Huayu: King of Kung Fu

Chapter 138 He's really charming

In 1994, China and the United States reached an agreement to import 10 Hollywood films each year.

In 1995, James Cameron's "True Lies" showed the Chinese people what a Hollywood blockbuster was.

For a long time, all of these imported Hollywood films have been A-list productions with top-notch visual effects.

B-movies like "Fast & Furious" were not originally eligible for import, but they were allowed to be imported as a special exception because one of the lead actors was Lin Hu.

B-movies have their own way of surviving; they contain a lot of hormone-stimulating elements.

When the underground race started, a large group of scantily clad, sexy women posed and flaunted themselves, much to the amazement of the Chinese audience.

Similar scenes exist in Hong Kong films, such as the "A Moment of Romance" series starring Liu Suihua and Guo Fucheng, but they are far less popular than "The Untamed".

There's an interesting plot point in the movie where the participants in the underground races are all people of color—Black, Latino, and Asian—but mainly women, mostly blonde, busty women dressed very sexily, appearing as the men's female companions.

In one scene, a young Chinese man has a voluptuous Latina woman on his left arm and a petite Chinese woman on his right, looking very stylish with his arms around both of them.

When the protagonist, Brian, arrived at the scene in his race car, he was met with disdain.

"Hey, a white kid actually showed up!" A group of people rushed up to beat him up.

Lin Hu arrived in a race car, and many people greeted him warmly, with many girls coming over to chat him up.

The camera then cuts to him with a blonde woman on his left arm and a black woman on his right, chatting and laughing with a group of people.

Then his Latina girlfriend showed up: "You two sluts, stay away from him!"

Domestic audiences were shocked by this scene because it challenged their understanding of the world. Isn't America a white supremacist country?

Los Angeles was originally predominantly populated by people of color, with whites making up only a quarter of the population.

It's normal for underground racing, street subculture, hip-hop music, and the like in movies to be predominantly populated by people of color.

But the average viewer wouldn't understand these things. Many people, while shocked, inexplicably felt a sense of exhilaration, without knowing where that exhilaration came from.

In the movie "Vegetarian Chicken," Lin Hu plays Tang Laoda, who is actually a criminal.

However, the film's shooting techniques portray him as a positive figure.

He is a skilled driver, has excellent fighting skills, is loyal to his friends, and loves his family—somewhat similar to Chan Ho-nam from the "Young and Dangerous" series.

Despite being a triad member, Chan Ho-nam is regarded as an idol by countless people and has a huge influence in China.

Lin Hu played a somewhat similar role. Although he was a criminal, domestic audiences didn't find anything wrong with it. On the contrary, they enjoyed watching his cool moves in the movie.

At the end of the movie, a train speeds towards them, and Brian and Dom drive their car at full speed across the tracks, jumping over them almost simultaneously. The scene is incredibly dangerous, and many viewers held their breath.

The next second, Dom's car was hit and sent flying by a truck, and the domestic audience was naturally more concerned about Dom's fate.

In the movie, Dom sits in his car, his face covered in blood, and laments, "I never expected it to end like this!"

Inside the movie theater, Peng Hui grabbed Yang Xiaoye's hand and asked nervously, "Will Brian arrest him?"

Brian took out his car keys and handed them to Dom.

Tang took the keys and asked, "Do you know what you're doing?"

Brian said, "I still owe you a supercar!"

Brian, a police officer, chose his family.

Tang drove his sports car away successfully, and the audience in front of the screen breathed a sigh of relief.

The audience discussed the movie and gradually left the theater.

Peng Hui said, "It's really good! Although Lin Hu played a villain, he's so charming!"

Yang Xiaoye pouted: "I think the character Tang he plays is a really good person. He's trustworthy, loyal, loves his family, has great driving skills, and is cool at fighting."

Peng Hui rolled her eyes: "I think you've been bewitched by Lin Hu."

Lin Hu's participation in "Fast & Furious" did not significantly boost the box office performance of the original film in the European and American markets, but it did not decrease it either; it was basically on par with the original film.

Approximately US$1.45 million in North America, approximately US$3200 million in Europe, and approximately US$500 million in Latin America.

However, the Asia-Pacific market has seen significant growth.

For the first time, audiences in mainland China saw this kind of cool racing movie on the big screen. With Lin Hu as the lead actor, his performance was extremely enthusiastic, and the box office soared all the way up, eventually reaching 1.6 million RMB.

The Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia markets all performed strongly, while the Japanese and South Korean markets also saw a slight increase.

Originally, Fast & Furious 1 only grossed NT$1000 million at the Taiwanese box office, but this time it soared to NT$7500 million, beating Tomb Raider and ranking sixth in the annual box office.

There are so many blockbuster movies this year; in the Taiwanese market, the ones ahead of Lin Hu are *The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor*, *Pearl Harbor*, and *Harry Potter*.

It's normal that you can't beat "Cast Away" and "Jurassic Park 3".

In addition, Lin Hu's "The Legend of the Martial Arts" also grossed NT$5200 million in Taiwan, ranking among the top ten films of the year, and was the only Chinese-language film to break into the top ten in the Taiwanese market in 2001.

Lin Hu holds two spots in the top ten box office rankings in Taiwan, making him undoubtedly the number one Asian action star of the new era.

Because of Lin Hu's participation, the box office in the Asia-Pacific market soared from $2500 million in the original timeline to approximately $6000 million.

Although Universal Pictures could not possibly know how Su Chi performed in another timeline, the box office growth brought about by Lin Hu was very significant.

"Vegetarian Chicken" is just a B-movie. Although it performed well in the European and American markets, it still can't compare with those A-level productions.

However, in the Asia-Pacific market, it can directly compete with those A-level masterpieces, which is undoubtedly due to the support brought by Lin Hu.

The success of "Fresh Chicken" at the box office prompted Universal Pictures to immediately request the production of a sequel.

The story of the second part quickly descended into controversy.

Stacy slammed his fist on the table and said, "Tai can bring in at least five million dollars in revenue for the Asian market. I don't care how you write it, he has to be in the second part!"

The producer said helplessly, "Tai said he has many film projects in hand and does not plan to participate in the second film."

"Let Cohen try to persuade him; aren't they friends?"

"Cohen said he doesn't want to direct the sequel, and—Michelle doesn't want to star in it either!"

Stacy was completely dumbfounded: "Have they gone mad? What's wrong with them?"

It turns out that director Cohen said he had said everything he wanted to say and did not intend to continue directing.

Moreover, he became famous because of this movie, and many A-list productions are contacting him. If he can make A-list blockbusters, who would make B-list movies?

Cohen did indeed land a role in an A-list blockbuster, "Stealth," which had a production cost of $1.3 million and grossed $7000 million at the box office—a massive flop.

Michelle was very dissatisfied with being just a pretty face in the movie, so she took on the second female lead role in "Resident Evil" and decided to become an action star.

If the director doesn't want to film it, fine; we can just find another director.

Lin Hu and Michelle both refused to act, so their storyline was completely cut off, and it was impossible for Dom's sister to continue being with Brian.

With the family of three gone, the only way to continue making a sequel is for Brian to start a new storyline.

Fortunately, he was the main character of the movie, so it's not unreasonable to let him continue to develop new storylines.

After failing to reach an agreement with the main creative team, Universal decided to find another director and have Paul Walker play the lead role in the sequel.

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