On the way back to Kowloon Tong from the New Territories, there was an awkward atmosphere in the car.
Fang Yan and Wang Zuxian were sitting in the rear driver's seat. Neither of them spoke first, staring at each other with big eyes.
Wang Zuxian felt that she was about to be crushed by the heavy air, and finally couldn't bear it anymore and said:
"Fang Sheng, thank you for being willing to give me a ride."
"No need. You’re so polite, I’m on my way anyway.”
Fang Yan said with a smile: "I will send you to Director Xu's studio first, and then I will go back to the hotel."
"How can this be done!"
Wang Zuxian kept in mind the tasks assigned to her by Fang Yihua, He waved his hand and said that he should go to the hotel with Fang Yan first.
Because before going to see Xu Ke and Shi Nansheng, I planned to find a hotel in Kowloon Tong and book a room, and the hotel where Fang Yan stayed was just right.
“Oh?”
Fang Yan was not surprised, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"The promotion of the movie "The Working Emperor" cannot be done in a day or two..."
Under his gaze, Wang Zuxian lowered his head guiltily and stirred up his clothes with both hands. horn.
Fang Yan said in a joking tone: "Indeed, but I don't think I saw your luggage?"
Wang Zuxian was agitated and explained incoherently that the agent asked her to book a room first. The luggage will be delivered personally in the evening.
Fang Yan saw through it but didn't reveal it, and didn't tell Fang Yihua's real intention to take charge of Wang Zuxian's agency, leaving her embarrassed and flustered.
Instead, the topic shifted to "The Working Emperor", which, like "Once Upon a Time in China", is scheduled to be released in the summer.
However, "Once Upon a Time in China" has to be released one month earlier to mid-July in line with the mainland's release schedule.
Wang Zuxian's tense nerves gradually relaxed, and her eyes involuntarily fell on the particularly eye-catching ring on his hand.
“Is Fang Sheng married?”
"Yes."
Fang Yan didn't hide it either, saying that the heroine of "Once Upon a Time in China" is his wife.
Wang Zuxian was shocked and wondered if the role of "Thirteenth Aunt" was tailor-made for Gong Qie?
Fang Yan generously admitted, "That's not true in the novel. The movie script only shows her kindness, dignity, gentleness, progress, and intelligence. She also has many advantages, because the plot of the story and Due to the limitations of the era, there is no way to write it all."
Envy flashed in Wang Zuxian's eyes. This "Gong Chou" must be very happy to have a talented husband who understands and loves her so well, right?
"Don't talk about me, let's talk about you."
Fang Yan brought up the gossip revealed by Xu Ke with a smile.
During the filming of "The Working Emperor", Wang Zuxian had an affair with her older brother Xu Guanjie, which was widely circulated.
Hearing this, Wang Zuxian immediately denied it and said: "It's fake, it's all fake, it was written randomly by those newspapers!"
Fang Yan joked: "You mean you two Are all these scandals false? ”
Wang Zuxian nodded repeatedly, only admitting that Xu Guanjie took good care of her on the set, but the media report about "sending a Porsche car" was purely fabricated. Of course, there were also Fang Yihua and Shi Nansheng secretly adding fuel to the fire.
Using Xu Guanjie, the first-generation "god of singing", to stir up the popularity and exposure of Wang Zuxian, who is new to Hong Kong, and also to create gimmicks for the movie "The Working Emperor" and hype up the CP combination of the male and female protagonists. This is one of the most common routines for movie promotion.
“This indeed seems to be the work of Mrs. Fang and Ms. Shi.”
Fang Yan nodded.
Gradually, the two started talking.
Wang Zuxian unknowingly chatted with Fang Yan about her family life, saying that she had three brothers and sisters, two brothers and one sister. She also said that her mother was from Jinling and her father was from Anhui and was a member of the basketball team. Down, also I like playing basketball very much...
While chatting, I realized something was wrong, and my cheeks turned slightly red: "I'm sorry, Fang Sheng."
"Why do you say that?"
Dialect is not taken seriously.
“I shouldn’t have told you this. I don’t know what happened, so I started talking about things at home in a daze.”
Wang Zuxian pursed her lips.
“Maybe I’m homesick. I feel like this sometimes. When I’m homesick, I can only think about it.”
As soon as Fang Yan said these words, Wang Zuxian was shocked. , staring blankly out of the window, his thoughts wandering not knowing where to go.
The car suddenly became quiet, and the two of them once again fell into the embarrassing situation of having nothing to talk about.
Fortunately, this embarrassment did not last long. About 20 minutes later, the hotel appeared in their sight.
Fang Yan got out of the car and led Wang Zuxian to the front desk. He immediately noticed that the atmosphere in the lobby was different from usual.
I saw the waiters and guests gathered in a circle, noisy and restless, and screams were heard from time to time.
Fang Yan asked the lady at the front desk and learned that the one being surrounded was actually Cheng Long.
Wang Zuxian's eyes widened in shock. What surprised her even more was that the purpose of Cheng Long's visit to the hotel was actually for the dialect.
At the loud reminder from the front desk lady, Cheng Long and He Guanchang, who were surrounded by people, stood up immediately. Lu Huiguang, Mars and other members of the Cheng family class also wisely acted as bodyguards and stood up from the crowded crowd. A path was opened for Cheng Long and He Guanshang to appear in front of Fangyan.
Seeing such a battle, Wang Zuxian subconsciously shrank behind Fang Yan and quietly watched them greet each other.
"Mr. Fang, please introduce yourself, I am He Guanchang, the vice president of Jiahe Film Company."
He Guanchang handed over a business card, "This is my Qizi , Cheng Long..."
"Nice to meet you, nice to meet you"
Fang Yan took the business card and looked Cheng Long up and down, "I have heard of your name for a long time. Not only in the mainland, but in Japan, it is also a household name. My "The Mountain, That Man, That Dog" was at the box office I will also succumb to your "Plan A"."
Cheng Long looked proud, but when he noticed his godfather's eyes, he immediately stopped his smile and said:
"No, no, no, no, Mr. Fang, please don't say that."
"Yes. Ah, Fang Sheng, if you say that, you are going to hurt him."
He Guanchang said: "Plan A is not his alone. Lao, thanks to the great help of his senior brothers, Hong Jinbao and Yuan Biao, it is not as good as your "The Mountain, That Man, That Dog", which set two major box office and overseas box office records for Chinese art films as a literary film. ! ”
Seeing people carrying people in sedan chairs, people talking in dialects, talking about business with each other.
He Guanchang suggested: "There are so many people here, I wonder if it would be convenient for us to move to another place to talk?"
Fang Yan deliberately moved Wang Zuxian out, saying that he was entrusted by others and wanted to wait for her to handle it first. Easy booking process.
Cheng Long had long noticed the fair-skinned beauty with long legs next to him, but he never expected that it was Wang Zuxian who was having an affair with Xu Guanjie.
But his godfather told him that this "Teacher Fang" already had a wife, so he used himself to save others, and couldn't help but think wildly:
Is it possible that Fang Yan is the same as himself? Middle man? Have you made the same mistake that all men in the world make?
…………
The room Wang Zuxian booked was on the same floor as Fang Yan’s room.
While the elevator was going up, Fang Yan learned from He Guanshang that this time they were sending the invitation on behalf of Zou Wenhuai and Jiahe.
"Leimeng (Zou Wenhuai's English name) very much hopes that Fang Sheng can participate in our internal preview."
"Preview?"
"Yeah, let's watch Aaron's upcoming new movie, called "The Great and Powerful"."
He Guanshang explained, "Jiahe specially hired a Hollywood team to produce it for him. Fang Sheng is The Oscar-winning screenwriter has such a high standard and accomplishments in literature and film, so Raymond would like to invite you to take a look and help us see what are the shortcomings and what needs to be modified."
"Ding" With a sound, the elevator door opened.
Seeing Fang Yan, Cheng Long and others walking out, Wang Zuxian hurriedly followed behind, pricking up her ears to eavesdrop.
“After the preview, Raymond also prepared a sumptuous dinner, trying to show off his friendship as a landlord. I wonder how Fang’s business is doing?”
"Since it's Boss Zou's kindness, I can't refuse it, but..."
Fang Yan half-jokingly said that many of his family and friends are fans of Cheng Long's movies, so he might as well get Cheng Long's autograph In exchange. "No problem!"
Cheng Long was stunned at first, and then vowed: "Fang Sheng, I will sign as much as you say you want, until I am satisfied!"
< br>When Wang Zuxian saw this, he hesitated to speak. He opened his mouth and wanted to accompany Fang Yan to Jiahe and help Shao spy on the enemy, but he didn't know how to speak.
However, Fang Yan seemed to see through Wang Zuxian's thoughts, and the other condition was to let her go with him, pretending to be entrusted by Shi Nansheng.
"Since it is Miss Shi who wants Fang Sheng to take more care of her, well, I will make the decision on behalf of Raymond!"
He Guanchang agreed simply and neatly.
Fang Yan thanked him, then opened the door and said, "I will go back to the room to change my clothes. Please wait for a moment."
Before leaving, he secretly bumped into Dazed. Wang Zuxian.
Wang Zuxian woke up from a dream and said she would go to the room to rest for a while. In fact, she wanted to call Fang Yihua and report urgently.
Watching Qianying disappear from sight, Cheng Long lowered his voice and said:
"Master Qi, is there something fishy here? I remember that she was recruited into Shaw Brothers by Aunt Six herself. , why accept the gift again..."
"Of course this is Mrs. Fang's masterpiece"
He Guanchang knew it well, "Put a nail next to Fang Sheng."< br>
"You knew she was from Shaw Brothers, why did you still agree to her participating in the preview of "The Powerful Detective"?"
Cheng Long couldn't help but be anxious, even though Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers were working together to suppress New Art City. In the past few years, the grievances between the two families have been resolved a lot, but they are still sworn enemies, but now is the golden age of Hong Kong movies, and the market is big enough, so there is no need to fight to the death like before.
“Do you think it was Mrs. Fang’s intention to invite her to the screening?”
“It’s Fang Sheng...”
“Yes!”
< br>
He Guanshang said with a smile: "Fang Sheng is using this nail planted by Shaw Brothers to show us his own value, letting us know that not only Jiahe wants to cooperate with him, but also New Art City and Shaw Brothers Well, let us take a good Let’s weigh the bargaining chips for cooperation.”
Then he looked at Wang Zuxian’s door, “Let’s also lend our Jiahe’s hand to let Mr. Liu and Fang Tai also consider the bargaining chips of Shaw Brothers.”
Cheng Long gasped He took a breath of air-conditioning and said, "He is indeed a cultured person, and he has too many ideas."
"This is called 'selling for a price'."
He Guanzhang said: "Back then, you He became an instant hit with "Drunken Master". Our family also fought hard, but Jiahe had the last laugh." Then he moved his eyes to Fang Yan who came out of the room, "I believe that Jiahe will also have the last laugh this time!"
.........
"Xiao Xian, be smart later and tell Mrs. Fang everything you see."
After finishing the phone call with Fang Yihua, Wang Zuxian, who received the new instructions, was there I silently cheered myself up in the car.
Following Fang Yan, he uneasily arrived at the site of Shaw Brothers' rival, Jiahe, and saw Zou Wenhuai walking down the steps quickly and greeting him with a smile.
For a moment, my head was buzzing and went blank.
According to legend, Jiahe boss Zou Wenhuai, who had fought with Run Run Shaw for more than 20 years and remained standing, was standing in front of him at this moment.
At this moment, Zheng Zheng shook hands with Fang Yan enthusiastically, asked him about his well-being, and invited him into the company with all the pomp and circumstance of being a "courteous and virtuous corporal".
It was exactly the same as the scene in the morning.
Fang Yihua personally went to the hotel to pick her up, and Shao Yifu personally greeted him at the elevator entrance. The entire TVB and Shaw Brothers came out to support him.
This moment is just like that moment.
He stared straight at Fang Yan's side face, knowing that he was very powerful, but he never expected that he was so powerful.
His wife must be very happy to have such a husband...
While Wang Zuxian was thinking wildly and in a daze, Fang Yan, Zou Wenhuai, He Guanshang and others entered the small screening room .
"Please."
"Please."
"This film was specially prepared by Golden Harvest for Aaron to hit Hollywood."
Zou Wenhuai said in a serious tone: "So if you have any problems or shortcomings, don't show mercy. Just say it and we can accept it. "
Fang Yan agreed. After a while, the room gradually darkened, and the small screen in front of him glowed with light.
The plot of "The Great and Powerful" is very simple, just like the Hollywood police movie model.
A Chinese American police detective played by Cheng Long and his colleagues came to a bar to celebrate their tenth anniversary in the United States. Unexpectedly, their colleagues were killed by a group of robbers who broke in.
The angry Cheng Long punished the murderer, thus offending his boss, and was sent to maintain law and order at the fashion show of tycoon Sabi Road as a punishment.
During the performance, Shapilu’s daughter Rona was kidnapped by a group of people. Before the incident, Shapilu’s bodyguard Binny had made multiple calls to Xiangjiang. The truth behind it was that Shapilu He has cooperated with Hong Kong's number one drug lord Gao Weiluo, and this kidnapping was planned by the drug lord.
So, Cheng Long and his partners searched for clues and followed the clues to find evidence of cooperation between the drug lord and Sabi Road.
The drug lord sent a killer to chase him. Cheng Long finally broke through many obstacles, found out Gao Weiluo's lair, and led his partners to launch a final fierce attack.
The further the movie went on, the more Fang Yan felt something was wrong. It looked like, it was so similar, and the shadow of "Police Story" could be vaguely seen.
Noticing that his expression was wrong, Zou Wenhuai immediately raised his hand: "Stop!"
In an instant, "The Great and Powerful" was paused in the middle of the broadcast, and the lights in the room suddenly turned on.
He Guanchang tilted his upper body: "Fang Sheng, do you think there is anything wrong with the movie?"
"What are the names of the producers and directors who made this film?" Fang Yan frowned.
Zou Wenhuai told the truth that Golden Harvest's North American branch had absolute control over "Power Rangers" and they named James Gillickenhouse, a Hollywood director with no masterpiece. , and signed a series of contracts with very demanding conditions.
"No wonder."
Fang Yan curled his lips, "Only such a low-level director would make such a film."
These words were unexpected and shocking, and he immediately The whole place was in an uproar and there was a lot of discussion.
Cheng Long felt as if he had found a confidant, and said emotionally:
"Let me just say, this director has no idea at all! He can't make action movies at all!"
< br>
Zou Wenhuai's face was uncertain, "What Fang Sheng means is that he failed in this film?"
Fang Yan was like Stephen Chow criticizing chop suey noodles, criticizing it outright.
The story is terrible, the plot is full of loopholes, it’s a failure!
There are very few action scenes, nothing new, failure!
The pacing is sluggish, the editing is sparse, it’s a mess, it’s a failure!
The action design is mediocre. It clearly has Cheng Long's death-defying stunts and kung fu comedy but doesn't use it. It's a failure within a failure!
In short, this low-level director made "The Great and Powerful" into a typical bad Hollywood movie. The entire plot is basically a Hollywood bad street routine, and European and American audiences have long been tired of it. Okay, obviously I won’t buy this kind of movie.
These words spoke to Cheng Long's heart, and he jumped up from his chair:
"Isn't that right! He only filmed the action movie for 4 days, and he still... I think my action designs are old-fashioned, so I’m not allowed to interfere, otherwise..."
"Aaron!"
He Guanchang held his godson's shoulders and looked at him to tell him to shut up and sit down.
"It made Fang Sheng laugh."
Zou Wenhuai sighed and said: "Due to the contract, Aaron suffered a lot of grievances in this movie. During the filming, he gave it back to us I called and said, 'Either he leaves or I leave.' In the end, out of consideration for the overall situation, I just finished filming the movie."
Fang Yanzui. He said "I see", and then reminded him unceremoniously:
"But the quality of the things produced by this kind of director is not up to par. Let alone help him hit Hollywood, I'm afraid it won't be popular in foreign theaters." If it is released, it will leave a negative impression on the audience and the Hollywood film companies. Boss Zou, you don’t want him to have no films in Hollywood, right?”
"Fang Sheng, do you have any remedy?"
As soon as Zou Wenhuai finished speaking, Cheng Long, He Guanchang and others all looked at Fang Yan.
Wang Zuxian couldn't help but stretch her swan neck, looking at him with sparkling eyes, curious about how to answer next. (End of this chapter)