When the word 'cage people' came out of the mouth of the award presenter, Lin Xiaozhi's eyes flickered slightly, and he also slapped his hand a few times.

The movie "Caged People" is actually quite embarrassing, the director has a very good position, and wants to make a movie that reflects social problems and highlights the livelihood of the people at the bottom. However, after the film was made, there were not a few Hong Kong people who thought it was a film that called for fairness and flag-waving for illegal immigrants from the mainland, Vietnam, Southeast Asia and India.

Fortunately, many art films are this urine, even if the mainstream audience doesn't buy it, as long as film critics and some filmmakers feel that it has depth and connotation.

The flowering inside the wall and the fragrance outside the wall are not only something that Hong Kong films have, for example, Lao Mouzi's many local films have also been accused by the domestic people of scandalizing China's image, but people are not soft at home and abroad to win awards.

It is difficult for art films to take into account both public reputation and film criticism, and looking at the world, there is no guarantee that one such classic will be born every year, which is one of the reasons why Lin Xiaozhi has always stayed away from art films.

Soon after the "Best Art Film", there was another noteworthy award - the "Best Foreign Language Film" award, which is the first foreign language film gold cup that will be awarded by the Academy Awards after the reform, so the Academy Awards Association attaches great importance to it.

Just like several previous heavyweight awards, the award presenters invited by this award are also a male and female duo, of which the man is Chen Baiqiang, the most popular male singer in Hong Kong after Tan Zhang, and the actress who partners with him is a new film diva who has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years because of Media Asia's popularity - Tong Ling.

“…… The five films nominated for the 12th Hong Kong Film Awards are "Dumb Girl Ju Xiang" from Singapore, Joer-Chen. After the clip was finished, Chen Baiqiang continued: ""The Power of the People from the Philippines, Bhutto-reaney-Mann-Haas......"

As each nomination was read out, there was a round of applause from the audience. Lin Xiaozhi is also applauding hard, the emergence of the 'Best Foreign Language Film' award is undoubtedly a boost for the Hong Kong Film Awards that are eager to enhance their influence, if they are carefully operated for a few years, they dare not say far, at least in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia and East Asia, it is very likely to become the capital of foreign films eager to advance, and many people who are sensitive to market reaction have seen this.

Lin Jianming watched it with interest for a while, and after the nomination was completed, he suddenly asked: "The Academy Awards now even have foreign language film awards, and the influence is growing, is making movies really so profitable?" ”

"It's okay in the past two years, as long as the script is not too bad, the director's skills are okay, and a few old actors are invited to support the scene, and the investor is not too impetuous, basically he will make a steady profit and not lose money, just make more and earn less." Lin Xiaozhi lowered his voice and replied.

He is telling the truth, this is the law summarized by Media Asia in recent years based on the collected Hong Kong film shooting data.

It's really not too easy to make money making movies in this era, there is a passable script, please invite a director who can hold the camera, no big-name stars can come to a few old actors who have been in the industry for many years to support the scene, even if it is an investment of three or five million, as long as you don't die to make any art films, even if it is a shoddy follow-up movie, you can make a small profit, and if you are lucky, you can gamble on a dark horse, and it is not difficult to make eight million dollars in a movie.

In fact, in the past few years since 87, among the films that have invested more than 10 million yuan in Hong Kong, less than 20% of them have lost money in the end. The movies that have invested 20 or 30 million yuan and cannot recover the cost can be counted on two hands, which is nothing more than "Flying Eagle Project", "Hot Hand Detective", "The True Story of A Fei" and several others, all of which have their own reasons.

"Flying Eagle Project" is because Jackie Chan has repeatedly intervened in the shooting, he is eager to make the movie into a masterpiece to take the opportunity to enter Hollywood, but even if he is a big-name actor, he can't ignore the importance of the director's existence, as a result, under his repeated intervention, the cost of the film is getting higher and higher, and finally succeeded in breaking 100 million, and it is honored to become the first Hong Kong film with a shooting cost of more than 100 million.

John Woo has another reason, although he has created a new river of hero films, but he has also become the target of Taiwanese and Hong Kong's unpopular crews and directors.

As a result, after the movie was released, the audience saw that it was basically Lao Wu's routine, and there was innovation or something, but it was far from as high as expected. It can only be said that John Woo, the box office monster of "Hot Hand Detective", hung everyone's appetite too high before, otherwise with the quality of this movie, even if it can't be a big hit, at least it's not difficult to make money.

As for Lao Wang, who filmed "The True Story of A Fei", don't mention it, this Shenkeng was introduced to Lin Xiaozhi by his friend Liu Zhenwei, hoping that Huanya could sign him and invest him in making movies, Lin Xiaozhi's face was almost frightened, and Rao is huge net worth can't afford to support this master who only has art in his eyes and has never considered making money, so he doesn't want to stick to him.

Wong Kar-wai's debut film "Mong Kok Carmen" began to show the true colors of the pit god, and he lost more than 4 million yuan but won a Golden Cup for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards.

But at the beginning of "The True Story of A Fei", Lao Wang seemed to have decided to pit Deng Guangrong. deceived the investment of 140,000 first, invited a bunch of big names, not enough to continue to ask for money, a shot is not satisfactory, it will be pushed down and remade, and the money is not enough to continue to add, anyway, the money is not my own heartache.

As a result, a small and medium-cost movie was shot for Lao Wang, and the box office was only 50 million Hong Kong dollars, and it couldn't be recouped at all.

But what is the final box office of "The True Story of A Fei"?

Hong Kong is 9.75 million Hong Kong dollars, as for Taiwan and Southeast Asia and other foreign ports, it is really a tragedy, not to mention it.

But for the sake of art, what's the point of losing some money?

"The True Story of A Fei" swept the 91 Golden Statue and Golden Horse awards, and eighteen nominations were exchanged for twelve gold cups, but Deng Guangrong was crying with a sad face when he came to the stage to accept the award, and he was on a drip in the hospital the day before receiving the award, and I don't know if he was angry, anyway, even if all he got was pure gold trophies, he also lost to his grandmother's house.

When encountering such an unjust boss as Deng Guangrong, Lao Wang also laughed, I don't feel comfortable if I don't kill your uncle.

I don't know if he wrote a letter of guarantee to Deng Guangrong, or because Lao Deng's memory is declining, or because he respects his subordinate generals too much, of course, it may also be related to Ying Zhijie's approach to Media Asia in the past two years and the fact that he has made a few movies together and made a small profit.

In the middle of last year, Lao Deng didn't know how to open his brain again, Xu was full of thought that Wong Kar-wai was not ready to shoot an urban sadistic little romance and wanted to turn the audience into a hot-blooded costume martial arts film, with his first-class directing skills, he would be able to shoot a popular and popular classic, and after bargaining, he allocated 27 million to Lao Wang.

It's a pity that he is still too sweet, as soon as the money arrives, Lao Wang turned his face and circled a group of big-name stars to come over, and when he saw that the salary alone was to spend the money, the black-bellied Wang didn't know what shame was, and soon after the start-up, he directly looked for / went to the door to continue to ask for money, forcing Deng Guangrong, who was nervous at hand, to sell a property under his name, and made a small five million to him.

More than half a year has passed in a blink of an eye, Wong Kar-wai's "East Evil and West Poison" has not yet filmed a third of the plot, and seeing that there is no money again, he just took 3 million from Lao Deng last month, and I heard that he has been eyeing Lao Deng's real estate in Qingshui Pavilion again, and recently he is encouraging him to sell it to support his own filming.

Out of the position of a friend, Lin Xiaozhi once gently persuaded Deng Guangrong to make a decision.

He knows how brutal "East Evil and West Poison" is in history, and finally cheated investors to lose more than NT$200 million (670 million Hong Kong dollars), dragged down two of the four investors, including Deng Guangrong, to go bankrupt, which directly led to the closure of the Yingzhijie Film Company, which is not famous in Hong Kong. If it weren't for Wong Kar-wai and a good brother Liu Zhenwei who helped the investors who were cheated by him to make a blockbuster "East Becomes West" to pay off debts, an investor who has some connections on the road in Taiwan has issued a threat to abolish Wong Kar-wai's hand and leg!

In this few years when you can easily make millions of dollars by making a shoddy follow-up movie, the profit of a whole Fengyue movie is only high and not low, and the final profit of making a medium and high-cost movie can be tens of millions or even more than 100 million in the past few years, if you want to make a movie that loses money, you must not only have 'ability' but also 'the right time, place and people', so Lin Xiaozhi confidently replied Lin Jianming, who seems to be a little moved by making movies, as long as he doesn't encounter pitfalls, it will be difficult to lose money by investing in making movies in recent years.

Of course, it will be difficult to say in a few years.

Unexpectedly, the Academy Awards finally gave the first "Best Foreign Language Film" gold trophy of the 12th Hong Kong Film Awards to Lin Quanze's "Song of Tragedy", looking at Lin Quanze on the podium with a happy face After receiving the gold cup from Tong Ling's hands, Lin Xiaozhi delivered his acceptance speech in English, Lin Xiaozhi was not surprised at all.

It's also ridiculous to say that since the jury of the 8th Academy Awards has expanded, the award, which should only be based on the quality of the work, has gradually had several unspoken rules.

For the same award nominations, new actors/directors have to give way to the elderly, most of the blockbuster commercial films lose to the poor box office literary films, and comedy is bound to compete more than tragedy.

"Dumb Girl Juxiang" is too good at the box office, "Young Boxing King" is too tender, "People's Power" is too political, "Five Sumo Boys" is a comedy, and they all have shortcomings if they want to win awards at the Academy Awards.

Before he became famous in the world, he was already decaying, so last year Lin Xiaozhi did not hesitate to offend countless people in the circle, forcing the Academy Awards to finally have a big reform.

Now it seems that the reform of the Academy Awards is not complete.

At least last year, he failed to abolish the jury group system under the desperate efforts of "Film Fortnightly", and replaced it with the public jury system implemented by the Oscars, which can be universally applied, and also made some of the vices of the past Academy Awards still affect it to this day.

There is still a long way to go!

The 12th Academy Awards put the 'Best Director' Gold Cup at the end as the finale, Lin Xiaozhi also has a nomination in hand, although he has won a gold cup last year, but after all, a scene has left some stains, although he said that he didn't care, but in his heart for the upcoming promulgation of the gold cup that symbolizes the highest affirmation of directors in Hong Kong films, he is still very longing.

The guests of the 'Best Director' Gold Cup award ceremony are naturally also Asia, and the Academy Awards Association also invited a male and female duo to present the final award for the 'Best Director'.

The honored guests invited to present the award were his brother Leslie Cheung and the jade queen Wang Zuxian, Lin Xiaozhi's eyes fell on the latter's body, and his expression was slightly strange.

In fact, the title of Jade Girl, looking at the Hong Kong entertainment industry, there are not many people who are really qualified to wear it, and there are even fewer first-class characters in the diva class, barely two and a half, one is Zhong Chuhong, one is Mei Yanfang, and half is Lin Qingxia.

Honggu took the sexy route when she debuted, but she herself was very clean and self-conscious, so many years she had an affair with Fa Ge and Leslie Cheung, but the former one is chasing the wind and catching shadows, and the latter one is really a little interesting, but unfortunately my brother is not only slow and not active enough on the emotional line, of course, it may also be related to his past failed first love, in short, these two buddies are as far as girlfriends After a few years of emotional entanglements with friends, Zhong Chuhong did not wait for a promise after all, and instead accepted the pursuit of advertising talents, It's a pity.

Not to mention Sister Mei, her big grinning personality seems to be able to talk to anyone, but she is very persistent emotionally. She had a good impression of Andy Lau before, but she was too indecisive emotionally, but only a little later was taken away by Zhu Liqian, and when she saw that a wealthy little princess was willing to hide behind the scenes for love without saying a word, she also turned to wipe out this unfruitful relationship with her own hands, and later accepted the courtship of the dragon and tiger martial artist Lin Guobin regardless of the disparity in status.

As for why Lin Qingxia, who is most in line with the temperament of a jade girl, is only half, how to say it, the complex emotional scenes she encountered when she was young were no worse than Wang Zuxian, which is enough to make a movie. It was only after suffering a few love injuries that she calmed down and focused on filming, and gradually became the best female artist in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

For Wang Zuxian, Lin Xiaozhi is no stranger, although he has not cooperated much in the past. But don't forget what his identity is, things like Wang Zuxian started dating Lin Jianle two years ago, even if he didn't deliberately inquire, he knew more than outsiders.

There was gossip in his head, and suddenly Lin Xiaozhi seemed to hear a burst of exclamations and applause, and before he came back to his senses, he suddenly felt that someone was pushing him left and right, and when he came back to his senses, he saw that everyone around him was looking at him, with a blessed smile on his face.

Lin Xiaozhi was just about to ask, when he heard Tsui Hark, who was sitting not far away, say: "Lin Sheng, congratulations on winning this year's 'Best Director' Gold Cup!" ”

For a moment, it was as if a thunderclap sounded in my head. The sudden surprise made him even a little confused, and he didn't know how he got up and how he got on the podium.

Fortunately, the much-anticipated gaze and the densely lit magnesium lights quickly brought him back to his senses, and when he received the gold cup of 'Best Director' from Leslie Cheung and Wang Zuxian, who congratulated him with a smile on their faces, Lin Xiaozhi's throat squirmed for a moment, and finally opened his mouth.

"This is a surprise that I didn't expect, thank you again for the favor of the judges, in fact, I have already won the Best Director Gold Cup in the last year, and the other directors nominated this year are not easy to match, so please allow me to apologize, I didn't come back to my senses until Mr. Tsui Hark reminded me just now!"

There was a round of good-natured laughter in the venue!

"More than ten years ago, the Academy Awards were created in the midst of the cheers of the industry, and the golden eighties of Hong Kong films came with it, and then in just a dozen years, the box office of Hong Kong films in Hong Kong exceeded 20 million, 30 million, and 40 million one after another, and then there were the first works with a box office of more than 50 million and 60 million, and a new sunrise industry was born."

"Six or seven years ago, not long after I entered the industry, I once said in the media that 'the future Hong Kong film industry will be a sunrise industry with a total value of far more than 10 billion'. It seems that I was obviously too conservative at that time. ”

"In January 1991, Media Asia was listed, and its market value exceeded 10 billion yuan that year. Subsequently, Golden Harvest and Golden Princess went public, each setting off a wave of waves. Thanks to the optimism of Hong Kong citizens and institutional investors, there is also news that there are currently three to five film companies in the industry that are seeking to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Hong Kong films, Hong Kong's future pillar industry, are constantly expanding. ”

"In the past 92 years, Media Asia Film Group has invested a total of 14. 7.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (including advertising, publicity and acquisition of old film rights), a total of 41 films and 13 TV dramas have been filmed, creating nearly 42. With a box office of HK$2.7 billion and a total of more than 100 million TV viewers, Hong Kong has added more than 17,000 jobs and a profit after tax of Media Asia in '92 to exceed HK$2.6 billion (including video tapes and SVCD revenues), and we are confident that this figure will increase by at least another 30 to 40 percentage points in '93! ”

After a slight pause, Lin Xiaozhi continued: "This is the best era for Hong Kong films, we are deeply engaged in the development of the local port, looking north to the mainland, expanding the traditional foreign ports in Asia, and striving for new markets in Europe and the United States." Many people may wonder if it is a bit inappropriate to say this when giving the acceptance speech for best director, but please allow me to make a few small talks with you on this much-anticipated stage. ”

"Hong Kong is too small, and the analogy of the world is just a small place. In the past, because of Hong Kong's special status, half of the world's capital and goods wanted to enter the closed market in the north, and most of them would consider passing through Hong Kong for safety reasons, so there was the rise of this international metropolis. ”

"But we need to see that with the further promotion of reform in the north and the stability of the international political situation, Hong Kong will no longer be a bridgehead for foreign capital and commodities to enter China." As an international metropolis with no industry and only commerce, our fate is destined to decline as more and more foreign capital directly enters the mainland market through northern cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Tianjin. ”

"But Heaven is undoubtedly fair, and has closed the door for us, leaving a window for us. Real estate can create huge wealth but cannot satisfy the six million Hong Kong people, and finance can accumulate wealth but cannot satisfy the six million Hong Kong people. But tourism can, shopping can, and Hong Kong films, a new industry that is gradually growing, can also be! ”

In 1992, there were 240,000 people in Hong Kong engaged in film-and-television-related jobs, with an average monthly income of more than HK$14,000, which was 4 of the average income in Hong Kong. 84 times, creating 1.9 billion US dollars in foreign exchange income, with the increase of the influence of Hong Kong films, we have driven a wave of tourism with an annual growth of one million people, of which more than half of the recent growth from Europe and the United States. ”

"After six or seven years, I once again stand in front of the media and the public, solemnly and optimistically predicting that the total value of Hong Kong's film industry will easily exceed 100 billion yuan in the next ten years, and this figure may double in another ten years. Hong Kong's film industry needs more high-quality talents, and Hong Kong needs a healthy and thriving film industry to support the economic backbone of the Oriental Pearl in the future......"

The group has invested a total of 14. 7.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (including advertising, publicity and acquisition of old film rights), a total of 41 films and 13 TV dramas have been filmed, creating nearly 42. With a box office of HK$2.7 billion and a total of more than 100 million TV viewers, Hong Kong has added more than 17,000 jobs and a profit after tax of Media Asia in '92 to exceed HK$2.6 billion (including video tapes and SVCD revenues), and we are confident that this figure will increase by at least another 30 to 40 percentage points in '93! ”

After a slight pause, Lin Xiaozhi continued: "This is the best era for Hong Kong films, we are deeply engaged in the development of the local port, looking north to the mainland, expanding the traditional foreign ports in Asia, and striving for new markets in Europe and the United States." Many people may wonder if it is a bit inappropriate to say this when giving the acceptance speech for best director, but please allow me to make a few small talks with you on this much-anticipated stage. ”

"Hong Kong is too small, and the analogy of the world is just a small place. In the past, because of Hong Kong's special status, half of the world's capital and goods wanted to enter the closed market in the north, and most of them would consider passing through Hong Kong for safety reasons, so there was the rise of this international metropolis. ”

"But we need to see that with the further promotion of reform in the north and the stability of the international political situation, Hong Kong will no longer be a bridgehead for foreign capital and commodities to enter China." As an international metropolis with no industry and only commerce, our fate is destined to decline as more and more foreign capital directly enters the mainland market through northern cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Tianjin. ”

"But Heaven is undoubtedly fair, and has closed the door for us, leaving a window for us. Real estate can create huge wealth but cannot satisfy the six million Hong Kong people, and finance can accumulate wealth but cannot satisfy the six million Hong Kong people. But tourism can, shopping can, and Hong Kong films, a new industry that is gradually growing, can also be! ”

In 1992, there were 240,000 people in Hong Kong engaged in film-and-television-related jobs, with an average monthly income of more than HK$14,000, which was 4 of the average income in Hong Kong. 84 times, creating 1.9 billion US dollars in foreign exchange income, with the increase of the influence of Hong Kong films, we have driven a wave of tourism with an annual growth of one million people, of which more than half of the recent growth from Europe and the United States. ”

"After six or seven years, I once again stand in front of the media and the public, solemnly and optimistically predicting that the total value of Hong Kong's film industry will easily exceed 100 billion yuan in the next ten years, and this figure may double in another ten years. Hong Kong's film industry needs more high-quality talents, and Hong Kong needs a healthy and thriving film industry to support the economic backbone of the Oriental Pearl in the future......"