Entertainment: Who still wants to fall in love when there are cheats?

Chapter 226 Provocation
Unlike Feng Gangpao and Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou has a movie that will be released this month, which is "The Flowers of War" that was previously rejected by Zhao Liying.

Zhang Yimou himself didn't say anything about Li Boda, a new director, achieving such good results.

After all, in Zhang Yimou's view, no matter how good Li Boda's box office performance was, it wouldn't hinder him or pose any threat to him.

Another factor is Zhang Yimou's personality; he's rather introverted and doesn't talk much, preferring to focus on making movies. Therefore, he didn't react much to Li Boda's "Infinite Terror" breaking the domestic box office record for its opening day.

However, Zhang Weiping, who had worked with Zhang Yimou for many years, had a lot of complaints.

Zhang Weiping isn't really that capable. He only invested in one of Zhang Yimou's movies. The movie lost money, and Zhang Yimou felt indebted to Zhang Weiping, so the two began a 15-year collaboration.

Initially, Zhang Weiping was only responsible for securing investment for Zhang Yimou's films, allowing Zhang Yimou to focus on making movies.

However, as time went on, Zhang Weiping became increasingly arrogant. He not only began to interfere in Zhang Yimou's relationship, causing her to break up with Gong Li, but also started to meddle in the films Zhang Yimou made, from the selection of actors to the choice of subject matter.

Meanwhile, Zhang Weiping, who had been working with Zhang Yimou for fifteen years, increasingly felt that Zhang Yimou was easy to bully. Even when Zhang Yimou's movies made a lot of money, Zhang Weiping only gave Zhang Yimou a fixed salary that was not much, and sometimes, this salary would even be delayed.

The company founded by Zhang Weiping is entirely owned by Zhang Weiping himself; Zhang Yimou has no shares whatsoever.

In other words, all the movies Zhang Yimou has made over the years have been entirely for Zhang Weiping's benefit!
In some ways, Zhang Yimou is truly, truly an honest person.

Zhang Yimou's trust and concessions to Zhang Weiping made Zhang Weiping increasingly arrogant. He felt that by controlling Zhang Yimou, he could run rampant in the film industry. Zhang Weiping even shouted things like "Master Han is a bandit leader".

However, because Zhang Yimou was in Zhang Weiping's hands, even though Zhang Weiping was incredibly arrogant, no one bothered him. After all, Zhang Yimou's movies were the biggest in China. Even Chen Kaige and Feng Gangpao, who were on par with Zhang Yimou, were actually a step behind him.

In this context, Zhang Weiping believes that the fewer good directors there are in China, the higher the value of the renowned director Zhang Yimou in his portfolio will be.

Now that Li Boda has stepped forward, his film "Infinite Terror" has even broken box office records on its opening day, and he's poised to challenge for a place among the top three directors in China. Zhang Weiping is not happy about this.

Then, in front of the media, he openly began to criticize Li Boda.

"A director who only started out in his career, does he really think he's so great?" Zhang Weiping said bluntly to the reporter.

"However, Li Boda has directed four films, and each of these four films has achieved better box office results than the last. Even the recently released 'Infinite Terror' broke the record for the highest-grossing opening day for a domestic film." The reporter couldn't hide his excitement.

"Who knows if he directed 'Infinite Terror'? I've seen all the movies he's directed. His previous low-budget comedies were just so-so. He only managed to rake in so much box office revenue because he's a star; the quality of the films themselves wasn't high. Besides, all his previous films were low-budget comedies that had absolutely nothing to do with science fiction. Now suddenly he's made a movie like 'Infinite Terror,' and you're saying he directed it himself? Who would believe that!" Zhang Weiping continued his attack.

"You're saying that the movie 'Infinite Terror' wasn't directed by Li Boda, but by someone else, and that Li Boda impersonated him?"

"Hey, who knows for sure? After all, I don't believe a director who can only make low-budget comedies can make a sci-fi blockbuster, especially since he went to Hollywood to film it. Did he think he didn't know anyone there and could just hire someone to film it for him? Well, that makes sense, after all, Hollywood directors are better at sci-fi..." Zhang Weiping became increasingly sarcastic.

"Mr. Zhang, who do you think is the real director of the movie 'Infinite Terror'?"

"Who else could it be but a Hollywood director? Let me tell you, when it comes to domestic films, you still have to watch Zhang Yimou's. His films are the truly good ones. Let me tell you, our film 'The Flowers of War' has already won a Hollywood Golden Globe Award, and it might even be competing for an Oscar next year..." Zhang Weiping began to lavish praise on Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War".

Looking at Zhang Weiping, who seemed to have completely let loose, the reporter's face flushed with excitement. He could already imagine the uproar that would ensue once these words about Zhang Weiping were published.

So, as the daily box office of the movie "Infinite Terror" continued to improve, reaching 140 million yuan in three days, Zhang Weiping's remarks were published in the newspapers. With the help of certain individuals or forces, almost the entire country knew that Zhang Weiping was making sarcastic remarks about Li Boda, saying that Li Boda lacked real talent and that "Infinite Terror" was not Li Boda's work.

"Weiping, what are you doing? How can you talk nonsense in the newspaper?" After seeing the news in the newspaper, Zhang Yi couldn't help but go to find Zhang Weiping.

"Yi Mou, don't worry about this. You just focus on making the movie. Don't worry about anything else." Zhang Weiping said casually, clearly not wanting to talk to Zhang Yi Mou at all.

"No, Weiping, aren't you afraid Li Boda will sue you for saying these things without any evidence?"

"Let him sue if he wants. Can't I even make a guess? I didn't say it was a done deal, I just said it's possible. Alright, alright, Yi Mou, you should go back and focus more on 'The Flowers of War.' Our movie will be released soon. Don't get distracted by other things." Zhang Weiping shoved Zhang Yi Mou out of the room.

... Li Boda looked at the newspaper his assistant Xiao Bian had brought him, and found Zhang Weiping's sarcastic remarks about him somewhat amusing.

Zhang Weiping has a terrible reputation in the film industry. He criticizes this person and mocks that person from time to time. He has offended almost everyone in the film industry. It is only because of Zhang Yimou that he can be so unconventional. If it weren't for Zhang Yimou, who would he be?

However, Zhang Weiping is indeed like a toad lying on your foot; it doesn't bite, but it's disgusting.

Li Boda also wanted to teach him a profound lesson, to let him know what he could and could not say.

However, when teaching Zhang Weiping a lesson, we can't go too far; no, we can't use any unusual methods.

Since Zhang Weiping was able to make waves in the film industry because of Zhang Yimou, if he loses Zhang Yimou, then everyone will probably push him down when he's down, and everyone will beat him when he's broken.

Regarding the relationship between Zhang Weiping and Zhang Yimou, Li Boda had heard some gossip from others when he was filming on set before.

It seems that the relationship between the two people is not actually that harmonious.

So Li Boda wanted to figure out exactly what kind of relationship the two of them had.

When Li Boda used some special methods to clarify the relationship between Zhang Yimou and Zhang Weiping, everyone was a little confused.

Is Zhang Yimou an idiot?
Despite being bullied by Zhang Weiping, Zhang Yimou never fought back.

Moreover, Zhang Weiping's actions were truly disgraceful.

Zhang Yi and his current wife are married and have three children, in addition to the children he had with his ex-wife.

In other words, Zhang Yi has four children under his name.

But now, there's the one-child policy!

Zhang Yimou clearly violated the one-child policy by having more children than allowed.

Then, regarding the issue of having more children than allowed, Zhang Weiping took the initiative to help Zhang Yimou resolve it, which made Zhang Yimou feel grateful to Zhang Weiping.

However, Zhang Weiping's solution was to forge documents.

That's right, it's about making fake certificates.

Zhang Weiping obtained fake household registrations for Zhang Yimou's son and daughter, and the process was extremely shoddy.

In reality, having more children than allowed is indeed a problem, but as long as you pay the fine and pull some strings, you can directly register the child's birth.

For ordinary people, having more children than allowed is a big deal, but for someone like Zhang Yimou, it's nothing.

However, Zhang Weiping didn't know what he was thinking, but he actually got a fake household registration for Zhang Yi's child, while Zhang Yi himself was kept in the dark and had no idea what was going on.

After discovering this, Li Boda really, really couldn't stop laughing.

At the same time, Li Boda also discovered that Zhang Yimou and Zhang Weiping often had conflicts when they were together, or when they were making movies. Zhang Weiping loved to interfere too much in Zhang Yimou's film creation. For example, Zhou Jielun, who played the second prince in "Curse of the Golden Flower", and Xiao Shenyang, who played Xiao Shenyang in "A Simple Noodle Story", were all roles that Zhang Weiping forced into Zhang Yimou's movies.

Therefore, Zhang Yimou now has a lot of grievances against Zhang Weiping. The two are almost on the verge of breaking up. Or rather, Zhang Yimou is being bullied so much that she is like a spring that has hit rock bottom, ready to bounce back at any moment, but Zhang Weiping himself has not yet realized it.

After figuring out the relationship, Li Boda didn't do anything special. He just wrote a letter to Zhang Yimou, in which he mentioned that Zhang Yimou's child's household registration was fake, but he didn't write anything else.

Then, within a week of its release, "Infinite Terror" grossed 300 million yuan. Just three days before the release of "The Flowers of War," Zhang Yimou and Zhang Weiping had a falling out!
(End of this chapter)