Hong Kong Entertainment 1979: A Beating Up the Manager at the Start

On July 29, the supplement of the Oriental Daily News featured a full page of GG.

GG's words: My friend is a ghost? And the happiest one in the whole school.

The entire page was filled with a group photo of Cherie Chung, Rosamund Kwan, Wong Cho-si, and Leslie Cheung. The four looked stunning in their clothes and had exquisite makeup, a stark contrast to the promotional photos for Hong Kong films.

The first day of the GG (Girls' Love) campaign sparked heated discussions in the film industry. In this day and age, Li Jiangbo was the first to use a full-page newspaper to promote a movie. The visual impact of the photos featuring beautiful women and handsome men was also eye-catching.

In this era, it's not that no one in the film and television industry uses this trick, but rather that the returns are disproportionate to the effort.

Taking the circulation of the smallest newspaper as an example, a full-page, full-color copy of GG for a week would cost around 20,000 to 30,000.

This year's highest box office is only around five million. Those directors aren't stupid. Using this kind of promotional method, they're really not afraid of losing money!

What they didn't know was that Li Jiangbo had already made an agreement with Chairman Ma before filming even started, and bought the GG seat for half price.

......

Ho Koon-cheung, the owner of Golden Harvest, knocked on the door of Zou Wenhuai's office with today's Oriental Daily News in hand.

"Please come in!"

As soon as He Guanchang entered, he placed the newspaper directly on Zou Wenhuai's desk. "Mr. Zou, take a look at this newspaper."

Zou Wenhuai put down his teacup, put on his glasses, and picked up the newspaper to start reading.

When he saw the "GG" in "Happy Ghost", he frowned. He remembered that this was the third day.

Every day, the photos of the characters in the "Happy Ghost" series in the Oriental Daily are different. The photos are either group photos or individual photos, but the clothing style in each photo is completely different from the style of people at that time.

Moreover, GG language is also changing. Today's version is: the most mischievous youth, the happiest campus memories!

After he finished reading, he took off his glasses and said, "Ah Chang, what is Shaw Brothers doing? Three consecutive days of full-color GG (a type of webcam), the GG fee alone must be ten or twenty thousand, right? And this Li Jiangbo, could he be Shaw Brothers' illegitimate son? Why are they so supportive?"

Ho Koon-cheung smiled slightly, "Sir Shaw doesn't have any illegitimate children, just two sons and two daughters. I've inquired, and this Li Jiangbo used to be a director at Shaw Brothers, and he made several erotic films a couple of years ago. As for why he's so supported by Uncle Six, I'm not really sure."

Zou Wenhuai hurriedly asked, "Wait, you mean 'in the past'? You mean...?"

He Guanchang nodded. "That's right! It's exactly as you thought. Li Jiangbo resigned this April. But I'm wondering, since he's already resigned, why is Shao Sheng so supportive?"

Zou Wenhuai asked, puzzled, "Why?" The two were at a loss for words; they couldn't understand why Shao Yifu had taken this action.

Since Bruce Lee's death, Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers have been locked in fierce competition. But this year, unexpectedly, the box office champion was one of Lo Wei's men.

Zou Wenhuai snorted coldly, "We can't worry about that now! We need to get in touch with Cheng Long and win him over. As long as we mold Cheng Long along Bruce Lee's path to success, defeating Shaw Brothers will be just around the corner."

Ho Koon-cheung nodded. "Alright! I'll handle this personally."

"That, that Li Jiangbo..."

"Don't worry about it. He's just a director of erotic films; he can't make any waves."

In the TVB office building on the other side.

Shao Yifu was sitting at his desk, carefully reading the Oriental Daily News.

After a while, I finally put the newspaper down. I thought to myself: This Bo-zai is really capable! He actually managed to get GG into the Oriental Daily News.

Although he didn't know what method this guy used, he was certain that Li Jiangbo's three consecutive days of GGs definitely didn't cost much money.

According to the financial statements for the first half of the year, Shaw Brothers Cinemas was already operating at a loss. They would need to achieve a box office of 50 million in the second half of the year to turn a profit.

He's already seen the film, and he's already made his promise. How could Shao Daheng go back on his word?

His current focus is on competing with Golden Harvest for talent. As for agreeing to screen Li Jiangbo's films, it's merely a bold attempt, a show for outsiders to see that Shaw Brothers can also change.

Two veterans who defected dared to shit and piss on his head. How could Shao Daheng not be angry?

Just as Shao Yifu was lost in thought, there was a knock on the door.

"Enter!"

Fang Yihua entered, also holding a copy of the Oriental Daily News.

"Sixth Brother, have you read the newspaper?"

Shao Yifu nodded. "Let's sit down and talk about it."

Fang Yihua put down her newspaper and sat down opposite Shao Yifu. "Sixth Brother, it's been three days. Three consecutive days of losing, and in full color, full pages! Where did Li Jiangbo get so much money?"

Shao Yifu suddenly raised the corners of his mouth, revealing a playful smile, "You probably don't know, but he's already a small business owner with millions in assets! Besides, when he dealt with Zhao Yazhi's matter last time, didn't he also contact the Oriental Daily News?"

Fang Yihua raised an eyebrow in surprise. "This...where does he get these connections? And what kind of business does he run?"

Shao Yifu stood up, walked to the window, and looked north. "The answer is in the north. As for business, Hanxiang should know quite a bit about it."

Fang Yihua's lips twitched. Suddenly, she realized something and quickly asked, "Is he doing business with the mainland? Doesn't he care about the box office in Taiwan? How come this small-time erotic film director has such wild methods?"

Shao Yifu turned around and stared at Fang Yihua. "Whether their methods are unconventional or not, I don't know. I only know that they are doing business between the United States and the mainland."

Fang Yihua was speechless for a moment before asking, "What about Afang?"

Upon hearing this, Shao Yifu's expression changed. After a long pause, he let out a long sigh, "Let him behave himself! Let him do his job well. If he causes any more trouble, send him home."

Fang Yihua nodded. She already understood that Li Jiangbo was no longer the small-time erotic film director he used to be. And Sixth Brother had completely given up on his protégé!

Shao Yifu, meanwhile, was scheming about how to poach Jackie Chan, after all, he was a golden goose! With Bruce Lee as a successful role model, how could he not be envious of Jackie Chan?

Moreover, Shaw Brothers has been too conservative in recent years, and its scripts are outdated. Although it has stars, it is only critically acclaimed but not commercially successful.

As for Lo Wei? He was Hong Kong's lucky charm, but as the saying goes, "a common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime." Lo Wei was also a petty and vindictive person, which foreshadowed the triad's later foray into the film industry.

......

As the days went by, the five consecutive full-page, full-color censorship of the Oriental Daily News left a deep impression on the people of Hong Kong.

Many young people plan to go to Shaw Brothers to see this movie, since they have nothing else to do during the holidays anyway.

Golden Harvest's counterattack came quickly. The day before Happy Ghost was released, they began promoting Liu Jiarong's "Fight to the Death with a Single Blade and a Deadly Gun".

However, Golden Harvest seemed to lack confidence this time, and did not put much effort into publicity, simply buying a quarter of the GG space in the Ming Pao supplement.

However, Golden Harvest did some tricks, changing the original release date of August 9th to the same day as "Happy Ghost".

Li Jiangbo remained unmoved. The film's release date had already been set, and Shaw Brothers cinemas weren't his property, so how could he change it at will?

1979, April 8.

In the seventh month since Li Jiangbo transmigrated, his first film is finally going to be released in Shaw Brothers theaters!