The King of Soft Rice in Chinese Entertainment

Can Chapter 544 be triggered?

Xu Jiuyang stayed in Seoul for about 10 days, waiting for the hype surrounding "The Myth" to die down in the local online and offline entertainment sections before leisurely leaving.

Basically, he didn't leave the hotel much. On the one hand, Seoul wasn't a great place with many tourist attractions; on the other hand, Lee Yoon-hyung would come to see him from time to time, and it wouldn't be good if reporters took pictures of them.

Although the possibility is very low, at least in the relevant information he collected, every time Li Yunxin appeared in the media, it was because she wanted to appear, and she was almost never photographed without her consent.

Therefore, even though Xu Jiuyang is not very well-known in South Korea—his most popular role is still Xiao Yanzi—he still doesn't dare to be too reckless. The tentacles of capital and power can't reach everywhere, and there is also a game between capital and between power.

Therefore, he never went to the Lee family home. Even though he really wanted to see Lee Boo-jin, who was already pregnant, he only learned about her through Lee Yoon-hyung.

Of course, this period wasn't too difficult, since he had several women at his mercy.

Xu Jiuyang originally treated them as human beings, but since they themselves didn't treat themselves as human beings, he could only let them be.

Although in the end they seemed to get nothing—as mentioned before, the female lead is Son Ye-jin, the supporting actress is Park Si-yeon, and there is another supporting actress, the policewoman they met in Seoul, who is Ha Ji-won.

But they all looked reluctant to leave before they did, I don't know if they went too far with their M-playing.

However, on the other hand, when I played with them, I also had that feeling, only it was much weaker compared to the women in the harem. Therefore, it should be said that they were also infatuated.

Moreover, Lee Yoon-hyung seemed very generous. In any case, Kim Hee-sun or Lee Young-ae both said that the third young lady was quite generous while playing.

Although no figures were mentioned, it's safe to assume that Lee Jae-hyun, who plays the concubine selection game every week but only spends 10 each time, is far superior.

These things were irrelevant to Xu Jiuyang. After returning to the mainland, he began preparing for the filming of "The Myth". After all, it involved parkour, and even with a stunt double, he couldn't completely avoid doing the stunts himself.

Now Zhou Na has a chance to prove herself. She doesn't know much about parkour, but she has a lot to say about how to balance the distribution of physical strength and ensure that she can exercise without getting hurt.

After a month of diligent training and five or six days of rest, Xu Jiuyang, along with Zhang Yan who was on duty, arrived at the Hengdian film set to report to the crew.

"Mr. Xu, today we'll start by filming the scene where Meng Yi comes to visit Yu Shu..." The bespectacled Korean director explained in detail to someone. "Is there anything else you'd like to add?"

"No, you don't need to be so respectful to me. Just treat me like an ordinary actor." Xu Jiuyang waved his hand, and sighed inwardly.

"Yes, Mr. Xu, please rest assured." The director remained meek and obedient.

Judging from his appearance, even if he didn't know about his relationship with Li Yunxin, he must have been warned by someone.

This guy's name is Choi Dong-hoon. In 04, he won the Grand Bell Award for Best New Director, as well as the Blue Dragon Award for Best New Director and Best Screenplay for directing "The Great Robbery in Seoul". He is a South Korean director with some talent.

In his previous life, he also directed two movies, "The Thieves" and "Assassination." The former was just so-so, but the latter was quite good. Xu Jiuyang remembered the name, so he recalled it after looking at his resume.

However, Choi Dong-hoon will never be able to direct "The Thieves" again, because the film was already made and released last year, and it still stars Jun Ji-hyun.

That's right, it was invested in by Lee Yoon-hyung, and it's not called "The Thieves' Alliance." The name seems to be "Stealing the Dragon and Switching the Phoenix," but the content is seven or eight parts similar to "The Thieves' Alliance." Both are about two groups of thieves from South Korea and Hong Kong who team up to steal things in Macau, except it wasn't directed by Choi Dong-wook. He's actually quite capable. The structure of "The Seoul Robbery" is somewhat similar to "The Usual Suspects," but it's not as mind-bending. While piecing together the original heist through multiple narratives, it also adds a touch of Rashomon-like elements.

That's probably why Lee Yoon-hyung asked him to direct "The Myth".

In fact, the entire crew was composed of Koreans and Hong Kongers, with less than a quarter of the crew coming from mainland China, not counting Xu Jiuyang himself.

This is quite normal. Although "The Myth" is marketed as a Sino-Korean friendship project, it is actually a co-production between South Korea and Hong Kong—who dares to say that Hong Kong isn't part of China?!

After all, Li Yunxin's collaboration with Sister Xiaoli to acquire Golden Harvest was also a way to showcase her strength to Golden Harvest and the Hong Kong entertainment industry.

Xu Jiuyang didn't think much of it. The current level of film and television production in mainland China is indeed relatively low... to be precise, it should be said that the level of industrialization is relatively low.

I won't go into too much detail about this, but one example will make it clear: in a past life, there was a British guy who worked as an extra in China and appeared in the first part of "The Chinese People's Volunteer Army" and the second part of "The Wandering Earth".

His assessment of the former was terrible, as there was absolutely no efficient coordination. Either they arrived on set but it wasn't their turn yet, and they could only wait idly on the sidelines, or they were about to start filming when they discovered there weren't enough props, and then they were herded around like livestock.

His evaluation of the latter was very nice. Everyone knew what they were doing and when, making the filming process very smooth and requiring no thought at all.

This is why it's said that for big-budget films, overall management skills are more important than directing skills.

Xu Jiuyang and Angela were working together to develop large-scale film production in China. While this did manage to stem the decline in domestic film production to some extent, it was only a temporary measure, and the implementation still depended on China Film Group.

Although Hong Kong is still a small workshop, it has honed a considerable number of professionals through sheer volume, and it still has the strength to fight until they can no longer work.

As for South Korea, thanks to Kim Dae-jung's entertainment strategy, its production standards rose sharply after the new millennium. In addition, due to its small size and fierce competition, it took the lead in the assembly line industry.

So even though "The Myth" had funding from mainland film and television companies—mainly from Fan Bingbing's Xingyao and Gao Yuanyuan's Fangyuan Culture—the employees of these mainland film and television companies were mostly assistants and learners.

"There's nothing we can do; if we fall behind, we'll be attacked." Xu Jiuyang could only sigh.

There was a chance to catch up, just like the lithography machines in the 80s. Although there was a gap compared to international standards, it wasn't a particularly large one. And then, well, those who know, know.

They can't even afford to take care of lithography machines, they can just put them aside, let alone the entertainment industry, plus... In short, the reasons are complicated, so I won't go into details.

"I wonder if they've continued as before after what happened in 04, or if they've become more restrained?" Xu Jiuyang then turned his attention to the Hong Kong staff.

There is actually an answer to this question. Things may be a little more subdued now, since it's only been two years, but they will definitely resurface in the future.

In 11, Zhang Zhiliang's "Shoulder Butterfly" swindled mainland investors out of tens of millions of yuan. Ann Hui's "A Simple Life" also openly included the director in a charade to swindle investors, which also happened in 11. In 12, the conflict between Zhen Zidan and Zhao Wenzhuo led to a second round of factionalism among celebrities in the industry.

Therefore, Xu Jiuyang really wanted to know if he could trigger a face-slapping plot in the film crew.

(End of this chapter)