This director lacks vision.

Chapter 437 Wong Kar-wai Listens to Recording (These two chapters are just riding on Wong Kar-wai's popularity; skip them if you don't want to read them)

Even in his previous life, the journey of a grandmaster to win awards was rather fragmented.

This disconnect is mainly caused by excessive marketing and packaging.

The Grandmaster swept the Hong Kong Film Awards, winning 12 awards, and also swept the Asian Film Awards in Macau, taking home 7 awards.

It looks incredibly glamorous.

However, at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards, apart from Best Actress, The Grandmaster only received minor awards such as Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

In mainland China, the Golden Rooster Awards only recognize Best Supporting Actor and Best Art Direction.

The Huabiao Award was only given to the Best Actress.

There were no major awards such as Best Picture or Best Director.

They were nowhere near as wild as they were in Hong Kong and Macau.

This actually reflects the fact that neither Taiwan nor mainland authorities really buy into the marketing efforts of the Hong Kong entertainment industry.

Zhang Ziyi is a mainland Chinese actress. Her winning the Best Actress award is actually the result of compromise under such a divide.

However, there's a company called Huayi Brothers in mainland China that's best at sucking up to the Hong Kong entertainment circle, which is why they let "The Grandmaster" win Best Feature Film at the Hundred Flowers Awards.

This is also the most prestigious award that the film "The Grandmaster" has received outside of Hong Kong and Macau.

With Jiang Yifeng's presence now, Ip Man's image has been damaged, and the reputation of this grandmaster is not high.

This film received no awards at the Golden Rooster and Huabiao Awards.

They were hoping to turn things around with the Hundred Flowers Awards, but Huayi lost its sponsorship of the Hundred Flowers Awards, so winning the Hundred Flowers Awards will definitely be difficult now.

Huayi actually wanted to continue sponsoring the Hundred Flowers Awards, using the award to promote its members and exchange for resources.

However, Fengxing Media showed more sincerity, and the official trust in Fengxing Media at this time was greater. Huayi lost the sponsorship competition very decisively.

The Wong brothers have already explained these things to Wong the Mirror.

Furthermore, Fengxing Media exposed Ip Man's private life on the "Sisters Who Make Waves" program, which affected the Grandmaster's ability to make money.

Therefore, Wong Kar-wai harbors resentment towards Jiang Yifeng.

But this person still wants to make money in mainland China. Although he likes to cheat on people in private and has a very biased attitude, he still greets people with a smile on the surface.

Upon seeing Jiang Yifeng, Sunglasses King took the initiative to step forward and greet him: "Hello, Mr. Jiang! I have long admired your name. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"We just happened to run into each other, how about we grab a bite to eat together?"

Jiang Yifeng said calmly, "No need, I have an appointment."

As soon as he finished speaking, Accountant Jia walked into the restaurant.

Zhang Ziyi's face immediately lit up with a smile, and she said ingratiatingly, "President Jia~ You're here too~ Why didn't you tell me beforehand so I could pick you up~"

When the "Four Dan and Two Bing" (referring to four top actresses and two top actresses, both known for their servility and obsequiousness) were in the entertainment industry, they were all very good at being humble and subservient.

Now, because of the Taiping ship incident, Zhang Ziyi is also involved with LeEco, so she is extremely obsequious to Jia Yueting.

Accountant Jia nodded to Zhang Ziyi, then smiled and said to Jiang Yifeng, "President Jiang, you arrived first. I'm so sorry for my rudeness! I'll punish myself with three drinks later!"

Jiang Yifeng said directly, "I won't drink tonight. I have an interview tonight."

"No problem, my stomach hasn't been feeling well these past couple of days anyway."

Jiang Yifeng walked in front, followed by Accountant Jia, and their assistant team followed behind, heading towards the hotel's private room.

Both Wong Kar-wai and Zhang Ziyi were ignored.

Wong Kar-wai was very unhappy, but Zhang Ziyi was used to it.

She took two steps forward and tentatively followed Accountant Jia.

Seeing that Jiang Yifeng was accompanied by Qin Lan and hadn't brought any female celebrities, Accountant Jia asked Zhang Ziyi to come along.

Tonight's dinner was arranged by Accountant Jia.

Although there were some frictions between Jiang Yifeng and Accountant Jia regarding the transaction with Huanrui last time, the overall result was a win-win situation.

After this transaction, Jia realized that LeEco and Fengxing Media did indeed have many areas for cooperation.

Currently, the most powerful players are still the three major internet groups: BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent).

Although Sohu is much better than before, it still lags behind BAT in terms of capital accumulation and customer base.

With pressure from BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), the cooperation between LeEco and Fengxing Media is more beneficial than harmful, especially in terms of boosting the stock price.

LeEco also showed great support for this year's Hundred Flowers Film Festival, with Jia Yueting (LeEco's CEO) personally attending and preparing to conduct some film and television copyright transactions.

Inside the private room, everyone took their seats, and Zhang Ziyi casually placed her handbag between her buttocks and the back of the chair.

Accountant Jia said with a smile, "President Jiang, your time is precious, so I won't beat around the bush."

The main reason I invited you to dinner today is to discuss the collaboration between LeSports and the Supernova Games.

The Supernova Games program has become a huge hit, surpassing the popularity of the NBA Finals in China, and has attracted a large number of female viewers.

This is especially important for many sports brands and sports companies.

Accountant Jia was also envious of this popularity. LeSports was in a critical period of financing and wanted to cooperate with the Supernova Games to continue making money.

Jiang Yifeng said with a smile, "Cooperation is no problem. We don't have any sports platforms among our sponsor brands yet."

"As long as the money is there, everything is negotiable."

Upon hearing this, Accountant Jia didn't respond, but instead asked, "President Jiang, what do you think of the future prospects of LeSports?"

Jiang Yifeng glanced at Zhang Ziyi and praised her, "The sports market is worth trillions. LeSports has a broadcasting platform, event resources, and sales channels. Of course, I am very optimistic about it."

Mr. Jia, your decision to develop LeSports as a separate subsidiary reflects your confidence in the company's potential. With a successful IPO in the future, LeSports' market value could easily reach several hundred billion.

After all, ESPN, owned by Disney, is currently valued at over $500 billion.

ESPN's valuation peaked in the last two years, with Apple offering $50 billion for the sports channel. However, as the market shrank in the following years, ESPN's valuation gradually declined to around $20-30 billion.

Upon hearing Jiang Yifeng's words, Accountant Jia smiled smugly and said, "LeSports has completed two rounds of financing. The Series A round raised 5 million, and the Series A+ round planned to raise 5 million, but we only raised 3 million. There is still 2 million left to raise. I can give you this 2 million."

LeSports is currently valued at 56 billion yuan, of which 31% is held by celebrity shareholders.

Because these people's funds came in gradually, LeEco set up Series A and Series A+ rounds.

Seeing that Jiang Yifeng didn't speak, Accountant Jia continued, "Actually, I've almost finished negotiating the Series B financing. We'll be bringing in more than 20 investment institutions to jointly invest, with a total financing amount of 80 billion."

At that time, LeSports' valuation will exceed 300 billion.

If you invest 2 million now, it will be worth 10 billion in six months. After that, the company will accelerate its development and is expected to go public in about a year and a half, with a target market value of hundreds of billions.

I genuinely want a long-term partnership with Mr. Jiang. These shares are practically a buy-one-get-one-free offer; many others have wanted them, but I haven't given them to them.

Accountant Jia wasn't lying; LeSports is indeed in talks for its Series B funding round.

Because of Jiang Yifeng, LeEco's current development is very different from that of its previous life. It has fewer film and television copyrights, but it has signed more directors and artists, its momentum is much greater, and its stock valuation is much higher than that of the same period in its previous life.

Therefore, LeSports' financing situation is also more successful than in its previous life.

In its previous life, LeSports raised 80 billion yuan in its Series B funding round, valuing the company at 215 billion yuan. The round was led by HNA Group, with participation from many securities firms and Guotou Capital. Celebrities such as Sun Honglei, Liu Tao, and Chen Kun also participated. LeSports even held a special press conference.

Hearing what Accountant Jia said, Jiang Yifeng laughed and said, "Then I've really gotten a great deal. To be honest, I feel uneasy about it!"

Jiang Yifeng is now a powerful figure in his own right, with access to far more information. Combined with his precognitive advantages gained from his rebirth, he understands perfectly well what Accountant Jia is doing. Jia is currently acting as a front man for a group, aiming to use the guise of overseas car manufacturing to conduct a global financial expansion.

Therefore, in the future, Accountant Jia will frantically deny the rumors about his daughter's trust, because not denying them could easily lead to more problems.
Even after LeEco's bubble burst, investors continued to pour money into it.

Even though the whole world knows that Jia is a fraud, Xu still wants to invest in Faraday Future.

Many people laugh at him for being foolish, but his purpose is actually quite obvious.

Under these circumstances, LeEco had absolutely no chance of succeeding.

But for Jiang Yifeng, LeEco was a tool for ripping people off.

Seeing that Zhang Ziyi was also present, he naturally showered LeEco with praise and compliments.

“Mr. Jia, I’m very interested in your investment, but I have an interview coming up later. After the interview, we can continue our discussion tonight. Please make sure to reserve the investment amount for me.”

Seeing that it was almost time, Jiang Yifeng said a few polite words and got up to leave.

Accountant Jia found Jiang Yifeng difficult to deal with, and there was no progress at the dinner party.

However, Zhang Ziyi felt that Jiang Yifeng really wanted LeSports' 2 million yuan investment.

Zhang Ziyi also wants to make money.

She just ran out of money.

When she withdrew from the "Sisters Who Make Waves" competition, Zhang Ziyi lost 1200 million yuan in cash. After joining LeEco, she invested 2000 million yuan in LeSports along with Wu Yusen and others.

Right now, our cash flow is really tight.

Zhang Ziyi tried to seduce Accountant Jia, but when she realized he wasn't interested, she said a few nice words and wisely left.

Back in her hotel room, she saw Wong Kar-wai.

"Jiang Yifeng is such a show-off. He's only in his twenties, but he acts like an old man."

Wong Kar-wai was feeling annoyed at being ignored, so when he saw Zhang Ziyi return, he immediately started chirping crickets.

When Zhang Ziyi saw Wong Kar-wai, she hesitated for a moment and said, "I have a chance to make a fortune right now. It's a sure thing. Can you lend me some money so we can invest together and get rich?"

Wong Kar-wai was very wary; he didn't believe in any get-rich-quick schemes.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Ziyi had a backup plan; she had hidden a voice recorder in her handbag and recorded Jiang Yifeng's conversation with Accountant Jia.

After listening to the recording, Wong Kar-wai was also somewhat tempted.

If someone actively persuaded Wong Kar-wai to invest, he would definitely be suspicious.

But Zhang Ziyi was secretly recording the conversation between two business tycoons, the owners of the number one and number two entertainment companies in China.

This is highly credible.

Wong Kar-wai is genuinely tempted.

Actually, Wong Kar-wai was very envious of John Woo and Chow Yun-fat when they were making money. However, he felt that he had missed the opportunity and that getting on the bandwagon midway would make him feel inferior and earn him less money.

Now that we know LeSports has another 2 million yuan in Series A funding and has already secured Series B financing, this is a great opportunity to make money.

At this moment, Wong Kar-wai thought of Zhao Yanzi's capital operations and Zhou Xingchi's The Mermaid.

In the past two years, there have been too many successful cases of mainland entertainment capital raising money.

Wong Kar-wai listened to Zhang Ziyi's recording repeatedly, becoming more and more excited with each listen.

But he didn't think carefully about why Zhang Ziyi always carried a recording pen with her...

After finishing his interview, Jiang Yifeng met with Accountant Jia again.

This time, with no one else around, he said directly, "I don't need an investment share for now. I don't like taking advantage of others. If LeSports wants to cooperate with the Supernova Games, we should go through the normal sponsorship process."

If you can send some celebrities to participate in our program and create some entertainment value, then the sponsorship fee can be discounted.

For example, having someone like John Woo or Chow Yun-fat participate in a Sanda (Chinese kickboxing) program would definitely generate a lot of buzz.

In Jiang Yifeng's view, the simplest way to break the Hong Kong entertainment circle's filter is to beat them up.

Jiang Yiyan's previous attack on Xue Kaiqi was very effective.

If LeEco can really get its Hong Kong artists to participate in a Sanda (Chinese kickboxing) program, the program will definitely be very successful.

Accountant Jia nodded and said, "I may need to discuss this. As you know, Mr. Jiang, Hong Kong artists are very arrogant. LeEco's cooperation with them is complementary, so sometimes my words may not be effective."

Jiang Yifeng said, "Your company's Zhang Yimou, Zhou Runfa, Wu Qian, and others have all come to the Hundred Flowers Awards this time. They can participate in the Desert Games. If all else fails, there's also Sunglasses Wang."

This guy has tormented many actors, and there are quite a few people who hate him. If he were to participate in a Sanda (Chinese kickboxing) competition, many viewers would definitely love to watch him.

Actually, you can also go and have a go. Warner Bros. president Kevin Tsujihara and I will both be participating.”

In Jiang Yifeng's view, Wu Yusen's Taiping is about to be launched.

The moment this movie was released, this money-losing director went bankrupt.

They won't be able to cause any more trouble in the future.

Among the disgusting directors in the Hong Kong film industry, Wong Kar-wai is the leader.

This movie, "The Ferryman," is a truly awful film, yet it drags a bunch of people into saying "I like it," making it a massive workplace obedience test.

It disgusted mainland audiences.

It would be quite fun if there was a chance to get him beaten up on the show.

Upon hearing Jiang Yifeng's words, Accountant Jia nodded and said, "OK, I'll think about it."

Accountant Jia is very shrewd. He needs to weigh the overall benefits, since the image of the company's artists is also related to LeEco's public opinion.

Listed companies should pay attention to this aspect.

Moreover, if LeEco were to embarrass its core artists at the Supernova Games, morale within the company would collapse.

Accountant Jia won't agree to this casually.

He was considering it when, unexpectedly, Wong Kar-wai himself bumped into him.

The next morning, Sunglasses Wong and Accountant Jia volunteered to join LeEco's harmonious and friendly family, implying that they wanted to invest in LeSports and receive the same treatment as John Woo and others.

Accountant Jia understood that Zhang Ziyi had leaked the information.

In fact, there was never any quota of 2 million from beginning to end; this matter was decided by Accountant Jia himself.

If Jiang Yifeng were to invest, given his current fame and resources, a promotional campaign by LeEco after the investment would undoubtedly be a major boost to LeSports' valuation.

Jiang Yifeng hasn't fallen for it yet, and it's not impossible for Sunglasses King to invest, since it's all a scam anyway.

This is a good opportunity to test Sunglasses King by having him participate in the Sanda (Chinese kickboxing) competition at the Desert Games.

Making money isn't easy; you always have to put in some effort.

Upon hearing Accountant Jia's terms, Sunglasses King was even more eager to invest.

That's human nature; things that are easily obtained seem cheap, while things with obstacles seem precious.

After considering it for a while, Sunglasses King finally agreed to participate in the Sanda (Chinese kickboxing) competition at the Desert Games.

Making money is nothing to be ashamed of, especially since he's tall and strong, and he might not necessarily lose in a fight.

(End of this chapter)