said that the salaries of Hong Kong performing arts staff are abnormally high, mainly referring to those blockbuster directors and popular movie stars.

For example, director Wang Jing's films are often hot, and he gets the director's salary not only high, but also often has a share of the box office; For example, although Liu Dehua is not the most famous in Hong Kong, he is so popular in Taiwan, so his current salary is 8 million, directly chasing Zhou Yanfa, Zhou Xingchi and others, and even surpassing Xu Guanwen and Xu Guanjie brothers.

As for those second- and third-rate directors and actors, although their income has increased significantly compared with before, it is because of the prosperity of Hong Kong films, and the remuneration of these people is still relatively reasonable.

Taiwanese filmmakers complain that the salaries of Hong Kong entertainers are too high to raise the cost of the studio, but they are actually responsible, because the salaries of Hong Kong stars are coaxed up by these guys, and now they want to collect it but can't accept it.

In another time and space, the result of the second round of negotiations between the two sides on the issue of remuneration was to let Xiang Huaqiang serve as the convener to coordinate the reasonable remuneration of Hong Kong performing arts staff. But even with Xiang Huaqiang's gang boss background, coordination is also inconclusive, how much money can you make by managing the heavens and the earth?

The two sides argued for a while, and none of the Hong Kong producers spoke much, focusing on Xu Guanwen, the president of the Hong Kong Performing Arts Association.

Xu Guanwen said: "I can't do this kind of thing. When the association was founded, everyone elected me as its president because of their trust in me. My responsibility is to fight for the rights of Hong Kong entertainers, not to help third parties to pressure their salaries. ”

"This is the ...... It's up to Mr. Kang to decide. He Guanchang suddenly spoke.

Everyone looked at Kang Jianfei, waiting for him to finally make a statement.

If it is said that when solving contract disputes, Kang Jianfei has an advantage in controlling a large number of artist resources, then in coordinating the remuneration of entertainers, Kang Jianfei is facing a troublesome matter.

So many directors and actors are signed with your company and follow you, are you embarrassed to help outsiders press their salaries?

As long as Kang Jianfei agrees to do this, then whether he succeeds or not, he will offend a large number of directors and movie stars. Those people may not dare to say anything on the surface, but they will definitely be unhappy in their hearts, and it is a sure thing to talk and curse behind their backs.

Kang Jianfei has long been an old fox, how could he do such a thing that offends the anger of the public, he said with a playful smile on his face: "Do you think the cost of Hong Kong films is raised by the salaries of popular movie stars and directors?" ”

Yang Dengkui said: "This is a clear thing, now investing in the filming of 20 million Hong Kong films, the salary of the starring and director alone is more than 10 million, if there are two or three more popular supporting roles, the labor cost will already exceed 15 million." What can the remaining 5 million do? The director can only make shoddy movies to fool the audience. ”

"Wrong!" Kang Jianfei suddenly screamed, startling everyone in the conference room, and he smiled, "I think it's not just a problem for directors and movie stars, investors and producers need to take more responsibility!" ”

Wu Dun asked confusedly, "What is this statement?" ”

Kang Jianfei continued: "Why is there a situation where labor costs account for more than half of the total budget of the film? The root cause of the problem lies with you. You want big stars, big casts, big directors, don't read the script, just recognize your face, and invite whoever is popular, for the sake of the box office, this is understandable, but this is essentially coaxing the star's salary. ”

Wang Yingxiang said: "What am I invited to do if I am not a star? ”

Kang Jianfei said: "If you regard making movies as an ordinary business investment, then your behavior is to only look at the raw materials of the product, and do not care about the manufacturing process and process of the product at all, and even do not know the final appearance of the product when you invest money." Then consumers buy substandard products, they don't buy it, the product is overstocked and can't be sold, and then you complain that the raw materials are too expensive. It's putting the cart before the horse! What is a movie? Movies sell content, not just stars. Can't you be cautious when investing? ”

Cai Songlin retorted: "You can't say that......"

"Take Boss Cai's scholar company as an example," Kang Jianfei directly interrupted Cai Songlin's speech, "Wong Kar-wai can get tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars of investment from you with film contracts from a few stars and a plan to adapt Jin Yong's novel." Have you really considered carefully before investing? You don't even know what kind of film he wants to make. The result? As a result, Wong Kar-wai didn't make a movie for half a year, but used up the budget of more than 10 million Hong Kong dollars, how can you blame the movie star's salary is too high? ”

Cai Songlin was said to be blushing, and this matter has been regarded as a joke by insiders. In the end, the negotiated solution was: Wong Kar-wai pulled his friend Liu Zhenwei into the crew and used the original team to make another comedy, which was later "East Becomes West".

In just one month, Liu Zhenwei's "East Becomes West" has been completed, while Wong Kar-wai's "East Evil and West Poison" is still progressing slowly, and it is estimated that it will take a year and a half to see the finished film.

"Ahem, this is a special case." Yang Dengkui coughed and relieved Cai Songlin.

Kang Jianfei sneered: "This is a special case? Among the ten Taiwanese-funded Hong Kong films, at least six or more are launched without scripts, as long as the producer signs a star film contract, you dare to invest! ”

Taiwan's eight major filmmakers can only be silent, because what Kang Jianfei said is the truth.

Everyone looked at each other for a while, and Wang Yingxiang said: "What Mr. Kang said is also the truth, and we should really pay more attention to it in the future." But it doesn't help to say these things now, the most important thing is how to suppress the inflated star salary. ”

"It's not too late to make amends, how can it be said that it doesn't help?" Kang Jianfei just refused to accept the hot potato of lowering the salary of celebrities, he said, "Let's look at Hollywood, how rigorous is the process of making movies, which Hollywood director can sign a few star film contracts casually, and dare to ask producers and investors to pay money without even having a script or even an idea?" I think that lowering the salary of celebrities is just a trivial matter, and it is more important to standardize the future film production process. At least, when you invest money, you have to know what the director is going to shoot, right? ”

No one said anything, everyone was thoughtful, and some people showed disdainful expressions.

Kang Jianfei continued: "Take Wong Kar-wai's "East Evil and West Poison" as an example, can a drama really need to invite seven or eight first-line movie stars? One or two is enough! Don't treat the audience as fools who only recognize the face of celebrities and pay for them. Judging from the current production cost of Hong Kong films, if you want to shoot a big cast, you have to invest at least 30 million or more, and if you invest 20 million, you will come to shoot the big cast, of course, the star salary accounts for more than half. If you invest 50 million, the 15 million star salary is a fart! wants stars to get together but refuses to pay enough money, of course, it is a big bad movie. It's not that the celebrity's salary is too high, but that you invest too little money! If you want to only pay 20 million, then honestly make a medium-cast film, it is enough to invite one or two big stars to be the signboard, think about the script well, improve the quality of the film, and the movies made may not be lower than those films with big stars. ”

Kang Jianfei made it very clear, when Taiwanese filmmakers invest in Hong Kong films, they want to buy good goods but don't want to pay enough money, how can there be a good thing in this world that is cheap and beautiful?

The eight major film companies that control the film source of the entire Taiwan market are sitting in the conference room at the moment, like a grandson, being reprimanded by Kang Jianfei. There must be some people who are unhappy, but they have to admit that Kang Jianfei is right, and at the same time think about whether it is time to change investment ideas in the future - after all, the current Taiwanese audience has become sophisticated, unlike in the past, when they saw a Hong Kong star starring, they stupidly paid money to enter the theater.

Kang Jianfei's words were not only said to Taiwanese film companies, but also to Hong Kong producers like Chen Rongmei and Luo Jiecheng, who became halfway home. They don't understand movies at all, they blindly invest in making films with theaters in their hands, and they also only look at stars and don't read scripts, and the director uses big casts to pay for it, which eventually leads to the current bad status quo of bad movies.

Kang Jianfei had completely dominated the meeting at this time, and he said: "I mention that the Hong Kong Film Practitioners Association should standardize a Hong Kong film production charter. This charter is not mandatory, but a reference for producers and investors, and resolutely resist the kind of directors who rely on star film contracts to cheat investment. Most of you here have a family and a job, and those directors can take advantage of the prosperity of Hong Kong films to get a vote and leave, but you and I have production companies and theater companies, after playing the whole market badly, who will lose the most in the end? It's you, it's me, it's all of us! ”

Now it was the turn of the Hong Kong producers to ponder, Kang Jianfei's words were indeed thought-provoking, and even they themselves had considered this kind of problem before.

Even if Kang Jianfei did not appear, the poor box office status of Hong Kong films in 1993 also alerted a large number of Hong Kong practitioners. They have written to the British government in Hong Kong, asking the Hong Kong government to set up a film bureau to regulate the chaotic Hong Kong film industry with official power, but until the return of the 97th year, the British government in Hong Kong has not responded positively to this matter, and they do not care about the life or death of Hong Kong films.

Kang Jianfei continued: "The star's salary can't be suppressed, we set a salary of 5 million for a certain star, will he really be honest and obedient?" You really invited according to the standard of 5 million, but another company offered a price of 6 million, who did you say he would agree to act for? ”

Speaking of this, Kang Jianfei changed his tone again, "Of course, everyone has seen the local box office and overseas box office of Hong Kong films this year. Three words, that is, 'recession', it is also reasonable for the box office to slump down on actors' salaries, which is the same as raising actors' salaries when the box office is booming. We, Oriental Entertainment Agency, will do our best to negotiate with the Hong Kong Performing Artists Association to formulate a reference price list for actors' salaries. But this is only for reference, and it will not be enforced, and no one can force the star to take over the show according to which price. ”

Hearing that Kang Jianfei finally relented, Taiwan's eight major film dealers were also much more relaxed, they all knew that this kind of thing could not be done overnight, and it would be rare to get a reference price list for Hong Kong star salaries, and there would be at least one basis for inviting actors to press the film in the future.

In the end, the issue of commission issuance failed to negotiate a result that was satisfactory to both parties, and in the end they could only cooperate according to their will. Since some Hong Kong producers are unwilling to take commissions for distribution, that's okay, DreamWorks and Golden Harvest are willing, let's not buy your films in the future, we will buy these two companies, and the film source is not big enough to put old films to support the scene.

Don't think that Taiwanese film companies can't do this kind of thing, in another time and space, after the second round of negotiations between the two sides collapsed, they haven't bought Hong Kong films for half a year, and many Taiwanese cinemas have to repeatedly screen old films to cope. In the end, the Hong Kong production company couldn't hold on, and a large number of films collapsed in half a year, and Taiwan's film companies and theater companies also suffered heavy losses, so the two sides had to sit together for the third round of negotiations.

But after half a year of boycotting Hong Kong films, the Hong Kong film industry suffered heavy losses, and nearly half of the production companies and theaters collapsed.

Fortunately, with Kang Jianfei's intervention, everyone did not talk directly this time, although there are still problems that need to be solved, but due compromises have been made on the main issues.

In the end of the negotiations, the Taiwanese film companies and the Hong Kong producers reached a settlement and decided to establish a long-term mechanism for such negotiations, stipulating that "the relevant organizations of Hong Kong and Taiwan shall hold a meeting once a month to exchange views on issues such as film investment, production, and distribution", and that "the commercial evaluation of the film must be numerous, and appropriate adjustments must be made if it is unreasonable."

A total of three related bodies were born at this meeting, namely:

The Hong Kong and Taiwan Film Contract Coordination Group, which is responsible for cleaning up and coordinating the old film investment contracts between Hong Kong and Taiwan, is only a temporary body;

[Hong Kong Performing Arts Staff Reasonable Remuneration Assessment Panel], which is responsible for formulating the reference price of remuneration for Hong Kong directors and actors;

The Hong Kong and Taiwan Film Cooperation, Exchange, Coordination and Development Committee is responsible for holding regular meetings to coordinate the contradictions between the two sides and discuss development plans. At the same time, the production companies that must join this committee are eligible to sell films to Taiwan. Members are required to pay a membership fee every year to maintain the normal operation of the committee, and the committee is obliged to allocate funds to the [Hong Kong Performing Arts Staff Fair Remuneration Assessment Panel] to set up this group as a long-term effective body.

This meeting was destined to be written into the history of Hong Kong films, and even the history of Chinese-language films, and was later called the "Tseung Kwan O Agreement" because of the place where it was held, and the "421 Agreement" because of the time of the meeting.

Kang Jianfei doesn't want to be the savior of Hong Kong films, but his appearance did save the decline of Hong Kong films in a certain way, at least Hong Kong movies are not as miserable as they died in another time and space.

At the same time, whether they admit it or not, under the influence of Kang Jianfei, the major production companies in Hong Kong have strengthened the standardization of the film production process, at least few dare to spend money without reading the script and just watching the stars. R1152