Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 180 [China's No. 190 Director]

When "Sword Rain" broke the global box office of 1.8 million US dollars, it had already caused a sensation in China.

This time, Lee Yi-su was so powerful that she raised the box office to $3 million.

Regardless of whether it is a foreign language film or not, at least one thing has been proved; that is, director Lee Ye-su is not only a great director of art films, but also a great director of commercial films, and even more so a great director who is successful in both Chinese and Western films!

Zhang Guorong smiled and said, "Congratulations to Director Li, the box office has exceeded 3 million US dollars. Is there any hope that it will exceed 4 million US dollars?"

“It’s hard to say what the target will be, but 4 million is definitely not the end point.”

Lee Yi-su lamented, "It's a pity that I encountered Spielberg's "Jurassic Park". His big productions and scenes really attract audiences. If it weren't for him, I think the box office would be even higher."

We are all family here, so there's nothing wrong with bragging. Besides, he's not just bragging. If there wasn't "Jurassic Park", with the reputation of "The Sixth Sense" and the full support of Columbia's president Hisao Morishima, it would have really been possible for the film to break $5 million.

At worst, they could just invest all the overseas earnings into publicity. If they just gritted their teeth, they would definitely be able to raise "The Sixth Sense" to $5 million.

Doing so will reduce profits, but it will definitely help to temporarily secure Hisao Morishima's position. It will also stabilize the share price of Columbia Pictures, and even the share price of its parent company Sony Entertainment will slightly rise as a result.

"Yes."

Zhang Guorong nodded in agreement and said, "I've watched Spielberg's Jurassic Park and Director Li's The Sixth Sense. Of the two, dinosaurs are more attractive."

Both films have been released in Hong Kong. The box office of "The Sixth Sense" was not very ideal. This pure English thriller and heartwarming film was not visually strong enough and not resonant enough for the audience in Hong Kong Island.

The main reason is that Hong Kong films have made Hong Kong audiences very picky. In recent years, Hong Kong films have been blindly producing large-scale or overly entertaining feature films, making it almost difficult for most Hong Kong movie fans to seriously watch a film with a strong literary and artistic flavor.

Of course, this is also related to the fast-paced life in Hong Kong. Li Yishu has been to Hong Kong many times. At seven or eight o'clock in the morning, office workers are in a hurry, and crowds of people are taking buses and taxis, which is no different from the first-tier metropolises in China later.

I dare not say it is 996, but the internal competition is definitely serious, which leads to movie fans being more keen on watching fast-paced movies. After they are satisfied, they can go home, take a shower and go to bed, rather than watching those movies with complicated plots that make people feel unhappy.

"I think Director Li's The Sixth Sense is better."

Lai Shengchuan said: "When I was in the United States, I studied several famous American directors, including Spielberg, Coppola, the director of The Godfather, and Lucas, the director of Star Wars. Among them, Coppola and Lucas were my favorites."

"Especially Coppola, his The Godfather is such a classic. Whether from the perspective of a commercial film or an art film, this The Godfather is really perfect."

"Director Li's The Sixth Sense is one of these films, perfectly combining commercial thriller with literary warmth."

At this point, Lai Shengchuan sighed and said, "It's a pity that moviegoers now prefer to watch sensory stimulating films such as Jaws and Jurassic Park."

"It's normal."

Seeing Lai Shengchuan mentioned this, Li Yishu smiled and said to everyone: "With the rapid development of society, the box office of big-budget, big-scene movies will get higher and higher, and the audience will also increase."

Qingxia asked, "Director Li, have you ever considered shooting a big production?"

"Have!"

Li Yishu nodded and said, "I have definitely considered making a big production, but the current box office in China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, is still not enough to support a big production. I don't ask for high box office in Europe and the United States, but at least I have to make a profit in Asia."

Directing over the past two years has allowed Li Yishu to gradually gain a general understanding of the current box office volume in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

If you invest 1 million RMB in making a movie in the mainland, then to recover the cost, you need at least 3 million RMB. Taking into account the profit, it will take at least 4 million RMB.

Even though "Sword Rain" has grossed 1.8 million US dollars worldwide, that's mainly because of the strong Japanese box office, or the extra minutes of the Japanese special edition that ignited the second-year soul of the Japanese audience.

Shadow clone + sword drawing technique...

The film earned nearly 9000 million U.S. dollars at the box office thanks to various passionate Japanese "ninjutsu" and "swordsmanship" from later generations, plus the presence of two very popular actors at the time, Mie Nakayama and Takuya Kimura, as well as the gimmick of bullet time.

With the support of Hisao Morishima in the United States, the domestic market was stimulated by the high overseas box office, and there was also public praise from the "News Broadcast", so the film continued to be a hit, resulting in a staggering box office of 1.8 million US dollars.

But now with the sluggish domestic film market, it is almost harder than climbing to the sky to achieve such high box office data.

After hearing what Li Yishu said, everyone present who is engaged in the film industry must understand this truth: if a movie does not seek to make a profit, it will definitely not work, especially for a big production.

In recent days, newspapers have been reporting on the news of "The Sixth Sense". The production cost has also been announced, and the total cost of publicity and promotion is more than 4000 million US dollars.

More than 4000 million US dollars, converted into RMB, according to the official exchange rate of 5.7:1, that is a full 2.2 million RMB.

Lai Shengchuan sighed, "Yes, The Sixth Sense is just a feature film, not a big production. It cost more than 4000 million US dollars to make 3 million US dollars at the global box office. It is also an English film and can be shown in many countries in Europe and the United States. If it were in our country, it would be too difficult to make back the investment of 2.2 million RMB."

"That's not entirely true. The actual production cost of the $4000 million is only over $2000 million, and the rest is publicity. Compared to the $2000 million in China, it's actually only a few million..."

Li Yishu was suddenly stunned. He suddenly remembered something. He remembered that in 94, the RMB would be devalued to 8.6:1 US dollar in order to make commodity exports more competitive.

It was the worst year after the bursting of Japan's economic bubble, and many people in the country were discussing whether our currency was about to collapse.

Is there any point in this?

Emei Film Studio.

Han Sanping is preparing for his transfer to Yanjing. He has already found some connections and is planning to go to Yanjing Beijing Film Studio as the director in October.

The previous director of the Beijing Film Studio made a lot of money thanks to Li Yishu's two films, "Sword Rain" and "Farewell My Concubine". Compared with the original time and space when there was almost no money to pay salaries, the difference is not a little bit.

This also helped the current director of the Beijing Film Studio to rise to a higher position and get a job at the Film Bureau. Originally, the director position was not in Han Sanping's hands, but Li Yishu had a special relationship with Han Sanping.

Moreover, Li Yishu has now abandoned the Beijing Film Studio and turned to cooperate with Emei Film Studio. She had previously cooperated with Shandong Film Studio, which has also made the Beijing Film Studio start to worry. In addition, the people behind Han Sanping have made efforts, and it has been confirmed that Han Sanping will report to Yanjing in October.

"Director Han, Director Han~~"

There was a voice outside. Before Han Sanping could speak, the door opened and his subordinate said excitedly, "Great news! The movie Director Li shot in the United States has grossed over $3 million."

"What? That's $3 million!"

Han Sanping was so surprised that he immediately sat up from his stool: "Great, great, $3 million, hahahaha!"

Now Han Sanping's future can be said to be half-linked to Li Yishu. The better Li Yishu's performance is and the higher the box office overseas, the more Han Sanping can hold Li Zizhong hostage.

Han Sanping asked, "Does Director Li Jian know about this?"

"They probably don't know yet. I just received a call from the Beijing Film Studio. They said they would send someone to look for Director Li."

"Humph! You've eaten it once or twice, and you want to eat it a third time? No way!"

Although he has already confirmed to go to the Beijing Film Studio, he is still a member of the Emei Film Studio. Han Sanping will naturally not let people from the Beijing Film Studio come to poach him. After giving a few instructions, he got up and prepared to go out to find Li Jian to tell him the good news.

Li Jian and Zhao Xue were also very excited when they learned the news. They thought their son would probably become famous overseas this time.

No matter how many movies Lee Yi-su has made before or how high their box office are, they are still Chinese-language films.

Now that he is directing an English-language film for the first time, it has grossed $3 million worldwide, which can be described as astonishing.

Early the next morning.

A group of reporters who had somehow found out that the crew was filming here rushed over and surrounded Li Yishu who had no idea how to react.

"Director Li, your movie The Sixth Sense made $3 million in the US. What do you think?"

"Director Li, have you ever thought about returning to the United States to make a movie recently?"

"..."

In response to the endless questions from the reporters, Li Yishu was helpless and simply answered a few questions. Just as he was about to ask the crew to send them all away, a reporter with a clear accent suddenly spoke up:
"Director Li, you shot this kind of supernatural film in the United States, and even said on an American program that this was your personal experience as a child. Aren't you promoting feudal superstition?"

Hearing this, the reporters around immediately looked at Li Yishu in surprise. Many people in China did not know about this. After all, programs from the United States could not be broadcast in China.

Even if Xinhua News Agency knew about this, they were unlikely to report the news back to China. Moreover, as journalists in the United States, they naturally knew about hype and gimmicks, and guessed that this was probably done intentionally by Li Yishu to promote the movie.

Li Yishu asked, "Are you a reporter from Hong Kong?"

The reporter raised his head and said, "Yes, I am a reporter from the Oriental Daily News in Hong Kong."

Oriental Daily, a pink horse newspaper, no wonder~
"No wonder..."

Li Yishu stretched out his voice and said, "If you don't understand publicity, maybe I can find someone to teach you, but I don't think you can learn it because your brains have become stupid because of taking too much."

The reporters from the mainland were confused, but several reporters from Hong Kong were excited to write down what they said. They knew very well the meaning of Li Yishu's words.

The older generation in Hong Kong Island all know that Oriental Daily News was owned by the Shuang Ma Industry, one of the four major families back then, and they made their fortune by selling fans.

The reporter from Oriental Daily was livid, but when he saw the staff around Li Yishu, he could only leave indignantly.

After the annoying guy left, Li Yishu smiled and said to the others, "Okay everyone, if you want to interview me, why not talk to me at noon? The weather has been hot these days, and our new drama will be filmed in the morning. How about this, I will treat everyone to lunch at noon, and you can ask any questions you have then."

"Okay~"

"Director Li is generous."

"Don't worry Director Li, we won't delay your filming."

"..."

It was the first time for the reporters in Hong Kong to see the director inviting them to dinner. You have to know that reporters from entertainment weekly newspapers have a bad reputation in Hong Kong and are called paparazzi.

It’s different in the mainland. They are all reporters from official media. Aren’t they respected wherever they go for interviews?
However, everyone is quite satisfied with Li Yishu's arrangements.

The fact that "The Sixth Sense" achieved a box office of 3 million US dollars overseas has a huge impact. This is not only due to the high box office, but also because Lee Yi-seok successfully entered the international market.

At a time when China is vigorously embracing the world, apart from cheap industrial products that can be exported overseas, the cultural field is almost impossible to develop.

Li Yishu's "Sword Rain" opened the way for Chinese-language films to achieve astonishing box office in the international market for the first time, and now it has successfully entered the American film industry, which is the most powerful in the world today. The significance is completely different.

Now, in the eyes of the people above, Li Yishu's status is higher than that of Brother Chen Kai, who won the Palme d'Or in the previous life.

Moreover, he is currently the only "celebrity" in the cultural field who can make a name for himself internationally.

Therefore, it is absolutely well-deserved to give Lee Yi-su the title of China's number one director!
After the stage manager, staff members, and reporters left one after another, Li Yishu breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that it was already half past eight, she immediately shouted, "Tell Lei Han and the others to put on makeup quickly."

(End of this chapter)