The opening of China Entertainment Group gave Jay Chou a head-on confrontation

Chapter 518 A Free Meat

In fact, if Zhou Yi's "In the Name of the Father" had not exploded in the United States, Italy, and the United Kingdom last year, which gave Warner Bros. Pictures an opportunity to make a DVD and put it on the secondary rental market in Europe and the United States, Zhou Yi's title of "Godfather" might not have worked in Europe and the United States.

Then Jay Chou’s “Double Blades” music micro-film should be praised by domestic media as a brilliant idea, and described as a hero who has made it into Hollywood.

After all, Chinese Kung Fu is still very popular in Europe and the United States.

Cheng Long and Li Lianjie both took up the banner of the modern world. The Kung Fu fever brought about by Bruce Lee's movies still influences the Western world today - "Chinese Kung Fu" has become one of the stereotypes of Chinese people abroad.

But the bad thing is that there is the Zhouyi gem in front of us.

Chinese Kung Fu + Hollywood actor + Hollywood director, although they are all people on the edge of Hollywood, at least they are in this circle. Sony should be said to be very considerate to Jay Chou -

Photographer Andrzej Sekula has shot movies such as "Reservoir Dogs" and "Dangerous Man", and the leading actress is Leila Arcieri, a black actress who has starred in the movie "3X". As for the two villains, Noel Gugliemi and Danny Trejo, they have starred in Hollywood movies such as "The Laughing Man" and "Spy Kids" respectively;
The director also specially found a Chinese director to facilitate communication.

But unfortunately, this musical short film didn't make any splash in the United States and could only be exported and sold domestically, and it was only hyped up in China.

This has given many news practitioners a new way to make a living - they constantly use the successful export of Zhou Yi's "In the Name of the Father" in Europe and the United States to step on Jay Chou's "Double Blades", calling it an ugly imitation.

Even Zhou Yi wanted to laugh when he saw it.

Putting aside the issue of the ten or twenty minutes length of the micro-film "Double Blades", no matter how poor Jiang Wen's directing skills are, he is still comparable to the great directors of the time. As for the director of "Double Blades", we can only wish him good luck.

"Sony seems to be still determined to do something evil. Wang Lihong's promotion failed, so are they planning to promote Jay Chou now?"

Zhou Yi put down the Yomiuri Shimbun with his fingertips rubbing his chin, stood up and stretched lazily - "Is that mysterious Mr. Zhou the one they created?"

"We haven't found out yet. We can't rule out the possibility that Wenchun directed and acted in the film himself. They have done this many times before."

Qian Jiang shook his head.

Warner's roots in Japan are still too shallow compared to Sony, the local giant. Given the level of turmoil and infighting in the past, the fact that it was not driven out of Japan in the last century should be attributed to the singers headed by Akina Nakamori.

No one knows what happened, but every branch of Warner, whether it is movies or records, no matter which country, has always been unable to escape the vicious circle of internal strife and decline - and the company has to wait for a miracle worker to come out and save it.

This is the case with our Chinese branches, as well as our Japanese branches, not to mention our European and American branches.

Everyone knows that internal strife is rampant and management is a mess, but if you are lucky, you can always draw SSR, whether it is management talent or a cash cow in the singer and movie industry. The main point is to rely on the magic draw to solve all the monsters.

"But since Sony is promoting Jay Chou so much, it looks like Jay Chou's record contracts should all be signed with Sony starting this year, and KTV will be responsible for his management contract."

Qian Jiang sighed: "I guess Sony will sign a full contract with him when the contract with KTV expires."

Sony, which has two ace players in Wang Lihong and Jay Chou, would probably be invincible in the Chinese record market if it didn't have Zhou Yi standing in its way.

Tao Zhe is a small company and there is no need to worry about it. It can’t even take care of the domestic market, and it has to ask Warner for help in overseas distribution.

Zhou Yi did not comment: "Who knows."

Jay Chou's wings gradually grew stronger under the protection of Sony, but after that he started to demolish the bridge after crossing the river, so that in the future anti-piracy press conference, he was tricked by the angry senior executives of Sony Records China at that time - this was the famous Wang Lihong and Jay Chou anti-piracy incident.

Jay Chou was invited to the press conference, but another superstar, Wang Lihong, did not come on the pretext of being suddenly ill, leaving Jay Chou standing alone in front of the camera, awkwardly facing the media with their cameras.

It's unrealistic to say that Wang Lihong really didn't want to come. After all, the relationship between the two was very good before.

It can only be said that under pressure from Sony's top management, Wang Lihong, who had signed a full contract with Sony at the time, finally chose to stand with the company, and the two became brothers in name only.

When Wang Lihong was disgraced in the Xiaowenzhu incident, Jay Chou himself did not even have time to confirm the truth of the matter and directly unfollowed Wang Lihong to cut ties. This was the first time Jay Chou had been so impatient since his debut.

You know, even the Canadian electric eel went in and stepped on the sewing machine, but he didn't unfollow him. This shows how close these two seemingly brothers are.

"Sony will definitely continue to try to scam you. After all, they are the pursuers, so it doesn't matter if they lose."

Out of trust in Zhou Yi, Qian Jiang did not take these two too seriously, and turned to Zhou Yi to discuss two other things -

"On September 9, Turn Left, Turn Right, the first film fully invested by Warner Bros. in China, will be screened. Although this film stars Kaneshiro Ou and Fan Bingbin, the film company would still like to invite you to the premiere to help promote it. After all, your popularity is truly unique."

Speaking of Warner Bros. Films, Qian Jiang suggested: "They helped us with the channel for In the Name of the Father before. I think it's better not to refuse. Just take some time to go there for a day."

As a stepping stone for Warner Films to enter the domestic film market, this movie is actually not aiming for huge profits - winning awards, gaining qualifications, and gilding their reputation are the tokens of their loyalty.

This is essentially an artistic romance film.

In Zhou Yi's impression, Warner's stepping stone strategy was very successful. After this movie, Warner Films, which was recognized and accepted by the domestic circle, began to accelerate its pace of large-scale land acquisition and cooperative construction of theaters in China.

This means that they went to find Zhou Yi to show it to the mainland - to tell the people in the mainland that they are very capable.

"no problem."

After thinking about the time, Zhou Yi nodded in agreement.

It's not for the purpose of supporting the cause, he is mainly interested in the domestic cinema chains that Warner Bros. will retain in the future.

In 2002, after a long preparation, Warner Bros. officially entered the Chinese market and took the lead in cooperating with Shanghai Film Group to establish the first Warner Bros. Cinema in Shanghai.

From 2003 to 05, having proved its willingness to invest with its stepping stone, Warner Films took advantage of the official pilot strategy and cooperated with domestic groups to build cinema chains in Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chongqing, Changsha and other places.

But all the good things only lasted until 06.

Because the domestic film market at that time was not very large, Warner Films, which had been expanding in China, suffered losses year after year, and the amount of losses increased year by year. In contrast, Warner Films' financial reports in foreign markets continued to rise.

In comparison, the Chinese market, which has been cultivated for several years, cannot be said to be a burden. At the very least, it has lowered the appearance of Warner Bros.' financial report, which is not good news for the stock market and investors.

Coupled with the change in official strategy, as expected, Warner once again resorted to its traditional skill - internal fighting.

The result of this internal struggle was the collective resignation of 16 senior executives, led by Yin Gang, president of Warner Films China, and Stig, global vice president of Warner Bros. International Cinemas, which was equivalent to a complete replacement of the top management.

This means that Warner has given up the Chinese market due to years of losses, and the cinema shares in Beijing, Beijing and seven provinces have been lost to domestic groups such as Wanda and Jinyi that took over.

Zhou Yi didn't want to give up such a piece of meat. As long as he could pay, the cinema shares would be free. Rather than giving it to others, it would be better for him, a Warner insider, to give it to others.

Gui Yi had made so much money from investments over the years, and it was time to spend some of it in 06. With the Internet cash cow as a support, he had the patience to wait until the domestic film market matured.

By then, with the Internet in his left hand and cinemas in his right hand, he will be a bona fide local rich man in the domestic entertainment circle, the kind that no one dares to mess with.

Even if he retired early, no one in the entertainment industry would dare to show their teeth to him, let alone the fact that people would give up on him.

The reason why I didn’t mention the music industry is that the future of the domestic music industry has actually been ruined. This thing is really not something he can deter alone. Physical piracy + Internet piracy, the double stick directly destroyed the normal development of the domestic music market in the next golden decade or even fifteen years.

10 copies can make you the sales king in Taiwan, and 50 copies can make you open champagne until you die in mainland China; all kinds of so-called fair awards have begun to be distributed to singers to help them gild their reputation and increase their fame so that they can get commercial performances and endorsements.

Even Jay Chou has to inflate his income to get over one million, forcing him to develop various side businesses and investments to increase his income. This is the true portrayal of the domestic music industry in the future.

The most typical trend is that more than 99% of the Chinese entertainment novels written by Qidian, a subsidiary of Yuewen, are about actors and directors. The number of singers’ novels can be counted on one hand, and pure singer novels are even fewer.

"There is one more thing. It is the arrangement for Mai Kuraki to bring someone to your fan club as a guest."

Seeing that Zhou Yi was not opposed to helping promote the movie, Qian Jiang breathed a sigh of relief and happily talked about the second thing.

Since the tickets for Zhou Yi's fan meeting are free, Warner naturally wants to maximize the effect at once - Mai Kuraki, a popular singer under GIZA Studio, just released an album in early July this year, which includes a collaboration song with Warner's Sun Yanzi.

This album topped the O chart in Japan in its first week of release, and it was truly a hit.

Under such circumstances, GIZA Studio and Warner hit it off and planned to have Mai Kuraki appear as a surprise guest at the Zhouyi Fan Club, which would help her promote her album, stimulate sales, and allow the newcomer to show her face.

In return, when Sun Yanzi, Zhou Yi or other singers from Warner China come to Japan to promote their works in the future, GIZA Studio will also have to make corresponding preparations.

The two companies have reached a strategic cooperation, using Zhouyi as a bridge to open up channels for domestic singers to enter Japan.

only……

"Mai Kuraki is going to bring in new people?" Zhou Yi was a little surprised.

Qian Jiang nodded: "Yes, it is a new girl group band called Sanzhi Xixia IN db, and the core is the lead singer Sanzhi Xixia.

"She just debuted and released her first single last June. She has now taken over from Mai Kuraki as the next singer of the theme song for Japan's super-national anime "Detective Conan". It can be said that GIZA Studio is quite optimistic about her."

"..."

Zhou Yi immediately raised his eyebrows and said nothing.

He was still talking about it before, and now it’s happening?
Yuka Saegusa, born on June 1980, 6, is a talented singer under GIZA Studio, and is good at singing in a band. Because of her beautiful and sweet appearance, she is similar to the famous singer Izumi Sakai under the parent company of GIZA Studio, and is regarded by many as Izumi Sakai among the new generation of Japanese female singers.

She is one of the few beautiful female singers among the younger generation in Japan. In the future, she will be a professional singer of "Detective Conan" songs. During her peak period, she was a popular singer who often ranked in the top 20 of the Oricon chart as soon as she released a single, and she has also been in the top ten.

However, this sister is indeed a member of a band, she is quite free and easy——

After a brief period of glory, she was unwilling to endure the gap in status in the circle when she became out of fashion. In addition, her contract with the company expired, and she had made money anyway, so she simply retired from the circle and married someone outside the circle. She opened a beauty salon or a nail salon to live in her retirement. Fans still came to support her from time to time and take photos with her.

"But don't worry, Sanzhi Yuxia and her band members won't be performing any songs. Your English major is rock music, right? Their band will be there to accompany you on stage."

Seeing Zhou Yi didn't say anything, Qian Jiang thought he was dissatisfied with this and immediately added: "Only Kuraki Mai will come out and sing a song with you."

After all, it was a Japanese fan club, so it was unrealistic to have Zhou Yi sing all Chinese songs. And once he sang English songs, rock music would definitely need a professional band to accompany him on the spot for a better effect.

"That's fine with me. When does rehearsal start?"

Zhouyi doesn’t matter.

"It depends on what you say. If you are willing, they can all come to cooperate with you tomorrow, including Kuraki Mai."

..............................

"tomorrow?"

Tokyo, Ginza.

After receiving the notification from her agent, Sanzhi Yuxia, who had just finished an offline theater concert, did not even bother to drink water or wipe her sweat. An expression of uncontrollable surprise suddenly appeared on her beautiful face: "Really? Zhou Yijun agreed? Can I meet him?"

For Yuka Saegusa, a primary school bully who dropped out of Kinjo Gakuin University, the first women's university in the Tokai region of Japan, the existence of Zhouyi is an inspiration to her.

Zhou Yi, a law major, was able to succeed in making music, so she can do the same.

The universe is uncertain, you and I are both dark horses!
Not to mention that after Zhou Yi’s second major in English appeared, her feelings towards Zhou Yi evolved directly.

That series of songs filled with various rock flavors hit her heart directly. For a girl who likes to be in a band, it was a sure win.

She even had the illusion that the songs on Zhou Yi's second English album were basically written according to the band configuration. Many times, the ratio between instruments and vocals was quite perfect, which was an instrumental detail that only rock bands would pay attention to.

She loves it.

So much so that when she followed her agent and followed Mai Kuraki to formally meet Zhou Yi the next day, even though she was restrained, her excitement was still hard to conceal.

"Hello, Zhou Yi-kun, I'm Sanzhi Yuxia, or you can just call me U-ka."

Although she is one year older than Zhou Yi, Sanzhi Yuxia's behavior in front of Zhou Yi is no different from those rock fans outside, and her eyes are particularly hot when she looks at Zhou Yi.

This is the god of the world's mainstream rock circle!

Although he does not admit it, the mainstream in Europe and the United States also does not admit it openly.

But it is undeniable that Zhou Yi's second English album "Forever Young" has put him on the altar and also gained him countless fans in the rock circle.

(End of this chapter)