At 750 Nathan Road, Mong Kok, there is a Lisheng Theater, which opened in 19UU and has more than 14UU seats. In addition to screening ordinary 35mm films, it can also screen 70mm wide-screen movies. It is one of the best theaters in Hong Kong. It only screened foreign language films in the 1960s and 1970s. However, at the beginning of 19RU, with the decline of foreign language films and the rise of Hong Kong films, this theater joined the Golden Princess Theater established by Lei Jue Kun and began to release Hong Kong films.

Room UUl on the sixth floor of the building affiliated to Lisheng Theater is an office less than 100 square meters. The decoration is very simple. There are no high-end office equipment such as typewriters, photocopiers and computers. There are only a few old tables, old chairs and a telephone. When Luo Weiming and Qiu Liben were chatting in the spacious and bright cafe of Oriental Charming Building, three people were having a meeting here.

"In the film industry, there are three themes that are always prosperous, one is comedy, one is action, and the other is romance..."

A young man wearing a short-sleeved shirt and black-framed glasses knocked on the newspaper on the table and said, "The God of Wealth in Shen said that both men and women love comedy movies. When I see our entrepreneurial work, I will make comedy movies."

"Comework costs are low, they are filmed quickly, and there are many people watching it. I agree." The bald man sitting behind the desk said: "Boss Lei is interested in us and is willing to invest because the comedy films are well filmed and creative, which impressed him deeply."

"I've made a comedy film again?" The man who was thin on the sofa frowned and said, "I've been filming comedy films for ten years, and now I want to make something else."

If Chen Chong saw it, he would definitely recognize it. The three people here are the three-headed monsters in Xinyi City - glasses Huang Baiming, bald man Mai Jia and Slender Zhugan Shi Tian.

"What else can you do? We only have millions of capital now. Will we film "Die Hard"? If you lose capital, do you still have to support the house? How can Boss Lei explain? Don't forget that this office belongs to Boss Lei."

Mai Jia's series of questions made Shi Tian unable to refute. He pursed his lips and stopped talking, which was accustomed to the decision to make a comedy film.

"If you want to film comedy movies, who will I find?" Huang Baiming held his glasses and said, "Sanmao is so popular now. Jiahe cannot let him come to help us film. Even if he comes, we can't afford to pay. When filming "Die Hard", Shen Cai Shen gave him 1 million Hong Kong dollars, and the bonus is calculated."

Mai Jia stroked his bare head and muttered: "His grandma, the god of wealth,"

This guy was originally a science and engineering man who immigrated to the United States in his early years. After graduating from college, he worked as an engineer at a New York Telephone Company. His hobby was to go to Chinatown to watch Hong Kong movies. At that time, the man either took off his shirt and called him around, or the woman took off her pants to show off his charm. While watching, he cursed bad movies. After watching too much, he couldn't help but want to do it himself, so he quit his job and went to New York University to study movies first and then art. When he was in 1973, he ran back to Hong Kong with a $1,500 possession, preparing to make a big fortune in the film industry.

It’s a pity that the ideal is full and the reality is skinny. As soon as Mai Jia returned to Hong Kong, he was cheated of money and creative outline by a screenwriter. He wasted two years. It was not until the end of 1975 that he partnered with two friends to establish a film company called "Pioneer". One of these two friends is Wu Yaohan and the other is Li Yingju. The first one is a comedy star and the second one is a famous Wing Chun artist. The three of them worked together to tinker with a movie called "A Bachelor Walking in the World". Unfortunately, they were not popular. Film critics believed it to be an "innovative work", but the box office only collected 740,000 yuan, and it was offline after one week of release, losing nearly 300,000 yuan.

However, it is not unreasonable that Serbian lost his career. Although the movie suffered a lot, Mai Jia made three friends, one was Sammo Hung, the other was Shi Tian, ​​and the other was Tsang Eric Tsang. In 1978, Wu Yaohan was poached by Jiahe, and Pioneer Film Company was closed. Mai Jia and Sammo Hung formed another "Jiabao" company, directed by himself, Eric Tsang Tsang and starred by Shi Tian, ​​filmed "Tiger Frog", which earned more than 00,000 yuan in the box office, and ranked 10 in the annual box office rankings. He made a small profit and became a little famous in the Hong Kong film industry.

Sammo Hung is a signed artist of Jiahe. He was involuntarily inconvenient to open an independent company. Jiabao hurriedly finished his business after filming two movies. Mai Jia then formed his own film Fighting Film Company and filmed three movies in a row, including "The New Wrong Door God", "The Crazy Fighting" and "The Salted Fish Turning Over", which had a very good box office. The martial arts moves of these three movies were designed by Sammo Hung and his Hong family class. Among them, "The Salted Fish Turning Over" also participated in it personally. It was the success of this movie that made real estate tycoon Lei Juekun like Fighting Over, a small independent film production company, and was willing to invest and support.

Because in order to ensure the quality of the movie, the crew members were not allowed to take part-time private jobs outside. After Sammo Hung participated in "Die Hard", this cooperative relationship was interrupted. "Die Hard" swept the world and had a high box office. Sammo Hung's reputation became a vague momentum and had the momentum to become an international superstar. Jiahe regarded it as a guarantee of selling the film and prepared several dramas for him in a row. The schedule was scheduled until next year. He was very busy and had no time to come out to help.

"Sanmao can't come, no one can fight, so we don't want to shoot kung fu comedy." Shi Tian said in a flash: "Shen Caishen said that Hong Kong has been urbanized now, and no one likes to watch movies of poor boys in the countryside. Why not make a comedy with urban themes."

Shi Tian is thin and tall, with a sharp-mouthed and monkey cheek, and looks cunning and ridiculous, but in fact he is a person who has a lot of ideas and pursuits for movies. He joined the Shaw Brothers actor training class in 19UR and graduated in 1973. Because of his poor appearance, Shaw Brothers did not pay attention to it. So he hang out in film companies of all sizes, such as Jiahe, Xu, Changgong, etc., and played a small supporting role for six or seven years. During this period, many of the actors who were innately better than him and those who were once highly praised by big companies were silent. However, he insisted that not only was not eliminated, but gradually changed from a small supporting role to a starring actor, becoming a well-known comedy star in Hong Kong. When the New Art City was established, it became the third largest shareholder after Lei Juekun and Mai Jia, with 19 shares.

"Okay, Baiming, you write a book first and take a look."

Mai Jia and Lei Juekun jointly own shares of Xinyi City. Lei Juekun is a real estate tycoon with many industries and assets of billions. Of course, he will not personally manage a small film company. Therefore, Mai Jia is the boss of Xinyi City, and he will make the decisions.

Wong Baiming was an editor in the industry and writing scripts was his job. He nodded and asked, "Who else should I find for my screenwriter, your director, and Shi Tian?"

After getting Lei Juekun's investment, Mai Jia returned to New York to handle housework. He just rushed back yesterday. He asked, "Do you have time? Ask him to come and help."

Chen Xunqi became a master of music master Wang Fuling at the age of 15 and learned the soundtrack of movies. In 1971, he became Shaw Brothers's official musician, at least three or five movies, or as many as more than a dozen movies every year. In 1975, he even made the soundtrack for a movie. He was young, had a good appearance and good temperament. Although he was doing behind-the-scenes work, he had the popularity and exposure of stars in front of the stage.

After playing the soundtrack for a long time and seeing many movies, Chen Xunqi moved the same idea as Mai Jia at the time, and planned to start filming in person and transform into a director and starring role. However, Shaw's internal system is rigid, and the director needs to work hard and it is not so easy to be a person. So he went to find Mai Jia and said he was willing to be an assistant director for him and learn how to film. The salary was easy to discuss. Mai Jia had not made a name for himself at that time and was not confident enough, so he did not dare to agree immediately, and he ruthlessly said that he should consider it first. As a result, when he considered it, Chen Xunqi was poached by Jackie Chan, "If you want to be a director, you can actually be an actor first." Jiahe was poached as an actor...

However, the business failed to make a good deal. Mai Jia and Chen Xunqi missed the relationship between master and apprentice, but they also maintained a good relationship with friends. The soundtracks of the three movies filmed after the establishment of Fendou Film Company were all handled by Chen Xunqi, so now the show is about to start. Apart from Sammo Hung, the first person I think of is him.

"Chen Xunqi has gone to Oriental Charm and is directing and acting on his own. Oriental Charm has never allowed the crew to make extra money."

"Where is Wu Yaohan?"

Wu Yaohan went to the UK to study drama in 1955, joined HHC TV after graduation, returned to Hong Kong in 1970, hosted comedy programs in H. In 1975, he formed Pioneer Film Company with Mai Jia. Although Pioneer Film Company was not good at getting started and lost a lot of business, Wu Yaohan's British academic comedy style was very popular. His participants in "Half a Cat" was the box office champion of Hong Kong movies in 1976. His starring "Fare Money Han" and "Face Confused" ranked among the top two Hong Kong movie box office rankings in 1977, becoming a household name in Hong Kong, with a strong reputation Xu Guanwen.

"We are helping Oriental Charm film."

"Zeng Zhiwei?"

In 1974, Tsang joined Changgong Film Company as a Dragon Tiger Martial Artist. During the filming of "A Bachelor Walking in the World" for Mai Jia in 1976, he not only often added plots when filming, but also often went to Mai Jia to chat and tell stories and talk about scripts, which attracted Mai Jia's attention. When Jiabao was founded in 1978, he was written by him in the entrepreneurial work "Tiger Frog" and also starred in "Salted Fish Turning Over".

"It is under construction, and it is also an oriental charming drama."

"Grandma, a bear." Mai Jia was a little annoyed. He touched his bald head and said, "Look for the actors again. Let's decide the photographer first. Does Tang Baosheng have any schedule?

Tang Baosheng is a photographer of "The Salted Fish Turns Over". The movie has a good box office and is a good name, which brings Lei Juekun's investment, so Mai Jia wants to keep the original class.

"Creating Yu Yunkang in Oriental Charm."

"Oriental Charm, Oriental Charm, Oriental Charm" Mai Jia pounded his desk hard and said angrily: "Is there anyone who goes to Oriental Charm?"

"Oriental Charm started filming 9 movies at the same time, almost all Hong Kong filmmakers were pulled over." Wong Bai-ming pushed his glasses again and said with a wry smile: "One of the people we know, only He Ming has a schedule now, but he asked for a price of 50,000."

He Ming is the photographer of "Tiger Frog", and Mai Jia's old acquaintance...

"50,000?"

“50,000.”

"Why is it so expensive?" Mai Jia said in surprise, "He only received 10,000 yuan when he filmed "Tiger Frog" two years ago."

"The market is rising now." Shi Tian, ​​who had not spoken, explained: "After the release of "The Dragon of Tigers", all the famous photographers in Hong Kong have raised prices, and He Ming has increased a lot. Tang Baosheng gave Oriental Charm a pay of 80,000 yuan, and Huang Yuetai was even more expensive. He filmed a new movie for Jiahe and asked for 150,000 yuan."

"Not only photographers, but in fact, everything is rising after the Academy Awards. After Liu Jialiang won the Best Martial Arts Instructor Award at the Academy Awards, his pay doubled." Huang Baiming pointed to the newspaper in front of him and said: "The God of Wealth said that the box office used to be calculated as one million, so everyone's pay was not allowed to be low. Now the box office is calculated as tens of millions. If everyone's pay is not rising, it is unreasonable. There is a statistics on "Movie Age" that the average cost per drama in Hong Kong last year was 00,000, and it has risen to 1.8 million in the first half of this year."

"His grandma Shencai God, do you want someone to live?" Mai Jia grabbed the newspaper and drew a cross on Shen Chong's avatar with a pen to vent his anger, and then angrily scolded: "If you have money, it does not mean that everyone in Hong Kong has money. Your box office of the show exceeds tens of millions, it does not mean that everyone's show can exceed tens of millions."

"What's the name of you and the newspaper?" Shi Tian was amused by him and laughed and mocked: "If you have the ability, you can say this in front of God of Wealth."

Mai Jia's eyebrows and eyes moved, and he exhaled his anger. He sat on the chair without saying anything.

"We all came from this circle. In fact, we also understand in our hearts that Shen Caishen is right. With more income and no increase in film pay, it is unreasonable. If it doesn't increase, no one is willing to film a movie." Shi Tian lit a cigarette, took a sip, and then said slowly: "Before you came back, Baiming and I had calculated it. Even if the cost increased by 50, we still have to make a profit. First, the ticket price of movies has increased. Last year's ticket price was 9 yuan, but now it's RMB. In the past, a drama was sold at a maximum of 00,000 yuan, but now it's RMB 5 million. Second, there are more places to sell ports. After "Die Hard", many European film merchants went to Hong Kong to buy movies, and the price was good. Third, we can sell the copyright of the video tape to Galaxy Image. This area was not before, but now it is extra out of thin air. If the box office is good, it would be no problem to sell at 300,000 or 500,000 yuan."

"There's another thing..." Huang Baiming probably deliberately teased Mai Jia and put the good news at the end. He broke the news: "Wu Johnson called last night and said that he promised to film for us last year. The agreement is still valid now, but he is short of time and has a contract with Jiahe, so he can only use a pseudonym and can only shoot for one week."

Mai Jia was overjoyed, jumped up, clapped his hands, and urged repeatedly: "What are you sitting stupidly? Hurry up and find someone to go, and filming will start tomorrow."
Chapter completed!