1990My Entertainment System

Chapter 152 Director Kai is back at it again~
At the end of July, Ah Rong called from Hong Kong, mainly to talk about his movie "He's a Woman, She's a Man" which had been released a few days earlier.

This is a romance film directed by Chen Kexin and starring A Rong, Yuan Yongyi, and Liu Jialing.

The story revolves around a young girl (Yuan Yongyi) who disguises herself as a boy and enters the romantic world of the male lead (Arong) and the second female lead (Liu Jialing) during a male singer recruitment event.

It's basically a love triangle story, but it's quite artistic and not too melodramatic or cliché.

When Ah Rong was cast in the role, he complained, "If they love each other so deeply, why don't the three of them just get together?"

Chen Kexin was stunned by the question: Huh? Isn't that a bad idea? Being so happy... isn't very romantic.

He never expected to encounter such a problem.
Ah Rong said, "But that's happier, and the audience loves watching it. Look at Tian'er and the others, aren't they doing quite well?"

"Summer... well... okay!"

Chen Kexin suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "In that case, could we ask Xia Tian to play the role?!"

Ah Rong: Huh?! You're kidding me?!
However, Ah Rong actually asked Xia Tian, ​​who was still filming "Mountain City Forest" at the time.

Upon hearing the script, Xia Tian exclaimed, "Get out of here right now!"

Damn it, is it that bastard Chen Kexin and the screenwriter who came to make fun of me? To mock me?

Did he think I wouldn't dare beat him up?!
In the end, Ah Rong starred in this movie, and you know what? It was quite a classic, and the box office was surprisingly good!

The final box office reached nearly 3000 million! It won the Hong Kong summer movie box office champion this year!

This is much better than the purely stream-of-consciousness art film "Mountain City Forest"!
This year was quite strange. Three art films, "He's a Woman, She's a Man," "I Have a Date with Spring," and "New Cohabitation Era," ranked eighth, ninth, and tenth on the Hong Kong box office chart!

It's clear that audience tastes have changed.
Of course, this also marked the beginning of the decline of Hong Kong films.

Oh, by the way, the full version of "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves" is 146 minutes long, but it was later shown as 107 minutes on Douban, and 102 minutes on Bilibili.
It's getting shorter and shorter with each cut, almost the same size as the book itself!
On the phone, Ah Rong had a smug look on his face: "Well, the box office is alright, but the reviews are so-so! Lots of viewers are complaining~"

"Is that word '吐槽' (tu cao, meaning to roast or criticize)?"

Xia Tian asked curiously, "What are the viewers complaining about?"

Ah Rong grinned slyly: "Now the audience says it's boring and they want to see you in a movie about a love quadrangle!"

Summer: "Damn it! We can't tolerate those weird quirks of the audience!!!"

……

On August 1, the Ministry of Public Security issued a document deciding that starting next year, China Film Group Corporation would import ten films annually that "basically reflect the outstanding achievements of world civilization and contemporary film art and technology" through internationally accepted revenue-sharing distribution methods.

These were the ten imported films that were later translated as "blockbusters".

In order to quickly capture the Chinese market, the producers of imported blockbusters also bear the cost of publicity.

The box office revenue sharing has also been basically finalized—the production company takes 35%, the cinemas take 42%, China Film Group takes 12%, and the remainder goes to intermediaries and special taxes, etc.

The domestic film market is currently in a state of stagnation, with total moviegoers dropping from 293 billion in 79 to around 3 million.

If we don't save them now, it will be too late!
Also today, the three singers under the music company China Fire, He, Zhang, and Dou, the "Three Rock Heroes," held a press conference at the Yanjing East Huatong Theater for their three new solo albums.

What caught Xia Tian's attention was that she was invited to attend events hosted by numerous official organizations, as well as by Chinese and foreign journalists from Reuters, AFP, BBC, and the Los Angeles Times, and by people from the music industry and various other sectors.

This setup and this formation are really impressive!

Oh, by the way, China Fire belongs to Magic Stone Culture, which in turn is a subsidiary of Rock Records.

The owner of Magic Stone Records was from the island, and later even took the three Magic Stone Heroes to Hong Kong's Hung Hom for a concert.

The musicians on the island are clearly very experienced, with a wealth of expertise in music production and artist marketing. They did a fantastic job!

Unfortunately, Rolling Stone's own business soon went under, so they pulled the boss of Magic Stone back, and then everything fell apart...

This boom in rock music was later referred to as a "bubble boom" by the arts and culture circles. Due to a lack of follow-up creative work and industry chaos, Chinese rock music experienced a brief period of explosive growth before quickly entering a trough.

So much so that Dou Daxian later believed that Boss Zhang was sent from the island specifically to sabotage mainland rock music.
Originally, mainland rock music was booming and at its peak.

But who would have thought that less than six months later, Zhang Ju, the bassist of the Tang Dynasty band, would die in a car accident.

Zhang Ju is very talented and has a good personality, which makes him a good match for these rebellious and restless rock singers.

As a result, after his death, even mainland rock music declined!

However, he only heard about it briefly in the summer and didn't pay much attention to it. He didn't particularly like rock singers because the essence of rock music is rebellious spirit.

When the legal constraints no longer stimulate their emotions, they will resort to illegal and criminal activities to gain a sense of pleasure.

People abroad have already learned from this mistake!

What I'm more interested in this summer is that today is the opening of the 51st Venice International Film Festival. Unlike the original timeline, Marvin's "In the Heat of the Sun" is not in this year's film. I wonder what changes will occur?
……

After lunch, he said goodbye to Milan and the other two, and then he, along with Yong and Xiao Chen, boarded a plane again.

I'll be home for a month this summer, and then I'll be going to Hong Kong again.

When he last visited, he wrote a simple script outline while filming "Mountain City Forest".

I didn't think much about it at the time. I just saw people arguing while I was shopping, and "inspiration" struck me, so I wrote it down on a whim.

However, Wang Fei really liked the script outline, so she showed it to Ah Rong and Mei Gu, and the two of them also thought it was quite interesting.

Now all my friends want Xia Tian to come and film this movie!

Friends are willing to "crowdfund"!
Oh, by the way, Ms. Mi is pregnant, and her already short daily working hours have been cut in half again. But she doesn't waste any of her free time; she devotes it all to gossip.

For her, there were practically no secrets left in Beijing!
Before getting into the car to go to the airport, she told Xia Tian that Director Chen Kaige had recently gone to the south, saying that he had secured investment and organized a project to make a "movie that will shock the world"!
It seems like they're about to start filming over there. They even invited Gong Li and Ah Wing, but it looks like they couldn't get them.

Summer was also curious about what Director Chan was going to film this time, so she asked Ah Rong when she got to Hong Kong.

"Arong, did a director from the mainland named Kai Ge contact you?"

"Yeah! They asked me to act in a movie, but I glanced at the script and it was a mess. I didn't understand a thing, so I turned it down. Is it your friend?" Ah Rong asked.

Summer shook her head repeatedly: No, no, no! Don't talk nonsense!

Although Wong Kar-wai didn't really have a script, Ah Wing gave him face because he was indeed awesome.

But the last time Director Chen was truly awesome was with "Yellow Earth," which was almost ten years ago.

Ah Rong wasn't satisfied with the script, so of course he wouldn't accept it!

Summer asked curiously, "What's the movie called?"

"It's called 'Wind and Moon'."

"Oh, that's all right then."

After it flopped, nobody paid any attention to it anymore; even the Bilibili content creators who critique movies didn't bother to mention it.
……

When summer arrived at my home in Hong Kong, I spent some time with Sister Yun and the other two, and then I gathered my friends to ask them what they thought.
Ah Rong and Anita Mui were the most enthusiastic, and Brigitte Lin was also there.

"It would be a real shame not to film such an interesting story!" Ah Rong said.

Anita Mui exclaimed, "Yes, yes! We had no idea you could write comedies!!"

Summer: "What a joke, I can't write anything~" I can write web novels!

My friends are either very free lately and planning to do some group activities together, or they genuinely feel that the script is a waste and want to make the movie.

They're all seasoned veterans in the film industry; after reading the script, they felt it was a very low-budget production.

Moreover, the entire storyline takes place in a medium-sized convenience store, resulting in very low filming time and costs.

If we don't count the actors' salaries, it probably wouldn't even cost three million!

Everyone chimed in, saying they'd be willing to make a cameo appearance for free.

When Xia Tian heard this, she thought it was a good idea.

Making money is secondary; what's important is that everyone has the time to get together and have some fun.

Let's include everyone's salaries in the investment and go all out!
Go home and work on the script, then have Ah Ying organize a filming crew through Sunshine Films and rent a convenience store.

I went home in the summer to revise the script in detail and made some changes to the characters based on my friends' character designs.

Just then, Xia Tian heard Wang Fei's voice from the living room TV!
(End of this chapter)