A few days ago, the financial-themed drama "City in the City" was broadcast on CCTV and iQiyi, and the struggle and wrestling between different institutions such as banks, trusts, and real estate developers have entered a white heat. One day in the play, some people were imprisoned, some people were walking on thin ice, and some people were retreating.
The financial people in this financial city, in the midst of people's hearts and feelings, send out soul torture and throw these questions to the audience in front of the screen.
As an industry with a high degree of specialization, domestic film and television dramas rarely touch financial themes. On the one hand, the profession may become a threshold to keep out some non-financial audiences, and on the other hand, it is necessary to restore the real ecology and industry characteristics of the financial workplace, otherwise the story will be distorted and suspended. In terms of professionalism, realism, and drama, it tests the ability of the main creative team.
Four years ago, Yang Wenhong, chairman of Xinge Media, was attracted by the protagonists of the novel, Tao Wuji and Zhao Hui, when he got the novel "City in the City" recommended by producer Chen Quan. They are in the banking industry, one is a smart and motivated newcomer with unlimited potential, and the other is a middle-level person with outstanding talent and steady climbing, and the complexity of the two is in line with the reality of human nature.
The novel tells the story that takes place in the financial city, and the choices and fates of several main characters are intertwined, outlining the style of the times before and after the financial reform and transformation. The realism of "City within a City" and the scarcity of the subject matter made Hinger Media decide to make it a groundbreaking series.
In Yang Wenhong's view, realism works are the most difficult and attractive, and they can often record a great era through the depiction of characters, which is irresistible to the main creative team of journalists. Soon after Xinge bought the copyright of this novel, director Teng Huatao, who directed realistic dramas such as "Wang Gui and Anna", "Snail House" and "Double-sided Tape", also took a fancy to "A City in the City", agreed to be the director of the play, and put forward many valuable suggestions for the adaptation of the play. The main creative team interviewed a large number of people in the financial industry such as banks, trusts, and fund practitioners, and invited Xia Xinyu, a media person who has been deeply involved in the financial field for many years, to serve as the script planner to ensure that the plot is fascinating and does not make mistakes in the financial profession as much as possible.
The play tells the story of the financial industry, and its tentacles extend to all aspects of social life, causing emotional resonance among many "workers". The grass snake gray line laid out in the early stage began to release dramatic tension, pushing the story to unexpected and reasonable turning points. The audience touches the hidden witty dialogues between the characters, examines their emotional choices, and at the same time reflects on their hearts: if the people in the city are themselves, how to choose.
Being a bank, nine good and one evil?
Realist works are often not satisfied with bringing "cool" sensory stimulation to the audience. At the beginning of "A City in a City", the death of a respected and upright governor unveiled a cruel corner of the industry and laid the realistic tone of the whole play.
Dai Qiye, president of Shenmao Bank, died in a traffic accident caused by a sudden illness. The antecedent of this accident was that he used the trust to transfer one billion yuan of the bank's wealth management funds to Jiaxiang Industrial, a private enterprise supported by him, to save the market and fight against foreign capital.
In the process, the shorting of foreign capital led to a sharp drop in stocks, and the trust company used inside information to buy low and sell high, and made a lot of money while acting as a channel for bank wealth management funds to obtain channel fees. It is a rule that credit funds cannot enter the stock market, and Dai Qiye described this illegal operation as the "one evil after the nine righteousness" in his career, and it was this "one evil" that cost him his life.
Dai Qiye's unexpected death had an impact on his students. Zhao Hui, Miao Che, Su Jianren, and Xie Zhiyuan, four high-achieving students in finance and trade with different personalities, have now gained a firm foothold in the financial industry, and they are at the age when they can make great progress. Dai Qiye's wife, Ouyang, warned them that the most important thing for bank executives is to withstand the temptation, because the assets of tens of millions of households are the assets of tens of millions of households with a single fingertip, and they must stick to their principles. She said: "You are all wearing clean white shirts to the post, no matter how much you cherish it, the shirt will always turn yellow and black, this is the law of nature, but you can't fool around from the beginning, three days of work, it will become a black shirt." ”
How the white shirt is not stained with dust is the most important metaphor for the whole play. In an interview with Yicai, Xia Xinyu introduced that she used the two sentences written to Dai Qiye before his death, "Being a bank, nine good and one evil" and "innovation recognized by the industry used to be half a step ahead of regulation" as foreshadowing, leaving his students with deep thought, and looking forward to the audience exploring with the characters in the play, what is the essence of finance.
The time background of the story of "City within a City" is set between 2016 and 2019, which seems to be a turning point for the large asset management industry: the first half is a stage of undercurrent surging and off-balance sheet development of banks, while the second half is under the new regulations on asset management, the supervision vigorously rectifies the market chaos, and the "shadow banking" enters penetrating strong supervision. "Shadow banking" refers to the credit system that is free from the banking supervision system and may cause systemic risks and regulatory arbitrage problems. At the time, similar cases were not uncommon.
Xia Xinyu recalled that era, it was also a stage where capable people came out in large numbers. Under the trend of direct financing, the banking industry also wants to get a piece of the pie, with its strong financial capacity and full license, trying to become the organizer of multiple asset management entities, tools, channels and products in large transactions. However, under the innovation, there are inevitably mixed operations, and from the perspective of penetration, it is difficult to justify compliance with them.
"City in the City" confronts the staged problems of the financial industry at that time, and uses the narrative logic of first suppressing and then rising, and spreads out the chaos of the industry such as the trust channel of bank funds, the multi-layer nesting of funds, the rapid advance of real estate finance, the frequent explosion of trust institutions, the impulse of banks to buy deposits at the end of the quarter, the difficulty of loans for small and micro enterprises of science and technology enterprises, and even the related households of several generations of children and grandchildren, but it also reflects the actions of supervision in the second half of the TV series. The industry is based on real events and the dramatic structure is carried out on the basis of real events, so that the audience can understand the background and reasons for the transformation of financial reform.
Fear risk and stay compliant
In the modern economic system, the importance of finance is self-evident. In 2018, the new regulations on asset management were promulgated, and in 2020, the "three red lines" regulatory indicators for real estate were proposed.
In October last year, the Central Financial Work Conference proposed to accelerate the construction of a financial power and do a good job in the "five major articles" of science and technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance and digital finance. Interestingly, the creation of "A City in the City" was prepared four years ago, but in some plot settings, it stepped on the representative field of financial business development, and almost all of the "five big articles" are presented in detail in the play. In the new generation of banker Tao Wuji, it carries the expectations of the main creative team for a better future.
This small-town-born, resource-free newcomer in the workplace, with his smart mind and diligence and steadfastness from the counter to the corporate business department, and then to the audit department, he teamed up with Miao Che, who has the heart of serving the country financially and has always been upright, to become a game-breaker. Tao Wuji is not only a figure that grows out of the soil and sticks to the ground, but also has a certain idealistic color. At critical moments in his career, he has always been able to turn danger into a disaster.
The play shows the problem of difficult loans for small and micro enterprises in science and technology. In the initial stage of a start-up technology company, Heng Coat Technology, Tao Wuji discovered the company's development potential and provided it with a loan, but the company had a problem in entrusted payment, that is, the loan did not purchase raw materials according to the purpose of funds, but used to repay the company's debts. Previously, it was difficult for many small and micro enterprises like Heng Coat Technology to obtain bank credit, and they often sought help from private loans in financial difficulties.
Tao Wuji neglected to manage the loan and almost lost his job. Zhao Hui helped him find trust funds to alleviate the urgent needs of the company, and the company also successfully obtained large orders from the market and was on the right track.
Xia Xinyu said that the embodiment of Tao Wuji's service to Heng Coat Technology in the play also wants to face the real bank thinking. On the one hand, small and micro enterprises do need financial support, and on the other hand, there are indeed many small and micro enterprises with good prospects like Heng Coat Technology, which have many financial operations that are not standardized at the beginning.
At the same time, small and micro enterprises like Heng Coat Technology with excellent technology and market performance have not yet improved, if bank funds are involved in the early stage, they do need to balance risk and return considerations, which is why before the banking industry finds a better model, it used to rely on collateral, joint guarantee and mutual insurance and other means for risk control. In addition, after the loan, just as Tao Wuji encountered a series of problems presented by the enterprise, including a series of problems such as "common debt", whether to draw loans, whether to extend the loan, whether to renew the loan, are all confusion in the industry.
The play shows the audience these real-life problems and also raises thoughts. Xia Xinyu told Yicai that Tao Wuji's approach is indeed idealistic, he has done on-site investigation and research, and knows the customer's supply chain, cash flow and other facts well, instead of sitting in the office like a general account manager to review materials, and controlling risks by means of additional collateral or interconnection and mutual insurance, but that does not really help loan companies.
However, is there no mistake in Tao Wuji's approach? If it were not for Zhao Hui's help, would he and the enterprise still be able to move forward steadily? In Xia Xinyu's view, the essence of a bank is to operate risks and set funds, "not to say that if there is a list system, it will be one-size-fits-all, and if there is an early warning, it will not be done at all, and the pursuit of absolute low risk will only lead to the bank's long-term 'sugar daddy' and 'umbrella delivery on sunny days.'"
Standing at the established ending, looking back at an era and people in the era, Xia Xinyu relayed the views of a trust industry veteran she interviewed: no one can flaunt professionalism, and no one can flaunt morality, "As we can see, a large number of off-balance sheet assets are concentrated in the real estate industry, and today, the non-performing rate of private real estate is very high.
Fortunately, the industry has passed through the fog and finally returned to its roots. Even though many institutions in the trust industry have been keen to become the channel of "big brother of the bank", it is undeniable that the mainstream of this industry still contributes to the power of direct financing for the real economy and richer tools and asset allocation for the people's financial management.
How financial institutions can respect risks and maintain compliance while operating risks is one of the propositions that "City within a City" wants to explore.
The closer you are to the money, the more important it is to keep your heart
It is difficult to create financial themes, but it can be seen that it is becoming a trend in domestic film and television dramas. For example, "Flowers" depicts the legend of the savage growth of the capital market in the 90s of the last century, and "The Wind Chaser" is the main line of the growth story of the red financier in the 30s of the last century.
So far, "City within a City" fills in the development and twists and turns of the financial industry in progress, finance is not a supporting role, but a real protagonist. As a creative field closely related to the national economy and people's livelihood, its past, present and future contain many valuable prototypes and materials, including heart-wrenching epics and shocking falls. Finance is a gathering field of energy, and this energy can even be so large that it is "dead or alive".
When Xia Xinyu met with the screenwriter for the first time four years ago to discuss the script, she listed three representative bank presidents from both sides as prototypes to provide reference for the creation of the script.
In the process of dealing with the financial industry for more than ten years, Xia Xinyu has met all kinds of people, some of whom have gone astray - arrested, lost contact, bankrupt, restricted from leaving the country, and even their lives are at stake. If there is anything that makes this industry different, it is that it is closer to power and profit, and it is more able to see people's hearts. In this Vanity Fair, no matter where you are located, at the grassroots level or in a high position, you will face more temptations than in the general industry, and your desires will be ignited repeatedly.
"People at the grassroots level of the bank, who can handle a large amount of money every day, contact many billionaires, a heart to be tempted by is actually more, you will find that a crooked mind can really pluck the goose. On the other hand, taking the right path of vicissitudes and keeping a heart will be more tested than engaging in other industries. ”
For example, in the film, Dai Qiye and Zhao Hui have upheld beliefs and principles for half their lives, but they have not been able to stick to the heart of integrity to the end, which also exists in reality. Why white shirts turn black and how to avoid stains are another theme that "City in the City" wants to explore through the "gray characters" in the play.
Zhao Hui, one of the protagonists in the play, was a capable and far-sighted vice president of a joint-stock bank branch when he first appeared, and he clearly knew that as long as he turned a blind eye, he might be able to get a better return in the secular sense, but he was unmoved. The hand of fate, urging the deepest desires in his heart, led him to the abyss.
On the one hand, the daughter who was dependent on her life suddenly had an eye disease and needed sky-high treatment costs, and she could only barely pay it with a loan from the sale of her house; on the other hand, the vacant position of the president of the bank was raided by the airborne troops, just because he did not submit his name to the higher-ups. The impact of his career and life made him doubt his beliefs.
In Yang Wenhong's view, it is not uncommon for people like Zhao Hui to live in life, they hope to realize their career ideals on a larger platform and contribute to society, but at a certain point, they are self-denying because of internal and external blows. "When you are in a position of intertwined interests, the people around you, regardless of family, friendship, and all kinds of favors will come to hunt, and everyone has demands and expectations for you, but in the end you encounter difficulties but cannot solve them, you will ask yourself, is everything I insist on worth it. ”
In the play, Zhao Hui followed in the footsteps of Dai Qiye, but warned Tao Wuji at the beginning that in the end, being a bank depends not only on ability, but also on beliefs and principles. There is a line in the film that says: The financial industry is not without black sheep, but the vast majority of people still have principles, and this sentence is also applicable to other industries.
"City in the City" is about to usher in the climax of the plot, Tao Wuji and Zhao Hui, the curtain of the battle between master and apprentice has been opened: satisfy selfish desires or be loyal to ideals, speculative drilling camp or down-to-earth, colluding with the same stream or honest and honest, like the people in the city, everyone will follow their hearts and write their own life answers.
(Shi Shanghui, editor of this newspaper, also contributed to this article)
(This article is from Yicai)