Chapter 150 [VCD technology is ready, looking forward to Director Chen’s new film]

Hong Kong Island, Mid-Levels villa area.

On the roof of a mansion.

Looking at Victoria Harbor in the distance, Li Yishu nodded with satisfaction: “Manager Chen, this house is a good choice. How much did it cost?”

“5000 million!”

Chen Jinsheng said with a little pride: “Director Li, the original owner of this luxury house is planning to immigrate to Canada and entrusted our company to sell it. Their original asking price was 5300 million, but when they heard that the person who wanted to buy this luxury house was Director Li, they took the initiative to give us a % discount.”

“5000?”

Huo Wenxi was stunned. She knew that the luxury houses in the Mid-Levels Villa were very expensive, but she didn’t expect it to be so expensive, 5000 million!

“5000 million is not expensive.”

Chen Jinsheng said: “I bought this house for Director Li at the end of last year. According to the current market price, it can be worth between 5500 million and 5800 million. If you find one you like, it can be worth 6000 million!”

“House prices are rising rapidly now?” Li Yishu raised his eyebrows.

“Yes, Director Li, housing prices have been soaring since the beginning of the year. Now the average housing prices in Hong Kong and Kowloon have increased by eight percentage points. And according to this trend, I suspect that by the end of the year, it will increase by at least 20%.”

Chen Jinsheng said this, looking at Li Yishu and said admiringly, “Director Li, you have a really good eye. The more than 30 houses we bought last year have now appreciated by at least 2% conservatively.”

Hearing this, Li Yishu smiled faintly and said, “Keep buying. In addition to buying luxury houses, you should also buy large flats in good locations. Ordinary houses are not considered.”

In the future, when real estate speculation in Hong Kong is most intense, it will mainly focus on luxury homes and large flats, while ordinary residential homes will not be speculated at very high prices.

On the one hand, Hong Kong has low-rent housing, and people who cannot afford to buy a house can live in low-rent housing. Then there is no “urgent need” because they still cannot afford it.

It is troublesome to speculate on this type of house, and it is not as quick as buying a luxury house or a large flat.

On the other hand, in the future, real estate speculators from Japan and South Korea will come to Hong Kong and set off a wave of luxury home speculation.

The truly valuable houses in Hong Kong are actually mainly luxury homes in Mid-Levels, Deep Water Bay, Kowloon Tong, Repulse Bay and other areas.

Compared with other houses, the luxury houses here have better locations, more beautiful environments, larger areas, and the privacy can also meet the needs of these wealthy people.

After chatting for a while, Chen Jinsheng saw that Li Yishu seemed to want to walk around the mansion, so he took the initiative to say goodbye.

After everyone left, Li Yishu took Huo Wenxi to visit the mansion and said with satisfaction: “Wenxi, I’ll leave this place to you. I hope I can live here when I come back to Hong Kong next time.”

The mansion has all the basic furniture and appliances, but it has not been cleaned yet, and some places need to be redecorated.

“Good boss.”

Huo Wenxi nodded, and suddenly remembered something, and said, “Oh, Boss, Engineer Jiang called a few days ago and said that the VCD is progressing very quickly and will probably be finished this month.”

Hearing this, Li Yishu’s eyes lit up and he quickly asked, “Did Jiang Gong really say that?”

Huo Wenxi nodded: “Yes, he said that the VCD technology is now basically complete, and the next step is debugging.”

“Wenxi, take your lawyer to Hefei in the next few days to ask Engineer Jiang about the technology, and then register the intellectual property rights in the mainland. By the way, come to Hong Kong and register the relevant international intellectual property rights.”

Li Yishu was very happy. Although he was already very rich in the eyes of ordinary people, no one would complain that they had more money.

What’s more, VCD technology is a cash cow. As long as he masters this technology, he can continue to earn related technology licensing fees for at least 20 years.

However, with the birth of VCD and rampant pirated movies, the film markets in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan will further decline or even collapse in the future.

But there is nothing we can do about it, this is how the times are.

Huo Wenxi nodded: “Okay, boss.”

That evening, Li Yishu hurriedly left by plane.

He had originally planned to attend the dinner hosted by Jet Li in the evening, and to talk to Zhang Manyu about “The Unknown” the next day.

However, Gong Li had just returned from Berlin, and the crew of “Central Station” still had about ten days of filming, so she had to rush back to the mainland.

However, his departure was a wise move, because the Hong Kong media began to report extensive news about Li Yishu the next day.

“The 20 billion-dollar director bluntly said he and Li Jiaxin are boyfriend and girlfriend!”

“Li Jiaxin: I will play the female lead in Director Li’s next movie!”

“Jet Li’s new film is out, and the great director Lee Yi-su said it’s great, but not as good as his ‘Sword Rain’.”

“Zhang Manyu and Li Jiaxin, two women competing for a husband?”

“…”

That afternoon.

At Zhang Guorong’s home, Anita Mui came with her young boyfriend Zhao Wenzhuo. Several of her friends in the circle basically knew about their relationship.

Seeing a few people sitting there chatting and Zhang Manyu looking unhappy, Mei Yanfang asked curiously, “What’s wrong, Manyu? Who made you unhappy?”

“Who else could it be?”

Liu Jialing pointed at the newspaper on the table with contempt: “She is the rich killer. Now I think she has one more thing, the director killer.”

Anita Mui only glanced at the headline of the news and the cover photo, which showed Li Jiaxin hugging Li Yishu’s arm with a smile on her face, and she couldn’t help laughing and said:

“I thought it was something else. Don’t take it seriously. Wen Zhuo knows about this. He was at the scene yesterday at noon. It was Li Jiaxin who was so shameless that she insisted on hugging Director Li.”

Hearing this, Liu Jialing became interested and asked quickly, “Is it true? Li Jiaxin is so beautiful, even a woman like me is attracted to her, how can Director Li not be attracted to her?”

“I don’t know whether I’m moved or not, but it’s impossible for me to replace Manyu’s role because of Li Jiaxin.” Anita Mui saw the newspaper in the morning and asked Zhao Wenzhuo specifically.

Yesterday at noon, she was planning to attend the event, but something urgent happened and she couldn’t go.

“I’m not worried about the role being snatched away.”

Zhang Manyu shook her head and said, “Even if Li Jiaxin were to play the role in this movie, she wouldn’t be able to act well. For this role, I practiced Shancheng dialect for half a year. I can’t even speak Mandarin fluently. Why would Li Jiaxin compete with me?”

Anita Mui asked curiously, “Then why are you angry?”

“I’m angry because she used me as an excuse.”

“Okay, isn’t that what she is?”

A few women gathered together to chat about gossip, speaking Cantonese from time to time. Zhao Wenzhuo, who was from the north, certainly couldn’t understand them and could only sit there awkwardly.

It doesn’t matter if you leave, it doesn’t matter if you don’t leave.

Fortunately, Zhang Guorong came down from the building at this time. He saw Zhao Wenzhuo sitting there alone and said with a smile: “Wenzhuo, come on, let’s go outside and smoke a cigarette. I happen to have a movie here and I want to ask if you are interested.”

Zhao Wenzhuo followed curiously: “What movie is it, Brother Guorong?”

“A martial arts film.”

Xishuangbanna.

All the main creative staff of the crew have arrived, and Qiu Fusheng also rushed over from Taiwan. The movie has been delayed for more than a month, so he must be the most anxious one.

Fortunately, he also knew that the movie would be released next year. He was just worried that the longer the delay, the more likely it would be that there would be problems with the completion of the movie.

Seeing Li Yishu arrive, Qiu Fusheng breathed a sigh of relief: “Director Li, congratulations, you are a big director with a box office of 20 billion. I am well-known in Taiwan.”

“What’s that 20 billion box office big director?”

Gong Li was confused. She had just arrived at Kunming Airport last night and had rushed all the way here. She was not quite clear about Li Yishu’s new title.

“Is such that…”

Qiu Fusheng briefly explained it, and Gong Li’s eyes lit up: “A big director with a box office of 20 billion, OK, OK, this title is good! Yishu, from now on I will call you Mr. 20 billion.”

“Don’t!” Li Yishu said with a smile, “What’s 20 billion? When it breaks billion or billion, that’s going to be amazing.”

Gong Li shook her head: “10 billion is still possible, but 100 billion is impossible.”

What does a box office of 100 billion mean?
Even if converted into US dollars, according to the current exchange rate of 1:5.5, it would be more than 200 billion US dollars.

“It’s hard to say.”

Li Yishu’s eyes flickered as she said, “Who knows, maybe this year I’ll have a chance to become a 50 billion RMB director?”

“This year?”

Gong Li and Qiu Fusheng were both stunned.

Gong Li was the quickest to respond: “Is it the movie you filmed in America?”

“Well, I think the film is OK, but I’ll have to wait until the editing is finished to see how the box office will be.”

Li Yishu actually hopes that Hisao Morishima can withstand the pressure and not resign in disgrace before the movie is released.

The tentative release date of the film is late May, as this time point coincides with the beginning of the summer season in North America.

But in fact, the best choice is still the autumn period, the period from September to Thanksgiving, because the target audience during this period is mostly female, and many love-themed films are often released during this period.

Although “The Sixth Sense” is not a love-themed film, this heartwarming film is most likely to impress female audiences, and female audiences often accompany male audiences, thus increasing the audience of the film.

But it doesn’t matter. The main thing is to keep up with the publicity. May happens to be the time when the Cannes International Film Festival is held.

As long as Lee Yi-su can win the Palme d’Or, that will be the best publicity – “the youngest director with two international awards in history”

After they chatted for a while, Li Yishu suddenly said, “I forgot to congratulate you, Gong Li, congratulations on winning the Golden Camera Award at the Berlin Film Festival!”

The Golden Camera Award was first established in 1986 and is given annually to individuals or organizations that the film festival believes have made special contributions to the film industry, to express gratitude and recognition to them.

Gong Li successfully won it this year, and she is the only mainland winner in the future. The next winner will be Hong Kong director Xu Anhua and Shi Nansheng several years later.

“Nothing to brag about.”

Gong Li curled her lips and said, “When I first found out about it, I was very excited. But when I went to Berlin to participate, I realized that this award was not unique, and there were five people in total, including me.”

Li Yishu smiled and said, “That’s not bad. Even if five are selected every year, there will only be 50 in ten years. Looking at so many filmmakers around the world, being one of them is already a success.”

Qiu Fusheng beside him nodded in agreement: “Yes, this award is something we want but cannot get.”

“That’s true.”

Gong Li’s mouth curled up slightly. She is now the only winner from China. In a sense, she is also the first person in the country?

She remembered something and said quickly, “By the way, Yishu, Chen Kai’s movie has also been registered for the Cannes Film Festival.”

Hearing this, Li Yishu’s eyes lit up.

He has been looking forward to Chen’s blockbuster since the year before last. Now he can see it in advance at the film festival, which is simply great!

(End of this chapter)