"Cheng Kee Teahouse" was released in Yimei Cinema for a total of two months, and the box office reached 2.53 million Hong Kong dollars. Although the box office is so high, although it is related to the long release time, the high quality of the film also plays a key role.

Stimulated by the high box office of "Shing Kee Teahouse", the Hong Kong film industry suddenly set off a boom in making gangster documentaries.

Shaw Brothers first followed the trend to shoot "The Strange Case of Hong Kong", and sent great directors Cheng Gang, Hua Shan, and He Menghua to co-direct.

In the sixties and seventies, Hong Kong transformed from an agricultural city to a commercial city, with the rapid rise of the economy, the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and the impact on traditional ethics and morality.

Against the backdrop of people's uneasy society, many strange and tragic cases have occurred in Hong Kong that shocked the world. Such as the case of hiding the corpse at the bottom of the stove, the case of the three wolves, the case of hiding the corpse in the carton and so on.

These cases have caused a sensation, newspapers and magazines have rushed to report them, and everyone has changed their color.

The Shaw Brothers judged the situation, and saw that the social realistic films were on fire at the moment, so they immediately sent the three directors to work together to bring these strange cases to the screen.

Xu Guanwu couldn't help but be impressed by Sir Shao's keen business acumen, but he disdained to follow the trend to make these strange case films. When it comes to commercial blockbusters, he has countless fresh and usable materials in his head.

……

The movie that took over "Cheng Ji Teahouse" is "Thirteen Don't Match" directed by the talented girl Tang Shuxuan.

Thirteen is a mahjong term, that is, the thirteen cards in the hand are not at all paired or paired, but the "food paste" is "bursting", which should not be underestimated.

Tang Shuxuan borrowed mahjong, a popular gambling device in Hong Kong, to reflect the life of Hong Kong in the 70s, sensitive but not mean, westernized but not arrogant, and cared for in irony, which is moving.

Tang Shuxuan is a well-known talent in the Hong Kong film industry, who only made four movies in her life, but she has influenced several generations of Hong Kong filmmakers.

Her film "Zaijian, China" was the only film banned in Hong Kong at the time, and it was also the first time that a Hong Kong filmmaker filmed a work of that turbulent era.

The professional film magazine "Big Close-up", which is the predecessor of "Film Fortnightly", which was founded by her, promoted the development of Hong Kong's most trendy films.

Xu Guanwu had not heard of Tang Shuxuan's name before "Thirteen Don't Match", because she had few works and withdrew from the Hong Kong film industry very early, so there were not many Hong Kong movie fans who knew about this person decades later.

But when Xu Guanwu heard the news about the movie "Zaijian, China", he couldn't help but admire this talented woman very much.

dared to shoot a movie with such a sensitive subject in 73, this woman's courage is too great.

Later, after understanding, Xu Guanwu learned that Tang Shuxuan himself was a rich third generation, and her grandfather was Tang Jiyao, a warlord of Yunbei.

Tang Shuxuan himself is not short of money, and after returning from studying in the United States, he immediately invested in his own and started filming "Mrs. Dong". This film won many awards at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards, and although the box office was not good, it also doubled Tang Cainu's confidence.

However, after the filming of the second "Zaijian, China" was completed through hardships, it was directly blocked by the Electrical Inspection Department on the grounds that the subject matter was sensitive and might cause unhappiness in neighboring countries.

The hard-working film could not be released, which not only brought economic losses to Tang Shuxuan, but also made her discouraged by Hong Kong films.

So in the third movie, the commercial atmosphere is a little stronger.

The actors invited are also relatively well-known actors, such as Shen Dianxia, Zheng Shaoqiu, Liang Xingbo, and so on.

Originally, this film was released in Shaw Brothers theaters.

But after a week of screening, the box office was not ideal, and I was crushed by several kung fu films, so I had no choice but to paint.

After the painting of "Cheng Ji Teahouse", there is no film available for the art and art cinema for the time being.

It happened that Liang Shuyi had dealt with Tang Shuxuan before, and when she saw that her "Thirteen Don't Match" had a good reputation, she took it to the Art Theater to screen it.

Speaking of art and art cinemas, because Xu Guanwu is determined to make it the most artistic cinema in Hong Kong, he would rather have a vacant schedule than screen those bad kung fu films and Fengyue films, so the attendance rate of the cinema line is often less than 40%, which means that it is often in a state of loss.

Xu Guanwen also advised Xu Guanwu to relax the conditions as much as possible and screen some passable kung fu movies or Fengyue films to minimize the losses caused by the vacancy of the theater, but Xu Guanwu refused.

It's hard to build a high-reputation theater, but it's very easy to destroy it.

In her previous life, Princess Jin Cinema relied on a series of high-quality comedies to establish a good reputation.

Even under the attack of Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers, they are firmly in the position of overlord.

Xu Guanwu believes that as long as the high reputation of the art and art cinema line is maintained, then after its brand is established, it will obtain high returns.

Although this process will take a long time, Xu Guanwu is still willing to wait.

After "Thirteen Don't Match" is painted, it can still be released in art theaters, which can't help but attract the attention of many Hong Kong filmmakers.

In Hong Kong, there are many directors who are willing to make commercial films, but there are also many who want to make art films.

Before, there was no market, no investment, and no cinema for you to release art films.

But now Art Cinema has solved this problem, and the Xu Brothers company can also provide start-up capital, which makes many filmmakers excited.

……

With the release of "Thirteen Don't Match" in Yimei Theaters, the box office slowly climbed, allowing Tang Shuxuan's early investment to slowly recover.

This talented woman finally has the money to unite like-minded filmmakers and publish "Big Close-Up" magazine together.

"Big Close-up" is a bit like a professional forum in the Internet era, not for the purpose of ordering for profit, but just for the purpose of communicating with friends, and a total of 66 issues have been published.

After the closure of "Big Feature", the backbone editors created "Film Fortnightly".

After Xu Guanwu learned that Tang Shuxuan had invested in the creation of "Big Close-up", he also hurriedly sent Liang Shuyi to contact her to discuss the matter of injecting money into the magazine.

At that time, there were no professional film magazines in Hong Kong.

The magazines under Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest are also for the promotion of their own films, and there are no objective film reviews, and they do not play much role in promoting Hong Kong films.

Miss Tang Shuxuan's "Big Close-up" is the only professional magazine, and both the editors and the staff are professional film talents, but they are basically part-time.

The original intention of starting this magazine was only for fun, and I didn't want to make money from it.

So when Xu Guanwu proposed to inject funds, although Tang Shuxuan was very grateful, he still politely refused, saying that "Big Close-up" should maintain an objective and fair position, so it will not accept the injection of funds from the film company for the time being.

Although Xu Guanwu was very moved by Tang Shuxuan's persistence, he still complained a little about her dead heart.

Xu Guanwu's investment in "Big Close-up" only wanted to promote the development of Hong Kong films, and he did not want to use "Big Close-up" to promote the company's films.

To be honest, even if the "Big Close-up" magazine sells well, it is far from being able to catch up with the high sales of "Daily Daily".

But since they have clearly refused, Xu Guanwu can't rush to send the money anymore, so he has to sigh.

He knew that "Big Close-up", a highly professional magazine, basically had no sales in Hong Kong.

Ordinary people don't care about it, and even if professionals buy it, they can't buy a few copies. And it also advertises objectivity and fairness, which will inevitably offend many people.

"When it can't hold on, I'll take over." Xu Guanwu shook his head and sighed.