Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Chapter 22 Shaolin Temple starts up

Not far from Golden Harvest's Ax Hill Road studio is Clear Water Bay Road, a winding mountain road that leads directly to Clear Water Bay Shaw Brothers Studios.

There is a "testing room" on the Ax Mountain Road studio, where some newly shot films will be put for testing.

Students from nearby often come here with their schoolbags on their backs to watch the test films, free of charge.

Wen Jun is one of them. This well-known screenwriter who later created the "Chinese Heroes", "The Storm", and "Young and Dangerous" series spent almost all his free time in middle school in Jiahe's test room.

Wen Jun didn't want to go to school today, so he sneaked directly to Jiahe to watch the test film. Passing by the door of the recording room, he stepped forward and touched the sofa where Bruce Lee often sat, and sat on it for a while, feeling a little sad.

Bruce Lee's movies were so exciting that they shocked his young mind. It's a pity that he will never watch them again.

Suddenly, a young man led a large group of people over and passed him in a mighty manner.

Wen Juan recognized this young man as Yang Ye. He was very popular recently and many girls in the class were obsessed with him.

In fact, Wen Jun was also very fascinated by him, because the "Kunlun" he wrote was so beautiful.

"What are Yang Ye doing here?"

Out of curiosity, Wen Juan followed.

……

Yang Ye led Xia Meng, Zhao Yazhi, Wang Yu, Shi Jian, Qi Xiaofu, and a large number of staff to the Ax Mountain Road studio.

In front of a rockery set up, a power-on worship ceremony was held.

Xia Meng had arranged for staff to come and arrange it in advance. A table was placed on the scene, with Guan Erye, suckling pigs, whole chickens and various fresh fruits on it.

Some onlookers have already come to the scene, all of them are Jiahe staff.

There are also reporters from more than a dozen newspapers and media, all of whom were invited by Yang Ye.

Before this, no one had ever made a movie with such a high profile.

The movie "Shaolin Temple" has not yet started filming, but Yang Ye has made the whole city aware of it.

Today, God turned on the movie, and he hired a lot of reporters to cover it. It was obvious that he was preparing to cover the entire filming process.

Xia Meng didn't understand why Yang Ye was so high-profile. People in this era believed in doing things in a low-key manner, especially when making movies. Otherwise, someone would get the wrong idea. The conflict between D&M and Shaw Brothers back then was a lesson learned from the past!

Yang Ye told Xia Meng that this is called early exposure.

Yang Ye himself is a figure whose popularity has been maximized in a short period of time, and people are full of curiosity about him.

At this time, he announced in a high profile that he would spend a huge sum of 300 million to shoot a movie, and people would subconsciously pay attention to this matter.

From now on, as long as Yang Ye releases news from time to time to maintain a certain level of popularity and keep people paying attention to the movie, then when the movie is released, people will instantly flock to the cinema to watch this long-awaited movie.

Even if this movie is a bad movie, many people will still choose to watch it.

Because... I have been paying attention to it for so long, and I must go and see what happens.

……

The initial hype was a common practice in later generations, and it was simply a pioneering work in this era.

Xia Meng was stunned for a moment after hearing this. She didn't expect that there would be so many extravagances involved in making a movie.

However, she still disagrees with this. She believes that movies are art, and it is wrong to make bad movies to cheat money.

However, this movie cost several million, and she could understand Yang Ye's tricks, so she didn't say anything.

As soon as Yang Ye appeared, he said to the reporters: "Everyone, please be patient and wait until we finish worshiping God."

As he spoke, Yang Ye led the entire crew to burn incense and worship God, and chanted: "Master Guan bless "Shaolin Temple" to have a successful launch and a box office hit!"

After Yang Ye put the incense, producer Xia Meng and other crew members came to pay their respects in order.

Later, Yang Ye stepped forward and uncovered the red cloth on the camera to suppress evil spirits, and the worship ceremony was completed.

After everyone applauded, Yang Ye smiled and said: "Dear journalists, if you have any questions, you can ask them now."

A reporter from Ming Pao was the first to ask: "Director Yang, the current highest box office in Hong Kong is only 500 million. If you spend 300 million to make a movie, aren't you afraid of losing money?"

Yang Ye smiled and said: "I don't fight unprepared battles, I don't take action, and once I take action, I strive for success. Do you think the novels and songs I wrote seem to be written by a novice? I will present these works I have been preparing for a long time before being released in the eyes of the world, and the same goes for making a movie, so I am confident that this movie will be a box office hit."

"Does Director Yang mean that you will become a blockbuster and break the box office record?" Yang Ye asked arrogantly: "Otherwise, wouldn't you lose money?"

"Business Daily" is a right-wing newspaper. His reporter asked: "Ms. Xia Meng, you have been away from acting for six years. Are you making a sudden comeback as the heroine in a movie?"

Xia Meng shook his head and said: "Xia Meng has retired as an actor and will not come back. My name is Yang Meng now, and I am the producer of this movie. As for the heroine of the movie, this is her!"

Xia Meng pulled Zhao Yazhi over and introduced to the reporters with a smile: "Her name is Zhao Yazhi, isn't she very pretty? Zhizhi was last year's Miss Hong Kong."

"Oriental Daily" specializes in market gossip. Upon hearing this, its reporter immediately asked: "In other words, the heroine is a newcomer. So, how did Miss Zhao Yazhi become the heroine of this big production?"

Zhao Yazhi said generously: "Because the male protagonist is also a newcomer, the director feels that our movie should give everyone enough freshness, so he hopes that both the male and female protagonists have never acted in a movie. And I am relatively lucky. I was selected during the interview process.”

"Who is the male protagonist?"

"It's the director himself!"

"Uh..." The reporter was speechless for a moment, and everyone suddenly laughed.

After answering a few more questions, Yang Ye said with a smile: "Now we are going to direct the first scene live. If you are interested, you can watch it live, but you have to stand a little further away, otherwise it will not be good to get into the shot. "

……

In "Shaolin Temple", a scene of monk Jueyuan practicing martial arts was shot using the changing four seasons of summer, autumn, winter and spring.

Li Lianjie demonstrated four weapons: boxing, three-section stick, spear, and single sword in front of the camera. Each of them was wonderful.

It was impossible for Yang Ye to wait for a year to shoot these scenes. Besides, there are no seasonal changes in Hong Kong, so he chose to set up the scene at Jiahe Studio.

In fact, this scene was also used in the original version.

The props for these scenes were made by the prop team over several months. Hong Kong movies have been shooting scenes for many years, and the technology in this area has become very mature.

What is now displayed in front of everyone is a green and vibrant world.

Yang Ye and the other people who played the role of the Thirteen-stick Monk had already shaved their heads. He went to change clothes first, wearing only a pair of pants with his upper body bare, revealing his toned muscles, and started to warm up.

More than ten minutes later, the props team started the water and smoke devices. The gurgling water dripped from the cliff, and the ground was filled with smoke, which made it even more realistic.

Yang Ye's body was already covered with sweat. He signaled that it was time to start. The recorder stepped forward and wrote: "The first scene of the 98th scene of "Shaolin Temple", Exxon."

Yang Ye jumped into the painting and started fighting vigorously with a set of boxing techniques.

His boxing technique is completely copied from Li Lianjie. He has practiced it hundreds of times and is extremely familiar with it.

When those reporters saw Yang Ye's stretched figure, clear moves, and powerful punches, they realized that he actually had real kung fu and was no joke.

After Yang Ye finished a set of punches, everyone onlookers applauded, including fellow practitioners such as Shi Jian, Wang Yu and Qi Xiaofu, because the fight was indeed wonderful.

The staff came forward to remove the summer props and re-arrange the autumn scenery. In order to avoid flaws, the work was done very carefully.

Yang Ye, who was sitting aside to rest, explained to reporters: "Next, the scenery will be changed to autumn, winter, and spring. I will show the training methods of three-section stick, red tassel spear, and single sword."

When the reporters heard this and knew that this time was coming, they all waited with interest.

A reporter asked: "Is it just a few minutes of hard work to set up a scene?"

Yang Ye smiled and said: "Actually, it might only be a dozen seconds if cut into the movie."

The reporters were secretly stunned, understanding why this movie cost millions.

Putting so much effort into setting up a scene for only ten seconds is a waste of money.

Soon after, the autumn scenery was set up, and the scene suddenly turned into a bleak world with falling maple leaves and dead grass everywhere.

Yang Ye changed into a set of white monk robes and demonstrated the three-section stick training method in front of the camera. The three-section stick was like a silver snake, circling around Yang Ye's body. The wind howled, making people dazzled.

After Yang Ye finished the four sets of kung fu, everyone was full of praise, and the reporters were ready to go back and write a book about it.

Yang Ye posed in a few more poses for reporters to take pictures, because during the filming process, in order to avoid the influence of flash, taking pictures was prohibited.

Wen Juan, who had been hiding behind to watch the excitement, felt very excited.

He felt: This Yang Ye... seems to be even more exciting than Bruce Lee!

(End of this chapter)