1979: The child's mother is a celestial being.

Chapter 55 The First Meeting of the Film Earnings Group

The next day.

morning.

After breakfast, Chen Fusheng, Han Sanping, and Wu Tianming went together to the office assigned to their film revenue generation team by their work unit.

"This office is quite big. By the way, when are the other two arriving? Should we, the ones who get here first, choose our workstations?"

"The nature of our work means we can't work 9 to 5 here, so Lao Han, choosing a workstation won't help. If you ask me, just sit anywhere."

"That seems to be true." Han Sanping nodded belatedly, then noticed two more people walking in together. He quickly stood up and greeted the man, "Director Chen Huaikai, are you also from the film revenue generation team?"

"Haha, yes, yes, Director Han, I never thought we'd work together again. Your film 'Cow' has been making headlines lately."

Chen Huaikai not only knew Han Sanping, but was also an old acquaintance of Wu Tianming. After greeting them one by one, his gaze finally fell on Chen Fusheng.

"This young man looks familiar... Are you Niu Er from the movie 'Cow'?"

"Yes, I played Niu Er. My name is Chen Fusheng. Hello, Director Chen."

Although it was Chen Fusheng's first time meeting the other party, he was not unfamiliar with the name Chen Huaikai.

He is a very accomplished director of opera films in my country, having directed many classic opera films such as "White Phoenix Facing the Sun", "The Heroines of the Yang Family", "Wild Boar Forest", "Mu Guiying's Battle of Hongzhou", "Battle on the Plains", "Slaying the Yellow Robe", and "The Iron Bow".

If none of these works are familiar to you, there is another representative work of his that I'm sure everyone will recognize.

That is his son, the young poet, and his poem "Farewell My Concubine".

He was the art director for this play.

Later generations of netizens always like to question whether the director was actually the director of "Farewell My Concubine" or that his father was. Chen Fusheng must speak up for the director on this point. Does that mean a puppet emperor is not an emperor?

So it is an indisputable fact that the great director was the director of "Farewell My Concubine", but without his father, he would not have been able to make such an epoch-making film.

Back to the present, Chen Fusheng shook hands with the director's father, but he was still somewhat surprised by his arrival.

After all, this person is already sixty years old.

This reminded him of a joke from later generations, which roughly means: At only sixty years old, he is in his prime!

After the three of them greeted Chen Huaikai, they all looked at the fifth person, who was also the only female comrade on the field.

However, none of the three men, including Chen Fusheng, recognized the woman.

Chen Huaikai wanted to help with the introductions, but the woman stepped forward instead.

"Hello everyone, my name is Ye Xiangzhen, you can also call me Lingzi. I am also a director, and I am very happy to work with you all in the future."

After listening to each other's self-introductions, Wu Tianming and Han Sanping simply nodded politely, without making any impression on each other.

However, based on the other person's name, Chen Fusheng had a rough guess about their identity, and after Ling Zi finished speaking, he asked for confirmation:

"Comrade Lingzi, is 'Flower' Shuai yours?"

"Yes, he is my father."

After Lingzi finished speaking, she noticed that everyone's expressions were a bit surprised or complicated, so she quickly added, "I hope everyone won't look at me with prejudice because of my identity. Just treat me as an ordinary colleague."

Chen Fusheng's quick thinking was always good. Seeing that the atmosphere was a bit heavy, he led the applause and said:
"Alright, now that everyone in the group is here, let's welcome each other with applause."

Chen Huaikai continued Chen Fusheng's words:

"Yes, yes, no matter what our identities were or where we came from before, now that we're colleagues, we must help each other. I hope that in the days to come, we can all work together to do our jobs well and contribute to the country's foreign exchange earnings through film."

"well said!"

At this moment, Deputy Director Shi walked in, smiling broadly, and said:

"It seems we all know each other already, right?"

"We just met." Ling Zi then asked, "Director Shi, is it just the five of us? Are there any others who haven't arrived yet?"

"There are only five people. Did you forget to include me, or did you leave yourself out?" Director Shi joked, then looked at everyone and answered the question seriously:
"Our film revenue generation team currently consists of only six people. Of course, I hope that our team will grow in the future, but there is a prerequisite: our work must first produce results."

"Actually, I won't hide it from you all. Our working group is still just a pilot project. Not only are many of our film industry colleagues watching us, but our superiors are also paying attention. As Comrade Chen Huaikai just said, we need to work together to generate foreign exchange for the country through film. This is both our working goal and the significance of our working group. Otherwise... right? I believe everyone understands."

Deputy Director Shi came in with a smile, but unexpectedly, he first put pressure on everyone, and then changed the subject to talk about the advantages of their film foreign exchange earning working group.

This is a classic case of giving a slap on the wrist and then offering a sweet treat.

However, when it comes to advantages, their biggest advantage is actually that the review process is relatively lenient.

Because the main purpose of the films they make is to generate foreign exchange for the country, which is to be sent abroad.

Therefore, the standards are naturally not as strict as those for films produced by domestic film studios. Of course, it's not without its limits.

Films like Category III movies or supernatural horror movies with ghosts are naturally not allowed to be made.

"Okay, that's all I have to say. If anyone has any questions, wants to know anything, or has any suggestions for our working group, please feel free to speak up."

"I have a question." Chen Fusheng raised his hand when he saw everyone watching.

"Comrade Fusheng, please speak."

Everyone's eyes turned to Chen Fusheng, who then asked:
"I'd like to ask everyone how our work will proceed going forward? Will the six of us discuss what our next movie should be about, and then prepare and film it together?"

"That's a good question, but the situation is certainly not as you described, Comrade Fusheng. Just imagine, if I were to gather so many directors and screenwriters here just to prepare a movie, why would I go to all this trouble? Right?"

Deputy Director Shi glanced around and, seeing no one objecting, continued, "Since everyone here is a leader in the industry whom I carefully selected, my actual hope is that everyone can have their own projects. Of course, you can also cooperate with each other, but my task is that our film revenue generation working group must deliver at least three projects by the end of the year."

“We’re going to shoot three movies this year… I’m afraid we won’t have enough time, right?” Wu Tianming asked with concern.

"Comrade Wu Tianming, you misunderstood me. I didn't mean that we have to finish filming three movies this year, but that we have at least three movies approved for production. There are five of you, four of whom are directors. It shouldn't be too difficult, right?"

Chen Fusheng and Han Sanping had just exchanged a glance, and now, as soon as Deputy Director Shi finished speaking, the two of them stepped forward in unison.

"Fusheng and I are assigned a mission."

Then, Lingzi asked, "I currently have a film being shot called 'The Wilderness,' does that count?"

Lingzi's play "The Wilderness" is adapted from Cao Yu's play of the same name. Since Deputy Director Shi had summoned her, he must have known about this.

He nodded: "That counts too."

With only one task remaining, Wu Tianming and Chen Huaikai were no longer under much pressure.

But after exchanging a glance, they did not choose to cooperate, but instead decided to go their separate ways.

"Does anyone have any more questions?"

Han Sanping raised his hand and asked about the film's team.

"As for the film crew, our Film Bureau certainly can't allocate that many professional personnel to you, but the Bureau will assign the task to the film studio and have the film studio provide personnel to cooperate with you."

"..."

The entire film revenue-generating team spent a whole morning talking during their first meeting, but they also did two other things in between.

The first thing to do was to put up a sign for their newly established 'department'.

The second thing was a group photo of the initial members.

There wasn't much going on in the afternoon. To put it nicely, everyone got to know each other better; to put it bluntly, everyone just chatted and joked around in the office.

At this point, there was no need to keep Chen Fusheng's "The Tuner" a secret, so it was shared with everyone.

"Comrade Fusheng, your script is excellent."

"Indeed, the premise of the protagonist pretending to be blind is very novel. You young people really have sharp minds. But Comrade Fusheng, when will you cooperate with me?"

"Director Wu, this is not how you steal people."

"You can't say that. Comrade Fusheng isn't tied to you, is he, Comrade Fusheng?"

"Director Wu is right, let's work together again next time."

"Hey, hey, Comrade Fusheng, you can't show favoritism!"

"Yeah."

"Kill me."

"Ha ha ha ha……"

Just as the members of their film revenue-generating team were getting to know each other, a plane from Hong Kong slowly landed at the capital's airport, and soon a middle-aged couple came out of the arrival gate.

The middle-aged couple looked to be of high status or had important identities, as they even had a private car to pick them up.

"The last time I came back was for the fourth National Congress of Literary and Art Circles last year. I didn't expect that less than a year has passed and the motherland has changed a lot."

"Yes, it seems that the country's reform and opening-up policy has stabilized."

"Well, I also found out from reading the newspapers in China that besides the movie 'Cow' that Liao Gong mentioned, there's another movie called 'Romance on Lushan Mountain' that's been really popular lately. We can go see it in the cinema later. If there's no political risk involved, I think we can bring it back to Hong Kong together."

"Okay, it's up to you."

(End of this chapter)