Dreams of the Fragrant River

: Seventy-Nine [First Appearance In Taipei]

It took more than a week for the members of the cast of “Mr. Zombie” to obtain Taiwan visas. In early April, Kang Jianfei flew to Taiwan with everyone.

Li Saifeng is the heroine of this film, but because she has to record the soundtrack of “Happy Ghost”, it will take some time before she can come. However, Lin Zhengying, the male lead, also left early. He is not only the male lead, but also the action director of the film.

Shooting action scenes is a technical job, and it doesn’t mean that anyone with good kung fu can be an action director. Bruce Lee is very skilled, right? But when Bruce Lee was making a movie, as long as Lin Zhengying was not there, he would not turn it on, because only the movements designed by Lin Zhengying could satisfy him.

Kang Jianfei’s group used to do the preparatory work for the filming. The selection of a specific location, rental of shooting equipment, preparation of props and costumes, contact with local extras, etc., must be done well in advance, and the actual shooting will be at least a week later.

When Kang Jianfei came to Taipei, the first batch of follow-up works of “Happy Ghost” also began to be released.

Gui Zhihong, the old director of Shaw Brothers, made a film “The Upper Body of a Salty Wet Ghost”, which tells a series of funny stories about a bank clerk who was upper body by a pornographic ghost. Before the film was released, it used the signboard of “Happy Ghost” to play side-by-side propaganda intentionally or unintentionally, and it received a box office of 3.06 million in 18 days.

You must know that the number of viewers at this time is far less than that during the Chinese New Year period. “The Upper Body of Xian Shi Gui” can get a box office of more than 3 million, which can be said to be an outstanding achievement.

After Kang Jianfei received the news in Taipei, he could only laugh and cry, because in the original time and space, there was absolutely no movie “The Upper Body of Salty Wet Ghost”.

In the last few years of Shaw Brothers, Gui Zhihong was regarded as a rare box office hero. If it wasn’t influenced by Kang Jianfei, Gui Zhihong should have made a movie “Evil” this year. After the response was good, he would make a sequel “Evil Fighting Evil” immediately, followed by “Evil Curse” and “Evil After Evil” next year, until the audience I stopped when I heard the word “evil” and got sick.

In the two cinema chains of Jiahe and Princess Jin, there are also several “Happy Ghosts” follow-up films, such as “Campus Joyful Ghosts”, “Wicked Ghosts on the Street” and so on, the box office has exceeded one million.

The reason why several follow-up films have been released in a row is that “Happy Ghost” has a high box office and stimulated other directors, and the other is that this kind of funny ghost film has low cost and does not have high requirements for directors and actors, unlike Cheng Long’s “Junior Brother”. It’s so hard to imitate.

After several consecutive follow-up films sold for money, more small and medium-sized film companies were immediately stimulated. According to later statistics, until the end of 1980, as many as 9 follow-up films of “Happy Ghost” were released, but more were pressed in the warehouse to eat dust after they were filmed.

Seeing this situation, Lei Juekun personally called Kang Jianfei and asked Kang Jianfei to quickly make a sequel to “Happy Ghost”, strike while the iron is hot and get a high box office.

Kang Jianfei originally wanted to shoot the second part of “Happy Ghost” in the second half of the year, but seeing this situation, he planned to postpone the shooting plan until this trend had passed.

The experience of going to the police station after encountering a robber that day made Kang Jianfei suddenly have the idea to make a police and gangster movie. One of the important reasons why Kang Jianfei came to Taipei early this time was to contact the actors for the heroine of his next police and gangster movie.

Because this actor is very big and difficult to hire, Kang Jianfei must personally go out and try his best to convince the other party to go to Hong Kong to make a film.

At the same time, Mecca’s Struggle Film Company also handed in the first answer sheet for Princess Jin, and Mecca’s self-directed and starred “Crazy Old Thousand” was a great success, with a box office of 3.12 million in 20 days of release.

On the other side of Nanyang, “Happy Ghost” has been released in Southeast Asian countries for more than half a month. Due to the operation of Cathay Pacific Cinemas, the cumulative box office of “Happy Ghost” to the present in Nanyang is more than 2.7 million US dollars, equivalent to more than 20 million Hong Kong dollars. Among them, the audiences in Singapore and Malaysia responded the most strongly, and their viewing popularity was even comparable to that of “Junior Brother”, but in Thailand and the Philippines, they were much colder, and the box office situation was rather shabby.

As for Taiwan, due to the need to re-form the Mandarin dialogue, “Happy Ghost” was not screened in Taipei for the first time until a week after Kang Jianfei went to Taiwan.

The South Korean film plan has also been done, but Japan has some troubles. The main reason is that Princess Jin’s current overseas distribution capability is too weak, and “Happy Ghost” is not well-known from the director to the actors. The conditions proposed by all the Japanese filmmakers are very harsh, and they are still negotiating.

……

……

As soon as he got off the plane, Hu Juncai became nervous, his eyes wandered around, like a bad guy with bad intentions.

Kang Jianfei smiled and said, “What are you doing? It’s like being a thief.”

Hu Juncai said with sweat on his palms: “I heard that Taiwan is full of white terror. Anyone can be a spy. If they are caught, they will be severely tortured.”

Kang Jianfei said speechlessly, “Is Hong Kong still a rotten capitalist society? Do you see if Hong Kong people are living in dire straits, waiting for you to rescue them?”

After picking up the luggage, Pan Yingzi said to the crowd, “I have already contacted Manager Ma on the phone, and I am also a regular customer of the Jinyue Hotel near the Cultural City, where I can get a 15% discount on accommodation.”

“Excuse me, Miss Pan.” Kang Jianfei nodded at her and smiled. If someone who is not familiar with Taipei would do these things, how could it be so convenient, just a few phone calls.

Everyone drove to the Jinyue Hotel to stay, and after a short rest, they split up.

Zhong Zhiwen, Zhong Yuan, Wu Chenggang, Qi Bo, Hu Juncai, and Chen Bingkun took the addresses and units given by Pan Yingzi, and were responsible for leasing shooting equipment, contacting the crew for meals, recruiting crew members and extras, and so on.

There is no way. Now the company has too few staff, even technicians have to do field work, and even make-up artists have to be recruited temporarily in Taipei.

Of course, Kang Jianfei couldn’t let everyone do it for nothing. Before he came to Taipei, he had promised to give 5% of the local box office to the current employees of the film crew as dividends. If the box office is a big hit, even ordinary employees like Li Shan and Zhang Xu who are squatting in the company will have a red envelope.

Kang Jianfei likes to cheat people, but they are all people who have nothing to do with him. The truth that rabbits don’t eat grass at the edge of the nest has been known since he was a little pickpocket.

To pit one’s own people is to pit oneself. Every employee of the company is a fortune. How to keep this wealth? Kang Jianfei saves others by himself, and believes that interests are the most practical things.

Kang Jianfei didn’t give Zhong Zhiwen and the others all the dividends from the filming of “Happy Ghost”, because they were not his own people at the beginning, but they can’t be stingy in the future.

After assigning everyone’s affairs properly, Kang Jianfei, Pan Yingzi, Chen Xunqi, and Lin Zhengying went to China Film Cultural City to choose a specific location, and by the way, they met Manager Ma of the Cultural City.

China Film Culture City is located on Zhishan Road, Shilin District, Taipei. It was originally a studio of China Film Corporation, and was later rebuilt into a cinema with antique buildings, covering an area of nearly 50,000 square meters.

At this time, many ancient costumes and early Republic films in Hong Kong and Taiwan were shot in the China Film Cultural City, and they were also open to tourists, so the cultural city was very lively. It was not until after the lifting of martial law in Taiwan, that the crews of Hong Kong and Taiwan went to the mainland to shoot live scenes, and the China Film Cultural City gradually declined.

It is precisely because the China Film Culture City is so popular that the manager Ma of the Cultural City has a very nourishing life, and after seeing Kang Jianfei, he also looks arrogant.

Manager Ma is called Ma Yunsheng, with a chubby body and a pair of squinted eyes, he holds Pan Yingzi’s hand enthusiastically, stares at her fascinatedly, and says, “Oh, rare guest, Miss Pan, you haven’t seen her for more than a year. Coming to Taiwan, I miss my old horse so much!”

“Manager Ma, you’re welcome, let me introduce you,” Pan Yingzi pulled back her hand and said, “This is Mr. Kang Jianfeikang, who is also my current boss. This is Mr. Lin Zhengying, who used to be a big boss. The right-hand man of star Bruce Lee. This is Mr. Chen Xunqi, a famous Hong Kong music composer.”

“Happy Ghost” has not yet been released in Taiwan, so Ma Yunsheng didn’t pay much attention to Kang Jianfei, he just shook hands with the three of Kang Jianfei and said, “Hello, hello!”

Looking at Pan Yingzi’s face, Ma Yunsheng personally took the four people to visit the Cultural City and introduced them. Kang Jianfei finally chose five main filming locations.

In the evening, Ma Yunsheng offered to invite the four of them to dinner, saying that he wanted to catch the wind and dust for them, but this fellow’s eyes kept on Pan Yingzi.

Taking advantage of the interval between going to the restaurant, Kang Jianfei whispered to Pan Yingzi: “Miss Pan, this manager Ma seems to be very interested in you.”

Pan Yingzi laughed and said, “That fat fat man is a lecher. I heard that I’m divorced, and it was revealed on the phone that he wanted to make me a lover, and he didn’t count how much money he had!”

Kang Jianfei asked jokingly, “I also want to cover you, Sister Azi. I don’t know how much money is enough?”

Pan Yingzi was a woman who could make a joke, she gave Kang Jianfei a teasing wink and said with a smile, “If you want, you can get a 50% discount.”

Zhao Yazhi’s beauty is a kind of dignified and elegant, but Pan Yingzi is different. This woman was born with a childlike face, and in her 30s, she was as delicate as a girl, but with her innocent face, she was a pair of charming and enchanting peach blossom eyes.

Such a strong contrast made Pan Yingzi’s peach blossom eyes full of electricity, and Kang Jianfei felt her heart beating faster when she gave Kang Jianfei a glance.

This woman is not kind!

Kang Jianfei shouted: Evil, where to escape!

————

Uh, in the first few chapters, Old Wang was brain-twitching, and he deviates from the outline as he writes, so take it back now.

Also, guess what Kang Jianfei’s next movie will be? Oh cop movie.

PS, the book will be on the shelves on October 1st, and it will be updated at least 10,000 words every day. Book your monthly ticket here. During the National Day, it is estimated that the monthly ticket will be doubled. Don’t be stingy with the tickets in your hand.