Chapter 191: A Fake Shot

After discussing the details with the excited Chen Fengshi for a while and roughly agreeing on their respective responsibilities, Su Yun said goodbye to her and then happily prepared to go home with her Good Citizen Medal in her hands.

When passing by a movie theater in the downtown area, Su Yun tilted her head to look outside and saw that the number of posters of "Song of Youth" posted had gradually decreased, and they were replaced by hand-drawn big-headed comic-style posters of "Mr. Zombie".

Apart from the fact that Butterfly lost some of the supporting roles due to Su Yun's change, the master-disciple trio has not changed much. It is still Lin Jingying with old makeup, Xu Guying and Qian Shaohao who was seconded from Zhao's Film Company, just like the master-disciple trio arranged by Su Yun at the beginning.

Even Li Saihong, who had just finished filming the major drama "The Good Earth" for Regal Entertainment, this 15-year-old future kung fu goddess was borrowed from Regal Entertainment to sign a film contract according to Su Yun's original plan, and played the heroine, the eldest daughter of the Ren family in the movie.

The reason why it was so smooth is probably because, for now, Qian Shaohao and Li Saihong are just relatively unknown newcomers who have just debuted, so it is easier to borrow them: although Zhao and Jiahe have always been rivals, the communication between them is not as tense as when competing for the box office. Instead, they borrow talent resources from each other from time to time to make movies.

For example, Zhao Xiashi, who has always had good luck in stardom, can star in TV series at TBB, from "Chu Liuxiang" to "Shanghai Beach" as the undisputed leading role; he can also go to Jiahe to film movies, semi-guest-starring to play some beautiful and charming vase heroines - there is no way, since the 1960s when Zhao's female stars were prosperous, until now, Zhao and Jiahe have still mainly focused on male artists, especially male action stars. The new generation of female artists whose living space has been compressed can only exist as vases to complement and embellish the world before they become big-name female stars who can hold up their own world.

Of course, everyone is in need of big-name female stars these days, and the few who can support the box office and have audience appeal are never loaned out easily.

For example, in Zhao and Jiahe, if you ask Zhao Rifu to borrow Dillon Jiang Dawei or ask Zou Yunhua to borrow Hongganbao Chen Xuanlong, etc., if the conditions are agreed, everything can be negotiated; but if you open your mouth and want to borrow Chen Baoshi and Xiao Fenfen from Zhao or Miao Kexiu and Mao Qing from Jiahe, these two big guys will definitely get angry with you.

For example, when Su Yun was able to invite Xiao Fenfen to star in "Falling in Love" it happened to be at a time when Xiao Fenfen was studying abroad, so the film contract was easy to sign and she was not under Zhao's control for the time being.

However, we can also know from the above that Zhao's top female stars are still Bao Shi and Fen Fen from the 1960s; Miao Kexiu, who is known as Princess Jiahe, has terminated her contract and went to Taiwan to develop her career, and Mao Qing, the "female version of Lu Shaolong", is also gradually showing signs of retirement... As far as the new generation of the 1980s is concerned, there is really only Su Yun, a freak with a unique style who has emerged.

But although Su Yun has won international awards and is popular in the European and American markets, she is too young and her style does not fit in with traditional Hong Kong films. Instead of letting her adapt and blend in, it is better to let her fight alone and let others step up for her - among the artists in Hong Kong, apart from Lu Shaolong, she is the only one who can open up the European and American markets. Not to mention that she is unique among female artists, there is currently no male artist who can match her in terms of box office revenue per film.

Moreover, Su Yun has now left Chia Ho, which mainly relies on the Taiwan market, and joined Zhao, which focuses on the Hong Kong and Southeast Asian markets. In addition, Zhao Rifu's old buddy, who has always been stingy, is only willing to spend big money on big-budget science fiction and commercial films, which happens to be Su Yun's greatest strength. Isn't this even more powerful?

After all, Su Yun not only has acting skills, looks, awards and fame, she also has technical and business acumen, which can capture the latest hot spots to the greatest extent and turn them into advantages that affect her box office performance!

Just when everyone was waiting to see whether Zhao's would regain its glory after Su Yun joined the team, or whether Kai Wo, which had dominated Hong Kong since its establishment in the 1970s, would achieve another success; in a small room, several young people who were supported by a well-known real estate consortium were jointly signing an agreement.

If Chen Baiyang was present, he would probably have discovered that Gao Zhichen, the former PA who was fired by TBB for talking nonsense, was among them.

"This film company we have jointly founded is no longer like Zhao Shi and Jiahe where the boss has the final say. Now we all have a say!" As the leader of this group of people, Michael, with his bright and shiny bald head, announced very seriously, "From brainstorming to collective creation, we will definitely bring real and trendy film art to the entire Hong Kong region in the future - this is the meaning of our company name 'True Art Presentation'!"

After announcing the establishment of the company, Michael and others began to discuss the arrangements for the next film shooting plan.

Undoubtedly, the film genre that is least likely to fail in Hong Kong at present is comedy, so the pioneering work chosen by the partnership is "Comedy Times", a film proposed by Shi Qian that imitates Chaplin's style but localizes the plot content.

He wrote and starred in the entire film, and the director was secretly borrowed from Jiahe's good friend Wu Yuchen, who used the pseudonym "Wu Shangfei" to help direct the film.

Coincidentally, when the group was soliciting film production plans, Michael proposed a localized action comedy "Best Partner" that imitated the 007 style; while Huang Boming planned to combine the most popular zombie movies and youth movies in Hong Kong to create a horror comedy "The Happy Ghost"...

In the end, they are good friends with similar interests. Even their perspectives on catching hot memes and classic memes are so similar.

But considering the actual situation, "Best Partner" needs at least one big-name male star to join, while "Happy Ghost" needs to find some fresh and beautiful female students as the main characters... Therefore, when their company was first established, they did not have the ability to dig up big-name male stars with box office appeal at once, nor could they gather the required number of newcomers at once.

Therefore, Shi Qian's play "The Age of Comedy", which he wrote and performed himself and only required people from the company to make a simple cameo appearance to meet the actor requirements, stood out and became the pioneering work of their new company.

After signing their names on the agreement and contract with great enthusiasm and determination, the group of young people formed a big circle, put their hands together in the middle, and shouted out the company slogan they had come up with, "True Art Presents, Audiences Have Confidence!"

"It will definitely work! Yeah!"

Different from Zhao's slogan "Zhao's products are high-quality" and Jiahe's slogan "Jiahe's contribution is the best film", which specifically emphasize the authority of the brand; the True Art Presentation they co-founded puts the audience's recognition in the first place and focuses on whether the film can truly attract and impress the audience.

This difference in the company's film production positioning strategy is the fundamental reason why True Art Presents achieved a series of great results in the 1980s.

But at this time, this group of high-spirited young people still don’t know how successful their future will be.

There are a few sayings in later generations that succinctly summarize the development process of Hong Kong film companies in the 20th century: in the 1960s, look to Zhao Shi, in the 1970s, look to Jiahe, and in the 1980s, look to Zhen Yicheng...

As for the period after the 1990s, it just happened to be in line with the old saying that things that are together for a long time will eventually be divided, and things that are divided for a long time will eventually be together, from being divided into three parts to being unified.

Of course, this is all in the past.

At this time, in another place, Xu Gujie, who was invited to join Zhen Yicheng, was sitting in Lu Shaolong's house, feeling quite distressed, and talking about his troubles with his good friend and adopted daughter.

"After we brothers finish filming 'Modern Bodyguard' which we have signed a contract with Jiahe, we may have to plan to go our separate ways." Xu Gujie was a little helpless.

The eldest brother Xu Guwen is good at directing, writing and acting, while the second brother Xu Guwu is a full-time behind-the-scenes producer so he will probably hang out with his eldest brother; the third brother Xu Guying has the role of the silly uncle in "The Fault in Our Stars" and Wencai in "Mr. Zombie" as his guarantee, so he can play the role of a comedy clown, which has little competition nowadays... As it stands, he is the only younger brother left.

Although he had some achievements in the music and film circles before, what is most in demand in this era is handsome men with nice voices; it is easy to lower one's status and move down, but if one wants to maintain his achievements or continue to move up, then it requires hard work and opportunities.

It just so happened that after Su Yun passed away in the past few years, Jiahe has been mainly promoting Hong Ganbao and Chen Xuanlong, and now Lin Jingying's zombie series has been added - so by this calculation, the resources he can get are getting less and less.

"I heard that an emerging film company offered you a salary of 2 million to join it?" When Su Yun said this, Lu Shaolong was shocked.

Prices are soaring nowadays. Although Lui Shao-lung made a lot of money from overseas box office, his salary as an actor is not much. Most of his wealth was earned by himself when he later opened a satellite company affiliated with Jiahe. Therefore, even the King of Kung Fu would be surprised to hear this salary figure.

After all, the Hong Kong entertainment industry is not as prosperous as that in Hollywood, where there are superstars with high pay. Moreover, considering the current prices, sky-high pay is still rare in the Hong Kong circle.

However, considering the current housing prices, this sky-high salary of 2 million can be used to buy a house - an 800-square-foot unit in a medium-sized area. Conservative estimates show that it can buy at least five houses!

No wonder not only others, but Xu Gujie himself was also frightened: "Based on my current worth, the maximum they could have paid to poach me would have been NT$1 million, but they actually offered double the price, so I was so hesitant."

"Obviously, the reason for this sky-high salary is not only because the filming of this movie is indeed difficult, but also because of the hype and publicity." Su Yun has been working in the management team recently and can probably guess what Zhen Yicheng is thinking. "They just want to use this sky-high salary to prove that they have someone with a lot of money behind them, and also to take advantage of your popularity as the owner and use it as a means of promoting the movie."

"The high-paying film has attracted a popular male star to join the film... There are a lot of things for reporters to write about."

"That's why I haven't made a decision yet." Xu Gujie sighed, "Jiahe has done me a favor, and we brothers have been here for so long. It feels a bit unfair to change jobs like this... Of course, Susu, I'm not talking about you."

"In this world, interests are paramount. There are no eternal enemies or friends, only eternal interests." Su Yun shook her head to indicate that she didn't mind. "Instead of turning against each other and fighting for resources when they are insufficient, it is better to break down and then build up, and create a new world."

"Yes, I also came this way." Lu Shaolong patted Xu Gujie on the shoulder, "When I was still a kid, I followed my elders to Zhao's to film a movie, so after I came back from the United States, I first went to Zhao's because of our old friendship..."

"What's the result?"

"Facts have proven that people still have to think for themselves. It is meaningless to think about friendship with people who have no value. Profits and vision are the real right path."

Seeing that Xu Gujie had relaxed and fallen into deep thought, Lu Shaolong, who was sitting on the sofa, turned his head and looked at Su Yun: "I have checked the matter you asked me to check."

"Oh, what's wrong, Master?" Su Yun asked hurriedly: She couldn't ask He Pingsi to help investigate these questions, so she could only seek help from Lu Shaolong, who also came from the He Dong family.

For Lu Shaolong, who has a high status and fame, is a cousin of the Ho family in Macau who is distant but maintains contact with them, and many social groups still give him face, it is much easier for him to investigate these issues than for Ho Ping-si, a young girl who is still in school.

"I heard that the people in the He family are investigating He Yongxin's whereabouts and dating history in the first five years of the 1960s. During those years, the He family's eldest wife had a problem for a while. He Yongxin is still a man after all. He couldn't stay in bed and had to find a new partner to take care of the housework, so he had a lot of romantic affairs outside."

"Why are they investigating this?" Su Yun was confused.

It was not until the next day, when Su Yun saw the latest newspapers and magazines, that she finally understood what the He family had been doing.

"Big Reveal! The Mystery of Marie Sue's Life!"

"It is well known that Mary Sue, a supernova whose career has been full of twists and turns but who has always been able to find the best backer, has a pitiful background with a mother who died early and an unknown father..."

"But as the saying goes, like father, like son. Grandma Su was just a garbage woman who used to push a cardboard cart to make a living, and her mother Su Qing was just an unknown little doctor—"

"To sum up, we have come up with a very difficult question - why is Su Yun, who is well-known both at home and abroad as Mary Sue, not only a technological genius, but also an investment expert, and has a face that is very popular in the entertainment industry, and is even more thorough in her management than most people can achieve?"

Starting with Su Yun's mixed-race eyes and bright facial features, the report also used data to show the adventurous and exciting investment record of Su Yun. In short, this report is the essence of Hong Kong media's speculation, using a bunch of words such as possible, probably, should, estimate, doubt, and guess, and then linked to the past incident in which gambling king Ho suddenly brought the children of his first and second wives to see her on the night of the charity dinner, which clearly hinted at Su Yun's missing father - who exactly is he.