Chinese entertainment, from radio love songs to superstars

"Tingfeng, why didn't you go to the Golden Melody Awards ceremony?"

"I just happened to be busy so I turned it down. Congratulations on winning the Best Mandarin Male Singer Award three times in a row."

Backstage, Shen Lang, Gao Yuanyuan, Xie Tingfeng, Xue Kaiqi, Wu Yanzu, and Jiang Yi, a few young people started chatting.

Xie Tingfeng was not just making up an excuse. He has indeed been very busy releasing his Mandarin album "Listen Up" during this period.

Last year, Shen Lang did not release a Cantonese album, so Hong Kong singers all rushed to release albums and compete for awards, and Xie Tingfeng was one of them.

He also wrote a song called "Walking and Falling in Love". After the album was released, this song won multiple music awards at major music award ceremonies in the Chinese-speaking regions, including the "Mandarin Golden Melody Award" at the King of Songs Annual Awards Ceremony, the "Hong Kong and Taiwan Golden Melody Award" at the China Original Music Pop Chart, the "Golden Melody Award of the Year" and the "Best Composition Award" at the TVB8 Golden Melody Chart Awards Ceremony.

With this series of achievements, he can now be said to have firmly established himself as the new generation Hong Kong superstar.

However, the Hong Kong music market is currently in a recession, which has directly led to a significant decline in the competitiveness of Cantonese songs compared to the past.

You have to know that nowadays, a huge amount of time, energy and financial resources are spent to carefully produce a Cantonese album, but in the end the sales volume may only be 200,000 or 300,000 copies, and the profit earned is not even a fraction of the revenue earned from the download of a ringtone of a popular online song.

Because of this, Emperor Entertainment has begun to turn its attention to the broader mainland market, planning to get a piece of the pie in the booming market of Mandarin songs.

The mainland market is huge and Mandarin songs have a wide audience. If the company can gain a foothold here, it will undoubtedly bring considerable profits. However, they also know very well that they must avoid Shen Lang in the release of Mandarin albums, because Shen Lang's influence and competitiveness in the field of Mandarin songs are too great. If they confront him head-on, they will only become cannon fodder.

So, they held a special meeting internally to discuss this matter.

After some analysis and discussion, they believed that Shen Lang had already released a Mandarin album "Xian" at the beginning of the year and had arranged as many as 50 concerts. According to this schedule, he would most likely not release a new Chinese album this year. At most, he would occasionally produce one or two singles, and the influence and competitiveness of the singles were relatively limited.

So, after coming to this conclusion, they began to work intensively to help Nicholas Tse prepare a Mandarin album.

Indeed, the decision made by Emperor Entertainment at this meeting was quite wise. The release time of the Mandarin album was set at just the right time. If it was postponed for another two months, it would have coincided with another Chinese album that Shen Lang was preparing to release in the second half of the year.

As for the Cantonese album, Shen Lang has already made his own plans and does not plan to release it.

There are two main reasons for this. First, from a time point of view, there are not many classic Cantonese songs that can be copied in the future. In this case, it is better to give these opportunities to Fiona Sit so that she can have more room to play in the field of Cantonese songs. Second, from the overall market situation, the Hong Kong market, whether it is the film industry or the music industry, is showing a clear trend of decline. In such an environment, Cantonese albums have become dispensable for Shen Lang, and there is no need to spend too much time on it.

"I listened to your new album, and the singing is very good. Keep up the good work."

"Thank you, Brother Lang."

Speaking of new albums, Alex Fong also has one, and it will also be released this month.

The title song of the album that Shen Lang prepared for her is "Kisses Everywhere", a very classic Cantonese song.

Last year, her first album "Shocking Waves·Xue Kaiqi" ​​sold like hot cakes and successfully won the Best Newcomer Award at major music award ceremonies in Hong Kong. It can be said that she has achieved remarkable results. Now, her second album is about to be released. If everything goes well, with this album, she can establish her status as the little queen of Hong Kong.

Xue Kaiqi also worked hard. In both music and acting, she always maintained a positive and enterprising attitude and worked hard to learn all kinds of related knowledge, because she learned a crucial truth from Shen Lang: if she wants to gain a foothold in the highly competitive entertainment industry for a long time, it is essential to constantly improve her professional qualities.

And she is the only artist of Jingtao Music in Hong Kong. Du Ting gave her all the resources she had, and tried her best to get her high-quality music resources and rare acting opportunities.

It is also because of this that she stood out among many new generation Hong Kong female artists and developed smoothly. It is no exaggeration to say that she is the best one among the new generation of Hong Kong female artists, without a doubt.

Originally, Shen Lang wanted to promote another new generation of Hong Kong male artist.

But after searching for a long time, I still couldn't find the kind of promising and eye-catching talent.

Looking back at the original time and space, I found that among the Hong Kong male artists who debuted around the millennium, only Xie Tingfeng had outstanding potential, while the others were much worse in acting and music.

Once upon a time, the Hong Kong entertainment industry was like a bright star, illuminating the entire Chinese-speaking world. Countless stars rose from here and became legends in the hearts of a generation. Those classic film and television works and touching songs are still being savored and talked about by people.

Who could have thought that the hurdle in 2000 would become a watershed, plunging the Hong Kong entertainment industry into a predicament of having no successors.

There is nothing we can do about it, and it is also inevitable.

Hong Kong has a limited territory, with a population of only 700 million, and its talent pool is small. The Hong Kong entertainment industry is also limited in size. If veteran artists do not give up their positions, newcomers will have no room for development. Without the injection of fresh blood, the entire industry will lose its vitality.

The flow of capital is also changing. In the past, bigwigs were willing to invest in newcomers, but now they have begun to support their own sons. The Xiang family is an example. They no longer invest in newcomers, but instead fully support their son Xiang Zuo. Capital is shrinking inward, making it more difficult for newcomers to stand out. Another factor that cannot be ignored is that the soaring housing prices have absorbed a lot of funds. The cake that originally belonged to the entertainment industry has been divided up by real estate. The entertainment industry lacks sufficient financial support, so it is naturally difficult to continue.

However, there are also people who are vigorously promoting newcomers, such as Jackie Chan who is on his way to them.

His position in the entertainment industry is very important, and he has always paid attention to the training and support of newcomers. However, facing the severe situation in which it is difficult for newcomers to make a breakthrough in the entertainment industry, his efforts and the influence they have brought seem insignificant compared to the huge difficulties of the entire industry.

When he approached, his eyes fell on Shen Lang, and he said with a look of great regret on his face: "It's a pity that you didn't come to film "Myth". Tang Jili and I both think you are very suitable for this role."

After hearing this, Shen Lang spread his hands helplessly, sighed softly and responded: "Brother, I really have no choice. I still have 25 concerts to prepare in the second half of the year, and I can't arrange the time at all."

"The Myth" is the first script written by Tang Jilei, which can be said to be of extraordinary significance.

In 2002, when he was visiting the Terracotta Warriors in Chang'an, he saw a very strange-looking terracotta warrior. Then he found an interesting story in classical literature. Legend has it that an alien meteorite fell into the Qin State. Later, he had a dream in which he dreamed of fighting with a soldier. After waking up, he wrote the script.

But in the beginning, Tang Jili created the role of the "time-traveling general" based on Jin Chengwu, because he felt that Jin Chengwu was almost perfect in terms of figure, temperament, and appearance.

However, when he took the completed script to his boss and told him his idea, the boss was not optimistic and suggested that he continue to make action movies. Because in the boss's opinion, romance movies are difficult to sell well both at home and abroad, and to find some slightly famous male and female protagonists would cost more than half of the budget, which is really not worth the cost and the risk is too great. The boss did not want to take the risk.

By chance, Jackie Chan came across this script and was immediately attracted by the story. Relying on his influence in the entertainment industry, he successfully persuaded his boss to invest.

The time came to the second half of 2003. At that time, Shen Lang was at the peak of his popularity. Several costume dramas he starred in, "Love Across Time and Space", "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" and "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils", were a huge success once they were broadcast, and set off a wave of costume drama craze. They were extremely popular.

Jackie Chan and Tang Jili discussed it and felt that Shen Lang's image and acting skills were very suitable for the role they had in mind, so they decisively abandoned Jin Chengwu who had originally been considered and instead extended an olive branch to Shen Lang.

However, Shen Lang was not available for the entire year of 2004, and Jackie Chan finally took the role himself.

However, it was precisely because of this invitation that Shen Lang created an opportunity to recommend Kim Hee Sun.

After everyone chatted enthusiastically for nearly half an hour, the much-anticipated global premiere ceremony of "New Police Story" officially kicked off.

At this time, in the theater, the lights were focused on the stage, and the host said in a loud voice: "Good afternoon, friends from the media. Welcome to our "New Police Story" press conference. Before we start our press conference, we would like to invite Ms. Fang Wanhua, the president of our film's mainland distribution company Shenghua Film and Television, to come on stage and speak for us. Please give her a round of applause."

As soon as she finished speaking, there was a burst of warm applause from the audience. Fang Wanhua walked onto the stage with a smile on her face. After she stood still, she bowed slightly and said in a friendly voice: "Dear guests, journalists, good afternoon! Thank you for attending the press conference for the upcoming global acceptance ceremony of "New Police Story". Thank you for your support and love for Shenghua over the years..."

After this brief speech, the lights in the theater gradually dimmed and a short film began playing.

After the movie clip was finished, the host took the stage and said, "Wow, we just watched such a wonderful clip. I think everyone here is like me, very nervous and full of expectations. Now let's welcome the main creators of New Police Story with warm applause."

The first person to go on stage was Wu Yanzu. He stood on the stage handsomely and greeted everyone in his unstandard Mandarin: "Hello everyone, first of all, I want to say that I am very happy to work with Jackie Chan, because I admired him when I was young. This role is a villain, which is very difficult because I have to make Jackie Chan cry. I don't think I have ever seen Jackie Chan cry in a movie."

After that, the host took over the conversation and said humorously: "Haha, it is indeed a challenge, but why did Director Chen and Jackie Chan find such a handsome guy to play it? I think some roles make people love and hate them. Next, I would like to invite Fiona Sit. In the film, she also plays a young police officer named Sasa who is just beginning to fall in love."

Fiona Sit came on stage with a sweet smile on her face and said, "Actually, I feel quite comfortable in this drama. Although I'm a policeman, I don't have to go out. I just work indoors and talk about love. It feels quite interesting." Her words elicited a burst of good-natured laughter from the audience.

The host continued to follow the procedure: "Now let's invite Gao Yuanyuan, another leading actress in the film, to come out. How do you feel about working with Jackie Chan this time?"

Gao Yuanyuan walked onto the stage with grace and said with a smile, "I feel very honored. I have always watched the Police Stories series of movies. It seems like they have accompanied me growing up. Now Brother and Director Chen have the idea to make this movie. In the past, this role usually went to Maggie Cheung. When they thought of me this time, I felt very lucky and happy."

The host nodded and then raised his voice and said, "Next, we would like to invite Mr. Nicholas Tse, who also plays the role of a new human in the film."

Nicholas Tse then walked onto the stage and said with a confident smile, "In fact, I never thought that I could be a partner of Jacky Cheung. In addition, I really learned a lot from the whole process of this film. This is also the second time I have worked with Director Chen. I am very happy. As for the role, I imitated a policeman. I have always wanted to be a policeman since I was a child, but I cannot be a policeman due to my family background. I will not say much about the plot, otherwise you don't have to watch it, so just enjoy the movie."

Then, the host said enthusiastically: "Now we have to turn the floor to today's real protagonist - Jackie Chan. Because in this film, Jackie Chan's image has changed from the previous image of a super invincible and perfect hero to a tragic hero. In the film, Jackie Chan sheds tears, kneels down, and even looks a bit decadent. Jackie Chan is challenging a new limit and a new image. Will he feel any pressure at the beginning?"

Jackie Chan walked steadily onto the stage, and only spoke after the applause died down, "First of all, I would like to say hello to everyone here, and thank you for giving you so many honors and first times. Because over the years, making movies in the United States has given me a sense of success. Success means proving that I can break into the world, but it does not give me a sense of superiority, because I can't make the things I like to make."

"It is undeniable that the market is huge, but what does it matter if it is huge? I can never film a script that I like, so every time I return to Hong Kong, I look for different directors and different roles to figure out the role that I am in at this stage."

"I hope tonight I can bring a new side to everyone, because for so many years people have been asking why we didn't shoot Project A 3, why we didn't shoot Project Condor 3, why we didn't shoot Police Stories . Now we are starting to shoot Police Stories , and I hope everyone will continue to support us in the future."

At this time, the host said with a smile: "Thank you Jackie Chan for sharing. Today, we have a special guest, our Shen Lang!" (End of this chapter)