The impact of "Red Alert" on Taiwan's record-breaking NT$100 million box office is still fermenting, and there is another good news from Japan.

It landed in Japan in October, and now it has been screened in Japan for more than 40 days, and another blockbuster movie "Love Letter" that has swept Hong Kong in the summer has finally been painted in Japan. With the end of the box office of "Love Letter" with 100 million yen, the Japanese film industry is still shocked by the sensation brought by the film

"The best and most beautiful youth love song" "Asahi Shimbun" special film critic Nakayasu Shoufu gave this movie a very high evaluation, "A serenade of love that is so pure that the soul can be baptized, I learned that the director of the movie is Ms. Zhang Wanting from Hong Kong, maybe only this well-known female director with delicate feelings can make this movie that touches the soul"

Haruko Mizuno, a well-known female filmmaker in the early Showa period of Japan and director of TIPP, also said regretfully when painting this film: "We regret that Japan did not hold the Tokyo Film Festival this year. The only good thing is that it will be one of the shining stars at next year's Tokyo Film Festival. ”

Founded in 1985, the Tokyo Film Festival is an international film festival initiated by Japanese filmmakers who felt the decline in the influence of their films in the world. Since the first few years of its birth were held every two years, 89 was the third and fourth section, but it had to wait until 199l. The Tokyo Film Festival is now undergoing reform, and with the second largest economy in the world, the Tokyo Film Festival has become the largest film festival in Asia in just two editions since its birth.

"Love Letter" was drawn, and the sensational effect is still above the Japanese box office of "Red Alert" exceeded 100 million Taiwan dollars. Since 1974, Bruce Lee's "Big Brother Tangshan" (14. 100 million) has only 16 films that have been able to exceed 1 billion yen at the box office in Japan for the first time.

Among them, there are only six films that finally exceeded 100 million yen at the box office in Japan, namely Jet Li's "Shaolin Temple" released in the year, about RU billion yen, this data is said on the Internet and Hong Kong film chronicles, and another 3.6 billion yen is the data mentioned when Mr. Zhang Xinyan, the director of "Shaolin Temple", was asked about the "New Shaolin Temple" directed by Chen Musheng in ll, considering that this data may be the distribution income before Japan's restructuring, so I still use the RU billion yen statement); Cheng Long's three brothers' "Al+ Stroke" was released in 4 years, 300 million yen); Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" was released in 4 years, 30. 4.4 billion yen); Bruce Lee's "Game of Death" was released in 8 years. 5.3 billion yen); Cheng Long's three brothers' "Al+ Stroke" was released in 7 years. 9l billion yen); Cheng Long's three brothers' "Fast Food Truck" was released in 5 years. 0.4 billion yen).

Among the films that exceeded 2 billion yen at the box office in Japan, except for "Shaolin Temple", it was either invested and filmed by Golden Harvest, or Golden Harvest was released in Japan.

In recent years, with the invasion of American blockbusters, a large number of Japanese audiences have gradually abandoned Hong Kong films, and instead pursued the special effects and plots of American movies. So much so that even Golden Harvest, which has Cheng Long, a superstar with a lot of box office appeal in Japan, has not created a movie with a super high box office of 2 billion or even 1 billion yen like earlier in recent years. Even "Miracle", which was released last year, only grossed 1 billion yen in Japan.

In contrast, New Asia's "Love Letter" bucked the trend, not only winning more than 2 billion yen at the box office in one fell swoop, but also beating many Golden Harvest films in recent years on the box office list of Hong Kong films and Japan, which is difficult not to pay attention to.

"There are obviously problems with many film companies in Hong Kong, and we can't deny that there is a certain amount of chance in the birth and rise of New Asia. However, the rise of New Asia is as fast and fierce as the momentum of the New Arts City in the early years, and there must be ...... that other Hong Kong film companies can learn from."

New Asia can be said to have earned enough attention and attention in the second half of the year, and the three movies released successively were all big hits, and countless topics were born because of this. "Love Letter" not only exceeded 30 million at the box office in Hong Kong, but also became the third place in Taiwan's annual box office list this year, and it was able to win this honor with a pure love movie, which made Taiwanese filmmakers who have always loved literature and art accuse Hong Kong films of only fighting and killing to hide their weak nature, not to mention that it has just set a record in Japan, breaking the box office of 2 billion yen, which has caused countless repercussions in Japan.

"The Saint of Gambling" was released a little later than "Love Letter", and there is no famous artist in the whole movie except for the star Ye Zilin. However, it was such a movie that made the whole of Hong Kong a sea of laughter, and in that exaggerated and nonsensical humor, Hong Kong gave birth to the first work with a box office of more than 40 million Hong Kong dollars, and won the honorific title of 'Star Master' for Chow Xingchi

Red Alert" is not to mention, if there are still people who doubt that the investment of 50 million Hong Kong dollars can be recouped before. So with the birth of its eye-shattering 50 million Hong Kong dollar box office in Hong Kong, seeing that it is far from the end of 1990, but with a box office of more than 100 million, this film has locked in Taiwan's annual box office champion in advance, no one doubts whether it can recover its investment costs.

Despite more than a year of ups and downs, with the success of the film "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" in the European and American markets, Golden Harvest has made a lot of money. But the outgoing year of 1990 is undoubtedly a year for New Asia, in which New Asia monopolized the top four of the annual box office of Hong Kong films, and nine films ranked among the top 20 at the box office. Many of these films have been popular in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and even Europe.

Approaching the end of the year, major newspapers in Hong Kong will inevitably begin to conduct a mid-year inventory, among which the entertainment section mentioned the most is the New Asia Film Company, although it is inevitable to be compared with Golden Harvest, but it is undeniable that this year, Lin Xiaozhi and his New Asia Film Company are too dazzling. So much so that it was Jiahe, and the scenery was also suppressed

Three weeks after its European release, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" has grossed about $40.15 million in five countries: Britain, France, Italy, and Spain and West Germany. In comparison, although the performance at the beginning of the release was not as amazing as that of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", but with the release of the UK for a full week, "Red Alert" still achieved a good result of 7.95 million pounds in a single week, and although the results in several other European countries are not as good as the United Kingdom, it is not too bad, with a total box office of about $4 million in France in the first week of release, and a little less in Spain, but also $00,000.

As a film that has not been released in North America but can sell well in Europe, from the actors to the crew to the director's department, most of them are Chinese, Red Alert", which really raised the face of Hong Kong films in Europe. In particular, in the movie, Lin Xiaozhi vaguely borrowed conspiracy theories to implicitly reflect the setting of Western countries planning the drastic changes in Eastern Europe behind the scenes, and even scratched the Europeans who have faced the collision and friction between the two super military blocs of NATO and Warsaw for decades, and won praise from many film critics in Europe.

was sent to Canada in October, and Sima Jie stayed in the Maple Leaf Kingdom for almost two months in a blink of an eye, and finally completed a big thing for Lin Xiaozhi. On the 7th of the month, when Hong Kong was still in the middle of the night, an international call directly from Canada to Hong Kong, waking up Lin Xiaozhi in his sleep, before he could get up and have an air attack, a sentence immediately came from the phone, which made him almost jump out of bed in surprise.

"Boss, it's done. I just reached an agreement with President Davis, and the acquisition agreement will be signed tomorrow at noon."

"Really ......"

This huge surprise quickly cleared up Lin Xiaozhi's groggy brain, "Davis signed?" How much did it cost? ”

As early as a few months ago, Lin Xiaozhi sent a team of people to Canada to buy a small company with less than 20 employees, or more appropriately, a studio. And this company that is fortunate enough to be favored by him is none other than a software company called 'Pffftar, in Vancouver, the largest city in Northwest Canada. Lin Xiaozhi is no stranger to this software company, without it, because the company created a computer synthesis software that will become one of the most widely used professional film special effects applications in the Chinese film industry.

Xu is because it is close to the United States, which has a developed computer software and hardware industry, and Canada's software and hardware industries are not weak, not only with a large number of hardware giants, but also with some seriously underestimated software companies. Of course, Lin Xiaozhi's current target was just established in 87 by Kim Davis and Greg Harvey, two young people who were only 57 years old together. It is said that both of them graduated from top Canadian colleges and universities, and were influenced by Lucas's "Star Wars" that they watched when they were children.

I don't know if it should be said that foreigners are too rich or Asians are too poor, two young people with good family conditions have absorbed more than a dozen software engineers who are good at all aspects by constantly burning money, and they wanted to develop an epoch-making film special effects synthesis technique, but who would have expected that after the Hudhut0 version came out in the middle of last year, Davis took this software and hoped to make a lot of money in Hollywood, but he went to the United States to find that there was no market at all.

The American film special effects giant Industrial Light & Magic has hundreds of professional software engineers, both hardware equipment and imagination are at the top of the world, and the Pixar animation studio that can't look down on the flawed Hudhut0 Jobs is interested in him, but the major shareholder Joe is too stingy and unwilling to spend $60,000 a year for Pixar Studio just to buy udhut, which is not a brilliant software.

James Cameron was more interested in Hudhut, or Davis and his company. It's a pity that he took someone to try out the software they made, and after coming up with an evaluation of 'failing,' 'lagging behind Industrial Light and Magic for at least ten years,' he also decisively abandoned it. Although Davis eventually successfully promoted his Hudhut0 in Hollywood, there were indeed some studios with ambitions to make their own special effects to buy, but the problems and troubles that followed eventually caused SPSI to collapse Hollywood, and their software Hudhut became synonymous with backwardness and impracticality.

The failure of Hudhut0 has made the financial situation worse. Over the next year, Davis and Harvey borrowed money to maintain their studio and try to improve Hudhut. But the products can't be sold, they can't make money for a long time, and even the salary comes and goes. The company's employees went one after another, and finally forced Davis and Harvey to sacrifice the trick of splitting the shares, and finally left some people, who struggled to maintain until the beginning of this year, when the upgraded Hudhutl version came out and successfully sold some, so that the risk of bankruptcy was avoided.

However, when Lin Xiaozhi sent someone to contact them, the situation was still very bad. a technique that is not looked down upon by powerful film companies; Film companies that don't have the strength can't afford udhut, and they don't have any skills to produce special effects by themselves, so it's better to find companies such as industrial light and magic with mature skills, and the cost is lower.

So, when Lin Xiaozhi sent someone to contact Davis and Harvey, the two agreed to Lin Xiaozhi's shareholding almost on the spot. Yes, it was a stake rather than an acquisition, and the two who completely regarded him as the wronged boss offered themselves a sky-breaking price of 100 million Canadian dollars.

Although Lin Xiaozhi is very enthusiastic about the skills mastered by the company, he is not a wronged boss who loves to be slaughtered. Zheng Fei dealt with them for half a month, and was so angry that he went to Europe, leaving Sima Jie alone to deal with two black-hearted young people. Sima Jie, who was born as an unscrupulous lawyer, is no less than a cheater, and he is also good at negotiating commercial acquisitions, so the two sides are at a stalemate. Even under Lin Xiaozhi's decentralization, he disappeared several times during negotiations, and continued to buy some shares at low prices by buying other shareholding employees.

In the end, the two sides were deadlocked for almost two months, and finally reached a consensus. The first to hold on was SPSI's side, and as the major shareholder Harvey took the lead in bowing his head, Davis didn't last long, and finally agreed to be acquired by Lin Xiaozhi.

"Boss, the price is a little higher than the 10 million Canadian dollars I expected, mainly because Davis's bastard didn't know how to contact Sony, you know that the Japanese just bought Colombia last year, and the yen has been appreciating in the past two years. In total, we took more than 70% of the shares and spent 17.35 million Canadian dollars. And at your request, I also signed a five-year long-term contract with all of their current software developers, and Davis signed a ten-year long-term contract with Harvey at the same time, but the requirement was that CT must give them after the acquisition, and after the acquisition, we will allocate at least $10 million in research funding for three years, and I agreed on your behalf......"

The exchange ratio between the Canadian dollar and the Hong Kong dollar is almost 17.35 million Canadian dollars, which is almost more than 120 million Hong Kong dollars, no wonder Sima Jie is so angry that he scolds. Even when Lin Xiaozhi learned that he was forced to spend nearly twice as much money because of the sudden intervention of the Japanese, he almost didn't scold.

The appreciation of the yen is both a bad thing and a good thing for the vast majority of Japanese companies, and although the cost of exports has increased, the yen in their hands has become more valuable in a short period of time. As a giant in Japan's electronics industry, Sony has been expanding abroad with great ambitions in recent years. Before, the little devil also sent someone to ask him about the acquisition of New Asia Records and even his film company, but Lin Xiaozhi directly and decisively refused. After that, it was rumored in Hong Kong for a period of time that Sony had contacted Golden Harvest and New Arts City, which shows how big the ambitions of the giant that has just swallowed up one of the five major film giants in the United States are Columbia Pictures.

"It cost a little more money, but it's worth the extra money to be able to buy it. Sima, you did a good job in this matter, you promised Davis their terms, and I also agreed. ”

SP's computer special effects processing technology may be more than one level worse than the top film special effects processing giant Industrial Light and Magic in the United States, but looking at the whole world, it is standing in the second queue, and the position is still relatively high, at least not much worse than some European companies, with it, at least Lin Xiaozhi and Hong Kong films, which lag behind the United States for 30 years, can be reduced by more than half at once, and it is worth spending this money

Hung up the international long distance with Sima Jie, Lin Xiaozhi excitedly tossed and turned in bed for most of the night before falling asleep. He had considered making the movie "Resident Evil" before, not only because the difficulty of filming the first part of this movie was relatively low, but also because the requirements for action directors, makeup, props, and stylists were very high, but it was difficult to shoot without the corresponding special effects skills. Action director Lin Xiaozhi is not worried at all, Hong Kong lacks everything is not short of first-class action directors. Makeup, stylists, and props can also be solved, but the unique effect is not achieved overnight. This is also the reason why he came up with this script early, but he has never developed the idea.

SP's skills are still good, but the software they developed has not experienced film processing practices, and a good knife can be called a good knife if it is not sharpened, and this is the reason. But now that there is, Lin Xiaozhi finally breathed a sigh of relief. After making up the most important part, "Resident Evil" can already think about starting the preliminary preparations.