Chapter 266: Subconscious Influence

Although it is not appropriate to talk about work during the New Year holiday, Su Yun did not have any appointments after paying New Year's greetings, so she simply took a detour and went to a hand-made tailoring shop opened by her second sister Zhao Suyun, which specializes in high-end custom-made products.

Probably because it was the first day of the new year, the store was very quiet, with only two young female employees staying behind to look after the store.

"Let me check the batch of clothes that I customized before." Su Yun stepped forward and handed the order voucher to the female clerk at the front desk. In fact, with Su Yun's current fame and status, even without the voucher, the clerk would recognize her as the sister of their boss. Therefore, she just took a quick look and asked another person to go to the warehouse to get the samples.

In terms of the costumes in "The Lost Tomb", Su Yun was unusually meticulous. The previous ancient costumes were extremely expensive, and modern costumes are also made according to high-end custom specifications, so she could no longer place orders with the garment factory she cooperated with her old neighbor, the Wang family. The garment factory in charge of the Wang family took the affordable route of quantity and cost-effectiveness. In the early years, Su Yun made a lot of money from the same costumes in film and television by increasing the batch size.

This is why she seldom shoots movies with period themes: it is difficult to open up the market for the same style of period costumes, but the modern clothes she designs and matches can create a sales effect after being shown by the good-looking protagonists in the dramas, bringing about the popularity of an element or even several styles.

For example, for Elizabeth Taylor, who played a guest role in "The Fault in Our Stars", Su Yun racked her brains and designed a number of retro-style dresses that highlighted her plump figure that always makes her look fat. To this day, several of her dresses are still classic and best-selling export products.

This time, the protagonists are equipped with high-end modern costumes. In addition to promoting the product, there is a deeper reason that Su Yun has not yet announced to the public.

Therefore, when it was found that the first batch of samples did not fully meet the requirements, Su Yun decisively chose to wait until the fourth day of the Chinese New Year to continue repairing them: this is different from shooting inland dramas, because of the environmental factors of the times and the fact that there are many digging scenes and action scenes, so the requirements for that batch of costumes can be relaxed.

This batch of custom-made costumes includes modified Chinese cheongsams and Mao suits, as well as typical Western-style long windbreakers and suits, plus sportswear that is highly designed yet practical... As for the other miscellaneous accessories, they are also too numerous to count.

The shooting background of this batch of costumes was set in a prosperous modern metropolis, and they are also used to highlight the high looks of the protagonists. Naturally, there are very high requirements for the style, material, workmanship, etc.

While Su Yun was signing the orders one by one, Zhao Suyun, who came to inspect the store, asked with some confusion: "If we rework again, will there be any problems with the budget?"

As an art designer, she naturally wanted to strive for perfection, but Su Yun's plan for this shoot was very large, and even though she was working with her own people and got a discount, she still spent too much money on custom costumes.

"You get what you pay for. If you're going to do it, then do it to the best of your ability." Su Yun signed the last order, then tilted her head to look at Zhao Suyun, almost trying to give her a cute look, "Or... can you let me pay in installments?"

Zhao Suyun was amused by Su Yun's self-righteous way of asking for money and discounts. She said with a smile: "You have 'borrowed' a lot of my eldest sister's jewelry before, and it's not enough? Now you want to extort more from me?"

Thinking of the time when Su Yun had coaxed her elder sister Zhao Suwen into renting a number of valuable old items from her jewelry store before Su Yun returned to the mainland to start filming, Zhao Suyun couldn't help shaking her head: her elder sister had once jokingly told her that those old items would not be sold in the store for a year or two anyway, and since Su Yun wanted to borrow them for filming, she would just consider it as a New Year's red envelope for Su Yun, her younger sister.

However, compared to Su Yun, who is dedicated to her career instead of just messing around like her younger brother, as her elder sister, it wouldn't hurt for me to support her.

Just as my eldest sister said, just think of it as a New Year's red envelope for my little sister who is coming home for the first time.

Seeing that Su Yun was indeed worried about the budget, Zhao Suyun thought for a moment and reminded her, "Or, you could try to talk to Mom and Dad about it at dinner tomorrow night?"

The Zhao family is in the film and television business, and just like the catering business, the busiest time is always during the Chinese New Year and other festivals. So New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are usually not enough for the family to gather for a reunion dinner. Unless there are unexpected events, the reunion dinner is mostly scheduled for the second night of the New Year.

Therefore, they had agreed with Su Yun before that Su Yun would go to the Zhao family's old house for dinner on the second night of the New Year, and New Year's Eve and the first day of the New Year could be left for Su Yun to "freely do what she wants".

"I do have this plan, but this still needs a little opportunity." Su Yun smiled mysteriously, "Thank you to the second sister for your support. I will definitely take a good look at these clothes and help you Bringing in a lot of business!”

"Okay, you just know how to talk big." Zhao Suyun scratched her cheek and then reminded her, "I asked Zhang Ji to help with a few windbreakers. If you have any special requirements, go to his house to pay New Year's greetings and talk to him in person. This will save some time on modifications."

"Got it!" Su Yun put the receipt away and put it into her brick-like donkey bag. After saying goodbye to Zhao Suyun, she drove to Zhang's house.

Su Yun sneaked into the hall under the pretext of paying New Year's greetings and immediately saw Zhang Querong sitting in the corner, dressed in a long gown and drinking by himself.

"You don't have work today?!" Su Yun looked at him in surprise: Although Zhang Querong's album performance is not ideal at the moment, he has gained popularity through continuous movies and TV series, and has more or less made it to the second-tier, so he should have a place in the TV station's New Year's special program today...

"Yes, yes, but unfortunately you know my dad. He pretended to be seriously ill to get me back from England, let alone a notice from a TV station." Zhang Querong's family has never agreed with him showing up in the entertainment industry, and their methods are tougher than those of Chen Baiyang's family. If he hadn't persisted and achieved some success, he would probably have packed up his bags and returned home to inherit the family business.

"Oh, it's hard for you." Su Yun patted his shoulder comfortingly.

Zhang Querong sighed, then told Su Yun some of his father's temperament and personality traits, and finally reminded him: "My father had a stroke before, and he hasn't recovered very well yet, so now the handicrafts are handed over to the apprentices and he is the commander. If you have any questions, it's best to say it in detail and speak loudly and slowly, because his ears are not very good..."

"You seem to care about him a lot." Su Yun looked at him with a smile.

"After all, there is no overnight hatred between a father and a son." Zhang Querong sighed again, "Although he doesn't support me on the surface, I heard from my mother that he often watches my show..."

Su Yun couldn't help but smile at this traditional Chinese parental approach of not supporting on the surface but paying close attention behind the scenes.

After Su Yun agreed with Zhang's father and his apprentices about the windbreaker, Zhang's father suddenly stopped her when she was about to leave. "By the way, a city council member in the United States ordered a few suits from me before. When he came to pick up his clothes, he saw your sample and wanted to make one. I didn't agree because it was for your stage costume. But he still asked me to ask if I could give him a windbreaker."

"Of course you can, but it needs to be officially sold as part of the movie after the movie is released at the end of the year." Su Yun waved her hand generously.

Taking the congressman's business card handed over by Zhang's father, Su Yun looked at it carefully: Oh, what a coincidence.

However, since he graduated from high school in Hong Kong and then went abroad, it is not surprising that he would come back to Hong Kong to have custom-made clothes from a time-honored brand.

Everything was ready and there was an unexpected gain, so Su Yun came to Zhao's house on the second night of the New Year with full confidence.

The Zhao family didn't have a strict rule of not talking while eating or sleeping. When Zhao Rifu asked her why she was so nervous about the budget for her film, Su Yun was quite calm: "Before talking about this question, I want to show you something first."

"Come, I'll help you play it." Zhao Rifu himself is a movie fanatic. He feels uncomfortable if he doesn't watch a movie for a day. Therefore, in addition to the special screening room in the company, he also designed a small screening room at home and arranged various advanced playback equipment. As soon as Su Yun took out the videotape, Zhao Lizhong quickly stood up to help.

Anyway, he has been used to being a younger brother over the years. Instead of being called upon to help by others, it is better for him to take the initiative first - and Su Yun, this little sister, has helped him a lot in the company before, so it is only right for him to return the favor.

As Zhao Lizhong drummed the drum a few times, an icon with all the subtitles in English soon appeared on the big TV screen facing the dining table.

"English program?" Zhao Liming, who had just returned from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, frowned: Su Yun, this guy who never stops making trouble, what is he planning to do recently?

"It's a street interview program in the United States." Zhao Liying had been a otaku in Japan for so many years that he recognized the essence of the program.

"What do you think about a Chinese-American council member running for mayor of Cerritos, California?" As the opening music played, a host in casual clothes held the microphone and passed it to passers-by.

"Chinese? Running for mayor?"

"Is he Chinese? Is he like the main character in the popular TV series Brewster's Billions?"

"Oh man, let me tell you, Brewster is so cool, if I were in the movie, I would vote for him too!"

"If a Chinese American became mayor, would he provide welfare to people like us, like in the movies?"

"I don't understand... But I don't mind, as long as it gives me more job opportunities..."

"I heard that this Chinese congressman has proposed many proposals to promote economic development, but they are always rejected by some overly conservative people - God, can these old stubborn people step down sooner?"

"Whoever the mayor is, whoever can make us enough money to buy bread is a good mayor!"

There are some extreme comments, but most of the ordinary people interviewed seem to not care.

Zhao Rifu's eyes darkened, and he suddenly looked at the smiling Su Yun: "I didn't expect... that you had this plan."

Looking back, this tactic of "pulling the masses with weak wills in order to achieve the goal" was actually used once by Su Yun.

That time, she became the first Chinese to win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and also the youngest record holder for Best Supporting Actress.

This time, her ambition is even greater - to use the popularity and breadth of commercial films to subtly influence the general public, who are the largest group of people and whose cognition is most susceptible to change, to change their previous views on China, the Chinese, and Chinese Americans.

Step by step, little by little, it resisted the Western world's vilification of China for many years, and at the same time began to sow the seeds of cultural export.

Thinking clearly about Su Yun's goal, Zhao Rifu slowed down his voice: "Tell me your real purpose - you know, before I came to Hong Kong to make a living, my third brother gave me a check with unlimited overdraft."