Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 43 [Singer Sakai Izumi, Chen Kai's mysterious confidence! ] Please read
After Ichiro Tanaka got a copy of "The Mountain" at the Venice Film Festival, he arranged for someone to send the copy back to his country on the same day.

Ask the people in the company to add subtitles and Japanese dubbing, and promote the movie in advance.

After half a month, when Toho Co., Ltd. finished preparing the Japanese version of "That Mountain", it was unexpectedly released so hastily.

Instead, they were planning to hold a grand premiere for the film and wanted to invite Lee Ye-su, the Golden Lion Award-winning director, to visit Japan.

You have to know that they spent 600 million US dollars to buy the copyright. Naturally, they hope that through the arrival of Li Yishu, they can stimulate the box office of theaters and recover half or one-third of the copyright cost.

Otherwise, if we only rely on videotapes, we don’t know how long it will take to recover the investment or even make a profit.

"Mr. Tanaka, the contract does not stipulate that I must go to Japan to attend your premiere. This makes it difficult for me."

Li Yishu pretended to be hesitant.

He kind of wanted to attend the premiere, mainly because in this era, Japan is one of the important voting bases in Asia.

If "That Mountain" can do well at the box office in Japan, it will be able to earn a higher copyright fee for the upcoming "Farewell My Concubine" and even other works.

He is now showing hesitation only for the purpose of bargaining.

As expected, when Ichiro Tanaka saw that he didn't want to go, he immediately said, "Mr. Li, we know that there is no such clause in the contract, so the company has prepared a notice fee for Mr. Li."

"how much is it?"

"20 US dollars! We know that Li Jun is a famous director who won the Golden Lion Award, so we offered a very high price."

"Well... well, considering Mr. Tanaka and your company are so enthusiastic, and my work is being shown to Japanese audiences for the first time, I will attend the premiere. I wonder when it will be?"

"The premiere will be on October 10th, and we hope that Li Jun will be able to go to Japan before October 15th."

Leaving on the 12th?

That's next Wednesday.

"We invited a TV station to do an exclusive interview with Mr. Li three days in advance. This will help boost the box office. Please agree to this."

Ichiro Tanaka stood up, bent down and bowed ninety degrees, "Sorry to bother you, Mr. Li!"

"Okay, let's set off the day after tomorrow."

Li Yishu thought that since the audition was over, it would probably take several days for Zhang Guorong and Zhang Fengyi to come back and start training.

It wouldn't prevent him from going to Japan and then to Hong Kong.

I've only been in classes for about half a month and now I need to ask for leave. I don't know if the director will agree to this.

"By the way, Mr. Li."

Ichiro Tanaka suddenly remembered something and said quickly, "I wonder if you have the copyright to the English song in the movie?"

"Yes, it's here with me."

“Do you have the complete music and lyrics?”

The English song in the movie is only over a minute long and is not a complete song.

"Of course, you want the rights to this song?"

"Yes, Mr. Li, we are going to invite a Japanese singer to sing this song as the theme song for the movie, which will be good for the box office."

"No problem, but the copyright fee..."

"Don't worry, Mr. Li, we will give you a suitable price, but I can't give you a specific price yet."

Ichiro Tanaka didn't know anything about song copyrights, and the executives at Toho just asked him to ask first. It was just the copyright of a song, so how expensive could it be?

"Who are you going to ask to sing?"

"You may not know Li Jun, but she is a new singer who debuted in Japan last year. However, her album released in February this year sold very well in Japan. She is now well-known among young people in Japan. She is also good at English songs, so there is absolutely no problem in asking her to sing."

"She? A female singer?"

Li Yishu noticed that the "she" in the other person's mouth was a woman. "Yes, she is a female singer, her name is Izumi Sakai, she is a very talented female singer."

Sakai spring water?

It's her!
Li Yishu knew something about this Japanese female singer. After all, they were from the same generation. She was also a rare singer-songwriter in Japan, and many of her songs were very popular in China.

Xi'an Film Studio.

Brother Chen Kai, who had returned to China for several days, flew to Xi'an Film Studio to find his former partner Gu Changwei as soon as he received investment from Yanjing Film Studio.

"Chang Wei, come and help me!"

Chen Kai said enthusiastically: "Let's join forces to create a film that will shock the world! Make it to Cannes and win China's first Palme d'Or!"

Gu Changwei was conflicted as he looked at Brother Chen Kai's enthusiastic face. According to the degree of closeness of their relationship, his relationship with Brother Chen Kai must be better. He and Brother Chen Kai had formed a friendship since the filming of "The King of Children" in 87.

But everything has a first come first served basis. Before, Zhang Yimou approached him and said that the Golden Lion Award winner, director Li Yishu, wanted to invite him to be the photographer to shoot the movie "Farewell My Concubine", and he agreed.

But now Brother Chen Kai suddenly came to find him, which made Gu Changwei a little embarrassed.

Seeing that the other party was silent and had a troubled look on his face, Chen Kai raised his eyebrows and said in a dissatisfied tone: "Why, Zhang Yimou has a new movie to shoot so soon?"

Brother Chen Kai must be very unhappy with Zhang Yimou.

When he was filming the movie "Yellow Earth", Zhang Yimou was just a small photographer at the Xi'an Film Studio who came to shoot for him. With this movie, he won the Silver Leopard Award at the Locarno International Film Festival and the Tran Cup Director Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

It is no exaggeration to say that when Brother Chen Kai became successful, who knew where Zhang Yimou was?

But in just a few years, Zhang Yimou transformed himself from a photographer into the winner of the Berlin Golden Bear Award, and also won the Cannes Special Award and the Venice Silver Lion Award.

In contrast, although Chen Kai's film "Singing and Walking" directed last year was nominated for the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, he did not even receive the award.

This made the great director Chen Kai feel a little embarrassed.

He returned to the United States in disgrace. After half a year of recuperation, he had made all the necessary preparations and was ready to target the top three European countries and make a global sensation.

Gu Changwei shook his head: "It's not Yimou, it's Director Li Yishu."

"Lee Yi-su? The one who won the Golden Lion Award by luck?"

Hearing that it was Li Yishu, Chen Kai showed a trace of disdain on his face: "Old Gu, let me tell you, why would you want to take that guy's role?"

"I've seen his film 'That Mountain, That Man, That Dog' at the Beijing Film Studio. It's a pretty average film. The reason he won the Golden Lion was purely because he happened to meet the chairman of the jury who liked the film."

Brother Chen Kai, who often attends foreign film festivals, is well aware that the major awards selected by foreign film festivals depend on the preferences of the jury, and film awards themselves depend on personal preferences.

If you ask a judge who likes to watch action movies to watch a slow-paced art film, he or she will definitely not like it.

So after returning to China, the first thing Chen Kai did when he went to the Beijing Film Studio was to find a copy of "That Mountain" and watch it by himself. In the end, he came to the conclusion that he met the chairman of the jury he liked, otherwise, let alone the Golden Lion Award, he probably wouldn't even get the Film Critics Award.

"Is it true? But Yimou said it was filmed very well."

Gu Changwei hasn't seen "That Mountain" yet, but from Zhang Yimou's tone, it seems to be filmed very well, and he must have some talent to win the award.

He also told Gu Changwei that he should not assume that others rely on luck just because they are young.

"That's just something Zhang Yimou is embarrassed to say."

Brother Chen Kai sneered.

Zhang Yimou just didn't want to lose in a very embarrassing way.

Only by praising Li Yishu's film for being so good would it seem reasonable that Zhang Yimou failed to win the Golden Lion Award.

Otherwise, if people say that Lee Ye-seo’s filming was not good, then Director Jang can’t even win a movie like this, so how can he maintain his current image as a director?

Brother Chen Kai felt that he had a keen insight and saw through the other party's little thoughts at a glance.

Still want to play tricks in front of me?
The son of a Zhongshan wolf will become arrogant when he succeeds!
After studying abroad for a few years, my brother Chen Kai is back. It’s time to let the former young photographer understand how big the gap is between a real director and a photographer!
By the way, it’s time to teach Li Yishu a lesson. Not just any Tom, Dick or Harry can become a director!
　Please vote for me, please read it, please collect it! I really beg you all!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)