This director loves making friends.

With a limited budget, Qin Keqing couldn't afford to hire big-name actors for "Sweet Life".

Among the important characters in the movie, the gang leader has a significant role, and Qin Keqing invited Lin Wei to play the part.

Speaking of which, Lin Wei and Qin Keqing are from the same hometown in Shandong Province. He was born in Yantai in 54 and did not come to Hong Kong with his family until he was 24 years old. In the same year, he entered the Shaw Brothers Film Company's martial arts actor training class.

Lin Wei and Qin Keqing had worked together once before. Lin Wei played Zeng Gelinqin in "King of Beggars". At that time, he was one of the few people in the crew who had a lot of interaction with Qin Keqing.

Qin Keqing invited him, and he readily agreed.

Lin Wei is not very famous. Although he has been in the industry for more than ten years, he has never been very popular. His salary is even lower than that of Lin Guobin. His asking price is usually around 10.

He actually had a connection with Lin Guobin, and there's a reason why his salary was lower than Lin Guobin's market rate.

Lam Wai starred in "Long Arm of the Law," for which he was nominated for Best New Performer at the Hong Kong Film Awards but did not win.

Lam Kwok-pan starred in "Hong Kong Godfather 2" and was nominated for Best New Performer at the Hong Kong Film Awards for the same film. However, he won the award.

The female lead in "Sweet Life" is only nominally in the role, and doesn't have many scenes. Qin Keqing wants to find someone who looks pure and innocent, young and beautiful, and preferably someone who can generate buzz.

Okay, Qin Keqing admits that he came up with the female lead idea because he thought of Stephen Chow.

He wanted to invite Zhu Yin.

However, because of Stephen Chow, he was still undecided and didn't know whether he should invite Zhu Yin to play the role.

To be honest, Zhu Yin is very suitable for the female lead. She is only 21 years old, young and beautiful, with a pure and innocent look. Most importantly, she is extremely cheap.

How cheap is it?

She entered the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 1990 and officially signed with TVB as an artist after graduating in 1992, earning a monthly salary of a few thousand dollars without any profit sharing.

Zhu Yin's first film was "Fight Back to School 2," which was released in April of this year, and her salary was only 8000 yuan.

Furthermore, this money wasn't for her, but for TVB.

After gaining fame with "Fight Back to School 2", her asking price skyrocketed, increasing fivefold to 40,000 yuan.

Qin Keqing felt that the price was very worthwhile.

His hesitation stemmed from the female lead's background in the film.

The female lead is the lover of a triad boss. If Zhu Yin is invited to play this role, Qin Keqing is a little worried that Zhou Xingxing might overthink it.

He used points to become close friends with Stephen Chow, and based on his experience with Xie Fei, this should be a very good friendship.

But Qin Keqing also learned another lesson from Xie Fei: the bond between friends can change as they interact with each other.

Just like Xie Fei, they went from casual acquaintances to close friends over drinks and food.

Does the growth of friendships necessarily mean their decline?

If Zhu Yin were invited, Qin Keqing was afraid that Zhou Xingxing would overthink things and harbor resentment, and what if their relationship deteriorated?

There's a reason for this.

Stephen Chow is currently dating Zhu Yin, but Zhu Yin becoming his girlfriend is considered an interference in his relationship, and many people in Hong Kong know about this.

"Fight Back to School 2" was in preparation from October last year, started filming in December, and was finally completed in February this year.

During filming, Hong Kong gossip media reporters staked out the set and repeatedly captured images of Stephen Chow privately communicating with Zhu Yin, leaving together after work, and driving Zhu Yin back to her residence alone.

After the film's release, mainstream Hong Kong entertainment media outlets such as Ming Pao Weekly and Oriental Sunday published a series of photos of the two together late at night and Stephen Chow picking up and dropping off Zhu Yin from school, providing solid evidence that the two had a close relationship and were already living together.

However, at this time, Stephen Chow had a girlfriend, Luo Huijuan, with whom he had been dating for many years.

In 1988, when Law Wai-kuen was dating Stephen Chow, he was still working as an extra.

While Hong Kong media were hyping up the relationship between Stephen Chow and Zhu Yin, Law Wai-kuen did not immediately break up with Stephen Chow, probably because she still wanted to salvage the relationship.

pity……

It wasn't until September of this year that Luo Huijuan officially broke up with Zhou Xingxing.

In other words, Zhu Yin knew that Zhou Xingxing had a girlfriend, but she still followed him and became his mistress.

The female lead in "A Bittersweet Life" is the lover of a mob boss.

Qin Keqing definitely wanted Zhu Yin to play the role, so he made a special trip to the set of "Fight Back to School 3" where Stephen Chow and Cheung Man were filming the movie.

Stephen Chow had read the script.

Therefore, when Qin Keqing told Zhou Xingxing the purpose of his visit, Zhou Xingxing hesitated.

At this moment, Zhang Min chimed in.

"I think it's great. Ah Xing, you know I'm one of the producers of this movie. Director Qin explained the background of the movie to me. The female lead was forced, and she was always trying to find a way to break free from the control."

Such characters are most likely to evoke the audience's sympathy. Ah Yin is so beautiful; she might become an overnight sensation because of this role.

Zhang Min's words moved Zhou Xingxing, making him no longer hesitate.

"I have no problem with that, as long as Ah Yin agrees."

Then, he put his arm around Qin Keqing's shoulder and said with a smile, "Qing, thank you for coming all the way here to tell me about this. I know you thought of inviting Ayin because of me. Thank you."

"Ha, didn't you also go to great lengths to recommend me to Yong Sheng? With our relationship, there's no need for thanks."

Zhang Min was somewhat surprised. She had no idea when Qin Keqing could be seen with his arm around Zhou Xingxing.

She knew almost everything about Qin Keqing's itinerary after arriving in Hong Kong, and this was the first time Qin Keqing had met Stephen Chow since arriving in Hong Kong.

Why do these two seem like they've been friends for years?

I don't understand.

Now that Qin Keqing was here, he certainly wouldn't let go of the points he had earned.

Before leaving, I took a minor role.

No, it was a cameo role; at least the assistant director of the production team treated it as a cameo.

Before leaving, Qin Keqing secretly raised an eyebrow at Zhang Min when no one was looking, but Zhang Min pretended not to notice.

Qin Keqing silently checked his points. After betting 30 points on Zhou Xingxing, he only had 2 points left.

After filming "King of Beggars", I made a cameo appearance as an assistant director and earned 2 points, making a total of 4 points.

Adding this 1 point today, I have a total of 5 points.

After arriving in Hong Kong, Qin Keqing did not rush to take on various guest roles. Today was his first guest appearance, mainly because he had acquaintances in the film crew today.

He had thought about this. If he were to do a cameo role in another film crew now, and they didn't recognize him, he wouldn't be doing a cameo role, but rather an extra.

Not only will you have to wait for your turn to act, but you might also have to endure some humiliation.

It would be better to wait until "A Bittersweet Life" is released, and then, once you've gained some fame, spread the word that you enjoy making cameo appearances. Then, when you "casually" make a cameo appearance in a film crew, you won't be harassed or mistreated.

Once the main roles for "A Bittersweet Life" are finalized, there's no need to worry too much about the smaller roles; we can even draft more actors from the crew.

Qin Keqing began to consider the issue of a photographer.

His original plan was to find a photographer from mainland China who would become very famous in the future.

However, this is somewhat unrealistic.

Most of the future famous photographers are graduates of the Beijing Film Academy. At least for now, these people mainly shoot art films. They either look down on commercial films or have never shot one.

Qin Keqing couldn't possibly give a photographer detailed instructions on how to shoot commercial films.

Moreover, "A Bittersweet Life" is not a purely commercial film. It needs to capture the sharpness of a commercial film while also having the texture of an art film, and the two cannot be separated. It would be very difficult for a cinematographer who has never shot a similar film to handle this task.