Author: Tatiana Siegel
Translator: Qin Tian
Proofreading: Easy two three
Source: Holleywood reporter (October 8, 2020)
One afternoon in late September, Lee was sitting in a makeshift office at her home in Orange County, watching a new South Korean pop reality show, "i-land." Dressed in a black sweater, white T-shirt, black leggings, and a somewhat messy ponytail, she pushed her loose hair back with her headband when her Japanese Akita dog Sasha walked into the camera.
The Tennessee-born entertainment mogul who grew up in Seoul is easily mistaken for the dog walkers she's everywhere in Southern California because she's casual and has four dogs. But in fact, Li Meijing co-heads one of the world's largest entertainment groups with CJ, and over the past 25 years, she has built CJ into a global media giant. For women who also run the entertainment empire, it seems that only the president of Viacomcbs, Sally Lei Shidong, can hide some of Lee's brilliance.
Li Meijing
In the large house with Julian Schnabel's paintings, Sasha and several other companions are vying for Li Meijing's attention. Arguably, CJ's assets are Lee's most important spiritual asset, and film, television, music, exhibitions and theatrical performances have generated billions of dollars in revenue for CJ. As vice president of the South Korean entertainment giant, she claims that the company's total revenue exceeds $28 billion, of which $4.8 billion comes from CJ entertainment and theater exhibitions.
Lee Mei-kyung's grandfather, Samsung founder Lee Byung-cheol, founded CJ in 1953, when CJ was just a sugar factory. But in the 1990s, Mei-king Lee, a harvard graduate, led CJ into the entertainment industry by acquiring a $300 million stake in DreamWorks and forging a lasting partnership with the city of Senvalli, Idaho. She brought back to South Korea the expertise she learned at DreamWorks.
Li Meijing and grandfather Li Bingzhe
Today, cj's business has expanded to include 4,222 theaters in seven countries and 16 television networks. In terms of music, CJ holds more than 300 concerts and festivals around the world every year, bringing Korean pop to people around the world. Not only that, on Broadway in New York, CJ under the leadership of Lee Mei Kyung produced heavyweight musicals including "Queen of Boots" and "Moulin Rouge".
"She's like a sponge," said David Geffing, founder and filmmaker of DreamWorks, who has been a close friend of Lee's since 1995, when she signed with David Gaffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg as investors in the fledgling DreamWorks. "When I first met her, she wasn't in the entertainment industry. Today she is a big person. She is very considerate and never frivolous or careless in her work." He added. "Prior to the acquisition, she investigated the potential of DreamWorks. She and Paul Allen own almost all of the company's investments, which is a very risky investment. Luckily, it paid off and got CJ into the entertainment industry."
Lee Mi Kyung is the winner of the 2020 Hollywood Reporter International Producer of the Year award, where she leads CJ's entertainment industry in South Korea and abroad. The 62-year-old entertainment mogul's unexpected trip to Hollywood culminated in February, with "Parasite," produced by CJ, directed by Bong Joon-ho and produced by Lee Mi-kyung, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. At such a historic moment, Li Meijing took the podium at the Dolby Theater, and at the last moment, the staff of the awards ceremony silenced her microphone because the whole ceremony was too long, and the audience applauded and encouraged her to continue.
"I really didn't think I would say anything on stage. I wasn't really ready, and Bong Joon-ho told me, 'You should say something.'" I said to him, 'It's up to you.' But Bong Joon-ho said, "I've said too much, so please say a few words." Also, when the microphone on stage slowly went down, I didn't know it meant that the ceremony staff was urging us to step down, and I thought it was a technical problem." She smiled and recalled. "Charlize Theron and Tom Hanks, who were sitting next to me, said to me, 'Come on, you can.'" So I said a few words."
Two days after Parasite won the Oscars, CJ announced it would complete more than $100 million in investments in David Ellison's Skydance Productions, valuing the latter at $2.3 billion. (The deal was closed in late 2019, but the announcement was postponed until after the Oscars.) ）
"Parasite" (2019)
"I'll never forget when Lee Mei-kyeong and I had lunch at a beachfront Ivy Restaurant about a decade ago. My first impression of her was her wisdom, her taste, and her passionate visions of CJ." David Ellison said. "She was dreamworks at the time, and if you compare her vision with what she's accomplished now, she's accomplished almost everything she planned, which is pretty remarkable."
If the success of Parasite is nothing to CJ, they also launched the comedy "Extreme Career" in 2019. It became the second-highest-grossing film in The history of Korean cinema, and its U.S. remake rights were bought by Universal Pictures and starred Kevin Hart. The global box office of "Parasite" and "Extreme Profession" combined reached $378 million, marking the beginning of Korean culture on the world stage.
Extreme Careers (2019)
"South Korea has a population of 50 million, and 17 million people have come to see Extreme Occupation." Li Meijing said. "And the hugely popular Parasite, right?" Every year from now on is 2019, right?" She laughed.
Unfortunately, the pandemic has hit companies like CJ hard, which have invested heavily in theatres, concerts and cultural events. (CJ also produced the KCON Festival, which attracts about 1.1 million people from seven countries.) However, Li Meijing immediately made a pragmatic response method. This summer, 33 artists participated in kcon's online programming, and more than 4 million fans from 150 countries watched the show, which was 3.5 times higher than before.
Similarly, Lee Mi-kyung also advanced the new season of "i-land" reality show, combining K-pop music with the way American Idol was produced. Before the pandemic hit, CJ was busy building a huge music stage in a green area in South Korea, which later became a temporary site for quarantine show participants.
《i-country》(2020) 《i-country》(2020)
"i-land" ended recording in September and led to the birth of idol group EnvyPen, which attracted more than 44 million online viewers worldwide. In the days to come, the production site of "i-land" will still be used seasonally, so CJ will take advantage of the vacancy period of the epidemic to shoot some more suitable films. Ms. Lee said she had identified two film projects that would be shot on campus, both of which provided safe accommodation for the cast and crew.
In the battered film industry, CJ's Korean cinemas have resumed business, which has provided a lot of confidence for the film industry. But now That Lee is thinking ahead about how to attract post-pandemic moviegoers, she mentioned that CJ has invested in Screenx's multi-faceted screen projection system, which allows viewers to enjoy a 270-degree wide field of view on the screen, a technology that can be perfectly combined with the director's wonderful pictures.
"In South Korea, we use this 'split' and 'integrated' approach to rescue the film," Lee said. "Even before the pandemic, it started to circulate. Just like the services launched by many streaming platforms, and the cinemas that have gone through such a tough time. And imax and screenx will be the future of cinema in a completely different guise. For cinemas, the cultural industry and investors, we are going through a difficult time. It's time to "split" and bring our business together in different forms."
When she was a child, Lee and her family moved from Tennessee to Seoul. It was there that she fell in love with movies and Western pop culture. On one wall of her father's studio, her music collections are displayed, ranging from J-pop to classical music — from Bach to Tchaikovsky, as well as Brenda Lee, Harry Belafonte and Chuck Berry. "Twist and turn! I remember black-and-white pictures of him dancing on vinyl records," Lee said of Chuck Berry's classic songs, as she became excited and swung her body. "I grew up nourished by global music."
Decades later, Jimmy Loween, an American record executive and founder of Interscope Records, met Lee mei-kyung under the introduction of David Geffen. He was impressed by her musical proficiency and sophisticated judgment. "I found her unique because she was interested in both Western culture and global pop culture," said Lovien, who worked on a number of music projects with Lee Mei-kyung while working at interscope. "I've been watching her for years and I'm not at all surprised by her success because she's ahead of her time. You'll meet a lot of people who are ahead of their time, but sometimes they don't get anything in return. But there was a tenacity and persistence in Lee, and we developed a great relationship."
When he was young, due to his father's obsession with film masters, Li Meijing also became a budding filmmaker. In the 1970s, he collected many videotapes of Akira Kurosawa, Hitchcock, and U. Borenne films, including films starring Kim Novak, Vivien Leigh, Betty Davis, and Gary Grant. "We grew up watching these black-and-white movies," Lee recalls. "I can name a lot of celebrities with my mouth. Of course, all of these movies are voiced in Korean, so in Korea, we have voice actors who specialize in voices for Gary Grant and Vivien Leigh."
But the movie experience that made Lee Mei-kyung most enjoyable was the "Sound of Music" she watched in a movie theater not far from her home. She was only 10 years old at the time. "Every weekend, I sneak out to watch The Sound of Music. I ended up watching it about 12 times," she recalls. "I remember all the songs and every line of dialogue in the movie." Five years later, her favorite movie became The Godfather. She went on to say, "James Ken was machine-gun killed in the phone booth. That bloody horse's head. There is also a pool scene. Still, it's my favorite movie."
The Godfather (1972)
In the process of continuous accumulation, Li Meijing cultivated a critical aesthetic and was attracted by the bold directors of that era. This passion later fueled her relationship with artist and film director Julian Schnabel, who sees Schnabel as one of her best friends. "She has a beautiful heart and a great spirit," Schnabel said. "She's energetic, so she's always had a lot of things to do, a lot of which I don't know. But our tastes for movies are very consistent. I talked to Li Meijing more than anyone else."
After graduating from Harvard University in 1987 with a master's degree in Asian Studies, Li Meijing began to carve out her own path in the family business. In 1994, after she ended her own short-lived marriage, she began to focus on expanding CJ's business from commodities like sugar and flour into the entertainment space. imax CEO Richard Gerfang met Lee Mei-king in Hong Kong about 25 years ago, and he remembers that she was so interested in the economics of cinema that when they parted, he was a little skeptical of it.
Gelfonde, who became one of Lee's closest friends, said: "She is very optimistic, positive and really confident. I have to say that I was a little skeptical about the ambitious goals she set, but she not only achieved her goals, but also maintained her character and values, she even became more confident and outgoing, she was a very lively person. During the pandemic, my wife Peggy and I sometimes call her because we know she's always a happy, optimistic person."
On such a sunny afternoon, although the epidemic is still raging around the world, Li Meijing still tries to maintain an optimistic attitude. At the same time, CJ has not slowed down its pace, and currently has more than 20 projects under active development, including a remake based on a Korean film, "Save the Earth", and the original director Jang Joon-hwan will co-direct the new version of the film with Ali Esther, director of "A midsummer night's horror". In terms of TV dramas, CJ's Studio Dragon division has 14 projects under development, including a partnership with Skydance on Druna Hotel.
Saving the Planet (2003)
Li Meijing stopped and rubbed her hand, feeling pain in her limbs. The entertainment tycoon suffers from progressive neurocrovascular muscular atrophy (cmt), a genetic disorder that affects nerves in the feet, legs, hands and arms. "It's exactly the same mechanism as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but it only stays in your elbows and knees and doesn't reach the spine," she said. So I really appreciate it. But sometimes it can be difficult to maintain balance and action. You'll gradually lose all your mobility." Li Meijing's grandmother also suffered from the disease. There was no cure in the world at the time, but now orange county has some of the best CMT doctors in the world, and she's optimistic about that.
"The pandemic has been really catastrophic for many people, but in this disaster, I still have time to treat my illness. So in this case, I am grateful."
After speaking, Li Meijing took a sip of water. The cup is naturally half full.