Author/no thoughts
"I came out to win, otherwise why would I do it?"
Before the release of "Love on the Roof", Jay Chou boarded "Kangxi Comes". When faced with the question of "Do you have any expectations for the film award" put forward by Cai Kangyong and Xiao S, he released such lofty words, and his words were full of confidence and frankness.
Looking back at Jay Chou’s debut in the past 20 years, it is also appropriate to use this sentence to describe it. As the saying goes, small fresh meat in flowing water is Jay Chou made of iron. Since his debut, from the original "Jay Chou" and "King Zhou" to the present "crazy wife protector" and "milk tea", it seems that the years have not smoothed Jay Chou’s spirit, but have added a little tenderness to him. Even now, as long as a song, whether it’s "Say No Cry" or "Mojito", can completely collapse the platform of QQ music.
However, in recent years, Jay Chou has appeared less frequently in the film field, and has gradually turned behind the scenes from a director and actor before his early years. Only a few cameos were made to support the works of my good brothers. Jay Chou has a wide range of interests, and the territory of his business empire has been expanding in recent years. For him, music has always been his unchanging initial heart, and it is his existence of "living for it"; Entering the film industry is more like an unexpected development.
This Friday, a Taiwan Province film named All-powerful was released in mainland China. The film stars Jay Chou’s beloved wife Hannah Quinlivan, and is also guest-starred and supervised by him. Director Chen Yixian is a famous MV and advertising director in Taiwan Province, and this is his feature film debut. The general manager of Chuangying Film, one of the producers behind this film, is Jay Chou’s good brother Liu Genghong.
Jay Chou made a guest appearance as "Jie Xiu Ren" in All-powerful Storm.
With the opportunity of the film’s release and the eve of Jay Chou’s 42nd birthday, we might as well sort out what kind of answer sheet Jay Chou, who "accidentally intruded", handed over in the film exam.
Drift: "I set foot in hot wheels, drifting youth."
Before Jay Chou set foot on the big screen for the first time, he had made his debut for three years and released three albums, which held up half the sky.
At that time, almost all the children in the street clamored for their parents to go to the video store to buy Jay Chou’s tapes and CDs. In class, the girls secretly passed small notes to each other, which read "hand in hand, one step, two steps, three steps and four steps"; After class is over, the boys get together and say "use nunchakus to hum and hum" while fighting. It can be said that it is this young man with small eyes, inarticulate speech and seemingly fooling around who has captured the hearts of most young people born in 1980s and 1990s.
In 2003, Jay Chou appeared on the cover of the Asian edition of Time Magazine. That year, he starred in the first film in his life, Looking for Jay Chou, and got an electric shock for the first time. This film can be said to be tailor-made, more like a by-product of its album. Although he appeared in the film for only a few minutes and had only a few lines, he was still sought after by fans.
Two years later, Jay Chou continued to be in full swing and became famous all over Asia. At this time, Hong Kong’s Huanying extended an olive branch to him and invited him to star in the film version of "Initial D". The film was adapted from a Japanese comic book with the same name, and it has a wide audience base. The directors were Liu Weiqiang and Siu Fai Mak, who had won the Golden Horse Award at that time, and the first-line stars in Hong Kong, such as Edison Chen, Shawn Yue and Jordan chan, supported him.
From Fujiwara Takumi in "Initial D" to Jiexiu in "All-powerful Storm", after so many years, time may smooth the edges and corners, but it does not smooth the momentum between his brow.
Of course, Jay Chou, who starred in the film for the first time, didn’t have any acting skills, but in the film, Fujiwara Takumi, who was taciturn and super-skilled, drove his AE86 and galloped around the corner of the famous autumn mountain. When the sound of the engine resounded through the famous autumn mountains at night, his brow was focused, deep and slightly disdainful, which made you believe that this was the Fujiwara Takumi in the original work. The film made more than 60 million box office in that year, ranking sixth in the year, with gratifying results, and also achieved good market performance in Japan and South Korea. Jay Chou himself won the double "Best Newcomer" of the Golden Horse Awards with his youthful but natural performance.
With the success of "Initial D", Jay Chou’s film road has gone smoothly. In 2006, Jay Chou collaborated with Zhang Yimou, a well-known mainland director, and starred in such an epic commercial giant as Golden Flower in the City, and his actors became international superstars such as Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li. In front of these powerful big coffees, some viewers think that his performance is expressionless and lacks hierarchy; There are also some viewers who think that he has successfully completed his role without make a fool of oneself at least. Despite these controversies, the film still won the box office title of that year, and Jay Chou’s performance was nominated for the best supporting actor in the Hong Kong Academy Awards.
Is it because of the box office that Jay Chou, who is full of popularity, is brought into the crew? After many years, after the quarrel between Zhang Yimou and Zhang Weiping, the truth finally surfaced.
It turned out that Zhang Yimou’s script had already been finalized, but producer Zhang Weiping insisted on bringing Jay Chou into the group from a commercial point of view. Zhang Yimou had no choice but to change the script and arrange a new role for him. For Zhang Weiping, a businessman, Jay Chou’s joining can not only ensure the box office, but also attach a classic song "Chrysanthemum Taiwan" which has spread to thousands of families. It is a good deal that can make both ends meet. As for the artistic point of view of the film, I’m afraid it’s a matter of opinion how Jay Chou’s role has been completed and how much he has contributed to the film as a whole.
"Prince Jie" in "Golden Flower in the City"
It is worth mentioning that in the same year, Jay Chou also wrote the ending song of the same name for another film "Huo Yuanjia", and also won the nomination award of "Best Original Movie Song" in the Academy Award. Huo Yuanjia also exceeded 100 million at the box office that year, ranking third in the year. It can be seen that Jay Chou, as a huge weapon to attract gold, has great commercial appeal to movies. Even if he didn’t appear himself, just one song is enough to get a large number of fans into the cinema.
After working with several great directors and accumulating some experience, Jay Chou finally became interested in the position of director, instead of just being an actor.
Being a director has always been one of Jay Chou’s dreams. Before that, he had only some experience in directing MV shooting, but the film was a higher level ability. When Jay Chou faced questions from the media, he had to admit that he was under a lot of pressure, including lack of time, lack of confidence on the set, and various questions from outside. In the face of this brand-new field of directing, even the heavenly king, like him, has to be an humble "apprentice".
In 2007, Jay Chou finally released his own feature-length debut novel "Unspeakable Secrets". However, this small and unremarkable literary romance was unexpectedly affirmed by the great director Zhang Yimou: "As a newcomer’s debut, it is perfect." After the film was released, the word-of-mouth box office ushered in a double harvest. The box office in the Mainland exceeded 35 million and won five nominations at the Golden Horse Award that year. Jay Chou himself arranged all the original music of the film, and the soundtrack of the film with the same name won the Golden Melody Award, and the classic piano-fighting passage in the film became the object of being quoted countless times later.
Not only that, The Unspeakable Secret has caused a "Jay Chou" trend in South Korea. If the Korean favorite Chinese film is Farewell My Concubine, the second place is probably this one. In 2015, the film was even replayed in South Korea, and Koreans even bought the script rights of the film for remake. The feature film directed by Jay Chou has also led a group of singers to become directors, including Wang Leehom and A Niu.
"The most beautiful thing is not the rainy day, but the eaves that have escaped from the rain with you."
From the age of 24, I first appeared on the big screen, and reached the peak of my career in 2007, but I was only 28 years old. Jay Chou’s appearance lit up the youth of countless people, and he himself drifted all the way and was invincible in his best years.
I am very busy: "You go together, I am in a hurry."
In 2007, Jay Chou, whose music and film career reached the peak in succession, also set up his own company "Jewell" and released the company’s first album "I’m Busy". These three words may have expressed Jay Chou’s feelings at that time.
Many netizens commented that Jay Chou’s "debut is the peak" in the film field, which is not unreasonable. Starring in the debut film "Initial D" allowed him to enter the film circle and swept the major awards; The director’s debut "Unspeakable Secrets" made him a blockbuster and fully demonstrated his talents. However, after that, his film career has suffered some controversy. Although there are still many films he participated in, most of them have a mediocre reputation and the box office has fluctuated.
During the years from 2008 to 2010, Jay Chou’s films received a lot of reputation.
Slam Dunk and Thorn Ling are both directed by Zhu Yanping and starring Jay Chou. The former is also a tailor-made film, with a fair box office but insufficient word of mouth, while the latter suffered a fiasco in both word of mouth and market, and the Douban score was even less than 4 points. In Yuan Heping’s Su Qier, Jay Chou made a guest appearance as "Wu Shen". Although there were not many scenes, the shape was shocking, and the film quality was still worrying, and the box office continued to lose money. In the same year, the TV series "pandaren" directed by Jay Chou was even more serious. Whether it’s a big screen or a small screen, Jay Chou’s performing arts career has frequently hit a wall, and its former glory is no longer there.
In 2011, Jay Chou’s acting career developed to Hollywood. He played the leading role Kato in the film The Green Hornet, which was his first film show in Hollywood. Although the film’s reputation is mediocre, with its high popularity, the film has won more than 100 million box office in China, which has temporarily removed Jay Chou’s notoriety as "box office poison". The production cost of the film is 100 million US dollars, and the global box office is as high as 250 million US dollars. "Nunchaku" has become the first Chinese ending song in Hollywood movies.
Jay Chou’s Appearance in The Green Hornet
In 2012, Jay Chou partnered with Nicholas Tse and starred in Lin Chaoxian’s gunfight action film "Inverse War". In this film, Jay Chou finally broke away from the performance method of "playing handsome with facial paralysis" and tried to go deep into the character’s heart and understand the emotional level of the character. His acting skills have been greatly improved compared with the past. The box office of the film also reached 130 million, with a good reputation and average results.
Until 2013, Jay Chou finally directed his second film, Love on the Roof. This is a musical film, which is still written, directed and performed by Jay Chou, and has arranged all the original music work of the film. Jay Chou had high hopes for this film, and tried to do it himself in all aspects of film creation. In an interview that year, Jay Chou said, "The choice of musical film is to be the first to try something that others have not done." At the same time, he also said: "(This film) is not only for the Asian market, but also for the big pattern, and foreigners should feel great after watching it!"
However, the fact is not as Jay Chou wished. Although the film’s reputation is acceptable, it also broke the box office record of mainland musical films when it was released in China, becoming the first Chinese musical film with a box office of over 100 million, but the final box office result was barely over 100 million. In terms of awards, "Love on the Roof" failed to replicate the success of "Unspeakable Secrets". This achievement is obviously a failure for Jay Chou, who is a singer.
Moreover, coincidentally, the box office performance of this film in Taiwan Province is also poor, which seems to prove the inherent limitations of musical films in the Chinese market to some extent. After that, Jay Chou briefly left the film and television circle and did not appear in more films.
Many people think that the box office failure of "Love on the Rooftop" has brought a big blow to Jay Chou. Although Jay Chou himself has not responded positively to this, a series of bumps in the past few years will not "knock him down", but at least he will temporarily slow down and think about the next development.
In "Love on the Roof", Jay Chou plays the role of "prodigal cream"
Superman can’t fly:
"Don’t ask me if I cried,
Because Superman can’t shed tears. "
Although Jay Chou has said many times that "movies are just an interest, and music is his main business", a series of achievements or failures in the field of movies still affect his mood to some extent. As the title song "Superman Can’t Fly" in the album "Cross Times" sings: "It’s tiring to save the earth, although I am a little tired, I will still." The industry’s high expectations for his "all-round development" have invisibly become a constraint and pressure.
After directing Love on the Rooftop, Jay Chou rarely appeared in movies in recent years, but he didn’t give up the road of movies. He chose some other ways to participate in the production of some films, but most of these works did not arouse too much splash.
In 2013, Jay Chou’s good partner, lyricist vincent fang, also began to prepare his directorial debut "Hear the Sound of Rain". This is a lyric written by vincent fang. It was first sung by female singer Wei Ruyun, and then covered by Jay Chou. It was included in the album "Oh, not bad".
I heard that my good brother also wants to be a director. Jay Chou is duty-bound to be the music director (not a producer) of the film, but his participation didn’t bring too much attention to the film. The film didn’t even arouse a little splash in the market, only got more than 1.6 million box office, and its reputation was relatively bad.
In 2016, Jay Chou participated in three films, namely, dubbing the role of "Golden Monkey" in Kung Fu Panda 3, starring in "Amazing Thieves 2", and making a guest appearance as a producer of the film "The Agreement of 10,000 kilometers".
Jay Chou made a cameo in "The Pirates 2".
Among them, the work of dubbing Kung Fu Panda 3 is secondary, mainly because I want to push the newcomer Pai Weijun, who I brought with me. They also created a theme song for the film, but the newcomer didn’t bring it out, and the theme song was also mediocre. The reason for starring in "Amazing Thieves 2" is entirely because of Jay Chou’s interest in magic and his love for the first film, but his role in the film has little room to play, and he is almost a handsome and funny "tool man"; As for the third book "The Agreement of 10,000 Kilometers", it is nothing more than Jay Chou’s act of "brushing his face" for his brother once again. Douban scored 4.7 points, not to mention it.
Next, it will be 2020. Besides making a guest appearance in the directorial debut of A Ken, I will be the producer of All-powerful. However, considering that one of the producers of All-powerful Storm is Liu Genghong, the producer is estimated to be his platform for his brothers.
We summarized and sorted out the domestic box office and Douban score of Jay Chou’s films, and we can more intuitively see his achievements in the film field over the years.
To be fair, after Love on the Roof, Jay Chou’s film career can almost be described as "stagnant". And a group of friends around him tried to use Jay Chou’s fame to promote their works, but almost no one cared. On the one hand, of course, those works are of poor quality. On the other hand, it is enough to show that Jay Chou’s fame and influence have completely overshadowed this group of people. Under his great aura, it is not easy for others to really make their own way in the entertainment industry.
It’s no wonder that some netizens joked that "All-powerful Storm" was "Jay Chou Studio Movie". Indeed, even if Jay Chou himself only has a shot of more than ten seconds in the film, the film does not forget to use it as a propaganda point. Even, his name, ranked in front of the director, which shows the enduring influence of Jay Chou. For a film related to him, he himself is the biggest "magic weapon" of this film.
If you don’t love me, forget it:
"Anyway, it’s not like I don’t want it."
Since Jay Chou got married, she became a "wife-doting maniac". Although she seldom got an electric shock on the big screen, she began to spare no effort to recommend her beloved wife, Hannah Quinlivan, as the heroine in various movies. The resources were enviable, and she successively cooperated with Hollywood superstars Orlando Bloom, Dwayne Douglas Johnson, little fresh meat Leo, old drama bone Wang Xueyin and so on.
In order to give his wife a platform, Jay Chou actively cooperated with his beloved wife’s works and ran around the platform for her. For example, before the release of Hannah Quinlivan’s "Fire in the Sky", he not only rushed to write a theme song for the movie, but also sent a link to Baidu’s network disk to the major theaters, so that the theaters could post the music MV, and even did not forget to post the QR code of ticket purchase at his concert. Just frankly speaking, Hannah Quinlivan’s film resume looks dazzling, but the quality is somewhat difficult to compliment.
"Heaven and Fire" starring Hannah Quinlivan
To some extent, just like the situation that he tried many times before to win the popularity of new people, these efforts at present, except for consuming human feelings, "brushing his face" for friends and making his wife happy, do not seem to be of much help to the development of his film career.
Of course, from the perspective of market-oriented business, as Jay Chou, he has been successful enough. In addition to music and movies, his business map also involves e-sports, fitness, catering, antiques, automobiles, trendy clothing, education and cultural creation. As an artist or a businessman, he has already made a name for himself.
In recent years, Jay Chou has not been idle. She gave birth to a second child with her wife. While she is in love with Xiu Xiu, she also does not forget to do variety reality shows and serve as a mentor for music talent shows. From the point of view of mentality, he seems to be more "free" and face his acting career with a "game" mentality. While being urged by fans to release an album, he wrote a song after releasing a new song and found that the fans didn’t buy it, which made the fans call it "a little arrogant."
Jay Chou, your fans are calling for your album!
Needless to say, Jay Chou’s achievements in music, but in the field of film, whether there will be the third work of "Director Jay Chou" is still unknown. In the past, when he faced the media, he said, "Movies are hard work." Or for him at this stage, participating in all aspects of the film in other capacities, selling IP, being a producer, writing music, and occasionally making a guest appearance in a friend’s film can be regarded as a kind of "game world" play mentality.
What we have achieved belongs to the past, and we also hope that Jay Chou can usher in the "second spring" of its film career. The road of film is endless, and I believe he will make a comeback in the future. After all, he is the Jay Chou who once shone on the youth of countless people and sang "I have no interest except the first" in a tone of arrogance.
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