For various reasons, in the 1990s, a large number of Hong Kong directors flew to Hollywood to test the waters.
Hong Kong cinema thus had a greater impact on Hollywood, at least many martial arts instructors have a place.
However, in the director's position, only Wu Yusen can really stand out.
Wu Yusen is not necessarily the strongest of the Hong Kong directors, if you want to compare, Wong Kar-wai, Hui Anhua, also has an international status, will not be inferior.
So why is Wu Yusen alone successful in Hollywood?
Time, people, and determination are indispensable.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > (1) Determination: Fight the Water</h1>
As we all know, a "Hero's True Colors" revived Wu Yusen and Chow Yun Fat and changed the direction of the Hong Kong film market.
However, after the success of this film, the producer Xu Ke became a busy person, and it became difficult for Wu Yusen to continue filming.
It took him six years to direct six new films, two of which were co-directed, not including "Heroes Without Tears," which had been made long ago.
The average annual film does not seem to be less, but for the Hong Kong film industry at that time, popular directors and actors, two or three a year is very basic. Let's say Wang Jing, in 1993 he made as many as 9 films.
And from "Hero Nature 2" to "Blood Double Male", Wu Yusen waited for two years. He is not a producer, he can only wait for Xu Ke and Zhou Runfa to be free.
This made Wu Yusen a little unhappy. The rumours between him and Xu Ke in the jianghu also began at this time.
Wu Yusen, who could no longer bear it, decided to leave Xu Ke's studio and set up his own portal.
After the box office fiasco of the pioneering work "Blood Street", 1991's "Across the Sea" helped him breathe.
But Wu Yusen realized that he had entered a bottleneck period, because shooting and shooting were all gunfight films. And he found himself running a company under a lot of pressure, and it would be dangerous if there were movies coming later.
It coincided with hollywood because of the overseas promotion of "Blood Twins", took the initiative to invite him to film, to a new environment to learn and challenge, became his best choice.
How did he get there?
Sell the house in Hong Kong directly, and if you fail and come back and the money is spent, then there is really nothing left.
Everyone knows that Hollywood is not such a good mix, failure is perfectly normal, most of them decide to go over there to break in, normal people will leave a way back for themselves.
However, Wu Yusen went with the mentality of becoming a ren if he did not succeed, which made him force himself to shoot until he had achieved results no matter what difficulties he encountered and how much humiliation he suffered.
After four years of painful trials in three films, he finally gained some control in "Change of Face", and finally made his own style, becoming a big Hollywood director in one fell swoop.
If you leave yourself a way back, maybe he feels uncomfortable shooting two films, so he leaves in a hurry, and there is no then.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="62" > (2) people: Zhang Jia Zhenshen assisted</h1>
As mentioned earlier, Wu Yusen was able to be invited by Hollywood, mainly due to the overseas promotion of "Blood Twins".
Only a very small number of classics can be turned into gods worshipped by countless people with little to no promotion.
It was no accident that "Blood And Two Heroes" came to Hollywood's attention just two years later.
How did that come about?
Everything is due to one person, he is Zhang Jiazhen.
When Zhang Jiazhen was young, he went to New York to study film, and after returning to Hong Kong, he mainly helped major film companies to carry out various businesses overseas.
In 1988, he came to Xu Ke's studio and successfully promoted several films overseas. Among them is "Two Heroes of Blood".
Wu Yusen later left Xu Ke to set up his own portal, and since he was still the same gold lord, Zhang Jiazhen still helped him promote his film overseas.
"Blood Street", which was originally a fiasco at the box office, under the efforts of Zhang Jiazhen, had to rely on overseas sales to earn back the cost.
Wu Yusen now knew the importance of Zhang Jiazhen, so he co-opted him to open a new mileage film company.
The cooperation between the two has officially begun.
Not only did "Blood Double Male" sweep the Hollywood small circle, but it won a large number of star fans for Wu Yusen, thanks to Zhang Jiazhen, when Wu Yusen went to Hollywood, it was also the line led by Zhang Jiazhen.
A difficult fact is that Wu Yusen's English was not good at that time. Without him to assist, many things cannot be done.
With such a good helper, the defects in the original "geographical advantage" have been compensated by "people".
Wu Yusen's Hollywood road is relatively smooth.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="63" > (3) days: the style is just right for the market</h1>
Wu Yusen is not the only one who let go, and Zhang Jiazhen should not only help him.
Then the last point determines why Wu Yusen is the only one.
First of all, he has a very strong directing style, and if there is no style characteristic, he will not have so many loyal iron fans.
It is estimated that there will be no help from sam Remy and Quentin, who are big names in the industry.
Like Chen Jiashang and Tang Jili, they lack personal style, not to mention foreign countries, even if they have heard of them at home, most of them do not know that they have been to Hollywood.
There is a personal style, the most famous Stephen Chow.
His cooperation with Hollywood was very unpleasant, because the people in Hollywood did not think that his characteristics were suitable for the North American market, and the two sides disagreed and broke up.
The successful filming of the work, Chen Kexin.
At Spielberg's invitation, he made a "Love Letter," which was released in 1999.
Spielberg estimated that there was not much interference, the film looked very much like a Hong Kong film, but at that time the North American market was very unfriendly to this kind of love literary film, and after the box office failure, Chen Kexin went back to his hometown and continued to build his own film company.
Lin Lingdong, the founder of prison films, has made two action films, "Replicants" and "Hell Awakens the Dragon", starring Wu Yusen's fan Shangge Winton.
If these two were placed in the mid-90s, it might be more appropriate. However, when it was released, it was already the beginning of the 21st century, the rise of strong special effects movies, and Lin Lingdong's prison action characteristics became outdated, and he had no choice but to return home.
The gunfight action genre that Wu Yusen is good at was indeed very popular in Hollywood in the early 90s.
Action movie moguers like Steven Siegel, Schwarzenegger, Shange Winton, and others all rose around this period.
Wu Yusen, who has a strong personal style, is able to bring a different flavor to the flood of action genre films, which is what Hollywood studios need.
Therefore, it is not just one big factory that invites Wu Yusen, but many.
With such a "time of day", even if he accidentally missed the golden opportunity given by Fox because of his poor English, he could not stop the general trend of his entry into Hollywood.
It is not the hero who creates the situation, but the situation that creates the hero.
Why did Wu Yusen not get mixed up after filming "Changing Face"?
Because the market has changed.
His good play is not good, he has lost the momentum, and even the most powerful hero will inevitably lose Maicheng.