Tokyo: The evil god doesn't want to be the top star

Taking a deep breath, Xia Fan's nervousness turned into excitement.

Then, he moved.

A lone man took the initiative to rush towards the twelve people.

"He dared to film this film entirely by improvising. Is he an idiot?!"

"Is it possible that Xia Fan would be hacked unconscious by the students in front of the camera?"

Looking dumbfounded at Xia Fan who launched the "suicide charge", Sakamoto Hide and Shirakawa Rika were secretly sweating.

In a real combat, Xia Fan should naturally turn around and run, or use the terrain to fight.

But from the perspective of "The Broken Chrysanthemum and the Knife", which pursues personal heroism and romanticism, only Xia Fan's actions meet the requirements of "drama".

But whether the filming can be completed smoothly or not is not the point for now. It is very easy to get injured in action scenes that have not been rehearsed. Even professional stuntmen would not dare to shoot such dangerous scenes easily.

"coming……"

Under the gaze of everyone present, Xia Fan took the lead and met the two "Black Rakshasas" in the front row.

He quickly swayed his body left and right, narrowly avoiding the oncoming long sword. He drew out the two swords in his hands, one on the left and one on the right, and slashed through the gaps in the helmets of the two warriors...

The blood bag hidden inside burst, and blood spurted out from the necks of the two men. They covered their necks and fell to the ground in coordination.

Without even looking at his fallen opponent, Xia Fan took nimble steps and moved deeper into the center of the battle formation.

The Black Rakshasas' powerful and heavy sword moves with the sound of breaking through the air all brushed past the corners of his clothes...

Instead, the sword in his hand accurately hit the gap in "Promise"'s armor, causing a horrifying splash of blood.

It was clearly a battle with swords flashing, blood and gore, but he managed to act as carefree and elegant as "passing through a field of flowers without getting a single leaf on him".

When everyone turned around, Xia Fan's sword had already pierced through the entire battle formation like a flash of lightning, causing waves of blood and people and horses to fall to the ground.

He stopped in front of the camera, a bloodthirsty smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, revealing his ferocious fangs.

The two swords slowly returned to their sheaths, and the blood-stained military robes fluttered in the wind. Behind them were the Black Rakshasas lying on the ground with blood splattered everywhere.

"..."

For a moment, no one spoke on the entire filming location.

Not hearing the director shout “Cut”, Xia Fan and the students on the ground could only maintain the “freeze frame”, with their movements and expressions gradually becoming stiff.

"Card!"

After a while, Director Nakano belatedly shouted "Cut".

"Great, great! This action is realistic, the movements are smooth, and the coordination is perfect. It can be used as a textbook for group action scenes!"

"I was right about you. Xia Jun, your swordsmanship is like that of a professional warrior!"

He walked forward excitedly, jumped high, and slapped the script in his hand on Xia Fan, who only dared to breathe heavily after shouting "Cut".

"It is just as I thought. Xia Ji Ba Liu is an ancient sword art honed in battle formations."

"The sword moves are concise and sophisticated, without any delay, which really opened our eyes!"

The three Tanaka teachers also high-fived each other in admiration.

Chapter 88: "Manyō Kazama" with Too Many Elements

2024-07-13

"This is all thanks to everyone in the Kagami Shinkei school, who worked so well together."

Xia Fan calmed his breathing and bowed to the students of Jingxin Mingzhi Ryu who were pulling each other up and dismantling their armor behind him.

No matter how powerful the swordsmanship inherent in [Kagura Izumo Sword Dance] is, with his current endurance and strength, he is simply unable to display his true level and achieve the result of defeating many with one.

Although the actions in this scene are mainly free play, the general process has been explained in advance.

I improvised and completed the swordplay and positioning accurately, but it was also very important for these students to fall to the ground tacitly and naturally after being hit by me.

Apparently, the three Tanaka teachers had already taught them the "secrets of the extra samurai bento moves" that they had learned from the last commercial shoot a few days ago.

"Okay, change your clothes quickly, the next scene is Hijikata Toshizo vs. the extra samurai, a 3P action scene..."

"Where is Mr. Sakamoto? Hurry up and put on some makeup, check your clothes, and get ready!"

"Oh...wait, I haven't mastered those extremely difficult moves yet..."

Sakamoto Hide, who was standing on the sidelines with a dazed look on his face, was pulled away by the makeup artist.

"Director Nakano was so bold as to shoot such a complex action scene, and he actually got it right in one try... Should I say it was luck, or was he confident in the actors' solid action expertise?"

Sitting aside with her coat on, Shirakawa Rika held the hot water handed to her by her assistant, but forgot to drink it.

Unlike Xia Fan and Tanaka Shihan, who are "newbies in acting", she debuted as a child star and has been acting for more than ten years, so she naturally understands why Sakamoto Hide was so surprised.

Generally speaking, group action scenes are just like large-scale dance shows. The lighting, camera, and movements of each actor must be rehearsed many times in advance in order to coordinate with each other.

This kind of action was performed on the spot and used a lot of blood bag scenes. If the actors' actions could not be coordinated, the filming could easily fail, resulting in everyone returning to the scene to touch up their makeup, which was time-consuming, laborious and thankless.

Of course, the most difficult part here is naturally Xia Fan, who has to "act against" every extra for one second in a very short period of time.

Not only did he have to follow the camera's movements and perform sword moves on the spot, he also had to accurately use the sword to cut through the blood bags hidden on the armor...

Even if it were Rika Shirakawa herself, who has rich acting experience, she would not be sure that she could pull it off in one go like him.

"Ms. Shirakawa, thank you for your hard work. The director has just confirmed that you will not have any scenes today."

"The director suggested that after you remove your makeup, you and Xia Jun can use the remaining time to rehearse your scenes together for the next filming day."

The stage manager came over and explained the subsequent arrangements.

"I almost forgot. The second day of filming is the scene where I will be acting against that guy..."

Shirakawa Rika nodded and looked around. She didn't see Xia Fan, so she guessed that he was also removing his makeup.

"Whatever. Anyway, it's not the first or second time that I've acted opposite a 'potato actor'."

When she thought of Xia Fan, who seemed cool and handsome but acted a little dumb when he spoke, she felt an enormous headache.

……

After one hour.

"Phew, this is much more comfortable."

After removing her makeup and washing up, Shirakawa Rika combed her hair back into her golden twin ponytails, wearing a cute printed waist-hugging T-shirt, and walked easily to the wooden house next to the shooting location, which was temporarily used as the actors' dressing room and lounge.

"Has Xia Fan arrived yet? Boys just take off their clothes quickly."

Xia Fan, who had also removed his makeup and was wearing a white T-shirt, was sitting in the corner.

He held the document in one hand and spread out the other hand with his palm facing up in a strange "holding the air" gesture, studying with a serious expression.

"Biography... script... shooting script..."

"We've finished filming the action scenes today. In a few days, it will be the second shooting day, and we'll be filming the emotional scenes with dialogues. Are you just starting to read these now?"

Taking a few steps forward and seeing clearly the documents Xia Fan had placed on the table, Shirakawa Rika weakly stroked her forehead.

"Yes, Director Nakano just gave me this information the day before yesterday. I spent the whole night reading it yesterday. I managed to memorize the lines, but I couldn't finish reading all the character information, let alone deeply understand the role."

Only then did he notice the arrival of Shirakawa Rika. Xia Fan looked up, smiled bitterly, and clasped his hands guiltily.

"Ah, no matter who is replaced, if they are temporarily caught to take the blame, they will still have to spend time to watch it from the beginning."

"You continue to watch, I'll review it a little bit, and call me anytime you're ready to practice."

Remembering that Xia Fan had just joined the crew a few days ago, Shirakawa Rika could only nod in understanding and took out her tablet to read the script.

The two of them read quietly in the green room, with staff and extras occasionally coming in and out.

"Manyo Kazama, the Rakshasa royal family..."

Xia Fan was flipping through the biographies intently, glancing at his palm from time to time.

Between his five outstretched fingers, white spots of light invisible to ordinary people were slowly converging, vaguely outlining a blurry human face.

[Noh Mask·Man'yo Kazama: 13%]

"Uh ah... Isn't the character of Kazama Manyo a bit 'too many elements'?"

After looking for a while, Xia Fan stretched and couldn't help muttering.

In his opinion, the progress of shaping the "Noh mask" depends on one's own understanding and cognition of the "role".

Last time, he successfully created the pseudo-persona of "Higashino Yoshihide" in a short period of time, thanks to the more than ten years of uncle-nephew friendship with the other party.

In comparison, the progress of the Noh pseudo-face of "Kazama Manyo" was extremely slow.

From yesterday to today, no matter how hard he studied the character's background information, his progress was barely one-tenth of the way through.

In addition to the fact that Xia Fan was originally unfamiliar with this fictional historical character, Kazama Manye's complex background and personality also became a major obstacle.

In "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", except for the heroine Chiyo and the villain Kazama Manye, other main characters are based on historical figures and are relatively well documented.

However, Kazama Manyō is a fictional representative character of the military forces of the Satsuma and Choshu clans, which were on the opposite side of the shogunate and the Shinsengumi during the Boshin War.

Manye Kazama was born into the noble Rakshasa royal family. He possesses the inhuman combat power of "Rakshasa" and has been trained to be a king since childhood. He is proud of being a Rakshasa and has no good feelings towards humans.

He was dissatisfied with the fact that modern humans trampled on peace and caused wars in pursuit of power and money, but he had to fulfill his obligations on behalf of his ancestors and help overthrow the shogunate in order to repay the kindness of Satsuma at that time.

On the surface, Man'ye Kazama is cold-blooded, disdains lies, and is occasionally willful, arrogant, and unreasonable. But in fact, he is extremely gentle to the people he cares about. He will always do what he promised, and once he has identified something, he will pursue it seriously to the end.

Even the real villain in the plot, the "Black Rakshasa Army", and the "mastermind" behind it, were not defeated by the "protagonist group" Shinsengumi, but died under the Manyo sword of Kazama.

This kind of chaotic character who is both a "non-traditional villain" and a "target of emotional pursuit", and whose stance and emotions are full of self-contradictions, is simply not something that a novice like Xia Fan can figure out in a short period of time.

Only then did Xia Fan understand why the original author Kawasaki Airi and others were so worried about Director Nakano's temporary decision to find an inexperienced person like him to play the role of "Manyo Kazama" that day.

Chapter 89 Curry-flavored attack

2024-07-13

"Humph, now you know how difficult it is. If being handsome and knowing a few sword moves can make you act well, then there is no point in the profession of actor existing."

Hearing Xia Fan's complaints, Shirakawa Rika held her chin with one hand and stood on tiptoe.

"Here, I'll lend it to you for reference, pages 13 to 18."

The next second, a booklet with the words "The Withered Chrysanthemum and the Knife" handwritten on the cover fell in front of Xia Fan.

"This is……"

Xia Fan picked up the booklet and turned to the page the other party mentioned.

The title bar on the first line was written in beautiful small characters: "Manyo Kazama: a proud cat, a domineering president who speaks with a straight face but does not do what she says".

The following pages contain some key points about the character "Man'ye Kazama", such as his background, upbringing, personality traits, combat abilities, etc...

Also, detailed records of character weapon names, catchphrases, representative lines, etc.

Even some of the tones, body movements and eye expressions that could be used during the performance were noted aside.

"Wow! Is this the legendary handwritten character note?"

Xia Fan looked at Shirakawa Rika with some surprise.

"What a fuss..."

"Refining one's own understanding and writing character biographies to understand the character's psychology are the basic qualities of a professional actor."

Under his admiring gaze, Shirakawa Rika's ears felt hot and she turned her head away awkwardly.

After removing her makeup, although Xia Fan was no longer as evil and charming as "Manyo Kazama", her eyes emanated another kind of pure temptation that always made people's hearts skip a beat.

"No, that's not what surprises me."

"Ms. Shirakawa, you obviously don't have any scenes playing the role of 'Manyo Kazama', so there is no need to write a character note for this role..."

"Wait a moment……"

Xia Fan quickly flipped through the booklet in his hand and found a fact that surprised him even more...

"You actually wrote the character notes of all the characters in "The Broken Chrysanthemum and the Knife" by hand?"

Rika Shirakawa actually took careful handwritten notes for every "male protagonist" in the play.

"Is there any way? Do you think I want to?!"