"How come there are Koreans? Do you know them?"
Once everyone had settled into the private room, Lu Zheng asked curiously.
"It's an international film festival. It's perfectly normal for Koreans to be here." Zhao Xiaodao shrugged. "The early stages of 'Incomplete Diary' tried to bring in Korean investment, mainly so it could be released in Korea."
"But they were insatiably greedy. Using the Korean box office as leverage, they demanded a larger share for less investment, and they also wanted the male lead role and an exorbitant salary."
"A share of the Korean box office?"
"A share of the global box office."
Even Lu Zheng was stunned. "What a nerve!"
"They said they could package and sell the film to Hollywood." Zhao Xiaodao curled her lip. "They used 'Squid Game' as an example, saying they could make it profitable."
"And then?" Lin Wan asked curiously.
"Of course, we turned them down. This isn't ten or twenty years ago—we aren't that easy to fool." Zhao Xiaodao said. "Later, we found a distribution company under another conglomerate, and it was released all the same."
Zhao Xiaodao then gave them a rundown of the Korean entertainment world. Roughly speaking, three major conglomerates divided the land among themselves, each with a whole host of affiliated entertainment companies beneath them.
The company that Song Zhongxian belonged to, whom they had just met, was a film production and distribution company under Korea's largest CJ conglomerate.
The distributor Zhao Xiaodao had used for her film, meanwhile, belonged to another conglomerate called SK.
It was roughly like offending Huayi in Hua Country, then going to Bona instead.
"As the domestic film market gets bigger and bigger, Korea naturally wants to come in and take a slice of the pie. So they invested in another film, with that