Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

After two and a half months of blind auditions, the four major mentors each selected their own fourteen students, and the first stage of The Voice of China came to a perfect conclusion.

Among them, Yang Ye's team is very unique, with eleven of the fourteen students being female.

When the show was broadcast, he didn't pick up a single man in the first four episodes, causing the media to ridicule him for only picking women.

In fact, it is just the editing effect. The order of appearance of the students and what the instructors say in the program are all carefully choreographed and edited.

The program team was so mean as to delete the song that Wang Fei sang when he appeared on stage.

She appeared on TV, sang just a few lyrics, and then chose Anita Mui, and that was it.

The whole process takes only a little over a minute, and the impression it gives to the audience is just a fleeting glimpse.

……

Afterwards, The Voice of China entered the second stage: mentor assessment.

At this time, under the deliberate promotion of the program, some newspapers launched popularity voting activities and began to rank the popularity of the Voice students.

Some people even started predicting who would be the annual champion, and it was said that someone in the casino had even set the odds.

After all, this program is unprecedentedly popular, and it is unimaginable how great the influence will be once its champion is announced.

The media predicted that the favorites to win the championship were mainly concentrated on several fourth-turn students.

In addition, there are some players who are only at the second or third level, but their appearance is very capable.

Among the girls under Yang Ye, several are very good-looking and have become popular contestants.

Over the years, Yang Ye has discovered many beauties for the Chinese film industry, and is now starting to make an effort in the music industry.

The media joked that Yang Ye had a natural talent in judging beauty. He could tell who was a beauty just by listening without turning around.

There were also magazines that made a popularity ranking of the beauties discovered by Yang Ye, calling it "Yang's Beauties List", which turned out to be very popular and boosted sales significantly.

The rules for mentor assessment are the same as in the original time and space. Each mentor will invite a dream mentor to assist him or her.

Yang Ye invited Luo Dayou, and the final four were Lao Lang, Liu Xiaohui, Su Huilun and Yang Yuying.

Yang Ye thought to himself that it was a good thing that he hired Lao Lang, otherwise if he debuted with four girls, he would be severely ridiculed by the media again.

……

While The Voice is in full swing in Asia, The Lion King is creating a box office frenzy around the world.

This version of "The Lion King" was led by people hired from the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. It did not follow the studio's usual artistic style, but instead went deep into the African savannah to conduct on-site sketching.

The final effect is that the prairie is magnificent and the images of the animals are close to reality, which is in no way inferior to the original.

No effort was spared in publicity and promotion, with Baiyang Pictures spending 20 million US dollars on it alone.

The major film producers were also not vague. Out of trust in Yang Ye, they also invested heavily and left no room for promotion.

In North America, "The Lion King" not only invited Whitney Houston to sing the theme song, but also invited her to personally voice the heroine Nala in the movie.

Whitney is black, so it was perfect for her to voice an African lioness, so she naturally agreed.

In the end, the publicity and promotion costs of "The Lion King" reached more than 40 million US dollars, enough for Hollywood to shoot an A-level production.

With such strong publicity and promotion, it naturally became popular before it was released, becoming the most anticipated movie of the summer.

The box office performance of "The Lion King" after its release did not disappoint everyone.

The film was first released in North America on June 6th. Whitney Houston appeared at the premiere and promoted it vigorously. One and a half months after its release, the box office reached a staggering 28 million US dollars.

The Chicago Post published a commentary titled "Blue Bird Animation eclipses Disney."

The article introduces the production team of "The Lion King", who mainly come from China's Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

The glorious history and strength of Shanghai Animation Film Studio are not inferior to those of Disney.

The creative team of "The Lion King" dared to innovate and actively integrated into the world, moving the film's scenes away from China and to the magnificent African savannah.

In terms of story, the world-renowned "Hamlet" has been transformed, aiming to break down the cultural barriers between the East and the West.

It took four years of hard work and constant improvement to finally achieve instant success once it was launched.

After this battle, Disney’s dominant position in the animation industry may be shaken.

The Los Angeles Times, based on the film itself, believes that Blue Bird Animation has broadened the boundaries of animation.

It turns out that cartoons can also be used to tell an ancient and serious theme and can be made for adults.

"The Lion King" makes parents willingly bring their children to the cinema and spend two hours happily with their children.

Unlike previous cartoons, where children watched them with smiles on their faces, but parents felt uneasy in the cinema.

……

In late July, "The Lion King" was officially released in Hong Kong.

At the beginning, the theater alliance only gave 20% of the screening time, after all, there was no precedent of animated films selling well in Hong Kong.

Unexpectedly, the ticket queue became so long that it was hard to get a ticket. So they had to temporarily cancel some flopped movies and increase the screening of "The Lion King".

Those flopped movies are so disappointing that they are in tears. They originally wanted to make as much money as possible during the summer vacation.

Wow, now everyone knows the power of cartoons.

Those who can come to see the movies will definitely bring their children, and the minimum purchase price is two tickets.

Hong Kong has a large population of families with many children, so four or five tickets are often needed.

It would be strange if this doesn't explode at the box office.

……

Zhang Zhiming squeezed out of the line, waving two tickets, and said to Lin Chunjiao who was sitting on a chair waiting: "You have the tickets, come in!"

He booked the ticket in advance, picked it up at the right time, and could enter immediately.

Lin Chunjiao held a little boy of about four years old in her arms and said with a smile, "Lezi, let's go to the movies."

The child's name is Zhang Tianle, the son of Zhang Zhiming and Lin Chunjiao.

Zhang Tianle was very happy and shouted, "Let's go to the movies, let's go to the movies!"

He stretched out his hands, and Zhang Zhiming quickly picked him up. Lin Chunjiao packed her things and followed behind him.

"Go buy some popcorn and Coke first!"

The couple bought popcorn and Coke. Zhang Tianle stared at the golden and fragrant popcorn, wanting to eat it.

Lin Chunjiao said, "You can only eat after the movie starts! Now that you've finished eating, what are you going to do later?"

Zhang Tianle said helplessly: "Okay!"

Not long after, a family of three entered the scene.

Zhang Tianle was still young and didn’t need to buy a ticket, but there was no seat to sit, so he could only sit on his father’s lap.

He was very restless, staring at the popcorn bucket in his mother's hand, and asked in a baby voice, "Are we going to start?"

Lin Chunjiao shook her head and said, "Not yet!"

Zhang Tianle was a little disappointed, but still said obediently: "Okay!"

A few minutes later, the screen lit up and the lights dimmed. Zhang Tianle immediately asked with anticipation, "Is it about to start?"

“This is an advertisement!”

After one advertisement was over, Zhang Tianle asked again: "The next one is about to start, right?"

Lin Chunjiao was a little speechless. She leaned close to Zhang Zhiming's ear and whispered, "Is your son a chatterbox?"

Zhang Zhiming suppressed his laughter and said, "Why don't you just give it to him?"

"No, we told him to eat when the movie starts, so he has to eat when the movie starts. We can't spoil him." After a few commercials, the movie finally started, and Zhang Tianle got to eat popcorn as he wished.

However, he was soon attracted by the cute little lion in the movie and watched it intently, even forgetting to eat popcorn.

As the movie was playing, Zhang Zhiming and Lin Chunjiao, who had been absent-minded, were attracted by the plot and started watching it seriously.

Soon after, the warmth and joy of the movie disappeared, and the plot took a sharp turn for the worse, with Mufasa dying to save Simba.

Although Zhang Tianle was very young, he understood this scene and felt very sad.

When little Simba was nestled in the arms of the dead Mufasa, Zhang Tianle looked up and asked Zhang Zhiming: "Does Simba have no father anymore?"

Zhang Zhiming bent down, hugged his son tightly with both hands, kissed his forehead, and said, "His father just went to another very far place."

Lin Chunjiao sat aside, listening to the conversation between the father and son, and her eyes suddenly became red.

Zhang Tianle continued to watch doubtfully, he wanted to see Simba's father come back to him.

Then, the movie seemed to have heard his wish, and Simba really met Mufasa again.

"Dad, Mufasa is really back!" Zhang Tianle happily told Zhang Zhiming the news.

This time, Zhang Zhiming's eyes also became moist.

He felt that this movie was really considerate, as it used the form of a ghost to allow Mufasa to return to Simba's side again.

It made a little boy named Zhang Tianle believe that Simba's father was not dead, but just went to a very far place.

……

After the top four candidates from the four mentors were announced, the media began to evaluate the popularity and strength of the four major teams.

Unexpectedly, Yang Ye's team seemed to have the lowest popularity and strength.

He has three sweet girls under his command: Elva Hsiao, Vivian Hsu and Liu Xiaohui. Although they are all beautiful and talented, it is well known that the fans of sweet girls are all men, while those who are willing to increase popularity for their idols and offer various tributes are mostly female fans.

The only singer who made it to the fourth round is Lao Lang. He looks average and has a lukewarm personality, so he is not very popular.

After various media selections, Deng Lijun's team ranked first in both popularity and strength.

The top four players under her are Ren Xianqi (fourth rank), Lin Zhixuan (fourth rank), Tai Zhengxiao and Kit Chan (fourth rank).

Three men and one woman, the opposite of Yang Ye.

Deng Lijun's team has three fourth-turn players and is very strong. In comparison, Yang Ye's team is really a little bit behind.

The team of Zhang Guorong and Lin Zixiang is also very strong.

Zhang Guorong's top four are Stefanie Sun (four turns), Wang Fei, Zhang Weijian, and Chen Xiaocun.

The top four of George Lam are Gu Juji (fourth turn), Zhang Yu, Wu Bai, and Zhou Chuanxiong.

George Lam’s team is very distinctive. Zhang Yu, Wu Bai, and Zhou Chuanxiong’s singing skills are not the best, but they are all very strong creators.

Wang Fei only got two turns because she was scheduled to perform very late, while the most popular mentors Yang Ye and Deng Lijun had used up their spots early on.

When Wang Fei appeared, the two could only stare blankly.

Of course, this is all for the show effect. Letting Wang Fei sing at the back was a deliberate arrangement by the program crew.

It was actually Yang Ye's idea to let Wang Fei choose Zhang Guorong. He deliberately created this effect by exploiting the program rules, and even Zhang Guorong himself didn't know about it.

Zhang Guorong is a person with poor psychological endurance and is actually not suitable for wading into the muddy waters of the entertainment industry.

Liu Jialing once made fun of Zhang Guorong playing mahjong.

Zhang Guorong lost more than he won when playing cards because his hands would shake whenever he heard a card, even the chicken and hu would shake. If he heard a big card, then it would be over, because everyone would know that he was hearing a card.

Many of the decisions Zhang Guorong made were not based on his inner feelings, but were influenced by external factors.

For example, he quit the music industry in the original time and space because he was troubled by irrational fans, and he himself was unwilling to quit.

When he finally made a comeback, he couldn't resist the urging of his friends.

Zhang Guorong cares a lot about what others think of her. Although she sometimes makes brave moves, she often feels very painful afterwards.

It was because of this kind of mental torture that he eventually suffered from depression and took his own life.

Yang Ye didn't really care whether he could become the champion mentor, so he quietly gave Wang Fei, the strongest contestant of this session, to Zhang Guorong.

If Wang Fei can win the championship, it will be a good thing for Zhang Guorong, and perhaps it will make his life smoother.

However, there are so many strong contestants in this season of The Voice of China that it is still unknown whether Wang Fei can win the championship in the end.

Yang Ye did not intend to help any contestant cheat, and letting Wang Fei choose Zhang Guorong was just a reasonable use of the rules.

If you want to win, win fairly.

The final list of sixteen people can basically be regarded as half of the singers who debuted in the 1990s in the Chinese music scene.

Yang Ye has used "The Voice of China" to almost gather all the famous singers who will appear in the next three or four years, which is a bit like draining the pond to catch fish.

If these people get together to form a group and debut, it will undoubtedly create a huge impact on the Chinese music scene.

It’s still okay for first-tier singers, but second- and third-tier singers all feel precarious.

With so many people making their debut, they are bound to occupy a huge amount of resources.

But resources are limited. If they take them all up, what will they eat?
What's more, this is not just a one-off thing, there will be a second season next year and another wave will come.

It’s so popular this year, how can it be any worse next year?

Some small record companies are even more worried, as they all have a premonition that the future will not be easy.

The record market is so small, and all the cake has been eaten up by Bailey and the Rolling Stones. What do they eat?
……

Yang Ye called a meeting with Zheng Donghan, the Duan brothers, as well as Luo Dayou, Li Zongsheng and other record company executives.

Zheng Donghan said with both joy and worry: "One of the problems we are facing now is that there are too many new people and the company is having trouble absorbing them.

The popularity of the top sixteen has reached the level of second-tier singers, and some can even challenge first-tier singers.

Now everyone has the right to release records, but if each person has an album with 10 songs, that would be 160 songs. Where would they get so many songs? There wouldn’t be enough producers.”

Duan Zhongyi nodded and said, "We can't fool them, otherwise it would be a waste of their popularity!"

Everyone looked at Li Zongsheng and other songwriters. Lao Li said helplessly: "You should know that it is becoming increasingly difficult to write a song that everyone is happy with."

Yang Ye said: "Their popularity is brought by the program, and it is only temporary. Except for a few particularly outstanding students, the others can only maintain it until the start of The Voice of China next year."

Duan Zhongtan said: "So we should take advantage of this wave of popularity to release an album. We can't miss such a good opportunity."

What Duan Zhongtan said makes sense. If we don’t take advantage of this opportunity to reap the rewards, when will we?

Yang Ye asked: "So what do you think?"

Duan Zhongyi: "Two ways. First, poach producers from other record companies with high salaries. As long as you are willing to pay, you can poach anyone.

Second, do cover songs. As Mr. Yang said, the popularity of many people is actually short-lived.

So, it would be wisest to use their cover songs that have been tested in foreign markets to reap some profits while they are still popular.”

Everyone agreed with Duan Zhongyi's opinion, and the most popular ones were carefully trained and had albums produced.

Those who are not so good at it can just do cover songs to make money, which is indeed the most realistic way.

Otherwise, when the second season comes out next year, with a bunch of new people, how will we handle it?

Yang Ye said: "I agree with Mr. Duan's idea very much, but I would like to add that many of the students have strong creative abilities. We can give them opportunities and help them publish their own works."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Deng Lijun raised a question:
“If some great producers have good relationships with their employers, or some producers simply run their own music companies, and they are unable to poach them or are unwilling to come, how should we deal with it?

Yang Ye waved his hand and said, "Then buy their company!" (End of this chapter)