National Tide 1980

In June 1988, although it was only early summer, for Ning Weimin who was in Japan, this period seemed like a turbulent autumn.

First of all, this month, the film "Dunhuang", a co-production between China and Japan aimed at celebrating the 10th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, was released in Japan.

This film, produced by Tokuma Shoten under the name of Daiei, is a masterpiece adapted from the novel by writer Yasushi Inoue.

The total investment reached 4.5 billion yen, an unprecedented amount in Japanese film history, which was equivalent to hundreds of millions of RMB based on the exchange rate at that time.

To this end, staff from China and Japan spent several years building an ancient city covering an area of ​​12,700 square meters in Dunhuang, China, modeled after the Song Dynasty Shazhou City.

Such a huge investment can only be said to be a miracle that could only occur during Japan's bubble economy era.

However, the movie's grand scenes were indeed shocking, and the box office was also amazing, with a single-week box office of more than 2 billion yen.

This data completely crushes any Japanese movie, even "Crazy Rich Asians" with an investment of 2 billion yen is far inferior to it. It is destined to be the box office champion this year.

As a result, the momentum of Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko was curbed.

Their "Crazy Rich Asians" crew, which had just gained popularity again due to the awards they won in Cannes, was unfortunately replaced and the popularity quickly faded.

Even the current pride of Chinese people - John Lone, who was just nominated for a Golden Globe Award this year, and Teresa Teng, who is currently in the limelight and is about to perform on the same stage with Hibari Misora, were unable to sustain the popularity of "Crazy Rich Asians".

In addition, Ning Weimin's "Chinese Hero", which was just released in Shochiku Cinemas last week, has also been affected in its originally good box office momentum.

It's not a drastic drop, but the expected box office target of 700 million yen is unlikely to be achieved. It's probably around 600 million yen at best.

In this case, based on Ning Weimin's film purchase cost of 10 million Hong Kong dollars and a 4:6 profit sharing ratio, he can only earn 30 million yen.

This amount of income is really a bit tasteless, and we can only hope to make up some profits from the videotape market.

In short, the whole country of Japan is now caught up in a Dunhuang craze.

This summer, all the glory in the Japanese film industry is destined to belong to Tokuma Shoten and Daiei Company.

Among Japan's "Big Five", apart from Toho and Shochiku, which own cinema chains and can benefit from it, the other two, Toei and Nikkatsu, can only watch enviously.

Ning Weimin's brain is not slow. When he saw the rise of "Dunhuang fever" in Japan, he immediately remembered a movie that was released in China last year and was also full of Western style.

This is a large-scale action film jointly produced by Hong Kong City Goodman Entertainment Co., Ltd. and China Film Co-production Company.

This is the second film Xu Xiaoming shot in mainland China after "Kapok Robe", and its name is "Mirage".

This film is based on the Wesley series of novels, "Illusions", and the story has a strong legendary and exotic flavor.

The film's location shooting was very particular. Director Xu Xiaoming spent a lot of money to go deep into the river valleys and deserts of XJ and filmed the remains of the Silk Road. In the eyes of the audience at that time, the pictures alone were worth the price of the ticket.

Even from the perspective of Ning Weimin, a time traveler, this movie is quite outstanding.

It has special effects, action, scenes, plot and humanity, and has all kinds of rich elements such as adventure, treasure hunting, and competition. It also captures the customs and spirit of the Western region and is an extremely rare excellent film in Chinese-language films, and it is difficult to categorize it.

And it is also because of this movie that our people not only learned about the optical principles of the "mirage" phenomenon, but also truly remembered another kung fu movie actor - Yu Rongguang.

China Film Production Company cannot make this decision and must obtain the consent of Goodman Entertainment Co., Ltd.

As soon as Xu Xiaoming opened his mouth, he quoted Ning Weimin a price of 10 million Hong Kong dollars, which made Ning Weimin very difficult.

This means that this movie must be sold in Japan at the price of "Chinese Hero" for Ning Weimin to make a small profit.

But the problem is that the movie was starred by Jet Li, and it has its own traffic and fans.

Then how can Xu Xiaoming and Yu Rongguang compare with him?

If Ning Weimin offers this price, he will definitely become a sucker and will have to take a lot of risks. How can he do that?

Ning Weimin naturally wanted to bargain, but even though he talked his mouth off and negotiated several times, the other party would not accept the auspicious number of 6.88 million he offered, and insisted on asking for 10 million Hong Kong dollars, and refused to lower the price at all.

The other party's attitude was very firm. They said that Ning Weimin spent 30 million Hong Kong dollars to buy two "A Chinese Ghost Story" films from Cinema City, and spent another 10 million to buy "Chinese Hero" from Silver Metro Group. If he lowered the price, what kind of person would he be if not a fool?

He also told Ning Weimin that the box office of "Chinese Hero" in Hong Kong was just over 10 million Hong Kong dollars, while his "Mirage" had sold 16.8 million Hong Kong dollars.

If he sold the film to Ning Weimin at a low price, I'm afraid all his colleagues in Hong Kong would laugh at him.

Only then did Ning Weimin realize that Xu Xiaoming had regarded this matter as a major issue concerning his face and status in the film industry, and it had turned into a dispute of personal pride.

And the key point is that the problem ultimately has to be attributed to him. It was purely his own fault that caused the trouble.

This is why people are afraid of becoming famous; a tall tree attracts the wind.

There was nothing he could do. He couldn’t tell Xu Xiaoming that he was a time traveler.

It cannot be said that he knew that the two "A Chinese Ghost Story" movies would be popular in the Asian and European film scenes, and that he bought them because they would definitely make a lot of money, and that he would be able to continue to make money in the Internet age.

He generously donated money to produce the movie "Chinese Hero" out of his patriotism, wanting to give Jet Li more hope in his difficult times and to support the Hong Kong leftist film industry's Silver Metropolis Film Institute.

Your Xu Xiaoming's "Mirage" cannot be compared with those movies?

So he wasted more than ten days' energy and time in vain. When he looked at the time again, he estimated that he was running out of time, so he had to give up. It cannot be said who suffered the most between him and Xu Xiaoming, but it can only be said that they were not destined to cooperate with each other.

Coincidentally, in June, a more serious similar incident occurred. The iron scrap trade that Ning Weimin had originally introduced to Huo Yanping also ran into trouble.

I don’t know whether the Japanese are too cunning or the Chinese officials in charge of this project are too incompetent.

Anyway, when the Japanese found out that their waste was actually a treasure for mainland China, they gradually took the initiative in transactions by cannibalizing each other, and began to raise prices quietly and unfairly.

Moreover, it was carried out under the auspices of the Tieyuan Association with a unified tone. Now even Hanwa Kogyo does not dare to trade with the Chinese side privately.

That’s not all. The Japanese also used despicable means to lure mainland negotiators to a special place on Kabukicho Street to enjoy themselves, and even took photos as evidence for commercial coercion.

As a result, China has completely lost its bargaining power. Gradually, the cost of importing scrap steel has reached as high as US$18 per ton, which is currently only US$2 cheaper than the price of iron ore.

Fortunately, someone with inside information reported the matter later, and the country quickly discovered that something was wrong and stopped the losses in time. Otherwise, the country’s foreign exchange would probably continue to suffer serious losses like blood loss.

In fact, when Ning Weimin was still negotiating with Hong Kong about the transaction of "Mirage", Huo Yanping sent a message from Beijing saying that the newly appointed negotiator would bring people to Japan soon to conduct new trade consultations with the Tieyuan Association, and hoped that Ning Weimin could temporarily put aside the things in his hands and take care of it.

Needless to say, as for Ning Weimin, he has to help, both for public and private reasons.

But unfortunately, the trade delegation came at an inopportune time and overlapped the time when the delegation from the investors of the Tangong Restaurant came to Japan for inspection.

So Ning Weimin had no choice but to put national affairs first and handed over the reception of the investor's inspection to Bian Gang of the special department, and went to help the trade delegation first.

But the result was not smooth again.

The Japanese seemed to have taken advantage of China's inferior steelmaking technology and insufficient raw materials.

Although there were some concessions on price during this negotiation, they were not much. The price was negotiated to US$15 per ton and could not be lowered any further.

The head of the Iron Source Association declared that if the price was lower than this, they would rather keep it in the warehouse than sell it.

After the incident was over, Ning Weimin received a call from Kitamao, the president of Hanwa Kogyo, who complained to him that the Iron Source Association had criticized them.

Warn them not to leak industry information to the Chinese again, otherwise they will be expelled from the association.

In other words, even though Ning Weimin tried his best to maneuver and help in this matter, he did not get a very good result, and he also implicated Hanhe Xingye.

In view of the current situation of soaring prices of domestic raw materials, the delegation had no choice but to bow their heads and sign an unequal agreement, and continue to be beaten by the Japanese for scrap steel and iron filings.

That’s not all. The worst thing is that you’re caught in a dilemma.

Since Ning Weimin accompanied the trade delegation to visit iron mills in Kanto and Kansai, Japan, leaving the domestic investors to Bian Gang, even if he served them attentively, he still felt he was indebted to him.

Others were fine and gave Ning Weimin face, but the problem was that the newly appointed director of the Temple of Heaven in the delegation was not very happy.

Ning Weimin heard from Bian Gang that these masters Gong Mingcheng were obviously very unhappy to see that Ning Weimin never showed up, and he did not smile at all during the few days he stayed in Tokyo.

Neither eating, drinking nor having fun made him happy. Instead, after finishing a day of government-sponsored activities, he often came to the Dangu Restaurant in Tokyo to stroll around, carrying a notebook to copy and write, and sometimes asked questions to mainland employees.

Later, even when I went to the Dangu branches in Kyoto and Osaka, they seemed to be doing the same thing.

When something is abnormal, there must be something wrong.

As an elite member of a special department, Bian Gang rarely feels uncertain. He has no idea what the other party means or what plans they are carrying out.

He had no choice but to take the initiative to apologize to Ning Weimin, saying that he had not accompanied the inspection team well, that he had spent money but failed to please the people, and that it was very likely that he had messed up the task that Ning Weimin had given him.

Naturally, Ning Weimin would not blame Bian Gang for anything in this matter, but through Bian Gang's retelling and reminder, he had somewhat of an impression of the new director as "good people don't come, and those who come are not kind", and he became wary.

He could clearly feel that this new boss probably didn't have a good impression of him and was probably plotting against him.

But then again, he has a clear conscience, so what is there to be afraid of?

And the most important thing is that this is no longer the time when he first came to Japan. He must rely on such an identity to stay in Japan safely and engage in real estate and stock speculation.

Now he has already married a Japanese wife and obtained permanent residency. The Japanese government's tolerance towards him as a foreigner has increased dramatically. As long as he does not commit a crime, he will not be deported.

Moreover, he has already reaped the rewards of several rounds of real estate and stocks. In just a few years, he has already become a true billionaire, and he would have no regrets even if he leaves now.

It even owes Sumitomo Bank 200 billion yen in debt.

To put it bluntly, if anyone wants to harm him and make him leave Japan, I'm afraid Sumitomo Bank will be the first to jump up and get rid of that person.

This is the characteristic of this society. People don’t worry about having too much debt. The most amazing person is Yang Bailao who owes a huge debt.

Who wants to deal with him?

Grandma, he has to pass the test of Huang Shiren and Mu Renzhi first. Sumitomo Bank is his greatest safety guarantee.

So Ning Weimin didn't really take it to heart, especially since he was thinking that the new director was someone approved by the old director after all, so he had to give some leeway to everyone for the sake of the old director.

Next time when he brings the profits back to China and speaks with facts, this misunderstanding will probably disappear.

What could be more convincing than huge profits? Even if the new director has any opinions about him or dislikes him, no one would be stupid enough to kill the goose that lays golden eggs.

But Ning Weimin was really taking things for granted and was a bit too optimistic.

Because not long after, something he thought was absolutely impossible actually happened.

First, Zhang Shihui from the capital brought news that the new director of the Temple of Heaven had stabbed them.

Gong Mingcheng first stopped Luo Guangliang and Xiao Tao's business and forbade rickshaw drivers and their rickshaws to enter the Temple of Heaven.

Then they drove away Gu Si'er, who was selling goldfish in Nanshenchu, and Sun Wufu, who was setting up a second-hand goods stall in Zhaigong.

Zhang Shihui also asked Ning Weimin, asking him what happened to the director and whether they had a quarrel over the audit.

He did all these things just after returning from Japan. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that they are obviously targeting Ning Weimin.

These words made Ning Weimin even more confused. He had never met the director at all, so how could he know what was wrong with this new director?

The audit? Just because you are not allowed to look at the account books, you can do something so devastating?

Unless the new director is a psychopath.

But you know what, as he was thinking about it, he was soon slapped in the face by reality.

The Temple of Heaven management unexpectedly sent him another official fax very soon, saying that they would convene a shareholders' meeting to discuss major issues involving the termination of cooperation and asset splitting, and asked him to return to China as soon as possible to attend the shareholders' meeting.

And if you are late, you will take responsibility for it.

Ning Weimin was completely stunned when he saw these words. This director, whom he had never met before, was so amazing. It really surprised him greatly.

This is not about killing the chicken or smashing the pot. This is about overturning the entire banquet table to the ground. No one can eat!

But the question is, what is he thinking? What is he trying to achieve?

Where did he get this courage, this confidence, and this bravery?