National Tide 1980.

Monday, January 1990, 3.

Despite the major upset at the 13th Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony held in Tokyo last Saturday.

The film "Black Rain," produced by Toei Company and adapted from Masuji Ibuse's novel of the same name, set against the backdrop of Nagasaki after the atomic bombing and depicting the trauma of war, became the big winner at this year's awards ceremony, almost sweeping all six awards.

Ultimately, this film not only caused Toho and Daiei to suffer defeats, but also completely suppressed Dunhuang, which was highly anticipated by the two companies and is the largest historical film ever made in Japan.

Even Keiko Matsumoto's Mist Studio couldn't compete with it, returning empty-handed for the first time and becoming a runner-up in this year's Japan Academy Film Prize.

However, it must be stated that the loss in this award competition does not mean that Mist Studios, which has just been promoted to "the sixth largest in the Japanese film industry", has stopped growing or that its business is declining.

Putting aside other things, the films produced by Fog Studio last year were incredibly profitable, making it one of the top-performing film companies in Japan.

In fact, in 1989, Fog Studios not only produced more than double the number of films compared to the previous year, but also increased its investment in film production by 40%. More importantly, its box office revenue also increased significantly, resulting in substantial profits.

Throughout the year, the film studio earned a total of 7.4 billion yen from domestic film revenue alone, not including revenue from videotapes and overseas copyrights.

In addition, benefiting from the company's thriving film business, the salaries of stars under the Fog Studio, such as Tomokazu Miura, Ken Utsui, Teresa Teng, Hiromi Go, and even Pei-fang Yao, have all increased, maintaining a good upward trend in their careers.

In terms of films that actually caused losses for the Mist Studio and failed to recoup their costs, there were at most three small-scale productions with a production cost of around 200 million yen, which were just trial runs for newcomers under their wing and were completely insignificant.

In addition, the fogging plant has also achieved great success in overseas markets.

Ning Weimin's creation of the first installment of the "Hurricane Operation" series for Alain Delon became a hit overseas this year.

Not only did the subject matter and action elements attract men, but the film also garnered attention from women due to its "warning message for women traveling abroad," making it a huge hit in France and appealing to both men and women.

The film was released in France last December, and by Christmas, it had attracted more than four million viewers in the French domestic market alone.

Not only did young director Luc Besson benefit from this, becoming a commercially successful director in the French film industry and gaining international attention.

More importantly, the down-on-his-luck agent father, played by Alain Delon, is clearly superior in appearance and image to the original lead actor "Uncle Nem" in Ning Weimin's memory, and is more likely to win the audience's favor.

Therefore, Alain Delon, who had already faded from the spotlight, undeniably made a comeback with this film, returning to the ranks of top European stars as a king returning to his former glory.

Ultimately, the film became the second highest-grossing film in France in 1989, with a box office of 140 million francs.

According to the contract, the Fog Film Studio will receive at least 30 million francs in revenue.

This is already a remarkable box office return for the relatively small French market.

Even more encouraging is that the film also performed well in the Japanese and Italian markets.

After the New Year in 1990, the film was released in Japan and Italy.

The total box office in Japan reached 900 million yen.

Although it didn't break the 1 billion yen mark, this is still a remarkable box office achievement for a foreign film released in Japan, excluding American films.

Of course, Italy's box office was even lower, totaling only 3.8 billion lira, which is about 50 million francs.

However, it is still above average and falls into the category of blockbuster movies.

That's not all; screenings in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Malaysia are also scheduled.

Meanwhile, the film studio is also actively contacting distribution channels in the UK and the US, planning to raise money in major overseas markets, including the UK and the US.

Judging from the box office potential shown so far, "Taken" may become the first film from Fog Studios to achieve global success and be successfully promoted to mainstream markets worldwide.

Even so, this is not the full potential of Fog Productions; it's just the beginning.

In fact, besides already preparing for the sequel to "Taken", Fog Studios also had another brand new series coming out in the summer of 1990, which was very likely to be a blockbuster comic book action movie.

That is "Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky," starring Jet Li.

Unlike "Taken," which was made by filming one movie after another, "Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky" was filmed in an unprecedented way, with three movies made in one go.

The series had a total investment of 3.3 billion yen, which shows how much hope the film studio had for it.

Moreover, unlike when the film started production and no one paid attention, under Ning Weimin's instruction, Fog Studio has already increased its publicity efforts and launched a pre-release campaign for the first "Riki-Oh" film to be released during the summer season.

The manga "Panch" and its original author, Tetsuya Saruwatari, occasionally release information by leaking photos of the filming set and main characters, thus raising the expectations of manga fans.

It's fair to say that this topic has become incredibly popular among young people.

The character designs that have already been revealed have been highly praised by comic book fans because they are very close to the original work.

Judging from the current buzz, as long as the film is released on schedule, the number of viewers is expected to be no less than eight million, and the box office is guaranteed to reach at least one billion yen.

The real concern for Fog Studios is whether the first film's reputation can sustain the popularity of the next two.

So how can a film company like Fog Studios, which is becoming increasingly powerful and always keeps people looking forward to it, be said to be on the decline?
If we also consider that Matsumoto's agency recently merged with Kagawa's agency, acquired management contracts with Yoko Minamino and Koji Yakusho, and obtained two nearly completed films, "Heaven and Earth" and "Under the Aurora," then we can further consider these factors.

Then we shouldn't be pessimistic about the future of Fog Studios.

On the contrary, perhaps this year is when the fog film studio truly enters a period of accelerated growth.

In short, not winning an award is not winning an award. After all, for the film industry, the most important thing is still the box office, and we can't judge a film solely by its awards.

Similarly, when looking at a problem, you can't just look at the surface. This applies to things like stock trading and running a company.

Just like now, even though the consequences of Japan's bursting bubble economy are still intensifying, the Tokyo stock market is currently around 21700 points, and today's opening was still sluggish, with a direct downward trend.

However, the stock of EIE International, after a long and seemingly hopeless decline amid a series of negative news, has essentially completed its strategic positioning.

It's time for the behind-the-scenes manipulators to cash out.

Therefore, this day was undoubtedly a good day for the EIE board of directors and Ning Weimin, as they began to reap the rewards. "The EIE Group has decided to address its liquidity shortage by selling assets. We have actually signed more than a dozen transactions involving the sale of our restaurants, hotels, shops, entertainment companies, and travel agencies, and we expect to complete all the transactions by mid-next month. I must say these transaction prices are very good, and we expect to bring in nearly 200 billion yen in cash. This move will effectively reduce our company's debt ratio and financial costs, and we expect to save the group approximately 6.2 billion yen in interest."

"As for the Group's development direction, we will no longer venture into other fields. Instead, we will leverage our existing resources to focus on the two major industries of electronics sales and golf, becoming a company with a more focused business. At the same time, the two golf courses that the Group has acquired overseas will open next month. To celebrate this, we have decided to hold a golf tournament sponsored by the Group in May this year, with a total of 23 events and a total prize money of 3 billion yen."

"In fact, we have already invited many well-known golfers from the United States, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, West Germany, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and other countries and regions to participate in the tournament in Japan. I am very much looking forward to the opening of this international tournament. If all goes well, we hope to hold it long-term and make this tour a high-level international event..."

Before the market opened, the EIE board of directors announced positive news regarding the asset transfer and issued a related announcement, which immediately had a positive effect on the stock price that day.

The stock price, which had already fallen to 7,650 yen, opened 6 points higher that day and continued to rise, never falling back down.

By noon, EIE International's stock price had risen by 12%, and then remained flat around 9,100 yen throughout the afternoon.

The following day, the stock price did not surge but continued to fluctuate slightly, hovering around 9,000 yen.

Why is this so?

To put it bluntly, it's because Ning Weimin is in control of the market that he needs to accumulate shares and get on board.

He entered the market too late and didn't have enough chips in hand. How much could he absorb with the low trading volume alone?

Therefore, we must find a way to increase trading volume and entice the few remaining trapped retail investors to sell off their shares in order to make enough money.

At the same time, we can't let retail investors outside the market jump in and profit from the gains.

A gap-up opening followed by sideways consolidation is the most effective strategy.

Those already in the market think the price has bottomed out and are ready to sell, while those outside are waiting for a pullback to buy on dips. Only he can buy without hesitation.

In this way, relying on two K-lines with explosive volume, Ning Weimin completed the exchange of 10 billion yen in chips, and then used the remaining 5 billion yen to cooperate with the EIE board of directors to start a surge in price.

So by Friday of this week, in just five trading days, EIE's stock price had risen by 50%, regaining the 12,000 yen mark and becoming a star stock bucking the trend.

Financial games are just that awesome.

If Ning Weimin were to sell his chips at this point, he would have nearly doubled his profit.

But their ambitions are far more than that.

According to the consensus reached, EIE will continue to release positive news to support this.

Tanaka of Changyin Bank also stated that, according to information from the Ministry of Finance, the Japanese government is already negotiating a "special money compensation plan" to make up for investment losses of special companies in order to achieve the effect of stabilizing the market.

Therefore, they have the confidence to push the stock price above 20,000 yen in the next two months and can sell off the shares they no longer need in order of priority.

By then, not only will EIE's stock price stabilize, but everyone's debts will also be resolved due to the rising stock price. Conservatively speaking, each participant will also have double the return.

Ning Weimin naturally had no objection to this. This was originally part of his plan, and why wouldn't he do something that was almost guaranteed to make a profit?

He doesn't care at all that the damage is done to the Japanese stock market and that the Japanese investors are the ones who get fleeced.

He only cared about using this class to pay off the company's debts and how much value he could add to his business.

His kindness wasn't so excessive; sometimes he would transform into a wrathful Vajra, acting according to the cruel rules of capitalism, depending mainly on the target.

Time quickly passed to April 11, 1990.

EIE's stock price has risen very smoothly, breaking through the 15,000 yen mark per share.

However, while this was something the EIE board and Ning Weimin were happy to see, it also caused many funds that shorted EIE to suffer margin calls.

The consecutive days of gains in EIEI's stock price are no less damaging than a sustained decline.

Such unconventional market conditions can cause unimaginable damage to those who believe they have accurately predicted the trend of individual stocks.

In fact, the number of suicide reports received by the Japanese police this month has increased significantly, and many of those who lost their lives were also unfortunate victims of the soaring stock price of EIE.

Ironically, despite Ning Weimin's wise move to sell off his real estate holdings and reinvest the funds in the stock market, substantial profits have already been largely secured.

However, most employees of Pierre Cardin Japan viewed his actions as a potential disaster that could plunge the company back into crisis, and as an unforgivable act.

It is unclear which insider in the company's finance department leaked Ning Weimin's financial decisions, causing widespread panic among the company's employees.

Many people have serious doubts about the rationality of Ning Weimin's financial operations.

They assumed that even the most brilliant entrepreneurs could not guarantee their company's prosperity through speculation.

The dissatisfaction was especially strong among the more than sixty garment workers in the factory.

These people had all dedicated their youth to the factory in Shinagawa, and once the factory was sold, they all knew they would have nothing to do afterward.

So when they learned that Ning Weimin had sold the factory to raise funds for stock speculation, and that they would be moving out of the factory next month according to the contract and going home to wait for further notice, all the workers became panicked.

It's quite a coincidence that this time of year, this month, happens to be the time of Japan's annual "Spring Fighting" festival.

Workers in major companies, led by their labor unions, would negotiate with employers to improve their working conditions and increase wages; this is the meaning of "Spring Struggle".
Inspired by their surroundings, the workers at Piercarton decided to band together and emulate the workers at other companies who were protesting.

On April 11, after several days of discussion, they suddenly took action, holding up signs and arriving at the entrance of the company's office building, demanding a 4% increase in wages.

Furthermore, Ning Weimin was required to guarantee that if the decision to sell the factory was reversed, no employee would be dismissed.

It can be said that these were almost exactly the conditions that Hidehiro Hasegawa deliberately made things difficult for Ning Weimin.

Moreover, once someone takes the lead, it's inevitable that others will be tempted, and soon more people in the company will join in.

Thus, by the time Ning Weimin, who was not at the company, learned of this and rushed back, more than a hundred people had already gathered to protest downstairs. (End of Chapter)