Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

Chapter 164 You have feelings, I have intentions

Zhou Ziheng and Izumi Sakai get along very well.

Perhaps because they are both singers and are famous for their creative works, the two have a lot of common topics.

In the next few days, Zhou Ziheng attended several autograph sessions and participated in several Japanese TV interviews.

Since he had never participated in a Japanese TV program before, the programs he participated in were greatly welcomed by Japanese audiences.

Because of the exposure of these TV shows, Zhou Ziheng is recognized more and more often on the street.

For this reason, Zhou Ziheng had to disguise himself before he dared to go out.

During this period, he also dated Izumi Sakai frequently.

Let’s just call it a date!

Because Zhou Ziheng and Izumi Sakai both knew very well that they were actually interested in each other.

You have feelings for me and I am interested in you, and we make plans to go out for dinner and movies every day when we are free. If this is not a date, what is it?
It is now March, Zhou Ziheng has been in Japan for more than a month, and his trip to Japan is coming to an end.

"Ziheng-kun, when will you come to Japan again after you go back this time?"

I met Izumi Sakai that day. She was in a bad mood the whole time and only asked this question when she was about to leave.

Zhou Ziheng turned to look at her, "That depends on you, Quanshui! If you want to see me, I might come to Japan again next month.

But if you don’t want to see me, I might only come once a year or once every six months.”

Zhou Ziheng's words were somewhat straightforward.

Sakai Izumi is a smart person. She understands what this means. Her face turns slightly red and she whispers, "Of course I want to see you, Ziheng-kun. I wish I could see you every day!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ziheng immediately understood and hugged Sakai Izumi in his arms.

"I will come to Japan after my global book signing event is over."

That night, Zhou Ziheng did not return to the hotel, but spent the night outside with Izumi Sakai.

The next morning, after bidding farewell to Izumi Sakai with tears in her eyes, Zhou Ziheng boarded the plane back to Hong Kong.

This round of autograph sessions is planned. The first stop is Japan, followed by Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and other places, then the United States and Canada, and finally Europe.

Because the area is so wide, the time span is also quite large.

EMi plans to complete it in one and a half months.

In fact, the number of subsequent autograph sessions and the duration of stay are relatively small.

The reason why it took more than a month to reach Japan was mainly because it was the first market for the album "Zhou Ziheng".

Although he is Asian and has a certain influence here, Zhou Ziheng has rarely increased his exposure in Japan.

This time it is a benefit for Japanese fans.

There was no such treatment in other places afterwards.

There were even only two autograph sessions in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

However, Zhou Ziheng still stayed in Hong Kong for a few more days this time.

It’s not entirely about the book signing event, but about the film and television company’s affairs.

Zhou Ziheng plans to meet with the director and screenwriter he wants to poach from the company in the next few days.

To set up a film and television company in Hong Kong, one needs no less than two to three people who have been in the industry for more than two years to serve as the founders of the film company.

This has been reflected in previous companies such as Golden Harvest, Cinema City, and D&B.

Golden Harvest was founded by Raymond Chow, Ho Koon-chung and Leung Fung.

Cinema City’s representatives include Michael Hui, Raymond Wong and Shek Tin.

Debao was founded by Sammo Hung and Sammul Shum.

Even the Zhengdong Films founded by Jet Li a year ago was established with the involvement of Yuen Kwai and the famous Hong Kong producer Cui Baozhu.

Zhou Ziheng wanted to set up a film and television company. If he relied on himself alone, it would absolutely not be possible because the procedures would not allow it.

Therefore, Zhou Ziheng had to find at least a partner before establishing the film company.

In fact, they are called partners, but in fact they just find one or two senior employees, pay a certain proportion of shares, and let them be responsible for the operation of the film and television company.

Zhou Ziheng already has a candidate.

His first choice was Johnnie To.

At this time, Johnnie To had already become very famous in Hong Kong.

As early as the 1980s, he filmed the art film "A Lang's Story" starring Chow Yun-fat and attracted attention from the film industry.

He later directed Stephen Chow's "Justice, My Foot", which won the annual box office championship in Hong Kong that year.

Even though the movie "Journey to the West" he shot last year indirectly led to the large-scale withdrawal of Taiwanese film producers from Hong Kong and threatened Hong Kong production companies to reduce the fees charged by Taiwanese film producers for purchasing film distribution rights.

Johnnie To was not actually affected that much.

He is still filming his movies at the Met.

It’s just that, relatively speaking, big companies like Golden Harvest and Yongsheng are not very willing to ask him to film.

The reason why Zhou Ziheng's first choice was Johnnie To.

Firstly, the other party’s shooting technique was very suitable to be his assistant director, helping him to correct the shooting of “Tazza”.

The second is that Johnnie To has a wide network of contacts.

This guy started working at TVB in the 1980s and is still working at Metropolitan Films. He is one of the best directors at Metropolitan.

He has strong connections in TVB and Metropolitan.

Look, next year TVB will reorganize Shaw Brothers and abandon Metropolitan Film Company. By then, a large number of Metropolitan employees will be unwilling to go to Shaw Brothers, and some will resign or start their own business.

In his previous life, after the dissolution of MetLife, Johnnie To brought together a group of people to establish Milkyway Image, one of the most influential film companies in Hong Kong in the late 1990s.

One company worth mentioning here is Metropolitan Films.

This film company was actually the one that was re-established after the dissolution of Shaw Brothers in the 1980s.

It is no exaggeration to say that he is Shaw Brothers.

Because it is the film company controlled by TVB.

Therefore, this company actually has a large number of mature film talents.

Zhou Ziheng is jealous of these talents.

It's easy to start a film company from scratch.

But it is obviously not that easy to carry it forward.

It’s impossible for this company to rely solely on Zhou Ziheng, right?
He started the film company to make money, not to do charity.

When he is not involved, the company must operate on its own and make money for him. This is what a successful startup company is.

Otherwise, why would Zhou Ziheng create him!
Just like Hengdong Records.

After its establishment, Zhou Ziheng would not let it fleece him, but let it grow on its own.

Hengdong is doing well at the moment.

Even if Zhou Ziheng does not participate, it is still making money for Zhou Ziheng.

At the beginning of the year, He Jin's new album "As Long as You Are With Me" achieved good results. Two months after its release, it has sold more than 700,000 copies in the mainland, and is expected to exceed one million copies this year.

At the same time, Xu Wei's "Persistence" was also released. Although the sales of rock records were not very high, it has achieved sales of more than 400,000 so far. "Persistence" also dominated the championship throne of major charts even though Zhou Ziheng had not released any songs.

Plus various other projects such as film and television song production.

Zhou Ziheng initially estimated that in 1995, Hengdong Records should bring him millions to tens of millions in revenue.

Similarly, Zhou Ziheng at the film and television company had the same idea.

He will be involved in the operation of the company and will bring out future hit movies to promote the company. But he does not have the ability to clone himself.

In the next few years, he will definitely focus his career on recording.

Under such circumstances, it is unrealistic to expect him to get involved in the affairs of the film and television company every day.

In this case, the film and television company will definitely have to operate the film and make money without his participation.

And this requires talent.

He would be happier if he could get all the original staff of Milkyway Image to work for him.

Of course, Zhou Ziheng doesn't think that once his cuckold spirit is released, Johnnie To will obediently join his company.

As a director who is already quite famous, maybe Johnnie To would not be willing to join?

Therefore, Zhou Ziheng also prepared two alternatives.

One is Chen Kexin, with whom he had worked before. The two had worked together and communicated very well.

Although Chen Kexin was suspected of defrauding investors' money in the future, he was actually very honest during this period.

Besides, this guy only cheated coal bosses, who are outsiders.

Zhou Ziheng is no layman. After he sets up the film and television company, he will assign Florence Hui to the company to manage the money.

Zhou Ziheng feels very relieved that Florence Hui is the housekeeper in charge of the money.

With her housekeeping attitude of checking the accounts seven times a day, it would be difficult for Chen Kexin to get a penny more.

Moreover, if Chen Kexin joined as a veteran, Zhou Ziheng would definitely give him a certain share. In this case, if he cheated the company, he would be cheating himself.

I believe he would not be so unwise.

Then as another alternative, Zhou Ziheng chose Chen Jiashang.

He is also a well-known director in Hong Kong, with hit movies such as "Fight Back to School" and "Once Upon a Time in China" to his credit.

However, this guy is a bit difficult. Firstly, Zhou Ziheng is not familiar with him. Secondly, he is doing very well now and has no worries about film shooting. I heard that he has hooked up with Jackie Chan recently and wants to help him shoot "Thunderbolt".

On March 3, Sambo Films' new film "The Sky of Mong Kok" was released, and they sent Zhou Ziheng an invitation letter, inviting him to attend.

Originally, Zhou Ziheng thought that he had nothing to do with Sanbao Pictures and wanted to decline.

It was still Mani Fok who reminded him that the director of "The Sky of Mongkok" was Benny Chan, who had a good relationship with Johnnie To and that Johnnie To would also attend the premiere. If he wanted to find Johnnie To, this was a good opportunity.

After learning this information, Zhou Ziheng put down what he was doing and rushed over.

Sambo Pictures is not very famous in Hong Kong. It is a film company that was only established in 1990 and started out with Category III films.

And there are not many big names in this movie "The Sky of Mong Kok".

Starring Simon Yam, Yu Rongguang and Christy Chung.

Therefore, the premiere that day was small in scale.

Although Sanbao's boss Liu Junhui routinely sent invitations to major stars and famous people in the circle, in fact, not many people came today.

Only a few people like Johnnie To are considered big names.

Therefore, after Liu Junhui personally went out with the main creative team to pick up Johnnie To and others to the cinema, he went to talk to the invited film critics and reporters to build good relationships with them, hoping that they could help promote the movie more.

He was chatting with the famous film critic and editor-in-chief of Film Biweekly, Luo Weiming, when suddenly his assistant Xiao Li came running over in a hurry.

"What are you panicking about? Is the sky falling?"

Seeing her flustered, Liu Junhui couldn't help but scold her.

"Boss Liu, Zhou Ziheng is here!"

"It's coming..."

Liu Junhui didn't take it seriously at first, but when he realized what was happening, he immediately widened his eyes and asked, "Who did you say is here?"

"Zhou Ziheng!" said the assistant.

"Oh my god, this great god actually accepted the invitation!"

After getting the exact answer, Liu Junhui suddenly became excited. He hurriedly apologized to Luo Weiming, "Editor Luo, I'm going to go out and pick someone up first. You guys chat first, and I'll come back to talk to you in detail later!"

"Let's go together! I'm also quite curious about Zhou Ziheng. He has brought a lot of glory to us Chinese.

Many of my foreign friends in Europe and America have privately asked me about him, and today I have a good opportunity to take advantage of your platform to get to know him.”

Luo Weiming, who was originally sitting firmly on the chair, stood up on his own initiative and said that he would go out with him to pick someone up.

"Ahhh, Zhou Ziheng, you're so handsome!"

"Zhou Ziheng, you are the pride of us Chinese people, you will always be my idol!"

"Hengzi, can you tell me what your plans are for this year?"

"Hengzi, the Japanese media reported that you are dating the famous Japanese singer Izumi Sakai. Is this true? Can you tell me?"

……

Liu Junhui came out with the main creators of the crew and some film critics who were curious about Zhou Ziheng.

As soon as I came out, I heard a group of scattered fans around who were preparing to buy tickets to enter the cinema cheering loudly.

At the same time, several reporters surrounded Zhou Ziheng and kept asking questions.

"What's going on? Is there no one maintaining order in front?"

Seeing this, Liu Junhui's face turned black.

There was no one responsible for maintaining order outside the cinema.

"Boss, we don't need to maintain order in such a small place like ours! Movie fans are so ignorant, who would have thought that a big shot like Zhou Ziheng would..."

The person in charge next to him muttered quietly.

Liu Junhui knew this was the truth, but he couldn't help but glare at him, "I'll deal with you after the premiere."

After saying that, he hurriedly took people to help Zhou Ziheng out.

"Hengzi, welcome, welcome!"

Liu Junhui shook hands with Zhou Ziheng with a bright smile on his face.

"I just returned to Hong Kong and I happened to have nothing to do today. I came here after seeing the invitation letter you handed over. Please forgive me if it is inconvenient."

Zhou Ziheng said with a smile.

To be honest, he didn't expect the premiere of this movie to be so sloppy, with not even a security guard at the door.

As soon as he got off the car, he was discovered by movie fans who were watching a movie in the nearby theater.

Then he was blocked by a few reporters who were interviewing outside the premiere as usual.

"No, no, Hengzi, it's our honor that you can come to our premiere.

Now everyone knows how famous you are, Hengzai. Reporters are going crazy for news about you.

You did us a great honor by coming to the premiere of our film."

Liu Junhui's words were very beautiful and made people feel comfortable.

While personally leading Zhou Ziheng, he introduced the group of people who came out with him.

"This is Mr. Simon Yam, the lead actor of our movie."

"Hello, Mr. Ren."

"This is Yu Rongguang, the villain of the movie. Like you, he is from the mainland."

"Brother Yu, nice to meet you!"

……

(End of this chapter)