The King of Soft Rice in Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 588 Another Protagonist Chosen

"In short, you'll likely have to shuttle between two film crews, so you'll need to adjust not only your schedule but also your acting skills." Fan Bingbing's voice seemed to come from afar.

"Is it really necessary to go this far?" Xu Jiuyang said after pursing his lips.

“Of course it’s worth it. We need to win Tian Tian over; she’s very valuable to us.” Fan Bingbing said with a smile.

"Didn't you expect me to be in charge of the entire production crew?" Xu Jiuyang said, somewhat annoyed.

“Yes, so we need to arrange our schedules so that I can go to Tian Tian’s film set while I’m on set,” Fan Bingbing said matter-of-factly.

The homophones made his head spin: "You really know how to arrange things, wife."

"If you can't even do this simple thing right, how will you be a successful career woman in the future?" Fan Bingbing said smugly.

Xu Jiuyang wiped his face, suddenly becoming expressionless. He stood up, snatched the bag she was carrying, and rummaged through it, finding a short bamboo ruler inside. He then tapped it in his hand.

It was a real ruler, not only exquisitely crafted but also engraved with characters, including the Thousand Character Classic, a classic primer, making it quite proper.

Fan Bingbing pouted, turned around obediently, and placed her hands on the table, looking like she was just casually doing something.

After two crisp sounds, the man threw away the ruler and went out the door, seemingly quite carefree.

In fact, he was a little unable to control himself. His wives each had their own characteristics, and Fan's characteristic was her peach-like appearance. Moreover, it was like playing a game with a well-tuned controller, with very timely and comfortable feedback.

As mentioned before, due to certain events, his self-control in front of her is not very high now. He might cross the line with the slightest movement, and those two blows with the ruler were undoubtedly on the verge of breaking the line. Let alone hitting her again, even just waving the ruler at her could ignite a fire.

Although I've tried in the meeting room before, this is clearly not a good opportunity, especially since I'm always with Fan... it's probably best to leave.

However, he still felt uneasy after coming out. Just then, he saw Qin Lan walking towards him and immediately called out, "Secretary Qin, are you free now?"

"I'm busy!" Qin Lan rolled her eyes at him, annoyed.

Some things don't need to be said now. If someone uses the title "Sister Lan" like Fan Bingbing, it's usually fine. But if they use the more work-related title "Secretary Qin" and Fan Bingbing isn't around, then they're about to get angry.

“Bingbing is in the conference room. You don’t want to see your boss stuck in the conference room for ages, and then you have to clean up and spray air freshener, right?” Xu Jiuyang shrugged and turned toward the restroom.

Qin Lan pursed her lips, but ultimately followed obediently, pulling her pencil skirt up slightly to make the hem higher.

After clearing the mud from his brain, Xu Jiuyang, now in a state of sagehood, found his mind quite clear.

It seems impossible to get rid of "Bureau 749" now—sooner or later, this awful name will have to be changed—in fact, he already had this idea after reading the notes Da Tian Tian sent via email.

I didn't realize the email was a blunder before. Who knows what bug QQ Mail had that categorized emails sent from her overseas email address as spam, so I didn't see them.

So, they really weren't trying to play any tricks on him.

Furthermore, although her notes inevitably contained empty platitudes, some details showed her own thoughtful consideration, and some of the clever character designs were quite to his liking, to the point that he suspected she had peeked at the answers. Her sincerity was utterly genuine, yet he was still thinking of feigning agreement and then using external forces to avoid trouble; that was somewhat disrespectful.

"Forget it, they've all joined forces, what can I do?" Xu Jiuyang sighed as he walked past the gate of Xingyao Pictures, then turned to look at Zhang Yan, who was on duty.

"Yan Za, remember to arrange your schedule properly. You should focus your main efforts on 'The Grandmaster' recently," he casually instructed.

"No problem!" Zhang Yan made an "OK" gesture, then looked around to make sure no one was watching, and asked in a low voice, "Boss, tell me, in terms of relieving heat, who's better, me or Secretary Qin?"

Xu Jiuyang really wanted to glare at her, but in the end he just snorted, "Guess."

Sure enough, like boss, like subordinates—and this boss refers to Fan.

Once the relationship becomes too close, people will say anything, which is very different from their usual behavior.

Therefore, we must speed things up and find an assistant who will completely listen to us.

As mentioned before, Xu Jiuyang has candidates, but he can't find them through them. Otherwise, it would be hard to say whose assistant it would be.

Therefore, he needs to carefully recall where the suitable candidate is now and how to recruit them into the team, since he is a celebrity now and it is not very convenient for him to go out.

"Forget it, let's get the preparations for 'The Grandmaster' sorted out first. The Wong Kar-wai version from my previous life can only be used as a reference," Xu Jiuyang finally told himself.

Since Ip Man hasn't started filming yet, it's natural that the male lead in The Grandmaster can't be Ip Man—it was probably Wong Kar-wai who used Ip Man as the male lead to capitalize on the hype.

Actually, to be honest, during the Republican era, there was indeed a spread of Southern Kung Fu to the North. However, apart from Choy Li Fut gaining some prestige, most Southern Kung Fu styles, including Wing Chun, were not very impressive.

However, face doesn't necessarily have to be earned with fists and kicks. The real Wong Fei-hung was only somewhat famous in Guangnan, but through Hong Kong movies, he became the Black Flag Army instructor and could even make outrageous remarks about Li Hongzhang, thus becoming a grandmaster.

Ip Man followed the same path. After Wong Fei-hung, Hong Kong films continued to develop a kung fu IP, and since Bruce Lee had learned Wing Chun from Ip Man, they brought Ip Man into the spotlight.

Thus, with the help of Zhen Zidan's movements and the guidance team accumulated in Hong Kong over the years, another kung fu IP has been created, which has caused a lot of controversy.

For example, the involvement of "Ip Man 3" in the Kuailu case indirectly harmed Fan Bingbing; or netizens labeled Ip Man, which sparked a lot of discussion, and so on.

These points have been discussed before, so I won't repeat them here. In short, considering the labels attached to Ip Man, although he didn't work for the Japanese, the events during the Liberation War are indeed unclear. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone to Hong Kong alone, without even bringing his wife.

Therefore, in order to further curb Hong Kong films, when Xu Jiuyang was working on the script, he chose Chen Yaochi, the third-generation successor of Cai Li Fo, to play the male lead.

The Chen family of Cai Li Fo was, after all, registered with the authorities, with their own martial arts school and boxing association. Chen Yaochi himself had also traveled around teaching martial arts. In the early 20th century, they had a good relationship with the left wing. After the liberation, they continued to live in China. Their status was definitely better than Ip Man's.

However, this also makes obtaining their authorization troublesome. Everyone wants their ancestors to be perfect on the big screen, but they are also worried about exaggerating too much and losing the sense of reality.

The Ip family is like that. The first Ip Man movie in the previous life was authorized by Ip Man's son, Ip Chun. However, it is said that the Ip family was not satisfied with the movie's image after it was made, so they organized their own "Ip Man: The Final Fight", which flopped without making a splash.

(End of this chapter)