1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 481 The Number One Spring Under Heaven

Zhao's "Invincible" is a modern action film.

Compared to the monotonous martial arts films of the past, Mona Fong's team has indeed made a great deal of innovation in this regard.

How did established film companies make movies in the past?

The screenwriters sit together, randomly come up with a name for a fist or leg technique, spend the first thirty minutes introducing the martial art, the next thirty minutes showing the protagonist practicing, and the last thirty minutes showing a chaotic free-for-all. That's how they make a film that can be released.

With market advancements and changing aesthetic tastes, this type of film has become a thing of the past.

What's remarkable about "Invincible" is that it has absorbed the foundation of fashion action films from its old rival, Golden Harvest.

Unfortunately, it failed to grasp the essence of short dramas. The very first action scene took a full three minutes to film, which is equivalent to two episodes' worth of content. While the action sequences designed by TVB's martial arts team were certainly flashy, they were meaningless to the audience of short dramas.

The plot is also unable to escape the shackles of old-fashioned thinking, which is to say that it dares not let loose and brag.

In "Dragon King," Zheng Yijian's business empire is worth hundreds of billions, and he is surrounded by beautiful women. However, "Invincible" still considers the logic of reality, focusing on the characters' motivations, and occasionally includes the love triangle that is typical of Hong Kong dramas...

"Professionals who tried to profit from the short drama market failed in the end. TVB is not the first, nor will it be the last."

Zhai Yuan thought about how later those so-called big stars and directors, including Stephen Chow, all coveted the short drama market and mobilized their forces to compete, but the final products they made were not as popular as some of the young people who had just started out.

The salaries of established short drama actors far surpass those of long drama and movie stars. One top short drama actress even drove a group of high-ranking celebrities who acted as mentors crazy with her statement, "The money I earn in one day of filming a short drama is equivalent to what it takes a month to film a long drama." This was followed by a barrage of negative searches and insults.

What were the affairs of the Six Dynasties? They were nothing but private schemes and schemes.

"The most important thing is to make money. Art and other pursuits are things you can only consider if you have enough to eat."

Fortunately, Zhai Yuan now controls the only distribution channel in the short drama market.

No matter how well VCDs and CDs sell, most people will think that it's because Kuaibo Technology is making money, and they won't want to drag the battle into their own private schemes.

When Zhai Yuan began experimenting with short dramas and allowed TVB to join the collaboration, and did not intend to reject other content producers in the future,

Kuaibo Technology was no longer a purely industrial company, but instead developed platform attributes, moving closer to the direction of Netflix, Youku, iQiyi, and Tencent Video.

June arrived quickly.

The long-awaited film "Swordsman" by Shi Nansheng and Xu Ke has officially hit theaters this summer.

It's worth mentioning that the "Salty May Days" trend started by 91 Entertainment seems to have become an unwritten rule.
In the first two months, a large number of Category III films were released.

Jiahe commissioned He Pan to direct "Night Passion," a film featuring three women and one husband, with a five-star level of eroticism, while the plot was so-so.

On October 1024th, Wang Jinhua rushed to produce a film called "Ghost Meets Man" in just over a month. The plot was a blatant rip-off of Spielberg's "Poltergeist." Not only did she cast Xia Wenxi as the lead actress who sells sex appeal, but she also invited Rosamund Kwan to make a cameo appearance. The promotional poster featured the two beautiful women in the center, which tricked many lewd viewers into coming to the theater because of Rosamund Kwan's striptease.

Meanwhile, Xinbao Cinema Alliance imported the Italian film "Bilisa's Lover 2" in May for promotion, packaging it as a high-quality, erotic, and suspenseful movie.

After the three major adult films eliminated other films of the same genre, a real box office battle ensued.

As a result, "Bilibili's Lover 2" became the most sensational and commercially successful film in May due to its excellent quality. The French porn star Fernando Guerin, who played the female lead, outshone a group of Hong Kong and Taiwanese porn stars with her pretty face and hot body.

That same year, Taiwan introduced a new "admission-restricted" film rating system, allowing nude scenes of men and women that had previously needed to be cut to be retained.

The quick-thinking film producers immediately brought Category III films to Taiwan.

"Bilibili's Lover 2" not only dominated Hong Kong, but also surpassed Letterman's "Ghostbusters" and Cameron's "The Abyss" upon arriving in Taiwan, and topped the box office charts for the first half of the year along with Kyoko Aizen's other Category III film "First Time in Love".

While this may be partly due to Taiwan's recent relaxation of censorship of Category III films, and the resulting market backlash against the perceived suppression of certain content, it's important to remember that this situation has contributed to the overall positive market reaction.
However, the fact that Hong Kong films could not compete with Western films was already beginning to show signs of this, and it was not something that happened overnight.

"Now even erotic films are gradually being caught up by Western films. I wonder if this month's 'Swordsman' can hold on."

"It's hard to say. There hasn't been a big hit in martial arts films for a long time. Besides, Brigitte Lin is a Qiong Yao heroine. How can she play Dongfang Bubai?"

"Look at Mr. Zhai's work. His martial arts drama 'The World's Number One' also carved out a niche for itself among a bunch of modern dramas..."

Within the Film Association,

Besides feeling anxious about the Western film trend sparked by "Bilibili's Lover 2", I am also more curious about the market response to Brigitte Lin's "Swordsman".

Zhai Yuan finally directed a commercial film and returned to his positions as producer and screenwriter.

But after a series of art films, can this child prodigy rediscover his original aspirations and achieve commercial success?
At least during the promotion of "Swordsman" featuring Jet Li and Brigitte Lin, many people harbored doubts.

7 month 1 day,
Zhai Yuan led Peng Jiayan and Shi Nansheng into a theater under the 1024 Group.

The cast and crew of "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer" interacted with the audience who were queuing to enter the venue.

Zhai Yuan sat by the second-floor window and asked Shi Nansheng, "By the way, what movies is Jiahe showing this summer?"

Shi Nansheng said, "Chen Shilong went to South Korea to promote his film 'Miracle.' Since he didn't have any new films during the summer season, he borrowed Zeng Zhiwei and Wang Jin from the Film Association to make a fantasy comedy called 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.'"

Upon hearing this, Zhai Yuan thought for a moment, realizing he didn't have much of an impression of the film, and then asked with interest, "Where's Hong Xinbao? Big Brother went to South Korea to promote his new film, so it should have been Big Brother who took his place. Why did they use Zeng Zhiwei and Wang Jin instead?"

Shi Nansheng smiled and said, "Jiahe is no longer willing to invest money in Hong Xinbao. He brought in an investment from Taiwan himself and, as far as I know, is rushing to produce a film called 'Dragon and Phoenix,' hoping to take over the second half of the summer season."

Zhai Yuan still has some impression of this drama. Lin Zhengying was killed instantly, Li Zhi played a chubby country woman, and Yuan Jieying played a prostitute who died tragically on the street... It's a pity that Li Zhi is now Zhai's daily secretary. Even if the original cast were to be reunited, this drama would lose a major highlight.

As the 1990s approached, Hung Hsin-pao suffered a series of losses on several big-budget productions, marking a major setback in his career.

Even without Dickson Poon as his boss, he still has extensive connections in Taiwan, so attracting investment to make new films is still not a problem.

But the production costs of the films kept decreasing, and he eventually went from being a director back to an actor. Later, even acting became difficult, so he went on to become a martial arts choreographer... His popularity never returned to the peak when he worked with Chen Shilong.

Of course, the seniority still applies; otherwise, he wouldn't have used that sarcastic "Master Xing" in a tea restaurant, making Liu Zhenwei and Zhou Xingchi uneasy.

Hong Xinbao could never have imagined that the "Master Xing" he mocked would later become a legend. Originally a term used to curse, Zhou Xingchi, who used to get angry whenever he heard it, eventually accepted it calmly. Even though he still asked his subordinates to call him "Mr. Zhou," he no longer objected to outsiders calling him "Master Xing."

However, later on the set of "Kung Fu Hustle," Hong Xinbao was outmaneuvered and lost face.

So this is what they call karma... Zhai Yuan yawned, thinking that he had also been called "Master Yuan" by Hong Xinbao, and couldn't help but laugh.

However, since my nephew Pang has reformed and spoke up at the Golden Horse Awards, we should still give him some praise.

"When you have some free time, tell Hong Xinbao to lose some weight!"

Zhai Yuan said to Shi Nansheng, "Audiences are tired of him playing those comical fat guy roles all the time. Let him get bigger and tanned, and we'll arrange for him to try out a few roles in the future."

“Okay, I’ll contact him.” Shi Nansheng nodded, not at all surprised.

at the same time,

The celebrity meet-and-greet in the lobby on the first floor is also coming to an end.

The high ticket price of 1024 naturally comes with value-added services. Every time a new film is released, there is always a chance to get up close and personal with the stars. No matter how big the star is, everyone must attend. To some extent, it has become a trendsetter for fans chasing stars. So much so that when "The Host" was released, overseas audiences came to see Chen Shilong.

However, this summer, in addition to meeting celebrities, the audience also discovered some other differences.

The snack counter at 1024 Cinema has been redesigned.

Two cartoon panda figures, one male and one female, stand in front of the counter, and the popcorn tubes in the display case have all been replaced with panda images, with the brand name "Tuantuan" written in eye-catching simplified Chinese characters on them.

Keen-eyed fans also noticed that both Jet Li and Brigitte Lin from the "Swordsman" cast were holding a bottle of a beverage they had never seen before. It was in a plastic bottle and the brand name was "Yuan Yuan".

Under the live camera lens of a television news program,

A long-planned marketing campaign quietly unfolded.

An anonymous reporter from the September 1st Daily News took the initiative to ask, "Ms. Brigitte Lin, I noticed you've been carrying this plastic bottle of soda all day. It seems to be quite rare to see it on the market."

During this period, the soft drink market in Hong Kong was booming, with Coca-Cola firmly holding the top spot, while brands such as Watsons Pharmacy's Gora Soft Drink, Green Treasure's Fresh Orange Juice, and Vita International's Vita Milk competed with each other.

The packaging mostly uses glass bottles. Over the past century, the glass bottles have evolved from a cannonball shape to a pig snout shape, and now to a flat bottom and straight body.

This also gave rise to the famous scene of a soda bottle exploding in someone's head, a common sight in Hong Kong movies.

Despite the rapid development of Hong Kong's plastics industry, soft drinks are still rarely packaged in plastic bottles, and aluminum cans and paper packaging are even rarer.

When asked by reporters, Brigitte Lin casually yet perfectly displayed the logo of Yuan Yuan brand soda in front of the camera: "You mean this? This is a health drink that a friend gave me when I went to the mainland to film this time."

The reporter, speaking with an exaggerated tone as if doing a TV marketing campaign, asked, "Healthy water?"

Lin Qingxia smiled and said, "That's right, it's said to be natural mineral water extracted from Yuquan Mountain in Yanjing City."

Li Lianjie shook the bottle in his hand in surprise: "Really? I thought your friend gave us tap water. The water from Yuquan Mountain is amazing!"

Reporter: "Oh? Brother Jie, can you introduce yourself to me?"

Li Lianjie: "In mainland China, we call the water of Yuquan Mountain the No. 1 spring under heaven. Back then, Emperor Qianlong used a specially made silver dou to measure it and found that one dou of water from Yuquan Mountain weighed one liang (50 grams), while the water from other famous springs such as Baotu Spring, Jinshan Spring, and Hupao Spring weighed more. This shows that the spring water here has the fewest impurities, so the water of Yuquan Mountain was used exclusively by the royal family in the past."

No matter what, you can always believe in Jay's ability to brag.

Zhai Yuan sat on the second floor and for a moment he was stunned, as if he saw that what he was holding in his hand was not mineral water, but a string of dzi beads.

Perhaps he's the most suitable person to star in short dramas!

He really believed it!

Sigh, we've gone astray...

Reporter: "So, Sister Qingxia, you've been drinking Yuquan Mountain water, which is why your complexion has improved so much lately?"

Brigitte Lin: "It should work, because it's natural spring water, without any syrup or dyes, so you don't have to worry about gaining weight no matter how much you drink. And the actresses in our crew have been washing their faces with this natural spring water while filming in mainland China. I didn't feel anything myself, but Ah-min and Ah-zhen seem to have gotten fairer."

The camera then cut to the faces of two beautiful women, Zhang Min and Ye Quanzhen.

Eighteen or nineteen-year-old girls have such fair and tender skin that you could pinch their cheeks and they'd be plump and moist!
"Where can I buy it?"

"A friend gave it to me, so I'm not really sure about the details. But she's the owner of the Golden House Club, you could try asking there. Anyway, let's not talk about that, it sounds like I'm advertising something. Let's talk about the movie instead..."

Next to the tea room on the second floor
Zhai Yuan and Peng Jiayan sat facing each other, enjoying the soft advertising and marketing extravaganza unfolding downstairs.

Peng Jiayan curled her lip and glanced at Zhai Yuan: "Even at a time like this, you still don't forget to advertise your Golden House Club!"

"What do you know about metal?!" Zhai Yuan glared at her. "For snacks, you only need to focus on the taste. Even if you come up with all sorts of creative ideas for drinks, can you compete with Coca-Cola? So you need to focus on health and open up a new market to grab users. Where in Hong Kong best represents health? Of course, it's my Golden House Club! Every coach there is a former bodybuilding champion, officially certified!"

Peng Jiayan was taken aback, but had to admit that Zhai Yuan's words did make sense.

Since she caught Zhai Yuan and Senior Sister Xue having an affair, Peng Jiayan was heartbroken and took a team of lawyers to the mainland the next day.

The first stop was Beijing. From the capital, they made a remote contact with the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan and bought out the trademark rights to two pandas for 50,000 yuan each.

In the early days of trademark licensing in mainland China, there were few philanthropists like Peng Jiayan who would proactively offer money. Leaders of the Bashu Forestry Department were so eager to fly to Beijing to meet this benefactor that they personally selected two healthy and lively panda cubs for her, and all the necessary paperwork was expedited and faxed to Beijing.

Then, after negotiating with leaders in Beijing, they successively obtained a series of permits, including water resource survey reports, water source exploration permits, mineral water extraction permits, and health permits, for three regions: Yuquanshan in Beijing, Qiandao Lake in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Jiuhuashan in Anhui.

"Getting these permits was relatively easy, costing only a few thousand yuan in total, but the subsequent expenses for building the factory are huge."

Peng Jiayan did some calculations and muttered to herself, "I originally only wanted to do a snack business, but you dragged me into this mess and I'm getting deeper and deeper into it. I don't know if I'll go bankrupt!"

"Don't worry, Wan'en and I will also contribute money."

Zhai Yuan smiled and continued, "We're partners now. If you don't trust me, don't you trust your Senior Sister Xue?"

In 1989, Hahawa was still selling children's oral liquid, the person in charge of Farmer's Three Fists was still growing mushrooms, selling curtains, and raising prawns, and Longhui mineral water in mainland China was only used to entertain foreign affairs activities...

Zhai Yuan, Xue Wan'en, and Peng Jiayan, as the three major shareholders of "Reunion," entered the market early to make their moves.

There is money to be made!
(End of this chapter)