Alive in East Touch Magazine(April 28, 2006)

Wow, its been a while since the alive page here on alivenotdead.com has been updated!  that's probably because 'alive' no longer exists as a separate entity (but of course the spirit lives on in everything alivenotdead.com does!)

But recently one of the team members was scanning some old press clippings and thought it'd be a good idea to share it here with everyone.  Here's one from East Touch Magazine v69 from 2006:

We have some more scans of old press,  we'll try to post it once in a while for you guys.

TRANSLATION COURTESY OFbleupluie:Alive – officially formed in mid '05 by 4 handsome guys: Daniel Wu, Conroy Chan, Andrew Lin and Terence Yin (Yes, a few years back, Conroy was a handsome guy with a model's built).

Ever since Day 1, Alive was obviously on track to becoming an idol boy band. Title number “Adam’s Choice” was a typical Hong Kong style Karaoke song (K-song). On stage, 4 handsome guys in their thirties perform with their inconsistent choreography, obviously trying to get through it with their faces more than their songs, trying their best as idols.

While all media and music fans assume Daniel and 3 of his not-so-famous pals are dreaming to become singers, trying to cross-over from acting, in reality, it was all an act.

Roughly 3 years ago, Andrew suddenly had a strange idea: to shoot a film about a boy band entering the Hong Kong entertainment industry. Daniel immediately responded, but in view of (making the film) too much a "Wong Jing-style" with fabricated roles, he suggested to form a boy band, to easily blend in the characters, and to be more persuasive. Since then, Alive spent 2 years shooting their daily lives and working conditions, which was finally edited into the film "The Heavenly Kings".

Alive's wish to illustrate the current lopsided phenomenon of Hong Kong entertainment and media through their film may have been good intention, but due to suspected involvement in "misguiding reporters", the media's response was massive, and they even started boycotting (Alive). However, the media's negative reports also created an increase curiosity in the public, thus the film was the talk of the town even before its premiere.

The 2 year old hoax was exposed once the film hit the theater, but Alive expressed that they will not disband just like that, they may one day return in another manner. However, they have offended the media, will their once so overwhelming publicity reappear? Without the support from the media, can Alive still remain unbeatable as their motto "Alive not dead"?

1. Alive was official formed on August 2005, marking their crucial step for the movie and hoax.

2. To act it all out, Alive performed on some stage shows, including major music showcases in Taiwan and Shanghai, which could accommodate tens of thousands audiences.

3. Without a record label, Alive released all music and news on their website, including boycotting Disneyland last year (2005) and this year's (2006) internal quarrel.

4. After their performance road show, Alive returned to Hong Kong to attend a Christmas event. The normally stylish Alive guys put on Santa hats and even took off their coats. It's not easy being a Hong Kong singer!

5. Lee Sheung Yee (David), the celebrity stylist who resembles Ron Ng, cameo appeared and self-created hilarious dialogs such as “Alive is all about love”. His lively performance was a breakthrough; he should thoroughly consider returning to the front stage. (David used to be an actor; acted in over 20 films, including “From The Queen To The Chief Executive (2001)”).

D : Daniel Wu   C : Conroy Chan   A : Andrew Lin   T : Terence Yin

Real or Fiction

Alive was a product of “The Heavenly Kings”. 4 members + a few staff workers kept this secret for more than 2 years, Daniel even lied to the reporters for publicity without hesitation, rumored to be on bad terms with Terence earlier on, cursing each other......all of these just to promote Alive and the film. But in between, how much were true and how much were fake? Those who were involved couldn’t even tell, believe it or not, you decide.

T:   We did not start filming this after we formed Alive, we wanted to film about the music industry, so we thought of using Alive(as a platform) to personally illustrate this.

C:   Andrew was the one to come out with this idea in the first place, but if we were to shoot just like that, we fear that it will become some sort of a Wong Jing’s film, so Daniel thought why not just form a band. We’re not trying to critic anybody, but we just wanted to use Alive’s story, and get other artists to share their experiences.

D:   Many people ask how much is real? Actually there are some truths and some false, it’s also hard for us to differentiate.

A:   Most of what happened was real, but we just exaggerated to make the film more dramatic.

D:   We chose to be singers because the music industry can reflect the film industry, even the whole entertainment industry.

C:   We chose not to explore the paparazzi, because there’s no point to talk about it, we want the music industry to improve, not the paparazzi to improve. Furthermore, the paparazzi are too messed up; this should be under the control of the government and the media.

D:   The Hong Kong music industry is too commercialized now, label owners will not let the singers choose their own music style, and the same goes to films. Just take for instance the film I produced earlier on, “Night Corridor”, the film production company wished to add explosion and action scenes, I felt it was very strange.

T:   A few years ago when I was a singer in Taiwan, I had some unhappy experiences. My image and my music style were 2 different things, which made me very uncomfortable. In the end, everything ended badly with the music label.

D:   Something is really wrong with the music industry now; they do not promote singers as individuals, which is why we hope to express this through the film.

Base Layer

In “The Heavenly Kings”, there was a scene where Terence blamed Andrew for being selfish, forming Alive because “Daniel’s famous, I (Terence)know how to sing, and Conroy can lay the base.” But in actual when we talk about popularity, all of them are on the same par except for Daniel; so who is laying whose base, that is hard to tell.D:   Everybody thought Conroy wasn’t involved in showbiz these few years, so we purposely planned this dialog, because all along, this was still a film, a film needs dramatic plots. If we only show what’s real, that’s gonna be dull. We wish to twist everybody’s character and public image around, just to make everybody more absorbed.

A:   Even if we really think that way, we won’t normally express it.

T:   If we really had such thoughts, Alive would not be as united as we are right now.

C:   While we were shooting for our posters at Central, we initially wore robes. When I took off the robe, I heard somebody said, “That’s disgusting!” and when the others took off their robes, “Nice! But this guy is a bit fat!” Maybe I am the base layer, haha!

D:   Talking about shooting our posters, actually we wanna bring out something we’re puzzled with. Normally when we go for a show at the Hong Kong Coliseum, their outfits are really flashy and flaunty, but if you take those outfits out from the Coliseum, it’s really hilarious.

Betrayal

To promote and ‘explore’ the artist-media relationship, Alive made up a story to misguide reporters last year, and even showed the whole process in the film, making audiences burst in laughter, but the reporter involved shed tears on the spot. After the incident, part of the media started boycotting (Alive), but Alive insists that they will not apologize, because they feel that they have not done anything wrong.

D:   This is not betrayal; we just wanna show how a bunch of desperate people try to strive out of bounds, show that this entertainment news system really has a problem. Actually, the reporters aren’t the only ones who are lying usually, many artists do the same too, I just wanna expose this point. But I think they (the reporters) are very narrow-minded, you have been planting jokes for others all this while, I’m just doing this for a good purpose. We definitely feel that there is no need to apologize, because we have done our best to protect that reporter, but she exposed her own identity.

A:   From the beginning till the end, we are just using a film to describe the real side of the entertainment industry, not to judge something.

D:   Now they’re starting to make things up, I believe there will be crazier stuffs next time. Actually they’re so defensive to this extent that it’s not solving the issue, it’s making it worse.

T:   In foreign countries there are many tabloids,but they’re not main stream, unfortunately in Hong Kong, they are. For someone with higher education or majored in journalism, they may be able to differentiate, but the general public will think it’s true. The message we are trying to deliver through our film is for the audience to understand that entertainment news are mere entertainment, there are true and false, as long as the audience know to think about it next time after seeing (one).

A:   The media became offensive now because they feel that they lost this power.

After Alive

Quarrel, affair, picking up girls……all these boosted Terence’s popularity, his frequent appearances on newspapers and magazines this past month was the sum of (his appearance) the past few years, making him benefit the most out of this. But the film had finally hit theaters just recently,earning a mere HKD80, 000 on its opening day, compared to recent publicity tactics, box office outcome is barely satisfactory. After the film, will Alive continue to exist, or have they arrived at the end of the road?

C:   Nobody can expect what will happen to us, but there should be no “The Heavenly Kings 2”, because we don’t think we wanna repeat ourselves.

D:   We will keep this group, but maybe we’ll do something else, for instance shooting short films or start a band. Even though the media misunderstood us, but we will carry on, because Alive and the crew have great understanding with each other, all of us want to keep this group. As for the next step, we haven’t decided on what to do, because the past couple of years have been pretty hard.

T:   We are sure to bring something up, for example adding different features in the website, let people upload their own work. As for Alive and my image, I believe it’s hard to change, and there’s no need to change.

D:   Actually Terence’s playboy image is more or less over-exaggerated by the media. As for us being labeled by the media, this is harder to control, same goes to the Four Heavenly Kings back in the days,they also didn’t like being addressed that way!

C:   Last time, idol singers had to be really well-behaved, that’s actually very boring and full of bullshit, everybody knows that’s all made up, we Alive have a real side, so we wouldn’t care.

Be Happy

In the film “The Heavenly Kings”, Alive was involved in some work in order to raise money for production and publicity, including a bridal commercial. While shooting, every Alive members had a female companion.To create a sweet atmosphere, the photographers kept on reminding them to “be happy”. In the film segment while resting, Daniel cursed, “Be happy, be happy! F*** you! I know how to smile ok!”

Those who watched the film will understand that this is only part of the plot, but in reality, as a reporter or photographer, when we encounter expressionless artists, we really have to constantly remind them to “be happy”.

Take for instance, while shooting the photos for this interview, the photographer hopes to get every Alive members to show their overjoyed expression, but maybe they were too tired, or perhaps they were looking after their images, so there were times they forgot to smile, and one of the staff offhandedly reminded them to “be happy”. Once said, Alive immediately snickered. The staff asked whether they were cursing in silent.Even though they denied, but guess this bunch of liars may have cursed more than a 100 times, perhaps this segment had been secretly filmed, and may even be shown on “The Heavenly Kings 2” (although Alive said they have no intention to shoot a sequel).

Once bitten by a snake, you’ll fear even straw ropes for 10 years (Chinese Proverb, a burnt child dreads the fire), nowadays it’s hard to be a celebrity, but actually it’s even harder as a reporter. : | Wow, its been a while since the alive page here on alivenotdead.com has been updated!  that's probably because 'alive' no longer exists as a separate entity (but of course the spirit lives on in everything alivenotdead.com does!)

But recently one of the team members was scanning some old press clippings and thought it'd be a good idea to share it here with everyone.  Here's one from East Touch Magazine v69 from 2006:

We have some more scans of old press,  we'll try to post it once in a while for you guys.

                                            |                       Wow, its been a while since the alive page here on alivenotdead.com has been updated!  that's probably because 'alive' no longer exists as a separate entity (but of course the spirit lives on in everything alivenotdead.com does!)

But recently one of the team members was scanning some old press clippings and thought it'd be a good idea to share it here with everyone.  Here's one from East Touch Magazine v69 from 2006:

We have some more scans of old press,  we'll try to post it once in a while for you guys.