National Tide 1980

On Children's Day, June 1, 1988, Wang Dadong finally had his moment of glory again.

This day was the opening day of the second Kentucky store he managed - the Xi'anlou store in Jinmenhe officially opened.

Due to the double BUFF of the opening celebration ceremony and the Children's Day special package giving away toys.

The opening of this store attracted countless people, and long queues reappeared, stretching dozens of meters outside the door.

On that day, one hundred middle school students from Tianjin wore white wigs, fake goatees and bow ties, dressed up as Colonel Sanders and danced the chicken dance in front of the store.

Kentucky also followed the example of the gingerbread man, stipulating that every customer who spends more than 20 yuan can receive a special Kentucky toy.

As a result, the sales of Tianjin Kentucky exploded that day, with single-day sales exceeding 160,000 yuan, setting a new record for single-store sales in Wang Dadong's business career.

Although just like the capital city at that time, many people in Tianjin were still unfamiliar with how to order and enjoy hamburgers and French fries. Some people even ate bread and meat separately, which became a laughing stock at the time.

But in Wang Dadong's eyes, these somewhat unsophisticated guests were extremely cute, much cuter than the people in Beijing.

Especially that night, when the sales data from Beijing came in, Wang Dadong learned that the sales of the Beijing store were just about to exceed 50,000 yuan a day.

The number of people lining up at the entrance of Kentucky in Beijing is far less than that of the gingerbread man next to it.

In particular, there are as many as three kinds of toys given away by the gingerbread man, which have been upgraded again, including gingerbread man plush toys, school bags and stationery.

He was even more clear about one thing with frustration - it was definitely a wise move to avoid the gingerbread man and open a shop in Tianjin.

The fast food market in Beijing has grown too fast, and the people of Beijing have been spoiled by the monster called the Gingerbread Man.

Relatively speaking, business in Tianjin is much easier to do, and his Kentucky business has no rivals yet.

If he were asked to propose a vision for his career in the new year, it would be that the gingerbread man would be trapped in the capital and never run away to Tianjin or other cities.

Now, the most urgent thing for Wang Dadong is to quickly complete the initial accumulation and strengthen himself in preparation for the decisive battle with the gingerbread man in the future. What he doesn't want, of course, is to see the gingerbread man come to mess with him again at the starting point of his new career.

If we have Yu, why do we have Liang? Even though he is a Chinese American, he still fully understands the melancholy of the ancients at this moment.

…………

Also in early June, the magazine was officially named "Fog Weekly" and was the inaugural issue of a fashion magazine owned by Ning Weimin's Huiwentang Bookstore, and was published in Japan.

Although it is completely separated from "Ordinary PANCH" in terms of name, it cannot enjoy any benefits from the original magazine's readership.

However, with the help of MAGAZINE HOUSE's distribution channels, the circulation of this magazine per issue still reached 310,000 copies.

This result couldn't be better for a newly established magazine.

At least Ning Weimin can make money from this inaugural issue, but he is prepared for the possibility of losing money if the circulation is less than 100,000.

Of course, as a "visual reading material", the quality of the first issue of "Fog Weekly" is indeed remarkable.

Large-scale photo albums were one of the characteristics of the "Ordinary" series of magazines in the past.

Singers, songbooks of popular ballads, movie stars, and photo idols often occupy a large portion of the magazine's content.

While retaining the traditional model and content, Ning Weimin also spent a huge amount of money to upgrade the magazine's color pages.

This is a bold move.

You should know that Japanese magazines currently print in both black and white and color to save costs.

However, Ning Weimin's move caters to the current prosperous social background of Japanese society. He spared no expense and produced a well-made first issue.

This is equivalent to directly promoting the advancement of fashion magazines.

Therefore, as soon as the first issue was released, it immediately received recognition from many readers.

In addition, Fog Weekly does have exclusive news sources.

During this trip to Cannes, the interviews related to Crazy Rich Asians' award-winning work almost shocked the Japanese entertainment industry.

In addition, "Mist Weekly" has launched two original columns: "Celebrity Family Visits" and "Fashion Product Reviews".

The fashionable product reviewed in the first issue is the trolley suitcases sold by Ning Weimin, and the celebrity interviewed is Keiko Matsumoto.

In terms of specific content, the "Product Review" column not only displays the purpose, parameters and price of the trolley suitcase.

At the same time, TBS TV station, as a television media, was not willing to be left out. It took advantage of its good relationship with Ning Weimin and took the initiative to invite Keiko Matsumoto and the "Crazy Rich Asians" crew to do a show on TV.

At the same time, for the sake of program effect, the TV station's director also had people edit some scenes from the movie "Crazy Rich Asians" and directly broadcast them on the TV program with the movie music.

I didn't expect the effect to be so good.

After all, MTV was still in its infancy in this era, and some of the ones circulating on the market were of very poor quality. How could they be as beautiful and exquisite as movie scenes?

So many Japanese viewers called the program while watching it, eagerly asking where they could buy such a videotape. Inspired by this, Taurus Palace immediately struck while the iron was hot and produced a Teresa Dun karaoke videotape based on this model, which was immediately sold out by enthusiastic TV viewers.

Two hundred thousand karaoke tapes were sold out and had to be reprinted.

Then, the TV screens in Tokyo's snack bars and karaoke bars all became free promotional spots for Crazy Rich Asians.

Needless to say, all of this has further boosted the personal reputation of Keiko Matsumoto and the fame of all the crew members of Crazy Rich Asians.

It immediately boosted the sales of videotapes and movie soundtracks, and even brought new sources of income and extra revenue to Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko. How could they not be happy?

But then again, happiness in the world is limited after all, and happy people are particularly hated in the eyes of frustrated people.

Moreover, outstanding people often have enemies, and the same goes for Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko.

Kinji Fukasaku is the one who hates them to the core.

Although he missed out on the Best Director award since last year's Academy Awards, he has seemingly been much more calm.

They never asked the media or tabloids to smear Keiko Matsumoto again, nor did they dare to collude privately to deliberately target Keiko Matsumoto.

Even when he knew that there was a conflict between Matsumoto Keiko and the Burning Clan and that a war had broken out, he just sat back and watched the situation develop without getting involved.

But he knew best in his heart how much he hoped that Matsumoto Keiko would be in trouble.

If for no other reason, it is because Matsumoto Keiko's sudden rise is like a legend, which makes everyone dare not underestimate her.

Especially the demise of Ikuo Suho of the Burning Department made Keiko Matsumoto at the peak of her career.

Since he offended Keiko Matsumoto, who had become the capitalist of the Japanese film industry, he had almost no place to stand in the Japanese film industry.

With his talent, artistry and commercial box office ability, he should have been the most favored director among the "Big Five", the most outstanding representative of Japanese film directors, and the person most qualified to be compared with Kurosawa Akira.

But because of this incident, Shochiku distanced himself from him, and the actor who was originally scheduled to direct the next costume swordplay film "The Fourth Must Be Killed" was replaced.

Now even his old employer "Toei" is unwilling to give him work anymore, fearing that this will cause dissatisfaction from Kurosawa and Kiri Studios.

So even though he was a famous director, he was almost unemployed. He had been living off his savings for more than a year and was unable to get any work from the major studios.

Only some small film companies were willing to give him work, so arrogant that he never even directed a single film, and no actress ever took the initiative to climb into his bed again.

Once a man loses his job and is no longer able to earn money to support his family, even his usually docile wife will begin to dislike him.

But it’s a good thing that it is so, because reporters don’t pay much attention to him anymore.

Otherwise, the scandal of his rift with his wife would become known to everyone, which would seriously damage his last bit of self-esteem.

But this is not what makes Kinji Fukasaku feel the most painful. Compared with his own situation, what is most heartbreaking is that Keiko Matsumoto is getting better and better and constantly achieving more and better success.

And even if he wanted to ignore these things, he couldn't, because TV and newspapers would often reveal explosive news about Keiko Matsumoto.

For example, today, the headline of the life and entertainment section of the newspaper he subscribes to is "Crazy Rich Asians wins awards in Cannes, Fog Studios' big-budget movie model is amazing", which makes it impossible for him to ignore it.

Three photos about the Cannes Film Festival, including a half-length photo of Keiko Matsumoto holding an award.

The report praised the film so much that it was basically a recommendation: this Japanese film, which is recognized by Europe and America, is definitely worth watching. You will regret it if you don't watch it! Either rent a video tape or just buy it.

The article is full of eye-catching words such as "the latest masterpiece of Mist Studios", "created with great effort by director Yutaka Osawa", "co-starred by Teresa Tang, John Lone, Fei Xiang, Keiko Matsumoto, Tomokazu Miura, Ken Utsui and other actors", and "Chinese supernovas Cui Jian, Zhang Qiang, Yao Peifang" and so on.

Such a slogan made Kinji Fukasaku suddenly feel as if dust was rubbed into his eyes, which was indescribably dazzling.

And then there was the news that Keiko Matsumoto revealed that she was pregnant, accompanied by another recent photo.

I have to say that the pregnant Matsumoto Keiko has gained a lot of weight compared to the past, but she is also much more beautiful.

It also made Kinji Fukasaku involuntarily think of Koharu, played by Keiko Matsumoto in "Kamata March".

When he thought of this, Kinji Fukasaku felt more jealous and angry, which condensed into a depressed energy that slowly rose from his throat.

A shadow-like thing slowly expanded in Dong's chest. He didn't dare to look any further, otherwise he would inevitably become depressed.

He spent decades painstakingly building up his reputation as a famous Japanese director and a master of literature and art, but now he has lost it all just because of a female star who was made famous by his movies. How could he accept this?

So this kind of hatred is really deep in his bones, it is irreconcilable and there is no way to resolve it. He really wants to eat his flesh.

"Ding-ling-ling", at this moment, the phone in the entrance hall rang.

Soon, Fukasaku Kinji's wife found him and said, "There's a call for you, go answer it. It may be about work. Don't be too picky. Otherwise, you will really be forgotten by the film industry."

Looking at his wife's disgusted face and listening to the heartbreaking ridicule, Kinji Fukasaku became so depressed that he wanted to go crazy.

These hateful women really deserve to die!

He stood up silently, walked to the entrance and picked up the phone on the table.

Unexpectedly, the loud voice of Haruki Jiaochuan came from the other end of the phone.

Then Kinji Fukasaku's brows relaxed at once, thinking that maybe what his wife said was true.

"Ah, what's up?"

"I have something I want to discuss with you."

"You have something to discuss with me? What is it? Are you filming a movie?"

Kinji Fukasaku was really itching to show off his skills, and he was indeed short of work, although the film funding for Jiaochuan Films was very limited.

But now he no longer cares about being picky. As long as someone is willing to ask him to make a movie, he doesn't care about anything else.

"Actually, that's what I meant. But besides this matter, I also want to invite you to meet someone. No, it won't take up too much of your time. Let's meet at the old place and talk while drinking..." Haruki Jiaochuan on the phone suggested easily.

Kinji Fukasaku was stunned when he heard this, but he was not a fool and he sensed the deeper meaning behind these words.

"Who are you meeting? You have to explain the situation to me clearly. I'm really flattered when someone like you suddenly calls me and says seriously that you want to introduce a friend to me. Don't look at me like this, I'm actually very timid, hahahaha!"

Fukasaku Kinji deliberately laughed heartily, but there was no smile in his eyes.

"Okay, let me get this straight. There is a wealthy Asian family that is willing to continue to invest in us so that we can make big-budget movies. The budget for the first one is about 10 million US dollars..."

"Is there such a good thing? Are there any additional conditions?"

"They just want us to target the films scheduled by Mist Studios and try to take away as much box office revenue as possible from them. It would be best if we could put this studio out of business. What do you think? Are you interested?"

"Don't joke like that. Why would I do that?" Fukasaku Kinji was stunned for a moment and immediately denied it.

"Okay, then I'll assume you're not interested. Goodbye." Unexpectedly, Jiaochuan Haruki didn't want to linger at all.

Kinji Fukasaku quickly spoke up to keep him.

"Wait, tell me clearly first, who is the other party? Why are you targeting Fog Studios?"

"Well, I'm not afraid to tell you, it's the Guo family in Asia..."

"The Guo family? Weren't they the former backers of Suho Ikuo..."

Fukasaku Kinji was shocked and raised his voice unconsciously, "How dare you contact them? Aren't you afraid of ending up like Suoh Ikuo..."

"Oh, it's not me who found them, it's them who found me. I just didn't know what to do, so I came to you for advice. I want to ask what you would do if it were you..."

Haruki Jiaochuan took a step back to advance, and skillfully spoke to test the waters.

"Director Fukasaku, the key now is what you think, I don't care." Jiaochuan Haruki fanned the flames like a person with nothing to do. "If you don't come, I will refuse them and concentrate on making movies adapted from two novels. Anyway, I make movies just for fun, Jiaochuan's main business is still publishing."

Hearing what he said, Fukasaku Kinji couldn't hold back any longer, "Ah, no, no, don't refuse yet. Let's meet. We can have a drink together..."

"Well, at five o'clock in the evening, we'll go to the SORA Club in Ginza. Dress nicely, but don't be too decadent, or people will distrust you..."

Haruki Jiaochuan also readily agreed, and especially at the end he did not forget to stimulate Kinji Fukasaku a little.

This really worked. After hanging up the phone, a light appeared in Kinji Fukasaku's eyes, as if he had made some kind of decision.