“Row.”

After receiving Li Yishu’s affirmative answer, Gong Li nodded and said, “Then let’s go back to Yanjing together in a few days. This time I came to Hengdian mainly for the script of “The Self-Combed Girl” written by Yu Hua.”

“Yu Hua has finished writing the script?”

“Yes, it’s finished. Zhao Fei called me yesterday and said that Yu Hua’s script had been written. He wanted to find someone to send it to me, but I have nothing to do now, so I said I would come to Hengdian and come to see you.”

“Is that so? Then Yu Hua will also come to Hengdian?”

“We agreed to meet in Hengdian today.”

Gong Li looked at her watch and said, “It should be time now. I’ll call Zhao Fei.”

As she spoke, she took out her cell phone and contacted Zhao Fei.

After the call was connected, I learned from Zhao Fei that he had already arrived at the train station and was ready to pick up Yu Hua.

“Okay, pick up Yu Hua and come directly to the film and television city. I’m here with Director Li. Okay, that’s it for now. Bye.”

Gong Li put down her phone and heard Li Yishu ask, “What did Zhao Fei say?”

Gong Li said: “He said he was already at the train station to pick up Yu Hua. I told him to come directly to you after picking her up.”

“Then wait for him. It just so happens that I haven’t seen Yu Hua for a long time.”

Li Yishu is still very much looking forward to the script of “The Combed Girl” written by Yu Hua herself.

You should know that his works “Xu Sanguan Selling Blood” and “To Live” are both classics of their generation. Therefore, when he created a group of self-combed women with a similar pessimistic tone, I believe that the description in the text will definitely make people more shocked and compassionate after reading it.

While waiting for Zhao Fei to bring Yu Hua over, the two of them drank tea and talked about “Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms”.

During the period, Gong Li asked him whether he would bring the movie “Red Cliff” to the film festival.

“I definitely have to go to the film festival.”

Lee Ye-su said, “I plan to take my first film to the Tokyo International Film Festival at the end of this year, and next year I will decide whether to attend the Berlin Film Festival or the Cannes Film Festival depending on the situation.”

“Can this movie still go to Berlin or Cannes?”

Gong Li was a little curious. She could understand why she went to the Tokyo Film Festival. After all, Lee Yi-su had said before that Japan was the biggest box office for “Red Cliff”. It could be said that whether the movie could make a profit depended entirely on the box office in Japan.

But such a commercial historical war film, if it goes to Berlin and Cannes, even if the director is Lee Ye-su, it probably won’t be well received.

Lee Ye-su: “I don’t expect to win any awards when I participate in European film festivals. The main purpose is to promote myself and sell copyrights.”

There are too many countries in Europe. Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union, there are now 46 countries in Europe.

If we were to negotiate distribution and release in each country one by one, how much time would be wasted.

Even if a large distribution agency has contracted the distribution of the entire European country, you can’t be sure whether the box office will be stolen, or like Warner Bros., a big-selling movie will be turned into a loss-making one.

So the best way is to sell the copyright, directly sell the European film copyright.

Only East Asia, Southeast Asia, and North America are retained, and all copyrights for other regions have been sold.

Gong Li couldn’t help but ask curiously: “How much can the copyrights of these regions be sold for in total?”

“This is not easy to get in, there should be tens of millions, right?”

Li Yishu is not quite sure whether the copyright of “Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms” can sell well, but he is still confident that it can sell for tens of millions of dollars.

After all, art films can sell for tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. For a big production like this with an investment of 63 million dollars, even if you are not familiar with ancient Chinese history, since this is a war film, the audience should not be too small.

Moreover, Li Yishu will also edit an overseas version, cutting out some relatively complicated plots and intrigues, making the plot simpler, and arranging more shocking war scenes, so that it can be viewed as a purely visual commercial blockbuster.

Anyway, for ordinary overseas audiences, there is no need to make the political struggles too complicated, otherwise their little brains would probably crash on the spot.

After half an hour.

Zhao Fei drove Yu Hua over.

“Director Li, long time no see.”

Yu Hua was still the same, with hair that was not short but looked messy and sloppy.

Before Li Yishu could say hello, Gong Li beside her suddenly burst into laughter for no apparent reason: “Hahaha——”

Everyone looked at her in confusion.

Gong Li was seen laughing so hard that she couldn’t close her mouth, holding her stomach and laughing out loud. It was obvious that she was really amused.

“No…sorry.”

Gong Li pinched the flesh on her arm and suppressed her smile with the pain: “I’m sorry, Lao Yu, I didn’t mean it. It was mainly because I remembered what Director Li said at the beginning.”

“A word from Director Li?”

Yu Hua looked at Li Yishu in confusion.

“my words?”

Li Yishu was also stunned. She turned to look at Yu Hua, whose sloppy hair style resembled a puppy. She couldn’t help laughing and said, “It’s nothing, Old Yu. Don’t worry about her.”

After that, he changed the subject and said, “Congratulations, Lao Yu. Last year, I read your article “Xu Sanguan Selling Blood” published in “Harvest”. It was really well written!”

“Where there!”

Yu Hua said modestly: “Director Li is too polite. It’s just okay, just okay.”

His words were modest, but the slightly upturned corners of his mouth betrayed his true feelings, and it was obvious that he was extremely happy and pleased.

Last year, he published the novel “Xu Sanguan Selling Blood” in the sixth issue of “Harvest”, which can be said to have shocked the literary world again after “To Live”.

Some newspaper critics believe that this novel written by Yu Hua can be regarded as a classic and is worthy of being praised as one of the 100 classic literary works in China in the 20th century!

This statement has also been recognized by many literary masters.

Zhao Fei, who was standing next to him, said, “Old Yu, I heard that your novel has been translated into multiple languages ​​and published overseas?”

“Well, a few overseas publishers found me before, and I’m currently translating it. It should be published in Japan and South Korea by the middle of the year, and there will be an English version later…”

Yu Hua nodded. His film “Xu Sanguan Selling Blood” was more commercially successful than his previous film “To Live”.

Because the incident of selling blood has occurred in almost every country in the world at a certain period of time.

The family’s plight, the lives of the wife, children and the elderly, and the embarrassment of the head of the family, including the money earned from selling blood, brought a little change to the family.

They can immerse many readers and move them.

Compared to “To Live”, “Xu Sanguan Selling Blood” can essentially represent almost 90% of the lower-class people in the world.

Looking at Yu Hua chatting with Li Yishu and Zhao Fei, Gong Li couldn’t help but say, “Old Yu, you’ve really changed a lot.”

“Big change?” Yu Hua touched his face and said with a wry smile, “Yes, I am a little fatter than before.”

Yu Hua is now much fatter than he was a few years ago. He used to be a tall and thin literary youth, but now with his messy hair and the smell of just getting off the train, he looks like a chubby otaku twenty years later.

Gong Li shook her head: “I’m not talking about fat or thin, but personality.”

She had a pretty good relationship with Yu Hua. Although they hadn’t seen each other much in the past two years, she had had more contact with him on the set of “To Live”. She knew that he was a little sensitive, timid, and a little inferior, but now she no longer had that feeling.

“Really? I feel fine.”

Yu Hua didn’t feel any change in his personality.

Li Yishu didn’t have much contact with him and didn’t know him well, but he didn’t care. He smiled and said, “Whether Lao Yu’s personality has changed or not, his hair is still the same, very messy.” Gong Li laughed out loud: “Haha!”

Zhao Fei also laughed. He didn’t care much about it before, but after hearing what Li Yishu said, he realized that Yu Hua’s hair was really messy.

Yu Hua scratched his hair that looked like dry grass, and smiled shyly: “Isn’t this because of the train? The train is full of people, and I haven’t bought a sleeper yet.”

Li Yishu said, “Okay, let’s not talk about this anymore. Lao Yu, did you bring the script?”

“I brought it, but I only brought one copy.”

Yu Hua took out a handwritten script from her bag.

“Give it to me. I’ll ask someone to make a few copies.”

Li Yishu took the script, turned around and left the room, and asked her assistant to print out a few copies.

The three of them picked up the script and began to read it carefully.

Both Lee Yi-su and Gong Li were watching the film for the first time and were quickly immersed in the story.

The play “The Self-combed Girl” written by Yu Hua begins in 1886 at the end of the Qing Dynasty and tells the story of the first batch of self-combed girls from Shunde who went to Southeast Asia to work.

The story spans three eras, from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China and then to the founding of New China. It tells the story of the oppression of women in the late Qing Dynasty, the chaos in Southeast Asia during the Republic of China, and the social respect that the female group received after the founding of New China, which was witnessed by the self-combed woman who returned to her hometown in her old age.

Although the story spans three eras and more than half a century, it is not that complicated. It tells the story from the perspective of “Sister Li”, the first Shunde self-combed girl who went to Southeast Asia, and the birth of the group of self-combed girls, and their oppression and resistance in the old society.

The story is structurally complete and provides a profound description of the group of women who comb their hair, including why they comb their hair and refuse to get married, as well as the imprint of that special and brutal era.

As Gong Li read on, she became immersed in the heroine “Sister Li” in the script.

After a while, she looked up and said with tears in her eyes: “Old Yu, your script is so well written. It feels as if there really is such a Sister Li.”

Yu Hua said: “Sister Li does exist.”

Gong Li was surprised: “Really?”

Li Yishu and Zhao Fei also looked at him in surprise.

“Indeed, there is, but there is no such person as Sister Li. Some of the stories in the script were all told by me when I went to Shunde to interview the local aunts…”

Yu Hua explained: “The locals in Shunde call these women “Gu Po”. Later, through a friend’s relationship, I went to Singapore again. There are still some women who have not returned to China to retire. Through their personal experiences, I summarized the character of “Li Jie”.

“So, we have to go to Southeast Asian countries to shoot this movie?”

Gong Li turned and looked at Li Yishu.

Zhao Fei also stared at Li Yishu eagerly. He was the director of this movie and he definitely wanted the crew to go to the local location to shoot.

Although it is not impossible to set up a studio in Guangdong for filming, but since you are aiming for an award, it is naturally best to shoot on location.

If you go overseas to make a movie, the investment cost will become very high.

It depends on whether Li Yishu is willing to invest more.

Seeing the two of them looking at her, Li Yishu chuckled and said, “Don’t worry, I will definitely go, but the script hasn’t been finalized yet, so don’t rush. Besides, Nanyang is still quite chaotic. If we want to go there for actual filming, we need to find some partners.”

Most of Li Yishu’s social networks are in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

There is not much contact with Southeast Asia.

However, Hong Kong Island has long had business dealings with Southeast Asia.
I think we should be able to find a few partners with considerable influence in the Nanyang region.

The king of hell is easy to meet, but the devil is difficult to deal with.

If she hadn’t found a partner with strong local influence, Li Yishu would not feel comfortable sending the crew to Nanyang for location shooting.

After all, a few decades later, Southeast Asia was in chaos and full of crime, not to mention now in the mid-1990s.

Yu Hua added: “By the way, Director Li, when I went to Singapore and interviewed some local people, I heard from some elderly people that there was a movie about the theme of self-combed women decades ago.”

“What’s the name of the movie?!”

When Li Yishu heard that a movie on this subject had been made decades ago, her eyes immediately lit up. Nowadays, it is no longer common to see women who spin their hair on their own. The Huang Ma they hired can be regarded as the last elegy for women who spin their hair on their own.

I heard from Huang Ma that in her hometown, there are no longer any spinsters.

The hometown association formed by the spinsters has not had any new members for nearly ten years.

If we could find that movie shot decades ago, perhaps we could get a relatively realistic picture of the self-combed women in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China through the images.

Yu Hua shook his head: “The old people don’t remember the name of the movie. It was filmed in the 1930s and 1940s. No one can remember it, but it is certain that it was invested by a Chinese film company.”

Filmed in the 1930s and 1940s, invested by a Chinese film company…

This is a huge range.

Li Yishu vaguely remembers that there were many Chinese film companies in Southeast Asia in the 1930s and 1940s.

The famous Shaw Brothers Film Company got its start in Southeast Asia, and only after the end of World War II did it move to Hong Kong for development.

Zhao Fei said: “Director Li, if we can find a copy of this movie, we may be able to understand the real social conditions of the spinsters at that time.”

“Well, I know that.”

Li Yishu nodded and said, “They are all movies from 40 or 50 years ago. I don’t even know what they are called or which film company shot them. If you really want to find them, you’ll probably have to go to Hong Kong. But I don’t have time recently, so I’ll ask for you later…”

“No need, Director Li, I will go to Hong Kong myself!”

Zhao Fei interrupted Li Yishu and said, “It just so happens that I am also planning to go to Nanyang to investigate the places where the self-combed women lived, and then talk to the local self-combed women groups, and by the way, see if there are any suitable filming locations.”

“Okay, then you go.”

Li Yishu raised the script in her hand and said, “Lao Yu, please come with me for another trip. The crew will reimburse you for all the expenses, including the ones you made before.”

“Haha, no problem.”

Yu Hua grinned out loud. Who wouldn’t be happy to travel on business at public expense?

Gong Li also expressed her desire to go with them, but Li Yishu was worried about the security issues in Southeast Asia, so she asked her to go to Bingyutang, a building built by the spinsters in Shunde, to communicate closely with the older spinsters.

Gong Li thought about it and didn’t refuse.

They chatted for another half an hour. Seeing that it was getting late, Li Yishu prepared to take everyone to a newly opened restaurant in the film and television city for dinner.

“Lao Yu, here’s the script for you…”

Li Yishu handed the manuscript to Yu Hua.

“No, I have it.”

Yu Hua raised the photocopy in his hand and said with a smile, “This printout is much more expensive than my handwritten copy. I’ll keep this one and give the manuscript to you, Director Li.”

Hearing this, Li Yishu had a strange expression on his face. How could a photocopy be more valuable than the original manuscript?

“you sure?”

“Are you sure, Director Li? You won’t be stingy, right?”

“Why not? As long as you like it.”

Li Yishu shook her head, not knowing whether Yu Hua said this on purpose or really thought so. (End of this chapter)