Rebirth of Xiangjiang - 1978

"Speaking of Hong Kong comedy, I believe the first thing that comes to everyone's mind is Mr. Xu Guanwen, who is known as the cold-faced comedian. I am not just talking about it casually. This is obvious to all."

The Xu brothers' comedy has received enthusiastic support from everyone since its inception, and has become a representative figure of Hong Kong comedy.

But Xu Guanwen is not self-taught, and this has a lot to do with his experience before participating in the movie.

After graduating from the Sociology Department of the United College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Xu Guanwen first went to the United States for further study, and then returned to Hong Kong to join the TVB.

Then he and his brother Xu Guanjie co-hosted a variety show called "Double Star Announcement".

This program was changed from a non-fixed column to a weekly prime-time column within two months, setting the highest ratings for Xiangjiang TV that year.

Xu Guanwen, who became an instant hit, immediately attracted the attention of Li Hanxiang, who invited him to star in "The Warlord".

Although he had no film acting experience before, with the acting skills he honed in "The Announcement" and the direction of Li Hanxiang, "Warlord" starring Xu Guanwen can be said to be a great success.

In the box office list of Hong Kong movies in 1972, "Warlord" ranked third with a score of 3.4 million, followed by "Fist of Fury" and "Brother of Tangshan" starring Bruce Lee.

At that time, Xu Guanwen didn't have many ideas about making movies of his own.

While cooperating with Li Hanxiang, Xu Guanwen learned a lot about film knowledge from Li Hanxiang, and this gradually developed his interest in movies.

It wasn't until 1974 that Xu Guanwen planned to make a movie of his own. He wrote a movie called "Double Star", and then presented it to Shaw Brothers boss Run Run Shaw, hoping to cooperate with him in filming.

divided into.

For Run Run Shaw, even great directors like Li Hanxiang and Chang Cheh didn't dare to say in front of him that they would get a share of the movie after they made a blockbuster movie. They all received their salary honestly.

Xu Guanwen was so bold as to think of splitting the movie with him. This was simply out of the blue. So after reading the script of "The Ghost Horse", Run Run Shaw rejected Xu Guanwen's request on the grounds that the script was too poor.

In desperation, Xu Guanwen had to look for other collaborators. This time he found Zou Wenhuai and He Guanchang from Jiahe.

After the other party read the script written by Xu Guanwen, the two parties hit it off immediately. Not only did Zou Wenhuai agree to cooperate with Xu Guanwen in the filming of "The Ghost Horse", but he also helped them start their own film company.

In 1974, Hui Guanwen and Hui Guanjie left Shaw Brothers and filmed their Hui Pictures' pioneering work "The Ghost Horse".

Once this movie was released, it immediately aroused widespread attention, and then the box office soared. In the end, it even sold a box office record of 6 million, which was a full 4 million more than the second-placed annual box office "Skynet" in 1974.

box office.

Since then, Hui's Pictures has been out of control and has successively released "Geniuses and Idiots", "Half a Thing", "The Pledge of Allegiance", and "Modern Bodyguard".

These five movies all became the box office champions of the year, which shows how powerful Xu Guanwen's comedy movies are.

It was only in the 1980s that due to the rise of Lin Daoqiu and New Arts City, Xu Guanwen's comedy films could no longer dominate Hong Kong.

Xu Guanwen, who was born in 1942, was only 45 years old at this time. It is said that this age is the golden age for creation.

If he is allowed to remain silent like this, it will be a huge loss to Hong Kong movies, and even to Chinese-language movies.

So as soon as Xu Guanjie found Lin Daoqiu, he immediately agreed, and even said that he would be like Liu Bei, who visited the thatched cottage to invite Xu Guanwen.

For Lin Daoqiu, if Xu Guanwen can be invited to New Oriental, it will definitely be a good thing for New Oriental.

But if they can't hire him, it won't be a big loss for New Oriental, because Xu Guanwen has already begun to decline at this time, and it's impossible for him to regain his former glory if he continues to stay in Jiahe.

In this world, there is only one person who can help Xu Guanwen, and that is Lin Daoqiu.

For Lin Daoqiu, if he wants to make money, it is very simple, he can just continue to film in Hollywood.

Because not only the box office received there is US dollars, but the population is forty times larger than that of Xiangjiang. The size of the movie market alone is countless times larger than that of Xiangjiang.

And the most important thing is that in addition to the movie box office income, there is also generous peripheral income. Compared with Hong Kong, where piracy is rampant, it can be said that it is completely incomparable.

Therefore, Lin Daoqiu's biggest purpose in inviting Xu Guanwen was not to make money. The reason why he wanted to invite Xu Guanwen to New Oriental was just to let him make more popular and well-received movies.

"The reason why I want to invite Mr. Xu to New Oriental is not just for the box office, but because I hope you can make good movies and make the movie theater audiences laugh like before..."

"If I wanted to make money, I wouldn't stay in Xiangjiang. After all, compared with Xiangjiang, the currency value, number of viewers, and peripheral income in the United States are many times higher than those in Xiangjiang."

Xu Guanwen naturally knows that the money he can get from filming in Hollywood is completely different from the money he can get from filming in Hong Kong.

So he also knew very well that Lin Daoqiu was not pretending to say this to him, but was extending an invitation to him from the bottom of his heart.

"In 1974, I left Shaw Brothers to set up my own film company. It has been 13 years now. Over the years, I have been taken care of by Mr. Zou and Mr. He. Now let me leave at this time..."

The current situation of Jiahe is really bad. Xu Guanwen can be said to be their last card. If even Xu Guanwen leaves, Jiahe will definitely be very sad.

"The decline of Golden Harvest is destined. Even if Mr. Xu stays at Golden Harvest, he will not be able to change their decline. Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Lam Ching-ying, and other outstanding stars have left one after another, which has already laid the groundwork for this."

If all the people Lin Daoqiu mentioned were still staying in Jiahe, then the situation in Jiahe would definitely not be as difficult as it is now.

And the most important thing is that Lin Daoqiu didn't say it, that is, Jiahe was looking for death. Not only did he go to cooperate with Dibao, but he even joined forces to create the "Hong Kong Film Management Act" to deal with him.

If Lin Daoqiu allowed them to continue, wouldn't it be equivalent to letting them shit and pee on his head? If this was the case, he would not say it in front of Xu Guanwen.