This director loves making friends.

At the end of June, Qin Keqing registered a film company in Hong Kong called Zhiyuan Film Industry, which is derived from the phrase "to reach far with youth".

Qin Keqing felt that the two characters had a very good meaning.

As early as the Western Han Dynasty, the "Huainanzi: The Art of Governing" stated, "Without detachment, one cannot illuminate virtue; without tranquility, one cannot achieve far-reaching goals," which speaks to the concept of a monarch's governance.

Zhuge Liang also adapted this idea in his "Letter to His Son" as "Without tranquility, one cannot achieve far-reaching goals; without detachment, one cannot clarify one's ambitions." This is the origin of the later saying "Tranquility leads to clarity of mind, and tranquility leads to far-reaching goals."

By using the characters "Zhiyuan" as the company name, Qin Keqing wanted to constantly remind himself that only with a calm and focused mind can one accumulate knowledge and skills to achieve great goals.

We shouldn't get carried away just because we have the "Let's make friends" feature.

Zhang Min originally wanted to invest in Qin Keqing's Zhiyuan Film Industry, but Qin Keqing refused.

He doesn't have much money right now. The European and American rights to "A Bittersweet Life" were sold to Diamond Pictures for only $42.6 to try and win awards, and he still had to pay a withholding tax.

Although the portion of "A Bittersweet Life" that exceeds HK$10 million at the Hong Kong box office can be split 50/50 with Win's Entertainment after deducting the theater chain's share, it is clear that this money will not be settled so quickly. Oriental Cinemas will not settle the money until the film is no longer in theaters.

In addition, the original package price for the film was 60 yuan, and Qin Keqing gave Lin Guobin 25 yuan. After all, he had used Mei Yanfang's influence at the time, so it was only natural to give Lin Guobin more.

Qin Keqing was quite frugal with the 100 million yuan that Win's Entertainment gave him for operations in Cannes, but before collaborating with Diamond Pictures, he had already spent more than half of it.

Qin Keqing currently has a total of HK$350 million.

Zhang Min offered to invest 800 million yuan in Zhiyuan Film Industry right away. Qin Keqing dared not agree. Who would own Zhiyuan Film Industry then?

Even when Zhang Min offered only half of the shares, Qin Keqing refused. Firstly, he didn't want to take advantage of Zhang Min, and secondly, he didn't want to give away too many shares of Zhiyuan Pictures, not even to Zhang Min.

What if Zhang Min finds out in the future that Qin Keqing has other women besides her, and then impulsively makes some decisions about the company?

He would rather give Zhang Min a stake than have Zhang Min participate in the company's affairs.

In addition, money matters are the easiest to cause estrangement and conflict.

"Don't rush to invest in this new company. It's a startup; if the movie flops, all your hard-earned money will go down the drain."

Qin Keqing advised Zhang Min, "Also, remember, if you want to invest in anything, you must ask for my opinion first. Don't blindly believe what others promise; no one will come knocking on your door to give you money."

This woman is quite something; she invests in movies, and every single one of them loses money.

Investing in real estate in mainland China around 2000 resulted in many companies going bankrupt due to losses…

That's real estate.

Zhang Min blinked her big eyes. She felt that Qin Keqing cared about her, but she also felt that Qin Keqing seemed to look down on her.

"Am I that stupid?"

She said, feigning displeasure.

"You still have many good points, like being fierce, haha..."

Zhang Min was taken aback. How did things get so complicated, and she suddenly started praising him? How embarrassing... no, stinky Qin Keqing!

She realized, "Big but brainless, huh?"

then……

In fact, it wasn't just Zhang Min who wanted to invest in Qin Keqing's Zhiyuan Pictures; Li Peiyi, the well-informed third daughter of the Li family, also wanted to invest in Zhiyuan Pictures.

Furthermore, the person immediately asked for an investment of ten million yuan and 51% of the company's shares, but would not participate in the company's management and would completely hand it over to Qin Keqing.

Qin Keqing refused without hesitation.

Qin Keqing didn't care what the Li family was planning, but he couldn't possibly agree to the Li family's desire for 51% of Zhiyuan Pictures' shares, even if they promised not to participate in management.

Qin Keqing wouldn't refuse to cooperate with the Li family, but not now. He doesn't have much capital right now, and he would be in a passive position no matter how he cooperates.

If Qin Keqing had only been reborn without "making friends," he might have chosen to cooperate with the Li family, using their connections to accumulate capital first, and then gradually expand before discussing the future.

But Qin Keqing has never lacked connections in his life!

Therefore, even though the company is in its early stages, he is not worried that it will fail.

The film "The Uncle" is expected to cost around 600 million yuan. Qin Keqing doesn't have that much money available right now, but he's no longer too worried about funding.

"A Bittersweet Life" is about to surpass 2000 million at the box office, which is just a matter of one or two days.

In Hong Kong, whether a film can gross over 2000 million is a completely different concept.

2000 million is a hurdle.

Films with a box office exceeding 2000 million are almost guaranteed to rank in the top 15 of Hong Kong's annual box office charts.

Even though last year was a breakout year for Stephen Chow, with all five of the top-grossing films in Hong Kong being his starring roles, the 16th-ranked film was "Once Upon a Time in China," starring Alan Tam, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Simon Yam, Tsang Chi-wai, and Ng Man-tat, among others, and grossed just over 19 million HKD.

The film ranked 15th was "New Dragon Gate Inn," produced by Tsui Hark, which grossed just over 2000 million at the box office.

In Hong Kong, a box office of over 2000 million is considered a "blockbuster".

The biggest beneficiary of "A Bittersweet Life's" box office exceeding 2000 million is undoubtedly Qin Keqing, because the film had no stars. The most important reason for its "explosion" was its Cannes award and the film's novel approach.

Qin Keqing orchestrated all of this.

After Qin Keqing announced that he was going to shoot a new movie, he was approached by many people, including those who were the ones he most wanted to "sell trailers".

"Selling trailers" is a unique phenomenon in Hong Kong cinema during this era.

Simply put, when a movie by a big-name director or star in Hong Kong has not even started filming, but has only been announced, film companies or theater chains in Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and South Korea will spend a large sum of money to "pre-order" the movie in order to secure the distribution rights.

It's not really called "pre-ordering"; to put it bluntly, it means buying the rights to the movie before filming even begins.

The competition is fiercest, especially among film companies and theater distributors in Taiwan and Southeast Asia, who started the practice of "buying trailers".

Taiwan has eight major film companies, which are the film companies that own the screening rights in Taiwanese theaters. How crazy are they about "buying trailers"?

According to statistics, as of April 24, 1993, Hong Kong had received "pre-order deposits" from Taiwanese film distributors for more than 250 films, but failed to deliver them on time.

It wasn't just that they bought trailers for 250 movies; there were more than 250 movies that had received "pre-order deposits" but were not delivered on time.

Of these 250-plus films, at least 100 have either had their production companies deregistered or their owners absconded.

In other words, the eight major film companies with strong connections in Taiwan were severely cheated by people from Hong Kong.

But this still doesn't stop the eight major film studios from chasing "blockbuster" movies, and from directors and stars who can make "blockbuster" movies.

However, in order to prevent being deceived again and to avoid being overcharged by Hong Kong producers due to competition, on May 28th of this year, the eight major film companies jointly established the Taipei Film Companies Union Overseas Liaison Group and put forward three requirements for Hong Kong film producers.

First, we need to finish those 250-plus unfinished Hong Kong films as soon as possible, at least to get the film companies that haven't run away yet to finish making their movies.

Secondly, an oversight group was established to revise the pay of Hong Kong stars. They were fed up with the increase in "pre-payment fees" resulting from the surge in pay of Hong Kong stars in the past two years. In other words, they imposed a "salary cap" on Hong Kong stars.

Third, Hong Kong films should be distributed using a commission-based system, rather than the easily exploitative method of directly "buying trailers".

In early June, the Hong Kong side established a delegation to handle the negotiations, consisting of Chan Wing-mei, owner of New Treasure Cinemas; Wong Pak-ming, owner of Oriental Cinemas; Roger Cheng of Wing Ko Cinemas; and Heung Wah-sing, owner of Wing Shing Cinemas.

Hong Kong, as the party in control, showed little sincerity in negotiations and kept stalling for time.

For example, Qin Keqing received offers from seven of the eight major film distributors through intermediaries, who wanted to discuss purchasing trailers for new movies.

Qin Keqing was of course willing.