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

With Shaw Yifu's support, Dillon and Zhou Runfa's schedules were easily arranged.

Li Jiangbo and Zhou Runfa had worked together before, so he could be summoned with just one phone call.

As for Dilong, Li Jiangbo had to ask director Li Hanxiang to intercede on his behalf, which is how he managed to persuade this big shot to come forward.

However, director Chang Cheh's "Ten Tigers of Guangdong and Five Tigers of the Future" will wrap up filming in about a week, so filming can only begin in a week.

Li Jiangbo has been busy this week as well.

First, he invited the Yuen Clan from Golden Harvest to be his martial arts instructors, and then he sold all his shares in Cheung Kong Holdings, making a huge profit of 400,000.

With the box office revenue of four million from "Happy Ghost" and the two million earned from the glass business, he had more than six million in available funds.

In less than six months, Li Jiangbo transformed himself from a director of erotic films earning only 100,000 yuan a month into a veritable small-time tycoon in the Hong Kong film industry.

While running his glass business, Li Jiangbo also recruited twenty bodyguards in mainland China in case of unforeseen circumstances.

He vividly remembered how much the Hong Kong triads coveted his glass bottle business in the simulation.

As for why Dillon, Chow Yun-fat, and Leslie Cheung were chosen as the leads for "A Better Tomorrow," we need to talk about the simulation results.

Li Jiangbo used different actors to play the roles in both of his remakes of "A Better Tomorrow." Although the box office results were roughly the same, the time spent on each role differed.

The first time, Chen Huimin replaced Di Long, and it took three months to finish filming the movie.

The second time, Li Jiangbo directly replaced Zhou Runfa, and this replacement almost left Zhou Runfa bedridden for half a year.

This scared him so much that he never wanted to change movie roles again. He decided to wait until he became truly famous and received warm greetings from fans before making movies. That would be the right time for him to debut.

Another reason is that he needs to earn 100 million as soon as possible to buy Lijiang.

As for whether Zhou Runfa will become arrogant after becoming famous? Li Jiangbo is not worried at all. He can make Zhou Runfa famous, and he can also bring him down!

At 10:00 AM, in the main conference room of Time Pictures.

Wang Jing, Johnnie To, Chen Xunqi, Di Long, Lan Naicai, and others sat in the conference room chatting.

Today's meeting was scheduled by Li Jiangbo, and everyone who signed the contract is required to attend.

After a while, Li Jiangbo, carrying a black bag, pushed open the conference room door and strode into the room. Zhao Yazhi, dressed in a cheongsam, followed behind, but she didn't go in; she simply waited quietly at the door.

Everyone stared curiously at the black bag in Li Jiangbo's hand, and began to discuss it amongst themselves.

Li Jiangbo placed the bag on the table and coughed lightly twice.

The meeting room fell silent instantly.

Li Jiangbo nodded in satisfaction. "There are three things I wanted to discuss with everyone here today. First, I want to introduce an acquaintance to you all, Zhao Yazhi. I will be hiring her as our company's Operations Director! Please welcome her."

A thunderous applause erupted, and Zhao Yazhi, hearing the applause, gracefully entered.

"Hello everyone, I'm Zhao Yazhi. It's an honor to work with you all. I hope we can all work together to make Time Pictures even better!"

After saying that, he sat down in his seat.

Only Rosamund Kwan and Cherie Chung, who were further back, looked at Zhao Yazhi, who was chatting and laughing, with complicated emotions rising in their hearts.

Li Jiangbo then announced the second piece of news: "Secondly, the box office revenue sharing for 'Happy Ghost' has been finalized, and it's time to distribute the profits to you!"

All the actors and staff who participated in "Happy Ghost" applauded, their faces turning red.

Li Jiangbo gestured with his hand, "Alright! Those who are called, come up and collect your red envelopes."

"Rosamund Kwan!"

"Cherie Chung!"

"Leslie Cheung!"

......

When Leslie Cheung received the red envelope, he felt its thickness and was delighted to find that it was quite thick!

He walked calmly to his seat, sat down, and then opened the red envelope to take a look.

Sitting to the side, Zhou Runfa curiously looked at Zhang Guorong's red envelope and found a stack of brightly colored, brand-new bills stuffed inside.

This is at least 100,000 yuan. Zhou Runfa gasped.

What kind of family background does this person have? Giving out 100,000 yuan in a single red envelope? Director Li is giving way too much!

Will I receive such a large red envelope when I film this movie?

Zhou Runfa was lost in thought for a moment.

It's worth noting that in Hong Kong's film industry, even the most popular actor, Jackie Chan, only earns a maximum of 200,000 HKD per film. Other stars typically earn around 30,000 to 40,000 HKD per film.

This box office revenue share can be equivalent to the earnings from making three movies, and sometimes it may not even cover their salary.

Like Golden Harvest, a certain bigwig even got into a fight with the company over profit sharing, and even brought his wife along to join in. Despite all that, he still didn't get the share that was rightfully his.

After everyone quieted down, Li Jiangbo spoke up: "Thirdly: We're about to start filming 'A Better Tomorrow,' so I'll organize a script reading first."

He took the script out of his bag and asked Zhao Yazhi to distribute it.

After receiving the script, everyone read it carefully.

Li Jiangbo looked around and, seeing that everyone had seen enough, said, "Have you all finished watching? Let me assign you the roles."

"Brother Long plays Song Zihao, Afa plays Xiao Ma, Arong plays Song Zijie, and Ahong plays Jackie, who is Song Zijie's girlfriend and later wife."

At this moment, Leslie Cheung asked, "Director Li, is the character I play, Sung Chi-kit, too conflicted in his feelings for Leslie Cheung? He hates him for being a gangster, yet he can't help but care about him. I'm afraid the audience will find this character pretentious."

Li Jiangbo nodded, "Okay! This time, Arong will have to make a sacrifice. Although your role isn't very likable, it's quite challenging."

The others had never worked with Li Jiangbo and dared not speak recklessly.

Chen Xunqi said, "I can help with the music here. When the brothers are confronting each other, we can use cold strings, and when they are alone, we can switch to a soft piano theme. We can use music to help the audience understand the characters' inner thoughts."

Johnnie To slammed his hand on the table. "Right! And the narrative pacing. Director Li, I've noticed that the scene in the script where Mark dies, and the scene where Sung Chi-ho takes revenge later, isn't the interval too short? The audience might not have enough time to adjust emotionally."

Everyone chimed in, and the discussion became increasingly in-depth.

Wang Jing then raised a practical question, "Director Li, is the budget enough for the parking lot scene? Bullets, props, blood packs, explosives... all of that costs money."

Li Jiangbo held up two fingers, "I'm prepared to invest two million in this film."

Lan Naicai, who had been silent all along, finally raised her head. "Director Li, I have an idea regarding the cinematography. For the scenes after Song Zihao's release from prison, the color tone could be cooler and grayer to express his inner loneliness. Towards the end when the brothers fight side by side, the color tone should gradually warm up, especially for the blood—the blood should have a kind of... tragic beauty on the screen."

These words drew everyone's attention to the young photographer.

Chen Xunqi gave a thumbs up, "Master Lan, you're amazing! The use of color in storytelling is brilliant!"

The discussion lasted for more than two hours. The script was covered with annotations, and everyone's understanding of their roles deepened.

Li Jiangbo closed the script. "Okay, that's enough for today. I have other things to do."

The crowd did not disperse because of Li Jiangbo's words; instead, they continued to talk.

Ignoring them, Li Jiangbo called Lan Naicai and Yuan Heping and headed to the dock.

The dock in the script is a key filming location, and Li Jiangbo had already rented a warehouse to discuss with the two how to film the final scene.