Huayu 1999: Starting with nothing but getting something for nothing

Wang Weiqing did not manage to get through to her son on the phone.

It wasn't that Yang Che was still on the plane, but that he had already arrived at the Capital Airport and was answering Xiao Pang's call.

"Bro, I'm famous now, haha, you know? Magnolia and Maybelline contacted me, and so did iced tea, haha."

"oh."

"Oh dear, why are you so indifferent? Do you know that those international cosmetics companies used to only hire Gong Li from mainland China, and they wouldn't hire anyone with the surname Zhao?"

Yang Che smiled and nodded at the woman waving the newspaper at him, then said, "I see, my sister is awesome."

"I love you so much, haha. My mom even called me to talk about you."

"Really? Okay, I have a lot of calls to return."

"Oh, love you, bye-bye, kiss."

"......"

Yang Che glanced at the screen and then called his father back.

"dad."

Are you busy?

"It's alright, I'm all done with the work."

"Yang Che, I saw in the newspapers and on TV that you were the focus of the coverage. This is not good; the tallest tree in the forest is the first to be felled by the wind."

"Comrade Yang, your son isn't wood, he's steel, he's concrete, he's a stone pier for a cross-sea bridge..."

"Yang Che, I'm having a very serious conversation with you."

"Dad, I'm from the provincial capital. Eleven media outlets wanted to interview me, but I declined them all."

"If you have faults, correct them; if you don't, strive to improve."

"Old Yang, that's enough. I need to call my dear mother back. I'll call you back as soon as I get off the plane, so you can just sneak it in."

"When are you coming home?"

"I'll go back after I get back from Hong Kong, around mid-November."

"Okay, go ahead and do your thing. Yang Che, don't put so much pressure on yourself. You've known this since you were little. Your mom and I have never asked you to get good grades. If you want to learn to sing, then sing; if you want to draw, then draw; if you want to learn carpentry, Dad will take you to learn... It's the same now. Your mom and dad won't ask you to be outstanding. Being happy is the most important thing."

Yang Che's nose stung with tears, and he couldn't help but sigh, "Dad, you are the biggest stumbling block on my road to success."

Yang Yuanchao laughed and cursed, "You little rascal!" before hanging up the phone.

Yang Che then returned the call.

"Mom, I want to apologize to you. I was going to call you back as soon as I got off the plane, but my advisor just happened to call me."

Wang Weiqing hesitated for a moment: "Son, did you call your father back first?"

"Mom, what's up? Your son is number one in China now, he's incredibly busy."

"How dare you talk like that? Yang Che, you're getting too cocky. Have you even learned anything about the tragic story of Zhong Yong? Hmm? Don't you even want to acknowledge your mother, a laid-off worker who's now running a street stall, anymore?"

"Mom, I was wrong. I deeply regret my complacency after achieving some minor success. I'm sorry, I'm sorry to the mother who gave me life, raised me, and taught me. Please forgive me."

Wang Weiqing had already realized that her son was implying something, and her pretty face blushed slightly.

"Your mother isn't arrogant; you don't need to nudge her."

The mother and son chatted for a few more minutes before ending the call.

Wang Weiqing no longer considered putting up photos of her son and news clippings on the wall.

Meanwhile, a meeting room at China Film Group was filled with a group of leaders in charge, as well as people from the import and export department and the distribution department. Han Sanping was also seated in the second seat, and Tong Gang was the chairperson of the meeting.

"Comrades, I had insomnia last night. It was heartbreaking. All those excellent works we produced in the past were practically given away to foreigners for free."

We keep saying that a film's success comes from going overseas, but that's just self-deception; we've been deceiving ourselves for so long that we've started to believe it ourselves.

The meeting room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Tong Gang picked up the movie magazine in his hand and waved it around.

"We must learn from all the experts, take them as our teachers, learn respectfully and honestly, and admit we don't know what we don't know, instead of pretending to know."

The meeting room became quieter, and everyone sat up straight, like elementary school students.

Tong Gang then announced the new appointment in the import and export department: Li Lipeng, the transparent man who had participated in the entire negotiation process between Yang Che and Kazuo Fukasawa, had become the department manager.

He also said that he should humbly learn from others and improve the work of Chinese films going global.

"Comrade Sanping, you are most familiar with this situation, please add a few points."

Han Sanping nodded and looked around at everyone: "This morning I received sixteen calls from local companies, all inquiring about the release of the movie 'My Sassy Girl.' I was wondering why?"

Ultimately, we must admit that it's because foreigners value it that they value it even more. It's like those Hollywood blockbusters we import.

Then I thought, since that's the case, let them do the work in the city and county, so that these imported blockbusters can be released at the same time in the future. This way, publicity resources can be used in a concentrated manner, and the erosion of box office revenue by piracy can be minimized.

Thinking about this, I slapped myself. Isn't this a case of giving priority to foreigners?

I formally propose a unified film release schedule; if this cannot be achieved, import quotas for films will be cancelled for local companies.

See the picture poorly.

And so the matter was settled as smoothly as cutting butter with a knife, after all, it was done with our own people, and it didn't involve the cinema reform that would cause local companies to lose their jobs.

Because of Yang Che, the reform of the cinema industry is no longer a chaotic and drastic undertaking like it was three years later, but rather a gradual process.

The direct impact of this on Yang Che was that Yu Dong no longer needed to visit each local company one by one. Instead, before the movie's release, China Film Group convened all the local company representatives to attend a "Hongmen Banquet"—or rather, a screening of "My Sassy Girl."

This greatly saves time and effort in the early stages of issuance and eliminates concerns about subsequent revenue sharing.

Of course, he didn't know about this at the time; he had just sent Huang Haibo to the Beijing Film Academy.

Through the car window, Yang Che saw Huang Haibo being put on the shoulder by a teacher-looking person as soon as he arrived at the door, who looked very friendly.

It is clear that the teacher is happy that the school has produced another famous student.

Not only were the teachers happy, but the students who saw Huang Haibo in the cafeteria were also quite excited, stopping him and asking him questions non-stop.

After all, the CCTV midday news on the cafeteria TV was just broadcasting about this, and Huang Haibo was in the news, standing next to the Japanese man with a shy smile.

Hearing the commotion, the performing arts students eating in the cafeteria all turned to look. Their expressions ranged from curiosity and envy to sour grapes and a mix of emotions; none were indifferent. Anyone who wasn't interested wouldn't be studying acting here...

Zhao Zhetian, who had finally returned to school and become the focus of attention, had mixed feelings. Someone she had never taken seriously did what she dared to do (terminating her contract). Now, she had acted in a low-budget movie that hadn't even been released yet, but it had already made headlines all over the country.

I heard that the aunt didn't say a word all morning, which made her very angry.