Li's TV station has launched a top-down purge since the Macau Gang became the owner, first the original manager Huang Xizhao was dismissed, followed by the resignation of producer Mak Dangxiong and others, and then the purge activities were even lowered, and even the behind-the-scenes staff and actors were purged.

If the large-scale purge has made the already stormy Li even worse, more than 200 people have already left in less than a month since the Macao Gang took over. And Li's total of more than 800 employees, a quarter less at once.

For such a large-scale purge activity, the intention of the Macau Gang was actually to lay off employees and reduce the burden, and to travel lightly after throwing away the burden. But it's a pity that the Macau gang is too big, and even the children inside are thrown away while splashing the dirty water.

Among the people who ran away from Li's TV station, some of them may be talented, or have such and such problems, but more people are worried that they will be purged, and they are not optimistic about Li's future development prospects.

Some of the staff members have flowed into Jiayi TV, because Jiayi TV has recently applied for the lifting of TV station restrictions, so Sir Shao is also ambitious and plans to make a comeback, so it is also very necessary to expand the staff.

In addition to Hui's, Shaw Brothers, and Golden Harvest, dozens of independent film companies have recently risen.

The newly emerging independent film companies are different from the earlier independent production companies, which mostly focused on C-grade films, low-cost and cheap kung fu films. Erotic films are the mainstay. Such films generally cannot be released in Hong Kong. Most of them are sold to Nanyang and brought to the audience over there to appreciate.

However, these newly founded independent film companies are participated by New Wave directors, who are either TV people who have graduated from TV stations, are familiar with the production process of TV dramas, and have mastered the popular psychology of today's audiences, so the films they shoot are more targeted. Some are returning from studying abroad in overseas film majors, and their concepts are more advanced and their skills are more mature. It has added new vitality to Hong Kong films.

The quality of the films shot by these independent film companies is very good, although they are all low-budget works, but they are very innovative, and they are an emerging force in the rise of the Hong Kong film industry.

Xu Guanwu's "Phantom of the East" magazine has paid attention to this phenomenon and has selected representative directors, including Zhang Jian and Zhang Guoming of Xu's Pictures, Liang Puzhi of Colorful Pictures, Yu Yunkang of Century Pictures, and Xu Anhua of Shaw Pictures. Yan Hao, as well as Fang Yuping of the leftist film company.

"The Phantom of the East" will introduce these directors who represent the new trend of Hong Kong cinema one by one. Their popularity has also been valued by major film and television companies in Hong Kong.

The action of "Phantom of the East" was not instructed by Xu Guanwu, but a very amazing coincidence occurred when history advanced here. When "The Phantom of the East" brought these people together, it also used the French New Wave of films to describe this group of people, meaning that they would bring new changes to Hong Kong films.

However, it is a pity that the Hong Kong New Wave films did not last long, because the lack of commercial support and orderly coordination made the New Wave directors fight on their own, and this change only lasted two to three years before disappearing. However, the significance of New Wave cinema is very far-reaching, and it almost determines the direction of Hong Kong cinema in the next 30 years. For example, police films, black X movies, gunfight films, horror films, psychedelic kung fu films, love films, martial arts films, etc., are all influenced by the New Wave films.

It's just a pity that although these young directors are full of energy, and those independent film companies are even more ambitious, planning to build themselves into the new Hui Group, but it is a pity that the three-legged situation in the Hong Kong film industry has been formed, especially Hui's, Golden Harvest, and Shaw Brothers respectively occupy the three largest cinema chains in Hong Kong.

With the advantage of the cinema chain, Golden Harvest has successively included Siyuan Film Company and Luo Wei Film Company, and also recruited fierce generals like Mai Dangxiong.

Although Hui's did not buy these studios, it did form alliances with some studios, but the relationship was looser without a contract.

The Shaw Brothers remained self-sufficient, but he also followed the trend of the New Wave and introduced a number of young and promising directors. However, Shaw Brothers is now in its twilight, and even if it launches more talents, it will be difficult to turn the tide, so it is unclear whether young directors can play an effective role.

The three oligopolies monopolized the Hong Kong film industry and restricted the development of independent film companies, which is actually detrimental to the development of Hong Kong films. However, Xu Guanwu did not give up the idea of giving up the brilliant cinema.

Independent film companies are like piranhas in the Amazon River, small but greedy, murderous, and unscrupulous in pursuit of commercial gain. However, because of its natural enemies in the Amazon River, even though this small fish is very ferocious, it has not flooded the world.

However, once in waters with no natural predators, these piranhas will grow rapidly and eventually become a pest in the local waters, devouring everything they can eat, leaving other fish with no way out.

The prosperity of Hong Kong films depended on independent production companies in the 80s, and the decline and fall of Hong Kong films was also due to the greed of independent film companies.

Xu Guanwu knows how crazy these independent film companies will become once they lose their restrictions, so they will not hand over the glorious cinema chain in their hands. With the help of Brilliant Cinemas, he wants to win over a group of Hong Kong's most promising independent film companies and encourage them to make stylized, distinctive and innovative independent films. And for those companies that only know how to follow the hype and make bad movies, they are closed.

Although Jiahe and Shaw Brothers may not be as far-reaching as Xu Guanwu thinks, they also know the power of the monopoly of the Dao, so they naturally will not hand over their cinema chains.

And if independent film companies want to develop, they must occupy their own cinema chains. Or form an equal competition with other big film companies in terms of cinemas. This is also the reason why the United States enacted Paramount legislation in the past. It is to separate the production company from the theater chain. Let small and medium-sized film companies also have opportunities for development.

Otherwise, as is the case in Hong Kong now, the cinema chain will be monopolized by a few large companies, and small companies will have to be acquired by large companies, and at the very least, they will have to rely on large film companies and lose some autonomy. And even so, these small companies can't get better schedules and better publicity, so the prospects for development are quite slim.

However, the British government in Hong Kong is not as strong as the US government. In addition, the promulgation of the Paramount Law was also promoted by the American consortium behind the promulgation of this regulation. In fact, in the 70s, because American films have been in a low period, the consortiums have withdrawn from the film industry, so that this regulation has lost support, and now it has become a dead letter.

And several major Hollywood studios have now set foot in the theater field, and the Paramount Law has long been in name only. In other words, even the Paramount law in the United States is about to be repealed, and it is unlikely that the British government in Hong Kong will issue relevant regulations to force the three major film companies to separate their theater chains.

Since the three major cinema companies will not take the initiative to separate the cinema business. If an independent film company wants to grow and develop, it will have to look for other opportunities to get theaters.

There are now three major cinema chains in Hong Kong. Hui's brilliant cinemas, Golden Harvest's Golden Harvest cinemas, and Shaw Brothers' Shaw Cinemas. In addition, there are also the Shuangnan Cinema Line of the Leftist Film Company, and the Yimei Cinema Line of Xu's which specializes in showing Western films. In addition, there are other independent cinemas in Hong Kong, including luxury cinemas like Lee Stage, as well as small cinemas such as neighborhood cinemas, village open-air cinemas, and underground cinemas.

If an independent film company wants to control the cinema chain, then the best choice is Hui's Yimei Cinema Line. Because of the large number of theaters in this cinema chain, there are a total of 19 cinemas, which is already a relatively large number of cinemas in Hong Kong. The second is that the hardware facilities of the theater are good, since it was leased by Xu's, it has also been renovated, and the hardware facilities are much stronger than the old cinemas of Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest, of course, it is still not as good as Xu's brilliant cinema line.

The second is that the location of the Art Cinema Line is very good, and the theaters are located in relatively prosperous urban areas, so such a large flow of people naturally attracts more audiences. The last thing is that the Art Cinema Line is now only leased, and Xu did not buy it, which gave some independent film companies an opportunity.

Since last year, there have been rumors that some cinema companies want to take back the cinema, which is like fishy meat hanging on the tip of the nose, teasing the nerves of all independent film companies in Hong Kong. They don't have the luxury of snatching all the art and art cinema chains, as long as they strive for seven or eight, and then grab four or five from Golden Harvest, and then unite with some independent cinemas, they can form a new cinema chain in Hong Kong.

However, the ideal is full, but the reality is dry. Whether it is Xu Guanwu or Zou Wenhuai, they will not sit idly by and watch the rise of a fourth cinema chain in Hong Kong. As for Shao Yifu, he even sat on the mountain to watch the tiger fight, putting on a posture of letting the wind and waves rise and sitting firmly on the fishing boat. In fact, in my heart, I wish that Xu's family, Golden Harvest and the newly rising independent film company would fight to the death, and then lose three times so that he could come out and clean up the mess.

Although independent film companies are only small companies, Xu Guanwu is not careless, because he knows that behind the scenes, these companies actually have the support of consortia in Hong Kong, Nanyang, Wanwan and other places. Their economic strength may not be as good as Xu Guanwu's, but if they really fight, it will also give him a headache.

The reason why consortia in Hong Kong, Nanyang, Wanwan and other places want to invest in Hong Kong films is actually related to the prosperity of Hong Kong films in recent years, especially in the past two years, the box office of Hong Kong films has doubled. Among the top 10 Hong Kong-grossing films in '77, the highest one was only 8 million Hong Kong dollars, but this year's top-grossing movie "A Scheme" has reached 18 million, more than tripled.

And other movies also make money thanks to less money, so making money in this way will naturally attract the attention of those consortia. So Hong Kong movies have become an inexhaustible gold mine in their eyes.

It's just that the three major film companies can't intervene anymore, even if the Shaw Brothers have declined now, but Sir Shao is old and heroic, and he will not be manipulated by these consortia at all. It's okay to invest together, but if you want to take the lion's share, you don't need to talk about it. Although Golden Harvest was founded with the support of Nanyang Film Company, the company has gained a firm foothold until now, especially now that it has established a cooperative relationship with Hollywood New Line Film Company, with the support of American capital, it is no longer false color for Nanyang Film Company.

As for Xu's has never been bad for money, his wealth is much more than theirs, and Xu's Film Company has excellent performance, and it is already their luxury to be able to take them to play and make a fortune together, not to mention that they want to invest in Xu's or even acquire Xu's.

The three major film companies are all impregnable, and these consortia cannot penetrate, so they have to choose some potential small and medium-sized film companies to cooperate. (To be continued......)