mijobooks Chapter 303 Asia's Favorite Idol Drama Shocks Steve Jobs
Chapter 303 Asia's Favorite Idol Drama Shocks Steve Jobs
Chapter 303 Asia's Favorite Idol Drama Shocks Steve Jobs
That Monday night at the end of January 1998 was destined to leave a significant mark on the history of Asian television.
That night, light snow fell in Tokyo, but in the living rooms of countless homes across Japan, a fervent temperature burned that could melt ice and snow.
As Kitahara Productions' first major battle in its comprehensive takeover of the Asian entertainment market, the premiere of "Boys Over Flowers" broke the traditional model of Japanese dramas being broadcast only in Japan and then sold on videotapes overseas.
Thanks to the vast distribution channels that the Kitahara Group had already established throughout Asia, and Kitahara Shin's terrifying influence that no one dared to challenge, this drama achieved a true "simultaneous premiere across Asia".
At the same time, Japan's Fuji Television, Hong Kong's TVB Jade Channel, Taiwan's cable television network, and major broadcasters in Singapore and Thailand all aired the same scene during prime time. As for the Chinese mainland market, although it will be delayed by a few months due to the review process, it has already successfully entered the fast track of importation.
At exactly 9 p.m., the theme song started playing on time.
As the breathtakingly luxurious Eitoku Academy slowly appeared on the television screen; as four men, dressed in high-end custom-made school uniforms and exuding an aura of wealth and hormones, strode into the corridor with an air of supreme authority against the backlight—
Female viewers across Asia went absolutely wild at that moment.
In an apartment in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, Misaki, a high school girl who has just turned eighteen, is glued to the television screen with her best friends. When Tsukasa Domyouji, played by Shin Kitahara, arrogantly sticks a red note—a symbol of absolute bullying and power—on a classmate's locker, Misaki excitedly grabs her best friend's arm.
"Oh my god! How can he make such a nasty move look so cool!" Misaki screamed, her cheeks flushed red. "That look! Did you guys see Kitahara-sama's look? It was like he was looking at a bunch of ants, but why do I want him to look at me like that?!"
"And Kimura-kun! The way Hanazawa Rui played the violin on the stairs, so melancholic, broke my heart!" Another friend exclaimed excitedly on the sofa, kicking her legs and yelling while hugging a pillow.
It wasn't just in Japan; in Hong Kong's tea restaurants and Taipei's night market stalls, countless viewers who were initially just there for the fun were completely captivated by the stunning visuals and luxurious settings.
As the plot unfolds, the indomitable spirit of Makino Tsukushi, played by Kou Shibasaki, has captivated audiences. Especially the scene at the end of the first episode, where Tsukushi, pushed to her limit, delivers a powerful roundhouse kick to Domyouji's stomach in front of everyone in the hallway—this moment caused the viewership ratings to skyrocket!
Domyouji, who was kicked to the ground, did not get angry. Instead, he raised his head and revealed a deadly smile that was a mixture of shock, interest and evil.
"This woman—she's interesting."
As this line was spoken, the progress bar for the first episode came to an abrupt halt, and the ending theme song began to play.
"Aaaaaah! How could it just end like that?! Why did it have to stop here?!"
"Daoming Si has definitely fallen in love with her! My God, a domineering young master and a stubborn commoner girl, this kind of plot is so addictive!"
That night, countless landline phones across Asia were ringing off the hook. Countless young girls were frantically discussing the plot with their friends on the phone, their screams echoing everywhere. This had transcended the scope of a TV drama, transforming into a nationwide carnival.
By the morning of the next day, the aftershocks of the storm had not subsided; instead, they swept through major media outlets and newspapers in an even more terrifying manner.
The public's evaluation of "Boys Over Flowers" presents a bizarre phenomenon of extreme polarization, with both praise and criticism.
On the one hand, traditional serious film critics and some mainstream media are heartbroken by Kitahara Shin's "descendance".
The Yomiuri Shimbun's entertainment section featured a column as its headline: "The Fall of a Genius? Is Kitahara Shin pandering to the market, or is he desecrating art?"
In the article, those self-proclaimed highbrow critics mercilessly criticized: "As the president of a conglomerate that wields immense power in the financial world, and as a legendary figure who produced a cinematic masterpiece like 'Infernal Affairs,' how could Kitahara Shin personally step into acting in a completely shallow and melodramatic shoujo manga adaptation? This is simply playing with his reputation! The plot is clichéd, ostentatious, and..."
This show is utterly worthless except for its four good-looking faces; it's all about money!
However, this lofty criticism was instantly drowned out by the massive wave of fans, leaving not even a ripple.
"Who wants to watch your melodramatic, somber art films? We love watching handsome guys fall in love!"
"Kitahara-sama can create profound works, and he can also create things that make us happy. That's called being versatile! What do you bunch of sour grapes know?"
The fighting power of female fans is astonishing. Moreover, to the astonishment of many media outlets, this seemingly purely female-oriented Mary Sue drama has also attracted a large number of male viewers.
Although many boys at school would say things like "only girls watch those boring idol dramas," they secretly envied the limited-edition sneakers and top-of-the-line supercars worn by the F4 in the show. Even Yosuke Eguchi's playboy flirting techniques were secretly memorized by countless boys. Everyone was inevitably swept up in this massive trend.
Besides that, the most discussed topic among the media and the public is Kitahara Shin's condition.
"Can you believe it? Kitahara Shin is already thirty-one years old!" A morning entertainment program host pointed at a still of Kitahara Shin on TV, exclaiming incredulously, "But look at him in his school uniform in the drama, that youthful glow full of collagen, those taut muscle lines, I'd believe you if you said he was twenty! How does he manage to defy aging?!"
This miraculous state, which transcends the limitations of biological age, has driven countless female stars mad with envy and elevated Kitahara Shin's personal charm to an almost mythical status once again.
The heated discussions and the ratings reports compiled by television stations across the country sent a chill down the spines of the entire Asian film and television industry.
Kitahara Shin had already broken countless viewership records in Japan, so when the Japanese premiere viewership rating exceeded 35%, the industry took it for granted and there was not much of a stir.
What truly terrifies them is the data from overseas.
In Hong Kong, on the night of the premiere of "Boys Over Flowers" purchased by TVB, its viewership share soared to an astonishing 85%, leaving ATV, which aired in the same time slot, with not even a fraction of its viewership. Hong Kong media exclaimed that this was "a cultural monster of the Heisei era crossing the river."
In Taiwan, this drama broke all viewership records since the inception of cable television. Record stores on every street corner were playing the theme song from the show, and countless young people even began to imitate F4's hairstyles and outfits.
The producers in Taiwan's film and television industry all gasped in shock after seeing these terrifying statistics.
The famous Taiwanese producer Angie Chai is sitting in her office right now, her eyes glued to the replay on TV, her hands trembling with excitement.
"This is the future! This is the market for young people!" She slammed her hand on the desk, her eyes gleaming with fervent business acumen. "Put four handsome guys together, pair them with a Cinderella story, no big production needed, extremely low cost, but the return on investment is terrifyingly high! We in Taiwan can definitely do this kind of 'idol drama' model! Go buy the rights to other Japanese shoujo manga right now, we're going to create our own F4!"
It can be said that Kitahara Shin's move not only made him a fortune, but also directly spurred and inspired the idol drama industry in the entire Chinese-speaking world several years in advance.
Just as the whole of Asia was going crazy for "Boys Over Flowers" and countless TV stations were lining up to buy the rebroadcast rights, Nobu Ichikihara, the mastermind behind the storm, had already quietly left the bustling Tokyo.
A Gulfstream V private jet bearing the Kitahara Group logo sliced through the clouds over the Pacific Ocean and landed smoothly at San Francisco International Airport in California, USA.
Kitahara Shin, accompanied by several core technology executives and an encrypted hard drive containing top-secret special effects samples from "Resident Evil," set foot on this land known as the heart of the world's technology.
His destination was Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.
Go meet Steve Jobs, the man who left an indelible mark on Silicon Valley history and was known as both a "tyrant" and a "prophet".
As a time traveler, Kitahara Shin had read too many news reports and biographies about Steve Jobs in his previous life. He knew very well that this genius who had just regained control of Apple at the end of 1997 was not only a paranoid, but also had strange habits in his lifestyle that were hard for ordinary people to understand.
In his early years, Steve Jobs was a Zen Buddhist and an extreme vegetarian, even a fruit-eating "fruitarian" at one point. He stubbornly believed that as long as he insisted on eating pure plants, his body would not secrete unpleasant sweat and toxins.
Therefore, for a long time, he insisted on not bathing or using deodorant. His unconventional and unconventional personality caused many of his early colleagues a great deal of trouble.
Although by 1998, Jobs' extreme habits had subsided considerably, his arrogant and disdainful personality had become even more pronounced with the passage of time.
However, an unexpected scene unfolded as Kitahara Shin's bulletproof car slowly drove into the front of Apple's headquarters building.
Steve Jobs, the Silicon Valley tyrant who has always scorned Wall Street investors, was surprisingly standing at the door to greet them personally.
He was still wearing his signature black turtleneck sweater, Levi's 501 jeans, and New Balance sneakers.
But if you get close enough, you'll find that this genius, who has always championed "natural body odor," has actually taken a shower today, and even carries a very faint, refreshing scent of high-end shower gel. His hair is also impeccably styled.
This was the highest level of courtesy and respect for Jobs.
Because he knew very well that the young Asian man who stepped out of the car was not only the largest individual shareholder who had spent $350 million to pull Apple back from the brink of collapse, but also a top predator who could resonate with him in terms of business intuition and ambition.
"Mr. Kitahara, welcome to Cupertino." Jobs stepped forward, his sharp gaze sweeping over Kitahara Shin, who was half a head taller than him, and extended his hand. "Your flight was ten minutes later than I expected. I hope you saw some worthwhile scenery in the Pacific."
"The scenery of the Pacific Ocean is rather monotonous, Steve." Kitahara Shin calmly grasped his hand, a composed smile on his face. "What I'm more looking forward to is the scenery you've prepared for me to see."
The two exchanged a smile, and the aura between them, that of top-tier intelligent individuals, instantly achieved a wonderful harmony.
Without much small talk, Steve Jobs led Kitahara Shin directly to his private office. The office was unusually sparsely furnished, with only a few state-of-the-art computer prototypes and a large whiteboard; there were almost no other decorations.
"I heard you built a rendering farm in Japan, using Apple workstations?" Steve Jobs poured Kitahara a glass of water and went straight to the point. "Show me your sample images. I want to see what kind of thing is worth spending hundreds of millions of dollars on."
Kitahara Shin nodded to Sasaki, who immediately connected the hard drive to the top-of-the-line Mac computer in the center of the office and projected it onto the big screen.
The screen lights up.
That was a three-minute pure CGI special effects rendering sample of the scene in the underground laboratory of the mansion in "Resident Evil" where the protagonist Chris encounters the bio-weapon "Tyrant".
On the large screen, a tyrant over two meters tall tore through a metal incubation chamber. Thanks to the special effects farm built at great expense by Kitahara Shin and the efforts of top Hollywood renderers, the tyrant's bluish-gray muscle texture, bulging blood vessels, and the slimy sheen reflecting in the dim light all presented a level of realism that was nothing short of a game-changer in this era. Every heavy step it took seemed to make the air in front of the screen tremble.
After the short three-minute sample video finished playing, the office fell into a brief silence.
Sasaki and several accompanying Japanese executives held their breath, eagerly awaiting the tech giant's astonishment. After all, this level of special effects is among the best in the world.
However, Jobs simply stared blankly at the frozen image, his slender fingers gently stroking his chin a few times.
"How is it, Steve?" Kitahara Shin asked leisurely, leaning back on the sofa.
Jobs turned his head, his sharp eyes fixed on Kitahara Shin, his tone calm yet carrying an undeniable sense of pressure: "If this were in the 1998 film market, this scene would indeed be enough to make those unsophisticated viewers drop their popcorn. You did a pretty good job with the reflection of light and shadow, and the stacking of computing power is also quite brute force."
"But—" Jobs abruptly changed the subject, walking directly to the screen and pointing his long, slender fingers unceremoniously at the edge of the tyrant's massive claw.
"Look closely here. The edge processing of the polygons is still too stiff, and the skeletal binding model of the skin during dynamic stretching has an undeniable silicone-like feel." It's a cold, machine-calculated collection of data; it lacks a truly vibrant, biologically meaningful vitality.
Steve Jobs' criticism was merciless, even scathing. The Japanese executives accompanying him were visibly shocked; this was their proud creation, costing tens of millions of dollars, yet it was being belittled as worthless.
But Kitahara Shin simply listened quietly, even nodding in agreement. Because he knew that Steve Jobs was absolutely right.
As someone with a vision for the future, Kitahara Shin is more aware than anyone of the gap between current CG technology and the level of Avatar a decade or so from now.
"Kitahara, you are an ambitious man." Jobs walked back to Kitahara Shin, his eyes becoming exceptionally fervent and profound. "If you've spent so much money just to surpass your peers in this era, then your vision is too narrow."
What you should pursue is "greatness."
"What you need to achieve is not to amaze audiences today. What you need to achieve is that even if you put this film ten or even twenty years from now, when audiences look back at it then, they will still be shocked and amazed at how you created such a perfect work of art under such backward conditions! What you need to pursue is timelessness that transcends eras, not a fleeting display of technology!"
These words resonated like a resounding bell in the office.
This is Steve Jobs. A fanatic with an almost pathological pursuit of perfection. He wouldn't allow himself to create anything that was "good"; he wanted something great that would "change the world."
Hearing Jobs's arrogant yet thought-provoking goal, Kitahara Shin was not offended at all; instead, he laughed from the bottom of his heart.
"You make a good point, Steve. That's why I'm sitting here," Kitahara Shin stood up, looking directly into Steve's eyes, his tone filled with an air of unwavering determination. "Since you feel my rendering logic isn't perfect enough, could you arrange for Apple's top graphics engineers and algorithm team to help me integrate and optimize my rendering engine?"
Jobs looked at the young tycoon in front of him who understood immediately and was not polite enough in asking him for people, and a smile of appreciation appeared on his lips.
"Of course, no problem," Jobs readily agreed. "I'll have an engineer who worked on the core algorithms at Pixar take over. Now that Apple is on your side, I won't allow anything calculated using Apple computers to have such basic flaws."
After the collaboration was agreed upon, the atmosphere between the two became even more harmonious. Jobs had his favorite green tea brought over, and the two sat on the sofa, beginning a long and imaginative exchange of ideas that lasted for hours.
The conversation started with movie special effects and went on to discuss technology and future trends in the world.
Facing this tech giant who was about to change the world, Kitahara Shin didn't hold back. With the perspective of a prophet from the future, he put forward one idea after another that seemed like a fantasy in this era, yet were logically sound.
"The personal computer market will eventually become saturated, Steve. In the future, the internet shouldn't be confined to this bulky desktop." Kitahara Shin, holding his teacup, calmly dropped the bombshell. "People need a portable digital hub. It should function as a music player, allowing you to carry a thousand songs in your pocket; it should also be a communication device; most importantly, it must be a smart terminal that can access the internet anytime, anywhere. Hardware is merely a carrier; building a digital content ecosystem around this terminal—where you can directly buy music and download applications—that's the trillion-dollar business that will truly monopolize the world in the future."
When Kitahara Shin uttered those words, the entire office fell into a deathly silence.
Jobs' teacup froze in mid-air. His eyes, which always held a scrutinizing and arrogant quality, contracted sharply, as if a bolt of lightning had instantly cleaved through some long-standing fog in his mind.
Put a thousand songs in your pocket? A mobile device integrating music, communication, and the internet? A digital content ecosystem?
These concepts resonated with Jobs's still-developing, crazy ideas deep within his heart in a way that was both perfect and terrifying!
Jobs stared intently at Kitahara Shin, his breathing becoming rapid. He had initially thought Kitahara Shin was merely a shrewd and incredibly lucky nouveau riche in the entertainment industry. But now, he realized he was terribly wrong. This Asian man, much younger than himself, not only possessed astonishing wealth but also a terrifying insight that seemed to see through the very fabric of time.
"Your idea—it's insane. But, damn it, it's logically flawless." Jobs put down his teacup, his eyes gleaming with the extreme excitement of encountering a kindred spirit. "Kitahara, you can't just leave like this. Stay in California, stay a few more days. We need to have a serious talk about this digital ecosystem concept. I want to know what kind of content support you can provide for this concept!"
Faced with the Silicon Valley tyrant's earnest pleas to stay, Kitahara Shin readily agreed.
Over the next two days, Kitahara Shin remained in Cupertino. He and Steve Jobs not only finalized an in-depth technical collaboration on the optimization of the special effects for "Resident Evil," but also reached a series of far-reaching strategic agreements on digital music copyrights and preliminary ideas for future streaming films.
This high-level meeting across industries could not possibly escape the notice of the keen-eyed American business media.
The day after Kitahara Nobu left California, the Wall Street Journal, known for its rigor, published an in-depth report on its front page of the business section that caused a strong stir in the financial circles of Europe and the United States:
The title is: "A Mysterious Predator from the East: Entertainment Mogul or Silicon Valley's New Overlord?"
The article details Kitahara Shin's terrifying track record over the past year. From his ruthless maneuver of raking in $1.2 billion in cash during the Asian financial crisis, to acquiring full control of a vast Asian film and television production empire, and now his aggressive $350 million investment in Apple, along with his close collaboration with the notoriously reclusive Steve Jobs.
"We always thought he was just a star who had made a few blockbuster movies in Asia and was popular with young girls."
But as it turns out, Wall Street severely underestimated this man's ambition. The article concludes with this assessment: "Nobu Kitahara is using his unfathomable wealth and vision to simultaneously weave a vast empire spanning entertainment and high technology on both sides of the Pacific. His name will undoubtedly become the focus of the Western business world's most vigilant attention for the next decade."