National Tide 1980.

In addition to the TV series "Women's Ladder", Wu Studio also launched four films produced by the studio this year.

The main blockbusters, of course, are the two large-investment movies "Bodyguard" and "Ghost" planned by Ning Weimin.

"The Bodyguard" was invested with 1 billion yen, directed by Mak Ling-Chi, and starred by Tomokazu Miura and Teresa Teng.

The plot of the movie basically copied the original story line completely, except that the American environment was placed in Japan, and some decorative modifications were made based on local culture.

Although Mak Ling-Chi has never directed such a big-budget movie before, the good thing is that she is not only an action film director and is familiar with the shooting techniques of action scenes, but she was also one of the participants in the filming of "Crazy Rich Asians".

Since following Director Osawa Yutaka, I have gained certain gains and progress in filming experience.

The key is that she is also a close friend of Teresa Teng. She can get Teresa Teng's full cooperation in her work, allowing this Asian queen of pop to interpret herself in her most authentic state.

From this point of view, she does have an advantage that no other director has.

In addition, there is another thing that is also very important.

That is, the martial arts director of this action film, Yuen Woo-ping, is also from Hong Kong, and he has a particularly good relationship with Mak Ling-Chi.

This "Eighth Master" has quite rich experience in filming movies.

Not only did he handle his job with ease, he also designed action scenes for Miura Tomokazu, who had no martial arts background, that were convincing enough to be indistinguishable from the real thing and quite entertaining to watch.

He almost served as the assistant director and gave Mai Lingzhi a lot of good ideas during the filming.

It was well worth the money Ning Weimin spent to invite him to Japan. He is now multitasking.

In addition, the theme song of this movie is still "I Will Always Love You", which Ning Weimin plagiarized and gave to Teresa Teng without hesitation, which restored the atmosphere of the movie to a large extent.

Although the penetrating power of Teresa Teng’s high notes cannot catch up with the original singer of this song, Whitney Houston, and cannot be as shocking as her.

But when it comes to expressing the soft parts, Teresa Teng has a natural advantage and is obviously more touching than this American singer.

It can be said that these two people have their own strengths.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Teresa Teng has the best voice in Asia. It is no problem for her to handle this song.

It’s just that her singing is not so rigid, and has become another style that tends to be aesthetic.

In short, the rigorous and solid plot structure, the action scenes designed by the best martial arts director in the East, the classic theme song, plus the gimmick of Miura Tomokazu's transformation into an action scene for the first time, and Teresa Teng's true-to-life performance, also break the old framework and present a new story theme of forbidden love from the perspective of a bodyguard.

These six selling points are enough to attract Japanese audiences to the cinema during the summer vacation.

In fact, not only did Shochiku Film give the greatest support to this film, but given the box office performance of "Crazy Rich Asians", Toei's theater chains and some independent theaters also joined in and gave it a better schedule.

Therefore, this movie was a huge hit at the box office during the summer, and the domestic box office almost reached 4 billion yen. It actually became the highest-grossing movie of Kiri Studios in Japan to date, and also the movie with the best reputation.

Almost nine out of ten Japanese drama critics praised this movie, saying it has become a phenomenal movie. It seems that if you don't watch this movie in August, you are not considered a Japanese.

So this also makes Fog Studios full of confidence in the overseas release of this film.

It is estimated that the global box office, global video distribution, and the single licensing of the movie theme song will bring at least another 40 to 50 billion yen in follow-up income to Mist Studios.

How could all the staff at Fog Studio not be proud and complacent?

Of course, there is one thing they don’t actually know, and that is that the original version of "The Bodyguard" earned 4.1 billion yen at the box office in Japan.

If we look at it from this point of view, the adaptation produced by Ning Weimin seems to be slightly inferior to the American version.

But the key issue is that the investment costs are different.

How much did it cost to make The Bodyguard in the United States?

How much did Fog Studios spend on making this movie?

The gap is too big, several times.

And you should know that the best-selling Japanese movie "Dunhuang" in June of this year had an investment of 4.5 billion yen and its box office in Japan reached 8.2 billion yen.

In other words, Tokuma Shoten, which owns Daiei Company, barely tied for the film's domestic box office.

If we look at it from the perspective of production costs and returns, the profit of "The Bodyguard" produced by Fog Films actually exceeds that of "Dunhuang".

With its investment of only one billion, Mist Studios made at least 5 billion yuan in this film. It is no exaggeration to say that this is an investment miracle in the global film industry.

What's more, Ning Weimin himself doesn't actually care about this.

Whatever happens, the fact is that the Americans’ money is in his pocket.

In addition, there is one thing he cares about, that is, you are well, I am well, and everyone is well.

This movie not only made Mist Studios earn money and gain fame, but also allowed everyone under Mist Studios to enjoy success and gain more trust in the company.

Mak Ling-Chi went from being a new director to a big-name director of hit commercial films. Now, like Teresa Teng, she is chased by reporters for interviews all day long.

Moreover, Tomokazu Miura and Teresa Teng became more and more popular, and their advertising endorsements increased rapidly.

Especially Tomokazu Miura, who was almost directly freed from the trouble of obvious transformation into an idol type by the Kiri Studio through two Japanese dramas and two movies, and was promoted to the status of a top-notch male star.

This sense of accomplishment not only made him extremely happy, but also made other artists affiliated with Matsumoto Agency feel the same way, full of envy and anticipation.

So in order to thank Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko, Miura Tomokazu specially asked his wife to prepare a family dinner to entertain them.

For Ning Weimin, in addition to the sense of accomplishment of having made Miura Tomokazu famous, he can also eat dishes made by Baihui herself and enjoy the hospitality of the former No. 1 idol in Asia. This is also a rare hidden benefit.

As for the movie "Ghost", the filming process was actually much more difficult than that of "The Bodyguard".

The main issue is the special effects caused by the male protagonist becoming a ghost, which is still a rather tricky problem in this era.

Director Osawa Yutaka originally planned to use the old method of the local film industry, but halfway through, he realized that the picture quality was so poor that it was so embarrassing that he wanted to kick the ground.

For fear of damaging his hard-earned reputation from Crazy Rich Asians, Osawa Feng gritted his teeth and begged Ning Weimin for permission, then flew to the United States to find a company that uses computers to make film and television special effects to solve this problem.

Unexpectedly, the trip to the United States was not smooth. Not only did the special effects company quote a high price, but the project had to be delayed and could not be taken over immediately.

Ning Weimin's original plan to use the original movie theme song "Unchained Melody" from "Ghost" also encountered some problems.

The copyright owner of this old song was actually a Japan hater. He was paranoid and believed that the US economy was in big trouble because of the Japanese. So when he saw Osawa Yutaka coming to inquire about the price, he asked for a huge licensing fee of $550,000.

In the end, the song was not negotiated, and the Japanese version of "Landscape of Venus" sung by Keiko Matsumoto based on "Venus in the Caravan" could only be used as the movie theme song.

The completion of the special effects for this movie was delayed from July to October, and the cost of filming the movie soared from 700 million yen to around 1.2 billion yen.

However, because of the good response of "A Chinese Ghost Story" released in Japan in the first half of 1988, it became a small hit. Japanese audiences also seemed to be very fond of this theme of human-ghost love. When promoting the film, Wu Film Studio deliberately compared the modern theme of this film with the Chinese film "A Chinese Ghost Story".

The film successfully aroused the interest of many viewers by utilizing the differences between the ancient Chinese story and the modern Japanese city. At least many fans of "A Chinese Ghost Story" came to buy tickets to have a look.

And just like that, the film opened this week and its first-week box office revenue exceeded 560 million yen.

Moreover, drama critics praised the performances of the film's leading actor Ken Utsui, the leading actress Yoshiko Ishida, and even Yukiyo Tojuji who played the psychic.

I think this movie is a rare love film that expresses the emotions of middle-aged people from the perspective of the different paths of humans and ghosts. The story is presented to everyone through the director's narration, and the effect is very touching.

It is generally recognized that this should be a new starting point in the career of Ken Utsui, who has gradually become a supporting role, and will bring him new career opportunities.

Apart from that, I have to say that there is absolutely no cost involved.

Although computer technology was backward in that era, Ning Weimin thought the luminous special effects produced by the American company were only worth 50 cents, and were much worse than the original version released a few years later.

But don't forget, this was 1988, several years before the release of Jurassic Park.

Even this special effect, which Ning Weimin finds extremely childish, is fresh and surprising enough in the eyes of contemporary audiences.

Therefore, the box office momentum is still maintaining a strong trend. It is estimated that it can at least maintain the top position in the box office chart for a few more days. It should have no problem earning 2 billion by the time it is released.

At the very least, relying on the local box office, it can almost break even, which means it is guaranteed to make money.

Although the quality of this movie is far behind the American version, Ning Weimin knows that this story of love between a human and a ghost is also attractive to Western audiences.

Not to mention the box office of the American version in the Western world, when "A Chinese Ghost Story" was released in France, its box office beat that of the American "Robocop".

Therefore, he is still full of expectations for the overseas box office, and is also happy about the improvement of Ken Utsui's status in the industry.

Who says that middle-aged actors like him have no chance to make a comeback?

Mist Studios has done it, not only making Ken Utsui loyal to the show, but more importantly, it will have a demonstration effect on other actors, making it easier to win people's hearts.

In short, the performance of these two films did not fall short of Ning Weimin's expectations, and they have completely established the industry status of Mist Studios that year.

In addition, it is also worth mentioning that Okamoto Akira independently planned two low-budget films, "Jewel of the Sea" and "Death Song", as the head of the studio.

Among them, "Gem of the Sea" is a love movie that tells the story of a surfing coach who came from a poor family and a rich girl who came on vacation who met by chance on the resort island of Okinawa, and then they got to know each other and fell in love, and finally got together after overcoming family obstacles.

"Song of Death" is a police and gangster film that tells the story of an upright criminal policeman who tracks down and investigates a drug crime group, and then goes through a life-and-death struggle, finally succeeds in solving the case and bringing the leader of the crime group to justice.

Frankly speaking, the story patterns of these two films are quite old-fashioned in Ning Weimin's eyes. They are just pure genre films. He had little confidence since he first saw the two scripts.

Especially in "Gem of the Sea", the romance created by the gray boy to pursue the rich girl is too awkward, and many scenes are unreasonable.

But the problem is that these two film projects were entirely the work of Akira Okamoto himself, and he was full of enthusiasm and confidence.

Well, since both Matsumoto Keiko and Ning Weimin have placed their hopes on him, they hope that he can stand on his own and become a competent director of a film studio.

Then you must trust him, gain experience for him, and pay a certain amount of trial and error costs.

In addition, as the boss of Mist Studios, Matsumoto Keiko also has to consider the work demands of other artists who have merged with Taurus and Burning.

Because for artists, an artist agency that can provide work and get projects is a good company.

If the company is idle every day and has no announcements, the artists will lose confidence in the company.

So now that there are more artists, arranging announcements for the artists has become a burden for Matsumoto Agency.

Although there are not so many good projects at the moment, we can't let everyone sit idle.

In addition to arranging to appear on TV variety shows, it is natural to make some blind investments and waste some money.

At least it can give these artists some hope and make them feel more balanced.

Otherwise, if there is always a lack of decent jobs, some artists may not be able to bear it and have to transfer.

Otherwise, why does Hollywood produce so many bad movies every year?

Some of the films are not shown on the big screen at all, but are instead released on the video market.

It's not for any other reason, but because many times even the film companies know clearly what kind of bad movie they are going to make, but for various reasons, they have to make it, or even just for the sake of repaying favors.

Anyway, let's put it this way, just increase the volume and get some work done, similar situations exist in every industry.

So since they had decided to be the scapegoat, both Matsumoto Keiko and Ning Weimin were mentally prepared.

Fortunately, the funds required to shoot the two films are not much. According to the production costs estimated by Akira Okamoto, the total cost is just over 400 million yen.

Ning Weimin simply asked Matsumoto Keiko to sign for him and approved 500 million, thinking that even if there was a loss, it would only be 300 million yen.

As long as the two genre films are not too shabby, it shouldn't be possible that 40% of the cost cannot be recovered, right?

As long as they can get back 200 million yen, they can exaggerate the losses to cover up other profitable projects of Mist Studio and pay less tax, so it won't be a loss.

But the result was unexpected, the male lead of "Gem of the Sea" was chosen to be the handsome and charming guy Yumi Sato. For the female lead, Akira Okamoto did not use a Japanese actress, but chose Yao Peifang who was brought from the mainland by Ning Weimin.

In order to use her as the heroine, the script was actually revised, and the heroine's character was changed from a Japanese lady to a young lady who followed her parents to the United States when she was young.

In this way, there is a reasonable explanation for the things about Yao Peifang that made the Japanese feel unfamiliar.

As a result, although the plot of the movie is thin and cannot stand up to scrutiny, the appearance of the male and female protagonists is quite outstanding.

Coupled with the beautiful scenery, blue sea and beaches of Okinawa Island, this movie is shot like a romantic landscape film.

Therefore, we received strong support from Okinawa.

In order to promote tourism on the main island, the governor of Okinawa not only provided convenience during the filming of this movie, but also published articles in newspapers to promote it before its release. He also decided to cooperate with Mist Studios to place several open-air screens on the beaches of Okinawa Island and invite tourists to watch the movie for free.

As a result, the filming and promotion costs of the film were effectively reduced, and the final filming cost only 180 million yen.

In June, after the film was released, although the critics' reputation was mediocre, if it were really to be rated, it would probably be between passing and failing.

But the CP of the male and female protagonists and the romantic beach and sea are definitely pleasing to the eye, and can fully satisfy the fantasies of young men and women who are planning to go to the beach, so the final box office reached about 420 million yen.

The investment costs were recovered just by relying on the local box office, and a small profit was made.

In addition, the Governor of Okinawa did not take the copies for free. He gave 10 million yen for each copy and took four in total.

In this way, if we add the revenue from the videotape market and sales to overseas markets, conservatively speaking, the profit of this movie is expected to exceed 100 million yen.

For Akira Okamoto, this was a natural victory. (End of this chapter)