The literary era since 1979

The celebration banquet for "Farewell My Concubine" was held in the huge conference hall of the Film Bureau.

The table was filled with peanuts, melon seeds, red dates, walnuts and other dried fruit candies.

The staff poured hot water for each leader and guest present one by one. When it was Fangyan's turn, he specially added red dates and wolfberries to his cup.

From just now until now, Gong Xing, Zhang Yimou, Zhang Guorong and others have spoken one by one, sharing their experiences and insights in the production of "Farewell My Concubine" from different perspectives such as directing, filming, and acting. They also shared what they saw and heard at the Cannes Film Festival, especially their experience of winning awards.

At the meeting, participating media reporters, film critics and theorists asked questions earnestly.

Representatives from studios large and small across the country would occasionally interrupt and ask questions they wanted to ask.

When their eyes passed over Wu Tianming, who was holding his chin high, they were more or less filled with envy and jealousy.

Xi'an Film Studio has been in the limelight this year. "Red Sorghum", which won the Berlin Golden Bear Award at the beginning of the year, and "Farewell My Concubine", which has now won the Cannes Palme d'Or, both received heavy investment and strong support from Xi'an Film Studio. It can be said that it has earned enough reputation both at home and abroad.

It is no exaggeration to say that today's Xi'an Film Studio has taken the top spot in the Chinese film industry.

Small studios like Guilin Film Studio, Xiaoxiang Film Studio, and Pearl River Film Studio naturally dream of the day when they can become like Xi'an Film Studio. However, established studios like Changchun Film Studio and Xi'an Film Studio are not so much unwilling as dissatisfied, and are all thinking about how they can surpass Xi'an Film Studio!
Fangyan saw all of this but said nothing, just sipping his tea quietly.

At this moment, Teng Jinxian suddenly came over and asked in a low voice:
"Yanzi, what you just said was very good, why don't you say a few more words?"

"The success of Farewell My Concubine is all due to everyone's hard work and dedication. How can I enjoy this honor alone?"

Fang Yan smiled and said, "The creative team should speak more, especially the comrades behind the scenes who are working on the front line."

These nice words made the leaders of the radio, television, culture, propaganda and other departments express their appreciation and satisfaction.

Teng Jinxian and Minister Ai looked at each other, understood each other, and then lowered their voices and said:

"The Ministry and the Bureau are considering holding a 'Chinese Contemporary Entertainment Film Seminar' before the end of the year to gather people from the film industry to discuss the future of entertainment films, commercial changes, and the positive and negative effects they bring. What do you think? Are you interested in participating?"

"I guess I don't have to."

Fangyan politely declined, saying that he was too busy. Not to mention the distant events, the World Science Fiction Convention would be held in Chengdu soon.

"No one can be missing from this meeting, but you are an expert in the film industry, and you are the first person to advocate entertainment films and promote the commercialization and marketization of films. At this time, we need people like you to contribute more ideas and suggestions for the development of entertainment films."

Teng Jinxian's tone was filled with anticipation.

"Director Teng is setting me up."

Fangyan always feels that when something is out of the ordinary, there must be something fishy going on.

In fact, just as he expected, Teng Jinxian told the truth honestly.

With the popularization of television across the country, the number of moviegoers has been decreasing year by year at an average rate of 10 billion per year, and it dropped sharply by 52 billion last year.

Ordinary people are watching TV, and not many people are willing to watch movies. From film studios to cinemas, they are all suffering from continuous losses.

Therefore, in order to maintain profitability, movie ticket prices even increased for the first time in 50 years, from yuan to one yuan.

But the more the prices go up, the more the number of moviegoers drops. Many cinemas across the country have already gone out of business. Not only can they not collect the money they earn from copying, they can't even pay their employees' salaries. They have had to temporarily convert into dance halls, or simply contract them out to individuals to open video halls.

"As for the film studios, the situation is even worse. To be honest, every one of them is in debt and owes money."

Teng Jinxian let out a long sigh.

"Is it already so serious?"

The dialect was a big surprise.

"Yes."

Teng Jinxian couldn't help but shake his head. Although Xi'an Film Studio is now in the limelight, it is actually in debt of more than 2000 million.

This was 80 million RMB in the 2000s. Even the Xi'an Film Studio, which produced films like "Red Sorghum" and "Farewell My Concubine", had suffered such losses. What's more, other studios across the country had even more and bigger losses because they took out loans at no cost to make films in previous years.

It’s even getting to the point where banks are no longer willing to lend money to studios to make movies.

"That's not right. I have been advocating entertainment films for two or three years, and many film studios have also invested in and produced a number of entertainment films."

Fangyan frowned, "Don't these entertainment films make any money?"

"That's not the case. It's just that many film studios use most of their profits from this to make other feature films and art films."

Teng Jinxian gave an awkward smile.

The dialect was shocked. It turned out that the big brothers in the country's film industry were enjoying making art films and boasted that they had taken the art of Chinese films a big step forward, but they completely ignored the commercial profits and losses. As a result, the Chinese film industry, from top to bottom, took a big step backward.

"So there is a good call in the industry, which is 'It's time to make commercial entertainment films the majority of studio film production'."

Teng Jinxian said that this argument has once again triggered a heated discussion about entertainment films, which is why the bureau decided to hold a "Contemporary Entertainment Film Seminar."

"If that's the case, it seems useless for me to attend this seminar."

Fang Yan shrugged and said, "I have already said what I should have said in the past two years in seminars, interviews, and articles I wrote."

Teng Jinxian said that the key to the problem lies in "Red Sorghum" and "Farewell My Concubine".

"That's not right. I clearly remember that Red Sorghum didn't cause the Xi'an Film Studio to lose money. On the contrary, it made a small profit."

Fang Yan said: "As for Farewell My Concubine, the deal reached at the Cannes film market this time is enough for Xi'an Film Studio to make a lot of money."

"That's the root of the problem!"

Teng Jinxian clapped his hands. The opposing side always used "Red Sorghum" and "Farewell My Concubine" to criticize and question entertainment films. Although art films are not as profitable as entertainment films, and even earn only a few fractions of entertainment films, their international influence far exceeds that of entertainment films.

"Hey, let me clarify this. I have never seen Farewell My Concubine as an art film."

Fangyan corrected him, "It is a feature film that perfectly combines commerce and art. This must be stated in the newspaper."

"Even if you say that, those who make art films won't admit it, and what's worse is that there are also problems with entertainment films."

Teng Jinxian showed a trace of helplessness on his face.

After asking Fangyan, I found out that in order to make profits to repay loans and to make more money to fill the gap in art films, many studios that invest in entertainment films are completely reckless and the scale is very large. There are bloody, violent and cruel scenes like "Black Sun 731", and weird and terrifying plots like "Silver Snake Murder Case". Some films are even bold enough to add some cyan-exposure clips.

The more I listened, the more shocked I was. I had never expected that Chinese films would have such a heavy-taste period of "literary and martial arts".

"Many people and media have criticized this 'dirty, messy and poor' chaos." Teng Jinxian said that the higher-ups are beginning to be dissatisfied with the current rampant film industry, and if it continues, they will tighten the policy on entertainment films.

"It seems that this seminar is not only about discussing the future of entertainment films, but also about receiving instructions to properly regulate the entertainment film market?"

There was a shrewd light in Fangyan's eyes.

“Indeed, there is this purpose.”

Teng Jinxian did not hide

"But I don't understand. Doesn't the bureau have a review committee?"

Although Fangyan holds the title of "Vice Chairman of the Film Censorship Committee", he has only reviewed "Farewell My Concubine" so far.

"Don't mention it."

Teng Jinxian said that their censorship standards are not actually lenient, and many illegal scenes will be cut. If they are not cut, the effect will be more explosive. Moreover, although some movies are marked "not suitable for children", children are indeed not allowed to go to the cinema to watch them, but some cinemas turn a deaf ear to it in order to make money.

"This is a troublesome matter. Besides, teenagers have a rebellious mentality. The more you forbid them to watch it, the more they want to watch it."

Fangyan touched his chin.

"So we are going to emphasize at the seminar that while enhancing the viewing and entertainment value of the film, we must also pay attention to improving the cultural character and aesthetic taste of the film, oppose shoddy production, vulgarity, and the tendency of stereotyped similarity..."

Teng Jinxian said seriously.

"I'm afraid that's not enough."

Fangyan narrowed his eyes and took a sip of tea.

………………

Despite repeated invitations from Teng Jinxian and others, Fang Yan still politely declined and did not join in the fun.

However, it does not mean standing idly by, but rather promising to make some insignificant suggestions regarding the problems existing in the entire film industry.

So as soon as he got home, Fangyan did not immediately start writing "The Rise of Great Powers".

After packing the novel "The Matrix" which had been translated into English into a package and mailing it to the Science Fiction World Publishing House, he immediately sat in front of the computer, typing away on the keyboard and writing down one suggestion after another.

If film studios want to regain their strength, compared to the dispute between art films and entertainment films, and the censorship standards of entertainment film content, it is more important to break the existing film distribution system. Studios should not only have the right to produce films, but should also be allowed to distribute films on their own.

In this way, the studio will not just passively make money by selling copies, but will be able to participate in the box office sharing.

As more money is earned, the enthusiasm for making films increases, and it is even more important to meet the needs of the audience market in order to ensure box office success.

Moreover, once the distribution industry is completely opened up, a variety of "ways of playing" can also stimulate the film industry.

For example, in the co-production model, movies like "Once Upon a Time in China II" and "Once Upon a Time in China II" all use box office sharing as a way of settlement. The Xi'an Film Studio and the Beijing Film Studio, which participated in "Farewell My Concubine", can also participate in the overseas profit sharing this time.

Although the proportion is small, the money earned is in foreign currencies such as US dollars, francs, and pounds.

The play "Farewell My Concubine" alone was enough to pay off a quarter of the 2000 million yuan debt of Xi'an Film Studio.

The best part is that, in addition to making money once when selling the film, you can also make money again by independently screening the film as a distributor.

Moreover, the popularity of co-productions will not only give more Chinese films the impetus to go global, but also attract more and more capital.

Foreign capital like Fox is still a bit far away, but if Hong Kong capital can be introduced to fund mainland film studios like in the "Once Upon a Time in China" series, many problems that are currently facing film studios, such as high debt ratios, banks refusing to lend, and insufficient commercial operation experience, can be temporarily solved.

"Crackling."

"Buzz buzz buzz."

The sound of the printer mixed with the sound of the keyboard echoed in the house. Gong Xing walked into the study room carrying a fruit plate.

I saw Fang Yan staring at the screen intently, and he didn't notice me at all even when I came to him.

"After the distribution model was changed, the former Huaxia Film Distribution and Exhibition Company, also known as 'China Film', which uniformly distributed domestic feature films, was changed to each studio directly negotiating with local distribution units, while imported films were uniformly distributed by China Film to companies across the country."

"This will not only motivate major film studios to actively commercialize in the market, but also reduce the distribution pressure on China Film Group, from the original pressure of distributing all domestic films and all imported films every year to focusing on the import and distribution of overseas films."

"In terms of distribution model, there are five settlement methods for distributing films, including agency distribution, one-time sale and proportional profit sharing."

"The greatest significance of this is that the Chinese film market has since followed international practices, aligned with the world, and adopted a profit model of 'box office splitting', whereby overseas film companies that supply films receive XX% of the national box office, cinema revenue accounts for XX% of the cinema's box office, and China Film Corporation receives XX% of the national box office. The rest is the intermediate link, with provincial and municipal film companies extracting local box office revenue, and gradually starting to use a series of marketing strategies and sales methods... Cinema chains that suffer from a lack of more profitable films can also use this to ease their survival problems."

"........."

After reading through the lines, Gong Xing was shocked: "This...some of the suggestions here are too..."

"Do you think that being too bold and advanced will easily attract trouble?"

Fangyan picked up the persimmon and peeled it.

"Yeah, but this is not the first or second time you've been criticized. I'm used to it."

Gong Xing stared at them with his big watery eyes, "But I'm afraid Director Teng and the others won't agree to your proposal, right?"

"I propose my own ideas, and whether they agree or not, and whether they adopt them or not, is their own business."

Fang Yan shrugged and said, "Anyway, I'm already trying my best to find a way out for Chinese films."

Gong Xing's eyes flickered, as if the light was about to overflow from his eyes, "If you don't mind, how about I sign my name on it as well?"

"You have to think clearly. Once this plan is announced, it will inevitably spark a big debate."

Fang Yan said: "When the time comes, you, who signed your name, will also be scolded and criticized by me."

"So what? If you're not afraid, then neither am I. If you really have to be scolded and criticized, I'll bear it with you!"

Gong Xing said in a firm tone.

"We are one as husband and wife this time, writing a joint letter!"

Fangyan burst into laughter, and the sound gradually spread from inside the house to outside. (End of this chapter)