Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

Chapter 178: The th Ban, You Banned a Lonely Man
(PS, the two endorsements of Zolidan and Chow Tai Fook in the previous chapter were changed to Chow Tai Fook and Li-Bon.)
(“Our company’s cooperation with Zhou Ziheng began in the 90s, when his records sold well in Europe and America, and he was already on the way to becoming the No. Chinese star.

The company's manager approached me, hoping to sign him as the spokesperson for the company's jewelry.

At the time, I didn’t want to agree because there was no such thing as spokespersons in the jewelry industry at the time, and we usually hired models to shoot commercials.

Later, I heard several wealthy American businessmen talking about Zhou Ziheng at a party in the United States, which made me change my mind.

Around March 1995, after I returned to the company, the first thing I did was to get in touch with Chow Tze Hang and sign him to become the spokesperson for Chow Tai Fook.

I remember very clearly that the endorsement fee we paid was HK$3 million a year, which was absolutely rare in the Chinese-speaking regions at that time.

However, Zhou Ziheng's side disagreed. They demanded a contract with an endorsement fee of HK$5 million per year, and the endorsement period was only three years.

At that time, I checked Zhou Ziheng's market effect in Europe, America and Asia, and knew that he was very popular and many people were willing to pay for him.

So, after some discussion, we agreed to sign a three-year contract with him for an annual endorsement fee of five million.

However, what I didn’t expect was that not long after we signed the contract in July, Zhou Ziheng made a big move.

He had a falling out with the Hong Kong circle, and almost the entire Hong Kong circle was besieging him at the time. Overnight, he became a target of public criticism in the entertainment industry.

Even several entertainment companies that have cooperated with our company called me and asked me to give up cooperation with Zhou Ziheng.

But how is this possible? We have just signed a three-year contract with Zhou Ziheng and have already paid him 10 million Hong Kong dollars.

This amount of money is actually not much for me, but I can't accept it.

It’s not that I’m unwilling to support Hong Kong’s local film and television industry, but I know that Zhou Ziheng’s influence will be more helpful to us.

Just two months after signing the contract with Zhou Ziheng, our company's jewelry was sold to Japan and South Korea with the help of Zhou Ziheng's influence, and the profits were incredibly high.

Our entire company does not agree to draw a clear line with Zhou Ziheng.

On the contrary, we felt that we should help him deal with the troubles in Hong Kong, and we needed to consider the contract renewal after three years.

So, I chose to support Zhou Ziheng and attended the premiere of his movie "Tazza" on the day it was released.

Thinking back, the scene that day was actually quite interesting. In addition to me, senior executives of the Li-Bang Group were also present.

When I saw the people from Libang, I immediately realized that Libang had made the same choice as me. ”)
——Excerpt from “Talking about the Growth History of Chow Tai Fook” by Cheng Yu-tung, Chairman of Chow Tai Fook in 2005.

August 1995: The competition in the Hong Kong film market was extremely fierce.

At the end of July, "Brave Heart", introduced by Hengyu Cinemas, topped the Hong Kong weekly box office chart for two consecutive weeks thanks to the hype of a Hollywood blockbuster.

This momentum was not curbed until August, when Jackie Chan's "Thunderbolt" was released.

The movie "Thunderbolt" is a standard Jackie Chan movie, with a lot of racing scenes included.

It is worth mentioning that this movie is the product of a celebrity charity racing event organized by Jack Cheng.

In 1993, Jackie Chan personally initiated the Jackie Chan Cup Celebrity Charity Racing Meeting, which brought together the most brilliant lineup of Hong Kong's entertainment industry at its peak.

Including beautiful stars such as Zhang Min, Zhong Liti, Sandra Ng, Michelle Reis, Joey Wong, Sally Yeh, Carina Lau, Goto Kumiko, Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung, Jacklyn Wu, and Shu Qi.

Even Zhou Ziheng had to admit that Jack Cheng knew how to have fun.

This racing event caused a sensation the year before last and last year.

Influenced by this, "Thunderbolt" attracted considerable attention after its release.

Of course, Jacky Cheung’s movies generally receive a lot of attention in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Complaints aside, Jack Cheng of this era is still very powerful.

This was his peak period, his desire to create was high, and the quality of his films was generally not bad.

Therefore, movie fans are not averse to going to the cinema to watch his movies.

"Thunderbolt" was released on the 5th, but due to the short first week, it did not snatch the crown from "Brave Heart".

It wasn't until the second week that the film strongly suppressed "Braveheart". However, this is just a small part of the box office battle this month.

In August, in addition to "Thunderbolt", there are also Stephen Chow's "The Soul Returns at Night" and "The King of Comedy", and Andy Lau's "The Adventurer".

These movies are all concentrated in the summer vacation period of August.

Of course, there is also Zhou Ziheng's "The Tazza".

Jackie Chan, Stephen Chow, Zhou Ziheng, Andy Lau and other popular figures in Hong Kong gathered together to fight, which inevitably made this year's summer vacation season extremely hot.

Film critics are predicting which movie will win the championship of this summer's box office.

Among them, Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow are most likely to win the championship.

The two are currently the hottest movie stars in Hong Kong.

In the eyes of most people, the champion will definitely come from among them.

As for Zhou Ziheng.

Maybe someone thought he could steal peaches.

But in fact, all major film critics tacitly avoided mentioning him.

I really don't dare to mention it.

The ban on Zhou Ziheng in the Hong Kong circle has been making headlines recently. Many film critics have actually received the news, and some of them are even the ones who pushed for the ban.

Therefore, basically no one mentioned Zhou Ziheng at this time.

To put it simply, everyone tacitly ignores him, does not promote him, and does not expose him.

Zhou Ziheng was not surprised at all.

On the 13th, Zhou Ziheng returned to Hong Kong.

He immediately negotiated with the heads of Oriental Daily News and Ta Kung Pao, but as for Next Magazine, the other party did not come.

It doesn’t matter if he didn’t come, Zhou Ziheng doesn’t care.

He reached cooperation intention with Oriental Daily and Ta Kung Pao.

From then on, these two newspapers continued to report his news as usual.

By the way, Zhou Ziheng would occasionally accept their exclusive interviews.

Then, Zhou Ziheng began to prepare for the release of "The Tazza".

To be honest, Zhou Ziheng really doesn't care about the ban on him from the Hong Kong circle.

He has never made a living by relying on those people in the Hong Kong circle.

The guy he eats is a record.

Even in the film industry, he now has his own cinema chain and newspapers willing to support him.

He can be completely self-sufficient, and even if the Hong Kong circle doesn't want him to play, he can still be free and easy.

For him, the ban from the Hong Kong circle, apart from making him feel a little uncomfortable at the beginning, was actually just a lonely ban.

On the other hand, Zhou Ziheng would disgust those people in the Hong Kong circle from time to time.

For example, God of Gamblers.

Since he had nothing to do, Zhou Ziheng would not indulge him.

On the first day he arrived in Hong Kong, he asked someone to write a report against the God of Gamblers.

(End of this chapter)