I didn't want to be an actor

Tong Jili's famous work was not a collaboration with Jackie Chan.

As early as "Project A" (1983), Tong Jili was a martial artist in the crew. Later, he developed independently and made a movie "Dragon in the Demon Realm", which was filmed in Indonesia and had a lot of fighting and helicopter scenes. Ho Kuan Chang asked Jackie Chan to guess how much Tong Jili spent on the film. When he learned that the cost was only 500,000, Jackie Chan was very surprised, so he began to seek cooperation, and then there were later masterpieces such as "Police Story 3", "Rumble in the Bronx" and "Myth" that have been passed down to this day.

Tong Jili is a director among that group of Hong Kong directors who is more capable of using resources to dispatch "action scenes", and Tong Jili's way of presenting scenes is still a "stupid way" in our view today, that is, insisting on real shooting, so that the movie was filmed in XJ Zhaosu, with thousands of extras and 10,000 horses to create a "thousands of troops" scene.

But... the scenes created are not to be compared with Zhang Yimou's "Hero", even the scenes of "The Lion King" are much more awesome than "Legend"!

He doesn’t understand war scenes…

Otherwise, “Legend” wouldn’t have replicated “Myth”…

Shen Liang didn’t give him any face and said directly: “Director Tang, I’m more straightforward, but I really think the scene arrangement of “Myth” is quite weak… We want to shoot ancient wars, I guess you’re not suitable!”

Tang Jili probably hasn’t met such a young man…

Following Jackie Chan for decades, Tang Jili is also considered an internationally famous director. His masterpiece “Rumble in the Bronx” sold 32.34 million US dollars in North America and successfully helped Jackie Chan enter Hollywood.

Later, he returned to the mainland to develop and became a first-line commercial director with Jackie Chan…

Cooperated with China Film to establish China Film (Shanghai) International Media Company - this company is jointly invested by China Film Digital Film Development Co., Ltd., China Film Equipment Co., Ltd., China International Media Group Co., Ltd., and Huada Films.

Tang Jili served as managing director, formed an international production team, and launched a heavy punch to conquer the international co-production market.

Therefore, in the past few years, there have been “Vanguard” and “Legend”. He has KPIs to complete, and he is responsible for bringing mainland movies to the international market every year.

He definitely can't do this by himself, he has to rely on Jackie Chan, so "Legend" gave Jackie Chan a lot of scenes...

"Who do you think is the most suitable?"

Shen Liang thought for a while, then said: "Director Zhang Yimou is quite suitable..."

Jackie Chan's eyes lit up: "...Have you talked to Zhang Yimou?"

"No, but Director Zhang, as a native of Shaanxi, should be happy to make a movie like this!"

"Isn't he filming "Man Jiang Hong"? "

Shen Liang smiled: "Director Zhang can prepare two or three movies at the same time..."

"I always wanted to work with Director Zhang...but there was no suitable story!"

That's right, it's really hard to find a role that is suitable for Jackie Chan and suitable for showing the performance of a great director. As early as 1995, Jackie Chan talked to Zhang Yimou...

But they never worked together!

"I think the main reason is that the big brother's movies have too much personal characteristics. Director Zhang Yimou had a lot of personal characteristics in the early days, also known as authorial characteristics. You two have conflicts! This is called the king does not meet the king!"

"...Can you persuade Director Zhang Yimou?"

Shen Liang thought for a while: "It's not a big problem..."

"Cheng, when will it be filmed?"

"Maybe in July next year..."

...

In fact, as early as 2009, Jackie Chan had already collaborated with Er Dongsheng in "Shinjuku Incident". Jackie Chan's role in it can be said to be the most subversive in his career, even more subversive than "The Foreigner" in 2017 with Martin Campbell.

In fact, the action design of "The Foreigner" was directed by the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, so the character played by Jackie Chan in that movie still has some shadows of his previous style when fighting, such as jumping, dodging, moving, etc.; but in "Shinjuku Incident", Jackie Chan played a character who can't fight at all.

Before the filming of "Shinjuku Incident", Er Dongsheng was not very reassured, because he also knew that Jackie Chan's status was there, and he was afraid that it would be difficult for him to direct as a director.

But Jackie Chan said that he would just be an actor this time and would not interfere with any of his creative work, so Er Dongsheng let go and filmed.

It's normal. Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow are the two most accomplished actors in the Chinese film industry.

It's not quite accurate to say that they are actors. To be precise, they should both be the core of the film with their own system. In other words, if there are two of them in a movie, they must be the core of the film. The whole movie revolves around such a core actor. Moreover, the whole movie, no matter who the director is or who the supporting actor is, the overall style must have Jackie Chan/Stephen Chow's distinctive personal style, which will override everything else.

However, this was at the peak.

Now the acting careers of the two are basically coming to an end.

In "Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Miles to Anxi" mentioned by Shen Liang, Jackie Chan is actually the second protagonist, and the core of the play and the growth attributes are all placed on Lu Shisi played by Shen Liang.

According to Shen Liang’s idea, most of this script is about two people sending money and going through three difficulties: natural disasters, man-made disasters, and desires…

The natural disaster is the desert sandstorm, and the man-made disaster is the robbers…

The desire refers to Lu Shisi passing by an inn and experiencing the beauty test…

Passing through the three tests, entering the city!

To be honest, Shen Liang was not sure that he could convince Jackie Chan to act…

So, he said he would ask Zhang Yi to direct…

But…Shen Liang rejected Zhang Yi twice in a row—"On the Cliff" and "Man Jiang Hong".

However, when he told Chen Jiadong about this, the latter was not worried about whether Zhang Yi would direct it, but asked: "Are you the absolute protagonist of this play?"

"...Probably so..."

Chen Jiadong: "That's good!"

"Ah? Aren't you worried that Zhang Yimou won't direct?"

Chen Jiadong: "Director Zhang...I'll go and persuade you. If that doesn't work, let's get Mr. Fu along!"

"...Do you know anything?"

"...Although Director Zhang still loves movies, his current state does not value movies as much as before!"

Lao Zhang doesn't have the star-making enthusiasm that created Mou Girl in the previous two eras.

The most typical example is Liu Haochun.

Compared with the previous Mou Girl, the most different thing about Liu Haochun is that she is the first artist signed by Zhang Yi Studio.

As a result, one of the funniest phenomena in the advertising industry has occurred. Liu Haochun, who has a purple star aura from the sky, is endorsing big-name advertisements while giving platform to micro-business brands.

The magic of this micro-business brand is that behind the brand is Chen Ting’s mother, who is Zhang Yimou’s current wife.

When Shen Liang heard what he said, he scratched his head: "Each of the four of us will get 50% of this play, and we won't find any other investors!"

Chen Jiadong asked: "Why 25% for each person? We will take at least 50% of the investment, transfer 10% to Jackie Chan, 20% to China Film, and the rest to China Film, Tengxun and Douyin..."

"I heard that he is very close to Huanxi Media..."

"It doesn't matter who he is close to... This is our project. If it doesn't work, we will change the director... Don't you want to find a director who is good at staging large scenes? Lu Yang or Cao Dun will do it!"

"...But if the director is changed, Jackie Chan may not be willing to join!"

Chen Jiadong: "...It's okay. You cooperate with Jackie Chan and you write the screenplay yourself. If that doesn't work, let's go to Hollywood to find a director!"

Shen Liang was confused: "Hollywood doesn't understand China, does it?"

"I'm just making an analogy...you have to show your momentum!"

"We are cooperating, please show some respect to me...I find you are very floating now!"

Chen Jiadong smiled awkwardly on the other end of the phone: "That's what I said..."

"Don't play harp, I don't even have harp, why are you so mad?"