The rivalry between Jiahe and Shaw drove the prosperity of the entire Hong Kong film industry in the 1970s.
But what Jiahe did not expect was in the 1980s.
It was suddenly challenged by a film company called "New Arts City", and Jiahe's competition with "New Arts City" quickly led the Hong Kong film industry into its heyday in the 1980s.
From 1980 to 1990, a full decade, the "New Art City" was founded to dissoluted.
It has created another brilliant journey in the history of Hong Kong cinema.
"Chasing Girls", "Best Partner" series, "Happy Ghost" series, "Lucky Star" series, "Rich and Powerful" series,
Shi Tian, Mai Jia, Huang Baiming, Xu Ke, Xu Guanjie, Wu Yusen, Zhou Runfa, Hong Jinbao, Zeng Zhiwei...
These filmmakers, who are closely related to New Art City, are almost representative figures that we can't ignore when we talk about Hong Kong films.
Whether it's film ideas or market performance.
New Arts City was the most branded film institution in the Hong Kong film industry in the 1980s.
The establishment of the "New Art City" company benefited from its first support from the "Golden Princess" theater line.
Jiahe and Shaw's two major companies are not only big film producers, but also big film distributors, and both have their own independent theaters.
These two companies have a near monopoly position on the Chinese film market in Hong Kong.
To the latecomers, the "Golden Princess" theater line does not leave much room for calm development.
The grim situation forced the "Golden Princess" to realize that she had to find a suitable production agency for her own theatrical distribution network.
In this context, the independent production company formed by Mai Jia, Shi Tian, and Huang Baiming "struggles".
The creativity and achievements that have been steady in the market have been recognized by the "Golden Princess".
In 1980, "Struggle" joined the "Golden Princess", and in September 1980, "Struggle" was officially renamed "New Art City".
Judging from the background of the birth of the "New Art City" film company and the realistic environment in which it is located, the path of "New Art City" and the rapid rise of Jiahe from Shaw's internal killing and receiving theater support is quite similar.
The support of cinemas for film production institutions means that the market sales problem of film production is first solved, and the film products can be directly entered into the market through effective distribution channels.
This undoubtedly gives film production institutions a relatively relaxed creative environment, because the door of the market has been opened, but at the same time, it is actually a kind of pressure.
As an investor in film production institutions, the cinema side forces film production institutions to soberly realize that if they cannot dig the "first bucket of gold" for themselves and investors in the market that has opened their doors.
Then in the fierce competition in the film market, it is possible to face the embarrassing dilemma of "starting is the end".
Fortunately, the entrepreneurs of "New Art City" have long realized this, and the so-called "Seven Creative Group" composed of Mai Jia, Shi Tian, Huang Baiming, Xu Ke, Shi Nansheng, Zeng Zhiwei, and Teddy Robin is composed.
They have their own accurate judgments about the basic development of mainstream commercial films in Hong Kong, each with their own talents, and they all share the deep-rooted commercial aesthetic traditions of Hong Kong films.
In February 1981, Mai Jia found the last of the "7 Monsters": Zeng Zhiwei. "Why don't you come back to New Art City with me?" "How can you live without money?" "The monthly salary is 20,000 yuan for the house and car rental." That's it -
Mai Jia pulled Zeng Zhiwei, who could not be moved by others, for the new art city, and it was less than two minutes before and after.
At this point, the seven monsters of the New Art City gathered together and began the journey of conquest in the Hong Kong film market, and no one knew that they would write a brilliant chapter in the history of Hong Kong in the future.
In the collision of their collective creative wisdom, almost all the representative film works produced by "New Art City",
Without exception, they swept the box office with the sharpness of "turning out" in the film market at that time, which was impressive.
Grasp the market opportunity, quickly occupy the market high ground with competitive film products, and become the killer of "New Art City" to establish its brand status in one fell swoop, which constituted a strong pioneering momentum in the film market at that time.
If you pay attention to the production of "New Art City", you will find that in the ten years of "New Art City", they have produced and launched many film sequels, and the market response of sequels is beyond the expectations of other companies.
The "Best Partner" series, the "Happy Ghost" series, the "Rich and Powerful" series, the "Heroic Nature" series, the "Family With Happy Affairs" series, etc. can all be selected as the most influential sequels in the history of Hong Kong cinema.
The development of film sequels is a typical market behavior, and the market-based brand growth strategy of "New Art City" can be described as vivid in this regard.
The brand slogan of "New Art City" is: New Art City production Audience confidence.
This kind of value positioning makes the essence of "New Art City" market-based is actually to fully respect the audience's choice and take the audience's preferences as the greatest dependence.
The paranoid and fickle psychology of the market and the audience has always stimulated the unlimited creativity of "New Art City" films.
Taking "Best Partner" as an example, the film can be said to have made great achievements in the "New Art City" in the market conquest of thorns.
The film has both the hilarious style of a Hong Kong comedy film and the obvious impulse to imitate Hollywood spy films, wonderful street chases, well-intentioned stunt shots, and innovative technological gimmicks.
Hong Kong films, known for their kung fu and action, have broken through the long-standing pattern of low-level repetitive production in one fell swoop, and on the basis of retaining the cultural characteristics of Hong Kong films, they have integrated Chinese and foreign countries, making the film full of vitality and confidence.
The outstanding performances of stars such as Xu Guanjie, the smooth plot narrative, the gags of comedy details, the commercial elements of Hollywood movies, large-scale movie stunt scenes, and so on.
The standard of film production achieved by these specialized "packaging" was indeed rare in Hong Kong at that time.
The "hard work" and "intention" of the members of "New Art City" have won the audience's confidence in the work for themselves. "Best Partner" grossed HK$27 million at the time, breaking the highest box office record in Hong Kong's film market since its opening.
Looking back at the history of the "New Art City", most of the most classic works of the "New Art City" are comedies, and the most in-depth view of the hearts of the people is still comedy. It is not without reason that "New Art City" chose a production route that specializes almost exclusively in comedy.
In the history of Hong Kong film development, there has always been a tradition of comedy. And since the 1970s, comedy cinema has once again reached a climax in Hong Kong.
Films such as "Seventy-Two Tenants" directed by Chu Yuan, "Ghost Horse Double Stars," "Genius and Idiots," and "Half a Pound, Eight Twos, And Twos, and Half a Pound, Eight Twos" by Xu Guanwen, Xu Guanjie, and Xu Guanying brothers, as well as "kung fu comedies" such as Jackie Chan's "Snake-like Executioner" and "Drunken Fist" have all brought about a new wave of comedy films.
During this period, the economy of the Hong Kong region developed rapidly, and the material living standards of the Hong Kong people rapidly improved.
In the tense and efficient social and economic life, the comedy movie full of human touch and civilian color satisfies the audience's spiritual needs to relax and compensate for the psychology of loss.
"New Art City" has taken a fancy view of this wave of comedy films, seized the opportunity, and the first film produced by "Funny Times" has been a hit in the market in the form of paying tribute to the world's comedy master Charlie Chaplin.
From the perspective of enterprise operation, for a film company such as "New Art City" that has just entered the market,
How to most effectively control production costs, and how to fully guarantee that the film genre has considerable market value, this question is very important.
With not too much capital investment, it has obtained a relatively generous market return.
The rationality of this "small investment, large return" will inevitably make the investor "Golden Princess" happy, and the follow-up financial support can be imagined.
Subsequent comedies such as "Ghost Horse Wisdom Multi-Star" and "Chasing Girls" all relied on the production route of "small investment, big return" to create a market reputation for "New Art City" and accumulated abundant funds.
The nascent "New Art City" can be in the fiercely competitive film market.
Left and right, the boat is small and good to turn around, always in the market with ease.
It is precisely this ease of play that makes the sharpness of the newborn calves of the "New Art City" grow into a pride that is higher than the sky. They are obviously not satisfied with the traditional comedy film model of small fights, but to make the most beautiful comedy.
The "Best Beat" series and the "Happy Ghost" series combine comedy elements with mature genre film elements, and do not hesitate to borrow rich audiovisual means, and their mixed comedy style is refreshing.
Of course, it also has criticisms. In 1984, New Art City actively lowered the age of the heroine based on the results of its market research.
In films such as Happy Ghost, Happy Ghost Summer Vacation, and Happy Paradise, they constructed a world dominated by high school girls ("St. Noble Girls' High School"). And make them dress pleasantly.
Rather, swimsuits or pink dresses and shorts that please the male gaze to satisfy the voyeuristic gaze of the male audience.
These films are passionate about showing female students participating in relay runs, volleyball competitions, swimming, table tennis, bathing, undressing and other scenes. The manipulators and viewers behind this "daughter country" are predominantly male.
Girls on screen became the target of sexual exploitation by male audiences. What best illustrates this is that the film allows plump girls to run without bras and only tight sweatshirts, showing their pulsating bodies in slow motion.
Of course, these leaping bodies themselves are typical urban citizen comedies but with luxurious star casts and New Year schedules, and have become the most comfortable comedy fast food for Hong Kong audiences.
With cinema support as the center, with the flexible film imagination and the sober awareness of film commercial operation as the two basic points,
New Arts City Company achieved a variety of business performance throughout the Hong Kong film market in the 1980s. The unique brand building and brand communication strategy of "New Arts City" constitute an important artistic and commercial experience in the golden stage of Hong Kong film development.
Two pieces of gold are laid out there, and who knows which one is clean and which one is dirty? No one knows.