The Foreigner's Melody

The Foreigner's Melody is a 2003 animated romance drama film directed by Andrew Chen and Morio Asaka and produced by Zhuang Chen, Yasuteru Iwase and Masao Morosawa. Set in the 1990s, 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 Madhouse, the project eventually gained the attention of STAR TV, who would co-finance the film through STAR TV Filmed Entertainment and Fortune Star Entertainment, 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 Fortune Star Entertainment 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 $152 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 18, 2003, with Fortune Star Entertainment handling the distribution. It was later released in Japan on January 10, 2004 by Movie-Eye Entertainment, Inc.

English releases
During the movie's production, STAR TV Filmed Entertainment, recognizing the growing popularity of anime in the West and the American successes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Iron Monkey, saw potential for an international release, and so the company commissioned an English dub of the film to Omni Productions in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, for the sake of making export of the film to English speaking countries easier.

After The Foreigner's Melody became a hit in Hong Kong, Fortune Star would sell the American and international distribution rights to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer susbidiary United Artists, who opted to create their own English dub, due to them feeling the original dub was of poor quality. The dub was recorded at Studio E Productions in Los Angeles and featured Ben Feldman, Kirsten Dunst, Brad Pitt, Charlize Theron, Martin Short, Chazz Palminteri and Dylan McDermott as some of the voices. The MGM dub has a few editing differences from the original Cantonese or Japanese versions. These edits include three minutes being cut, additional music composed by Theodore Shapiro, and various changes to the script.

United Artists gave the film a wide release in the United States on November 12, 2004, followed by an international release the following year. It was rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "thematic elements and some violence/peril".

Home media
Fortune Star 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, 2004, with both the Japanese and Cantonese-language versions included in their release.

MGM Home Entertainment released the film on VHS and as a two-disc "Special Edition" DVD in the United States on March 15, 2005. The MGM DVD release also contains the Cantonese-language version on the second disc, with the English dub and bonus material relegated to the first disc. For the film's 20th anniversary in 2023, MVD Visual released the film on a "Collector's Edition" Blu-ray under license from MGM.