The 1993 movie Christmas is more tragic than the summer season. Last year, 10 Hong Kong films were released at the same time, but this year only 5 Hong Kong films were released.
Among them, "The New Brothers in the Desperate" and "The Couple in the Money" are both from UFO, "The Demon Sect Leader of the Dragon Slaying" are produced by Yongsheng, "The White-Haired Witch" is produced by Huang Baiming's Xincheng Films, and "The Green Snake" is released by Dongfang Theater.
There are two main reasons why there are so few Christmas movies: one is that Taiwanese filmmakers reduce their investment in Hong Kong films, and the other is that Hong Kong's local box office has scared the theater merchants and would rather leave the cinema empty than show the bad movies that are destined to fail.
Because many small and medium-sized film companies cannot be released, they can only use the route of VCD and video tapes to be released, which in disguise stimulates the prosperity of the video tape market.
For the five Hong Kong films released on Christmas, "The New Brothers in Desperate" (ufo) is far ahead with a box office of 21.36 million, "The Money-grabbing Couple" (ufo) ranked second with a box office of 18.37 million, "The Demon Lord of the Dragon" (Yongsheng Film Company) ranked third with a box office of 11.85 million, "The White-Haired Witch" (New City Pictures) ranked fourth with a box office of 1180, and Xu Ke's "Green Snake" (Oriental Dream Factory) only won 10.32 million box office.
This is definitely the worst Christmas season in Hong Kong in more than ten years. At this time, the news that Kang Jianfei's "The Sixth Sense" was hit in the United States has not yet been heard back, and some media in Hong Kong have already called out that "Hong Kong films are dead"!
The Hong Kong film giant Jiahe did not participate in this year's Christmas season. Last year, the energetic Yonggao Film Company has reported that it will be suspended. Chen Rongmei owns the largest theater chain in Hong Kong and has no investment in a drama. Even DreamWorks, which has always been selling well, only barely exceeded 10 million in the box office of "The Green Snake" directed by Xu Ke.
Kang Jianfei was very depressed about this. Originally, the Christmas movie of Oriental Theater was arranged to "Face Change", but unfortunately, Wu Yusen, a guy, was out of the box and could only take Xu Ke's "Green Snake" temporarily.
The only thing that makes people look eye-catching during this Christmas season is ufo.
Two years ago, when Hong Kong films were at its peak, Zeng Zhiwei proposed an ambitious plan. He connected more than 20 actors including Er Dongsheng, Ann Hui, Luo Zhuoyao, Chen Kexin, and Zhang Zhiliang, invested in filming under the name of a director, and contacted eight theaters to organize a new theater to shoot specifically to screen these films that the director wanted to shoot but may not be willing to invest in, hoping to make a fortune through novel creativity.
Unfortunately, this plan ended up in death because Zeng Zhiwei was a little whimsical. His fame and appeal were not enough to complete the plan.
The plan failed before it was put into practice. Zeng Zhiwei had no choice but to settle for the second best and found Zhong Zhen and Chen Kexin. The three of them jointly established ufo (the abbreviation of the producer's joint organization, "If Love", "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves", "October Siege", "Sweet Honey", "The Letter of the Fame" and other films were all made by this company).
When Hong Kong films were insufficiency, Ufo insisted on creating films with unique styles and novel content. At the same time, the directors were their own bosses, and the films they made had to consider the box office. Therefore, although the films produced by Ufo were exploratory, they were not as incomprehensible as Wong Kar-wai’s films.
This is extremely rare. UFO is like a breeze blowing through the turbid Hong Kong film industry. At least Kang Jianfei is happy to see such a unique film company appear.
Especially this Christmas, Hong Kong has only released 5 Hong Kong films, two of which were made by UFO. They also won the first and second place in the Christmas box office respectively.
Some newspapers even predicted that ufo would become the Novel Art City in the 1990s.
The analysis of "Movie Biweekly" is more rational:
"Ufo's amazing performance on Christmas is actually a proof that Hong Kong citizens hate bad movies. Due to shoddy and following the trend, many classic scenes have been tossed and turned, and the audience has long been trying to vomit. The films produced by Ufo may not be the best, but their style and plot can definitely be said to be novel and unique.
To put it in a bit abstract, this is a competition between the star-centric system and the director-centric system. In recent years, most Hong Kong films have been the product of the star-centric system. The entire film revolves around these stars, relying on stars to attract audiences to enter the movie, thereby achieving the purpose of making profits. UFO is different. The three bosses of this company are directors. When they first made a film, they first established the film style and content, and then found suitable actors to shoot. The director mastered all the links of the movie, and there were very few constraints from investors and publishers.
The core of the movie is always the movie itself, not a few glamorous stars. UFO's emergence is actually a return to the essence of the movie. Producers who want to rely on celebrities to deceive the audience into paying money may think more, and the audience is not a fool..."
Zeng Zhiwei finally became a success. He had been in Xinyi City, Oriental Dream Factory, and under Zou Wenhuai and Chen Rongmei. This time he finally became the leader of the Hong Kong film industry.
...
"cheers!"
In the private room of Hongye Club, Zeng Zhiwei, Zhong Zhen, Chen Kexin, Zhang Zhiliang and others gathered together to raise their glasses to celebrate the rise of UFO.
"This time, thanks to A Liang and Kexin, you two are great heroes, so you have a drink!" Zeng Zhiwei was obviously in a state of excitement. The movie produced by his company actually dominated the top and runner-up of the Christmas box office, which was a peak of his life that he had never reached before.
Chen Kexin and Zhang Zhiliang both have very restrained personalities, but because of their good mood, they actually had a few drinks with Zeng Zhiwei.
After drinking for a while, everyone's alcohol came up. Zeng Zhiwei waved his arms and said, "Although the Hong Kong film market is in a downturn, I think it is a good opportunity for UFO to rise. In 1980, Hong Kong movies were in a similar situation as they are now. There are shoddy kung fu films and martial arts films everywhere. The audience is tired of watching DreamWorks and New Art City. Now the same is true. Audiences are tired of watching gambling movies, zombie movies, shit and fart funny movies and new martial arts films. Our UFO can attract audiences with avant-garde and novel style, and will definitely defeat other unprofitable film companies. I think UFO should set up its own theater chain in the next year so that the company's movies can be scheduled for a good schedule in the future. I heard that Roger Cheng's Yonggao Cinema is ready to be sold. Now the company is well-funded, so we can take over several theaters with good locations..."
Zhong Zhen was still awake, so he poured a pot of cold water on Zeng Zhiwei: "Let's talk about the establishment of theaters later. Now there is an oversupply of cinemas in Hong Kong. It is better to make movies with peace of mind than to do theaters. As long as the movie is made, the bosses of those theater companies will beg us to take the film to his theater for screening."
"I also think there is no need to set up a theater chain." Chen Kexin pushed the glasses frame. In fact, he didn't have much say in UFO. When he established the company, it was the money Zeng Zhiwei and Zhong Zhen paid, while Chen Kexin obtained a small amount of shares based on the director's salary.
Zeng Zhiwei was very sleek in his life. Although he was in a state of high spirits, he stopped talking about the establishment of a theater chain after hearing both partners objected, because it would only cause conflicts between his friends. He laughed twice: "Then let's ignore the theater chain. Now the company has a drama that is about to be completed. We have to complete the later stage of the Spring Festival New Year holiday."
Zhong Zhen, Chen Kexin and Zhang Zhiliang looked at each other, and they all felt that Zeng Zhiwei seemed a little arrogant.
Zhong Zhen reminded: "The New Year's Day is a bit inappropriate. First, there is not much time to make the movies late, and second, the competition for the New Year's Day is too fierce."
Chen Kexin also said: "This year's New Year holiday includes Liu Jialiang and Cheng Long's "Drunk Fist 2", Gao Zhisen and Zhang Guorong's "House of Richness", Kang Jianfei and Zhou Xingchi's "Kung Fu". Our company's movies go to the New Year holiday to compete for death."
Zeng Zhiwei was a little unhappy with being poured cold water one after another, but his mind became much clearer. Although he was still fantasizing about going to the New Year holiday to compete, the names of Kang Jianfei, Cheng Long and Zhou Xingchi still made it difficult for him to make up his mind.
"Then, let it go." Zeng Zhiwei still didn't have the courage to fight against those powerful people.
...
Compared with the Christmas season, the New Year's Day in 1994 was surprisingly lively. A total of 15 movies were released in January. It seems that Hong Kong films have signs of recovery, but several movies were released only a few days ago because the box office was too terrible.
The only thing worth paying attention to is "The New Era of Cohabitation" directed by Yang Fan and Zhang Aijia. This film was invested by Taiwan's China Film Company and produced by Hong Kong Bigao Film. It is a three-stage literary and romance film. It actually killed other commercial films released at the same time and won a box office of HK$20 million.
It has to be said that Hong Kong audiences are already mature. They are tired of watching shoddy commercial films, but they are increasingly inclined to be well-made literary and artistic films.
The success of "New Cohabitation Era" sounded the clarion call for Taiwanese filmmakers to invest in Hong Kong films again. After a half-year thinking period, Taiwanese filmmakers still decided to invest in Hong Kong film production, but their investment was more cautious than before, and there would be no magical incident where Liu Dehua's films sold for 8 million yuan.
As the Lunar New Year approaches, the promotion of New Year movies has also begun to bomb the eyes of Hong Kong citizens. The most popular movies are "Drunk Fist 2" and "Kung Fu". The former is the first collaboration between Liu Jialiang and Cheng Long, and the latter is the re-cooperation between Kang Jianfei and Zhou Xingchi. Fans of the four are looking forward to these two movies.
Hong Kong newspapers have long been collectively: "The Drunken Fist 2 is undoubtedly a kung fu film. The content of "Kung fu" can be seen from the name. Zhou Xingchi vs. Cheng Long, and it is more fist-lossing. Whoever loses wins and wins is worth looking forward to. What is more interesting is that Liu Jialiang's style is the traditional kung fu of hard bridges and horses. What kind of sparks will he create when he collides with Cheng Long? In addition, it is said that Liu Jialiang also served as the action director of the three fighting scenes of "Kung fu". Is this considered fighting yourself? Zhou Xingchi has always been famous for his nonsensical comedy. Although there have been fighting scenes in films such as "Tang Bohu's Autumn Fragrance" and "Su Qi'er", they were all shot by hanging wires and stand-in. Can he compete with Cheng Long this time?" (To be continued, please search for astronomy, the novel is better and faster!
Chapter completed!