This director loves making friends.

Wang Yingxiang is the founder and chairman of Longxiang Film Industry, one of Taiwan's eight major film distributors.

In Hong Kong, he mainly collaborated with Tsui Hark's film studio and the film companies of Clifton Ko and Wong Pak-ming.

He and Huang Baiming have a long-term cooperative relationship, which has formed a certain interest relationship. However, they are not in competition with each other, so their relationship is quite good.

Win's Entertainment arranged for "A Bittersweet Life" to be shown in theaters owned by Huang Baiming's Oriental Cinema Circuit. As the owner of the theater circuit, Huang Baiming was obliged to attend the celebration banquet that day, and he was an important guest.

Others might not know the inside story of what happened that day, and might only think that Xiang Huasheng was retaliated against for offending the third young lady of the Li family. However, as a bigwig in the film industry and someone who was involved, Huang Baiming knew the inside story.

Huang Baiming is not just a movie star in the Hong Kong film industry; he holds a very high position behind the scenes.

Huang Baiming was one of the founders of Cinema City, which broke Golden Harvest's monopoly and was able to compete with it.

Because of unequal distribution of spoils... no, because of differing philosophies, Cinema City disbanded.

In 1991, after Cinema City disbanded, Raymond Wong founded Oriental Film Company and partnered with Macau businessman Roger Cheng to take over the cinemas of the former D&B Cinemas and integrate them into the Wing Ko Cinemas chain.

Back then, Oriental Film Company spearheaded the production of "All's Well, Ends Well," which grossed 4900 million yuan, ranking second in the 92 box office charts, only 80 yuan less than the first-place film, "Justice, My Foot!"

In 1992, Huang Baiming had a falling out with Luo Jiecheng and resigned from Yung-Gao Cinemas in May. In August, he withdrew his shares, retaining only 1%.

After breaking with Yonggao Cinemas, Huang Baiming's Oriental Film Company faced an awkward problem: it was unable to schedule screenings and could not find suitable cinemas to show its films.

The reason is simple: Yonggao Cinemas will definitely not screen his films. Other cinemas were his competitors before, and now they're too busy laughing at him to even consider showing his films. Even if they were willing to screen them, they certainly wouldn't give them good slots.

Raymond Wong is quite something. Leveraging his reputation in the film industry, he invested heavily and promised to integrate more than 20 independent cinemas in just one week, forming the fifth largest cinema chain in Hong Kong, Oriental Cinemas.

Furthermore, Oriental Film Company produced the Lunar New Year film "All's Well, Ends Well" that year, which was released on January 20, 1993. It dominated the Lunar New Year box office and eventually grossed 35.5 million, and it is still ranked first in the annual box office rankings.

The newly established Oriental Cinema Circuit shouldn't only show films from Oriental Film Company, right?

Just then, Qin Keqing's "A Sweet Life" won an award at Cannes in May, so Huang Baiming took the initiative to contact Win's Entertainment. After watching the test screening of the film, he decisively offered a release date of June 10th and also gave Win's Entertainment a condition that was extremely difficult to refuse.

This is why "A Bittersweet Life" did not choose to be released on Xinbao Cinema, the cinema chain that Win's Entertainment usually collaborates with, but instead chose Huang Baiming's Oriental Cinema chain.

Regardless of Huang Baiming's character, as a successful film industry mogul in Hong Kong, his vision is still very impressive.

After news broke that Qin Keqing was going to make a second film, Wang Yingxiang wanted to "reserve" the distribution rights in Taiwan. However, this involved several million Hong Kong dollars, so he was very cautious and sought Huang Baiming's advice.

"If a purely art-house film wins an award, it might have some potential; if it doesn't, it's a money-loser."

Huang Baiming explained to Wang Yingxiang, "I don't understand this continent..."

Seemingly thinking of Qin Keqing's relationship with that second young lady, Huang Baiming swallowed the "zai" in his throat in time and secretly warned himself that he must pay attention to these small details in the future and never make the same mistake again.

"I don't know much about Qin Keqing. I haven't had much contact with him. He's already quite famous and has a good reputation internationally. It remains to be seen whether he can capitalize on that success."

"What should we grasp?"

"If you become famous too early, you will become extremely confident and think that there is nothing in the world that can stump you. I'm afraid that you will abandon your original, cold and realistic fighting style and turn to specialize in pure art films. If that happens, you should think it over carefully."

I've watched his "A Bittersweet Life" more than once. To be honest, the film's narrative is clear and concise, and its pacing is outstanding. I can say with certainty that even some of the directors who made their names in Hong Kong might not be able to produce a film of this caliber.

The main reason this film grossed over 2000 million dollars, besides the publicity brought by the Cannes awards, is that both the action and the audiovisual aspects of the film were extremely exciting.

If he abandons pure art films and instead makes action films in the same vein as "A Bittersweet Life," his next movie will be guaranteed at least 2000 million.

"2000 million? You really think so?"

"We've been working together for so many years, do you think I would lie?"

Huang Baiming reiterated, "If his next film is still an action movie in the same vein, as long as he chooses to release it in Oriental Cinemas, Oriental Cinemas can even offer him more favorable terms. I don't think the risk is great."

Wang Yingxiang felt more confident.

So, upon first meeting Qin Keqing, after exchanging pleasantries, Wang Yingxiang asked, "Director Qin, what genre is your new film?"

"I'm not planning to make a purely art film. This film probably won't participate in European film festivals. Even if it does, it will at most be screened. However, this film is still a stylized experimental film."

Qin Keqing said.

He had already spoken with four of the so-called eight major film companies in Taiwan. To his surprise, yesterday afternoon, Chiu Fu-sheng of Era International Company actually wanted a purely art film.

Qin Keqing thought that the eight major film companies in Taiwan all liked commercial films with exciting fight scenes.

However, considering that it was Qiu Fusheng from Era International Company, Qin Keqing felt relieved.

Not many people may recognize the name, but Qin Keqing knows that this Taiwanese company invested a lot of money in Zhang Yimou's films "Raise the Red Lantern" and "To Live," and Qiu Fusheng was one of the behind-the-scenes operators.

It's understandable that Era International wanted to make pure art films.

Qin Keqing didn't know what Wang Yingxiang wanted, so he didn't hide anything and directly stated the positioning of the second film.

This way, everyone can get to the point more easily, instead of going around in circles like we did with the previous Taiwanese companies, before finally getting to the point.

Wang Yingxiang's eyes lit up. Yes, yes, that's exactly what we need – a stylistic continuity.

"Is it still the same fighting style as 'A Bittersweet Life'?"

Wang Yingxiang was still a little worried and asked another question.

"Yes, it's still that new stylized film known as 'elegant violent aesthetics.' This time, the fight scenes will only be more exciting, after all, I'm growing too, right?"

Qin Keqing smiled and made a joke.

"Regarding the cast... could you perhaps invite Li Lianjie?"

Wang Yingxiang asked with great anticipation, "If Li Lianjie were here, with Li Lianjie and Qin Keqing's 'elegant violent aesthetics,' wouldn't they ascend to heaven on the spot?"

Qin Keqing glanced at Wang Yingxiang and said, "You're dreaming!"

"Li Lianjie is unavailable, so Lin Guobin will still be the lead actor this time, and a beautiful actress will also be added. The cast is guaranteed to be even stronger than that of 'A Bittersweet Life'."

After Qin Keqing finished speaking, he looked at Wang Yingxiang with a smile and said, "I've said everything I need to say. Where is your sincerity?"