Who are you calling "little fresh meat"? I'm the king.

Chapter 420 What a mess! (34)

Wang Jing, Zheng Qianli…

Ng Man-tat nodded: "During the most difficult time for Hong Kong films, it was indeed Wang Jing who ensured that everyone had food to eat."

As the 1990s drew to a close, Hong Kong cinema gradually declined. Its glorious era slowly came to an end amidst the laughter and tears of a generation, and its glamorous aura faded away.

If we can't start work, it means we won't have food to eat.

Many Hong Kong directors and actors have gone north to make money, but Wang Jing has remained steadfast in Hong Kong.

During that period, Wang Jing's 'Best Partner' film company continued to operate.

I made a bunch of movies.

In 1996 alone, they filmed three main "Young and Dangerous" movies, two spin-offs, "Young and Dangerous Girls: Showdown" and "Young and Dangerous 2: Storm of the Underworld," in addition to seven or eight other bad movies, including "666 Devil Resurrected," "Tales of the Strange," "God of Gamblers 3: The Young God of Gamblers," and "The Governor's Last Bodyguard"...

"He makes over a dozen films a year...supporting a large number of behind-the-scenes staff..."

"Uncle Da, why isn't Director Wang Jing contacting you anymore?"

"I'm getting old, and I don't really want to play the clown anymore..." Ng Man-tat smiled, "But we still keep in touch!"

Uh, Ng Man-tat and Wong King's last film together was "The King of Comedy" in 01...

I never contacted him again after that.

Guo Jingfei interjected, "Then... will he mind if I say that?"

"No, not at all," Shen Yan waved his hand, "Director Wang Jing is quite magnanimous..."

Ng Man-tat nodded: "Back when Man-Wong was a radio host, he often mocked Wong King and Lau Wai-Keung. Later, when Wong King was working at the Best Partner film company, they still hired him..."

"But I heard that Shuqi..."

Shu Qi is a film critic from Hong Kong and the editor-in-chief of Film Biweekly. He frequently criticizes Wang Jing's films in the magazine, believing that his works are both mercenary and popular. The two have a long-standing feud.

At that time, he was planning "The Jade Maiden Heart Sutra" and poached Lin Li-hui from Taiwan to Hong Kong. So he directly gave her the name Shu Qi, just to disgust the film critic Shu Qi!

It's probably not. The name was changed to attract attention on one hand, and on the other hand, it conforms to the principles of Five Elements and destiny...

Lin Li-hui's zodiac sign is Dragon, and dragons thrive when they enter the "Qi" water, which aligns with the "Three Talents Principle" of "harmonious year and favorable timing." Furthermore, Shu Qi's character "Qi" belongs to the water element, which matches Lin Li-hui's birth chart's favorable and unfavorable elements…

Yes, I consulted a fortune teller!
……

Director Wang Jing is very forgiving!

There are probably three reasons: they are clear about important matters, their creativity is approachable, and they make contributions to the industry.

These three points basically cover the main body of online public opinion, and people at all levels have a good impression of him, which has led to the current tolerant situation.

As for the much-touted investment in the "Tin Shui Wai" series...

This incident merely highlights how remarkable it is in Hong Kong for someone with a director's background to invest millions in making art films.

Perhaps his passion for film is strong enough, and there is still no absolute logical relationship between his love for movies and his frequent filmmaking and audience recognition.

The first two only require interest and connections, and even if you don't earn much, you can at least maintain a balance between income and expenditure through careful calculation.

However, the audience's recognition of Wang Jing is still based on the period before 97.

In fact, since the beginning of the 21st century, Wang Jing has been abandoned by audiences in his home base of Hong Kong. Under the premise of extremely high output, only the "From Vegas to Macau" series, which is tied to mainland capital and Chow Yun-fat and the sentiment of Lunar New Year films, and "Chasing the Dragon", which brings together Andy Lau and Donnie Yen and is a clumsy imitation of his old rival from the TVB era, Michael Mak, can gross more than ten million at the box office. The box office of the other dozens of films is very weak.

There was even an instance where, at the peak of his career, Tony Leung was a force to be reckoned with, but when he co-starred with the then-popular Shu Qi in Wang Jing's film "Love Is Sweet," the box office results were astonishing, setting a record low for Tony Leung between 2000 and 2024.

Later, Wang Jing jokingly attributed the incident to Tony Leung's problem—he signed a contract for five films, but lost money on every single one he made!
Mainland audiences had absolutely no recollection of this failed film, just like all the films Wang Jing made between 01 and 10.

"The Great Shanghai" is actually just a rehash of old material, like "Shanghai Bund"!

In fact, Hong Kong filmmakers have made quite a few films with Shanghai themes. Chang Cheh directed "Shanghai 1937," and Michael Mak wrote "The Shanghai Emperor"...

It didn't sell very well.

But Wang Jing didn't believe in bad luck and brought in Chow Yun-fat and Wong Siu-ming... The box office just exceeded 100 million, but compared to the cost of 150 million, the movie lost a lot of money.

However, thanks to "From Vegas to Macau" and the advantage of the Lunar New Year film season, they did make some money later...

Later, he returned to Hong Kong and made a few online movies every year to earn some money for his retirement.

……

The Lunar New Year film season has begun, and "Back to 1942" opened with 39% of screenings, totaling 19,000 screenings on its opening day, but its box office revenue was only 2555 million yuan…

This achievement is not only inferior to "The Big Shot", but it can't even compare to Feng Xiaogang's own "Aftershock" and "If You Are the One 2"!

What happened next... was even worse; it was actually overtaken by "Growing Pain," which had only been in theaters for 11 days...

The daily box office was surpassed by "Growing Pain"...

However, "Back to 1942" still consistently out-screened "Life of Pi"...

However, according to public opinion, Feng Xiaogang has already been discredited.

"After Ang Lee, there will be no more masters!"

"They knew they were using this kind of subject matter to make people cry! But they ended up injecting a lot of commercial elements!"

And what about 'Why monopolize IMAX theaters?'

Oh, after the release of *Back to 1942*, IMAX theaters only showed that one film; *Life of Pi* was pulled from theaters…

In fact, as early as six months ago, when "Back to 1942" was scheduled to be released at the end of the year, IMAX took the initiative to approach Huayi Brothers and signed an exclusive screening agreement!
The so-called exclusivity means that the film is exclusive – during the release of Huayi Brothers films, digital IMAX theaters across the country will only show Huayi Brothers films.

However, netizens don't care about any of that.

He started cursing Feng Xiaogang directly...

There was nothing he could do, so Feng Xiaogang also cursed the audience – he directly cursed them on Weibo.

"If you think I've offended you, don't watch this movie. If you do, you'll be 'tainting my film'!"

By the way, there was another film released at the same time, "The Last Supper," which received absolutely no attention—it had 10% more screenings than "Life of Pi" on its opening day, but its box office was only half of the latter's…

Then, Lu Chuan went mad…

During their promotional campaign, they claimed, "We hired an online army to maintain our reputation!"

This caused a huge uproar in the industry…

However, no one outside the circle cares.

As for his boast that "I didn't make 'The Feast at Hongmen,' but a completely new historical film about the Chu-Han Contention, simply telling the story of Liu Bang's life and power!"

Nobody cares...

There's hardly any discussion...

Shen Yan didn't bother to say anything; he was busy filming "Making a Name for Oneself".

In addition, the first episode of "Sound of My Dream" achieved a viewership rating of 2.3%, a truly dream start!

Shen Yan and Jike Junyi's rendition of "Leting Go," and Lin Junjie's performance of "The One I Miss," both trended on social media...

However, the premiere of "I Am a Singer" Season 2 also achieved a 2.6% viewership rating...

I bet on "Sound of My Dream"...

Shen Yan is going to get serious for the second episode!

They should directly ask the production team to invite Han Hong, so he can sing "As You Wish" with Han Hong, and also have Lin Junjie sing "Under the Flying Clouds" with Han Hong...

(End of this chapter)