In the early 1990s, the entertainment industry in Hong Kong entered a golden period of development. Yang Shoucheng, a famous watch tycoon, also took a fancy to the "cake" of the entertainment market at this time.
In 1992, Yang Shoucheng acquired the then "Hong Kong Feitu Records Company", and later signed singers such as Luo Wen, Wang Jie, twins, Nicholas Tse, Eason Chan, Joey Yung, Chen Guanxi and other singers, and began to expand in the record market.
In the 1990s, the rise of the "Four Heavenly Kings" made the artist training strategy of "the amphibious development of the music and film world" become the mainstream of the entertainment market. At that time, Yang Shoucheng also hoped to push these singers under his umbrella into the film industry and open up a new market blue ocean.
However, at this time, Yang Shoucheng did not have his own "production company". In order to push its singers into the film industry, Yang Shoucheng decided to cooperate with blockbusters, and the Hong Kong film giant "Jiahe" has also become the focus of Yang Shoucheng's attention.
In 1998, Yang Shoucheng and Zou Wenhuai, the owner of "Jiahe", joined forces to invest in the movie "The Young Fighting Chapter of the New Ancient Puzzle Boy", and recommended his own artist Xie Tingfeng as the male protagonist of the film.
In this "New Ancient Puzzle Boy's Young Fighting Chapter", Yang Shoucheng and Zou Wenhuai jointly served as "producers". At this time, Zou Wenhuai estimated that he could not imagine that after 3 years, this old brother named Yang Shoucheng would pry away the pillar of "Jiahe" Jackie Chan.
After the release of "The Young Fighting Chapter of the New Ancient Puzzle Boy", it quickly opened up Tse Tingfeng's film market. Yang Shoucheng also took advantage of the hot iron and shot works such as "Love Uprising" and "Soul Qi", hoping to push its Eason Chan, twins, and Joey Yung into the film market.
Working with others is ultimately limited. So in 2001, Yang Shoucheng gathered people and established his own "Emperor Multimedia Group", referred to as "emg", which is the predecessor of "Emperor Movie".
After the establishment of the company, the first task is to shoot a few good works and quickly make a name.
However, several works launched by "Emperor Multimedia Group" in the early days, the market response was very flat. It was not until 2003, when a fantasy action film came out, that the name of "Emperor" was officially launched in the Hong Kong film market, which was co-directed by Lin Chaoxian and Zhen Zidan.
The reason why this "Thousand Chances" will be born is inseparable from one person, that is, Jackie Chan.
In 2001, "Jiahe" filmed the movie "Secret Agent Maze" for Jackie Chan. This work was overspended during the filming process, and eventually cost 170 million yuan in production costs, becoming the film work with the highest investment of "Jiahe" at that time.
Because of the overrun, "Jiahe" and Jackie Chan have had a lot of awkwardness. In 1989, because of the overrun of the filming of "Miracle", Jiahe no longer let Jackie Chan "independent producer". The overrun of "Flying Eagle Project" in 1991 also made Jackie Chan lose his qualification to "be a director".
The overrun of "Secret Agent Maze" once again made the relationship between Jackie Chan and "Jiahe" tense, and Yang Shoucheng also seized the opportunity to throw an olive branch to Jackie Chan.
At the end of the 70s, Jackie Chan entered the "Jiahe" under the solicitation of Zou Wenhuai. Although Jackie Chan and "Jiahe" had several conflicts because of the problem of shooting overruns, under the mediation of Zou Wenhuai, the contradictions were also perfectly resolved.
The reason why Jackie Chan in the 1980s and 1990s was able to be stabilized on the big screen of "Jiahe", Zou Wenhuai played a very key role.
However, in 2000, electronics giant ACE invested heavily in Jiahe and became the largest shareholder of Jiahe. With the change of equity within the company, Zou Wenhuai lost the highest right to speak of "Jiahe".
In 2001, the overrun of "Secret Agent Maze" once again triggered friction between Jackie Chan and "Jiahe". With Zou Wenhuai's "lower field", "Jiahe" no one can keep Jackie Chan anymore. After "Secret Agent Maze", Jackie Chan left "Jiahe" and entered Yang Shoucheng's "Emperor".
In order to keep Jackie Chan, Yang Shoucheng also spent a lot of thought. Knowing that Jackie Chan likes to engage in big productions, Yang Shoucheng took out a cost of 300 million yuan and shot the movie "Flying Dragon Regeneration" for him.
Boss Yang is a businessman, and while he has paid a lot of money to win Jackie Chan, he also does not forget to use Jackie Chan's influence to promote his own artists. In "Flying Dragon Regeneration", Yang Shoucheng arranged for Xie Tingfeng and Chen Guanxi, under the "Emperor", to make a cameo appearance.
At the same time as the filming of "Flying Dragon Regeneration", Boss Yang also took out 50 million yuan of start-up funds to shoot the fantasy action film "Thousand Machine Changes" for Chen Guanxi, Zhong Xintong and Cai Zhuoyan, and arranged for Jackie Chan to make a cameo appearance in this "Thousand Machine Changes", using Jackie Chan's market influence to drive the box office results of Chen Guanxi, Zhong Xintong, Cai Zhuoyan and others.
The story of "A Thousand Chances" revolves around "vampires" and "demon hunters". The reason why Yang Shoucheng would shoot such a story was very closely related to the atmosphere of the Hong Kong film market at that time.
In 1998, the Hollywood movie "Blade Warrior" set off a wave of "vampire action movies" in the international film world. This year, the Hong Kong local fantasy drama "I Have a Date with Zombies" also set a new ratings record after its broadcast.
In 2000, "I Have a Date with Zombies" launched the second part, and the market response was still enthusiastic. And "Blade Runner 2" also crossed the ocean in 2002 and entered the theater line in Hong Kong.
Seeing the works of "zombies" and "vampires" is so loved by the audience. Yang Shoucheng is also determined to rub the heat and shoot this kind of story. After determining the theme of creation, Boss Yang handed over the filming work of the film to Lin Chaoxian and Zhen Zidan.
In 1998, Lin Chaoxian won a "Best Director" trophy for his collaboration with Chen Jiashang in "Beast Cop". When filming "A Thousand Chances", Yang Shoucheng handed over the director power to Lin Chaoxian, hoping that the "best director" could shoot an extraordinary work for the "emperor".
And Zhen Zidan, who served as an action director for "Blade Warrior 2", also joined this "Thousand Chances Change" at the invitation of Yang Shoucheng. Boss Yang believes that Zhen Zidan has had experience shooting this type of work and can provide some Hollywood-style commercial design for the film.
Therefore, with the joint efforts of Zhen and Lin, this "Thousand Chances" also presents a fantasy visual feast of "Eastern Demon Hunter vs Western Vampire" for the audience.
At the beginning of the film, "Demon Hunter" Reeve (played by Zheng Yijian) and his partner Lila (played by He Chaoyi) ambush the "Vampire Count" Gula at the station. After a fierce battle, Lila was killed in the battle, while Gula escaped wounded.
Reeve and Lila belong to the "Anti-Demon Alliance", and the main task of this organization is to deal with monsters such as "zombies", "vampires", and "werewolves". After Lila's death, the organization arranged a new partner for Reeve, Gypsy (played by Zhong Xintong).
Reeve believes that "European vampires" rarely operate in Asia, and the appearance of Count Gullah must have something else. So Reeve and his new partner, Gypsy, investigate count Gula.
After some investigation, Reeve discovered that there was infighting among the "European vampire royals" . Count Gullah killed the Vampire King and replaced him. However, kazaf (played by Chen Guanxi), the younger son of the "vampire king", escaped the killing and fled to Asia with the "vampire family' holy relics "day for night".
"Day for Night" contains the magic of the "vampire kings" of the past, and Count Gullah, in order to retrieve "Day for Night", tracks down Kazaf all the way, which is how to meet Reeve.
After learning the reason, Reeve decides to find the "Vampire Prince" Kazaf before Count Gula, and prevents Gulla from gaining powerful magic from Day for Night.
Kazaf, the fugitive "vampire prince", meets Helen (played by Choi Cheuk-yeon), a lovelorn girl, at a bar and falls in love with her at first sight. After a few dates, the two established a relationship.
What Kazaf didn't expect, though, was that Helen's brother was the Demon Hunter Reeve.
Reeve learns that her sister has a new boyfriend, only to find out that the other party is actually the "fugitive vampire prince" Kazaf.
Reeve tried to find "Day for Night" through Kazaf, but was calculated by Count Gula, and both Reeve and Kazaf were captured.
Helen learns that something has happened to his brother, so he follows his brother's partner, gypsy, to the rescue. Unexpectedly, Reeve was bitten by Count Gullah and turned into a "vampire". In desperation, gypsy only had to kill the reeve.
After solving the rise, Gypsy and Helen also have to face the powerful Earl of Gula. After a scuffle, Gypsy accidentally absorbs the magic of Day for Night and becomes a "half-human, half-vampire" creature.
With the magic of Day for Night, Gypsy defeated Count Gula. The story of the movie "A Thousand Chances" also ended at this time.
Probably because of the lack of running-in relationship between Lin Chaoxian and Zhen Zidan, this "Thousand Machines Change" is handled very messily in terms of the performance of the story plot. The expression of character emotions and the shaping of characters' personalities are also handled very roughly.
Although the handling of the plot story and characters is very rough, the action scene design of the film is extremely exciting and full of highlights.
Zhen Zidan not only served as the director of "A Thousand Machines", but also served as the action director of the film. In the film, Ling Li's fierce fist and foot fight has won the praise of a large number of audiences. And Zhen Zidan himself also won the two "Best Action Design" trophies of the Golden Statue and the Golden Horse because of the play in "A Thousand Machines".
Zhen Zidan's action design is wonderful, and the cameo Jackie Chan has also brought many surprises to the audience.
In the film, Jackie Chan made a cameo appearance as an ambulance driver and staged a classic juggling fight and a thrilling flying car chase stunt. The appearance of these two bridges has also added a lot of fun to the movie.
With excellent action scenes and a luxurious star lineup, this "Thousand Chances" shined in the Hong Kong film market in 2003, winning more than 28 million box office results in one fell swoop, becoming the runner-up of the Hong Kong film box office that year.
After the film was released in Europe and the United States, it also achieved very good results, and also broke the market record of Hong Kong films exported at that time.
With the box office hit of "A Thousand Chances", Yang Shoucheng renamed "Emperor Multimedia Group" to "Emperor Movie". This new word for Hong Kong films has also begun to rise above the Chinese film market, attracting the attention of more and more film fans.
After "A Thousand Chances", "Emperor" has successively launched works such as "Flying Dragon Regeneration", "New Police Story", "Myth", "Baby Project" and so on, and Yang Shoucheng also ushered in his own Hong Kong film era at this time.