Hong Kong Entertainment 1979: A Beating Up the Manager at the Start

the next day.

Li Jiangbo and Zhao Yazhi were discussing the arrangements for the afternoon meeting in the office when the receptionist suddenly knocked on the office door.

"Please come in."

"Mr. Li, a young lady has arrived at the door. She says you invited her here to sign the contract."

Li Jiangbo nodded. "Bring them in."

After the secretary left, he said to Zhao Yazhi, "Sister Zhi, please inform the others to come to the company for a meeting this afternoon."

After Zhao Yazhi nodded in agreement, she walked out of Li Jiangbo's office with the documents in her arms.

A short while later, the receptionist brought Pan Yingzi, who was wearing a white dress, to Li Jiangbo's office.

Upon seeing Pan Yingzi arrive, Li Jiangbo instructed his secretary to pour tea, saying, "Ms. Pan, please have a seat!"

After Pan Yingzi sat down, she curiously looked around Li Jiangbo's office.

Li Jiangbo then took out a contract and handed it to Pan Yingzi, saying, "Ms. Pan, you can take a look at the contract first, have some tea, and ask me if you have any questions."

Pan Yingzi carefully looked through the contract that Li Jiangbo handed her. She was surprised to find that the contract was for three years, with a basic monthly salary of 4000 yuan, a guarantee of at least one supporting role in a movie per year, and benefits such as box office revenue sharing.

This is quite a big deal. As a female celebrity who became famous very early, she could immediately tell how valuable the contract Li Jiangbo offered was.

After all, when she worked at Shaw Brothers, although she was one of the Twelve Golden Flowers of Shaw Brothers, she had heard about how much salary and benefits ordinary artists received at Shaw Brothers.

Moreover, she is already considered a has-been. Since getting married, she and her husband have started a film company and have been working behind the scenes. She hasn't acted in five years.

As for her role in "Chasing Girls," it was only out of respect for Wang Tianlin, as she was going through a very difficult time at the time. Her family company had gone bankrupt, and her divorce from her husband only compounded her misfortunes.

Unexpectedly, the movie "Chasing Girls" made the audience rediscover her and also brought her a certain degree of fame.

Thinking of this, Pan Yingzi picked it up, signed her name in the signature section of the contract, pressed her fingerprint, and handed the document to Li Jiangbo.

Li Jiangbo chuckled, "Ms. Pan is so straightforward! The company is holding a meeting for all staff this afternoon, please come and attend."

Pan Yingzi readily nodded, "No problem, boss!"

The reason Li Jiangbo gave Pan Yingzi a contract was mainly because he had too many new female artists under his management. Actresses like Rosamund Kwan, Zhu Lin, and Cherie Chung had all acted in two or three films. Now that he had a female artist who had become famous earlier, he could mentor these three and ensure that his plans would not fall through.

At 2 PM, in the conference room of Time Pictures.

Everyone who had signed contracts with Time Pictures was present. Li Jiangbo sat in the main seat, reviewing reports from all parties. The others sat upright on either side of Li Jiangbo, waiting for him to speak.

After a while, Li Jiangbo closed the report in his hand and cleared his throat.

After everyone's attention was on him, he nodded with satisfaction and said, "Today, we have a new like-minded partner. Let's give him a round of applause."

Everyone applauded enthusiastically to welcome Pan Yingzi, and all eyes turned to her in the corner.

When it was almost time, Li Jiangbo raised his hands and pressed them down. "Ms. Pan, please introduce yourself."

Pan Yingzi stood up confidently, introduced herself, and was greeted with applause.

After the applause subsided, Li Jiangbo turned his gaze to Leslie Cheung and asked, "Ah Rong, how are the preparations for the performance in a few days going?"

Leslie Cheung nodded, "I'm all ready. I've practiced that song dozens of times."

"Okay! You should also practice the song I wrote for you before, and then we'll see how it goes when you sing it."

Leslie Cheung was overjoyed and nodded repeatedly, saying, "Don't worry, Mr. Li! I will definitely prepare well."

After receiving a positive response from Leslie Cheung, Li Jiangbo turned his attention to Rosamund Kwan, Cherie Chung, and Zhu Lin.

"How's your practice going, you three?"

By this time, Zhu Lin had already learned to communicate in simple Cantonese. She humbly said, "Boss Li, my practice is just so-so right now, but I'm confident I can master this song."

Chung Chu-hung said softly, "My situation is similar to Zhu Lin's."

Rosamund Kwan shook her head, "Director Li, I have no musical talent, no matter how much I practice, I can't learn it."

After listening to the three people, Li Jiangbo knew their specific situation.

Actresses like Chung Chu-hung and Chu Lin have definitely practiced diligently, but it might be a bit doubtful whether they could handle a big stage performance. Kwan Ka-wai, on the other hand, has her mind completely focused on herself, not on that.

Li Jiangbo understood that young people want to take shortcuts, but you have to know when to do it! The premiere of "A Better Tomorrow" is about to take place, and if he doesn't practice the songs well, how can he take this opportunity to promote the trio?

After a moment of contemplation, Li Jiangbo said to Zhao Yazhi, "Go to various nightclubs and inquire to see if anyone knows anyone named Mei Yan Fang."

Zhao Yazhi nodded, "Okay! I'll make the arrangements after the meeting. By the way, boss, the children's orchestra we wanted to hire has already been arranged."

"Okay, keep an eye on him and make sure he practices properly."

"Brother Jing, how's your script coming along?"

Wang Jing, swaying his obese body, said, "It's still in preparation. I plan to invite Clifton Ko from TVB to work with me on the script."

Li Jiangbo had an idea. "Gao Zhisen? I've heard of him. Do you think you can recruit him? Our company is quite short of screenwriters right now."

"Okay, I'll give it a try."

In fact, this Clifton Ko was the screenwriter of Happy Ghost 2 and the director of Happy Ghost 1.

He joined RTV in 77 and then switched to TVB last year as an assistant director. Li Jiangbo never expected that Wong Jing would invite him to be the screenwriter for the second season of Happy Ghost; it was truly a perfect coincidence.

When Li Jiangbo asked everyone if they had any other plans, Johnnie To raised his hand.

"Director Li, I have a script here, could you please take a look?"

Li Jiangbo nodded. "We'll discuss this in detail after the meeting."

After Li Jiangbo learned more about the progress of the premiere of "A Better Tomorrow", the meeting ended.

Li Jiangbo kept the film's main creative team and actors behind to discuss the script.

After everyone else had left, Johnnie To handed the notebook to Li Jiangbo.

When Li Jiangbo opened it, he was surprised to find that it was Johnnie To's first film, "The Deadly Gold in the Cold Mountain".

After reading the plot, Li Jiangbo frowned.

Like later works, "The Deadly Gold in the Cold Mountains and Green Waters" tells the story of a bodyguard and is a traditional martial arts novel, but with the addition of suspense elements.

Li Jiangbo knew all too well the outcome of this film; it was this failure that led Johnnie To to return from the film industry to TVB to film television dramas.

This filming took a full eight years, and it wasn't until 89 that he stepped out of the TV series and filmed an art film called "The Story of Ah Lang," after which he became famous.

Actually, it's also Li Jiangbo's fault. If he had brought Johnnie To along when filming "A Better Tomorrow," it might have inspired his ideas about triad stories.

Thinking of this, Li Jiangbo closed the script and laughed, "Old Du, your script is a bit too old-fashioned! How about this, you go and assist Brother Jing for a while, and practice it out."

Upon hearing this, Johnnie To's face was filled with disappointment, but he remained silent, simply putting away his notebook and returning to his seat.

"Old Du, don't worry, I'll definitely let you direct a movie this year. 'A Better Tomorrow' is going to be great in a few days, I hope it will inspire you."

After comforting Johnnie To for a few moments, Li Jiangbo took out two stacks of scripts and distributed them to everyone.