[2023.01.25] LOUIS KOO'S COMPANY IS ACCUSED OF OWING SCREENWRITER SALARY

Louis Koo leaves the matter for the lawyers to respond to

Yam Hap
courtesy of mingpao.com

The "Equal Writer Union Hong Kong" two days ago issued a statement on facebook with the subject of unfairness over the film project A LIFE OF PAPERS (JI PEI POR POR). It demanded a direct conversation with the film production company One Cool Film's boss Louis Koo Tin Lok. Goo Jai yesterday has already left the matter to the lawyers to respond to. The legal firm cited that One Cool Film from May to October 2022 has been seeking resolution with the A LIFE OF PAPERS screenwriter and director Ren Xia (Yam Hap). Although it felt that he twisted words and forced logic, it has always remained tolerant. On October 31st 2022, the company still hoped that both parties would be able to resolve the issue peacefully and provided a resolution agreement draft. No response has been received yet, hence the open letter accusation two days ago was regrettable and has left the company stunned.

On the issue of the screenwriter contract, One Cool Film assigned the task to screenwriter Shu Kei, and Shu Kei recommended Yam Hap. One Cool Film at the end of 2008 signed a film editor and film producer contract with Mr. Shu Kei and a director contract with Yam Hap. In accordance to those 3 contracts the company has paid the salaries in related payments. Yam Hap participated in the project's first draft screenplay creation, and Shu Kei paid him HK$ 67,500 in salary. This was the collaboration agreement between them. Thus Yam Hap's accusation of "being eliminated from the screenwriting contract and the screenwriting salary was being owed for over 3 years" had nothing to do with One Cool Film.

One Cool Film would again clarify the accusation of "monopolizing the million dollar first prize money and the prize whereabouts is unknown", stating that as the production company it applied for the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion. The information provided included the second draft of the A LIFE OF PAPERS screenplay, the director, the producer, and the production company. In the end the project received NT$ 1 million (around HK$ 250,000) in prize money, after taxes the actual amount of NT$ 800,000 (around HK$ 200,000). The event presented the prize money to the company. Due to Yam Hap's demand for his share of the prize money had no precedence, One Cool Film contacted the event. The event stated that the paid prize money would not be rescinded. One Cool Film decided without discounting for any pre-production expense to split the prize money evenly between One Cool Film, the producer, director Yam Hap and screenwriter Shu Kei. Yet Yam Hap demanded half the prize money and excluded Shu Kei. He even brought up buying back the screenplay for HK$ 1,000, which baffled One Cool Film. In October 2022, One Cool Film stated that it would considered transferring the A LIFE OF PAPERS project at cost (including only the creative expenses that have been already paid). Yam Hap has not responded and chosen to issue the open letter three months later.