Chapter 159: Continued Popularity
When the TV series airs, TBL usually adds a one-minute preview of the next episode after the end credits of each episode. The preview shows the main plot of the next episode and leaves a cliffhanger as a hook. So after watching the fourth episode, viewers can find out when Li Sishi will officially appear in the next episode by watching the preview.
Because of the hook of the next episode preview and word of mouth, the fifth episode became a hit before it even aired, raising people's expectations. After it aired, the data continued to rise, and after the whole episode was broadcast, the single episode ratings had soared by 36 points!
With one point currently equivalent to approximately 50,000 viewers, Li Sishi's portrayal of Fairy Yunya directly brought in nearly 100,000 viewers for the new version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes"!
Most importantly, the impressive performance of this new version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is only based on data from its first week.
Based on past viewership records, as long as the plot of a TV series doesn't fall apart drastically later on, this number will either remain stable or continue to rise.
As the second of Gan Gan's "Trilogy of Love and Heroes", "The World of Love and Heroes" is famous for its wonderful and moving plot in its text version, film version and TV series version. It is impossible to expect the plot to fall apart.
On the contrary, as the male protagonist Yang Si gradually grows up, the plot becomes more and more exciting and captivating.
The show broke the highest viewership record of the year in its first week and received positive reviews. This great start not only made the entire crew happy, but also the higher-ups at TBL were delighted: the risk of keeping Luo Xuan, the male lead actor who was highly controversial, was definitely the right move!
It was at this moment that Li Sishi, who was reporting her work in Zhuang Menghua's conference room, heard from Lu Yiting's smiling face about the contents of that high-level meeting: when Luo Xuan's dark history was first exposed, the higher-ups had made plans to replace him at the last minute.
However, with Li Xuansheng's strong support and Zhuang Menghua's combined efforts, they began to hesitate—it was now difficult to find a male lead with the good looks, acting skills, and reputation of Hou Beihua. Rather than finding a replacement who was not as good as the old version, it would be better to break with the old and establish a new one, and let a controversial but very suitable actor take the lead, focusing on a high level of attention and the idea that "being famous even if it's controversial"...
Given the failure of last year's "New Version of Romantic Heroes", this alternative remake is a risky move full of innovation.
The only problem with this risky move is the actress playing the female lead.
It's a bit unfair to celebrities—especially Li Sishi, who was hailed by the public as the real-life version of Yunya Fairy. She was recognized and anticipated by the public from the moment she debuted, and even had more "popularity" than Cheng Yuyan, the actress who played the old version of Yunya Fairy who has faded from the scene...
However, Li Sishi and Luo Xuan were already good friends who had known each other for a long time. If she wanted to help her friend, who could say that she was at a disadvantage instead of being happy to do so?
As for "popularity," it's not that Li Sishi has completely surpassed the original actress, but rather that people have placed all their hopes for the new remake on the regrets of the original version being limited by its time.
Moreover, it's rare to encounter such a rare and beautiful fairy-like face in her prime. Therefore, apart from the die-hard fans of the original actress, most people, including Cheng Yuyan, the actress who played Yunya Fairy in the original version, who was interviewed and asked how she viewed the new remake, gave her high praise and had high expectations.
Li Sishi's performance, from the initial makeup and styling reveal to her official appearance, was flawless and perfectly brought this fairy-like character to life, fulfilling the dreams of fans of the original novel.
The only minor flaw might be that Li Sishi was definitely nineteen years old when she played the role of Yunya Fairy in this version, instead of the eighteen years old when she first appeared in the book. Of course, demanding too much of this is nitpicking, so most people wouldn't nitpick about it. Only those obsessed with absolute perfection would care.
More than people are concerned about Li Sishi's age, people are more concerned about Luo Xuan, who plays the male lead Yang Si.
Fortunately, although Luo Xuan's acting skills still showed some signs of immaturity...
However, just like Zhu Xin, who played Qing Rong last year, he gradually found his footing and used his natural acting style to cover up his slightly lacking acting skills, and then successfully created a classic on-screen couple image with Li Sishi.
Strike while the iron is hot. With the popularity of "The New Version of Love and Heroism" rising day by day, the TV station even arranged for Li Sishi and Luo Xuan to sing the theme song of the TV series together on the show. It was a win-win situation to promote the TV series at the same time.
Li Sishi could only feel sorry for Luo Xuan.
After all, Luo Xuan's singing skills are only at the level of being able to sing in tune at karaoke. If Li Sishi tones down a bit, his singing skills won't seem too bad when they sing together on stage. But the problem is that the original singer who sang with Li Sishi was Zou Huayan, a powerful singer who was strong enough to withstand the attack of the Four Heavenly Kings at his peak...
With such outstanding examples before him, no matter how hard Luo Xuan tried, it was useless. So he simply gave up.
He slammed his fist on the ground, trying his best to sing while also making fun of himself, saying that his singing was so bad that it polluted other people's ears and he was really sorry to everyone... This can be considered as gaining the "forgiveness" of the audience and listeners in a humorous way.
After the second week, the new TV series will have basically secured a group of regular viewers, and various promotional activities can be reduced accordingly.
Because of the continued popularity of the new version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" in Hong Kong, it is expected to be the top-rated show of the year. Various TV stations, large and small, that had been in a wait-and-see state due to the failure of the previous version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" have contacted the show again in the third week of its broadcast, expressing their intention to purchase this version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" for broadcast on their respective TV stations.
This was exactly what Li Sishi wanted: Although, judging from her memories from her previous life, the production of this new version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was quite good and the ratings were huge when it was introduced to major TV stations outside of Hong Kong, certain modifications made due to copyright and other reasons still resulted in the show being edited and the background music being changed, preventing it from being broadcast in its entirety as the original version that premiered in Hong Kong.
The reason why Hou Beihua and Cheng Yuyan's original version of "The Romantic Swordsman" failed to replicate the success of the original "The Romantic Swordsman" in mainland China is that...
The reason it lost was due to several factors: the chaotic editing and music changes by the foreign TV stations after the program was introduced, and the poor quality of the dubbing.
There are no problems with the dubbing in this film, so Li Sishi doesn't need to pay much attention to it. The only things she needs to be careful about are the plot editing and the background music.
Her music copyrights belong to Huasheng, an affiliate of TBL, so it's only natural that the original theme song is used as the opening theme. At most, to adapt to local conditions and integrate with the public, she and Zou Huayan discussed changing the Cantonese version of the opening theme song to a Mandarin version sung by the two of them, so that no additional distribution would be needed.
As for some TV stations that want to promote their own people and therefore want to add another version of the theme song, they can use the ending theme song as a concession in negotiations. To be honest, the other version of the theme song is not bad. However, throughout history, most of the time, the original sound and the original version are superior. The music and sound added later are extremely rare, let alone surpassing the original.
The "Qingxia" series takes "Qing" (love) and "Xia" (chivalry) as its benchmarks. Even though "Qingxia Renjian" is the second book in the series and the one that focuses the most on "Qing" in the trilogy, the word "Xia" cannot be omitted. Otherwise, the true meaning of the whole story would be lost, and it would become a regrettable work with form but no spirit.
Of course, the above are reasons that can be openly and legitimately explained in front of others.
The real and most crucial reason is... Li Sishi, the lead actress and the singer of the theme song, said that the original soundtracks for TV dramas were created with the intention of making the TV dramas and songs complement each other. If those people were to change the theme song she sang, wouldn't her albums, when released in other regions, miss out on the promotional benefits of the original soundtracks?
They wanted to promote their own people, so taking the ending theme song wasn't a bad idea—many TV dramas in Hong Kong use the theme song as both the opening and ending theme songs, so Li Sishi felt it was acceptable to make up for the slightly repetitive position.
Having clearly stated that she would not back down on the part most closely related to her, Li Sishi continued to prepare for other announcements, leaving this particularly contentious battleground to professionals like Lu Yiting and Li Xuansheng.
After filming the TV series, she took another permit to the costume department to retrieve the classic costumes for "Fairy Yunya" and "Yang Si". Then she teamed up with Luo Xuan to shoot a special "Romantic Knight" album cover for the album "If I Were a Myth"...
Her album sold incredibly well; the first print and subsequent deluxe and paperback editions sold out very quickly. Due to the supply shortage, not only did scalpers drive up the prices of the first three editions, but even counterfeiters started to make a killing, charging exorbitant prices for better-quality copies.
The release of this "Special Edition of Love and Heroism" is more or less intended to satisfy the listening and collecting desires of those who were unable to purchase it, and also to curb the arrogance of scalpers and counterfeiters.
While capitalists are certainly hard to empathize with, if you compare your own bosses, who still have some moral compass, with scalpers, counterfeiters, and other strange creatures that disrupt market order, Li Sishi still feels that you can only choose the one that doesn't cause as much harm to people...
Furthermore, a special edition of "Mermaid Romance" will be released later, which will be another wave of special editions. There is no need to worry about fans who like her being ripped off by scalpers and counterfeit merchants time and time again.
As for now—the weather is getting hotter and hotter, which is the perfect time for people to yearn for the sea.
Her role as "Fairy of Yunya" laid a solid foundation for her audience. With her upcoming solo film "Mermaid Romance," many people are expected to pay to see her in theaters, drawn by the stunning beauty of "Fairy of Yunya," just to witness her new look.
Looking at the newly completed movie poster, Li Sishi couldn't help but smile with satisfaction: This mermaid-themed movie focuses on "beauty and fantasy." Not only does the movie incorporate a lot of special effects to create a dreamlike scene, but even the movie poster is so beautiful and romantic.
This poster captures a scene of the mermaid rescuing the male protagonist in the sea. Against the backdrop of the deep blue and green of the ocean, the young man's white shirt floats in the endless bubbles, turning into pure white light; while on the other side, in the dark seawater, is a delicate and graceful profile.
Her thick, long hair, flowing like seaweed, obscured her face, but the moment one saw her profile, one could genuinely agree that she was a "mermaid"—because from the waist down, her profile revealed a long, shimmering fishtail that stood out even more against the dark background, telling a story of her unique beauty.
Looking at the poster that highlights the male and female protagonists and the theme of the story against a dark background, even Li Sishi herself felt that the scene of the unseen mermaid rescuing the male protagonist in the sea was truly beautiful and touching.
It's entirely possible to anticipate how many people will stop and admire it when it's displayed in shopping malls and cinemas throughout the bustling city center.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
