National Tide 1980

After the news of Matsumoto Keiko's marriage was announced to the media, it dominated the front page headlines of almost all Japanese entertainment tabloids and became the focus of reports by major TV stations.

The sensational effect was almost equivalent to the emperor's daughter's marriage, and the subsequent reaction has been continuing.

Even her own investment plan that she just announced to the public - she will soon invest 2 billion yen to shoot "Crazy Rich Asians" - was overshadowed by this news.

This is somewhat ridiculous.

But it is not surprising. After all, Japan is a country of a single nation, and there has been little custom and history of "interethnic marriage" since ancient times.

In fact, many people are very opposed to international marriage.

Even after the defeat of the war, the United States stationed troops in Japan, and many "international marriage families" were created.

But the Japanese will also look down on Japanese women who marry Americans.

Not to mention that Matsumoto Keiko, a great beauty who has firmly established herself as the "first beauty" in the Showa era, chose to marry a Chinese like Ning Weimin.

This incident simply made Matsumoto Keiko a special case that set a precedent for the entire country.

After all, in this era, apart from her, no Japanese woman is willing to marry a third world man and take the initiative to become a Chinese woman's wife.

So although there are a few voices that in the current Japanese society where desires are rampant, Matsumoto Keiko can return to the pure nature of love and marriage, and only seek to be with the one she loves.

Instead of taking the opportunity to "sell" herself for a good price, choosing to marry into a wealthy family and worrying about food and clothing, this is a very valuable quality.

But most of the melon-eating crowd are not optimistic about the marriage she chose for herself, and believe that such a marriage relationship with unequal economic and status will never be stable, and sooner or later, dust will return to dust, and earth will return to earth, and each will go their own way.

At the same time, in order to satisfy the curiosity of the people, major Japanese media have also tried their best to dig out the inside story of Matsumoto Keiko's marriage, trying to find out whether there is anything that cannot be seen in such a strange marriage between two people.

I want to dig deeper, what kind of background does Ning Weimin, who is lucky enough to hold the beauty and win the favor of the first beauty, have?

So soon, a reporter found out the surprising result.

They found that Ning Weimin not only worked for Pierre Cardin, but was also a senior manager in China.

He also facilitated the cooperation between Japan and several major Chinese studios for the movie "Li Xianglan".

Although, as Matsumoto Keiko said, he is indeed not an insider.

But it cannot be said that his work has nothing to do with the entertainment industry.

That's not all. Many people recalled that Matsumoto Keiko's career had fallen to the bottom, and it was precisely relying on the Pierre Cardin spokesperson advertising contract and the movie "Li Xianglan" that she climbed up again.

Suddenly, someone realized that this matter might be a related transaction, and Ning Weimin was the person behind the scenes who helped Matsumoto Keiko.

So, the relationship between Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko was rumored to be a marriage of gratitude.

Everyone began to imagine that Matsumoto Keiko was grateful, so she promised to marry him after returning to the peak of her career.

Some people even suspected that as a Chinese, Ning Weimin would be suspected of committing a duty crime by doing this?

If it were a Japanese company or enterprise, it would definitely not allow this situation to occur.

But it's not over yet. A few days later, someone found out that Ning Weimin has another company registered as Dadao Trading Company, which is completely owned by him.

This company represents a special product that has just been patented - a trolley suitcase.

And this product is not only in short supply, but also invented by Ning Weimin himself.

According to professional evaluation, this product has been selling well in Japan for two years.

Due to the problem of limited production capacity, it has not been widely seen in the market, but has only been sold through Yamato Sightseeing Suitcase.

But according to customer feedback, the effect is very good.

It can be said that it is a very convenient functional product that completely solves the troubles of long-distance travel for the elderly and women.

Now many customers of Yamato Sightseeing are waiting in line, and the market prospects are expected to be very promising.

Based on the current average monthly shipment of 15,000 trolley suitcases by Dadao Trading Company, the company is equivalent to lying flat, and it can have at least 1 billion yen in revenue, which is equivalent to the turnover of three or four Ginza restaurants.

And Ning Weimin's real personal income is estimated to be at least 2 billion yen per year, which is an absolute millionaire of tens of millions of dollars.

In addition, he is only in his twenties and has made his fortune from scratch, so the label of a diamond bachelor is completely suitable for him.

How can such a person be ordinary?

In this way, the public opinion has changed again, and no one says that Matsumoto Keiko is stupid anymore.

They started to say that she hid too well, calculated too much, and even deliberately concealed the truth in order to fool the public.

She obviously caught a talented, beautiful, and promising rich man, but she still said that she was so otherworldly.

In short, from one extreme to another, the Japanese spectators are almost making up a hundred kinds of tricks for this transnational marriage.

Ning Weimin thought of Liu Xiaoqin's famous saying - it's hard to be a woman, and it's even harder to be a famous woman.

He was convinced from the bottom of his heart, and it was still this domestic female star who summed it up well.

But then again, this is completely expected.

Who made Matsumoto Keiko a public figure?

Since you are a public figure, you will inevitably be talked about behind your back. You can't stop planting crops just because you listen to the cries of crickets.

Therefore, he and Qingzi would not take this kind of thing seriously.

As long as it is good for the box office of "Li Xianglan", that's fine. The public can say whatever they want. Anyway, there will be no missing piece of meat.

Plus, there are additional benefits to this.

At least Ning Weimin's Tan Gong Restaurant and trolley suitcase have become popular again just because of the exposure of various media.

Some media reporters even went to Dan Gong Restaurant and Yamato Suitcase Company to film and interview.

As a result, not only did Danguong Restaurant become overcrowded, with queues lining up at the door every day, the daily turnover increased to 15 million yen, and there was no need to worry about the source of customers.

It even attracted a food column that wanted to gain popularity, and took the initiative to invite chefs from Tan Palace to do the show.

The number of calls at Dadao Trading Company is almost overwhelming, and many Japanese luggage companies have come to ask for cooperation and want to purchase the patented trolley suitcases.

This is great, look at this soft advertisement.

Ning Weimin no longer needs to make any publicity for his business. He just needs to calm down and wait for others to send money to his door.

I have to say that there are some errands in this world that, despite their appearance, are miserable in reality.

There are also some things that may seem a bit embarrassing or pitiful, but are actually quite affordable.

For example, Ning Weimin would like to have such a good thing that can fully divert traffic and monetize it.

On the other hand, being the groom's official looks very beautiful, but because everything is complicated, the actual operation is a bit overwhelming. I am afraid that only the person involved can understand this feeling.

In particular, Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko belong to two countries with different cultural backgrounds and family environments. Therefore, if they want to coordinate their marriage well and satisfy most people, they obviously need to worry more. It is definitely not the same thing. Easy things.

If nothing else, let’s just talk about what the two of them should do about their wedding? Where to do it? How to invite guests? How to follow the process?

Is it Chinese style? Japanese style? Or Western style?

It was enough for them both to stop scratching and have no idea where to start or how to proceed.

Because no one has ever been married before, both of them are getting married for the first time, so of course they can’t find clues about things they have no experience with.

Fortunately, both people can understand each other and are willing to accommodate each other.

On the basis of mutual respect, mutual understanding, equality and empathy, the two sides quickly reached a consensus on general principles.

The two of them were not short of money anyway, so they simply decided to hold a wedding in China and Japan.

In Japan, Ning Weimin will of course fully respect the opinions and arrangements of Matsumoto Keiko's parents.

In China, Matsumoto Keiko will also make arrangements according to the wishes of Kang Shude and Jiang Nianyun.

However, despite this, the details still need to be worried about.

At least the two of them have to spend time communicating with Matsumoto Keiko's parents and find a reliable wedding company before they can really start the substantive preparations for the wedding. But what they lack most at this time is time, and no one wants to. Not much free time.

Keiko Matsumoto needs to be busy with the next filming plans of the studio and office.

Although the main actors were decided, Kurosawa also agreed to recommend a director.

But for such a large-scale production, the crew will not be small, and other actors and crew members cannot be careless, especially the shooting locations. Many of them are outdoor locations and require luxurious venues. Naturally, legal applications must be made in advance.

In addition, Matsumoto Keiko also had to prepare for going to Cannes to participate in the film festival, and the necessary procedures had to be completed quickly, which all took up time and energy.

As for Ning Weimin, he had more things to do. In addition to having to deal with the consequences of the popularity of Tan Gong Restaurant and Dadao Trading Company, he also agreed to send the leaders of the Service Bureau and Tiantan Park to study abroad.

Today's season happens to be when Japan's cherry blossoms are in bloom, which is the most suitable time to take these relatives from China around and taste the Oriental style.

There is also the matter of Tan Palace opening a branch, so we must hurry up.

Otherwise, the good days of the Japanese are over. How many meals can they still eat as proudly as they do today?

It is true that if you eat one meal, you will miss one meal. In the future, the Japanese will become poorer and poorer, until they can no longer afford to eat and will be overtaken by us latecomers.

Needless to say, if the branch opens one day later, it will naturally make one less day of Japanese money.

The race against time is all about money. Every inch of time means every inch of money is not an exaggeration.

Finally, don't forget that Ning Weimin still has to prepare for the launch of "Dream of Red Mansions" in Japan.

As soon as April entered, he followed the Japanese "Red Scholars" almost every day to go to major colleges and universities in Japan with Sinology majors to do activities, targeting college students who were interested in Chinese culture, and making preparations for the launch of "Dream of Red Mansions" Popularization and cultural background interpretation will continue until April 6.

As the first Monday in April approaches, TBS TV station's morning drama slot finally broadcasts a classic TV series defined as "China's "The Tale of Genji"" to Japanese audiences.

If it is our domestic audience, TV dramas are usually classified only according to their themes.

Like historical dramas, romance dramas, criminal investigation dramas, science fiction dramas, etc...

But for the Japanese, there is actually another classification, which is based on the broadcast time.

For example, Moon Nine dramas, Fire Ten dramas, morning dramas, late night dramas, etc.

The implicit content behind it is actually a classification of the audience group.

For example, the so-called morning drama is a time slot invented by NHK TV.

As early as the 1960s, this TV station began to broadcast TV dramas at 8 o'clock in the morning, with each episode lasting 15 minutes.

Because there are many episodes, generally more than 150 episodes, it is also called a serial TV novel, and the least is more than 40 episodes.

Because it was later welcomed by housewives, all other TV stations followed suit, and as a result, morning dramas evolved into a relatively important TV broadcast time slot.

Good morning dramas can also have a ratings of up to 25%.

In particular, because morning dramas have a correct outlook and are full of positive energy, the heroines of morning dramas are often quickly known to the audience.

Since they can leave a good impression, they will become popular next.

For example, Ishida Yoshiko, a friend of Matsumoto Keiko in the circle, was familiar to TV audiences in a morning drama "Friday Wives" in 1983, and successfully completed the transformation from a singer to an actor.

"Oshin", which is familiar to our domestic audience, is also a classic of Japanese morning drama.

From this, we can fully see the characteristics of morning drama in terms of subject matter.

Yes, due to the fixed audience group of morning drama time slot, mainly housewives and the elderly, there will of course be specific requirements in terms of subject matter.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the mainstream of works was basically "the protagonist uses an indomitable attitude to fight against adversity and finally overcomes the difficult fate", and the representative work is "Ahua".

Later, "the hard struggle of women in the workplace" was the mainstream to highlight the status of women, and the representative work is "Youth Family".

In addition, there are two forms of "telling the biography of the heroine's life" and "modern women's struggle" to broadcast alternately as a supplement.

In general, the subject matter of "Dream of Red Mansions" that reflects the rise and fall of ancient Chinese families, as well as the story dominated by female characters, is more suitable for this time slot.

Although it is inevitable that due to the characteristics of Japanese morning dramas, the 36 episodes of "Dream of Red Mansions" were cut into 108 episodes, and the original episode could only be broadcast for 15 minutes each time, which greatly interfered with the continuity of the plot.

But the advantage is that morning dramas can be broadcast live from Monday to Saturday.

From this perspective, it is beneficial to maintain the patience of Japanese audiences and prevent them from completely forgetting this ancient story from China.

And just as Ning Weimin thought at the beginning, "Dream of Red Mansions" broadcast as a morning drama and NHK's "Spring Waves" broadcast every Sunday form a seamless connection.

In fact, the data for the first week was actually quite good.

Although the ratings on the first day were less than 8%, they were slowly increasing every day.

Until Saturday, the feedback showed that the ratings had exceeded 10%.

If this is a Japanese morning drama, it is at most a passing line. I am afraid that the producers will still have a lot of pressure. After all, the dramas broadcast by TV stations are usually produced at their own expense, which has cost issues.

But this "Dream of Red Mansions" cannot be understood in this way. In addition to the natural cultural gap, TBS did not spend much money. It is quite cost-effective for them to achieve such ratings and save a lot of money.

What is even more gratifying is that in addition to the two universities where Ning Weimin has done promotional activities, he has actively invited them to communicate and explain "Dream of Red Mansions" again at the request of students.

In addition, many viewers have called the TV station to ask whether there will be videotapes of this TV series for sale, and where to buy the costumes and accessories in the play.

It can be seen that Ning Weimin's efforts have not been in vain, and this drama has won the love of some viewers.

Then as long as the ratings maintain this level and don't collapse in the future, it should be considered to have established itself in the minds of Japanese audiences.

And it is very likely that with the further deepening of cultural promotion, another source of income will be opened up from these TV viewers in the future.

Ning Weimin is looking forward to this.