This director loves making friends.

Chapter 102 It's all his fault

Hong Kong is not a large city; in 93, its population was only a little over five million, so the potential of its film market was limited.

Especially in September, which is the off-season, after the summer movie season, and especially after being ravaged by the dinosaur movie "Jurassic Park" which was released on July 29, the box office potential is even worse.

Jurassic Park set a record in Hong Kong with a box office of HK$6200 million, surpassing the second-place film by nearly HK$2000 million, thus exhausting a significant portion of the market's potential.

Therefore, the audience's threshold was raised considerably by the lifelike dinosaurs. If it were still a traditional Hong Kong film, the potential audience would certainly not be very interested.

"The Man from Nowhere" is a little different.

Whether it's the actors' "unconventional" performances, Qin Keqing's pioneering fighting style, or the film's narrative style, all of them are very different from the style of Hong Kong films at this time, so they can still arouse the audience's interest.

But some films released at the same time fared much worse; their attendance rates were all poor. It wasn't just one film that was struggling; all of them were failing.

If everyone is dissatisfied, then there's nothing more to say. Everyone knows in their hearts that "Jurassic Park" has overdrawn too much of the market potential, resulting in the audience's current lack of interest.

But what's with your "Uncle"?

Why is the occupancy rate so high?

It must be "The Man from Nowhere" that stole all the movie fans!

There was envy and jealousy, but even more hatred.

Two of the films released on the same day as "The Man from Nowhere" had decent budgets, featured a number of stars, and generated considerable buzz before their release.

One of them is "The Lover's Confidant," starring Tony Leung, Lo Mei-wai, and Anita Yuen, which has a pretty good cast.

By this time, Leung Chiu-wai was already a well-known and highly regarded actor, in a crucial stage of transitioning from a "famous leading man" to a "top-tier star." He was considered a backbone of Hong Kong actors, and his film salary exceeded 200 million.

Luo Meiwei was extremely famous at this time, a leading new generation actress in Hong Kong, and was known as one of the "most promising actresses" along with Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau, and Cherie Chung. She also had a very powerful background.

Anita Yuen is also quite famous. She won the Miss Hong Kong title and "Miss Photogenic" in 1990, and won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best New Performer in 1992 for her debut film. She is also very popular.

The other one is "Moonlight on the Rooftop", which stars Leung Ka-fai, Ye Yu-ching, Lui Leung-wai, Lau Ka-ling, and Kent Cheng. The cast is even stronger than that of "Lover and Confidant".

"The Moon Over the Rooftop" was produced by Golden Harvest. Golden Harvest currently signs contracts with actors on a per-film basis, and each contract is for multiple films. Despite the large number of stars in this film, the actors' salaries are actually very limited, much lower than the publicly quoted prices of these stars.

Just like Stephen Chow, who was offered a salary of 1000 million yuan by outsiders, but because he had a contract with Win's Entertainment and was filming a movie invested by Win's Entertainment, he could only get a salary of 300 million yuan.

This is still Yong Sheng, whom the actors call "conscience".

Others, such as Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest, are another story.

Therefore, the low attendance of "Moonlight on the Rooftop" was not taken seriously by either the director or the actors. At most, they were just envious of the attendance of "Uncle" and of Lin Guobin's good luck.

But "The Lover and His Confidant" is different.

This film was not produced by any company, but was independently funded and filmed by producer Lok Yee-ling.

Lok Yee-ling has participated in the production of popular movies such as "To Be Number One" and "Sex and Zen II", earning a lot of money.

Seeing the booming state of Hong Kong cinema, she raised 700 million HKD on her own to produce "The Lover's Confidante," hoping to capitalize on the trend and make a fortune.

Little did I know that things wouldn't go smoothly from the very beginning of this movie.

She invited Tony Leung, Lo Mei-wai, and Anita Yuen, all of whom are considered the backbone of Hong Kong cinema and have both fame and popularity.

Originally, they thought they could recoup their costs by selling trailers, but then the eight major Taiwanese film companies came up to compete with the Hong Kong film industry. Unless it was a blockbuster or a unique film, they basically couldn't sell trailers.

"Lover and Confidant" also failed to sell.

It's not a big deal if the trailer doesn't sell. As long as the movie is a big hit in Hong Kong, it's not too late to sell the rights later, and we can sell even more.

According to Lok Yee-ling's understanding, romantic comedies like "Lover and Confidant," which are lighthearted, humorous, and realistic, should have a large market.

But reality is often disappointing.

The gap between imagination and reality can sometimes be ridiculously large.

The attendance rate for "The Lover" was absurdly low. When Lok Yee-ling, who was promoting the film, looked at the empty theater with a group of lead actors, she felt powerless and even angrier.

Since it's a movie promotion, there will definitely be reporters present.

"Ms. Yue, could you talk about why the attendance rate for 'Lover and Confidant' is so low? Is it because the director is a newcomer, or because the cast isn't strong enough?"

Reporters are always eager to stir up trouble, especially those from Hong Kong.

Without exciting moments, what's the point of watching?

The reporter's single sentence struck a nerve with the investors, director, and actors.

Lok Yee-ling was devastated.

Based on the current attendance rate, let alone recovering the 700 million cost, we probably won't even be able to recover 70.

Nobody's money comes from thin air. A significant portion of Lok Yee-ling's 700 million was raised through special means. If she cannot repay on time, she doesn't know what to do.

"Our cast is very strong. Although director Chan Tak-sum only has one film before, he is a very talented Hong Kong local director."

Lok Yee-ling raised her head, looked at the reporter, and said word by word: "Uncles and aunts, don't go to the wrong place. You need to learn to distinguish. Some outsiders can't even speak Cantonese. I heard that they need translators when filming. They also give priority to actors who can speak Mandarin."

The movie title sounds like a heartwarming art film, but once you go in, it's all about hacking and slashing, street brawls, and the characters' motivations are unclear. His so-called new moves are all copied from Hollywood, which already has those things.

Some people even dare to shamelessly claim that their work is innovative. Please, violent aesthetics belong to John Woo. Stop embarrassing yourselves. People in the industry would laugh their heads off.

Don't assume that just because a film goes to Venice, it's a good movie. If a movie is good, why doesn't it win major awards? It's all about hype and gimmicks. Do these hyped-up films even deserve to compete with our authentic Hong Kong films at the box office?

Before you go to the cinema, please think carefully: our films are the most authentic Hong Kong movies.

The reporters below all had their eyes shining.

Now we're rich!

This is big news.

"Wai-jai, do you agree with what Miss Lok said?"

No sooner had Lok Yee-ling spoken than a reporter, eager to stir up trouble, threw the question to Leung Chiu-wai.

Liang Chaowei wanted to curse.

Le Yiling's words were clearly directed at Qin Keqing; the target was too obvious.

He didn't want to offend Qin Keqing. After all, although he also looked down on this mainland guy, who could blame him for getting lucky and winning the Cannes Film Festival award? Who knows if a director like him might have a better future?

However, Lok Yee-ling was also an investor and producer, and the salary she paid was based on market rates.

Most importantly, Lok Yee-ling had a very good relationship with Ms. Fong Yi-wah of Shaw Brothers and had a wide network of connections in the film and television industry; otherwise, she wouldn't have become one of the producers of "To Be Number One" and "Sex and Zen II".

You absolutely cannot offend Lok Yee-ling.

After hesitating for a moment, Tony Leung said vaguely, "Ms. Lok is a very insightful person, and we all respect her very much."

"Ms. Luo, do you agree with what Ms. Le said?"

The reporter then asked Luo Meiwei a question.

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