506: Daxu Culture has been targeted for plagiarism; the knock-off phenomenon is "Pretty Ghost"!

"Holy crap, is this real? This behavior is too unscrupulous. How can people be so shameless?"

"Exactly! We're called 'a chinese ghost story,' and they change one character to call themselves 'pretty girl ghost.' What are they thinking?"

"I'm genuinely laughing out of anger. Just blatantly riding on Da Xu Culture's hype like this is outrageous..."

"Oh my god, I never imagined such a brazen move. Are there really companies like this in the industry?"

..."Sue them! This behavior is too arrogant; they clearly don't respect Da Xu Culture at all."

"I heard this company has been around for a while, and they've always just piggybacked on the popularity of various films.

But I never expected that this time, they'd try to steal the hype from Da Xu Culture. That's too much."

"Yeah, apparently, this company makes money solely by stealing hype.

As soon as they see something popular, they latch onto it, creating a high-imitation film title to grab the attention of netizens."

..."That's truly disgusting. We are the 'a chinese ghost story' crew, and they are the 'pretty girl ghost' crew. Heh.

Fans who don't know better might even think they're the genuine article, that knockoff..."

"Before, I only heard about a film company abroad that specialized in making knockoff movies.

Others film 'Pacific Rim,' and they film 'Atlantic Rim'; others film 'Transformers,' and they film 'Transforming Machine.'

I just never thought that now, in Great Xia, we would have such a shameless company too. Bah, truly shameless!"

"Damn it, I heard this company films knockoffs incredibly fast. Often, their knockoff version is released before the official version even hits theaters.

Then some unsuspecting fans foolishly go watch the knockoff, thinking they are seeing the genuine plot."

...That's right!

What angered the people of Da Xu Culture right now was the fact that their own hype was being stolen.

It wasn't just about stealing hype; someone had directly created a knockoff 'pretty girl ghost' film crew.

And just as Da Xu Culture was preparing to film 'a chinese ghost story.'

That group started filming 'pretty girl ghost' with great fanfare.

At first glance, the two film titles seemed identical.

Upon closer inspection, only one character was subtly different.

Setting aside morality, this method of knocking off another's film title was truly unique.

Clearly.

It was because the 'a chinese ghost story' film crew had been incredibly popular recently, and they wanted to capitalize on the traffic.

In fact.

The crew filming 'pretty girl ghost' was currently engaged in a brainstorming session.

Although they could copy a film title, they knew absolutely nothing about the content of 'a chinese ghost story.'

And a movie needed to be at least ninety minutes long.

Figuring out how to fill those ninety minutes was what this group was currently working hard on... Qian Benjing, male, claimed to have graduated from the directing department of a famous film school.

As a directing student, it wasn't like what the outside world imagined, where you could shoot blockbusters right after graduation.

In fact, most directing students fast-forwarded straight to unemployment after graduation.

Qian Benjing was no exception; after graduation, forget about filming—he couldn't even find odd jobs on a set.

After several years of destitution, under extreme financial duress, he finally discovered an unconventional path.

That's right, making knockoff movies.

When he first filmed a movie like this, Qian Benjing might have had a sliver of rebellious vengefulness.

But what he didn't expect was this.

This movie, which copied the title of a popular blockbuster, managed to earn a profit because it was 'short, simple, and fast,' even managing to release before the main feature.

Although the movie's plot was terrible, the logic was chaotic, the special effects were cheap, and the post-production was shoddy, he had tasted success nonetheless.

With this successful experience, Qian Benjing became even more unstoppable afterward.

And this time, he set his sights on 'a chinese ghost story,' which Da Xu Culture was preparing to film.

As everyone knows.

Our Director Xu is considered a top-tier director in the industry and is the object of adoration for fans.

The most important point is that all the movies he shoots turn out to be blockbusters, with explosive box office results.

It was actually quite remarkable that Qian Benjing managed to hold off until now before making a move.

At this moment, he was shouting at the top of his lungs to the crew members of 'pretty girl ghost':

"Everyone, quickly engage your brains! Please, come up with some exciting plot points for me, as many as possible.

Don't be like last time, shoving all sorts of nonsensical garbage into the plot until it turned into a pile of crap."

"You must remember that we are imitating the work of a major industry player this time; if the quality is too trashy, the fans won't buy it."

Once the group of story writers started brainstorming, Qian Benjing walked aside.

At that moment, a man in a suit smiled and said:

"Old Qian, how about it? Can we aim for higher returns this time?"

Qian Benjing smiled confidently and replied:

"President Xiao, don't worry about this. I have a lot of experience managing risks."

"The subject matter we chose this time is inherently very popular, and the film title is as high-imitation as possible."

"As long as our 'pretty girl ghost' is released before their 'a chinese ghost story,' making money is guaranteed."

"Moreover, movies by popular directors like Xu Lu are bound to bring us a lot of traffic..."

Hearing this, Xiao Guangshan, the boss, also laughed and said:

"'pretty girl ghost,' hahahaha, Old Qian, that title you chose, you’re a genius!

But when Da Xu Culture finds out we're doing this, they'll probably hate us to death, hahahaha."

"Let them hate us. As long as we make money, why care so much?

Besides, we started our crew at the same time as theirs, and aside from the similar title, the plot is completely different."

Qian Benjing said carelessly:

"So even if they're unhappy, what can they do to us? They still have to let us take a share of the traffic."

"Exactly, exactly!

We absolutely cannot be blamed for this. In fact, if they filmed fast enough, we wouldn't be able to steal their traffic at all!"

"But if these big directors drag their feet while filming, then they can't blame us for being dishonorable."

Xiao Guangshan nodded repeatedly and added:

"Right, Old Qian, how long are you planning to film 'pretty girl ghost' this time?"

Hearing this, Qian Benjing held up two fingers and said:

"No more than two months. During this time, Da Xu Culture will definitely release some behind-the-scenes footage as promotional material, just like before."

"Then we'll highly imitate those materials to create our own promotional images, and launch opportunistically. Hehe, we definitely won't earn little when the time comes."

Xiao Guangshan started clapping, saying happily:

"Good! Even if Da Xu Culture is always efficient, it's absolutely impossible for them to release 'a chinese ghost story' in two months."

"That will be the perfect opportunity for our 'pretty girl ghost'! We finally found such a big cash cow; we have to milk it for all it's worth!"