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

Chapter 686 Wesley (23)

We chatted briefly about "The Martian"...

Catherine Lok was referring to the fact that "in its early years, Shaw Brothers also experimented with science fiction films..."

"I know, it's Zhang Guoming's 'Interstellar Blunt Tire'!"

When Star Wars entered Hong Kong, many Hong Kong film companies wanted to create their own science fiction films.

Shaw Brothers produced Zhang Guoming's "Starship Trophy," while Golden Harvest produced "The New Legend of Shushan Swordsman"...

Neither film was a box office success, but *Star Trek* was clearly a bigger failure…

"And 'King of the Apes'..."

"That...isn't it a cyan plate?"

Wang Jing shook his head: "It's not too bad... The main reason for producing 'King of the Apes' was that Golden Harvest imported 'King Kong: The Legend Reborn'... Shaw Brothers was thinking of competing with them..."

"But I only remember Evelynja..."

King of the Apes is a mix of King Kong and Tarzan, with Evelyn Garfield being a female Tarzan whose character is characterized by her dislike of wearing clothes...

There's a saying that goes something like this: You might think that advanced technology will become cheaper with technological progress, but a beautiful body won't!
Shaw Brothers invested heavily in importing a complete on-screen photography system specifically for "King of the Apes"!
By the way, "King of the Apes" did poorly at the box office, grossing less than HK$125 million in Hong Kong.
However, Evelyn Gardner quickly took on another Shaw Brothers production, "The Detective Girl," which featured her as a womanizer and sold for HK$770 million!
If you were the head of Shaw Brothers, what would you choose?
Also, here's a little-known fact: Run Run Shaw wasn't satisfied with losing money on a Hong Kong sci-fi film, so he invested in a Hollywood sci-fi film, which resulted in him losing everything. That sci-fi film was called "Blade Runner"!
Wang Jing changed the subject: "The Martian's vision and pacing are absolutely top-notch!"

"We've been polishing the script for over two years..."

"Were all the special effects done by mainland Chinese special effects companies?"

"Yes...we built many of the devices!"

"That spacesuit..."

"They were custom-made by the space agency... We ordered a total of 40 sets, and each set cost over 200,000 yuan!"

Wang Jing nodded: "So, sci-fi films really do need a lot of money!"

……

In fact, many Hong Kong directors have made science fiction films, including Cheung Kwok-ming, Tsui Hark, Lau Chun-wai, Stephen Chow, and Wong Jing!

However, they're all pretty knock-offs...

They also dare not make large investments.

Ultimately, Hong Kong has never been an industrial city. Its culture lacks modern and industrial elements, and it doesn't have enough tech-savvy people to support a large enough audience for science fiction.

Moreover, the population is too small to support the industrial base required for science fiction films!

Tomorrow's War has already reached its limit...

But it still doesn't look good!

A perfectly good sci-fi film has been turned into a police thriller. Hong Kong doesn't understand technology, military affairs, politics, and now even life, so it simply can't produce decent sci-fi movies.

However, Hong Kong is a city perfectly suited for one type of science fiction: cyberpunk!

Wang Jing then started talking about... "The Wesley Blue-Blooded Man".

His own science fiction film.

Well, they didn't mention "Future X-Cops," probably because they felt it wasn't good enough to be shown.

"I spent two years on special effects for 'The Blue Blood' back then..."

"Therefore, I admire Director Wang for daring to try science fiction!"

"Have you read the Wesley series?" Shen Yan shook his head: "I read two chapters, and then I lost interest."

Wang Jing asked in surprise, "Why?"

"I feel like Wesley is a super-omnipotent alien. He's actually an early example of 'deus ex machina' in popular works. A similar example is the Goddess Yuanji in 'Ice Fantasy,' who's more straightforward and is simply a god..."

……

The Wesley series…

Ni Kuang's masterpiece!

Someone once commented on Wesley: In the postwar era of material scarcity, it provided readers with a sense of spiritual comfort or a dream.

The original Wesley possessed extraordinary skills and spent his days exploring the world, constantly dealing with aliens and strange creatures.

This Sun Wukong character design is most likely to capture the hearts of young people, and his stories are less science fiction and more supernatural, detective, or even horror novels. The suspense and horror that unfold step by step are what make them so captivating and engaging.

However, the series becomes almost unwatchable as it progresses—the Wesley family are all deities, experiencing all sorts of miraculous adventures, which leads to the later scenario where any aliens coming to Earth to do something private needing their permission first, otherwise it's considered an evil conspiracy…

It's understandable that Wang Jing admires "The Blue-Blooded Man." "The Blue-Blooded Man" is the fourth story in the "Wesley" series, published between 64 and 65. It is also the first book in the series to explicitly feature aliens, which was groundbreaking at the time and made it very famous!
Wang Jing wasn't the only one to direct "The Blue-Blooded Man"; Nicky Wu's version of "The Young King" also had a "Blue Passion" segment...

Later, there was also the web series "The Adventurer Wesley: The Blue-Blooded Man", starring Shawn Yue.

This must be the dream I had when I was young...

……

"Actually, compared to mainland commercial films, I feel that Hong Kong filmmakers have a faster pace..."

Shen Yan shook his head: "But you don't understand mainland audiences. There's a cultural gap, and that's fatal!"

He paused for a moment, then added, "I've seen some comments from Hong Kong filmmakers, like Derek Kwok, who said, 'Chinese people making science fiction films will definitely fail miserably'... But The Martian was a success!"

In fact, not only Derek Kwok, but also Christopher Doyle criticized "The Martian," saying that the film was "insincere" and did not conform to "universal values"...

Perhaps if they changed the main character to a white person, they would be more used to watching it!
They're just not used to the leapfrog progress of mainland Chinese films...

Look, Hong Kong cinema has been in decline for 20 years, yet Hong Kong filmmakers still maintain that arrogant attitude.

To be honest, maintaining a superior attitude is fine, the problem is that your market is currently inland...

How do you manage to eat while complaining about food?

Wang Jing glanced at Le Yiling, then asked Shen Yan, "So, you came to Hong Kong simply to film 'Zhou Chu'?"

"Yes... I registered it with Sil-Metropole; otherwise, movies of this scale wouldn't pass censorship in mainland China!"

Virginia Lok said, "I heard you're planning to remake a Shaw Brothers martial arts film?"

"It's not a remake I did..." Shen Yan explained, "Tencent Video Platform wanted to make online movies and collaborated with us. We also wanted to discover more talent through online movies, so we jointly established a company to specialize in online movies... But it was difficult to find suitable subjects, so we simply partnered with Shaw Brothers..."

"Shaw Brothers' martial arts films?"

“Yes,” Shen Yan nodded, “Let’s shoot two first, ‘Love Slave’ and ‘Evil’, to test the waters… mainly to explore the limits of online films!”

"Are online movies not allowed to be shown in theaters?"

"Correct!"

Wang Jing nodded: "I understand, Golden Harvest tried that back then too!"

(End of this chapter)