1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Scripts have always been Zhou Yan's strong point.

Ken Kobayashi has been paying attention to Zhou Yan's films for a long time. Starting from his first film "The Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly", the scripts have always been excellent.

One very valuable thing is that Zhou Yan wrote all the scripts for his films himself, which is something most directors cannot do.

Many good directors suffered from poor scripts and made many mediocre movies.

Of course, the script is just the foundation. After having a good script, many other things are needed to make a good movie.

A director's abilities include many aspects, and different types of directors have different abilities.

Zhou Yan's comprehensive ability has definitely become stronger and stronger in recent years.

As a commercial film, the rhythm of "Time Traveler" has almost no shortcomings.

Moreover, each Zhou Yan movie costs more than the last.

Being good at spending money does not seem to be an advantage in the eyes of ordinary audiences. Ordinary audiences would think that a good director should spend little money to achieve great things. What kind of ability is being good at spending money?

But in the eyes of these professional film critics, a director's ability to spend money is indeed an amazing skill.

Knowing how to spend money does not mean simply spending the money in your hand, but spending every penny where it should be spent and making every penny spent meaningfully.

Some directors can make a good movie with a budget of several million, but if you give them tens of millions, they may not be able to make it well.

If we compare these directors to chefs, they can only cook some home-cooked dishes but cannot prepare a grand meal.

There are many places in the movie "Time Traveler" where money was spent, but the effects are basically there, especially the wedding scene. Those shots must have cost a lot of money.

The money spent on the wedding scene was certainly not wasted, the effect was really good.

Although it was only the first time he saw this movie, Ken Kobayashi could already imagine that the wedding scene would become a classic scene later on.

…

When the movie ended, warm applause broke out in the theater.

While clapping, Hattori Jiro said to Takeuchi Tsuyoshi beside him, "Congratulations, Takeuchi-kun. This movie will definitely do well at the box office."

Yingfeng Company has cooperated with Zhou Yan a lot, not only on Zhou Yan's movies, but also his concerts and Qingyinfang's concerts, which are all represented by Yingfeng Entertainment. Takeuchi Tsuyoshi has also dealt with Hattori Jiro several times.

At this premiere, Takeuchi Tsuyoshi specially arranged Hattori Jiro to sit next to him.

"Thank you very much, thank you very much. We don't really care whether it makes money or not. The most important thing is to introduce good movies to Japan so that everyone can see them as soon as possible."

Hearing Takeuchi's high-sounding words, Hattori Jiro smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work. The fans will definitely be grateful to you."

In fact, Yingfeng was criticized to death some time ago because these fans in Japan believed that "Time Traveler" should be released at the same time as in mainland China.

Even if they cannot be released at the same time, it shouldn't be delayed too long. One or two weeks is the limit they can tolerate.

Who knew that "Time Traveler" would be released in Japan more than three months after it was released in China? Of course, everyone was not happy about it.

Many fans knew about the collaboration between Yingfeng and Zhou Yan, so they blamed the incident on Yingfeng Company, believing that their company was not doing its job well.

Of course, Yingfeng is not innocent. They were indeed not proactive enough in this matter.

If Yingfeng had contacted Tang Chen to plan the release of the film in Japan when the filming just started, then the release time of the film in Japan would definitely be advanced a long time, and it is not impossible that it would even be released simultaneously with mainland China.

It’s just that this movie was launched too quickly, shot too quickly, and released too quickly, and Yingfeng hasn’t reacted yet.

When Yingfeng Company learned about this movie, the film was about to start shooting. At that time, Yingfeng Company thought that since the film had just started shooting, it would take a lot of time to shoot and post-production, as well as a series of processes. They had plenty of time to contact Tang Chen.

Who knew it would all happen so fast.

By the time they get in touch, the movies are about to be released, and naturally there is not much time left for them.

When they saw Kudo Shizuka, the audience burst into applause again, and some people shouted Kudo Shizuka's name.

Kudo Shizuka held the microphone and said with a smile, "I'll be the translator."

Then she said to Zhou Yan and the others in Chinese, "Please say hello to everyone."

The three of them greeted the audience one by one, and Shizuka Kudo asked again, "Director, is there anything you want to say to the fans?"

Zhou Yan nodded and said, "In order to get this movie screened in Japan, we all made efforts. Fortunately, the efforts paid off in the end, and Time Traveler was able to meet the fans in Japan. Everyone here has seen the movie, and I believe you all have your own evaluation in your heart-"

"Speak less at a time. I can't translate it." Shizuka Kudo rolled her eyes.

There were some people at the scene who could understand Chinese, and when they heard what Kudo Shizuka said, they all laughed. Those who didn't understand Chinese were all confused and didn't know what was going on.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Then translate what you just said."

After Kudo Shizuka finished translating, Zhou Yan continued, "Although the protagonist in the movie has special abilities, in fact, he is just an ordinary person, no different from everyone here."

…

After briefly chatting about the film's expression, Zhou Yan talked about some interesting things that happened during the filming process and also specially described the scenery of Jiaochangwei.

After the movie "Time Traveler" was released in China, the scenery of Jiaochangwei attracted a lot of attention. Nowadays, Jiaochangwei is no longer as deserted as before.

Previously, due to the arrival of the crew of "Time Travelers", the transformation of Jiaochangwei has been accelerated. When the movie was still being filmed, it had already attracted a lot of attention, and more and more tourists went to Jiaochangwei.

Moreover, the local government also knows that after the release of "Time Travelers", there will definitely be a wave of popularity. The sooner the local supporting facilities are built, the more likely it is to take advantage of this wave of popularity.

The food, accommodation and entertainment in Jiaochangwei today are no longer comparable to what they were back then.

The release of "Time Traveler" in Japan may attract some Japanese tourists to travel across the country.

After Zhou Yan finished speaking, he asked Li Jingfei and Li Naiwen to talk for a few more words.

Since they knew they were supporting roles and people might not like to watch them, they didn't say much.

After that, there were no other sessions and today’s premiere came to an end.

When Zhou Yan walked off the stage, Izumi Sakai, who was sitting in the second row, leaned forward and said, "Zhou Yan, congratulations. This movie is very good and will definitely do well at the box office."

Zhou Yan also didn't understand Neon language, so he turned to look at Kudo Shizuka next to him, asking her to help translate.

Kudo Shizuka said reluctantly, "She said you made good movies."

As soon as Zhou Yan heard it, he knew that Kudo Shizuka's translation must have contained some personal opinions. However, by combining this translation with Sakai Izumi's tone and expression, he could also understand the general meaning.

He smiled and replied, "Thank you."

This time, Shizuka Kudo did not make trouble and translated seriously.

Izumi Sakai looked at Kudo Shizuka gratefully, and said with a smile, "Shizuka, can you help me get a ticket for Zhou Yanjun's Forbidden City concert? I really want to see it, but I don't know where to buy it."

Hearing that Izumi Sakai wanted tickets, Shizuka Kudo rolled her eyes and said, "You don't have to ask him about this. I can help you."

Izumi Sakai asked in surprise, "Really?"

“Of course, but not necessarily in the front position.”

"It doesn't matter. As long as I can get in and listen, the location doesn't matter."

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

Kudo Shizuka smiled and said, "Don't worry, I will try my best to find a better position for you."

"Thank you so much."

"You're welcome. I'll call you when the tickets are ready."

"Well, okay, I'll take my leave now."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye." Izumi Sakai waved to Zhou Yan with a smile.

Zhou Yan asked curiously, "What did you say?"

"She said the movie was great and she liked the songs in it, nothing else."

Zhou Yan didn't quite believe it, because Izumi Sakai had clearly revealed an expression of surprise just now, and looking at Akina Nakamori next to her trying to hold back her laughter, he became even more certain that Shizuka Kudo was fooling her.

It seems that I have to learn some Japanese language in the future, otherwise I will be at a disadvantage when working with these two.

After Izumi Sakai left, many people came to congratulate Zhou Yan, and some media reporters wanted to interview Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan did not refuse the reporters' requests for interviews. He led them to an empty place and interviewed them together.

However, this time, Zhou Yan did not ask Shizuka Kudo or Akina Nakamori to help translate, but instead found the translator arranged by Yingfeng Company. He was also worried that the reporters would ask random questions.

In addition, he also asked Li Jingfei and Li Naiwen to show their faces more often in Japanese media.

…

Zhou Yan stayed in Neon until April 15th and left only after celebrating Kudo Shizuka's birthday.

On the second day after he returned to Yanjing, that is, April 16, he received a call from Han Sanping.

As soon as the call was connected, Han Sanping laughed loudly, "Good news!"

As soon as Zhou Yan heard the good news, he knew it was related to the box office of "Time Traveler" in Japan.

"Neon's opening weekend box office numbers are out?"

"Well, the first weekend ration revenue was 450 million."

Zhou Yan was also surprised when he heard this number. "So many?"

When "The Sixth Sense" was released in Japan, its opening weekend box office revenue was 310 million, so it sounds like the gap between the two isn't particularly exaggerated.

But the problem is that this time "Time Traveler" was released on Saturday, and the first weekend was only three days, which was one day less than when "The Sixth Sense" was released.

On average, the average daily revenue of "The Sixth Sense" in the first three days of the weekend was a little over 100 million, while the average daily revenue of "Time Traveler" in the first two days of the weekend was 225 million.

With this calculation, the difference between the two is more than double.

At that time, the box office of "The Sixth Sense" was already very good, and this time "Time Traveler" directly doubled it, so even Zhou Yan was surprised.

"Yes, I have confirmed it repeatedly, and it is this much." Han Sanping was in a very good mood. "According to this calculation, the distribution income of this movie in Japan may exceed 3 billion."

Zhou Yan nodded. According to this data, the distribution income of "Time Traveler" is likely to exceed 3 billion.

If it really exceeds 3 billion, "Time Traveler" may become the champion of Japan's annual box office list, because the highest-earning movie in Japan last year was only more than 3 billion.

Of course, it is quite difficult to get the first place with more than 3 billion this year, because "Jurassic 2" and "Independence Day" are going to be released later.

In addition, there is also "Princess Mononoke" whose release date is uncertain.

The revenue from these movies will most likely exceed 3 billion.

But no matter what, with the current box office of "Time Traveler", it is very likely that the film will break the record of spoken language films released in Japan.

It is worth mentioning that this record was previously held by "The Sixth Sense" which surpassed "Project A".

It didn't last long before it was broken by Zhou Yan himself.

Moreover, the momentum of "Time Traveler" is likely to push it up a lot.

In fact, the box office revenue of "Time Traveler" in Japan has little to do with Yanjing Film Studio, but Han Sanping is still happy about it. After all, he was in charge of this movie. The better the movie performs internationally, the more proud he will be.

The next time people talk about Japan's highest-grossing film, they will no longer say "The Sixth Sense" but "Time Traveler", and "Time Traveler" is a project he took on and also his political achievement.

Zhou Yan could understand Han Sanping's feelings. He smiled and said, "It's too early to guess the specific box office now, but it should exceed "The Sixth Sense"."

"Haha, how long do you think it will take to surpass The Sixth Sense?"

Zhou Yan thought for a moment and said, "About ten days to two weeks."

"Yeah, I guess that's about right." Han Sanping agreed, "I'll go get ready, and when the record is broken, we'll have a celebration party."

"Uh, Third Brother, aren't these celebration banquets a bit too frequent?"

Han Sanping laughed and said, "Who said the movie did well?"