HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 170 [170] Plans to Enter the Japanese Music Scene + The Young Man's First EP
After the Golden Melody Awards ceremony, all of Qi Yuan's friends in the industry sent her congratulatory text messages.

Gao Yuanyuan, Zhang Tong, and other close friends called to congratulate them.

Qi Yuan sent a group text message to thank everyone.

The most courteous person was Lin Chih-ling, who personally came to Qi Yuan's door to celebrate.

Lin Chih-ling is very good at providing emotional value. She often looks at Qi Yuan with admiring and adoring eyes and keeps saying nice things. It's really quite satisfying!
Before the EP was released, Qi Yuan took a rare few days off.

It wasn't exactly a rest; he had to put in the effort every day. Fortunately, he was young and in good health, and he used various methods to tame Lin Chih-ling, this wild horse, every day.

After her equestrian lesson, Lin Zhiling collapsed onto the bed, and Qi Yuan, who was next to her, could hear her panting.

Qi Yuan chatted with her for a while about "The Little Fish and the Flower Without Flaws".

As soon as Qi Yuan returned to Taiwan, she told Lin Zhiling that she would play the role of Palace Master Lianxing.

The Palace Mistress Lianxing was a kind-hearted character who helped Hua Wuque and Xiaoyuer many times. Her death brought tears to the eyes of many viewers.

However, there are many parts of this drama that brought tears to the eyes of the audience. The deaths of many characters, such as Su Ying, Tie Xinlan, and Xiao Xiannu, made the audience cry in front of their TVs.

Wang Jing, that fat guy, is too ruthless. In the entire TV series, only the title survived; everyone else died.

People jokingly refer to "The Little Fish and the Flower Without Flaws" as "The Survivor List".

Thankfully, this drama wasn't called "The Legend of Jiang Yuyan," otherwise Xiaoyuer and Hua Wuque would also have met their demise.

Qi Yuan calmed down and began to plan his career.

After this Golden Melody Award, his reputation in the Chinese music scene has basically reached its peak, and he has become the most popular superstar in the Chinese music scene.

Releasing Mandarin albums in the future will only be to maintain our current success. To borrow a classic phrase, we're already number one, so how much further can we go?

It's time to expand outwards; the goal of entering the Japanese music scene should be put on the agenda.

Making a direct foray into the Western music scene is too big a step; it could easily backfire.

First, establish a solid foundation in East Asia before venturing into the Western music scene. In any case, you can release English songs even if you enter the Japanese music scene.

In Japan, about 30% of the population can speak English, but most of them speak it very poorly, and only a small percentage speak it well.

In short, many Japanese people can understand English songs and have a habit of listening to them.

In late 98, Mariah Carey released her compilation album "#1's," an English-language album that sold over a million copies in its first week in Japan.

However... it's not an easy thing for Qi Yuan, a Chinese person, to break into the Japanese music scene.

Later, when Wang Lihong ventured into the Japanese music scene, even with Sony, a local Japanese music giant, protecting him, he still failed to achieve success.

Warner's influence and market share in Japan are far less than Sony's, so the support it can provide to Qi Yuan will be even smaller.

At this moment, Chen Hong made a phone call to Qi Yuan.

"Ah-Yuan, you've been really making waves in Taiwan lately, you've won every single award at the Golden Melody Awards."

I heard your movie premieres in Hong Kong on the 21st. Kaige and I are planning a vacation in Hong Kong, so we can support your first movie then.

I'll let you in on a little secret: Kai Ge is quite unhappy. He said you didn't act in his film "Jing Ke," but instead went and acted in a low-budget Hong Kong movie.

Qi Yuan played with Lin Zhiling's beautiful legs and explained, "I didn't have time last time. I was busy releasing an EP and doing promotions, and I was so busy that I had a headache."

"You should have time next year, right? Kaige asked me to ask if you could set aside a few months next year. He's working with a group of screenwriters on a TV series script."

Qi Yuan was taken aback.

A TV script? Believe it or not, Chen Kaige actually did direct a TV series, I think it was called "Lu Bu and Diao Chan," starring Huang Sanshi and Chen Hong. Qi Yuan was a little troubled. Brother Kai was righteous, but he was still up to his old tricks! This drama was heavily criticized; Diao Chan had magic powers, Lu Bu was like an idiot, turning a proper historical drama into a mythological one.

Lu Bu wearing a nose ring and a silver chain looked absolutely outrageous.

Some of the lines are also suffocating.

'Give me Diao Chan, and the cloth is yours.'

'Cloth, this is our love, and our life.'

Qi Yuan is just an artist. He acted in such a drama, and the ones who were criticized the most were the director and the screenwriter.

But Chen Kaige is underperforming, and Qi Yuan can't get any attributes! If everyone's regressed, how can we make progress together?

Qi Yuan changed his approach: could he take the lead and guide Chen Kaige to improve?

He gave Chen Kaige a script that he could copy, and while he wouldn't dare say it was ten times better than Chen Kaige's, it was definitely better than "Lu Bu and Diao Chan".

Taking Chen Kaige on his journey of progress and his foray into the Japanese music scene can actually be combined into one thing.

Qi Yuanzhen came up with a brilliant idea that could kill two birds with one stone.

Why not just copy that South Korean movie "My Sassy Girl" that swept across Asia and have Chen Kaige direct it, with him playing the male lead?

This movie is very popular in South Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

The film was seen by approximately 488 million South Koreans, meaning that one in several South Koreans watched it.

When it was released in Japan, it grossed approximately 5 million yen, which is roughly equivalent to 450 million US dollars.

The film performed well in Hong Kong, but it wasn't released in mainland China. If it had been released, the box office would have been good.

When the movie was released in South Korea and Japan, Qi Yuan wrote several English songs as insert songs and end credits songs.

After the movie became a hit in Japan, he released the movie's songs as singles or EPs, hoping to leverage the movie's popularity to enter the Japanese music scene.

This is a feasible solution, but we must prevent Chen Kaige from revising the script.

This wasn't difficult to solve. Qi Yuan had a thorough understanding of Chen Kaige's personality and knew how to address the problem effectively.

Chen Kaige's commercial films have never been very successful, not as successful as his rival Zhang Yingmou. However, every film studio he builds for his commercial films makes money, which is quite magical.

If Chen Kaige had directed this film that became a hit across Asia, his reputation would have soared. Qi Yuan would have found a window into the Japanese music scene and would have also received the reward of mutual progress.

"My Sassy Girl" is a movie adapted from a South Korean web novel. The author only started writing the first chapter in August 1999, and Qi Yuan has already taken it all.

Having finalized the plan, Qi Yuan intends to rest for a few days to write the script, and then show it to Chen Kaige and his wife after they arrive in Hong Kong.

As the days passed, the release date of the EP on May 15th drew ever closer.

Warner's publicity department started to put in the effort, but Zhou Jianhui was not satisfied with most of the promotional copy; it was too bland and lacked any originality.

Qi Yuan came to Warner Music that day and had a sudden inspiration, coming up with a great promotional slogan: "Our EP is a great deal. It has the features of a mini-album but is priced like an EP. My fans are mainly young people, so why not promote it as the first EP for young people?"

"Ok?"

Zhou Jianhui's eyes lit up. "Great idea!"

The slogan "The first EP for young people" is great! It's down-to-earth and a hundred times better than any pop king's new EP or an EP that everyone is looking forward to.

(End of this chapter)