From collapsed house idol to entertainment superstar

After Lin Chaoxian got acquainted with Ding Zhi, he was actually somewhat "the same on the outside", and his somewhat gangster temperament and appearance coupled with his usually fiery personality were not inconsistent.

Zhang Wenqiang next to him is a little different. He looks gentle and more like a reserved person, but after speaking a few words, he shows signs of being a bit "talkative".

Coupled with the fact that he is actually a man from science and engineering, this somewhat breaks Ding Zhi's stereotype of a "science and engineering man".

The name Zhang Wenqiang is no stranger to Ding Zhi.

In other words, anyone who knows a little bit about Hong Kong movies will be familiar with it.

The two directors sitting in front of Ding Zhi now, Lam Chiu-hsien and Zhang Wenqiang, plus the other three, Mak Chiu-fai, who is not here, can be regarded as the most representative directors of the so-called "Hougang Film Era".

A personal figure.

These three people are all good at police and criminal films and commercial genre films.

If the films shot by Lin Chaoxian focus on visual impact and explosive scenes, then the films directed by Zhang Wenqiang are mostly successful in terms of human struggle and plot reversal.

This one is very similar to Ding Zhi style suspense films.

As for the former, this year's "Operation Red Sea", which was a big dark horse and won the Spring Festival box office championship, and even reached the runner-up spot in the mainland box office rankings, is actually full of his personal style.

In other words, the absolute protagonist in Lin Chaoxian's "Operation Red Sea" is actually him, the director hidden behind the scenes.

Even Ding Zhi's dazzling personal brilliance was actually weakened to a large extent in this movie, becoming a "tool man" role serving the story.

As for the latter, it is based on the "Eavesdropping" series from a few years ago, which used the characters' human struggles and the entangled grievances and selfish desires among the several protagonists as the driving force of the plot.

Now in front of Ding Zhi, sitting next to the somewhat "gangster" Bald Lin, the somewhat gentle Zhang Wenqiang is often associated with another director Mak Shaohui.

In fact, this situation is not uncommon in the Hong Kong film circle. It is like this in "Cold War 2" in which Ding Zhi once participated. The director was jointly directed by Liang Lemin and Lu Jianqing.

Just like Liang and Lu, they created the "Chill" series, as their predecessors, the "Mai Zhang" group also worked together on the quite classic Hong Kong film "Eavesdropping" series, both in Hong Kong Island and the Mainland.

It achieved pretty good box office results.

In the "Eavesdropping" series, after Mai and Zhang separated, their respective subsequent works were relatively unsatisfactory and failed to reach the level of the previous work.

In fact, this is also caused by the problems of "Mai and Zhang" themselves.

Because compared to typical genre film directors like Lin Chaoxian, Mai and Zhang actually have stronger "screenwriting" attributes.

To put it bluntly, it is because their directing skills are not considered to be top-notch in the industry, and they can only be regarded as average genre film directors. This is actually far inferior to Lin Chaoxian who is sitting next to him now.

In contrast, the scripts they created are among the best in the entire Hong Kong film industry.

This situation will cause a problem, that is, telling the story in some comfort zones. Because the quality of the book is very good, it can make the overall texture of the movie look good.

But once out of the comfort zone, overall control will become difficult.

For example, a biographical film like "Guan Yunchang" co-directed by Mai and Zhang a few years ago is a very typical example.

That year's "Guan Yunchang" was also known as "The Lost Dao Lang", and even this wave of aliases may be more relevant to the plot (dog head).

Whether it's the creation of the characters or the emphasis on obedience, it's very impressive. Even in the siege scene, the construction of the city wall was better than the earth-and-engineering buildings built by my grandma's house.

To put it bluntly, if there were rankings for bad movies of the year that year, that movie could actually compete for it, and maybe even win the championship or something.

Especially when this year's "Operation Red Sea" came out, Lin Chaoxian, who was often compared with them in the past, has actually unknowingly gone one step further than the two of them.

To put it bluntly, he is stronger than the screenwriter but weaker than the director.

If there is a strong and capable director, such as Baige Wu's good friend Bodhi Patriarch, who can integrate the scripts of these two and film them, it will be a super alliance.

But if these two "screenwriters" were allowed to direct alone, it might be even worse.

I don’t know why, but when Zhang Wenqiang and Ding Zhi met, they really felt like old friends at first sight.

The three of them chatted for a long time, starting from the confrontation between Ding Zhi and Liang Jiahui in the convenience store in "Cold War 2" to Liang Jiahui's performance in "Ashes of Time".

In the blink of an eye, I was reminded of Fa Ge's line from "A Better Tomorrow" and the difference in weather between Hong Kong Island and Kyoto.

Needless to say, Zhang Wenqiang seems to be a loyal fan of Fa Ge, and he highly respects Fa Ge. Combined with his graying sideburns, he can really be regarded as Fa Ge's "senior meal".

"Dingzi, your show "The Tuner" is very popular recently!"

Lin Chaoxian, who was next to him, seemed a little helpless and took the initiative to mention this issue for Zhang Wenqiang.

"That's right, Ding Zai, your drama is really unbeatable. The box office exceeded one billion a week, and now it's aiming for two billion."

Having said this, Zhang Wenqiang was reminded by Lin Chaoxian, but he also remembered his original purpose.

"Brother Felix, you are exaggerating. The number of moviegoers has started to drop off a cliff this week."

Ding Zhi waved his hand very Versailles-like.

Indeed, "The Tuner" is ultimately able to attract more viewers to the theater because of its genre or film, and it is not like those popcorn-style superhero special effects films. In fact, the overall plate is still relatively small.

So after taking over 1 billion in box office in the first week, "The Tuner" started to fall off a cliff in the second week. To put it simply, the box office in a single day fell below 100 million yuan.

However, so far, fourteen days after its release, yesterday's single-day box office is still over 50 million.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, look at what you said. In your eyes, the box office is falling normally. If it doesn't go up, it will be a "cliff"?

So those movies that were also released in September and were overwhelmed by the schedule of "The Tuner" didn't even make tens of millions at the box office on the first day, wouldn't they all commit suicide?

"Dingzi, I have a play on hand, I wonder if you are interested in it."

In the end, Zhang Wenqiang himself spoke first.

Obviously, Lin Chaoxian specially brought Zhang Wenqiang to visit, and it was definitely not just to introduce him to a friend. To put it bluntly, it was actually a way to build a bridge.

Zhang Wenqiang also looked at Ding Zhi with a bit of expectancy.

In fact, speaking of it, the two of them are actually very sincere.

Needless to say, Lin Chaoxian, this year's "Operation Red Sea" made him the Hong Kong director with the highest box office in the history of Hong Kong films in the mainland, and his status and popularity have also increased.

As for Zhang Wenqiang, although he is said to be "strong as a screenwriter but weak as a director", it actually depends on who he is compared with.

At least in China, no one would deny that he is considered a first-line commercial director.

"Brother Felix and I hit it off right away, so I will definitely give him face, but I just don't know what this drama is like."

Zhang Wenqiang grinned and took out a manuscript and a printout from his briefcase.

"I have been writing this drama for almost ten years. In fact, I wrote the character after Fa Ge in this drama."

Lin Chaoxian's eyes twitched. Ding Zhi is now regarded as the unparalleled "top horse" in the mainland entertainment industry. As an old friend of his, it is equivalent to directly saying that the script is tailor-made for others. This

It's really...

Ding Zhi looked curiously at the two objects handed over by Zhang Wenqiang.

When I opened the first page of the manuscript, I saw only a simple drawing, probably a storyboard of a man wearing sunglasses, holding two submachine guns, killing everyone.

On the title page, there are two big characters written in flying dragons and phoenixes: Wushuang!

(The second update will be later, so there’s no need to wait. Go to bed early.)