Chapter 153: On the Eve of the Decisive Battle

“President Xiao, the police are planning to set up a club these days…” The police chief approached Xiao Ran with a smile. “You must come and support us then!”
“A club…” Xiao Ran nodded. So they were raising funds. He chuckled and said, “No problem. I’ll definitely be there! The police have been doing great work lately. I even want to give you a plaque!”
After talking for a while, the police chief saw Rong Zhijian from CITIC approaching and left on his own. Xiao Ran, however, was quite interested in this red capitalist. It wasn’t their first meeting, but they weren’t close friends.
“Brother Xiao, it’s great to find you here!” Rong Zhijian had been searching for Xiao Ran for a long time. He had just learned that Xiao Ran was from the mainland, which immediately earned him a lot of goodwill. Yet he couldn’t understand how someone of Xiao Ran’s age could feel a sense of belonging to the mainland. Moreover, from Xiao Ran’s usual behavior, he didn’t seem to have any political stance at all.
“Brother Rong, I just closed a deal. How much can I make?” Xiao Ran had seen Rong Zhijian talking business with another tycoon earlier. It seemed this guy could make a fortune. He joked, “If there are any benefits, share some with me!”
“What profit? Not losing money is already good enough!” Rong Zhijian laughed heartily. He was outgoing, optimistic, and enthusiastic, with a great reputation among people. “It’s you who makes movies—that’s where real money is made!”
Nonsense. Even a fool knows movies aren’t as profitable as real estate! Xiao Ran couldn’t help but smile secretly. Of course, if it weren’t just about making movies, the profits could be quite substantial. After chatting casually about their respective insider information, they parted ways.
Rong Zhijian’s personal assets were not as large as Xiao Ran’s yet, but few in the circle dared to look down on him because of that. After all, CITIC was the mainland’s window to the outside world. Rong also began to truly prosper after acquiring Taifu Company.
As he got into his car to leave, Xiao Ran glanced at the other people’s cars and immediately felt depressed. The others drove Rolls-Royces, Lincolns, or Cadillacs. Only he, as a tycoon, drove a BMW. And aside from Lin Qingxia’s car, that was the only car he owned. Fortunately, he didn’t care much about such things, otherwise he would have been laughed at to death.
Late at night, Lin Qingxia brought in a bowl of soup out of concern. Seeing Xiao Ran’s back as he worked hard at his desk, she felt deep sympathy. Only now did she realize that being a boss wasn’t such an easy job.
But Lin Qingxia was wrong. In fact, Xiao Ran could be a relaxed boss. It was just that he wasn’t willing to let what he had go. So, he tried to write down the basic stories of all the movies he could remember in a short time, so as to ensure they wouldn’t be stolen by others in the future.
“Still writing? Have some soup and go rest early!” Lin Qingxia placed the bowl on the table and quietly sat down beside Xiao Ran. Xiao Ran glanced over and smiled. “It’s fine. You go ahead and rest. I’ll finish this soon!”

“Still talking about how fast it will be…” Lin Qingxia glared at Xiao Ran reproachfully. These days, whenever he had free time, Xiao Ran would hunch over his desk and write furiously. She had read those stories and found them quite good; she couldn’t imagine how someone could come up with so many ideas.

Xiao Ran felt warmth in his heart. It was truly wonderful to have someone who cared about him. He now felt he couldn’t live without Lin Qingxia’s tenderness and delicacy. He put down his pen, gently wrapped his arms around her, inhaled her faintly sweet scent, kissed her on the face, and then said with a smile, “It really will be fast. I’ve already completed quite a bit earlier on; now I’m just adding some details!”

Xiao Ran didn’t write only Hong Kong movies but mainly foreign films. The ideas he came up with, or just the story outlines, were all handed over to the screenwriting team at Shadow Planning Department. One reason was to secure the creative ideas for foreign films first, and the other was to help Hong Kong screenwriters gradually become more professional.

“Actually, now that you have a career to build, you don’t need to work so hard. Why torture yourself like this?” Lin Qingxia reached out to smooth Xiao Ran’s messy hair before continuing, “Even if you want to turn Shadow into a global film company, you don’t have to do everything yourself!”

The other points were easy to explain, but this one was indeed tricky. Fortunately, Xiao Ran already had a remarkable ability to change the subject. With a light laugh, he said, “Do you know that Zheng Jiacun introduced me to a beautiful woman today?”

“Hmph, that Zheng Jiacun…” Lin Qingxia had been upset since returning from the banquet. Now that Xiao Ran brought it up, she immediately retorted, “Of course I saw her. If I hadn’t been there, you might have actually agreed to go.”

Xiao Ran burst into laughter and kissed her again before looking into her eyes and saying, “Of course not. Do you really have that little confidence in me? You know, you’re the only one in my life—no one can change that!”

July 10th, the preview screening of “Spy Conspiracy.” Once again, Xiao Ran went in person. It seemed to be a rule—without the director present, what would happen if the audience had no one to vent their feelings to?

Some film critics had already noticed a small habit of Xiao Ran’s: he liked to start with an opening sequence before revealing the movie title. Before the film began, after about two minutes of ads, there would be a one-minute trailer.

That trailer was Xiao Ran’s subtle reference to the events of 1989. The film had already been shot, and Xiao Ran had watched the rough version—it was quite good. Due to its political nature, it was difficult to get support from local governments in other countries and regions, so they had to choose the mainland as the setting and add a note at the beginning stating that the film was entirely fictional.

Although Xiao Ran only had a superficial understanding of the events of 1989, as long as the theme and intent were conveyed correctly, that was enough. Most importantly, the plot of the film shared similarities with those events, allowing people to clearly understand the underlying nuances.

He didn’t dare think that this could prevent the entire incident from happening, but Xiao Ran believed it could have a certain impact on Hong Kong people within his capabilities. As long as that could be achieved, it was sufficient—he didn’t want the whole of Hong Kong to end up like in history, with countless funds flowing abroad.

Xiao Ran put a lot of effort into the opening scene, trying to create the first climax. The opening was a scene where the protagonist was concerned about carrying out a mission; in this scene, Xiao Ran wanted to give the audience the impression that the agent was extremely ruthless, so as to set the stage for the subsequent action sequences.

The agent played by Sammo Hung moved as lightly as a weasel, sneaking in to get what he wanted. Suddenly, an alarm went off. Sammo Hung ran with great agility, killing each enemy he encountered in one swift move, leaving the audience in awe.

When Sammo Hung started to flee, the soundtrack began, using a strong and powerful rhythm to stir the audience’s emotions. Finally, he reached the side of a building, picked up a stool, and smashed it against the glass. The glass shattered, and he leaped down.

Seeing this, Xiao Ran smiled. Actually, he had originally planned to use this scene as the opening to create suspense. But then he thought it would disrupt the flow of the action sequences, so he abandoned that silly idea.

After the film was released, renowned film critic Li Zhuotao wrote a brilliant and incisive review of it: It was a new-style action film that led the trends of the times. There were seven action scenes in total, and each one was exceptionally outstanding. Especially the final scene, where the protagonist fought American agents from Kowloon to West Kowloon, lasting a full ten minutes.

In those ten minutes of intense action that were difficult to control, Xiao Ran successfully managed the film’s rhythm and atmosphere, making those ten minutes particularly smooth and intense. The final explosion scene even broke the record set by “Police Story 2,” becoming the largest explosion scene in all of Asia.

Yet the essence of the film wasn’t the action scenes but rather the concept of patriotism that Xiao Ran tried to convey. Even without those action sequences as embellishments, the film’s emotional scenes were still very compelling and tragic—only was that sadness deeply hidden beneath the more eye-catching action sequences.

This was Li Zhuotao’s review, and it was also the best critique of “Spy Change” in Hong Kong. With keen insight, he grasped the film’s theme. When Xiao Ran read this review, he couldn’t help but exclaim, “Truly worthy of being the editor-in-chief of ‘Cinema Weekly’—amazing!”

However, this doesn’t mean the film has been elevated to the level of a classic. Not everyone values the emotional scenes in this film. Although everyone could feel the sense of desolation, aside from Li Zhuotao, almost all film critics believed that while Xiao Ran’s film could indeed be considered a groundbreaking new-style action film, it was still just an action film.

In a sense, Xiao Ran failed. He tried to create a film that combined commercial appeal with artistic quality, but now there is only commercial elements, with the artistic aspects overshadowed by overly intense action sequences. It must be admitted that Xiao Ran’s self-created work was both successful and unsuccessful at the same time. The failure lay in his creative approach—he failed to strike the delicate balance between commerce and art. The only fortunate aspect was that, despite this imbalance, it didn’t significantly affect the film. The success, however, was commercial; no one doubted the film’s innovation in the action genre. Considering that many Hong Kong and Western audiences might not accept the mainland government, Xiao Ran ultimately edited the film again, removing the few scenes set on the mainland. This eliminated the already subtle political stance in the film, making it more acceptable to the market. After “Spy Change” had its official release date set, Golden Harvest finally released the long-awaited “Home Alone” and was confidently shooting its sequel. Meanwhile, the summer blockbuster jointly produced by Happy Film City and two major studios, another ambitious project by Fang Ruohai aimed at overtaking “Shadow” in box office success, also had its release date determined. That film was also an action movie titled “Passion Unleashed,” featuring a large number of stars—artists from ATV, Wan Ziliang (who hadn’t yet joined TVB at the time), Mo Shaocong, Lin Junxian, and several top female stars from Golden Harvest—all considered leading actors at the time. There were at least a dozen notable names, making it an extremely luxurious cast. Since they couldn’t recruit one of “Shadow”’s key stars, Wu Yusen, the film was directed by a newcomer, with producers Xu Ke, Mai Dangxiong, and Huang Baiming, and producer Xiao Ruoyuan, with Mai Jia as the planner. Just looking at this behind-the-scenes team, it was extremely rare in Hong Kong film history. “We’re in big trouble this time!” Wei Dongling visited Xiao Ran’s office in his free time, waving the newspaper in his hand, which contained reviews of “Passion Unleashed”: “Judging from the reviews, the quality of this film is quite good. With three major companies working together, we’re in trouble!” By then, “Spy Change” hadn’t yet been released. Ten days earlier, “Home Alone” had already come out, along with Deppa’s “Love Quest.” Xiao Ran had anticipated such a situation; it seemed Golden Harvest’s dissatisfaction with Happy Film City had reached its peak, otherwise they wouldn’t have given up a release slot directly competing with “Spy Change.” It should be noted that releasing films of different genres at the same time doesn’t have a particularly big impact on box office results. Moreover, given Golden Harvest’s confidence in “Home Alone” and their ambition to challenge “Shadow,” there was no reason for them to give up this opportunity. The only reason was that Zou Wenhui was already very dissatisfied. Of course, this didn’t mean the alliance of the four major companies would break apart. Although Xiao Ran had won over Pan Disheng, the three major alliances still tried to deal a fatal blow to him during the summer season. Whoever won here would surely gain the rights to distribute their films in Japan and South Korea.

“Don’t worry!” Xiao Ran smiled confidently. “Jiahe no longer has the patience. If they can’t strike us this time, their alliance will definitely fall apart!”
This time, they were indeed under siege—Jiahe was sniping from ahead to draw the audience’s attention, while the two action films from Meiying and Hailè were facing off head-on. It was obvious even to a blind person that the two companies were at odds.
“Are you really that confident?” Wei Dongling scratched his head. He wasn’t confident at all. History had shown that the more star-studded a film was, the higher its box office potential.
“If I say it’ll work, it will!” Xiao Ran stood up straight, tapping his fingers on the table. “In this battle, I not only want to regain the distribution rights but also launch an offensive to break up their entire alliance and force Fang Ruohai to leave.”
Wei Dongling nodded. Seeing Xiao Ran’s determination, he believed him. Still, he was puzzled: “Why isn’t Tianluo Company involved in this project? It’s really strange!”
Before he could finish speaking, his secretary, An Yuxuan, called: “President Xiao, there’s a girl named Yang Wei who wants to see you!”
Yang Wei? That Yang Wei? Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling couldn’t hide their surprise. They exchanged a glance before Xiao Ran ordered the girl named Yang Wei to come in.