Huayu Entertainment 1995 started with hijacking.

Chapter 229 Director Wu, I am the little scoundrel you wanted!
From Wu Zongxian's beaming smile, it was clear he had gotten a good price. But his words shocked everyone in the company!

Everything was normal before the Lunar New Year, so how come the boss sold the company right after the holiday?
"Brother Xian, how could this happen? What happened?" Wen Lan's voice became shrill.

Wen Lan was also discovered by Wu Zongxian after participating in a singing competition. Initially, her parents disagreed, but Wu Zongxian personally visited her and promised to make her famous, which led to her signing and debuting. Over the years, Wu Zongxian has indeed treated her well, giving her the best resources from the company first. However, now that the company has been sold off, her future is uncertain.

Jay Chou quickly chimed in, "Brother Xian, is the company short of money? If not, I can write songs to help the company earn money. Please don't sell the company, okay?"

Although life at the company has been tough these past few years, he has made some good friends there and even made a successful debut and became famous, which has made him quite attached to the company.

Wu Zongxian waved his hand dismissively: "What kind of reaction is this? I already said it's a good thing! My abilities are limited, and my funds are insufficient, so I can't provide you with much help. However, your new employer is very powerful. As long as you perform well, your future will definitely be very bright!"

At this point, Liu Genghong asked a question that everyone was concerned about: "Brother Xian, who exactly is your new employer?"

Wu Zongxian slapped his forehead: "Look at me, I haven't told you guys yet, the new company is Little White Bear Media, the company that made F4 famous! They're incredibly powerful!"

Jay Chou, Will Liu, and Vincent Fang were all stunned upon hearing this. Jay Chou and Will Liu even looked directly at Vincent Fang. Was this guy's mouth blessed? Yesterday he said it would be great if the boss was Little White Bear, and today Wu Zongxian came over and announced that he had sold the company to Little White Bear!
Wait, thinking back carefully, it seems that right after this guy finished speaking, Wu Zongxian called to say that he had something to announce. How could it be so accurate!
Fang Wenshan unconsciously touched his mouth and said blankly, "Holy crap! I should have wished for the lottery to win the grand prize!"

……

Wu Yuchen is currently on the phone with Cai Yinong:
"Director Wu, the Alpha company from Taiwan has been bought from Wu Zongxian for HK$1200 million, which is a slight premium."

"Not bad, Mr. Cai, the price is acceptable." Wu Yuchen smiled upon hearing this, he was quite satisfied with the price.

Alpha Group actually only has about 10 people at most. Right now, the only people of real value to the outside world are Jay Chou and Wen Lan.

Wu Yuchen does remember a few songs Wen Lan sang, such as "Summer Wind" and "Rooftop." To be honest, Wen Lan's singing skills are quite good, but she just hasn't become famous, remaining relatively unknown. Moreover, because she and Jay Chou knew each other from their early days and have a good relationship, Jay Chou wrote 16 songs for her, far exceeding the "single-digit" number written by his rumored girlfriend Jolin Tsai.

However, Wen Lan is just a supporting character; Alpha's real value lies with Jay Chou. Since its release last November, Jay Chou's debut album "Jay" has sold over 300,000 copies in about three months. This is a good result for a newcomer, but it can only be considered a minor success compared to other singers.

From today's perspective, acquiring Alfa Romeo for HK$1200 million does seem like a premium. However, a slightly higher price is acceptable; a swift and decisive move is key. How could Wu Zongxian have sold so readily without a premium?

Once Jay Chou's second album, "Fantasy," is released this year, Alfa Records' price will be much higher than that.

In his previous life, Wu Zongxian sold Alfa around 2002. At that time, Jay Chou had already released two albums, especially the song "Nunchucks" from "Fantasy," which made him a huge star. A company offered 2 million NT dollars to poach Jay Chou, but he stayed out of gratitude. Unexpectedly, not long after, Wu Zongxian sold the company to Holiday KTV for 3 million NT dollars, leaving Jay Chou feeling betrayed.

Converting the currency, the Alfa Romeo was worth about HK$7500 million back then, so buying it now for HK$1200 million is definitely a great deal.

Then Cai Yinong asked, "Director Wu, what about the development of Alpha Corporation?"

Wu Yuchen thought for a moment and said, "Their current manager, Yang Junrong, is doing a good job. Let's hand over the company's daily management to him from now on."

Yang Junrong was the one who truly discovered Jay Chou. It was only with his strong recommendation that Wu Zongxian agreed to produce records for Jay Chou.

Wu Yuchen then added, "We should also improve the company's compensation for them. There are quite a few talented people in the company, but the focus should still be on Jay Chou. We should provide more promotional support after he releases his album."

According to Wu Yuchen's plan, Alpha in Taiwan would naturally be retained as a branch company there, primarily serving Jay Chou personally. Of course, there were quite a few good music creators in Taiwan at this time, and any talent they encountered could be recruited.

However, he didn't worry about these minor matters; he left them to his subordinates to handle.

Cai Yinong understood Wu Yuchen's meaning and raised her regard for Jay Chou to a higher level.

Then Wu Yuchen turned to ask, "President Cai, how are the negotiations with Xiantao Digital going?"

“Their boss, Zhu Jiaxin, went abroad for the Chinese New Year and will be back in a couple of days. We have already scheduled a meeting time.”

Wu Yuchen said to Cai Yinong, "President Cai, we should secure the deal as soon as possible. I need them for the movie I'm making this year, so we need to get them ready early."

"Don't worry, Director Wu, I'll definitely get this done!"

"Alright, then thank you for your hard work, Mr. Cai!"

"Director Wu, it's all part of my job."

After hanging up the phone, Wu Yuchen smiled. With the acquisition of Alfa Romeo, and the addition of F4 and Jay Chou—one a top-tier group and the other a top-tier solo artist—it was enough to support Little White Bear's glory in the Chinese music scene for more than 10 years.

As for the special effects company, on the one hand, it does need to use it itself, and on the other hand, it wants to get it done as soon as possible and then integrate its resources to catch up with Hollywood's special effects level.

Even setting aside current standards, let's take the first widely acclaimed Chinese science fiction film from the previous era, "The Wandering Earth," as an example. According to its director, Guo Fan, its special effects were at least 15 years behind Hollywood, and its production quality was 25-30 years behind Hollywood.

This so-called production level reflects the gap in the overall film industry level, which Wu Yuchen alone cannot change. As for special effects, a simple comparison is to refer to Hollywood blockbusters. The special effects of "The Wandering Earth" cannot compare to "Transformers" in 2007, but are roughly equivalent to "The Day After Tomorrow" in 2004, thus arriving at a gap of about 15 years.

Wu Yuchen doesn't expect his special effects company to catch up with the top level in Hollywood, that's unrealistic. If he can narrow the gap to within 10 years, that would already be a significant contribution to Chinese-language films.

Wu Yuchen was not lying to Han Sanping; he is indeed currently preparing for his next Chinese-language film, and he has been writing and drawing on the project.

As for what type of movie to choose, it's actually quite simple: it's the martial arts films that will be popular in the Chinese film industry for the next few years!
The revival of the martial arts genre can be attributed to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." After "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film this year and grossed $2 million worldwide, a martial arts craze swept across China.

Investors were drawn to the overseas market's fondness for martial arts films, while directors were eyeing the Oscars and box office success. As a result, in the following years, directors such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and Feng Xiaogang all jumped on the bandwagon of period martial arts films. Moreover, Zhang Yimou directed three films in a row: "Hero," "House of Flying Daggers," and "Curse of the Golden Flower."

With the market there, Wu Yuchen naturally had to make one. After all, one advantage of martial arts films is their suitability for large-scale scenes. In fact, Chinese martial arts films are similar to Hollywood fantasy films.

American audiences don't really understand martial arts at all. Explaining internal energy or lightness skills to them is pointless. All those wall-climbing and physics-defying actions only exist in fantasy. Therefore, they have always viewed Chinese martial arts movies as fantasy movies.

The next few years saw a surge in popularity for martial arts films, which was indeed a golden opportunity for the development and growth of domestic special effects. Therefore, he wanted to integrate the special effects companies as soon as possible.

If it weren't for the falling out with Disney last year, which forced him to spend more than half a year filming "The Pirate King," Wu Yuchen's Chinese-language film should have already started production last year and could have been released this summer.

Now, things have been delayed by a whole year. He can only use this time at home to prepare the script and storyboards, and then find actors to prepare for filming. After all, he still has "A Beautiful Mind" waiting for him to film, so this new Chinese-language film can only start shooting in the second half of the year.

He then called the person in charge at Xiangshan Film and Television City: "Is the Ming Dynasty Street section that I requested last year all completed?"

"Director Wu, it was all completed last year, and we've also prepared the costumes and props you mentioned. The Qin Palace will be finished in about two months after the Spring Festival..."

Listening to the report, Wu Yuchen nodded. The Qin Palace was naturally being prepared for Zhang Yimou's upcoming film, *Hero*.

As for himself, since he specifically ordered the Ming Dynasty Street to be fully built and all the supporting facilities to be completed first, he naturally filmed a martial arts story set in the Ming Dynasty, "Brotherhood of Blades".

Looking at the history of Chinese martial arts films, if we take 2000 as the dividing line, the universally recognized pinnacle of martial arts films before 2000 was "New Dragon Gate Inn".

Even in the 21st century, *New Dragon Gate Inn* remains the best martial arts film in most people's hearts. However, because *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, another group claimed the title of best martial arts film for *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*, leading to a heated debate between the two groups. And, coincidentally, or rather, unfortunately, both films originally slated Jet Li as the male lead, but he withdrew from both…

After 2000, frankly, there were very few martial arts films that people could remember. Besides *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*, there were Zhang Yimou's *Hero* and *House of Flying Daggers*, Wu Baige's *Reign of Assassins*, and then *Brotherhood of Blades*. Chen Kaige's *The Promise* was a melodramatic fairy tale disguised as fantasy. *Curse of the Golden Flower* and Feng Xiaogang's *The Banquet* can't even be considered martial arts films; they're pure palace intrigue. One is a copy of *Thunderstorm*, the other a rip-off of *Hamlet*. *Flying Swords of Dragon Gate* was a remake of *New Dragon Gate Inn*. It's clear that even a group of great directors had run out of ideas when it came to scripts.

As for the "Detective Dee" series and "The Four Great Constables," they can be considered as ancient costume suspense and crime-solving genres that inherit the mantle of martial arts.

The movie "Brotherhood of Blades" is quite good. It takes the opposite approach to traditional martial arts films. The perspective is not on the so-called heroes and chivalrous figures, but on the ordinary people. It shows the helpless choices and powerless resistance of the ordinary people who are manipulated by the environment, and shows the bitter struggle of the Ming Dynasty under the turmoil.

Zhang Yimou's "Hero" excels in its beautiful visuals, top-notch use of color, grand scale, and lofty themes. As for its shortcomings, setting aside the criticisms from experts who claim it panders to the ruling class, the most criticized aspect of "Hero" is its script, or more specifically, its weak plot. The entire film revolves around Nameless and Qin Shi Huang's constant guessing games, lacking dramatic twists and turns, and each character feels rather one-dimensional.

Over the years, everyone has come to know Zhang Yimou's strengths and weaknesses. His directing skills are undoubtedly top-notch, but scriptwriting has always been his Achilles' heel. This is evident in films like *Hero*, *House of Flying Daggers*, *Curse of the Golden Flower*, and his subsequent works.

In contrast, the film "Brotherhood of Blades" had a limited budget of only 3000 million yuan, so it didn't have any grand scenes. However, its script and story were excellent, with a dramatic plot and well-developed, three-dimensional characters that were not stereotypical.

However, if Wu Yuchen were to direct "Brotherhood of Blades" this time, he wouldn't be short of money. He could focus on the scale and visuals, since it would eventually be sold overseas, and foreign audiences love big scenes.

Therefore, he has been busy working on the script and storyboards for "Brotherhood of Blades" during this period.

This year's Spring Festival is earlier than usual, with Lunar New Year's Eve on January 23rd. Therefore, some people have already returned to work as early as January 31st. In previous years, most people in the film and television industry would only leave their homes and begin their work after the Lantern Festival.

But this year is different. Many actors are flocking to Beijing, refusing to take the train and insisting on flying, afraid of missing a rare opportunity. Just two days ago, renowned director Wu Yuchen announced that auditions for his new film "Brotherhood of Blades," scheduled for February 1st, would begin for two weeks.

When this news came out, it naturally caused a stir. Many newspapers reported on it, and "Brotherhood of Blades" even posted the requirements for each role online for all actors to check and see if they met the criteria.

"Chao'er, what are you doing?"

The middle-aged woman looked at her son's already packed luggage and asked in surprise.

"Go back to school!"

"Why are you back so early? School hasn't started for a while yet!" The middle-aged woman was shocked to hear this.

"Oh, Mom, you don't know, Director Wu Yuchen's new movie has started open auditions. I'm already late to the party. I have to hurry back to Beijing, or I'll miss it!"

After giving his parents a brief explanation, Deng Chao hurriedly grabbed his luggage and headed out. He had only learned about the role from a classmate, so he quickly checked the requirements online and discovered that he met the eligibility criteria for the role of Jin Yichuan in "Brotherhood of Blades." He immediately bought a train ticket, packed his bags, and rushed back to Beijing.

After a long and tiring journey, Deng Chao arrived at the dormitory and found that his roommates were also there. He smiled and said, "Hey, guys, you all rushed back for the audition!"

"Of course! This is Wu Yuchen's new movie!"

"Hey, which roles are you all planning to audition for?"

"Which one can we apply for? The only important role that fits the criteria is Jin Yichuan. If all else fails, I'd be happy with even a small supporting role!"

As Zhu Yuchen spoke, he said to Deng Chao, "Chao'er, you should hurry up and register. We've already registered!"

Deng Chao dropped his luggage and hurriedly grabbed his resume to register.

Three days later, Deng Chao and Zhu Yuchen both received a call informing them that they had passed the preliminary selection and were to prepare for the second round of auditions in two days. The two couldn't help but high-five each other in their dormitory to celebrate.

The day after the retest, some were happy and some were sad. Deng Chao advanced to the final round and would be directly selected by Wu Yuchen, while Zhu Yuchen was unfortunately eliminated.

In this situation, Deng Chao wanted to comfort his roommate, but felt awkward about saying so, especially since he had advanced to the next round. Instead, Zhu Yuchen patted Deng Chao on the shoulder and said:

"Chao'er, I'm fine. Being eliminated was expected, but you have to do your best and bring us glory!"

Deng Chao then gave a wry smile: "This isn't something I can just decide to do. As you can see, there are quite a few big names involved in the role of Jin Yichuan alone, including Senior Brother Liu Ye, Senior Brother Huang Haibing, and Chen Kun from Beijing Film Studio. I even heard that Huang Xiaoming signed up. I'm just a nobody compared to them!"

Zhu Yuchen sighed upon hearing this: "We're really unlucky. We were born two years too late. If we had entered school a few years earlier, we might have been able to get a role in Director Wu's movies a few years ago!"

Previous graduates, whether it was Liu Ye, Sun Honglei, and Duan Long from the Central Academy of Drama, or Chen Kun and Fu Dalong from the Beijing Film Academy, all rose to prominence thanks to Wu Yuchen's works and are now well-known in the Chinese film and television industry.

Zhu Yuchen then said to Deng Chao, "Just do your best. Consider this a learning experience. Meeting Director Wu is a victory! My current goal is to get a role in a Miracle Film Studio production before graduation!"

Deng Chao chuckled upon hearing this. What Zhu Yuchen said was indeed realistic and a feasible plan for them. However, a sliver of hope lingered in Deng Chao's heart: what if he really could be selected…

On the other side, Jiang Qinqin held the script in her hands, then gave Wu Yuchen a kiss on the cheek, smiling brightly: "Honey, you're so good!"

This time, Wu Yuchen didn't hold any open auditions for the female lead, Zhou Miaotong; he directly gave the role to Jiang Qinqin. While Zhou Miaotong is an important role, she's not the main character, and Wu Yuchen has confidence in Jiang Qinqin.

Besides, he wasn't aiming for awards with "Brotherhood of Blades" this time; it was a commercial film, and Jiang Qinqin met the requirements in terms of both image and acting skills.

Wu Yuchen put his arm around Jiang Qinqin and said, "Qinqin, you should think carefully about the character, especially the temperament and eyes. You need to get it right when the time comes."

In her previous life, the role of Zhou Miaotong was played by Liu Shishi. The character was an innocent young lady from an official family who had fallen into prostitution. In fact, Liu Shishi's figure, appearance, and demeanor were all quite convincing. However, her eyes were almost completely expressionless. They showed neither the struggle of love and hate nor the worldliness she had acquired. She managed to portray a vibrant and passionate life as one of utter indifference, which drew a lot of criticism for her "eye acting." People said that her nickname "Blind Sister" was well-deserved.

Therefore, Wu Yuchen specifically reminded her.

"Don't worry, honey, I definitely won't hold you back!" Jiang Qinqin assured him confidently.

Wu Yuchen was quite at ease with her; Jiang Qinqin's acting skills were quite good, as he had already proven in his performance in "If Love Has a Destiny".

Just then, Wu Yuchen's phone rang. He picked it up and saw it was Jiang Wen's, so he pressed the answer button.
"Hey, Director Jiang..."

Jiang Wen interrupted him directly, saying, "Hey, don't call me Director Jiang anymore. I'm banned now, so what kind of director am I? Just call me Jiang Wen'er! Director Wu, I have to ask you, what did I do wrong? Why didn't I pass your second round of auditions? I didn't even make it to the final round of screenings."

Jiang Wen is currently banned from directing, so he can only resort to acting to satisfy his cravings. For this audition for "Brotherhood of Blades," he directly applied, specifically for the male lead, Shen Lian.

Wu Yuchen immediately sighed:

"Hey, my dear Brother Jiang, your temperament and appearance don't match the male lead at all! My male lead is the kind of quiet, unknown, and insignificant character who is swept along and unable to control his own destiny. Who would believe you if you just stood there and played the role!"

Jiang Wen on the other side immediately retorted:

"No, Director Wu, why do you think I can't play this kind of nobody? Right now, I'm just a nobody who can't do anything!"

"Look at me, my films are banned, and now I'm banned too. I have to keep everything bottled up inside. Isn't that what they want me to be—a sullen, nobody? Isn't that just being dragged along, a nobody who can't control his own destiny? It's perfect for me to play that role!"

Upon hearing this, Wu Yuchen couldn't help but put his hand to his forehead. This Jiang Wen is really good at making up nonsense; he can make sense of anything!
(End of this chapter)