[Chapter 523: Jet Li's Frustration]
By mid-June, time 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 somewhat 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 same level.
The real turning point began at the end of 1993, when Linton -- a rising figure from America -- acquired the North American rights to their previous film catalog. Slowly, the divide started to widen.
After Linton purchased the North American 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 America.
Both Jet Li and Jackie Chan became minor celebrities in the States. Linton's film company consistently paid over one million dollars for the North American 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 home 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 seemed to begin with Jackie's Rumble in the Bronx.
He never quite understood why Linton's company made such a massive investment in Jackie's film, including an aggressive release strategy to bring it to North American theaters.
Yet Rumble in the Bronx stunned the market, raking in over $50 million at the North American 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 America, 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 America and strong showings across Europe, Jackie established a solid foothold in Hollywood and became 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 media only dared to call him an Asian martial arts star. The gap between his status and Jackie's international fame 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 investment from Linton's company before production. But each time, the answer was a firm no.
Still, cooperation wasn't completely shut down. Linton's team ended up buying the North American 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 America. The latest, Black Mask, was priced even higher -- $2 million.
The problem was that none of these films got theatrical releases in North America; they were launched straight to videocassette.
Without a theater run in the States, how could Jet Li build a name 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 domestic 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 member 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 become the "Black Mask," a vigilante fighting against his former organization.
Though fictional and set in Hong Kong, the film embraced the urban superhero genre heavily inspired by American icons like Batman.
The stylistic pivot aimed to please Western audiences and crack both North American and European markets.
But much to Jet Li's disappointment, 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 meet.
Now, the finished film had impressed Linton's distribution team so much that they offered $2 million for exclusive North American 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 dreamed, like Jackie's Rumble in the Bronx and Police Story 4: First Strike, to have his own movie widely released in North American 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 America.
Though just gossip, many believed it because the facts seemed to support it.
So Jet Li thought of Rosamund Kwan -- the renowned Hong Kong beauty hailed by the media 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 meet Linton in America, she agreed instantly, without any conditions.
Her involvement was meant to evoke that same 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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