HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 260 [260] "Infernal Affairs" is scheduled for release, everyone is looking forward to it!

After attending the Golden Melody Awards ceremony, it was May 2000.

The post-production of "Infernal Affairs" is finished.

With great confidence, Mr. Lin, the owner of Media Asia, organized a small-scale internal screening, inviting well-known film critics, directors, and producers from the Hong Kong film industry to watch the film together.

Media Asia also invited Qi Yuan, but Qi Yuan had already flown to Japan and missed this internal screening.

Actually, Qi Yuan would have missed it too, because it would have been quite upsetting.

Film critics immediately started criticizing the film after watching it, expressing their pessimism about the future of "Infernal Affairs".

Some people even mocked Liu Weiqiang and Mai Zhaohui as two idiots!

Do those two idiots even understand police and gangster movies? In the past, police and gangster movies that sold well at the box office had to have heroism, exhilarating gunfights, and preferably a spectacular action scene.

The Infernal Affairs movies are all terrible. They avoid gunfights whenever possible, and there isn't a single action scene. How can this be called a police and gangster movie?

Film critics and industry experts have estimated that even if Qi Yuan's box office appeal is taken into account, the box office of "Infernal Affairs" may not exceed 20 million Hong Kong dollars.

In other words, this film will most likely lose money.

Mr. Lin was made less confident by these film critics and lowered his expectations.

Alan Mak was also affected. He had never made a blockbuster film, and so many knowledgeable people were not optimistic about it. Where did he get the confidence?

Only Liu Weiqiang disregarded these film critics' comments!
These people don't know anything about police and gangster movies. Do police and gangster movies have to involve fighting? That's all outdated stuff. Audiences are sick of seeing it. They want to see something new.

The innovative style of "Infernal Affairs" in using civility to subdue military force is a testament to its creativity.

A bunch of scoundrels, not worth discussing anything with!

Liu Weiqiang was ashamed to be associated with them and left in anger, abandoning his boast of a four million yuan box office on the first day.

……

After the movie, Alan Mak called Qi Yuan.

"It's a good thing you didn't come today. Director Liu was furious with those film critics."

After listening to Mai Zhaohui's explanation, Qi Yuan understood the general situation.

In fact, Qi Yuan had anticipated this. "Infernal Affairs" reshaped the style of police and gangster films, abandoned the old formula of violent aesthetics, and pioneered the "intellectual police and gangster film".

Pioneers are always subject to skepticism before they succeed.

"Film critics are always wise after the event. You don't need to care too much about their evaluations. Look at Director Liu's attitude; he has great confidence in what he makes."

Most film critics only offer hindsight analyses; when a film is successful, they offer detailed and insightful explanations.

Even if Liu Weiqiang and Alan Mak made Interstellar, these film critics would still find fault with it, saying that the plot was not well-developed and that it was just a beautifully shot but garbage film.

“…” Mak Siu-fai was speechless.

He originally wanted to comfort Qi Yuan and tell her not to let the doubts from the outside world affect her mindset after returning from Japan.

To his surprise, Qi Yuan actually comforted him instead.

……

Neon.

Qi Yuan had a good attitude, and the people at Warner Music Japan treated him very warmly.

This is the advantage of multinational corporations; they have their own people in every country they go to.

Taiwanese Warner Music had already spoken to Japanese Warner Music, asking them to help Qi Yuan hold auditions for a beautiful female lead in her music video.

Honestly, Warner Music Japan is really supportive. They showed a lot of respect to Qi Yuan, the Mandopop king who is about to release an album in Japan. They gave Qi Yuan the list of candidates selected through open auditions and let him choose for himself.

Surprisingly, there's also Masami Nagasawa, a newcomer recently signed by Toho Films. She later became a national-level actress in Japan, known as the "Nation's Wife," and is very familiar to those who watch Japanese dramas in China.

However, Masami Nagasawa is too young, not even 13 years old yet.

Qi Yuan chose a very beautiful Japanese woman whose name he had never heard of in his previous life.

That's not important, as long as I can learn Japanese.

To increase the chances of winning, Qi Yuan didn't give up on Masami Nagasawa and extended the scene of her playing the piano and singing in the park, having Masami Nagasawa sit next to him and swing on a swing.

If Qi Yuan doesn't bring Masami Nagasawa over to film a music video, wouldn't that be a waste of talent?

When Masami Nagasawa becomes famous in the future, especially in China, it will be very interesting for Chinese netizens to discover that Masami Nagasawa, a regular leading lady in Japanese dramas, actually starred in a music video for Qi Yuan.

……

This time, Qi Yuan didn't stay in Japan for too long. She spent a few days filming the music video and then returned to the mainland.

Qi Yuan asked Li Xue to buy some books for learning Japanese and also found a proper Japanese teacher.

It's easy to understand if you know English; there have always been English classes in schools.

It would be a bit strange if he suddenly knew Japanese, so Qi Yuan wanted everyone to know that he was learning Japanese.

If he does this, and then draws a character with the Japanese attribute, people will at most think he has a good talent for languages.

People with a talent for languages ​​can master a new language in a few weeks to a few months. After all, there aren't many languages ​​as difficult to learn as Chinese; English and Japanese are considered relatively easy to learn.

When Qi Yuan came out of Beijing Airport, paparazzi photographed him holding a "Practical Japanese Dictionary".

Qi Yuan has now become the paparazzi's favorite target, and countless paparazzi make a living from this.

A few days later.

According to Alan Mak, the release date for "Infernal Affairs" has been set: 6 PM on May 19th, which happens to be a Friday. It will be screened in Hong Kong and then released in mainland China a week later.

The mainland version's ending is consistent with the Hong Kong version: Lau Kin-ming survives to the end and salutes Chan Wing-yan's tombstone.

Actually, there's nothing sensitive about the ending of "Infernal Affairs." The idea that bad guys aren't allowed to have the last laugh is just nonsense.

In the later parts 2 and 3, wasn't Han Chen doing well in the second part?

In the third installment, Lau Kin-ming didn't die either; instead, a bunch of good guys died, yet the film was still released in mainland China.

In July of this year, a film called "Life and Death Choice" will be released in mainland China. That's truly amazing. "In the Name of the People" is nothing compared to this film.

In short, Qi Yuan's second film is poised for release.

Qi Yuan was really looking forward to it.

Li Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming, Liang Jiahui, and other cast members are also looking forward to it.

Those in the Hong Kong film industry who dislike Qi Yuan are even more eager to see him flop at the box office, just like Wu Jing, and be relegated from a leading man to a supporting role.

They didn't want to see a second Li Lianjie emerge who had broken into Hong Kong.

There's only so much Hong Kong film production each year, and even fewer good ones. If "Infernal Affairs" is another success, even more Hong Kong capital and film companies will flock to support Qi Yuan.

Capital is profit-driven; no one will turn down money.

But this makes the Hong Kong actors uncomfortable. Qi Yuan has taken away their niche. If Qi Yuan takes a bite of cake, they have to take a bite less.

Huang Qiusheng and Du Gou were the happiest, because they found out that most of the film critics at the internal screening organized by Media Asia were not optimistic about the film.

Liang Chaowei and Nicholas Tse also heard the news, and they were quite happy.

Especially the former, if you're unwilling to spend money to treat me, then the movie you're treating me to definitely won't be that bad!

(End of this chapter)