This director loves making friends.

While Qin Keqing was busy filming "Uncle" in the studio of Qingying Film Studio, two articles in Hong Kong caused quite a stir in the industry.

Before the Storm: When Dinosaurs Enter the Reality of Cinema, the Landscape of World Cinema Will Be Reshaped

"The maturity of Hollywood's CGI (computer-generated image) technology is reshaping the industry standards of global cinema, with Spielberg's Jurassic Park being the most typical example."

The impact of Jurassic Park comes not only from the story, but from its realism—when Tyrannosaurus Rex roars in the rain, when Brachiosaurus strolls in the sunset, what the audience sees is no longer a model or stop-motion animation, but a living being with a biological texture.

This digital spectacle, created by top teams such as ILM (Industrial Light & Magic), has set a new threshold for movie viewing, and the Hong Kong film industry is the first to be impacted by this.

Hong Kong films still rely on a small-scale, star-driven production model: an action film can be shot in a few dozen days, and with the real skills of the stuntmen and the box office appeal of the stars, it can be released online and sold overseas after a few cuts and stitches.

This approach worked in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, South Korea, and even the Japanese market. Hong Kong cinema used this method to establish itself as the "Hollywood of the East" in the 1980s.

But with the arrival of "Jurassic Park," audiences had seen realistic dinosaurs that could run and roar on the big screen. When they looked back at the wire work and model sets in martial arts films, and the large-scale scenes in police and gangster films that relied on explosions and fireworks, the visual contrast shattered the expectations of older audiences.

Hollywood has already raised the standard of cinematic spectacle several levels with CGI. If Hong Kong films continue down the old path, in a few years, theaters in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan will be willing to pay more for copies to prioritize showing Hollywood special effects blockbusters.

Hong Kong's local market and overseas ports will be squeezed out of their foothold.

Hollywood is using technology to build an omnipotent virtual world, while Hong Kong films remain focused on the ultimate exploration of physical reality.

Once audiences become accustomed to the sensory impact of digital special effects, relying solely on celebrity faces and formulaic plots will make it difficult to maintain the original market appeal.

CGI effects are not simply post-production enhancements; they require meticulous planning in the early stages and a large, interdisciplinary technical team, which is incompatible with the Hong Kong film tradition of "shooting and revising as you go" and "improvisational creation."

If Hong Kong cinema continues to cling to the old model, it will gradually become a regional supplement in the competition of global blockbusters, losing its international voice…

Du Qifeng flicked the newspaper in his hand and asked Chen Musheng beside him, "It's quite inflammatory. What do you think of this somewhat alarmist statement?"

Chen Musheng didn't share his thoughts, but instead took out another newspaper he had just bought. "There's more, this is the follow-up, take a look at this first."

Du Qifeng glanced at Chen Musheng with suspicion, then took the newspaper. He had just been reading Ming Pao, but this one was Ta Kung Pao, which deepened his doubts.

How come there's a follow-up article in Ta Kung Pao to the one published in Ming Pao? That's really strange.

It is worth noting that Ming Pao is currently at its peak, with a daily circulation of over 18 copies. It is known for its independent political commentary and in-depth analysis, and is valued by intellectuals and politicians.

Ta Kung Pao, on the other hand, represents the left wing, with a clear political stance and high authority in political circles and in liaison with the mainland.

In other words, these are two slightly different newspapers, and that's what's strange.

Du Qifeng temporarily put aside his strange thoughts and started reading.

Breakthrough Path: Embracing Technology, Reshaping the Film Industry

"...Hong Kong cinema still has a future; it is not without a way out, but it must undergo painful self-renewal."

The first step to breaking the deadlock is to break free from the path dependency of quick shooting and quick editing to make quick money. Instead of spending tens of millions to chase after top Hollywood equipment from the beginning, squeeze out one-tenth of the budget from each film to support a few small local CGI teams.

There's no need to create massive special effects for the entire film right away. Start by adding digital enhancements to a few flight sequences in a martial arts film and creating more realistic explosion scenes in a police thriller. Gradually build up experience and a resource library.

Hong Kong cinema even explored the path of "Eastern special effects" earlier than Hollywood: they made dinosaurs and science fiction films, while we made fantasy and martial arts films, using CGI to amplify our unique Eastern aesthetics, instead of always following behind others' technology and directly competing with them.

The dinosaurs in Jurassic Park have awakened, and they are shattering not only the silver screen, but also old movie concepts.

If Hong Kong cinema wants to remain brilliant in the next decade, it must humble itself, embrace technology, and move from a workshop-style operation to a modern industry.

This is not a betrayal of tradition, but rather a way to bring Eastern stories to the world in a more impactful way…

Du Qifeng, who had just said the previous article was alarmist, frowned and fell silent after reading this sequel.

The previous article was based on unfounded speculation.

Hong Kong cinema is currently booming, at its zenith, and is even more dominant in the local market, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, making Hollywood films pale in comparison.

Can one movie like "Jurassic Park" change everything?

Will Jurassic Park be the turning point?

What is this if not alarmist?

However, this sequel offers a new path for development.

Regardless of whether this approach is feasible or can solve the current bottleneck of Hong Kong films, it is enough to show that the young director from the mainland is indeed taking this matter seriously, and is not just making alarmist claims to attract attention.

"Master, what do you think?"

This time, it was Chen Musheng's turn to ask his teacher.

Du Qifeng was silent for a moment, then picked up Ming Pao with his other hand, looked at Ming Pao, then looked at Ta Kung Pao, and carefully stacked the two newspapers together and put them in the drawer.

"Young people have a lot of ideas."

Du Qifeng shook his head and said, "Qin Keqing must have studied this matter seriously, and may have even put in a great deal of effort."

He thought for a moment and said, "Qin Keqing spent about two months in Cannes with 'A Bittersweet Life,' probably during that time studying Hollywood, which has almost completely taken over the European market."

Du Qifeng paused for a moment before saying, "He's still too young. Hong Kong is different from Europe. Hong Kong cinema is the dominant force in the East. Even Hollywood would struggle to compete. This is a natural cultural barrier."

Taiwan, Southeast Asia, South Korea, and the everyday life of ordinary people—these places share cultural similarities with Hong Kong, making Western culture, like that of Hollywood, ineffective there.

Chen Musheng carefully considered his master's words and they seemed to make some sense. After all, it was an undeniable fact that Hollywood movies had failed in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is a completely open market with no restrictions on Hollywood films, but it is difficult for Hollywood films to enter the top ten of Hong Kong's box office charts every year. This is due to both cultural barriers and the strong competitiveness of Hong Kong films.

However, it seems that "Jurassic Park," which has already been released in Europe and America, is quite strong. Is it possible that it will have an impact on Hong Kong films?

Even if it exists, it's probably only temporary.

Chen Musheng firmly believes that as long as the Taiwanese and Southeast Asian markets exist, how could Hong Kong films possibly decline? How could they possibly become a regional supplement?

"Perhaps Qin Keqing applied his research on European films to Hong Kong films?"

At the same time, Xu Ke was also reading these two articles.

"What do you think?" he asked his girlfriend, Shi Nansheng.

Without hesitation, Shi Nansheng said directly, "I think this young man has a really long-term vision. Hong Kong films have hit a bottleneck. They have been stagnant for years. They seem prosperous, but in reality, it is just a temporary and false phenomenon brought about by hot money."

She took Xu Ke's hand and asked softly, "What do you think will happen to Hong Kong films if that hot money disappears?"

Xu Ke hesitated for a moment and said, "Without hot money, it won't necessarily decline. After all, the Taiwanese and Southeast Asian markets are still there. As long as these two markets still exist, at most, production will decrease, market enthusiasm will cool down, and influence will weaken a bit."

"What if Hollywood conquers the Taiwanese and Southeast Asian markets?"

Xu Ke looked at Shi Nansheng with some surprise. "It shouldn't be that bad. It's a fact that Hollywood movies can't compete with Hong Kong movies in the East. Besides, Taiwan has restrictions on the number of Hollywood movies, so it's even less likely that Hollywood movies will develop in Taiwan."

"Didn't you see Qin Keqing say in his article that Hollywood's CGI technology is mature and that this will increase Hollywood's competitiveness?"

Hearing his girlfriend say that, Xu Ke burst into laughter.

"You may have forgotten my 83 version of 'The New Legend of Shushan Swordsman'. That movie was the first to introduce a Hollywood computer-aided special effects team to try optical compositing and digital processing. I also specially invited the American Light and Magic team, which had worked on 'Star Wars', to participate in computer image-aided processing and digital compositing experiments on some shots."

He sighed regretfully as he said this.

"And what happened? This movie cost HK$83 million to make in 3000, but only grossed HK$1500 million at the box office. It was a huge loss. Do you think there's any future in introducing CGI to Hong Kong films?"

Xu Ke attended university in the United States and always thought Hollywood movies were amazing, but the movie "The New Legend of Shushan" still bothers him to this day.

Is CGI really a promising technology?

Shi Nansheng fell silent.

Wang Jing is currently working on the post-production of "Chasing Boys," which is scheduled for release on August 12th, so he's not in a hurry.

In Wang Jing's eyes, twenty days or so for post-production was already a very generous amount of time.

He also read the two articles signed by Qin Keqing.

"I understand what you're saying, young man, but do you know that a low-budget comedy can break even in 20 days these days? Why invest so much in a CGI team? What if the technology isn't mature enough and it takes a year or two to release? By then, theaters won't have any screenings left, and who will lose the money?"

Wang Jing shook his head and put the newspaper down.

"The idea is good, but unrealistic. Large sums of hot money are coming in, all looking to make quick money. Who would think about the long term? No film company would go crazy and throw money at CGI."

"What a pity..."

Note: I originally intended to only write a little bit about the two chapters above and omit the rest to avoid being accused of padding the plot. But then I thought about it again, these are public chapters and are free, so I simply uploaded everything I wrote.