Japanese Entertainment: From special effects actor to action superstar

Chapter 512 Audition, Tomoyo Harada

After a good night's rest, I feel refreshed.

The next day, at breakfast, Tani Akira saw a local Osaka newspaper.

Cheng Long was slurping his noodles in circles with his chopsticks when he looked up at the newspaper and was shocked.

I'm super, police!

In the video, Gu Ming is seen with his arm around Gu Ming's shoulder, like two long-lost friends. He bows slightly as a sign of respect, making it seem at first glance that he has been arrested by the Osaka police for committing a crime!
Gu Ming suppressed a laugh and remained silent.

As the old saying goes.

Don't stand in the middle when taking a photo with the two police officers!
These are all lessons learned!

Fortunately, he reacted quickly. The moment he noticed the two policemen approaching, he imitated Xiao Sa and put his arm around their shoulders in a friendly gesture.

Otherwise, today's newspapers might have reported that Akira Furuya caused a disturbance on his first day in Osaka and was arrested by the Osaka police!

Cheng Long weighed the chopsticks in his hand, feeling quite annoyed: "These reporters really know how to take random pictures."

Gu Ming took the newspaper and glanced at it, then breathed a sigh of relief.

"On the contrary, this is a good thing!"

"Fortunately, they didn't write anything wrong. On the contrary, they praised your actions, saying that you showed great respect for Japanese officials and welcomed you to visit Japan often."

Gu Ming's gaze shifted downwards, then suddenly stopped.

"You're going to play a supporting role in Satomi Hakkenden? How come I didn't know that?"

Cheng Long made a sharp sound.

Who wrote this nonsense!

He's fine for playing two male leads, but he's really not suited for supporting roles.

This has nothing to do with his godfather. Basically, once an actor reaches a certain level, unless they are repaying a favor, it is very difficult for them to play supporting roles for others.

—Unless it's a special case like the one on the Korean Peninsula, artists have no status and listen to their managers completely.

Although entertainers in Japan do not have high status or high income, they at least have some autonomy.

Of course, there is an even more special case, which is the state apparatus...

For example, in the three films "The Founding of the People's Republic of China," "The Founding of the Nation," and "The Founding of the Army," all the actors were relegated to supporting roles.

Gu Ming translated a few sentences for Cheng Long, who was very frustrated after listening to them.

Japan is quite fun, and he also enjoys visiting the geisha districts there. However, every time he comes, he always feels overshadowed by others.

Cheng Long isn't that petty, he just sometimes doesn't like this feeling.

"Never mind, let's eat first! I heard we're going to be busy all day!"

Cheng Long muttered a few words and began to devour the ramen.

Jackie Chan was certainly right about that. He'll be busy all day today preparing for casting auditions.

The casting process didn't really require Gu Ming to do it personally, but he decided to cooperate with the publicity, thinking, "What if I discover some future stars?"

The conference room and offices at the Umeda Hotel have been separated by partitions.

Even with Gu Ming's hearing, he couldn't hear the voices outside. He could only occasionally hear some scattered, indistinct buzzing sounds. Those were the actors who came to audition, talking in hushed tones, but not daring to speak loudly.

The assistants who were traveling with them all turned their attention to Gu Ming and Cheng Long.

"Furuya-kun?"

Gu Ming raised his hand.

"let's start!"

At a command, the actors waiting outside began to enter the venue in an orderly fashion according to their assigned numbers.

Gu Ming looked at them one by one, occasionally offering some suggestions.

Cheng Long was just there to sit for a while and act as a mascot. He wasn't very fluent in Japanese, so naturally he wouldn't offer any opinions. Occasionally, he would glance at Gu Ming, a strange feeling creeping into his heart.

Actually, this is the life he wants!
What he wanted wasn't a Quanwei or an independent company.

If given a choice, he would prefer to be the one qualified to sit there auditioning, the one who holds the power of life and death.

Jackie Chan also dreamed of becoming a Shaw Brothers tycoon or a big boss like Chow Man-wai of Golden Harvest, but as anyone with experience knows, he knew nothing about business and his judgment wasn't very good. It was already quite an achievement that he could do well as an actor.

"What an enviable life."

Cheng Long sighed briefly, then quickly sketched a few more lines with his pen.

Occasionally, when he looked at Gu Ming's list, he would find that Gu Ming would basically just give a big X to any actor and that would be it.

He would circle only a very few names that he didn't understand.

Without a doubt, the actor who drew the cross is not good enough.

Looking at the list at a glance, all of them, who were covered in blood, were excluded.

Filming in Hong Kong is fast-paced and efficient; sometimes a movie is made in a week, and the plot relies entirely on jokes. Auditions do happen, but large-scale auditions like this are rare. Jackie Chan has never experienced this kind of life.

As he was pondering, he suddenly heard his assistant call out a name in Japanese that he couldn't understand.

"Next, Tomoyo Harada. Ms. Tomoyo Harada? Is Harada-san here?"

Soon, a somewhat impetuous girl walked in, accompanied by her parents.

"Wow..." Cheng Long exclaimed in surprise.

So young!

She looks to be only fifteen or sixteen years old.

As for the appearance, Jackie Chan simply doesn't like this one.

It's too small, he likes big ones!
However, with a slight glance to the side, Cheng Long saw Gu Ming instantly raise his head and stare at him for a moment.

"Eh?" Jackie Chan exclaimed in surprise.

So Akira Furuya likes small things?
……

……

Tomoyo Harada, born in 1967, is a future well-known Japanese actress.

Although she is still a 16-year-old girl.

He claims that he wants to become an actor because he admires Hiroyuki Sanada.

If nothing unexpected had happened, she would have starred in "Sailor Suit and Machine Gun" in 1982, becoming one of the characters, and was subsequently promoted by Haruki Kadokawa, becoming one of the three princesses of Kadokawa, alongside Hiroko Yakushimaru.

Of course, in the end, her popularity and other trends did not reach the level of Hiroko Yakushimaru, but she was still a once-glorious actress.

But now, things have changed a bit. The movie is no longer the original movie, so she naturally didn't have the opportunity to act in it, nor was she discovered and promoted by Haruki Kadokawa.

However, one thing has remained unchanged.

She still wanted to enter the industry because she admired an actor, but this time it wasn't because of Hiroyuki Sanada, but because of Akira Furuya.

This was Tomoyo Harada's first time participating in an audition. Before this, she had never been in the industry. Sitting here being watched by several pairs of eyes, including those of people she admired, made Tomoyo Harada extremely nervous.

She felt even more embarrassed when she looked into Akira's eyes.

Gu Ming scrutinized the girl before him, thinking to himself that some things were indeed coincidental.

Isn't this the girl he asked questions to outside Osaka Station yesterday?

"So this is Harada Tomoyo? Sixteen-year-old Harada Tomoyo is really..."

Gu Ming clicked his tongue.

Hard to say.

The sixteen-year-old girl has a slightly square face, but she is very approachable.

In fact, none of the three Kadokawa princesses could be considered beauties, but they were all very approachable and were the type of actresses who were very popular.

"Tomoyo Harada." Gu Ming repeated the name, then, instead of taking out the script, asked an unrelated question.

"You think you can be an actor."

Harada Tomoyo nodded: "Yes, I think it's okay. Um, I only did it because I admire Furuya-kun..."

"Don't try to get close to me with those kinds of things. As an actor, relationships aren't important; what matters is ability."

Gu Ming uttered some nonsense, then quickly glanced at the script.

The main roles have been decided, but the other female characters whose names have been revealed seem unsuitable.

For example, the character 'Inusaka Keno' was originally played by 'Shiomi Etsuko', who was a Japanese action star in the 1970s and also worked for JAC. Now that Tani Akira is here, JAC won't be coming, so of course she won't be either.

However, the character of Keno not only has a significant amount of screen time, but he is also not a child; he has romantic storylines. Casting sixteen-year-old Harada Tomoyo in the role would clearly be unsuitable.

There was a similar role, Princess Hamaji, but the original actress for that role was Nana Okada, whose appearance in the drama was quite stunning. Replacing her with Tomoyo Harada, Tani Akira pondered, still felt it fell a little short.

"But then again, no matter what, Princess Hamaji is just a supporting character; she can't steal Princess Satomi's thunder!"

Many people have said that because Princess Hamaji was so stunning, Princess Satomi didn't look as good.

That's understandable, since Hiroko Yakushimaru didn't debut based on her looks.

but……

Now that it's his turn to cast, Gu Ming feels it's necessary for him to cast a few less-than-stunning supporting characters for Pharmacist Hiroko.

"Try this."

Gu Ming casually pulled out the script for "Princess Binlu" and had someone deliver it to her.

The accompanying family members expressed their gratitude profusely and respectfully handed the script to Harada Tomoyo.

Harada Tomoyo nervously flipped through the thin page of the script.

(End of this chapter)