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Chapter 713 713: A Dish for 100,000 Yuan

Chen Yiyang had previously been very interested in South Korea's film and television industry.Because the quality productions from South Korea's film industry were indeed quite numerous. However, ever since Netflix entered South Korea, Korean directors have been complaining year after year that the film scene is dying, and no investors are willing to invest.

According to the usual domestic explanation, Netflix is accustomed to using experienced veterans, leading to a lack of growth opportunities for the new generation of Korean film and TV producers.

Additionally, Netflix avoids Korean taxes through commissioning productions, making it difficult for grassroots workers in Korea's film and TV industry to receive subsidies.

But Kim Dong-wook offered another perspective.

"Serves them right, those film industry scoundrels deserve no investment."

Kim Dong-wook cursed as he shared his experience.

Last year, he invested in the Korean end-of-year drama king "Queen's Tears."

Although it was the drama king, it didn't spur much global discussion, resulting in a failure to break even.

This drama was originally commissioned by Netflix, with Netflix promising to pay the producers a guaranteed price based on production costs.

However, due to significant increase in production costs, Netflix regretted its decision and directly cut the payment to the producers, causing them to incur losses, and implicating him as an investor.

"If Netflix didn't pay, why are you cursing the production side?" Chen Yiyang was puzzled.

"Do you know why Netflix refused to pay as initially agreed?" Kim Dong-wook cursed while explaining, "Do you know how much this crappy drama cost to complete? Five billion Korean won, a full five billion Korean won!"

Five billion Korean won converts to 248 million RMB, which is indeed a large sum.

Many of the top domestic TV dramas have production costs around this figure, and anything higher would struggle to recoup costs.

Consider the locally popular male-oriented martial arts drama "Yu Nianqing," which, despite featuring so many stars, only cost around three billion.

Don't be fooled by the similar figures.

But "Queen's Tears" only has sixteen episodes, while "Yu Nianqing" boasts forty-six episodes.

Even with several episodes being watered down, it's still significantly more than "Queen's Tears."

Moreover, capital doesn't consider how many episodes were watered down; the more episodes a popular drama has, the more time users spend watching, and the more money it makes.

Additionally, one is a modern drama, the other a historical martial arts drama, with significant differences in production costs and complexity.

Chen Yiyang was curious how a modern urban love drama without grand scenes could cost five billion Korean won.

"Costs? Let me tell you how those scoundrels spend money."

Kim Dong-wook furiously stated, "In a previous drama I invested in called 'Tyrant's Chef,' the production report claimed that to ensure the authenticity of the dishes, the crew only used top-grade Korean beef, wild abalone, imported truffles, and other premium ingredients.

A dish called low-temperature slow-cooked Korean beef with truffle sauce from the first season of this drama cost a whopping twenty million Korean won!"

Chen Yiyang quickly calculated, twenty million Korean won translates to one hundred thousand RMB.

After converting, Chen Yiyang glanced at the steak prepared by the top chef from New Zealand in front of him, which was actually only a few hundred bucks.

The cost of this entire table of dishes for all these people was probably around a hundred thousand.

Impressive, this expenditure is indeed noteworthy.

If he were a supervisor at Netflix, he'd directly throw this report at the other side's face.

"And the set—the scene of a Korean royal palace—they built a thirty thousand square meter exterior set and virtual filming ring at a one-to-one scale, costing a whopping eighteen billion Korean won!

The female lead's 87 sets of Korean traditional outfits were all hand-embroidered, and they even used real gold thread as material, with the most expensive piece costing fifteen million Korean won.

There was also a ridiculous transition shot, just one shot, they claimed it took six months to make an eight-minute segment, with a cost of one and a half billion Korean won.

"With these scoundrels cheating money like this, no wonder no one invests in them. In the last two years, only forty percent of the top twenty South Korean box office films broke even.

Who, in their right mind, would continue investing money in them? I'd rather spend my money on retirement here in New Zealand!" Kim Dong-wook was nearly red with rage.

Despite Kim Dong-wook's claims earlier, Chen Yiyang just felt there were indeed some problems in Korea's film production industry.

But he then mentions that not even half of the top twenty box office films broke even.

That is indeed a significant issue.

In recent years, local entertainment has been terrible, but Chen Yiyang dares to guarantee that most of the top twenty domestic box office films can break even, and the top few can make a huge profit.

The current state of Korean TV dramas is such that not only do investors lack confidence, even the producers lack faith.

The result is, these people can't wait to see profit after releasing films and TV dramas, they directly make significant moves to manipulate production costs, crazily utilizing strategies to ensure they can profit directly.

But doing so only makes investors more cautious, leading to a vicious cycle.

Moreover, there's a serious problem of falsifying box office figures in Korea, where in the last five years, at least 323 films had manipulated box office data, and 69 individuals from 24 distribution companies were directly sent to prison.

It's safe to say the entire industry is in big trouble.

Chen Yiyang even feels the current Korean film and TV market is reminiscent of the decline of Hong Kong cinema back in the day.

How did Hong Kong cinema decline? First was the talent gap—repeatedly using old actors and old directors.

Then, a group of people exaggerated costs to swindle money, with a typical example being a grass hat worn by an actor in a martial arts film, publicly claimed to cost six thousand USD.

Chen Yiyang thinks, even if a president personally weaved a grass hat, it probably wouldn't be worth six thousand USD, but they dare to quote this price.

Finally is the fixed themes—whatever theme is popular, it's as if they only produce those themes.

Hong Kong films are about cops and robbers, whereas Korean dramas are about human evil and dark elements; it's always the same.

In contrast, although local entertainment is terrible, at least it's consistently bad.

Whatever.

This comparison somehow feels odd.

After having dinner with these people, Brian recommended a place worth visiting to Chen Yiyang.

That place is the Sky Tower.

It's a telecommunications and radio tower, standing at 328 meters tall, the highest building in the Southern Hemisphere.

Of course, it's said to be the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere because if it was in the Northern Hemisphere, the Canton Tower would be taller.

But Chen Yiyang still spent money to visit, trying out a project called "sky walking."

It's basically walking a loop on the pathway outside the building, being attached to safety ropes to enjoy the cold wind over 300 meters high.

Besides this boring project, the Sky Tower has a bungee jumping option as well.

Letting you experience the feeling of being skydiving.

However, Chen Yiyang firmly refused the staff's promotion.