Chapter 12 Premiere Ceremony
In early December, Jiang Heng flew to Beijing again.

Also traveling with them were The Matrix's lead actor Wu Aizu, female lead Li Meiqi, villain Yuan De, and supporting actor Yuen Wah.

The reason I came here so early is of course to promote the film.

In the late 90s, the mainland film market did not yet have a mature concept of publicity and promotion.

Not to mention promotion and marketing, even commercial films have only been available in the past two years.

Over the past period of time, movies have been an important medium for propaganda and education.

There is something about making money that is somewhat shameful and cannot be spoken out with confidence.

Jiang Heng didn't care about those things. He had discussed with Yu Dong before coming and decided to invite all media to hold a grand premiere.

How many stars and big names from the film and television industry will come is another matter, but the invitations will be distributed in a big way anyway.

Not only do we need to send it to mainland celebrities, but we also need to invite artists from Hong Kong.

Jiang Heng has already talked to Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Yuen Kwai, Liu Zhenwei, Jin Chengwu, Liao Qizhi and others, and invited them to come to Beijing to attend the premiere celebration.

Hong Jinbao and others naturally gave this face and promised to try their best to arrange time to go there.

Even Liu Zhenwei, who is very busy with work, expressed his willingness to go.

On the one hand, I became interested in "The Matrix" after listening to the stories of Yuen Kwai, Yuen Biao and others, but more importantly, I wanted to understand how science fiction elements are used in Chinese-language films.

"Ma Yongzhen", which was released during the summer, was a box office failure. On the one hand, the film's elements were indeed a bit outdated, but more importantly, it was crushed by Hollywood blockbusters.

Because two days before "Ma Yongzhen" was released, Nicolas Cage's "Con Air" landed in the Hong Kong film market.

While Yuen Biao and Jin Chengwu were still fighting desperately with the Axe Gang on the ground, the foreigners had already fought their way into the sky.

"Ma Yongzhen" only had a pitiful three million, while "Air Prison" in the same period took nearly 1700 million at the box office.

"Con Air" could have gotten more, but it was unfortunately faced with the even more powerful "Jurassic Park 2".

Compared to the previous film, this film not only has many more types of dinosaurs, but also lets the dinosaurs run rampant in downtown America. The visual shock it brings to the audience is obviously not comparable to that of "Ma Yongzhen".

Many Hong Kong filmmakers, including Liu Zhenwei, have gradually realized that Hong Kong films have fallen behind Hollywood in terms of visual effects.

The only way to save the Hong Kong film market is to try special effects blockbusters.

Xu Ke is preparing to shoot "The Legend of Zu", while Liu Weiqiang is planning to bring "Wind and Cloud" to the big screen.

As for "The Matrix", which is already ready for release, Xu Ke, Liu Weiqiang and others have considered referring to and learning from it.

Considering that the film's release date in Hong Kong was half a month later, Xu Ke, Liu Weiqiang and others decided to go to Beijing to attend the premiere.

Seeing that there were more and more guests at the premiere ceremony, Hong Jinbao, who was good at attracting people and making a big scene, suggested inviting more Hong Kong stars to make it even bigger.

Jiang Heng was very excited after hearing this. Hong Kong filmmakers have a strong sense of "banding together and moving north". The reason why Zhou Xingxing was excluded in various ways in the later period was largely because he worked alone in the environment where Hong Kong filmmakers were "banding together and moving north".

With Sammo Hung stepping in, he will definitely be able to invite a few big-name stars.

As more artists come from Hong Kong, it will be easier to invite those from the mainland.

By then, the premiere of "The Matrix" will be held as a star-studded event, and the media will certainly publicize it heavily, so it will be difficult for the box office to be low.

Jiang Heng immediately expressed his willingness to provide air tickets, food and accommodation expenses for Hong Kong filmmakers who went north to attend the premiere celebration.

Hong Jinbao chuckled and said, "I'll say it for you, but those who are willing to go must have enough money!"

After hanging up the phone, Sammo Hung was thinking about who would be the most suitable person to invite, and Jackie Chan was definitely not an option.

This brother is currently the most influential Chinese-language film star in the world, so naturally he won’t easily endorse others.

Chow Yun-fat and Jet Li went to Hollywood, and Stephen Chow was too lonely.

As for Hua Zai, you can ask him!

Sammo Hung made a few phone calls and found a Hong Kong star with a big enough schedule who was willing to go, and that was Zheng Yijian, known as the "Fifth Heavenly King".

Influenced by the public opinion that "Young and Dangerous" has corrupted teenagers, Zheng Yikin has been passive and lazy in the past year. In addition, he is not very ambitious and likes to play, so he finally agreed to go with his girlfriend Maggie Shiu.

Jiang Heng got the exact news and thanked Hong Jinbao on the phone, and then informed Yu Dong who was preparing for the ceremony.

"Here, so many people?"

As the former head of the distribution department of Beijing Film Studio, Yu Dong is very familiar with the status and influence of Hong Kong directors and stars.

I originally thought that it was just cast and crew members from The Matrix, or at most some friends from the circle.

I don’t want to invite even the “hottest new star” like Zheng Yijian, the “big brother” like Sammo Hung, and the big director like Xu Ke.

He paced a few steps in the room, suppressed his inner excitement and said: "With these people coming, the major entertainment media in the country will definitely come to interview us, and it will be easier to invite domestic celebrities!"

Jiang Heng was also somewhat surprised and delighted. "Yes, there are so many stars gathered here. It's been a long time since the Chinese entertainment industry has had such a grand event, right?"

"What do you mean by a long time? It has never happened before! With so many Hong Kong and mainland artists, it is more appropriate to use the Chinese entertainment industry!"

Yu Dong was excited for a while, and immediately ordered people to continue contacting major domestic entertainment media to inform them of the participation of Hong Kong artists in the conference.

Afterwards, he tried to contact a number of domestic celebrities and invite as many of them as possible to attend the premiere.

The first reaction of the mainland stars who received the call was confusion. What is a premiere?
After all, this thing is not only not available in the mainland, but also has never been heard of in Hong Kong!
Midnight previews are popular there!
But it doesn’t matter if you haven’t heard of it, you can understand the literal meaning, not to mention that there are people from the issuing company to explain it.

After finding out what was going on, naturally many mainland celebrities agreed to come, and the most active one was Jiang Wen.

At the beginning of the year, Jiang Wen starred in "The Soong Sisters" and later won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the Academy Awards for this film.

He had been in contact with Hong Kong and knew what Hong Kong films were about. He was very curious about this Jiang Heng who appeared out of nowhere and this sci-fi special effects blockbuster.

After finding out the location and time of the ceremony, I rushed there early.

On December 12, Jiang Wen drove to the CPPCC auditorium in Beijing.

As soon as he got off the car, he saw major media carrying cameras and taking pictures. Even though he had seen many big scenes, he was still shocked by the scene in front of him.

When has this situation ever occurred in our mainland film and television circles?

"Jiang Wen, Teacher Jiang Wen!"

Someone shouted, and then a group of reporters surrounded her, with cameras pointed at her face, asking Jiang Wen what she thought of Hong Kong director Jiang Heng and the so-called "The Matrix".

Jiang Wenxin said, I'm the only one watching the person and the movie, and you ask me what I think?
Before Jiang Wen could say a few words, someone shouted "Sammo Hung is here", and the surrounding reporters almost all ran over.

Jiang Wen glanced at the reporter next to him who was wearing a baseball cap and a mustache, "You're not leaving?"

"Here comes with bad intentions!" the man sighed.

Jiang Wen felt the voice sounded familiar, and after taking a closer look, hey, it’s Ge You!
"How did you come here...!"

"Shh, keep your voice down, can't you see I'm putting on makeup?"

"No, you are so generous!"

Ge You chuckled, "I'm disguising myself to spy on the enemy. Who told him to challenge us? It's caused us to not sleep well for several days!"

"No, why are you blowing up a premiere?" "What premiere am I blowing up? Do you think you blew up a toilet when you were a kid? Just go and take a look at the scene. By the way, you can also take a look when you go in to see what's so attractive about their film!"

"to make!"

There were many people at the scene, so Jiang Wen didn't say much and walked into the auditorium.

Looking around, there are quite a lot of people coming, from the mainland, Hong Kong, and many famous figures in the film industry.

Jiang Wen exchanged greetings with his acquaintances before walking up to Jiang Heng.

"Hello, I'm Jiang Wen!"

"Hello, Director Jiang. I've heard of your name for a long time. It's like thunder in my ears!"

Jiang Wen smiled, "I believe it won't be long before I can return this to you!"

"Ah, haha, senior, you are too kind!"

"This ceremony is great. When my film is released in the future, I'll also do one similar to this. You'll have to help me with some advice!"

Jiang Heng smiled, "No problem, leave it to me!"

After chatting for a while, Jiang Wen found a place to sit down.

Soon, everyone in the auditorium took their seats.

The host of the ceremony appeared, and it turned out to be the host of CCTV's Channel 6 Movie Channel.

As the first commercial blockbuster premiere ceremony in the country, it brought together many directors, celebrities and media reporters from Hong Kong and the mainland. The Film Channel naturally had to report on the event and took over the hosting job.

Because there is no precedent, no one knows what to do.

Jiang Heng thought it over again and again and decided to first show everyone a relatively shocking special effects scene from "The Matrix", then let the main creators come on stage to be interviewed by the media, and then play another video before making a closing statement.

After the host finished his opening remarks, the lights in the auditorium dimmed and a beam of light was cast onto the screen.

Neo, played by Wu Aizu, and Trinity, played by Li Meiqi, appeared in a vast white space in cool outfits.

Then several "train"-like things came, placing Neo and Trinity in the "queue". The audience could then see clearly that what had just passed by were shelves full of guns.

“Is this the picture shot with special effects?”

"The scene looks good!"

"Well, it's just so-so!"

Everyone starts to murmur, and then they see Neo, played by Wu Aizu, break into the building with a large bag of guns and start all kinds of gun fights.

The video used for playback was carefully edited by Jiang Heng, and did not include the scene of Smith interrogating Murphys.

After all, it's just for everyone to see the special effects scenes of "The Matrix" without considering the completeness of the story.

When the audience watched the bullets flying on the big screen, they all felt that it was somewhat similar to the action movies shot by John Woo.

"To be able to shoot to this extent, Director Jiang has something!"

“It’s already amazing!”

"If it's just an enhanced version of John Woo, there's nothing much to watch!"

During the discussion, the content came to the moment when Neo dodged the bullet. The audience was surprised to see the bullet flying in the air, drawing several translucent trajectories.

Even people like Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao who have seen the film were still shocked.

Commercial movies are all about visual effects.

Action movies like Cheng Long's rely not only on various fancy moves, but also on various risky jumps and falls to stimulate the audience's visual nerves.

After more than ten years, the audience got tired of it and Jackie Chan's action movies gradually lost their box office performance.

When special effects blockbusters and 3D movies first came out, audiences were shocked.

But by around 2020, the Chinese people's enthusiasm for watching special effects blockbusters and 3D movies had almost subsided.

The bottom line is that you've seen too much and your eyes are tired.

But in 97, when special effects production was still a bit crude, the "bullet time" special effects shot shocked all the filmmakers present.

Zheng Yijian, who was sitting in the front row, murmured, "Will Feng Yun be able to be filmed this handsomely by then?"

Maggie Shiu said: "Let the director ask Director Jiang. We are all from Hong Kong and there is no competition at the box office. We can help each other!"

Director Liu Weiqiang, who was not far away, seemed a little confused. "Has the special effects production in Hollywood reached this level?"

He has no problem with screenwriting and directing, but he is still in the learning stage when it comes to special effects.

Xu Ke, on the other hand, is very obsessed with technology. His first reaction when he saw this shot was, how could I take a shot like that?

Perhaps influenced by this mentality, his special effects in "The Legend of Zu" became the pinnacle of Chinese-language special effects movies, and the plot became a bit fragmented.

Jiang Wen saw the "bullet time" special effects and instantly burst into curse words.

Then he murmured, "How the hell do we fight this?"

Although he had not seen the finished film "Party A and Party B", he could guess the final effect based on his understanding of Feng Xiaogang and Ge You, as well as the synopsis of the script he had heard.

If there was no "The Matrix", it would not be a problem to get some box office revenue during the Lunar New Year period.

But the special effects of "The Matrix" in front of us are not inferior to or even surpass those of previous Hollywood movies. I heard that the plot is also very good. They are released in the same period, so how can "Party A and Party B" win!

The first preview clip ends with Neo driving a helicopter, using a machine gun to break the glass of a building and rescue Morpheus.

Everyone in the hall had a feeling that they wanted more, especially the reporters, whose excitement was beyond words.

In their opinion, "The Matrix" is likely to become the first successful special effects blockbuster and science fiction masterpiece in the history of Chinese-language films.

There is so much to report on a film like this.

"Hello, Director Jiang. What kind of story does this movie tell?"

"Well, it's about a future world where artificial intelligence develops to a certain level and eventually rules over humans, trapping them in a virtual world. Humans continue to resist!"

"Fuck!"

I don't know who made the comment, but I think this idea is too wild.

How did you come up with this?

And artificial intelligence? With so many people here talking, how many of them know what artificial intelligence is?
"Director Jiang, where did you find the male and female leads? Are they all newcomers? Why did you choose unknown newcomers?"

"Director Jiang, aren't you afraid that the new actors won't be able to take on the leading role?"

"Director Jiang, what do you think the domestic box office of this movie will be?"

"As China's first science fiction film and special effects blockbuster, will The Matrix be released worldwide?"

(End of this chapter)