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Recently, Chow Yun-fat's speech at the Busan Film Festival in South Korea triggered heated discussions among netizens, and when talking about film-related topics, he praised Korean films while even complaining about the mainland's censorship mechanism.
When it comes to the topic of naked donation, which he often "hangs on his lips", he uncharacteristically said that the naked donation of 5.6 billion Hong Kong dollars was his wife's decision, and he himself did not want to donate, after all, the money was his hard-earned money.
Just these two topics, Zhou Yunfa has caused dissatisfaction among many netizens, most netizens feel that Zhou Yunfa, who is now 68 years old, is less and less like the "brother fa" in their minds, and now will only use the trick of "grandstanding" to maintain the heat.
In foreign countries, he complained about the domestic approval system, as well as the topic of whether to donate or not, and every once in a while he had to update it, but he said it for a long time, and he didn't know if he donated or not.
All these have led to Zhou Yunfa's reputation is decreasing year by year, of course, there are still many netizens who support Zhou Yunfa, but compare Andy Lau, whose reputation is getting better and better as he grows older.
Looking at his investment in movies for so many years, we should understand why Zhou Yunfa's reputation is getting worse and worse, it turns out that no matter when, what happens, actions are more effective than words, spit who won't!
Not long ago, a topic appeared on the hot search list, it turned out that some netizens found out: the end of the movie turned out to be Andy Lau! What do you mean by that? All because Andy Lau made a series of investments in the film market more than 10 years ago.
The two directors who have attracted the most attention this summer are the Olympic bid that directed "All or Nothing", and Wu Ershan, the director who filmed "The First Part of Fengsheng".
It is said that these two directors do not remind us of Andy Lau, but under closer inspection, these two excellent young directors have a close relationship with Andy Lau.
It is no exaggeration to say that they can become the directors of the limelight, really relying on Mr. Andy Lau's investment in them, or indirectly supporting them.
As we all know, in 2005, Andy Lau took out 25 million Hong Kong dollars to launch the "Asian Rising Star Guide" program, which is intended to support talented new directors in Asia.
The director Ning Hao, whom we now know, was seen by Andy Lau through this plan, and then he could get an investment of 3 million yuan to shoot his famous work "Crazy Stone".
You know, "Crazy Stone" was a relatively advanced movie at that time, which was regarded as the precedent of black comedy, and the investment of 3 million yuan can finally achieve a high box office of more than 30 million.
This naturally has a positive impact on the film market, allowing many directors to see the hope of the Chinese film market, and this is only the first step for Andy Lau to support new directors.
In fact, following Ning Hao's line, we can see Andy Lau's long-term investment in the film market, and after Ning Hao was well known to the majority of fans with "Crazy Stone", of course, he continued to output a lot of excellent movies.
For example, movies such as "Crazy Racing" and "The Great Gold Robbery", through these movies, we also met excellent film actors like Huang Bo and Lei Jiayin.
In addition, after Ning Hao became famous, he also followed Andy Lau, and he also wanted to support new directors, so, in 2016, Ning Hao launched the "Bad Monkey 72 Change Film Plan".
As soon as the program was launched, it supported a large number of excellent young directors, and it is no exaggeration to say that in recent years, almost all of the young directors we are familiar with have come from the program.
In 2017, Lu Yang met us with his movie "Embroidered Spring Dao II", and the following year, Wen Muye achieved a blockbuster in the directing industry with his "I Am Not the God of Medicine".
In 2019, a newcomer director named "Olympic Bid" brought his debut film "Beneficiary" to help Liu Yan win two "queen" trophies.
The second film to be released in the Olympic bid is this year's summer "Kill Crazy" movie "Desperate", which easily exceeded 3.8 billion at the box office and is currently ranked third in this year's mainland box office list.
It can be seen that with the support of director Ning Hao, Internal Entertainment has produced another excellent director who has sold well at the box office, but this is not the point, the focus is on these new directors supported by Ning Hao, and the themes of their movies are very novel.
Wen Muye's "I Am Not the God of Medicine" focuses on medical-related topics, while the Olympic bid "All or Nothing" is even more in step with the times, and it is related to telecom fraud.
At this point in the story, we should understand that although Andy Lau's "Asian Rising Star Guide" project 18 years ago seems to only let us know Ning Hao, an excellent young director.
But the "side effects" of the plan have been continuing, and Ning Hao's "Bad Monkey 72 Movie Change" plan is one of the stages.
Just this stage has sent a large number of excellent young directors to the film market, as well as endless new theme films.
With this, Andy Lau has used practical actions to "punch the face" those who will only complain about the approval system, good movies need to be supported by actions, don't just raise questions, the key is to find a way to solve the problem.
And this summer, another "kill crazy" director Wu Ershan, he can be seen by the majority of fans, but also thanks to Andy Lau, it turns out that in 2009, Andy Lau launched the "Asian Star Gravity Project".
Wu Ershan was the first new director to launch the program, and until then, he had been making commercials and short films, and it was with Andy Lau's financial support that he made his first commercial film, Sword Laughter.
With this film, Wu Ershan won the Best New Director Award at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards, and since then, the gears of his fate have begun to spin rapidly, after which he has the opportunity to shoot excellent films such as "Painted Skin II" and "Finding the Dragon".
And this summer's new work "Fengshen Trilogy", although only one of them has been released so far, and the box office results are placed in the entire summer file, which is not the best existence.
However, the impact of the film on the entire film shooting field of domestic entertainment is very long-term, such as the film's actor selection mechanism and the mode of three consecutive films, which are all innovations in the traditional film model.
Seeing this, it is only Andy Lau's way of using funds to promote the development of the film, in addition, he himself has also done a lot of things, he did not blindly stay in the glory of the past, relying on "selling feelings" to make money.
In recent years, Andy Lau has been more concerned about the subject matter, a good theme, not only can he not only not pay for the film, but even pay for the film out of his own pocket.
In 2012, Andy Lau starred in the rare literary film "Sister Peach", which focuses on the topic of pension, and the angle is still very novel in the direction of servants and young masters.
Andy Lau is naturally very interested in such a film, and considering that literary films cannot make money at all, and it is difficult to attract investment, he decided not only to star in zero salary, but also to take out 30 million as an investment in the film.
Facts have proved that Andy Lau does have vision, although the box office of "Sister Peach" was average, but the reputation was excellent, and it won many film awards.
In 2016, Andy Lau starred in the movie "Orphaned" with the theme of "fighting abduction", the plot of this movie is very touching to him, the plot comes from real life, and it focuses on social hot topics.
In the film, he also played a peasant role for the first time, which made Andy Lau feel that he had to shoot, so he once again chose zero pay to star in the film.
The director of the film, Peng Sanyuan, is still making a movie for the first time, and a movie celebrity like Andy Lau can trust her so much, which shows that Andy Lau has always taken the film itself as the starting point.
He cares more about whether these excellent movies can come out than whether they make money, and if there are difficulties, whether he can help and contribute money.
In recent years, this phenomenon has reversed, and many young directors who have become famous, after receiving Andy Lau's help, have invited Andy Lau to star in their new works.
This also makes Andy Lau's recent works dabble in many new fields, and this year's Spring Festival file, he appeared in the sci-fi movie "The Wandering Earth 2".
Many people don't understand the reason behind this, in fact, when "The Wandering Earth 1" was released in 2019, many people didn't understand why the end of the film was thanks to Mr. Andy Lau.
It is said that Andy Lau is neither the starring actor nor invested in the film, but why should director Guo Fan thank him in particular? In the final analysis, Andy Lau has helped Ning Hao.
And Ning Hao continued this kindness to many new directors, in addition to following Andy Lau's "Bad Monkey 72 Change" plan, he ceded the copyright of "The Wandering Earth" to Guo Fan.
At that time, Ning Hao and Guo Fan went to the United States to participate in a director support activity, and in the chat with Guo Fan, he learned that Guo Fan wanted to shoot "The Wandering Earth", and through understanding, he felt that Guo Fan also had the ability to shoot science fiction films.
Therefore, Ning Hao did not hesitate to give the copyright of "The Wandering Earth" to Guo Fan, we all know that shooting sci-fi films is very "money-burning", and Guo Fan, as a new director, can bring in very limited investment.
And when he filmed "The Wandering Earth", it happened that Ning Hao was filming "Crazy Alien", which will also use a lot of props from the sci-fi theme.
Considering that Guo Fan may have this need, in order to help him save some funds, Ning Hao took the initiative to send some props to the crew of "The Wandering Earth" so that he could reuse them.
It can be said that "The Wandering Earth" can be released smoothly, and Ning Hao is definitely one of the great heroes, but in the final analysis, it is thanks to Andy Lau's help to Ning Hao many years ago, otherwise Ning Hao would not be able to help other directors.
After the success of "The Wandering Earth", in order to thank Andy Lau for his dedication to Chinese films, I learned that Andy Lau also wanted to make sci-fi movies.
Therefore, when filming "The Wandering Earth 2", director Guo Fan immediately invited Andy Lau, which Andy Lau of course accepted gladly, he was too willing to appear in these advanced movies.
In addition to Guo Fan's invitation to Andy Lau to star in his own movie in a grateful way, at the beginning of the whole incident, director Ning Hao, who was the first to receive Andy Lau's help, also brought his new work "Mr. Red Carpet" to repay the favor this year.
As fans, we are all looking forward to Ning Hao being able to cooperate with Andy Lau, but we didn't expect to wait for 18 years, and on October 27, 2023, "Mr. Red Carpet" will meet us.
It is reported that the film is a comedy tailored by Ning Hao for Andy Lau, the story takes place in the entertainment industry, Andy Lau plays an actor who has been in the film for 40 years, but has not won the actor.
In order to win the actor, he decided to cooperate with the director played by Ning Hao to shoot a film with a rural theme, and it is in this process that some ironic stories will occur.
Just looking at this plot, we know that Ning Hao used a lot of ingenuity on the film, because the film happens to be the same as real life in terms of character settings and plots, and there are completely different presentations, I believe it will definitely bring surprises to the audience.
Andy Lau also has a new movie being screened in cinemas recently, that is, "Operation Moscow", which was filmed by Hong Kong director Yau Litao, and it is reported that the two of them are also old acquaintances.
When Andy Lau first debuted, Qiu Litao was only a cameraman, and they had cooperated with each other, but Andy Lau was not too impressed with Qiu Litao.
After that, Qiu Litao changed careers to become a director, he made many themes of movies, including horror films, drama films, and romance films, and Andy Lau's "Love Fantasy", which is still listed as one of the bad films starring Andy Lau.
But even so, Andy Lau still remembered Qiu Litao, the director, and felt that he was very powerful, no matter what the subject matter was and how much the budget was, he had a way to finish the film and try to do the best.
Yau Litao has worked silently in the Hong Kong film industry for many years, and not many people know him at all, until Andy Lau found him and gave him money to shoot "Bomb Disposal Expert", and a series of movies such as "Drug Sweep 2" later.
It is precisely because of these movies that Qiu Litao finally made a name for himself in the film industry, and this "Moscow Action" is also his second cooperation with Andy Lau, which is still in theater screening, I believe the box office results are also good.
In fact, in recent years, Andy Lau's new works have emerged one after another, and it is said that his film invitations have been scheduled for several years, in addition to his fame and help the box office.
Many directors who work with him are actually using this kind of cooperation to repay the favor, who calls Andy Lau a workaholic and likes to make movies!
In this way, even if Andy Lau is now over 60 years old, it is said that the theater path should be narrower and narrower, but he does not worry about no filming, and the subject matter of shooting is becoming richer and richer, which is the reward he deserves for supporting newcomers.
In contrast, Zhou Yunfa's withering film career, this year he finally returned with his new work "Don't Call Me "God of Gamblers", but the result was disappointing, many netizens bluntly said that he was "selling feelings", playing the same old way as before.
Listening to his speech at the Busan Film Festival, we should understand that if you don't find a solution just by complaining, people can only be stuck in place, and he should learn from Andy Lau, and the conditions are limited and can create conditions.
If he also shows the same attitude as Andy Lau and uses his film status to support some newcomers, then the film market can achieve "a hundred flowers" even if there are some restrictions!