Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 241 Japanese animation? Chinese animation! (Two chapters in one)

When several cinema chain bosses heard Zhang Chao's question, their first instinct was that Zhang Chao wanted the film "Your Name" to avoid a direct competition with "The Banquet" in order to ensure box office success.

But they soon realized that Zhang Chao's tone was not particularly friendly, and even had a hint of provocation. They looked at each other for a moment, not knowing how to start.

Finally, it was the vice president of China Film Star, whose surname was Yang, who asked cautiously, "The premiere of The Banquet is on September 9th. What? Do you want to... compete with Huayi?"

Vice President Liu of Shanghai Film Group also said, "The Banquet is a blockbuster, and we have already signed a scheduling agreement. Although your animated film is excellent, it will take a while to go through the procedures to import the film."

Xiao, the vice president of Jinyi Cinema Line, also said, "Xiao Zhang, didn't you and Huayi cooperate well before? How come...? This kind of thing is not something you should use to get angry about."

Zhang Chao smiled and said, "I'm not crazy. I'm not using my own money to gamble with others. The target audience of this movie is teenagers, and there is also a certain market for family entertainment. It is definitely most suitable to release it during the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival."

Several CEOs breathed a sigh of relief and nodded quickly, saying, "National Day is the best, National Day is the best!"

But he soon realized that the National Day holiday was the same time period as another Huayi film, Baby Project. Although Hong Kong's Emperor Entertainment Group was the main investor in Baby Project, Huayi, as the second largest investor, also invested tens of millions of dollars.

The key point is that "Baby Project" is an action comedy by Jackie Chan, and its market positioning is also for teenagers and families. This makes everyone feel a bit disappointed.

Vice President Yang of China Film Star Beauty hesitated for a while before saying, "Although "Your Name" is well-made and your novel has a huge readership, it is a Japanese animation after all.

In recent years, the animations that have achieved good box office in China are basically American animations, such as "Toy Story" and "Ice Age". A Japanese animation, I'm afraid..."

Zhang Chao did not respond, but turned around and said to Xin Haicheng in English: "Are you ready?"

Shinkai Cheng made an "OK" gesture. At this time, most of the Japanese film producers in the small theater had left, leaving only a few Chinese and the director Shinkai Cheng.

The lights in the theater dimmed again, and the projector shone a beam of light onto the screen again, and the familiar opening credits of "Your Name" appeared again.

Several theater managers were very surprised. Was Zhang Chao going to show it again so that they could appreciate how good Your Name was? That was too childish! But for Zhang Chao's sake, they still sat down patiently.

However, as the film progressed, they soon discovered the differences - although the characters in the version screened this time were the same, all the scenes were replaced with Chinese backgrounds, the characters' dialogues were all changed to Mandarin, and even the subtitles were in Chinese.

The 333-meter Tokyo Tower became the 405-meter CCTV Tower; Tokyo's skyscrapers became the CBD of Yanjing; Japanese shrines became ancient Chinese temples...

Even all the signs, nameplates, and advertisements that appear in it have been replaced with fictitious Chinese brands and Chinese characters.

The CEOs of several theater chains were stunned. After a full 20 minutes passed and they were sure that the switch was almost "seamless", someone asked in a complicated and unbelievable tone: "This...isn't this equivalent to making two animations? This investment is too huge."

Zhang Chao explained with a smile: "The investment is not small, but not as big as everyone imagines. Director Shinkai Cheng uses a combination of 'hand-painted characters' and 'background CGI' to produce animation, which gives us a lot of room for operation.

From the beginning, we agreed with Kadokawa Bookstore that "Your Name" must be produced in both Chinese and Japanese versions. So we tried to blur the distinction between the two countries in terms of character design and interior scenes.

Cultural differences are mainly shown through large scenes. We, Tide Culture, participated in the entire production process of the animation. All the domestic scenes you see were CG-ed after we went to the real location. At the same time, we are also the second largest investor in the entire animation.

Excuse me, is this still considered 'Japanese animation'?"

Several theater managers looked at each other again. They were all people who had been immersed in the film industry for many years and could naturally see the potential of this animated film. The last glory of domestic animation can be traced back to 1999.

The Shanghai Animation Film Studio put all its efforts into producing "The Lotus Lantern" at a cost of 1200 million yuan. Not only did it invite many popular stars and veteran actors to do the dubbing, it also invited COCO Lee and "Prince of Love Songs" Jeff Chang to sing the theme song.

It can be said that it was very popular for a while, but the final box office was only 2500 million RMB. After the accounts were divided, the American studio still lost several million. I don’t know if it has recovered its costs through the long-tail profits from DVDs and TV stations after 7 years.

Since then, domestic animated films have not dared to "talk about war" easily.

The original work of "Your Name" was written by a Chinese, Chinese people participated in the production process, a considerable part of the funds also came from China, and there is even a special Chinese version - even if it is not a "domestic animation", it should be considered a "Chinese animation" right?

This way, there will be a lot more things that can be done for publicity!
Vice President Yang of China Film Group Corporation relaxed his serious expression and said with a smile, "This is very good. This gives China Film Group Corporation a lot of room for maneuver. There are still nearly two months until the National Day, so it's totally in time."

Everyone else nodded. China Film and Huaying are the only two film and television companies in China that have the right to import films, and China Film is the only company that has the right to introduce "shared revenue films".

So no matter what, the most important thing is to impress China Film Group.

Then Zhang Chao threw out another "bait" and said: "As everyone has seen, the products, signs, posters... that appear in the movie are all fictitious.

Because CGI technology is used, the text and logo above can be replaced. I also want to make the animation closer to reality. "

When the CEOs heard this, their eyes lit up. It was just a product placement, everyone was familiar with it! They were visibly enthusiastic about Zhang Chao, and they all patted their chests and said that they would definitely contribute to the development of China's animation industry.

Zhang Chao finally felt relieved. No matter how famous he was in the literary world, film and television production and distribution was, after all, a highly mature and professional industry with a long chain of interests upstream and downstream, and no one could take over everything.

What's more, "Chaotide Culture" is not a company in the industry. Only by giving up part of its profits can it get stronger support - at least it will not be bullied.

Producing a film or TV series is only the first step in a long journey. Even a good TV series like "The Cliff", directed by Zheng Xiaolong and starring Wang Zhiwen, was finally purchased by CCTV after two or three rounds of market promotion.

Zhang Chao is very open-minded about this. He has never imagined that domestic theaters would promote and schedule screenings for him just because "Your Name" is well-made and he shows off a little.

Zhang Chao said: "I'll leave the scheduling to you. I'm not good at business, so I'll let my colleagues in China continue to communicate with you."

With concrete interests to discuss, everyone naturally agreed and began to praise "Your Name", believing that Zhang Chao's "roundabout way of saving the country" could very likely promote the development of the domestic animation industry.

Zhang Chao could only laugh in his heart. When will the subsidy policy for domestic animation be cancelled or reduced? When will this industry become healthy?

Wait, there is a subsidy? How could I have forgotten this? I'll ask Shuang Xuetao to check the policy when I get back. It would be a waste if I don't take it!
The internal preview of "Your Name" ended happily. Everyone got the results they wanted and everyone was happy.

Zhang Chao stayed in Japan for a few more days. He first signed an agency agreement with Kadokawa Bookstore for the two books "The Great Doctor" and "Crime Police Glory". Kadokawa Leyan was so happy that his mouth was crooked with a smile. Previously, "Your Name" and "Gone Girl" had long been at the top of the bestseller list in Japan. The total sales of "Your Name" have exceeded one million copies, and "Gone Girl" has also exceeded 30 copies.

For an industry giant like Kadokawa Shoten that enjoys a near-monopolistic position, being able to bully others in its original territory is not a skill; being able to conquer new territories is considered capable.

Two years ago, after his brother Haruki Kadokawa was released from prison, he was determined to take back control of Kadokawa Bookstore. Since Haruki Kadokawa's previous achievements were so dazzling, many directors and middle and senior leaders secretly supported him.

Now, Kadokawa Lehiko has proved his vision and courage by the huge success of introducing Zhang Chao, a foreign best-selling author. He immediately shocked those who were ready to make moves and stabilized the situation.

If "Your Name" can be a big hit at the box office, then Kadokawa Haruki's idea of ​​"returning as the king" will probably be completely shattered. So his enthusiasm for Zhang Chao exceeds that of any other local writer.

Zhang Chao didn't care about the grudges in their family. Anyway, the royalties given by Kadokawa Shoten at present made him very satisfied, so he was too lazy to make any more trouble.

After finalizing the contract with Kadokawa Shoten, Zhang Chao went to Shueisha again. Now "Tide Culture" has three comics serialized under "Weekly Shonen Jump", but only Xia Da's "The Long Ballad" is in the official publication, and its weekly survey ranking is mediocre.

It won't become a huge hit, but it won't be discontinued or relegated to a secondary publication such as a supplement or monthly magazine either.

However, the peripheral products of "The Long Ballad" sold unexpectedly well. The Japanese are quite accepting of the "Tang style", so the various posters, figures, accessories and other derivative products add up to a considerable amount every year.

Shueisha's president Taniyama Naoyoshi personally received Zhang Chao. As one of the largest comprehensive publishing companies in Japan, Shueisha's business is of course not only comics, but also various literary books. Seeing Zhang Chao's copyright in Kadokawa Shoten's hands, he drooled and wanted to bite off a piece of meat.

Zhang Chao did not completely reject Taniyama Naoyoshi's eager expectations, but recommended to him: "I heard that you Japanese are particularly fond of the Three Kingdoms? Isn't it a coincidence that there is a writer in my company who is particularly good at writing Three Kingdoms novels.

Last year, he wrote a book called "The Wind Rises in Longxi", which sold very well..."

After a week of half-playing and half-working, Zhang Chao returned home. Song Jia headed straight to Northeast China as soon as he got off the plane, while Zhang Chao received good news - through the successful operation of China Film, the Chinese version of "Your Name" entered the review process at the fastest speed, and it is expected to get the approval document for introduction in late August.

The premiere in Japan is scheduled for August 8 (real time...), and judging from the quality of the film, even if it fails to take in 26 billion yen at the domestic box office like the previous one, with the good foundation laid by the novel, it should have no problem achieving both good reputation and box office success.

By the time the domestic import approval comes down, the publicity can be smoothly connected. The timing is simply perfect!

At the same time, the first batch of writers for the special documentary "The Charms of Shanxi" have completed all the filming tasks, returned to their respective homes, and started writing the series of essays "The Charms of Shanxi as Seen by Charms of People".

Zhang Chao was faced with hundreds of hours of filming material, which was overwhelming. However, he was not in the editing room, and his colleagues in Shanxi refused to do it, so Zhang Chao, a "layman", could pretend to do it for more than ten days until the rough cut was ready.

While Zhang Chao was "jailed" in the editing room of CCTV, Huayi welcomed its first climax in 2006.

Although the premiere of "Night Banquet" is on September 9, previews have been held in Guangzhou, Shanghai and other places since mid-August. The film's director Feng Xiaogang and the leading actors Ge Daye, Zhang Ziyi, Zhou Xun, Huang Xiaoming, Wu Yanzu... have also started promoting the film, and the momentum is huge.

This film is of great significance to Huayi and director Feng Xiaogang.

If The Banquet is successful, it will first mean that director Feng Xiaogang has entered the "blockbuster realm" of Chinese films. Previously, only Zhang Yimou had truly established a foothold in this realm.

In 2005, director Chen Kaige originally wanted to make a breakthrough into the “blockbuster realm” with “The Promise”. However, he almost failed due to the negative reviews from netizens and the short film “A Murder Caused by a Bun” which pioneered Chinese online spoofs.

Now he can only be considered to be on the edge of the "blockbuster realm" and is brewing his next work.

Only by making a "blockbuster" that is qualified both in terms of art and box office can you get high investments and generous rewards steadily in the future.

Only when Huayi has proven in the market that it is not solely dependent on Feng-style comedies of "small wins big", can it win the trust of capital and take solid steps towards listing.

What's more, they all have a strong desire in their hearts - the blockbuster "Curse of the Golden Flower" invested by New Picture and directed by Zhang Yimou will be released at the end of the year. Judging from the scale of investment in domestic films this year, the annual box office champion and runner-up will probably be between "The Banquet" and "Curse of the Golden Flower".

Therefore, the movie "The Banquet" cannot afford to make any mistakes!

"Is there any news from Zhang Chao?" After the Shanghai preview ended, Wang Zhongjun, who received a standing ovation, did not show much joy, but asked this incoherent question.

Only his younger brother Wang Zhonglei knew what his brother was worried about, and he answered casually: "I heard that he goes to CCTV every day and goes into the building and doesn't come out until dark. He must be hooking up with some host... right?"

Before Wang Zhonglei could finish his words, he was glared back by his brother. He quickly straightened his posture and said, "She went to Japan a while ago. I heard that she wanted to introduce the animated film adapted from his novel to be released there.

I don’t think it will work! It’s an animation, and it’s made by the Japanese. It can only sell a few million in China at best.”

Hearing what Wang Zhonglei said, Wang Zhongjun felt a little relieved. As long as Zhang Chao's attention was focused elsewhere, he didn't care whether he was dealing with female hosts or making Japanese films.

At this time, Feng Xiaogang, who was standing aside, spoke up. He asked in confusion, "Why did Zhang Chao bother us?"

Wang Zhongjun glared at his brother again, but he had to cover up for him helplessly: "You are young, so you are crazy..."

Wang Zhongjun really had no way to deal with Zhang Chao. He couldn't scold him, and he didn't dare to touch him. He didn't accept the hard words, and why should he give in to the soft words? After all, he was the boss of the top private film and television company, and he couldn't bow his head even if he was in the wrong.

The situation is stuck here. Neither side is willing to speak out and can only respond as the situation evolves.

Time flies and it is already the end of August. After successfully holding a round of previews, the crew of "Night Banquet" returned to Yanjing to prepare for the grand "world premiere".

During this period, the only news from Zhang Chao was that "Your Name" had obtained the approval for introduction and the premiere was scheduled for September 9.

This is all routine operation, and Huayi does not think that a Japanese animation can threaten its "Baby Project".

But things soon changed...

(End of this chapter)