"Black And White" tops ratings. Zai Zai money-magnet

PTS aired the last episode of "Black And White" the night before yesterday. With a viewership rating of 4.03%, it beat the Golden Melody Awards ceremony broadcasted at the same time, achieving top viewership in the country. Its producer revealed that she wants to raise NT$1 billion in funds to shoot a film version and, laughing bitterly, said, "I don't have anymore house to sell!" Fortunately, the drama's high quality and Zai Zai's popularity as seenfrom the fan meetings he held in Japan these two days attracted Japanese investors. The film version is estimated to start filming at the end of the year.

The drama version of "Black And White" spent NT$10 million and although it was a hit, there has not been much returns yet. Its producer said that because they spent too much, they were really struggling. Previously, Director Zai Yue Xun had painfully agreed to remove a few scenes but just before the final episode was to be aired, the perfectionist felt that it was not satisfactory. He got Janine Chang to return to film some scenes. The scene showing her shooting back (at her attackers) in the final episode was actually only filmed last week.

Zai Zai, who had to act ruffian,make faces and sacrifice his suave looks to play the part of a vagrant, received much praise. As he had to rush to Japan for his fan meeting, he was unable to attend the production team's finale party at Kaohsiung. Over in Japan, Zai Zai remains a money-magnet. Thinking for his fans, he was willing to absorb his appearance fee and hence the ticket price was lowered from NT$3,500 to NT$2,000. With the two fan meeting sessions attended by 12,000 fans, the total takings was NT$24 million.

For the remaining half of the year, Zai Zai is placing his focus on the silver screen and may participate in two films. When asked during the fan meeting whether he prefers to sell cars or curry rice if he wasn't an artiste, Zai Zai, who loves cars, picked curry rice on purpose, causing his fans to laugh in amusement.

Source: udn
Translated by: karened @ http://asianfanatics.net