1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 176 A Different Gift

Bringing a group of heroes who had returned from Japan, they came to the only Regal Airport Hotel near Kai Tak Airport.

Through conversation on the way, Zhai Yuan also learned the basic situation of Sony's three Japanese men.

The man who developed the CD technology was named Matsumoto Yu. He was thirty years old, short and stocky, with slightly bald hair at the temples.

The other two men who were working on the projector equipment were 31-year-old Joe Fujii and 26-year-old Tetsuo Kobayashi.

His overall young age broke the image of an old man doing research in Zhai Yuan's mind.

"Older people in Japan are usually unwilling to develop overseas, and age does not necessarily mean they have more abilities."

Guan Weiming whispered to Zhai Yuan, "There are a few more machines that will be shipped back from the port tomorrow. Will the factory still be built in Yuen Long?"

Zhai Yuan nodded and said, "Let's rent a random factory first, and then expand after a while to see how things go."

He thought that the cost of building a factory in the city was too high, and it was still in the R&D stage, and there was no assembly line, so there was no need to make a big fuss. If he really came up with something new, he would consider building an assembly line factory. As for the abandoned farmland in Yuen Long, he would have to find a way to get it from the villagers and change the land qualifications.

Because of the language barrier, Zhai Yuan did not communicate much with the three Japanese boys. Nishixie Michiko met her compatriots in a foreign country and talked to them a lot. From time to time, she introduced Zhai Yuan's identity and the city situation of Hong Kong to them, and the three Japanese boys gradually became familiar with them.

When they arrived at the hotel, Zhai Yuan asked Michiko to act as an interpreter and exchange a few polite words with the Japanese man.

Knowing that the young man in front of them was a local Hong Kong film company owner, the Japanese guys were much more enthusiastic, especially the 20-something Kobayashi Tetsuo, who came up and asked if he could help him contact Chen Shilong for an autograph.

Zhai Yuan asked: "Are you a fan of Chen Shilong?"

Tetsuo Kobayashi performed a set of drunken boxing in the hotel lobby and excitedly said that a big reason he came to Hong Kong was to meet his idol.

Although the other two were not as fanatical as him, they also expressed their admiration for Chen Shilong. Fujii Joe said that his six-year-old daughter was also a fan of Brother Long and wanted to take a photo with Chen Shilong and send it back to Japan.

Zhai Yuan asked Nishixie Michiko to be the translator and said, "You can watch the movie A Better Tomorrow, which is also very popular in Japan."

He felt that his movie had earned 12 billion yen at the box office and had some fame. As a result, the three Japanese guys all gave awkward but polite smiles.

What is "A Better Tomorrow"? I haven't heard of it.

Jiuyi Entertainment has a long way to go!
"Let's rest here for one night and take you to visit the factory tomorrow."

Guan Weiming went to the front desk to complete the check-in procedures and came back to tell everyone about the situation. The others asked the workers to lead the three Japanese boys to find their respective rooms.

Guan Weiming came to Zhai Yuan and glanced at Michiko who was standing at the elevator waiting for him to go upstairs. He gave a look that every man could understand, and finally he was willing to take out the gift he had prepared for a long time.

"Boss, these are the best-selling videotapes in Japan. You can't buy them in Hong Kong even if you have money."

Guan Weiming mysteriously took out a few videotapes from his suitcase and handed them to Zhai Yuan, saying, "You and Dongyang Mei can study the contents of the tapes tonight. I think this kind of good stuff will definitely sell well if it is placed in your video hall."

Zhai Yuan looked down at the boxes of tapes in his hands. Is that all?

He asked, "Salty film?"

"Wrong!" Guan Weiming looked unfathomable, and his tone was full of boasting: "This kind of movie has a special name in Japan, called Adult Video, you have definitely never seen it."

Zhai Yuan: “…”

He felt that Guan Weiming was somewhat showing off his power.

You are a forty-something old man, and you dare to show off in front of me with a few porn movies?

Have you heard of Ichibendao, Monkasha and Tokyo-Hot? I had a lot of fun chatting with them!
Disappointed, so disappointed.

I thought Guan Weiming could bring back some good stuff from Japan.

Seeing that Zhai Yuan was not interested, Guan Weiming suddenly felt looked down upon.

He hurriedly explained to Zhai Yuan about this new thing that was emerging in Japan, saying, "Boss, don't think this is just ordinary stuff. These movies are much better than those made by the Red Sheep Company in Taiwan. The Japanese girls in them are very open and have no cover at all. You can see all the close-ups clearly!"

When Zhai Yuan heard it, he thought, "Oh, it's still uncensored."

In 1983, that is, last year, the term Adult Video first appeared in the Japanese film industry.

At this time, Japanese censorship agencies did not allow the inclusion of action scenes lasting more than three minutes in a work.

Even so, this new pink movie still brought great shock to Manager Guan, who had run the cassette factory for many years. It was like opening the door to a new world, and he couldn't wait to bring it back and share it with Zhai Yuan.

Guan Weiming continued, "Boss, if you watch it once, you will know that compared to these videotapes, all those erotic films that were previously covered up are garbage!"

Zhai Yuan couldn't persuade a man who thought he was at the forefront of fashion, so he had to pretend to be interested: "Then I'll go back to the room and take a look, and you should go to bed early, that's it."

After saying this, he walked into the elevator holding the videotape in one hand and holding Michiko Nishiwaki with the other.

Looking at Guan Weiming's extremely enthusiastic attitude towards promotion, if he hadn't brought Michiko over tonight, he would definitely go to Zhai Yuan's room to help play the porn film in person, wanting to witness his boss's shocked expression.

“I don’t know who has never seen the world.”

Zhai Yuan returned to the hotel room, threw the videotape on the bed, waved to Nishixie Michiko, and the Japanese girl came over on her own initiative.

After some touching, the two went into the bathroom. Dongyang Mei knew what she was going to face tonight, so she diligently served Zhai Yuan, her boss who helped her film the movie, in the bathroom. She used her body as a towel to help Zhai Yuan take a bath.

However, when she returned to the living room after taking a shower and Zhai Yuan pressed her down on the bed, Nishixie Michiko still showed some restraint and nervousness.

"Boss, can you turn off the lights?"

"No, I'm afraid of the dark~"

As the bodybuilding champion and weightlifting champion in the Eastern bodybuilding circle, Michiko's muscular lines gave Zhai Yuan a brand new experience.

After the initial awkwardness, the Japanese witch cooperated more and more, especially her muscular thighs that clamped Zhai Yuan, making it difficult for him to move forward or backward.

He tried to be as gentle as possible when he was with Zhou Haimei and Deng Leling, but he was much rougher with the seductress.

Lie down and kick.
Sitting and pedaling,
Stand up and kick...

Of course, you also need to review the old and learn the new in Japanese.

Although he only learned a few Japanese words from Michiko, after a fierce battle, Zhai Yuan was still rich and generous, and paid over 100 million yuan in tuition fees.

"Contact Chen Lan tomorrow. After the filming is finished, I will make a special poster for you for God of Gamblers."

Zhai Yuan turned over and got off the horse, lying on the bed and speaking slightly out of breath.

"Thank you, boss." Upon hearing this, Nishixie Michiko showed joy on her face, smoothed her sweaty hair, and snuggled up to Zhai Yuan's chest obediently.

She is just a minor role in "God of Gamblers" this time, and the separate poster is a treatment only given to the main character.

There was nothing in common with the Japanese girl, and the atmosphere became a little awkward after paying the tuition. Zhai Yuan leaned against the head of the bed, his eyes fell on the videotapes scattered on the floor, and asked Michiko to pick them up and watch them.

"Boss, which box do you want to see?"

Michiko Nishiwaki squatted on the ground, the muscles on her thighs became more and more distinct, just like Chun-Li in the comics.

She held several videotapes in front of her chest and translated the Japanese words on the labels to Zhai Yuan: "The Guard's Daughter," "Experimental Sex Date," "Ajian in the Laundry Shop"... "

When Zhai Yuan heard the name "Laundry Shop Ajian", an expression of interest appeared on his face.

This is a representative of Japanese uncensored works. Because it is so widely circulated and its symbolic meaning is greater than its practical meaning, it can be regarded as the ancestor of this type of film.

He asked Michiko: "Which year was the movie "Laundromat Ken" released?"

Michiko looked down at the label: "1982."

Zhai Yuan asked her to turn on the hotel TV and put the movie she had heard of into the VCR.

With a respectful attitude, I fast-forwarded through the entire movie quickly. The content was indeed extremely explicit in that era. Even the films released underground by Formosa Red Sheep did not have so many close-up shots.

Moreover, the plot is very simple, and already has a hint of the essence of later works, with less plot and more action.

Zhai Yuanjian had tried it many times, so he didn't have any special thoughts after watching this movie, but Nishixie Michiko was obviously shocked by the scale of the movie. She didn't expect that there was such a thing in her hometown.

"This film can be regarded as the dividing line between pink movies and Adult Video."

Zhai Yuan later read some popular science books and gained a slight understanding of the history of the industry that the teachers were engaged in.

After World War II, the Japanese film industry was booming. It was not until the 1960s that televisions became popular and various special effects films were broadcast on television. As a result, fewer and fewer people went to the cinema, and the overall Japanese film industry gradually declined.

In order to change this environment, some people in the Japanese film industry went overseas to develop, such as the group of directors who joined Zhao's filming department.

Another group of people started making sequels to various famous works, but this had little effect on revitalizing the film industry, and instead of innovating, it fell into a new vicious cycle.

How can the Japanese film industry be revived with very little funding?
So a group of pioneers came up with a new way out, which was to add some erotic scenes into the movies. Although it might only be a few seconds of exposed nipples, once it passed the review of the film censorship department, it could be released and reap good box office revenue.

Many viewers would buy tickets repeatedly just to see those few seconds of footage.

The Japanese film industry relied on this method to survive in the 1960s and 1970s.

It was not until the 1980s that videotapes became popular. Because they did not have to be shown publicly like movies, the scale of the content could be very wide.

Adult Video came to prominence as a result.

Zhai Yuan knew very well that Japan was in the early stages of a bubble economy, with money flooding even more than in Taiwan. However, the bubble would burst in a few years, and the entire Japanese economy would fall into a period of stagnation that would last for decades.

After the bubble burst, Adult Video was one of the few economic industries in Japan that was able to grow against the trend.

"Sure enough, pornography is the primary productive force."

Combining his own work experience over this period, Zhai Yuan quickly sorted out the development context of this type of film.

He frowned and thought for a moment, then turned to ask Nishikie Michiko: "I remember you told me that before you came to Hong Kong to develop, you opened two fitness centers in Japan with your brother?"

Michiko Nishiwaki didn't expect that he still remembered what she had mentioned earlier, and nodded with emotion.

Zhai Yuan asked again: "Are you still in touch with your brother?"

Michiko nodded and said, "I call home once or twice a month."

Zhai Yuan nodded and played the movie "Ajian from the Laundry Shop" again.

This time the focus was on the length of the movie. Zhai Yuan glanced at the timeline and found that the entire movie was only more than half an hour.

In fact, there are three versions of "Ajian" released in Japan, namely 30, 45 and 60 minutes.

But even with the 60-minute version, this length still gave Zhai Yuan an idea.

"The current optical disc technology can only store about 40 minutes of video. Even if it is divided into two discs, A and B, it can't hold a serious movie."

Zhai Yuan pondered in his mind: "But if all adult videos in Japan are of this length, wouldn't it be possible to burn a whole movie on one disc? Then I just need to get home VCDs first. Even if the disc technology is not mature, I can still seize this pillar industry of their country in advance."

Once this thought came up, it spread uncontrollably.

He then asked Michiko Nishiwaki to play a few other videotapes.

The duration is all below 60 minutes.

Although the production is very rough, the concept and scale are quite advanced.

Zhai Yuan pointed to the paused picture on TV and said to Nishixie Michiko, "Contact your brother tomorrow and ask him to do a market research for me in Japan. I want to know the sales and reputation of this kind of movie in your country."

Michiko Nishiwaki didn't understand what he meant, but she still agreed obediently.

Zhai Yuan looked at the pictures on TV and thought that if he could use CDs to seize the Japanese market in advance, then Guan Weiming would really have given him a big gift tonight!

…………

A few days later.

In an abandoned factory in the countryside of Yuen Long, several renovation workers are making simple modifications to the surrounding layout.

The machinery and equipment from Japan have been shipped back to Hong Kong and are now placed in the factory.

It was also the first time that Zhai Yuan saw a laser disc that could store video files in this era.

"Holy crap! Why is it so big?"

When he had looked up information in newspapers before, the pictures were not intuitive, so he thought that the current CDs were the same as those in the future, except for their small storage capacity.

However, looking at the oversized CD that he had to hold with both hands, Zhai Yuan couldn't help but fall into confusion.

No wonder even the projection machine is so ridiculously large. Even if it is made into a home VCD, it will definitely be much larger than the current home VCRs, so it may be a bit difficult to popularize it.

Zhai Yuan asked Guan Weiming to be the translator and asked Matsumoto Ken: "Can the CD be made smaller?"

Ken Matsumoto talked a lot, and the technicians naturally talked about how to burn images on CDs and use lasers to simulate audio and video signals.

After a while, Guan Weiming looked at Zhai Yuan and condensed Matsumoto Ken's words into two words: "No."

(I overslept, so I’ll post one chapter first, eat a meal, and then continue.
(End of this chapter)