Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

Chapter 87 Come to me and I will teach you a musical instrument
Peter Chan is very excited today.

Originally, he asked Zhou Ziheng to play in "New Hard Times" on a whim, thinking that Zhou Ziheng's records sold well, and perhaps he could use the gimmick of Zhou Ziheng's first movie to attract some attention to the movie.

As a result, he didn't expect that he had just discussed the performance with Zhou Ziheng yesterday.

The next day Zhou Ziheng made a big fuss.

He started to argue with Jacky Cheung directly.

This incident directly became the hottest news today.

He could hear passers-by discussing it when he walked down the street.

"Zhou Ziheng is so arrogant! He actually cursed at the Four Heavenly Kings!"

“Is Jacky Cheung’s song a cover?”

This matter has become a social problem to a certain extent.

Chen Kexin didn't know the impact of this incident.

He only knew that based on Zhou Ziheng's current popularity, his first movie would definitely attract a lot of attention.

He also didn't know that Zhou Ziheng actually didn't have a very good reputation in the Hong Kong music scene.

Most people in the music industry excluded Zhou Ziheng from their circle because of his issue with cover songs.

In fact, it doesn’t matter even if Chen Kexin knew.

He is in the film industry, and although he has connections with the music industry, the two sides do not interfere with each other.

His colleagues in the music industry hate Zhou Ziheng for meddling in their affairs.

He only knew that Zhou Ziheng was very popular and had accumulated a lot of fans.

That's enough.

So, early in the morning, after discussing with Eric Tsang, he drove to ArtNet Pictures.

"Mr. Zhou, you are so popular! I almost couldn't squeeze in just now."

As soon as they met, Chen Kexin said with lingering fear.

"Highly popular?" Zhou Ziheng was stunned.

Aren’t those guys downstairs fans of Jacky Cheung?
He glanced down from upstairs.

After seeing the situation below clearly, I was suddenly at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

I saw that the group of Jacky Cheung's fans were probably tired. They stopped holding up signs and swearing. They just stood or sat at the company's entrance.

Maybe because of this, when Chen Kexin came in, he mistook him for his fan.

Zhou Ziheng did not point it out, but directly invited him into the office to talk about the movie.

Chen Jiaying has arrived.

She is responsible for negotiating the film's pay and various treatment issues, and Zhou Ziheng can just be a spectator.

Because both parties were interested in cooperating, the negotiations went very smoothly.

With a few words from you and me, the contract for this play was finalized.

The two parties agreed that Zhou Ziheng would play the role of Chu Yuan in "New Hard-Earned Brothers".

The salary is two hundred thousand.

This pay is definitely less than that of the Four Heavenly Kings.

But considering Zhou Ziheng's newcomer status, it is suitable.

After all, he has never acted in a movie and is a complete newcomer to the film industry.

Even if the record sells well, it can't offset it.

Therefore, Zhou Ziheng and Chen Jiaying were still very satisfied with the remuneration.

As the saying goes, you have to eat one bite at a time. Zhou Ziheng never thought of getting too high a salary for his first movie.

Don’t you see that Leon Lai is so popular, but he only gets paid $600,000 for a movie?

Unlike singing, movies need box office appeal.

Fans can indeed contribute a portion of the box office revenue.

But it is impossible to contribute millions or tens of millions.

Whether you can carry the box office in the end depends on yourself.

Except that Zhou Ziheng has signed a contract with "New Hard Times".

Chen Kexin also told Zhou Ziheng that he agreed to let Gigi Lai play the role of Violet in the movie.

In addition, he also told Zhou Ziheng about the situation of several other actors.

The actor who plays Chu Yuan’s father Chu Fan is still the Tony Leung Ka Fai he mentioned yesterday.

The role of Chor Yuan's mother was given to Carina Lau.

It is said that Carina Lau was confirmed as the female lead by Eric Tsang himself.

The approximate cast of the film has been confirmed.

Next comes the shooting.

Zhou Ziheng cannot stay in Hong Kong for too long, so he will return to the mainland in late September.

So he specifically asked to move the shooting time forward.

The UFO crew also hopes to start filming as soon as possible, and then take advantage of Zhou Ziheng's recent popularity to release the movie.

Therefore, the two parties hit it off and decided to officially start filming on September 5th.

It seems that the shooting time is very short, just over twenty days.

But this is the norm in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, there was even a time when a movie was filmed every few days.

Therefore, more than 20 days is already sufficient for a play with not particularly large investment.

If it weren't for the fact that Zhou Ziheng had never filmed a movie before, UFO Company might be able to shorten the time considering his side.

……

The quarrel between Zhou Ziheng and Jacky Cheung continues to be hot.

Even Zhou Ziheng and Jacky Cheung tacitly stopped talking about this matter.

There is no way to stop this incident from becoming popular in Hong Kong.

All major media outlets continued to report on this incident over the next few days.

Among them, Jacky Cheung was the most seriously injured.

Although PolyGram Records spent a lot of money to buy the interview video of Zhou Ziheng and Jacky Cheung quarreling with each other from TVB and ATV.

But because the video had already been broadcast, it still caused an uproar in Hong Kong.

Anyway, Jacky Cheung inexplicably got the title of a cover singer.

Some media outlets that love to watch the fun always add the term "cover singer" in front of their reports on Jacky Cheung.

It feels good to criticize others, but you should think about the consequences.

This actually also applies to Zhou Ziheng.

Although he became famous in the quarrel with Jacky Cheung.

Even PolyGram Records had to bow its head.

But this incident still caused some adverse consequences for Zhou Ziheng.

Ever since Zhou Ziheng revealed the truth about Jacky Cheung's cover, he has clearly felt the even worse exclusion from his peers in the Hong Kong circle.

On September 3rd, Zhou Ziheng attended a charity concert.

There were a lot of people at the scene.

Even Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung and others were present.

Among the dozens of singers in the audience.

Except for a few people like Leon Lai, Faye Wong, and Leslie Cheung.

No one else spoke to Zhou Ziheng.

Everyone avoided him as if he were the plague.

Zhou Ziheng didn't take it seriously and just entertained himself.

If you ignore me, should I pay attention to you?
Everyone really thinks of themselves as RMB.

It's fine like this. Don't provoke me. If you really provoke me, I will criticize the entire Hong Kong music scene.

Ok!

Zhou Ziheng has been feeling a little lost lately and has been reflecting on himself.

They actually want to go against the entire Hong Kong circle.

Sure enough, people will become proud as long as they succeed.

……

After the charity concert, Zhou Ziheng took Gigi Lai, Leon Lai, Faye Wong and others to eat at a food stall.

After eating at the food stall, Zhou Ziheng and Gigi Lai left together.

In the car, Zhou Ziheng looked like he was thinking about you:
"Didn't you say you were going to release an album soon? How about this, I have some musical instruments. Come over to my place tonight and I'll teach you some knowledge about instruments so you don't get confused by then!"

"Tonight?" Gigi Lai hesitated.

She is not a fool, so how could she not understand what Zhou Ziheng wants to do.

I stole a glance at Zhou Ziheng and saw that he was looking forward to it.

She gritted her teeth and said, "Okay!"

That night, Zhou Ziheng taught Gigi Lai to play musical instruments all night.

All kinds of musical instruments and songs were played.

When Zhou Ziheng woke up the next day, he was so tired that his back and waist ached.

The main reason is that I have been holding it in for too long.

I came without hesitation one night, but didn't seize the opportunity and was tossed around all night.

……

Early in the morning of September 5th, Zhou Ziheng and Gigi Lai rushed to the filming location of "New Hard Times" in Yau Ma Tei.

The crew has already built the set here for filming scenes from the fifties and sixties.

Before the opening ceremony began, Zhou Ziheng met most of the film's main creators at the production crew.

Needless to say, Peter Chan is the director and producer of the film.

The producer of this film by Eric Tsang, a golden supporting actor who can often be seen in Hong Kong movies, one of the original Seven Monsters of Cinema City, and the current boss of UFO Films.

Li Zhiyi is a veteran behind-the-scenes staff member in Hong Kong. He has dabbled in screenwriting, directing, art design, etc.

He is also the screenwriter of "New Hard Times".

And then there’s the film’s cinematographer, Andrew Lau.

To be honest, Zhou Ziheng didn't expect that Liu Weiqiang would be the cinematographer of this movie.

You know, at that time, Liu Weiqiang was already very famous in Hong Kong.

He is one of Hong Kong's most famous photographers, screenwriters and directors.

Then there are the actors.

Tony Leung played Chu Fan and Carina Lau played Qu Luo Na.

There are also many other golden supporting actors in Hong Kong, such as Cheng Tanshui, Ng Lawrence Ng, and Li Yuhua.

Perhaps it’s because Zhou Ziheng is the leading actor, and he himself is a very popular singer.

He did not feel too excluded in this crew.

From the director to the actors, everyone in the crew got along well.

No one dared to provoke Zhou Ziheng.

However, even so, there is still a difference in closeness between Zhou Ziheng and everyone in the crew.

He talked the most with Carina Lau and Tony Leung.

The reason for this is that all three of them are the leading actors.

Another reason is that we can chat with each other.

In his previous life, Zhou Ziheng admired the actor Tony Leung very much.

In his opinion, he is definitely one of the best actors in China.

In addition, Zhou Ziheng also likes his personality.

In 1983, Tony Leung Ka Fai played the role of Emperor Xianfeng in two films, "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "The Imperial Court", directed by Li Hanxiang for the first time as an actor, becoming one of the first Hong Kong actors to come to the mainland to film.

Later, Tony Leung won the Best Actor Award at the 3rd Hong Kong Film Awards for his outstanding performance in "The Last Emperor", winning the first Best Actor award in his life.

However, when everyone thought that after winning the Best Actor award, his career would be bright and he would become a superstar.

Unexpectedly, Tony Leung, who reached the peak of his career as soon as he debuted, ushered in the darkest moment of his acting career.

Under the special background of that era, Tony Leung's move to come to the mainland to film touched the nerves of the Taiwanese entertainment industry, so they asked Tony Leung to write a "confession", otherwise they would ban him.

As we all know, in addition to the local box office, overseas markets are also a very important part of Hong Kong films.

Many Hong Kong movies rely on the Taiwanese market to make money.

It can be said that it is absolutely an indispensable part of Hong Kong filmmakers.

For an actor, being banned by Taiwan means that his future is basically in jeopardy.

No film company or director targeting the Taiwanese market dared to use him.

Therefore, many actors during that period did not dare to cross the line and offend Wan Wan.

However, Wanwan asked him to write a letter of repentance.

Such an unreasonable request was rejected directly and domineeringly by the stubborn Tony Leung Ka Fai, who was soft in every way but tough in every way, saying it was impossible.

Because of this incident, he was directly banned by Taiwan. He had no movies to shoot for several years and could only make a living by selling things on the street.

It was not until the late 1980s, when relations between Wanwan and the mainland eased, that his ban was lifted and he was able to continue filming, earning the title of the "Thousand Faces Movie King".

Zhou Ziheng himself is from the mainland.

I really admire people like Tony Leung who live in Hong Kong but are very patriotic.

Therefore, after coming to this crew.

The first thing he did was to greet Tony Leung and get to know him.

In fact, Tony Leung is indeed very kind.

After knowing that this was Zhou Ziheng's first time acting and there were many things he didn't understand, he immediately told Zhou Ziheng to come to him if he had any questions.

Of course Zhou Ziheng was willing to do this.

He is definitely one of the best actors in Hong Kong.

With his guidance, my acting skills will definitely improve significantly.

……

After getting to know most of the main creators of the crew.

Eleven eleven in the morning.

Auspicious time.

The film's opening ceremony begins.

There has always been a custom in the Chinese film and television circles that before a certain drama starts filming, they will choose an auspicious day to burn incense and offer sacrifices.

The specific method is to place some offerings, cover the camera with a red cloth, and then the main creators will burn incense and worship the gods in turn, and finally lift the red cloth and announce the start of filming.

Zhou Ziheng has always known about this ceremony.

But when it really came to him, he found that this ceremony was really cumbersome.

The ceremony took more than an hour from the beginning to the end.

His legs ached from standing so much.

There was a small media meeting after the opening ceremony.

In fact, most Hong Kong films currently do not have media meetings.

The reason why "New Hard Times" exists is mainly because of the joining of Zhou Ziheng.

To this day, the controversy over his war of words with Jacky Cheung is still going on and is very intense.

At a time like this, it would be strange if the film producers didn't take advantage of the popularity.

Because the news that Zhou Ziheng would perform was announced a few days ago.

There are a lot of reporters here today.

Zhou Ziheng roughly counted them and there were at least more than twenty of them.

These people all come from different media outlets.

The media meeting began, and Eric Tsang spoke first as the producer.

He talked a lot, and when he saw that the media below the stage had no interest in him, he handed the microphone to Peter Chan.

Chen Kexin obviously knew very well why the media came today.

So he didn't say a word and handed the microphone directly to Zhou Ziheng.

Hey!
Zhou Ziheng got the microphone.

He didn't even need to say anything as the media reporters in the audience started asking questions.

"Zhou Ziheng, there is news that you and Jacky Cheung have reached a settlement. Is this true?"

"Jacky Cheung said a few days ago that he can't speak, and it's always his records that speak for him.

Everyone thinks he thinks you're just talking nonsense, what do you think about that?"

"This is your first time starring in a movie. What kind of results do you think you will get?"

Reporters asked questions one after another, and the scene suddenly turned into a vegetable market.

"Hengzi is very popular! I forgot to ask before, what is the name of his album, I will go back and buy one to listen to."

When Tony Leung saw that the reporters were so enthusiastic about Zhou Ziheng, he immediately asked Carina Lau next to him in a low voice.

Come to think of it, he has never listened to Zhou Ziheng's records yet!
"It's called 'Sad Pacific', a Mandarin album. If you want to listen to it, why bother buying it yourself? Why not just ask him to give you one?" Carina Lau answered while smiling as she looked at Zhou Ziheng who was answering the reporter's question.

(End of this chapter)