After collecting Yu Hua’s script manuscript, Li Yishu took a few people to a nearby restaurant for dinner.

The most discussed topic during the period was the script.

The script of “The Combed Girl” is an award-winning one with a strong literary quality.

Although Zhao Fei has many years of experience as a photographer and has participated in filming for crews of all sizes, he has never been a director.

Now that the script is in place, they can set up the team directly after a few minor revisions. He is somewhat nervous inside, and from time to time at the dinner table he asks Li Yishu about her experience as a director.

“Don’t worry too much. I’ll arrange for someone to help you with the crew’s matters. You just need to be a good director then.”

“Then I’ll trouble Director Li.”

Zhao Fei raised his glass gratefully.

Speaking of which, he is extremely grateful that he participated in the filming of “Farewell My Concubine” that year. Without that experience, he probably would not have become the most famous and top photographer in the country.

Not only has he served as director of photography for many award-winning films, he has also shot movies in Hollywood, USA, and is now involved in big productions such as “Red Cliff: Three Kingdoms”.

The most important thing is that he and Li Yishu created the “bullet time”.

This technical concept alone is enough to support photographer Zhao Fei for the rest of his life.

The four of them drank and chatted for more than an hour.

By the time we had eaten and drunk our fill, it was already past eight in the evening.

Yu Hua followed Zhao Fei to his temporary residence in Hengdian.

Li Yishu also took Gong Li back to her house in Hengdian.

It was natural for the two who hadn’t seen each other for a long time to be affectionate with each other.

At night, after taking a shower, Gong Li wiped her wet hair and walked out of the bathroom. She looked at Li Yishu who was smoking by the bed and walked over with a smile: “Why are you smoking again? I remember you didn’t smoke before?”

“Yeah, I smoke a couple of cigarettes occasionally.” Li Yishu said with a smile, “A cigarette afterwards is better than a living god!”

“Virtue.”

Gong Li rolled her eyes and wiped her hair with a towel while saying, “There is something I didn’t want to tell you, but after thinking about it, I still want to talk to you.”

Li Yishu asked curiously, “What’s the matter?”

“Sister Xu called me a few days ago.”

“Sister Xu? Xu Suo?”

“Yes, it’s her.” Gong Li stopped wiping her hair, took the towel off her hair, and said, “Sister Xu told me that Brother Chen Kai came to her with a script and wanted Xu Lu to invest in this movie.”

Li Yishu raised her eyebrows: “Did Sister Xu agree?”

Gong Li shook her head and said, “No, but she called me and told me about it. Although it seemed casual, I felt that she seemed to want to invest. I guess she wanted to test the waters because of our relationship with Brother Chen Kai.”

“Haha, not surprising.” Li Yishu said with a smile: “When we were filming Farewell My Concubine, Sister Xu had always wanted to find Brother Chen Kai to film it, and she waited for a year or two for this.”

Gong Li naturally knew about this. When Lee Yi-shu was able to get the director position of “Farewell My Concubine”, she also made a lot of efforts. At least at the Venice Film Festival, she said a lot of good things about Lee Yi-shu.

But what made her feel incredible was that even though Brother Chen Kai had suffered one failure after another, Xu Suo still wanted to invest in his movies.

After she told this, Li Yishu chuckled and said, “I guess this is Sister Xu’s knot. And even though Chen Kai’s movies in recent years haven’t won many awards and their box office performances aren’t great, apart from this time’s The Emperor and the Assassin, his previous movie Tree was pretty good.”

In fact, Brother Chen Kai definitely has the ability, otherwise he wouldn’t be one of the best directors of the fifth generation, and he even surpassed Master Zhang at a certain time.

Moreover, in commercial films, Brother Chen Kai’s box office performance may be very poor, but almost all of the investors who cooperated with him made money, otherwise there would not be so many investors willing to spend money on making movies for him.

If you really want to launder money, it’s not cost-effective.

After investing 100 million, only 10 or 20 million of the money laundered was found.

Who can bear the loss of four-fifths?
Gong Li heard the hidden meaning: “You mean Sister Xu will agree to invest in Brother Chen Kai?”

“It’s possible, but before making a decision, Sister Xu will definitely call me to see my attitude.”

“So what’s your attitude?”

“That depends on Sister Xu.”

Li Yishu thought for a moment and said, “If Sister Xu really wants to cooperate with Brother Chen Kai, then I will naturally not be the bad guy. If things go well, I will also participate, provided that the script has my approval.”

“real or fake?”

Gong Li was surprised and asked, “Do you want to meet Brother Chen Kai and forget the grudges?”

“What do you mean by forgetting grudges? Sister Gong Li, you are exaggerating.”

Li Yishu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “There’s not that much conflict between me and Brother Chen Kai. Besides, I’m not just a director now. From an investment perspective, Brother Chen Kai is still well-known at European film festivals. If it’s a low-cost art film, the return on investment from him is still quite high.”

“That’s true. You are not only an internationally renowned director, but also a profit-seeking capitalist.”

Gong Lijiao laughed out loud. She had never really thought of Li Yishu as a big boss before. She only thought of him as a younger brother and an international director.

Now that Li Yishu mentioned this, I just remembered that Li Yishu is now the boss of a media group.

“That’s not right. I’m a private entrepreneur.”

“You are still a private entrepreneur. Only capitalists will sell the rope to hang themselves.”

“What do you mean?”

“You are investing in Brother Chen Kai regardless of past grudges. Isn’t that just selling a rope to hang yourself?”

When Gong Li said this, she curled her lips, seeming to be unhappy with Li Yishu’s desire to invest in Chen Kai.

Hearing this, Li Yishu laughed. He finally understood that Gong Li hated Brother Chen Kai more than he did.

But it’s normal to think about it. Gong Li is only 30 years old now, and her career has been smooth sailing. Her likes and dislikes depend entirely on her mood.

But Lee Ye-su is already in her 50s or 60s mentally.

In dealing with people, be relatively tactful, and follow the principle of winning over the majority of people and targeting the minority.

“Sister Gong Li, I’m not letting bygones be bygones.”

Li Yishu shook her head and said with a smile: “You only saw that I invested in Brother Chen Kai, but you can’t see the deeper side.”

Gong Li was curious: “What’s deeper?”

Li Yishu asked, “You have also been to Hong Kong to shoot a movie, so you know a little bit about the situation there. In your opinion, who is more powerful in Hong Kong, the actors or directors, or the film companies?”

“This one……”

Gong Li hesitated and said, “It should be the company, right?”

She had previously filmed two movies in Hong Kong and had worked with some actors and directors there.

Not to mention anything else, just take “The New Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils” as an example. Director Qian Yongqiang was sweating profusely when he faced Long Wu’s family because of the unsatisfactory box office performance.

If Li Yishu hadn’t helped later, Qian Yongqiang might have ended up in a very bad situation. He might not have been killed, but his work would have been in vain.

Of course, Yongsheng Film Company has a special background, and ordinary actors and directors dare not provoke or resist it.

But other film companies should not be underestimated either, whether it is Golden Harvest, the early New One City, or the several film companies that have emerged in recent years.

They are definitely people that actors and directors dare not provoke.

“You could be more sure.”

Li Yishu smiled and said: “In the Hong Kong film industry, film companies are bound to be more powerful, and this trend will gradually spread to the mainland in the future…” Now, mainland actors and directors, as long as they are famous, basically have no worries about not having movies to shoot.

Moreover, people who work in the film industry are now called literary and artistic workers, and this industry is also called the literary and artistic circle.

But a few years later, after the millennium, the literary and art circle changed to the entertainment circle.

Ten years later, several major Internet capitals entered the market and it completely became the entertainment industry.

It may seem like just a change in fame and market preferences, but in reality, filmmakers are gradually losing the voice and power they had during the film-making process.

To put it simply, you have to shoot whatever the capital tells you to shoot.

If you don’t shoot, no one will invest.

“Red River” and “Hot and Hot” are both iconic films shot under capital demand.

No matter how big a star you are, once you reach the top of the industry, people like Zhang Guoshi will be brought to their knees by capital and consume the fame and public reputation of the first half of their lives.

After listening to Li Yishu’s story, Gong Li couldn’t believe it and said, “Will the mainland film industry really be like this in the future?!”

She has worked with many directors, including big names like Li Yishu and Zhang Yimou, and is well aware that almost all directors in mainland China now have their own insistence. They decide who to choose as actors and how to shoot.

It was only when she went to Hong Kong to shoot a movie that Gong Li experienced what it meant that the director might become a tool and the producer was the boss.

“In a market economy, everything is possible.”

Li Yishu smiled. He just used Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and the United States as examples.

In fact, these examples are not very good.

Because most investors in this era actually respect the director’s choice.

After all, there are only two reasons why they invest money: one is to promote their women, and the other is to make money.

But the advent of the Internet age has broken these two simplest models.

Superstitious about the analysis of big data, traffic is the final say in choosing who to act in the film, what script to choose, and even how to make the film.

It is no longer focused on the script, actors or director.

Secretary Li Yi remembered that Ali Pictures clamored at that time that from then on they did not need big directors, only IP + traffic.

Gradually, a set of formulas was developed.

Big IP + young actors = making money
Gong Liming realized it and said, “So you invested in Brother Chen Kai so that he could make money for you?”

“Yes.”

Li Yishu folded her arms in front of her and said with a smile, “With the release of Red Cliff, which I will direct next year, the era of mainland art films will gradually pass, and it is foreseeable that the future market will be dominated by commercial films.”

“Brother Chen Kai is quite capable. As long as we can find a producer who can control him, it will be totally worth investing in him.”

“And think about it, wouldn’t it be more fun to let Brother Chen Kai work for us and earn money?”

Putting aside some prejudices, the two movies, “The Taoist Goes Down the Mountain” and “The Legend of the Demon Cat”, are actually not very bad.

The previous plots are all quite attractive, but as the filming goes on, Brother Chen Kai always inexplicably becomes drifting away and completely lets himself go.

“Then let Brother Chen Kai work for us!”

After Gong Li realized this, she immediately felt that Li Yishu’s idea of ​​investing was a good one.

Regardless of whether Chen Kai can win an award or not, it is basically impossible for him to surpass Li Yishu in terms of awards.
In terms of box office, Gong Li doesn’t think Chen Kai has the ability to do so.

Two phases and one combination.

It would be better to let Brother Chen Kai work for them and earn money.

A few days passed in the blink of an eye.

May 1st.

Labor Day.

Yanjing.

People’s Grand Theatre.

This place was temporarily converted into a screening room for the premiere of “Empress Dowager of Liao”.

The bright red carpet was surrounded on both sides by reporters, passers-by who came to join in the fun, and audience members who had bought tickets for the premiere.

As one of the hosts, Gong Li naturally stood with director Huang Lijia and other creative team members at the entrance of the Grand Theater to welcome the invited guests.

“Zhang Yimou, Director Zhang, look over here!”

“Director Li, Director Li!”

“Jiang Wen, Jiang Wen.”

“…”

The red carpet was star-studded, with a large number of well-known actors and directors from the mainland, making the reporters and audiences on the scene dazzled.

Li Yishu walked alone on the red carpet, waved to both sides, and then strode towards the theater entrance.

At this time, Gong Li and director Huang Lijia had been waiting for a long time.

Huang Lijia said excitedly: “Director Li, thank you for coming to our premiere!”

He didn’t expect that so many actors and directors, all big names, would come to the premiere of his movie.

Of course, he himself knew that these people were all here for Gong Li.

“Director Huang, you’re too polite.”

Li Yishu politely shook hands with the other party, then hugged Gong Li. After a few polite words, she walked into the theater without trying to steal the spotlight from the main creators.

“Director Li!”

Just as Li Yishu walked into the theater, she saw Jiang Qinqin and others who had come in early and did not walk the red carpet. She was about to go over when she heard someone calling her from behind.

Looking back, I found it was Xu Suo.

Li Yishu walked forward with a smile: “Sister Xu, long time no see.”

“Yeah, long time no see.” Xu Suo smiled and said, “I heard that you and Cheng Long are working together on a new movie in Hollywood. When will it start filming?”

Li Yishu said: “We have prepared everything that needs to be prepared. We estimate that we will be able to start filming in the middle of this month.”

The crew of “Rush Hour” has already made arrangements, and they are just waiting for him to go over and formally gather the actors and main creators to start filming.

Xu Su sighed and said, “That’s a pity. I was wondering if there would be a chance to work with Director Li again.”

Li Yishu smiled and said, “If Sister Xu wants to cooperate, it’s fine anytime.”

“Really? Don’t tease Sister Xu.”

“Of course it’s true, but forget about letting me direct it. After I finish filming this movie with Cheng Long, I plan to take a break for a year or two.”

“No, no.” Xu Lu shook his head repeatedly and said, “I just want to invite you to cooperate and invest in a movie.”

Li Yishu raised her eyebrows and said, “Brother Chen Kai’s movie?” (End of this chapter)