After landing at the Xiangjiang International Airport in the New Territories, Zhang Yuan picked up his luggage and hurried to the agreed location to meet with the great director Liu Weiqiang.
Liu Weiqiang can naturally be called a great director now. After all, "Infernal Affairs" made him famous across the country and even the world. After all, the copyright was sold to Hollywood.
Zhang Yuan got on the iconic red Toyota taxi in Xiangjiang and shuttled through this bustling city that was once known as the "Four Asian Tigers".
The feeling this place gave him... was narrow, old, dark, and broken.
Compared with the newly built urban areas on the mainland, Xiangjiang has obviously become bleak, leaving only the afterglow of the colonial past that should have been regarded as humiliation, but which some people were proud of.
When we arrived at an office building, it was still the same as the scenery we saw along the way, slightly old.
Enter and ask the security guard how to get to the address. After hearing his Mandarin accent, the other person gave him a contemptuous attitude.
Zhang Yuan doesn’t care.
But I’m glad.
“Fortunately, we reconciled with the Emperor and had the support of the other party.”
If not, he wouldn't have dared to come to Xiangjiang alone. Who knows what would happen in his own land.
It’s different now. Not only are we no longer worried, but if anything happens, we can also call Brother Hua or even Emperor Yang for help.
Get in the elevator, go through the narrow corridor, enter the office, come to the innermost room, knock on the door and enter.
“Hello, I am Zhang Yuan.”
A middle-aged man with black-rimmed glasses and a crew cut, who looked very Southern in appearance, appeared. in front of him.
"Ah, hello."
This person is naturally Liu Weiqiang.
This person started working as a photographer at Shaw Brothers around 1980.
The so-called photography workers are "coolies" who help photographers run errands, serve tea and water, disassemble and assemble machines, and carry large bags. Occasionally, they can peek a few times, which is considered to be learning skills.
It took me almost five years of work before I was qualified to officially operate a camera.
Three years later, this man won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his role in Carmen, the King of Sunglasses.
It can be seen that his talent is amazing. At the same time, although Shaw is not a good person, his hard work does make it easy for people to become successful.
So, people have two hurdles, fate and luck.
Liu Weiqiang is destined to be a photographer. It is his luck to be able to participate in "Carmen in Mongkok" when he meets the King of Sunglasses.
Then, like Lao Mouzi back then, he shot and directed, and entered the directing industry.
Not to mention individuals, even companies.
This is the case for Shaw Brothers, a former giant.
In the early days of the establishment of Shaw Brothers, this future giant was far from being the only one. At that time, the strongest film company in Hong Kong, and even in Asia, was called D&M.
Just when Shaw Brothers looked sad and didn’t know how to compete with D&M.
In 1964, there was a thunder in Taichung City, Taiwan. A plane carrying 57 people crashed to the ground and exploded. No one survived.
Everyone on this plane was a filmmaker who came to Taiwan to participate in the Asian Film Festival.
In this air crash, the chairman of the board of directors, his wife, and the company's senior executives were all killed.
Then Run Run Shaw discovered that he suddenly became the industry leader while sitting at home without doing anything.
Just like Sima Yi, the leftover is king.
So, sometimes destiny is really wonderful, and people in Xiangjiang especially believe in this.
"Director Liu, this is the first time we met, and I've been very considerate of him since then."
"Okay..." Liu Weiqiang pushed up his glasses, stood up and shook hands with him awkwardly.
Not to mention the awkward movements, even the way this guy looked at Zhang Yuan was actually a little awkward.
Zhang Yuan naturally observed all this, but his expression did not change, he did not say anything and sat down steadily.
He still respects this director, after all, except for "Carmen" and "Infernal Affairs".
The "Young and Dangerous" series, "The Storm", "Heroes of China", "The Battle at the Forbidden City", there are countless masterpieces by this person.
It can also be seen from these works of his that although this man is a man, he prefers handsome guys when making movies.
Ekin Cheng, Edison Cheng, Shawn Yue, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok... Xiangjiang looks good, and he has used almost all of them.
As for the work "Initial D", the copyright was bought by Media Asia's Lin Jianyue. This is also a famous rich second generation and playboy in Hong Kong. He is the one who has played Wang Zuxian for many years.
This time, his wife took a fancy to Zhang Weijian and was helping him resolve the lawsuit with the Xiao family. At the same time, because of the beating incident, Media Asia gave Zhang Yuan the opportunity to star. It was an exchange of interests, and it also made Zhang Yuan He gave face and stopped pursuing Zhang Weijian.
It turned out that Lin Jianyue, who owned the copyright, was very ambitious and hired Tsui Hark-su to direct the film.
But after a lot of trouble, Old Monster Xu felt that he was not suitable for this subject, so he ran away with the bucket.
At this time, it must be said that Brother Hua has the face to recommend Liu Weiqiang and Mai Zhaohui to Boss Lin.
Originally Boss Lin was unwilling. After all, these two are good at making gangster movies.
But thanks to Hua Ge’s support, the current script and team were created.
As for Liu and Mai, they had just finished filming the "Infernal Affairs" series and were reluctant to win awards.
So they want to take advantage of the popularity of "Infernal Affairs" to reunite the original cast.
The original plan was for Andy Lau to play Bunta Fujiwara, Edison Cheng to play Takumi Fujiwara, and Shawn Yue to play Ryosuke Takahashi.
After all, these two guys just formed a CP in "Infernal Affairs 2".
It turned out that Brother Hua was too busy and not very interested in the characters.
Liu Weiqiang thought that it was normal for Brother Hua to be unavailable, and then the others would make a decision.
But Lin Jianyue called suddenly.
"Weiqiang, do you know that there is a singer named Jay Chou in Taiwan?"
"He has been very popular in recent years. I have already talked about it. He is the protagonist.”
Jay Lun, who didn’t even recognize Liu Weiqiang, went to find someone to bring him his records and photos. After listening to them...
"What are you singing about?"
"Is this person's tongue burnt by ions?"
"I can't understand a word of it!"
Bring it here Liu Weiqiang closed his eyes when he saw the photo. From his aesthetic point of view, Chairman Jay Chou's was not good either.
But the boss has spoken, what else can we do?
See you soon.
Liu Weiqiang was angry again when he contacted Jay Chou.
"Ask me to go to Baodao to meet him?"
"I am also a great director, so I have to take the initiative to meet him?"
"I don't want to lose face!"
Liu Weiqiang was dissatisfied and called Lin Jianyue.
How about using Cheng Guanxi? I am familiar with him and it is easy to use him.
Boss Lin was quite polite to him, the "takeover" after Old Monster Xu ran away, so he told him one thing.
Not long ago, Boss Lin went to Siam.
Ordinary men, when they go to Siam, mostly go to Kuaihua. The custom industry there is extremely developed and very professional.
It enjoys the reputation of a paradise for old white men.
Otherwise, where did so many mixed-race stars in Siam come from?
Of course Boss Lin does not enjoy the custom industry. It is not that he has escaped from low-level taste. The main reason is that if people want to play, they must play at the level of Wang Zuxian. The average vulgar fans really look down on it.
Then why did he go all the way?
In Chonburi Province in central Siam, there was a Chaozhou overseas Chinese named Zhou Qinnan.
Mr. Lin went to visit him.
The reason why Lin Sheng was able to visit this man in person was because he had a nickname, "White Dragon King". This is the Feng Shui master who is extremely famous in the entire Asian entertainment industry, especially in Hong Kong and Baodao!
In addition to Boss Lin, the Xiang brothers are also his loyal fans.
And the most powerful thing about this person is that he doesn’t help anyone who has more money, but depends on fate.
If he doesn't like you, he will turn you away no matter how much money you give him.
And after helping you read it, this person doesn’t charge any money, and allows you to donate to his temple in any amount you want.
In fact, only by playing this way can you get more money. After all, the free ones are the most expensive, and Tencent is familiar with this.
Is this person accurate?
Everyone has his own opinion.
When Leslie Cheung asked to see him, he refused, saying that he was "at the end of his strength."
But Luo Zhixiang asked to see him, and the White Dragon King told him that if he wanted to become red, he had to quit sex... Everyone knows how he ended up with it.
Before the filming started, Lin Jianyue took a stack of photos and birth dates to find the White Dragon King and asked him to help check whether the actors were suitable.
After getting Shawn Yue’s photo and horoscope, the White Dragon King spoke.
“The luck is average, there is no big red destiny, there are small fire numbers.”
After handing over Cheng Guanxi's photo and horoscope, the White Dragon King first nodded, then shook his head.
"The fortune is strong and the success will be great, but unfortunately it won't last long."
Boss Lin felt relieved after confirming that Cheng Guanxi would not affect his film.
Then he took out Jay Chou’s photo and horoscope.
After seeing it, the White Dragon King pointed at all the remaining photos.
"This person's luck is better than all the people in your hands put together, so he will naturally become popular all the way."
Just like Shaw Brothers, people also have two parts: fate and luck.
Because of the words of the White Dragon King, Boss Lin decided to let Jay Chou play the male lead!
For this reason, I even called Director Jay personally several times.
In the end, Jay Chou couldn't stand the other party's insistence, so he squeezed out time between concert tours and album production to make this film.
A salary of 4 million is no longer a big sum of money for Jay Chou at this moment.
Besides, he has never made a movie, and many film and television companies looking for him to star in his debut film have already offered high prices in the tens of millions.
But this person is still a bit pursuing, and the book is so bad that I didn’t even accept it.
But after this film came to him, he went to read the comics.
“Oh, not bad.”
"It's pretty cool."
I was quite satisfied, so I took it.
Liu Weiqiang went to Baodao to meet him angrily, but when he arrived at the office, the person who received him was actually Director Jay Chou's assistant.
"Jaylen is a bit busy and I don't have time to see you now."
The angry Director Liu almost slammed the table and left.
But he also believed in the White Dragon King very much, so he suppressed his anger.
After waiting for several hours, this person finally saw the owner.
At this time, Jay Chou was already the first person to speak Chinese, no one else.
Even twenty years later, this person is still the first person, what does it mean to be long red!
Chou politely chatted with the other party for a long time, and said that he not only read the original comics, but also asked someone to teach him the basic skills of drifting and racing, and did his homework in advance.
After hearing what he said, Liu Weiqiang felt better.
“Although he is very popular, he is still dedicated to his work.”
Here, Liu Weiqiang had just done some psychological training for himself, but Boss Lin, who was far away in Siam, suddenly called again. Got a call.
"Weiqiang, I know a new actor here, please arrange a role..."
Liu Weiqiang almost cried in anger.
There is no such thing as playing tricks on people!
Originally I wanted to form the original cast of "Infernal Affairs", but if I changed it again, no one would be left!
He wanted to object, but Boss Lin was still resolute and had to arrange it.
And explained to him about Zhang Weijian and Zhang Yuan.
Director Liu had no choice but to accept it.
"The character we assigned you is called Zhongli Yi." Director Liu said while holding a screenshot of the comic.
“This role is probably the third male lead, second only to Jay Chou and Edison Xi.”
Sheet metal king... Zhang Yuan knew immediately that he had chosen Shawn Yue. corner.
The character Zhongli Yi has been called the Sheet Metal King among comic fans because he crashed his car many times in the anime and often had to use sheet metal to repair the car body.
Zhang Yuan estimated that the role of Zhongli Yi is equivalent to that of Huang Qiu Sheng and Du Wenze, the pair of crouching dragons and phoenixes.
Let's say he is the third male lead... just barely.
"Jay Cun can't be replaced. Edison is so popular that he can't bear to part with him. After all the calculations, he can only sacrifice Shawn Yue to make room for me." Zhang Yuan smiled in his heart.
"Look, you go change your clothes and do your hairstyle first, and I'll see the effect."
Liu Weiqiang had only seen photos before, but now that he saw the real person, he felt that The far image is still in line with expectations.
However, he is also a native of Hong Kong and has a strong sense of local protectionism. He hopes that his films can help cultivate talents in the Hong Kong film industry.
The horizons and layout are indeed a bit smaller.
The look that the crew designed for Yi Nakazato in the film is a complete black Adidas Y-3 suit with gold threads.
This dress is the work of Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto, and "Initial D" is adapted from Japanese comics, so it matches.
He got a pair of pure white Nike AF1s for his feet.
Just like black and white, the stylist got some styling water and scratched his short hair.
After everything was done, he returned to Liu Weiqiang.
Director Liu took one look and nodded.
"After putting on the look, he looks more handsome than in casual clothes."
"But...this person's temperament doesn't seem to match the designed character."
Zhang Yuan has a background in martial arts and opera. He has a tall and straight posture, walking, standing, sitting and lying down, with his back straight and full of momentum.
Anyone who came to take a look felt that this person was in a very full spirit and had a sunny and atmospheric feeling.
In daily life, this kind of image is naturally easier to get close to others, and it is especially easy to attract the opposite sex.
But individuals are individuals and roles are roles.
The character image designed for Zhongli Yi in the movie was originally based on Shawn Yue.
His temperament... to put it nicely, is called ruffian.
To put it bluntly, he is a bit arrogant and does not seem to be a son of a good family from a wealthy family.
So the role of Zhongli Yi needs to be ruffian and a little decadent, but ruffian and decadent, he also needs to have a little bit of the pride and fierceness of a driver.
Zhang Yuan has the temperament to play a racing driver.
But it must be a regular team, a regular driver who laps the track in the paddock.
It is not the kind of speedsters who race at night and play on mountain roads like in the film.
If it were a normal casting, seeing such a huge contrast between the actor and the character, Liu Weiqiang would probably just throw the photo into the trash can and call for the next one.
But Zhang Yuan is different!
First of all, Boss Lin pressured him to take part in the show in order to give Zhang Weijian an end.
Furthermore, Boss Lin also said that this guy has become very popular in mainland China recently. Using his words, he might be able to help the film sell more box office in mainland China.
In addition, Liu Weiqiang did not dare to touch him for another very important reason.
When Lin Jianyue went to see the White Dragon King, he also showed him Zhang Yuan's photo! (End of this chapter)