This year's Cannes Film Festival closed on the evening of May 23. There is a seven-hour time difference between Hong Kong and France. It was early morning in Hong Kong when the awards ceremony was held in Cannes.

As soon as "Parasite" won the Palme d'Or, the reporter from "Tian Tian Daily" in Cannes spread the news back to Hong Kong.

posted this scoop.

On that day, the sales of "Tiantian Daily" exceeded 300,000 copies.

For several days in a row, the sales volume of "Tiantian Daily" remained high.

As one of the three major international film festivals in Europe, the international influence of the Cannes Film Festival is unquestionable, and even Hong Kong, located in Asia, is within the scope of its influence.

Xiangjiang films have swept the East Asian film industry for many years, but when it comes to international awards, there are very few.

In the 1960s, Hu Jinquan and Li Hanxiang were touted as great directors by Hong Kong media even if they won technical awards in Cannes. Now Hui Anhua has won the Palme d'Or with "Parasite", which is naturally worthy of special mention by all media.

In the last few days of May, almost all the headlines of major entertainment newspapers in Hong Kong were occupied by news related to "Parasite", and public opinion was completely detonated.

Hong Kong’s first Palme d’Or trophy cannot be exaggerated.

What's more, Xu Anhua has already won three awards at the Cannes Film Festival with "The Truman Show". Now that he has won another award, it is even more justified and in line with people's hearts.

The reaction of the citizens was very real, with a strong sense of pride amidst the attention and heated discussions.

The term "Light of Hong Kong" was mentioned again, and anyone who has anything to do with "Parasite" deserves this title.

The fact that Hong Kong films have dominated Southeast Asia for many years has not only made Hong Kong citizens proud, but also made many Hong Kong filmmakers proud.

But it is also true that this kind of influence in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia is difficult to spread. The market in Hong Kong is really too small. In recent years, it has gradually developed an export-oriented film market.

At present, the potential of the Gulf Islands and Southeast Asia has been squeezed out, and it is very difficult to penetrate Japan and South Korea, let alone develop into regions and countries outside Asia.

The limitations of Hong Kong movies have gradually been revealed, and many Hong Kong filmmakers understand this.

Some people live in a dream and just want to make quick money, such as New Art City and many small film companies.

Some people are still struggling in vain, hoping to break through geographical restrictions, such as Jiahe.

Golden Harvest is both lucky and unfortunate. Fortunately, it has been able to continuously tap two action superstars, Bruce Lee and Cheng Long. Unfortunately, its attempts to hit the international stage have always failed.

Bruce Lee once had the opportunity to lead Golden Harvest to the international market, but died suddenly; Cheng Long's attempt to hit Hollywood in 1980 also failed miserably.

Xu Guanwen did not go the Hollywood route, but went international with literary films. He was successful, but Xu Guanwen's success had nothing to do with Golden Harvest.

"Lin——"

This name lingered over Zou Wenhuai's head like a curse, making him upset.

Since the establishment of Golden Harvest in the 1970s, he has defeated the giant of the film industry, Shaw Brothers, and suppressed the supernova New Art City, but he has no way to deal with this new opponent, Lin.

In just a few years, Lin's expansion rate far exceeded his imagination and exceeded the understanding of many people.

The most terrifying thing is that Lin's rapid expansion seems to have almost no shortcomings in production, distribution, theaters, investment--

Chow Wenhuai was able to defeat Shaw Brothers because he was willing to spend money. He pioneered the satellite company system in Hong Kong, allowing celebrities and famous directors to be their own bosses.

But he still did not get rid of the short-sightedness of ordinary Xiangjiang bosses. After Jiahe successfully grew bigger, he delayed dividends as much as he could and depended on them as much as he could. At one time, his confidant and general Sammo Hung almost lost all his funds.

In the early years, when Shaw Brothers were aging and fighting within Xinyi City, there was no problem with his short-sightedness.

In the past two years, the Lin family has suddenly emerged, and Tao Yushu poured out money like water, directly defeating Zou Wenhuai.

Compared with Tao Yushu, the amount of money he spent back then was childish.

Zou Wenhuaiming knew very well the power of Tao Yushu's money, but he had no choice but to sit back and watch Lin's business grow bigger step by step.

Because he was reluctant to spend money like Tao Yushu. In his opinion, this way of spending money was simply crazy.

I am a boss just to make money, and if I give all the money to the people below me, what else do I earn?

Originally the two sides were tit for tat, and although Lin's momentum was strong, he felt that the other party was losing money and making a profit, so he felt somewhat comforted.

But recently, the film produced by Lin's investment won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, which completely ruined Zou Wenhuai's mood.

The Palme d'Or represents more than just honors. If it were only honors, how could there be so many production companies around the world rushing to send films to the exhibition every year? You must know that a considerable number of these art films will never make their money back.

Because awards are accompanied by huge economic benefits, in a film festival of this level, as long as the film is shortlisted for the main competition unit, there is almost no loss unless the investment is too large.

If you are lucky enough to win the award, among other things, it will have to be screened in developed countries in Europe and the United States. Just buying out the overseas copyrights will be enough to make a lot of money.

The starting income of a Palme d'Or movie is at least tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars, which is more than Cheng Long's movie.

If Lin just accidentally won an award for a movie, it wouldn't be worth the fuss from Zou Wenhuai.

The problem is that in the past few years since Lin's establishment, it has never stopped receiving international awards.

Directors such as Xu Anhua, Zhang Yimou, and Chen Kaige have supported Lin's art film business and have also provided Lin with powerful assistance.

Two years ago, when Zou Wenhuai heard that Lin was going to implement a two-legged strategy of business and art, he couldn't stop laughing in his heart.

I think Tao Yushu is too naive and regards doing business as homework.

But now, even as a competitor, Zou Wenhuai has to admire Tao Yushu's outstanding vision.

Not only because she has the courage to invest in art films, but more importantly because of her discerning eye for people.

Zou Wenhuai revised his idea again.

Tao Yushu cannot be summed up as "knowing people with a keen eye". The success of Lin's art film strategy is also inseparable from the man behind Tao Yushu. You must know that Xu Anhua's two movies are adapted from his novels.

Thinking of this, Zou Wenhuai felt a little regretful in his heart.

If after the success of "The Truman Show" that year, he had not pushed Lin to the opposite side just for immediate interests, maybe everything would be completely different now.

Immediately, Zou Wenhuai shook his head mockingly.

There are no what-ifs in this world, and even if there are what-ifs, how do you know that Lin will not take the initiative to betray her when she becomes full-fledged?

While Zou Wenhuai was calculating the benefits that the Palme d'Or award would bring to Lin, Lin was also taking stock.

On the third day after the closing of the Cannes Film Festival, Yu Yuxi led the team back to Hong Kong.

Needless to say, the cast and crew of "Parasite" have received huge popularity. From the director to the leading actors, they have almost become heroes in this city. Wherever they go, movie fans gather in huge crowds, and media reporters swarm in droves.

All news related to "Parasite" has become the focus of public attention, and the sales of many newspapers and periodicals have skyrocketed. Among them, several media outlets under the Yulang Agency have reaped all the dividends.

In addition to the crew members, Lin, the investor behind the film, benefited the most.

After "Parasite" won the Palme d'Or, it became the focus of competition for film studios from various countries. However, this time Lam Pictures did not directly sell the film's overseas distribution rights in the form of a buyout like before.

Instead, we differentiated between different countries and regions and formulated buyout and share-sharing strategies. In the end, the film successfully signed 21 buyout contracts and 5 box office sharing contracts.

These five countries that use box office sharing contracts are all developed countries such as the United States, France, and Japan.

Even after giving up buyout fees from several major developed countries, "Parasite" still generated a transaction volume of US$6.2 million for Lin.

When future movies are released in various countries and the copyrights continue to be sold, the benefits created by "Parasite" for Lin Films will be further expanded.

Coupled with the copyright buyout fees for other films brought to the film festival by Yu Yuxi and others, the copyright transaction volume of Lin's Pictures at this film festival reached nearly 15 million US dollars.

Converted into Hong Kong dollars, it is close to 120 million.

The harvest was astonishing, and it also solved a lot of urgent needs for Tao Yushu, who was in need of funds recently.

On the last day of May, a tea party was held on the 8th floor of Ming Pao Building.

At the meeting, Jin Yong presented long-term service certificates and gold medals to many backbones of Ming Pao Group, expressing his gratitude to employees for their hard service and outstanding contributions over the past thirty years.

At the same time, he also announced at the meeting: Due to his advanced age and the numerous dramas, he has long wanted to retire. From June 1, he will no longer serve as the president of "Ming Pao" and will only serve as the president of Ming Pao.

Chairman of the Group Co., Ltd.

The next day, "Ming Pao" published an "Exclusive News for this Newspaper", "Cha Liangyong resigned as president today and re-elected as chairman of Ming Pao Group", announcing the decision.

Some time ago, there have been rumors that Jin Yong is about to retire, and there are also rumors in the media that he will live in seclusion abroad after retirement.

Now that the news has been confirmed, as soon as the news came out, public opinion in the Hong Kong newspaper industry was abuzz.

At the same time, Jin Yong officially disclosed to the outside world for the first time his willingness to sell shares in Ming Pao.

Suddenly, the situation in Xiangjiang's newspaper industry was changing. Some buyers who had previously been secretly in contact with Jin Yong turned dark and continued to express their strong acquisition intentions through the media.

Paramount's Zheng Jinghan even waved banknotes directly at the reporter's camera, saying bluntly, "As long as Mr. Cha nods, this billion dollar check will be presented to him."

Their purpose in doing this is also very simple, just to muddy the water.

But more buyers still stood still, including Tao Yushu.

Of course, Tao Yushu didn't do nothing, she just didn't have any contact with Jin Yong.

In mid-June, Tao Yushu accepted an exclusive interview with Hong Kong's well-known financial newspaper "Xin Bao". When asked about the future business planning and development direction of her companies such as Lam Pictures and Yulang Agency, she said:

Lam's Pictures is currently developing well. In the future, while operating business in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, it will also expand into the mainland market.

It also actively promotes co-production plans with the United States, Japan and other countries, and promotes Lam Films' strategy of being based in Asia and facing the world.

When talking about the development of Yulang Institution, Tao Yushu believes that the cultural industry has great potential, and comics are closely related to animation, games and other industries.

In the future, Yulang Agency will invest in animation, games and other content industries on the basis of focusing on the comic business, forming a content industry cluster centered on comics, and building the first-class animation and game company in Asia.

She also said that the current business of Yulang Institution is complex and she will divest non-core businesses at the appropriate time.

Yulang Organization started with comics, and its core business is naturally comics. When talking about the non-core business of Yulang Organization, the first thing that reporters think of is the media business such as "Tiantian Daily".

"Has the plan been put on the agenda? Is it going to be a direct sale, or is it going to be divested and integrated?"
To be continued...