Chapter 166: The Music Festival selects one who is willing to go to great lengths for you...
When Li Sishi and her entourage returned to Hong Kong from their last promotional event in an out-of-town market, the local box office revenue of "Mermaid Romance" in Hong Kong had already exceeded 10 million.
This impressive result not only proves that her popularity is enough to carry a movie with tens of millions in box office revenue, but also subtly tells major investors that a new type of movie that can make quick money is about to be born, in addition to various hard-hitting action movies, supernatural horror movies, and aesthetically tiring comedies.
Although Hong Kong commercial films often like to combine popular elements in one go to ensure stable box office returns, once a certain type of film becomes popular, it is followed by an overwhelming flood of imitations and mishmashes... which inevitably becomes quite tiresome after watching too many of them.
Romantic love stories like "Mermaid Romance," starring handsome young men and beautiful women, coupled with excellent production, have raked in a large amount of money from young people during the summer season.
For this movie that didn't have any A-list male stars in the lead role but still managed to achieve good box office results, people quickly figured out the secret to its success: these kinds of movies rely on young and beautiful leads and lighthearted themes. The plot doesn't even need to be perfectly written as long as it doesn't pull the audience out of the story. Then, while controlling costs, they just need to cram in elements that are popular and liked by young people.
And the most crucial point is that it chose summer and the beach, two seasonal elements that are particularly suitable for coastal areas. While previous urban fashion films have also featured sunny beach scenes, they focused more on showcasing the actresses' swimsuits and figures. "Mermaid Romance," on the other hand, uses these as a backdrop to create a passionate summer atmosphere.
In this way, for the increasingly educated younger generation, the film loses the vulgarity and cheapness that was added to pander to certain audiences, and becomes more refreshing and appealing thanks to its clear and vibrant visuals.
On a sunny beach in the sweltering summer, youthful hormones surge, and then romantic love stories unfold... Tickets are sold in pairs or even as a group of friends buying them together, making it just as popular as any Lunar New Year film with a family-friendly package.
"Recently, many people have wanted to contact you and Cheng Erjian to continue making movies of this genre together..." Zhuang Menghua said to Li Sishi, who had just returned to work, while looking at the company's reports. "Considering the success of 'Mermaid Romance,' the price they offered is actually quite good."
The trend of "following the trend" and "seizing the opportunity" in Hong Kong's film industry is a short-sighted approach that can greatly shorten the lifespan of a genre.
Although this acting style can guarantee
Despite the fact that Li Sishi's image could provide a stable source of income for several years, Zhuang Menghua was still reluctant to let her talent be stifled by being immersed in commercial films for too long: there are too few promising young actresses who can grow into leading ladies, and over the years she has only found two that are not worth exchanging for the quick money of those commercial films.
Even if you want to balance awards and box office success, you have to secure your position first before making any further choices.
Although Li Sishi is now backed by a wealthy family and has a substantial fortune, she is not yet the person in charge who can hold all of the Li family's assets. Even though it is rumored that the entire Li family dotes on her, young people sometimes like to "rely on themselves." If she is not careful, she might be caught by an investor with connections who offers her a high price to act in a movie, and she might accidentally agree to it.
In this situation, it's okay to encounter bad movies used for money laundering, but the real danger is encountering those pornographic films with dual contracts that turn innocent girls into porn stars—and the latter type of scam is becoming increasingly difficult to guard against, specifically targeting young and promising talents like Li Sishi.
Li Sishi could tell what Zhuang Menghua meant by lowering her head and smiling: "If there's a chance, I'd still like to work with my friends again, but I just finished filming this type of drama. I was in the water every day, and my skin is all wrinkled. I didn't even earn enough to buy skincare products, so let me take a break and think about it later..."
Seeing Li Sishi's spoiled and pampered look, Lu Yiting laughed as well: "Since you don't want to suffer and you're not short of money, I won't arrange anything for you. It'll be good for you to adjust properly."
"Thank you, Miss Zhuang, thank you, Sister Ting." Li Sishi nodded with a smile, then tentatively asked, "About the concert you mentioned before..."
“We’re still negotiating the Hong Kong Coliseum dates. There’s basically no chance for the summer dates. If we push it back a bit, we should be able to get a few shows around October or November,” Lu Yiting replied. “However, I will try my best to get you earlier dates and more shows.”
As the most iconic concert venue in Hong Kong, and a venue where many large-scale events and galas are held, the Hong Kong Coliseum's schedule is always tightly booked from the beginning to the end of the year without a break. Occasionally, even when TVB holds its annual anniversary event, it may not be possible to book a venue as scheduled.
However, TBL's anniversary celebration can use Studio One as a backup, but Li Sishi's age is limited.
If the time slot they booked for Li Sishi at the Hong Kong Coliseum is too late, she won't be able to break the record for the youngest person to hold a solo concert at the Coliseum.
As for the number of shows, Zhuang Menghua originally planned to make Li Sishi the youngest person to hold a solo concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum, even if it was just one show.
Regarding the age record of this ending—but unexpectedly, Li Sishi herself and her album this time are really too good. After linking up with the currently popular "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "Mermaid Romance", it is now showing the style of the TV series that became a hit in the early morning, and then the person became a hit as well. It is now making a great splash from the local area to other places. Its popularity and sales are rising rapidly every day. If there are no surprises, it has already been reserved as the top hit of this year.
In that case, Li Sishi would need at least a week's worth of shows to ensure that her record of holding her first solo concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum wouldn't be inferior to others.
Zhuang Menghua has always been someone who loves to "fight for her pride." Now that Li Sishi is her new favorite and is enjoying great popularity, she is even more determined not to lose to anyone in any aspect.
With the plans changed, Lu Yiting had no choice but to try her best to negotiate and negotiate with the Hong Kong Coliseum to get more shows back.
"Thank you for your hard work, Sister Ting." Li Sishi cupped her face and looked up.
"What's so hard about it? You're the only one I have right now. If I don't fight for you, I'll be letting down my commission!" Looking at Li Sishi's cute "girlishly expectant" posture, Lu Yiting, who was very particular about appearance, was very satisfied and casually joked with her.
Lu Yiting then casually touched Li Sishi's hair, feeling its silky smoothness, and asked, "By the way, did you discuss the movie with Shang Hanyou when you went to Malaysia this time?"
“I’ve spoken with him, and he seems quite interested. He said he’ll come back in a few days and then meet with the director to discuss the details.” Li Sishi nodded. “I’m about 90% sure.”
"That's good. His acting skills are actually quite good, but his talent was overshadowed by his singing, and he also lacked a little bit of luck." Lu Yiting recalled the Golden Film Awards ceremony and felt a little sorry for him.
However, there are so many people who are unlucky these days. Instead of regretting your misfortune, it's better to pick yourself up and try again.
Of course, if you want to persuade him to "get back on his feet," you have to give him some tangible "sweetness" that you can see right away.
That's why Lu Yiting asked Li Sishi to make a detour during the promotion and personally invite him.
Even if he only gets nominated again this time, at least he gets to be around pretty girls he likes every day during filming... It's hard for any man not to be tempted.
Alas, her daughter is too charming; she's surrounded by swarms of suitors—in the talent agency circles of Hong Kong, the artists she manages are...
They are jokingly referred to as "sons" and "daughters," and taking care of them is called "raising sons" and "raising daughters," which inevitably makes a group of agents feel like they are becoming parents in advance.
Lu Yiting paused for a moment, then said, "The TV series 'The Love of a Swordsman' has already been sold to Fujian TV. They are currently producing Mandarin dubbing and preparing to broadcast it on the main channel. If the ratings are good, other local TV stations that are still considering it will also buy it. If it's even better, it can be broadcast on satellite TV."
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The term "satellite broadcasting" refers to satellite TV channels, which are provincial-level satellite TV channels, often simply referred to as "XTV." These channels transmit television program signals via satellite, making them available nationwide.
In contrast, local satellite TV stations, which use traditional electromagnetic waves or special transmission lines to transmit television signals, have a smaller signal coverage area than satellite TV stations, generally limited to the local province or city.
When TBL's TV dramas are sold to mainland China, local TV stations usually come to buy them first as a trial.
If this TV series achieves good ratings after it airs, it will attract a bunch of local TV stations to buy it and import it to their own territories, and then be purchased and broadcast by more influential satellite TV stations.
Currently, there are no regulations prohibiting a TV series from being broadcast on multiple TV stations. In this situation where a series is successful and a large number of TV stations follow suit with different broadcast schedules, it creates a bombardment effect as if all TV stations are broadcasting it, which is no less effective than the brainwashing loops of later generations.
After being replayed again and again, those that stuck with the times naturally became "childhood classics" in the memories of a generation.
Seeing that Li Sishi was already looking forward to the development of "Qingxia Renjian" after it was sold, Lu Yiting tapped her with a small ruler again: "Don't think so far ahead now. The second quarterly selection of this year's Jade Solid Gold Awards is coming soon. I have talked to the music department. You can put on one song in this quarterly selection first, and leave the rest for the next two quarters."
This is also one of the "unspoken rules" of the Jade Solid Gold Season Selection: there are too many applicants for too few songs, so basically each person can only have one song featured. Even if several songs from an album become hits, they have to wait until the next season's selection to be featured.
Li Sishi had no objection to the unspoken rules and arrangements of the quarterly selection, but her only concern was the mini-game segment after each person sang their winning song. In addition to the entertaining mini-games, the mini-game segment of each Jade Solid Gold quarterly selection also included many competitive mini-games.
Unfortunately, in this second season's selection, her senior, Cheng Erjian, finally caught up and secured a place among the ten winners.
Since being crowned kings, the Four Heavenly Kings have made it a tradition to have a song selected for each season...
Looking at the award-winning song, "A Person Willing to Go Through Fire and Water for You," and imagining the scene where Cheng Erjian might be "ganged up and beaten" by two or even four Heavenly Kings, Li Sishi couldn't help but feel a little worried for this silly, big gray rabbit senior brother.
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