Japanese Entertainment: From special effects actor to action superstar

Chapter 25 Leather suit shooting, the birth of a perfect creature

What's it like to play Ultraman?
Gu Ming once imagined such a scenario.

However, when the actual filming started, Gu Ming realized that this was not a fun thing.

It was extremely stuffy inside the leather case, and even with the air conditioning turned to the maximum, it was still very hot.

Although the pool was only ankle-deep, it was still inconvenient to move around. Gu Ming had to use all his strength to identify Bermuda through the narrow peephole.

The two people, following the planned movements, fell into the pool again and again. The cold water flowed into the leather case through the gaps in the leather case and the peephole, making breathing difficult.

Just as Nakajima Haruo said.

Hold your breath.

Although this will be more painful and you will often feel like you can't breathe, you will not faint from choking on water.

It was a simple action, but it took more than ten minutes to shoot it.

The surrounding Wan Gu staff rushed over to help Gu Ming and Aragaki Teruo take off their leather suits, keeping them in a half-undressed position to dissipate heat and replenish water.

The two people looked at each other like deformities growing out from behind Ultraman and the monster.

"Mr. Araki, are you okay?"

Aragaki Teruo grinned: "Don't call me Mr., we are probably about the same age."

He drank the salt water in small sips and rubbed his shoulders, looking very troubled: "But, Gu Gujun is still too strong. It hurts here. It would be better if you could be gentler."

Gu Ming nodded: "I will avoid it as much as possible."

The feeling through the holster was not right, and he didn't know how to control his strength under his hands. With the experience he gained, Gu Ming would try to avoid it next time.

After a short break, the two put on their stuffy leather suits again and returned to the pool for filming.

For a whole day, he fell and was soaked in water repeatedly, and his hands and feet were white and rough. When Gu Ming finally crawled out of the leather case, he felt a kind of happiness like a miner seeing the light of day again.

I raised my hand and rubbed it slightly, and the skin actually peeled off a little.

Before, Gu Ming felt very painful when playing the bear puppet.

But now, Gu Ming finds that being a suit actor is even more painful.

It was several times more painful than he had imagined.

Seeing Teruo Aragaki who had taken off his suit and was wearing only a pair of shorts like him, Gu Ming bowed to him.

"Aragaki-kun, you've worked really hard today."

Teruo Aragaki also responded with a salute.

"You are the one, Furuya-kun. You've worked hard too."

Outside the venue, Wangu Eiji had left without anyone noticing. Wangu Ichi was still there, after all, he was the chief director.

"Speaking of which, although Gu Gujun is a newcomer, he did surprisingly well. He was able to adapt even to water battles." Wan Guyi praised.

He originally thought that Gu Ming might not be able to adapt to the filming method of water battles.

Wanguyi smiled and said, "My father said before he left that he was a little worried, but now he's completely relieved. It seems he was very satisfied with your performance. Especially Furuya-kun, I didn't expect him to perform so well in the water battle. If he were still at Toho, he would probably be my father's favorite actor."

Directors and producers from that era all have their own habits and use a fixed team.

For example, Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai, who worked with Kurosawa, have been Kurosawa's favorite actors for many years.

Haruo Nakajima is the official actor of the Godzilla series and has been Godzilla's suit actor for more than ten years.

Gu Ming just bowed.

After all, I spent 3,000 yen to learn this trick from Haruo Nakajima, so it must be effective.

Wanguyi stepped forward to comfort him, "You two have worked hard, take a good rest. And Furuya-kun, if possible, buy some ointment on the way back and apply it to the injured area. Rest and recuperate. After all, we still have to continue filming tomorrow."

Gu Ming agreed and took note of this matter.

Although he was the one responsible for the fight, there were occasional scenes where Bermula would fight back, and Gu Ming would of course fall down and get bruised.

Teruo Aragaki is an experienced suit actor and is already familiar with this, but it was the first time for Gu Ming to hear about it.

After returning to the locker room and changing his clothes, Gu Ming really didn't even feel like taking any action.

He leaned against the wardrobe and rested for a while before getting up and leaving.

When they returned, it was already past 6:20, and Gu Ming was unable to see today's advance episode.

After dinner, I took a short break and did some light exercise, and that’s it for today.

……

……

In the blink of an eye, it was Sunday.

With great respect for Sekizawa Shinichi, Tetsuo Kaneshiro finally managed to revise the script, but filming of the first episode was still not completed. Although Ultraman's scene was only three minutes long in the plot, it was actually more than that. Tani Akira and Aragaki Teruo collaborated on the filming for two days to complete it.

Of course, this was also due to the water fight, which caused the two people to need to stop and rest frequently.

Otherwise, the action scenes can be completed in about a day.

In total, including adding special effects, re-editing, adding human characters, etc., it will basically be completed by next Tuesday.

The tape must be submitted to the TBS broadcasting department next Wednesday, otherwise it will not be released in time next Saturday.

This doesn't mean they can rest. The new episode's suits, damaged buildings, and used suits also need maintenance. There's even a script, and Tetsuo Kaneshiro is still busy.

After all these things are done, there is not much time left to shoot the new episode.

Time is very tight.

Fortunately, he didn't have to work on Sunday, so Gu Ming lay down at home and rested for a while. At ten o'clock in the morning, he finally supported himself and sat up.

It is impossible to rest, Gu Ming plans to go to the reading room, on the one hand to continue to look up information about this world, on the other hand, Gu Ming plans to look up information related to judo.

Since it has been confirmed that Ultraman's fighting style will mainly rely on judo throws, Gu Ming does not want to rely entirely on past action experience.

If it weren't for the lack of time, Gu Ming would have wanted to find a judo gym to sign up.

"Come to think of it, I'll still have enough energy to watch the last episode of the prequel at 6:20 tonight."

Gu Ming thought about it, but he didn't know what the effect would be, and whether it would have the effect he imagined.

Gu Ming studied in the reading room without sleep or food until the evening. When he looked at the time, it was already five o'clock.

Originally thinking of going back to watch TV, Gu Ming stopped again.

I can’t say why I had this idea, I just wanted to go for a walk in Shinjuku.

Without the somersault bear doll, I don’t know what’s going on over there.

……

……

The clock had just struck six and there were already quite a few children waiting outside the store to watch TV.

Although many people in Japan have TVs at home, the TV screen in the convenience store is relatively large and looks good. They can also buy snacks here and discuss the plot with their friends. They like it here.

Shaqin is not the kind of person who would spoil the fun, so she naturally tuned the TV to the TBS channel early in the morning.

Looking at the many children and their parents gathered outside the door, for a moment, Shaqin felt a little emotional.

Although Furuya-kun is no longer here, he still brings many customers to the store.

Children don’t buy a lot of things, sometimes just a bottle of soda to quench their thirst, and housewives who take care of children are often not stingy with a bottle of soda.

Even so, there was still a lot of new business.

Shaqin is not particularly interested in special effects, but on the one hand, Gu Ming is in it, and on the other hand, after watching it for six consecutive days, Shaqin also wants to see Ultraman.

The image that has been created for six days but has never appeared, no one knows what it looks like.

The clock pointed to 6:20, and TBS began to broadcast the last episode of the pre-production on time.

The inspiring march "Victory" composer Kunio Miyauchi played on TV.

Shaqin tucked her hands into her apron and watched the screen like everyone else.

"Look! What's flying in the sky? A bird? A plane?"

"It's Ultraman!"

Gu Ming's voice sounded on TV.

Wan Guyi let him play freely, so Gu Ming directly borrowed Superman's lines.

The well-dug green screen, with the background set in the starry sky, and the bird's-eye view, shows the huge figure of Ultraman.

The tight leather case vaguely reveals the outline of the body.

Punching and kicking, Spesium...

The monsters that appeared in the previous six episodes were hit by the light and fell down one after another.

The children in front of the window made a neat "whooshing" sound and didn't even have time to take a sip of soda.

Amazing!
too strong!
Not to mention the children, even many housewives looked over here.

I never thought that a pair of leather suits could be so stunning. Even the rubber suit couldn't hide the body contours, and the twisting body and punching showed extremely strong waist strength.

Very impressive!

(End of this chapter)