Traveling through the Tokyo bubble era

Chapter 746: Changes in the Music Market

A thrilling encounter ended.

What is different from the past is that Hanyu Hideki, who was used to using his strength in the past, realized the role of skills in this battle.

"Why are you in such a hurry to leave? It's still early. If you stay with me for a while longer, Yeri won't notice."

Benedetta asked this in the room on the third floor of the yacht.

The other person was leaning against the head of the bed at this time, her body was spotless, and she looked at Hanyu Hideki with some reluctance. Her expression was charming and lazy, but full of satisfaction, as if she was still immersed in the pleasure just now.

Upon hearing this, Hanyu Hideki fastened the last button of his shirt without stopping what he was doing, opened the door and prepared to leave.

Just leave a few words before leaving.

"I promised to accompany her to the Palace of Cinema today."

"What a heartless man."

Although Benedetta in the room said this, the smile in the corners of her eyes proved that she was not complaining, but even had a hint of appreciation.

Perhaps, this is the magic of the relationship between men and women.

At the beginning, Shota Yoshioka fell in love with her at first sight and was willing to give up everything, even his marriage, but he got nothing in return.

But facing a playboy like Hanyu Hideki and his ambiguous attitude, she became passionate and charming, and tried her best to tease Hanyu Hideki, even at the risk of "playing with fire".
-
In the restaurant on the second deck, the lunch party has come to an end.

Some people were discussing work, some went to the deck to enjoy the sea view, some jumped into the swimming pool to play, and some were engaging in other entertainment.

When Hideki Hanyu saw Christiana Yeri, she was on the first deck, so Hideki Hanyu walked up to her and asked.

"Have you finished discussing the work?"

Christiana Yeri replied, "We're done talking about when we'll dock."

"I have already told the captain to return. It won't affect everyone's itinerary."

Hanyu Hideki said, looking around and asking, "Where's Benedetta? Do you want to take her with you to the Palace of Cinema this afternoon?"

"I was just talking about work and didn't notice where my aunt went. Let's ask her when we get to the shore. Maybe she would rather rest on the boat."

Apparently, Christiana Yeri didn't notice anything unusual.

"As you wish." Hanyu Hideki said calmly.

But after hearing this, Christiana Yeri hurried forward, hugged Hanyu Hideki, and explained carefully.

"Are you blaming me for calling her here? I know you want me to accompany you, but she is my aunt after all, and she has taken good care of me since I was a child."

The scumbag heard this and thought to himself, I blame you.

It's your fault for not giving her any preparation. That woman is too bold and if you keep her around, something bad might happen at any time.

And she not only takes care of you, but also takes care of me.

However, the scumbag only said these words in his heart.

On the surface, he still comforted the beauty.

Then, as the cruise ship docked, as expected, when Christiana Yeri asked Benedetta, who was leaving the bedroom and still exuding a lazy smell.

The woman glanced at Hanyu Hideki imperceptibly, her charming feeling disappearing instantly, and then she answered as a matter of course.

"Since we're at the film festival, of course we have to go watch a movie."

Hideki Hanyu felt helpless, knowing that this woman was going to cause trouble again.

……

At the Cannes Film Palace, the opening ceremony of the film festival was held as usual.

Hideki Hanyu was not interested in the opening film, so he did not go to the main hall to join in the fun.

Although it was easy for both him and Christiana Yeri to get the invitation.

But he still watched Ito Shinsuke, Kurokawa Oki, Xavi and others go to the social events, while he followed the two beauties, Cristiana Yeri and Benedetta, to visit the booths of various companies and the screening rooms.

Among them is the promotional area for Europa Films’ “Cinema Paradiso”.

Although this movie will become very famous in the future and is regarded as a classic in the film industry, it has not actually caused much response or attention at this stage.

When the film was released in Italy, the first version was 155 minutes long, which made the already bland plot even more boring and lengthy, which directly led to no audience wanting to watch it.

Then the producers had to temporarily withdraw the film from the schedule and did a second edit, shortening the length to 123 minutes.

But unfortunately, the movie was still forcibly taken off the shelves after its release due to poor box office performance.

Why does Hideki Hanyu know so much?

Because he invested in Germany's Italian Europa Films, which is one of the producers, and the theaters where the movie was released also belong to Crescent Cinemas.

Since the box office failed to recoup the cost, "Cinema Paradiso" had to go to the film festival route, and it was originally registered for the Berlin Film Festival.

As a result, the president of the Berlin Film Festival made a public statement before the opening, saying that Italian films were dead, which directly angered the creative team of "Cinema Paradiso".

After a lot of trouble, "Cinema Paradiso" was finally sent to Cannes.

However, not only did the main creative team lack confidence in participating in the Cannes Film Festival, the organizers of the Cannes International Film Festival also did not take it seriously, and the screening was scheduled to the last day.

So even if Hideki Hanyu wants to revisit this classic in Cannes, he has to wait until the last day of the film festival.

Compared to "Cinema Paradiso", "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" invested by Cloud Pictures received much better treatment.

With the support of Yunshang Pictures behind the scenes, as well as the powerful resources of the parent company and the help of Harvey, the partner of Miramax Films, the marketing promotion was launched before the film festival even started.

Although it was not the opening film, it was also a major work screened on the first day, and many heavyweights and media people were invited to watch it.

I have to say, this guy Harvey is really good at award-winning marketing.

Hideki Hanyu is even considering whether to acquire Miramax before Disney.

But in the end he gave up the idea.

Except that he just wanted to work with Harvey, but didn't want to get involved too much.

In fact, at this stage, Yunshang Pictures is not strong enough to impress Harvey and directly swallow up his company.

What's more, he also has his own plans for his development in Hollywood.

In order to avoid complications, he weighed the matter over and over again and decided to give up.

He couldn't see "Cinema Paradiso" today, but he had seen "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" in America, so he wandered around the film festival with the two beauties for a while.

When the two of them suggested that they wanted to find a movie to watch, Hanyu Hideki decisively gave them the right to choose.

At this time, the ticketing system of the Cannes Film Festival was not as formal as it was in later generations, and the screening system was not as complete as it was in later generations.

But this also means that in addition to the four traditional theaters that screen the participating films, there are actually many other places where you can watch the screenings.

For example, some art galleries, some film companies have built their own screening studios, or even open-air screening venues, and you can make reservations and choose according to your preferences.

After some careful selection, Cristiana Yeri and Benedetta finally chose a movie that was shown in an art gallery.

This kind of place usually screens niche, avant-garde films, or films with bold and avant-garde themes.

The film was produced by an Argentinian company.

I don't understand the name Hideki Hanyu on the poster at all.

But Benedetta, who chose this film, said it was a love movie.

After the three bought tickets and entered, they found that the venue inside the art gallery was very small. Not only was the number of people it could accommodate limited, but the temporary seats were also quite crowded.

Because there is no seat assignment when purchasing tickets, moviegoers are scrambling for spots.

The three of them arrived late and ultimately only managed to get a spot in the back corner.

But when they sat down, Benedetta seemed to deliberately let Hideki Hanyu sit in the middle.

Before Hanyu Hideki could even object, the lights in the art gallery went out and the movie began.

Then Hideki Hanyu discovered that the movie was indeed a romance, but it seemed that the action scenes were a bit too frequent.

As expected, small workshops produce a lot of materials.

After watching for nearly half an hour, he didn't remember much of the plot, but he saw the figure of the South American actress clearly.

I have to say that the quality of South American beauties is very high.

While Hideki Hanyu was pretending to watch seriously, he was actually secretly reaching his hand to Christiana Yeri who was sitting in the inner seat in the dark art gallery.

But he suddenly felt that while he was taking action, his house had also been robbed.

A hand coming from the outer seat also became unruly on his side.

You don't have to guess, it's Benedetta's hand.

"What are you doing?"

Hanyu Hideki found an opportunity and asked Benedetta in a low voice.

In the dim light of the screen, Benedetta smiled slyly and replied, "Doing the same thing as you."

Then, the next movie that Hideki Hanyu watched was a song of ice and fire that was difficult and required caution.

This lasted until the end of the movie, when the lights in the art gallery came on, and Hideki Hanyu finally "escaped from the sea of ​​suffering."

"Where are we going next?" Hanyu Hideki asked hurriedly.

Christiana Yeli blushed and replied, "I'm a little tired. Let's go back and rest."

"Okay." Hanyu Hideki agreed.

Benedetta echoed, but after Cristiana Yeri took the lead, she whispered to Hanyu Hideki.

"Do you want my help?"

Upon hearing this, Hanyu Hideki raised his eyebrows, as if to say, "Are you looking down on me?"

Then Benedetta said as a matter of course.

"In that case, remember to find me when you're done, or I'll find you."

Hideki Hanyu immediately realized that he seemed to have been tricked by this woman again.

However, this seemed to suit him just fine.

……

Next, Hideki Hanyu officially began his enjoyable vacation in Cannes.

Although the process was somewhat cautious, sneaky, bold and exciting, the scumbag enjoyed it.

The failure he had originally expected did not happen thanks to his monstrous physique and his increasingly improved micro-management skills.

But happy times are always short-lived.

When the time came to the 24th, it was nearly a week after Hideki Hanyu arrived in Cannes.

A phone call from America forced him to end his trip to Cannes early, before "Cinema Paradiso" was released.

At Nice Cote d'Azur Airport, Hideki Hanyu boarded the "Cloud" after Yeri's reluctant farewell.

Before leaving, Benedetta gave him a seemingly normal hug.

But from an angle that Yeri couldn't see, Benedetta gave Hanyu Hideki a charming and cunning look.

Nine hours later, the 'Clouds' landed at Los Angeles Airport.

Because of the time difference, the local time when he landed in Los Angeles was almost the same as when he left France, both at a little after ten in the morning.

When he walked out of the private VIP channel, the first person he saw was Liu Xiaoli, who was holding her baby daughter to greet him.

"How long do you plan to stay in Los Angeles this time?"

Hanyu Hideki listened to the mother's question, reached out and held his baby daughter in his arms, and replied, "I will probably stay for a while after I spend my birthday with Xixi."

The reason why Hideki Hanyu decided to leave so quickly after receiving the call was, in addition to work, he also considered that he could celebrate his eldest daughter's third birthday on the 25th.

Hearing what Hanyu Hideki said, Liu Xiaoli couldn't help but show some joy.

Then he said, "Dengna has prepared lunch, let's go home."

"Okay, go home."

……

On May 25, at Hibiscus Gardens in Beverly Hills, Hanyu Hideki, holding his daughter, sang a happy birthday song in front of the cake and immediately encouraged his daughter to blow out the candles.

The next moment, he dipped his fingers in the cake and, amid his baby daughter's crisp laughter, painted the child's mother's face into a big clown.

Then, the child's mother grabbed the cake and chased him.

This happy scene was captured by Deng Na, the Filipino maid nearby, with a handheld video camera.

However, just as Hideki Hanyu was having fun with his daughter, driving his go-kart around the track in Hibiscus Garden and making his daughter giggle, a piece of Hollywood news was spreading rapidly.

Yesterday, Columbia Pictures, which was caught in a vortex of Japanese public opinion due to its acquisition by Sony, held a press conference.

At the press conference, Columbia Pictures announced to the attending media that they have reached a cooperation with Hollywood's latest independent film company, Cloud Pictures.

At the same time, Alan Horn, CEO of Cloud Pictures, also attended the press conference and confirmed the news on the spot.

Starting with "When Harry Met Sally" which will be released next month, Columbia Pictures will fully represent Cloud Pictures' films and distribute them in North America and certain regions around the world.

As soon as this news came out, it not only attracted the attention of the Hollywood industry, but even the American media began to discuss it.

The main reason why the Hollywood industry is paying attention to this is, of course, that Yunshang Pictures has had quite good box office results in the past two years.

Starting with "Working Girl", although the box office of several movies did not rank at the top of the annual box office list, they did not fall out of the top fifteen.

And judging from the box office figures alone, the lowest was over 50 million US dollars.

For example, the latest movie "Midnight Shock Wave" has now grossed 40 million US dollars, and it is certain to exceed 50 million. Major media outlets predict that the box office will be above 60 million.

In addition to the North American box office, the overseas box office of Cloud Pictures' films are also quite impressive. With the support of overseas box office, the global figures of several major productions have exceeded 100 million US dollars.

What's more, in addition to the pure box office, Yunshang Pictures also has series such as "Bleeding Night" and "Die Hard" that can be continuously explored.

At a time when action movies are selling well, this is a project that even major Hollywood studios are eager to get.

However, if it is just about good results, then Yunshang Pictures' cooperation with Columbia Pictures would just make everyone envy Columbia.

But the problem is that Cloud Pictures had previously had a good cooperation with Fox, and its sudden turn to Columbia Pictures was beyond everyone's expectations.

So Columbia Pictures just announced the news.

A spokesperson for 20th Century Fox immediately gave interviews to the media.

In the interview, the spokesperson said.

“This incident happened so suddenly that 20th Century Fox did not receive any warning and therefore was not prepared in any way.

However, we respect the choice of Yunshang Pictures because Hollywood is a free society and any company or person has the right to choose without any contractual constraints.

However, we still deeply regret the choice of Yunshang Pictures, and wish Yunshang Pictures to achieve better results. "

Although the spokesperson for 20th Century Fox News spoke beautifully, the sour taste in their words was something that all the old foxes in Hollywood could hear.

After all, 20th Century Fox has made a lot of money in the past two years by cooperating with Cloud Pictures, and everyone knows the profits of Hollywood distribution.

After both sides finished their speeches, speculation about why Yunshang Pictures suddenly switched to Columbia Pictures began to spread in the public opinion.

It is precisely because of all these speculations that this incident has caused various discussions across the United States.

The turmoil caused by Columbia Pictures' acquisition by Sony has not yet completely subsided in America.

In the eyes of some Americans, this is an invasion of American culture by Japanese corporations and the biggest evidence that Japanese capital is trying to control American culture.

After Yunshang Pictures joined Columbia Pictures, the media took the opportunity to expose Yunshang Pictures' background when analyzing the reasons.

After seeing that behind Yunshang Pictures, a Hollywood independent film company, is Japan’s largest and Asia’s largest comprehensive entertainment media group.

An answer is about to emerge.

This is the convergence of Japanese culture and capital forces in Hollywood.

According to media reports, the cultural giant Yunshang Entertainment, together with the capital giant Sony, are planning to invade the American cultural and entertainment industry.

The cooperation between Yunshang Pictures and Columbia is the Japanese's attempt to combine their cultural advantages with their capital advantages to control America's cultural industry.

America happens to be the land that believes in conspiracy theories the most, so many people have begun to believe this.

Otherwise, in the 1950s and 1960s, there would not have been such sensational mysterious rumors as the Bermuda Triangle.

However, although this incident caused discussion, it only added fuel to the fire of Sony's acquisition of Columbia Pictures.

What North American people are most concerned about are always Sony and Columbia Pictures.

As for Yunshang Pictures, it is just fodder for conspiracy theories.

The reason is simple. Although Yunshang Entertainment is thriving in Asia, its popularity in America is pitifully low.

If the media had not mentioned Hideki Hanyu, the world's second richest man, when mentioning Yunshang Pictures, and stated that Hideki Hanyu was one of the founders of Yunshang Entertainment.

I'm afraid people's attention to Yunshang Pictures will be even lower.

As for the Crescent Cinema Group, which has operations all over the world, it has been operating completely independently since its listing. Although the cinema chain brand is important in the entertainment industry, its presence has always been low.

Therefore, few media outlets bring this up, not because they are unwilling to do so, but because the public simply does not care.

After all, media hype is not for the news itself, but for the sales brought by the news.

As news began to brew in the media, Hideki Hanyu, who was in Hibiscus Garden, naturally also saw the relevant news in the media.

The first thing he received was a call from Hirohashi Asako in Tokyo.

On the phone, Hirohashi Asako asked in a worried tone, "This matter will not have any impact on us, right?"

No matter how strong a woman Hirohashi Asako is, she is still a Japanese after all, and she will unconsciously develop a fear of America.

So when I saw Yunshang Entertainment was involved in the Sony incident, I couldn’t help but feel a little worried.

Hanyu Hideki lifted his baby daughter up and down with his hands and replied, "Don't worry, Asako-san. This is all in my plan."

When he chose to work with Columbia Pictures, he anticipated these public opinions.

So, this is the effect that Hideki Hanyu wants.

It will attract some attention to the low-key Yunshang Pictures and let everyone know the achievements and potential of Yunshang Pictures in the past two years.

But it is hiding behind the two big companies, Sony and Columbia Pictures, and has not completely become the focus and target of American people.

Only in this way can the next planned things be implemented better.

When Hirohashi Asako heard what Hanyu Hideki said, she immediately felt relieved.

In Hirohashi Asako's opinion, although the partner Hideki Hanyu appears to be a hands-off boss and does not seem to be involved in the management and operation of the company on a daily basis, in fact, all major matters in the development of the company are under the control of Hideki Hanyu.

Moreover, up to now, Hideki Hanyu has never made a wrong judgment regarding the company's development and planning arrangements, and has always kept the company one step ahead and at the forefront of the market.

"In that case, I won't ask about America's affairs."

After Hirohashi Asako finished speaking, she mentioned another matter, "Hanyu-san asked me to prepare funds before. Now I have 2 billion US dollars ready to use at any time. Give me another two to three months, and I can raise another 1.5 billion US dollars."

Hanyu Hideki said, "There is enough time. I will tell Asako-san in advance when I need it."

At this point, the two of them had almost finished discussing the important things they needed to talk about.

During the following call, Hirohashi Asako briefly talked about the integration of Yunshang Entertainment's Asian business, the stock market trends of Yunshang Satellite TV, and the market trends of Neon Entertainment, etc.

Especially the last thing.

Just as Hideki Hanyu had judged, after entering the Heisei era in 1989, the Japanese music market underwent a clear market shift.

The response after the broadcast of "Band's Heaven" sounded the clarion call for rock bands to enter the mainstream market on a large scale.

In March, the band "Dream Come True", which is affiliated with Akina Nakamori's artist agency and produced by Cloud Music, released its first album "LOVE UNLIMITED..." and ranked 12th on the Oricon chart in the second week.

After that, sales continued to rise and rankings continued to climb.

Today, the total sales have exceeded 650,000 copies. According to the estimates of the marketing department of Cloud Music, this album is very likely to break the one million sales mark.

Compared with the performance of the two singles released before the album "Dreams Come True", the album's explosive sales were something no one expected.

Of course, Hideki Hanyu doesn't care about this. After all, the single of "Dream Come True" did not sell as well as the album, which is also a unique landscape in the Japanese music scene.

In addition to the band "Dream Come True", another band signed by Cloud Music, "X-JAPAN", released its first mainstream debut album "Blue Blood" in April, and its performance is even more dazzling.

It debuted at number 6 on the Oricon Weekly Chart in its first week, directly beating out a large number of popular idol singers.

What’s even more dazzling than the record sales of “X-JAPAN” is their tours.

According to statistics from "Fiery" LIVE HOUSE under Hanyu Real Estate, the average time for "X-JAPAN" tour tickets to sell out in Japan is 4.5 hours.

At this speed, it is no exaggeration to say that tickets are hard to come by.

Because of this, Cloud Music is even preparing to hold a concert at the Budokan for this rock band, which has only been on the scene for more than a month.

If we say that "Band's Heaven" on Yunshang Satellite TV is just a test by Yunshang to Japan's mainstream music market and rock bands.

The fact that two rock bands on Cloud Music have achieved explosive success this year proves that Cloud Entertainment has made the right bet.

Because in sharp contrast to the sudden rise of rock bands is the visible decline of idol singers.

Although the popular boy group "SHINee" is still very popular.

However, the "Gemini" group composed of Takuya Kimura and Takeshi Kaneshiro, as fellow students of "Produce a Star", obviously attracted much attention before their debut, but the performance of their first single after their debut was disappointing.

Although their performance was better than that of "SMAP" where Takuya Kimura was from another time and space, but the data of 32nd place in the first week of the Oricon chart did not match their popularity performance in any way.

There is popularity but it cannot be converted into profits.

This is absolutely unacceptable for Yunshang Entertainment, which has spent huge resources to create the "Gemini" group.

In Japan, idol groups only have a few channels to monetize.

Records, photo albums, endorsements, offline performances, etc.

Among them, records are undoubtedly the biggest piece of cake in terms of revenue.

If the performance of the next album of the "Gemini" group is not satisfactory, what awaits them may not only be a reduction in resource investment, but also a change in direction.

Except for the "Gemini" group, the revenue of other idols from records has also been obviously declining.

Now let’s look back at the band that emerged so strongly.

In contrast, the senior executives of the Yunshang Group, who had originally privately doubted Hanyu Hideki's judgment, now all began to praise their boss.

Interestingly, this is not the first time this has happened.

This incident also deeply confirms a saying, that is, the biggest lesson mankind has learned from history is that mankind never learns lessons from history.

The earliest idol group, the queen route of Akina Nakamori, the visual "Shamatte" group, or the national route of "Star Creation".

There are always voices of doubt about Hideki Hanyu's plans and arrangements.

But the facts will quickly slap the faces of those doubters.

This has directly led to a change in the direction of the current music market, and some people have even begun to praise Hideki Hanyu, saying that it was a wise choice to let Akina Nakamori retire early.

After all, Akina Nakamori, who retired at the peak of her career, will always be the queen at the peak.

What's more, after retiring, Akina Nakamori helped the Yunshang group discover the popular band "Dreams Come True".

Even because of the success of "Dream Come True", Cloud Music has begun to have more expectations for the Mr. Children band that was just signed by Akina Nakamori's agency.

For this reason, the president of Cloud Music, Katsuhito Matsushita, even had a private competition with the president of its label MF Records, Daiyuki Nagato.

They all wanted to be the record label for Mr. Children.

After all, MF Records, which was primarily responsible for producing the band, missed out on “A Dream Come True” and now doesn’t want to miss out on another one.

However, it is estimated that in the end, Nagato Daiyuki will not be able to compete with Matsushita Katsuhito.

It's not just because to some extent, Katsuhito Matsushita is Daiyuki Nagato's superior.

More importantly, Yunshang Entertainment gave all its high-quality resources exclusively to Nagato Daiyuki even though it knew the band was going to rise.

In the end, it is very likely that MF Records will become the only dominant player and will become too powerful to be eliminated, thus disrupting the balance among cloud music labels.

Hirohashi Asako is not afraid of Nagato Daiyuki's ambitions.

But at the same time, she didn't want to take the initiative to nourish the other party's ambitions.

Of course, Neon isn’t the only music industry to see changes.

In Asia, the huge success of Little Tigers’ first album also proved the strong rise of Chinese music.

However, Hirohashi Asako's understanding of this business is not as deep as Kobayashi Masashi's, so she only talked about it briefly, and Kobayashi Masashi needed to report the specific situation.

(End of this chapter)