Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

626 Participating in producing a Chinese Drama 1 – Part 1

On Friday, Gun-Ho finally received an email from the drama production company in Shanghai— Huanle Shiji— regarding their next drama’s TV schedule. Huanle Shiji’s President Baogang Chen stated in the email that the negotiation with Shanghai’s broadcasting station went well, and they assigned a time slot to be on the air, for the drama.

[We received a confirmation from Shanghai broadcasting station. Our new TV drama— Shiguang Ru Meng— is scheduled to be on the air in the evening from 8:20 pm for 40 minutes. It will be aired twice per week, and it totals 35 episodes.

Accordingly, Huanle Shiji now needs to organize our production crew for this drama including an assistant director. Please send us GH Media’s Mr. Director Woon-Hak Sim as soon as possible. We’d like to discuss with him in selecting production crew members and casting actors and actresses.

From Huanle Shiji’s’ President Baogang Chen.]

Gun-Ho replied right away.

[Director Woon-Hak Sim will be on the flight heading to Shanghai next Tuesday.

Once he arrives in Shanghai, he will need a place to stay, and he will need your help to find one. As you expected, Director Woon-Hak Sim will be there to be of great help in selecting the right members of the production team and casting necessary actors and actresses.

He will also need an interpreter who would facilitate the communication between him and you and the team. I’ve already asked someone to find an interpreter for him, and you will meet the interpreter soon too. Please make a determination on the interpreter’s pay amount as well, according to Huanle Shiji’s policy.

As stipulated in the signed memorandum of understanding, once we receive the confirmation that Director Woon-Hak Sim arrives in Shanghai, we will send 50,000 dollars.

From GH Media’s Chairman Gun-Ho Goo.]

Gun-Ho then made a call to Director Woon-Hak Sim.

“Mr. Director Sim, this is Gun-Ho Goo.”

“Oh, hi, sir.”

“We finally received the time slot for the new drama to be on the air, and it has been confirmed. Each episode will be on the air for 40 minutes, and twice per week. The drama will consist of 35 episodes in total.”

“Oh, really? What time will it be on the air?”

“That will be in the evening, starting 8:20 pm.”

“That’s very enough.”

“Mr. Director Sim, you can depart to Shanghai next Tuesday. Ask GH Media to reserve a flight ticket to Shanghai for you. I will give a call to President Shin about it.”

“Am I going there by myself?”

“Yes, you will be traveling alone.”

“Umm...”

“Once you arrive in Shanghai City, President Min-Hyeok Kim will meet you there with an interpreter who will assist you during your stay in China”

“Oh, I see.”

“I will also ask President Shin to give you a certain amount of money in advance to cover your living expenses at the beginning of your stay, which will be counted as part of your salary. You will probably need to stay in a hotel for the first few days before finding a place to live anyway.”

When Director Sim realized that he would receive money in advance, he sounded relieved and excited.

“Thank you very much, sir. I won’t disappoint you.”

Gun-Ho gave a call to President Shin as soon as he got off the phone with Director Sim.

“Ms. President Shin, Director Sim is leaving for Shanghai next Tuesday. Please get him a flight ticket. A morning flight would be perfect. Please make sure that he leaves from Incheon International Airport, not Gimpo International Airport.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Once his flight ticket is reserved, please send me the arrival time. I will have to let the person know, who will be at the airport to pick him up in Shanghai.”

“Got it.”

“One more thing is that Director Sim will need money that he can use to pay for his living expenses there before he receives his first pay. Please give him 3 million won.”

“Yes, sir.”

After some time, Gun-Ho received a call from President Jeong-Sook Shin about Director Sim’s flight reservation.

“We’ve reserved the flight heading to Shanghai on Tuesday for Director Sim. The departure time is 11:30 am, and he will arrive at Pudong Airport.”

“Thank you.”

Gun-Ho then made a call to Min-Hyeok Kim immediately to relay the information.

“President Kim, Director Sim will arrive at Pudong Airport at 11:30 am on Tuesday. You will be available to pick him up, right?”

“Yeah. I will come to the airport with an interpreter.”

“You said that the interpreter is a man, didn’t you?”

“I contacted that person the other day, and figured that he left for Qingdao City. He no longer does interpretation work. He started his own seafood business with his friend there.”

“Oh, so, we don’t have an interpreter for Director Sim yet? He needs one.”

“Don’t worry about it. I already found another person. There were tons of people who wanted to take the job once they learned that they would do interpretation for a TV drama director in the drama production field.”

“Why is that so? It’s not like the pay would be better if they do interpretation work in the drama production field.”

“I don’t know. The new interpreter is female. She used to work in a Korean company in Suzhou City.”

“Director Sim doesn’t even speak a word in Chinese. You should help him too.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it, but you should know that you can’t expect him to learn the Chinese language quickly given his age and all that.”

“Is that so?”

“It doesn’t actually take much time to figure out if a person would learn Chinese quickly or not, by just observing them. Look at Suk-Ho Lee, for example. He can’t even take a taxi by himself. I’m sure Jae-Sik Moon will speak Chinese fluently pretty soon.”

“Really? How do you know that?”

“The area where Jae-Sik is staying now doesn’t have many Koreans. Moreover, Jae-Sik is so willing and actually studying hard to learn the language. Also, reading has been part of his job and life. I’m sure he is reading Chinese newspapers and books or whatever right now meticulously. You will see. Within a year, he will speak Chinese very well.”

“Haha, you think so?”

“In order to learn a second language quickly including Chinese, a person has to be either very young or has a strong will to learn it just like you— President Goo— or Jae-Sik Moon. Well, there is a third way which depicts my case— you have to live with a Chinese person. I’ve seen many Korean businessmen here in Suzhou City, who can’t speak a word in Chinese, and they are always with their interpreters.”

“Really?”

“Even if they can’t speak Chinese at all, whenever they visit Korea, they all act like an expert of Chinese related matters. That’s funny.”

BM Entertainment’s manager was knocking on its president’s office’s door— Hyeon-Man Yee.

“Yes?”

“Sir, you are aware that we introduced Director Woon-Hak Sim to GH’s president last time.”

“Oh, yeah. How did it go?”

“I just received a call from Director Sim. He is leaving for China next week.”

“Hmm, really? That’s very nice. Where in China is he going?”

“He will be working with a drama production company called Huanle Shiji, located in Shanghai City. He will participate in producing a drama there.”

“Since President Goo is close with Director Seukang Li, I’m sure that their drama will be assigned to golden time to be on the air.”

“Do you think Director Li will use his power to help the drama production? He is a government officer. Do you think he will risk his reputation to help President Goo’s business? He is known to be fair and strict.”

“We never know. He probably won’t do it for sheer friendship, but if he is one of the stakeholders in that business, who knows?”

“Well, I hope Director Sim uses this opportunity to get back on his feet.”

“He should. He is a very talented man. He just should have never started his own business. I hope he realized by now that he is an excellent drama director, but a lousy businessman.”

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