Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 121 [The damn Xiying Studio and Emei Studio are fighting to the end]

Sichuan and Shu.

Emei Film Studio.

Zhao Xue strolled to the factory as usual.

She is now very successful. Not only has her son Li Yishu won major international awards, but he has also earned more money than their family can ever earn in their entire lifetime.

Not to mention nowadays, because "Popular Movies" magazine reported some of Li Yishu's deeds and the amazing achievements he made abroad, Emei Film Studio is now very concerned about the old couple.

Especially the factory manager, his attitude was so nice.

It was only because the director went to Yanjing to attend a meeting some time ago that the higher-ups have begun to decide to reform all the film studios in the country, abolish the previous unified planning and sales, and officially begin to adopt a market economy model.

The unified planning and distribution is a planned economy. In other words, if a certain studio makes a movie, it only needs to sell the movie to China Film Corporation, and then it doesn’t have to worry about it. (It is not the later China Film Group, but the China Film Corporation established in 1984, which is mainly responsible for domestic distribution and importing foreign films.)
At this conference, many studio directors and some representatives expressed strong opposition.

But the attitude of the higher-ups is very tough. If you don't support it, then don't support it. Anyway, we won't give you any funding starting from next year. We won't spend money to buy the movies you make, and even if you approach China Film Group to discuss distribution, you still have to pay for distribution.

It is equivalent to the reform and opening up of the film industry, distributing land to households.

In other words, they were brother units in the past, but now they are normal business cooperation.

In addition to abolishing the unified marketing plan, there are a series of corresponding reforms in the film industry, including: in principle, opening up movie ticket prices, reducing the number of staff, actively participating in cable TV film supply, and strengthening videotape production...

All reforms can be summed up in four words: self-reliance!

In the past, the major film studios had bloated staffs and a lot of unknown expenses, and they were in a state of loss every day. Now the government is vigorously developing the market economy, and even state-owned factories with hundreds of millions of workers have to lay off employees, not to mention the film industry with only a few million people (including actors, directors and other production workers, cinemas, projectionists, etc.)
"Old Zhao, why did you come just now?"

A middle-aged woman, also an actress from the studio, saw Zhao Xue enter the office and hurried over, saying, "Why don't you take a look? Someone is scolding your son in the newspaper."

"what!"

Zhao Xue immediately flew into a rage and said, "Which bastard cursed my son in the newspaper!"

Seeing that the mother of the person involved had arrived, the people who were originally discussing the matter also came over one after another.

One of them brought the weekly magazine and said, "Zhao Xue, take a look for yourself!"

Zhao Xue quickly took the magazine and took a look. The name of the weekly magazine was "Red Star Erotic Affair". The paper was very rough. It was obvious that it was a boring magazine bought at the train station to kill time.

But Zhao Xue didn't care about that, instead she saw the big words in the middle: [Director Teng Wenji criticizes Li Yishu for being unqualified! ]

She was stunned at first, then immediately flipped open the magazine and quickly found the relevant page. After just a few glances, she immediately became furious and said, "Son of a bitch, what do you mean my son is not qualified? Teng Wenji is shit!"

After that, Zhao Xue asked angrily: "Who among you knows who this son of a bitch Teng Wenji is?!"

The Internet was not as developed as it is now, and Zhao Xue had been making films at Emei Film Studio for almost her entire life. Apart from a few nationally renowned directors, she didn't really know many directors from other studios.

"It seems to be from Xi'an Film Studio."

Someone nearby immediately said, "He made a movie before and won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Director. Later, he made The Chess King, which was shortlisted for the Venice International Film Festival."

"The director of Chess King?"

Zhao Xue realized that it was the director of The Chess King, but she became even angrier: "Damn it, it was only shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival. My son Li Yishu even won the Golden Lion Award. If he is not qualified, then no film director in the country is qualified!"

"No, I have to go find the director! The people at the Xiying Studio are such bastards, they are bullying the kids from our Emei Studio, right?"

Zhao Xue was also a smart person. She knew that she would not be famous outside Sichuan, so she had to find the factory director to confront Teng Wenji from the Xi'an Film Studio.

"That's right. We can't let anyone bully our people from Emei Film Studio. His Xi'an Film Studio has been prosperous in recent years, but they can't step on our people from Emei Film Studio to praise the directors of their Xi'an Film Studio!"

"That's right, let's go and find the director together. Xiying Studio must give our Emei Studio an explanation for this matter!"

"I'm going to find Director Li. If someone scolds his son, they are scolding him!"

"..."

Zhao Xue has enough connections with the actors at Emei Studio.

Not to mention that Lee Yi-su is now becoming famous. Not only has she won major awards abroad, but she has also earned over 100 million dollars in box office revenue overseas.

Seeing that he is a rising director star, no one would be stupid enough to turn down this relationship.

When she ran to the factory to seek an explanation, a group of people immediately followed her.

In the director's office, Li Jian, who was drinking tea comfortably, became furious when he learned that his son was scolded for no reason and was told that he was not qualified and that he should learn morality before learning skills.

Li Jian is living a very good life now. The domestic box office of "Red Ling" has reached over 4000 million.

This is the highest-grossing film directed by Li Jian in his life.

Moreover, the factory director came to him yesterday and said that the factory was planning to sell the copyright of this film overseas, just because Li Yishu is now very famous abroad.

Such a father-son film directed by Li Jian and written by Li Yishu, could fetch some foreign exchange overseas. Especially in Japan, after learning from Popular Movies that Li Yishu was praised as a great director once in a century in Japan, Deputy Director Han Sanping had an idea. He contacted Japan's Toho Film Company in the name of Emei Film Studio, and the other party had promised to send someone to discuss copyright transactions with Emei Studio in the next few days.

This was the first time in Li Jian's life that a movie was sold overseas. Even though it was thanks to his son, he couldn't help feeling proud. Whether it was jealousy or envy, he knew anyway that he had a good son and you didn't!

"Brother Li, Brother Li, your son has been scolded!"

A man ran in.

Li Jian looked up and saw that it was Zhang Fengyi!

"What's going on?" Li Jian looked confused. What did his son get scolded by?

"A director from the Xi'an Film Studio cursed Director Li in a magazine, and my sister-in-law is now going to the director to ask for an explanation!"

"what!"

Li Jian stood up so suddenly that he even knocked over the water cup on the table. He said angrily, "You son of a bitch, you dare to scold my son? I will scold him to death!"

After saying that, Li Jian rushed to the factory director's office in a hurry.

The directors in other offices looked at each other and rushed out in a swarm.

Nowadays, whether it is a factory or a company, most of the colleagues have been working together for decades.

It is natural that there will be some intrigue over production and roles.

But once the factory's honor is involved, everyone is basically united in facing the outside world, and this is basically the same across the country.

It’s just because people’s social groups these days are just neighbors, relatives, friends, and colleagues.

Apart from these three categories, it is basically difficult to encounter other social groups.

In terms of relationships with colleagues, it was much better than the hypocritical workplace later on.

So when the scolding of Li Yishu spread, the entire Emei Film Studio knew about it in just half an hour, including the cleaning lady.

They all ran to the office building in anger and blocked the corridor of the factory director's office.

"Okay, everyone, listen to me. I just found out about this, but I can assure you that I will deal with this matter seriously!"

The factory manager shouted to the people around him:

"Although Li Yishu is not an employee of our factory, Li Jian and Zhao Xue have worked in our factory for more than 20 years. His son also grew up in our factory. He is the son of our factory's employees and must not be bullied by outsiders. So everyone can rest assured that I will definitely ask for an explanation from the Xi'an Film Studio."

After the factory director's passionate speech, Zhao Xue and Li Jian asked everyone to disperse first. Then they, as well as Zhang Fengyi and other actors who had worked with Li Yishu, went to the conference room.

At the same time, other factory leaders also rushed over after hearing the news.

Han Sanping, in particular, was filled with indignation. He was the one who was most optimistic about Li Yishu.

Moreover, because of Li Yishu's relationship, Emei Film Studio has had the opportunity to cooperate with a Japanese film company in recent days, and it is an anti-Japanese film like "Red Ling". If it can be released in Japan, it would be awesome.

Han Sanping might be able to use this opportunity to compete for the position of director of a future film studio.

He also has connections in Yanjing and knows that all film studios across the country will undergo reforms next year. Contacting overseas film companies early will help the studios survive better after the reforms.

Lee Yi-su is the key among the keys. His excellent directing ability has been demonstrated at the European Film Festival and the Japanese film market.

Whether it is an art film or a commercial film, he can handle it with ease.

Han Sanping naturally seized the opportunity to take advantage of such an outstanding young director.

Now he was scolded by the people from Xi'an Film Studio for no reason, which made Han Sanping, who already had a bad temper, even more irritable.

In the conference room.

Han Sanping was furious and said, "We must ask the Xi'an Film Studio for an explanation! And not only that, they can criticize Li Yishu for being disrespectful to his predecessors in newspapers and magazines, so we will criticize Teng Wenji for being disrespectful to his elders!"

"Deputy Director Han is right."

A factory leader said with disdain: "I have dealt with this Director Teng before. He is not only disrespectful to his elders, but also a beast in human clothing. He often harasses female comrades in the name of filming movies."

"This Teng Wenji is no ordinary person. He relies on his experience to give advice to young practitioners!"

"..."

The meeting lasted for a full hour, and the final conclusion was to send several outstanding veteran directors from the factory who were well-known in the country to engage in a war of words in newspapers and magazines, and let the readers judge for themselves who was right and who was wrong.

Afterwards, the factory will contact the Xi'an Film Studio in the name of Emei Film Studio and ask them to give an explanation.

Why curse people for no reason!
If you curse some people with no background, naturally no one will pay attention to you. But you, you son of a bitch, cursed the hope for the future rise of Emei Film Studio, and the son of a couple of old employees in the factory, so naturally they will not tolerate your bad habits.

(End of this chapter)