“My love for you has nothing to do with you.”
This doesn’t seem to make any sense, at least not until you watch Jacky Xue‘s new MV and mini-movie. In his first single after signing with a new company, Jacky writes about a love that doesn’t ask for reciprocation. The related mini-movie, titled Right Beside You (最熟悉的陌生人, literally “The Most Familiar Stranger”), tells of a man named Yang Xi, who falls in love with a girl with face blindness. When her boyfriend leaves her and she gets sent to the hospital, Yang Xi decides to pretend to be her boyfriend and protect her until her illness can be cured. Although she must depend on a photograph to remember his face, he nevertheless remains devoted to her.
In order to ensure that his song aligned with the mini-movie’s plot, Jacky secluded himself for half a month to find inspiration. At one point, he refused to board the plane to Beijing, where filming for the mini-movie would take place, because he hadn’t yet found the melody that would generate the most feeling. After all, “if this song can’t emotionally move me, how can it touch viewers and listeners?” Although he had to start over many times, he hopes that everyone will approve of and like the result.
The MV for “Within Your Circumference” (方圆几里), composed and written by Jacky, and English-subbed at Cfensi’s subbing channel.
Watch the mini-movie with decent English subs at PPS.TV.
Because the filming schedule was so tight, the team worked from 5am to 10pm almost every day. This hectic schedule, as well as the immense temperature difference when filming inside and outside, caused Jacky’s tonsillitis to flare up. In the scene where he sends the female lead to the hospital, he had to get treatment instead. Nevertheless, director Steven Zhao praised him for being a good actor and said he would invite Jacky to act in his next big movie.
Apart from being the mini-movie’s theme song, “Within Your Circumference” is also an exclusive soliloquy written for Jacky’s family members, friends, elders, and fans, who have silently supported him and been at his side. To Jacky, their love is his motivation for moving forward.
Although Jacky has been extremely busy with promotions for this song and his new album, expected to be released in the middle of the year, he recently attended a charity banquet, where he bid 12,000 yuan for a make-up bag personally illustrated by actor-singer Wu Xiubo. At a previous charity event, he even gave his own beloved guitar to a blind child who loved music.
