Seeing Lin Youlun's thoughtful expression, Mai Shanxiong thought that he might be interested in this subject, so he continued to introduce: "In the past Hong Kong movies, they often involved something related to Taiwanese gangs. The content is basically about some grudges and hatreds. Both the character portrayal and the plot description are very superficial, not to mention that there is a movie that specifically reflects Taiwanese gangsters"
"Are you just talking about gangsters?" Lin Youlun suddenly interrupted Mai Shanxiong.
Mai Shanxiong was stunned for a moment, and when he looked at Lin Youlun, his expression was different from before.
"So Mr. Lin has already guessed it?"
Mai Shanxiong's mood at the moment was not as calm as his tone of voice. Before he really said his thoughts, Lin Youlun had already sensed his intentions in advance. Such intuition was really incredible.
"If it's just an ordinary gangster movie, what's the difference between Taiwan and Hong Kong?" Lin Youlun stared at Mai Shanxiong with his eyes, "And this is not your style."
Although these words answered some of Mai Danxiong's doubts, what he is more concerned about now is that since Lin Youlun has guessed his thoughts, will Lin Youlun support his decision?
"If you want to shoot, I won't stop you, and I may even provide you with some conveniences, but I will never admit that I have anything to do with this movie. Do you understand what I mean?"
Seeing Lin Youlun speaking so solemnly, Mai Shanxiong was a little surprised.
"Does Mr. Lin think too highly of me? Yes, this movie will indeed involve some political issues in Taiwan. But my positioning of the movie is still a commercial film. After all, I don't want to endanger myself because of this movie. Cause trouble."
I thought it would be fine once things were explained clearly. Unexpectedly, Lin Youlun shook his head after hearing this.
"You think you have really misunderstood me now. If you just want to make a commercial film, then I can tell you clearly that I have no interest in this film."
Mai Shanxiong's eyes widened. He never expected that he would be waiting for such an answer. What depressed him the most was that he didn't even know where he was wrong.
Seeing Mai Shanxiong¡¯s confused look, Lin Youlun sighed secretly.
In fact, when Mai Shanxiong expressed his initial thoughts. Lin Youlun had already guessed which movie he wanted to make, and the reason why he did it so quickly was because the memory of this movie was quite deep in Lin Youlun's mind.
This movie was filmed in Lin Youlun's memory in 1996. At that time, Taiwan's political arena was plagued by "black money politics." Gangsters used so-called "political donations" to curry favor with senior officials to obtain the right to participate in politics, and gangsters were publicized. Corruption among high-ranking officials, political chaos, and declining popularity. In addition, during Taiwan's "presidential" election, the mainland military conducted military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, so the political atmosphere became very tense that year.
Mai Shanxiong takes this as an entry point. Two major stars, Andy Lau and Leung Jiahui, were recruited to make a movie called "Black Gold".
As his comeback after a long absence from the film industry, Mak Shan-hsiung put a lot of effort into this movie and checked a lot of information. It can be said that it surpasses any similar movie in terms of realism. This truly and vividly shows the audience all the ugliness in Taiwan's political arena at that time: corruption and bribery at the top levels of the government, and the expansion of gang power. Religious figures collude with corrupt officials, cheat and sell drugs, gangsters frame each other and have their own agendas, "legislators" campaign factions are in turmoil, etc. It is full of dangers and complexity.
At that time, Mai Shanxiong chose this subject, of course, in order to attract more eyeballs, but also to allow those political events to provide "free publicity" for the film. In fact, this film did cause quite a stir when it was released. .
Mak Shan-hsiung declared that he would wage war against Taiwan's "black money politics" with this film, and also intended to compete with Hollywood films, so he put a lot of effort into the production and invested nearly 60 million Hong Kong dollars. The scenes in the film are huge, such as Scenes such as wolf-dog chases, taxi riots, and helicopter chases have extremely strong visual impact. Coupled with the box office appeal of the two leading actors, it is indeed extraordinary.
As a powerful, structured and organized movie, "Black Gold" is obviously successful. Many parts of the design are even comparable to similar Western films. However, in terms of the design of certain plots, "Black Gold" is also a success. It was a huge failure.
The character Zhou Chaoxian played by the villain Liang Jiahui has a full personality, while Detective Gan played by Andy Lau has no highlights. The content related to it can be said to be a major failure of the film.
It¡¯s not that Andy Lau didn¡¯t perform well, but his role in this movie itself seemed redundant, and a gangster movie that could have been a classic like ¡°The Godfather¡± ended up being made into a??Three different things.
Of course, Lin Youlun can also understand Mak Shanxiong's difficulties, because at that time, the environment for the survival of Hong Kong films had begun to deteriorate. Of course, so much money invested could not be wasted. In order to ensure the box office and to reassure investors, there must be Popular stars like Andy Lau will star.
And Liu Dehua is actually a victim. There has always been a lot of controversy surrounding the issue of his acting skills. In this movie, his performance was completely overshadowed by Liang Jiahui, and he was completely reduced to a foil.
Among the movies that Andy Lau regretted taking, "Black Gold" definitely ranks high.
This is why Lin Youlun's attitude suddenly became very dissatisfied when he heard Mai Shanxiong positioning this movie as a commercial film.
Mai Shanxiong didn¡¯t know this, so he was confused.
"Okay, I can't let your trip go in vain. Leave the script for me to read. I can talk about other things after I take the time to read the script."
Lin Youlun didn¡¯t explain much and just showed off his guests.
When he came out of Lin Youlun's office, Mai Shanxiong looked depressed. Lin Zhiling was surprised when he saw it, but she didn't ask any more questions.
After watching Mai Shanxiong¡¯s figure disappear into the slowly closing elevator door, Lin Zhiling turned around and entered Lin Youlun¡¯s office.
Lin Youlun continued to sit on the sofa, holding an open script in his hand. When Lin Zhiling walked in, he just raised his eyes, and then his eyes fell on the script in his hand.
Seeing that Lin Youlun was looking so serious, Lin Zhiling didn't dare to disturb her. She picked up two cups of coffee and was about to leave, but Lin Youlun called her from behind.
"You call Manager Mai immediately and tell him not to leave in a hurry. I forgot to give him something just now. You can help me deliver it to him later."
Hearing this, Lin Zhiling had no choice but to put down the coffee cup in her hand again, walked quickly to her desk, picked up the phone, opened her address book, found Mai Shanxiong's number and dialed it.
When he received the call, Mai Shanxiong happened to get into the car and was about to leave. After that, he could only ask the driver to wait, but he was very curious about what else Lin Youlun wanted to give him.
After waiting patiently for about ten minutes, the sound of high heels hitting the ground finally came from the underground parking lot.
Seeing Lin Zhiling walking over with a box in her hand, Mai Shanxiong also opened the door and walked out.
"Manager Mai, this is what Mr. Lin asked me to give to you."
Mai Shanxiong took the box from Lin Zhiling, weighed it a little, and felt it didn't weigh much. He was about to ask what was in Lin Zhiling's box, but Lin Zhiling took the initiative to tell him the answer.
"Inside is a movie video tape. Mr. Lin brought it from the United States a few years ago. He has kept it in his office. Now he lent it to Manager Mai to watch for two days. He said that if you watch the movie carefully, you will understand what he means. .¡±
Lin Zhiling recounted Lin Youlun's original words, greeted Mai Shanxiong and turned to leave.
When Lin Zhiling¡¯s figure disappeared across the parking lot, Mai Shanxiong opened the box in his hand and took out a video tape.
Mai Shanxiong immediately recognized the old man on the cover of the videotape standing in the dark with a cat in his arms as the famous American actor Marlon Brando, and the content of the videotape also emerged.
American classic gangster movie-"The Godfather"!
Looking at the videotape in his hand, Mai Shanxiong fell into deep thought.