The 601st Phone Call
Encyclopedia
The 601st Phone Call is a 2006 Chinese
drama film
directed by Zhang Guoli
and written by Zou Jingzhi. It was released in mainland China
on August 18, 2006.
While Yishu finds it annoying at first, she soon receives a text message from Xiaowen, who is the singer in an amateur rock band. He wishes to write a song for Tianyou and wants Yishu - who he thinks is Tianyou's assistant - to deliver the song to Tianyou. Tianyou is a popular singer, but hasn't had a hit number lately. While she wants to sing for the sake of art, her cruel agent cares only for money and pressures her into recording an album she does not want to record because it doesn't contain any good songs. This decision gets her into a lot of trouble and she is attacked, furthering her personal depression.
While Yishu hears more of Xiaowen's song through their phone calls and text messages, Yishu is distracted from the problems she attributes to her bad luck. However, Xiaowen conceals the fact he is dying from a terminal illness, thus his desperation to finish his song and have it delivered to Tianyou. Meanwhile, Tianyou has lost interest in singing, since none of the songs she has been forced to record mean anything to her, and she contemplates suicide, a path that her agent secretly delights in because it will mean her unreleased record will sell-out after her death.
On the night that Tianyou is about to commit suicide, Xiaowen calls her cellphone from his hospital bed, having received the correct phone number from Yishu's efforts to find it, and sings her his song. Tianyou is inspired to continue and her career is revitalized; at her next concert, she dedicates the song Xiaowen has written to him and thanks him for saving her before singing it. Tianyou sends Yishu tickets to her concert, for one each for Yishu and Xiaowen, and Yishu invites Xiaowen, hoping to finally meet him. However, at the end of the concert, she finds Xiaowen's bandmates and learns from them that Xiaowen has already passed away.
Cinema of China
The Chinese-language cinema has three distinct historical threads: Cinema of Hong Kong, Cinema of China, and Cinema of Taiwan. Since 1949 the cinema of mainland China has operated under restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Zhang Guoli
Zhang Guoli
Zhang Guoli is an award winning Chinese film director and actor. Zhang was a xiangsheng actor before he started working on films and television series. He is married to actress Deng Jie and their son Zhang Mo is also an actor....
and written by Zou Jingzhi. It was released in mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
on August 18, 2006.
Plot
A young woman named Yishu believes she has no luck at all and she blames her name for it. One day she starts receiving phone calls from people thinking that she is the popular singer Tianyou. It turns out that someone has leaked 600 phone numbers of famous people to the internet and Yishu's phone number got mixed up in the bunch.While Yishu finds it annoying at first, she soon receives a text message from Xiaowen, who is the singer in an amateur rock band. He wishes to write a song for Tianyou and wants Yishu - who he thinks is Tianyou's assistant - to deliver the song to Tianyou. Tianyou is a popular singer, but hasn't had a hit number lately. While she wants to sing for the sake of art, her cruel agent cares only for money and pressures her into recording an album she does not want to record because it doesn't contain any good songs. This decision gets her into a lot of trouble and she is attacked, furthering her personal depression.
While Yishu hears more of Xiaowen's song through their phone calls and text messages, Yishu is distracted from the problems she attributes to her bad luck. However, Xiaowen conceals the fact he is dying from a terminal illness, thus his desperation to finish his song and have it delivered to Tianyou. Meanwhile, Tianyou has lost interest in singing, since none of the songs she has been forced to record mean anything to her, and she contemplates suicide, a path that her agent secretly delights in because it will mean her unreleased record will sell-out after her death.
On the night that Tianyou is about to commit suicide, Xiaowen calls her cellphone from his hospital bed, having received the correct phone number from Yishu's efforts to find it, and sings her his song. Tianyou is inspired to continue and her career is revitalized; at her next concert, she dedicates the song Xiaowen has written to him and thanks him for saving her before singing it. Tianyou sends Yishu tickets to her concert, for one each for Yishu and Xiaowen, and Yishu invites Xiaowen, hoping to finally meet him. However, at the end of the concert, she finds Xiaowen's bandmates and learns from them that Xiaowen has already passed away.
Cast
- Zhou BichangZhou BichangZhou Bichang , is a Chinese singer and songwriter. She was the first runner-up in the 2005 Super Girl Competition, which is a Chinese version of Pop Idol for female contestants only...
as Yi Shu - Cecilia CheungCecilia CheungCecilia Cheung Pak-Chi is a Hong Kong actress and cantopop singer. She is the ex-wife of Nicholas Tse, thus being the daughter-in-law of Patrick Tse and Deborah Lee. She and Nicholas have two sons, Lucas and Quintus Tse...
as Tianyou - Hu GeHu Ge (actor)Hu Ge , is a Chinese actor and singer. Hu is best known for his role as Li Xiaoyao in the 2003 television series Chinese Paladin.-Biography:...
as Xiaowen - Niu BenNiu BenNIU Ben , original name ZHANG Xuejing , born in Tianjin, lives in Shanghai currently, one of the earlier generation of Chinese actors, with the reputation of "Ever green in Chinese filmdom".-Biography:...
as Old Man Li - Zhang GuoliZhang GuoliZhang Guoli is an award winning Chinese film director and actor. Zhang was a xiangsheng actor before he started working on films and television series. He is married to actress Deng Jie and their son Zhang Mo is also an actor....
as Chairman of the Board - Zhang MengZhang MengZhangmeng , born in 28 December 1988 in Zhengzhou, is an actress from mainland China and director of Actors Working Committee of the China Television Artists Association.. She graduated from the Beijing Film Academy and was recognized as the school beauty of the 2006 season. She also plays the...
as He Ling - Wei Zongwan
- Liu Yiwei
- Guo DegangGuo Degang- Biography :Guo Degang was born in Tianjin. He began to learn pingshu when he was 8 years old.Guo went to Beijing in 1995 and established Deyun She , a xiangsheng performance theater, in 1996...
External links
- The 601st Phone Call at Cinemasie