"In 11 months, it's 10 years!"

Early in the morning, after Wang Xiaohu exercised, he stood on the balcony of his house and said this inexplicable sentence with emotion. [Full text reading]

It has been nine years and three months since he opened his eyes in the familiar and unfamiliar place of Hong Kong on October 31, 1971. At that time, he also complained that time passed too slowly, and complained that those actresses and male stars did not grow up.

It's been almost ten years, and I've grown from that little dragon and tiger martial artist to a tycoon in the film industry, with money, and a very fulfilling life.

It is said that the current words are enough for Wang Xiaohu to feel satisfied, but he always feels that something is missing.

Is it the movie aspect?

Wang Xiaohu asked himself, in the past ten years, Hong Kong films have undergone earth-shaking changes, in terms of film quality, since the Seven Little Blessing brothers read their own strength, the overall action quality of Hong Kong kung fu films and martial arts films has been greatly improved.

It's just that this change has far exceeded the memory in Wang Xiaohu's mind, and the biggest change is the bankruptcy of Golden Harvest Company, and in the 70s, the two dominant Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers became Concord and Shaw Brothers.

It was not until the late 70s that Wu Siyuan, who had worked at Golden Harvest, took up the banner and became the third regular film company other than Concord and Shaw Brothers.

In the early 80s, Siyuan Pictures began to expand on a large scale, first taking in new wave directors such as Tsui Hark and Xu Anhua, and then cooperating with Xiang Huasheng and Xiang Huaqiang Brothers to build a team of martial artists outside the Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts Union.

Wang Xiaohu saw all this in his eyes and remembered in his heart, as long as Xin Yi'an did not violate the law, he would not take action.

Another huge change is the gradual unification of Hong Kong cinemas, in the late 70s, Lei Juekun set up the Golden Princess Cinema Line to fully support the new art city, so that the new art city has become a powerful company competing with Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers in a short period of time.

Today, there are less than 100 scattered theaters in Hong Kong, which is far less powerful than the current theater chain of Concord Company, not to mention the more than 100 theaters of Shaw Brothers.

Wang Xiaohu doesn't know what Lei Juekun is busy with now, if he is busy collecting and reorganizing these small movie theaters, then the Hong Kong film industry will probably be lively in the future!

To be honest, reaching Wang Xiaohu's current level, he is interfering less and less in the Hong Kong film industry, but letting others develop, even if he makes a little move to Hua Qiang, as long as there is no suspected money laundering and forcing artists to make films, he will still turn a blind eye.

"Ah Hu, come over for breakfast!" His wife's gentle voice came from downstairs, Wang Xiaohu sighed, and slowly walked from upstairs to the living room.

His son Wang Jiaen is also about to be four years old, and the little guy can already sit at the dining table and read and eat, time flies so fast!

"Ah Hu, I don't plan to take on any TV or movies after "Shanghai Tang"." Zhao Yazhi suddenly said while eating.

Wang Xiaohu smiled and said, "Do you feel too tired?" ”

Zhao Yazhi shook her head and said: "Tiredness is one thing, the main thing is that Jia En is getting bigger and bigger now, my next step is to prepare to educate him at home, you don't know, last time he relied on Qingxia's gorgeousness, and rubbed his head against Qingxia."

"I didn't!" When Wang Jiaen heard his mother talk about his troubles, he became anxious at the moment, "I'm a good child!" ”

"A good boy wouldn't do anything like that!" Zhao Yazhi turned her face flat, so frightened that Wang Jiaen immediately pouted and sat down to eat obediently.

"See, your son is becoming more and more disobedient now!"

Wang Xiaohu frowned, obviously, this is a very serious problem, and his son has the potential to be a pervert like that!

Wang Xiaohu doesn't want his son to become like that, let alone let him be too deeply involved in the entertainment industry, he just wants his son to have a carefree childhood, but he doesn't want the little guy to be bad from elementary school.

"Ok, I have no opinion!" Wang Xiaohu nodded and acquiesced, Wang Jiaen shed tears when he heard the grievances, threw away the chopsticks, and said bitterly: "Lao Dou, you also bully me!" Hmph, I'll ignore you! ”

"Ren's surname, naughty, unreasonable" Zhao Yazhi raised her hand and patted her forehead and said, "You must be strictly disciplined." ”

"Hehe, I agree with it too!" Wang Xiaohu said with a smile. More often, Wang Xiaohu respects Zhao Yazhi's opinion, and it is inevitable that the two of them will encounter such and such troubles in their lives, especially after the birth of the little ancestor, the family will be even busier, and the wife can have such a decision, which also shows that she values the family of two people more from the side, which is not unrelated to the concept instilled by Zhao's father and Zhao's mother since childhood.

"Ah Zhi, there are some things I have to tell you." After Wang Xiaohu drank the red bean soup, he thought for a while and said, "I plan to focus on Hollywood and the mainland in the next step. ”

"Huh?" Zhao Yazhi looked at her husband and said after a long time: "What about Hong Kong?" ”

"Let Ah Biao and them struggle, we should have a more long-term vision, they will rush into Hollywood and the mainland sooner or later, and we will lay a good foundation for them in advance."

Wang Xiaohu said with a smile: "And I also want to join forces with "Film Fortnightly" and other trade unions in the film industry to set up our own Hong Kong filmmakers' own Academy Awards." ”

"Hehe, if that's the case, I'm afraid we're going to take the majority of the awards, right? Is it unfair to others to do so? Zhao Yazhi said with a chuckle when she heard this.

With the current scale and influence of Concord, this phenomenon is very likely to happen.

"Haha!" After laughing, Wang Xiaohu shook his head and said: "I don't care about others, anyway, if I direct or star in a movie, I can't appear at the Academy Awards." ”

"You're an Oscar-level director!" Zhao Yazhi said: "If you do that, it's like bullying a child, and it doesn't feel interesting if it's me." ”

"yes." Wang Xiaohu sighed, not only did he have no sense of accomplishment, but he didn't even have any meaning, and he couldn't be complacent about it, because there was no comparable surname at all.

"Let's take Jain to see Modern Bodyguard tonight, we haven't been to the movies for a long time." Zhao Yazhi proposed: "If you go as an audience, maybe you will have a different experience." ”

The three Xu brothers' "Modern Bodyguard" was a success again this time, and won more than 6 million box office results in one week of release, Xu Guanwen was very happy about this, because this result has shown that in the future, the box office of "Modern Bodyguard" will have greater appreciation potential.

To this end, Xu Guanwen held a grand celebration party, inviting Wang Xiaohu, Wu Yusen, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and other Concord employees to participate, as well as Liu Jialiang of the Shaw Brothers, Tsui Hark of Siyuan Company and others.

"Ah Hu, I don't know if I can break the record you hold this year!" Xu Guanwen said with great interest.

Wang Xiaohu smiled and touched his nose and said, "Does my record make you worried?" ”

Xu Guanwen shook his head and said, "How can you not scratch your stomach!" I've been fighting to break your record, right? ”

Xu Guanjie interjected and said: "Brother Tiger, don't listen to my eldest brother's bragging, you must know that the current box office is very different from a few years ago, even if he easily gets 17 million, it is not as good as your previous 16 million!" ”

Xu Guanjie said that there is indeed a great intolerance for differences, think about the original "Jingwumen" when it was released, a movie ticket was only 3 Hong Kong dollars, and by the time "Raptors Across the River" was already 5 Hong Kong dollars, and Wang Xiaohu's "Myth" had reached 10 Hong Kong dollars when it was released, and now the release of "Modern Bodyguard" has reached an unprecedented 14 Hong Kong dollars.

Another change you can see in Hong Kong films, that is, the price of movie tickets increases with the increase in the cost of film investment.

There are many reasons for the increase in the investment cost of the film, some of which are large shooting scenes, such as "Police Story", which costs more than half of the cost in terms of set, not to mention a big production like "Myth", which can easily cost more than 20 million Hong Kong dollars.

Another aspect is that the salaries of actors are too high, needless to say, just these actors within Concord, Chow Yun-fat, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Lin Qingxia, Lin Fengjiao and others have a salary of millions of Hong Kong dollars per film contract, among which Lin Qingxia's salary is the highest among female artists in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Of course, some people may say that Zhao Yazhi's salary is higher, but has Zhao Yazhi made movies that others have invested in? No! Even "Shanghai Tang" was filmed by Wang Xiaohu as a sole proprietorship.

In Hong Kong, few people will hire these masters to make movies, because once they are used, it means that the cost of your film investment will soar directly to more than several million!

But this sentence can't be said too absolutely, because there will be such a big head poking out to talk to Wang Xiaohu about borrowing actors.

The person who came was Wang Xiaohu, an outstanding representative of the director of the Sina field - Tsui Hark!

"Brother Hu, I want to borrow a few actors from your company to make a movie."

Tsui Hark has curly hair and a mustache on his chin, which is very director-like.

If someone else spoke to Wang Xiaohu like this, Wang Xiaohu didn't even pay attention to it, but Tsui Hark was one of the directors he admired very much in his previous life, don't look at Tsui Hark's demeanor that hasn't shown that kind of big name now, Wang Xiaohu still admires him very much.

"Who do you want to borrow?" Wang Xiaohu looked at Tsui Hark with a smile, very polite.

A trace of panic flashed in Tsui Hark's eyes, he came over to toast just now, he didn't expect Wang Xiaohu to talk to him so politely.

"I want to borrow your company's Lin Qingxia, Yuan Biao, Sammo Hung and others." Tsui Hark said a little nervously: "Make a magic movie." ”

"Let me guess, magic movies, yes?" Wang Xiaohu pretended to frown, in fact, he already knew very clearly in his heart what movie Tsui Hark wanted to make, is there any other choice besides "The Swordsman of Xinshu Mountain"?

Without!

"Do you want to adapt someone else's martial arts novel?" Wang Xiaohu said: "Of course, the definition of martial arts is too narrow, and I will define it as a fairy tale novel. ”

"Xianxia novels?" Tsui Hark was stunned for a moment, frowned and asked, "What is a Xianxia novel?" ”

"If the protagonist in martial arts novels can break a stone with one punch, then in Xianxia novels, a mountain disappears with a sword, and a piece of people dies at the lightest, on a scale like hundreds of hundreds." Wang Xiaohu gave an example: "One is martial arts, the other is immortal arts, just like Sun Wukong, he is a more representative Xianxia novel character." ”

Tsui Hark blinked, it was the first time he had heard of such a theory, and it was only after a long time that he came back to his senses, shook his head and said: "I, I don't shoot "Journey to the West", we shoot Ni Kuang's "Ziqing Double Sword Record". ”

Wang Xiaohu pretended to groan: "Ziqing twin swords, won't it be adapted from the "Legend of Shushan Swordsmen" by the lord of Huanzhu Mansion?" ”

"Yes, it turns out that Brother Tiger has also read this novel!" Tsui Hark had a smile on his face, and he mentioned that beauty in his heart, if it were someone else's words, Tsui Hark would think he knew something, but the person who said this was Wang Xiaohu, it would be very different, Wang Xiaohu was a Hong Kong film tycoon-level existence in terms of director and screenwriter, and Tsui Hark felt very face-saving when he was recognized by Wang Xiaohu.

"Hehe, Tsui Hark, seriously, I admire your courage and imagination." Wang Xiaohu patted Tsui Hark on the shoulder, drank a sip of red wine after clinking glasses with Tsui Hark, and said: "It doesn't matter if you borrow someone, as long as Siyuan Company can offer the corresponding salary, it's OK, it's no longer the old system of a pack to death a few years ago, you should know that our Concord Company is very surname-based, and allows its artists to take on outside plays." ”

"Thank you, Brother Tiger, thank you, Brother Tiger!" Tsui Hark was happy in his heart, because Xu drank red wine, his face was flushed, and he pointed to the seat in the corner and said, "Brother Hu, how about talking over there, there are some things I still need to ask you." ”

"Okay!" Wang Xiaohu also wanted to hear how Tsui Hark filmed "New Shushan Swordsman".

After sitting down, Tsui Hark sorted out his thoughts, a little like a primary school student answering a question, and said nervously: "Boss Wu plans to invest 22 million Hong Kong dollars to shoot this movie this time." ”

"Where's the money? It can't be the black money of New Ngee An, right? Wang Xiaohu's eyes narrowed, and he said that he was still worried about this matter in the morning, and he couldn't imagine that Xiang Huasheng and Xiang Huaqiang brothers would be unable to hold their breath so soon?

"No, no!" Tsui Hark hurriedly waved his hand and said, "The way this money comes from is absolutely clean!" Brother Tiger may not know, your "Myth" is now selling more on the black market in Taiwan, and the filmmakers in Taiwan have basically resurrected with this movie, Taiwan's political axe wanted to intervene in management at first, but then the people of the Bamboo Union Gang and the political axe fought guerrillas, and after a few times, the political axe was too lazy to take care of it, so they were very optimistic about this kind of movie, and wanted us to do it with Siyuan Company. ”

"Oh. Are you saying that all this money was financed by Taiwanese filmmakers to shoot with you? Wang Xiaohu was a little skeptical.

"Yes, that's right."

Wang Xiaohu nodded: "I don't care about the market in Taiwan, go back and tell Wu Siyuan not to do anything to cut off his back road." ”

Tsui Hark knew what Wang Xiaohu was referring to, and said with sincerity at the moment: "I will tell Boss Wu about this matter in person, Brother Hu can rest assured." ”

"Actually, Siyuan Company has prepared two plans, one is that I plan to shoot now, and the other is a work that parodies "Star Wars" in cooperation with the Shaw Brothers, and the actors are currently being selected."

Tsui Hark is more cautious when he speaks now, because what he said is suspected of trade secrets, especially the cooperation between Siyuan Company and the Shaw Brothers, I don't know why he has special trust in Wang Xiaohu, that feeling is very amazing, even Tsui Hark himself can't say it clearly, so he said it in a daze.

Wang Xiaohu let out a long sigh, and after a long time, he patted his forehead and said: "Don't digress, let's just talk about the movie you want to shoot, how do you plan to shoot it, and do you have any mature ideas." ”

"Of course, the filming of "Mythology" like Brother Tiger is even better." Tsui Hark said with a wry smile: "But Siyuan Company does not have a special effects company in this regard, so after thinking about it, I still came to Brother Tiger for help, and I want to borrow Brother Tiger's 'Industrial Light & Magic' team in Hollywood to create this movie." ”

"Do you want me to lend you the special effects studio that filmed "Myth" in the first place?" Wang Xiaohu said with a smile.

"Good! If not for a joke. ”

"Well, no kidding." Wang Xiaohu held his chin and said seriously: "If that's the case, let me tell you, 20 million is far from enough!" ”

"Maybe you only saw that I spent more than 20 million on the surface of filming "Myth", and I went to the mainland to shoot and do special effects in Hollywood, but have you thought about it, whether it is special effects or going to the mainland, it takes time to prepare, but otherwise, I spent hundreds of millions of dollars before and after the establishment of Industrial Light and Magic."

Wang Xiaohu didn't say much, just these few words had already made Tsui Hark's mouth grow in surprise.

Wang Xiaohu's analysis is very thorough, the success of "Myth" is not achieved in a handful, if there is no money thrown out earlier, if there is no now mature 'Industrial Light and Magic', everything is nonsense.

"So, how much does the special effects cost?" Tsui Hark's self-confidence wavered a little at that moment.

"If you want to meet the standards of Mythology, at least $3 million. That is, more than 18 million Hong Kong dollars, which already accounts for most of your investment costs, so you can't shoot a blockbuster with just 20 million. ”

"But I only have the right to call 20 million funds, and no matter how much Boss Wu has, he can't guarantee whether the source of funds is clean!"

Tsui Hark fell into a dilemma at this moment, to be honest, he especially wanted to be Wang Xiaohu's second, and especially wanted to shoot his own "Myth", but in the face of such a huge amount of money, his head was big, it turned out that blockbusters were not just anyone could play, and the funds he could use were only so little!

"Hey, forget it, how about selling you a favor?"

(To be continued)