In the 80s, under the influence of China's announcement to take back Hong Kong's sovereignty, Hong Kong was calm on the surface, but privately because of the fear of Hong Kong's future after the return to the motherland, British-funded foreign firms began to withdraw from Hong Kong one after another.

At a gathering held by the Hong Kong branch of the Xinhua News Agency, Xu Guanwu proposed to invest a huge sum of 2 billion Hong Kong dollars in the mainland within the next five years.

Such a large investment could not help but make President Liang very happy, and because Xu is not involved in the manufacturing industry, he mainly invests in civil engineering, especially the willingness to invest in the construction of highways and other livelihood facilities, which makes President Liang very happy.

It is important to know that although Hong Kong businessmen who go to the mainland to invest in the mainland all claim to be patriotic, in fact, they still mainly make money, and they especially like to invest in the processing industry in a short period of time, and it is best to build factories in half a year, start construction in one year, and return to their roots in two years. And there is no Hong Kong businessman like Xu Guanwu who is willing to invest in a long-term project such as highway construction, which has a long construction period, slow results, high risks, and huge costs.

Hearing President Liang's series of thanks, Xu Guanwu was really embarrassed, because he knew how frantic the road toll in the mainland would be in the future, almost three steps, one post, five steps and one sentry, and the toll stations were densely packed like beehives.

Xu's choice to invest in the construction of highways and other livelihood projects is to participate in the operation of highways in the future, which is an inexhaustible gold mine. IT'S JUST THAT IN THE 80S, PEOPLE'S EYES DIDN'T LOOK SO LONG-TERM, SO THEY REGARDED BUILDING BRIDGES AND PAVING ROADS AS SOMETHING THAT ONLY GOOD PEOPLE DO. But after the 90s, people such as building bridges and paving roads were built. But it's not a project that doesn't matter and can't be involved at all.

Xu was able to devote himself to the construction of livelihood projects before everyone knew about it. Not only has he dug a gold mine for himself that will never run out. Moreover, it can also establish a good relationship with the local government, paving the way for Hui's entry into the mainland in the future.

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At the beginning of the new year, Vientiane is renewed and full of joy.

During the Spring Festival, the smoke of gunpowder was filled, and the Hui Brothers' "The Rich and Rich" was grandly released, telling the story of stocks that Hong Kong people love and hate.

Golden Harvest launched the comedy "Lin Yazhen Tiger Fish, Shrimp and Crab", starring the famous movie star Xiao Fangfang. The plot is ghostly, the plot is absurd, and it is somewhat similar to the Xu brothers' ghost horse comedy.

Director Wu Yusen has previously collaborated with Xu's in movies such as "Ghost Horse Double Star", so he has also learned a lot from the Xu brothers, and there are naturally many imitations in the comedy movies made.

Although Wu Yusen actually doesn't want to make this kind of comedy in his heart, he still wants to make martial arts movies and gunfight movies the most, because his teacher is the famous director Zhang Che. It's a pity that Golden Harvest has been regarded as the best choice for comedy directors because of the popularity of several comedy films he has made, so he does not agree with him to shoot gunfight films, so Wu Yusen has been very tired in the past two years.

Although his films achieved good box office. Although he is also valued in the company, he can't shoot the work he wants. But he can only make this kind of nasty vulgar comedy, which makes him feel that his work is very meaningless.

The films launched by Shaw Brothers are "Xu Laohu and the White Widow" directed by Li Hanxiang, and "Pretty Girl Amorous" directed by Hua Shan.

"Xu Laohu and the White Widow" is adapted from the novel of the same name by Wanwan novelist Gao Yang, which mainly tells the love-hate relationship between Xu Laohu, a smuggler of salt in Yangzhou in the Qing Dynasty, and Li Zhenbiao, a Qing court official. It is said that it is a martial arts film, but it is better to say that it is a biopic, and the process of Xu Laohu's growth from a penniless to the head of a private salt dealer in Yangzhou is quite delicate.

And the love between Xu Laohu and the White Widow is also moving, especially the role of the White Widow played by Tian Niu, who is brave, resourceful, affectionate and righteous, and is worthy of being an admirable woman in the rivers and lakes.

And this movie actually has the flavor of the "Stinging Horse" case, Xu Laohu, Li Zhenbiao, and the father-in-law of the White Widow, used to be three brothers before, but Li Zhenbiao then entered the Qing court as an official, and Xu Laohu and the two worshipped the local gang leader in Yangzhou as a teacher, and since then they have started to smuggle smuggled salt.

Because salt is an indispensable necessity for people's lives, the imperial courts of successive dynasties will impose heavy taxes on salt in order to make money. The official salt and the people could hardly afford to eat it, so the violent illegal salt trade became popular. The imperial courts of all dynasties have never been soft on the efforts to crack down on illegal salt, and the illegal salt dealers also know that what they are doing is a head-killing business, so they are not bold and fanatical who can't do it at all.

This also makes the smugglers often appear among the heroes, as far away as the Yellow Nest at the end of the Tang Dynasty, a song "I kill a hundred flowers after the flowers bloom", which makes people can't help but tighten the chrysanthemum after listening to it. Recently, there are Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng, etc., who fought for the world with him, in fact, they were all from smuggler salt dealers.

The White Widow's father-in-law was killed again in the smuggling of smuggled salt, and the White Lady became the White Widow from then on. Xu Laohu then took over as the head of the Salt Gang, and developed a friendship with the White Widow, one of whom was brave and the other was strategic, and the private salt business became bigger and bigger.

Li Zhenbiao first entered the Qing court as an official, but he was just a small official, with the help of his righteous brother Xu Laohu and others, he gradually climbed to the capital of Yangzhou River Patrol Battalion, and since then he has been in power and contented.

Xu Laohu and the White Widow's private salt business has also become bigger and bigger because of Li Zhenbiao's protection, and its momentum is growing. It's just that the relationship between the two is facing many difficulties. The first difficulty is that the white widow is the wife of Xu Laohu's brother, and the rules of the rivers and lakes are that friends' wives cannot be bullied. Although Xu Laohu and the White Widow love each other, they are afraid of the short and long life of the world, so they can only be affectionate and polite, and dare not take a step beyond the thunder pool.

Although the two of them accumulated more and more wealth, and their brothers gathered more and more, they still felt unhappy. At this time, because the private salt trade of the Yangzhou Salt Gang was too large, it had alarmed the imperial court, and the governor ordered Li Zhenbiao to clear the Salt Gang. Li Zhenbiao thought about wearing it on his head, and regardless of his brother's righteousness, he began to seize the business of the Salt Gang on a large scale.

For the sake of her brother in prison, the white widow voluntarily went to the yamen to confess her guilt and carried all the faults on her shoulders. Li Zhenbiao couldn't help but have a lot of dreams at night, so he sent a cup of poisonous wine and killed the white widow. When Xu Laohu heard about it, he was heartbroken and gathered his brothers to avenge the White Widow......

"Xu Laohu and the White Widow" is a popular historical novel. After the Shaw Brothers bought it, they asked director Li Hanxiang, who was familiar with Qing court dramas, to shoot. Sure enough, the shooting was antique. Regardless of the costumes, speech and demeanor of the characters, there are some shadows of the Qing Dynasty.

It's just that this movie is only the last work of director Li Hanxiang in Shaw Brothers, because his old man is planning to secretly go to the mainland to shoot a movie, and his heart is no longer in Shaw Brothers. Director Li Hanxiang has always lost less money and made more money in filming, although he lost a lot of money when he founded the League of Nations in Wanwan, but it didn't hurt his muscles and bones. After returning to Shaw Brothers, he has made a series of blockbuster movies, and has accumulated a large amount of pension in his hands.

In addition, he knows that he has a heart disease, and he doesn't know how many more years he can live, so money is already a trivial matter for him, but what he wants to do more is to make a movie he likes. In fact, this is also the ideal of every filmmaker.

It's just that his ideals don't work in Shaw Brothers, because Shaw Brothers is now reducing production badly, and film investment has been reduced and reduced. Like the Qing court drama directed by Li Hanxiang, the required scenery and costumes must be carefully selected, and even the number of incense burners under the emperor's seat must be well documented. Naturally, the cost is also greatly increased.

Director Li Hanxiang's first "Alluring Country" sold a lot of money, and Jiang Dawei, who played the little eunuch Kou Liancai, won the award. Seeing this, Shaw Brothers naturally immediately invested in him to shoot the next part of "Yingtai Blood" of "Alluring the Country and the City". It's just that this "Yingtai Blood" was filmed in a hurry. Not only is the script inexplicable, but the sets, costumes, props, etc. are not as good as they could be.

This is actually a common problem of Hong Kong films, when a movie becomes popular, all the messy follow-up works will pop up, everyone just wants to take advantage of this shareholder trend to make money, who would have thought of carefully caring for and cultivating this kind of theme?

"Yingtai Blood" was rushed into the horse due to insufficient preparation, and director Li Hanxiang was already interested in the mainland at that time, so he was a little careless when filming this film. A series of unsatisfactory events made the movie "Yingtai Blood" a box office fiasco, and also made Shaw Brothers break off the heart of reinvesting in Qing palace dramas.

Director Li Hanxiang is the best Qing palace drama, Shaw Brothers has refused to shoot Qing palace dramas since then, which makes him very dissatisfied, but how can his arms be twisted over his thighs, so people have to bow their heads under the low eaves, and usually only shoot some Fengyue films, laughing films and other errands, although the box office is very good, but the depression in Director Li Da's heart can be imagined.

At this time, Director Li's "Alluring the Country and the City" flowed into the mainland through various channels, and after being watched by mainland filmmakers, they were immediately shocked. People don't believe that with a place as small as Hong Kong, how can the Qing Palace be photographed so magnificently? You can shoot so well just by the set, so if you really come to the Forbidden City to shoot on the spot, then what's the point?

So mainland filmmakers have the intention of cooperating with Director Li, and Director Li also wants to go back to the mainland very much, after all, he grew up in the mainland since he was a child, and naturally has a deep affection for it. So last year, he secretly returned to the mainland many times to discuss cooperation with the mainland for filming.

At the beginning, director Li Hanxiang planned to shoot Lao She's "Teahouse", because Li Hanxiang and Lao She are both from Beijing, and Li Hanxiang appreciates Lao She's works more, and once adapted Lao She's novella "Crescent Moon" in the movie "Wind and Snow Moon".

It's just that the theme of "Teahouse" is too sensitive and really difficult to adapt, so director Li Hanxiang's first collaboration ran aground, but he soon found a new book, which is "The First Half of My Life" by Pu Yi, the last emperor of China.

……

Hua Shan's "Pretty Girl Amorous" is actually a youth love comedy, following the trend of love comedies such as "Childe Love" and "Short Boy Love". Since the release of Hui's "Childe Amorous", there have been many "XX Amorous" movies in Hong Kong for a while, all of which are movies with the theme of love and comedy, but the quality is very different.

Among them, except for Zeng Zhiwei's "Short Boy Amorous", which has more new accidents, most of the other movies are shoddy. However, because of the name of "XX Amorous", he also made a small profit.

Now Shaw Brothers is looking at movies with this theme, so they invested in filming such a "Pretty Girl Amorous". It is worth noting that the starring role of this movie is Zhong Chuhong, the third runner-up of the Miss Oriental beauty pageant held by Jiayi TV this year. Although she only won the third place, she was hard to give up because of her natural beauty, and she was immediately praised after entering Shaw Brothers, and she played the starring role in the first movie, which can be described as good luck.

It's just a pity that although Zhong Chuhong is charming, because the movie with the theme of "XX Amorous" has been made badly, and Shaw Brothers is really slow to follow the trend, so after the release of this "Beautiful Girl Amorous", it did not cause much repercussions. On the contrary, the Hui brothers' "The Rich World", because it tells about the stock market that Hong Kong citizens are most familiar with, coupled with the good reputation accumulated before, was immediately praised after its release.

And Wu Yusen's "Lin Yazhen" is also quite down-to-earth, coupled with Xiao Fangfang's own fame, so that after the release of this movie, the box office is also rising.

The most regrettable thing is Shaw Brothers' "Xu Laohu and the White Widow" and this "Beautiful Girl is Amorous". (To be continued......)