Chapter 132: Paying Tribute to Jiang Heng's Kung Fu

A celebration banquet, Jiang Heng saw too many people, said too much, drank quite a bit, and the next day he simply didn't get up, only waking up after ten o'clock.

After getting up, he went downstairs to eat lunch, then immediately drove to the film set.

"Good morning, Director Jiang!"

"Mm!"

All along the way were greetings; Jiang Heng just nodded with an 'mm', went straight to the set prepared in advance according to the shooting schedule, and found everyone waiting for him.

"Sorry for making everyone wait all morning for nothing!"

"It's fine, Director Jiang, it's fine!"

Everyone spoke up; coming to shoot a film, it's common for actors to throw their weight around and be late.

This is Jiang Heng's own investment film; he certainly couldn't count it that way.

Just as the crew finished their work, Zhou Xingxing came again.

After a few hours, once this shot was done, they switched to the two fighting in the rain on the ground.

With Jiang Heng's call of 'action', the mechanical arm moved, first lifting Wu Yan Zu and Yuan De into midair, then letting them meet and attack each other.

"Click!"

This time on set there were many people dressed the same as Yuan De; in the final film they appear as rows of identical Smiths, which looks quite eerie.

"Kung Fu" post-production was long finished, and its rights had already been sold in Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, etc.

In a scene very classic from the recently filmed "The Matrix 3", the "rain battle", the crew had been busy for over a week, and almost everyone was exhausted.

Ready, the actors began work.

Because this time Jiang Heng solely invested, the number of shots outsourced to special effects companies in the United States, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, etc., was less than one-fifth of the whole film.

Then Wu Yan Zu made a falling motion, and under the mechanical arm's control, Yuan De spun downward in a circle.

After the shot was done, Jiang Heng took a look, felt the action was still lacking a bit, and had them do it again.

On the mainland side, Broad Sodium Film Industry handled the film's distribution.

Waist-mounted mechanical arms allowed them to be fixed at specific positions in midair to perform actions.

During filming, the crew selected eighty people with physiques similar to Yuan De's and used superb makeup to make them look like Smith.

After this scene wrapped, all the footage for The Matrix 2 and 3 was finished; the relevant shots for The Matrix 2 had already been outsourced for special effects.

As for the third film's special effects shots, they were basically the same operation; this alone could save a lot of production costs.

They also prepared 150 dummies with silicone faces, painted on, and controllable by real people to perform actions, which could also pass as real.

In the blue-screen-filled soundstage, the actor playing the male lead, Wu Yan Zu, and the actor playing the big villain Smith, Yuan De, wore waterproof clothing before their costumes.

Jiang Heng didn't come in the morning; the crew happily took the chance to slack off, not even having time to be happy.

Inside the soundstage, water jetted out at nearly a ton per minute, leaving almost everyone soaking wet.

They also handed a small number of shots to Jingcheng Beautiful Times under his name, while the rest went to offshore shell companies, completed by Jiang Heng's "Super Microcomputer".

Because Zhou Xingxing's fame is huge and his market pull very strong, Broad Sodium didn't plan to spend much on promotion, just the usual model of bus, subway, and cinema posters.

The premiere was also set relatively late, on September 27, very close to the National Day holiday.

However, because it was jointly produced by Love Outstanding Rising Film Company and Star Emblem Company, the premiere's scale was very grand.

As before, the Central Television Movie Channel came to record and host; many guests attended, largely out of respect for Jiang Heng.

However, because Zhou Xingxing mixes in the entertainment industry, he doesn't pay much attention to personal favors and worldly affairs.

Perhaps because he learned from Jiang Heng, Zhou Xingxing did not refuse to play the full film at the premiere; the thousands of guests and audience members present first saw the complete picture of "Kung Fu".

Feng Xiaogang's portrayal of the Crocodile Gang boss was truly outstanding.

After the screening, Jiang Heng couldn't help but praise it a couple of times.

Feng Xiaogang laughed modestly, thanking Jiang Heng for the recommendation.

Because of Jiang Heng's appearance, this lifetime's Feng Xiaogang lacks the reputation of a top commercial film director; who let him be second!

Although each film makes money, earning thirty to fifty million, compared to Jiang Heng's results the gap is too great, so no one praises him.

The box office wasn't impressive, and there were hardly any awards; this Feng Xiaogang is very modest, but he doesn't have Thus output: Chen Kaige's airs.

"Director Jiang, I'm planning to film a movie about a bandit leader protecting migrant workers; are you interested in coming for a cameo role?"

Jiang Heng smiled, waved his hand, and said: "Forget it, filming two in a row really wore me out; you have no idea how busy I've been lately—I can fall asleep as soon as I lie down! I plan to rest properly for about half a year from now on, not filming anything."

Feng Xiaogang heard this, his expression embarrassed, but he couldn't persuade further.

He picked a time to ask Zhou Xingxing, but Zhou Xingxing also refused, which really made Feng Xiaogang angry.

Because Jiang Heng is currently in the spotlight, he couldn't say much, but he said Zhou Xingxing was being underhanded: "I appeared in your Kung Fu, invited you to cameo in my film, yet you refused—truly underhanded."

Later Zhou Xingxing heard about it, but also didn't respond, and the matter just passed.

However, in the blink of an eye it was November, and Kung Fu officially premiered.

Soon enough, avid film fans noticed many places in the film paying homage to Jiang Heng's movies; the most typical was the battle between Tian Can Di Can and the three top masters of Pig Cage Walled City.

The sword-wielding ghost general conjured by the lute-string sound wave skill, with its top helmet and armor, almost exactly matches the inn scene from "Lion Camel Ridge".

As for the difference, it's that in the inn scene the Tang Seng disciples have more faces and are more realistic.

In the film Kung Fu, because not much money was spent on special effects, it turned out resembling a "knockoff version".

"Wow, Zhou Xingxing actually used material from Director Jiang's works!"

"This is paying homage to Lion Camel Ridge!"

"There are too many classics paid homage to in this film!"

"Wow, there's also this move of attacking from above, which Director Jiang's films have used many times!"

"So exciting!"

"Kung Fu is really enjoyable!"

Because of Jiang Heng's influence, theaters scheduled the film widely, and this lifetime's Kung Fu box office is clearly stronger than in the previous life.

From the box office trend, exceeding two hundred million is no problem.

And this will also be the first Chinese-language film in the mainland film market, aside from Jiang Heng's works, to exceed two hundred million at the box office.

For a while, everywhere people were talking about the revival of Chinese-language cinema.

Hot money began to flow in, and the number of projects being launched also increased.

Some investors went to find Zhou Xingxing, asking him when he planned to shoot his next film and what genre.

Zhou Xingxing said he would not consider it for the next two years.

Some investors asked Jiang Heng when he would shoot his next film and what it would be about.

Jiang Heng said he would not consider it within half a year.

Some investors went to ask Thus output: Chen Kaige the same question; the old Chen spoke passionately, first reciting a poem, and finally said he wanted to film "The Legend of Sun Wukong."

They had already purchased the novel's rights, invited the original author to participate in the adaptation, and were preparing to invest four hundred million yuan in production.

Finally, he said contemptuously, "Filming a mythological special-effects blockbuster is really no big deal!"

(End of chapter)