The Foreigner's Melody

The Foreigner's Melody is a 2003 animated romance drama film directed by Andrew Chen and Toshio Hirata and produced by Zhuang Chen, Shinichi Ikeda and Tomonori Ochikoshi, with actor Andy Lau serving as an exectuive producer. Set in the 1960s, the film chronicles a relationship between a Hong Kong boy and a Japanese girl after they're brought together by a tragic incident. Nicholas Tse and Qin Hailu voice the leads in the Cantonese version whilst Megumi Ogata and Hekiru Shiina voice them in the Japanese version.

Originally a concept created by producer Shinichi Ikeda, the project eventually gained the attention of actor Andy Lau, who agreed to produce the film through his production company Focus Films Limited. It would also be additionally financed by Sil-Metropole Organization and Media Asia Films, in addition to Japanese companies Movic and Genco. The animation for the film was done by Madhouse.

Japanese band SPEED performed the song Be My Love for the film's Japanese release, whilst Sammi Cheng performed Zhong Shen Mei Li for it's Hong Kong release. The film was released in Hong Kong by Media Asia Films on September 18, 2003 and in Japan by Movie-Eye Entertainment, Inc. on January 10, 2004. Critical reception was generally positive, with praise towards the animation quality, the direction and chemistry between the two leads. The film grossed a worldwide total of $40 million at the box office.

Plot
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Release
The Foreigner's Melody had it's theatrical premiere in Hong Kong on September 19, 2002, with Fortune Star Media handling the distribution. It was later released in Japan on January 10, 2004 by Movie-Eye Entertainment, Inc.

English releases
In an attempt at making exporting the film to English-speaking countries more easy, Focus Film Limited created an English dub at Omni Productions in Happy Valley, Hong Kong. This dub was only released in theaters in Singapore and as a language track on the Media Asia DVD release in Hong Kong.

After The Foreigner's Melody became a hit in Hong Kong, the worldwide distribution rights were purchased by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer via subsidiary United Artists, who opted to create their own English dub due to the perceived poor quality of the original dub. The dub was produced at Studio E Productions (now known as Studiopolis) and featured Ben Feldman, Kirsten Dunst, Nathan Fillon, Charlize Theron, Peter Gallagher, Michael Madsen and Dylan McDermott in various roles. The United Artists dub has a few editing differences from the original Cantonese or Japanese versions. These edits include three minutes being cut, additional music composed by Mark Watters, and various changes to the script.

United Artists gave the film a wide release in the United States on November 12, 2004. During it's run, the film grossed $22.6 million at the American box office. It was one of the first films released by the company after the Sony consortium's buyout of MGM in September of the same year

Home media
Media Asia Films released the film on DVD in Hong Kong on March 10, 2004. This release contains various bonus features such as a behind-the-scenes featurette, cast interviews, storyboard to film comparisons, and the export dub alongside the Cantonese-language version. Movie-Eye Entertainment, Inc. released the film on DVD in Japan on September 15, 2003, with both the Japanese and Cantonese-language versions included in their release.

MGM Home Entertainment released the film on DVD and VHS in the United States on March 15, 2005. The MGM DVD release also contains the Cantonese-language version on a second disc, with the English dub and bonus material relegated to the first disc.