The king of ghost horse comedy

Chapter 363 Shaw and Jiahe
During the Spring Festival, Xu Guanwu still gave out big red envelopes, as if the God of Wealth descended to earth.Among them, Cheng Long won a box office bonus of 50 Hong Kong dollars for directing and starring in the blockbuster "Master Dragon", and Xu Guanwu was rewarded with an additional 20 red envelopes. I wish him "Master Dragon" the annual box office champion.

Director Zhang Jian also received a box office bonus of 20 Hong Kong dollars for the movie "A Bad Life".At the same time, he also received an additional 18 red envelope from Xu Guanwu, rewarding his contribution to the exploration of new themes of the film.

Hong Jingbao also won 40 box office bonuses for "Smart Boy's Bewitching Trick", "I Can't Help", "Teeth Shaking Tiger", and Xu Guanwu's extra 20 red envelopes, rewarding the total box office of the movies he made last year. It is also ranked first in the company.

But Hong Jingbao felt a little unhappy in his heart. Before that, he was the protagonist of the end-of-year banquet. His movies were good-looking and sold well, and the total box office was more than twice that of Cheng Long.Now the total box office is only the same as him, which makes Hong Jingbao feel very unconvinced.

Mai Jia, Huang Baiming, Huang Bingyao, Chu Yuan, Gui Zhihong, Yuan Biao, etc. also received more or less red envelopes, some more than 40, and some less than 20.

Other second-tier, third-tier, dragon and tiger warriors, etc., also each have [-] to [-] red envelopes, which can be regarded as a happy event.

And Xu's generous distribution of lai sees at the beginning of the new year, and ten consecutive days of end-of-life banquets at Haihuang Restaurant, entertaining nearly [-] employees under the company, is also known as a shocking generosity, which makes other company employees envious.

In comparison, Shaw Brothers just sent this month's salary ahead of schedule, and Golden Harvest just sealed a 500 yuan bonus for each of them.

Last year, the combination of their two companies did not make as much money as Xu's family, so naturally they would not be as proud as Xu Guanwu.

Shaw Brothers is getting more and more old-fashioned now. Last year, he made nearly 200 films, which can definitely be regarded as unprecedented.However, the box office of each movie is not ideal. The most are only about 10,000 million Hong Kong dollars, and the few are only [-]+ Hong Kong dollars.Movies like that are released after two days of release, just like those shoddy and bad movies produced by small companies.

Shaw Brothers' current business has actually fallen into a rut, always thinking of making a big difference with a small gamble, and using low-investment, low-budget movies to win high box office, but the audience is not as cheering as they expected.

The essence of fighting the big with the small, and fighting the big with four or two, is actually to win by surprise, with new themes, new shooting techniques, and unconventional storylines.Just like Zhang Jian's "The Thieves and the Girl Singing" and "A Bad Life", the cost is only 200 million, but because of the novel subject matter, grasping the social context, and catering to the audience's taste, they won everyone's praise after the release. .

Director Wu Siyuan's "700 Million Robbery" and "Integrity Storm" also grasped the news hotspots in the current society and took advantage of people's curiosity and attention. Therefore, the film became popular before it was shot, and it won everyone's attention early in the morning. , so the box office is naturally guaranteed.

However, most of the movies Shaw Brothers invests in and shoot are old-fashioned Kung Fu movies, either to avenge their father, or to fight for treasures... Movies with this kind of theme were considered novel in the early 70s.But several years have passed, and even novel themes have become obsolete.

Even Kung Fu comedies that were popular three years ago in the early Republic of China are not so popular now, not to mention the martial arts theme that was popular six years ago.Now the great director Chang Cheh that Shaw relies on has gradually lost his creative vitality. Although there are more and more disciples under his banner, and he shoots more than one movie every year, it is a pity that the box office is not as good as every year.

In recent years, Master Liu Jialiang, who has just sat on the director's throne, although he is a good martial arts instructor, he has limitations as a director.He considers himself a direct descendant of Huang Feihong, so he wholeheartedly wants to promote orthodox boxing, so there are inevitably many preaching elements in the movie.Compared with Hong Jingbao and others who laughed and cursed all the time, it seemed a bit old-fashioned.

Moreover, Liu Jialiang has a lot of experience in dealing with single-handed martial arts scenes, and the shots are very exciting and beautiful, but when it comes to shooting group scenes, it is inevitable that some skills are insufficient, and the shots are often extremely chaotic.For example, the scene of grabbing firecrackers in "Lu Ah Cai and Huang Feihong", the filming is really chaotic, and it is difficult to distinguish between priorities.

In fact, this is also related to Liu Jialiang's background. He himself was born in martial arts from his family, and later became a martial arts instructor.When it comes to shooting melee scenes, the director is on the sidelines to make adjustments, so he lacks the ability to control the big scene.

Relatively speaking, Hong Jingbao, Cheng Long and others were born in theatrical troupes, and when singing big plays on the stage, what they pay attention to is to use a few people to create the scene of thousands of troops fighting, so in terms of scene scheduling, Hong Jingbao, Cheng Long and others are better than Liu Jialiang is more experienced.

In addition, Hong Jingbao, Cheng Long and others are young and know that they are lucky enough to be in the position, so they will take the initiative to ask people if they don't understand.And when others see bad things, they will also put forward their own opinions.

But Liu Jialiang has been in the early stage for a long time. He has been busy under the director Chang Cheh for more than ten years. Seeing that the younger generation is in the top position, Master Liu Jialiang has just emerged, so he will be unnaturally eager to do something. The psychology of achievement.Moreover, he has high qualifications and seniority, and no director dares to express his opinion.Master Liu Jialiang also felt that he was old enough and experienced enough, so he didn't bother to listen to other people's opinions.

So one is eclectic, constantly learning, and constantly improving; the other is self-styled, old-fashioned, and unwilling to make progress.Naturally, after the film is shot, the audience will also vote with their feet.

Although master Liu Jialiang claims to be the authentic Nanquan, the box office of the films he made is only 200 million.Although compared to cheap investment, Shaw Brothers still made some money.But compared to Hong Jingbao, Cheng Long and other juniors, they are far inferior.

Hong Jingbao's "Teeth Shaking Tiger", which was the worst at the box office last year, also had a box office of 230 million Hong Kong dollars.Not to mention Cheng Long's "Master Dragon", but it has more than 700 million Hong Kong dollars.

On the other hand, Li Hanxiang, another great director, released three films last year, including "Fenghua Xueyue", "Emperor Qianlong's Jiangnan", and "Buddha Jumps the Wall". up.

It is worth mentioning that Ti Lung, who played the role of Emperor Qianlong in "Emperor Qianlong Goes to the South of the Yangtze River", originally played the role of Emperor Guangxu in "The Overwhelming Country" directed by director Li Hanxiang.It's a pity that Kou Liancai, the little eunuch played by Jiang Dawei, stole the limelight, and the two people he provoked have turned against each other since then, which made the movie fans who love them regret for a while.

"Emperor Qianlong's Descends to the South of the Yangtze River" is preceded by "The Adventures of Emperor Qianlong", which is also a comedy in ancient costumes, based on the old BJ's cross talk "The Battle of Monarchs and Ministers".Ti Lung was used to acting as a hero, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, and righteousness. Playing the role of Emperor Qianlong, who was repeatedly teased by Liu Luoguo, was different from his previous acting.

In fact, the character of Emperor Qianlong was not prepared for Ti Lung, but at that time Ti Lung was invited by the Xu family to film "The Sword of the End of the World". Shaw was afraid that Ti Lung would never look back, so he firmly held him and would not let him go.But Kou Ren always needs to have a name. Just in time for director Hua Shan to film "The Adventures of the Emperor Qianlong", he happened to put the unsuitable Ti Lung in there.

Ti Lung is a very dedicated actor. When he played the costume hero earlier, because there were often scenes of galloping horses, whenever he had time in the afternoon, he would practice riding with retired racehorses behind Shaw Brothers Studios every afternoon. When he was in his 40s, Dillon practiced skating hard for filming. Such a dedicated spirit naturally won him the respect of everyone.

Therefore, although the role of Emperor Qianlong is different from his previous acting, it was arranged for him by Shaw in order to keep him.But Dillon still carefully made all kinds of preparations. He went all over the second-hand book market on Moro Street, found a Chinese cross talk collection, and found a few cross talk records through hard work. Feel the charm of traditional Chinese cross talk.

Then he read the biography of Emperor Qianlong, the daily life notes of barnyard officials and unofficial histories, etc., and made notes of more than [-] words, so that he really had a thorough understanding of Emperor Qianlong, and knew how he acted, sat, and lay down. What rules to abide by, etc., all of them are well known.

Sure enough, as soon as the filming of "The Adventures of the Qianlong Emperor" started, Ti Lung put on his dragon robe and stood there. He really looked like a very successful, ambitious, literary and military Emperor Qianlong.Therefore, although the box office of "The Adventures of Emperor Qianlong" is not very satisfactory, Ti Lung's role as Emperor Qianlong has been widely praised.Even Ms. Tang Shuxuan's "Big Close-up" magazine also praised it.

In view of this, although the box office of "The Adventures of Emperor Qianlong" was not high, Shaw Brothers still developed a sequel for it, "Emperor Qianlong's Jiangnan".The film is directed by director Li Hanxiang, who is familiar with the history of the Qing palace and northern folk stories.Director Li Hanxiang was born in the north. He has studied Qing history very much all his life, and he is also familiar with the cross talk in the North.There are often plots adapted from cross talk jokes in his works, such as "Guan Gong Fighting Qin Qiong" in "A Fun History of Warlords", "Little God" in "Affair" and so on.

Under the direction of director Li Hanxiang, "Emperor Qianlong's Down to the South of the Yangtze River" is full of wit and humor. After its release, it won wide acclaim and the box office reached more than 260 million.

In addition to these three directors, Shaw Brothers is also committed to discovering young directors this year.For example, Mou Dunfu, who is very artistic.

Probably due to the influence of Xu's film company, seeing the popularity of niche artist directors such as directors Zhang Jian and Zhang Guoming, the new directors discovered by Shaw Brothers are all deeply artistic.

However, after investing in more than a dozen films, only the films made by Mou Dunfu were sold well, and the films made by others were mostly narcissistic, and had no commercial value.

Mou Dunfu was the only new director who was appreciated by Shaw Brothers and signed a contract.And the first work he made after signing the contract sounds very CULT, and the name of that film is "**".It seems that from the beginning of this movie, director Mou Dunfei embarked on a road of no return, vowing to carry out the CULT film to the end.

"Corruption" tells the story of a young A Cai who has committed many rape cases, how he fought wits and courage with the police to the end.Under the direction of director Mou Dunfu, this film really has ups and downs in the plot, and the criminal psychology is portrayed delicately, which greatly increases the appeal of the drama.

After it was released, the box office reached more than 180 million Hong Kong dollars. It can be regarded as a good example among strange case movies.

Naturally, Xu Guanwu has also heard of the name of director Mou Dunfu. This is the director of CULT films who is named after the cult director Gui Zhihong. acceptable limit.

And when this person was filming, he was as cold-blooded as Gui Zhihong.Mou Dunfu did not treat people as people, but Gui Zhihong was even better, and he did not take himself as a person.Therefore, all kinds of accidents were always caused during the filming, and there were many bad records. Although the box office was guaranteed, due to the pressure of public opinion, even the old club Shaw Brothers could not keep them in the end.

(End of this chapter)