I am a literary giant in Japan

Kitagawa Hide, who was far away in a foreign country, suddenly received a secret call from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology headquarters.

Since Machimura Nobutaka left the Ministry of Education, the newly appointed Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Arima Akira, has increased the allocation of resources and support to Kitagawa Hide, which at one point led people in Kitagawa's entertainment department to mistakenly believe that Mr. Kitagawa had completely controlled the Ministry of Education.

The rumors outside are becoming more and more intense, and some people even suspect that Kitagawa Hidekai will use the Congress as a springboard to transform himself from a member of parliament to the Minister of Education!

In fact, Kitagawa Hide knew clearly that the Ministry of Education's care and help to him was all for the sake of interests.

Japanese politicians are ruthless and ungrateful. The former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto turned against him without any regard for his comradeship with Kitagawa Hide.

This is the norm in Japanese politics.

The Ministry of Education suddenly called, and Kitagawa Hide took it very seriously. He immediately stopped his screenwriting and production work and went to a quiet place to chat with Arima Akira.

".That's roughly the situation. We are planning to co-produce the film version of The Crucible under the official name of the Ministry of Education.

Of course, the Ministry of Education will not gain any benefits from this that should belong to you, Mr. Kitagawa, so please rest assured!
The decision of who will be the main player and who will be the supporting player is entirely up to you, and we will not interfere in any way."

On the phone, Arima Akira was very humble, and it was obvious that the Ministry of Education wanted to ask Kitagawa Hide for something.

They are willing to contribute money and effort, and are also willing to hand over the power of production, screenwriting and casting to Kitagawa Hide. This is simply using the country's money to help Kitagawa Hide make the movie.

Throughout history, there have been only a handful of writers in the Japanese literary world who have received such treatment. Since the post-war era, there are probably only two: Kitagawa Hide and Tanizaki Ichiro.

Moreover, the filming of Ichiro Tanizaki's "The Idiot's Desire" has been suspended for a long time, and since then, the Ministry of Education has basically not been involved in the adaptation of any literary works.

"I understand. Since Minister Arima has said so, I will of course fully cooperate.

I am also writing the screenplay for the film version of The Crucible, and we can start shooting right after we return from Thailand.”

Kitagawa Hide had no intention of letting go of the top IP "The Crucible", a masterpiece that achieved great success in both box office and word of mouth, and also promoted legislative reforms in South Korea. From any perspective, it is one of the works that plagiarists cannot miss.

Moreover, due to the unique plot and attributes of the film, it can also be linked with the soon-to-be-released "Confessions", which is expected to set off a wave of movie-watching craze in Japan.

He just couldn't find a suitable actor for the male lead, Hiroshi Kitahara.

The original male lead of the movie "The Crucible" was played by producer Gong Yoo himself.

At that time, Gong Yoo had just retired and returned to the entertainment industry. His whole temperament was rather melancholy, which happened to be a perfect match for the male protagonist of the novel.

Kitagawa Hide feels that at least half of the success of "The Crucible" should be attributed to Gong Yoo's perfect performance.

Without this core actor, the Japanese version of "The Crucible" he wanted to shoot might be greatly reduced.

After hanging up the phone, Kitagawa Hide sat quietly in the director's office for a while, until Jabami Rei ran over and knocked on the door, he came back to his senses from his thoughts.

"What happened? They said you stayed in the editing room after receiving the call."

Jabami Rei walked in, closed the door, leaned against the wall, and tried her best to put on an expression that said, "I don't care about you that much."

Her expression showed this, but the words she said immediately betrayed her.

Beichuan Xiu smiled helplessly, glanced at the viewing platform outside, turned his head to look at her, and sighed: "The Minister of Culture just called me and said that he wanted to work with Beichuan Entertainment to supervise the film version of "The Crucible."

"Isn't this a good thing?" Jabami Rei looked at him in confusion. "The subject matter of The Crucible is so sensitive. If the Ministry of Education is unwilling to cooperate, it will be very troublesome to adapt it."

"It's a good thing," Kitagawa Hide nodded.

"Then why do you look so sad?" Jabami Rei was even more puzzled, and then she suddenly realized something. She walked closer to Kitagawa Hide and asked in a low voice, "Could it be that the Ministry of Education has made some excessive demands?"

After being in the entertainment industry for a long time, Jabami Rei gradually discovered that official organizations such as the Ministry of Education were indeed launching a dimensionality reduction attack on the entertainment industry.

A small clerk in the Department of Culture can also use the convenience of his position to go to small drama groups to show off, and even let some less famous female assistants do business.

When something like this happens, the crew leader often has to act as the "pimp" and then serves delicious food and wine afterwards, which makes him look like a bastard.

As for the Minister of Culture, who was many levels higher than the clerk, Jabami Rei could not imagine how terrifying his power was.

The former Minister of Education, Machimura Nobutaka, and Kitagawa Hide were almost life-long friends, so Jabami Rei never considered that the Ministry of Education would make things difficult for him.

But what is this called now?

"It's not an excessive request. They just asked us to find some filming locations that they can intervene in before filming, and it would be best if they could insert some relatives or something."

Kitagawa Hide shook his head.

"Oh, and we also hope to use this movie to change relevant legislation. This is a bit tricky because we have to deal with both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Things will become more and more complicated, which is not a good thing for the company and the crew."

"It doesn't sound that excessive?" Jaburi Rei tilted her head, feeling that these were reasonable demands from the joint venture partners.

Compared with the Ministry of Education's requirements, some unreasonable demands made by the client are much more excessive.

However, with Beichuan Entertainment's current financial strength and resources, even if it is a giant film and television company in the industry, or the six major TV stations that control traditional media, they are not qualified to become his client as long as he does not want to.

When dealing with these forces in the entertainment industry, if we use the lines and characters from a movie next door called "Dragon Tiger Gate",

Then Kitagawa Hide is probably the invincible Fire Cloud Evil God. After rushing to the Dragon Tiger Gate alone, he can casually say to the six major TV stations and Trust Film and Television Company: "You don't even have the qualifications to die in my hands."

After defeating them, when he met the Ministry of Education again, Kitagawa Hide could still pretend to be cool and say "You are still okay".

"Yes, it's okay." Kitagawa Hide nodded.

"Then what are you worried about?" Jabami Rei breathed a sigh of relief. As long as there was no conflict with the Ministry of Education, it would be fine.

Kitagawa Hide patted the table lightly with the script in his hand, then sighed and said, "I am thinking about the casting of the male lead of "The Crucible".

"Children of the Dark" has the prototype of Mr. Hiroyuki Nambu as the protagonist, and since you are good at acting, the effect will definitely be good.

But there is no prototype character in "The Crucible", and the heroine Mako-senpai must want you, a hardworking person, to continue to play the role.

The question is, is there any other male star in the entertainment industry who matches Kitahara Hiroshi's temperament and can act opposite you?"

When Jabami Rei heard Kitagawa Hide call her a "model worker", she rolled her eyes.

This term has been ruined by the ACGN world which is becoming increasingly popular nowadays, and girls generally don't like being evaluated in this way.

But thinking that Kitagawa Hide was a workaholic who never left the house and only knew how to work all day, she was too lazy to argue with him about this. Speaking of the main role, Jabami Rei had never actually considered these issues.

In her eyes, it doesn't matter who she acts with, her task is to fully perform the character in the script and present it to the audience.

Now seeing that Kitagawa Hide was so concerned and distressed about this matter, she also started to worry for some reason.

Jabami Rei moved a stool and sat in front of him. She counted on her fingers together with him, and mentioned the more famous male stars in the entertainment industry one by one.

"Kimura Takuya?"

"No. Kimura's acting range is a bit narrow. Although he is more in line with Kitahara Hiroshi's melancholy temperament, it is difficult for him to interpret the feeling of a lower-class person."

"Nakai Hiromasa?"

"No. His status is too low, and the audience may not buy it. Also, his acting skills are average, and his roles are too repetitive."

"Inagaki Goro?"

"No. That's too artistic. Kitahara Hiroshi is not a pretty artistic young man."

Jabami Rei was so confused that she couldn't think of any good candidate for a moment.

Just as the two of them fell silent, Jabami Rei suddenly slapped her head and thought of a perfect candidate.

"How is Osawa Takao?" She had just worked with this actor a few months ago. The two of them, along with Zhou Haimei and Matsushima Nanako, went to Vietnam to film a TV series called "Midnight Express".

This is one of the few failed works of Jabami Rei, so she remembers it very clearly.

In the play, the 31-year-old Osawa Takao played the male teacher with superb acting skills and lifelike appearance. His melancholy and slightly decadent temperament left a deep impression on Jabami Rei.

It just so happens that Kitahara Hiroshi’s character is that of a failed entrepreneur who has fallen to such a low point that he has to work as a teacher in a school for the deaf and mute, which perfectly fits the image that Takao Osawa performed in “Midnight Express”!
Kitagawa Hide had no impression of this flopped drama at all.

Now that its scale has grown, Beichuan Entertainment has to produce dozens of TV series and movies a year. Some of them are shoddy and may fail in box office and ratings even with the endorsement of top stars like Jabami Rei.

In "Midnight Express", there is only Jabami Rei as a big star, and Kitagawa Hide has no memory. It is estimated that the investment amount is also very small, so it is normal for it to fail.

He has no memory of the drama, but he has a lot of memory of Takao Osawa!

Almost no one knows this Japanese actor who wasted his time until he was in his thirties or forties, and his acting career has always been lukewarm.

The reason why such an actor could suddenly turn on the switch in Kitagawa Hide's brain is that he looks somewhat like Gong Yoo.

Later, "Train to Busan" made Gong Yoo popular again and also made Kitagawa Hide pay attention to this actor. Naturally, Japanese actors who were similar to him were also noticed by him.

However, Osawa Takao is not very famous, and if Jabami Rei hadn't mentioned him, he really wouldn't have been able to remember him for a while.

In the original history, Osawa Takao became popular for a while because of the broadcast of the historical time-travel medical drama "The Good Doctor".

Unfortunately, as soon as "The Good Doctor" was finished, he instantly fell into the bottom of his career and never recovered.

"Takao Osawa? It's indeed a good choice!" Kitagawa Hide nodded, then stood up and asked Jabami Rei to call Takao Osawa's office immediately.

At this time, Takao Osawa, who was still worried about the poor sales of his new album "Kiss", was considering shooting a photo album.

In 1987, he was discovered by a scout at the "Third Warehouse" club in Shinjuku and became a model for fashion magazines and fashion shows. He was a sophomore at the time and had a bright future and a bright star path.

After working in the modeling circle until 1993, Osawa Takao entered the entertainment industry with the help of his connections in the industry, and made his debut in NHK's big-budget Taiga drama "Hana no Ran", which was a perfect start that countless people envied.

However, after that, fate seemed to play a joke on him.

From 1994 to 1999, he was always stuck in an awkward position after five years of ups and downs.

In the past two years, various film and television dramas have failed, and his record sales have not been good. There have been rumors in the company that he should switch back to the modeling industry.

From the entertainment industry back to the lower-level modeling industry, in her thirties, she still has to shoot large-scale photo albums.
This was an outcome he was absolutely unwilling to accept.

But if I give up this, it would be equivalent to giving up my acting career.

At this moment, there was a knock on the dressing room door, and before he could react, his agent and the agency's president Asano walked in.

"Osawa, I have something good to tell you in advance. You need to prepare well." President Asano narrowed his eyes and smiled at him with an unprecedented kindness.

Osawa Takao stood up as if he was flattered, bowed 90 degrees and said respectfully to him: "Please give me your guidance, President Asano!"

"Do you know the new novel written by Kitagawa-sensei? The first novel in the trilogy 'Disabled but Determined' is 'The Crucible', which is currently being serialized in 'Mass Magazine'."

It is common knowledge among the office that President Asano enjoys reading literary works.

In order to cater to his preferences, many people secretly read the novel, hoping that one day they would be able to show up in front of the president and be noticed by him.

This is the cruel Japanese entertainment industry.

Naturally, Osawa Takao, who had long fallen out of favor, was no exception.

Among all literary works, he prefers the works of Mr. Kitagawa.

One reason is that Mr. Beichuan’s book is easy to understand and even someone with his level of education can understand it.

One reason is that Mr. Beichuan’s books have changed the fate of many of his peers.

For example, Takuya Kimura, who was once hailed as a box office poison, and Hiroshi Nagano, who became famous with "Ultraman Tiga".

When he heard "The Crucible", Takao Osawa nodded continuously, and a premonition inexplicably arose in his heart.

Is it
"It's good that you've heard of it. Anyway, remember to buy all three books and read them carefully, especially The Crucible which is still being serialized. It would be best if you can memorize all the protagonist's lines and study them carefully!"

President Asano smiled and patted his shoulder.

"I estimate that it won't be long before Beichuan Entertainment will send you the script of "The Crucible". You must seize this opportunity, Oze."

"Yes! I will be fine. Eh?" Osawa Takao was stunned for a moment, then suddenly looked up at the president.

"Congratulations, Osawa-kun, you seem to have been selected as the leading actor of "The Crucible", Kitahara Hiroshi." The agent's expression became even more excited. (End of this chapter)