The business of the Hui Group is booming, and last year, the performance of Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest was also good.

In terms of films, although the Shaw Brothers style is still conservative, they have finally promoted several young directors, such as the director of birds and beasts, Mou Dunfu, etc., and made several refreshing movies.

Of course, Shaw Brothers' main movies are kung fu movies and Fengyue films. Director Li Hanxiang is old and strong, and he made four Fengyue films last year, as well as two court costume films, and he can really be said to be a prolific director.

The cost of his Fengyue films is very low, only filmed in Shaw Brothers Cinemas, and the cost of each film is only two or three hundred thousand, but the box office can reach more than one million Hong Kong dollars, and he is the director that Shaw Brothers relies on the most.

Another big director, Zhang Che, made ten works last year, all of which are kung fu films that he has always been good at. The reason why director Zhang Che worked so hard was because when he went to Taiwan to develop, he used the funds provided by Shaw Brothers. But then Longbow Pictures closed down, and director Zhang Cheda owed Shaw a lot of money.

It is said that since it is a cooperative business, it is natural that there will be profits and losses, and Shaw Brothers did not force him to pay back. But Zhang Che has hard bones, and he took the initiative to make a film to pay off his debts, so he opened ten dramas a year. Such exertion also made his body, which was not good, age more and more.

Once, after getting off work, the driver saw him coming and hurriedly jumped into the engine of the car. But after waiting for a long time, I didn't see him get into the car, and when I looked at it, it turned out that Director Zhang Da was so tired that he was lying on the ground.

Although director Zhang Cheda is old and strong, he has made ten dramas in one year, but there are not many blockbusters, and most of them have not even exceeded one million. Only two films have exceeded the box office of one million. But it's only a million. More than four million more than the current Xu's movies. Five million, or even nine million, is a big deal.

Another director, Liu Jialiang, with his Liu Jiaban, tossed a lot of momentum last year, making four blockbuster movies in succession, each with a box office of more than one million, which is now an old courtier that Shaw Brothers relies on. And his younger brother Liu Jiahui is now also the leading red star of Shaw Brothers, starring in "Wulang Bagua Stick", "Shaolin Thirty-six Rooms" and so on. Not only has it won a high box office in Hong Kong, but it has also become a huge hit internationally, becoming an internationally renowned kung fu star.

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Compared with the conservative Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest is much more aggressive, and he continues to swallow up Hong Kong's more capable independent production companies, or directly acquire or indirectly poach people, and within a year, he swallowed five small film companies, so that its talent has also become more.

The reason why Golden Harvest can still come up with a large amount of money to acquire and poach people under the unfavorable situation of the film industry for many years is actually with the help of funds from the Nanyang Foundation. I want Lu Yuntao's Dian Mao and Shao Yifu's Shaw Brothers to fight to the death. Later, after Lu Yuntao crashed and died, the group of dragons was leaderless for a while. Although two films were filmed later, they all suffered miserably. Therefore, the film production industry was launched, but the shrinkage force was fully committed to the cinema chain.

Later, Zou Wenhuai and He Guanchang came out of Shaw Brothers to establish Golden Harvest, with the help of the cinema chain under the previous Dianmao. The reason why Nanyang film companies are willing to provide financial support to Zou Wenhuai is mainly because Zou Wenhuai was very famous in Shaw Brothers before, almost one person above 10,000 people, and has very outstanding business ability. If it weren't for Shao Yifu's fear that his employees would become so big that they couldn't fall off, he specially brought his aunt and wife into the company as a jurisdiction, Zou Wenhuai would not have wanted to jump out and start his own business.

Although Golden Harvest's performance is not very good, Hong Kong movies are now very good, Hong Kong's local box office has hit new highs one after another, and Hong Kong films are also very popular in Taiwan, South Korea, Nanyang, Japan and other places. Therefore, these Nanyang consortiums will not spare money, although Golden Harvest has not made obvious profits in recent years, they still have high hopes for him.

After Golden Harvest annexed five independent production companies in one go, and poached a group of talents with high salaries, it also began to increase the cost of film investment and began to vigorously support newcomers. Like the younger generation of directors who have been outstanding in recent years, they have all been excavated by him.

Most of these young directors have returned from the television industry or from studying abroad, they have the enthusiasm and creativity of young people, and at the same time are familiar with the current audience's viewing heart, or have mastered the most advanced international film concepts, and are a group of filmmakers with both brains and momentum.

The joining of young directors has injected new vitality into Golden Harvest, and the themes of film creation have also increased. is no longer only kung fu movies and strange case films, but now there are love comedy films, social ethics films, romance films, urban action movies, violent horror films, etc., which can be regarded as a hundred flowers blooming, and a hundred flowers compete for spring.

Xu Guanwu was surprised to find that among the rookie directors launched by Golden Harvest, there was one Xu Ke who he couldn't find! When he saw the news, he was shocked enough.

Who doesn't know that Xu Laowei is a strange master in the Hong Kong film industry, and the movies he shoots are of very high quality, whether it is the early dark trilogy, or the later New Arts City period, or even the film studio period, Xu Laowei produced it must be a high-quality product, which seems to have become a well-known fact.

Xu Ke is also one of the four Hong Kong directors that Xu Guanwu admires the most, in addition to liking his early dark trilogy "Butterfly Transformation", "No Gate to Hell", "The First Kind of Danger", as well as "Ghost Horse Zhi Duo Xing", "Best Partner: The Queen's Secret Order" filmed during the New Arts City period, or "Sword and Horse", "Wong Fei Hung" series, "New Dragon Gate Inn", "Smiling Proud Jianghu" series, etc., are all good movies that Xu Guanwu has watched countless times.

So Xu Guanwu has always wanted to recruit Xu Ke under his command, but Xu Ke was not in Hong Kong before, he studied directing in the United States, and immediately entered Jiayi TV after he came back. Because he had stayed abroad and drank foreign ink, this brand was still relatively loud at that time, so as soon as he entered Jiayi TV, he was entrusted with an important task, and he was immediately promoted to director and producer.

At that time, Xu Guanwu was cultivating in the mainland with his wife, so he didn't know about Lu Dao at all. After Xu Ke filmed a few TV series, he could gradually show up, and he was immediately discovered by Wu Siyuan, who was discerning and talented, and immediately recruited him to his command.

Speaking of which, in the last life, Xu may have entered the film industry. is also because of Wu Siyuan's appreciation. At that time, I only watched the two episodes of the TV series he filmed. thought that he was more talented in composition, so Wu Siyuan deliberately recruited him, and it could really be regarded as Bole meeting Maxima.

By chance in this life, Xu Ke was still dug into his hands by Wu Siyuan, and later invested him to shoot the new martial arts movie "Butterfly Change".

Seeing the name of this movie, Xu Guanwu was also taken aback, he couldn't imagine that the inertia of history would be so great, and he would be a mess as a traverser. It is also possible to make self-corrections.

The movie "Butterfly Transformation" is not so much a kung fu movie as a suspense thriller, or a magical martial arts film. Although there are many martial arts masters in the movie, they are at most proficient in fist and foot kung fu, which is no different from the common people who practice fists and feet in general reality.

In this film, Xu can use the imagination of genius. It has made a new interpretation of the ancient god's kung fu. The light work that comes and goes is actually with the help of the force of the steel wire; And the internal power sends out the palm to crush the boulder. In fact, it is with the explosive power of gunpowder; The invulnerability of swords and guns is actually an iron armor cover; And the supreme treasure that the people in the rivers and lakes want to fight for is no longer the legendary martial arts cheats, but the thunderbolt musket......

The reason why Xu Ke subverted the common sense of martial arts films so much was mainly because he felt that at the end of the 70s, martial arts films had entered a strange road, so they had to change in order to have new development. And "Butterfly Change" is a fresh attempt he made for this.

Wu Siyuan himself started making kung fu martial arts films, so he is naturally full of feelings for this film, so he is very supportive of Xu Ke's pursuit of change and innovation, so he spent a lot of money to fund him to shoot this "Butterfly Change".

This movie is still in the hot shooting, and the newspapers continue to advocate for them, saying that it is the pioneering work of the new school of martial arts, with a wonderful story, rich imagination, magnificent fantasy, and so on.

Xu Guanwu knows that although this "Butterfly Change" is considered a classic of New Wave cinema, it is a pity that when it is recognized, it is many years later. At that time, "Butterfly Change" not only did not win a high box office, but also did not win a high reputation. The unanimous opinion of the audience was "What kind of bullshit was filmed?" Although the industry thinks this film is new, it is just that, and it is unlikely to have much impact on the box office.

It wasn't until later that Wu Siyuan took this film to be exhibited at international film festivals one after another, because of its extremely CULT style, which was appreciated by international filmmakers, which in turn made the film re-important in Hong Kong.

In addition to the launch of young directors, old teams such as the Yuan Jiaban brothers, director Luo Wei and other old teams also began to make efforts last year and made a lot of good films, among which the Yuan Jiaban brothers' "Drunken Eight Immortals Fighting Drunken Arhats" had a box office of 3.2 million, which made a big splash.

And director Luo Wei's works such as "The Demon Fetus" and "The Demon in the Devil" filmed by Gui Zhihong also engaged in disgusting and violent cesium, and the box office was also good, and they all achieved box office results of more than one million, worthy of the prestige of "Fu Jiang". However, he always follows the trend in filmmaking, but every time he achieves good box office results, it really makes his peers envious, jealous and hateful.

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In terms of expanding into new channels, both companies have also noticed that the video tape market is gradually expanding, so they also set foot in the video tape production field last year.

However, unlike the wealthy Hui's, Shaw Brothers adopts the method of cooperating with other companies, with them contributing funds and machinery, while Shaw Brothers is responsible for the content, and the profits are distributed proportionally. Doing so can save Shaw a lot of money, but it also sends his own lifeblood to other people's hands.

Golden Harvest, on the other hand, sold the video copyright directly, which was the fastest way to get back the money, so that he could get the funds replenished as soon as possible. However, in the long run, it is naturally not as cost-effective as holding the copyright in your own hands.

However, they don't have the money, nor do they have the strength to introduce a large-scale production line like Hui's, and arrange chain rental convenience stores all over Hong Kong and Kowloon, so it is understandable to adopt this method.

The sales of Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest video tapes in Nanyang, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and other places are still good, basically the same as Hui's films, but in Hong Kong and the European and American markets, the video sales of Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest are far behind.

Xu Guanwu has his own chain of rental convenience stores in Hong Kong, and in Europe and the United States, it is distributed by 20th Century Fox, so the sales volume is far better than that of Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest, and the profits obtained from the distribution of video tapes have grown from losing money at the beginning to hundreds of thousands of profits, basically accounting for 30% to 40% of the investment costs.

This also greatly relieves the pressure of theatrical releases, even if the cost cannot be recovered at the time of release, it can be basically tied by leasing and selling video tapes, which can give film companies the ability to develop new film resources. (To be continued......)