"To be honest, I feel a little awkward."
"After all, this time coming here… feels a bit like calling for help."
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This bigshot's surname is Chen.
As for his given name... not important.
In short, everyone call him Mr. Chen.
As a top figure in the cultural industry, one could say he's was one of the backbone of cultural plays, classical songs or other related things.
Today, Mr. Chen was dressed in a black formal jacket and wearing black-framed glasses and looked just like an elegant scholar, without the slightest air of a person of his status.
"help? Mr. Chen, you must be joking."
"How could the difficulties you've encountered be ones that MiHoYo can solve?" Xia Wen blinked.
"Those words are a little too modest." Mr. Chen slowly said: "As a new company, the achievements MiHoYo's series have gained have already far exceeded expectations."
"Telling stories with tradition and culture mixed in along with classical and traditional music."
"This kind of things used to only appear in older movies or TV shows."
"For MiHoYo to do this, it's truly unprecedented."
"To be honest, many of us old people, after seeing the Honkai series appear, especially the Xianzhou part, felt quite relieved."
Mr. Chen's words were without a trace of boasting.
The entertainment industry, apart from games, has basically been in decline.
In recent years, various third-rate dramas have made a small name for themselves in the market, but that's all.
The young audiences idol dramas attract are mostly female. To be frank, it's not that they're useless, but they're insufficient.
The focus is far too singular.
In response, people in the cultural industry have long wanted to make changes, but were powerless.
For example, by raising review standards, reducing the dramas based on son-in-law's acting meek or dramas based on being transmigrated as villains, and cutting down on some repetitions which are just remakes.
But who would have thought, the entertainment industry had already rotted to the core.
The market freed up by regulations, who would have thought it would be picked up by the idol industry?
And then, idols and dramas were highly bound together, leading to a large number of absurd practices.
Apart from a few series led by professionals, the rest were undoubtedly the worst of the worst.
Viewing habits of younger generations also began shifting, becoming increasingly fragmented and twisted.
As for film, it was even called a dying industry. Out of a hundred bad films, only a few could break through.
The entertainment industry, is important if you say it's important, is unimportant if you say it's unimportant, yet it plays no real role in critical livelihood matters nor does it provide any education or benefit.
Still, it carries some say.
When trying to renew any culture, telling stories, dramas and films remain irreplaceable part of it.
And the emergence of MiHoYo undoubtedly took a path no one expected.
"This industry, from top to bottom, has already gone rotten, spoiled to it's core." Mr. Chen spoke again, words exploding like bombs.
Xia Wen raised an eyebrow but did not reply.
"But the livelihoods of millions of workers depend on this system. Since it still functions, it should not be shaken too hard, not to the point of damaging its bones."
"This is the internal consensus from the officials."
"Let people will choose what they like."
Mr. Chen said frankly, calmly: "So we have always been waiting, waiting for a drama or anything that can change the current status and this industry."
"In the meantime, there have been some good films, good directors."
"But ones as powerful as yours are rare."
"The best thing you've done, aside from producing the Honkai series, is that you're not a part of this rotten circle."
"You're more like something that sprouted from nowhere, building a new circle with its own set of rules."
Hearing this, Xia Wen humbly said: "It's not that exaggerated, we just simply wanted to film our own stories."
He had already understood. Mr. Chen really did come here looking for help.
He just didn't know exactly what help this bigshot wanted.
But Xia Wen didn't mind.
From their conversation, this old man was trying to get MiHoYo's help.
So Xia Wen also began to "complain": "It's one thing that we don't want to enter the circle, but even if we did, others wouldn't let us in."
Naturally, he didn't care about the so-called entertainment circle.
But since a big shot was here, of course he'd take the opportunity.
Up until now, Xia Wen felt MiHoYo had already done its utmost for everyone in the company.
The only regret was reputation.
Those figures in the various reputed companies were just waiting for MiHoYo to visit them first and act a little humble.
But how could Xia Wen possibly do that? So he too, had always ignored them.
Aside from once going with Ruan Mei and others to receive an award, the entire entertainment industry had seemingly excluded Honkai: Star Rail and MiHoYo altogether.
Listening to Xia Wen, Mr. Chen kept nodding.
"I know, in that circle, there are indeed… issues."
"Many people want to attack you behind the scenes, out of jealousy, that's human nature."
"For this, MiHoYo has suffered a lot of grievances."
"We've seen it all."
"Don't worry, whatever others have, you will also have."
"As for awards and such, if they don't want to give them, we'll give them ourselves."
Mr. Chen casually said: "Led by us, together with several authorities, we're planning to establish a brand new award."
"Don't worry, its specifications will absolutely not be lower than the top three awards of the entertainment industry."
With one light remark, he was essentially saying they'd set up a special award just for MiHoYo.
"In addition, aside from series, wherever we can provide assistance, we'll do our best."
"For things like collaborations with other companies, the cultural department will fully cooperate."
This referred to the various offline events MiHoYo often held.
Mr. Chen's meaning was very clear.
Whatever kind of collaboration or scale of event MiHoYo wanted, the path would be fully cleared from above.
"Beyond that, we also hope your company can lead in establishing an international cultural exchange association if possible."
Mr. Chen added another benefit.
"So, what is it Mr. Chen hopes for from us… ?" Xia Wen asked.
"Films. We hope that MiHoYo can produce a few movies."
A hint of helplessness appeared on Mr. Chen's face: "The film industry's momentum has been too weak recently, the entire market has been sluggish."
Originally, the film industry wasn't supposed to die out so quickly.
But the root cause lay elsewhere.
After watching Honkai Star Rail, who would still want to watch movies? Special effects are trash, production is trash, scripts are trash.
The so-called film quality isn't even on par with Boothill's short film.
"So that's it… " Xia Wen came to a sudden realization.
He had thought they wanted MiHoYo to shoulder some kind of responsibility or ask them to make some changes in their Star Rail drama.
Who would've thought it was just about making some movies.
Xia Wen rubbed his chin, considering what stories should be brought to the big screen.
"It's fine, if you really can't manage it, don't force it. The promises I just made remain valid."
Mr. Chen smiled, not wanting to put too much pressure on him: "These are things MiHoYo deserves anyway."