This year is a year of the rapid rise of Hong Kong films, due to the influence of Wang Zijun, Cheng Long, Chow Yun-fat and other star artists left Taiwan, the prosperity of Hong Kong films in the parallel space was postponed, and the total box office sales of Hong Kong films in 1984 did not reach half of the parallel space.

And at the beginning of this year, there was Golden Harvest's "Lucky Star", which won the local box office of 3,200 Hong Kong dollars in one fell swoop, followed by Tsui Hark's "New Shu Mountain Swordsman" in the United States, and Lin Zhengying's "Mr. Zombie" The second part of "Mr. Zombie" also won successes. In addition to these films, a number of small and medium-sized film companies have also blossomed everywhere, and 11 films with a local box office of tens of millions have emerged in the first half of the year alone.

Looking at the box office of Hong Kong films in the first half of the year, the total sales of Hong Kong films at home and abroad this year are likely to directly double.

This doubling is mainly due to the box office revenue in Europe and the United States, the 30 million American box office of "New Shushan Swordsman", plus the upcoming release in Europe, contributed considerable box office data in other cities.

At the same time, there is also Golden Harvest's "Lucky Star Gaozhao", which is a movie jointly produced by Golden Harvest and Baohe, not only directed and acted by Sammo Hung himself, but also invited Cheng Long, who hit his head in Hollywood last year. The team-up of the two attracted crazy money in Southeast Asia in the first half of the year, and the box office was only ranked behind Wang Zijun's "ET".

Zou Wenhuai, who reached a consensus with Wang Zijun, has already contacted Dragon and Tiger Film Company, and will soon take "Lucky Star Gaozhao" to the United States for release.

In the first half of 1985, Hong Kong filmmakers saw the harbinger of the box office explosion of Hong Kong films, and they were gearing up to show their might in this year's summer file.

However, under the gathering of many movies, the fierce competition at the box office in the summer file greatly exceeded the expectations of the film company owners and directors.

The lower part of Tsui Hark's "New Shu Mountain Swordsman", Sammo Hung 's "Xia Yue Fuxing", Xu Guanjie's "Working Emperor", Cheng Long's "Police Story", as well as "Royal Senior Sister 2", "Happy Ghost Summer Vacation", "Kapok Robe" and so on. A bunch of good movies came out at the same time, which made Hong Kong fans happy and sad, which one should I choose to watch first?

And what gave Hong Kong directors the most headache was that Wang Zijun, who crossed the river, came to Hong Kong with "The Three Heroines of the East" to compete for the summer file, which made the already tragic schedule suddenly become bloody and full of floating corpses.

"The Three Heroines of the East" was released in early July, and as soon as the release date was announced, it scared a bunch of Hong Kong films to postpone their release time, but there are still some unbelievers who bite the bullet.

On July 3, "The Three Heroines of the East" was released; On July 8, "Mr. Zombie 2" was released; July 15 "Police Story" was released; On July 21, "Xia Yue Fuxing" was released; On July 22, "Royal Sister 2" was released...... The successive release of these strong films has made the ordinary films crowded in them have almost no foothold. Some small companies grit their teeth with great hopes to make movies, but in the end they can only be ranked in the midnight and midnight slots.

However, this is still not enough, "The Three Heroines of the East" created a pure female surname perspective and a blockbuster model combining East and West have made Asian fans crazy. Because it was too hot, major movie theaters have revised their film scheduling plans, and the film's shooting rate in Hong Kong once reached 65%, and those small films without the support of the theater chain couldn't even keep the interval, so they could only make way for "The Three Heroines of the East".

In just five days, the box office revenue of "Three Heroines of the East" in Hong Kong exceeded 10 million Hong Kong dollars, and the momentum was even stronger than when "ET" was released.

Hong Kong's "Film Fortnightly" said: ""The Three Heroines of the East is a landmark film, and it will become a classic of oriental action movies, and its influence is even comparable to Bruce Lee's debut film "Tangshan Big Brother"...... Purely in terms of film art, "Three Heroines of the East" is far inferior to his last work "ET". However, in the case of the gradual decline of Bruce Lee-style kung fu films, the commercial film model that perfectly combines oriental elements with the Hollywood model, as well as the pioneering use of various commercial action movie elements in the film, can be used as a guide for Chinese films to enter Europe and the United States......"

and "Ming Pao Weekly" compared "The Three Heroines of the East" with last year's "Royal Sister" of Debao Film Company, both films have female surnames as the protagonists. said that "Royal Senior Sister" still did not get out of the category of Hong Kong police films and urban comedies, and Wang Zijun's "Three Heroines of the East" is more pure, the enemies of the three heroines are all strong and have extremely high IQs, and the strength of the opponents will only make the three heroines stronger, so strong that the men are embarrassed.

Relatively speaking, although the two policewomen in "Royal Sister" are also very strong, they are much more ordinary and inferior in the face of a bunch of supporting actors who pretend to be stupid and keep making jokes.

The evaluation of "Ming Pao Weekly" is very accurate, last year, due to Yang Ziqiong's participation in "The Three Heroines of the East", the heroine of "Royal Senior Sister" finally became Ye Yuqing, which is also an exchange between Wang Zijun and Pan Disheng, Ye Yuqing directly transferred the movie to Debao Company. As for the other policewoman, as in Parallel Space, she is still Karate World Champion Cynthia Rosrock.

After the great success of "Royal Senior Sister", Debao Company launched "Royal Senior Sister 2" while it was hot this year, with the heroines Ye Yuqing and Yang Lijing respectively.

Half a month after the release of "The Three Heroines of the East", "Royal Sister 2", which is barely of the same type, was also released. Hong Kong audiences like the same type of female star films very much after watching "The Three Heroines of the East", which caused the box office of "Royal Sister 2" to soar in the first half of the month, but gradually the audience and the media thought that "Royal Sister 2" was much worse than Wang Zijun's "Three Heroines of the East", and then the attendance rate of "Royal Sister 2" dropped rapidly.

As for Sammo Hung self-directed and self-acted, Cheng Long and others starring in "Xia Yue Fuxing", due to the staggered release time of more than half a month, and the support of Golden Harvest's theaters, coupled with the humorous fighting plot, it was not pressed much by "The Three Heroines of the East", and the final local box office still reached 26 million Hong Kong dollars, only 2 million less than in the parallel space.

Not to mention the director and film company, the most popular movie stars in this summer are Li Zhi, Yang Ziqiong and Iraqi Laudya Undoubtedly, followed by the desperate San Lang Cheng Long, this guy seems to have been stimulated by the failure to enter Hollywood last year, and in the first half of this year, a total of five dramas were filmed in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the box office sales were huge, and his influence in Asia has once again reached a new height.

Although there have been a lot of changes in the films in Hong Kong, at least Wang Zijun can still guess some shadows, and the Taiwanese films released in Taiwan this summer are completely different. In the top ten of Taiwan's box office list in the first half of the year, Wang Zijun has never even heard of a title: a self-contained "Three Heroines of the East", two action movies by Cheng Long, and several sci-fi, action, war and literary films from Taiwan Studio, China Film Company, Superstar Company, First Pictures, and Lianzhong Films.

Compared with the few literary films left in the parallel space, Taiwanese films are now in full bloom and prosperous.

Just when the situation was very good, Zhuge Mao, the general manager of Hong Kong New Arts City, sent Wang Zijun an unpleasant message: Mecca, Shi Tian, Huang Baiming and others were about to break up.

In this time and space, the shares of several people in the new art city are almost equally divided, and it is easy to understand that Mecca wants to go it alone, it stands to reason that Shi Tian and Huang Baiming should not want to leave, they have received a lot of dividends.

Wang Zijun rushed to Hong Kong overnight, the first thing he looked for was Teddy Robin, and asked this old friend out for tea.

Teddy Robin sighed: "A few of them, they are all idle, and they have nothing to do......"

After Teddy Robin's explanation, Wang Zijun gradually understood the ins and outs of it.

It turned out that the new art city was originally supported by Tsui Hark, Shi Tian, Mecca, Huang Baiming, Teddy Robin, Shi Nansheng and Zeng Zhiwei, Tsui Hark was first dissatisfied with several other people's focus on comedy and pointing fingers on everything, and left with his girlfriend Shi Nansheng, and established Tsui Hark Film Studio with the funding of Wang Zijun.

Then Wang Zijun began to train a team of special effects personnel in Xinyicheng, which greatly reduced the presence of Mecca, who was born in electronic engineering and was fully responsible for the special effects work of Xinyicheng. Coupled with the successive hits of "Best Partner", Mecca considers himself a great contributor, but he is dissatisfied with the fact that he earns the same as several others.

Huang Baiming's specialty is screenwriting, but Wang Zijun made Zhuge Mao's screenwriting department established in Xinyi City gradually mature, and the streamlined screenwriting work often contradicted Huang Baiming's thinking, which made him feel that he was useless as a hero, and finally simply ignored the screenwriting work.

Zeng Zhiwei and Shi Tian had a conflict because of the choice of actors, and Shi Tiankou, as one of the shareholders, spoke ill of him without hesitation, and the relationship between the two deteriorated sharply.

Because several people have their own agendas, they didn't make a single movie in the first half of this year, and the films such as "Police Story" and "Mr. Zombie 2" produced by Xinyicheng were all created by other people in the company, which made them feel even more marginalized.

"Sure enough, it's so idle!" Wang Zijun couldn't smile bitterly when he heard it.

The smile on his face hadn't dissipated yet, Wang Zijun was suddenly stunned, thinking that it could be Zhuge Mao, a black-bellied guy, who deliberately sowed discord and could snub and suppress a few people, right?

When Zhuge Mao promised Wang Zijun to be the general manager of Xinyicheng, he revealed the intention of squeezing out a few people after the company was on the right track. If it weren't for Zhuge Mao's instructions, how could the screenwriters of those screenwriting departments dare to work against Huang Baiming?

The more Wang Zijun thought about it, the more he felt that it was possible, otherwise how could Mecca and others collectively "strike"?

Wang Zijun suddenly, he couldn't figure out whether it was right to let Zhuge Maolai take charge of the new art city. However, this idea is fleeting, although Mecca, Shi Tian and others are some of the best film talents in Hong Kong, but their small group creation method obviously cannot last long, which is not conducive to the long-term development of the company. In addition, they often claim to be the heroes of the company and criticize the process of filmmaking, so proper beating is due.

Zhuge Mao is not a stupid person, if it weren't for the fact that Mecca and a few people behaved a little excessively, he would not have demolished himself like this.

And the strike of several people in Mecca broke up, obviously in response to Zhuge Mao's beating, but they have the identity of the company's shareholders, and they are still Zhuge Mao's boss, so they naturally dare to play scoundrels in front of Zhuge Mao.

Zhuge Mao must have been unable to work with a few of them, so he tactfully told Wang Zijun that the Mecca wanted to break up. That means to tell the people in Mecca, aren't you making a fuss and quitting, then okay, I'll convey your meaning to the chairman.

After thinking about it, Wang Zijun said to Teddy Robin: "Brother Guan, please inform them that the temporary board of directors will be held tomorrow." ”

"Okay." Teddy Robin nodded, he didn't have much desire for power, and he had always been a cold observer of the struggle between Mecca and the others and Zhuge Mao. Anyway, he can't run away with those shares in Xinyi City, and it doesn't matter what Wang Zijun disposes of.

Bidding farewell to Teddy Robin, Wang Zijun came to Xinyi City and directly asked Zhuge Mao to bring the company's personnel information.

At a glance, this is indeed the case, Zhuge Mao's ability is not small, and the new art city has grown rapidly in recent years, but in addition to earning fame and money, several people in Mecca actually have no decision-making power in the new art city. Almost all the important departments in the new art city are Zhuge Mao's henchmen, and in addition to shareholders, there are only a few false department directors in Mecca.

Wang Zijun laughed when he saw it, and it was estimated that if he were himself, he would be as angry as Mecca and wanted to leave.

After Wang Zijun read the personnel information, he called Zhuge Mao into his office, threw a copy of the information to Zhuge Mao, and scolded with a smile: "You are too bullying, right?" ”

Zhuge Mao had almost no mood swings, and said: "It's just that they can't keep up with the company's development." After last year's "Best Partner" was released, several of them were full of ambition and almost crazy. In addition, seeing that Tsui Hark's movie was a big hit, he actually wanted to fight for will, change the company's annual production plan out of thin air, and move the budget that should have been used for other films to the next "Best Partner", isn't this child's play? The company's annual plan can be changed as long as it can be said. Director Mai had the biggest temper, and directly poured me coffee in front of more than 20 employees of the company. You said that he discussed it well, maybe I would really increase his budget, and actually play this set? ”

Wang Zijun glanced at the "Best Partner" planning book on the table, and asked with a smile: "So not only did you not increase their budget, but instead reduced the investment in "Best Partner" at the beginning of the year, and then they collectively quit?" ”

Zhuge Mao nodded, and said with a smile: "The boss is wise." ”

"Wise fart! They are also shareholders anyway, and they have more shares than me in total, so you can't let it go a little bit if you are looking at my face until now? Wang Zijun scolded.

Zhuge Mao said: "For the development of the company, the issue of principle cannot be allowed. Since the company has made a plan, even if you are the chairman, you can't just change it. Even if I want to change it, I have to give a convincing reason. ”

"Get out!" Wang Zijun couldn't cry or laugh, he not only shouldn't scold him, but he should praise Zhuge Mao.

The next day, several major shareholders of Xinyicheng were recruited into the conference room.

Wang Zijun sat on the chairman's seat, and Mecca, Huang Baiming, Shi Tian, and Teddy Robin sat on both sides.

"Hello Mr. Wang!" Although Mecca and the others had opinions about Zhuge Mao, they still smiled when they saw Wang Zijun, and everyone greeted each other with a smile as if they were nothing.

Wang Zijun waited for everyone to sit down, and then said, "Let's talk about it, what do you think?" ”

Mecca said: "I doubt that Zhuge Mao is capable of the position of general manager of Xinyicheng. ”

Okay, as soon as he came, he was ready to impeach Zhuge Mao and wanted to replace him.

Wang Zijun asked: "Can you specifically talk about the shortcomings of the managers?" ”

"Of course it'......" Mecca's tone froze, he really couldn't say what Zhuge Mao did wrong for a while, after all, Zhuge Mao has always acted according to the rules. Could it be that Zhuge Mao, the general manager, didn't give them a few shareholders face, so he should be fired?

Huang Baiming saw that Mecca couldn't say a reason, so he took the words: "I think that all managers are studying in the company, and everyone must listen to him." I, the director of the screenwriting department, are completely ornamental, and the screenwriters below don't listen to my opinions at all, and only listen to Zhuge Mao's orders. ”

"Anything else?" Wang Zijun asked.

Shi Tiandao: "Zhuge Mao is a villain, he sows discord in private, making me feel like an enemy when I meet Zeng Zhiwei now." ”

"What else?" Wang Zijun asked.

Mecca said: "I think that's enough, he has a problem with his work attitude and personality. ”

"Just these trivial things? Haha," Wang Zijun said with a smile: "Otherwise, everyone will take a step back, and I will do peace." The managers are also thinking about the company, you are all shareholders of the company, and the extra money is not yours? I asked him to apologize to everyone, respect your opinions in the future, and continue to cooperate sincerely to make the new art city better. What do you think? ”

Mecca said: "I don't want anything else, I want the decision-making power of the company's shooting plan." ”

Huang Baiming said: "I have the final say in the screenwriting department, those little screenwriters don't know what script creation is at all!" ”

Shi Tian said: "I have to ask about the selection of actors, and I can't just say it." ”

Wang Zijun looked at Teddy Robin: "What about you?" ”

Teddy Robin laughed, "I'm just one who makes music, so I don't have too many requirements." ”

"It's as simple as that?" Wang Zijun looked at everyone, suddenly clapped his hands and smiled, "These are all small things, and you are all middle and high-level players, so it's decided." ”

A few people in Mecca didn't expect Wang Zijun to agree so quickly, and before they had time to be stunned, they heard Wang Zijun say again: "However, I hope you will strictly abide by the company's regulations, and don't make decisions based on personal preferences." If someone breaks the rules, it's going to be hard for me! ”

This was said a little heavily, and the threat and warning in it were very strong, and several people were figuring out the words in Wang Zijun's words, and they saw Wang Zijun's expression becoming happy again, and laughed: "Let's go, I haven't gathered for a long time, let's drink together at night." ”

(To be continued)