Hong Kong entertainment tycoon Huang Xiaochong, 76, recently revealed in a video on social media that he had once spent billions of Chinese yuan to support his son, Huang Hao, in his acting career. He expressed his regret over the fact that despite his many years in the industry, he had never failed to promote any actor except for his own son. He called this failure the biggest regret of his film career and a lesson from God.
Let’s go back to 2014. At that time, Hong Kong filmmakers were flocking to the mainland in pursuit of the “Chinese Dream.” Huang Xiaochong’s company, “China Star Group,” announced a high-profile collaboration with China’s first film and television company listed in the United States, “Bona Film Group,” to invest 300 million yuan in creating a large-scale fantasy film based on the “Investiture of the Gods.” The film, titled “The Legend of Lei Zhenzi in the Investiture of the Gods,” was conceived primarily to promote his eldest son, Huang Hao.
The lead role of Lei Zhenzi was naturally played by Huang Hao, and the supporting cast was star-studded: the retired Jet Li was brought out of his hiatus to play Jiang Ziya, while actors such as Tony Leung, Fan Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming, Angelababy, Louis Koo, Carina Lau, and Adam Cheng from both sides of the Taiwan Strait all gathered for the film. All these stars willingly played supporting roles just to build a bridge for Huang Hao, known as the “Prince of the Hong Kong circle.”
However, after the film went into production in 2015, problems began to arise. Due to the continually extending production period, the costs kept escalating like a snowball, rising from the initial budget of 300 million to 500 million yuan. On July 29, 2016, the film, now renamed “The Legend of Lei Zhenzi,” finally premiered nationwide.
Despite the confident proclamation from the CEO of Bona Film Group, Yu Dong, before the premiere that the film aimed for a first-day box office target of 200 million yuan, the chaotic plot, exaggerated styling of actors, and awkward performances in the film led to an overwhelming wave of criticism after its release.
In an attempt to highlight Huang Hao’s role as Lei Zhenzi, the film awkwardly modified Chinese mythological stories into Western fantasy: Roman-style castles, Japanese ninja-like warriors, immortals resembling Warcraft characters, Star Wars-like spaceship battles… The mishmash of various visual effects elements from Western blockbusters left the audience dumbfounded. Fans questioned, “Is this still the mythological story set in the Shang Dynasty of China?”
The film’s rating on the “Douban” website quickly plummeted to 3.0 stars, and it was dubbed as a “once in a decade disastrous film” by the media. The box office performance showed a steep decline: 77.93 million on the first day, 60 million on the second day, and 50 million on the third day. Just seven days after its release, the film disappeared almost silently from the market. The colossal production that cost 500 million yuan ended with a total box office revenue of only 283 million yuan, resulting in over 400 million yuan in losses for the investors according to industry profit-sharing rules.
For Huang Xiaochong, the financial loss may still be bearable, but the blow to his reputation and dignity was too painful. Recalling the situation in the video, he mentioned that the most heartbreaking moment was hearing his peers say, “You also have a day like this.”
Huang Xiaochong admitted that his failure at that time was due to his own “arrogance and lack of vigilance.” He mentioned that some had warned him that it would be difficult to promote Huang Hao and the market wouldn’t accept such a strategy, but his overconfidence led him to disregard any advice. Despite his decades in the film industry where he successfully promoted many actors, he failed miserably in promoting his own son. He openly declared, “Casting him in the film was a mistake in my film career!” and stated that looking back now, he sees it as a lesson from God.
In addition to “The Legend of Lei Zhenzi,” Huang Hao also starred in “My Boxing Champion Boyfriend” and “An Unexpected Treasure” invested by his parents’ company, “China Star Films Limited.”
According to an article on “NetEase Entertainment,” “If the costs of these three major films were accurate, then Huang Hao has suffered losses of 800 million yuan in his film career.” The author of the article also lamented, “No wonder (Huang Hao) and his whole family have turned to live streaming to sell products.” Thus, Huang Hao has been labeled as the “deadbeat who can’t be supported.”