Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Chapter 603: Drama Production Company— Huanle Shiji (2) - Part 2

Once Gun-Ho entered his hotel room, he made a call to Min-Hyeok Kim.

"Oh, President Goo. The phone seems to have good reception. I feel like you are somewhere very close to where I am."

"Yeah, I'm in Shanghai City right now. I came to meet Director Li."

"Oh, really? Why didn't you tell me? I could have picked you up at Pudong Airport."

"That's okay. You have work to do."

"I have competent workers here, and they can handle the work without me. I will go to Shanghai this evening. I want to see you."

"Well, if you insist, why don't you come tomorrow then? I'm going to a film park tomorrow."

"A film park?"

"Yeah. You haven't been to a film park called Yingshi Leyuan, in Shanghai, have you?"

"No, I haven't. I heard of a film studio in Wuxi City though. I was thinking of visiting that place someday when I'm off, but I have never heard of any film location in Shanghai."

"I was told that the film park in Shanghai presents the era when Japan occupied China while the one in Wuxi City is a film studio recreating the ancient times."

"I see. Okay, then, I will come to Shanghai with my car tomorrow morning at 9 am. We can visit Shanghai Film Park first and go to Wuxi City in the afternoon."

"It's going to be a long day tomorrow. We will have to walk a lot."

"If we feel too tired, maybe we could spend the night in Suzhou City on the way to Wuxi City."

"Yeah. Let's see how things turn out tomorrow. I'm staying at the Central Hotel in Nanjing Dong Lu. You can pick me up here."

"Okay, I will do that. By the way, why did Director Li want to see you?"

"He is asking me to make an investment in the drama production business."

"Drama production business?"

"Yeah. I had a meeting with a drama production company's president and their director."

"Whoa, President Goo is now getting into the drama and movie production industry? You have business in the manufacturing industry, publishing industry, arts, and logistics. You just started the intercity bus service business, and now you are even expanding your business to the drama production industry. You can combine those businesses into a group and call it GH Group."

"Nah, I still have a long way to go until I could form a group."

"It's time for you to take a position of chairman, managing each of your companies' presidents who is running each business. Sometimes I feel awkward to call you 'President Goo.' I'm President Kim, and you have many other presidents in your GH companies working for you. You should take a more descriptive position title showing you are the boss of all those presidents."

"Hey, I'm not even 40 yet. And I don't have any company that is registered with KOSDAQ yet. It's too early to form a group with those companies."

"So, how was the meeting? Does the drama production business look interesting? Do you like it? You have amazing intuition in business. You probably already know what you are going to do with it by now."

"I don't know yet. I actually came with a drama director from Seoul."

"Really? You flew to Shanghai with him?"

"Yeah. Since this is a totally new field for me, I needed someone who has extensive expertise in this particular industry. I wanted to hear from an expert."

"That's good. You don't have to be the smartest person or someone who knows everything. You can borrow someone's brain when you need it."

"Haha, that's what YS used to say."

"I do totally agree with him. Anyway, I will be there by 9 am tomorrow."

"Okay. I will see you then."

The following morning, Gun-Ho and Director Woon-Hak Sim had their breakfast in a restaurant inside the hotel.

"Sir, are we taking the subway to get Shanghai Yingshi Leyuan?"

"No, someone will be here with a car."

"A car, sir? Did you rent a car?"

"No, I have an auto parts manufacturing factory in Suzhou City above Shanghai; it's called GH Parts Company. That company's president will be here by 9 am to pick us up. It's almost 9 am."

"Oh, I see. So, you have a company in Suzhou City as well."

Director Woon-Hak Sim was astonished thinking that Gun-Ho was probably a lot wealthier than he thought.

Around 9 am, Gun-Ho and Director Woon-Hak Sim came down to the lobby carrying their suitcases to check out.

"Are you ready to leave? Make sure that you didn't forget anything in your room. We are checking out now."

"Yes, I'm ready, sir."

"President Goo!"

Gun-Ho turned around to see who that was. Min-Hyeok Kim, who was wearing a comfortable outfit, was waving at him.

"Oh, President Kim!"

"How are you?"

"I'm well. Oh, this is Director Woon-Hak Sim. We traveled together from Seoul."

"Pleasure to meet you, sir. I'm Min-Hyeok Kim."

When Min-Hyeok gave his business card to Director Sim, Director Sim was thinking about giving his business card to him as well, and then he decided against it. President Kim was working for one of the GH companies, and he didn't want to confuse him by giving him his fake business card with his non-existent position in GH Media.

Min-Hyeok introduced himself to Director Sim with more details.

"I'm running an auto part manufacturing company in Suzhou City— GH Parts Company. President Goo owns 100% of the shares of the company. We have about 100 workers."

"100 workers? Wow, it's a big company. I'm sorry that I don't have my business card with me right now."

"I was told that you are heading to Shanghai Film Park— Yingshi Leyuan. My chauffeur knows how to get there. We can leave now."

"Hmm, I guess we will have to buy four admission tickets."

"Four? Is one more person joining us?"

"No, your chauffeur will join us to the film park."

"Haha. I thought you had another guest with you."

Gun-Ho, Director Sim, and Min-Hyeok Kim got into the Audi and headed out to Shanghai Film Park.

The film park indeed looked like Shanghai during the Japanese occupation in the 1930s. Since the buildings and streets were created for a film shooting, not for actual use, Gun-Ho wasn't very impressed. However, Director Sim seemed to admire the settings.

He constantly nodded his head while walking around.

"This is very nice. This is very well built."

He took a lot of pictures of the place as well.

"The street looks very familiar."

Gun-Ho laughed when he saw certain spots that he saw on a movie or a TV drama.

"So, they were truly all shot in this place. That's right. Tang Wei in Lust, Caution got in and off a three-wheeled rickshaw over there. Huh? That rickshaw in the movie is there."

Min-Hyeok suggested taking pictures together on the street that looked like a street in the 1930s, and the three men— Gun-Ho, Min-Hyeok Kim, and Director Sim— posed for a photo.

After taking a picture, Director Sim asked Gun-Ho about the letter written in the admission ticket.

"What does this mean?"

"It said 'Mu.'"

"It says that this place is 1,200 mu large. How many pyung would it be then?"

"One mu is approximately 200 pyung. So, 1,200 mu would be about 240,000 pyung large."

"Whoa! Did you say 240,000 pyung? It's enormous."

"We have a big film studio complex in Namyangju City, Gyeonggi Province. I believe that one is larger than this one."

"Here is flat land. The structures here are very well laid out and well presented in an efficient way."

Director Sim looked fascinated with the place while looking at the street that looked like the one during the 1930s.