They all pushed me!

With this attitude and thought in mind, Hirokazu Koreeda nodded to the staff beside him, indicating that the audition was about to begin.

The role he auditioned for today was Yuri, a five or six-year-old girl who was abused by her parents in the script.

As the key figure who opens the whole story, Hirokazu Koreeda attaches great importance to this role and even took the initiative to request that her audition be put first.

In the corridor outside the room, child actors and even ordinary people waiting for audition had already crowded onto one side of the benches. Sitting on the benches opposite them were their agents or parents, who were being polite and modest to each other, greeting each other as if the role belonged to their children.

Mrs. Kurokawa patted her daughter's head. She was afraid that Akane, who was visiting such a place for the first time, would be affected by the atmosphere, so she gently spoke to comfort her:

"Don't think too much about it, Akane. Just treat this as a training session like any other."

"Well, Mom, I'm not nervous."

Akane Kurokawa nodded obediently. She sat on the chair and shook her legs slightly, but she was looking for Arima Kana's position consciously or unconsciously.

She clearly remembered that the other child liked to wear a hat when going out, but after looking around, she didn't see any other children wearing similar hats.

"First up, there's Magana."

While Akane Kurokawa was still looking for her hat all over the world, the staff had already called out her name.

Among the large number of children, an inconspicuous one stood up. He was not wearing a hat, but holding it in his hand.

"Sorry to bother you, Sister Xiangzi."

Arima Kana smiled and handed the hat and bag in her hand to her agent Shoko Oeda who was sitting opposite her.

Then, without any nervousness, as the first actor to be auditioned, she walked towards the audition room while facing all the gazes filled with various emotions from the crowd sitting in two rows.

Arima Kana lowered her eyes slightly, and through her collar she could see a corner of the small thing she had hidden inside her shirt as a pendant.

【Know yourself】

She repeated these words silently in her heart, then raised her head again, as if the two rows of people around her didn't exist, she calmly pushed open the door of the room, and then closed it gently.

"I'm Arima Kanae, please give me your guidance."

"Arima Gana... I saw your performance in Spider."

Hirokazu Koreeda put down the information in his hand and looked at the first child who was auditioning with sharp eyes.

Both Gotanda Yasushi and Kitagawa Ryo, whom he was familiar with, had specifically recommended this child's acting skills to him.

But before actually seeing the other person's performance, Hirokazu Koreeda would not easily make his own decision based on his friend's words.

He had indeed seen Maganai's performance in Spider, but that didn't mean he would be able to play his role.

Hirokazu Koreeda has seen many child actors. Except for the freak Kitagawa Ryo, most of the child stars who are known for their "amazing acting skills" just happened to come across the role that suits them best.

Only when they play that kind of role again, or in a more extreme way, only when they play that role again, can they be barely said to have decent acting skills.

There is no way to avoid this. After all, child actors have too little time to learn, so their acting range is often very limited. After becoming famous, many of them will take the opportunity to transform themselves into variety show actors or shoot commercials.

Arimaka is famous for her crying scenes, and she is also known in the circle as a talented child star who can "cry in ten seconds". In her last movie "Spider", in which she played a leading role, her crying scenes were the most outstanding.

but--

Hirokazu Koreeda's directing style rarely has such emotional outbursts. Instead, it is more lifelike. He likes to use daily clips to compose images and even deliberately avoids some intense conflict plots.

At the very least, the character named Yuri will not have three crying scenes in the entire movie with very shocking visual effects like in "Spider".

"Well, let me set up a situation for you."

Hirokazu Koreeda nodded towards Kana Arima in front of him.

He thought for a while, then suddenly pointed his finger at Arima Kana's pants and said in a deep voice:

"You wet the bed, the person you live with scolded you, and you're sorry about it."

After finishing the topic, Hirokazu Koreeda turned his full attention to Kana Arima.

Children generally rarely wet the bed after the age of five, and for young children, bedwetting itself is a rather shameful topic.

Child actors are children first, and actors second.

He was expecting Maganai's reaction.

The moment Hirokazu Koreeda asked the question, Kana Arima had already started her performance.

The first to move were the legs, as if they were uncomfortable with the cold pants soaked in urine and sticking to their bodies, and wanted to pull them off, but they did not get the adults' permission, and their legs were awkwardly close and distant, colliding and separating.

Then, as if a wet sheet or a slap was thrown at her, Arima Kana subconsciously took a small step back, sniffing and lowering her head as if she wanted to explain something, but in the end she just stammered and repeated her apology in a very low voice:

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

The moment he saw Magana's acting, Hirokazu Koreeda even felt that the audition was over.

This was not a pre-determined audition.

However, as the first actor to audition, Arimaka used her acting skills to get selected in advance.

However, Arimakana didn't know all this yet. She finished the performance with ease and bowed quietly.

He just put his hands on his chest.

Chapter 5: No need to coax (k)

"Look, O inhabitants of Thebes! This is Oedipus, who solved the famous riddle and became the greatest of all men. Which citizen did not look upon his good fortune with envy? And now he has fallen into the waves of terrible disaster!"

"Therefore, as we wait and watch for the last day, let us not call a mortal happy until he has passed through the boundaries of life and has been freed from suffering."

The rehearsal of "Oedipus Rex" finally came to a successful conclusion with the chorus singing in a melodious and lamentable manner.

Because she was too absorbed in talking to Akane Kurokawa about the audition, when the last segment was over, Kitagawa Rumi woke up from her dream, looking up again in a daze:

"Ah? Is it over already?"

How come she had no recollection of hearing the lines about Jocasta going mad and hanging herself, or King Oedipus blinding himself and exiling himself?

"Because Liang had some urgent matters, the rehearsal of the last scene about his personal plot has been put on hold."

As if he had seen Kitagawa Rumi's confusion, Kindaichi Toshiro, who was sitting next to her, explained helplessly. He shook his head in distress and said with some complaint:

"Luckily we chose Oedipus Rex. We are all familiar with each other now, so it doesn't matter if we miss two rehearsals. And today's rehearsal went really well. It's almost like we've achieved twice the result with half the effort."

Then, Kindaichi Toshiro turned to Kitagawa Rumi and said:

"What about Ruby? Do you plan on playing in the troupe for a while, or should I take you back now?"

"What about brother?"

"He should be rushing to the set of the next crew now."

"Eh? Brother is going to audition too?"

Kitagawa Rumi glanced at the text message on her phone, raised her head and asked with some confusion.

"Ryo isn't going for an audition."

Kindaichi Toshiro patted Kitagawa Rumi's head and explained to her with a smile:

"For artists of Liang's level, they will not be called by film producers or directors for auditions. They usually contact the agency directly to submit an offer."

"For roles like this one, such as the lead actor or the theme song singer, we usually don't negotiate with several top artists at the same time. We only consider looking for the next person after the first person we contact formally refuses. This is an implicit rule that everyone accepts."

Kitagawa Rumi nodded. She easily condensed Kindaichi Toshiro's long speech into one sentence, and raised her chin with an expression of great pride:

"Brother is really amazing."

Kindaichi Toshiro chuckled and said:

"really."

There are actually quite a few actors with superb acting skills, but if one has both outstanding acting skills and terrifying box office appeal, for any director with dreams, Ryo Kitagawa is an irresistible treasure.

"By the way, which movie or TV show set did brother go to?"

"Let me think... today, it should be Shoplifters directed by Hirokazu Koreeda."

Kitagawa Rumi unconsciously tilted her head at Kindaichi Toshiro's words. She pressed the screen of her phone with her right index finger and swiped upwards, turning to the earliest text message that Kurokawa Akane had sent her today:

"Ruby Ruby, I've arrived at the first audition crew. I heard from the adults next to me that Senior Liang might also be in the cast. He said he's very optimistic about the prospects of this film."

After a long silence, Kitagawa Rumi raised her head with some difficulty, looking at the staff who were packing up the stage props, and suddenly had a bad feeling and asked:

"Where's Sister Ai?"

"She also auditioned there, but I remember she told me that she was auditioning for a minor role that didn't even last a minute in total and only had one frontal shot."

Kindaichi Toshiro stroked his chin and spoke hesitantly.

The case is solved. No wonder I didn't hear about King Oedipus going crazy just now, and I didn't even have any impression of Jocasta going crazy.

Come to think of it, Kitagawa Rumi didn't think she would miss Hoshino Ai's groans and cries, or her desperate cries of regret on the bed.

In fact, she might really be looking forward to seeing the other person's face showing pain...

"But speaking of which, I was a little surprised that Liang dared to accept the offer for this role. This should be his first time to play a gigolo role."

"Eh?"

Toshiro Kindaichi's words interrupted Kitagawa Rumi's thoughts. She looked up at him in a daze, as if she couldn't believe what she heard.

A bad guess suddenly emerged in Kitagawa Rumi's mind. With her understanding of Hoshino Ai's personality, she was surprised that the other party would be interested in such a minor role.

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

"Hello, I'm Ai Hoshino from Berry Pro, and the role I'm auditioning for is 'Guest Number Four'."

Because it was just a minor role with few lines, the one who was in charge of the review was not Hirokazu Koreeda himself, but other crew members.

"A former idol who retired just a few months ago? He should still be popular now--"

"Director Koreeda's note next to this character is 'female, no lines, eye acting'. As for Hoshino, her eyes are pretty."

The staff from the two crews discussed various aspects for a while, stared at Hoshino Ai's resume, asked her to make two expressions of joy or sadness, then looked at each other and nodded, and stamped the "Pass" stamp on Hoshino Ai's personal information.

When Hoshino Ai walked out of the audition studio on this side, before she took two steps, she saw Kitagawa Ryo who was staying under the shade of a tree not far away.

Originally, the words "I passed the audition" were about to burst out of Hoshino Ai's throat, but when she got closer and found Kitagawa Ryo comforting Kurokawa Akane, who looked depressed and obviously failed the audition, she quietly took back the words.

"It's just my first audition. I've failed many auditions before. There were even times when I couldn't get a role even after auditioning for a month."

Kitagawa Ryo, who had his back to Hoshino Ai, did not notice her approaching. Instead, he focused all his attention on Kurokawa Akane, who was already tearful in front of him, and comforted her carefully.

Akane Kurokawa is a very talented child, but she cannot simply show a scene she has never seen.

The scene that director Hirokazu Koreeda assigned to her was a little girl who was locked outside the balcony by her mother in winter and shivered all over.

I can only say that it is indeed a bit difficult for Qian, especially since she was accompanied by her mother when she came for the audition today.

Although she tried her best to appear pitiful, Akane Kurokawa's performance was still too immature and superficial, and was not recognized by Hirokazu Koreeda.

"Kana was chosen because she successfully interpreted the role with her acting skills, but that doesn't mean Akane's talent is inferior to Kana's."

Realizing that Kurokawa Akane might be secretly competing with Arima Kana, Kitagawa Ryo comforted her with the right remedy.

"Then——how do I interpret the character through acting?"

Akane Kurokawa raised her head from his arms somewhat unwillingly.

"Well...it would be better if you first understand the character's psychology."

Kitagawa Ryo felt that there was no need to talk to Kurokawa Akane about experiential and expressionist acting now, so he tried his best to consider a more simple expression.

"I see. Thank you, Senior Liang."

As if she had gotten the answer she wanted, Kurokawa Akane nodded vigorously, pursed her lips, and left Kitagawa Ryo's arms.

"I'm going back with my mother first."

"Well, have a good rest."

After saying goodbye to Beichuan Liang, Kurokawa Akane turned around and walked back to her mother's side, and took the initiative to hold her mother's hand, who had a slightly worried look on her face:

"Mom, I'm fine."

"Well, actually, Mom is very happy to see that Qian is willing to be in front of so many people without being nervous at all."

"I will definitely pass the audition next time."

"Mom has always believed that."

The mother and daughter chatted as they walked side by side to go home. However, when they passed a bookstore, Kurokawa Akane suddenly stopped and pointed inside the bookstore and said:

"Mom, I want to go in and take a look."

"Of course, is there any book Qian would like to read?"