Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 247: Using Piracy to Kill Pirates
"What do you think?" Zhang Chao asked, pointing at the pirated version of Your Name on the big screen. Two hours ago, Zhang Chao was still at home, but now he was sitting in the middle of the living room of the largest apartment in Chaoxi Culture. Ma Boyong, Shuang Xuetao, Xia Da, Xu Ruiya... the whole place was packed.

After watching the pirated version, everyone's faces were very unhappy. This time, the pirated version of "Your Name" was the Japanese version. The overall brightness of the film was low, the clarity was not the best, and there was only one channel, which sounded weird.

But it is not the most common "ts (pirated) version", but more like a "tc version" directly copied from the movie tape. The tc version is definitely not as good as the HD remake version after the genuine DVD disc is released, but for netizens who don't care about the picture quality, it is enough to watch.

At least the picture won't shake, and the head of the audience who suddenly gets up to go to the bathroom won't enter the shot. What's more, even 1080P screens are not popular now.

Ma Boyong was the first to speak. He said, "I found the download link in a film and television resource forum. At first I thought it was a gun version and didn't pay much attention to it, but it was sold for 10 forum coins, so I downloaded it out of curiosity.

I didn’t expect the resolution to be quite high. I’ll send you the link right away.”

Nowadays, who among the 80s geeks doesn’t have a few resource websites in their browser bookmarks?

Xia Da turned pale and whispered, "If this pirated resource spreads on the Internet, I'm afraid it will have a huge impact on our box office. After all, the Chinese and Japanese versions are only different in scenes and language, everything else is the same.

I’m afraid that the audience who watched the Japanese version will not buy tickets to go to the theater to watch it again.”

Shuang Xuetao said: "I think the most urgent task is to quickly block the forums, websites and QQ groups that spread these links. We can contact Tencent and relevant departments and ask them to cooperate with our work. I believe that China Film will not sit idly by.

There are still more than ten days before the movie is released. If we act in time, we can recover the losses to a large extent."

Xu Ruiya also said: "We should also hold a press conference and appeal to the public through the media not to spread pirated resources. Especially "Your Name" is the light of hope for Chinese animated films, and we cannot let this light go out because of piracy."

After the two of them finished speaking, everyone else in the living room nodded, believing that these measures were a way to "remedy the situation before the sheep have been lost."

Only Zhang Chao did not nod, but continued to ask: "If these methods cannot prevent the spread of pirated resources, what should we do?"

Ma Boyong said: "Then there is only one way - we discuss with China Film and release the movie a week earlier, or even earlier. We can compete with pirated movies for audiences!"

For a movie, moving up the release date actually means giving up the best time slot to its competitor, which is often a helpless move. Especially with this year's National Day movie "Baby Project" being released, it is tantamount to admitting defeat.

People won't care whether it's piracy or other reasons, they will definitely hype up topics like "Your Name avoids competing with Baby Project" in the media. It's like letting others ride on your back and cut your own flesh.

Zhang Chao still shook his head, thinking that although these people were intellectual elites, they were still too young and had not seen how communication would be played 10 or 20 years later, so they were inevitably bound by current concepts.

Zhang Chao asked: "What do you think of the quality of our animation?"

Everyone nodded heavily, and Xia Da said with a hint of tears in his voice: "Except for the classics before the 80s, there is no better animation than this. If "Your Name" can't sell at the box office, then there is really no hope for Chinese animation!"

Zhang Chao first said in a gentle voice, "Don't worry, aren't we trying to find a solution?" Then he added, "I think the appearance of pirated Japanese resources on the Internet is both a crisis and an opportunity for the box office of our Chinese version."

Everyone: "Huh?"

Zhang Chao said: "The struggle between genuine and pirated products is not something that has only emerged in recent years, nor does it only exist in the film industry. In fact, the piracy problem encountered in the book publishing industry is more rampant than that in the film industry, after all, the threshold is lower.

But for me personally, the losses caused by piracy are probably far less serious than everyone imagines.”

Seeing everyone's bewildered looks, Zhang Chao said, "Your books haven't sold enough, so it's normal that you don't understand!"

Ma Boyong, Shuang Xuetao, Xia Da: "..."

Zhang Chao said: "To some extent, pirated books have helped my works reach places that legitimate books could not reach. I have suffered a loss in royalties, but have gained a larger readership.

After all, a genuine book costs twenty or thirty yuan, which is quite expensive. If there were no pirated books, they might not become my readers at all. But as long as they recognize me and my works, some of them will pay for my genuine books one day.

So my teacher Yu Hua doesn't like to talk about piracy. I estimate that at least 10% to 20% of the readers who buy the genuine "To Live" every year bought pirated copies at street stalls in the past.

So whether piracy threatens the survival of literary and artistic works varies from person to person. This is true for books and movies as well.”

After Zhang Chao said this, everyone began to think about it.

Zhang Chao said: "Of course, this method of relying on piracy to let the audience 'passively grow' is only suitable for long-selling products such as books, and is not suitable for products such as movies whose main revenue window period is only a few weeks.

Therefore, what we need to do is to take advantage of the pirated resources that have already appeared this time, take the initiative, and spread the influence of "Your Name" to more potential audiences."

Ma Boyong suddenly realized, "You mean, we should actively spread the pirated links so that as many people as possible can download them?"

Zhang Chao couldn't help but roll his eyes and complained: "This is not called 'active attack', this is called 'active surrender'." Then he went on to explain: "The methods everyone mentioned earlier are actually not wrong, they are all fair and upright ways of fighting, but they are too slow to take effect.

How many film and television resource websites are there now? Renren, BT Alliance, VeryCD... I can't count them all. Many servers are not even in China. How can you block them?"

Ma Boyong was surprised and asked, "How do you know so many websites?"

Zhang Chao's face turned red, and he thought to himself that I should stop talking, and continued: "It is even more unrealistic to call on the public to resist piracy. People have a rebellious mentality, especially when there is no price to pay for doing evil.

"When you make this appeal, people will become more curious and will take the initiative to look for pirated resources. The result is counterproductive! What's more, there are many people who will help us spread pirated resources!"

Shuang Xuetao couldn't help but ask: "What should we do then?"

Zhang Chao did not answer him directly, but replied to Xia: "Everyone in the art department is staying to work overtime today. Is there any problem?"

Xia Da nodded firmly and said, "No problem. As long as we can save Your Name, we can sleep in the office for a few days!"

Zhang Chao snapped his fingers: "Bingo! Then we'll start tonight. Lao Ma, Xue Tao, the two of you who can write should stay. We need to write a lot of copy tonight!
I want to show them what saturation feeding is!"

At the same time, in Huayi's office, brothers Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei were also watching a pirated version of Your Name, except that the version they watched was clearer.

After watching the first 20 minutes, Wang Zhonglei sighed and said, "This animation is well made, the newspapers are not exaggerating - but in this case, the box office will be ruined.

Where did Boss Yang get such a high-quality pirated copy?"

Wang Zhongjun sneered, "It's likely that someone bribed the projectionist or manager of a Japanese cinema and copied it. We don't care where it came from, it's already spread anyway."

In the eyes of the audience, animation is not something that must be watched in the cinema. Now if they can watch "Your Name" at home, how many people will go to the cinema to watch it? "

Wang Zhonglei clenched his fist, hammered the table, and said viciously: "Yes, one more person watching in front of the computer screen means one less person watching in front of the movie screen. No matter how good this animation is, the estimated box office is only 20 to 30 million, which is great if it is a little more than "The Lotus Lantern".

As long as we work hard in the next ten days, it won’t be a problem to cut his box office in half! "

Wang Zhongjun nodded, a cruel look on his face. In the past month or so since he had fallen out with Zhang Chao, he had never felt so aggrieved. Now that he had the trump card in his hand, he wanted to let Zhang Chao see how capable the horse king was!

He said to his brother with some emotion: "This move can be regarded as a 'family-destroying plan' for the film industry. I thought of a hundred ways for him to deal with Zhang Chao, but I didn't expect there would be a 101st. As a filmmaker, I don't know if this has opened a 'Pandora's box'."

Wang Zhonglei said carelessly: "Wasn't this very common in Hong Kong 20 years ago, or even more than 10 years ago? At that time, people would go to the studio to grab copies. What's a mere copy?
What we think is the bottom line may be considered as basic operation by others. Brother, since things have come to this, don’t be timid! "

Wang Zhongjun nodded, and told his brother a few things, asking him to make sure to completely suppress the momentum of "Your Name".

Wang Zhonglei also wrote down everything, without even drinking, and hurriedly followed his brother's arrangements.

It was just another ordinary morning.

Xiaoyi is an ordinary office worker working in a foreign trade company in Shanghai. Her usual hobbies are reading books, watching TV series, and occasionally going to the cinema to watch movies with friends.

Today, she finished her work as usual and saw that it was already past 11 o'clock. Most of her colleagues were out on business and her boss was not in the office.

Colleagues who are still in the company either have dull eyes, preparing to take a lunch break, or gather in groups of three or four to chat about gossip.

Seeing that no one noticed her, she quietly put on her headphones and opened a video website called Tudou on her computer. Although Tudou did not have as many resources as Youku and PPSTRAM, it had many interesting homemade videos.

For example, there is a group called "Back She Boys", which consists of two college boys, one fat and one thin, who use exaggerated expressions and body movements in front of the camera, lip-syncing and singing popular songs, which makes people laugh. Especially the song "as long as you love me", which can make people laugh.

Xiaoyi was just planning to check if "Back Shed Boys" had been updated. Unexpectedly, the homepage of the website was different today. In the center was the movie "Your Name" - wasn't this movie released during the National Day holiday? How come it can be watched online now?
Xiaoyi is not a fan of Zhang Chao and has no interest in animated films. In her opinion, animated films are broadcast on TV and no one would pay to watch them in the cinema. But if she could watch it for free now, she would not refuse.

When I clicked on the video, I saw a handsome cartoon boy on the computer screen, and the background seemed to be Japan? At this time, a funny voice came from the headset:
"Look, this man is called Xiao Shuai. He woke up this morning and found himself in the big city of Tokyo from the countryside..."

What is this? Xiaoyi has never seen this kind of movie introduction, not a beautifully produced trailer with only fragmented plots; instead, it uses the most easy-to-understand way to roughly introduce the plot of "Your Name" in less than 5 minutes.

The clipped plots in the video are all the main parts of the animation. Isn't this a "spoiler"? But after watching it, Xiaoyi didn't feel that she had really "watched" the entire "Your Name". The missing parts aroused her great interest:
Why did Xiaoshuai and Xiaomei exchange bodies?
Are Xiaoshuai and Xiaomei in love with each other?

Do Xiaoshuai and Xiaomei still remember this memory later?
When the two met for the last time, did they recognize each other?

Xiaoyi exited the video with a head full of doubts. But she soon discovered that another video commentary on "Your Name" appeared on the homepage. This time, it was from the perspective of a "girl", and the commentary had changed to a more "serious" style.

"Shio, a high school girl living in a small town in Japan, is bored with the ancient customs of her family's shrine. She is full of longing for the big city and even fantasizes about "Please let me be a handsome man in Tokyo in my next life!"..."

The relaxed explanation, accompanied by the cheerful music, soon drew Xiaoyi in. This time the explanation video was two minutes longer, with more details than the previous "minimalist version", and the analysis of the characters was also more delicate.

But he didn’t finish the explanation, only one third of it was told, and the UP host didn’t say when he would update it, which was really frustrating.

After Xiaoyi exited this video, she no longer needed to ask the website for recommendation. Instead, she typed "your name" in the search box and pressed Enter to confirm.

All she saw was a list of videos about Your Name pouring down her screen like a waterfall.

There are commentary videos like the one just now; there is the latest Chinese version trailer; there is the Japanese version trailer; and there are also some video bloggers' analysis of the original novel of "Your Name", accompanied by animation images.

Xiaoyi clicked on them one by one like a madman. She finished reading the ones she found interesting and closed the ones she found boring...

"What are you looking at? Have you not even eaten yet?" Xiaoyi was startled. She looked up and saw that it was her colleague and best friend, and then she breathed a sigh of relief. She looked at the time in the lower right corner of the computer and realized that more than an hour had passed without her noticing.

Xiaoyi quickly asked her bestie to sit next to her and said mysteriously, "I found a movie that's really interesting..."

Similar situations not only happen to slacking office workers, but also happen in universities, at home, in Internet cafes... All netizens who are accustomed to browsing video websites have found that the commentary video of the Japanese version of "Your Name" seems to have occupied the main position on the homepage overnight.

Moreover, the explanation methods are all kinds of strange, some of which are simply unheard of and quite interesting.

These explanations are either incomplete, ridiculously short, or omit a lot of details. It's like watching 20 videos and still can't put together a complete animation.

While recommending these commentary videos, the website also interspersed and recommended the latest 3-minute trailer for the Chinese version of "Your Name".

Although the Japanese version in the commentary video has good clarity, it is still far inferior to the trailer, which further arouses people's curiosity about the Chinese version of "Your Name".

Everyone wants to see what the true face of this "Chinese animation" is like, and which one is better compared to the Japanese version?

Soon, the craze for the Japanese version of "Your Name" commentary video spread to portal websites and major forums. Most people were curious about this new way of introducing TV series and movies, and they also satisfied their desire to peek at the animation content.

In less than three days, this phenomenon has attracted the interest of television media. Using online resources to explain movies and TV shows is a new thing, a gray area between piracy and secondary creation, and many programs have broadcast related clips.

Some curious people found the download link of the Japanese version, but after downloading it with great difficulty, they opened it to watch. However, most people either closed it impatiently or quickly finished the progress bar.

This is because there are too many fragmented commentary videos that have destroyed their patience in watching the entire Japanese version of "Your Name".

In particular, many pirated websites do not provide a clear version of more than 900 megabytes, but a low-quality version that has been re-compressed, transcoded, and has the website's logo added.

It is hard for viewers who have watched the commentary video to tolerate the low-quality video, not to mention the high-definition Chinese trailer.

After all, the proportion of otakus who have the patience to search and screen resources among netizens is very small, and most people just do a rough search on Baidu.

Driven by the commentary video, the public's expectations for the Chinese version of "Your Name" continued to rise, reaching its peak a week before the film was released.

This can be seen from the pre-sale box office of "Your Name" -

Before the commentary video became popular on the entire Internet, the pre-sale box office of "Your Name" had always been suppressed by "Baby Project"; but on September 9, it successfully overtook it, with the single-day pre-sale box office reaching 23 yuan.

The expectations for the final box office of "Your Name" have also been adjusted from 3000 million yuan to more than 5000 million yuan, which is enough to challenge "Baby Project"!

It seems that all the audience are looking forward to seeing this animated film as soon as possible.

You have to remember that this was in 2006 when there was no online ticketing. Audiences had to book tickets in advance, and in most cases could only go to the cinema’s ticket office.

This situation was completely beyond the expectations of all colleagues at "Tide Culture", as well as Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei of Huayi, and Boss Yang of Yinghuang.

How could there be a movie that would have higher box office expectations after being clearly pirated?

Ma Boyong looked at the various data that were rising "clang clang" and murmured, "So this is what it means to 'kill pirates with piracy'?"

Wang Zhongjun called Boss Yang and said, "Boss Yang, how about we move up the release date of Baby Project?"

(Two chapters in one)

(End of this chapter)