National Tide 1980.

For the time being, Ikuo Suho does not want to have too many direct conflicts with Kiri Studios.

After all, most people in this world have a common problem: they believe everything they hear and never think for themselves. They are keen on taking what they believe as the truth, and then they climb up to the moral high ground and start criticizing and pointing fingers.

Moreover, this situation is particularly serious in Japan, where people are forced to "socially die" at every turn. Now that the other side has the upper hand in public opinion, it will be too disadvantageous for them to confront head-on.

Mist Studios was in its heyday, and people would believe whatever they said. There was really no need for him to step up and reach out to catch the flying knife.

Anyway, in his opinion, the counterattack of Mist Studio at this time is just relying on money to win people's hearts, just like the behavior of politicians running for elections spending money to canvass votes for themselves. It is short-lived and cannot last.

He believed that the passivity and pressure caused by this influence was only temporary and would soon pass.

Just wait until he calms down his own camp which is beginning to be in chaos, and then try to socialize with a few TV stations and build closer relations.

There will be plenty of opportunities to get the other person to call you "Dad" later, so there is no need to rush.

He is very good at actively attracting producers and senior executives of the production department who have the power to decide on the performance of artists in the TV station. In addition, he will use the name of BURNING Entertainment Agency to pay a lot of money to these people for lavish consumption.

Regular dinners and golf tournaments with prize money are also organized every month.

Even the top executives of any TV station will receive BURNING thank-you gifts at the end of the year and on their birthdays.

Therefore, it was a very sure thing for him to get the people from the TV station to stand on his side and together strangle the Fog Studio which had no foothold in the TV field.

The same goes for TBS TV station. Even though it could not prevent "Black Leather Notebook" from being broadcast in prime time, it made Director Sasaki refuse to continue cooperating with Kiri Studios, allowing drama critics to find fault with it and amplify negative audience feedback.

It is even possible to get other TV stations to launch a few dramas to attack Sniper Fog Studio.

In short, there are many ways to attack your opponent.

The most urgent task was to find a way to sort out the financial situation of Fog Studios. He was really concerned about this matter.

Because according to common sense, it is impossible for Matsumoto Keiko to have such strong financial strength with her personal ability.

Even if the tax auditors showed the results of their investigation, saying that Fog Studios had invested a lot of stocks and made a lot of money in the securities market, thus having sufficient financial resources, he would not believe it.

Because Keiko Matsumoto spends so much money, obviously far beyond what she should spend.

Almost 3 billion yen was invested in filming movies and TV series alone, and the company also bought Kiri Studio and the studios of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune.

Could it be that a woman like her has the courage to gamble her entire fortune in the stock market?

And can you make seven or eight times the profit in the securities market?

This is too ridiculous. It's impossible.

For example, Japan's stock market has been booming in the past two years, but he himself is also one of the participants.

Moreover, he is a big player. He has invested 3 billion yen in the stock market and also used the leverage of securities companies and insider information provided by securities companies.

But even so, when the returns were the best, he only doubled his money.

And recently, he lost more than 500 million on NTT.

This is enough to show that making money in the stock market is not that easy.

He knows best what stock trading is all about.

Therefore, even if the results of the tax department's investigation are true, he believes that someone must have provided Matsumoto Keiko with huge amounts of funds and insider information, which enabled her to make so much money.

Otherwise there is no other possibility.

In short, Ikuo Suho now feels that Matsumoto Keiko's background is more and more a mystery, and he wants to figure out how she did all this, and he even considers different investigation results.

If the investigation is thorough, and if there is any inside information that violates the law, it can certainly be used to coerce Keiko Matsumoto and become one's trump card.

If there happens to be a huge monster standing behind the other party, he can avoid getting his head broken and bleeding without knowing it, and then think of how to deal with it.

So, Suoh Ikuo gave his secretary an order, "Find me a private detective, the best one. I want to investigate the details of Mist Studio and this woman, Keiko Matsumoto."

"Yes." The secretary didn't care. After all, it was the boss's request, and it wasn't his own money. He said directly, "Sorry to bother you. I'll take care of it right away."

After saying that, he went to do as Suho Ikuo instructed.

It should be said that judging from this incident, Ikuo Suho is not a confused person.

Many changes in life do have signs, but foolish people usually ignore these signs.

And Suho Ikuo obviously noticed these signs and was considered cautious.

But the problem is that smart people are not much better.

Not only are these signs often misinterpreted, but by the time they are actually noticed, the opportunity to remedy the situation has often been missed.

This is probably the sadness of life.

To be honest, Ning Weimin didn't give Suho Ikuo much time to react. At most, it was only a week, and that was because of the convening of the second Tokyo Film Festival.

On September 9, Ning Weimin personally went to the airport to welcome the Xi'an Film Studio team who came from China to attend the film festival.

As a Chinese who is "in Cao's camp but his heart is with Han", he has already built up considerable influence in Tokyo.

He once again took on the responsibility and fully played the role of the "guide party".

Not only did he voluntarily pay for the food and accommodation of fellow villagers including Wu Tianming, Lv Liping and Zhang Yimou, he also arranged for them to stay at the New Otani Hotel.

In addition, he also used these days, with the help of Matsumoto Keiko's connections in the film industry, to accompany the film delegation of the West Film Studio to meet some members of the Tokyo Film Festival Organizing Committee. He then took them to visit the Shochiku Film Studio and the Kiri Studio, and organized an exchange meeting for Chinese and Japanese filmmakers.

Ning Weimin even presented the film delegation from the Xi'an Film Studio with the award-winning film "Old Well". Together with Shochiku Film Studio, he booked five screening halls in four cinemas and signed a contract to screen the film "Old Well" during the film festival.

Even the copies for screening were brought in advance from China by Ning Weimin, and he paid for Japanese and English subtitles to be prepared.

For this, all members of the Xi'an Film Studio delegation are quite satisfied and extremely grateful.

Especially when they didn't know that the film would win the Best Picture and Best Actor awards, they all regarded Ning Weimin as a good man "like Zhuan Zhu and Mengchang" who was dedicated to supporting the development of domestic films.

No one would have thought that he also had selfish motives and came here for the rare goods.
So when Wu Tianming learned that Ning Weimin had always supported Chen Peisi in making comedy films, he not only apologized rather embarrassedly for having rejected "Father and Son" that year, but also expressed his desire to "let bygones be bygones".

Moreover, on the opening day of the Tokyo Film Festival, the Xi'an Film Studio delegation led by Wu Tianming also appeared on the red carpet of the opening ceremony with Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko.

This scene, whether for Japanese filmmakers or the Japanese media, almost completely confirmed Matsumoto Keiko's pro-China stance and her friendly relationship with Chinese filmmakers.

In this way, no one will doubt whether she has a certain influence on Chinese films.

Of course, this is not a bad thing.

After all, in this era, the Japanese looked down on China because China was poor, but their stance was still anti-war and remorseful.

So no one would mind such a scene at the film festival. Instead, some people would consider whether they could use Keiko Matsumoto's relationship to open up a cultural market of up to one billion people.

This can be regarded as Ning Weimin giving Matsumoto Keiko a layer of brilliant golden light.

After that, Ning Weimin no longer had to hold back and directly took the video that he had secretly filmed in Suo Ikuo's office to TBS and Fuji TV to expose it.

Not to mention that the news department of Fuji TV was overjoyed after seeing the video and immediately arranged for people to edit it and prepare it for broadcast.

Even the news department of TBS TV station was so excited after seeing this that they quickly changed the scheduled program times.

After all, it was shocking gossip, and it even involved the possibility of a crime.

This kind of video is completely solid evidence, and it is useless to cover it up.

And they also know that it is not exclusive news for their own TV station, so whoever releases it first will have the advantage.

Therefore, the director of the TBS News Department made the decision without even asking Director Sasaki for permission, and just based on the face of Deputy Director Kaga, the news was quickly broadcast during the daytime news.

Poor Ikuo Suho, he still thought he was a "leader of the entertainment industry" who could manipulate the media.

He would never have imagined that one day he himself would become the protagonist of a scandal, and the media who usually had to look at his face would not give him any face at all.

In fact, when his arrogant and domineering image appeared on the screens of two TV stations, he was still in his office, hugging his toy, Yasuko Sawaguchi, who was still in its infancy, trying to find out some secrets about Keiko Matsumoto's source of wealth from her.

In his opinion, after all, Sawaguchi Yasuko has been an artist working with Kiri Studios for more than half a year, so it is impossible that there is no news at all.

Maybe she discovered something, but just didn't take it to heart and ignored it. Maybe she will remember it if I remind her. In that case, there may be a more convenient breakthrough.

"President, I really can't answer your question. What do you mean by financial backing? Do you mean the sponsoring company?"

"Haha, do you really not understand, or are you playing dumb? Of course, I'm referring to the man who supports Matsumoto Keiko. The man who gives her financial support or power. Just like me to you. Is there someone like me by her side?"

"Isn't this possible? She's married. Are you talking about her husband? He seems to be very rich. He has a high-end restaurant in Ginza. I've been there with the crew. It's really high-end. And I heard that he has opened branches in Kyoto and Osaka. Ah, he is also the agent of a new type of travel suitcase. I received a gift from a crew for business trips. It is said that it is also a very popular and fashionable product now."

Sawaguchi Yasuko said a little hesitantly.

"You mean that Chinese guy? Ha, ha ha ha, you're really good at telling jokes. I can only say that you completely misunderstood what I meant, or that you're too naive and made a wrong judgment. I tell you, a pretty boy like that is just a shield being used by others. I suspect that Matsumoto Keiko and him are just a couple in name only, and in fact, she got married just to cover up her identity. She might be the private property of some big shot, or an underground lover."

"Oh, what did you say? How is that possible?"

"How is it impossible? Don't be so naive..."

Ikuo Suho looked at the skeptical expression on Yasuko Sawaguchi's face as she turned her head and spoke to him.

Suddenly he became interested again. While he put his hands into her clothes and moved his face close to her ear, he whispered, "You know, you can calculate the income of a female star. The entertainment industry in Japan is so small. No matter how popular a female star is, she can only make a limited amount of money. Take you for example. You earn more than 20 million yen a year for an advertisement endorsement, but you can only get 10 million yen. It's good for you to earn 100 million yen a year. Matsumoto Keiko has her own agency and is worth more than you, but her income is at most 200 million yen. If she acts more, maybe she can make 300 million yen, but that's it."

"Besides, female stars are different from male stars. The time they can make the most money is very short, which is the years when they look their best. But they have to spend a lot of money to maintain their appearance. In addition, they have to maintain a decent appearance for fame. Of course, maintaining luxury also costs more money. So with Matsumoto Keiko's own ability, she can only accumulate a net worth of 600 to 700 million yen at most."

"But think about how much money she spent to buy the Mist Studios and several studios? Not to mention the 1 billion or 2 billion yen she spent on multiple movies and TV series. Not to mention that she shouldn't have so much money to support such a costly thing. Even if she really had so much money, where would she get the courage to make such a gamble?"

"You know, the film industry is a high-risk industry. Even the 'Big Five' are not confident of launching such a project right now. If we look at the regular movie box office, the probability of her losing money on almost every project is as high as 90%. Is this normal? Even if her husband supports his beloved woman at all costs, does he have the ability to come up with billions of yen to make up for her losses? How is that possible!"

And Yasuko Sawaguchi didn't know whether she couldn't withstand Ikuo Suho's strength or was convinced by his counter-question.

At this point there was no way to refute, and she could only moan and gasp.

However, just as the two were being affectionate and were about to engage in an even more ridiculous physical conversation, there was a loud knock on the office door.

This made Zhou Fang Yuxiong very disappointed, and he could only quickly pull his hand out of the warm place.

"Come in."

The person who opened the door was the secretary. He looked anxious and didn't care about Suho Ikuo's emotions at all.

What's even more strange is that he turned on the TV in the office without asking for permission.

"Boss, something bad has happened. Please check the news..."

As a result, Zhou Fang Yuxiong only looked at the TV screen for a moment, and his face turned pale. (End of this chapter)