The Golden Age of China Entertainment

It's just that no matter how brilliant it is, there will be a day when it will leave the stage. Since entering the 80s, the once brilliant Shaw Brothers has inevitably begun to decline.

If it weren't for Yi Qing's miraculous experience, I'm afraid I wouldn't have believed it. The former Big Mac would have a day of bankruptcy. You must know that the Shaw Film Company back then dared to name "Shaw Produced, It must be a good film" in eight big characters, with LOGO flying all over the sky.It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the center of Asian film culture with its status in the world and its glorious state.

But no matter how awesome it is, it still can't help the feng shui turns. The Shao family, which is always said to be "too fatty", has gone through decades of development, and now it is at the end of the road, and it can even be said to be dying.

However, even if the hero is late and the glory is not there, the unlimited scenery of Shaw Brothers back then is still enough for a large number of filmmakers to yearn for. Shaw Brothers can rise strongly in a small place with a small cost, and once covered more than half of the Chinese film and television market. The share is really amazing, but after careful study, it can be seen that this is not normal in itself.

The success of Hong Kong films and Shaw Brothers is quite accidental, mainly due to the changes in the world. In fact, Chinese films were already very prosperous long before the rise of Hong Kong films. Shanghai in the Republic of China was once known as the center of Asian films. All.

However, the subsequent political changes, just like during the civil unrest in Germany, a large number of European artists fled to North America, causing Hollywood to explode. At that time, too many outstanding filmmakers also fled to Xiangjiang.

Xiangjiang Film and even Shaw Brothers, with its talent, scale, production, form, style, and capital, are actually largely inherited from the legacy of the old Shanghai film industry.

Coupled with the relatively long period of time there, the market is relatively free, and the social environment where capital has the right to speak, the Xiangjiang film industry is bound to rise.

At that time, Shaw Brothers, especially Shaw Yifu, was young, wealthy, bold, sharp-minded, extremely dedicated, and a business genius. He was born in this line of work.

It is said that Shao Yifu himself is a movie fanatic. When he was young, he would watch more than a dozen movies a day. Regardless of whether the movie was good or bad, no matter which country it was produced in, he had to watch the copy. This habit even continued until he was old.

In Xiangjiang, there is no industry boss who can reach his level, so Shao Yifu is the most able to grasp the trend of the film market. To put it bluntly, he is the most familiar with what the audience likes to watch.

For a person like him, it doesn't make sense not to take the lead.

The so-called Shaw Brothers, in fact, there is no "brother" long ago, and it is entirely Shaw Yifu who is in charge of the gate. From the beginning to the end, Shaw Yifu is almost the only spiritual leader of the huge Shaw Brothers Company, saying what he says.

However, problems also emerged. As he entered old age, his energy, state, and judgment declined, and it was too easy for Shaw Brothers to go downhill.From this point of view, Shaw Yifu is naturally extremely successful, but Shaw Brothers may not be very powerful in terms of corporate governance.

Therefore, since the mid-80s, Shaw Brothers has shown signs of decline, and many decisions have fallen into great mistakes. The reason is that Shaw Brothers itself has many internal problems.

During the most glorious period of Shaw Brothers, from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, for almost 20 years, Chinese films dominated, and it was known as the only force in the world that could compete with Hollywood.More than 1000 films have been made, which are popular in Southeast Asia and even exported to the West. Even international superstars like Quentin Tarantino were fans of Shaw Brothers martial arts films.

However, Shaw's problem is too obvious. Once a competitor appears or the external environment changes, it is easy to be depressed and fall into the mud of self-binding.

For example, Shaw Brothers' studio system has too strict restrictions on actors, and the overall style is too routine and similar, and it is rare to produce works outside the system.

For the sake of commercial interests, I know that I want to shoot movies like crazy, the bottom line is infinitely lowered, and the quality is uneven.Noisy, pretending to be ghosts, fighting and killing, these materials have been used for decades, and the audience's aesthetics will also be fatigued.

In the old days, audiences did not have high requirements for visual art, and the dominance of one family can still be maintained.However, once there is a competitor, the disadvantages are immediately apparent.

For example, Korean movies began to rise, taking advantage of the Southeast Asian market, and Hollywood was aggressive, and Shaw Brothers was completely under siege.

In addition, in terms of corporate governance, Shaw Brothers was too stingy with the people below, resulting in newcomers not getting in, high-ranking people leaving, brain drain was too serious, and it was difficult for a smart woman to cook without rice, which also aggravated the decline of Shaw Brothers.

Anyone who knows Shao Yifu knows that Shao Yifu is extremely shrewd in making movies. Don’t look at him. The Shaw family has a big business and countless stars under it. Also very mean.

Shaw's harsh profit-sharing mechanism is still feasible when it is a vertical monopoly enterprise in the industry. Once a competitor appears, a large number of talents will leave.

In the late 1970s, some excellent directors and actors began to leave collectively, or set up their own companies.For example, Zou Wenhuai, He Guanchang and others who were separated had a great impact on Shaw Brothers.

In addition, as Shao Yifu slowly aged, the later Shaw Brothers lacked a backbone, investment continued to fail, and the main business shifted one after another, which made the company's prospects confused and its situation worse.

In fact, it was from this time that Run Run Shaw made a wrong judgment on Chinese films, believing that films were bound to decline and that television was king.

At that time, the local market on Hong Kong Island could no longer hold up, and the mainland market had not yet taken shape, let alone open up. Shao Yifu seemed to intend to slow down.Since then, Shaw Brothers' film business has continued to shrink, and later sold out all the theaters, and two years later directly announced that the production of the film would cease.

Shaw Brothers started out with movies, a company that is famous for movies and also uses movies as its label. It is easy to give up its biggest advantage. The situation can be imagined. As a result, movies stopped and TV was tepid, and Shaw Brothers’ transformation did not succeed. After the 1980s, the glory is no longer.

Then, in order to collect money more easily in the capital market and solve troubles, Shaw blindly diverted funds overseas, invested a lot, lacked experience and other reasons, all of which caused Shaw to lose a lot of money.The negative effects brought about by the lack of funds are completely destructive.

After all, the film and television production at that time was no longer the period when a shed could be started in the early days. The cost was rising rapidly, and Shaw Brothers, which lacked funds, was naturally stretched.

Because of the lack of money, Shaw Brothers could not produce large-scale and high-quality productions, and the massive debt crisis, in turn, accelerated the decline of Shaw Brothers.Shaw's days in paradise have come to an end since then.

Another point is that Shao Yifu has been in charge of the Shaw Group for a long time, and he did not cultivate his successors well during his lifetime. In addition, he is a good-looking man who can't take care of himself, family conflicts continue, and the split is ready to go. Shaw's last punch.

Run Run Shaw is well-known all over the world for his arbitrariness, and the Sixth Uncle is also well-known for being romantic.He is a strongman, managing the company and handling the family.After these two items, not only the company's professional management talents have no successors, but also the family's internal disasters.

Shao Yifu has been married to his first wife for 50 years and has two sons and two daughters.And his most beloved confidante is Fang Yihua.

It is said that it is precisely because of Fang Yihua's hard work that not only caused the brothers Shao Yifu to discord in the early days, but also made the Shao brothers split up. Later, none of the four children wanted to inherit the Shao family, and they only hoped to divide the property.

In this way, Shaw Brothers will actually exist in name only and fall apart.

It's a pity that Mr. Shao is such a shrewd businessman, and such a great talent with a broad mind and vision. It is inevitable that in his lifetime, he will quickly turn into loneliness and desolation after seeing the prosperity and prosperity of life with his own eyes.

It's just that it doesn't matter to people like him who have "slept romantic sleep and watched the rise and fall of 50 years".

Yi Qing lamented the loneliness of Shaw Brothers after its glory, and also felt the ups and downs of Shao Yifu's life as a legend, but that was all.

"Manager Chen! Have you met Mr. Shao?"

Chen Yangzheng shook his head and said: "Not yet, until now I have been in touch with a manager of Shaw Cinemas, but from his tone, it seems that Shaw is only planning to lease, not sell, and there is also Debao Company Competing with us."

Debao?

Dickson Poon!

Yi Qing knew this person because he was the ex-husband of Yang Ziqiong, the number one female hit star in Chinese movies.

"Since they don't plan to sell it, why did Mr. Shao meet with me? He said he wouldn't sell it, but he wanted to sell it for a good price!"

This kind of bluffing routine is considered a conspiracy. After all, there are two companies competing, and the one with the highest price wins.

"Leave the music company here to Manager He in advance, and we will go to Xiangjiang tomorrow."

Yi Qing himself was very much looking forward to meeting this legendary capital tycoon. Uncle Shao, he had only seen it in the news or on the Internet before, so Yi Qing really couldn't wait for the real person.

Chapter 298 I'm so capricious

"Boss, what do you think is the arrangement for today?"

When Chen Yangzheng said this, his face was also very ugly, and he was a little nervous in his nervousness. He talked and raised his head to look at Yi Qing's face from time to time.

"There's no need to make arrangements, I'll just go out for a stroll by myself!"

Yi Qing's tone could not be heard to appease the anger, but Chen Yangzheng was indeed full of uneasiness: "Boss, why don't I contact the other party again today?"

Yi Qing waved his hand and said, "No need, they already know I'm coming, that's enough."

Yi Qing said, looked at Chen Yangzheng, and said with a smile: "Manager Chen, you don't have to blame yourself so much. This is clearly Shao Daheng's routine. Don't worry, I can afford to wait, just spend it like this, there will always be a day when he finds me."

It has been three days since I came to Xiangjiang. I thought I could see Shao Yifu that day, but the manager of Shao who had contacted Chen Yangzheng before said that Shao Yifu was ill and it was not convenient to see guests these days, so Yi Qing was left alone. stand up.

It is obviously impossible to say that Yi Qing is not angry, but at this time, whoever is anxious first will lose.

Shao Yifu now made it clear that he was using him to raise the price of Pan Disheng, and at the same time, he was using Pan Disheng to raise his bid.

I really thought that Shaw's sixteen movie theaters were delicious!