Chapter 364 Li Changyi's confession (please subscribe to support!)
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Although he was the producer of "Iron Man", Xu Kai did not use this status to compete with Jon Favreau for power and profit. Instead, he gave Jon Favreau many pertinent suggestions based on the previous life of "Iron Man", such as making a "plastic surgery" modification to the character of Iron Man, retaining and strengthening the original good elemental attributes of Iron Man, and removing all the bad elemental settings, for example, setting Iron Man to be tall, rich and handsome, etc.
Jon Favreau graduated from Queens College and has directed several profound films. He is a well-known director in Hollywood. Xu Kai has seen the works directed by Jon Favreau, so he is still very confident in Jon Favreau.
It is also because of this that Xu Kai has always only given advice to Jon Favreau and has not interfered with his directing of "Iron Man".
In addition to being too busy, Xu Kai sometimes didn't come to the "Iron Man" crew for a week, so naturally he wouldn't give Jon Favreau any instructions, thus avoiding the sharp conflicts between directors and producers that would occur in many crews.
This undoubtedly won Jon Favreau's favor.
The key is that all the suggestions Xu Kai gave to Jon Favreau were very pertinent and constructive.
In addition, Xu Kai has the title of the number one commercial director, and his fame and strength are there. If he does not compete with Jon Favreau, it is because Xu Kai is unwilling to compete, not because he cannot compete, nor because he cannot win.
Jon Favreau was well aware of this, and he became closer and closer to Xu Kai, and eventually they became friends.
Since Xu Kai got along very well with Jon Favreau, Xu Kai supported Jon Favreau's choice of actor Robert Stark for the role of Iron Man.
Robert Stack also publicly stated that he has always been a die-hard fan of the original comics, and if the film produces 15 sequels, he will insist on playing Iron Man 15 times.
Privately, Robert Stack was very grateful to Xu Kai for supporting him. After all, in terms of his own qualifications, he was not better than the other candidates. If it weren't for Jon Favreau and Xu Kai's support, he would not have gotten the role of Iron Man.
The key point is that Xu Kai is half of the investor and holds the copyright of Iron Man. Only by having a good relationship with Xu Kai can Robert Stark continue to play the role of Iron Man.
It has to be said that Jon Favreau and Xu Kai are good friends for this reason as well.
Well, no matter what the reason is, in short, Xu Kai gets along well with everyone in the "Iron Man" crew, even though he doesn't come to the "Iron Man" crew often.
…
At the end of November, "Detective Chinatown 2" landed in the domestic Lunar New Year holiday as scheduled.
Xu Kai finally took time out of his busy schedule to return home.
Xu Kai has to come back because some unscrupulous media say anything.
Like Xu Kai, he has no confidence in "Detective Chinatown 2", so he dare not come back to promote "Detective Chinatown 2"; like Xu Kai and his old partner Chen Ruoxi broke up because of love turning into hate, so he did not come back to support "Detective Chinatown 2"; like Xu Kai, he made enough money in China, but ran to join the nationality of the United States. He is a traitor that everyone should boycott!
etc……
In this case, if Xu Kai does not personally attend the premiere of "Detective Chinatown 2", it is likely to affect the box office of "Detective Chinatown 2".
Therefore, Xu Kai not only returned to China in person to attend the premiere of "Detective Chinatown 2", but also walked the red carpet with Chen Ruoxi in a very high-profile manner.
In addition, after the premiere, Xu Kai asked Yang Xinchun to post a long article on his personal public account.
The general meaning is: I, Xu Kai, did not make money from China to go to the United States. This time I went to the United States to shoot "Detective Chinatown 2", "Rush Hour", "The Grandmaster 4", "Lovers' First Kiss" and "Iron Man". At the same time, I have been participating in major film festivals with my other new drama "Farewell My Concubine".
Therefore, the reason why I, Xu Kai, have not appeared in China in recent period is not at all as those ill-intentioned people have slandered me, but simply because I have had too many things to do abroad recently and have been so busy that I have no time to return home.
At the same time, "Xu Kai" also attached his Chinese passport, as well as some photos of himself at the filming locations of various films, and some photos of himself appearing at major film festivals with some actors and staff from the "Farewell My Concubine" crew.
Finally, "Xu Kai" also attached more than a dozen award certificates of various sizes won by "Farewell My Concubine", including the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globe Awards in the United States, the Best Foreign Language Film at the Royal Academy Awards in England, the Best Foreign Language Film at the César Awards in the United Kingdom, the Best Foreign Language Film at the Blue Dragon Awards in South Korea, and the Best Foreign Language Film at the Japanese Society of Film Critics, etc.
"Xu Kai" wrote another sentence under the densely packed award-winning photos: I am not posting these to show off or promote "Farewell My Concubine". I just want to explain to everyone how busy I am abroad recently. I hope that everyone will not be led by those villains with ulterior motives.
Finally, I would like to ask everyone to support my new movie "Detective Chinatown 2", thank you!
As soon as Xu Kai's statement was issued, it instantly topped the hot search list, sparking huge discussion.
In fact, in recent times, that is, when Xu Kai was not in the country, there has been constant news about Xu Kai and "Farewell My Concubine".
There is no other reason for this, it's just because "Farewell My Concubine" is so successful. It not only won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival, the most influential and top international film festival in the world today, but also won many internationally influential awards including the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in the United States.
These awards are enough to make the Chinese people, who have never achieved such high achievements, excited and proud.
Moreover, the award-winning journey of "Farewell My Concubine" is still continuing - let's not talk about other awards for now. Now, as long as "Farewell My Concubine" can win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film to be held in January next year, Xu Kai, the creator of "Farewell My Concubine", will have almost nothing to strive for on the road of film art. The only other thing he can do is to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oscars.
Under such circumstances, China's major media outlets of course hyped up Xu Kai and his film Farewell My Concubine. Those who had previously ridiculed Xu Kai for only being able to make commercial films and not engage in art all went into hiding and dared not even breathe.
By the way, because "Farewell My Concubine" achieved such dazzling results, those fifth-generation directors, sixth-generation directors, veteran artists and so on finally recognized Xu Kai's identity as a famous director, and felt that Xu Kai was finally qualified to be associated with them as a director who could make movies.
Of course, Xu Kai didn't care about that.
But then again, people carry people in a sedan chair, so we should plant more peaches and plums and less thorns. Since others are praising us, we should also show respect to our predecessors. There is no need to be unconventional and make enemies for ourselves. It is better to be humble so that we can make more friends, fewer enemies, and make our path smoother.
Therefore, whenever a senior praised him, Xu Kai would give a positive and humble response.
Xu Kai was right to do so. With the support and solidarity of netizens and these fifth-generation and sixth-generation directors and veteran artists, the relevant departments have begun to consider allowing Farewell My Concubine to be screened in China...
but--
Although relevant departments have begun discussing lifting the ban on "Farewell My Concubine", "Farewell My Concubine" will not be able to be released in the short term.
This also means that at this stage, the only film that truly benefits from the momentum of "Farewell My Concubine" is "Detective Chinatown 2".
——Because Xu Kai's "Farewell My Concubine" has long dominated the hot search list, Xu Kai's upcoming "Detective Chinatown 2" will inevitably attract widespread attention, especially under the deliberate guidance of Chen Ruoxi and others, coupled with Xu Kai's previous unparalleled reputation and the super high popularity accumulated by "Detective Chinatown", "Detective Chinatown 2" will definitely be popular before it is released.
How popular is it?
It was so popular that the midnight premiere alone sold over 48 million tickets.
Tickets for the first day of "Detective Chinatown 2" are already hard to come by, with scalpers even pushing the price down to 500 yuan per ticket. Even at this price, it's still hard to buy tickets even if you have money.
The reason why "Detective Chinatown 2" is so popular, in addition to the reasons mentioned above, is also because after the midnight premiere, the first wave of word-of-mouth of "Detective Chinatown 2" was also released.
"Detective Chinatown 2, a suspense and comedy film, looks set to be a big hit again. Its unique style, excellent quality, delicate performance techniques and newly created detective team all impressed me. I bet that Detective Chinatown 2 will continue Yu Qingyun's box office legend and become the seed player who laughs last in this year's Lunar New Year box office!"
"Compared to Detective Chinatown, Detective Chinatown 2 has a more complex story and a grander structure. The opening scene is the World Famous Detective Competition in New York, where famous detectives of various styles and extraordinary abilities gather together, and the winner of the competition will win a high prize. Behind the competition and the prize, an incredible serial murder case is cleverly introduced. A cruel murderer who specializes in hunting for organs from living people, seemingly unrelated crime scenes, and several victims who are completely strangers to each other... The film begins in a suspenseful atmosphere. Detective Chinatown 2 can be said to have brought the elements of suspense, reasoning, comedy, nostalgia, etc. to the extreme, bringing a comprehensive upgrade from story to structure."
“…”
Those who used to criticize Xu Kai no longer dared to speak out and make irresponsible remarks, as Xu Kai rode on the success of "Farewell My Concubine" and "Detective Chinatown 2" was even better.
This also resulted in "Detective Chinatown 2" receiving almost zero negative reviews, and the ratings on major platforms were also very high.
Seeing this, those film producers have significantly shifted their screening schedules toward "Detective Chinatown 2", bringing the screening rate of "Detective Chinatown 2" to over 70%.
Don’t forget, this is the Lunar New Year period with the largest number of moviegoers and countless movies competing for screening time!
Under such circumstances, "Detective Chinatown 2" can still be given such a high screening volume. It is conceivable how high the film producers' expectations are for "Detective Chinatown 2".
"Detective Chinatown 2" lived up to expectations, with a box office of more than 570 million on the first day and more than 2.5 billion in the first week, accounting for 84.7% of the total box office, dominating this year's Lunar New Year box office. Its momentum is even stronger than "Hello, Li Huanying" which swept the movie market last year.
Everyone predicts that, unless there are any major surprises, "Detective Chinatown 2" will definitely break the box office record set by "Hello, Li Huanying", and its total box office may even exceed 5 billion or even more, becoming the new domestic film box office champion.
Undoubtedly, Xu Kai has once again proved to the world that his title as the number one commercial film director is well-deserved.
…
This time when Xu Kai returned to China, in addition to attending the premiere of "Detective Chinatown 2" and eliminating hidden dangers for the release of "Detective Chinatown 2", he also had to meet someone.
——A person who gave Xu Kai a lot of help.
This person is Xu Kai’s classmate in the CEO class at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, and the person who introduced Xu Kai to join Relay China - Li Changyi.
Xu Kai encountered something that gave him a headache some time ago.
The thing is that Xu Kai is seriously short of money.
Originally, Xu Kai was not short of money.
After all, every movie Xu Kai makes is very profitable, and it provides a constant source of income for Xu Kai.
In this situation, no matter how you look at it, Xu Kai should not be short of money.
However--
Not long ago, Long Zijin suddenly heard that 70 civilian airliners of Lufthansa, Europe's largest commercial airliner, were being retired at the same time.
Currently, Xingyun Express has 41 owned freighters, 16 leased freighters, 57 routes and 396 pilots, and has become the largest cargo airline in China.
If Xingyun Express can take over these 70 retired civil airliners from Lufthansa, although it is still far from the international express giants (FedEx with 671, UPS with 649, DHL with 420), and even the three major airlines are far behind, but at least Xu Kai will no longer have to invest money in Xingyun Express in the future, and Xingyun Express will be able to complete its initial layout and become an unshakable leader in China's express delivery industry with broad room for development.
When Xu Kaichu heard the news, he breathed a sigh of relief.
In the past few years, Xu Kai has made a lot of money, but most of it was thrown into the big pit of Xingyun Express.
What others don’t know is that Xu Kai is actually under a lot of pressure.
Fortunately, Xu Kai only needs to show off one last time to be completely free.
but--
What Xu Kai didn't know was how much this boasting amounted to.
So, when Xu Kai heard that it might cost nearly 10 billion to buy these 70 retired civil airliners from Lufthansa, he felt terrible.
Xu Kai is very rich.
But asking Xu Kai to come up with 10 billion all at once is bullshit.
Long Zijin said that Xingyun Express could only give Xu Kai 2 billion at most, and Xu Kai would have to find a way to solve the 8 billion gap on his own.
In addition, during his time in the United States, Xu Kai also spent a lot of money buying Artisan Films, the copyright of Marvel's superhero characters, investing in "Iron Man", "Rush Hour", and "The Grandmaster 4".
The key point is that Xu Kai also added investments in a large number of projects he is optimistic about, including group buying websites, Dami mobile phones, short video platforms, ByteDance, 360, Vipshop, YY, and Competitive World.
So, at this time, let alone asking Xu Kai for 8 billion, even if Long Zijin asked Xu Kai for 800 million, it would be very difficult for Xu Kai to come up with it.
Just when Xu Kai was racking his brain about how to get the money, Li Changyi suddenly contacted Xu Kai and asked about his recent situation.
Later, when the two were chatting, Li Changyi took the initiative to confess to Xu Kai that her name was not actually Li Meimei, but Li Changyi, and her father was Li Yonghong, the largest shareholder and chairman of Hua Minxin Bank.
When Xu Kai heard that Li Changyi's family owned a bank, he immediately thought about taking out a loan.
So Xu Kai asked Li Changyi.
What Xu Kai didn't expect was that Li Changyi actually did something for Xu Kai and asked her father Li Yonghong to contact Xu Kai that night.
Xu Kai and Li Yonghong had a long talk, and Li Yonghong even flew to the United States to meet Xu Kai.
Since Xu Kaihua was a well-known wealthy man on the Forbes list and had huge assets, and with the help of his beloved daughter Li Changyi, and the fact that Xu Kai was willing to mortgage the entire Xingyun Express (including the 70 retired Lufthansa passenger planes that were about to be purchased) to Minxin Bank, Li Yonghong quickly agreed to lend Xu Kai 10 billion yuan on behalf of Minxin Bank, and the loan was released in just a dozen working days.
Although this is a mutually beneficial business transaction, there is actually no personal emotion involved and it is purely business. However, if Li Changyi had not helped Xu Kai and Li Yonghong to connect, this large project involving a loan of 10 billion yuan would not have been negotiated so easily, and it would have been even more impossible to release the loan so quickly, even if Xingyun Express, which bought 70 retired civil airliners from Lufthansa, had a market value of more than 20 billion yuan.
Therefore, Xu Kai felt that he owed Li Changyi a big favor. It was reasonable for Xu Kai to meet Li Changyi after returning to China...
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(End of this chapter)
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