Translator: Dreamscribe
The camera captured Kiyoshi’s expressionless face from the side to the front.
“……”
Kang Woojin, or Kiyoshi, quietly looking down at the corpse, took something out of his pocket. It was a recorder. Not just one, but several. Woojin stared at the recorders for a few seconds.
Although expressionless, his eyes flickered.
Something rippled within Kang Woojin, who was already fully immersed in being ‘Iyota Kiyoshi’. What was it? He didn’t know. It was hard to express in words. Woojin lifted his head. He looked at the sky. Stars were floating in the pitch-black sea.
Normally, it would be just an ordinary sight.
It should have been the same today.
But why did it seem so bright?
Woojin ignored the swelling feeling in his heart. He could hide it. It was very small. Woojin lowered his raised head. His indifferent lips moved slightly.
“It’s a strange feeling.”
His pupils gradually dried up. He was deliberately erasing his emotions. The reverberation that had been full just before was slowly evaporating, clearly captured by the camera. How could such a thing be possible?
The staff around Director Kyotaro covered their mouths or widened their eyes but did not speak.
“……”
“……”
No, they couldn’t. They were mesmerized by the richness of his expression. Acting? Yes, it was acting. But something about this actor’s performance was more powerful and delicate. He knew how to use everything his body had.
– Clatter.
Kang Woojin scattered the recorders he was holding over the now cold ‘Tsuzuki Itsuma’. No, over the corpse. The recorders hit the corpse’s head, bounced off the stomach, and landed here and there on the thighs.
Of course, this time too, Kiyoshi did not kill him directly.
He had taken his own life.
Kiyoshi had only urged him from right behind. He moved Tsuzuki Itsuma, sent Horinochi Amie and Iiya Saki, the owners of the karaoke bar. Meanwhile, Kiyoshi quietly collected evidence. Photos of the murder scene and recorders. If handed over to the police, it would be enough to label him as a murderer.
With those, Kiyoshi pressured Tsuzuki Itsuma.
All your murders, which you thought were perfect, are in my hands. Unfortunately, I don’t like you. Itsuma, I’ll give you time to settle. Three days. After that, I’ll hand these evidence pieces over to the police. Finish it well.
Kiyoshi’s voice was as cold as it could be.
Tsuzuki Itsuma was driven to the edge of a cliff.
Three days left. Every minute and second, the pressure increased.
It wasn’t guilt over committing murder or fear of being punished. It was the stranglehold of greed. Itsuma, one of the ‘homework’, was from a mid-sized company owner’s family. If things continued like this, he would have a bright future. But having so much meant the blow of loss was also significant.
The wealth, reputation, power, honor, and connections he had built up so far.
All the brilliant things would turn to ashes in an instant. Kiyoshi had advised Tsuzuki Itsuma to surrender. Surrender? Itsuma thought it would be better to give up his life than lose everything. It was the stubbornness to protect the brilliant future he always dreamed of, that it should be.
For him, that future was an ordinary life. A normal daily life.
You only realize the nobility of ordinariness after losing it. Thus urged by Kiyoshi, Itsuma finally took the pills on the roof of the company that was supposed to be his. The pills instantly took his life.
Kang Woojin. No, Kiyoshi.
-Swipe.
He looked down at the corpse with an indifferent face and took something out of his pocket. The camera followed his hand. Kiyoshi took out a worn, folded paper. It listed many names, starting with Konakayama Ginzo. All were completed homework.
And at the end.
-‘Tsuzuki Itsuma’
The name of the corpse before him was written.
“I wonder if she’s watching-”
Woojin murmured softly and crumpled the worn paper. He put it straight into his mouth and swallowed it. It was an action befitting Iyota Kiyoshi.
A moment of silence here.
“Cut!”
After Director Kyotaro’s sign, they changed the composition and did a few re-action shots. After about three retakes, the current scene was wrapped up. But there were more scenes left to shoot here.
Especially.
“Ah, is this that scene?”
“Yeah, the one where Iyota Kiyoshi’s prominent first emotion comes out.”
“It’s difficult-”
The acting for the upcoming scene wasn’t easy. Perhaps that’s why the anticipation of the dozens of staff members grew. Director Kyotaro in front of the monitor felt the same way.
‘This cut is important.’
‘The Eerie Sacrifice of a Stranger’ had many key scenes, but this scene was the highest among them.
‘This scene needs to shine to amplify the impact of the changed ending several times over.’
However, Director Kyotaro.
“……”
Did not approach Kang Woojin, who was getting his makeup touched up in the shooting zone. He had no intention of giving direction. He was confident that this actor, Woojin, would create a scene beyond imagination.
Meanwhile, Kang Woojin.
‘Ugh-‘
Outwardly stiff, but inside, he felt a slight flutter.
‘Isn’t this the first time doing this kind of acting? Hmm- it’s the first. It hasn’t happened, not once.’
Though he already possessed all of Iyota Kiyoshi’s life, it was the first time he was showing this kind of acting in reality. Still, he needed to stay composed. Despite the odd tremble, he suppressed it. Woojin felt a bit relieved that there were fewer eyes on him.
And then.
“It’s done!!”
Woojin’s makeup touch-up was completed.
A moment later.
The staff withdrew. The cameras pointed at Kang Woojin. Director Kyotaro picked up the megaphone. The slate clapped.
“Ready- action.”
Soon, Kang Woojin drew out Kiyoshi, whom he had momentarily set aside. His vision quickly changed. The obstructive cameras, lights, and other equipment disappeared. It was not a filming set. For Woojin, it was just the terminus.
Late at night, the world was silent. No one was there.
There was a body lying at his feet, but it was already dead, so it was not a person.
“……it’s kind of boring.”
This was after he had swallowed the paper with ‘homework’ written on it. Expressionless, Woojin touched his throat. It was scratchy.
“Maybe swallowing the crumpled paper was a bit much?”
He muttered to himself and scratched his head for no reason. He glanced around for no reason. He looked back at the corpse again. Someone had died. But Kang Woojin or Kiyoshi was dried up. Emotion? Feelings? No, the very concept was like that. His awareness was like dry firewood.
His detailed actions, his gaze, his breath.
‘So innocent- it’s so clear.’
To Director Kyotaro watching the monitor, he looked like a child. In reality, he probably was. What was starting to spread within Woojin was a clumsy something.
Camera moved to Kang Woojin’s front.
Woojin turned his body. He hesitated. He looked back at the corpse again. He stared at it for a moment. It’s a pointless action. Let’s go. He tried to step forward, but his feet soon stopped again.
Suddenly.
He couldn’t easily take a step. Around this time, a sudden waterfall erupted inside Kang Woojin. It wasn’t cold or hot. It was lukewarm, but it caused Woojin’s breathing to become slightly irregular. His breathing through his nose, not his mouth.
“Heuh-”
Still, his face was expressionless. But his eyes looking down at the corpse softened. Emotions faintly showed. His feelings could be sensed.
“Not good.”
A calm melancholy. For the first time, Kiyoshi, who had been unfazed by anything, and Kang Woojin, at the terminus of all homework, revealed his emotions.
It was vividly reflected on camera.
Why? Why is that?
Why was he standing here stupidly, unable to move his feet? Kang Woojin suddenly raised his hand to wipe his face. The lukewarm emotions gradually raised their temperature. Yes, they were clamoring. They echoed somewhere inside him.
It’s the end! This is the end!
Yes, it’s the end. There are no more targets to eliminate. And Iyota Kiyoshi is no more. This is the terminus of ‘homework’. And it was also the end of Kiyoshi’s existence.
“Hue, heuh!”
Kiyoshi or Kang Woojin’s shoulders noticeably shook. Something moist seeped through the gaps between the hands covering his face.
A child’s tears.
The reason he couldn’t leave this place wasn’t because the corpse kept catching his eye. It was because he was scared. He was afraid. Afraid that if he left this place, his meaning in the world would be erased, that his existence would disappear, that he would become invisible in an unknown world where nothing was left.
Emptiness? No.
“Kkuk! Heuh! Khub-”
Instead, Kiyoshi’s heart was full. He lived and arrived here to reach this point. He was satisfied. Now he just needed to finish well.
So what next?
For years, he had lived quietly to become the ‘stranger’. And he acted. But tears came out. They weren’t tears rooted in sadness.
“Khuhub!”
It was pity. For himself or for her. It was resentment. A world that was utterly useless until it pushed him to this point. It was regret. The meaning of his existence ending with this trivial matter.
-Sss.
Kang Woojin, whose shoulders had been shaking, bent down. His face reddened slightly. His eyes did too. Tears flowed down. He unclasped the tightly closed clasp on his knees.
Something immense pushed out from his heart to the outside.
“Khuhuk! Kkuhuk! Huhuhub!”
Woojin or Kiyoshi’s face twisted all at once. It was wailing. Moisture streamed from all the holes in his face – eyes, nose, mouth. But he suppressed the noise.
If there was a dried-up wail, this would be it.
The restrained, controlled wailing of Kang Woojin seeped into the ears of dozens of staff members. It filled their eyes. It touched their skin.
‘A wailing without sadness……it’s possible.’
‘He’s crying so quietly- and yet, it moves people. I don’t understand, what kind of emotion is that.’
‘It looks like a tribute to a disregarded life. Truly, he’s a great actor……who else could express something like that.’
Gradually, a hoarse sound came from Woojin’s throat. Snot dripped. Saliva clung to his chin. If he were crying out loud, you might want to comfort him, but his dried-up sobbing made those watching.
‘There’s nothing I can do. Except watch.’
It had a power to make one feel dejected.
To Iyota Kiyoshi until now, life was like a coin dropped on the ground. It was dust entering his eyes. Occasionally, it was water drunk to quench thirst. It was a casual stretch upon waking.
It was a life that trivial.
Even that was now ending.
Kang Woojin’s sobbing, his tears, were cries over recognizing his meaning, less than a grain of millet. It was wailing. It was compassion that couldn’t leave that meaning here. Ultimately, it was pity facing his empty shell that couldn’t leave the terminus.
“Kkuhuhuub- Khuhuk!”
His legs lost strength. Woojin, sobbing with gasping breaths, kneeled. He pressed his head to the ground. His hands touched the ground, trembling slightly. The hoarse wailing continued. The camera captured both the trembling Kang Woojin and the corpse.
It looked like a bow before death.
No. This scene was paying respects and mourning for the meaning he was leaving behind, and it was Kiyoshi’s first external expression of grown emotions. Although it was the meaning of a trivial existence, it allowed him to live. He could return to the starting point.
This cut contained dual meanings.
The meaning of his existence at the end of his revenge was so trivial and small, but that revenge was not entirely futile or without significance.
Kiyoshi found emotional growth here, which was like the sprout of hope.
The beginning of a new life.
A preparation to return to a normal, ordinary life. Kang Woojin’s silent sobbing gradually decreased, but the heated senses of the dozens of staff members watching didn’t cool down.
What this actor was trying to express was so vast.
“……”
“……”
“……”
All they could do was feel.
Now it was Director Kyotaro’s turn. Five seconds, ten seconds, fifteen seconds. They reached the end of the scene. He had to cut off this extraordinary spectacle from his lips.
‘Just a little more, just a bit more.’
But Director Kyotaro coveted the intense process of maintaining the silence. This cut, the current Kang Woojin, was breathing life into the changed ending of ‘The Eerie Sacrifice of a Stranger’. The audience needed to witness this before they saw the ending to understand the final gaze of ‘Iyota Kiyoshi’.
The new beginning of the ‘Stranger’ mixed with countless people.
Finally.
“……Cuuuuut!!”
Director Kyotaro sprang from his seat, even taking off his hat as he shouted. Immediately, the dozens of staff around him exhaled the breath they had been holding. Half of them even clapped.
-Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap!
It was applause directed at Kang Woojin, who was still lying face down. It was high praise for the incredible acting he had shown. There were no words to express it, so they just clapped.
However, for some reason, Kang Woojin, still kneeling and leaning forward, did not move.
He stopped just as he had been acting.
He wasn’t sobbing. There was no sound of silent, hoarse cries. Woojin just lay there quietly. The corpse lying in front of Kang Woojin, who had gotten up first, no, the Japanese actor looked down at Woojin and furrowed his brow.
‘Yeah…you poured out that kind of acting. There’s no way there wouldn’t be a lingering emotional echo. No matter how much of an acting monster Woojin-ssi is, it’s hard to snap out of it right away. The acting just now was really- incredible.’
The staff watching had similar thoughts.
“He must be gathering his emotions.”
“I completely understand. If he got up immediately after showing such crazy acting… he’d truly be close to a god.”
“That restrained sobbing. It will probably be talked about in Japanese acting history for a long time. It’s better to let him rest a bit.”
“Helping him up would just be a distraction, right now. Only he can sort through those intense emotions alone.”
Director Kyotaro, seeing Kang Woojin lying motionless, also stopped in his tracks.
‘…Yeah, after pouring out that much emotion- an ordinary actor would have gone insane. He needs enough time to regain his emotions.’
And Kang Woojin, lying down.
‘Damn, so much saliva and snot came out. Wipe it, wipe it. Maintain the concept!’
Was just wiping his snot.
*****
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