Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Chapter 21 The Seven Little Blessings Gather

Yang Ye held an eyebrow-level stick that was more than five feet long. Under the gaze of the "Seven Little Fortunes", he flicked his wrist, spread his body, and performed a set of stick skills.

I saw him twisting and turning, splitting, collapsing, tapping, dialing, blocking, sealing, teasing, sweeping... all kinds of skills are flexible and changeable.The body and stick are united into one, the force penetrates the tip of the stick, the wind roars, and the momentum is magnificent.

Yang Ye summoned the "Seven Little Blessings" to practice martial arts, so he naturally had to show off his skills, otherwise how could he convince the public?

"Seven Little Fortunes" saw that Yang Ye was so skillful in playing the Wulang Bagua stick, and then he knew that Yang Ye was a real practitioner.

Just when the "Seven Little Blessings" were dazzled, Yang Ye made a move of "bounce the stick and step forward to poke the stick". The long stick popped out like a bow, and then his body was like electricity, holding the end of the stick, and pointed out with a stick in front of him. A burning candle on the candlestick went out instantly.

The "Seven Little Blessings" saw him extinguishing the candle with one stick without damaging any of the candles. The accuracy of his technique was extremely rare. They all admired him and did not dare to look down upon him in the slightest.

Yang Ye summoned the "Seven Little Fortunes" to play the role of "Thirteen Stick Monk", which required three months of intensive training. During the training period, the salary was 30 yuan per day.

After the filming officially started, the daily salary was 80 yuan, which can be said to be very generous.

What's more, it lasts a long time. You can work for more than half a year, so you don't have to go around to pick up jobs.

The "Seven Little Fortunes" are currently working as dragon and tiger martial arts masters, and the only ones who can play the leading roles in movies are Hong Jingbao and Chen Long.

Hong Jingbao only got a few thousand yuan for making a movie. Chen Long made several movies and all of them were thrown into the street. Frustrated, he went to Australia to move bricks and only rushed back yesterday.

In "Thirteen Sticks", Tan Zong is the master, who is slightly older, and the Seven Little Fortunes are too young. Yang Ye finally invited martial arts star Wang Yu to play the role.

Wang Yu was the buddy who sneaked into Shaw Brothers to steal the contract. The One-Armed Swordsman he starred in was the first of martial arts movies and was a sensation in Southeast Asia. The salary cannot be calculated as Dragon and Tiger Warriors.

Jack Chen, who was called back from Australia by Yang Ye, was selected by Yang Ye to play "Sex Kong".

Se Kong is the only character among the Thirteen Stick Monks besides the protagonist Jue Yuan and his master Tan Zong. He has a sad past and has a bloody feud with Wang Renze.

Having no choice but to be outnumbered, he had no choice but to drink to drown his sorrows all day long. In the end, he came up with a "drunken stick".

In the movie, he taught Jue Yuan this "drunken stick" technique, and he also had a very eye-catching performance.

Jack Chen was pretty good at Drunken Boxing. In later movies, he played a role in Drunken Boxing more than once, so Yang Ye decided that it would be him.

Yuan Biao also got a role with more lines, "Wukong".

The future "No. [-] Martial Arts Commander in the World" Yuan Heping is now called Yuan Qing.He only plays a role without lines, but he also serves as a martial arts instructor.

Since this movie had a heavy workload on martial arts directors from beginning to end, Yang Ye simply hired two martial arts instructors and asked Hong Jingbao and Yuan Heping to discuss it.

Because Wang Yu was airborne, there was one more member of the Seven Little Fortunes, so Yang Ye picked the more fierce-looking Yuan Hua to play the role of the villain mini-boss "Vulture".

As for the big boss Wang Renze, Yang Ye invited Shi Jian to play the role.

Shi Jian, nicknamed "Treacherous Jian", is a professional villain. He played the big boss "Mr. Han" in Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon". He also played Qiu Qianren in the 83 version of The Condor.

Shi Jian is not only excellent in the role of a traitor, he is also proficient in kung fu. He couldn't have played the role of Wang Renze better.

In addition to practicing stick skills with Yang Ye, the Seven Little Fortunes also arranged for them to practice various weapons.For example, Yuan Biao practiced the most difficult to control the rope mark, Yuan Bin practiced the three-section stick, and Yuan Kui practiced the single sword...

This is all based on the movie "Shaolin Temple". Yang Ye has special shots to give instructions on what to practice and how to practice. They just need to follow the instructions.

All in all, what Yang Ye has to do is... restore the original version of "Shaolin Temple".

……

Yang Ye leads people to practice according to the diagram every day, while Xia Meng is even more busy.

As a producer, Xia Meng has more trivial matters than director Yang Ye.

Because Yang Ye is just a newcomer who has just stepped into the film industry, the important task of forming the film's behind-the-scenes team falls on Xia Meng.

Fortunately, Xia Meng, as the famous "Princess of the Great Wall", has seniority and great reputation, so she quickly gathered the people behind the movie.

Most of these people were recruited by her from Phoenix Film Company. During the Hong Kong riots in 67, because her good sister Shi Hui was the organizer, Phoenix Film Company suffered a huge blow.

Many employees lost their jobs and could only be taken over by film companies such as Great Wall and Zhongyuan.

However, the box office of left-wing films has been deteriorating in recent years, and they still rely on subsidies from the mainland. How can they afford to support so many people?
Therefore, after Baiyang Pictures was established, Xia Meng came forward to recruit a group of senior people from Phoenix Company to join Baiyang Pictures.

These behind-the-scenes staff include lighting engineers, photographers, makeup artists, foley artists, editors, prop masters, mechanics, costume designers...all aspects are extremely complex.

If Yang Ye were to find it by himself, he would be too exhausted to do it.Moreover, it is very difficult to train these technical jobs, and experienced elite talents are controlled by major film companies.

Even if there is an open recruitment, there is a high probability that only some second- and third-rate characters will be recruited.

In many time-travel novels, the protagonist immediately comes up with a great script as soon as he time-travels, scrapes together some money and starts working on it. It is completed in ten days and a half, and then it becomes a box office hit and becomes famous.

It's all nonsense, how can it be so easy?You can’t even figure out how many functional departments there are behind the scenes of a movie, why are you making a Hammer movie?
Now that Xia Meng is the producer, it will be different.

Xia Meng joined Baiyang Pictures as a partner, not just an employee.

She regarded "Baiyang Pictures" as her own business, and as soon as she started, she recruited only elite talents.

As for the fact that these people are from left-wing film companies, Yang Ye doesn't care at all. They are just behind-the-scenes personnel. Just put a few names on the subtitles. Who knows who they are?

Regarding this matter, it is actually very covert.

In short, as long as you don't know why, you'll be fine.

For example, Liu Dehua's "Running to the Angry Sea" was filmed on Hainan Island, so he should have been banned.

But when Liu Dehua was making movies, he used the name Liu Furong, so he had nothing to do.

Damn it, are Taiwanese people blind?They couldn't see such a big Liu Dehua?Hey, I just can’t see it!
Therefore, recruiting behind-the-scenes staff for left-wing films does not put Yang Ye at all psychologically burdened!

……

After everyone arrived, they began to divide their work. The costume design team began to tailor costumes and design looks for the film's main creators.

Since the filming was at the Shaolin Temple, this was relatively trouble-free. Yang Ye and other actors who played the role of the stick monks all had to shave their heads and put on monk robes, which was very trouble-free.

Except for Yang Ye, as the protagonist, he has two styles: layman and monk. He even has several sets of monk robes, which needs to be designed carefully.

In addition, Li Shimin, the Shepherdess and the villains also need specially designed shapes and costumes.

Yang Ye did not point out the costume design, such as drawing the costumes in the original movie and asking them to do what they did.

There is no need, Xia Meng called in professionals, and they can naturally complete the task satisfactorily.

In addition to the costumes, Xia Meng also convened a group of craftsmen to set up the scenery on Lantau Island, replicating the Shaolin Temple's gate and pagoda forest one-to-one.

As for the scenes of life in the temple, just go to the Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island to film it. The original movie was also shot in a temple in Hangzhou.

Because in the Shaolin Temple in this era, the weeds were one meter high and there were no roads. The Shaolin Temple that people saw in later generations was rebuilt after the movie became famous.

The company's set designers and artists were responsible for setting up the scene, so Yang Ye didn't have to worry about that. He just waited for everything to be ready before filming could begin.

……

"Along, I suggest you get a double eyelid surgery." Yang Ye said to him after he and Chen Yuanlou finished practicing "Drunk Stick" together.

This guy was called Jack Chan when he was in Australia. When he returned to Hong Kong, of course he returned to his stage name of Chen Yuanlong when he debuted.

"You are very good at playing the drunken stick. But when we tried shooting, we always felt that something was missing. After thinking about it, your eyes are too small and look dull. If you can get a double eyelid cut, If the eyes are made bigger, the effect will be better."

Plastic surgery technology is limited these days, and double eyelid surgery is not that safe. After hearing this, Chen Yuanlong was a little hesitant.

Yang Ye added more: "After I saw the drunken brawl you played, I suddenly got inspired and wanted to make a movie about drunken brawlers. If you are interested, I want you to be the leading actor."

Chen Yuanlong said strangely: "Young Master Yang, your kung fu is so good, why don't you perform it yourself?"

Yang Ye continued to draw the cake and said with a smile: "The company has to make many movies, and I can't be the only protagonist."

"I'll cut it!" Facing the pie drawn by Yang Ye, Chen Yuanlong finally made up his mind.

The protagonist is not so easy to play. At least he has to sign a ten-year contract with Yang Ye.

With such a good talent, of course Yang Ye would strike first.

In this way, Yang Ye used Chen Long's movies to create a big cake for Chen Long and tricked Chen Long.

(End of this chapter)