Chapter 484: Value for Money
PS: The typo hasn't been corrected, and it will be updated again after modification, so you can read it again after ten minutes!
The 59th edition of the Oscars came to an end on the penultimate day of March at the Los Angeles Music Center. The biggest winner of this Oscar is the movie "Field Platoon".
This film depicting the Vietnam War not only won more than $300 million at the global box office last year at a small cost of $5 million, but also successfully won the best picture and the best director.
And in addition to "Field Platoon", there is actually a winner. The Hong Kong media is most concerned about this Oscars in recent years. At a time when Hong Kong films are at the peak of their glory and can crowd out European and American blockbusters in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and other markets, Hong Kong people actually don't care much about the Oscars.
Indeed, there are many Western films that can harvest a lot of box office in Hong Kong every year, such as last year's box office champion "Rocky 4" in Hong Kong. This is the sixth time that Sylvester Stallone has entered the top 10 list of the annual box office list of Hong Kong Western films, and Hong Kong audiences do like this tough guy very much.
However, the box office of "Rocky 4" in Hong Kong is only 16.12 million Hong Kong dollars, and if it is placed in the box office list of Hong Kong films last year, it can only rank tenth. This is less than half of the 34.65 million box office of Hong Kong film champion "The True Color of Heroes".
Therefore, Hong Kong people's attention to the Oscars, an annual entertainment festival on the other side of the Pacific, is far less than that after the decline of Hong Kong films 20 years later. This year, however, was different because it was the first time that Hong Kong people were involved.
In fact, the relationship between Chinese and the Oscars can be traced back to the 28th Academy Awards in 1956. At that time, Mr. Huang Zhongzhen, a Chinese-American director in the United States, successfully won the Oscar for Best Director for the movie "Tattoo of a Rose". Of course, in fact, as early as 1938, director Huang Zhongzhan was nominated for the Oscar for Best Director for the first time with another "Cape Wanderer".
Oscar and the last time he had a relationship with a Chinese. It was at the 57th Academy Awards two years ago. Mr. Wu Han, a Chinese American who immigrated to the United States from Cambodia, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor with his wonderful performance in the movie "Slaughter of the City". This is the first Chinese actor in the history of the Oscars to win the acting award, and of course, even after 30 years, this award is still the only one!
Although Hong Kong films are in their heyday. Hong Kong is also known as the Hollywood of the East, but it is not the real Hollywood after all. In fact, there is still a huge gap between Hong Kong's film industry and the American film industry. It's not that you don't actually know this gap, but you just deliberately ignore it many times!
But when a Hong Kong film is hugely affirmed in the United States on the other side of the ocean, everyone has a pride from the bottom of their hearts. As a result, Hong Kong newspapers have recently begun to report on various news of "Sleepless Nights in Hong Kong" in the United States, analyzing whether it can win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in one fell swoop.
It's just a pity that "Sleepless in Hong Kong" only got a nomination in the end. The 59th Academy Award for Best Picture. It was won by a film from the Netherlands. This Dutch film, called "Attack", depicts the story of the Nazis in World War II.
The cruelty of war, the good and evil of human nature, these high-quality things will be more favored by the judges. And a love movie with a happy ending like "Sleepless Nights in Hong Kong", just like the handsome Leonardo, is actually very discriminated against by the Oscars.
Unless "Sleepless Nights in Hong Kong" can crush all prejudices with an unprecedented box office like the big ship of Cameron in later generations. Let the judges not vote for you, or else it will cause the audience to question the fairness of the Oscars. And "Sleepless Nights in Hong Kong" naturally can't do this. In fact, the reason why it was able to win the nomination was largely the result of public relations and media hype.
Films that are now competing for the Oscars. The average cost of PR spent is around $500,000. And Li Xuan provided a full $4 million budget for the award rush of "Sleepless Night in Hong Kong". And it also has hot topics such as "screenwriters are the richest man in the world" and "Internet" to hype. This made "Sleepless in Hong Kong" constantly appear in the news pages of the American media throughout the nomination voting period.
More publicity and exposure can influence a large number of judges who have not really appreciated the movie and only rely on first impressions to vote. But when the nominations for the various awards are announced. All the judges will be much more cautious when it comes to the second round of voting. It is completely predictable that a film like "Sleepless in Hong Kong", which is biased towards commercialization and lacks profound humanistic connotations, will fail.
Of course, Li Xuan's investment of up to $4 million has not been wasted, and it is actually very valuable. Because he succeeded from the end of November last year. The American entertainment extravaganza, which lasted until the end of March this year, attracted a lot of attention for the new word "Internet".
This past February, U.S. President Ronald Reagan delivered his annual State of the Union address at a joint session of Congress. In this year's State of the Union address, he devoted a special section to introducing the US federal government, and in the next plan, it will increase support for high-tech industries represented by the Internet and computer industries.
The 1987 federal budget, which was released in mid-March, specifically listed the government's budget to support the information technology industry. Of course, the White House is not prepared to use taxpayers' money to pay for large-scale communications infrastructure. Rather, it is prepared to use the principle of "who invests, who enjoys" to encourage commercial capital to actively invest in these areas.
But there are some things that capital can't achieve, or can't do efficiently. For example, even if the Oriental Institute is willing to make the World Wide Web technology available for free, it is still very difficult to convince the entire Internet to adopt the World Wide Web first.
Because other electronics giants like IBM will definitely consider the pros and cons of this matter for themselves. They are likely to feel that it will deepen the monopoly of the Eastern Bloc in the emerging Internet industry, so they will secretly resist the promotion of World Wide Web technology.
If the U.S. federal government is pushing standards for World Wide Web technologies, the situation is completely different. Therefore, Li Xuan has already hired a special public relations company to actively lobby in Washington.
In fact, the node born of World Wide Web technology is very good, because its core HTTP protocol (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) does not have obvious conflicts with the existing FTP protocol and Email protocol.
The FTP protocol (File Transfer Protocol) is for: A protocol developed to "transfer" files between specific hosts. For example, use the supercomputer of the University of California, San Diego, and download a file on the supercomputer of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which is connected to the Internet. Nowadays, most FTP downloads usually require a username and password to complete. As for the Email protocol, as the name suggests, it is a protocol developed specifically for email.
In the HTTP protocol, anyone can download a specified recognizable hypertext file. It is more applicable than FTP and Email, which have already been born. It can make the transmission of information on the Internet easier and freer.
So as long as the U.S. government starts to take the initiative to promote the development of the Internet, World Wide Web technology is definitely the last choice now. In another time and space, the gopher protocol, which was born around the same time as the World Wide Web, is still uninvented in the minds of professors at the University of Minnesota.
Even if other companies want to stop it, they can't find a comparable technology for a while. In addition, in the White House, there is also Bush Sr., who is gradually preparing to emerge as an ally, and Li Xuan's success is really high.
That's right, on the issue of pushing the Internet. Bush Sr., the most powerful contender for the next president of the United States, is Li Xuan's ally rather than his backer. These are two completely different concepts, the alliance represents the equal status of both sides, and the backer means that Li Xuan is in a slight position.
For example, in the previous merger and acquisition war of the Eastern Group to acquire RCA, Bush Sr. was Li Xuan's backer. He received a large amount of political cash from Li Xuan, and he was obliged to contact and provide assistance to his financier. In fact, however, whether or not the Eastern Group can successfully acquire RCA has little to do with the vital interests of Bush Sr. So he won't use his milk to cheer for the Eastern Bloc.
However, the significance of promoting the development of the Internet in the United States this time is different, and the information technology industry is likely to be the elder Bush in the next presidential term. An important engine for the development of the U.S. economy. In another time and space, during the election campaign, Clinton used a famous phrase to attack Bush Sr., "Stupid, the problem is the economy!"
Does Bush Sr. really not know, for American voters. Of course it can't be, even if he doesn't know, the presidential think tank behind him certainly knows!
In fact, when the worst recession in the United States since World War II occurred during his term of office, Bush Sr. did not fail to do anything. The U.S. economy actually began to pick up slowly in the last quarter of 1992, just before the release of the last quarter's economic data. The dust has settled on the presidential election in the United States, and Bush Sr. has been kicked out of the White House by angry American voters!
Now, Li Xuan has handed over to Bush Sr. in advance a golden key that may be able to alleviate the crisis and continue to keep the US economy within an acceptable range for the next few years. Promote the development of the Internet in the United States, and use the fast-growing information industry to alleviate the pain caused by the future economic recession.
This has made Li Xuan's interests unifying with that of Bush Sr.! Naturally, Bush Sr. will do his utmost to support the development of the Oriental Bloc in the US Internet industry. Because he is a politician, not a computer technologist. Professional things still need to be handed over to professional people to do, and Li Xuan is undoubtedly the person who has both a professional level and allows him to trust with confidence.
In fact, after receiving a phone call from Bush Sr. on New Year's Day, Li Xuan quietly flew to the United States at the end of January. This time, he had a more in-depth communication with Mr. Vice President, and the two sides had a very frank exchange of their respective interests.
According to the information disclosed by Bush Sr. to Li Xuan, he has reached an understanding with President Reagan that the other party will vigorously support his proposals in the field of science and technology during the last two years of his term. For Reagan, his presidency has come to an end, and there is no need to watch out for the vice president's seizure of power.
In the past six years, Reagan and Bush Sr. have cooperated very tacitly. And Bush Sr. is not the kind of person who does not know how to advance or retreat, so Reagan is naturally willing to push the boat along the river and give full support to Bush Sr. in the next election campaign. After all, it's good for the entire Republican Party!
Of course, in addition to the fact that the Eastern Bloc will fully support Bush's next move, Li Xuan will also actively contact his own contacts in the Democratic Party for Bush. Although the Democratic and Republican parties will fight to the death for the presidential election, in fact, politicians on both sides have all kinds of collusions in private.
For example, during President Reagan's presidency, he used his personality charm to successfully win the support of many Democrats. So much so that many bills submitted by the federal government can be passed smoothly in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.
Now that the Democrats have complete control of the Senate and House of Representatives, the Republicans are facing a worse situation than they were in the previous six years. So if Bush Sr. wants to make a difference, he also needs the support of the Democrats.
For example, Mr. Albert Gore, who was successfully promoted from a member of the House of Representatives to a senator in two years. After being elected to the Senate, Gore not only quickly became a member of the Senate Science and Technology Committee, but also had some influence on the Science and Technology Committee in the House of Representatives.
If Bush Sr. wants to promote the development of the Internet in the United States, the science and technology committees of the two houses are definitely a threshold that cannot be bypassed. As a matter of fact, with the support of George H.W. Bush, several Republican congressmen are already mulling a bill to build an "information superhighway" in the United States. And if these bills want to pass both houses, they naturally need the support of Democratic lawmakers.
The conversation has shifted away from American politics across the Atlantic and back to Hong Kong. Recently, the focus of public opinion in Hong Kong, in addition to "Sleepless in Hong Kong" hitting the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, there is also a hot spot is the trial of the world's first Internet virus case.
The question of what kind of crime should be convicted in this case is also a bit of a headache for the Hong Kong judiciary, because there has never been a similar precedent in the world. A professor at the University of Hong Kong published an open letter in Ming Pao to Judge Choi Chi-ming, the Supreme Court of Hong Kong who is in charge of hearing the case.
He hoped that Judge Cai would exempt the perpetrators of the Hong Kong Internet virus crisis from punishment or give them a lighter punishment. Because the perpetrator himself did not have such subjective malice, even he never imagined that a prank would turn into a disaster that swept the global Internet. It can only be said that the Internet, a new thing, surprised everyone and caught everyone off guard.
And after the publication of this open letter, it immediately caused a huge controversy in Hong Kong, with both supporters and opponents! (To be continued......