Huayu: King of Kung Fu

Lin Hu and Zhou Xun exchanged sweet nothings for a while, and then they talked about making a movie.

It turns out that filming for "Suzhou River" just wrapped up today, and Zhou Xun called to tell him about it.

Lin Hu remembered that this movie was supposedly banned, so he casually asked, "When will it be released?"

"I don't know, the director is out of money and needs to save up enough before doing post-production."

"Huh?" Lin Hu was stunned.

"That's just how he is. He makes porn to save money, and once he has enough, he makes movies."

In the 1990s, filming movies in mainland China was not only subject to strict censorship, but also because the film market was collapsing, even if a film passed censorship, it wouldn't sell much at the box office, making it difficult to find investment.

The fifth-generation directors have achieved great success and have their own financing channels.

The sixth generation of directors were newcomers with little fame, so they had to raise money themselves to make independent productions.

After they finish making the film, they take it to various film festivals overseas and make money by selling the copyright.

Whether it passes censorship in China is irrelevant; if it's banned, so be it. Even if it passes censorship and is released, it won't earn much at the box office anyway.

Lin Hu thought that "Suzhou River" had won many awards overseas, and that he should still be able to make money by selling the copyright.

He figured every little bit helps, so he asked, "How much does post-production cost?"

"Two or three hundred thousand, I guess!"

Lin Hu could afford that amount of money, and he asked, "Does he need any investment?"

"You're interested in investing?"

"Well... I run a film company now, and besides making my own films, I also want to do some investment. I read the script before, and it's pretty good, but I don't know how it will turn out."

Zhou Xun thought for a moment and said, "I think it's quite interesting..."

Zhou Xun talked about their movie-making process, and she thought it was quite stylish.

Lin Hu said, "Then I trust you. Can you talk to the director on my behalf? I can invest some money to help him complete the post-production and see how much return he can give me."

Lin Hu said he believed it, but he didn't really believe it.

Zhou Xun is an artistic young woman; she likes very niche things.

For example, she later released two albums, one of which, "Watching the Sea," is considered one of her representative works and is widely sung.

But she didn't actually like this song at all; she thought it was just a catchy pop song and didn't want to record it.

It was Song Ke, the record company owner, who believed the song was bound to be a hit and forced her to record it.

Therefore, what she finds interesting may not be very interesting to the general public.

Lin Hu didn't care; he just thought that investing in "Suzhou River" could make him a little money.

The next day, Zhou Xun told Lou Ye about it. Lou Ye was also worried about where to get money, and it would be great if someone could invest.

So the two parties quickly agreed that Lin Hu would invest HK$30 in the post-production of "Suzhou River" and would receive a quarter of the film's revenue.

Lin Hu asked Zhou Xun to sign the contract on his behalf, and transferred the money a few days later.

Lin Hu's money all came from winning the World Cup. After winning twice, he switched to betting on Hong Kong and Macau alternately, steadily maintaining the filming of "Ong-Bak". Taking out 30 for film investment did not affect anything.

……

On this day, Lin Hu knocked out two members of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team and refused his boss Long's invitation to go to karaoke. He was showing off a bit too much.

The next day, he took the initiative to bring some sweet soup to visit the "Glass Bottle" film crew next door.

In the stuntman profession, one earns a living entirely through skill. Lin Hu defeated Allen and Lu Huiguang through his own abilities, and they had no choice but to accept it.

These people ate the egg tarts Lin Hu treated them to, drank the milk tea he bought, went to sing karaoke together that night, and after a few beers, they had made up.

Speaking of which, Hong Kong's nightclubs are quite impressive. Brother Long greatly admires Lin Hu and has specially found him a young...

Alas, Lin Hu was just putting on an act; he had no choice but to do so. You can't blame him!

Lin Hu's experience in filming action scenes was all learned through trial and error when he was recreating classic action movies in the original timeline.

Now that I have the opportunity to work with Jackie Chan's stunt team, I often go to observe and learn a lot.

Meanwhile, the stuntmen at the Clearwater Bay film set, upon hearing of his monstrous skills, would also come over out of curiosity to watch.

Showing off is something you can do once or twice, but you can't keep doing it. After all, he was mainly there to film a movie, so his attitude was quite friendly later on.

Of course, having learned their lesson from Lu Huiguang, none of the martial arts instructors dared to provoke Lin Hu again, which allowed the filming to proceed smoothly.

At this time, although Hong Kong films had declined, the film industry was still very well-developed.

Lin Hu could take the film he shot each day to the developing plant that same evening, and start editing the following evening.

Lin Hu himself knows how to edit, but in his timeline, computer software was used, while nowadays everything is edited manually.

Editing, or splicing in Hong Kong and Taiwan, is, as the name suggests, cutting film into pieces according to requirements and then joining them together with glue.

Lin Hu had never done this before, so he specially hired two editing assistants from Hong Kong. He was responsible for giving instructions, and the two assistants were responsible for doing the actual editing.

This method of shooting and editing simultaneously is extremely efficient and is one of the reasons why Hong Kong films can significantly shorten their production cycle.

Lin Hu edited the footage in the editing room of Oriental Film Company, a place frequented by many Hong Kong filmmakers, so the clips he edited were quickly seen by many people.

Often, before a movie is even finished filming, the production company can already tell whether it will be good or bad and predict whether it will make a profit or loss.

Film companies even base their film release plans on forecasts.

If you think it's awesome, then promote it to the extreme.

If they think it's garbage, they might even shelve the film, because it's not worth paying any more marketing fees for.

Ong-Bak was a film that had a profound impact on action movies worldwide in its original timeline.

It even directly spurred the creation of "SPL: Sha Po Lang," giving Hong Kong action films a fresh new look.

Lin Hu's incredibly fierce and brutal fight scenes immediately captivated many Hong Kong filmmakers.

This kind of battle scene is completely different from Chen Long and Li Lianjie's, but it is full of novelty and extremely exciting.

Anyone who isn't blind can see that the action movie genre... might be about to produce something new.

Lin Hu is a rough gem!

Raymond Wong of Oriental Film Company, taking advantage of its proximity, acted first.

That evening, after Lin Hu finished editing the footage shot the previous day, he walked out of the editing room and saw Raymond Wong standing there with a smile on his face.

"Handsome, just finished?"

"Yes, Boss Huang!"

"I just finished work too, let's grab some late-night snacks!"

"OK!"

The two went downstairs together and randomly found a tea restaurant. Lin Hu ordered a scrambled egg toast and a cup of milk tea. He took a bite of the toast and thought it tasted pretty good.

While sipping his milk tea, Raymond Wong said, "Your movie was pretty good. Have you ever thought about developing your career in Hong Kong?"

Lin Hu was taken aback for a moment, then said, "You mean you want me to sign with your Oriental Film Company?"

Raymond Wong, with an expression of someone who could be taught, nodded and said, "Not bad, you're very skilled and have a good image. If you sign with our company, I'll have someone create several movies specifically for you."

If Lin Hu had traveled back to the 1980s and Raymond Wong, representing Cinema City, invited him, he would most likely have accepted.

But it's 1998 now, and the Hong Kong entertainment industry is sinking. What's the point of signing a contract?

Lin Hu declined, saying, "I'm sorry, I still want to stay in mainland China to develop my career!"