Japanese Entertainment: From special effects actor to action superstar

Chapter 231 Monkey King's Tricks
Haruo Nakajima has not appeared in any other works since his last appearance in Godzilla in 1973.

Although it was due to personality reasons, he eventually bid farewell to his acting career and returned to his hometown to open an acting school.

However, because Nakajima Haruo is not a celebrity and his acting ability is average, although there are some young people joining the acting school, there is not a single talented student, and generally one look needs to be studied dozens of times before it can be performed.

When he received the call this time, Nakajima Haruo himself felt very strange.

Of course, he promised to come to Dongjing after the filming started, after all, he was paid.

To be honest, there was no grudge between Nakajima Haruo and Tani Akira. They just had some personality differences at the beginning, but they later reconciled.

In this way, the film is basically completed, and the only thing missing is that Masazo Uehara returns from Kyushu Island.

……

……

March came in the blink of an eye.

The cherry blossoms are blooming, and the weather is still cold. Recently, the crew has added a lot of scenes for Yaowanzi.

——Because they are on vacation.

This is called spring break, a unique holiday in Japan. Students have three holidays a year: spring break, summer break, and winter break.

Since I don’t have to do homework, of course I should come and film more!

"Brother Gugu, phone call!"

Gu Ming responded and quickly walked over to answer the phone, still thinking that it was probably a film crew looking for him, or something about Hong Kong.

Unexpectedly, the person who called was the director of the Journey to the West crew.

"Furuya-kun... to cut a long story short, thank you so much for this time!"

"Thank me for what?" Gu Ming was a little confused: "I haven't even left the house yet."

"I just got back from Zhou Kingdom today. Oh, you have no idea how much they love Journey to the West. When they heard we were part of the crew, they invited us to Baijing, an unknown place. We took a long car ride and met some important figure. I guess it was one of their leaders."

"Everyone was very nervous at first, but things changed when the work started airing. There was a translator who was responsible for simultaneous interpretation, translating every word we filmed. At first, I saw the leader's expression, and he seemed not very satisfied."

Gu Ming hummed, providing some emotional value.

I don’t know which leader it is, but he is definitely not satisfied.

As for the Zhou Kingdom, it was because they watched the Japanese version of Journey to the West and found it terrible that they decided to make their own Journey to the West.

But this time, Gu Ming made some slight modifications.

as predicted.

The director quickly changed the subject.

"But after watching that Havoc in Heaven, things were different! I saw the leader lean forward slightly, looking very focused. Oh my god, I could tell I liked it. After the first episode, they even asked about the crew and who filmed that part."

Although JAC was listed in the cast list, JAC himself did not dare to take credit for it.

The director said with a smile, "I told them about you and that you were the one who directed that scene. They were very happy. They also mentioned Sun Wukong and the image of the macaque at the beginning of the story. They were really happy. He even recited a poem at that time. I think it was..."

Gu Ming said: "The golden monkey raised his thousand-pound stick, and the jade sky cleared away the dust for thousands of miles."

"Oh, right, right! That's it! Oh, they were really sorry at the time and expressed a lot of concern. Anyway, this drama has successfully passed their assessment over there, and the next step is export! According to the previous plan, this drama will first be sent to Australia, and then exported to several European and American countries, so that those American fans can also see our work!"

Only then did Gu Ming look serious.

There is no need to tell you how much Chinese people love Journey to the West. Even if the director didn't say it, Gu Ming knew what the reaction would be.

But it’s a different story if it can be exported to Europe and the United States.

CCTV's Journey to the West was filmed very well, but there was only one problem: it couldn't be released overseas.

It has a huge influence in Asia, but when it comes to overseas, it has some problems adapting to the local environment.

——Foreigners can’t understand it!
The Japanese version of Journey to the West is the earliest and only Journey to the West work that Gu Ming can remember and has been exported.

By the way, there was a reason why he did not choose to go to China with the group at that time.

The main reason is that the meeting scene cannot be described.

But being able to hear the praise from the other side in this way, Gu Ming was still quite satisfied. He took a short breath and then raised his voice.

"So, to which countries has Journey to the West been sent now?"

"That's right, the first step is Australia! If the response is good, there will most likely be a second film!"

The Japanese version of Journey to the West consists of two parts. The first part is still within the scope of Journey to the West, while the second part starts to be filmed in a more imaginative way.

In the second part, Manatsu Ryuu played a 'Qingyun Tongzi', fighting back and forth with Sun Wukong...

Now Ryu Manatsu has become Sakai Masaaki's stand-in. If they want to shoot a second part, there is a high probability that he will fight himself!
……

……

Australia.

As we all know, Australia is a place that exports prisoners and produces wool, and is known as the cesspool of the British Empire.

But at the same time, Australia has another identity in the literary and artistic circles.

Right now.

The back garden of Asian works.

In today's era, many works from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea are exported to Australia. Those that have been proven to be successful will be further promoted to Europe and the United States.

It can be said that Australians and New Zealanders appreciated many classic works before European and American countries.

Although Australia also calls itself a white country, it is located in a remote area and is an isolated island. Therefore, it is separated from Western countries in many things.

As this shows, the first step in exporting the Japanese version of Journey to the West was Australia.

Japan has several foreign language channels in Australia that specialize in broadcasting Japanese works, and the ratings are quite impressive, basically accounting for 15% of Australian viewership.

The remaining channels broadcast overseas programs and various programs purchased from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Big Dicko is an ordinary New Zealand boy with an equally ordinary name. He has lived in Canberra for three or four years and married a local businessman, which is called "marrying into the family" in Asia.

On Saturday afternoon, Big Dicko lay on the sofa, his hands casually placed on his chest, his posture as peaceful as if he were dead.

The TV remote control was invented in the 1950s, but many TVs don't come with remotes. Big Dico is a lazy guy, so even though the TV is playing commercials, he's too lazy to run over to change the channel. He just stays in this position, eating corn flakes while watching the commercials.

It wasn't until a few minutes later that the foreign language channel finally started broadcasting programs, with subtitles and a dedicated English dubbing.

The opening scene is quite simple. The opening song of the Japanese version of Journey to the West is called Monkey Magic. The lyrics are all in English and it is sung by the band Go-Daigo.

"Goku was born from a stone egg from heaven"

"Ape's heart beats like the wind"

"Everything in the world changes in a moment"

"Laughing at the immortals and Buddhas and playing with all living beings"

"The Great Sage displays his miraculous powers, the Great Sage displays his miraculous powers..."

As the song plays, four faces appear on the screen one after another.

Sakai Masaaki, Nishida Toshiyuki, Kishibe Shiro, Natsume Masako...the last part of the text.

Monkey King.

Monkey King.

It's rare that although the whole song is in English, you can't hear the Japanese-style English pronunciation, but it is closer to standard English.

This is because the singer of the Go-Daigo band graduated from the English Department of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Big Dicko grabbed a handful of cornflakes and praised them inwardly.

The style of this band is right in his zone, and this singing style is even more exciting than the climax of Qianlie County.

Perhaps such an opening song is a bit too trendy for the Zhou people.

But for foreigners like Bigdiko, it's just perfect.

(End of this chapter)