dkrc Chapter 61 The Hot Hong Kong Cinema
Chapter 61 The Hot Hong Kong Cinema
As September arrives, the dust settles on the summer movie season.
This summer's box office has achieved unprecedented success.
Or rather, not only during the summer season, but also throughout 1991, the Hong Kong film market was exceptionally booming.
At the beginning of the year, during the Spring Festival film season, "Tricky Master," starring Wang Jing and Stephen Chow, easily grossed 31 million yuan.
Wu Yusheng, together with Chow Yun-fat, Cheung Kwok-wing, and Chung Chor-hung, brings us the classic Hong Kong film "Once a Thief".
The film outperformed Wong Jing and Stephen Chow, grossing HK$33 million.
Jackie Chan's big-budget production, "Armour of God," filmed in South Africa, raked in HK$39 million at the box office, just shy of the HK$40 million mark.
In May, Tsui Hark and Tang Lung brought us a new martial arts classic, "New Dragon Gate Inn," which sold 34 million copies.
With the summer movie season underway, the film market is heating up even more.
Stephen Chow's "Fight Back to School" raked in 43 million, breaking box office records once again.
Lui Leung Wai's "To Be Number One" grossed HK$38 million, directly boosting the popularity of biographical films.
There's also "Prison on Fire II" for 25 million, "New Fist of Fury 1991" for 24 million, and "Once Upon a Time in China" for 29 million.
"New Fist of Fury 1991" is Stephen Chow's tribute to Bruce Lee, and it still performed well at the box office.
"Once Upon a Time in China" ultimately failed to break the 30 million mark, but that didn't diminish the film's popularity.
The film sold extremely well at the box office in Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and even Japan, and pirated DVDs were bestsellers throughout Southeast Asia and mainland China.
Jet Li quickly rose to become a kung fu superstar, popular throughout the Chinese cultural sphere.
In 1991, two artists became wildly popular: Jet Li and Tang Lung, both of whom were kung fu stars.
In terms of popularity, the two are equally popular in Hong Kong.
However, in other regions, Li Lianjie is still the better performer.
There's no way around it, "Once Upon a Time in China" wins in terms of its concept alone.
Coupled with the classic soundtrack of "A Man Should Be Self-Reliant," it's easy for Chinese people to feel their blood boil and resonate with the music.
The media immediately started comparing the two, and their hype caused a fight between their fans.
Initially, neither of them paid much attention, but as the situation escalated, they had no choice but to speak out.
To avoid the chaos caused by fans during the rivalry between Alan Tam and Leslie Cheung, Tang Lung and Jet Li appeared together in the same frame, which calmed the fans down.
When the media realized they couldn't keep up with the news about the two men's rivalry, they turned their attention to reporting on the film market's outstanding performance this year.
They prepared a box office ranking list in advance.
As of the end of August, six films this year have grossed over 30 million yuan.
These six films alone contributed HK$2.2 million to the box office.
In addition to several films that grossed over 20 million HKD and many other films, Hong Kong's total box office revenue exceeded 600 million HKD in eight months.
This result is not much worse than Hong Kong's total box office revenue for the entire previous year.
The booming film market naturally attracts more shady characters.
Behind the film's brilliant achievements, darkness runs even more rampant.
As triad influence grows increasingly unbridled, celebrities and even directors live in constant fear.
Someone tried to force Stephen Chow to lend him his services, and when he refused, he fired several shots at the entrance of Win's Entertainment that night.
Stephen Chow always has eight bodyguards protecting him when he goes out.
The first thing Wang Jing did before filming was to stand on a high place to see if any suspicious people were around, creating a tense atmosphere.
Many more artists without connections or protection can only silently endure the coercion from gangs.
However, all of this had nothing to do with Tang Long. At the end of August, he and Cheng Xiaodong took the crew to the mainland.
The filming locations for "Reign of Assassins" were mainly in mainland China, with only a few scenes filmed on sets built in Hong Kong.
In order to avoid the Hong Kong filming season, which was then extremely competitive, Tang Lung and Cheng Xiaodong decided to film all the Hong Kong scenes on the mainland.
Anyway, the set that was built in Hong Kong before was all smashed by people arranged by Tsai Tzu-ming.
This time, instead of collaborating with Xi'an Film Studio, they went to Magic Film Studio for filming in the north.
Despite its current high reputation, Xi'an Film Studio is still the leading film studio in mainland China.
It has always been a film studio owned by Beijing and Shanghai, the two largest cities in mainland China.
The film "Reign of Assassins" was mainly filmed in the Jiangnan region, so the Magic Film Studio was undoubtedly the most suitable choice.
Producer Cui Baozhu, director Cheng Xiaodong, and the actors and production team are all industry veterans.
On their second day in mainland China, the crew immediately began filming with a blessing ceremony.
The first scenes filmed were those of Tang Long and Brigitte Lin.
The two had worked together on "New Dragon Gate Inn" before, so they were familiar with each other and didn't need to adjust to each other.
Tang Long's acting skills have also improved, and he is now able to keep up with Brigitte Lin's performances.
Especially since they played lovers in "New Dragon Gate Inn" and husband and wife in "Reign of Assassins," they quickly got to know each other's rhythm.
Their every smile and frown showed remarkable chemistry.
Even Liu Jialing, who was standing to the side, felt a pang of sadness.
"Lin Qingxia is usually quite aloof, why is she so enthusiastic towards you?"
Back in his room after work that evening, Tang Long was just getting into the mood when Liu Jialing couldn't help but spill her jealousy.
"I indirectly saved her once when we were filming 'New Dragon Gate Inn,' and she was grateful to me for that."
Tang Long then briefly recounted to Lin Qingxia how she had almost injured her eye.
Why didn't you tell me before?
"This is unnecessary, it's not a big deal."
"You need to keep your distance from her from now on."
Upon hearing this, Tang Long frowned, his tone becoming somewhat stiff:
"Sister Jialing, there's nothing between us. We're all friends when we're filming together. You can't expect me to keep my distance from all men, can you?"
Liu Jialing sensed Tang Long's displeasure and quickly softened her tone:
"Okay, don't be upset. I won't take care of you anymore, okay?"
Liu Jialing also realized that something was wrong with her condition.
Ever since the near-kidnapping incident, Tang Long has become increasingly important to her.
She felt inexplicably irritated whenever she saw him interacting with other female celebrities or even other beautiful women.
She realized that she had truly fallen in love with the man in front of her.
However, she had been too explicit in her previous statements, making it difficult for her to swallow her pride and formally establish a relationship with Tang Long.
Moreover, after spending so much time with Tang Long, she could tell that he didn't seem to have any intention of establishing a relationship.
Liu Jialing wondered if Tang Long was hurt too deeply by his previous relationship.
He devoted most of his energy to his career.
However, it must be admitted that, apart from the title, Tang Long gave her everything she needed: a sense of security, career support, and even physical and mental pleasure.
She then lost interest in overthinking.
Tang Long's abilities were growing stronger and stronger, and she was afraid that if things continued like this, she would die.