Chapter 52: Artificial Intelligence

This year is definitely a year of major turning point for the Hong Kong film industry.

After returning from the United States, Lui Shao-lung broke the Hong Kong box office record with his self-written and self-acted film "Fist of Fury" together with the newly established film company Jiahe, which grossed 3.2 million. Zhao, which had long been the leader in both annual output and single-film box office performance, gradually became languid, like an old man in his twilight years.

Even though Zhao's studio was still able to become the annual box office champion among film companies by relying on the number of films it produced and the strategy of accumulating total box office through the vast majority of its films, Jiahe's subsequent "Enter the Dragon" once again successfully raised the single-film box office performance of Hong Kong films to the 5 million mark.

Zhao's annual output of more than 30 films has accumulated an annual box office of over 20 million; while Jiahe's annual output of only eight films has reached 8.76 million. There is no need to say who is the winner and who is the loser in the past two years.

If Chia Ho was not still in its infancy and its film output was insufficient, the situation in which Zhao Films was the only dominant film company in Hong Kong might have changed a long time ago.

I don’t know whether I should feel sorry or be thankful that Lu Shaolong, who single-handedly supported Jiahe, suddenly collapsed just when Jiahe was doing very well and had ambitions to impact the European and American markets.

When he fell, Jiahe almost fell as well.

However, the film "The Perfect Match" co-produced by the Xu brothers and Su Yun actually held up the scene. Not only did it reap a wave of box office in Taiwan and Southeast Asia, it also won both the Best Actor and Best Child Actor awards at this year's Golden Horse Awards, as well as three awards for Best Color Film Art Design, Best Music (Non-Opera), and Outstanding Feature Film. It successfully won a total of five awards from the Golden Horse Awards and became the biggest winner of this year's Golden Horse Awards.

Unfortunately, Su Yun is still in the United States filming the movie "Paying Off the Debts for a Teacher" and cannot be there to receive the award, so her adopted grandfather, who is also this year's Best Actor Xu Gujie, should accept the award on her behalf.

But what's the point of Gay & Ho getting these awards? The most impressive thing is still the box office.

Fang Mona looked at the box office record of "72 Tenants" with satisfaction: until the moment the film was taken off the screen, "72 Tenants" officially broke the 5.3 million box office myth created by "Enter the Dragon" with a Hong Kong box office of 5.62 million. If nothing unexpected happens, this will definitely be the annual box office champion in Hong Kong this year.

Just as I was feeling delighted, I suddenly saw Zhao Rifu walking in with a gloomy look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Fang Mona asked concernedly.

"Just now, someone in the United States called me long distance and told me that the North American box office record of "Bullet Fighter" has been released," Zhao Rifu said in a low voice.

"Really? How much?" Even in Hong Kong, its home base, it only took 3.3 million at the box office. Now in the United States, which is boycotting Chinese people openly and covertly, how much can it take?

Seeing Zhao Rifu still looking gloomy, Fang Mona smiled slightly: Although Zhao Rifu was much older than her, his temperament was a combination of the calmness of a middle-aged man and the exuberance of a young man. Occasionally, when he wanted to tell her good news, he would pretend to be gloomy and pretend to tell her bad news...

Zhao Rifu sat down dejectedly, raised his hand and showed two fingers.

"Is it possible that the box office can reach 2 million? Is that in US dollars?" Fang Mona suppressed her smile: According to the current exchange rate, if "Bullet Fighter" can have a box office of 2 million US dollars in North America, plus the box office in Hong Kong... it would be converted into a box office of nearly 20 million Hong Kong dollars!

Although Zhao's films often earn over NT$10 million each when released in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, Chia-Ho also has these channels!

Every year, Zhao's films are submitted to the Hong Kong Film Producers Association for Oscar nominations, hoping to open up the European and American markets. However, they often end up just hanging out as spectators and then only making a small profit in Chinatowns. Jiahe, a new company that has only been established for a few years, can open up a film market in the United States? !

It was thought that the box office performance of "Bullet Fighter" in Hong Kong would cause Jiahe, which had invested nearly one million US dollars with United Warner, to suffer a complete defeat and lose its cooperation with Warner from then on... Who would have thought that Lu Shaolong, a patient who was already lying in bed and unable to even walk, could still continue his myth of breaking the Hong Kong box office record in one fell swoop?

No, she had to calm down: the investment in making "Tiger Fighting: Reborn" was already so high, and if you really counted the total box office performance that was previously expected, the profit was not that much...

Fang Mona's mind was racing, but she hadn't calmed down yet. Zhao Rifu had already answered her question with a complicated expression: "It's not 2 million, but 25 million...US dollars."

Looking at Fang Mona's eyes that suddenly widened, Zhao Rifu let out a long sigh: "This time, we, the Zhao family, have lost again."

Fang Mona clenched her teeth, and for a moment she felt as if she could no longer utter a word.

"Mona, Hollywood is a gold mine that is difficult to open but has supreme wealth. We need to change our previous concepts." Zhao Rifu patted her hand gently to comfort her, and then slowly talked about his idea of ​​raising a sum of funds to open up the European and American markets.

"Just do what you want. As for Hong Kong... Qiming and I will guard it for you." Fang Mona finally spoke.

Yes, even if he got such good results, after all, Lu Shaolong is now a patient who will have to lie in bed for at least ten years. No matter how good the results are this time, it will not allow Jiahe to take the next step.

As for Su Yun, who is still filming outside and has no time to come back even for receiving awards, Fang Mona is really thinking about her, but she does not seriously regard her as an opponent.

After all, movies are still a game for adults.

How big a market can there be for a children's movie starring a child?

The success of "The Perfect Match" was due to the twins played by Su Yun, which was a huge highlight. However, the core of the film was still the comedy romance between Xu Gujie and Teresa Tang, and Zhou Yuanfa and Zhao Xiashi, which made the film both famous and profitable.

Only those who don't know much about the business would think that Su Yun's novel twins are the main plot and the factor for the box office success, but they cannot see the core and real reason for its success.

However, freshness is something that can only be used once.

That little trick of clicking, copying and pasting pictures is only to fool the relatively uninformed locals in Hong Kong. But in a foreign country where the audience is knowledgeable and picky, even if she copies a row of pictures and displays them in front of the audience to perform the twins trick, she will probably only end up being laughed at, right?

Coincidentally, when Fang Mona was thinking about Su Yun, Su Yun, who was filming in New Jersey, was actually looking through pictures and preparing to copy and paste a large group of herself...

"Look, I redesigned a lifeless doll makeup similar to the one you've seen before, and filmed a still 'Mary'..." Su Yun looked at the storyboard and began to point at the personal computer in front of her that was forcibly assembled using a TV as a monitor. "When Mary, who thinks she is unique, comes here and sees a row of 'herself' that are exactly the same as her, she will find that she is not just a unique 'child'..."

"It's about mass-producing 'AI robots'."

Kubrick nodded, then stared at Su Yun's modified computer with great interest. While Su Yun learned various film-making skills from this all-round genius, she also gained computer knowledge that she had modified to adapt to this era in exchange for the knowledge.

Not only knowledge, but this modified version of the personal computer will also be given to him as a reward for his collection after the filming is completed.

For this reason, Kubrick was like a naughty child who got a new toy. He actually squeezed out an entire night to show off his telephone and telegraph to everyone.

If computers weren't mass-produced yet, he would have recommended one to everyone he knew...

In contrast, Su Yun, who was holding another telegraph machine to send her current situation back to Hong Kong so that others would not worry about her, simply didn't know who was the old child and who was the little adult.

In those days, long-distance overseas calls were still a rarity. Only companies like Zhao's and Jiahe that needed to frequently communicate with foreign countries, or like the two Warner employees who came to negotiate contracts and needed to travel abroad frequently, would spend a lot of money to install one. In normal times, the telegraph was the most economical choice.

Both sides were exchanging good news. After Su Yun thanked Xu Gujie via telegram, she also asked him to help take care of and greet Grandma Su and the Wang family, and said that she would try her best to return to Hong Kong at the end of the year.

After solving the problem of reporting the news, Su Yun looked at Zhuang Long who was filming his solo scene.

It would have been fine if I hadn't looked at it, but once I did, I almost couldn't help laughing like a pig.

There may be stories in novels where the actors’ acting skills explode and infect the entire crew, but in reality, most people are tired and waiting for their positions, shooting, and finishing. Except for some funny laughs or small accidents that can liven up the atmosphere, most people are too lazy to care about the lucky guy’s acting skills exploding and shocking the entire crew.

From such a distance, apart from the director and photographer, who else can see your eye movements and micro-expressions clearly!

What attracted the most attention at the scene was actually the roaring performance with large range of body movements...

As for the intimate scenes where the relationship between the male and female protagonists heats up... it's okay when it's a two-person scene, but if it's a single person, it's so "brutal" that it makes people laugh.

After filming the flirting scene between Zhuang Long and the temporary actress, the one who turned around and let him press her down and gaze at her affectionately was the assistant photographer who was lying on the bed to replace the actress's perspective in order to shoot a close-up of him...

The assistant photographer had a usual deadpan look on his face, but it was thanks to him that he could continue to gaze at me with such deep affection and professionalism.

"This is not for children," Kubrick waved his hand.

"I wrote the plot!" Su Yun, who was secretly letting the system film Zhuang Long's "dark history" with evil fun, argued: the residents of public housing are a mixed bunch, and many of them make a living as dancers or even "Phoenix Sisters", so Su Yun had the excuse to exaggerate the plot of the male dancer.

So Kubrick had no choice but to let her go on: this kind of scene, which was so brief and without even a kiss, was indeed something that Su Yun, who was known for her violent scenes, did not need to avoid.

As for the "violent" plot, it was a short segment added by Su Yun out of her own whim: Lin Jingying, who accompanied her to the United States, was usually used as a field staff and had been doing chores. So in the middle of the film, when the little robot Mary was officially chased by people from the robot slaughterhouse while picking up scrap parts to repair herself in the forest, Su Yun arranged for Lin Jingying to play a robot that was once used as a "warrior type" and was so damaged that it was no longer in human form.

Compared to the latest "companion type" of the little robot Mary and the popular "lover type" of the male gigolo Joe, the "warrior type" is an old model robot that was once used as a soldier. Because humans hate robots, this model used to assist in combat has long been abandoned and become history, while various new types of robots that are only used for human entertainment are emerging in an endless stream and flooding the market.

The little robot Mary always believed that she would become a real child, but when she ran away, she chose to stand behind the "warrior" type of robot who looked the least like a human being to seek shelter... Kubrick was very satisfied with this.

In line with this plot, while Kubrick was still filming the busy street scenes, he arranged some tricks in the corners of the wall: under the colorful "couple type" robot promotional poster, there is a "warrior type" robot promotional poster whose tone has already shown the mark of time.

There is no need to force the audience to understand this clearly; those who are interested will naturally understand from these small details why the "Warrior-type" robots were abandoned.

The choice of film material lies in the mystery of leaving blank space and trying to strike a balance between plot and time.

Time slipped away during the intense shooting and busy post-production.

While the 25 million box office boom created by Lu Shaolong's "Die Hard" has not yet subsided with the cool autumn weather, "AI Artificial Intelligence" has already begun a small-scale preview in a dozen theaters near universities on November 17, the International Students' Day.

For various reasons, this legendary film has already attracted the keen attention of countless people, both openly and covertly.

Whether this little Chinese girl, paired with a director who is said to have a very strange temper, can continue this box office myth or fall from grace depends on this round of "battle" without the smoke of gunpowder but still extremely brutal.