The Heavenly Kings 《四大天王》 (2006), Daniel Wu, Andrew Lin, Terence Yin, Conroy Chan Options

[BLUE FiSHY XD]

First, the "Film Surprise." It seemed everybody in Hong Kong knew that the film surprise was going to be HK heartthrob Daniel Wu's directorial debut, The Heavenly Kings, a fly-on-the-wall style documentary about the HK recording industry in general, and the boy band Alive, of which Wu was one of the four members, in particular. It was meant to be Wu's moment of glory. The auditorium was full of hysterical fans who chanted out his name every time he came on screen. But it seems the only surprise was for Wu, when the mood of the crowd turned decidedly "ugly" at some of his onscreen antics.

Wu attempted to use the film to expose the ways that the voracious HK music industry uses and exploits the public and the media to create a sellable image. He shows us the equipment used in the recording of songs to edit out off-key notes. He shows management meetings where the hiring of "professional fans" is discussed. He shows that you don't need talent, only a pretty face, to sell records in HK.

Credits from http://daily.greencine.com/

I have read quite a lot of info about this movie and saw the preview available on http://www.alivenotdead.com. I'm very anxious to see this movie because I think finally a celebrity has spoken up and actually did something to attack the media. I'm especially interested cause I thought the trailer was quite interesting I absolutely agree with the last line of the quote "He shows that you don't need talent, only a pretty face, to sell records in HK." cause that is true.

[ekyec]

here's a slightly negative review,
though I still wanna check this out myself.


http://www.kaijushakedown.com/2006/04/heavenly_kings_.html

The worst-kept secret in Hong Kong has been the identity of the movie listed in the catalogue as "Film Surprise". Not only did everyone pretty much know within ten minutes that this was Daniel Wu's directorial debut, HEAVENLY KINGS, a mockumentary about the Cantopop industry, but everyone seemed to hear it from Wu himself. When paparazzi got into the apartment across the way to take photos of him with his girlfriend, Wu supposedly blocked his own windows with HEAVENLY KINGS posters and for a while there was a rumor going around that if you went to sleep with your windows open Daniel Wu would creep in and whisper the release date in your ear.

Wu is a master manipulator of the Hong Kong media, and a regular on CHISEEN, a PUNK'D style show on Hong Kong television. When HEAVENLY KINGS was being made there was a war of words between Wu and bandmember Terence regarding the use of some concert footage but the press smelt something funny and suspected it was a stunt to generate publicity for the film and after seeing the movie I believe it was a stunt as well. If you read the Alive blog you'll see all kinds of tasty tidbits thrown out like chum for the carnivorous media to feed on and there's something refreshing in the completely fabricated nature of Alive.

HEAVENLY KINGS is shot on digital video and features talking head interviews with Jacky Cheung, Miriam Yeung, Karen Mok and other Cantopop celebs, intercut with animated dream sequences, real documentary footage and staged footage. Supposedly an expose of Alive it actually is more satisfying as a guided tour through the Cantopop caverns. The four boys of alive are Conroy (Josie Ho's husband), Terence (who once had a career in Taiwan), Daniel and Andrew Lin. From their roots as a no-talent bunch of slackers looking to cash in, to the finale when they are a Real Live Band the film follows them through contract negotiations, the hiring of professional fans, some tired but still amusing stylist jokes, a Near Disaster in Taiwan and back again.

More of a smile-inducer than a laugh-generator, the local audience sucked down the in jokes and the familiar faces with great gusto but someone who's not personally invested in the Cantopop industry will probably just find it a pleasant time-waster. The biggest problem with the movie is Daniel Wu's direction. He's certainly assured and the flick is well-made so that makes it even more frustrating that it has no idea what kind of movie it wants to be. At times it comes off as a real documentary as people like Nic Tse talk to the camera and plead for more cooperation amongst artists. Then it'll send itself up with a scene of Andrew b*t*hing about Daniel. Then we wind up with a completely sentimental ending about how much the bandmembers like each other. It's as if they wanted to do a SPINAL TAP type movie but then lost their nerve because they couldn't bring themselves to do anything to actually injure the brand name Alive since it does provide them with a nice income.

If you're going to send yourself up, you have to be merciless, and Daniel Wu seems too personally invested in his friends and bandmates to give them the total skewering that would make this movie work outside of Cantopop friendly circles. Surprisingly, the best actor in the bunch turns out to be Andrew (yay Andrew! I love you!) who is also the only one who seems to be playing a role. Vain, petty and somewhat bone-headed his onscreen Andrew provides most of the the big laughs whereas the other three guys have their moments but none of them seems to have a handle on grabbing a "type" and playing it to the hilt the way Andrew does.

Overall, you could do worse if you've got 90 minutes or so to spare, and if you're familiar with the music it's a fun little stroll through a nicely appointed petting zoo. It's fine. Buy when you're promised a satire, "fine" just doesn't cut it.

[AznSleepyhead]

well.....i didnt see this movie, or documentary, yet...but i dont think i will want to watch it unless someone recommends it...i think i feel this way is because of the attacks recently that daniel wu is an ass...but who cares...if it's good...it's GOOD...if it's crap...it's CRAP....am i making any sense? lol

[namie81]

I saw this poster of the movie in a magazine... I had to take a double take cause I couldn't beleive it was daniel.... AHHHHHHH lol I hope it's good anyways... but the cover

[moorish88]

anyone watched this movie before? i'm not sure if i should.. there's many bad and good reviews so it's kinda confusing.

[smashy]

the 'mock-umentry' style is pretty cool. very interesting movie and definately worth the time.

[pHiLLyJaY]

wow, daniel wu directing a film, nva thought he would become a director at his age =S, wonder if dis film is any good?

[altezza]

Watch the mandrin version ....all i can say ...this is not an interesting movie ...maybe the cantonese version is better

[yuenwooping]

this movie is director by the Daniel wu.... it is talks about the boy bands.... not bad...just only $12.99

[B.D]

I have heard about this film... but haven't seen it... and i don't think i will watching it...
do anyone know if this film is good or bad???

[bruisel33]

i was shocked that this movie we pretty entertaining. would recommend for a blockbuster night

[yellower]

kindda of funny movie?

i almost want to buy it, buy lost my feeling when see the cover...

[IDYYY]

They're not much of a band, but they make a pretty damn entertaining movie. The Hong Kong boy band Alive, consisting of actors Daniel Wu, Terence Yin, Andrew Lin, and Conroy Chan, has had the cultural impact of a wasted ferret since their debut in 2005. Their lack of overt popularity (they haven't even released an album yet) is really no surprise. They may be fronted by a hot actor in Daniel Wu, but the other three members are solid B or C-listers who've never achieved any true stardom, and worse, appear in movies like PTU File - Death Trap, and Devil Face Angel Heart. Also, their musical talents aren't very impressive, and they can't dance either. With nothing to recommend them besides the non-musical popularity of one of their members, shouldn't Alive really be dead by now?
Maybe they should be, but according to The Heavenly Kings, they're still still chugging along. A "mockumentary" about the group's attempted ascent into the Cantopop stratosphere, The Heavenly Kings is part fact, part fiction, part animated, and all amusing. Alive produced and Daniel Wu directed this shot-on-digital-video exercise, which basically asks the question: how does a talent-challenged boy band make it in the shrinking Hong Kong music market? The answer: by manipulating the media. As revealed via "hidden" cameras and face-to-face interviews, the boys were getting crappy offers from the record execs, so they decided to enter the public eye (or maybe ear) in a publicly accepted, but still illegal way. To get their songs heard, the boys of Alive uploaded their first single onto the Internet, then complained to the media, and finally "officially" offered their song for download on their own website. It's ingenious stuff: lie to everyone, play the victim, then become heroes for delivering what your fans want.
It's questionable if that's the whole truth, though. The Heavenly Kings follows the journey of Alive in disturbingly close detail. Many of the events depicted in the film actually happened, such as the initial press conference covering their downloaded single, plus their endorsements, public appearances, and even some of their purported conflicts. This accuracy to real events disturbs because the question arises if Wu and company actually pulled off their supposed deception, with this movie being the smoking gun/self-published exposé. Is Alive really so smart that they were able to manipulate the media this completely from the very first day?
Possibly, and Wu's ability to keep the audience guessing is one of the film's strengths. It's feasible that Alive really did do something that extreme to make headlines; as this film plainly shows, the group is willing to bite the hand that feeds it. In the film, director Daniel Wu slams the HK media institution and the Cantopop industry in general, knocking both for favoring smiling saccharine pap over actual substance. It's a decidedly cynical take on Hong Kong's media culture; the irreverent attitude and the edgy animation (at times, animated sequences provide commentary on each band member's inner life) feels very appropriate for the group's Western attitudes and sensibilities. By poking so much fun at the media and brazenly announcing the crappiness of the industry in such a direct fashion, the film goes much farther than most of its contemporaries ever would. The cynicism on display definitely belongs to a newer generation; you'd never see any of the original Heavenly Kings do something this ballsy.
Still, it's really not that ballsy. Wu and company do take the media and Cantopop to task, but leave some targets curiously unscathed. One of Alive's biggest media brouhahas was their public dissing of Hong Kong Disneyland, and their subsequent banning from TVB. None of that gets referenced in The Heavenly Kings -- which could mean that there are some people that Alive isn't willing to take on. Also, the more scathing stuff is largely negated by the hijinks and tomfoolery of the boys. The journey of Alive is interspersed with many talking head interviews with people like Jacky Cheung, Paul Wong of Beyond, Nicholas Tse, Miriam Yeung, Candy Lo, Karen Mok, and more. Dirt and dish about Cantopop gets thrown about, but in the end it doesn't do all that much. Some of the industry's absurdities make for good laughs, and some stories border on revealing, but not much is really gleamed. In some ways, The Heavenly Kings feels like a wasted opportunity because it's not as brave as it initially seems.
But at least the film doesn't paint Alive's journey as some sort of quest to "keep it real". Alive doesn't give itself props; in fact, more often than not they just appear crappy. Wu and company are good sports, and spend just as much time making themselves look silly as they do dissing the media. Right away, we learn that they started Alive to make music and have fun, but the project has problems because the group basically sucks. Nobody except Terence Yin can sing, and he's portrayed as a prima donna VIP wannabe with flatulence problems. Conroy Chan's problem is that he's married to someone far more famous and successful (actress Josie Ho). He's also fat. Daniel Wu is portrayed as overly anxious and a bit of a control freak, while Andrew Lin is the nice guy of the group who's really in it just to boost his flagging career. They mostly can't sing, none of them can dance, and they sometimes appear stupid. None of the guys come out of film looking all that great -- which in itself is a fun commentary on the whole idea of talent and fame. It also all but confirms that this "documentary" is just an act. Once the film enters its crunch time conflict -- which is whether or not the four friends can get along again in time for the big performance -- you know some fakery is definitely on display. This isn't a documentary; it's an facetious facsimile of one.
It's the sense of humor that makes The Heavenly Kings a pleasant surprise. Those who wonder who these guys are may not get all the jokes, but Hong Kong entertainment junkies should find this to be a fun and even richly entertaining experience. It's hilarious to see Alive reveal themselves to be potentially crappy because that's what some of us probably think when watching Naked Weapon or Kung Fu Mahjong 2. By putting their faults (or fabricated faults, anyway) on display, the foursome come off as likable and even sympathetic blokes -- though really, the film doesn't always portray them as such. Daniel Wu reveals a remarkably keen sense of humor, and his timing can be dead on. One wonders if he could translate that talent to actual narrative filmmaking, or if he's destined to be some sort of ultra-lite Hong Kong Michael Moore, with cynical mockumentaries as his specialty. Or he may never make another film -- after all, who knew that Wu was going to try a singing career? After starting a boy band, doing the Hong Kong version of Jackass (called Chiseen), and then directing a film, it's worth wondering if he'll put the filmmaking hat on once again. He should.

[reideeds]

a very new genre for daniel wu that's for sure.. doesnt seem that appealing to me though..

anyone seen it? good/bad?

[Rockeroppi]

I've seen some parts of it. Seems like a documentary about how they came about to become a group. Many of them don't speak chinese very well....Not surprising.

[reiyi]

I've just watch this movie. I find this movie very honest. It's a mix of fiction and facts. Of course I don't believe everything that supposely happened to or done by Alive in the movie is real (some are real, some a fabricated. Depends on the viewers themselves to decide which is which), but I believe the potrayal of how Hong Kong music industry works is very real.

It's low budget and all, but it's better than a lot of crap churn on from HK movie industry nowadays. It's a brave and ingenious movie. The cast is cool for willing to potray themselves in an unflattering light.

If you're going to send yourself up, you have to be merciless, and Daniel Wu seems too personally invested in his friends and bandmates to give them the total skewering that would make this movie work outside of Cantopop friendly circles. Surprisingly, the best actor in the bunch turns out to be Andrew (yay Andrew! I love you!) who is also the only one who seems to be playing a role. Vain, petty and somewhat bone-headed his onscreen Andrew provides most of the the big laughs whereas the other three guys have their moments but none of them seems to have a handle on grabbing a "type" and playing it to the hilt the way Andrew does.

I must be seeing a different movie from the reviewer. His description of Andrew's character seems more like Terence's. Andrew's character has his own selfish intention of forming the band, but he has always appeared as nice and down-to-earth in the movie. The peace-maker and sensible one of the group.

This post has been edited by reiyi: Sep 11 2006 4 20 AM

[Kenway]

Is this movie nice ..??? I saw the cover and i am not interested with it .. the costume is so ugly ...lol

[reiyi]

Is this movie nice ..??? I saw the cover and i am not interested with it .. the costume is so ugly ...lol

The constumes in the cover only appear for 5 mins. They dress normally in other segments. But this movie is probably not for u if beautiful visual is a must for u. This movie is filmed with a digital camcoder and look very low-budget. But the contents is worth a look imo.

This post has been edited by reiyi: Sep 14 2006 1 19 PM

[jenwan]

Form your descriptions it really sounds like a good movie to watch. Maybe more of a documentary than anything. I think the older generation singers from HK all got the skills and vocals, but nowadays...he right...they really got no talent. Nowadays it more taiwanese for me....those guys got the vocals. and koreans sure can dance. HK just got pretty ppl standing around in their mv's...=/

[gotl2ice]

I havent seen this movie yet even though it just recently came out but cant really get a good understanding of rahter it is good or bad. ive been reading and serving the net for a while now trying to actually get a unbias unswer on rahter is it good or not, but what ive been finding out is that some showed a postive side of this movie but some showed a negative. Well i guess i just have to watch the movie to find out myself.

[hustler789]

that was a quite movie compraed to most of hk movie. I pretty enjoyed how they use this way to transmits some message of th ehk music industry.

[SUSIE-DANG-1988]

just finished watching this... and i thought it was ok la...
so everybody jus went seperate directions then??
hmm... this is a documentary not a film...
anyone have that song they sang at the end of this 'movie'??

[professorjay]

Isn't this the closest it gets to a Hong Kong version of Spinal Tap? If not, please let me know if there's another movie that is! Anyways, you got to give respect to this movie for at least confronting certain aspects of the HK industry for what it is.

[Gos]

i thought that it was a very funny film in general... some very funny parts and serious aswell... a good film to watch

[c123g]

this movie after seeing it. Anyone feel awkward? Felt sorry for the band and the group didnt match. Song was pretty good 2 bad it's broken now.

[aquarius0502]

i dont know but if i see that cover, it like a gay band
that is why i havent see this movie

[blai]

Documentary-wise this was great. Movie-wise, it was by far the most boring and not worth the money at all. Its true that this exposed a lot of information that was inciteful, but it shouldnt have debuted as a movie.

[password8431]

this is not a movie at all, but rather a documentary describing the trials and turbulence of forming a boy band and excelling in it.

[jamal]

this is an interesting mockumentary, not a documentary. the joke is on the media and the fans. alive was a fake band from the beginning. they fooled everyone. the film is mixed with real life footage and some fictional footage. funny stuff.

[aknpr]

interesting movie
it gave a behind the scene look at the recording industry, but a lot of stuff was way overdone
overall, an ok movie, good concept, but subpar execution

[rokc]

This movie was pretty funny. I didn't know about the "professional fans" until now. lol

[Megazerox]

This movie was so boring. I don't know why Daniel even film this movie.

[applesauce]

It's an entertaining piece. There's some mocking, some fictionalizing. The first part of the film shows the tricks of the entertainment industry, the process of producing a singing star. That's the educational part of it. But then the film veers into emotional junk and is no longer a mockumentary but a work of fiction. It spends a lot of time on the emotional up and down and the film just sorts of feel like it's been sidetracked. If the film started out as an emotional, human piece and showed the ensemble going thru their learning process of the biz, and then returned to the emotional side, it might have been more like a real story. Instead, you start out with the at-times funny mockumentary part, and then you're tossed over to the emotional crap, and then the film ends. Anyways, I just felt that it should have picked which side it wanted to emphasize and then have less of the other side.

The conflicts between Terence and Daniel really dragged the whole film down. I don't know what its purpose was! That sometimes people working in groups have conflicts, get stressed, don't agree? Sure! Everyone knows that. It just seemed to take an annoyingly long time to run thru this over and over and linger on their frustrations with each other. You throw up your hands and wonder what's happening? Where's the rest of the mockumentary?

I loved the animated parts. Just imagining the 4 guys posing topless to take the screen captures (that are used to compose the animated parts) would make anyone present during those photo shoots laugh. They should've had that as part of the film (where it wouldn't fit, heheh) or as part of the extras.

The extras are lacking. A bunch of NGs which are always amusing...the first or 2nd time viewing. A making-of which is basically Daniel talking at the camera/audience for 30 seconds. Is there no more insight? Also, it's almost necessary to watch the film a 2nd time with the commentary on so you learn the truth and understand what's going on. This is probably the only film I"ve watched with the commentary on. Hah.

Would it have been more interesting if more time was spent on the individual, "fictional" characters? Like, their motivations for creating this fake band. I even think sometimes the actors forgot whether to play it real or fake.

[Guest_azngrl77_*]

SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
A model, actor, singing sensation (well, sort of) and now a director

SOURCE: The San Francisco Chronicle

Daniel Wu once hosted a Hong Kong version of "Jackass," and when he and three friends created a boy band as a private joke, then made a film out of it, his target was the fakery of the Hong Kong music industry. Yes, Cantopop music executives and publicity-driven pop idols were punk'd, all right, but perhaps Wu's legacy with his first directorial effort, "The Heavenly Kings," will be something more substantial than a karaoke whoopee cushion.

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Wu has spent the past decade trying to sort out what's real and what's not -- he began as a model, after all -- and, in the process, has become one of Hong Kong's biggest movie stars. He might also be one of the saviors of a struggling industry in transition.

"The Heavenly Kings," which will play at the San Francisco International Film Festival, brought Wu the award for best new director at the Hong Kong Film Awards earlier this month.

"We're in a serious flux right now and have been since '97," Wu said last week over a burrito at Viva Taqueria in Berkeley, a favorite hangout when he attended Head-Royce School in Oakland. "We're not really sure who we're making the movies for anymore. In the late '80s and early '90s, it was like, 'We're going to make all these crazy movies and everybody's going to watch them.' There was a wide array of different kinds of things being made, whereas now, it's all constantly being worried about selling it to the Americans, or selling to China, and forgetting about the local audience.

"We've lost our identity, our flavor."

So Wu set out to directly attack the play-it-safe mentality of Hong Kong entertainment. He and three friends -- Terence Yin, Andrew Lin and Conroy Chan -- announced in 2005 that they were forming a boy band called Alive (alivenotdead.com). They recorded an album and altered their suspect singing voices electronically. To gain publicity, they released one song through the Internet, then called the media, claiming someone had illegally ripped off the song. The group was off and running, even performing before 20,000 fans at one show.

"The original idea came from Andrew," Wu, 32, said. "He wanted to make a spoof movie about a boy band, and I said, 'Why don't we really become a boy band, fool everyone into thinking it's real, film the whole thing and then edit a story out of it?' We just rode that.

"I grew up here, and I used to go to (924) Gilman and watch this band called Green Day play. Now they've become this huge pop sensation. And then going to Hong Kong, and everything is karaoke music. ... (Now) it's happening all over the world. Somebody like Paris Hilton can cut an album. But now I know from making this movie that all you have to do is do something in the computer to make it sound perfectly in tune. It's easy to fake it."

Asked if maybe some good came out of all the hours he spent in the recording studio putting one over on everyone, Wu laughed. "My singing definitely improved, but it sucked. It sucked really bad. But that was the point, part of the point. We wanted to prove that you could actually seem successful even though you suck."

Wu's acting career, however, has been a steady, respectable climb. Just after graduating from the University of Oregon with a degree in architecture (his father worked at Bechtel, his mother teaches at St. Mary's College, and they now live in Walnut Creek), Wu went to Hong Kong to witness the 1997 handover from British sovereignty to Chinese authority. His sister, a former model, lived there, and he used her contacts to get some modeling jobs. A short time later, he was discovered by art house director Yonfan and was cast as a gay Hong Kong policeman in "Bishonen" ("Beauty"), an exceptional start to his career.

Under the tutelage of manager Willie Chan, who also manages Jackie Chan, Wu improved his Cantonese, appearing in dozens of films of varying quality, including "Purple Storm," an action film with Joan Chen; "Love Undercover," a romantic comedy with Miriam Yeung; and "Cop on a Mission," a gangster flick.

Things began to change in 2003, when he produced his first film, "Night Corridor," putting his burgeoning stardom at risk by again playing a gay character. With "One Nite in Mongkok," a serious and seriously good film about a hit man hiding from the police, Wu's acting took a deeper conviction. Most recently, he starred with Ziyi Zhang in the period martial arts fantasy "The Banquet" and Andy Lau in the gangster film "Protege," which has pulled in an exceptional $33 million in the Chinese territories. "Blood Brothers," set in Shanghai during the 1930s, is finished and is scheduled for a fall release.

Despite his stardom, financial independence (he has residences in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing) and a so-far successful romance with his girlfriend, model Lisa Selesner, Wu is not taking anything for granted. To decompress from the "urban madness" of Hong Kong, Wu has been on a sabbatical since Christmas, even spending a month in South Africa, where Selesner owns a piece of land that features a hut with no electricity.

Soon after the San Francisco festival, he will attend an acting workshop in New York "to go back to the basics, to cover some stuff I might have missed and work on my process." He is also working harder on his Mandarin because his films are increasingly dependent on the Chinese market, and he's also preparing a script for his second film as director, a small film about a grandfather set in a poor section of Hong Kong.

"I've definitely hit the right road now, I've found the right path in terms of what I want to do as an actor and what I want to do as a director."

G. Allen Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...DDGDMPE72A1.DTL

[60699]

I know this movie is sort of a mockumentary of the industry, but its just plain hilarious and I'm sure there are things that are for real. That cheorgrapher is hilarious, unprepared and hilarious. He should've watched some tape of them dancing at their first concert. More precisely, someone from the company should've given him the tape to watch. The 4 of them couldn't even get basic steps together at the concert, why was this guy showing them so much? True, the steps aren't complex but the routine is jam packed and not something the 4 are capable of. I understand why he got frustrated but he also needs to understand who he's working with and their background -- actors with no dancing experience. Wake up and smell the coffee! I'm sure there's cheorgraphers out there that are like that...unprepared and expecting too much.

This post has been edited by 60699: Jul 22 2007 3 52 AM

[cpa314]

Yeah, and then the choreographer tells them to dance like they would in the club

My favrt. part though was when they hired that stylist for them....he brought out his summer and winter collection and told them what Alive represented. With every different set of clothes, Alive represented something different

[♥ L E N A]

i actually really enjoyed this movie...it was entertaining and witty and i thought that daniel did a fine job in his directorial debut

[shavemy]

anyone watched this movie before? i'm not sure if i should.. there's many bad and good reviews so it's kinda confusing.

[AsianEu.net]

It was comical. Daniel and the rest of Alive Not Dead crew did a great job in the film. Many funny scenes. Loved the terence changing into his naked cowboy outfit.

[wingki1234]

i loved this movie some parts were so funny and cringe worthy but really good the outfit that they had to try on omg i couldn't stop laughing i hope daniel will direct again soon