nucmednet Chapter 71, Part 2
Chapter 71, Part 2
Sammo Hung laughed heartily, raised his glass to clink glasses, and then drank it all in one gulp.
"Haha, thank you. Congratulations to you too, your movie 'Reign of Assassins' has grossed over 25 million, right?"
"It's reached 26 million, but the movie will be out of theaters soon."
After 24 days of screenings, "Reign of Assassins" grossed HK$26.8 million in Hong Kong.
The film is now in its final screening stage, and it should have no problem breaking the 27 million mark at the box office.
This result placed it tenth on the 1991 Hong Kong film box office chart, second only to Jet Li's "Once Upon a Time in China".
This year has been a breakout year for Hong Kong's film box office, with eight of the top ten films grossing over 30 million.
Stephen Chow starred in three films, with "Fight Back to School," the highest-grossing film of the year, setting a new box office record.
Although Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-fat only starred in one film, both "Armour of God" and "Once a Thief" were box office and critical successes.
Next up are films by Raymond Lü and Andy Lau, but the former's "To Be Number One" is clearly better in terms of both critical acclaim and box office performance than Andy Lau's "Lee Rock".
Li Lianjie also starred in another film, "Once Upon a Time in China 1," which, although not breaking the 30 million mark at the Hong Kong box office,
However, the film had a great influence in Taiwan, Southeast Asia, South Korea and other regions, which greatly boosted Jet Li's commercial value.
Finally, there's Tang Long, who surprised both outsiders and his peers. He has two films that rank in the top ten at the box office.
"New Dragon Gate Inn" grossed 34 million, and "Reign of Assassins" grossed nearly 27 million. These figures are second only to Stephen Chow's.
With the release of "Reign of Assassins", Tang Lung officially became a top-tier star in Hong Kong.
This is also a key reason why Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan treated him so politely during the filming of "Twin Dragons".
"Very good. More than ten years ago, Ah Long popularized kung fu comedy."
Now, you've reignited the popularity of martial arts films, giving those of us in the martial arts industry more opportunities to make a living.
Although they had only spent a week together, Hung Kam-po had a good impression of Tang Lung.
Not only is he a skilled fighter, but he's also handsome and has great ideas about action design.
It's been a long time since I've seen such an outstanding young person.
If the other person hadn't already become famous, he would have really wanted to recruit him into Sammo Hung's stunt team.
Moreover, his last statement was not a lie.
"The Smiling, Proud Wanderer" can be considered the beginning of a new era of martial arts films, followed by Tang Long's "The Blade".
Both films performed well at the box office and received positive reviews, generating considerable buzz, but their box office performance was not particularly outstanding, earning only a little over ten million Hong Kong dollars.
Therefore, major film companies are all considering and waiting, and have not yet really entered the fray.
With the box office of "New Dragon Gate Inn" exceeding 30 million, several martial arts films have already been approved for production.
Now that "Reign of Assassins" is a box office hit again, Sammo Hung clearly understands that martial arts films have become a key area of investment for major film companies.
Even Andy Lau couldn't resist joining in, investing heavily in a project called "Legend of the God of War" and inviting him to be the director.
It is foreseeable that the number of martial arts films that are approved and released will increase significantly next year.
Martial arts films cannot exist without martial arts performers, and nowadays, even slightly famous martial arts choreographers have several projects under their belt.
At the grassroots level, stuntmen are not short of work, and their wages have generally increased.
"Brother Sanmao, this isn't just my achievement; Director Tsui is the true pioneer of the new martial arts genre."
More importantly, our industry predecessors laid a solid foundation for us.
Tang Long was naturally aware of the current booming market for martial arts films in Hong Kong.
But he was self-aware enough not to covet the credit and fame.
He simply rose to prominence by riding the wave of opportunity; in later terms, he caught the wave of opportunity.
In the original timeline, 1991 was a model year for martial arts films to make big money, and 1992 was the year when film company bosses were envious and rushed to invest in projects and preparations.
With the box office success of films like "Swordsman II" and "Once Upon a Time in China II", the entire market has gone crazy.
Many martial arts film projects have completed their project approval and pre-production preparations, and are just waiting for the filming schedule to begin.
Therefore, the real peak of martial arts film production and release was concentrated in 1993.
1993 was also the year with the highest output of Hong Kong martial arts films, with Brigitte Lin alone having more than a dozen film contracts.
There were as many as 33 pure martial arts films released, and more than 50 martial arts films with elements of period costumes and action.
There are even more projects that have been approved or have not yet been released.
It's worth noting that back then, only about two hundred movies were released in Hong Kong each year, and martial arts films accounted for more than a quarter of them.
However, due to the large number of martial arts films released, audiences have experienced severe aesthetic fatigue.
Overproduction and severe homogenization led to the rapid collapse of the martial arts film market in the second half of 1993.
Among them are martial arts classics such as "The Sword and the City" and "Iron Monkey" which suffered dismal box office results.
Now, films like "New Dragon Gate Inn," "Once Upon a Time in China," and "Reign of Assassins" may ignite the Hong Kong martial arts film market ahead of schedule.
Given the track record of Hong Kong film companies, martial arts films may collapse even sooner than expected.
Tang Long is ready to withdraw from martial arts films. After finishing "Swordsman 2", he has no plans to make any more martial arts movies.
Hung Kam-po was increasingly pleased with Tang Long's humility, and then, an idea struck him, and he said:
"Dragon Boy, how about we team up?"
Tang Long was taken aback. He had come to see Hong Jinbao to invite him, but unexpectedly, the cooperation came to him first.
He had to give face to an invitation from an industry bigwig like Hung Kam-pao, but he didn't rule out the possibility of rejection.
"Of course I'm interested. I don't think anyone would be uninterested in collaborating with you, Sanmao. What specific subject matter would it be?"
Hong Jinbao thought Tang Long's voice was very pleasant to listen to, and a smile involuntarily appeared on his face:
"It's your specialty, martial arts films, but they're a bit different from the ones you made, like 'New Dragon Gate Inn' and 'Reign of Assassins'."
Lo Wei approached me, wanting me to make a martial arts film set in the late Qing Dynasty and based on real people.
I didn't have any ideas before, but seeing you has suddenly given me some inspiration.
"Wang Wu, the Great Swordsman?" Tang Long blurted out.
Hung Kam-po's eyes lit up when he heard the name, and he patted him on the shoulder with his large hands:
"Great minds think alike. I was also thinking of Wang Wu, the Great Swordsman. Longzai, have you done any research on him?"
"There isn't much research on him, but his name is quite well-known, and many people should have heard of him."
"That's right, he has a great reputation and a strong fan base. How about we collaborate? Let's make a film about Wang Wu the Great Swordsman."
"You're quite sharp at writing scripts; we can give you the opportunity to write them."
Tang Long never expected that toasting would lead to him being cast in the movie "A Blade to Destroy the City".
But he's not suitable.
First of all, they are too young.
Trying to appear mature through makeup will create a very obvious sense of incongruity and make it difficult to portray Wang Wu's chivalrous spirit.
Just like Andy Lau in "Lee Rock," he convincingly portrayed Lui Lok during the era of the money empire.
He always had a furrowed brow, which made him seem a bit fake and he didn't have the aura of a big shot at all.
If it weren't for the compelling story, audiences wouldn't be so curious about tales of powerful figures like this.
This movie won't do that well at the box office, and Andy Lau's performance will definitely be criticized.