Almost everyone now believes that the movie "Crazy Rich Asians" that Ning Weimin is going to film is a story adapted from Teresa Deng's personal experience, which is equivalent to a story about the personal emotions and career growth of Asian music queen Teresa Teng.
The screen biography is a reflection and summary of half her life.
But to be honest, this is not true and is just a gimmick.
This is just a publicity method used by Ning Weimin to attract more media attention and encourage more viewers to buy tickets.
What actually happened? Why did you come up with the idea to make this movie?
Only Ning Weimin himself truly knows.
Speaking of which, in fact, it was mainly because in his previous life, Ning Weimin was deeply impressed by the story of "Asian Cinderella competing with her boyfriend's family for love".
As a result, in this life, he met Teresa Teng and became good friends with each other. Only then did he realize that the emotional experience of Teresa Teng and the eldest son of the Guo family "being beaten with a stick" was actually very similar to the plot in "Crazy Rich Asians"
Similar places.
It was only then that I came up with the idea of "why not use Teresa Teng, the music queen, to film this story" and promote Chinese culture and music to the world.
The process and sequence in which this idea arises are very important and must be explained clearly first.
Because it affects the success or failure of this movie.
If he wasn't sure that he would make money, Ning Weimin, a calculator, wouldn't spend so much money on a movie that might lose money.
First of all, Ning Weimin's confidence came from the huge success of the original film at the box office in Europe and the United States.
In his last life, this movie only cost 30 million U.S. dollars and earned 170 million U.S. dollars in box office in North America. It also became the weekly champion of the North American market box office list for three consecutive weeks, and eventually became the highest box office in North America.
movie with an all-Asian cast.
Although the original film "Crazy Rich Asians" was released in 2018, such high box office results are definitely inseparable from the special era attributes.
After all, at that time, the wealth of Asians had become a general consensus among people in European and American countries, and the box office scale was also quite different from now.
But the problem is that Japan is currently experiencing an economic bubble period, and the wealth of Japanese people is also attracting the world's attention.
Therefore, as long as the story background of the movie is changed to starting from 1985, the Singaporean tycoon Yang family is shifting their investment focus to Japan, it will fit the current world situation very well.
In addition, the cost of filming movies nowadays is also low.
It doesn't even cost 30 million US dollars. Ning Weimin only spent half of the original film.
The scene can be made bigger, enough to invite real stars to play the leading roles, which is not comparable to the original film.
And at least "Crazy Rich Asians" is a hit in North America, which also shows that the story mode itself and the way some plots are presented are recognized and willing to be accepted by European and American audiences.
So to sum up, the favorable and unfavorable factors offset each other. Ning Weimin at least believes that in North America, it is not difficult to achieve the target of 20% of the box office of the original film.
In other words, from an optimistic point of view, the box office in North America alone is expected to reach US$40 million.
Then the production cost of 18 million US dollars can be recovered.
The rest of the income from the re-release of video tapes and music albums is all earned.
Secondly, in Japan, the film's main box office, and in other countries and regions in the Asian market, Teresa Teng herself is the banner with the most box office appeal.
She is different now from when she first debuted in "Miss Fan".
She has already transformed from a young newcomer to the music scene to an Asian-level music queen. Her singing can be heard not only in Asia, but everywhere where there are Chinese people.
Although in the Chinese music scene, there seem to be two people, Xu Xiaofeng and Feng Feifei, who can be compared with her. They are at the same level as her in terms of fame.
But the problem is that those two have not had any outstanding new works in recent years, and their careers have already reached their ceiling.
However, Teresa Teng's star shines brightly in Japan.
Not only have excellent new songs been released one after another, but last year he also made history by himself, winning two of Japan's highest music awards as a Chinese, becoming a double champion in the Japanese music scene.
No one can deny that she has broken the ceiling of her career and is creating a new career peak.
Looking at the entire Chinese music scene, there is really no superstar as influential as her.
In terms of popularity and career achievements, she has already surpassed others and has become a legend that has never been seen before in the Asian music scene, and is probably also a legend that will never come after her.
With her like this, even if she makes a bad movie now, it will probably be a big hit at the box office in Asian countries.
From a purely commercial perspective, even Keiko Matsumoto, Japan's number one actress, is inferior to her.
So in terms of remuneration, she is certainly the number one Asian actress.
Even if Ning Weimin paid her a salary of US$500,000 to make this movie, it would still not be a loss at all.
To be honest, at least in this movie, she is more important than anyone else and more important than the story itself.
In addition, there was also Zun Long, who had just finished filming "The Last Emperor" and was about to become famous but not yet famous, playing the leading role, and he only received Ning Weimin's salary of 600,000 US dollars.
It is estimated that when this movie is released, it will be able to catch up with the global sales of "The Last Emperor" and make Zunlong famous.
So with these two male and female protagonists, it is easy to handle the box office in Asia. So what does Ning Weimin have to worry about?
Not to mention, the factors that caused the original film to be lukewarm when it was released in mainland China no longer exist due to the different era.
You must know that in this era, Cinderella stories like this have not yet become a cliché in Asia.
Movies with similar plots, such as "Lucky Star", "Meteor Garden", "Working Girl", "Pretty Woman", "Notting Hill", "Fifty Shades of Grey"... have not been filmed yet.
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Judging from the subject matter, this kind of story is undoubtedly novel and caters to the needs of the audience, so the audience will definitely buy it.
What's more, the movie is directed by Ning Weimin, and he must also tell a purely Chinese story.
It can't be like the original film, which took away the Chinese culture and still makes American values disgusting.
In this way, of course there will be no negative factors that will affect the film's sales in mainland China.
So even from the perspective of the planning of this movie project, this movie came into being at the right time and is destined to become popular in due time.
In particular, it is a light comedy about family reunions, suitable for all ages, and is most suitable for celebrating the New Year.
Regardless of the high investment, but from the perspective of global distribution, especially the distribution of music albums and videos, it would be a disaster if this movie didn't make any money in the end.
To put it bluntly, what is Ning Weimin doing?
In fact, he is following Michael Jackson's approach to filming "Thriller" and wants to make a movie-style MTV.
Essentially, he uses many of Teresa Teng's classic songs to interpret a romantic love story that the public can relate to and a happy reunion story that they love to hear.
Teresa Teng's music and Teresa Teng herself are the core of the movie, but the story is secondary.
So in this way, the difficulty of making this movie is actually not very high, and it is also completely controllable.
The focus of the filming is only on how to embody the conflict and romance that conforms to the emotional logic in the main line of the movie, how to use superb shooting techniques to mobilize the audience's emotions, and how to express the atmosphere in Teresa Teng's golden songs.
Of course, the best thing is to have a new song that is good enough to be used as the theme song of the movie so that it can live up to expectations.
Therefore, it is precisely because of this clear understanding that Ning Weimin has monopolized almost all personnel rights for this project since its establishment.
Even if he is a layman, he has the final say as to who can be used and whom not.
However, when it comes to matters, what Ning Weimin does does not look like an amateur, but rather like a true expert.
Although it stands to reason that the core characters of the entire crew filming the movie should be the director, and the casting should be selected by the director with his professional vision.
But "Crazy Rich Asians" is different from other movies.
Because there is no concern about box office, Ning Weimin can completely let himself go and do whatever he wants to do stunts to expand the influence of the film's early promotion.
The final result is that Ning Weimin invited many famous foreign and domestic actors to participate in the project across borders and regions.
Not only did this film become the first big-budget film to be co-produced by China, Japan and France, it would also star in at least twenty Chinese and foreign movie stars.
Even two internationally renowned clothing companies, Pierre Cardon and Yves Saint Laurent, were brought in to serve as advertising sponsors for the film.
Not to mention, he hired Akira Kurosawa's favorite photographer Nakai Koichi as the main photographer of the film at a high price that broke the industry ceiling.
At the same time, he readily hired Yutaka Osawa, a candidate recommended by Akira Kurosawa, to serve as the film's chief director.
Such an eclectic way of employing people and the courage to make decisions are even more admirable.
For no other reason than that in this movie, Ning Weimin clearly understood that the role of the photographer was obviously higher than that of the director.
The director only needs to tell the story clearly and edit it into a film.
Even though Yutaka Osawa has always been Akira Kurosawa's assistant director and has no independent directing experience before, he has filmed many large-scale productions with Akira Kurosawa, and he is indispensable in his ability to control the scene.
As the saying goes, if you haven't eaten pork, you've seen pigs running. Since Kurosawa Akira is vouching for him, Ning Weimin naturally won't worry about anything. He is very happy to let Yutaka Osawa direct the film.
In addition, even in the movie theme song, Ning Weimin did not disappoint.
He plagiarized Misora Hibari's last classic "The Stream" without any mental barriers, making this Japanese classic song that has been covered by countless celebrities in the music industry come out ahead of schedule. It was transformed into Made in China and became his new song for Teresa Teng.
And this song is indeed good.
Not only did Teresa Teng fall in love with it as soon as she heard it, she couldn't wait to go into the studio to record it. She even regarded this song as a true portrayal of her own career in the music industry.
Even the other participants in the entire crew were deeply moved when they heard it.
This all adds to confidence in the success of the film.
In this way, not only could Ning Weimin sell a favor to Akira Kurosawa, but more importantly, the director, starring actors and photographers would all be grateful to him and regard him as their own.
No one will question his authority, let alone take the initiative from him.
It is definitely an exaggeration to say that "a scholar will die for his confidant", but these people will undoubtedly cooperate with his requests to the best of their ability.
In this way, several main crew members worked together, and the filming progress of the movie was naturally guaranteed.
Otherwise, with his temporary idea, he could assemble the crew in the capital in just a few days.
That is simply impossible.
However, in fact, Ning Weimin did just that.
In the four days from June 20 to June 23, 1987, even the actors and the creative team all obeyed his orders and obeyed his instructions. They willingly put down what they were doing and rushed to the capital from all over the country.
Not to mention Teresa Teng, Minoru Funaki, Toichi Nakai, Yutaka Osawa, Ken Utsui, Tomokazu Miura, Haruko Sawaguchi, Qianyu Weng, and Yao Peifang who came from Japan.
Even in Hong Kong City, Liang Jiahui, who was specially invited by Ning Weimin, also rushed to film the first movie "Prison" that he had just successfully come back to, and successfully abducted the little-known actor Zhou Xingchi who was requested by Ning Weimin. , we flew together overnight.
Then they met with Zun Long, Cen Chong, Wu Junmei, Xiang, Zhang Qiang, and Cui Jian who had just finished filming "The Last Emperor" in the capital.
Finally, many local actors from the capital and actors from the "Dream of Red Mansions" TV series also joined the filming team.
Chen Peisi, Chen Baoguo, Hu Yajun, Ma Shuchao, Wang Bozhao, Lin Fangbing, Zhang Weixin, Chen Xiaoxu, Yin Xin, Deng Jie, Shen Lin... all included.
As for what exactly are these people gathering together to take pictures of?
Of course, Ning Weimin had already had mature ideas.
To put it simply, it’s just four words – banquet for the wealthy.
What he meant was that he planned to use the wedding tent that Yunyuan had set up to stage a story about the first encounter between the male and female protagonists in "Crazy Rich Asians."
In this plot, the role played by Teresa Teng is just a little singer who sings for wealthy families just to earn money for studying abroad.
However, Zunlong's character is the eldest son of Singapore's wealthy Yang family, and he is one of the invited relatives and friends.
It's just that Zun Long went on stage to perform Peking Opera to celebrate his distant relatives, but was misunderstood by Teresa Teng and became a singer-songwriter with the same fate.
And Zunlong did not pierce this layer of window paper, but instead took on this new identity.
Backstage, I helped each other with Teresa Teng and happily chatted with her.
He deliberately skipped the banquet and only ate the actors' meals to conceal his true identity.
The two of them had a vague fondness for each other until the end of the show because they felt so connected.
Finally, they left each other's contact information in the garden and said goodbye.
It was precisely because of this experience that Zun Long secretly ran to France to escape the pressure from his family, and the two of them soon reunited in France.
In this way, a rich boy who evaded family responsibilities and a poor girl who was kept in the dark began their romance in a foreign country.
Needless to say, Yun Yuan’s gorgeous scenery is ready-made, as is the venue.
Even the crew members and actors were surprised by the beautiful scenery and the size of the courtyard.
Everyone was astonished by the pomp and splendor of the wedding tent and the sumptuousness of the wedding banquet.
But the most difficult part has been solved. It is not difficult to shoot this kind of plot directly.
Just shoot more real-life footage on Ning Weimin's day and edit it at the end.
Especially how beautiful it is that everyone can watch Ning Weimin's wedding day and have a real wedding drink. Everyone is very relaxed.
Even many actors from Mainland China regard this filming as a big deal. They eat and drink for free and receive red envelopes. They can also appear in an international masterpiece of such a scale. How beautiful.
And it doesn't matter if the scenes between Teresa Teng and Zun Lung are not delicate enough.
It's not difficult at all to find time to take a single photoshoot.
But to be honest, it is precisely this relaxed atmosphere of the group scene that conceals the real purpose of the scene.
Ning Weimin is actually doing product placement to advertise his Yunyuan.
As long as there is this drama, the rooms here are destined to be more popular and the prices will be higher.
In addition, of course no one will know that Teresa Teng is here nominally for filming.
But in fact, under the arrangement of Ning Weimin, he contacted the mainland Spring Festival Gala program crew under the pretext of filming.
They are secretly negotiating with each other about the plan to perform on stage at next year's Spring Festival Gala.
In 1988, whether the national audience could see Teresa Teng performing live on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala was entirely determined by the outcome of the secret talks over the past few days.
In other words, Ning Weimin is relying on his own efforts to change the direction of history and make up for historical regrets.