Chapter 282: Creating Reincarnation

Box office revenue is the key factor determining whether a company’s, or even a region’s, film industry thrives. Over several years, Phantom has gone from being unknown on the lists of the world’s top ten box offices and North American box offices to consistently making the lists, and now it always occupies at least a few spots.
The next step is to dominate the entire rankings. Once they can control the rankings, Phantom will rightfully become the world’s number one film company, and Hong Kong films will also be on par with Hollywood, which is a huge advantage in attracting talent.
After returning to Hong Kong, Xiao Ran arranged some matters and then discovered that “Toy Story 2” and the revised version of “The Battle at the Forbidden Summit” had achieved outstanding results globally, with global box office earnings reaching one billion—of course, in US dollars. This year’s tasks are so demanding that they keep Phantom extremely busy; just scheduling the films is already a daunting task.
“Titanic” and “The Legend of the Racing Car” are naturally scheduled for the most important summer season, while “The Sixth Sense” and “Ringu” are set for Easter. But the remaining blockbusters give the planning department a huge headache—each one is a blockbuster that requires a slot in the schedule. Which one should be given priority? After much careful planning, they finally managed to coordinate everything with the help of the marketing department.
Yet, Infinite Vision faces even greater challenges, as most of their films require extensive special effects. Add in films from other companies, and they’re nearly overwhelmed with work.
Xiao Ran’s new film, “Reincarnation,” can be seen as a continuation in the style of “True Colors”—at least from certain perspectives. This time, he assembled his strongest team to create the best possible film.
The art director and costume designer are Zhang Shuping; the editor is his long-time partner Zhang Yaozong; the composer is Lin Daoyun; the sound designer is Xiang Bao; the lighting designer is Dou Wenbao; the cinematography director is Huang Yongheng; the action choreographer is Yuan Banya; and the screenwriter is You Hai.
This is undoubtedly the strongest team in Hong Kong’s film industry, with each member being the best in their field. Aside from Xiao Ran, perhaps only a few top filmmakers like Xu Ke could assemble such a team. As for the actors, Xiao Ran chose Liu Qingyun, an actor with great versatility who, with a little guidance from Xiao Ran, could easily become an actor champion.
As usual, before filming began, sponsors and advertisers quickly approached the planning department, as if the planning department could help them make huge profits. As a result, Hui De Feng, controlled by Li Ka-shing, sponsored 20 million, and Hopewell sponsored another 20 million. Even before filming started, the production costs were covered by these sponsorships—without even counting advertising fees.
Who else besides Xiao Ran has the status to attract such enthusiasm from other companies? Anyway, his new film started shooting in March, right here in Hong Kong.
What troubled Xiao Ran was that it took a whole day just to explain the film’s structure and theme to the crew behind the scenes. Finally, filming began, and Xiao Ran felt as though all his ideas were bursting out of his head.

In terms of art and other aspects, the film essentially continued the style of “True Colors,” so there was no need for Xiao Ran to say much—everyone got started working right away. However, as soon as shooting began, Xiao Ran sensed something was off; Liu Qingyun’s performance wasn’t what he wanted. After urgently stopping filming, Xiao Ran closed his eyes and thought for a while. He decided that the kind of fierce, hatred-filled performance seen in “The Angry Street” would be more appropriate. Since Liu Qingyun was playing two roles, the police character definitely required such a demeanor, at least that same intensity. Yet, although Liu Qingyun had enough intensity, Xiao Ran still felt something was missing. Walking around him, Xiao Ran suddenly realized it was a lack of depth—a rather terrifying depth—that clearly didn’t suit the film’s needs. Liu Qingyun’s fierce aura was sufficient; it had been strongly developed in Xiao Ran’s “True Colors.” But what followed was that sense of depth. Stopping in front of Liu Qingyun, Xiao Ran was very satisfied with Zhang Shuping’s costume design—it was simple and clean. “Qingyun, do you know what’s wrong with your performance?” Liu Qingyun shook his head in confusion. Collaborating with Xiao Ran was something every filmmaker aspired to, as working with him allowed one to learn a great deal. This was evident from the number of top talents who had emerged from Xiao Ran’s previous teams. In this regard, Xiao Ran was certainly on par with those master directors. The main reason to fear collaborating with Xiao Ran was simple: his standards were extremely high. He strictly adhered to a philosophy of excellence, requiring the crew to put in extra effort. As Xiao Ran often told actors like Shuang You, “There are no perfect films in this world, nor should there be any utterly worthless ones. We must learn to showcase our strengths and cover up our weaknesses.” In Xiao Ran’s view, high-quality production was inevitable. Failure was acceptable, but nothing worthless was allowed. Every film had natural strengths; as long as those strengths could be used to cover up flaws, it was a successful film. Perhaps due to changes in history, “The Angry Street” wasn’t filmed in time, while “New Love Story” was released in 1994. Now, Liu Qingyun truly possessed an indescribable charm—a very artistic local flavor. Xiao Ran nodded. It was completely normal for an actor not to know what was wrong with their performance: “The character you’re playing isn’t someone deep-minded; you need to convey a relatively simple demeanor.” After “True Colors,” Liu Qingyun’s acting skills had reached a high level. With Xiao Ran’s reminder, he understood after just a brief thought. Thanks to his performance, progress was quite fast. With Lan Naicai’s skilled makeup, another version of Liu Qingyun appeared on set for use as a double. Although computer effects would be needed later to create scenes showing both versions of Liu Qingyun together, having a double made things much easier.

About ten days later, Xiao Ran’s planning finally ran into trouble. It wasn’t due to the theme or structure, but because action scenes were about to be filmed, and he realized he really needed to figure out how to control them in practice. That day, he gave the others the day off and stayed at home to think quietly about everything. The issue wasn’t how to blend artistic elements with action sequences, but how to merge them together.

“Dad!” Xiao Ling’er and Xiao Qing rushed into Xiao Ran’s arms, holding several toys and dolls. Upon closer inspection, Xiao Ran saw that these dolls and toys were actually characters from movies like The Three Heroes of the East and Dragon Knight. Ridiculously, the doll series included a version of Lin Ching-ja. Xiao Qing, on the other hand, was holding a drawing board; he climbed down from Xiao Ran’s lap and started drawing on it. Xiao Ling’er, meanwhile, wore a silly smile and said in a childlike tone, “Dad, look! There’s Mom in The Three Heroes of the East too!”

Lin Ching-ja smiled gently at the adorable children and shrugged helplessly at Xiao Ran, saying, “They both want them, so I have no choice but to buy them! Also, Xiao Ling’er says she wants to be one of the Three Heroes of the East when she grows up!”

“Yes, yes! Being one of the Three Heroes of the East is so cool, and they’re all very strong— they can fight the bad guys!” Xiao Ling’er kept talking nonstop after kissing Xiao Ran, leaving him at a loss for words.

Xiao Ran stared in amazement at his daughter and then at his son, who was fully focused on drawing. A ridiculous idea flashed through his mind. As the old saying goes, “Three years determine eighty years of life.” Xiao Ling’er and Xiao Qing were already quite old, with Xiao Ling’er even showing signs of becoming a strong woman. After thinking for a moment, he set Xiao Ling’er down and told them not to disturb him so he could think. Lin Ching-ja sat down beside him and said softly, “Actually, you don’t need to rush. We don’t necessarily have to do what we love right away!”

Xiao Ran was stunned. Seeing the look in Lin Ching-ja’s eyes, he realized she had guessed wrong. He smiled and explained, “No, I’m not thinking about dealing with those opponents. Ah Dong and I already have complete plans. I’m just facing a small problem with the filming of the new movie.”

Xiao Ran knew well that it was impossible to completely detach himself from his career at his current position, unless he was willing to sell off his efforts. So, by retiring, he only meant semi-retiring. With modern technology being so advanced, there were ways to manage his career remotely, requiring little effort—almost no different from being retired.

He gently held Lin Ching-ja’s hand and looked closely at her face, which still captivated him. Faint crow’s feet already appeared around her eyes. Seeing this, Xiao Ran felt even more guilty. If it weren’t for his insistence on achieving his ideals, perhaps they would be traveling around the world now, or buying a small house in a beautiful place to enjoy peace away from the world.

“Qingxia, don’t worry. If I say I can solve all problems this year, I definitely can.” Xiao Ran spoke in a tender tone, staring intently at his beloved wife as he slowly said, “As long as I decide to do it, I will surely succeed!”
“That’s right, that’s right!” A hint of smile appeared in Lin Qingxia’s eyes as she teased kindly, “You’re the richest man in Xiao—what’s there you can’t do?”
That very day, Xiao Ran figured it out—it had to be like in the movies. He realized that if they wanted to blend everything together, they would need to take risks, to embrace some risk in the filming approach; it was inevitable.
With his thoughts cleared, filming became much easier. But soon, a challenge arose that troubled Xiao Ran: the chase scene in the middle of the film. Due to the textbook-style chase scene in “Spy Change,” many films emphasized chase sequences. Xiao Ran didn’t want to repeat himself nor imitate others, which posed a great dilemma for him.
How could he make this chase scene original? After much effort by the production team, they quickly found a suitable location—a highway with a road leading to the railway right in the middle.
Xiao Ran quickly had an idea. He decided to divide the chase scene into two parts: the first part took place on the highway, and the second on the road leading to the tracks. The part near the tracks was easy to conceptualize. After consulting the special effects director, he was told that it was entirely possible to create the effect of cars and trains speeding past each other.
The key was to use reverse driving on the highway. Driving in reverse on a busy highway would enhance the sense of speed and the constant feeling of danger.
However, this was by no means easy. For this scene, Volkswagen provided 200 cars of various models. After careful consideration, Xiao Ran first had the special effects team simulate it on computers to obtain precise data before proceeding with actual filming.
Just rehearsing this single scene took at least a week. When filming finally began, Xiao Ran had Huang Yongheng bring dozens of cameras to capture every angle, ensuring the scene would be as spectacular as possible.
At Xiao Ran’s command, the final shot of the scene was filmed. The drivers from the special effects team sped around the traffic, weaving through it. Watching the massive scene, Xiao Ran watched intently. Once he saw everything was fine, he shouted, “CUT!” But at that moment, the lead car driven by the team lost control and crashed into another car. With a loud bang, everyone on set was stunned! Xiao Ran was also completely shocked.
No one expected such an accident to happen right at the end of the most dangerous scene. In less than three seconds, Xiao Ran and all the crew rushed over and pulled the injured out of the cars. The producer, in panic, called the fire department and hospital to send help.

By the time the doctors arrived, the crew members of the car chase team had stopped breathing, while the other person hit in the accident suffered only minor injuries. Looking at the corpse, Xiao Ran felt extreme bitterness. He had encountered injuries from filming before; three crew members were injured while shooting “Spy Conspiracy.” But he never expected that someone would die!