Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 628 A Call from Brother Cai

Liu Zhenwei wore a floral shirt and a pair of big sunglasses that covered half of his face because he was worried that the audience would recognize him.

In fact, this is not the first time that he has sneaked into the theater to watch a movie he made. When he was filming the movie "God of Gamblers" starring Stephen Chow and Ng Man-tat, because the style of the film was too alternative, Stephen Chow and Ng Man-tat were worried that the audience would not like it, so the three of them disguised themselves and sneaked into the cinema to see the audience's reaction.

As a result, the entire audience went crazy, cursing the content as nonsense while laughing so hard that they couldn't close their mouths or legs. The three of them looked at each other: It's settled!

Tonight, he also wanted to see the audience watching, cursing, and laughing so hard that they couldn't close their mouths or legs.

Sitting in the corner of the back row, looking at the audience, there are still quite a lot of them, basically all the seats are full. It seems that Stephen Chow's appeal is still good.

The movie started and the whole place fell into darkness.

Of course, Liu Zhenwei's mind was not on the movie. He was secretly observing the reactions of the people around him.

After the film was shown for a while, Liu Zhenwei suddenly heard someone on the right whispering:
"What the hell are you filming here? (What the hell are you filming here?)"

Looking back, I saw it was a young man.

"I don't understand it either." The girl who seemed to be his girlfriend also whispered.

Fortunately, no one around said anything.

Liu Zhenwei felt relieved.

But as the movie went on, the plot was already halfway through, but he didn't show the phenomenon of cursing and laughing at the same time and unable to close his mouth and legs. Everyone was surprisingly indifferent.

I rub.

Isn't Stephen Chow's nonsense funny? !

Ruined.

These two words emerged in Liu Zhenwei's mind.

Sure enough, after the movie ended, the audience seemed to be full of anger and started cursing. Looking at people leaving the cinema cursing, Liu Zhenwei quickly put on his sunglasses and left in shame. He was worried that he would be beaten up if seen by others.

It seems that the situation in Hong Kong is not good. I wonder what is happening in the mainland?
After Liu Zhenwei's show ended, the movie that Fang Minghua and his wife watched was also coming to an end.

There are a lot of people, most of them are young people.

Naturally, the two of them were not paying attention to the movie. As the lights in the cinema came on, they paid attention to the performance of the audience around them.

"Do you understand?" a girl asked her companion.

“I didn’t quite understand it, but Stephen Chow’s acting was great, especially the part where he said to Fairy Zixia, ‘I’ll love you for ten thousand years. It feels so good. I wish there was a boy who could say that to me.’ The girl looked so happy.”

"anthomaniac!"

"Hey, the plot of this movie is a bit confusing. It completely subverts Journey to the West."

This is a discussion between two boys.

"Didn't you see who the screenwriter is? Minghua! His "The Legend of Wukong" came out of nowhere ten years ago and shocked everyone who watched it, so if you watch this one again, it's actually nothing."

"It's just a prank."

"The spoof is quite interesting. Hey, a while ago, a newspaper published a review of this movie. It was quite interesting."

"Really? Let me take a look."

Fang Minghua and his wife also followed the crowd out. Listening to the audience's discussions in groups of three or four, Song Tangtang felt relieved.

At least no one left midway and no one cursed.

"Are you relieved now?" Fang Minghua said while driving on the way home.

"Well, it's just this one show. The box office in Xijing will definitely be high because there are many college students, and it's also the home court after all. I don't know how the show will perform in other places?" Song Tangtang started to worry again.

"I'm telling you, what's the point of worrying about these things? You might as well organize writers to write a few more film reviews and promote them." Fang Minghua said with a smile.

This was Fang Minghua's idea.

In those days, there was no Internet, no Douban, Maoyan, or Weibo to post film reviews, but there were "Popular Movies", "Global Screen Magazine", "China Film News", etc. These were all good places to promote movies. Song Tangtang began to resist, this is not Wang Po selling melons, bragging about herself.
He even hired a group of people to stand by his melon stall and praise him!

But finally decided to adopt it.

A few days later, Popular Movies reported a review of A Chinese Odyssey:

"A Chinese Odyssey": a love legend that transcends time and space. In the vast movie universe, there are always some works that transcend time and space with their unique charm and touch people's hearts.

Today, let us step into the world of "A Chinese Odyssey" and explore the touching moments that brought countless viewers to tears.
In this era of accelerating pace, let us slow down occasionally and watch "A Chinese Odyssey" to experience the love that transcends time and space, and feel the sincere emotions that can move people to tears.

When Fang Minghua saw this film review, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart: This short essay is very well written!

It seems that he was found from a literary society in Xi’an University?

The movie was screened in various places. Although there was no Internet and Song Tangtang could not know the box office figures in various parts of the country in a timely manner, he still received feedback from more than a dozen well-known cinemas across the country. The overall attendance rate was good, maintaining at around 50%, ranking first in this period of movies.

Of course, there are also many people who curse. In a word, I don’t understand.

A month later, Shengshi Film and Television and Stephen Chow's Xing Wei finally obtained a preliminary incomplete box office statistics record.

6500 million RMB, 1000 million in Hong Kong, 900 million in Taiwan, a total of 8400 million.

Seeing this data, the bosses of both companies breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. If the second film "The Monkey King: Cinderella" can get half of the box office of the first film, it will make money!
One month after the first film was released, the second film was officially released.

The second part of "A Chinese Odyssey" is released, and neither Song Tangtang nor Liu Zhenwei will be bored to watch it.

The box office in mainland China was beyond people's expectations.

Liu Zhenwei sat in his living room with a cigar in his mouth and sighed.

It seems that the roadshow method is good, although it is more tiring and costs more money.
Just at this moment, the mobile phone on the coffee table rang, and Liu Zhenwei picked it up.

"Which one?"

"Jeffrey Lau (Liu Zhenwei's foreign name), this is Songlin." A man's voice came from the phone.

"Hello, Brother Cai." Liu Zhenwei said with a smile.

The person who called was Cai Songlin, the head of Taiwan Scholars Company. He was a well-known movie tycoon in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Except for the three giants of Hong Kong film, Cinema City, Golden Harvest and D&B, 80% of the other companies have Cai Songlin's investment!
Of course, this includes the film company that Liu Zhenwei and Wong Kar-wai just jointly opened - Zedong Pictures.

Liu Zhenwei greeted him, but unexpectedly, Cai Songlin on the other end of the phone said, "Jeffrey Lau, I'm not feeling well."

"What happened? Brother Cai?" Liu Zhenwei's expression was startled, and he quickly sat down: "Are you here to cause trouble for me?!"

In Hong Kong, whether it is film companies or film and television artists, there is an indelible shadow in their hearts - Hong Kong's underworld.

"That's not the case. He still gives me some face." Cai Songlin said on the phone.

"Oh," Liu Zhenwei breathed a sigh of relief: "Brother Cai, who made you unhappy?"

"Kar Wai, he brought so many celebrities to the mainland to make movies. Leslie Cheung, Brigitte Lin, Jacky Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Joey Wong, Carina Lau, and Kenny Bee have not even finished filming half of the plot in half a year. They are so slow. It drives me crazy!"

Oh, that's it.

"Brother Cai, you also know that filming is a slow process, and slow work produces fine results." Liu Zhenwei explained.

"But if we let him continue like this with the money we paid, he will lose money again like Days of Being Wild!"

"This is also worrying." Liu Zhenwei agreed.

After all, Zedong Film and Television also has its own investments.

"Brother Cai, what do you think we should do? You know Jiawei's temper, and he can't be persuaded at all."

"You don't need to persuade me. I have an idea. How about you go to the mainland to find Kar-wai and use the original crew to make another movie?"

(End of this chapter)