The Script-Eating Actor – Chapter 97

Ch 97

Time flew by quickly, and a dazzlingly beautiful spring arrived.

Reports of my Hollywood move flooded in, and it had already been over two months since filming for the movie <7 Years of Memory> began.

April.

Cherry blossoms were scattering in the streets, and the scent of spring was everywhere.

“We’ve been waiting and waiting for this scene today!”

Director Park Jin-woo had postponed this scene for this very moment.

The final shoot for <7 Years of Memory> had begun.

A panorama cut of ‘Kang Jun’ and ‘Ha-yoon’ reminiscing about beautiful memories with their older sister.

High school days, early twenties, and the present.

I had to portray three different perspectives looking at the same place.

The first scene was from high school days.

After making me look younger with makeup, I put on a school uniform and a wig, and had my hair cut again to fit my head.

“How is this thirty years old? He looks good even in a school uniform?”

The head of the makeup team chuckled playfully as she fixed my bangs.

“Hmm, is it because the team leader made me look too young?”

Wearing a school uniform at the age of thirty.

It’s a unique experience.

At that moment, the second assistant director ran towards me.

“Hyungnim, are you ready… Wow.”

“Is it weird?”

“No. It suits you too well.”

The head of the makeup team asked the assistant director.

“How old are you this year? Twenty-eight?”

“Twenty-seven.”

“Look at Jae-hee. He’s thirty. Can you believe it?”

“Ah, team leader! How can you compare me with Jae-hee Hyung!”

I laughed cheerfully.

“Haha, I’m ready, so let’s start.”

“Yes!”

The walkie-talkie flashed.

“Okay! We’re going to shoot!”

*

I’m sitting on a bench under a cherry blossom tree.

A shadow falls over me as I’m smoking alone.

I look up and see my older sister standing there.

“… What is it?”

My older sister asked me.

“Did it hurt a lot?”

One side of my cheek was swollen red.

“….”

I couldn’t say anything.

My mother was gone, and my father was incompetent. I was so ashamed of that. I had no interest in studying, and I was always out of the house as if I was rebelling. Of course, the family wasn’t harmonious.

Taking care of this family was entirely my older sister’s responsibility.

‘Don’t go out, stay home.’ To my older sister who was advising me.

‘Shut up!’ When I yelled like trash, my father slapped me across the cheek.

Slap!

‘How can you talk to your older sister like that!’

‘Why did you hit me! What have you ever done for me!’

I suddenly screamed and ran away to a bench under a cherry blossom tree in a nearby apartment complex.

My older sister snatched the cigarette from my hand and said.

“Who told you to smoke this?”

“….”

“Does it make you feel better when you smoke?”

I didn’t open my mouth until the end.

My older sister puffed out her cheeks and said.

“Then, should I try smoking once too?”

And she picked up the cigarette pack and lighter that were on the bench. My eyes widened.

“What are you doing?”

My older sister picked up a cigarette, put it in her mouth, and started to light the lighter.

Click, tick-tick.

“Hey! Are you crazy?”

I hurriedly snatched the cigarette and threw it away.

A cigarette rolled on the floor.

“Are you crazy? Why are you smoking?”

To my blunt question, my older sister smiled and said.

“Then what about you? What’s so hard that you’re smoking?”

My pupils shook as if an earthquake had hit.

My older sister chuckled and asked.

“You’re going to quit, right?”

“…. I don’t know.”

Night sky.

Under the cherry blossom tree where only one street lamp flickered. The street lamp light illuminates the falling cherry blossoms.

The background stops.

Only time has changed.

The older sister who would take my cigarette is no longer here.

Before I knew it, I’m an adult, and after being discharged from the military, I’m working part-time, and I’m the only one sitting on the bench. In my hand, I still have a cigarette.

I put a cigarette in my mouth with a complicated expression.

“Hoo━”

Puffs of smoke came out of my mouth, and the camera angle tilts up （following the smoke rising into the air ）.

In the air, the falling cherry blossoms and smoke meet. When the angle comes down again.

Before I knew it, I, who has passed 7 years, am sitting there.

I’m a detective.

I’m the one who finished ‘revenge’.

My whole body is covered in wounds. There’s a bandage over my eye, and bandages are wrapped around my head in a mess.

But, my expression is brighter than ever.

I still have a cigarette in my mouth, but it’s not lit.

The corners of my mouth slowly go up, and I muttered.

“… I can quit.”

Finally.

Narration flowing through the cherry blossoms.

Cherry blossoms are more beautiful than any other flower, but they fall just as quickly.

Just like youth.

And like my older sister.

“Cut! Oooookay!”

*

As spring came and the cherry blossoms fell, filming for the movie <7 Years of Memory> wrapped up （filming ended）.

“Aigo━ it’s over like this.”

“Everyone, you’ve worked hard!”

“Jae-hee Ssi, you’ve worked hard.”

“Director, you’ve also worked hard.”

The filming period for a movie is usually from two to six months. And although it’s not common, it can take up to a year.

It varies slightly depending on the genre and location, but if there is accurate acting and prepared continuity.

Usually, it can be finished within three months.

All the movies I’ve filmed so far have been like that.

“Shouldn’t we give the staff bonuses with the remaining production costs? We finished a month early?”

“Haha! You’re right.”

The reason why we were able to film faster than the expected filming period of more than 4 months.

“Hey, if there are bonuses, we should give them to Jae-hee Ssi? This is the first time in my 10 years of movie making that I’ve seen an actor who came perfectly prepared without making a single NG.”

“Kuh! Is that all? His acting potential exploded in this movie, right?”

The staff gave the credit to me.

“Today is a beef dinner! This is also counted as a daily wage! I got permission from the PD, so you must attend! There are no absentees! Haha”

After filming ended, a drinking party followed.

We drank sake and soju with hot stew and yakkiniku sizzling on the grill.

And we talked about the movie until we were tipsy.

“How do you think the movie will do?”

“It feels good? That’s why such amazing actors participated!”

The movie <7 Years of Memory>.

The story begins with a typical melodrama.

A son who hated his poor family.

A cheerful older sister.

An incompetent father.

Then one day, the older sister suddenly goes missing, and he wanders around looking for her traces.

He gets angry at the police’s words that she might be dead, and he gets angry at the reality that he can’t do anything.

Like that for a few months.

A body is found. It’s only presumed to be the older sister. In a terrible state where nothing can be found, not even organs.

The main plot of the movie is a crime thriller where the son becomes a detective to find his missing older sister, and the father protests in front of the police station every day for 7 years ━ and the 7 years of wandering ends in the form of ‘the same revenge’.

But, it has the meaning of a family being newly reconstructed with the father and son, who were worse than strangers, after the family member, the older sister, who was the only link between them, disappeared.

A movie that makes you come out of the theater with quite serious thoughts after going to see it with a light heart.

These kinds of movies, even if they do well at the box office, tend to be ignored by critics.

“The reviews of the articles about the still photos are generally favorable.”

“That’s right. If we avoid bad reviews at the press screening, the chances of box office success are high.”

Because the fate of the film company is on the line, they made it with the intention of box office success, but Director Park Jin-woo’s basic movie style remains.

It feels good so far.

At that time, senior Seol Gang-shik called me.

“Jae-hee, come here.”

“Yes, senior.”

I moved to senior Seol Gang-shik’s side. The senior asked.

“Are you going to America next week?”

“Yes.”

My <7 Years of Memory> ends here.

Now, I’m heading to America, waiting for the release results that I don’t know when they will be.

For a higher leap.

“Before you go, do me a favor.”

“A favor?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing big.”

Senior Seol Gang-shik, who was staring at me, took something out of his bag.

What he took out was a copy of the <7 Years of Memory> script.

“Before you go, sign it here.”

“Excuse me?”

A signature?

When I asked back, the senior burst into laughter, feeling embarrassed.

“Yeah. My daughter is a fan of Jae-hee. Puh-huh-heup.”

“… Ah.”

“Since her dad is in the same movie as Jae-hee, she’s making a fuss about taking a picture. I’m asking you now after putting it off.”

Ah.

I smiled and replied.

“Of course, I should do it.”

I received a pen from the counter and finished signing.

And for the first time, I took a selfie with the senior.

“Ah, no. Erase this and take it again. Again.”

“Puh-heup, yes. I’ll take it again.”

“Ah! Just the two of you? Me too! Let’s take a picture together too!”

“Huh? Me too, me too!”

Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve taken pictures with fellow actors with a personal camera.

All the pictures I had were group photos taken for press reports.

There’s a reason why I’ve remained as ‘actor Do Jae-hee’ to the people around me, and not ‘human Do Jae-hee.’

Senior Seol Gang-shik, who was looking down at the picture sent by text, patted my shoulder.

“You look good when you smile.”

“….”

Ah.

This feeling.

I think I know it for sure now.

I said playfully.

“Senior, please give me one autograph too.”

“Huh? Who’s my fan?”

“Me.”

“Who? Your mother?”

“No. Me.”

“… What?”

“Puhahaha!”

We burst into laughter at the same time.

“You rascal! Okay. Like I’m someone you’ll never see again? Just buy me a soju when you come back to Korea later. Give me a call like this.”

“Haha! Yes, senior.”

*

A person can only become an actor by ‘cherishing’ all the emotions of daily life.

Isn’t there a pretty famous story?

An actor who is saddened by his mother’s death.

Even when he is wearing mourning clothes and bowing to the mourners as the chief mourner.

‘It’s a good death.’

Even in situations where he has to force a bitter smile on the outside, while cursing on the inside, saying where is there good or bad in death, at the words ‘a good death’ someone said.

You have to cherish all the emotions of that time in your heart to become a real actor.

It’s cruel, but.

Ah, this is what this emotion is like.

This is how much my fingertips tremble.

This is what the breathing is like when sadness is so overwhelming that you can’t breathe.

He said that he couldn’t stand himself, who couldn’t be 100% purely sad and kept calculating, and that it was too difficult to endure.

That actor is now an actor that the whole nation trusts and watches.

‘There is acting in life.’

Senior Seol Gang-shik’s advice became an opportunity for me to look back on my acting life, where I only acted within ‘books’ and ‘greed’.

He’s right.

Isn’t there also the ‘result’ of passing the Hollywood audition with the learning I gained from ‘life’?

After that, a small habit was formed in my life.

I record my daily life,

And compare it to my life that existed in books.

Training for a more truthful performance.

And now I.

I’m about to leap for a slightly higher place.

I looked down at the English script for that arrived by international mail.

‘JaeHee Do’. My name was written in one corner, and the face of the famous Hollywood actor, John Mikel, was drawn in a mono-mosaic tone inside a large musical note.

A script that looked luxurious at a glance.

That script asked me.

『Will you absorb it?』

I nodded.