The king of ghost horse comedy

Chapter 140 Talented Lady Tang Shuxuan

"Cheng Ji Tea House" was screened in the Academy of Fine Arts for a total of two months, and the box office reached 250 million Hong Kong dollars.Although the box office is so high, although it is related to the long release time, the high quality of the film also played a key role.

Stimulated by the high box office of "Sheng Ji Tea House", the Hong Kong film industry immediately set off a craze for making gangster documentaries.

Shaw Brothers first followed suit and rushed to shoot "Hong Kong Strange Case", sending great directors Cheng Gang, Hua Shan, and He Menghua to co-direct.

In the 70s and [-]s, Hong Kong transformed from an agricultural city to a commercial city. The economy rose rapidly, the gap between the rich and the poor widened, and traditional ethics were also impacted.

Under the social background of unrest, many strange and tragedies occurred in Hong Kong that shocked the world.Such as the case of the corpse hidden at the bottom of the stove, the strange case of the three wolves, the case of the corpse hidden in a paper box, and so on.

These cases were a sensation, and newspapers and magazines rushed to report them, and everyone's expressions changed.

Shaw assessed the situation and saw that social reality films were popular at the moment, so he immediately sent three directors to work together to bring these strange cases to the screen.

Xu Guanwu couldn't help but be impressed by Sir Shao's keen business acumen, but he didn't bother to follow suit and make these strange case films.When it comes to commercial blockbusters, he has countless fresh and usable materials in his mind.

……

The film that succeeds "Cheng Ji Tea House" is "Thirteen Misfits" directed by the talented Tang Shuxuan.

Thirteen not matching is a mahjong term, that is, the thirteen cards in the hand are completely unpaired or matching, but "food paste" means "burst", which should not be underestimated.

Tang Shuxuan uses mahjong, a popular gambling tool in Hong Kong, to reflect the various life styles in Hong Kong in the 70s. It is sensitive but not mean, westernized but not arrogant, caring and ironic, which is moving.

Tang Shuxuan is a well-known talented woman in the Hong Kong film industry. She only made four films in her life, but she has influenced several generations of Hong Kong filmmakers.

The film "Goodbye, China" she shot was the only film banned in Hong Kong at that time, and it was also the first time a Hong Kong filmmaker shot a work in that turbulent era.

The professional film magazine "Close-Up", which was the predecessor of "Film Biweekly", founded by her, promoted the development of Hong Kong's hottest films.

Xu Guanwu had never heard of Tang Shuxuan's name before "Thirteen Misfits", because her works were few and she quit the Hong Kong film industry very early, so Hong Kong film fans who knew about this person decades later did not know her name. many.

But when Xu Guanwu heard the news about the movie "Goodbye, China", he couldn't help admiring this talented woman.

Dare to shoot such a sensitive movie in 73, this woman is too courageous.

Later, through understanding, Xu Guanwu found out that Tang Shuxuan herself was a rich third generation, and her grandfather was Tang Jiyao, a great warlord in Yunnan.

Tang Shuxuan was not short of money. After returning from studying in the United States, she immediately invested in it herself, and started filming "Mrs. Dong" after a small test.This film has been recognized by multiple awards at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards. Although the box office is not good, it also doubles the confidence of Tang Cai.

However, after the filming of the second film "Goodbye, China" went through hardships, it was directly blocked by the public prosecutor's office on the grounds that the subject matter was sensitive and might cause displeasure to neighboring countries.

The failure of the hard-working film to be released not only brought Tang Shuxuan economic losses, but also made her discouraged by Hong Kong movies.

So the third movie has a stronger commercial atmosphere.

The actors invited are also relatively well-known actors, such as Shen Dianxia, ​​Zheng Shaoqiu, Liang Xingbo and so on.

Originally, this film was screened in Shaw Brothers Cinemas.

However, after a week of screening, the box office was not ideal. Being overwhelmed by several kung fu movies, they had no choice but to draw.

After "Cheng Ji Tea House" was released, there was no film available in the Academy of Arts and Design for the time being.

It happened that Liang Shuyi had dealt with Tang Shuxuan before, and seeing that her "Thirteen Misfits" had a good reputation, she took it to the Academy of Fine Arts to screen it.

Speaking of Art and Beauty theaters, because Xu Guanwu is determined to make it the most artistic theater in Hong Kong, he would rather have empty slots than show those bad Kung Fu movies and romance movies, so the attendance rate of the theaters is often less than [-]%, that is to say Often at a loss.

Xu Guanwen also advised Xu Guanwu to relax the conditions as much as possible and show some passable Kung Fu movies or Fengyue movies to minimize the losses caused by vacant theaters, but Xu Guanwu refused.

It is difficult to build a theater chain with a high reputation, but it is very easy to destroy it.

In the previous life, the Golden Princess Cinemas established a good reputation with a series of high-quality comedies.

Even under the attack of Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers, they are firmly in the overlord position.

Xu Guanwu believes that as long as the high reputation of the Academy of Fine Arts is maintained, it will earn high profits after its brand is established.

Although this process takes a long time, Xu Guanwu is still willing to wait.

After "Thirteen Mistakes" is released, it can still be screened online in the Academy of Fine Arts, which has aroused the attention of many Hong Kong filmmakers.

Although there are many directors in Hong Kong who are willing to make commercial films, there are also many people who want to make art films.

Before, there was no market for Hong Kong art films, no investment, and no theaters for you to release.

But now the Academy of Fine Arts has solved this problem, and Xu Brothers can also provide start-up capital, which makes many filmmakers excited.

……

With the release of "Thirteen Misfits" in the Academy of Fine Arts, the box office has gradually climbed, allowing Tang Shuxuan's initial investment to slowly return.

This talented woman finally has money, and can unite like-minded filmmakers to publish the "Big Close-up" magazine together.

"Big Close-up" is a bit like a professional forum in the Internet age. It is not for the purpose of ordering for profit, but for communication with friends. A total of 66 issues have been published.

After "Big Close-up" ceased publication, key editors created "Film Biweekly".

After Xu Guanwu learned that Tang Shuxuan invested in the establishment of "Big Close-up", he quickly sent Liang Shuyi to contact her to discuss the matter of investing in the magazine.

At that time, there were no professional film magazines in Hong Kong.

Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest's magazines are all for the promotion of their own films, and they don't have objective film reviews, and they don't play much role in promoting Hong Kong films.

Ms. Tang Shuxuan's "Close-up" is the only professional magazine. Both editors and staff are professional film talents, but they are basically part-time jobs.

The original intention of starting this magazine was just for fun, and I didn't want to make money from it.

So when Xu Guanwu offered to inject capital, although Tang Shuxuan was very grateful, she still politely declined, saying that "Large Close-up" should maintain an objective and fair position, so she will not accept the capital injection from the film company for the time being.

Although Xu Guanwu was very moved by Tang Shuxuan's persistence, he still complained about her stubbornness.

Xu Guanwu's investment in "Close-up" is just to promote the development of Hong Kong films, and he does not want to use "Close-up" to promote the company's films.

To be honest, even if the magazine "Big Close-up" is very popular, it is still far behind the sales volume of "Daily Daily".

But since he had clearly refused, Xu Guanwu couldn't rush to give the money any more, so he could only sigh.

He knew that "Big Close-up", a highly professional magazine, basically had no market in Hong Kong.

Ordinary people don't care about it, and even if professionals buy it, they can't buy many copies.Moreover, it advertises objectivity and fairness, so it will inevitably offend many people.

"When it can't hold on, I'll take over." Xu Guanwu shook his head and sighed.

(End of this chapter)