Millennium director

"A Sino-Japanese co-production movie?" Wu Yuan was stunned and looked at the senior executive of Toei with some curiosity.

This is really novel.

In the past few years, and even now, it is indeed popular in the Chinese film industry to co-produce films with foreign production companies.

There are many movies co-produced by China and South Korea, China and the United States, China and France, and China and the United Kingdom.

Just like Liu Yifei was also approached by a Sino-Korean co-production called "The Third Love" and wanted to invite her to play the heroine.

Then Wu Yuan rejected the matter without hesitation.

Nine out of ten of these co-productions are bad, and you really can't find a single good one.

Because cultural differences are the biggest disturbing factor in this kind of co-production, it is still a problem that is difficult to eliminate.

Using Chinese crew and foreign staff at the same time, with different concepts and different understandings of script culture, the final result is that the movie will become nondescript.

This is a result proven by countless co-productions in the industry over the past few years.

Under such circumstances, Toei actually still wants to make a co-production?

What’s even more amazing is that when China launched this co-production trend, Japanese film companies never got involved or participated in it.

Even if some Chinese film companies took the initiative to seek cooperation, they were rejected.

As I said before, the entertainment industry in Japan is relatively conservative and rigid, and they are not very accepting of such "new things." Sometimes this concept is a bad thing, and sometimes it is a good thing.

For example, it is a good thing that there are no Sino-Japanese co-production movies, so we don’t have to lose money.

But I didn’t expect that Toei would have this idea now?

Toei Co., Ltd., founded in 1949, is one of the five major film companies in Japan.

The five major film companies in Japan are just like the five major gangsters. In fact, only the top two are the real big companies, namely Toho and Toei.

Wu Yuan has always cooperated with Toho before, but he has not had much contact with Toei, but Toei's influence in Japan is actually not inferior to Toho.

This is mainly due to Toei Animation and TV Asahi, which are owned by Toei.

Most of Japan's internationally influential anime, especially big IPs, are almost all produced by Toei.

For example, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Slam Dunk, One Piece, Digimon, Saint Seiya, and the tokusatsu drama Kamen Rider series are also produced by Toei.

The remaining "Detective Conan", "Naruto", "Godzilla", "Doraemon" and "Crayon Shin-chan" series belong to Toho, and they are neck and neck in the field of animation.

But in the field of live-action films, Toho has a strong lineup of writers, directors, and actors. Including Akira Kurosawa, almost all of Japan's top directors, screenwriters, and actors are in the hands of Toho, or have cooperative relationships with Toho. .

Toei is inferior in this regard.

Thinking of this, Wu Yuan immediately understood why Dongying took the initiative to communicate with him.

Toho, which is No. 1 in the live-action film industry, naturally does not seek change, but Toei seeks change. They want to find breakthroughs in the field of live-action films.

And cooperating with Wu Yuan, a director who is very popular and influential in both China and Japan, is a good start.

"Director Wu Yuan, you have many film works that are highly sought after by Japanese movie fans. It shows that you are able to create works that are loved by movie fans in both China and Japan."

"We very much hope to cooperate with your Light and Shadow Times Film Company to launch Sino-Japanese co-production films."

"It would be best to have a script written by you yourself. For this reason, we can accept unequal capital sharing ratios."

Unequal?

Wu Yuan understood immediately.

This means that Toei can accept half of the production funds, but it still has to get half of the profits without pursuing it, and it can also accept one-third.

This kind of unequal cooperation is generally only so groveling when Asian countries cooperate with Hollywood.

For example, when Huayi was filming "The King of Kung Fu", it paid the lion's share of the money, but when the accounts were finally divided, Huayi did not get the lion's share. The majority was taken away by the United States.

Because Huayi relies on "China-U.S. co-productions" and "Hollywood-level blockbusters" for promotion throughout the entire process, it needs the U.S. to contribute this layer of skin and has to give up the profits.

Now this character is going to be Toei.

Wu Yuan's influence in Japan is still considerable, and his "Your Name" was also super successful in Japan, which proves that his movies can also cater to the Japanese market.

This provides the basis for cooperation.

However, Wu Yuan stared at the Toei executive in front of him, but he had no intention of agreeing.

How to cooperate?

He really doesn't remember great Japanese movies.

If he had any impression, he would have already asked the Japanese branch to take the initiative to cooperate with Toho. Do he still have to wait for Toei to come to him?

Wu Yuan's superficial impression of Japanese film and television mainly focuses on Japanese animation and a few Japanese dramas that are very out of the ordinary.

For example, "Unnatural Death"

There are very few Japanese films that have made it out of the entertainment industry, so he has seen very few of them. The few artistic films that have won the top three awards in Europe would definitely be a loss or no profit if they collaborated with them.

Is it possible to continue to pick Xin Haicheng's wool?

A full live-action version of Weathering with You?

It is said that Makoto Shinkai's "The Garden of Words" was just released in Japan this year and achieved very good box office results. It is considered to be a new star.

Isn’t it inappropriate to consume other people’s wool?

After thinking about it, Wu Yuan shook his head and said, "I'm really sorry. Currently, Light and Shadow Era has no plans to make a co-production."

"The company has quite a lot of its own movies to shoot. All manpower and material resources must be concentrated on our movie universe projects, and overseas cooperation will not be considered for the time being."

"I let you down."

Wu Yuan bluntly rejected the cooperation invitation, and although the other party looked a little disappointed, he did not continue to pester him shamelessly. He just nodded regretfully and said: "I understand. I hope I can have the opportunity to cooperate with Director Wu in the future."

After saying that, he took the initiative to walk away.

But Liu Yifei was a little confused: "Didn't it mean that the company should focus on developing the Japanese market? Why not make co-productions?"

I can’t explain why, but Liu Yifei always has a good impression of co-production movies. This inexplicable good feeling makes Wu Yuan very strange.

"Developing the Japanese market is mainly about light and shadow broadcasts. It is about developing online streaming media platforms, and it is not about the movie market."

"The Japanese film market basically belongs to animation films, and this is exactly our shortcoming."

"On the contrary, TV dramas have more development potential, and there are also online platforms. Currently, Lighting and Shadow Kuaibo is working hard to obtain the exclusive online broadcast rights of Japanese anime, but this is a bit difficult, and the TV station is not very willing to give up."

"As for the live-action film market, it is too difficult for outsiders to enter. Even if it is a co-production, one or two short-lived films are meaningless. With the development of the light and film era, companies no longer focus on the box office of one or two films."

"We need to make a more important strategic layout!" (End of this chapter)