Chapter 96

Chapter 96: Didn’t expect .

Compared to the excitement and eagerness from the ordinary populace, there was an undercurrent surging up in the film industry .

The movie ‘Love Letter’ had attracted so much attention in South Korea for 7 days in a row . The average viewers queuing was more than 15,000 a day had set the records for the Busan International Film Festival .

Moreover, in a website in Korean dedicated to review movies with scores, more than 20,000 posted and rated the movie .

According to the number of 3,000 people viewing the movie per day, almost 90% of the people who viewed the movie went to give their review on the website .

Even if there were fakes that didn’t watch the movie and only came to join the excitement, they shouldn’t be more than half of them .

And the average score of ‘Love Letter’ was 9 . 2 and ranked 13th among all the films in South Korea . The movie popularity was even greater as there were 2,000 reviews that had more than 1,000 words in them .

That 13th ranking shouldn’t be looked down at .

Over the past ten years or so, there were plenty of good movies that came out in South Korea but there were only 8 movies that had more than 10 million people that had watched it .

There dozens of movies that had good reviews and box offices .

South Korean’s comedy and action movies were generally very popular in China and often generated more than 100 million yuan in box office .

Therefore ‘Love Letter’ obtaining the 13th rank meant that it wasn’t a bad movie at least and it was a very good and popular movie .

Based on many years of experiences, movies with high ratings and reviews in South Korea also fared very well in China .

Since it was a good movie that had won many awards, it would be welcomed in the market so the distribution right of ‘Love Letter’ naturally became coveted thing .

To think that movie could have been bought with just ten million yuan and it was even with very advantageous clauses but it was freely given up just like that . The senior executives of major film companies and cinemas companies were enraged .

While ‘Love Letter’ was screening in South Korea, countless film companies audit managers and distribution managers were scolded by the people above .

Several of them even got fired .

Now that ‘Love Letter’ returned with all the honors, those companies and theater chains obviously wanted to rectify that mistake and hold it tightly to their chest .

They would definitely be able to make a lot of money if they distributed such a movie and most importantly, the reputation they would gain from it .

Just think about it .

To have a movie like ‘Love Letter’ that gained glory for the Chinese abroad in their company’s resumed and exhibition hall, how great would that be?

It would even give other people a better opinion of your company’s power .

This was also one of the reasons why many companies invested in film companies even if they didn’t make any money from it .

Several days ago, when ‘Love Letter’ was still exploding in popularity in South Korea and won the affection of many, multiple film companies went there to seek for it .

It included Yunxing Entertainment, who were also participated in the film festival, and Shanhai Streaming, who weren’t exactly like the rest .

But none of them got the right to distribute the movie .

It only at this time you were talking about buying it out, that was laughable . The other party could earn dozens of million yuan by just distributing it in South Korea and Japan, they completely didn’t lack money .

Therefore, the best thing to do for them was to get the domestic right to distribute and gain their money and fame .

But Zhu Mei didn’t want to discuss about it and said she wanted to wait until the film festival ended and returned to China before she was willing to talk about it .

Everyone thought that Zhu Mei was waiting for the expected film festival awards so she could raise the price up .

And as expected, ‘Love Letter’ became the most dazzling star at the Busan International Film Festival and Zhu Mei came back with a heavy bag .

Now the condition was at its peak, the film companies and theater chains weren’t just those at the beginning as the three major film companies also joined up .

Daqi Entertainment was also amongst them .

It was said that the second boss Xie Yang actively requested for it .

But many people in the entertainment industry weren’t optimistic about Daqi Entertainment’s chance .

It was because Xie Yang had participated in the smearing of ‘Love Letter’ before and also because the undeniable advantage of Xuanwu Film .

Xuanwu Film was closely related to Huhai Opera to begin with and the boss Liao Shi himself graduated from Huhai Opera which meant he was Zhu Mei’s senior .

Since Zhu Mei graduated, 5 of the 8 movies she directed had been produced by Xuanwu Film .

Although he was wrong about ‘Love Letter’ before, they relationship was still good and coupled with the strength of Xuanwu film that ranked fourth in the country, what other choice Zhu Mei had?

Even Liao Shi thought so .

He was full of confidence as he rushed to Zhu Mei’s house .

“Mei, your senior brother was wrong last time! I misjudged you!” he said with sincerity as he sat on the sofa, “This time also count as a lesson for me! Just give me an opportunity to make it up and let us continue cooperate . Senior Brother will help give you the best release for ‘Love Letter’ as well as get you the most screening in the country and let them all see how good ‘Love Letter’ is!”

Zhu Mei grinned, “I don’t blame you Senior Brother . Didn’t everybody misjudge it at the beginning?”

Liao Shi felt more at ease after seeing her attitude didn’t change from the past .

“If that’s the case, what do you think of my proposal just now concerning the distribution of ‘Love Letter’?” Liao Shi said, “Xuanwu Film will definitely give the best conditions and we are also amongst friends here . Senior brother will not treat you badly . ”

“Senior Brother, do you know how ‘Love Letter’ investment and team came to be?” Zhu Mei asked instead answering him .

“I know . ” Liao Shi nodded his head, “You and Xiao Shui invested 3 million each and the actors paid for a share of the movie with their salaries . ”

“I also thought there was no problem with working with Xuanwu Film but they don’t think so . ” Zhu Mei said, “There is no need to worry about finding a company to distribute the movie now that ‘Love Letter’ has such great achievements . What everybody means is to have all the companies bid for it and it would go to whoever gives the best price . ”

Liao Shi frowned as he said, “Isn’t you that has the final say?”

“This time our crew is quite unique . We all worked very hard to film this movie so everybody has a say on it . ”

“Is there no other way?” Liao Shi asked, “Do you think others is going to offer more than me? Why should we destroy the relationship between us fellow graduates for something that won’t necessarily happen?”

Zhu Mei looked at him and suddenly smiled . Liao Shi’s felt a bit restless when he saw the smile .

“Senior Brother, I remember you said something to me before we left for South Korea . ” Zhu Mei said calmly, “Friendship is friendship, business is business . If it is mixed up, not only the business will be bad, the friendship will be also lost . Now I think this sentence can’t be truer than it is . ”

Liao Shi expression changed as he stared at Zhu Mei without saying anything .

Zhu Mei looked back calmly .

After a moment, Liao Shi laughed loudly as he said, “Right! Right! Senior Brother is so happy, Junior Sister you finally grew up! Alright, we’ll leave to the market to decide! I still hope it will be us that will work together at that time!”

“I also hope to continue to work with Senior Brother . ” Zhu Mei replied politely .

Both of them had smiles on their faces .

But both of them knew in their mind that the relation between them was no longer the same .

From now on, their relation was just only business and there wouldn’t be any relation between a senior brother and junior sister .