1978: Female educated youth, don’t want an illiterate husband

"Teacher Cheng, what's this?!"

The men from Great Wall had their eyes bulging out as they stared at the two drafts in their hands, flipping through them incredulously until they confirmed that they were indeed two scripts.

One is called "Human Horror," and the other is a series, which should be the second one, "Human Horror Ghost."

But looking at the drawings attached to the manuscript paper, those terrifying pictures that could scare a person to death, he was really frightened when he had just looked through them.

Then he asked in an extremely horrified tone!
“Ah Yang… I heard Master Yuan and the others call you that, so can I call you that too?” Actually, at the dinner table earlier, Cheng Xuemin had already been very familiar with this man from the Great Wall named Zhou Yang, putting his arm around his shoulder and calling him Ah Yang.

However, now that the atmosphere is gone, and Cheng Xuemin can't change his way of addressing her, so he simply decides not to change it.

"It's alright, it's alright, Teacher Cheng, just call me A-Yang like the others!" The man from the Great Wall nodded repeatedly, but his face was already very flushed, clearly still in shock and confusion, eager for Cheng Xuemin to give him an explanation.

After all, he has two scripts in his hands, although he doesn't know how good they are.

But those in the Great Wall knew that the Yuan brothers were originally very resistant to going north to assist with martial arts instruction, and even offered an exorbitant price of 200,000 yuan, just to make the mainland give up.

But who knew!
On the mainland, they simply presented the Yuan brothers with a script for reference, and that hooked them. To secure the script, the Yuan brothers not only voluntarily lowered their fees and went north to assist at a friendly price, but also bought the script at a price higher than the market rate.

Clearly, the Yuan brothers were genuinely interested in the script and believed it would be a huge hit once it was made into a film.

And that script was written by the person right in front of us.

Furthermore, the script for the Tai Chi movie, which was produced with great effort in mainland China, was also written by this person.

The two scripts, one of which convinced the Yuan brothers and the other which garnered the full support of the mainland's Yan Film Studio, were clearly both excellent.

This person's skill in writing screenplays is evident to all.

it's good now!

As they were about to part, the other person reciprocated by giving him two scripts. How could he not cherish them like a treasure?

“Alright!” Cheng Xuemin nodded, then said to the Great Wall people, “I’ve never been to Hong Kong, but I know a little about the situation there. Especially from the old factory director, I learned about your situation, Lao Zuo’s situation, and the situation of your Great Wall!”

"It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it's extremely difficult to move forward."

"Teacher Cheng, as you said, the current situation of our Great Wall is indeed very aptly described as extremely difficult!"

The Great Wall team nodded in agreement, and said dejectedly, "Well, how should I put it! In the first half of this year, Great Wall produced two films, but the box office results were really disappointing. Not only did we not make any money, we actually lost over a million!"

"And speaking of the second half of the year, the higher-ups have given us another task. It's going to be tough for our boss, Mr. Fu!"

Thinking back to how unstoppable and overwhelming Great Wall Film Company was in Hong Kong, it's astonishing how it has fallen to such a state in just two or three years.

Saying that we're just resting on our laurels and not making progress is a good thing, but the reality is exactly what the people at the Great Wall are lamenting now.

Great Wall Pictures only produced two films in the first half of the year, investing more than six million yuan, but the box office results were disappointing. Not only did they not make a profit or break even, they actually lost more than one million yuan.

In Hong Kong, where the film industry is booming and developing rapidly, this is obviously quite surprising.

That's why Lao Zuo was relentlessly suppressed by those people in Hong Kong and the Golden Horse Awards, and he couldn't even lift his head up.

"I actually knew that Great Wall Film Company was commissioned by higher authorities to produce the martial arts film 'Shaolin Temple'!"

"If I'm not mistaken, of all the projects Great Wall is preparing to film in the second half of the year, there's probably only one: 'Shaolin Temple,' right?" How could Cheng Xuemin not know that Great Wall in Hong Kong was actually dragged down by "Shaolin Temple"?
Great Wall Film's performance had been declining all along, and in the first half of this year, it became even more unprofitable and started to live off its past savings.

Just then, another political task came from above, hoping that Great Wall Film Company could make a martial arts film of our own in mainland China, namely "Shaolin Temple".

Originally, a film like "Shaolin Temple" was not bad. According to the way it was made in Hong Kong, it should have been able to be made with an investment of three to five million.

At first, the people on the Great Wall also thought so!

So after taking on this task, the entire Great Wall Film Company poured all its resources into "Shaolin Temple," preparing to use this first mainland martial arts film to make a brilliant comeback.

They even invited Chen Wen, one of the most famous directors from Hong Kong, to direct the film.

Unexpectedly, because Chen Wen's first film used traditional shooting techniques and completely lacked the exhilarating, visceral feel of a movie, it was immediately halted and reshot.

Okay, let's remake it. At worst, we'll just focus on this one film, "Shaolin Temple," for the entire year of 1980. Anyway, Great Wall has no other options and is counting on "Shaolin Temple" to turn things around, because almost all the funds have already been invested and there's no going back.

Zhang Xinyan was then put in charge, and the entire project was scrapped, with new actors and reshoots.

However, Zhang Xinyan inherited the failure experience of his predecessor Chen Wen, and was also a stubborn person who pursued perfection. No matter how much Dong Changcheng urged him, Zhang Xinyan just followed the steps slowly.

As time went on, it took almost half a year just to find actors nationwide, and then a three-month training course was held. By the time filming wrapped up, it was already the second half of 1981.

After some post-production work, the second version of "Shaolin Temple" was finally released in 1982!

It was a political task, and from the moment the task was assigned, to the moment the Great Wall team took on the task, to the moment the film was released, it took a full three years.

Three years!
Who would have thought that Great Wall Films had managed to get through these three years?

It can be said that they have been living off their past achievements, and are now almost completely depleted of their resources.

Fortunately, Shaolin Temple was both the cause of their downfall and their rise!
The meticulous pursuit of perfection in "Shaolin Temple" finally prevented Great Wall Films from making another bad bet. Upon its release in Hong Kong, it achieved unprecedented box office success, significantly helping Great Wall Films recover its losses.

Therefore, Shaolin Temple was an unprecedented success!
However, on the other hand, after three years of hard work, they only produced "Shaolin Temple," which did recoup some of their losses. But Great Wall Pictures had tied up most of its funds in "Shaolin Temple," and for three whole years, they were living off their savings.

However, these three years coincided with a period of rapid growth for the Hong Kong film industry. Satellite companies under Golden Harvest and New Union emerged like mushrooms after rain, rushing into the film market to grab a share of the profits, while Great Wall could only watch from the sidelines. It is clear that being slow at one step means being slow at every step. If Great Wall had not been caught up in the Shaolin Temple incident and had developed in sync with the industry during those three years, perhaps it wouldn't have been completely driven out of the Hong Kong market five or six years later after reaping the benefits from the Shaolin Temple incident.

When the Great Wall returns to fight its way back, that will be after it has returned to its home ground.

It can be said!
Throughout the 1980s, the open and covert struggle between the old left and the Golden Horse Awards ended in a crushing defeat for the old left, which should be an indisputable fact.

Therefore, if Cheng Xuemin wants to achieve great success in foreign exchange earnings, he must not lose the Hong Kong market as a frontier position.

Now that he has foreseen the future, Cheng Xuemin will not allow Great Wall Film Company to remain stuck on the "Shaolin Temple" card forever.

Although it's a trump card, holding onto it for too long prevents it from unleashing its full potential. A trump card shouldn't be a fleeting moment of glory, but rather a dazzling display of power.

Originally, Cheng Xuemin could have directly intervened in the filming of "Shaolin Temple," allowing the Great Wall team to avoid some detours.

But without any evidence, why should Cheng Xuemin, a mainlander, say that people from Hong Kong can't make a good martial arts film like "Shaolin Temple"?

So you, Cheng Xuemin, are the only one who can do it, right?

Ultimately, they're not one of our own. If Yanying Film Studio were to be trapped in a situation involving a single film, Cheng Xuemin would definitely not hesitate to advise the old director.

But Hong Kong Great Wall Film Company still has to consider other people's feelings.

Normally, even senior leaders wouldn't directly interfere or issue explicit instructions, let alone a greenhorn like Cheng Xuemin.

Therefore, they could only settle for second best and subtly suggest that Hong Kong Great Wall should try to produce two small blockbusters before they get trapped in the Shaolin Temple scandal, in order to earn enough capital first.

Cheng Xuemin's way of offering advice was to reciprocate by writing two horror movie recommendations for the other party, "The Deadly" and "The Ghostly" films.

The first of these two films, "The Dead and the Deadly," was originally scheduled to be filmed in the second half of next year and was expected to gross 20 million yuan during the Spring Festival season at the end of the year, becoming the year's box office champion.

The production company, Cinema City, made a fortune. With the blockbuster "The Dead and the Deadly" series, Cinema City rose to the top of the Hong Kong film industry, replacing the declining Great Wall Film Company and becoming one of the three giants alongside Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers.

The up-and-coming Cinema City, with its blockbuster film series "The Dead and the Deadly" and "The Dead and the Deadly", has squeezed out the established Great Wall Film Company and become one of the new three giants of Hong Kong's film industry.

However, this does not prevent Cheng Xuemin from directly paying tribute to their blockbuster film, returning the favor to Great Wall Film Company, and at the same time hoping that Great Wall Film Company will hold onto that last piece of the front line.

When Cheng Xuemin takes over, there's only one word: Damn it!
"To be honest, I heard from Boss Fu that Great Wall can only take on the 'Shaolin Temple' project in the second half of the year!"

"Taking on other projects would indeed be too much of a stretch and difficult to sustain!"

Cheng Xuemin's mind raced as he reviewed the difficult path Great Wall Film Company would face. Zhou Yang, a Hong Konger, nodded with a look of deep shame as Cheng Xuemin pointed out their predicament.

"Ok!"

"Actually, we're in the same situation, and we can't really help much! Even if we wanted to help a lot, we're too far away and powerless to do so!" Cheng Xuemin frankly told the other party this, and could only ask him to take the message back, instructing him, "Ayang, take these two scripts back and give them to Boss Fu!"

"Actually, before I wrote these two scripts, I did some analysis of the Hong Kong film market. I found that there is a special market for things like ghosts and monsters in Hong Kong. The films made there sell well at the box office, and nine times out of ten they can become a small blockbuster!"

"Anyway, let me be frank: if Great Wall Pictures wants to rise again, it must first produce one or two blockbusters and make money in its own pocket. Only then will we have enough funds to produce more and more profitable blockbusters!"

"Are you right or wrong?"

Upon hearing Cheng Xuemin's words, the people of Hong Kong were so excited that their faces turned red, and they nodded repeatedly in agreement, saying, "Yes, yes, Mr. Cheng, you are right. That is indeed the truth. If we can't produce good works and keep relying on past achievements, we can only talk about rising to prominence in vain."

"Well, it would be best if you understood!" Cheng Xuemin continued, "Of course, I can't guarantee that these two scripts of mine will definitely be blockbusters and make a lot of money!"

"Fortunately, the scenes in my two scripts aren't very large, so I don't need to hire any big-name actors. The main thing is that the plot must be well-developed during filming!"

"I've roughly estimated it, and the investment cost isn't very high, and the filming time won't be very long. You can easily finish it in two or three months!"

"Small-scale productions have low costs, and while a big hit might be a bit difficult, I think making a small amount of money shouldn't be a big problem!"

As for losing money?

Which of the films that Cheng Xuemin has created as tributes hasn't been a huge hit in the Hong Kong market?

This is to repay a favor. I don't want Great Wall Film Company to lose all its front-line positions so quickly, so that when Cheng Xuemin goes there, he will have to start all over again.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have released these blockbuster products so early.

of course!

If Cheng Xuemin can't go to Hong Kong anytime soon, then the "The Dead and the Deadly" comedy-horror series will definitely be filmed by Cinema City themselves, giving them a free ride.

It's actually quite satisfying to snatch the deal away early and hand it over to Great Wall Pictures.

"Thank you! Thank you so much, Teacher Cheng! You're so kind!" The people from Great Wall nodded repeatedly in gratitude, saying, "Don't worry, Teacher Cheng, I will definitely pass on your words to Boss Fu verbatim!"

"No, no! Ah Yang, don't be so polite. Actually, this is just my opinion, and it might even be a case of showing off my limited knowledge and making you all laugh at me!"

"However, I just want to express my sincere feelings; I wish I could go to Hong Kong in person and fight alongside you to the very end!"

"Unfortunately, it's really difficult for us to get out!"

Is Teacher Cheng interested in coming to Hong Kong?
The speaker may not have meant anything by it, but the listener took it to heart. Zhou Yang from the Great Wall was moved by Cheng Xuemin's sigh of regret and remembered it.
……

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