Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 242: Shooting Yourself in the Foot! (Two Chapters in One)

"Why is the money so little?" Wang Zhongjun frowned as he looked at the report handed over by his subordinates.

Liu Tao, the general manager of Huayi Overseas Business Department, was sweating profusely. He explained, "It's mainly because The Banquet and a new Japanese cartoon are in the same schedule..."

Wang Zhongjun put down the report in his hand alertly, stared at Liu Tao, and asked: "Japanese animation? What animation?"

Liu Tao said, "It's... it's Your Name, adapted from Zhang Chao's novel. It's the most popular Japanese export movie this year. Many film producers paid deposits immediately after watching the sample film."

Wang Zhongjun couldn't believe it and asked, "It's just a cartoon. How can it affect The Banquet? The nature of the movie is completely different."

Liu Tao said: "It's mainly the Japanese production companies that have pushed the price down very low this time. Piracy is rampant now, so everyone wants to release the film online as soon as possible after the premiere, and the release dates can't be stretched. The market capacity of each region at the same time is limited, and the film company's funds are also limited, so we can only follow suit and lower the price.

For example, after buying "Your Name", Long Xiang from Taiwan no longer wanted to buy "The Banquet", and finally only offered NT$600 million..."

Wang Zhongjun angrily said, "600 million New Taiwan dollars? Are you sending away beggars?" 600 million New Taiwan dollars is less than 150 million RMB. This is the market in Taiwan, which has no language barrier with the mainland, and it only sold for such a small amount. You can imagine the price in other places.

The total investment of "Night Banquet" is about 1.2 million yuan. According to the market share, plus various subsidies and long-tail income, it will take at least 3 million box office sales to make a profit.

In 2006, when the number of cinemas and screens did not experience explosive growth, the most optimistic estimate for the domestic box office was only around 3 million yuan, and in the past only "Titanic" had reached that figure, and the other two were "Hero" which had 2.5 million yuan.

Even if Huayi and Feng Xiaogang were given the courage, they would not dare to raise the box office estimate to 3 million.

Therefore, the overseas sales of The Banquet are the key to recovering the investment. Huayi’s strategy is to sell 5000-8000 million yuan overseas first through the “small profits but quick turnover” approach, so that the pressure on the domestic box office is very small.

The most optimistic estimate is that overseas sales can fully recover the 1.2 million production costs, and the share of the domestic box office will be pure profit.

With the quality of The Banquet, it is not difficult to do this. But who would have thought that Your Name would come out and compete with The Banquet in the same time period, and in Japan, a country with strong cultural output, which is a "natural disaster" for Huayi.

But this really has nothing to do with Zhang Chao, because the global distribution of "Your Name" is still handled by Kadokawa Bookstore. And the production and distribution of "Your Name" cannot be accelerated just because of the conflict between Zhang Chao and Huayi last month.

Wang Zhongjun was not naive enough to blame Zhang Chao for this. He could only sigh and said, "I'm afraid it really is 'pure coincidence'! Liu Tao, you need to work harder. We can't report to the board of directors with this amount of less than 3000 million now!" This was the nth time he had sighed in this period of time.

Liu Tao nodded repeatedly, but still asked cautiously: "Then...then can we lower our price a little bit?"

Wang Zhongjun's eyes showed a cruel look, and he said in a deep voice: "Surrender! As long as the other party pays, we will sell. Don't fight hard in markets with Chinese people such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, try in small countries.

Eastern Europe, South America, the Caribbean, and Africa. If African countries are willing to buy, we will sell. $2, $1, or even $5000 is fine!"

Liu Tao hadn't seen such a resolute look on his boss' face at night for a long time. He didn't dare to say much and could only nod repeatedly.

After Liu Tao left the office, Wang Zhongjun pondered for a while and felt that this passive defense would not work. As the saying goes, "A thief can steal for a thousand days, but you can never be on guard against thieves for a thousand days."

Since "Your Name" has been confirmed to be introduced and will most likely be released during the National Day holiday, and is a direct competitor to his company's "Baby Project", then according to industry practice, it would not be excessive for everyone to have a verbal battle and boost each other's popularity, right?

It was also a good opportunity to test Zhang Chao's reaction. But he couldn't do it too obviously. Thinking of this, Wang Zhongjun picked up his phone and called a film critic...

Zhang Chao looked at the audience pouring into the theater like a tide, and he knew in his heart that the box office of "Your Name" would definitely be good.

He is in Japan now, at the premiere of Your Name. He came again in such a short time, not only to escape the hard work of editing the special film "Sanjin Fengliu", but also because there was a special ceremony at the end of the premiere.

Makoto Shinkai is still a "quasi-new director" at the moment, so the premiere was not particularly grand. There was just a small booth outside the Shinjuku International Cinema, and the film's production team appeared there.

As the author of the original work and one of the investors, Zhang Chao was the third person to go on stage, after Shinkai Cheng and Kadokawa Leyan. His appearance also brought the first climax to the premiere.

Because many of the moviegoers who came to buy tickets were fans of the original novel, they were naturally curious about Zhang Chao, the author of this "exotic" work.

Zhang Chao has played less basketball in the past two years, and has put on some weight, but with his 1-meter height and broad frame, the custom-made suit that he had purchased with public funds in the United States is filled out, giving him an imposing and heroic look.

Japanese book fans had never seen such a writer who did not wear glasses, had no hunchback, had a normal body shape, walked with a brisk pace, had a confident expression, and had none of the humble attitude of his countrymen. Their eyes were immediately wide open.

The female fans of the book especially started screaming again on the spot, calling out "Zhang Chao" in a pseudonym, hoping that he would notice them. They only regretted that they didn't have any light sticks to cheer him on, otherwise they would have thrown a few at him.

It’s not that Zhang Chao didn’t want to politely look at his enthusiastic book fans, but when he turned around, he saw a group of dwarf radishes with O-shaped thick legs, their mouths wide open with "double teeth", shouting at him. He was immediately frightened and dared not take a second look.

I thought the Japanese aesthetic was really weird - "double teeth" are mainly because the food fed to children in Japan is too fine and soft, resulting in many people's lower jaws and gums being underdeveloped, and the teeth being squeezed together to form multiple teeth.

This is a physiological deformity that should be improved through increased publicity and changes in concepts, but the Japanese chose to beautify "double teeth" into a symbol of cuteness. To the extent that some female artists went to plastic surgery hospitals to have their teeth fixed into "double teeth" in order to look "kawaii".

Even the great Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki once wrote in his essay: "I gradually developed a sympathy for my not-so-tidy Yaechi."

This kind of bottom-up self-hypnosis among the entire nation can be considered one of the national characteristics!

While thinking, Zhang Chao cooperated with the staff to follow the process, appeared on the stage, waved, took photos, and then entered the main theater of the cinema with all the main creators and sat in the first row.

In less than 10 minutes, the theater, which can accommodate 300 viewers, was full. The lights dimmed, the screen lit up, and "Your Name" officially began its screening journey.

Soon, Shinkai Makoto's unique aesthetic style caused exclamations to be heard at the scene. In this era, the aesthetic taste of most Japanese audiences for animated films remained at two extremes:

One is the unique style of Japanese animation based on the celluloid technology that made it so successful. Hayao Miyazaki's concept of pure hand-painted animation is more like making a work of art than a commodity, which is actually very niche because it is too expensive.

In Zhang Chao's mind, the pinnacle of celluloid animation movies is "Vampire Hunter D". The "Lotus Lantern" produced by Shanghai Animation Studio was also completed using celluloid technology.

The second type is 1995D animation, which started with "Toy Story" in 3. Except for the early design stage, it hardly requires any painters and the animation production process is completed entirely on computers.

In recent years, "Shrek the Monsters" and "Ice Age" have created box office miracles many times, which are representative works. 3D animation seems to be particularly suitable for expressing Hollywood's aesthetics of animation: exaggeration, madness, and extreme deformation.

And the "new supervisor" Xin Haicheng seems to have taken a third path.

The characters in "Your Name" are still hand-painted in the traditional style, but the background is exquisite and full of details, it is as if the real world was rendered by computer and put into the animation.

But the wonderful thing is that Xinhaicheng did not simply reproduce the real scene, but repainted it based on the photograph, especially remaking the texture and light and shadow of all materials, making the picture not only real and delicate, but also clean and pure, creating an almost dreamy visual enjoyment.

Under his operation, two completely different animation production methods were almost perfectly integrated. In particular, he used the "sky" to enhance the depth of the picture. During the viewing of "Your Name", the clear and distant sky, the bright and gentle light, and the brilliant and changing sun made the audience exclaim continuously.

Because such scene performance can best evoke people's fond memories of their hometown, home and youth.

The story style of "Your Name" is completely in line with Shinkai Makoto's narrative preference, so although he did not have the accumulation of works such as "5 Centimeters per Second" at that time, the effect presented was almost the same as Zhang Chao's impression.

Halfway through, Zhang Chao couldn't help but say to Xin Haicheng beside him in English: "You have completed an amazing work of art!"

Xin Haicheng was flattered and quickly whispered his thanks.

Zhang Chao smiled and asked, "I wonder if you are interested in coming to China to attend the premiere of the Chinese version?"

Xin Haicheng said in surprise: "Can I? What time?"

Zhang Chao said: "Your Name has been confirmed to be introduced. You are the director, so it would be best if you can come. The time is about one month. I will ask my colleagues to contact you."

Xin Haicheng nodded excitedly and agreed.

The two stopped talking and continued watching the movie.

The 100-minute movie was finished before everyone knew it, with a viewing experience full of surprises, suspense, and warmth. When the end credits slowly rose, all the audience were still immersed in the touching scene at the end of the movie where the protagonist turned around on the long stairs and said, "What is your name...?"

After a short silence, thunderous applause broke out in the theater, which lasted for more than a minute. This was a rare tribute to the reserved Japanese.

Just when everyone thought the lights were going to come on and the creators were going to go on stage for interviews, the screen that had just finished subtitles did not go dark, but instead flashed a countdown -

10, 9, 8, 7...

When the countdown was over, the screen showed the familiar Shinkai-style sky and clouds that the audience had just seen;
Then the camera slowly moves down, and a very unfamiliar high tower appears in front of us, followed by skyscrapers that look similar to those in Japan, but completely different...

When the protagonist "Dragon" spoke Chinese, the audience suddenly realized -

It turns out that "Your Name" has also filmed a "Chinese version", this is the trailer! Everyone's curiosity was aroused again, and the exotic scenes in the picture also attracted their attention.

"Wow, so beautiful. I didn't know China also has such beautiful natural scenery and ancient architecture!"

"As expected of a country with a 5,000-year-old civilization!"

“Is China also so developed? Were all these skyscrapers filmed in China?”

"Your Name is originally a Chinese story written by a Chinese author. Have you all forgotten that?"

"Actually, this is the 'original version'. The one we just watched was the one made especially for Japan, right?"

"It's so beautiful! Where is this place? I really want to go there!"

……

The theater was filled with enthusiastic discussions among movie fans, and almost everyone showed great interest in the "original" version of "Your Name".

The trailer is only 2 minutes long. When the words "China premiere time September 9" appeared, the audience could still hear "eh" expressions of desire.

At this time, all the lights in the theater were turned on, and the main creative staff stood up from their seats, turned around and waved, and once again enjoyed the audience's enthusiastic applause.

The staff took advantage of this break to place five single sofas and a small table on the stage, and then invited several main creative staff including Zhang Chao to come on stage to answer questions from reporters and fans.

Of course, there was an interpreter assigned to Zhang Chao on the scene, but the Q&A content with Xin Haicheng and the others was not translated, so for a while, Zhang Chao was completely like "a mother duck listening to thunder, rumbling and not knowing what to say" (a local proverb), and almost fell asleep.

After waiting for more than ten minutes, a reporter finally asked him a question, and Zhang Chao quickly perked up.

"Mr. Zhang Chao, as the original author, why did you hand over your work to a newcomer like Shinkai Cheng? Are you satisfied with the current animation version?
Also, I think that the Japanese version is already excellent today, so why do we need to make a Chinese version? Is it for market and box office considerations? "

Zhang Chao calmly replied: "First of all, I was moved by the sincerity of Director Shinkai Makoto. He was very persistent in getting the production rights of Your Name, which moved both Mr. Kadokawa Lehiko and me.

It just so happens that I have seen some of director Makoto Shinkai’s early works, and although none of them are feature films, their unique style and advanced production methods fully meet my expectations for the animated version of Your Name.

As you can see, the finished product is not only excellent. It can even be said to have created a new animation style. I think Director Shinkai Makoto will leave a mark in the history of animation development in the future.”

Zhang Chao's high praise for the work was unexpected by everyone present, including Makoto Shinkai himself, and made the young director in his early 30s burst into tears - "leave a mark in the history of animation development"!
What kind of evaluation is this? Doesn't it mean that in the future, I will be able to be on par with masters like Osamu Tezuka and Hayao Miyazaki, or at least Katsuhiro Otomo?
If the situation wasn't inappropriate, Xin Haicheng would have immediately stood up and bowed to Zhang Chao!

Zhang Chao paused before answering the third question in a serious manner: "I am a Chinese writer, and Your Name is a Chinese novel. No matter which country the main producers of this animation are from, I insist that it must tell a Chinese story.

So in my mind, the Chinese version of "Your Name" is the original one. I believe that Chinese audiences are more willing to watch an excellent animated film with Chinese characteristics.

As for the technical aspects, we Chinese have an old saying that goes, "One can polish jade by learning from other people's stones." This time with director Makoto Shinkai, it was not only a collaboration, but also a learning experience.

In the near future, we will be able to use China’s own talents and technologies to tell the Chinese people’s own stories.”

The next day, news about the release of the Chinese version of "Your Name" and its trailer flooded the entertainment sections of newspapers and television.

Even Zhang Chao’s interviews were reprinted, especially his view of "telling the Chinese people's own stories well", which caused a huge response and discussion.

Wang Zhongjun naturally saw the relevant reports at the first time. He was so scared that he quickly called the film critic and told him to immediately withdraw the film review he asked him to write.

But people told him, "It's too late. This issue of Popular Movies has been printed and will be sent to readers soon..."

Wang Zhongjun threw down the phone in despair, finally feeling what it meant to "shoot oneself in the foot" - because the name of that film review was:
"Is the 'foreignization' of Chinese films a good thing or a bad thing?"

(End of this chapter)