First of all, Happy Chinese New Year!
To celebrate the New Year and the holiday period, Movies in China have been released today.
One of these movies is “Detective Chinatown 3”, an action-comedy sequel of the 2015 and 2018 movies and one of the most anticipated movie of the year. It was due to be released last year but it was postponed due COVID-19.
The story is following a Chinese detective duo with their friends to solve mysteries. While the number 2 took place in New-York, this one is taking place in Japan.
In the sequel 2, you could see the director is a Michael Jackson fan as One of the characters breaking into a Michael Jackson impression during a fight sequence in the middle of a New York City traffic Jam.
In number 3, the movie ends with Michael Jackson’s “Heal The World”. It is understood that the production team paid a hefty licensing fee for it.
It is said that the movie will be the best selling movie in China this year, meaning that millions of people will go to watch the movie during the holiday and listen to Michael Jackson at the end of the movie.
Distributors will also release the film in 25 countries across the Middle East and Africa during the Spring Festival holiday, such as Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arab, the UAE, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Egypt, South Africa and Senegal. There are currently no release plans for North America and Europe.
Check out the trailer:
UPDATE NOTE:
“Chen wanted a song to deliver a message of world harmony during the ending scene when he was writing the screenplay, and someone suggested “Heal the World.” He listened to it repeatedly during the creative process and felt strongly that the song was the right choice.
“We felt really good about the song, but we thought it would be difficult to get the license. I never dreamed of really getting this song, and Michael Jackson’s estate is very strict about using his music,” he said to film critic Tan Fei in an interview published on Thursday.
Through Sony/ATV Music Publishing (Beijing) and Sony Music Entertainment China, Chen sent over his full screenplay to the Jackson estate for them to determine whether the film was appropriate for the song. “At last, they decided ‘Detective Chinatown 3’ could use the song, and came back to offer the song for a $1 million licensing fee.”
Chen hesitated. “This was a very high price. In China, $1 million can make a small-budget commercial film. Therefore, we tried other different songs to fill that part of the film, but they never worked. The emotional vibe of ‘Heal the World’ perfectly fit the film.” – Keen Zhang for China.org
SOURCE: China.org / Keen Zhang
