The literary era since 1979

"The rest is up to you guys."

Fang Yan walked to the door of Shaw Brothers Studio, glanced at Gong Xing and said, "She may not be able to join the crew until a few days later."

"I understand. I understand. The movie of Once Upon a Time in China is about to be released."

Wang Jing waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, let Du Sir and I take care of the early preparations for the production."

"If you are free that day, you are welcome to attend the premiere."

Gong Xing smiled and waved goodbye, then returned to his apartment in Tsim Sha Tsui with Fang Yan.

As soon as he got home, Fang Yan took off his suit jacket and said, "I've been busy for a long time. I'm a little hungry. Let's order something to eat."

"Okay."

Gong Xing walked quickly to the living room and took out the takeout order from the drawer of the coffee table. "What do you want to eat? Roast meat, braised food, abalone, shark fin..."

"First, have a bowl of fish soup to rinse your mouth, then have a pound of beautiful five-piece abalone to satisfy your craving, and then..."

Fang Yan joked jokingly.

"Seriously!"

Gong Xing rolled his eyes and picked up the phone. "I'll just order a combination of roast pork and rice. What about you?"

"Do you have pork trotter rice? If you do, have one. If not, I'll take the same as you."

Fangyan sat on the sofa, picked up a newspaper and crossed his legs.

Gong Xing nodded, then quickly ordered takeout. Just as he hung up the phone, he heard a slight laugh.

"what happened?"

"You are worthy of being a reporter from Hong Kong. Your ability to fan the flames alone is enough to make me feel inferior."

The dialect was full of praise.

Gong Xian was curious and followed his gaze, and saw the headline clearly written:

"Mainland Huang Feihong vs. Hong Kong Huang Feihong".

In addition, the huge page also included photos of Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and those who didn't know might have thought they were having a boxing match.

In fact, Jackie Chan’s “Backstab” and Jet Li’s “Once Upon a Time in China” will both be released in July!

His expression suddenly changed, and his tone was filled with dissatisfaction, "These media outlets are just trying to make a fuss. How can they report it like this?"

"That's nothing. There are even worse things."

Fangyan flipped through a few other newspapers. "For example, this one, 'Shaolin Boy' Challenges 'Young Master Long'."

Gong Xing asked doubtfully, "Master Long?"

"The name of a movie that Cheng Long acted in before was 'Young Master Long'."

Fangyan was amused. "This is considered mild instigation. Look at these, the battle between traditional martial arts films and new martial arts films, the battle between mainland martial arts and Hong Kong martial arts, and Cinema City calling for foreign aid to fight Golden Harvest. Ha, I finally found a piece of news with my name on it!"

"How can these newspapers be like this!"

Gong Xing frowned slightly, quite displeased.

"Create hot spots through confrontation."

Fangyan said that this is an old trick of the news media. As long as the topic can create confrontation, it is more likely to become popular.

Region, gender, even games, literature, and movies, as long as the opposing parties start to curse each other, won’t the discussion and sales increase?

No matter whether it is notorious or famous, as long as it can attract attention and gain profits, it doesn't matter how huge the disaster is.

"Isn't this too irresponsible?!"

Gong Xing's brows were twisted into a knot.

"That's what you learn when you study journalism. There's nothing strange about it." Fangyan shrugged.

Gong Xing asked: "What are you going to do?"

Fangyan disagreed, "It's good for others to hype you up for free and increase your exposure."

Gong Xian said worriedly: "But aren't you working with Jiahe now? What if this news creates rifts and misunderstandings..."

"This can be clarified with just one phone call."

Fang Yan smiled and said, "But I think Boss Zou, Nan Sheng and the others might be as happy to see it happen as I am."

Gong Xian was puzzled: "No way? The confrontation has reached this point, are we really just going to watch and do nothing?"

"Of course. Forget about Once Upon a Time in China. Take this movie, The Dragon Detective. You have never seen how bad it is."

Fang Yan said with a look of disdain, "Even if we can delete some useless scenes and add exciting fighting scenes, it will still be useless. At most, we can lose less money." He threw the newspaper on the table and said, "Now it's good. With this momentum of public opinion, Golden Harvest may be able to get more box office and reduce losses. After all, even if they cooperate with third-rate Hollywood directors, the price is not cheap."

"Isn't this not good?"

Gong Xing was very surprised.

"It's nothing more than a loss of reputation and fame."

Fang Yan said: "But it's all temporary. When Police Stories and Die Hard are released, Cheng Long and Golden Harvest will be able to stage a great comeback and win back all the reputation they lost from Die Hard."

Gong Xing blinked and said, "This is what you often call the marketing and operation of commercial films, right? These are not seen at all in the mainland?"

"That's natural. Just learn it slowly."

Fangyan heard the doorbell and stood up suddenly. "Our mainland market will have to go through this commercialization process sooner or later."

"Let me do it." Gong Xian stopped him, "Call Nan Sheng right now and talk to them about this situation."

………………

As expected by Fangyan, Cinema City and Golden Harvest turned a blind eye to the news and instead became even more indulgent in creating hype.

The release date of "Back to the Future" was scheduled for the end of the month, while "Once Upon a Time in China" was scheduled for the beginning of the month.

At this moment, at the entrance of the cinema where the premiere was held, a large number of reporters and movie fans appeared one after another, forming a crowded space.

The premiere press conference is mainly to attract attention, with big-name stars appearing on stage, and the emphasis should be on "strength".

What was beyond the expectations of the media and the audience was that the number of guests who came to participate in "Once Upon a Time in China" was unimaginable.

Just because it is a co-production between Cinema City and Shanghai Film Studio, the Yindu Organization, which is a merger of Great Wall, Xinlian and Phoenix, will be present no matter what.

At the same time, out of consideration for the two weirdos, Shi Nansheng and Xu Ke, even though Cinema City was on the verge of collapse, five weirdos including Mai Jia, Huang Baiming, and Teddy Robin showed up to show their support, and they also brought with them their own new teams.

For example, Huang Baiming, who brought Li Lizhen, Luo Mingzhu, Lin Shanshan and others who were made famous by "Happy Ghost".

For example, Mai Jia, together with Xu Guanjie, Sylvia Chang, and Gu Jialu, walked on the red carpet leading to the cinema.

However, this was just an appetizer. What really surprised and delighted the reporters and movie fans at the scene was that Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest were also there!

Golden Harvest was led by Ho Koon-chang, who not only brought out the two mainstays, Sammo Hung and Jacky Cheung, but also artists like Yuen Biao and Ching Ha Lam.

Obviously, it would not be possible to invite Xu Ke and Shi Nansheng alone, and it was more or less out of consideration for Fang Yan.

Shaw Brothers obviously gave Fang Yan enough face. Not only did Fang Yihua attend in person, but almost all the artists who were available in Shaw Brothers and TVB appeared, including Chow Yun-fat, Joey Wong, Maggie Cheung, the Four Tigers of TVB, etc. You might have thought they were attending TVB's anniversary celebration!

The scale of the event was comparable to the Academy Awards ceremony, with all the stars gathered at the premiere of "Once Upon a Time in China II".

"Thank you, thank you very much."

Fang Yan, like Jet Li, Gong Xing and others, stood on the stage and thanked everyone in the audience with a big smile on his face.

Afterwards, Xu Ke took the microphone and made an opening speech, talking about the original intention of making the film, especially the concept of "new martial arts":

"In fact, I didn't understand what new martial arts was at first, and then Mr. Fang handed me the script of "Once Upon a Time in China". After reading it, I was immediately inspired. This is a completely different kind of traditional martial arts from Hong Kong. I was immediately excited and felt that martial arts films had a completely new direction!" (End of this chapter)