Tokyo: My obsession with China led me to become the king of Japanese entertainment.

"New movie? Rider studio? New Kamen Rider?" After a few seconds of stunned silence, Sakurada Jun finally realized what his senior was talking about.

New Kamen Rider, strictly speaking, isn't Toei's Kamen Rider division; it's more like Toho's.

The third installment in Hideaki Anno's new tokusatsu series, plus the worst-received and worst-grossing film.

With a total box office of around 2 billion yen, although this is definitely a huge hit in Japan, it pales in comparison to the other two new tokusatsu films.

It's only about half the quality of Sinnoh and around one-fifth the quality of Shin Godzilla, and its rating is also low.

On the Chinese platform Douban, which isn't very objective, while the scores for the trilogy aren't high, the other two films are close to seven points, while the new film only gets around five points.

All I can say is that it's a terrible movie.

"How do you know everything?" Although Minami Hamabe didn't mean to show off, she couldn't help but pout when she heard Jun Sakurada guess that she was talking about the Knights Studio film set in just a few seconds.

Jun Sakurada often appears so intelligent that it makes Sakurada feel that her own intelligence is insufficient.

"Minami-chan, have you been watching too many tokusatsu films and gotten a misunderstanding of the niche of tokusatsu?" Sakurada Jun rolled his eyes.

Actually, he prefers to call her "senpai" (senior), but since Hamabe Minami calls him by his name, he occasionally responds by calling her by her name as well.

"Even when I'm making Saber, I only dare to let you make a cameo appearance. It's only in the theatrical version that I can try to let you play the lead role."

"Where would an ordinary special effects studio get the resources to hire a top-tier star like you? It's unlikely to happen for at least five years."

"The only knight booth that matches your status is probably Hideaki Anno's new trilogy."

Actually, that's not entirely accurate, because next year marks the 50th anniversary of Knights Studio, so Toei has quite a few big plans.

This includes the inevitable arrival of a new Kamen Rider series, the anime adaptation of Fuuto Detective, and the web series of Kamen Rider Black Sun, among others.

Because this batch of works is a special commemorative production, the number of people invited is much more extravagant than that of the main TV series, and it includes big-name stars.

For example, the show "Black Sun" invited Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tomoya Nakamura, and others.

However, by the end of 20, compared to the new Kamen Rider that had been hinted at earlier, there was not much news about Black Sun, so Jun Sakurada couldn't make any guesses.

But most importantly, Jun Sakurada remembered that Minami Hamabe had acted in this kind of thing in her previous life.

"It's a good thing to have a role to play, why are you telling me this?" Jun Sakurada asked, puzzled.

If we follow the same path as before, the new Kamen Rider series will likely be released in early 23, and the Saber movie will be released in mid-21. The interval of nearly two years is not particularly short.

While it's rare for someone to play two different roles in two different works by the same producer within two years, it's not unheard of.

Kiriya Kyosuke and Sakurai Yuto were only two years apart.

So... why did Minami Hamabe come to me about something like this?

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"Because... how should I put it, it's hard to explain." Minami Hamabe gestured with her hands, but didn't know how to describe it. Her mind couldn't process it for a moment, and she stomped her foot in frustration.

"Come in and talk slowly." Sakurada Jun could tell that Hamabe Minami didn't seem too happy, so he didn't directly say, "You called everyone out for something like this?"

He led Hamabe Minami into his home and they sat down to chat.

"Let me guess... could it be that my 'bad movie radar' is going off?" After sitting down, Jun Sakurada thought for a moment and asked, half-jokingly:

"Bad Movie Radar?" Minami Hamabe was taken aback.

"Is it like, 'Even though there's no evidence, your intuition tells you that you're about to encounter a terrible movie'?" Jun Sakurada chuckled.

Minami Hamabe pondered for two seconds, then clapped her hands lightly: "That's true!"

"Although I haven't even seen the full script yet, at most I've seen an outline and some conceptual diagrams..."

"But for some reason, I always feel that there are some big problems with this character, or even with this movie." Minami Hamabe said with a bitter face.

"It's just... she's not quite the female lead I imagined."

Minami Hamabe was contacted by Taff a few days ago. After being told about Shin'o, Hideaki and Toho were preparing to film a new Kamen Rider series without stopping.

The previous film used Masami Nagasawa, so this time they wanted to give Minami Hamabe a try, and they included part of the script, outline, and character designs.

It's basically just about letting Minami Hamabe prepare in advance, and then she can perform it later.

To put it bluntly, as a project distributed by Toho itself, even if the main creators are Hideaki Anno's team, it would be easy for them to cast an actress of Minami Hamabe's caliber as the female lead.

But it was precisely these things, which were not yet fully finalized, that made Minami Hamabe sense something ominous.

First of all, isn't the female lead's dialogue a bit too much and too interpretive?

Judging from the current version, the role of Midorikawa Ruriko, which is scheduled to be played by Hamabe Minami, will mostly involve being filmed face-to-face by the camera and reciting long passages of explanation with a blank expression.

Currently, it seems to be a degraded version of Rei Ayanami.

It's obvious that if they actually acted that way, they would be heavily criticized afterwards.

Some of the camera work and action choreography were originally intended to be handed over to Minami Hamabe so she could get used to the overall tone of the film.

As luck would have it, she herself was happily following the updates of Sacred Blade during this time, and eagerly awaiting the day she would join the cast.

Minami Hamabe may not understand the more advanced stuff, but she has been exposed to it enough during this time that she has learned quite a bit about tokusatsu-related content.

With nothing to do, I compared the two knights... wait a minute?

How come some parts of Hideaki Anno's big-budget film are not as well-designed as Jun Sakurada's children's morning anime series?

Aren't some of the plot points a bit too cliché? Aren't the character designs a bit too anime-like?

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In short, whether it's intuition or the result of acting in too many indescribable works, Minami Hamabe's radar for bad movies has started to go off.

She felt something was off about this thing.

"If that's what you're saying... then this project might indeed have some risks, more or less?" Jun Sakurada gave an ambiguous answer after listening.

However, judging the third installment of Hideaki's new trilogy based "on" only Minami Hamabe's words reveals his true intentions.

New Kamen Rider... that was definitely a terrible show.

The scoundrel's intention to insert his own ideas is particularly obvious; whether it's the camera work or the dialogue, he inserts a lot of his own stuff.

If the photos are good, that's a matter of personal style; if they're bad, well, sorry, they're just Class A war criminals.

The film shows that the new Kamen Rider pays homage to the original, but the method is particularly superficial.

For example... the fight scenes are just as lackluster as those in the 70s. It seems that as long as you add some raucous punches and kicks and gushing blood, you can bring a top-notch visual experience in the new era.

Why would audiences pay to go to the cinema to watch a few old-fashioned costumed characters rolling around on the floor? Just because of nostalgia?

For example, the retro sound effects, the extremely limited background music, and the special effects that are so bad they're comparable to the main series of Kamen Rider TV are all examples of how the way of paying homage is cheap, which is quite amusing.

The dramatic scenes were also disappointing; the characters were largely underdeveloped, and the arc of Takeshi Hongo's struggles after becoming a cyborg was poorly portrayed.

Moreover, unlike many of the mediocre and bad films that Minami Hamabe had acted in before,

Those films usually have scripts, special effects, or makeup that are hard to describe, which makes the overall reviews of the film not very good, but Minami Hamabe herself is generally fine with them.

For example, Jun Sakurada starred in "The Corpse Manor" and "Love's Unpredictable Journey," where he and Minami Hamabe were the pillars who carried the audience's emotions through their roles.

But the new Kamen Rider is different. It's obvious that Hideaki Anno, that old bastard, was determined to make the character of Ruriko Midorikawa, played by Minami Hamabe, a low-budget version of Rei Ayanami.

The vast majority of shots are close-ups of the face combined with dialogue, and the character has to maintain a blank expression most of the time. How much room for acting skills can such a role provide?

Moreover, judging from the actual effect of the filming in the previous life, Minami Hamabe herself acted a bit convincingly.

The overall result is that the acting was a disaster, and the senior student has become one of the culprits in the terrible movie, and ranked quite high.

"So do you think I should take the role?" Minami Hamabe asked with a pained expression.

"...Shouldn't we still go?" Jun Sakurada thought for a moment, but didn't try to persuade Minami Hamabe to refuse. "After all, it's a big production. What if the script changes later?"

"Besides, you didn't have a choice. Do you think Dongbao would allow you to turn it down for such a reason?"

In Jun Sakurada's opinion, Minami Hamabe starring in the new Kamen Rider series is a mixed bag.

If Hideaki Animation follows the same formula as Jun Sakurada's previous life, this film will definitely be a flop, and Minami Hamabe will surely be criticized.

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But with big production values, big directors, and big budgets, it's still very attractive in terms of resources alone.

Minami Hamabe has gotten used to acting in small productions and manga adaptations that don't pay much and only gross around 1 billion yen at the box office. She needs to take on some truly big productions to help her advance her career.

At least in the two years since Jun Sakurada met Minami Hamabe, none of the films she made have surpassed the 22 billion yen box office of New Kamen Rider, with only the live-action version of The Promised Neverland coming close.

If we're in the middle of a trending genre, we can't possibly use old stuff like "I Want to Eat Your Pancreas" from five years ago to keep things going.

Moreover, as Toho's little princess, Toei's 50th anniversary commemorative work, and also a big-budget production distributed by Toho, you were given resources to play the female lead and elevate your status. What do you mean by refusing?

Will I still be able to work at Toho after this?

So, despite how bad it was and how controversial it was, Jun Sakurada still didn't directly advise Minami Hamabe to refuse.

No need.

"Do you also think I should go and film it?" Minami Hamabe seemed a little unhappy.

"Is there something you're worried about?" Sakurada Jun looked at Hamabe Minami's expression and felt that things were probably not that simple.

Even knowing that there was a 90% chance the new Kamen Rider would be destroyed and disappear into the earth's core, he still believed that Minami Hamabe going to pick him up was somewhat cost-effective.

So, in her own eyes, who is unsure whether the work is good or bad and only has some concerns, the value of this work must be even higher.

If Minami Hamabe is still so hesitant under these circumstances, there must be another reason.

"It's not really a concern..." Minami Hamabe didn't look at Jun Sakurada, but instead lowered her head and stared at her toes. Her expression didn't exactly show any displeasure, but her unhappiness was clearly visible.

"If we keep comparing ourselves to one bad movie after another... won't we fall further and further behind?"

Then he stopped talking.

After listening, Jun Sakurada remained silent for a long time. When he spoke again, his tone was tinged with a mixture of amusement and exasperation:

"You're not still thinking about that uncertain relationship, are you?"

Minami Hamabe nodded slightly.

Since that incident, Jun Sakurada felt that there had been a subtle change in his relationship with Minami Hamabe.

But...didn't Minami apologize that night? She also clearly stated that she didn't care at all, so why is she still holding a grudge?

However, he overlooked one thing: the only thing that could put Hamabe Minami at ease was the part about their past relationship, allowing Hamabe Minami to let go of the fact that "she really screwed over Sakurada Jun".

But the fact that you acted in bad movies is not so easy to let go of.

Toho Entertainment has always cultivated its female artists with the philosophy of accumulating experience and making steady progress.

With its own strong film resources to back it up, Toho Group artists will never lack resources.

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However, most of the roles are in low- to medium-budget productions released by Toho, or supporting roles in big-budget productions, and they are not easily promoted to the main role.

Once they've accumulated enough talent, they'll provide them with some truly blockbuster resources, allowing their artists to soar to new heights.

Minami Hamabe's career path is quite standard. She started as a child star and previously acted mostly in various manga and novel adaptations and low-to-medium budget art films, playing leading roles, but the investment was not very large.

After all, she's only 21 years old, so why is she in such a hurry?

This time, Toho cast her in a big-budget anniversary production like New Kamen Rider, and this year they also cast her in the Wednesday 10 PM primetime drama "Our Love Is Abnormal".

It's quite obvious that they're pushing her to become the face of the family business.

Normally, Minami Hamabe should be enjoying the happiness of this steady rise and throwing herself into the lead role in her first big-budget production in several years with great enthusiasm.

But... what can she do when she has Sakurada Jun by her side?

Jun Sakurada is destined to be an unstable factor that disrupts the perceptions and rhythms of all his peers.

Forget about playing it safe and steady, he didn't even care about the usual ways of choosing roles, and he single-handedly elevated a children's tokusatsu series to the level of a blockbuster of the year.

His rise was meteoric. Despite not having a substantial body of work, his popularity skyrocketed. Even when he acted in bad movies, he could still convincingly portray the feeling that "the movie may have lost, but Run-ge (his character) didn't."

Being friends with such a jerk is bound to lead to a huge psychological letdown.

Minami Hamabe is in turmoil.

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First update! The best-selling selection will be released on the 8th, so please be patient. I'll save up some drafts for the 8th and release them all at once.

Please give me some monthly votes!

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