The opening of China Entertainment Group gave Jay Chou a head-on confrontation

Chapter 903 doesn't require much; it just needs to be better written than Mozart's work.
"The studio setting was quite luxurious, but the program content was quite simplistic."

"The level of innovation is quite insufficient, but the advertising revenue is extremely high."

"It's hard to imagine that this is a grand stage symbolizing the highest level of art in the Chinese nation."

"The language-based programs are either deliberate and pretentious, or fabricated and out of touch with reality. The lines are all just for the sake of being funny, lacking any intellectual depth. As one of China's most outstanding pop singers, Zhou Yi even brought his music show stage to the Spring Festival Gala, which made his sincerity seem somewhat empty and mediocre."

"And it is precisely on this basis that this year's Spring Festival Gala, relying on CCTV's monopolistic position, achieved record-breaking revenue—"

"Before the Spring Festival Gala even started, CCTV had already raked in over 400 million RMB through advertising. After the Gala began, they further boosted the national online text messaging by naming giant pandas, resulting in a staggering 130 million text messages that night. It was a veritable flood of money..."

First, they criticized the program, then accused Zhou Yi of using the Spring Festival Gala to promote his songs, and finally revealed the approximate revenue range of this year's Spring Festival Gala, thus igniting the flames of conflict.

It must be said that wielding the pen is indeed a traditional art that has been passed down for thousands of years in this land.

"Did CCTV's Spring Festival Gala really generate this much revenue this year?"

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Zhou Yi, who rarely stayed at home, showed no anger at being singled out for criticism; instead, he was only surprised by CCTV's revenue.

While it's said that the Spring Festival Gala is getting worse every year, in reality, its popularity and revenue are increasing year by year.

"Is this a lot of money? It's not even as much as your English major degree, is it?" Cheng Hao, who had changed into a new outfit, stood in front of the full-length mirror adjusting the angle of her scarf. Upon hearing this, she couldn't help but tease her.

"You can't say that. How many more years can I earn money from my English major? The Spring Festival Gala brand is enough to live off for a lifetime." Zhou Yi lay sprawled on the bed in a slightly lazy posture, and simply tossed the newspaper he hadn't finished reading aside.

Even with all sorts of new and exciting mobile internet trends, the Spring Festival Gala's status will remain unshaken – it tops the trending searches for criticism every year, yet it remains the most discussed program, bar none.

Even though the reputation of the Spring Festival Gala has been declining for more than 20 years, its revenue from advertising sales continues to reach new highs.

"That's hard to say. The Spring Festival Gala is very stressful. You haven't seen how many directors are unwilling to take on the role now. It might even be canceled in the future."

After placing the new clothes by the bed and gesturing for the man to change, Cheng Hao began to tie up her hair and tidy the bed: "When are you going to America?"

"It might be around the fourth or fifth day of the Lunar New Year? I'm not sure exactly, but I'll most likely stay home and rest for four or five days."

The Grammy Awards ceremony is on February 8th in the US, and today is January 29th, so he doesn't have much time left for his annual leave.

As Zhou Yi was rustling as he put on his clothes, he was still complaining when he suddenly remembered something: "No, it might not be four or five days. Li Lianjie's 'Huo Yuanjia' is being released, and I guess I'll have to go and promote it when their crew is touring the capital."

On January 25, 2006, Li Lianjie's new film, *Fearless*, which was considered a potential box office success, was officially released. Although the theme song, "Fearless," was not included in Zhou Yi's new album, its promotional effect was still significant.

Especially given the critical failure of "The Promise," the marketing for "Fearless" seems poised to ride the coattails of the hype. The production company's promotional slogan, "Li Lianjie's last kung fu film," is certainly quite misleading.

Unfortunately, the final box office results were just so-so.

Because Li Lianjie wanted to express too much, the plot of the entire film was fragmented – the storyline was simplistic, the dialogue scenes were extremely rudimentary, and every glance revealed flaws.

After being released for several days, the film's reputation is already on the verge of collapse in the eyes of Chinese moviegoers who have experienced the fallout from "The Promise".

If I remember correctly, it was precisely because of this that even with the overwhelmingly positive reception of "The Promise," "Fearless," despite being a blockbuster, only managed to gross a mere 100 million yuan at the domestic box office.

"There are already comments online saying that the film music productions you do in China are all bad movies with terrible songs." Cheng Hao recalled this interesting incident when talking about "Fearless".

Of the film and television soundtracks Zhou Yi has handled so far, only "Pink Lady" from his early days and "Pirates of the Caribbean" from his time in Europe and America have received widespread acclaim. Others, such as "Hero" and "Fearless," are currently considered by the mainstream public as "bad movies with terrible theme songs."

The movie wasn't good, but the song was nice.

It's really torturous.

That means there are still films like "Pink Lady," "A World Without Thieves," and "Pirates of the Caribbean" to keep things afloat; otherwise, the entire film and television blacklist would be full of such films.

Fans' attempts to save face were also very consistent—

Before the film's release, it was a powerful collaboration, but after the film's release, it was directly severed. It turned out that Gege only accepted the project because he had no choice but to do so out of personal favors, and his main selling point was flexibility and adaptability.

After all, China is a society that values ​​personal connections!

Even pigeons can't escape human emotions; it's perfectly reasonable!

"How well the movie is made is none of my business. I'm just a singer. Besides, it's not that bad. Time will tell." Zhou Yi's muttering was somewhat amusing.

At least Cheng Hao laughed: "If you want to make a comeback in this area now, you'll probably have to rely on Zhang Jizhong's 'The Return of the Condor Heroes' and Jiang Wen's new movie that he's currently preparing to shoot."

Putting aside other things, Jiang Wen's previous film "Devils on the Doorstep" was indeed a pity, so his return to directing is highly anticipated by many.

Zhang Jizhong's "The Return of the Condor Heroes" goes without saying; it was a big-budget production, and before filming even began, it was full of grand pronouncements.

Yes, at least that's how it seems right now.

Zhouyi: "..."

Your attempt to comfort them is pointless; neither of them had a good reputation during the broadcast of the show...

Although "The Return of the Condor Heroes" was very popular, it had many flaws in terms of plot, character design and even acting. It was heavily criticized when it was broadcast, but the more it was criticized, the more people watched it.

Although "The Sun Also Rises" was later regarded as the most brilliant film of Jiang Wen's career, its box office performance cannot be described as a complete failure; considering the overall box office performance over the years, it was a pure loss. However, this is a common occurrence in Jiang Wen's directing career.

Throughout his entire directing career, only "Let the Bullets Fly" was able to make money at the box office; the rest were all huge losses.

Therefore, strictly speaking, it was an accident that "Let the Bullets Fly" could achieve such high box office numbers.

Of course, it's also possible that he was under immense pressure while filming "Let the Bullets Fly," which made him think twice before adapting the story and not be as unrestrained as he used to be—after all, it was a former world champion who personally took the stage, and the photo opportunity wasn't for nothing.

"Hiss... Now that you mention it, I feel like I really should be labeled as someone who makes terrible movies with amazing songs."

"The Smiling, Proud Wanderer," already given to the "Condor Heroes" production team, represents the last glory of the martial arts era. Jiang Wen's proposed work, "The Sun Also Rises," is undoubtedly a classic...

Cheng Hao laughed: "You have so little confidence in them?"

After getting dressed, Zhou Yi sighed: "Let's hope that the reputation of 'Huo Yuanjia' can turn things around."

Although he knew this was a pipe dream.

If I remember correctly, it's estimated that soon Huo Yuanjia's descendants will come forward to sue Li Lianjie for defaming their ancestor in the movie...

This further impacted the film's reputation and box office performance.

With nothing else to do on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Zhou Yi took Cheng Hao to see "Fearless" in the cinema that afternoon. He couldn't help it; he really didn't have the urge to support other movies, but "Fearless" was relatively okay. As an outstanding graduate of the Central Academy of Drama, Cheng Hao, who had his own discerning eye, frowned the moment he first saw the finished film in the cinema.

She now understands why people online are criticizing this movie as a bad film.

"I feel like this film is not as good as Ning Hao's low-budget movie." As the producer of "Crazy Stone", Cheng Hao subconsciously compared the two from a professional point of view.

She had seen the sample of the stone.

This feeling was somewhat unbelievable to her.

Did I produce a talented director who wasn't even a director majoring in directing on my first production?

The film director of "Fearless" is Yu Rentai, who previously directed "The Bride with White Hair" in the Hong Kong film industry, although "The Bride with White Hair" was indeed just so-so.

Yu Rentai is actually better at making ghost movies, and he even made a living in Hollywood with this skill.

"Be bold, trust your intuition, Ning Hao is stronger."

As the woman led him out of the cinema, Zhou Yi, who was covering most of his face with his scarf, made no attempt to hide his disdain for the group of veteran Hong Kong directors: "Apart from a few famous directors like Wong Jing, the others in Hong Kong are just dispensable."

Anyone could become a director; that's how the Hong Kong film industry was back then.

In Wang Jing's words, you can basically become a director who can shoot films in Hong Kong in seven days, even if you have zero experience.

As for the final product, that's another matter. After all, the Hong Kong film industry, which is prone to following trends, is never short of bad movies.

In other words, the mainland industry is just starting out, and it needs the filming experience that these directors gained from copying and following the Hong Kong model back then, plus the fact that they are indeed superstitious about Hong Kong and Taiwan at this stage.

"If you put it that way, then I think we can raise our expectations for 'Crazy Stone' a bit higher."

The Spring Festival releases "The Promise" and "Fearless" both flopped, and their production quality seemed inferior to her own production, "Crazy Stone"...

Just as Cheng Hao was lost in her fantasy, Zhou Yi's phone rang, bringing her back to reality—

Ok?
Jiang Wen?

Zhou Yi was a little puzzled: "Isn't it a bit too early for you to wish me a Happy New Year now, Old Jiang? It's only the first day of the Lunar New Year."

"I'm here to talk to you about work."

Jiang Wen, on the other end of the phone, sounded smug: "Where are you right now?"

"I just finished watching a movie with Cheng and we're heading home."

"Come on, afternoon tea is on me."

"No way, you're talking to me about work on the first day of the Lunar New Year? Are you out of your mind?"

"What are you saying? Everyone knows you, Master Zhou, are a very busy man. If I hadn't talked to you in advance, my schedule would probably be booked until the end of the year and I still wouldn't have a chance."

You could tell that Jiang Wen was very excited.

With nothing else to do and having roughly guessed the reason, Zhou Yi took Cheng Hao to the banquet—why not eat if you can? Having another mouth means you can eat a little more.

Twenty minutes later, Jiang Wen, accompanied by his wife Zhou Yun, met the person he had been longing for. His face beamed like a chrysanthemum: "You've come! Sit down, sit down. Sister-in-law, please sit down too. Don't be shy."

In front of outsiders, Cheng Hao still paid attention to her demeanor, even though she was secretly pleased with the title.

But soon, she couldn't laugh anymore——

“Zhou Yi, I’ll be frank. I’m about to start filming the movie ‘The Sun Also Rises.’ Here’s the script. Take a look at it first and get a feel for it. After you’ve seen the sample footage, combine it with your own experience and write a whole soundtrack for me.”

Jiang Wen, revealing his true intentions, was utterly blunt, his grin practically reaching the back of his head: "As for quality, my requirements aren't high. As long as it's better than Mozart's, that's fine."

? ? ? ?
Cheng Hao, who had never heard of such a request before, almost widened her eyes on the spot. Even Jiang Wen's own wife, Zhou Yun, had a question mark on her face, as if to say, "Husband, what are you doing?"

mozart?
Listen to this, is this even human language?

Do you want to take a look at who you're comparing yourself to?
Even if Mozart himself were resurrected now, there's a high probability that his works would not surpass his own.

On the contrary, Zhou Yi, the person involved, showed no emotional fluctuation upon hearing this. He even took a bite of dessert with a bored expression and looked around the private room with interest: "Oh."

Jiang Wen: "?"

What's your reaction?

At least give me some kind of response!

What does it mean to just say "oh"?

That's Mozart, Mozart!
Don't you feel any shock or anger? Don't you have the urge to accuse me of abusing my power for personal revenge?
Having received no positive emotional feedback, Jiang Wen, who had meticulously prepared this surprise, felt as if she had punched a cotton ball—

Back then, Zhou Yi asked him to make "In the Name of the Father," and he went through countless revisions. In the end, he was given the standard that "you can try to surpass the original 'Godfather,' but don't be bound by it." This almost made him furious.

So he came up with the idea of ​​using Mozart.

While they certainly won't go so far as to completely destroy Zhou Yi—after all, surpassing Mozart is pure fantasy—if Zhou Yi had that ability, he wouldn't be stuck in the pop music field like a crab.

However, this also indirectly demonstrates his high standards.

Jiang Wen admits that he did have a little bit of a "verbal revenge" mentality when he said this.

He just wanted to see Zhou Yi's shocked, distorted, and furious face!
That's right, he wanted to see Zhou Yi make that expression!
I'm so eager to see it!
"Don't you have anything to say to me?" Jiang Wen couldn't hold back any longer and immediately asked, her eyes filled with anticipation.

Zhou Yi glanced at him, his tone indifferent: "Better than Mozart? Is that all?"

Zhou Yun: "..."

Cheng Hao: "..."

Jiang Wen: "..."

(End of this chapter)