Top Star By Luck [EN]: Chapter 175

175. Rehearsal

‘A rehearsal, huh.’

The filming method for this project was decided somewhat strangely.

Perhaps it’s because the importance of music is as significant as the film itself. Before entering the filming stage, they decided to proceed with producing the music in parallel.

Before even getting to the 10th scene to be filmed, they were creating an abridged version of the 20th scene and conceiving the music for that scene first.

[In a typical filming process, music is usually added after the video is produced…]

It was an action that deviated from industry norms.

No matter how much a work emphasizes the power of music, it’s rare for music to rise to the same level as the video.

It was normal to consider it after filming was completed.

However.

[We decided not to be bound by that.]

It changed.

Behind this was Director Shim Sung-bo’s decision.

[We will divide the importance of music and video exactly 50/50. Music to watch, video to enjoy with your ears. That’s what we’ll pursue.]

Because of that, the filming process also changed significantly, and the scene that Lee Min-ki would be acting in this time was one of them.

“In terms of order, it’s time to practice the very beginning of the movie, but the rehearsal starts with the middle part first.”

Lee Min-ki chuckled and muttered.

“It’s an important scene, so I was going to have enough practice time, but I’m embarrassed.”

In this work, Lockhart (tentative title), there was a scene with particularly great importance.

Overcoming the opposition of his mother, who almost hates music, by comforting her with music.

[I always thought while looking at family photos. That you can live so happily. I’m jealous. So I thought, I want to live like that too. I believe my mother loved my father like that too.]

The protagonist’s mother had lost her husband early, and this process was the problem.

Since her husband, who was only focused on music, fell into despair due to financial difficulties and left this world, she couldn’t possibly look favorably on her child taking an interest in music.

She was coldly frozen. But if you want to melt ice, it’s better to melt it with warmth than with a chisel and hammer.

Overcome with music.

It was a typical K-melodrama [Korean melodrama] development.

[If this kind of development comes out in Korea, some people may find it boring, but boring means it’s been done a lot. A lot means it sells well. And it will still be fresh in the West.]

Lee Min-ki looked ahead.

Sitting in front of him was.

“…….”

Joo Hana.

She was sitting like a dummy, straightening her back like a pianist, and looking at Lee Min-ki with a very nervous expression.

She was taking on the role of the protagonist’s mother for this rehearsal only.

“Son.”

“Pfft.”

Lee Min-ki burst out laughing at the words that came out of Joo Hana’s mouth without realizing it.

“Mother, you look a little young.”

“That’s because our son listens well.”

“Keuheuheuh.”

Lee Min-ki burst into laughter again.

No matter that the casting was slowing down, he had to act with the nation’s first love, calling her mother.

Joo Hana’s fans would be rolling on the floor laughing.

Of course, if he had to act, he could. He could do it as much as he wanted. There were no complaints. It was just awkward and funny.

“Let’s start.”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

Joo Hana was still very nervous, and her facial muscles were like stones.

But he had experienced this kind of situation countless times in acting school. Which acting school in the world would have all the actors for the necessary roles?

‘If you need a grandmother, you play a grandmother, and if you need a foreigner, you play a foreigner.’

Lee Min-ki laughed repeatedly at the feeling of doing fun acting after a long time.

For a few seconds.

The atmosphere in the studio changed.

“……!”

Joo Hana’s eyes widened.

‘Actor, the person has changed.’

It was only a few seconds.

In the meantime, the identity of the person Lee Min-ki himself was shaken. It was as if a person who didn’t exist in this world had suddenly appeared before her eyes.

It was like a wolf in sheep’s clothing had shed its fur.

In an instant, his forehead came down, his eyes became stubbornly sharp, the tip of his nose was pulled down, and the angle of his mouth changed.

Suffering flowed into Lee Min-ki’s endlessly kind face.

‘How delicately do you handle your facial muscles?’

Indeed, it’s on a different level.

He’s so humble that it doesn’t usually show, but Lee Min-ki has already risen to a certain orbit.

Even if I try to learn, it’s too far away to know if I can learn.

While Joo Hana was harboring such thoughts, Lee Min-ki opened his mouth in an all the more serious voice.

“Do you know? The world’s population has surpassed 7.7 billion.”

The beginning was a line.

“I wondered what I should do with my life. There are 7.7 billion people besides me, and if I just stay still as one of them, it’s too pathetic. I wondered what I should do to live more like myself, every day.”

Lockhart’s protagonist, Im Yu-sung, was a person who felt ennui [a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement] in life.

Life is boring. I want to know what I need to do to make my heart beat. I want to do something that is like me. I want to do something that only I can do, not anyone else.

Im Yu-sung was a person who lived with such desires.

“I only found out recently.”

Lee Min-ki, who had become such an Im Yu-sung, opened his mouth.

“There’s a singer named William Lockhart in America.”

Lockhart, the emperor of Billboard [a music popularity chart], was the person who lived the ‘shining life’ that Im Yu-sung had been hoping for.

“I saw an interview with him, and he said he worked hard on the song. He locked himself in the studio for six months. He put all his effort into making one of the best songs, and it seems he made a pretty dark song. Maybe it’s because he only worked in his room without meeting people.”

“Yu-sung.”

“But do you know what he did with the song he worked so hard on?”

A moment later.

Lee Min-ki smiled as if he had come up with the funniest joke in the world and said.

“He threw it away.”

“…….”

Joo Hana’s eyes widened.

Without paying attention, he continued.

“The world was too dark. Everyone is looking down and walking, so he thought he should give them bright energy. That’s what he can do for society.”

What was so funny? What was so special about this story, which was just an entertainment episode, that shook the heart of Im Yu-sung?

What did William Lockhart really want to say?

Lee Min-ki knew the truth behind it.

“William Lockhart is. He was a person who could influence the world beyond me. Too naturally.”

It was influence.

A single individual, just one of 7.7 billion people, influencing others. The fact that I, as a person, live in this world and cause repercussions and leave traces.

Changing me, and even changing others.

This was the image of the ‘life I want to live’ that Im Yu-sung found.

“I want to make that kind of music.”

It was acting close to a monologue.

Im Yu-sung’s mother just listened to his words silently.

It was acting like that.

Joo Hana was not given any lines. She just listened to her son’s words and acted out her emotions with her expression.

But didn’t they say that the best audience in this kind of acting is the other actor?

‘I’m crazy, I’m possessed.’

Joo Hana, who belatedly realized that she had been sucked into Lee Min-ki’s acting, woke up in surprise.

She was too immersed in watching the acting.

It was as if she was listening to words that were sincerely spoken to her as a person, not acting.

‘The immersion is on a different level.’

How can a person be like that?

I filmed a work together a long time ago. But at that time, he seemed to be a rookie who was just good at acting, but at some point, Lee Min-ki had become a monster.

‘I’m ashamed.’

Haven’t I been complacent in my place while others have been developing?

While Joo Hana was even feeling embarrassed, there was a person who was watching this scene with a faint smile.

‘I’ve been through that too.’

It was Cheon Geon-joo.

Looking at Lee Min-ki’s acting in front of him, yes, the lines sound like they are being said to him beyond just a list of sentences.

So he gets possessed.

Lee Min-ki’s lines were not ordinary lines. Every single one was a confession with all the persuasiveness.

In that way, two of the three main characters were subtly sharing emotions.

“Good.”

Director Shim Sung-bo clapped his hands slightly.

He, who was always busy finding fault, said as if he was impressed by Lee Min-ki’s acting.

“Is it okay to do the rehearsal like this? I feel like I want to capture it on camera as it is. Especially the line ‘7.7 billion people on Earth’ that the actor came up with himself…”

It was that moment.

“Hmm.”

Lee Min-ki muttered in a dissatisfied voice, as if he didn’t care about his praise.

“I think I messed it up.”

“Yes?”

“The emotional line was cut off in the middle…”

That’s it?

The emotional line was cut off?

The other three people made the same expression at Lee Min-ki’s unexpected remark.

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘I was so immersed that I even forgot it was acting, but it was cut off? The emotional line?’

‘If that’s where the emotional line is cut off, then everyone in the world must be emotionally dry.’

You have to be moderately humble.

Judging by his expression, he really seemed dissatisfied, but unfortunately, even that expression looked like acting at this moment.

But Lee Min-ki was sincere in his own way.

‘I don’t think it’s acting like me.’

Because he was too focused on just doing well, he missed what kind of acting the actor called me could show.

“I want to show a little more of my color as an actor, but I’m satisfied with stable acting, so I think I’ve been too careful.”

It was nonsense that no one would believe.

In fact, Joo Hana’s eyes were filled with the eyes of someone who didn’t believe it.

“Hey, I think you did well enough. I didn’t even realize I was the actor’s mom while listening.”

Still, it was the moment when she was about to throw a joke to ease the atmosphere.

Lee Min-ki said as if he was too embarrassed.

“I don’t think I can get the Academy Award for Best Actor with this…”

Ah.

That’s why.

The goal was the Academy Award for Best Actor, so the goal was beyond the heavenly realm and in the universe.

Then it’s understandable to be dissatisfied with that level of acting. No, is it understandable? I don’t know. Let’s just say it is because he says so.

‘That’s why he acts like that because his goal is that high.’

Joo Hana stopped thinking.

“Director.”

“Yes, Min-ki.”

“I’m sorry, but I’ll do it again in a little while. If I think about it a little more, I think I can add a different character to Im Yu-sung that I’m acting. A character that only I can do.”

“If that’s the actor’s intention, I have nothing to stop you, but.”

“Thank you.”

Director Shim Sung-bo chuckled at Lee Min-ki’s words.

Anyway, there’s plenty of time now, and the actor says he’ll do better on his own, so why would he stop him?

‘Not Im Yu-sung in the script, but actor Lee Min-ki’s Im Yu-sung.’

What form will it take?

I’m dying to take a peek at the results.

Maybe it will be a character with the same personality as Lee Min-ki himself.

‘I’m looking forward to it.’

It was the moment when he had expectations.

In the studio, in addition to these three people, Joo Hana, Director Shim Sung-bo, and Cheon Geon-joo, there was one more person watching this scene.

With a shocked expression.

There was a person staring blankly at this place with a face as if he had suddenly picked up a gold nugget on the street.

‘Did he say a character like me now?’

Son Hee-jeong.

She was a composer who boasts the highest copyright income in Korea, and an artist who has recently fallen into a slump.

‘Like me?’

A ripple arose on the calm surface.