Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 681 The fourth generation of directors came to an end, and the peak of the fifth generation gradually passed
The next day, the wind was still howling coldly. It was best to stay at home in this weather. But Fang Minghua was not idle. He was about to hold the second World Chinese Literature Award Reading Class Meeting, where he would shortlist the winning literary works. Now he had to take notes carefully.

The weather was better in the afternoon, but the road was a little muddy after the snow. Song Tangtang usually didn't come back at noon. After the two children finished their meal, Fang Minghua drove them to school, then returned home, made a cup of tea and continued reading.

At this moment, the babysitter knocked on the door and came in and said, "Brother Fang, there's a man named Wu Tianmin at the door looking for you."

"Brother Wu? Please ask him to come in."

"Ok."

Fang Minghua went downstairs to the living room. Within two minutes, the nanny brought Wu Tianmin, who was wearing a military coat, into the living room.

"Brother Wu, why are you here when it's so cold? Just give me a call if you have anything to say." Fang Minghua said.

"Nothing much, I just wanted to chat with you for a while. Do you need to change your shoes?" Wu Tianmin said, looking at the clean ground.

"No need to bother, just come in." Fang Minghua greeted warmly: "Xiaoqin, go make some tea, get the Longjing tea from my study."

"Have it."

The two sat on the sofa in the living room and chatted.

"This morning, President Song convened a meeting of the company's top executives to specifically analyze the box office performance of the movie 'Face/Off,'" said Wu Tianmin.

"Did she say that about you?"

"No, he said the film has high artistic value. The newspapers and media all say so. As for the box office, it cannot fully reflect the true value of a film."

"I know she was trying to comfort me." Wu Tianmin smiled and continued, "In fact, I also expected the box office to lose money, but I didn't expect it to be so big. Just as Mr. Song said, the current film market is completely different from that in the 1980s."

"It's true. Competition in the current film market is much more brutal than before. Not only do we have to compete with American blockbusters, but we also have to compete with video halls and pirated discs. I told my wife that domestic filmmakers may have a hard time in the next few years," said Fang Minghua.

Wu Tianmin nodded after hearing this.

"Yes. I have been in the United States for five years and have watched many of their films. I have also visited Hollywood to learn about their film production and operation process. To be honest, we cannot compare with them in terms of technology and market-oriented operation concepts."

Wu Tianmin continued.

"At the meeting today, I specifically talked about this issue. Just one movie, The Fugitive, has made us lose our weapons. It is said that there will be ten similar movies next year. I can't believe it. How should the domestic film industry cope with this?"

"So what do you think we should do? Surrender?"

"I haven't come up with a good solution yet. With our current technology and economic strength, we can't make a movie like The Fugitive, which was released in the United States last year and was not the most popular movie in the United States."

"The most popular one is Jurassic Park, right?" Fang Minghua said with a smile.

"How did you know?" Wu Tianmin was a little surprised, and then said, "You have friends in the United States, so it's not surprising that you know."

Fang Minghua smiled and said nothing.

"It is said that the global box office of Jurassic Park is close to 10 billion US dollars. 10 billion US dollars is equivalent to more than 80 billion yuan in RMB. I heard that our total box office in China last year was only 28 billion yuan! It is unimaginable."

"If such films are imported, how can our mainland films compare?"

Wu Tianmin finally sighed. "What was the final result of your discussion?" Fang Minghua asked with a smile.

"Mr. Song said that on the one hand, we should control the number of films we make, and we should consider both the artistic quality and the box office. We can't compete with Hollywood blockbusters in terms of technology and funding, but we can make some films that are popular among the domestic public, especially comedies."

"In addition, we should stick to the two-pronged approach and try to make up for the money lost in the film market by making money in the TV drama market, which is still quite popular in China."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Fang Minghua nodded.

How can it not make sense?

These are what Fang Minghua analyzed to his wife last night while they were sleeping in bed.

"I plan to take a two-year break and stop making movies. I want to think carefully and help Mr. Song with the company's business."

"Well, this is a good idea. After all, you have been in the United States for five years and have a deep understanding of American films. You should learn from others and use their strengths to defeat them. You can help my wife more in this regard. And if you come across a suitable script, you can still shoot it. I believe in your vision." Fang Minghua said.

"Vision." Wu Tianmin shook his head and said self-deprecatingly.

Wu Tianmin chatted for a while and then said goodbye and left.

After Wu Tianmin left, Fang Minghua drank his tea and fell into deep thought.

The fourth generation of directors has come to an end.

Not to mention the fourth generation of directors, even the fifth generation such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige have gradually passed their peak period.

But artistically speaking, the films made by Wu Tianmin are still very good. Historically, Wu Tianmin made very few films after returning to China, but each film was of good artistic quality, including "Face-changing" and the last one "A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix".

No matter what, Wu Tianmin is still a well-known figure in the domestic film industry and one of the few filmmakers in China who is familiar with the American film industry. He can help Song Tangtang run Shengshi Film and Television so that he can worry less.

The year 1994 is about to end. This year is known as the peak of China's literary and artistic circles.

On December 12, the three bands performed at Hong Kong's Hung Hom Stadium. He Yong, wearing a red scarf and a classic striped sailor shirt, shouted to the audience: "Hong Kong girls, are you pretty?"

That night that bombed the whole of Hong Kong has since remained in legend.

Unfortunately, two years later, another sentence “Is Li Suli pretty?” was banned, and Chinese rock also plunged to the ground, never to get up again.

This year has seen a surge in original masterpieces in the mainland pop music scene. Li Chunbo won the 94 Most Popular Male Singer Award for "A Letter Home", Sun Yue released the hit song "Wish You Peace", Yang Yuying and Mao Ning formed the "Golden Boy and Jade Girl" combination and sang the classic "Heart Rain", Na Ying released her first solo album "Thinking of You Day and Night", and Ai Dajin wrote a song "My Deskmate" for his good friend Lao Lang, which became the pinnacle of Chinese campus folk songs.

In the film industry, there are Jiang Wen's "Sunny Days", Wong Kar-wai's "Ashes of Time" and "Chungking Express", Ang Lee's "Eat Drink Man Woman", Er Dongsheng's "Love Unforgettable", and Jet Li's "Fist of Fury". Many excellent works have emerged.

But what is strange is that the box office revenue of mainland movies has dropped drastically.
1992年全国票房收入为32亿，到了1993年降到28亿，而1994年猛然降到20亿！
The eight major film studios in the country are all making losses. Even Shengshi Film and Television, which has been very popular in recent years, is experiencing losses in filming for the first time.

The literary world was calm, but realistic works represented by "In the Name of People" suddenly emerged. Liu Xinglong's "Sharing Hardships", Tan Ge's "Dachang", He Shen's "Director of the Letters and Visits Office", and Guan Renshan's "No Hometown in the Snow" were published one after another, announcing the complete collapse of the avant-garde literature that had been popular in the mainland literary world for several years and a return to realism.

Today is Christmas and Fang Minghua's house is very lively.

(End of this chapter)