt that Jiuyi Entertainment could not protect them, and when they received the bullet script again, they had to bite the bullet and go to Fuyi Studios.

Wan Ziliang, the leading male character of "91", followed Zhai Yuan's instructions and praised Cai Ziming as a good boss and an excellent filmmaker in front of the camera. The outside world was unaware of the situation, so much so that "Film Biweekly" opened a special column to report positively on the newly established Fuyi Film Company and its boss.

"How can Jet Li play a young and dangerous man with that face?"

"In Prison on Fire, he was cast as a big circle boy, fighting against the local gang leader Wan Ziliang in prison. This time, it is Leung Ka Fai who plays the policeman..."

Shi Nansheng apparently learned the story of the script from the actors and briefly introduced the plot to Zhai Yuan.

Zhai Yuan nodded after hearing this.

Putting aside other things, Fuyi's "Prison On Fire" this time has a more complete story structure than the previous "A Better Tomorrow". On the basis of the realism of the previous work, it has added Jet Li's fighting scenes and Wan Ziliang's double guns. It has gradually deviated from reality and moved towards stimulating the dopamine of movie fans.

It can be seen that even if it is just following the trend, after shooting three films in succession, Fuyi Film Company has gradually figured out the market's preferences.

The most difficult comedy to make is one that cannot be filmed well even with the script of "God of Gamblers 2", so let's stick to our old business, use the most familiar community culture to attract audiences, use gunfights and action to stimulate dopamine, and fill the current market gap in Hong Kong films.

"If Cai Ziming keeps making this type of film, maybe he can make a gang movie like "Young and Dangerous" disguised as a martial arts film in the future."

Zhai Yuan pondered in his heart.

But obviously, we won't be able to wait until he grows up to be a gangster film tycoon.

In between cleaning up Szeto Ming-chu and Mark Simon, I left some time for the development of Fuyi Film Company. Now that I have freed up my hands, it is almost time to let this new Hong Kong movie boss take the blame, and by the way, shock other foreign dragons who have come from overseas...

(End of this chapter)