Chapter 228: The Landscape of Hong Kong Films

Give God seven days, and he can create a world. Give Xiao Ran five years, and he creates the richest man among all Chinese people. Yet for him, this was clearly not a pleasant task, though it was somewhat vanity-driven. What worried him even more were the yacht and villa that had been extorted from him by Wei Dongling and Fang Xiaoqiang. He also lamented that Fang Xiaoqiang had been corrupted by Wei Dongling and turned into a bad kid.

Still, Xiao Ran had to admit that recruiting Fang Xiaoqiang back then was an absolutely correct decision. Thanks to Fang Xiaoqiang, the right people were able to seize several opportunities in the financial market and earn around 10 billion Hong Kong dollars—far greater than any investment return, a huge success indeed.

Xiao Ran wanted Fang Xiaoqiang to confront Soros in Britain in 1992, to test Soros’s strength as well as Fang Xiaoqiang’s current capabilities. All this was to prepare for the likely Asian financial crisis of 1997. Xiao Ran wouldn’t allow the financial storm to spread to Hong Kong, as it would affect the film industry.

At the Golden Horse Awards at the beginning of the year, under Taiwan’s local protectionism, Shadow Films didn’t achieve much. Fortunately, the best drama award went to a film invested by Shadow Films, restoring some face. At the Golden Melody Awards in April, due to the judges’ deliberate bias, Shadow Films only won half the awards, with the rest divided among three major companies.

However, at overseas film festivals, Shadow Films finally vented its frustration. Several of their films performed well at the Berlin and Tokyo Film Festivals, which was quite impressive.

As time moved forward to June 27, 1991, Xiao Ran remained frustrated. He was upset that Rong Taizi bought back Hengchang’s shares from Shadow Films at almost the original price, leaving Shadow Films with nothing. It was as if they had paid Rong Taizi to expand his holdings.

Yet he had no choice—after all, Rong Taizi came from a prominent family and was one of the mainland government’s representatives in Hong Kong; they had to give him face. The only thing that pleased Xiao Ran was that aside from this, all other acquisitions had gone smoothly.

Meanwhile, Tianxia Fund had grown stronger in recent years. Several previous venture investments had yielded returns, and its assets had soared past 10 billion. Coupled with profits from the Gulf Crisis, its assets had increased dramatically. This news also pleased him, though money no longer meant much to him.

On this day, deeply frustrated, Xiao Ran invited a group of friends from the industry, along with Wei Dongling, to go out to sea. As soon as he saw the huge yacht, Xiao Ran felt immense pain—after all, it cost a fortune. The problem wasn’t the money itself, but that the yacht had been given to Wei Dongling after being extorted from Xiao Ran, supposedly to celebrate his status as the richest Chinese man. Xiao Ran had paid at least 50 million for it.

Being the richest man wasn’t easy, was it? Xiao Ran smiled bitterly, only to be rudely pushed by Fa Ge from behind: “What are you standing around for? Stop blocking the way!”

Only Wei Dongling smiled slyly on the ship. He could see what Xiao Ran was thinking—he loved watching such scenes; otherwise, why would he take the time? The ship was large enough to accommodate dozens of people, leaving Xiao Ran even more distressed.

Lin Qingxia also understood Xiao Ran’s feelings. Suddenly, she playfully hugged him, coaxing him like a child: “Be good, it’s okay, it’s just a little money!” Under everyone’s gazes, Xiao Ran felt extremely embarrassed.

Actually, most of them were the good friends he had met before he became successful. Those he had met in the past two years could hardly regard him as a close friend, given his status now. Liang Jiabao was also there. This guy had originally had the chance to become the editor-in-chief of a new newspaper but declined it instead, choosing to be a freelance journalist.

At that moment, he was enjoying the sun on the boat, groaning contentedly, “This is fucking too comfortable. If I have time, I really want to go out and have fun more! It feels amazing!”

“That’s self-inflicted suffering. You refused an easy job—who’s to blame?” Xing Zi sat down beside Liang Jiabao. Influenced by these friends, his personality had gradually become less eccentric. He also pulled over his rumored girlfriend, Luo Huijuan, to sit down.

Fa Ge, who was in a good mood, couldn’t help but shout at Liu Hua and Liang Chaowei, who were chatting together, “Aren’t you guys gay? Why stick together so much? You’ll end up like conjoined twins!”

The boat was filled with continuous shouting, talking, and laughter. But Xiao Ran was pulled away by Wei Dongling for business talks, which made him even more frustrated. Wei Dongling took a deep breath and said, “It’s time for us to enter the telecommunications industry. Where do you think we should make our breakthrough?”

“Nokia. First acquire Nokia, then acquire American Global Telecom, or Verizon or Cingular!” Xiao Ran said casually, suddenly breaking into a cold sweat. If he remembered correctly, Global Telecom later filed for bankruptcy due to debts of over $10 billion. But that wasn’t a big problem—it could be sold before 9/11.

Just like Li Ka-shing investing in Orange Telecom and then selling it off for hundreds of billions. Wei Dongling was shocked. He had originally thought Xiao Ran would mention Hong Kong Telecom and quickly asked, “Why not Hong Kong Telecom?”

“Hong Kong Telecom?” Xiao Ran pondered for a moment. Indeed, Hong Kong Telecom was very profitable, earning around $10 billion per year. But would its owner, the British company Great Eastern, sell this cash cow? That was really uncertain.

“I know it’s difficult, but we can give it a try!” Wei Dongling thought for a while before saying, “Maybe we can discuss the acquisition with Great Eastern after acquiring Global. By then, there might still be a chance.”

“I don’t think it’s a big problem!” Xiao Ran replied after some thought. He wasn’t some business genius. Whether it was profitable or not, Phantom wouldn’t go bankrupt no matter what. BOC probably wouldn’t pressure Phantom to pay that $4 billion debt either. Even if pressured, Phantom still had the ability to repay it.

Under such circumstances, even if the acquisition failed, the losses wouldn’t be too severe and wouldn’t affect Phantom’s growth and expansion. It could be seen as a chance for Wei Dongling and the higher-ups to gain experience, though using hundreds of billions for practice might be a bit exaggerated.

Wei Dongling nodded. At this stage, they could make decisions quickly no matter what they discussed. It wasn’t just because they were decisive enough, but also because they no longer had to handle everything personally as before; otherwise, Wei Dongling wouldn’t have time to go on trips.

However, acquiring Cingular and Verizon was by no means easy. These two American mobile companies were set to become the first and third largest in the U.S. in the future. With Phantom’s current financial resources, acquiring them without borrowing money was simply a fantasy.

Wei Dongling didn’t quite understand why Xiao Ran wanted to acquire Nokia. Although that company was making rapid progress in mobile phones, its other electronic businesses were not so good. Buying it might not bring many benefits.

After being asked this question, Xiao Ran hesitated for a moment. He couldn’t possibly say how outstanding Nokia would be in the future. He hadn’t come up with this idea because of Nokia’s strength—he had long given up on that idea. In his vision, movies couldn’t be played on mobile phones by 2005. But as mobile phone functions grew more powerful, it would eventually reach that level.

In the future, mobile phones would become one of the entertainment platforms in Phantom’s entertainment empire. A company with core technologies like Nokia was naturally a target for Xiao Ran, and since Nokia’s market value wasn’t high at the time, acquiring it was easy.

With mobile phones, there was also a need for an operator to create a monopolistic one-stop service industry, and mobile companies were undoubtedly an excellent choice. Given the size of the North American film market, seizing mobile companies in advance was a very wise decision.

However, acquiring just one of these three companies—Verizon—carried significant risks. It wasn’t related to operations; Xiao Ran still trusted Wei Dongling’s judgment greatly. It was more about funding. Even though the mobile phone business hadn’t really developed yet, acquiring any of these companies would likely require at least $10 billion, which was practically impossible.

In fact, it might require as much as $15 billion, making it even more unlikely.

Xiao Ran had once forced someone into bankruptcy due to funding issues, so he would definitely not make such a mistake. Therefore, he wouldn’t go all out to make the acquisition and would rather wait until stocks like Microsoft’s soared before taking action.

By 1995, 18% of Microsoft’s shares could bring Xiao Ran hundreds of billions of dollars in personal wealth. And 25% of Dell’s shares could bring Phantom at least $30 billion in wealth. By then, acquiring a mobile company wouldn’t be a problem—let alone buying an entire country.

Moreover, with Bill’s operations in the Soviet Union, controlling oil would mean controlling energy. It could be said that after 1995 would be the best time for Phantom to truly expand into the world’s largest entertainment and media empire.

At present, Phantom is merely Asia’s largest entertainment media company, still a long way from Xiao Ran’s goals. In fact, Phantom has already achieved good results in dominating Europe. Relying on its advanced computer graphics technology, Infinite Vision hires countless technicians every year. Compared to Future First Wave Digital, which can only produce a few films a year, Infinite Vision is far stronger and can at least add special effects to many films. Of course, most importantly, Xiao Ran sent Ge Wenqiu to Europe to investigate European audiences’ preferences and viewing habits. Based on this, Phantom produces targeted films, whether in Chinese or English. Currently, Hong Kong-produced films account for about 15% of the European market, and they make up over 30% of the top ten European box office hits each year. These figures are sufficient to prove the success of Hong Kong films in Europe, though further progress is still needed. However, Xiao Ran no longer needs to handle this personally; Phantom has developed a mature system that can function well even without him. Honestly, if it weren’t for Xiao Ran’s unfulfilled ambition to challenge Hollywood, he could have left everything behind and traveled the world with Lin Qingxia. That would be a hundred times better than working hard here. Yet, as the saying goes, the revolution is not yet complete, and comrades must keep striving. Xiao Ran doesn’t want to fail at the last moment and end up losing to Hollywood. Moreover, he is eager to launch the first attack on Hollywood with that urban wuxia film. In fact, Hong Kong films now have a much larger market in North America than in history. According to reports from the U.S. branch, at least 30% of young people know about the famous Hong Kong movies from the Far East, and they have all watched Hong Kong films at some point, starting with “Spy Change.” More and more Chinese films are now entering North American mainstream theaters, with at least three released each year. In Asia, Hong Kong films’ market share is growing steadily, rising from less than 20% to 30% today—a significant improvement. And Phantom accounts for at least 50% of this market, creating a monopoly. Yet, Xiao Ran is not satisfied with these numbers. He hopes to increase Hong Kong films’ share in Asia to over 50% and at least 40% in Europe. In the future, he also aims for at least 40% in North America and over 80% in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. This is Xiao Ran’s vision for the future of Hong Kong cinema, and indeed, he has the qualifications to draw such a picture. As for the Chinese mainland, there’s not much to say—the censorship system is gradually relaxing, but it’s of little use if funds aren’t allowed into theaters. By recruiting people familiar with the mainland’s official circles, Xiao Ran quickly secured connections throughout the region. Films sent by Phantom for review and release have hardly faced any obstacles. According to the mainland branch’s investigations, Hong Kong films now hold an absolute position there, with a market share of 70%, of which Phantom’s films account for 80%.

This makes sense. Phantom is now, under the new policy, a company that can shoot and release films directly without script censorship, just like Yindu. Other companies, however, still need to negotiate with the Film Bureau, either through co-production or other methods. In fact, other companies are also developing quite rapidly, especially the three giants. As they have always been strong allies of Phantom, they quickly gained the advantage of not needing script censorship. Each of these three companies has assets of over 6 billion; excluding the 2 billion each invested by Phantom, their strength is quite impressive, but they still can’t match Phantom’s entertainment media empire. While they were in negotiations, Brother Fa suddenly rushed in and shouted at them, “What are you doing? Go out and have fun! Are you here to relax or to work?” Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling exchanged a glance and immediately joined in the fun. Xiao Ran is also looking forward to the release of “The Legend of the Car God” on July 15th…