Looking at the Sino-Japanese IP transaction from Huang Lei's "The Troubled Family" and the dilemma of new directors

The best thing about Japan is that its final judgment is not based solely on price, nor on the amount of money

"The best thing about buying copyright in Japan is that his final judgment is not based on the amount of money."

"Shunji Iwai's agent in China" is the label he is often given in front of the media. In fact, this is a long time ago. The 1996 "Swallowtail Butterfly" was his first collaboration with director Shunji Iwai, and it was also the origin of the label. Having been dealing with the Japanese market for more than 20 years, he must be one of the people in China who understands the Japanese film market best.

He is Gu Xiaodong-he has served as a director, producer, planner and actor. The reason why Huang Lei's directorial debut "The Troubled Family" was able to obtain the right to remake "The Suffering of the Family" directed by Yoji Yamada has a lot to do with the friendship between Gu Xiaodong and Director Yamada for more than ten years. Last week, the "Japan expert" of China talked about the real Japanese film market, copyright sales, and the difficulties and breakdowns of new Chinese and Japanese directors.

Gu Xiaodong

's Japanese film market: Audiences don't like 3D and prefer domestic films, and film production budgets are so low that it is unbelievable that

"China may find it particularly unbelievable. Rent DVDs?"

In the years when the Internet has rapidly become the mainstream of the China market, a large part of the income of the Japanese film industry is still supported through secondary utilization, that is, other income such as audio-visual products. "Box office accounts for half, and the other half needs to be recycled through markets such as copyright and special audio-visual products. The DVD rental business is still alive." Gu Xiaodong said with a smile that the Chinese people must find this unbelievable.

A glimpse into the interior of TSUTAYADVD Rental Store, one of Japan's three largest audio and video stores

. Before being overtaken by China in 2012, Japan was originally the world's second largest film market. Now, the box office of the cinema market in China has four times that of Japan.

"Japanese audiences don't like 3D very much and don't appreciate Hollywood movie series that much." Gu Xiaodong said,"Because there is no quota limit, in a culturally diverse society like Japan, more than 600 foreign films are released every year. But Japanese audiences prefer to watch domestic movies. The market ratio of domestic films and imported films in Japan is almost 6:4, and domestic films account for 60%." This also explains to a certain extent the problem that Hollywood films frequently encounter cold weather in the Japanese market.

While the Japanese market is mature and diversified, the audience's attitude towards choosing movies is clearly different. For example, director Yukazu Zhi is hard to get a ticket at the China Film Festival, but his works cannot be regarded as mainstream commercial films in Japan. In addition, the Japanese audience has a clear-cut stance. If it were not for the film they like,"another group of people might not watch this movie at all." Therefore, there are very few incidents of rushing to a certain movie.

Local traditional consumption habits have been hit multiple times, and Japanese film budgets are also declining. "In fact, it won't be difficult for new Japanese directors to stand out because Japanese audiences accept local culture and are willing to see new faces. But it's really hard for them to find a budget."

Gu Xiaodong revealed that in 2015, when he represented Japan in the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the budget of the entire film was "so low that we may not understand"-only 15 million yen (less than 1 million yuan).

"Therefore, the career of film is less desirable in Japan now because there is a lot of pressure on film practitioners."

When Japan's IP copyright began to become popular: the maturity and strictness of the copyright system may be a problem for China businessmen.

"The Troubled Family" is the second film directed by Yoji Yamada that was remade abroad. The previous film was "The Yellow Handkerchief of Happiness"(hereinafter referred to as "Yellow Handkerchief"),"Yellow Handkerchief" was remade by the United States at that time.

In "The Troubled Family", Huang Lei added a clip of "Yellow Handkerchief" broadcast on TV, which was equivalent to paying a tribute to director Yamada. For this shot alone, the producer would have to find Songzhu Yinying, Takakura Ken and other aspects to seek consent before using it. In addition, since director Yamada read a report in an American newspaper at that time and inspired him to create, the producer had to find the American who wrote the report and ask for consent before finally using these shots.

"This is a truly complete intellectual property system." Gu Xiaodong said.

Japanese copyright has always been favored by major markets. He believes that for Japan, price is not the biggest resistance, but the most important thing is professionalism.

Speaking of this point, Gu Xiaodong mentioned a blunder incident. At the beginning of this year, news broke that a classic movie by a famous Japanese director would be remade into a China version. The director of the film didn't know the news until he saw the news. Because the copyright of early works was not in the hands of the director, and the director himself had completely forgotten that the TV station that managed the copyright seemed to have asked for the sale of copyright.

"First of all, figure out who the copyright belongs to and who it is the right thing to talk to. Find the owner or manager of the copyright, because the owner may not manage it."

With a clear path, the next step is to provide a complete proposal from production to publicity (English/Japanese) in a professional manner. The most important thing is to let the other party know who you are, why you want to adapt this IP, how you will adapt it, what the plan is, what platform will it be broadcast on, what card will be used, etc. -detailed plan The ability to win trust, coupled with unique adaptation concepts, is the key to negotiations.

"The best thing about Japan is that its final judgment is not based solely on price, nor on the amount of money." Gu Xiaodong said that often, more than a dozen companies competed for a copyright, and he had also met people who quoted 8 times the price. But in Japan, which already has a mature industrial system, money is no longer the first consideration.

Of course, connections are equally important-for example, the smooth spread of the copyright of "The Troubled Family" is precisely because of Gu Xiaodong's relationship with director Yamada. According to an insider close to the plan at the time, Gu Xiaodong basically bought the copyright at a price of 5% of the production fee.

"Chinese New Director Plan": The growth ecology of new directors with masters leading apprentices

"Our former studio system no longer exists. In the past, there was a process of masters leading apprentices in this system, starting from school to production. The studio starts with the recording, so that the assistant director gradually has the opportunity to make the films he directs. Now that this process is gone, this system is gone, so we especially want to provide a new benign ecological environment for new directors."

In 2014, a platter-style theater movie "City in Love" appeared on the market. Supervised by Guan Jinpeng, Shunji Iwai, and Wei Desheng, and directed by directors Wen Muye, Dong Runnian, Han Yi, Fu Tianyu, Yi Jiatong, etc. This plan was still relatively advanced at the time. Its purpose was to allow several new directors to experience the entire process of the film from production to marketing in a "one-stop service" manner.

The program was launched by Gu Xiaodong in Shanghai. This year, the "New Chinese Director Program" has entered its third term. As before, 30 directors were selected, 10 of whom were to attend, and 20 of whom were "planned" to bear all expenses, including accommodation. After the end, several directors were launched to jointly produce a theater movie-at first, everyone even thought that this was a government public welfare project.

However, just three years have passed, and now new director plans are blooming almost everywhere. There are also big online movies called the "Training Ground for New Directors" on the market. What difference will this plan launched by Gu Xiaodong bring?

"This time the plan will leave three directors behind. Because the independent length platter of five directors is not easy for the audience to accept, we adjusted the structure of the film. The stories of the three people will also be relatively more complete, and the audience will be better accepted."

In addition, because it was discovered that the overall abilities of the new directors were not too balanced when the first New Directors Program was held, new roles were subsequently added to the mentor lineup. "Because the tutors who came to the class in the first year were all directors, we have introduced photography, art, and recording since the second year. There will be producers this year. Because he is a director, he needs to have a strong overall view and overall ability."

Comparing the differences between new directors in China and Japan, Gu Xiaodong believes that although new directors in China have more opportunities and a larger market, new directors in Japan are more easily accepted by the audience than in China. Because in Japan and South Korea, whether directors or actors, there is always a rush of new faces, which is related to the acceptance pattern of the people."They are willing to see new faces." In China, audiences often "are not reluctant to watch it" or mistakenly believe that "foreign ones must be better than China."

Gu Xiaodong believes that earlier "Wrestling! The counterattack of "Dad" is also a retaliatory audience response-

"In fact, since the end of last year, various problems such as actors 'high pay and stand-ins have been repeatedly criticized. The whole society holds a strong critical attitude towards China actors, especially young fresh meat. At this time, a movie came in which the main actors had to increase or decrease by 25 kilograms in order to make it, and the movie was of very high quality. This was the same as the previous "Return of the Great Sage", which produced a retaliatory rebound. The rebound brought about the flood of 'tap water', which suddenly became a social phenomenon that could not be stopped."

No matter how big the market is, it's one thing. Gu Xiaodong believes that what is really helpful to the industry is a benign and healthy circulation system. "Given the current market and size of China, we still need more excellent directors, and young new directors still need more help. Although our strength is limited, we will continue to persist."

Editor: jessica