The most expensive office building in the world is in Central, Hong Kong.
Central is a land with a lot of money, and most of its clients are financial institutions and law firms. Yes, law firms and lawyers are extremely powerful in Hong Kong Island.
In "Cold War 2", Chow Yun-fat plays a barrister, commonly known as "Dazhuang". The word "Dazhuang" has a sense of history, so this shabby place is really in the style of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. It is neither British nor New China.
When Hugelive started, Yu Jiajia naively wanted to open a business in Central. Later, she found that the rent was too expensive, so she moved to Kowloon East in despair.
At first it was rented, but later with financing, we simply bought a 20-story office building with an area of nearly 40,000 square meters to serve as our Hong Kong headquarters.
40,000 square meters!
One square foot in Hong Kong is equal to 0.09 square meters, and the often-said luxury house with 1,000 square feet is only 90 square meters.
So you can imagine the impact that an outsider from the Internet will have on the local area in such a place dominated by the financial industry and service industry.
One day in September.
The traffic is still busy as usual, and the wage earners are busy rushing through this strange and mixed-style city.
Chen Baisheng, the editor-in-chief of "Film Fortnightly", had just watched a performance of "Dear". He came out of the subway and carried his bag into the Hugelive building. On the 16th floor, he found an office with a Fortnightly sign.
After the magazine resumed publication, there were more than a dozen people, and sales were bleak, but Yu Jiajia didn't ask for performance, you just had to do it. There was no market pressure, and the salary was paid as usual. On the contrary, the professionalism of the magazine was improved, attracting a small number of movie enthusiasts to subscribe.
Chen Baisheng often collects materials and writes articles himself, so he is naturally biased towards 99 Entertainment.
"Mr. Chen!"
"Mr. Chen!"
He nodded, entered his office, and began to write the film review of "Dear".
This film is directed by Chen Kexin and stars Huang Bo, Hao Lei, Zhang Yi, and Yan Bingyan. It is of high quality, both watchable and artistic.
Unfortunately, there is no market for such movies in Hong Kong, and the box office is about 0.
From a professional perspective, Chen Baisheng liked this film very much and made a relatively objective review, especially appreciating the acting skills of the four leading actors.
It's all done in one go, and a fresh review is out.
After finishing writing, he also wanted to add some content and summarize the movies released this year to see which ones have the potential to compete for the Academy Awards. Such a summary is incredible!
The peak output of Hong Kong films was more than 200 films a year. After the decline, there were only 40-50 films a year. Those with slightly larger investments were co-productions, among which Golden Harvest produced the most.
But so far this year, the number is 12!
"..."
Chen Baisheng's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly collected other information and found that including the films that were clearly to be released within the year, there were only 20 films!
Most of these 20 films are commercial films with little performance content.
His eyes returned to "Dear". The film had been screened in Hong Kong for 10 consecutive days, and one-third of the positions were Hong Kong personnel... All the conditions were perfectly matched, as if they were specially customized for next year's Academy Awards.
Hiss!
Chen Baisheng has been immersed in the industry for 30 years, so he can naturally guess something.
He was dazed in the office for a while, and suddenly smiled to himself: "Forget it, I'm so old, why are you participating in that? Make your own money!"
He convinced himself as quickly as possible and continued to work hard.
Since this year, the Hong Kong film market has been quietly changing. In addition to the artificial control of the boss, the rise of Hugelive is also a big reason.
Last year, she applied for 30 online majors, and they have been launched one after another.
These films are large-scale, refreshing, have novel themes, feature new actors, and some are free, which invisibly diverts some viewers.
Chen Baisheng wanted to do an in-depth report on "Hong Kong Film and Streaming Media", and he made an appointment for an interview today. He looked at the time and saw that it was almost time.
…………
Dragon and tiger martial arts are a major feature of Hong Kong movies.
It originated from four people:
Yu Zhanyuan, a BJ native, studied Peking Opera. After arriving in Hong Kong, he opened a Peking Opera school. His apprentice was the famous Seven Little Fortunes, and he trained two great figures, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan.
By the way, when Yu Zhanyuan speaks BJ dialect, he also asks his disciples to speak it. If anyone speaks Cantonese, he will slap him with a big mouth. That's why Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan speak Mandarin so well.
Next is Fen Juhua, a female Peking Opera actress who also opened an opera school in Hong Kong. Her apprentices include Xiao Fangfang, Lin Zhengying, Dong Wei, Zun Long, Hui Tianci (Hui Yinghong’s brother) and so on.
Then there is Yuan Xiaotian, who practices Northern martial arts and has several famous sons: Yuan Heping and Yuan Xiangren.
Finally, there is Liu Zhan, who practices southern martial arts under the tutelage of Lin Shirong - Lin Shirong in Once Upon a Time, who has a son named Liu Jialiang.
They first learned opera or practiced martial arts.
Later, there was no market for opera and martial arts, and with the rise of movies, many people switched careers and became martial arts masters. The apprentices and descendants of these four people are ushering in the era of the four major martial arts classes in Hong Kong films:
Hong family class, Cheng family class, Yuan family class, Liu family class!
Therefore, the reason why Hong Kong films have a period of mythical glory is due to the legacy of those mainland filmmakers, including Chang Cheh, Li Hanxiang, Chu Yuan, Hu Jinquan and other great directors who are famous in film history. They all came from the mainland.
By the time Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan's generation came to an end, the glory of the generation was over. There was no internal pursuit of advancement, and the small studio model, while external Hollywood was conquering the city, eventually led to industry lagging, a lack of talent, and the decline of Hong Kong films.
Let’s talk about Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts Master.
It was really a life-and-death job back then, and it was tiring to death.
For example, a new movie was released in the Hong family class, and those in the married class would watch it, and when they saw it, they jumped from the fourth floor. This shot was so exciting! No, it was even more exciting for us. We jumped from the fifth floor, and we were still on fire.
…
If you don't dare to jump? If you don't dare to jump, just get out. If he dares to jump, he can make this money.
This is a high-paying career!
Most of the dragon and tiger martial arts masters are uneducated, have high salaries, and do not know how to manage money. They spend a lot of time and alcohol when they are young, and their life is miserable when they are old. Especially when the industry is depressed, there are no jobs for them.
The people working at the bottom of Hong Kong are very poor!
But it’s different now, because Boss Yu is here, and when Boss Yu is here, there will be blue sky!
…………
"Boss, try this crab, it's a high-end product from Japan!"
"Chixian, what are you doing with Japanese products? Today I eat crabs, and in a few years crabs will eat me!"
In the evening, in a restaurant.
Martian was eating havoc with his brothers. They were all old men in their fifties and sixties, vulgar and brutal. All of them were injured, and one of them was in a wheelchair.
There was a table of fresh seafood, and Martian invited everyone to eat and drink. He didn't move much, but sighed: Oh, how many years have I not been this cool?
He is from Shanghai, and he also studied Peking Opera. He and Cheng Xiaodong are brothers. Later, he entered the family class. He is Jackie Chan's right-hand man and has participated in almost all of Jackie Chan's works.
For those dangerous shots in movies, Mars is usually made to try it out first. For example, the classic bell tower falling shot in "Plan A" was done by Mars for the first time, and Jackie Chan himself for the second time.
He is 60 years old this year. He didn't save much money when he was young, his life was difficult, and there were few job opportunities. The last movie that asked him to be an action director was in 2010.
But today is a good day, boss Yu has paid his salary!