Entertainment tycoon since 83

Chapter 358 The Farmer and the Snake
"Okay, I believe you!" Gong Xing said.

"Just believe it." Huang Ze raised his chin, "If you want to talk about the Best Director Oscar, I'm not sure, but I'm quite confident about the Golden Bear."

"You have no confidence in the Best Director award?"

“Yes, yes!”

Huang Ze laughed loudly, "I am confident that I can win any award!"

"Sooner or later, I will fill my showroom!"

……

The fact that Huang Ze's film invested by Xinghai had once again won a top three award had already been publicized by reporters before Huang Ze came back.

People outside the circle don’t pay too much attention to this, and just say “oh” when they know about it.

But it was different for people in the circle. They were all shocked again.

Huang Ze’s performance in the top three is still strong!

He personally directed two of the three major works, Xinghai invested in three of them, and was also deeply involved in one of them, "Red Sorghum".

Of the seven Chinese-language films that won the three highest awards, only "Scent of Life," which won the Golden Bear together with Li An, had nothing to do with him.

Even a fool can see that this is an extremely powerful promoter of Chinese-language films in three major aspects.

For a time, countless directors were interested.

"Damn it, I'm so annoyed!" Chen Kaige, who was far away in Beijing, tossed and turned for a while after hearing the news.

He also wants to win the three major titles!

But his old classmate Huang Ze was unwilling to help him and wanted him to be an assistant director first.

I have already made several movies, do I still need to be an assistant director to gain experience?

Just give me a good script and put it into practice. Even if I can't win the three major awards, I can at least win an award, right?

Besides, he had heard about the new film Huang Ze was planning to shoot called Farewell My Concubine. Who were the assistant directors? Others were fine, but Feng Xiaogang, a high school graduate who made TV series and had never studied film and television professionally, and whose family didn't work in this field, could be an assistant director. Could he be one?

Is it possible for me to work as an assistant director with him?
"Alas." Chen Kaige turned over again. He wanted to talk to Huang Ze again, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. After thinking about it, he groaned, "Hmph, even without you, I can still win the three major awards!"

"You wait for me!"

"A-choo!" At this moment, Feng Xiaogang, who walked out of the house carrying a bag, only felt the chill of the February weather in Beijing and could not help but wrap himself up.

Arriving at a courtyard, Feng Xiaogang walked in and put the bag on the table. "Come on, I'll buy you a drink!"

"The best Fenjiu, which I specially collected?"

"Hey, Xiaogang, what's wrong with you? Are you married?"

"Go to hell, I've already been in a relationship." Feng Xiaogang grinned. "You don't know this yet, do you? This year at the West Berlin, ah, Berlin Film Festival, the movie The Wedding Banquet invested by our company won the Golden Bear Award, the same award that Red Sorghum won."

"I think! With Director Huang's wisdom and bravery, our film Farewell My Concubine will most likely win a major award, not to mention the Golden Bear."

"Now let's congratulate Director Huang and ourselves first."

As soon as he started drinking, Feng Xiaogang felt drunk.

I was dazed and countless images appeared in my head.

He was the director himself and also won a big award!
"I want to win the award too!" Feng Xiaogang muttered secretly and drank the wine in the glass.

……

When other people in the industry heard the news of Huang Ze winning the award, they felt hesitant, nervous, envious, jealous and resentful.

But there was one person who was left with only embarrassment.

After returning to Wanwan, Xu Ligong felt that the way other people looked at him had changed. Even the smiles of greeting seemed to be full of sarcasm.

He was laughing at himself for giving up a movie that could have earned more than 20 million US dollars to Huang Ze.

Not only did he not achieve any merit, he also made mistakes!

Resulting in loss of company assets.

Even though he had said all that, he still felt that he had a clear conscience. Without Huang Ze, The Wedding Banquet might not have achieved such results.

But it is difficult to deceive yourself.

He felt like he was about to get stuck. After thinking it over, he decided to forget what he had said to Huang Ze on the plane, and completely get Li An's new film, and tie Li An down from now on.

If Li An could take over another of the three major companies like Zhang Yimou did, this failure would be more or less compensated.

Anyway, Li An is Taiwanese and has many connections in Taiwan, so there is no need to worry that he will not submit.

Besides, as a director, isn't it enough for you to have someone invest in you?
Does it really matter who invests?
Xu Ligong did what he said. He immediately called Li An and tactfully told him his thoughts.

After listening to this, Li An fell silent.

After a while, he said, "Boss Xu, I think you should call Boss Huang to discuss this. He is as kind to me as you are to me. I can't do this!"

"Hey, you've helped him earn more than 20 million, which is several hundred million Taiwan dollars. It's time to repay the favor, right?"

"But..." Li An was silent for a while again, "Mr. Huang has a deep network of contacts in the Big Three."

"In fact, most of the films that make it to the three main competition units are excellent films, and there are even several favorites to win."

"And it's much easier to make something fail than to make it succeed!"

"Mr. Xu, I have something else to do. Can we talk another day?" Li An thought he had made himself very clear, and after hearing Xu Ligong's "OK", he hung up the phone.

"Beep beep..."

Listening to the sound coming from the receiver, Xu Ligong wiped his face and sighed softly.

"Ugh……"

I'm getting carried away!

Li An is right. Although they may not have the ability to make your film win an award, they do have the ability to trip you up.

Besides, if Li An's film wants to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the other party still needs help.

If you piss off the other party, and then he exerts force in the opposite direction, won't you be doomed?

It doesn’t matter if we can’t make money. For a company, reputation is much more important than money!

If only it could win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film!

But wouldn’t it be better to have both fame and fortune?

Sitting behind his desk, he drank a cup of tea to clear his mind. He was still obsessed with the more than 20 million yuan in profit, so he raised his hand and called Huang Ze.

"Hey! Who?"

"It's me, Xu Ligong."

"Oh, what's the matter?" Huang Ze just answered Li An's report call and decided to play dumb first. If you are too embarrassed to say it, then you can't blame me.

"I, there is something I don't know whether I should say it or not."

"Since you, Mr. Xu, don't know whether to speak or not, then don't speak."

"No, Mr. Huang, you should listen to it." Xu Ligong tentatively proposed, "How about we pay 90% of the investment for Li An's next film and take 85% of the final profit? You pay 10% and take 15%."

"Didn't we agree on a 50-50 split on the plane?"

"Uh..." Xu Ligong began to hesitate.

"Mr. Xu, I thought of a few fables." Huang Ze said bluntly, "The farmer and the snake, Mr. Dongguo and the wolf..."

"If you want to kick me out, just do it. I don't want anything at all."

"Why don't you just cooperate with Li An?"

"It's not like you guys at Wanwan Zhongying can't afford the money, so why bother coming to tell me?"

After saying that, Huang Ze hung up the phone neatly.

The phone rings.

Hang up again.

Still ringing and hanging up.

Thinking about the fourth time, Huang Ze finally picked up the conversation, "What exactly do you want to do?"

(End of this chapter)