The world begins with Hong Kong movies

Chapter 796 Things Are Different Now! (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
Upon seeing the magnificent scenery of Poyang Lake again, Zhang Yimou was quite moved.

At this time, he was already considered a rising star in the film industry.

He came with the film crew this time, serving as the chief cinematographer for the new collaborative film, "The Suppression of Bandits in Poyang Lake"!
The success of the "Guerrilla Force" series is too dazzling. It has not only caused a sensation in China, but also achieved considerable box office performance in Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asia.

A single film can earn at least HK$20 million in revenue, which is highly valued even in Beijing during this era of foreign exchange shortage.

And so, the county government has the idea of ​​striking while the iron is hot.

It's just a kung fu movie; there are plenty of suitable stories for it.

After research, we finally chose the bandit suppression series!

The main point is that it can be made into a series!
Having already tasted the benefits, they naturally want to maintain it.

Even if the box office performance is not half or even a third of that of "Guild Team", it is still a success for the county.

As a result, the Guangxi Film Studio, a partner organization, sent Zhang Yimou and other employees to produce a new film.

The film crew stayed at the same budget-friendly guesthouse.

However, this time the film crew only occupied one side of the building.

The other two sides are inhabited by tourists and other film crews.

Indeed, with the popularity of "Guardian Team", other film crews have gradually come to Poyang Lake to shoot related films.

Unfortunately, without Wu Aiguo's help in writing the script and overseeing the filming schedule, it would be virtually impossible to replicate the success of "Guild Team".

Perhaps the "Guild Team" series made too much money, which directly led to a somewhat abnormal state in the mainland film industry.

After all, it's quite exaggerated that a single movie can earn more foreign exchange than an average prefecture-level city.

Or perhaps, the higher-ups have tasted the benefits and are no longer so enthusiastic about those famous movies that don't make much money.

Unless they can win one of the three major European film awards or an Oscar-level film award, it's difficult for higher-ups to promote them too highly.

In fact, the domestic film industry has been affected, with a surge of kung fu films in recent years.

Traditional kung fu films like "The Eight Trigrams Staff of Wulang", "Invincible Mandarin Duck Legs", and "Bonnie and Clyde" have been frequently released.

They also tried to screen the films on Hong Kong Island through Sil-Metropole Organisation, but the box office results were not ideal. However, they still generated a lot of buzz in mainland China.

Well, before the rise of Hong Kong films, audiences really enjoyed watching traditional kung fu movies like those made by Shaw Brothers in the 1960s and 70s, and that's a fact.

As reform and opening up progressed, life became less comfortable and stable for film studios across the country.

It's hard to say about other film studios, but the Guangxi Film Studio is certainly very ambitious.

If we can learn the filming model of "Guild Team", at least the survival of film studios will not be a problem in the future.

Guangxi Province is also a great place to film various kung fu movies.

The county provided the script and a complete storyboard, which the Guangxi Film Studio quickly organized its core screenwriting team to study and analyze carefully.

Well, I did gain quite a bit.

The story needs to be complete, the pace needs to be fast, and the action scenes should ideally be real, given the production budget.

When Zhang Yimou returned to Poyang Lake, he had a different feeling.

The roads within the territory are flat and clean, without the noticeable bumps and jolting experienced in other places.

The number of vehicles on the road has increased significantly.

Upon entering the city, the number of bicycles increased significantly, and the number of shops lining both sides of the road was considerably greater than three years ago. The original open-air markets had now transformed into large central markets spanning three to five stories.

There are many new buildings along the shore of Poyang Lake.

It's clear that most of them are budget guesthouses.

At the same time, there are also many different kinds of shops.

There were quite a few guests coming and going, and they were clearly tourists from other places.

Clearly, the Poyang Lake area has developed very well in recent years.

To be honest, it feels more comfortable than the urban areas of ordinary prefecture-level cities.

In fact, the area where the film crew is located is currently a designated filming area and a tourist area.

There are other areas where relatively rudimentary river transport systems have been established, and those are truly bustling.

Even after all the actors arrived, problems still arose on set.

As several crew members were led out of their guesthouse rooms by local police, the atmosphere among the crew was quite somber.

The person in charge of the express guesthouse has changed.

But he was always accompanied by two burly men, who were clearly not to be trifled with.

The crew inquired about the specifics and learned that those crew members had violated the rules here.

"Playing cards in private is not allowed in this guesthouse!"

"According to them, if you want to play cards, you have to go to the nearby card and board game center. Otherwise, they'll catch you one by one and you'll all be detained in the police station for a few days and fined. There's no room for negotiation!"

Zhang Yimou was very curious after hearing this explanation.

Taking advantage of his free time, he made a special trip to the so-called chess and card center nearby.

Wow, seeing the scale of the card and board game center, and the rows of card tables under the sunshades with probably no fewer than a hundred tables, I couldn't help but widen my eyes.

At this time, the huge chess and card center was about 80% full.

"Isn't this unnecessary?"

Curious, he asked the guide beside him, "These card players don't give up easily!"

"That's easy to manage!"

The guide sighed, "Just think about it, if we don't actively control it, there will be gambling everywhere in the county and the countryside!"

"Leaving aside social trends, all sorts of other things will emerge. According to the propaganda, people don't earn money easily, so don't squander it all at the gambling table!"

Zhang Yimou nodded subconsciously, and thinking about the scene of people playing cards everywhere in the county and countryside, he couldn't help but shudder.

"Besides, the publicity made it very clear that the venue has been set up properly. If they still want to play cards in secret, it's definitely not a good thing!"

The guide continued, "The county will definitely deal with people like this severely; their actions have already violated the law!"

Zhang Yimou not only strolled around the chess and card center next to the budget guesthouse where the film crew was staying, but also made a special trip to the chess and card center in the county town, only to find that it was exactly as the guide had described.

When he returned and explained the situation to the team leader, everyone was speechless.

The county has provided a sufficiently good living environment, and the filming environment is also quite good, even comparable to filming in a factory.

Under such circumstances, it is natural to abide by the local rules, otherwise no one can bear the responsibility if it delays future cooperation!
(End of this chapter)