The Shanghai Public Concession Bureau generally has 9 directors, and the directors are not paid, and they are elected from each other to elect the general director.

In the Bureau of Works, the British always occupy the majority of seats, and the Americans usually occupy two.

Before the First World War, the Germans had a seat, and after 1915 it passed to the Japanese.

The Chinese did not have a seat on the board of directors of the Ministry of Industry and had no say in the public concession.

At this time, the general director of the Ministry of Industry Bureau was Sims, an Englishman, and the Japanese director was called Shunichi Sakuragi.

Shunichi Sakuragi was born in 1882 and graduated from the Department of Political Science and Economics at Imperial University of Japan.

In 1906, he joined the Yokohama branch of the Toyo Steamship Company, and in 1907 he joined the Hong Kong branch of the company. The following year, he resigned and joined the South Manchurian Railway Co., Ltd., and was sent overseas to study railway transportation business.

In 1914, he was transferred to Shanghai, in 1918 he was the manager of the Shanghai branch of the South Manchurian Railway Company, from 1919 to 1922 he was the chairman of the Shanghai Japanese Resident Corps, and in 1920 he was elected as a director of the Public Concession Bureau.

He has always spared no effort in safeguarding the interests of Japanese expatriates in Shanghai.

He got the news yesterday that he knew that there was a plot in a Chinese movie that alluded to the murder of Huo Yuanjia by the Japanese.

He didn't know much about Huo Yuanjia, Huo Yuanjia had already passed away when he came to Shanghai, so he went to the theater to watch the film "Tianjin Hero Huo Yuanjia".

The frenzy of the Chinese in the theater frightened him.

He knew that the awakening of a nation often began with small things, as in Japan during the Meiji Restoration.

Now Chinese accept Western ideas, some knowledgeable people have begun to awaken, and this nation is opening its eyes and looking at the outside world.

So, he made up his mind that regardless of whether there was an allusion to the Japanese in the film, this kind of film that promoted patriotic ideas would be banned.

He used the rights of the director to convene the board of directors and put forward a proposal to ban the screening of "Jinmen Hero Huo Yuanjia".

The British thought that Shunichi Sakuragi was making a bit of a fuss, it was just a movie, and although they hadn't seen the movie, they had seen the newspaper report anyway.

This was all more than ten years ago, and besides, who knows if the murder of Huo Yuanjia was done by the Japanese.

What's more, this film is very popular with Chinese, and tells the story of a martial artist with great prestige in Shanghai, and the rash ban is likely to cause protests from Chinese.

In the spirit of the attitude that more is better than less, the British perfunctory.

As for the Americans, Director Philedon admired Lin Zixuan very much, calling Lin Zixuan a good friend of the Americans, so he naturally helped Lin Zixuan speak, thinking that Sakuragi Shunichi's reasons were not sufficient.

"Gentlemen, please go to the theater and see the expressions on the faces of those Chinese!" Shunichi Sakuragi stood up and said loudly, "Do you want to live in an awakened China, or do you want to live in an ignorant China?" The country is changing, shouldn't we be doing something about it? ”

The British were silent, and they knew from the newspaper that "Huo Yuanjia, the Great Hero of Jinmen" promoted martial spirit and patriotic thoughts, but it did not attract enough attention from them.

At this time, Shunichi Sakuragi looked at this matter from another angle, and they couldn't help but not think about it.

"Isn't that normal?" "You can't expect this country to be in an era of ignorance and backwardness, and sooner or later they will develop." ”

"That's going to delay that time as well." Shunichi Sakuragi emphasized, "This is in the interests of our countries in this country. ”

Finally, they voted by a show of hands.

With the exception of Philsian, the other directors were in favor of banning the screening of "Huo Yuanjia" in the Public Concession, citing the suspicion that the content of the film was alluding to Japanese friends.

The Summer Spice Cinema was immediately notified and stopped showing the film two days after the premiere.

At the same time, Lin Zixuan began to screen "Tianjin Hero Huo Yuanjia" in the French Concession.

He acquired nearly half of the theaters in the French Concession and mastered most of the theaters in the French Concession through leasing.

If it weren't for the fact that copies in this era were too expensive, he could even have the movie show in all theaters.

In this era, basically as soon as this theater finished screening, someone would take the copy and ride the copy to another theater to be screened.

Because film is too expensive, it is impossible to make hundreds of copies of a film, and it is generous to have ten copies to be shown in turn, so there is a screening mode of the first round of exclusive screening.

The film was banned in the public concession, and the audience had to go to the theater in the French Concession to watch the movie, which brought a lot of pressure to the law and order in the French Concession.

Sakuragi Shunichi was very angry, he took the ban order of the public concession to the public board of directors of the French Concession and asked the French Concession to ban the film as well, but the French were very proud and ignored him.

In "Huo Yuanjia, the Hero of Jinmen", Huo Yuanjia beat the Russians, hit the British, and alluded to the Japanese, but he didn't say anything bad about the French, and the French had no reason to ban the film.

Feng Jingyao played a big role in this, and he had a close relationship with the French.

At the beginning, Feng Jingyao was quite hesitant, the Japanese had a lot of influence in the public concession, there was no need to offend, and he also persuaded Lin Zixuan to do business in harmony and make money.

But seeing that so many people went to the theater to watch this movie, and the income of the theater increased exponentially, faster than grabbing money, he didn't say anything.

You can't do anything with money.

Many viewers came to see the play just for Huo Yuanjia to beat the Japanese, and the plot that insinuated the murder of Huo Yuanjia by the Japanese is the highlight of the movie, if you delete the plot of the Japanese, the audience will definitely not be satisfied.

Shunichi Sakuragi had no way to threaten the French, and at this time Japan had no garrison in Hongkou, so it could not form a deterrent.

He had no choice but to sue the Star Film Company in court, asking the court to ban the film on the grounds of distorting the facts and maliciously slandering the Japanese expatriate, and demanding an apology and compensation from the Star Film Company.

When Lin Zixuan heard the news, he couldn't help but feel relieved.

The lawsuit will be fought, and when the lawsuit is out, the movie should have ended a long time ago.

The legal counsel for Star Pictures is Gu Kenfu, and he is sure that the lawsuit will be delayed until a month later.

Moreover, this lawsuit will not necessarily be lost, because the plot of the Japanese doctor in the movie is real, and the only uncertainty is whether Huo Yuanjia's death has anything to do with the Japanese doctor.

If you want to prove it, I'm afraid you can only open the coffin for an autopsy.

Even if the coffin is opened and the autopsy finds out that Huo Yuanjia died of poisoning, there is no way to prove that it was poisoned by the Japanese.

In the final analysis, this is a headless public case, and it is not clear at all.

This side is in court with the Japanese, and the matter with the Jingwu Sports Association is perfectly resolved.

Star Film Company apologized for the artistic treatment of Huo Yuanjia's deeds in the movie, and donated half of the film income to the Jingwu Sports Association, hoping that the Jingwu Sports Club will get better and better, continue to carry forward the martial spirit, and defend the country.

This move was unanimously praised by social media.