Exciting 1979!

Chapter 487 A Generation of Divine Machines, A Generation of Divine Films

In mid-June, Wei Ming and his sister arrived in Hong Kong. Before they even left the airport, Wei Hong wanted to drag her brother to Lao Gui's house.

Actually, she wanted to bring Wei Ming to Amin's side, but Wei Ming said to her, "I bought a house in Hong Kong, so let's go live there."

Ah Long came to pick them up, bringing with him the keys to their new house.

"You're back from Shanghai so soon?" Wei Ming handed over the luggage, which was quite heavy and contained American comic books for Ah Long.

Ah Long laughed and said, "Yes, things went very smoothly, and Ah Ying also needs to have regular prenatal checkups, so she didn't stay for too long."

"How was the harvest this time?" Wei Ming asked.

"We brought five employees with us, who are in different positions. We can now basically form an animation team."

"Oh, you want to make animation?"

Ah Long didn't answer directly: "I learned two things when I returned to Shanghai: one is that the American version of 'The Smurfs' is going to be imported, and the other is that the Japanese anime 'Ikkyu-san' is being dubbed in Chinese."

Wei Ming understood what he meant. Every year, several excellent foreign TV animations flow into China, while previously, only one domestic TV animation, "Black Cat Detective," was presentable. However, due to reasons such as cost-saving and resource allocation, it has now been suspended.

As for animated films released in theaters, China only produces one every few years. So, if this continues, the post-80s generation will grow up watching foreign animation, which will have a very serious and subtle influence.

After sharing his new discovery, Ah Long said, "My aunt has decided to invest in Madman Comics to make an animated series called 'History Cat,' and ATV is interested in buying the film. I also have to draw 'Dragon Ball.' I can't be the director myself, but I want to be deeply involved."

"It seems that my aunt has tasted the benefits of the Transformers animation. Although this kind of promotion is more expensive, the effect is much stronger than regular advertising. You can go ahead and do it."

The most famous example in China is the Haier Brothers, whose influence is very long-lasting and profound.

Ah Long nodded: "Moreover, the History Cat comic has a considerable influence in mainland China. We can sell the animation to mainland TV stations later."

Wei Ming waved his hand: "Forget about selling it, just give it away. We can figure out what kind of advertising we can bundle with it later."

This is the basic model for importing American and Japanese animation now. Mainland TV stations are used to doing business without any investment, so they naturally can't stand having to spend money to buy from Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

In addition to bringing in talent from the mainland, collaborations with Taiwanese cartoonists have continued. For example, Ao Youxiang has published short comics in Kuangren Comics.

Ah Long also mentioned the next project for Madman Comics.

“The company has a lot of cash flow right now, and we also plan to do other newspaper and magazine business to create an entertainment magazine matrix and increase our influence,” Alon said. “Because our comic book readers are mainly teenagers, we want to create a magazine for teenagers first.”

Wei Ming can offer some ideas in this regard. For example, the publication could be named "YES!" and each issue could feature a popular female celebrity as the cover star.

"If that happens, the company won't just have one magazine, Madman Comics. Shouldn't we change the name?" Ah Long asked for instructions.

"Madman Comics" is indeed not a suitable company name, since the business is not limited to comics. Wei Ming thought for a moment and said, "How about we call it Minglong Media?"

"Your Ming, my Long?" Ah Long suddenly blushed.

"The name 'Ming' means 'to make a name for oneself'," Wei Ming said. He added that he could use this name to apply for a public listing in the future, which would make it not only a giant in the comic magazine industry, but also a variety of publications and newspapers, making it easier to tell stories.

~
Wei Ming's new three-bedroom apartment is located in the Causeway Bay business district of Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island, adjacent to Victoria Park and not far from the Hung Hom Tunnel. It takes Ah Long about half an hour to drive from the airport, and they parked in the parking lot downstairs.

In addition to the house, I also bought two parking spaces.

After entering, Wei Hong exclaimed, "It's lovely, very cozy!"

Wei Ming knew it wasn't like this before; it was all thanks to Sister Xue's good arrangements. This house also embodied her beautiful aspirations for living here with Wei Ming.

Unfortunately, she had already returned to the capital. Lying in bed in the master bedroom that night, Wei Ming wished so much that someone would come and keep him company.

Wei Hong felt something was very wrong. Her brother had come to Hong Kong but wasn't in a hurry to see Amin at all. This was very abnormal.

Could it be that the young couple was having a fight? Wei Hong felt she had to step in herself. Only then did she realize that the "Hong" in Wei Hong's name was the same as the "Hong" in "matchmaker".

"Brother, let's go see Grandpa and Grandma tomorrow. I miss them," Wei Hong said.

Wei Ming: "I'm going to Langning tomorrow to discuss some business with my aunt."

"Are we going to talk all day?"

"It might take a whole day to finish the negotiations." Besides the gaming business, there's also the matter of buying a villa.

Wei Hong pouted: "Then I'll go see them myself. Be careful they say you're unfilial."

Wei Ming: "This time, my aunt brought back a lot of new game consoles and games that are much more fun than Pac-Man from Japan."

Wei Hong immediately changed her mind: "I think we should talk about business first, and visit them another day."

That night, Wei Ming lay in bed reading the latest issue of "Madman Comics" before falling asleep. Zhao Rude's "City Hunter" made its debut.

The male lead really does look like Jackie Chan, with that big nose.

In addition, Master Roshi from Dragon Ball also began to use the alias "Cheng Long" to participate in the World Martial Arts Tournament.

This issue parodies "Jackie Chan," and the most anticipated World Martial Arts Tournament storyline has officially begun. No wonder Jackie Chan said he doesn't have many copies of this issue left; it's selling too well.

Two volumes of Dragon Ball have been released, each containing approximately ten issues. The first volume sold 15 copies in a single month, while the second volume, which features the story of summoning Shenron, reached an astonishing 23 copies in less than a month. The third volume, which covers the World Martial Arts Tournament and features numerous fight scenes, perfectly showcases Arlong's power, and is expected to sell even more.

The highest sales volume of the standalone edition of "Storm Riders" was 16 copies.

Almost every Dragon Ball reader will repurchase the collected volumes after reading the weekly issue of Madman Comics, making it a cultural phenomenon comparable to Jin Yong's martial arts novels.

If overseas markets are included, it's possible that each volume of Dragon Ball could sell over a million copies.

However, this is still a huge gap compared to the original timeline's "Dragon Ball," where a single volume sold approximately 1000 million copies.

Of course, time and distribution scope are the main factors, but the development of various copyrights has also expanded the influence of the original work, which in turn boosted the sales of the original work.

In the original timeline, Dragon Ball was adapted into a TV anime, a theatrical anime film, and a video game just two years after the manga was serialized. There are also countless other licensed merchandise items such as toys and small items.

The Hong Kong market is too small. Before the mainland market opened up, Dragon Ball had to rely on the two major markets of Taiwan and Japan to carry out these commercial developments.

I need to have a good talk with my aunt tomorrow about how to fully develop Dragon Ball.

After taking Wei Hong to President Lang Ning's office, Wei Ming first spotted a strange yet familiar figure among the many figurines and toys in the office.

McDull?

Seeing Wei Ming staring at the pig doll, Li Zhi came over and said, "It's called McDull. It's a new character prepared for Langning Gift Shop. It seems to have been drawn by a female college student."

Wei Ming nodded, not expecting that the generous reward would lead to the early creation of this local Hong Kong cartoon character.

There were also some cartoon dolls around McDull that Wei Ming had never seen before, probably all the result of this generous reward.

Wei Ming glanced at them and felt that it would be difficult for them to compete with Sanrio on their own. Sanrio had been making gifts for so many years and had a very good way of operating IP.

But there's no rush. I'll give some guidance when I have some free time. I already have plenty of cute little gadgets in my head.

Just then, Wei Lingling pushed the door open and came in. Wei Hong hurriedly asked, "Auntie, where's the Japanese game console you brought back?"

She hadn't touched a game console in a long time and was itching to get back to it.

Wei Lingling asked, "Do you understand Japanese?"

“All I know is Baka yaru and Mishi mishi,” Wei Hong said.

This is even worse than Wei Ming, at least he knows Ya Mie Die and Yi Ya Da.

Wei Lingling said, "Xiao Li, take Xiao Hong to test those toys."

"Okay, sure." Lizhi led Wei Hong to another room.

The door closed, and Wei Lingling suddenly slumped into the boss's chair: "I'm starting to have some doubts now, whether BBK can really succeed."

"What's wrong? Did Nintendo give you a blow?" Wei Ming had checked the news; their groundbreaking product hadn't been officially released yet.

Wei Lingling sighed, "When I arrived in Tokyo, I happened to be there at Nintendo's new product presentation, where they announced the price of their new product, the Family Computer."

The Family Computer was the first generation of the Famicom (FC), a groundbreaking product that truly propelled Nintendo to new heights.

In addition to their performance, groundbreaking products usually also come with groundbreaking prices.

Wei Lingling told Wei Ming, "This home game console is only 14800 yen!"

To put this into perspective, the Atari 2600 is already known for its cost-effectiveness, priced at $199.

The FC is priced at only $60 based on this year's exchange rate!

Wei Lingling said worriedly, "This price is too low. Even if they don't make money on the consoles and only profit from the software, this console price can still sweep the world."

Anyone familiar with home video game consoles at the time knows how outrageous this price was. If they also happened to have a few good games, they would be virtually unbeatable.

"What about the machine's quality? Have you bought the machine yet?" Wei Ming asked.

Wei Lingling shook her head: "I didn't buy it, I didn't even touch it. I only remember that it was red and white. The host demonstrated it, and I felt that it was smoother than the Atari 2600. If I want to buy it, I have to wait another month. This time I only brought back Nintendo's Game & Watch and Sega's game console."

She brought back handheld consoles; Sega's first home video game console had not yet been officially launched.

Wei Ming patted his aunt on the shoulder: "Are you worried that you might buy an Atari, only to find that their technology is outdated and not competitive?" "Yeah, and I did the math. Warner's offer for Atari is enough for me to buy several Nintendos, but unfortunately, I definitely can't buy one now."

"Oh, what do you say?"

"Nintendo hasn't officially released the Famicom yet, but its stock price skyrocketed after the announcement, so there will definitely be many obstacles to acquiring it."

Wei Ming smiled and said, "Oh, so you didn't buy any stocks?"

“Of course I bought them,” Wei Lingling said. “You bought $100 million worth of stocks, and I bought $100 million worth of stocks too. But your portion was bought when I first arrived in Japan, while my stocks were bought before I left. My $100 million only bought two-thirds of the stocks you bought.”

It just grows that fast.

It wasn't that Wei Ming was unwilling to buy more, but rather that Nintendo wasn't a large company, with a market capitalization of just over 100 million US dollars. 1 million US dollars was already a large sum of money for this listed company. He just wanted to ride the wave of the FC's popularity to make some pocket money.

Ultimately, Wei Ming held approximately 0.6% of Nintendo's shares, while his aunt held 0.4%, bringing their combined holdings to 1%, which is quite high among individual shareholders.

Wei Lingling said, "The only good news right now is that if the finished product of FC is really as good as it was said at the briefing, Atari's valuation will depreciate rapidly. However, it has also depreciated in my mind."

“Everything is difficult at the beginning. After all, we are starting from scratch. Why don’t we make a handheld console first?” Wei Ming suggested. “Actually, my Wei Block is more suitable for a handheld console.”

Wei Lingling: "It's Chinese Squares."

"Oh, that's a good idea. Let's make the Chinese Square game and integrate it into BBK's handheld console. I think that's a good choice."

Wei Lingling: "I think the most urgent task is not to make the game console, but to fight the lawsuit."

"Sue? Against whom?"

Wei Lingling pinched her fingers: "TAKARA, a Japanese company!"

It turns out that she not only attended Nintendo's new product presentation, but also happened to run into the Tokyo Toy Show, where she saw the transforming robots produced by TAKARA, whose robots can also transform into cars and household items.

Wei Lingling angrily retorted, "Shameless! Utterly shameless! This is blatant plagiarism!"

Hearing this, Wei Ming scratched his forehead.

"Moreover, Hasbro from the US was also there, eager to try their luck. Hmph, Hasbro has been eyeing our Transformers for a long time, and they even had a dispute over music greeting cards before."

Upon hearing this, Wei Ming became serious, as if he were seeing the original timeline of history.

Wei Lingling said firmly, "I will definitely show them what the strongest legal team in Asia is!"

With a double degree in law and management from Stanford, Wei Lingling has extensive connections in the international legal community. She built a strong legal team when Langning first grew by selling musical greeting cards, and has been involved in many lawsuits in the past two years, with Hasbro not coming out on top.

Moreover, "Transformers" has purchased exclusive patents from relevant Japanese companies, and TAKARA may indeed be infringing on their patents. Even if the technology is not infringing, the design is likely to be infringing. Wei Lingling is still very confident. The key is to prevent TAKARA from getting involved with Hasbro.

Hasbro has a much stronger presence in the US market than Lanning. If they really start doing business with transforming toys, it will inevitably affect the niche of Transformers.

Transformers are Langning's most powerful cash cow, generating hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars in profit every year. The threat must be nipped in the bud.

Seeing his decisive and efficient aunt, Wei Ming was very confident about Langning's future. Langning was now arguably the strongest toy company in Asia. As long as it could suppress Hasbro, becoming number one in the world would not be a problem.

Of course, this also requires Wei Ming's efforts, and when it comes to handheld consoles, the first thing that comes to Wei Ming's mind is that yellow color.

The two then went next door, where Wei Hong and Li Zhi each had a handheld game console. Wei Hong was playing Nintendo's Game & Watch.

Nintendo's current market value of over $100 million is mainly due to the success of this product. Born in 1980, it sold 30 million units in three years and has a large user base in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States, which has led to countless imitation products.

Wei Hong is currently playing Nintendo's famous game "Donkey Kong," also known as "Donkey Kong." In this game, you can also see a carpenter wearing overalls who later switched to repairing sewers.

It's estimated that a solo game for Mario will be released after Nintendo's Famicom is launched, and it's too late to steal the spotlight. What a pity.

"Auntie, can I have this game console?" She thought it was even better than a home game console because it could be carried around and played anytime, anywhere, without being restricted by the scene, and she could even play a game while sitting on the toilet.

Wei Lingling laughed and said, "Of course, we bought it for you guys to play. You'll have to help us test it out when our own handheld console is made."

Wei Ming: "Alright, let's stop for a bit. We need to go out for a bit."

"What are you going out for?" Although reluctant, Wei Hong restrained herself and put away the game console.

Wei Ming: "Let's look at the villas."

This villa was not only bought by Wei Lingling for her own residence, but also as a filming location for her new movie.

Lizhi was driving, while Weiming and his aunt continued chatting about work in the back seat.

“I’ve heard that the Taiwanese-made GAME & WATCH clones are very good, and there are even companies that specialize in making authentic copies. You could start from there to shorten the time. I hope that Chinese Blocks can be released within the year.”

Wei Ming urged the game to be completed as soon as possible because it would clash with other games in two years.

“Yes, Taiwan is indeed quite strong in the electronics industry.” Wei Lingling also felt that time was of the essence. If they waited any longer, Nintendo would have already taken over the market, and they would be at a disadvantage if they entered the market then.

A losing situation is not easy to win.

Wei Lingling looked out the window: "The handheld console and the game will be completed simultaneously before Christmas at the latest!"

The car stopped in front of a villa, where a real estate agent was already waiting. This wasn't the first time they had viewed a property there.

Looking at the swimming pool and the luxurious main building, Wei Ming asked, "Is this the one that cost 1000 million?"

Wei Lingling whispered, "It's already 950 million."

The housing market is really sluggish. It hasn't been that long, and 50 yuan is gone.

Wei Lingling could definitely afford this house, but as a movie set, Wei Ming felt it had two drawbacks: firstly, it was too luxurious and didn't fit the character of the male protagonist's family in the script.

Another issue is that there are too few neighbors around, whereas the male protagonist in his script has several neighbors nearby.

So they temporarily passed on this mansion in Torre Hill, and then they went to look at the one in Kowloon Tong that cost 800 million, but is now worth 760 million.

"Hmm, this one is not bad." Wei Ming was quite satisfied with the size of the house and the surrounding environment. There was a swimming pool, but it was rather small.

Afterwards, they went inside to observe the interior space, and Lizhi was filled with longing.

However, Wei Ming noticed that his aunt didn't seem to like it that much.

Wei Ming pulled her aside and asked, "Do you prefer the first set?"

Wei Lingling: "Who doesn't like a big one? Besides, that place has a better environment."

She prefers quieter places.

Wei Ming nodded, then asked the agent directly, "I don't know if this apartment is available for rent. We need it for two months to film a movie."

"Ah, this..." the agent said he couldn't make the decision and needed to contact the homeowner.

Wei Ming added, "We've bought the first set."

The agent said, "I will do my best to persuade the homeowner!"

Wei Ming: "Okay, you do the work first, and then we'll sign both the purchase and lease contracts together."

Wei Lingling's smile returned. Although she was the one paying for it, Wei Ming hadn't disregarded his own feelings for the sake of filming. No wonder all the girls liked her.

Wei Hong: Not necessarily. I feel like Amin doesn't like him anymore. Could they have really broken up?
That night, she couldn't resist calling Amin and telling her that she and her brother had come to Hong Kong, and hinting to her: Why don't you take the initiative?

Vivian Chow almost cried that night. She never expected that Ah Ming would not take the initiative to contact her when he came to Hong Kong. She felt that life was not worth living. She was so angry that she almost wrote a new song.

But she, in her adolescence, also has her own dignity and wants to take the initiative, unless the sun rises in the east tomorrow!
~
With the villa arrangement settled, the next step is directing.

Wei Ming investigated all the active directors in Hong Kong and finally contacted Teddy Robin of Cinema City.

"Oh? Okay, see you tonight."

Wei Ming was more familiar with Teddy Robin from Cinema City. Teddy Robin admired Wei Ming's musical talent, and Wei Ming also admired this small man who did not succumb to fate and was determined despite his disability.

However, the director Wei Ming wanted to find for his new film was not him.

He contacted Teddy Robin only to invite Wong Pak-ming from Cinema City out, but he didn't expect that Teddy Robin would not only invite Wong Pak-ming, but also Tsui Hark.

"What? You want me to be a director? No way, no way, I've never been a director before." Huang Baiming quickly waved his hand in refusal.

Besides the fact that he had never been a director, it was also because Karl Maka and Wei Ming didn't get along. As one of the three giants of Cinema City, Wong Pak-ming didn't want to upset Karl Maka, and besides, he was also the boss of the company, so how could he work for someone else?

Wei Ming: "Really? You're not even tempted by a million-dollar director's fee?"

Nobody dislikes money, and 100 million is a very high price for a director. At least Tsui Hark was very tempted when he heard it. He didn't even get such a high salary when he was filming at Cinema City. If the company hadn't already confirmed that he would continue to film "Aces Go Places 3", he would have wanted to volunteer himself.

The offer of 100 million yuan was indeed very tempting for Huang Baiming. In the current market, 100 million yuan could buy two houses!

"Mr. Wei, may I take a look at the script first?"

“Okay.” Wei Ming handed over the script. He had already given the script to Wei Lingling, and she had someone revise it into a Cantonese version.

Xu Ke and Teddy Robin also went over to take a look; the title was "Home Alone."

Oh, a horror movie? Xu Ke wanted to see more details, but Wei Ming pulled him aside and asked about Vivian Chow's music video.
(Today's guaranteed minimum)
(End of this chapter)