The 1994 "The Bodyguard of Zhongnanhai" starring Jet Li and Christy Chung was inspired by the 1992 Hollywood movie "The Bodyguard".
The story structure and character personalities can be used for reference in "The Bodyguard".
Both movies feature a super bodyguard going to a mansion to protect a woman.
This woman also had a child with her. Rachel had her son, and Michelle had her nephew.
Even in the choice of the heroine in "The Bodyguard of Zhongnanhai", maybe it is all because of Christi Chung's plump lips, which are somewhat similar to Whitney Houston.
However, the identity setting of the heroine is slightly different. Rachel is a big star, while Michelle is the girlfriend of a rich man.
The heroine doesn't care about her situation and is very dissatisfied with the bodyguard's interference in her life.
Until a certain accident, the bodyguard strongly protected the heroine. The heroine's attitude towards the bodyguard changed greatly and she began to take the initiative to approach the bodyguard.
The difference is that "Bodyguard" is a Western-style passionate drama, where the bodyguard goes to bed with Rachel directly.
"The Bodyguard of Zhongnanhai" is Eastern-style reserved and restrained. The bodyguard's heart is moved, but he restrains himself.
The final outcome is that the bodyguard blocks the bullet for the heroine and takes the opportunity to kill the enemy.
After the bodyguard recovered from his injury, Rachel rushed down from the plane and threw herself into the bodyguard's arms, and the two kissed passionately.
Michelle could only stand at one end of the boundary bridge, helplessly watching the bodyguard's car drive away.
Fortunately, the bodyguard left his watch behind, so it was an open ending.
In terms of dramatic conflicts, "The Bodyguard" is slightly better.
Because the heroine in "The Bodyguard" is a big star, she doesn't have a boyfriend, so the two can have sex.
But after the sex, the bodyguard felt that he had committed a foul because he was emotionally moved and could not complete the task.
So, the bodyguard chose to stay away from Rachel.
This made Rachel very angry and felt that she was being played, and conflicts arose.
In "The Bodyguard of Zhongnanhai", Michelle has a rich boyfriend. She and the bodyguard are not allowed to have sex. This is immoral.
So we can only look for plot conflicts elsewhere, and the screenwriter chose to focus on the villain.
In "The Bodyguard", the killer is always hidden, and the answer is revealed only at the last moment.
In "The Bodyguard of Zhongnanhai", the villain is set as a deserter in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, and a large number of battle scenes between bodyguards and killers are added.
This makes the climax of the movie more tense and exciting, rather than a one-shot finish like in "The Bodyguard".
But the disadvantage is that there are too many scenes of the killer, and there is less interaction between the bodyguard and the heroine.
Moreover, the heroine of "The Bodyguard" is Whitney Houston. The theme song "I Will Always Love You" she sang in the movie is so tragic that it has become popular all over the world and has become the highest-selling single by a female singer in history. This is "The Bodyguard of Zhongnanhai" Cannot be copied.
1994 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of film. Directors from all over the world have used all their skills to leave their mark in film history.
So much so that various classic movies were released together, making audiences around the world unable to stop watching them.
1994 was also the heyday of Hong Kong movies. Although the quality of "The Bodyguard of Zhongnanhai" was good, it was not very eye-catching among a lot of masterpieces. The local box office was only 11 million Hong Kong dollars, which was a miserable failure.
However, Yang Ye is not worried that his "The Bodyguard of Zhongnanhai" will hit the streets. After leading the crowd to resist the black riots in Chinatown, he has become a spiritual totem-like existence in the Chinese world.
Even if the movie he releases is a piece of shit, there will still be a lot of people paying for it, not to mention "The Bodyguard of Zhongnanhai" is not bad.
In addition, "The Bodyguard of Zhongnanhai" was banned from being released in mainland China at the time because of its sensitive subject matter, which resulted in the loss of a box office.
Once this movie is released in the mainland, it will definitely be a hit and the box office will explode.
Yang Ye is confident that this movie will be released in mainland China. His relationship is not comparable to that of Jet Li.
This movie does not smear the mainland. There is no need for the mainland to block the release of his movie just because of this.
However, Yang Ye still made some slight modifications to the plot. The killer organization in "The Bodyguard of Zhongnanhai" is a retired People's Liberation Army, which is suspected of discrediting the People's Liberation Army.
Yang Ye changed it to Vietnamese. He had been on the battlefield and hated the Chinese so much that he had to kill the bodyguards.
Of course, in the movie, he was beaten up by the bodyguards without taking any advantage. In the end, he could only use women to threaten the bodyguards.
After the project is confirmed, the next step is to select the actors.
First of all, the heroine, Christy Chung is still studying at the University of Massachusetts and has not made her debut.
It was impossible for Yang Ye to go to UMass specifically to find her, and he planned to randomly choose one of his women.
Of course the killer is Chang Wei, no, Wrinkle Zhaolong.
Two policemen, Sha Mao is very good at acting, he is one of them.
The handsome young man who plays the role of another policeman has not made his debut yet, so I am too lazy to look for him. I can just look for one of the male actors in the company who is available.
It’s so perfunctory!
......
Li Jiaxin followed Zhang Yimou, Hong Jingbao, and Yuan Biao and walked down from the plane. They had just finished filming "Huang Pi Zi Tomb 2".
This is Li Jiaxin’s second time going to the grassland. Although she was still filming "Ghost Blowing the Lamp", Hu Bayi was replaced by Yuan Biao.
Shirley Yang has not yet appeared. Ding Sitian, played by Li Jiaxin, is the heroine of "Huang Pi Zi Tomb 2".
As soon as I left the gate, I saw a large number of reporters outside.
Li Jiaxin was startled and asked: "Director, have you notified reporters?"
Zhang Yimou shook his head: "No, Brother Bao, did you notify him?"
Hong Jingbao shook his head: "I Not at all!”
“Never mind, let’s go!”
When the group of reporters saw them, some of them stepped forward to say hello, calling out Brother Bao and Brother Biao.
Someone asked: "Did you just come back from filming the movie?"
Hong Jingbao replied: "Yes, we just came back from filming "Ghost Blowing the Lamp"."
"Why not See Hong Gu?"
"The heroine of this movie is Jiaxin, Ahong has not appeared yet."
Li Jiaxin stood up and waved to everyone, smiling sweetly: "Hello everyone. ! ”
When "The Secret of the Dragon" was released, Li Jiaxin stunned everyone with her stunning image as a queen and became an instant hit.
But she hasn't made many movies in the past two years. She has no talent in acting and she doesn't put her heart into it.
Her business ability is far inferior to Guan Zhilin. Although Guan Zhilin is also very lazy, many of her roles are very popular, such as the Thirteenth Aunt and so on.
However, due to Li Jiaxin’s beautiful appearance, she quickly gained attention from the fashion industry after becoming famous through movies.
Often invited to attend various fashion events, and also appeared on the covers of fashion magazines across Asia, becoming the darling of the fashion industry.
In fact, since she was supported by Yang Ye, she didn't have to worry about money at all, but Yang Ye had told her more than once that a woman still had to have her own career.
So she regarded fashion as her main business, and movies became her side business.
It is quite fun to be in the fashion industry. The only trouble is that Yang Ye has not disclosed his relationship with Li Jiaxin, and Li Jiaxin herself does not dare to talk about it.
So when she was interviewed by reporters, she always said that she was single, which resulted in a bunch of crazy bees and butterflies buzzing around her.
For Li Jiaxin, Yang Ye was very good to her except that he didn't have much time to spend with her. But now she also understands that her dream of becoming Mrs. Yang is destined to be impossible.
Young girls always have unrealistic fantasies.
After her fantasy was shattered, she also thought about breaking up with Yang Ye.
However, it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. She is reluctant to live a life of fine clothes and fine food, unless she can find another financial sponsor.
It’s just that although the men who pursue her are rich, most of them have families, and they are just coveting her beauty.
Following these people is also a lover, so it is better to follow Yang Ye. Li Jiaxin is not stupid.
Of course there are young masters like Ni Zhen, but their financial resources are far behind, and Li Jiaxin doesn't like them at all.
Since they were caught by the reporter, everyone cheered up and accepted the reporter's interview.
Not long after the interview, someone suddenly shouted: "The Duke is here!"
Li Jiaxin turned around and saw Yang Ye walking towards them from a distance, holding his hand There was also a bouquet of flowers in it.
Li Jiaxin didn't expect that Yang Ye would come to pick her up, and she suddenly smiled and felt happy.
Yang Ye walked up to everyone and said hello to them, but did not speak to Li Jiaxin. Instead, he asked Zhang Yimou: "Did you finish the shoot? Did it go well?"
Zhang Yimou smiled. : "It went very well!"
"Are you going to Venice for an exhibition next month?"
"Yes!"
"I want to go too!"
"You want to participate in the exhibition too?"
Yang Ye shook his head: "I'll go and judge the awards!"
Zhang Yimou was shocked. Ye's status in the film industry, if he goes to Venice to judge awards, there is no doubt that... he will serve as the chairman of the jury.
Yang Ye nodded: "They invited me last month and I agreed!"
Zhang Yimou suddenly felt that Alexander and Yang Ye were the chairman of the jury. Will he avoid suspicion? If he avoids suspicion, won't my prize be ruined?
Seemingly understanding Zhang Yimou's thoughts, Yang Ye patted Zhang Yimou's shoulder and said with a smile: "I will take care of you!"
Yang Ye is kind to the Venice Film Festival, because Due to many factors including World War II, the Venice Film Festival did not award awards for a long time.
During that time, Venice became very weak. During the annual event, no decent films were invited to participate in the exhibition, and the film trading market existed in name only.
When they finally resumed award judging, Yang Ye not only brought "Sediq Bale" to support, but also brought a large number of film producers, making the Venice Film Festival very prosperous.
...
Li Jiaxin looked longingly at the flowers held in Yang Ye's hands.
She was looking forward to Yang Ye delivering flowers to her hands and announcing their relationship to the world under the spotlight.
However, Yang Ye seemed not to see her, chatting happily with Zhang Yimou.
After Yang Ye and Zhang Yimou talked about the Venice Film Festival, they chatted casually with Hong Jingbao and Yuan Biao for a few words before finally turning to Li Jiaxin.
"Jiaxin, are you used to going to the grassland this time?"
Seeing that the bouquet of flowers was still in Yang Ye's hand, Li Jiaxin couldn't help but feel disappointed, and she forced a smile. He smiled and said: "It's okay, it's not my first time there!"
"Yes, I've been there once before when I was filming "The Secret of the Dragon". You are familiar with it!"
There were many reporters on site, and Yang Ye couldn't say much to her, so he just chatted awkwardly.
Li Jiaxin thought about which woman Yang Ye was here to pick up with such a big fanfare. She felt sour in her heart and the atmosphere was a bit awkward.
Seeing this, Yuan Biao asked directly: "Boss, are you here to pick someone up?"
"Yes, pick up my daughter. She should be here soon." Yang Ye looked at his watch.
......
"Dad!"
A teenage girl walked out of the gate and ran towards Yang Ye quickly.
Yang Ye stepped forward, picked up the girl, spun her around twice before putting her down, and said with a smile: "Welcome to Hong Kong, my baby!"
Those reporters I was waiting for this moment, so I immediately raised my camera, and a burst of white light flashed, and the scene was captured with a "click" and "click".
“Isn’t your mother here?”
Yang Ye glanced back and saw Paramount’s female president Shirley Lansing and several entourage coming from the gate. When I walked out, I didn’t see Adjani.
Yang Xi spread her hands and said helplessly: "She said she had something to do temporarily, so I had no choice but to come with Aunt Shirley."
Yang Ye guessed that Adjani didn't want to see his women, so she only sent him her daughter.
"Okay, I'll take you to play tomorrow!"
"Okay, I've always wanted to see Victoria Harbor."
Yang Ye held Yang Xi's hand, Walked up to Shirley Lansing, gave her the bouquet of flowers, and said: "Welcome to Hong Kong, Ms. Lansing!"
"Thank you, Sir, the beautiful flowers!"
Yang Ye turned around and said to the reporters: "Let me introduce to you, this is Ms. Shirley Lansing, the president of Paramount Pictures."
Then he pointed at Yang Xi and said: "This is my daughter Irene Yang Xi. You must have seen her photo in the newspaper."
A group of reporters swarmed up and interviewed two women, one old and one young.
"Ms. Lansing, what is the purpose of your visit to Hong Kong this time?"
"We have a more important cooperation to discuss, but we cannot disclose it to the public for the time being. I'm sorry! ”
"Elena, is this your first time back to Hong Kong?"
Yang Xi said in fluent Cantonese: "Yes! I lived in Paris when I was a child, and then went to Los Angeles. Now, I finally come back Home!”
Yang Xi not only answered the questions in Cantonese, but also said that she came to Hong Kong to go home, and the media suddenly became fond of her.
In the entertainment news the next day, everyone expressed their appreciation for Yang Xi.
After accepting a brief interview with the media, Yang Ye sent Shirley Lansing to the Peninsula Hotel where she was staying.
Before leaving, he said to Zhang Yimou: "I'm not free these two days. I'll treat you to dinner the day after tomorrow to celebrate your completion. Remember to come!"
As he said this, he glanced at Li Jiaxin, took Yang Xi's little hand and left. .
Li Jiaxin looked at Yang Ye's retreating back, thinking about the way he doted on Yang Xi, and suddenly figured out something.
As far as she knows, Yang Ye’s two daughters, Yang Xi and Yang Qing, hold shares in United Artists Pictures and BMG Music Company respectively.
Although the other children don’t know exactly what they got, I think the treatment will not be bad.
Since Yang Ye is so good to his children.
Then, as long as he gives birth to a son and a half daughters, wouldn’t there be nothing to worry about?
Whether you want to be Mrs. Yang or not is actually not very important! (End of this chapter)