On the screen, swords and swords flashed, and the hero Zhang Guorong, dressed as a scholar, was caught by the ghost mother. The heroine Ying Ning turned into a ray of light and flew high into the sky, transformed into a fox under the moonlight, and then vomited out the inner elixir and struck the ghost mother to death.
An injured monk on the ground turned over and sat up. When the fox inner alchemy attacked the ghost mother, he recited scriptures, squeezed the seal with his hands, and suddenly flicked his sleeves to move the demon-conquering pestle inserted beside him.
"boom!!"
Under the double attack of the fox's inner elixir and the demon-subduing pestle, the ghost mother let out a scream and was instantly annihilated.
"Pa bang bang..."
Pan Desheng, who was sitting in the third row, stood up and took the lead in applauding the film, and then said to director Hu Jinquan: "Mr. Hu, you did a great job with this film. It is not inferior to DreamWorks' "A Chinese Ghost Story" at all."
"Thank you for your trust, Mr. Pan." Hu Jinquan smiled and looked extremely happy.
Since "Shushan" and "A Chinese Ghost Story" became popular at the beginning of last year, many film companies in Hong Kong have followed suit and made similar films. However, due to the reluctance to invest too much budget, the results were not very good, and they have no chance to be screened in major movies.
Released during prime time in theaters.
This time Debao Film Company invested more than 14 million in the ghost fox movie "Ying Ning", and even went to Taiwan to invite King Hu to direct, just to be able to show off its talents this summer.
Hu Jinquan is best at martial arts movies, and he made a ghost fox movie with a Jianghu flavor without affecting the quality of the movie at all.
The filming of "Infant Ning" started in the first half of last year and has been completed for more than a year. During this period, Hu Jinquan completely followed his own ideas and made a movie with a budget of 6 million into a movie with a budget of 14 million.
This is also what makes Hu Jinquan most happy. Since the decline of traditional martial arts movies, no one is willing to spend money to let him toss around. Only wealthy bosses like Pan Disheng are willing to spend money to let him make the movie perfect.
, and more than doubled the production cycle.
Only on the casting and script of the movie did King Hu and Pan Disheng have some differences, and the final result was that the two compromised each other.
At first, Pan Disheng positioned "Ying Ning" as a follow-up to "A Chinese Ghost Story" and wanted to invite the popular Leslie Cheung and Wang Zuxian to be the male and female protagonists, and asked Wen Jun to write the plot into a heart-stirring love story.
After Hu Jinquan got the script, he spent a month revising Wen Jun's script. The changes reached two-thirds, and the whole story was completely changed beyond recognition. Then Hu Jinquan refused to let Wang Zuxian play the heroine. The reason was that Ying Ning had an eccentric personality.
It's weird and completely inconsistent with Wang Zuxian's freshness and coolness.
Hu Jinquan spent another half month choosing the heroine. He first chose a second-tier Taiwanese actress, but was rejected by Pan Disheng. The reason had nothing to do with the actress's acting skills and appearance. It was purely because the actress was too famous.
A high-end film company like Lo. Debao will not work hard to cultivate a newcomer unless it is a newcomer with great potential. Directly letting popular movie stars star will attract more box office.
Hu Jinquan searched around and chose TVB actress Jing Daiyin, who was also Tang Zhenye's ex-girlfriend, who played Princess Jianning in Liang Chaowei's version of "The Deer and the Cauldron". As for the reason why Hu Jinquan fell in love with her, it was because
Jing Daiyin is very lively and laughs, and her ancient costume is quite refined. It fits the description of Ying Ning in "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio".
Pan Disheng once again rejected Hu Jinquan's proposal, and the reason was the same as before. Jing Daiyin is only famous in Hong Kong, and has little box office appeal in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
Hu Jinquan had a big quarrel with Pan Desheng and said that before "A Chinese Ghost Story" Wang Zuxian was not famous in Southeast Asia, but now she is still a well-known actress.
It's a pity that Pan Desheng didn't want to take the risk, so after much picking and choosing, Hu Jinquan finally proposed a candidate that made no sense to either of them - Zhao Yazhi.
Zhao Yazhi has only occasionally filmed TV series in the past two years, but she is still a household name in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. The only worry is that she seems to be a little too old.
Hu Jinquan invited Zhao Yazhi to audition, and he was quite surprised by Zhao Yazhi's performance. With just a few movements and smiles, he brought the charm of Ying Ning to life. Although Zhao Yazhi acted too hard in her performance because she has been acting in TV series all the time.
, but these can all be corrected during shooting.
From script revision to casting, Hu Jinquan spent 14 months to complete Ying Ning. In order to improve the quality of the film, Hu Jinquan also specially asked Kang Jianfei's Qimeng Special Effects Company for help, and by the way, Kang Jiaban
We also invited them to do martial arts. It can be said that the action and special effects team are the original crew of "A Chinese Ghost Story".
….
After sending off Hu Jinquan, Pan Disheng asked Cen Jianxun: "Have the film schedules of major theaters been released this summer?"
Cen Jianxun is now the general manager of Debao Cinemas. Since Pan Disheng spent HK$100 million at the beginning of the year, Debao Cinemas has quickly expanded to 9 theaters on the original basis. When the time is good, it will rent a few more theaters for screenings.
, enough to compete with other major theater companies.
"Today's summer release, Jiahe's main attractions are Hong Jinbao's "The Oriental Condor" and Cheng Long's "Plan A 3", as well as Zhang Tongzu's "The Fight between Dragons and Tigers"; Princess Jin's side is Makka's "Wind Fortune III"
"Ten Millions", Lam Ling-dong's "The Legend of the Dragon" and Zhang Jianting's "Laughing Marriage"; over at Xinbao Cinema are Li Xiuxian's "The Predator", Tsang Chi-wai's "Happy No Words" and Qian Yuesheng's "
"Raising a Ghost Boy"; Oriental Cinema's "Fang Fang" by Kang Jianfei, Wang Jing's "Best Friend 3" and Huang Tailai's "The Love of Rivers and Lakes."" Cen Jianxun said, although he could not get the film from other cinemas.
There is a film schedule, but from the promotions and other actions of other companies, it is easy to determine which movies will be released in the summer.
The other competitors were fine. Pan Disheng felt a headache when he heard the names Kang Jianfei, Wang Jing, Mai Jia, Hong Jinbao and Cheng Long. He said: "The competition is very fierce."
Shun Jianxun smiled confidently: "Don't worry too much, King Hu shot "The Baby Ning" to a very high level, surpassing most Hong Kong films in terms of quality."
"That's true." Pan Disheng smiled easily.
It's not just "Ying Ning" that gives Pan Disheng confidence, but also two other movies that Debao Cinema will release in the summer - "The Thief" and "The Last Resort". The former film stars Lin Zixiang
, Zheng Zeshi, Michelle Yeoh and Ko Sau-liang, and the latter film stars Andy Lau and Chung Chuhong as the male and female protagonists. They are all movies that attract money with a good cast.
The two discussed the post-publicity work of "Ying Ning", and Pan Disheng drove to his jewelry company. He is not only the boss of a movie and theater company, but also the founder of a famous jewelry company, and the latter is the
Pan Disheng’s main business.
"Infant Ning" was only completed yesterday, so today Pan Disheng went to see the finished film early in the morning. It is already half the morning and he has not done anything else. After arriving at the company, Pan Disheng dealt with the daily routine of the jewelry company.
After finishing my work, I took some time off and started reading newspapers and magazines.
As the owner of a jewelry company, Pan Disheng does not read newspapers and magazines for fun, but to look for useful information between the lines.
After reading the social and financial pages of "Ming Pao", Pan Desheng turned to the entertainment page, where there was news that "Fang Fang" won an award in Cannes, France.
Not to mention the Cannes Film Festival, the Hong Kong media at this time didn’t pay much attention to the Oscars. They would only join in the fun and follow the reports when there were Hong Kong films or Chinese people participating.
Traveling to Europe for interviews is expensive, and it is uncertain whether this news will increase newspaper sales. Therefore, even if Kang Jianfei's film was shortlisted for the main competition in Cannes, only a few Hong Kong newspapers sent reporters to Cannes. Ming Pao
It's one of them.
A few days ago, several newspapers such as "Ming Pao" and "Oriental Daily News" reported on the news that "Fang Fang" was very popular among gringos, making this unreleased romance film very popular.
However, Pan Desheng doesn't care too much. Before Kang Jianfei's "Fang Fang", six Chinese-language films had been shortlisted for the main competition section of the Cannes Film Festival, but only three and a half of them sold well - Hu Jinquan's "The Heroine" counts.
Half of the movie was filmed and hit the streets for three years before it made some money at the box office because of the award.
Kang Jianfei's reputation in Hong Kong is already big enough, and the Hong Kong audience base is there. Even if "Fang Fang" wins the award in Cannes, it won't have much of an increase - it can't be so bad that the box office exceeds 40 million, right? Then
At least two-fifths of Hong Kong citizens (including the elderly and children) must enter the cinema.
"The Most Popular Film Award at the Cannes Film Festival," Pan Disheng looked at the small print on the newspaper and asked in confusion, "What kind of award is this?"
However, as Pan Disheng continued to read, he became more and more surprised. There were actually photos of Kang Jianfei, Sophie Marceau, and Liang Jiahui with the French Prime Minister below.
Chirac took photos with many directors and celebrities that night. This news was not eye-catching in France, but it was different when it was brought back to Hong Kong. The legacy of two thousand years of official-based thinking instantly made Kang Jianfei and Liang Jiahui improve.
A grade.
Not to mention anything else, just by shaking hands and taking a group photo, Liang Jiahui can get a lot of salary increase after returning to Hong Kong.
There was another report later, but it was that the directors of "The Last Emperor" Bernardo and Tony Leung had a secret conversation at the banquet, and the two were likely to collaborate on a new film. At the end of the report, the reporter also mentioned that Tony Leung and Bernardo,
Li Hanxiang's old stories are revealed to increase the appeal to readers.
Pan Desheng did not pay attention to whose new film Liang Jiahui would star in. The publicity campaign for "Fang Fang" in the following days was the biggest headache for him and the bosses of several other major film companies.
Kang Jianfei even shamelessly asked people to record the grand opening of "Fang Fang" in Cannes, and edited it into a short film for broadcast on Phoenix Channel.
Watching the ghosts on TV pushing and pushing each other and queuing up to watch "Fang Fang", Hong Kong citizens feel a little proud in their hearts. After all, "Fang Fang" is a Hong Kong film, and as Hong Kong people, we have reason to be proud.
At the same time, movie fans are also looking forward to "Fang Fang" more and want to know what is the content of a movie that is so popular with foreigners. (To be continued...)
ps:
Grab it before 12 o'clock and wish everyone a happy Mid-Autumn Festival! u