Chapter 831: Who Is Sun Wukong?

Although Hong Kong cinema wasn't dead, it teetered on the brink of death. It had long been common knowledge that a massive wave of Hong Kong directors was heading north to seek a new way out.

To a certain extent, this massive northward migration of Hong Kong directors fueled the prosperity of the mainland film industry, but it also brought along many of Hong Kong cinema's inherent flaws.

In fact, a brief analysis easily revealed that looking at the track record of terrible Chinese movies over the past few years, Hong Kong directors had contributed a significant number alongside their mainland peers. Many Hong Kong directors were typical opportunists. Strictly speaking, categorizing their work as "insulting the audience's intelligence" wasn't the slightest exaggeration.

In Duke's eyes, the poor quality of some Hong Kong directors' works—which people considered "over-consuming their own credibility"—actually stemmed from the CEPA Agreement signed in 2004.

Since the signing of that agreement, Hong Kong directors had entered the mainland en masse. However, an unavoidable hurdle for co-productions on the mainland was censorship. Because they fundamentally didn't understand the censorship system, they initially had to feel their way across the river. They basically chose the safest possible formulas for their films. As a result, over the past eight years, the vast majority of films Hong Kong directors brought to mainland audiences fell into two formulaic genres: period martial arts and period comedy.

As for the gangster and police films they were much better at, absolutely no one dared to casually attempt them.

After testing the waters, many Hong Kong directors realized that period martial arts and period comedies were more than enough to secure decent box office returns.

Moreover, the majority of the Hong Kong directors currently active on the mainland were already entering middle or old age. Their pursuit of new genres, themes, and technologies in their creative work bordered on the conservative. Aside from a limited few representatives like Old Master Tsui, the vast majority of these directors relied on incredibly stale formulas, yet they continued using these bygone Hong Kong movie tropes to rake in money from mainland audiences.

However, with the invasion of Hollywood films—just as when Hong Kong cinema lost the Southeast Asian market and even its own local market—audiences had now seen the heights that movies could reach. How could they continue to accept old wine that hadn't even been poured into a new bottle? Thus, it was no surprise that more and more of their works were being written off as trash.

Yet, the works of these very people also gave certain mainland directors a glimmer of hope. 'Since the films shot by so many big-name Hong Kong directors are nothing more than this, and our standards are on par with theirs, surely we can make money too?'

Movies were deeply influenced by the social environment, and the current mainland was long past the 1990s.

After years of baptism in video halls, and having traversed more than a decade of the information-rich internet age, the tastes and appreciation levels of mainland audiences were entirely different from ten or twenty years ago, and the primary consumers were increasingly those born in the 80s and 90s.

Many of the Hong Kong filmmakers who came north didn't consider themselves part of this place either, viewing themselves instead as passing migrants...

Of course, Duke wasn't foolish enough to say these things out loud. Compared to those Hong Kong directors, he was truly a passing traveler and an outsider.

Leaving the theater where the forum was held, Duke used feeling unwell as an excuse to politely decline banquet invitations from several Chinese film company bosses. After meeting up with Scarlett Johansson and Tina Fey, he took a car straight back to their hotel.

"How was the forum?"

Upon returning to the hotel, an enthusiastic Scarlett immediately asked, "Did you offer any advice? Aren't you quite familiar with the Chinese film market? You might just become their savior."

Hearing this, Duke hung up his coat, sat on the sofa, and shook his head. "Darling, to this country and this market, we will always be outsiders."

He wouldn't be foolish enough to think they genuinely viewed him as a savior and one of their own, much less stupid enough to believe that a single person could change an entire nation's film industry.

Seeing that Duke seemed a little tired, Scarlett took the initiative to step behind the sofa. She reached out, gently rubbed her hands together, and then began massaging his shoulders.

Although her technique wasn't very professional, Duke still narrowed his eyes in comfort.

After massaging him for a little while, Scarlett checked the time and asked, "Are you hungry? Should I tell the chef to start cooking?"

Duke gave a slight nod.

On this trip to China, Duke and Scarlett had specially brought along their own chef.

Perhaps because he had been too busy over the past two years, Duke's stomach hadn't been doing well for the last few months. Under Scarlett Johansson's strong insistence, they had hired a specialized nutritional health chef to exclusively design his diet and cook his meals. In Duke's words, this chef's diet plan was absolutely crazy.

The chef, a man named Allen Campbell, designed a highly targeted health menu. Duke wasn't a rigidly stubborn person, and knowing how much Scarlett cared about him, he didn't refuse.

Over the past month, eighty percent of what Duke ate was vegetables. The chef would purchase the freshest produce, and the remaining twenty percent consisted of lean meat—grass-fed steak, duck, and chicken.

As for fish, the vast majority of it was wild salmon.

Not all fresh vegetables and fruits were suitable for consumption. In fact, nightshades were completely banned from the menu because they couldn't increase resistance or improve stomach function. This included tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, and eggplants.

Some might find this a little crazy, but there were many other things the diet advised Duke against eating.

For example: no white sugar, no white flour, and no MSG. The chef would use virgin olive oil for dressing, but never for cooking; he only cooked with coconut oil. Furthermore, he strictly used Himalayan pink rose salt rather than iodized salt.

This was because iodized salt offered absolutely no benefits to a normal person's body.

Aside from that, what else? No coffee, no caffeine-containing foods, no fungi, and no dairy products.

When Duke wanted to relax a bit, Allen Campbell would make quinoa with vegetables, using kale, Swiss chard, or beet greens. He would roast them with garlic and coconut oil, serving them alongside some roasted almonds, curry-infused cashew paste, and lemongrass...

In addition to paying special attention to his diet, Duke's daily routine also had to be regular. Because it was hard for him to wind down after a busy day of work, he would do some cognitive exercises before bed to help his brain relax.

Fortunately, the current Duke was no longer the active nightlife enthusiast he used to be, and he paid great attention to taking care of himself.

Duke's most important task in coming to China was still to promote The Avengers. Over the following days, he and Scarlett Johansson attended a massive number of various events, making frequent appearances in the media.

Beyond that, at Duke's suggestion, the Warner Greater China Region launched a promotional frenzy, driving up buzz for The Avengers through a series of marketing stunts to attract more fans into buying tickets and walking into theaters.

For instance, Duke set his sights on the "Chinese Avengers Alliance" concept that had once been handed to him. Warner Greater China Region teamed up with the distributor, China Film Group, to launch a campaign across several major websites called, "If you were to form a Chinese Avengers Alliance, who would you recommend?"

This instantly ignited the passion of netizens, and the replies across the websites soon exceeded five hundred thousand. Characters like the Calabash Brothers, Black Cat Detective, Sun Wukong, Nezha, and even Wonder Boy were added to the candidate lists by the netizens. As for the villains, the White Bone Demon, Scorpion Demon, and Snake Demon were all nominated as suitable choices.

"If Chinese cartoon characters teamed up to shoot an Avengers movie, it would be pretty badass! Black Cat Detective leading the team, Sun Wukong on the left, Third Prince Nezha on the right, and the Calabash Brothers standing behind them!"

"The villains would be easy to find, too. One Ear and the Cat-Eating Mouse teaming up with the Scorpion Demon, the Snake Demon Couple, the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas, the White Bone Demon, and other monsters and spirits in a vain attempt to rule the world. Fortunately, Black Cat Detective, Diamond Calabash Boy, Sun Wukong, Nezha, and the others would form a Justice League, eventually defeating evil and bringing peace to the world."

Someone suggested putting together a "Jin Yong Martial Arts League," bringing Linghu Chong, Yang Xiao, the White-Browed Eagle King, Hong Qigong, and the Old Urchin together. There was also a "Great Alliance of Legendary Beauties," which would feature Pan Jinlian, Xi Shi, Diaochan, Daji, and so on...

"Darling..." Scarlett asked Duke curiously after listening to Tina Fey's translation. "Who is Sun Wukong?"

"A monkey with immense magical powers."

Faced with this purely Eastern mythology, Duke didn't even know where to begin explaining it. "Anyway, he's a hundred times stronger than Harry Potter."

An unprecedented collective strike by superheroes like the Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor was undoubtedly the biggest selling point of The Avengers.

With just a little guidance, the imaginations of Chinese netizens—who were eagerly waiting for domestic Chinese films to make their mark—began soaring wildly. Ideas about whether animated figures like the Calabash Brothers, Black Cat Detective, Sun Wukong, and Nezha could form a "Chinese Superman" team emerged one after another.

Under the instigation of the Warner Greater China Region, some reporters even consulted well-known industry figures for their opinions on the matter. The feedback they received was that this idea was a somewhat "nonsensical" creative concept, and it wouldn't be easy to actually implement. Chinese filmmakers lacked both the experience and capability needed to shoot this kind of live-action superhero film.

Stimulated by this series of promotional marketing tactics, The Avengers surged aggressively through the Chinese market. Over the course of the week from last Friday to this Thursday, it wildly raked in over 800 million RMB at the box office. Everyone realized that this film was inevitably going to set a new box office record for Chinese cinemas.

Meanwhile, The Avengers continued its own madness in North America. In the four workdays following its opening week, it hauled in an insane 112.06 million US dollars, bringing its cumulative North American box office to 355.37 million US dollars!

Just like in North America, this film temporarily had absolutely no rivals in the global film market. In a mere seven days, its global box office reported returns of 882.66 million US dollars, practically locking in the title of the year's box office champion.

However, heading into a new weekend, The Avengers was about to face a formidable challenger simultaneously in North America and overseas. Fast and Furious 5 was about to begin its global release across more than ninety countries and regions.