Tang Jili: I don't want to work for Americans anymore and want to build a film factory like Jiahe

Since childhood, Tang Jili worshipped Bruce Lee, which prompted him to practice kung fu and enter the film and television circle. But when he stepped in, two people changed his ideals.

Original title: Director Park| Tang Jili: Tang Jili wants to build a film factory like Jiahe

. It feels like he hasn't seen this director's name for a long time. Indeed, it doesn't feel so appropriate to use the label of a director to describe Tang Jili now. Thinking about it, the last theater film he directed dates back to 11 years ago. At that time, he teamed up with Jackie Chan and his Korean fairy Kim Hee-sun to collaborate on "Myth".

However, this attribute of a director cannot be easily separated from Tang Jili. Twenty years ago,"Red Bands"-a landmark work in Tang Jili's career as a director, allowed Jackie Chan at that time to open up a scene in Hollywood in the form of an action comedy. Not only did the US$32 million North American box office at that time, it is still enough to make many directors even younger.

In 2016, Tang Jili finally came out again. Before this interview, the film "Kung Fu Yoga", which he was the chief director, had just been completed. This time, like the previous "Red Bands", it is still an action comedy with his old partner Jackie Chan. It's a bit of a hero's comeback. However, Tang Jili didn't want to pursue the director and do anything about his career. Tang Jili said that now director is just his hobby, as for his career he has other plans.

Since childhood, Tang Jili worshipped Bruce Lee, which prompted him to practice kung fu and enter the film and television circle. But when he stepped in, Tang Jili's idol changed. He said that now it seems that there are two people who have a great influence on his career. One is his first boss, Run, and the other is his adoptive father, He Guanchang, one of the founders of Jiahe. Compared with his childhood dream of becoming Bruce Lee, Tang Jili, who is now 56 years old, wants to become someone like them."I want to build a movie factory like Jiahe again."

The success of "Red Bands" is actually

due to the fact that the word "routine" is now popular on the Internet. There is also a routine in Tang Jili's movies, which is Jackie Chan made of iron. It is not that Tang Jili has never changed other partners. Speaking of this, he shrugged,"I also cooperate with others." Tang Jili named a series of names such as Aaron Kwok, Wang Leehom, etc. Just when he mentioned Jackie Chan, he said more titles,"Super Police","Super Plan","Red Bands","Simple Task","Myth","Zodiac Animals" to the current "Kung Fu Yoga"." What does it mean to count family treasures? This is it.

In 1990, Tang Jili, who had just established his own company, filmed his directorial debut "Flying Dragon". This adventure action film earned nearly 10 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office at that time. It was a small achievement, and many people immediately began to pay attention to this new director of the year. But whether it was success or not, probably only Tang Jili himself knew. "This film actually cost me more than 2 million yuan at the time." At this time, Jiahe Company still sent Tang Jili the opportunity to shoot "Police Story 3 Super Police", which also gave Tang Jili his first cooperation with Jackie Chan.

At that time, Jackie Chan was already famous. Films such as "Plan A" and "Summer Fortune" had already promoted Jackie Chan to the status of a first-line Hong Kong star. The Academy Awards and the Golden Horse Awards had also been soft on him. The image of Chan Ka-kui in "Police Story" went deep into the hearts of every Hong Kong person. In today's terms,"Police Story" was already a super IP, and the first two films in the series were also record-breaking works. In fact, it can be said that Jackie Chan lacked everything at that time, except the opportunity to move on to a bigger stage. And "Police Story 3 Super Police" became such a springboard.

After its release,"Super Police" continued to become a hit in Asia as expected. It was at this time that an American publisher approached Tang Jili. "Americans say your film is very good and has many big scenes, Jackie Chan is also very good and can fight, and we like Michelle Yeoh too. There are no such actors in the United States, but unfortunately, mainstream theaters can't play it." The Americans held it for a long time, but they still poured cold water on them."You can only go to the artistic film theater line," blaming the dubbing film, and the subject matter had no connection with the United States. "They were all big Americanism in the United States at that time, and they didn't care about what happened to all the remaining small countries."

Although "Super Police" failed to enter the mainstream American market at that time, Tang Jili found out the crux of the "inability" of Hong Kong films and even Chinese films in his conversation with the American publisher. So, he created "Red Bands"-Hong Kong police came to New York to fight with the mafia, and spoke bilingual dialogue in Chinese and English-based on American preferences and also taking into account the Chinese viewing experience,"The result was really popular in more than 2000 theaters in the United States." "Red Bands" is like a bomb. Not only did it become the best-selling movie in Hong Kong, it also exploded in Hollywood. Jackie Chan has since embarked on the broad road of internationalization.

Of course, the benefits are not limited to Jackie Chan's opening up Hollywood."At that time, the English copyright fee for" Red Bands "sold for US$5 million, and our entire play only cost so much." Isn't this good business? "The benefits this film brings around the world are 25 times the copyright fee. "Jokingly speaking, it's even better than today's hot listing."

Perhaps it is for this reason that Tang Jili now talks about the reasons why he cooperates so much with Jackie Chan,"In fact, I have cooperated so much with Jackie Chan for 26 years. The main reason is that we are very compatible. The film styles and personalities are very similar. Positive energy, action comedy," Tang Jili said,"and international!"

Selling overseas "The China market is only a small part of the world"

and Jackie Chan's cooperation has continued from the early 1990s to the new century, and in recent years, director Tang Jili has also devoted more energy to the development of the industry. He now has another identity, the managing director of China Film International. What he is planning recently is to launch a new "China Film International Fund." According to Tang Jili, this fund was created to continue to create movies, TV series and even newly emerged online dramas, but the core purpose is to continue to export China culture overseas.

He has successful experiences such as "Red Bands", but this is still a bit surprising. After all, from the perspective of movies, today, China is the fastest-growing film market in the world. Whether it is box office growth or the growth of the number of screens, it ranks first, and none. Tang Jili will not fail to understand this current situation.

"China's market is good, but in my opinion, it is a double-edged sword." Tang Jili said,"While you want to see so many money-making movies, you also have to know that we are all making movies. There may be seven to eight hundred films in production a year, but there may be 300 films created every year that are not available in theaters." "What is the current situation? The current situation is that you invest in ten films, three of them are making money, four lose money, and three are tied. This is already a master!"

In Tang Jili's view, one of the reasons why 70% of movies do not make money is that they "put eggs in one basket.""The risk in the single China market is too high. The schedule of movies cannot go up one day after the release, and you will come down the next and third days. You can't even earn back the promotion fees. You want to go overseas later, but you didn't prepare before. How can you go? It's also impossible."

He gave an example of his latest film "Kung Fu Yoga". This film invested 400 million yuan, which should be based on the budgets of Hollywood's B-rated movies and C-rated movies."If we have reached this size, we must have a global perspective. Go sell it around the world like Hollywood."

"Although China's market is becoming more and more mature and is the market we are most familiar with, when viewed on a larger scale, it is still a small part of the world's income. I think the space in overseas markets is very large, and it is also an overseas market that China has not occupied."

Action superstar Li Zhiting and Mu Qiya are both good seedlings.

"When the dialogue and themes you talk about in your movies are too limited, you will not be able to receive overseas markets and will never be able to earn foreign exchange."

Tang Jili concluded that in fact, the process of exporting Chinese films overseas can be divided into two climaxes. The first one is of course his "Red Bands" and "Simple Task". After a few years, with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" winning the Oscar, ancient martial arts films such as "Hero"(movie version, American drama version) and "Ambush from All Sides" became popular for several years."But people will get bored if they watch too much, so it has stopped now, and there is no third generation."

Worldwide, what types of movies are likely to take over again? Tang Jili looked at it, it was still an action comedy. Tang Jili said that from the perspective of spin-off, pure action and pure comedy have limitations."Many comedies may be good in the mainland, but they can't go out. Why? Because you have different languages and cultures,"Tang Jili explained. "The same goes for action scenes. Pure action scenes may be too bloody or oppressive, and have limitations." The combination of the two and weakening both aspects has become the language of the world.

Action and comedy are actually popular all over the world."This is actually the type of family fun." He cited the "Iron Man" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" series as examples."It is more humorous than traditional blockbusters. The character is more lively and has a comedy effect, so it is very popular all over the world."

This time he found his gold medal partner Jackie Chan to shoot "Kung Fu Yoga". Of course, on the one hand, Jackie Chan was asked to take the photo because he was too familiar and liked him well. On the other hand, Tang Jili said that because the generation of a kung fu superstar was broken.

"People like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li all appear in succession, but there are no successors now." In this regard, Tang Jili was a little helpless, but he could only say that he taught while filming. "This time with Kung Fu Yoga, I collaborated with Li Zhiting, Mu Qiya, Zhang Yixing and others, and we are also training." Tang Jili took a fancy to Li Zhiting and Mu Qiya."They have a good English and a certain foundation in action. They are the seedlings of a new generation of very good action stars I have seen."

His 37-year film career seems to be escalating against monsters

and talking to Tang Jili. He gradually discovered that his current perspective is very different from that of the director. He did not say more about feelings and production, but talked more about the market and his observations. Tang Jili said that he himself realized that he attributed this to changes in a new stage of life. This is not the first time Tang Jili has changed. He said that his 37-year film life has been changing stage by stage.

At the beginning, Tang Jili admired Bruce Lee, and his dream was to be like Bruce Lee, so he learned from primary school martial arts. When he joined the industry, he came across movies as a martial arts stunt double."It was really handsome at that time, of course it was also very dangerous, and I was injured a lot." However, as he entered the industry deeper and deeper, Tang Jili gradually realized that just being a martial arts stand-in would not help him much in the development of movies. "That's why I worked as a director, assistant director, producer, screenwriter, photographer, martial arts director, and then as a director." Tang Jili attributed all this to his first ten years. During this period, Tang Jili was more about the exploration of content and production.

When he was a director, Tang Jili filmed "Super Police","Super Plan","Red Bands", and "Simple Mission"."I went from being a new director to breaking the box office of Southeast Asia and becoming the highest box office director in Hong Kong." Even in 1995, he had successfully entered Hollywood, with "Red Bands" being the most direct example."If I just acted as a director and a martial arts instructor, I could do a good job."

When you reach the peak, change will come naturally. At this time, Tang Jili naturally entered the field of film investment. He first invested in his director's work "Flying Dragon", and "lost more than 2 million yuan." But Tang Jili said he was very lucky. Because it was not until then that he discovered,"It turns out that there are so many knowledge as a boss, investment, and distribution." This was a feeling he didn't have when he was a director and martial arts instructor. It was like he had changed his job.

So, just as Tang Jili became the best-selling director in Southeast Asia, he chose to make a change. "Jiahe and I have taken five years off. I want to go to Hollywood to study." The content of learning is not only production and production, but also financing, distribution, and technology."The most important thing is Hollywood's storytelling methods and why their things sell so well around the world." The field of study is no longer limited to film. Tang Jili began to enter the field of American drama and became a producer. "Because I realized that TV dramas, at least in the United States, have more influence than movies, and there are reruns of TV dramas." Nowadays, many of the directors he worked with back then are now famous. Such as "CSI","Prison Break" and even the most popular "Game of Thrones" at the moment all involve directors who have worked with him.

"Although I became successful there and the director of CBS supported me, I still returned to China." Tang Jili said,"Because although I can make a lot of money there, the themes are all American, and I will always work for Americans."

It's like upgrading and fighting monsters. Tang Jili's ideas are upgraded at every stage. Tang Jili wants to be able to film the themes he likes and knows well, make money, and spread China culture. This is his current thoughts,"So in the future, I mainly hope that I will be the producer, I will be the investment, and I will manage this project." In Tang Jili's view, being a director can produce an excellent work in two years."But if I can do this management and supervisor, then I can shoot many plays in a year and tell many stories I want to tell. It can also help more new directors."

Tang Jili said that up to now, after 37 years of film infiltration, his idol is no longer Bruce Lee alone. There are two others, one is his boss Run Run Shaw and the other is his adoptive father He Guanchang."Like them, we love movies and invest in movies. We use our experience to cultivate new directors. "I hope that one day I can build a film factory like Jiahe."

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Editor: yvette