Yang Ye warmly received visits from Hollywood colleagues such as Scott and Spielberg.
We tried our best to answer the questions they raised.
There is no need to hide these things. With the strength of Hollywood, they can figure it out themselves.
Yang Ye is so generous, naturally because he wants to attract customers for the "Ziqi Donglai" special effects company.
Hong Kong alone cannot support Ziqi Company.
Over the years, Ziqi Company has lost hundreds of millions of dollars on its books, all thanks to Yang Ye's personal subsidies.
Some things are made simply by giving money, such as the special effects for ATV’s signature martial arts drama, which are all made to the finest detail.
If Ziqi Company wants to get rid of Yang Ye's financial subsidy, it must get jobs in Hollywood.
This "Terminator 2" is to make Ziqi Company famous.
The four most powerful special effects companies in later generations, Weta Digital, Industrial Light and Magic, Digital Domain, and Sony Digital, currently only have Industrial Light and Magic.
The other three companies had to wait until 1993 to be established. Of course, it may be earlier now.
After the success of "Terminator 2" in 1991, the miraculous visual effects in the movie opened people's eyes to the broad prospects of digital special effects.
So Cameron and his good friend Winston took the lead in establishing the digital field.
Subsequently, Sony, which had money-making capabilities, also established Sony Digital. A few years later, it became popular with the "Spider-Man" series and "The Matrix" series.
At the same time, New Zealand director Peter Jackson and his friends founded Weta Digital. Later, with the "Lord of the Rings" series, they surpassed Industrial Light and Magic and became the world's most powerful special effects company. .
Unlike the other three special effects companies, which are all located in California, Weta is thousands of miles away in New Zealand, far away from Hollywood, but it has still become the number one in the world.
Ziqi Company has a first-mover advantage, and Yang Ye helps cheat, so its future goal is naturally to become an industry leader.
Hong Kong's special geographical and historical factors make it compatible with both Chinese and Western products. Coupled with Yang Ye's relationship, Ziqi Company can eat both Hollywood and Hong Kong.
In this way, even if Ziqi Company is not in California, it can still attract talents from all over the world.
……
Spielberg was amazed by Yang Ye's various whimsical ideas during filming. After everyone chatted about the movie, he told Yang Ye: "Hey, Nick, you know what? I will go there next spring. China!"
Yang Ye knew the truth and asked: "Why are you going to China?"
Spielberg said: "My movie "Empire of the Sun" has been approved by the Chinese government. Filmed in Shanghai. "
"Empire of the Sun" tells the story of the British people in the Shanghai Concession who were captured by the Japanese and sent to a concentration camp in 1941. It looks at the war from the perspective of a child.
The so-called "Empire of the Sun" has two meanings. One is Britain, the empire on which the sun never sets, and the other is Japan.
For Chinese people, this movie is very annoying, especially the little brat played by Bale, who makes people want to strangle him to death every minute.
For Spielberg himself, he is just an outsider. He has neither sympathy for China nor condemnation of Japan.
Shanghai is just the place where the story takes place, and the Chinese in the movie are just the background of the story.
This makes many people feel uncomfortable. In fact... there is no need to be filled with righteous indignation and force others to sympathize with your suffering.
The suffering of the Chinese people has nothing to do with the Jews. In the same way, the suffering of the Jews has nothing to do with the Chinese people.
Yang Ye had no interest in this movie. After chatting for a few words, he turned the topic to another movie... "Memoirs of a Geisha".
Due to the incident involving Yang Ye, Madonna, and Seiko Matsuko, Akina Nakamori was very disappointed and returned to Japan sadly.
It turns out... Mingcai is destined to become a bitter vegetable.
However, the person who hurt her was not Kondo Masahiko, the "number one scumbag in Japan", but Yang Ye, "the number one scumbag in China".
Fortunately, the relationship between Yang Ye and Nakamori Akina is that they are a little interested in each other at most, and there is no substantial progress, so Akina is just disappointed at most, and will not go to the point of committing suicide for love.
Although Yang Ye takes good care of Nakamori Akina, he has never crossed the line in the relationship between men and women.
It’s best not to touch this girl until she figures it out herself, and the same goes for Wang Zuxian.
Yang Ye likes the relationship between the two parties, whether it is a heart-to-heart relationship or a transaction, in short, the other party must be willing.
He will not use his power to force or even rape women. That is what animals can do!
Yang Ye told Spielberg the story of "Memoirs of a Geisha". After listening to it, Spielberg burst into tears.
Lao Si is a very emotional person who sheds tears easily and cries at every turn.
It is said that after watching Zhang Yimou's "Return", he sat there and cried for an hour.
In fact, most of these literary and artistic people are quite sensitive at heart, which is not surprising.
However, as a successful commercial director, sensibility is only one aspect. What is more important is to have a keen sense of business.
Yang Ye knew that Spielberg would definitely be interested in this story.
Because geisha is just like kung fu, it can arouse the Western world's curiosity about the Eastern world.
Having this curiosity-seeking mentality means... you can harvest the box office.
This is why the novel "Memoirs of a Geisha" became so popular once it was released in North America.
It was precisely because of its commercial value that Lao Si bought the copyright of the novel and planned to adapt it into a movie himself.
It’s just that Lao Si was too busy. There were a lot of projects waiting for him to be a director, and he was unable to do anything. In the end, he switched to a producer role and handed over the directorship to others.
Spielberg took off his glasses, wiped his tears, and said: "She was famous in Japan at the age of fifteen, just to get close to the man who made her laugh as a child... It's so touching. Thank you for sharing it with me. This is such a beautiful story. The story!”
Yang Ye said: “Steven, I’m telling you this story because... I want to put it on the big screen, and I’m looking for a director for it!”
Spielberg understood immediately: "You hope I can be the director of this movie?"
Yang Ye nodded.
“Why don’t you take the photo yourself?”
"I can only make action movies!"
"I liked the movie "ET" you made very much." Lao Si said sincerely.
“Oh, it was just an accident. It was a dream from my childhood, so the emotion should be more sincere when photographed!”
“It’s really interesting. I had a similar dream when I was a child. .”
“Really?”
"When I was 14 years old, my parents divorced and I felt very lonely. At that time, I fantasized that there would be an alien friend who would accompany me!"
Yang Ye smiled secretly in his heart and exclaimed: "Sti Wen, this is so interesting, we actually have similar experiences!”
Yang Ye made a fool of himself, and immediately drew the relationship between the two of them, and soon they became as close as brothers. Of course, this is mainly about working together and making money.
Yang Ye is a shareholder of United Artists Pictures and a film investor. He has huge influence in the Eastern world, and his influence in the Western world is not bad either.
Lao Si is not stupid, so such a person is certainly worthy of his friendship.
Among the four major Hollywood directors in the 1970s and 1980s, Spielberg's status is very transcendent.
Because Lucas spent his whole life on "Star Wars", he did nothing but study special effects and shoot Star Wars;
Coppola became impotent in the 1980s. , either a piece of cake or a bad movie;
Martin Scorsese’s artistic achievements are very high, but his commercial achievements are almost meaningless;
Only Spielberg is able to strike a balance between business and art and rarely falls over. This makes him a favorite in Hollywood, with eight major companies rushing to cooperate with him.
Spielberg said: "I like this script very much. Can I take it back to study?"
Yang Ye said: "Of course no problem!"
Spielberg Ge said: "But I can't promise you now. I have to finish "Empire of the Sun" before I can be free to do this."
Yang Ye nodded and said: "You went to China , you can also take a trip to Japan and watch the geisha performances there.”
Spielberg is so popular that if he doesn't want to shoot, Yang Ye really can't control it and can only go along with it.
......
In fact, Yang Ye did not have to make the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha".
Because it is difficult to make a profit, and you may lose money.
Although "Memoirs of a Geisha" is just a love story, there are no special effects scenes.
However, the movie is about Japan in the 1920s. Japan is now highly developed, and the scenes in the movie are difficult to find.
If you want to recreate the Japanese style of the 1920s, the only way is to create artificial landscaping and build a new "Geisha Area" in the studio.
This will make the cost of the movie extremely high!
What’s even worse is that Japan has no stars that can be famous in North America.
When Spielberg produced this movie in Original Time and Space, he directly found four Chinese people, Zun Long, Gong Li, Yang Ziqiong, and Zhang Ziyi, to be the protagonists.
Because apart from Kung Fu stars like Chen Long and Jet Li, they are the only Asians with high profile in North America.
As for some unimportant supporting roles, they were all played by Japanese actors.
So, people saw a strange scene in a movie about Japanese geishas made by an American, in which several Chinese were the protagonists and a group of Japanese were the supporting actors.
Later, John Lung resigned, and Spielberg had no choice but to replace the male lead with Japanese actor Ken Watanabe. The three female leads were still Chinese.
If this horse were to make a Chinese story, find a lot of Japanese to be the protagonists, and then let the Chinese be the supporting roles, then...
There are many people on the Internet who say that they don’t use Japanese actors to play the roles because...geishas are the quintessence of Japan and a symbol of Japanese tradition.
The Japanese felt that "Memoirs of a Geisha" had discredited Japan and felt that the role was shameful and embarrassing, so they boycotted the film and refused to appear in it.
But Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li are not embarrassed, so asking them to play... bala bala or something like that is just bullshit.
In movies, geishas are all positive images, beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful, daring to fight, and decisively courageous. Where is the shame?
After the movie came out, the Japanese were very excited to watch it, and it made a box office of 1.5 billion yen. The Japanese figure skating team also likes to use "Memoirs of a Geisha" as the soundtrack for their games.
Even if a Chinese actor can make so much money, is this a sign of boycott and dislike of this movie?
And it’s not like there are no Japanese in the movie. Ken Watanabe, who plays the president, is a national treasure-level actor in Japan.
There are also a lot of Japanese supporting characters. Aren’t they Japanese? Why don't they boycott and hate this movie?
……
Now, due to the lack of Asian actresses such as Gong Li, Yang Ziqiong and Zhang Ziyi who are well-known in North America in Hollywood.
If you want to film "Memoirs of a Geisha", you can only hire actors from Japan.
Japanese actors are unknown to North American audiences. Isn’t this their fate?
Even Akina Nakamori, Yang Ye’s default actress to play Sayuri, is only famous in Asia. When she goes to North America, no one knows who she is, and her appeal there is zero.
However, Yang Ye told this story to Nakamori Akina on a whim. Yang Ye felt that a life must have a beginning and an end, so he still hoped to make this movie.
That’s why he hopes Spielberg can take over. With the great director’s appeal, he can greatly reduce the pressure of losing money!
...
The filming of "Terminator 2" was going on in an intense and orderly manner, and before we knew it, 1986 had passed.
The Christmas period in Hong Kong is mainly about Xu Guanwen's return to the world with "Detective Chocolate" versus "Autumn Fairy Tale" produced by Poplar Company.
Xu Guanwen has been somewhat quiet in the past two years. The release of his works has become slower and slower, and his box office appeal has also dropped a lot, but it is still not something that ordinary people can stroke.
What about "Autumn Fairy Tale"? Directors Zhang Wanting and Luo Qirui are both newcomers, and no one takes them seriously.
The box-office appeal of Leung Ka Wai is far different from that of Zhou Yunfa, who was at the height of his popularity just after filming "A Better Tomorrow" in Yuan Shikong.
So the person who resisted the box office became Zhong Chuhong.
Generally speaking, Hong Kong films rely on male stars to carry the box office, while female stars play the icing on the cake.
However, Chung Chu Hong’s Southeast Asian looks are very popular with Hong Kong people, so she is one of the few actresses in Hong Kong films with box office appeal, second only to Lin Qingxia and about the same as Anita Mui.
The timing of the release of the movie "Autumn Fairy Tale" is very good, because as soon as the date of handover was confirmed, Hong Kong set off a second wave of immigrants.
Then... people who stay in Hong Kong want to know what kind of life those people who left Hong Kong lived like!
In this way, such a movie can stimulate the audience's interest in watching movies and become commercially feasible.
Movies are a commodity. Most of the reasons why a movie is created are because it is profitable.
Why were there so many immigration themes in Hong Kong films in the 1980s? Because there are people paying for this film, and there is a fixed audience.
In addition, "Autumn Fairy Tale" has beautiful pictures, sincere emotions, lively and interesting scenes, and it is reasonable that it will do well at the box office.
Without the blessing of peak star Zhou Yunfa, "Autumn Fairy Tale" relied on its excellent quality to still compete with "Detective Chocolate", and sold a box office of 20 million in the local area.
Although it was five million less than the original time and space, and ultimately lost to "Detective Chocolate" by more than one million, it is also true that a romance film can force Xu Guanwen's comedy to be like this in the Christmas season. That's enough to be proud of.
More importantly, the original movie sold well at the box office. Many people felt that this was due to Chow Yun-fat's popularity and his great box office appeal.
Now, there is no Zhou Runfa in this movie, and all the benefits of the box office success fall on Zhong Chuhong!
"First Blood" and "Autumn Fairy Tale", Chung Chu-hong's two consecutive films as the heroine achieved great box office success and has become a hot first-line star in the Hong Kong film industry.
At the celebration banquet of "Autumn Fairy Tale", Zhong Chuhong was cutting the cake with the director and leading actor Liang Jiahui, while thinking:
He said that it would take three movies to make me famous in Asia, and already two Alright, the third one... what kind of movie will it be?
Will it be...a movie directed by him himself?
Zhong Chuhong can’t help but be full of expectations! (End of this chapter)