National Tide 1980

As the saying goes, if you plant flowers intentionally, they may not bloom, but if you plant willows unintentionally, they may grow into shade trees.

This situation does happen in life.

Sometimes we may not get the expected results when we put in the effort to do something.

And sometimes we do not have any special expectations, but often get unexpected gains unintentionally.

This is the current situation of Ning Weimin.

Perhaps it is because in the negotiations and cooperation with the "Shanghai Film Translation Studio", he used real money to fully demonstrate his sincerity in taking care of his compatriots and using foreign capital to feed back to the country.

Such generous and pragmatic performance impressed the leaders of the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation, and made them trust his character.

Perhaps it was also because he successively promoted the projects of "Li Xianglan" and "Crazy Rich Asians", two large-scale co-production films, and also obtained a large number of rich European films from overseas, which indirectly promoted the development of the domestic film industry. It also provided a lot of "nutrients".

This made the leaders of the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation also have great confidence in his ability to do things.

In short, the leaders of the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation could not help but want to strengthen cooperation with him.

So after he signed the contract with the Shanghai Film Translation Studio, they took the initiative to propose to him the idea of ​​promoting domestic films to overseas markets through him.

Of course, the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation are mainly targeting the Southeast Asian film market, or mainly the Japanese film market.

After all, Ning Weimin's wife Matsumoto Keiko has a transcendent status in the Japanese film industry.

She is not only the most popular movie star in Japan, but also has her own film studio.

In the minds of the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation, Matsumoto Keiko should have certain methods for film distribution.

And this is probably the main reason why they attach great importance to Ning Weimin.

Where can you find such a suitable person who has morals and abilities and certain conveniences to go overseas?

In fact, they are not wrong.

The good relationship between Matsumoto Keiko and Shochiku Film not only ensures that the films produced by the Mist Film Studio can have a better quality schedule for the public screening in Japan and will not be taken off the screen in advance, but Ning Weimin himself is indeed unconsciously making such business attempts in private.

At least after Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko bought the copyrights of those movies in France, they had already reached a verbal agreement with President Sakomoto of Shochiku on the phone.

Given that Shochiku is currently seriously lacking in high-quality films for release, President Sakomoto also has a certain intention to use some of the French films they brought back to fill the time slots for Shochiku's lack of high-quality films.

In addition, Ning Weimin is also planning to add subtitles to Chen Peisi's movies and screen them in independent theaters in Tokyo.

After all, Japanese movie tickets are expensive, and Chen Peisi's film production costs are low, so he can cover a lot of filming costs by selling them casually.

Don't ask for too much, if he really sells 10 million yen at the box office, it means that he is using the Japanese film market to support our own filmmakers and support our own film creation.

Ning Weimin likes to do this kind of thing of borrowing chickens to lay eggs the most.

What's more, the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation are also quite self-aware.

They all know what the current state of domestic films is - heavy ideology and lack of commercial elements.

At present, except for a few martial arts films and historical films co-produced with Hong Kong and Taiwan, other types of domestic films are difficult to sell well overseas.

For the specific situation, just look at the operating conditions of the mainland-based Yindu institutions in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The most profitable one recently is "Li Xianglan" by Keiko Matsumoto.

Although the Hong Kong and Taiwan market does not favor this kind of historical film, the box office in Hong Kong and Taiwan has only sold 14.5 million Hong Kong dollars, which is slightly lower than "The Last Emperor" and "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" a few years ago.

But it is already one of the very few films that can make money for Yindu this year.

Therefore, the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation do not have high expectations for whether this matter can achieve brilliant results in the short term, and have no requirements for economic returns.

What they hope for is actually just to have one more leg to walk.

As long as they can find a trustworthy middleman first and try to establish a distribution channel in Japan, it will be fine.

After all, the only Chinese-language film companies that can distribute Chinese-language films in Japan are the two film companies in Hong Kong, Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers.

From the perspective of the development of mainland films, if this invisible monopoly can be broken, and a cultural window or cultural propaganda base belonging to the mainland can be first established in Japan, it will be enough for the time being.

And now it seems that Ning Weimin is such a person, a person worthy of their trust and entrustment.

I just don't know if Ning Weimin has this intention.

So they are all trying their best to win Ning Weimin.

Even China Film Corporation, which has always monopolized the distribution profits in China and never shared the profits with others, has offered extremely generous conditions this time.

They said that if Ning Weimin is willing to do it, he can choose five new films produced by major studios across the country this year, and he can obtain the overseas distribution authorization of these films without paying.

When the movies sell well at the box office overseas, he can hand over part of the box office profit to China Film Corporation.

Needless to say, Ning Weimin is of course very happy about such a promotion.

He is simply asking for it.

Because no matter from which angle, this is a great thing like pie in the sky.

First of all, officially speaking, he immediately became an official agent backed by the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation.

With this semi-official status, not to mention that even his own embassy will look at him with new eyes, it will be much easier for him to deal with enterprises and institutions in the film and television industry in Japan in the future.

After all, with the overseas distribution rights of domestic films, the scope of cooperation and transactions between him and the Japanese has become larger and the methods are richer.

To put it bluntly, in the future, if the Japanese want to cooperate with China in the film field, they have to find him?

What is this?

This is market monopoly.

In the future, he will have a lot of room for development in the distribution of films at home and abroad.

Secondly, from a personal perspective, he holds this job concurrently, which is equivalent to the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation giving him money for free.

Since these films are taken away for free, isn’t it a business without capital?

Besides, who else can grasp the real box office data and profit division except him?

How much and how to divide it, isn’t it all up to him?

In addition, no one said that he can’t eat both ends.

While promoting domestic films overseas, it would be nice to buy out some foreign films, accumulate film libraries, and do reverse import.

Finally, his doing this will definitely help Matsumoto Keiko's personal career.

A wife is honored by her husband. As long as he stands firm, he will always have a relationship of interest with the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation.

Then it is equivalent to the domestic market being completely open to Matsumoto Keiko, and there will no longer be any real obstacles. In principle, the film and television works she participated in and the music albums she recorded will be given the green light.

Even if the time is ripe in the future, Matsumoto Keiko really decides to give up her Japanese nationality and naturalize in China, it will be much more convenient.

In short, this matter has a hundred benefits and no harm, and even if you look at the long term, the benefits will be even greater.

Once the information age comes, as long as he steadily completes the accumulation of film libraries, then it will be easy to become the only streaming media tycoon in Asia.

How could Ning Weimin live in a low-end environment with such temptation?

In fact, even the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation did not realize at this time how much benefit they were going to give him by opening a policy loophole.

So Ning Weimin's response was also quite positive.

After he fully understood the intentions of the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation, he thought about it for a while and came up with a more practical implementation plan.

He planned to register a copyright agency when he returned to Japan, and then start to try to operate this business.

This year, he will try the water on a small scale and set goals for next year based on market feedback.

Of course, all operating expenses will be borne by him alone. Not only will the country not have to pay a penny, he will also unconditionally give 40% of his shares to China Film Corporation.

So in the face of Ning Weimin's sensible and proactive statement, the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation were also very satisfied, and the intention of cooperation between the two parties was basically reached.

But there are also differences.

Because considering that it is too hard for domestic production units, they are worried that they will be broken because of the current system and will go further and further. I wonder if I can change the current bad situation.

Ning Weimin was also bold and made a suggestion.

That is, can we give part of the overseas box office directly to the production units to encourage them to actively create, so as to make more excellent films.

However, the leaders of the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation were very embarrassed about this issue. After thinking for a long time, they still did not agree.

If nothing else, everyone knows that there have been major problems in the distribution system of the domestic film industry.

But when it comes to ideological issues and the issue of redistributing the cake, no one dares to touch this hot potato.

Otherwise, if you are not careful, you will offend many people and make yourself irreparable.

Although Ning Weimin wants to use the overseas box office of the joint venture to feed back to the domestic market, it does not involve the domestic distribution system and is a detour.

But both the people of the Film Bureau and China Film Corporation know that this method of allowing the production units to directly take the box office share "has endless troubles."

In the current institutional environment, once the opening is opened, people's minds will definitely change, causing countless troubles.

God knows whether those production units will be encouraged by this and want to redistribute the domestic box office with China Film Corporation?

God knows whether someone will seize this point and fire at the existing domestic distribution method?

These situations are too uncontrollable.

The leaders don't want to see such a mess.

So there is no other possibility, they can only give the kind-hearted Ning Weimin a cold shoulder.

But then again, Ning Weimin's original intention is good after all.

His suggestion, in essence, is to use the money for practical purposes, even if he is willing to suffer losses and take less money, to support the development of the domestic film industry as much as possible.

So in view of this point, the leaders of the Film Bureau finally gave him a reminder,

saying that although his suggestion cannot be adopted, from another perspective, they will not prohibit those production units from soliciting sponsorship themselves, and will not prevent some units that want to support domestic cultural undertakings from actively donating to production units.

In this way, Ning Weimin immediately understood.

This time, even he couldn't help but secretly curse himself for being "stupid".

To put it bluntly, things can still be done this way, but it's just a different name for paying money.

What the leader meant was that as long as it was not in the name of box office revenue sharing, he could decide who to give his profits to and do what he wanted with them. That was his personal freedom.

Isn't this almost the same as his recent willingness to share his dividends from the Tangong Restaurant with several old friends from the investors?

If you are flexible and take a roundabout way to save the country, there will be no policy obstacles.

Otherwise, in the face of this era that is destined to undergo a major change process, what can be considered as true transparency?

The most important point is that you can't be too straightforward in doing things, you have to know how to judge the situation.

While maintaining the original intention, you must also start from the perspective of being in line with the social environment and actual needs.

Sometimes you have to take a detour.

Otherwise, if you only have enthusiasm and know how to stick to your principles, you can't get anything done.

As for the specific selection of the first batch of films to be taken overseas, in addition to the "Old Well" and "King of Children" by the Xiying Studio recommended by the leaders of the Film Bureau, Ning Weimin was not convenient to refuse, so he nodded and agreed.

For the other three films, Ning Weimin chose to give priority to his hometown studio, Beijing Film Studio, and chose the already completed "The Drum Singer" and "Golden Dart Huang Tianba".

The last one, of course, was left to Chen Peisi's "Father and Son" shot a few years ago.

For Ning Weimin's little "selfishness", the people of the Film Bureau and China Film Group took a tacit attitude and did not openly oppose it.

It was just that the people of China Film Group suggested that "The Drum Singer" contained many plots of the Anti-Japanese War, and they were worried that if it was sent to Japan for public screening, it would encounter disgust and rejection from the Japanese, and not many people would come to watch it.

However, Ning Weimin had his own opinion on this point.

In his opinion, at least the right-wing forces in Japan are not as arrogant as they will be in the future, and dare to open their eyes and lie to deny the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese army.

After all, there are still many people who have experienced the war alive.

The trauma of the war has penetrated into the bone marrow, and those who have survived by chance are all afraid.

Even many old devils who participated in the war of aggression against China in the past know that they are guilty and have become staunch anti-war elements.

Ning Weimin personally saw an old Japanese man scolding a group of ignorant Japanese young people on the streets of Tokyo.

It was because these young people were waving the "Rising Sun Flag" and wearing old-style military uniforms on the streets of Tokyo to attract attention.

When the old man saw it, he cursed them on the spot with tongue flicking.

Although he was as thin as a turkey, his fierce look shocked all the young people.

"Asshole! Don't do this kind of thing. This is not Japan's glory, but Japan's shame! You young people should stop worshipping these things. War will only cause disasters! If you do this again, we will be abandoned by all of Asia sooner or later! Hey, you bastards, get out of here quickly, otherwise I will call the police!"

These young people really ran away in a hurry when they met such an old man.

From this, we can see that if the police came at that time, they would also interfere with these young people showing off the "Imperial Army's Military Honor".

This incident is enough to prove that the Japanese society at that time was still full of guilt for the war.

Otherwise, the box office of "Li Xianglan" would not be so strong.

With these people around, the right-wing elements in Japan have not had a full stage to play, and they can only lie dormant with their tails between their legs.

At this time, they do not have the courage to openly whitewash the war criminals of the year.

At most, they keep a silent attitude.

They expect their nation to gradually forget this history, and they also hope that others will forget this history.

They believe that even the lessons learned from millions of lives can be forgotten in just one generation.

So for domestic films, this is actually the best time to release anti-Japanese films in Japan, and there will be more audiences.

I can earn your yen from you by scolding you Japanese. How can I miss this opportunity?

In addition, Ning Weimin does not want the Japanese to get what they want and really forget these things as old sesame seeds and rotten grains.

He has to do his best to remind the Japanese and let the young people in Japan know more about the crimes committed by their fathers and grandfathers.

Although it is always uncomfortable to owe someone a debt, the Japanese generally hope that the historical debt will be forgotten as soon as possible.

But for us victims, forgetting history means betrayal.

So in the end, seeing that Ning Weimin spoke so clearly and seemed to have a certain degree of confidence, China Film Corporation just let him go.