In the 80s of the last century, Hong Kong had a powerful film company "New Arts City", which single-handedly withstood the joint resistance of Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest, and connected Zeng Zhiwei, Tsui Hark and other bigwigs who later called for wind and rain in the entertainment industry, and worked hard for the progress of Hong Kong films, with remarkable achievements.
And the leader of this company is the "bald guy" Mai Jia.
At first glance, you may not know the name, but if you say that the "Pistachio" series of movies must be very familiar. He led the production of many popular movies in Hong Kong in the 80s, and the new art city under the leadership of Mak Jia once became the guarantee of the film's reputation.
As the leader of the "Three Giants of New Art City" and "Seven Monsters of New Art City", after the passage of time, he has become the most silent existence among several people.
Today we are going to talk about the story of the comedy genius Mai Jia.
01
In 1975, Mai Jia studied engineering in the United States with flowing hair, but because of homesickness, he often went to Chinatown to watch kung fu movies.
Just do it, the next year Mai Jia ran back to Hong Kong, prepared to set up a "pioneer studio", and filmed "A Bachelor Walks the World" according to the routine of the American western cowboy, but the box office was dismal, and the studio went bankrupt after not making a few films.
The huge loss of money was like a basin of cold water that made Mai Jia calm down, and even had the idea of retreating, forget it, stop making movies.
At this time, someone introduced him to Sammo Hung , and the two even cooperated with a company in a hurry, but Sammo Hung had other film companies to take care of, and his energy was limited, so he finally failed. Frankly speaking, Sammo Hung is not a noble person of Mai Jia, and he has not provided Mai Jia with any substantial help, but his attention has given Mai Jia a lot of confidence.
In 1979, Mai Jia, who had smelled the taste of successful people, cooperated with Shi Tian and Huang Baiming to establish Struggle Film Co., Ltd. and began the first stage of ascension.
Shi Tian also seems to be a relatively unfamiliar name. Compared with being an actor, his work focuses more on behind-the-scenes production and film promotion, and one of the most well-known roles is the mentally deranged Ryusi in "True Colors of Heroes 2".
In contrast, the most well-known of the three is Huang Baiming, who has participated in a lot of comedy movies, the lascivious big brother in "Happy Family", and the starring costume ghost in "Happy Ghost", in addition, he is also a screenwriter, producer, director, and an all-round talent.
The cooperation between the three is very harmonious, they have filmed several works, made a small profit, and lived a beautiful life. At this time, the capital saw the potential of the "struggle" company and injected a sum of funds, so that the three of them had the confidence to show their skills and have someone to carry out their skills.
In 1980, the legendary company "New Art City" was established, and the era of Maijia began.
In order to make the company's development more smooth, the company's films began to experiment with different styles, and the first person to be incorporated was Tsui Hark. At that time, Tsui Hark was still an unlucky director who made a film, although his talent was recognized by many people, but he just didn't prove himself at the box office.
After joining New Arts City, Tsui Hark filmed a "Ghost Horse Smart Multi-Star", which not only won a big victory at the box office, but also won the Golden Horse Award.
After that, Zeng Zhiwei, Shi Nansheng, and Teddy Robin joined the company one after another, and the sincere cooperation of 7 people created a golden age for New Arts City, and it was also a golden age for Hong Kong films.
02
Mai Jia's first role in Xinyi City was the trafficker in "Funny Times", which was directed by John Woo and starred Shi Tian and Wu Ma.
The role of the trafficker is weak on the surface, but in fact he is a sinister, treacherous, and ambitious underworld boss who often does some illegal and criminal things.
The success of this role opened the way for Mai Jia to act.
The movie that really made Mai Jia a smash hit and went down in film history was "Best Partner".
This movie is not small, it is a comedy film directed by Zeng Zhiwei and starring Mai Jia, Zhang Aijia, and Xu Guanjie. Tsui Hark also starred in friendship in it.
Mai Jia played a bald detective in it, with a thick Shandong accent, and used witty movements to amuse the audience.
"Best Partner" was a huge success upon its release, becoming a miracle in the history of Hong Kong cinema, and its final box office was 26 million, which was an astronomical figure at the time.
According to reports at the time, people who queued up to watch movies every day filmed long queues in front of the movie theater. Judging from the number of moviegoers, at least half of Hong Kong people have seen this movie.
Due to the success of the role of "Bald Detective", the film was shot five times in a row, from 1982 to 1989, becoming the most evergreen detective film series in Hong Kong.
What's more worth mentioning is that Mai Jia also won the 2nd Hong Kong Film Awards Best Actor with "Best Partner" in 1982.
There are many reasons for the success of this series of films, and it can be said that the time and place are right.
First of all, when Mai Jia first entered the industry, he participated in the production of the 007 series of movies, and imitated 007 to be more handy. The other is the sincere cooperation of the seven main creators.
At that time, there was a well-known office in the new art city, the "Struggle Room", which started at 12 o'clock every night and ended at 7 o'clock in the morning.
Later, most of the successful movies in Xinyicheng were made by 7 bigwigs who didn't sleep at night and chatted in the studio.
There is another reason that is easy to be overlooked, and that is the wonderful performance of stuntman Ke Shouliang.
In 1997, in order to celebrate the return of Hong Kong, he rode a motorcycle over the Hukou Waterfall of the Yellow River for 1.58 seconds, becoming the first person in the world to fly over the Yellow River.
During the filming of "Best Partner", he was also brave enough to take on difficult motorcycle stunts and contributed to the success of the movie. You must know that the most famous stuntmen abroad at that time did not dare to challenge the actions in "Best Partner".
After the "Best Partner" series of movies stopped, the bald detective did not disappear, he became an independent character in other films, and also had his own independent comics. Mai Jia's film and television image and status have also existed because of the eternal existence of the bald detective.
As the person with the largest proportion of shares in Xinyicheng Company, he appears more often as a film producer. The "Happy Ghost" series of movies starring Huang Baiming, "Dragon and Tiger" and "Prison Storm" starring Chow Yun-fat are all works supervised by Mai Jia.
But unfortunately, when Hong Kong films entered the last decade of the 20th century, competition intensified, opportunities and risks coexisted, and New Arts City fell behind in a new round of PK.
03
There are many reasons for the decline of New Arts City, the most important of which is the disintegration of the Seven Monsters.
The first to leave was Zeng Zhiwei, and in a later interview, Zeng Zhiwei bluntly said the reason why he left, that is, there were too many people and not enough food. The implication is that not enough money is being made.
After leaving, Zeng Zhiwei and Sammo Hung collaborated to shoot "Mr. Zombie".
The second one is Tsui Hark, who has martial arts feelings, he is fed up with comedy, sets up his own door, sets up a studio, and shoots his first film as a great success.
With the departure of key figures, the creative team of New Arts City has been hit hard, and the film made is no longer as competitive as before.
What's more, they have always been committed to making comedy films, and over time, a single genre of films has not been able to stimulate the market.
A later incident fully illustrates Mai Jia's mistakes and biases in decision-making. At that time, Tsui Hark worked hard to make a script for John Woo to shoot, and when the filming was finished, Mai Jia asked him to burn the film, which means that he is not optimistic about this movie at all.
Later, Tsui Hark used alcohol to kill his sorrows, and only finished the movie under the persuasion of others, and the movie was a great success after its release, which is "The True Color of Heroes" starring Chow Yun-fat.
In addition to this decision-making mistake, Mai Jia also did something that made the brothers who followed him extremely sad. At that time, the company was already in a recession, Mai Jia cooperated with Sammo Hung under the guidance of Zeng Zhiwei, and used his company's gold medal movie "Best" series to cooperate with the other party's "Lucky Star" series, and filmed "Best Lucky Star", which was decent at the box office and did not create brilliance.
But this incident made the veterans of the new art city feel turbulent, 4 of the 7 people left, and the remaining three still fought on their own, and the soul of the entire new art city was completely shattered, and then the collapse of film creation and box office followed.
In 1990, the lonely New Art City finally couldn't go on, and the film source was packaged and sold as a whole, and Mai Jia gradually became invisible in the entertainment industry.
It's a pity that a generation of comedy bigwigs left the scene like this. After leaving the entertainment industry, Mai Jia is committed to exploring new ways to get rich. When Hong Kong's real estate was hot, he speculated for a while and made a lot of money, and then switched to the stock market and lost a lot of money.
Back and forth, Mai Jia saw through life, "Entertainers investing in other industries will fail 100%, this is a personality problem, who is patient to stay there every day for a dime or a dime?"
He lost too much money in stock trading, which made him lose his vitality a lot, and he even wanted to be depressed for a while.
Later, he chose to put his eggs in multiple baskets, dabbling in everything, filming, doing business, in general, there are profits and losses, but compared with the original movie, it is far behind.
In 2016, Sammo Hung's "My Agent Grandpa" was released, which was the last film in which Mai Jia participated. Shi Tian, Tsui Hark and many other partners of the new art city participated in the year. But what is sighing is that everyone has become gray-haired old men, regardless of the content, these people have already filled their feelings when they make movies together.
In 2021, Shi Tian passed away, and a piece of the former Iron Triangle of Xinyi City was missing, and the eventful years belonging to Mai Jia gradually passed.