In the evening, Zhuang Zhou walked into a restaurant.

The lights are warm in color, the music is light, and there are not many guests. Li Meng was already here and greeted him, saying, "The film dealer has something to do temporarily, so he has to wait for a while."

“Is this restaurant a good environment?”

"A Taiwanese businessman and some Hong Kong people like to come here to talk about things."

Li Mengshen was mysterious and signaled to the front: "Hey, Grandma Liu is here too."

Zhuang Zhou looked in the direction and saw several people sitting at the table over there. One of them was quite old, gray-haired and gentle, but his body was very strong.

Next to him was a tall and handsome young man, and the two were intimate.

"It's really Grandma Liu!"

Zhuang Zhou was happy.

"You used to do public relations, did you have any interaction with him?"

"No, they are doing high-end brands, and I am doing swearing in the entertainment industry."

He paused and smiled, "But there will definitely be some in the future, soon."

Liu Laolao, a Taiwanese, came to the mainland to develop in the 1990s. She is the head of a Chinese region of an international public relations company. She specializes in luxury goods business and has a very good relationship with major brands.

He is a GAY, with a bold style, good at black silk **, and is known as "Liu Laolao".

He has been rooted in Beijing for more than 20 years, has a strong connection and a noble status, and can be called a tycoon in the capital GAY circle. He likes young and handsome guys with strong figures and close contacts with male stars and athletes.

For example, Huang Yu, the male lead in "Love in Military" was once the face of Liu Laolao. In other words, as long as the young actor who has posted a photo by him, he can basically not escape the evil.

And some of these people are real GAYs, some are Shuang'er, and some are straight men. They have to sell their butts for their careers...

Liu Laolao was chatting with her new favorite, as if she noticed someone was looking at her. When she turned her head, she found that it was a super handsome man and couldn't help but smile.

Hiss!

Zhuang Zhou quickly withdrew his gaze.

"Lady Liu seems to be much more low-key in recent years."

"He focuses on the fashion circle and has no film and television resources. Now that capital has been invaded in full, all newcomers who can make their debut are supported by big bosses, so Liu Laolao is not enough to watch it."

Zhuang Zhou commented casually: "Of course, entertainment, fashion is not apart. If celebrities want to find endorsements, they are still very strong."

After revealing this, Li Meng said: "The Berlin Film Festival has just ended. Due to the impact of the epidemic, the three major film festivals are half online and half offline. The trading market in Berlin has become online trading since last year.

But the screening is still quite lively, and your "Beautiful New World" received a good response. Our colleagues who attended the exhibition tried to bring you some business."

She paused and continued to introduce: "This Taiwanese film businessman is named Huang Maochang, who specializes in art films and produces and publishes them by himself. Bi Gan's "Picnic on the Roadside" and Lou Ye's "Massage" were all introduced to Taiwan by him.

He and Lou Ye have a good relationship. This time he wanted to repair "Suzhou River" and take it to Taiwan for re-screening. He originally wanted to find Bologna to repair it, but after watching "Beautiful New World" in Berlin, he decided to meet you."

"So that's what it is..."

Zhuang Zhou expressed his understanding.

The Bologna Restoration Laboratory in Italy is one of the most famous film restoration studios, accepting business from countries around the world. For example, the film restoration of the Shanghai Film Festival is to find Bologna to do it.

After waiting for a while, Huang Maochang finally arrived. He was very happy and straight to the point:

"Director Lou Ye and I are close friends and want to hold his screening in Taipei. "Suzhou River" has been repaired before and is 2K version. This time I want 4K version.

There is also "Wednesday Lover", which is the director's debut work and also requires a 4K version.

"Beautiful New World" is also quite good. I learned about it and it turned out to be invested by Rolling Stone. Back then, Rolling Stone invested in five films in mainland China, "Love Malatang", "Beautiful New World", "Bath", "Going to the End", and "Yesterday". I think it is very memorable and I want to repair it together."

"That's just six films, "Suzhou River", "Watch the End", "Bath", "Love Malatang", "Yesterday"?"

"Yes."

"The copyright of the other half of the films invested by Rolling Stone is in the hands of Xiying Group." Li Meng reminded.

"I understand, I will handle it."

Huang Maochang nodded and said, "But I am not sure now that your company's repair products have the level of "Beautiful New World"? And how much construction period is required, funds, and technology..."

"Mr. Huang, I can represent Xiaoyaoyou, she can represent the archives. We hereby promise: our repair costs will always be 30% cheaper than Bologna Studios!

If the level of "Beautiful New World" is not met, the reward will be returned and you are willing to pay double the compensation!"

There is no room for this!

Huang Maochang was stuck for a moment.

He had already asked about these six films, which cost at least 400,000 to 600,000 euros to Bologna. It was 30% cheaper and could save more than 100,000 euros.

The two sides easily reached a preliminary agreement.

Zhuang Zhou has not made money from Americans for the time being, but it is also good to make money from Taiwanese. After the meal, Huang Maochang said goodbye, and Li Meng couldn't help but say, "Lao Zhuang, do you know this is called vicious competition?"

"What's wrong?"

Zhuang Zhouyi looked innocent: "I originally wanted to monopolize the film restoration industry. Besides, Bologna is not a good bird, and the account was not settled yet!"

2005 coincided with the centenary of Chinese films.

Mark Muller, chairman of the Venice Film Festival, took the initiative to contact the China Film Archives and said that he could help repair the old movies and celebrate the 100th anniversary. The Archives were very happy and asked him to choose whatever he wanted.

So Mark Muller, together with one of the founders of Bologna Studios, Mazanti, personally selected ten movies.

Including Fei Mu's "Spring in a Small Town", Ruan Lingyu's "New Women", etc.

The archive was inexperienced at the time and handed over all the original negatives. As a result, after the restoration of these ten movies was completed, the other party began to find various reasons and refused to be released in China.

Instead, he took these ten movies to other countries to screen, accepted brand sponsorship, and made a wave of money, which also caused permanent damage to the original negative of "New Women".

So in 2006, the archives launched the "Film Repair" plan itself.

I have verified the old saying again: If you fall behind, you will be beaten!

What’s even more annoying is that this matter ended up in the end and no one pursued it. Mark Muller is still an old friend of Chinese films and founded the Pingyao Film Festival with Jia Zhangke...

So as Zhuang Zhou spoke, his mind opened up again and asked, "You all have Lumiere's movies?"

Brothers Lumiere, the inventor of film and film projectors.

In 1895, in a basement in Paris, the two brothers screened the world's first movie "The Train Entering the Station". This is a short film with only 50 seconds, recording the scene when the train enters the station.

The audience was so scared that they were frightened when they saw the oncoming train - later this day was designated as the birthday of the movie.

"Yes!" Li Meng said.

"What about the Hollywood studio era? Shulan, Dun Boer, Chaplin and other things, and the European New Wave?"

“All.”

"Then we will all repair it. After the repair, we will go to the world for screening, attract brand sponsorship, and domestic audiences can watch it for free. The theme is "Since the Born of the Movie". Repairing old movies is not profitable, but finding ways to make money. Those foreigners talk about charity and their minds are all about business.

Let’s not be old oxen who work hard. We have to make money that should be made. I will give you technical support!”

(Not yet!)
Chapter completed!