Hollywood Immortal Chapter 523: Jet Li's Frustration

[Chapter 523: Jet Li's Frustration]

By mid-June, ti had passed quickly.

That morning, Linton had just seen off Sukato Matsushita.

In the afternoon, Jet Li arrived at Linton's office as scheduled for a visit.

...

Over the past two years, Jet Li had been feeling sowhat frustrated.

Before 1994, he and Jackie Chan were Hong Kong's twin kings of martial arts films -- with almost equal influence and paychecks. Both had massive box office appeal across Southeast Asia.

But starting in 1995, the gap between them grew rapidly. They were no longer on the sa level.

The real turning point began at the end of 1993, when Linton -- a rising figure from Arica -- acquired the North Arican rights to their previous film catalog. Slowly, the divide started to widen.

After Linton purchased the North Arican rights to their movies, he pushed these films into the booming VHS market stateside, where they quickly gained popularity. Kung fu culture even sparked a wave of interest across North Arica.

Both Jet Li and Jackie Chan beca minor celebrities in the States. Linton's film company consistently paid over one million dollars for the North Arican rights to their new action films.

A million dollars was no small sum; it basically covered the entire production cost. This leap in overseas distribution significantly boosted their status and salaries back ho in Hong Kong.

At that point, Jet Li and Jackie were still neck and neck, both rising together.

But what happened afterward caught Jet Li completely off guard.

The shift seed to begin with Jackie's Rumble in the Bronx.

He never quite understood why Linton's company made such a massive investnt in Jackie's film, including an aggressive release strategy to bring it to North Arican theaters.

Yet Rumble in the Bronx stunned the market, raking in over $50 million at the North Arican box office.

This success led to high-priced European rights sales, propelling Jackie onto the global stage. Golden Harvest even started publicly calling him a global superstar.

Not only that, Linton doubled down on Jackie's next movie, Police Story 4: First Strike.

Again, the film achieved huge box office success in North Arica, surpassing $60 million in earnings.

At that year's Cannes Film Festival, the European distribution rights to Police Story 4: First Strike were practically auctioned off amid frenzied demand.

With two blockbuster hits in North Arica and strong showings across Europe, Jackie established a solid foothold in Hollywood and beca a worldwide star.

Jet Li, however, saw little change in his own career over these two years.

His influence remained limited mostly to Southeast Asia, and the dia only dared to call him an Asian martial arts star. The gap between his status and Jackie's international fa had grown enormous.

In fact, several of Jet Li's recent films -- The New Legend of Shaolin, The Bodyguard from Beijing, Fist of Legend, High Risk, Black Mask -- had all sought investnt from Linton's company before production. But each ti, the answer was a firm no.

Still, cooperation wasn't completely shut down. Linton's team ended up buying the North Arican rights to those films anyway, and at fairly high prices.

High Risk, Fist of Legend, and The Bodyguard from Beijing fetched about $1.5 million each for North Arica. The latest, Black Mask, was priced even higher -- $2 million.

The problem was that none of these films got theatrical releases in North Arica; they were launched straight to videocassette.

Without a theater run in the States, how could Jet Li build a na for himself in Hollywood? How could his films break into European markets?

This troubled him deeply. He couldn't understand why Linton treated him so differently than Jackie.

Later, after repeated discussions with his partners and agents, they concluded the main reason was the dostic nature of his film stories, which lacked an international perspective. Western audiences just didn't resonate with them.

...

In response, Jet Li's latest film, Black Mask, underwent significant changes.

Its story centers on Tsui Chik, a mber of the secretive "701 Squad" trained to be an emotionless assassin. Rejecting his cold fate, Tsui hides in Hong Kong, working as a quiet librarian to blend in.

Just as Tsui begins to live an ordinary life, the 701 Squad returns, pushing him to beco the "Black Mask," a vigilante fighting against his forr organization.

Though fictional and set in Hong Kong, the film embraced the urban superhero genre heavily inspired by Arican icons like Batman.

The stylistic pivot aid to please Western audiences and crack both North Arican and European markets.

But much to Jet Li's disappointnt, when the Black Mask script went to Linton's company seeking funding, it was rejected again.

He even planned to visit Linton in person for one last persuasive effort, but Linton was busy managing his Universal acquisition and couldn't et.

Now, the finished film had impressed Linton's distribution team so much that they offered $2 million for exclusive North Arican rights. Yet, still, no plans for theatrical release existed. The movie would go straight to video rental shelves.

Jet Li didn't want that. He dread, like Jackie's Rumble in the Bronx and Police Story 4: First Strike, to have his own movie widely released in North Arican theaters, raking in box office success.

That kind of breakthrough could finally open Hollywood doors for him and elevate him to international stardom.

Determined, Jet Li contacted Linton to try to convince him face to face to push Black Mask into theaters.

To strengthen his appeal, he brought along a stunning beauty, Rosamund Kwan.

Local rumor had it that when Linton first visited Hong Kong, he was completely captivated by Vivian Chow and Michelle Reis. Their charm convinced him to support Jackie's Rumble in the Bronx and Police Story 4: First Strike, backing large theatrical releases in North Arica.

Though just gossip, many believed it because the facts seed to support it.

So Jet Li thought of Rosamund Kwan -- the renowned Hong Kong beauty hailed by the dia as the city's top female star. Before Linton stepped in, she was a bigger box office and public darling in Hong Kong than Vivian Chow or Michelle Reis, especially before the golf scandal broke.

Though Rosamund Kwan didn't star in Black Mask, when Jet Li asked her to join him to et Linton in Arica, she agreed instantly, without any conditions.

Her involvent was ant to evoke that sa magic that had helped boost Jackie's career overseas, hoping to sway Linton to take a chance on Jet Li's film on the big stage.

*****

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