Chapter 00225: Cinema City
# Cinema City
Chapter 225
Novel: 1979 Golden Age
Chapter 225: Cinema City
The auditions lasted for two days.
Chen Qi had picked a few potential candidates, naturally including Yuan Jieying and Athena Chu.
Yuan Jieying was more of a tomboy, while Athena Chu was too sweet—neither quite fit the role.
The character needed to be pure yet subtly alluring because, in truth, she was 33 years old.
She was drawn to mature men, longing for an intimate encounter with one.
That was why she seduced her former adoptive father, only to be denied, forcing her to suppress her restless desires deep inside.
By the way, when watching the original Orphan, Chen Qi couldn’t help but scoff—given how common pedophilia was in America, the fact that she had to suppress her urges was downright bizarre.
In any case, the auditions continued.
If no suitable actress was found, he’d have to resort to mystical methods!
…………
In Hong Kong, there was a wealthy tycoon surnamed Lei, who owned properties like Kowloon Motor Bus and Kowloon Development.
Wanting to break into the film industry, he established the Golden Princess Cinema chain, consisting of over a dozen theaters—second only to Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest.
With a cinema chain in place, he needed films to screen, so Boss Lei set his sights on a small production company.
This small company was a joint venture between Raymond Wong, Dean Shek, and Karl Maka.
Karl Maka, a former engineer turned filmmaker, sported a shiny bald head.
Dean Shek was a veteran actor, having starred in Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master.
Raymond Wong came from theater and was skilled in scriptwriting.
The three hit it off immediately and made a name for themselves before being acquired by Boss Lei and reorganized into a new company called Cinema City.
Later, they brought in Tsui Hark, Nansun Shi, Eric Tsang, and Teddy Robin, forming the legendary Seven Fortunes of Cinema City!
Their creative process was unique:
The seven would gather late every night, brainstorming until dawn, tossing out wild ideas.
Raymond Wong would record their discussions and later transcribe them into scripts.
Once a script was finalized, no one was allowed to change it.
Though Chen Qi often criticized Cinema City, he secretly acknowledged their contributions.
For instance, they structured their 90-minute films into nine distinct parts:
The opening had to grab attention, followed by buildup and transitions.
The fourth segment required a major climax, the seventh another high point, and the ninth—the grand finale—delivered the biggest climax.
This was already standard Hollywood practice.
Cinema City’s films were the closest Hong Kong cinema got to Hollywood’s model.
They spared no expense, producing big-budget spectacles.
Had they kept it up, they might have achieved even greater success.
Unfortunately, internal strife destroyed them.
In Cinema City’s equity split, Raymond Wong held 9%, Dean Shek 19%, while Karl Maka and Golden Princess jointly controlled 72%.
The other four—Tsui Hark included—were, at best, the core team.
In reality, they were just highly paid employees.
Passion fueled them in the early days, but once money piled up, disputes over distribution arose.
Cinema City’s golden age lasted barely six years before collapsing, leaving behind classics like the Aces Go Places series, the Happy Ghost series, Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing?, and A Better Tomorrow...
At this moment, in Cinema City’s office...
The Seven Fortunes were discussing the production of Aces Go Places.
The film had a budget of 8 million HKD, with 2 million going to Samuel Hui’s salary alone—one of the biggest investments in Hong Kong cinema.
Failure was not an option.
"......"
Tsui Hark listened absentmindedly.
Truthfully, he had little interest in such purely commercial films, but a man had to eat.
"......"
Eric Tsang was also distracted, his mind lingering on that mainlander named Chen’s recent words in the papers: "Cinema City’s internal profit-sharing is flawed. They’ll collapse within three to five years!"
As the director of Aces Go Places, he’d only receive a director’s fee and maybe a bonus—none of the massive profit shares.
No one had thought much about it before, but now that it had been pointed out, it was hard not to dwell on it.
"Ah Wei? Ah Wei?"
"Did you take notes on what we just discussed?"
"Got it, got it! My memory’s sharp—not a single word missed!"
Eric Tsang snapped back to attention, letting out his signature chuckle.
"Good. Aces Go Places is our all-in gamble. Do your best. If it succeeds, we all prosper. If it flops, we all sink together!"
Karl Maka, as the leader, tried to rally morale—though inwardly, he cursed that mainlander.
As the majority stakeholder, he’d never bring up the issue himself.
He could only play dumb.
In truth, Cinema City’s downfall had been prematurely triggered.
Just as the meeting was about to adjourn, an employee hurried in.
"Boss, someone sent a formal visiting card."
"Visiting card?"
Everyone froze.
Karl Maka frowned at the red envelope. "What era is this? Who’s the fossil crawling out of the ground? Should I reply with a formal letter and assign him a pageboy...?"
His voice cut off as he opened it.
A business card slipped out, along with a concise letter.
The gist: "During my last visit to Hong Kong, time was tight, and I missed the chance to meet. Now that I’m back, having long admired your company’s talents and reputation, I’ll visit tomorrow morning to discuss important matters."
The business card read: Chen Qi, Oriental Culture & Arts Co., Ltd.
That alone wasn’t unusual.
What stood out was the additional title: directly under a state ministry, followed by the Bureau for External Cultural Relations.
The text was in traditional Chinese, clearly tailored for Hong Kong—still under British rule at the time.
Coming here was technically crossing borders, so full official titles were necessary to clarify status.
"......"
Karl Maka’s heart skipped a beat.
He passed the letter and card to Dean Shek, who read it expressionlessly before handing it to Raymond Wong.
Once it had made the rounds, the atmosphere turned strange.
Raymond Wong broke the silence first:
"What’s this about? He just drops a letter like some official inspection? Should we roll out the red carpet?"
"Maybe he wants to collaborate on cultural exchanges?" Dean Shek suggested.
"No, no. First, we need to figure out—is he a government official or a private individual?" Eric Tsang cut in.
Karl Maka, originally from Taishan, Guangdong, had moved to Hong Kong at 14 and understood mainland dynamics better.
Scratching his bald head, he said, "He’s likely from a state-owned enterprise under the government—ranked within the system."
"???"
The others still found it all very... peculiar.
The concept of "the system" was utterly foreign to them!
Raymond Wong waved dismissively.
"Forget it. What matters is—what do we do? If a mainland official comes here and the Free Society finds out, we’re in trouble."
"So we avoid him?"
"Just don’t let him in. Block him at the door!"
"Or maybe we intimidate him a little—show him who’s boss?"
Huh???
Karl Maka shot Raymond Wong a look and shook his head.
"Are you serious? He represents the mainland government. You want to intimidate him? Even the British don’t dare mess with them!"
He rapped the table.
"We’ll just avoid him. Can’t we just... not be here?"
With that, the meeting disbanded.
As Tsui Hark walked out, Nansun Shi caught up to him.
"Don’t you think this visit is strange?"
"How so?"
"First, he criticized us in the papers. Now he suddenly wants to meet. Feels like he’s targeting Cinema City."
"As long as he’s not targeting me, I don’t care. I just want to make films."
Tsui Hark quickened his pace into the elevator.
Nansun Shi rolled her eyes and followed.
They’d been dating for three years and were already discussing marriage.
Tsui Hark had no patience for these mundane matters, so Nansun had to handle them.
(End of Chapter)