Chapter 52 Like a Father: Ho Koon Cheong

From 1978 to 1979, my three films "Serpentine Hand", "Drunken Master" and "Laughing Boxing Strange Move" were successful in succession.This gave me a taste of what it means to be an overnight hit and superstar treatment. First of all, Golden Harvest proposed to sign a contract with me with an astronomical deposit of 1 million Hong Kong dollars. What is the concept of this number?My salary for a movie was 3,000 Hong Kong dollars. At that time, buying a small apartment in Hong Kong cost only tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars. To me, 1 million seemed like money that I would never spend in my lifetime, but this was just the beginning. The price tag soared from 2.4 million to 4.8 million.

At that time, other film companies approached me, and my agent Chen Ziqiang suggested that I join Golden Harvest.He believes that this emerging company will be more helpful to my future development. Chow Wenhuai and He Guanchang are trustworthy and cooperative partners, and they also promised me a broader market outside Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.They hope to promote me internationally and become the second Chinese superstar who can conquer the world after Bruce Lee. Returning to Golden Harvest again made me feel a lot of emotion. Before that, I was one of countless small martial arts under Golden Harvest.I risk my life every day in exchange for a meager income, silently looking forward to one day being able to stand out.I didn't expect this day to come so soon.

We are going to meet Mr. Ho Koon Cheong who was the Vice President of Golden Harvest at the time and co-founded the company with Chow Wen Huai.The two have complementary personalities and a clear division of labor.Zou Wenhuai is in charge of the company's business development, and He Guanchang is in charge of film production.When they worked together at Shaw Brothers, they were already perfect partners. Their cooperation gave Golden Harvest new possibilities. After the brief greetings, the first thing He Guanchang said to me was: "I'm here to listen to you today, and I want to hear your thoughts." I can't extricate myself from the dreamlike success, but when I heard him say that, I also wanted to express something as much as possible, so that people would think that I was still very insightful. After hemming and hawing for a while, I began to feel a stomachache.Pretty useless now that I think about it.

Chen Ziqiang noticed my discomfort and quickly helped me out: "His recent films have been very successful, thank you for your appreciation, we actually want to hear what you like about his films, Golden Harvest hopes to be in his films in the future What we see here may be more helpful for our upcoming cooperation." "Before he became a star, he was already very famous in martial arts. I have admired him since then. However, I think the current movies are far from developing his potential. I hope to help him find And establish his own style. For example, he has already begun to try to combine action elements with comedy style. In the future, we can start from this perspective, strive for each movie to give the audience something new, and find the style that truly belongs to Jackie Chan. "

These few words completely moved me, and he said what I wanted to express.What he said next surprised me even more. "Of course we started the company to make money, but I assure you, as long as it is a film you make for Golden Harvest, I will not interfere with the budget. You can shoot and produce exactly as you want, and I will not give Your mandatory budget approvals and production deadlines. You make the film and we hand over the money.” I'm almost at the end of my story, it's like heaven for a budding filmmaker. Since then, we have developed a long-term cooperation.Although Zou Wenhuai is the big boss of the company and I meet him very frequently, I discuss and resolve many matters closely related to film production with He Guanchang.Even though the two of us seem to be two completely different people, he always wears a very decent, well-tailored suit with a tasteful tie and watch; I look like a rich man every day despite being rich The same, but this does not prevent the personal relationship between the two of us from getting better and better.Later, he simply regarded me as a godson, and I respected him as much as my father.

After officially joining Golden Harvest, the first film I shot was "Junior and Brother".I tried my best to make this movie well, to be worthy of the trust of the two bosses, and to let the film industry know that my success was not just a moment of luck.I remember there was a scene that took more than 50 shots, just to show me kicking the fan into the air and catching it beautifully with one hand. The serious accident in "Brother Dragon and Brother Tiger" made He Guanchang set two rules for me, first, I can't cut my hair short; second, I can't play characters that will die.I also obeyed these two prohibitions until his death.

He also taught me many things in daily life.I still remember that he once told me that whenever you buy a house, you must first check whether the fire truck can reach it, and then check whether the fire escape can reach it, and don’t buy those very tall buildings.I still remember this one.The house I bought in Singapore is on the fourth floor, so if something happens, as long as there is a tree or railing outside the window, I will jump out as soon as I grab and step on it. I was very frustrated when I went to the United States at the beginning, and I was very frustrated. When I returned to Hong Kong, I hoped to get rid of my shame. At that time, my godfather gave me advice that I should go to see friends, take a vacation, and enjoy life.At that time, I didn't want to hear it at all. He sighed and said, "I hope one day you can understand that there are many more important things in life than just work. Don't keep ignoring them until one day you find out that it's too late It’s too late.” But in my opinion at the time, everything may be fleeting, and only works recorded on film can be preserved forever.Career is pretty much everything to me.I didn't listen to him.

Later, as I grew older, I became more and more able to understand his words.Over the years, I have spent a lot of energy on getting along with my family and friends, and I have also begun to cherish some life outside of work. Fortunately, it is not too late.