Depressive Screenwriter

It was early morning in Tokyo.

The sun rose, bathing the city in light.

Su Yan and Yumi Shinozaki arrived at the airport only to find something was very wrong.

A large group of Su Yan, Shen Liqian, and Gu Qingyuan's fans, from who knows where, were blocking the airport.

The two were immediately surrounded at the exit.

"Teacher Su Yan! An autograph!"

"Teacher Su Yan, can I take a photo with you?"

"Ah!!!"

"Look over here!"

"Teacher Su Yan!"

In the Shanghai area, Su Yan lived a predictable life, wearing a mask when he went out, and rarely encountered fans.

But Tokyo...

Many residents here also watched dramas and movies from mainland China, but of course, similar to Hong Kong in Su Yan's previous life, they also had their own well-established film and television circles.

But regardless, Su Yan was a famous screenwriter and actor in the last two years, and news had already reported that he would come to Tokyo to film a new drama.

Naturally, many resourceful fans knew which flight he was on.

After much effort, they finally escaped the enthusiastic crowd at the airport, and Yumi Shinozaki and Su Yan got into a pre-arranged car.

"That was terrifying!" Su Yan wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Yumi Shinozaki said somewhat embarrassed.

After all, her hometown was in Tokyo, and although they said they were here to film a drama, for Yumi Shinozaki, it was like returning home.

"This has nothing to do with you," Su Yan took a deep breath.

"But with such enthusiastic fans here, won't there be any problems during the actual filming?"

"Definitely not. I'm very serious about security," Yumi Shinozaki quickly said.

Su Yan then looked out the car window.

Similar to what Su Yan had seen in the news about Tokyo in his previous life, there weren't many tall buildings, and the pedestrians on the street were dressed in the characteristic styles of the Sakura Island region. The only difference was that the street signs here were mostly in Xia country language, while Sakura Island language was more of a local dialect.

"The Garden of Words will be released in less than two weeks. In the next few days, you and Gu Qingyuan will have to cooperate in promoting the film in the Tokyo area. The Sakura Island region is the third largest economic circle in Xia country, after Shanghai and the capital, and the residents' consumption level is also relatively high. The Garden of Words is also set in the Sakura Island region, so if its box office performance isn't excellent in Sakura Island, then it's even less likely in mainland China," Yumi Shinozaki said.

"Understood..." Su Yan paused and nodded.

"And if we want to catch up with the October premiere, the filming of Tokyo Love Story must start immediately..." Yumi Shinozaki's tone was serious.

The Garden of Words was only Su Yan's first work in the film industry. It would be great if it was a box office hit, but it wouldn't matter if it wasn't. There were too many examples of Xia country's television drama circles failing in the film industry, and it wouldn't have a big impact on Su Yan's career. If The Garden of Words didn't do well, the company could afford to lose the money, and it would be a learning experience to lay the foundation for the success of Su Yan's second film.

But Tokyo Love Story was the drama Su Yan created after the huge success of The Line Walker.

The attention and media coverage it would receive at that time would definitely be beyond imagination.

If Tokyo Love Story didn't do well, the impact would be significant.

Yumi Shinozaki naturally placed more importance on Tokyo Love Story than The Garden of Words at this time, otherwise she wouldn't have rushed Su Yan and the crew to Tokyo before The Garden of Words was even released.

The earlier the crew started, the higher the quality of Tokyo Love Story would be!

The car continued to drive to the designated location, and Yumi Shinozaki continued to discuss the arrangements for this trip to Tokyo with Su Yan in the car.

There were also many film and television companies in the Tokyo area, and renting personnel and equipment wasn't a problem. In fact, it was even cheaper than in Shanghai.

Yumi Shinozaki had also arranged accommodation for the entire crew in advance through her mother, Aki Shinozaki. Su Yan, as the screenwriter and lead actor of the crew and the chairman of the company, naturally had very good living conditions.

But Shen Liqian, Gu Qingyuan, and even Yumi Shinozaki didn't have it so good, but overall, it was still above standard, and none of them had anything to complain about.

After all, they were here to work, not to enjoy themselves.

The rental of filming locations for Tokyo Love Story was also being negotiated with the relevant owners.

And the filming of the Madoka Magica drama was also proceeding simultaneously.

Because Madoka Magica required many important shots to be filmed first, and then coordinated with the special effects company to add the effects.

Although the crew was temporarily focused on Tokyo Love Story, the progress of Madoka Magica absolutely couldn't be delayed.

Yumi Shinozaki had just arrived in Tokyo, and she immediately switched to work mode without a second to spare.

Everything was still arranged in an orderly manner.

After checking into the arranged accommodation, Su Yan and Yumi Shinozaki split up.

The preliminary preparation work for the two dramas was left to Yumi Shinozaki to arrange, while Su Yan, having just put down his luggage, went with Gu Qingyuan and the publicity team to meet the fans in Tokyo at the designated location.

Soon, two days passed.

Although Su Yan had left Shanghai, news of him in the Tokyo area was transmitted to mainland China through the media.

Now, it was late July, and more than a dozen films had been released during the summer season.

Among them, Tomb of Guns, which had been released for more than half a month, had a total box office of 473 million so far. The total box office for the first three days of the first week was more than 200 million. With a box office of only 400 million after being released for more than half a month, this performance was definitely extremely poor.

The fantasy film Firefly was released a week later, but now has a total box office of 476 million, which is better than the previous media predictions, but there are also problems. Similarly, the box office momentum was insufficient after the release.

The third comedy film with an investment of over 100 million, Superpower Girlfriend, was even worse. On the first day of its release, the box office was 82 million, but that night, fans gave it an abstract score of 4.1.

The plot was exaggerated, the acting was exaggerated, and although the special effects showed effort...

Unfortunately, no matter how good the production quality was, it was useless when encountering a garbage script and actors who didn't know what they were doing.

It was a purely terrible movie.

Xia country movie fans didn't indulge the director and lead actor of Superpower Girlfriend. Although they had both had very good results in the film industry, that was in the past.

Making this kind of eye-stinging movie that thought it was funny but was actually playing embarrassing bad jokes, then the audience would use the box office to tell the main creative team what the consequences would be.

Superpower Girlfriend had a box office of 82 million on its first day, but only 19 million on Saturday, the next day. By Sunday, because of its terrible reputation, the theaters gave its screenings to Firefly and Tomb of Guns, and its box office was only a pitiful 15 million.

A film with an investment of 190 million and tens of millions spent on publicity had a total box office of 116 million in the first three days of its release, and a daily box office of only 9 million on Monday...

The first major tragedy of the summer season appeared.

It was clear that this film would not be able to recover its costs from the film market. They could only hope that selling overseas rights and online broadcast rights would earn a little more to reduce the losses.

At this point, the pattern of the July film market was clear.

Among the three films with investments of over 100 million, Firefly was expected to have a total box office in the 700 million range based on the current situation.

Tomb of Guns was mediocre, with a total box office in the 600 million range.

As for Superpower Girlfriend, it would be amazing if the total box office exceeded 300 million.

Among the other small and medium-sized investment films that were released at the same time, no dark horse works emerged. The best performing one was a romance film called Listen, which had an investment of 56 million, but its expected total box office would not exceed 250 million.

This was the current state of the Xia country film market.

The media reported the news, but Xia country movie fans were not happy.

They posted comments on online forums.

"Is this all there is to the summer season this year?"

"It's already halfway over, and we still don't see anything that makes our eyes light up!"

"Last year's summer season had a film with a box office of over 1 billion, but this year?"

"Aren't there still two films, Under the Aurora and Assassination, to be released in August? Don't make judgments so early!"

"Useless... The investment amount for these two films is enough, 150 million for one and 130 million for the other, but the former's female lead, Gao Yuting, has a well-known reputation as a box office poison in the last two years, and the latter's director has also made four films in the last three years, all of which were terrible."

"The Xia country film industry is finished."

"Who cares? If these investors and film companies like to make bad movies, then great, I'll save 19 Xia country currency, and I'll use it to eat delicious food, isn't that great?"

"19? It costs more than 30 to see a movie here."

"It's close to 40 here."

"Envy."

"Isn't there going to be six films released next week on the 31st? We can look forward to that!"

"The performance of these big investment films is like this, what good performance can you expect from those films with investments of 20-30 million, 30-40 million?"

"Whether a film is good or bad doesn't depend entirely on the film's investment amount. There are also good low-budget films!"

"Finding a dark horse work from these low-budget films is like finding gold in shit. I really can't believe it."

"Isn't there a very popular screenwriter named Su Yan? I've been able to brush up on his Garden of Words related information on online broadcasting platforms frequently these days. Looking at the trailer, the film's style is okay, and the male and female leads are both pleasing to the eye."

"I usually don't watch dramas, but my girlfriend loves to watch that Su Yan's dramas, and she cries many times. I can't really understand her."

"If you watch Su Yan's dramas, you'll know why your girlfriend cries while watching them!"

"I don't even have enough time to play games, how can I watch dramas? At most, I'll occasionally watch movies with my girlfriend in the theater."

"I'm a Su Yan fan. I can't guarantee how high the box office will be for Su Yan's film, but I can say that this film is definitely not a bad one!"

"Su Yan's products are always high-quality."

"Support Garden of Words."

"Anyway, I'm bored. I'll wait for the rating data from the first wave of viewers of Garden of Words. Among the films released during the summer season so far, the highest audience score is 8.7 for Firefly. As long as this Garden of Words has a score of 7.5, I'll go to the cinema to check it out."

"I heard that this screenwriter named Su Yan, his works are very tear-jerking, all depressing dramas? I'll have to go see what it's all about."