HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 437 [437] Another person has come who wants to go toe-to-toe with Qi Yuan?

Since the influence of Mandarin songs in Hong Kong is not enough, what about adding the movie "My Sassy Girl" which swept across Asia?
In its previous life, this film grossed HK$1400 million in Hong Kong, becoming the highest-grossing South Korean film in Hong Kong.

This throne sat for a full fifteen years before being taken away by "Train to Busan".

"My Sassy Girl" is widely recognized as a work that popularized the Korean wave in Hong Kong.

Starting with this movie, Korean dramas began to become increasingly popular in Hong Kong, but Qi Yuan and Starry Sky Company stole this opportunity.

Following "My Sassy Girl," the follow-up drama "Full House" will first air in mainland China and then enter Hong Kong. This will allow Starlight Entertainment to take the lead in securing a niche for Korean pop culture in China, and even potentially export it overseas.

Moreover, this life's "My Sassy Girl" will only be stronger than the previous one.

The actress who starred in "My Sassy Girl" in her previous life wasn't very famous before filming this movie.

Fan Xiaopang is different; she is a true Tokyo Film Festival Best Actress winner and the lead actress in a film that grossed 3.6 million yuan.

With his previous work, "Bouquet," Fan Xiaopang has gained fame throughout East Asia, including China, Japan, and South Korea, making him much more reputable than his predecessor.

Moreover, with Qi Yuan helping to sing the theme song, it also benefited from Qi Yuan's fame.

By the way, Qi Yuan also made an appearance in the movie, in the form of a photograph.

The female lead has an ex-boyfriend who died unexpectedly, and Qi Yuan's photo appears in the film.

I bet the Qi Fan CP fans will start complaining again after watching this movie. Were you guys doing this on purpose or just doing it by accident? Why is it that every time you two work together, someone either dies or there's no happy ending?
The only difference is that this time it's finally Qi Yuan's turn to die.

As for the male lead, Wang Jing had mentioned it to Qi Yuan before, and they had found Cheung Chi-lam from Hong Kong.

After all, it's a film directed by Wang Jing. He's a Hong Kong director, and if the male and female leads both use mainland Chinese characters, he'll be mercilessly criticized by people in the Hong Kong film industry.

Qi Yuan had no objection to Wang Jing's casting choice; he thought Wang Jing had good taste.

Qi Yuan had a good impression of Zhang Zhilin.

Cheung Chi-lam debuted as a singer and won the Bronze Award for Most Popular Newcomer at the Hong Kong Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards that year.

After entering the film and television industry, his career has also developed quite well. Last year, the drama he starred in, "Return of the Cuckoo," won the highest ratings in Hong Kong that year.

In the future, he will also star in well-known TV series such as "The White-Haired Witch", "The Legend of Flying Daggers", and "The Legend of Lu Xiaofeng".

Zhang Zhilin's acting skills, character, and reputation are all fine; these are not the main points.

The main point is that the male lead in "My Sassy Girl" is a coward, like a submissive character, and gets bullied by the female lead every day.

In this regard, Zhang Zhilin says he has the second most experience in the industry, and probably no one would dare to claim the first.

Because his wife is named Anita Yuen, who is known in Hong Kong for her fiery temper and dared to act like a diva on Jackie Chan's film set when she was feeling arrogant.

His life is a real-life version of "My Sassy Girl," he can just play himself.

It's likely that Wang Jing sought him out because he understood this point.

Wang Jing asked Qi Yuan to write the theme song, but he certainly wouldn't dare to ask Qi Yuan for nothing; he offered a reward of one million.

This price is definitely too low for Qi Yuan.

Qi Yuan offered $1 million for the theme song he wrote for "Rush Hour 2," but the president of New Line Cinema said it was too little.

The context was that Qi Yuan personally went to the United States to support Jackie Chan. The president of New Line Cinema felt that Qi Yuan was giving him face, so he also gave Qi Yuan face, which was suspected of being an attempt to promote Qi Yuan.

But the excellence of "Happy" is undeniable. If Hollywood were to commission Qi Yuan to write the theme song, it would cost more than a million dollars.

It's unrealistic for domestic films to be priced the same as Hollywood films in the short term. Feng Xiaogang, who is known as a top commercial director in mainland China, is still making films with budgets of tens of millions of yuan.

It's no exaggeration to say that Zhang Yingmou and Chen Kaige couldn't afford the cost of the theme song for Qi Yuan.

The biggest investor in the film "My Sassy Girl" was Qi Yuan's own Starry Sky Company.

A good theme song can boost a film's box office, making him the biggest beneficiary. So it's perfectly reasonable for him to accept a friendly fee of one million RMB to write the theme song.

The theme song "I Believe" from the movie "My Sassy Girl" was very popular in its previous life. It became a hit across Asia along with the movie and was played everywhere for a while, becoming a classic love song.

This song also has a Chinese version, which is also very popular in the country.

However, since the original version was in Korean, Qi Yuan decided to directly modify the lyrics to English, thus creating both Chinese and English versions, which would be more appropriate.

Qi Yuan has accumulated a lot of lyric-writing talent over the years, so writing an English version of lyrics wouldn't be difficult for him.

I believe, in the promise of tomorrow.

I believe, though today is filled with sorrow.

No distance can define our love.

……

It took Qi Yuan some time to write out both the Chinese and English versions of "I Believe".

Qi Yuan didn't want to show off by saying he could finish a song in ten or twenty minutes. His reply to Wang Jing was that the song had been written a long time ago, but he had been too busy to find time to record it.

During the few days that Qi Yuan was in Hong Kong, he spent most of his time running around during the day to promote his work and do autograph sessions, and in the evenings he would go to Warner Music's Hong Kong branch to record songs.

Then, the Taiwanese F4 came to Hong Kong to participate in commercial activities. The major entertainment newspapers in Hong Kong, which were originally dominated by Qi Yuan with 70% of the content, became a situation where Qi Yuan had 45%, F4 had 35%, and the other 20% was shared among the other members.

Although F4's peak period was short, it was truly phenomenal. Soon after, they were able to hold seven consecutive concerts for tens of thousands of people in Japan, and also hold concerts in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand.

Do you really think they have good singing skills and many high-quality songs? It's all thanks to "Meteor Garden".

This idol drama is really outrageous, allowing four people with very average professional skills to receive a sky-high endorsement fee of NT$100 million from Pepsi in less than a year.

After numerous reruns and a long period of development in Hong Kong and Taiwan, "Meteor Garden" saw F4's popularity in those regions reach its peak.

F4 realized that their popularity in Hong Kong wasn't that much different from Qi Yuan's, and they started to become more confident.

Looking back at the first half of the year, not long after Meteor Garden premiered, Qi Yuan returned to Taiwan with the halo of conquering the Grammys, and they were forced to run away to Hong Kong.

Once Qi Yuan arrives in Hong Kong, they'll have to go to Japan again.

They were chased around by Qi Yuan like rats; wherever Qi Yuan went, they had to immediately move to a different location.

Today they have finally stood up. Their looks can't compare to Qi Yuan's, and their singing, songwriting, talent, and works are all inferior to Qi Yuan's.

With the four of them combined, plus "Meteor Garden," there's always hope that they can compete with Qi Yuan in popularity in Hong Kong on a 50/50 scale, right?
They and their management companies all think this way: once they achieve their goal of competing with Qi Yuan in popularity in Hong Kong, they dare to market themselves as global superstars.

(End of this chapter)