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Will Liu talks about his "buddy" Jay Chou
by kelvin@multistars - 23rd June 2009Source: Newssc
Will Liu became famous in the entertainment circle as a member of Taiwanese boy band S.B.D.W., he was a variety programme presenter as well as an actor, now he has fully thrown himself into his singing career, in the last 3 years he has already released "Rainbow Heaven", "City of Angels", he has written songs for the likes of Valen Hsu, Power Station and Landy Wen, he has also made contributions to Jay Chou's albums, he has released a book too "Will Liu Exercise Book". A few days ago when he appeared at "Countdown to the Eastern Dream" press conference, reporters forced him to talk about Jay Chou.
"How good as friends are you and Jay Chou?" Having been friends with Jay Chou for 10 years, Will Liu is very bored with this kind of question, "Yea...we are such good friends....that when Valen Hsu wanted to ask Jay Chou to write a song she didn't go to his agent company, she went directly to me, so I can urge him everyday, even his agent didn't stick that closely to me."
Since coming out, not a lot of people know I went to the 9th National Kuo Kuang Academy of Arts, they don't understand that I was the leading male voice in a boy band, I wrote, sang and danced, not to mention the programmes I've presented, but people still remember me as "Jay's buddy".
Other people say this circle is fake, it's impossible for their to be real friendships, there aren't many "back to back friends" like Jay Chou and me.
We had the same dream, which was to make this circle different, make the world different.
The first impression Jay gave me wasn't anything good, everyone knows, Jay was discovered while participating in Jacky Wu's "Super Newcomer King" in 1997, I was actually there on the day. Jay was playing the piano coolly onstage, Jacky Wu excitedly chatted to me offstage, he vowed to sign this guy. I watched his performance to the end seriously, I said to Jacky: "This person can't sing, his song writing is ok though."
Actually my assessment already had reservations, who have you see who sings songs half a metre away from the microphone? Besides singing the high note parts "oh oh oh", no one heard what he was singing.
I first got to really know Jay through basketball. The first time I greeted him was on the basketball court, the last time I greeted him was a few months ago at the set of "Kung Fu Dunk", he's just so busy.
But in honesty, there aren't many artists in the Taiwanese entertainment circle who can content with me at basketball, my boss now Xiao Dao is one, Jason and "He Ren" are also good, of course there's also Johnny Yan, comparatively speaking Jay is still very far off.
Jay and I have been buddies for so long, we've almost never had any conflicts, the only conflicts were on the basketball court. The whole world knows he likes to show off when he plays, but they say I'm adapting to him, it would be better to say he has spent 7-8 years reaching my requirement. In the past when I played I had one principle, it was that you can play it cool and show off but you can't lose the ball, for this one, Jay got shouted at by me a good few times, after shouting at him for a few years he started to get used to it, at the very least he could catch the outgoing pass.
His home is in Taiwan Linkou, we often go to the street basketball court to "bullfight" with other people, after we get tired we go to his house and eat dishes made by his mother Ye Hui Mei. Mother Chou made some common household dishes, but when I ate it, it was better than the expensive stuff you get in big restaurants, even now when we are in Taiwan and work late, we go to his house, his mother heats up the leftovers, that feeling can only be described as "warm".
Knowing I was about to get married in October, Jay was just as excited as everyone else, just for the proposal part, he helped me think of loads of ideas, first he said he would rent out the big advertising board at Xi Men Ting to show my proposal, afterwards it turned into me taking my wife to his fans meeting and proposing. At the end not one of those weird ideas were realised, but he promised me that no matter where he was, what he was busy with and how busy he was, he would rush back to be my best man.
Who could have thought that on the day of my wedding on the 7th of October, Jay was late, of course he tried his best, he finished a day early filming the commercial in Hong Kong, yet he had to stay a day because of the typhoon. For him, the wedding was delayed from 6:30 to 8. The wedding was unprecedented in that a press conference began, me and Kary Ng sat in a row with him and Ivy Hsu taking questions from the media. Actually he was being the best man just to help out in saying a few things and socialising with my friends, it was impossible for him to help me drink a shot, he can't take much alcohol.
At the very start when we first got to know one another, I dragged him to the karaoke, besides singing a duet with me, he wouldn't dare to sing alone at all. After going a few times, my friends all knew him, but none of them talked to him for over three sentences. Generally it's my friends saying a "Hi" when they see him, he lowered his cap and lightly waved his hand, he responded to everyone with a "Hi" so low that it can't get any lower, it was the same when he left, he didn't socialise with other people much.
After he became famous after 2-3 years, I noticed he started to get how to network with people, in the past Jay only dared joking with me, surprisingly now he can handle things naturally when facing so many media. What's more amazing, he now talks better than me, like when you are interviewing me, I do the normal thing, when you ask I answer, Jay doesn't just do this, he will put out one or two points of conflict, for you to use as a headline the next day, so that's why I say he knows how to "talk" now.
Slowly I began to understand, it turns out Jay's EQ is very high, when he talks in front of people he has his own aims, he won't suddenly lose control of himself, since I've known him, he has never been angry with anyone, but they still forcefully say he has conflicts with who and who, that is just him wanting to teach those people a lesson.
Every time we are together, we have endless stuff to talk about, like that time we were filming "Kung Fu Dunk", not only did we chat while eating, at night after work I dragged him into my room to talk.
I always mumble to him: "I specially point out things I think you didn't do right, because there are too many people who just say good things beside you." He's willing to tell me things in his heart, if he really did something wrong he would examine himself in front of me.
There are always people who think that me being with Jay, he always takes the limelight, what I want to say is: I don't envy Jay Chou at all.
On last times' "interview" I said to him: "I'm not as popular as you, but I want you to be as happy as me. Can you be like me and openly make your relationship public? Can you hold your lover's hand in the street? Can you enjoy the sweetness I have right now? It's because you are Jay Chou, you can't do this!" I helped him set a criterion, if you don't firmly believe you will be with this girl for a lifetime, don't make it public. Otherwise if you break up one day, this girl who wears the hat of being "Jay Chou's ex" will still have to find another boyfriend, how will that other guy feel?
I've always cheered for him: "You don't have to worry too much, you should aim for happiness, you have the right to your happiness."
I'm really looking forward to Jay making his own family, to have his own children, if it's like this, after we are old, the two families can get together, we can play the songs we sang together to the children, let them watch the MV we did together "The Final Battle", admire the movies we filmed "Initial D" and "Kung Fu Dunk" and listen to the two dads talk about stories from then.
I said these things to him, he just said "oh" "oh". I'm scared that when he gets married, I'll already be old.
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