They all pushed me!

Beichuan Liang jumped down from the chair, moved the chair aside, walked to Hoshino Ai and continued to order:

"Finally, I loosened the thread around your knees, and you..."

"Hey hey hey hey! Don't pour it on me."

It seemed that she was completely immersed in puppet practice. As soon as Kitagawa Ryo finished speaking and the silk strings on her knees were loosened, Hoshino Ai's legs immediately went limp, and she fell directly towards Kitagawa Ryo as if she had lost weight.

Before Kitagawa Ryo could react, he was already pinned down by Hoshino Ai. However, because he fell so lightly, the instantaneous impact was not that great, otherwise Kitagawa Ryo felt that the back of his head would have hit the floor.

While complaining in his heart about why girls nowadays can develop so early, Beichuan Liang climbed out of the situation where he was almost suffocated and patted the shoulder of Hoshino Ai who still had her eyes closed:

"Alright, alright, puppet practice is over!"

"It's over!"

Hoshino Ai suddenly opened her eyes, and her pupils as bright as the stars easily captured Kitagawa Ryo's eyes. She tilted her head in confusion, as if she had just realized the current situation, and stood up from the ground in a somewhat embarrassed manner.

"Sorry, sorry, Ryo should be okay, right?"

Reaching out to Beichuan Liang who was still on the ground, Hoshino Ai pulled Beichuan Liang up and said with some lingering feeling:

"This puppet training is quite interesting. I can immediately remember the force points of the muscles and the rotation of the joints. It feels like I am dancing a robot dance."

"As long as it works."

Beichuan Liang calmed his breathing, nodded and continued:

“Then it’s just imitation practice.”

Taking out his mobile phone, Beichuan Liang casually searched for a short video of a pet cat on the video website, and placed the phone in front of Hoshino Ai.

In the video, the furry kitten walked from the other end of the table to the camera, and seemed to be curious about what it was, and stretched out its paw pads to gently touch the camera.

“So cute—”

Hoshino Ai clasped her hands together and praised sincerely.

"Okay, now Ai will imitate the cat's walking posture just now."

"Eh?"

"That's what imitation practice is all about. If you don't imitate, how can you perform?"

Beichuan Liang spread his hands and smiled at Xingye Ai:

"Let me show you how to do it first."

Under Hoshino Ai's shocked gaze, Kitagawa Ryo actually rolled onto the carpet openly. The next moment, he stretched his limbs flexibly like a real cat. His lazy look and extremely flexible movements were full of mystery, a temperament unique to a cat.

"so cute."

Hoshino Ai covered her mouth and spoke subconsciously, and this time she even forgot to deliberately drag out the sound.

But the next moment, Kitagawa Ryo jumped up from the ground, picked up the familiar wooden ruler in his hand, and made a "please" gesture to Hoshino Ai.

"Oh... this isn't cute anymore."

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After Christmas comes New Year.

New Year is the most important day of the year defined by humans. If a person is alone, he can usually get through it, but on New Year's Day, the fireworks blooming in the night sky and the lights lit in thousands of households will be like a magic mirror, bustling all night long, as if they must turn the people left behind into wandering ghosts.

Hoshino Ai finished her acting practice for the day and was about to say goodbye to Kitagawa Ryo as usual when she was suddenly handed a movie ticket.

"'He Used to Live', oh oh, it seems to be the one starring Liang, a public welfare film that has been promoted for a long time."

"Is Ryo inviting me to a movie?"

"It's okay if you understand it that way."

Kitagawa Ryo put down his phone and answered, but he did not look at Hoshino Ai, but instead looked out the window.

There are no stars in the Tokyo night.

“Expressionism has already taught that.”

"The next step is the experience group."

He spoke softly, and then murmured to himself:

"Considering the time, Sarina should be watching it too."

His dark eyes were clear and bright, and there was a gentle smile on Beichuan Liang's lips.

Hoshino Ai subconsciously clenched the movie ticket in her hand.

It was the first time she saw Liang like this.

Chapter 11: God's Prank

Three minutes before the movie started, in the last row of a theater in Tokyo, Kitagawa Ryo was explaining to Hoshino Ai the difference between experientialism and expressionism.

“In the eyes of the experiential school, if an actor does not feel the emotion he is expressing, he is just a clever mechanic who is just turning wheels and opening springs to make the puppet he plays look more lifelike.”

Because he was wearing a mask, Kitagawa Ryo could only inconveniently stuff the popcorn into his mouth through the gap with his hands. However, as the lights in the auditorium were turned off and only the light of the screen was left on the scene, he felt relieved and pulled the mask up halfway, leaving only his mouth exposed to chew the popcorn more conveniently.

"As the name suggests, the experiential school seeks to experience the role, to think, hope, desire and act exactly like the role in the role's living environment, exactly and logically, just like a real person."

“Only after reaching this stage can an actor get close to the role he plays, start to feel the same as the role, and move the audience.”

Hoshino Ai nodded and said thoughtfully:

"So Ryo used his experiential acting skills in this movie?"

"Ah."

Beichuan Liang glanced at the audience sitting in the front row who were still talking and laughing. He always felt that there was something wrong with the direction of the film's promotion this time. Putting a film that was not at all family-friendly in the New Year's schedule gave him a feeling that people were being tricked into coming in and being killed.

The plot of this movie named "He Once Lived" is actually very simple. It is a story about a sick child who fights the disease tenaciously. It was originally a public welfare project organized by the Red Cross with the aim of advocating social attention to vulnerable groups such as cancer patients.

The reason why Kitagawa Ryo took on the role of the protagonist at that time was because of the advice of his agent, Mr. Izaki. He had become so popular in the past two years. Participating in this type of movie was not only a kind of precipitation, but also could create a positive image for him of being actively involved in social welfare, which would increase his favorability among passers-by.

Because the film had just been released, the first group of people who came to the cinema to support it were mostly personal fans of Beichuan Ryo. Even in the past two days, Beichuan Ryo himself had seen offline movie-watching events held by fan leaders from all over the country on the forum.

Hope everyone is okay.

Beichuan Liang silently gave these loyal fans a blessing in his heart.

The him in this movie is definitely not the Ryo Kitagawa who can make everyone in front of the TV laugh in ten seconds.

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In Miyazaki Prefecture, in a hospital ward, Goro Amamiya and Sarana Tendoji gathered around a computer watching a CD that Ryo Kitagawa sent to them.

In fact, before the movie was taken off the shelves, the outflow of such resources was not allowed, but as the leading actor of the movie, Kitagawa Ryo asked the crew if he could take away two first-cut CDs for his own collection, and the crew couldn't refuse.

Therefore, as long as Goro Amemiya and Sarina do not publicize this matter, there will basically be no negative impact.

In other words, Beichuan Liang's action is actually a trust in the character of the two people.

Sarina Tendouji stared at Ryo Kitagawa on the screen. The movie was almost over, and Goro Amemiya next to her had used up a whole roll of tissues.

From the middle of the movie, Kitagawa Ryo's performance broke down the defenses of Goro Amamiya, a fledgling intern. Even when he saw himself in one scene, he still had no desire to chat. His glasses had been thrown on the table at the side, as his vision was blurry whether he wore them or not.

After spending all his last bit of money and being abandoned by his parents, the protagonist had no choice but to return to the basement he rented.

Two days passed, and as if realizing something, he struggled to make a phone call to someone.

About an hour later, there was a not-so-strong knock on the door.

I managed to get up and open the door. Standing there was an old lady who was over 70 years old. The wrinkles on her face were as deep as ditches. She was hunched over and was carrying a backpack that she had bought from somewhere and was so washed out that it looked pale. The only valuable thing on her body was probably the Polaroid camera hanging around her neck.

This is a familiar stranger that people living in this area deal with most often. Most of the people living in these dark and damp basements are elderly people with no one to support them or patients who have given up treatment and do not want to burden their families. Their special needs have given rise to this strange profession.

"You are the youngest person I have seen in the past two days."

The old woman pursed her lips and sighed. She helped Beichuan Liang back to the bed, then put down the backpack on her back and took out a screen-like backdrop from it. The backdrop was painted with green mountains and green waters, blue sky and white clouds. The green was like the spring breeze, and the blue was refreshing.

The vast ocean flows through the child's arms, as if it will splash out snow-white waves soon.

The people here often can only see the gray ceiling when they lie in bed in their last days, so even if it is fake, the old woman will let them take another look at the scenery.

"Sit down."

With an ugly and even somewhat creepy smile, the old woman motioned Beichuan Liang to sit in the center of the setting.

"Can you smile? Yes, you look really good when you smile."

"What a beautiful child."

"Look ahead."

Something still didn't feel quite right, so the old lady pondered for a while, then took out a white sun hat from her backpack. She walked up to Beichuan Liang and put it on him.

There is a plastic-textured but golden ribbon on the edge of the brim.

"Okay."

With a toothless grin, the old lady returned to the camera.

With the flash of the light, the photo was printed out immediately.

"Keep it. If you want to use it sooner, that's fine. But if you don't want to use it, then just live peacefully and live longer."

After packing up the scenery, the old lady turned around and said this before leaving.

She took many portraits of various families for free. Some people wanted to die quickly, while others wanted to die slowly. Because she didn't know what everyone was thinking, the old lady always ended with this sentence.

"Thank you."

Beichuan Liang thanked him while holding the photo, and he didn't stagger back to the bed until the door was closed with a click.

He turned sideways and looked at himself in the portrait.

It's like looking at my own death.

A sunny smile hung on the pale and bloodless face, and a sun hat was on his head. The background was a dazzling blue sky and white clouds that seemed to be glowing, golden sand and blue sea.

If someone who doesn't know the situation sees the photo, they might think the boy in the photo is on vacation on an island.

Beichuan Ryo pressed the photo under his pillow.

On the script page for this scene, Ryo Kitagawa wrote the following message:

[For patients, will there be a sound when sleep switches to death? ]

In the dark silence, the camera zooms in.

According to the suggestion of assistant director Yasushi Gotanda, the final scene of the film was completely left to Kitagawa Ryo's acting.

Fingertips, pupils, corners of mouth, breathing, chest...

Unconscious, delicate movements lodged everywhere.

One could only feel that all thoughts had been abandoned, and the audience could only focus their attention on him, staring in amazement at the last radiance of life blooming.

In other words, movement.

Then, movement turns into stillness.

"That's a great performance... Ryo."

Tendoji Sarana said this in an imperceptible voice, she smiled and hugged her knees, as if she wanted to carve this impression into the deepest part of her memory.

-------------------------------------

Kitagawa Ryo could hear soft sobs coming from the audience in the front row. He turned and looked at Hoshino Ai beside him, wanting to see her reaction.

But before he turned his head, Kitagawa Ryo felt his hand being grabbed by Hoshino Ai beside him. Her palm was not warm, but rather a little cool.

In fact, Hoshino Ai didn't think her tears were valuable. She had cried countless times when she was treated roughly by her mother in her childhood. It was a pity that the warmth in her eyes could not break through the bone-chilling coldness her skin felt when she was locked outside the door in winter.

But after all, she is good at crying, especially after learning expressionist acting from Kitagawa Ryo. It is no exaggeration to say that as long as Hoshino Ai wants to, she can easily control her tear glands, like a faucet that can be turned on and off at will.

But now, Hoshino Ai feels that tears are the most precious things in the world, as if every drop flowing out of the body will take away a part of the vitality in the body. Every drop flowing out seems to make her feel something in her heart twitching, which is a feeling she has never experienced before.

For Hoshino Ai, tears themselves are also a category of the body as a prop. The tears she shed when she was young only proved that she was afraid and frightened. They were to send a signal of prayer to her mother, because if she did nothing, she would only be treated more roughly.

Hoshino Ai sat there, pursing her lips until they turned white, gritting her teeth and shrinking the corners of her eyes, trying hard not to let any more of those crystal-clear things fall down, and not to let them wash out anything more.

She thought, she really hated the experiential acting style.

-------------------------------------

As expected, the movie "He Once Lived" became a hit, and the related trends directly became popular on Twitter on the second day of its release. Countless viewers called it the most uncomfortable New Year in their lives, but after crying and complaining, they would not forget to continue recommending it.

Kitagawa Ryo's box office appeal and high reputation attracted more passers-by to the cinema. The film, which was originally a public welfare project, even surpassed many commercial works at the box office in a short period of time. Miyazaki Prefecture, where the filming was located, also took the opportunity to launch a new tourism promotional video, and openly set up several filming locations used by the crew as check-in points for tourists to visit, attracting tourists traveling during the New Year holiday.