1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 175 Global Box Office
"One hundred and sixty-five million yen?"

When Zhai Yuan heard Guan Weiming say this amount on the phone, his hands shook with fear.

He asked Guan Weiming: "What is the current exchange rate of Japanese yen to Hong Kong dollars?"

Guan Weiming hesitated for a moment: "I'm not sure about Hong Kong dollars, but the exchange rate here is 1 to 250 for US dollars."

Zhai Yuan immediately took out a calculator.

Zero, zero, zero!

One hundred and sixty-five million yen, divided by two hundred and fifty, equals six hundred and sixty thousand U.S. dollars.

Six hundred and sixty thousand U.S. dollars, multiplied by seven point eight, equals five million one hundred and forty-eight thousand Hong Kong dollars.

It's okay, more than 5 million Hong Kong dollars is acceptable. After all, he is a talent from Sony, and you have to be willing to pay to poach him.

Zhai Yuan exhaled: "As long as these three people are not here to fish in troubled waters, I will give you 10% of the 5 million Hong Kong dollars first, and the rest will be settled after they arrive in Hong Kong."

Guan Weiming said again: "Okay. But boss, this money is only enough to pay their salary for one year, and you can't fire them on your own initiative."

Zhai Yuan was stunned again: "Three people, five million salary per year?"

Is this still the 1980s? Even during the bubble economy period, it couldn't be this exaggerated, right?
Zhai Yuan suspected that Guan Weiming and Dongyangzai were defrauding him of his money!
Guan Weiming was horrified: "Boss, I'm telling you this in front of the lights. I've been in Japan for so long, and I've only used public funds to go to a brothel once to take a bubble bath. Strictly speaking, of the 165 million yen, only 90 million is actually the annual salary of the three of them."

Then he explained to Zhai Yuan in detail the specific use of the more than 100 million yen.

At this time, the average annual salary in Japan was around 4 million yen.

However, the annual salary of these three technical backbones who develop optical discs at Sony is already more than 10 million yen each.

Moreover, if they want to invite them to work in Hong Kong, it would be considered as a job switch from a large company to a small company, and each person's salary would have to increase to 30 million yen.

In addition to the salaries of the three people, the extra 70 million yen is the price of bringing several machines from Japan.

Well, the accounts all match up.

As for Guan Weiming's visit to the brothel, Zhai Yuan planned to wait until he came back before telling his wife.

Damn, you didn’t even call me for this kind of thing!

Zhai Yuan held the receiver and asked the most crucial question: "How can these three Japanese guys earn such a high salary?"

"Boss, this is it, let me explain."

After Guan Weiming went to Japan, he went undercover in Sony for a period of time under the pretext of coming from Hong Kong for exchange and study. He learned a lot of information and can now answer questions with confidence.

Sony was able to poach these three key personnel thanks to the inherent intrigue in large companies.

Although Japanese people appear to be well-mannered in front of the camera, they are actually very stubborn in private.

Several departments of Sony are competing for performance, funds, and production lines.

Resources will of course be tilted towards sectors that are already making crazy amounts of money, such as televisions, computers, cameras, game consoles, and camcorders, allowing various types of equipment to further iterate and occupy the market.

However, departments such as CD research and development, which cannot make profits for the time being, are in a free-range state within the company, and it takes several months to approve a funding application.

So Guan Weiming naturally hooked up with the core members of this department. He invited a group of people out for sake every night at public expense, listened to their complaints, and took every opportunity to talk about how beautiful Hong Kong was. It took more than a month, and he finally won over three of the key members at a high price.

Among these three, only one is focusing on CD technology.

He is now thinking every day about how to use various decompression methods to store more sound and video on CDs. Currently, he can compress and store 42 minutes of movie clips on a CD.

However, although the CD at that time could play a movie of dozens of minutes, it could only be played on specific industrial projectors. Industrial projectors were extremely bulky and could not even be moved if placed on the ground, so it was impossible for them to be popularized for civilian use.

Therefore, the main research direction of the two additional recruits was how to solve the problem of home machines that could play CDs.

"Isn't the machine that plays CDs a VCD?"

Zhai Yuan thought: "I remember that the world's first VCD was made by the Chinese, and it was called Wanyan. But later, because one of the patented technologies came from abroad, it was constrained by outsiders everywhere, and there were constant counterfeiting within the company. At that time, in the assembly plants in the Pearl River Delta, a worker could assemble dozens of counterfeit VCDs a day. The brand eventually failed due to internal and external troubles."

He remembered this brand because he heard a news report about it when he was in an orphanage in his previous life.

The news said that VCD might be a major opportunity for China to lead the world in the field of electronic technology by the end of this century.

Although VCDs later became unpopular, Zhai Yuan still remembers the pride he felt as a child for many years.

"Boss, this is the specific situation."

Guan Weiming's voice interrupted his thoughts: "In addition, after these three Japanese guys arrive in Hong Kong, they will need to hire skilled workers and purchase materials for research and development, which will cost a lot of money."

Zhai Yuan scratched his head, thinking that he might as well stop Xu Qi's "Invisible Woman" project, since Shi Nansheng had already cheated him out of it.

But "The Invisible Woman" is also a move he is very interested in in the future, and he has to make it even if it loses money at the box office.

In addition to keeping Xu Qi, the more important thing is to use a low-cost science fiction film to test the bottom line of the American special effects company.

Zhai Yuan sighed and said to the person on the other end of the phone, "I'll ask the finance department to put the money into your Dongyang account and pay 10% of the money to the Dongyang guy as a resettlement fee. I'll pick you up at the airport when you return to Hong Kong tomorrow."

"Okay." Guan Weiming heard the distress in his tone and smiled to comfort him, "Boss, don't be too stressed. I'll give you a gift when I return to Hong Kong tomorrow."

Zhai Yuan asked: "What?"

Guan Weiming said mysteriously: "You will know tomorrow~"

Zhai Yuan suddenly became curious and was eager to know what the pangolin said.

But Guan Weiming kept the secret at this time and only said that he would give the gift to Zhai Yuan personally after returning to Hong Kong.

Did he bring a few Japanese girls back to Hong Kong?
Zhai Yuan hung up the phone with a little anticipation. Speaking of Japanese girls, it had been a while since he had contacted Nishixie Michiko, so this time it was a good opportunity to bring her along to meet the compatriots from Japan.

“I don’t know if the box office of ‘A Better Tomorrow’ in Japan and South Korea can make up for the loss of opening the factory and hiring people.”

Throwing the phone aside, Zhai Yuan continued to calculate the box office data compiled by Japan and South Korea.

The distributor in Japan was called Pioneer Pictures, an independently operated imported film distribution company. This company later exchanged holdings with Kadokawa Pictures, becoming the famous Kadokawa Pioneer Pictures Co., Ltd.

"A Better Tomorrow" was distributed by Pioneer and grossed a total of 12 billion yen in Japan.

With a 21% share of the box office revenue, Entertainment earned approximately HK$ million.

Zhai Yuan thought it was acceptable: "It's OK. But it's still a long way from Chen Shilong. His movie Project A grossed 31 billion in Japan, so his share is definitely higher than mine. It's terrifying."

The distributor in South Korea is a company called Yinghua.

In recent years, this country has begun to tighten the quota for imported films and tried to vigorously develop local films, and imported films have been severely suppressed.

In the original timeline, "A Better Tomorrow" was released in 1986, which happened to be the time when the United States strengthened its control over South Korea and abolished the regulations in their "Film Law" that restricted imported films. Hollywood films took this opportunity to invade the South Korean market, and Hong Kong films also took a big sip of the pie.

However, this movie was released three years earlier, at a time when South Korea is protecting its own films and suppressing imported films, so the box office was not ideal.

South Korea's box office statistics are based on the number of moviegoers, and the film only had 12 viewers in Seoul.

Moreover, only Seoul in this country has serious box office statistics. Statistics in other cities are not transparent and are basically calculated at three times that of Seoul.

The final statistics showed that the total box office of "A Better Tomorrow" in South Korea was only 150 million US dollars. After conversion, Entertainment earned about million Hong Kong dollars.

In comparison, Project A attracted nearly 40 viewers in Seoul alone.

"Best Partner", which competed with 91 and Jiahe in Hong Kong, performed even more disastrously in the Japanese and Korean markets, and could not even get a share of the tail gas.

"The box office in Japan was pretty good, but I remember that A Better Tomorrow wasn't that bad in South Korea. After all, you can still see classic scenes from this movie in many South Korean TV series later on."

Zhai Yuan stared at the box office data compiled by the South Korean Film Council and almost scratched his head.

Isn’t it said that “A Better Tomorrow” opened up the South Korean market?

What's the point of opening up with such a poor result? How much box office revenue did the Koreans steal from me?
But in fact, Zhai Yuan remembered one thing wrongly. It was actually "A Better Tomorrow 2" that opened up the South Korean market, because Zhang Guorong's role in the play changed from a willful boy in the first part to an upright policeman in the second part, and he also sacrificed himself because of his undercover identity, so it attracted more South Korean audiences and ignited the market.

Sounds a pity?

However, in the 1991 version of "A Better Tomorrow" which is about to be filmed, the script still uses the setting that Zhang Guorong sacrificed himself in solving the case. It can only be said that there is God's will.

本土（1800万）、东南亚（2700万）、日（3700万）韩（1100万）和北美（7800万）的票房全部统计出来。

The revenue of "A Better Tomorrow" has not yet stopped growing.

The distribution of videotapes will bring a second round of revenue to the film, but this money will not be collected in one or two months. As long as the rental market exists, the share of the cassette revenue will flow into Zhai Yuan's account steadily.

“You can promote it tomorrow.”

Zhai Yuan slumped in his chair and let out a long sigh.

Get out of your office.

Came to the office of housekeeper Shi Nansheng.

Although Shi Nansheng has just joined the company, he has already shown an extremely responsible side and has taken on most of the company's work.

"Sister Nan, this is the global box office of A Better Tomorrow that I just calculated. It's about 170 to 180 million Hong Kong dollars in total."

Zhai Yuan pushed the door open and walked in, handing the information in his hand to Shi Nansheng who was working at his desk, and said, "Please communicate with the media. This box office result should cause some sensation in Hong Kong."

Shi Nansheng took the information, glanced at it with his glasses, and couldn't help but sigh: "Such a brilliant result, I have never seen it in Xinyicheng, no wonder Lei Juekun wanted to win you over at that time."

Zhai Yuan smiled and said, "Director Wu shot it well."

Shi Nansheng said, "That may not be the case. I heard from Wu Yusen that the script of this play was all written by you. Even Ah Xu praised you for being the best storyteller."

Although "A Better Tomorrow" has more to say on another timeline, it also indirectly became the fuse for the rift between the two old friends Wu Yusen and Xu Ke.

Now that Zhai Yuan has appeared, this movie has nothing to do with Xu Ke anymore, and no one will deliberately stir up trouble and ask who of the two of them contributed more to the movie.

…………

The next day.

"A Better Tomorrow", which had been silent for a while, once again made the front pages of major newspapers.

It’s like giving a new year summary report to the local film industry.

It also seems like a deliberate show-off to make those people and companies that looked down on 91 Entertainment last year shut up.

Global box office: HK$180 million.

Basically all newspapers are focusing on this topic, using the data provided by Jiuyi Entertainment to write various eye-catching reports.

Ming Pao changed its past prejudice against 91 and praised A Better Tomorrow.

"This movie is sentimental and sentimental. We still don't know how much emotion and sustenance the screenwriter Zhai Yuan and the director Wu Yusen have poured into "A Better Tomorrow", but the pride and bitterness, the elegance and decline of Di Long and Wan Ziliang in the ups and downs of the world, as well as the confidence to go all out and regain their glory, undoubtedly project the personal feelings of the creators. It gives a commercial film more soul and character, as well as a little bit of charm that I like to express..."

——Ming Pao.

Readers have been speculating which editor wrote this job application titled "Stuck at the End of the Road, Finding a Way Out of the Dark and into a Bright Future."

Most people working in the film industry have realized that this is a significant indicator of the times.

When Zhai Yuan's red song incident caused a lot of controversy, Ming Pao and the Freedom League were always on the same page and were still critical of the company 91 Entertainment until the release of "A Better Tomorrow".

But now it's suddenly jumping back and forth, and even without the Taiwan market, the movie is still a big hit. Does this mean that the influence of the Freedom Association's ban is gradually getting smaller?
So the first production company called Siyuan Pictures came into being and started to contact Wan Ziliang, offering him a high salary of 300,000 yuan per movie.

The boss of this company was Wu Siyuan, who was later hailed as the godfather of Hong Kong films.

As soon as Wu Siyuan made this tentative move, other small and medium-sized production companies could not hold back. Actors who had participated in "A Better Tomorrow" such as Di Long, Zhang Guorong, and Nishixie Michiko received a steady stream of film contracts.

Jiahe and Silver Princess do not seem to be involved, but most of the small and medium-sized production companies in Hong Kong are affiliated with them, and they have long been in a superior-subordinate relationship.

Everyone tried to recruit actors while trying to see how Freedom would react.

But a whole day has passed and the other party has not made any public statement.

Could it be that the law cannot hold everyone accountable?
Most practitioners in the film industry tease each other with the mentality of "freedom will come after a long time".

Zhai Yuan took advantage of the night and arrived at Kai Tak International Airport in Kowloon.

I'm going to pick up some Japanese guys tonight.

Under the cover of night, a seven-seater Toyota ACE commercial vehicle parked outside Kai Tak Airport. The driver's window was open, revealing Zhai Yuan's profile.

There was a rustling sound inside the car.

Michiko Nishiwaki, the enchantress of the Jiujiu sect, was kneeling in the passenger seat, bending over and lowering her head, as if she was looking for something left in the car.

After more than ten minutes, she still didn't seem to have found anything. In order to make room for her, Zhai Yuan straightened his waist and pressed her head down.

Michiko Nishiwaki's face turned red, and after swallowing a few times, she finally gave up the search and slowly raised her head with a few crystal threads hanging at the corners of her mouth.

Amid the sound of dry heaving, Zhai Yuan handed a bottle of water to the witch and exhaled deeply.

I've been under a lot of pressure recently, so my movements were a bit rough, and the girl's teeth felt quite heavy, but it was pretty good to be able to achieve this level for the first time.

Zhai Yuan leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and evaluated something, then took out a red Wan from his pocket. Seeing this, Michiko quickly put down the water bottle, held the lighter and came over to help him light it with a flattering look on her face.

The scarlet cigarette butt flickered in the night.

Zhai Yuan said: "Don't work out recently. Your chest muscles are a bit stiff. Let them recover."

Nishikie Michiko nodded: "Wow~"

Zhai Yuan added: "Pick up your three compatriots tonight and send them to the hotel. Don't go back. Get a room and teach me a few words of Japanese."

Nishikie Michiko asked, "Do I need to prepare a set of teacher's clothes?"

The Cantonese I learned later in life became more and more proficient in speaking, and my innate understanding was like the awakening of my innate bloodline.

Zhai Yuan thought about it and shook his head, "No need, just buy two packs of exploding candy."

The roar of an airplane was heard.

High-frequency anti-collision lights kept flashing in the night sky. A Douglas civilian aircraft flew low over the rooftops of Kowloon Walled City and slowly landed on the airport runway.

Passengers and crew members of the evening flight walked out of the airport.

Zhai Yuan sat in the car, observing the people passing by.

Guan Weiming and several local technical workers he brought to Japan, led the three Sony Japanese guys out of the airport.

"Lao Guan, here!"

Zhai Yuan leaned his head out from the car and waved to Guan Weiming from a distance.

Guan Weiming also noticed his figure, his eyes lit up, and he walked towards the car with a group of people.

"boss!"

As soon as Guan Weiming met Zhai Yuan, he was so moved that his eyes were filled with tears and he wanted to hug him.

Zhai Yuan pushed him away in disdain and looked around: "Don't talk, where is the gift you brought back from Japan?"

(End of this chapter)