OEM production is also very profitable
In 2000, Du Qifeng entered Xiang Huaqiang's China Star as COO, that is, production director, so during this period, Du Qifeng was both the boss of Galaxy Image and the administrator of China Star. As for why he chose this way of cooperation, Du Qifeng's explanation is, "I want Galaxy to have more resources and alleviate some debt." In this regard, Xiang Taichen Lan was much more blunt, she said that at that time, it was because Du's company was in financial difficulties, so she asked Xiangsheng for help, and Xiangsheng was optimistic about Du Qifeng's production ability and promised to fully support it. So it is obvious that although Galaxy Imaging Company had a fairly good reputation in the industry in the early stage of development, it really did not make any money, and it was helpless to join China Star at this time. But Du Qifeng did not join the job alone, he led the entire team to the Chinese star. The real action mode should be that Du Qifeng first selects the theme recognized by Huaqiang and then takes money from the Chinese star to make a movie, the Galaxy team guarantees its own creative autonomy, and Xiang Huaqiang recognizes this practice to show that he is the real businessman, making money is the first purpose, and it doesn't matter who leads the creation, so the cooperation method between the two sides is actually the FOUNDC.
Urban white-collar comedy themes are the box office elixir of the Galaxy
In this cooperation, Du Qifeng proved to the audience that in the past, it was not that he could not but did not want to produce commercial themes that entertained the public, so we saw "Lonely Man and Widow", "Thin Man and Woman", "Zhong Wuyan" and other completely galactic love sketches, but the movie is both a popular and popular commercial film, although there are also inexplicable bad films such as "Male Singers and Women Singing" and "Hot Hand Rejuvenation", but overall it is to make money.
Then there is an existential crisis
But just when making money, Du Qifeng left the China Star with the team in 2002, is it difficult for Du Qifeng to go with the money, or xiang Huaqiang still intervened in his creation? Of course, these are just the speculations of us outsiders, but the result of the matter tells us that Du Qifeng thought of a better financing plan in their team's view, that is, to enter the securities market! In 2002, Galaxy was listed on the Hong Kong stock market, and Galaxy Image also became the first listed film company in Hong Kong to be led by a director, and it was full of ambition and ambition to come to Du Qifeng and Wei Jiahui at that time, but in the end it could not do the times. In 2003, Beijing first broke out the SARS epidemic, and soon Hong Kong also developed into a hard-hit area, natural disasters, Hong Kong's entire film industry naturally fell into a trough, such a situation is similar to how similar to the beginning of the galaxy.
When the company went public, Du Wei and his wife were full of ambition, but unfortunately they were not born at the right time
The company soon fell into trouble, not only did not circle the money, but because of the listing and had to accept another investor - Luo Shouyao into the ownership, this Xiangjiang "pawnshop king" Luo Zhaotang, the son is not only a typical rich second generation, but also in the United States to receive professional film production study, he in 2003 bought a large number of shares in Galaxy Image after becoming the company's largest shareholder, thus settled in Galaxy and served as the chairman of the board, Du Qifeng although not happy but helpless.
The company's listing attracted outsider Luo Shouyao
But the strong dragon is still difficult to suppress the head snake, the entire galaxy image of the creation team is Du Qifeng pulled up by one hand naturally will not obey Luo Shouyao, Luo Shouyao knows that he can not control the gang under Du Sir's hands, so he set up a subsidiary under the galaxy company - film and television viewpoint production. Through this subsidiary, he began to form his own team and produce his own films, so since then, galaxy film production has been led by two people, one is Luo Shouyao's team, the other is a team led by Du Qifeng, this embarrassing situation lasted until the two in 2007, the contradictions between the two can not be reconciled, and finally separated, but this is an afterthought, just leave it to us to talk later.
Faced with a choice, it is a question of whether to stick to it or go north
2003 was a very important year in the development history of Du Qifeng and his Galaxy company, this year not only came to the outsider Luo Shouyao, but also faced with the choice of where to go next. In 2003, the Mainland signed the CEPA Agreement with Hong Kong and Macao, the full name of which is on the establishment of closer economic partnerships. This agreement is of great importance to the economic development of Hong Kong and Macao, not only making the economic and trade exchanges between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao closer, but also having a great impact on the development of the film industry. Before the CEPA agreement was signed, our mainland stipulated that only a quota of foreign films were allowed to be imported every year, and if we exceeded the quota, we would not want to release them in mainland theaters. At that time, Hong Kong films that had not yet returned to Hong Kong were of course subject to quota restrictions, and after the cepa agreement was signed, the situation was very different, and Hong Kong films did not have to be subject to quota restrictions as long as they found a few mainland actors to complete "co-productions". This is a great opportunity for Hong Kong films in the trough, and for a time many film talents have gone north, and Galaxy Image is also faced with the painful choice of sticking to it or going north.
The most personal style of "PTU" allowed Du Qifeng to win the best director, but still did not make money
The modern version of "Big Guy" has a profound meaning, but unfortunately, mainland audiences have not seen the whole picture on the big screen
Why pain? Because Du Qifeng is very aware that it is an impossible task to pass the censorship system in the mainland with the black theme insisted on by Galaxy, what if he changes his style and goes against the original intention of Galaxy? And Du Qifeng in the difficult 2003 but ushered in the second wave of his own creative peak, "PTU", "Big Man has great wisdom" have been released, the former won him the Hong Kong Film Awards Best Director, and the latter won the Academy Award for Best Film, his pursuit of his own art style has been initially recognized by the market, at this time turned into the market to embrace is not Du Qifeng's wishes. In desperation, Du Qifeng, a stubborn filmmaker, chose the third way, that is, to open up overseas markets, take the international route, and must implement idealism to the end, but this decision directly led to his break with the company's founder and long-time partner- Wei Jiahui.
In August 2004, Wei Jiahui announced to the media in Beijing that he had officially broken up with Du Qifeng. After that, he went to The Chinese Star to make a movie for Xiang Huaqiang, and when he left, he also took Liu Qingyun, the right-hand man of the Galaxy. And his personal disciple You Naihai chose to stay and continue to follow Du Qifeng, after all, You Naihai debuted with Du from the age of 19 and has been following Du Qifeng through several storms, so many years later, Du Qifeng chose You Naihai as his successor after achieving fame and stabilizing the company. When asked by the media why they parted ways with their old partners, Wei Sheng explained, "Today's Hong Kong movies are very unoptimistic, I think we all need some changes, which is good for both sides." And Du Qifeng has been silent about this matter without any explanation, in my opinion, Du Qifeng's inner artistic insistence has made him choose the most difficult way to break through, and the very personal "PTU" has won him the recognition of the Academy Award for Best Director, but the author's temperament of the film is doomed to still fail to get a good commercial return in the market. In this Wei Jiahui's view, it seems that they are a little paranoid, letting the Chinese star have a good opportunity to make money, do not have to independently produce niche works that are not popular with the public, although he has no stake in Galaxy Image, he still has to rely on salary to support his family, and Wei Jiahui, who was once an idealist in the face of reality and illusory ideals, has also left. At this point, the three musketeers in the initial period of the Galaxy Mirror are only Du Qifeng alone, and Du SIR, who is fighting alone, will take the Galaxy Image with where to go? Let's talk about it in the next issue!
PS: The Galaxy Image series has always been very low, but I can't do it, I personally really like it, so I will write it.
"Du Qifeng and His Galactic Empire" is in continuous updates, so stay tuned!
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Du Qifeng and the Galactic Empire 1999 (Part 1): Keep the clouds open and the fog disperse, and finally open the sect
Du Qifeng and the Galactic Empire 1999 (Part 2): Gunfire is a clever hand or a natural thing