Ogimoto Yasuta flinched.
Rape?
For a split second, his mind went blank before he barely managed to pull himself together.
Then—
His long, disheveled hair swayed as he forced down the sudden urge to pee. At the same time, he desperately ran through the script he had memorized in his head.
'Come on. Start. Open your mouth. Move.'
'What?'
The handsome Yasuta suddenly realized his body had gone stiff. The trembling was from the cold, but the rigidity in his joints had nothing to do with the weather.
Only then did he understand that he had been swallowed by an overwhelming force.
Kang Woojin's restrained atmosphere was pressing down so hard that even Yasuta's acting seemed to shrink in response.
There were several reasons he suddenly felt like he needed to pee. One was the location itself. The darkening sky, the eerie fishing village, the silent sea, and the fact that he was sitting on a drifting wooden boat.
That alone was enough to make anyone uneasy.
But the biggest reason was this.
"..."
Kang Woojin.
No, Iyota Kiyoshi, who was staring at him right now.
The old wooden boat was narrow. Even at its widest point, it felt as though stretching out both arms would let him touch either side. Because of that, Woojin's gaze and expression, sitting directly across from him, stood out with cruel clarity.
Kang Woojin looked like someone who had abandoned thought altogether.
His features were merely there to prove that what sat on his neck could be called a face. Nothing more. Nothing less.
He was looking at Yasuta, but even that felt insufficient. He breathed, though the sound was faint. His lips were simply closed, lightly resting together.
How could someone make an expression like that?
There was nothing to read in it.
A blank face with not the slightest trace of emotion.
And yet, that dry expression completed the scene. It pushed the surrounding eeriness and grotesque tension to the limit. In truth, the real reason Yasuta felt that crawling discomfort in his lower stomach was the silent Woojin sitting across from him.
Every time their eyes met, something unpleasant prickled through his abdomen.
'His eyes are dead… No, it's acting. Acting. I just need to do my part. The next beat. Somehow.'
With difficulty, Yasuta forced the scene forward.
His eyes turned to Kang Woojin, sitting quietly at the edge of the wooden boat. Then he looked down and checked himself.
He was barefoot.
He still had on a shirt and dress pants, but the jacket he had been wearing was gone. His eyes widened, and the camera set up to the right of the boat caught the exact moment.
Then—
The unidentified man's wooden boat scraped in right beside Yasuta's own, and the two hulls bumped together with a dull thud.
Bang.
Naturally, Yasuta turned his head. On the other boat stood a man who looked like a homeless drifter, chewing gum and sneering at him.
Yasuta, no, Kinjo, felt the chill in his body double at once.
Then he snapped his face back toward Kang Woojin, no, Iyota Kiyoshi, and shouted,
"R-Rape?! Don't say something so insane!!!"
"..."
The camera caught them in profile, and both faces were blank.
Woojin blinked a few times without expression, then opened his mouth.
"It'll be fine. Kinjo, you just have to leave your body to him."
"W-Wait, wait! That's not what I meant!!"
"You've done it before anyway. I heard you had a lover while you were in prison."
"..."
Kinjo's eyes flew wide as he made one last desperate attempt. He lunged at Kiyoshi.
The impact made the boat sway hard, but it changed nothing.
Thud.
"Aagh!!"
Before Kinjo could do anything, Kiyoshi struck his neck in an instant. The speed was shocking. Kinjo collapsed helplessly onto the wooden boat, coughing violently.
Once the coughing eased, his attitude changed completely.
"Hhk! Ugh… Please, spare me! I'll do anything! Please let me live!!"
Tears and snot running down his face, Kinjo clutched desperately at Kiyoshi's plain shoes with both hands and begged. But Kiyoshi's blank voice remained unchanged.
"I haven't said I'm going to kill you yet."
"W-Wait, no way! Matsu-chan! No, you're Tsukasa's husband, aren't you?! Ah! It was my mistake!! I'll never see her again! I won't go near her until the day I die!!"
"Tsukasa. Ah, Matsu Tsukasa from the accounting department at your company. Your current lover."
So that was what he thought this was about.
"But you're wrong. You really don't remember me, do you?"
"I'm sorry! It's all my fault! Please spare my life! I'm begging you!!"
Right then—
A hand stroked the head of the fallen Kinjo. It belonged to the homeless-looking man on the neighboring boat.
Startled, Kinjo shrieked.
"Hiiik!! I'll do anything! Anything at all!! Please let me live!! Please, please!!!"
His scream spread ominously across the sea.
Meanwhile, Kang Woojin remained calm.
"Like I said, I haven't said I'm going to kill you yet. Kinjo, greet him first."
"N-No, not that!!"
"Why not? You're going to be tangled up with each other anyway. Wouldn't it be better to get acquainted?"
The homeless-looking man, who had been smiling the whole time, spat the gum he had been chewing toward Kinjo.
Kinjo's whole body shook violently, like he had just been shot.
The moment was caught vividly from multiple angles. Kiyoshi lowered his lifeless eyes to Kinjo and leaned forward slightly.
"Kinjo. Do you remember Toka? Toka Misaki."
Kinjo flinched.
Something flashed through his trembling mind, and both his body and his mouth froze. He stayed that way for about five seconds. Then, very slowly, he raised his head and met Kang Woojin's eyes.
His lips trembled as he screamed.
"That's it!! You! You! Kiyoshi! Iyota Kiyoshi!!"
That was the moment—
"Cut."
Director Kyotaro's soft voice rang out over the sea, where the artificial fog for the special effects had spread thickly.
"NG. Let's do it again."
A few minutes later, the dock being used for the filming of The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice was crowded with dozens of staff preparing for another take. Kang Woojin had stepped off the boat and was getting his makeup touched up, while Yasuta stood near the monitor receiving direction from Director Tanoguchi Kyotaro.
The first day of filming. The first scene. The first NG.
And it had all started with Yasuta, who was playing Kinjo.
Of course, the staff had slightly different thoughts.
"Wasn't Ogimoto's acting pretty good? It looked fine to me."
"Same here. I thought it came through well on camera. Of course, what we see and what the director sees are probably different."
In fact, quite a few people thought Yasuta's acting looked better than usual.
But it was not the kind of tension Director Kyotaro wanted.
"Mr. Ogimoto, the emotion came through, but it felt excessive. It would be better if you restrained it a little more."
"…Understood."
"Let the emotion remain, but simplify the tone. Right now, it feels too much like 'I'm acting.'"
"I'm sorry."
"It's fine. It was only the first take."
Tanoguchi Kyotaro, one of Japan's great directors, had loaded several meanings into the production of The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice. One of them was his desire to spark a revolution in Japanese acting.
Japan's entertainment industry had gone beyond simply growing stale. It had begun to rot.
The competition in the domestic market was so fierce that even directors had given up on change, and as a result, all Japanese actors had become trapped in the same familiar style.
Raising their voices. Moving too much. Overacting.
That kind of exaggerated, eye-catching performance could seem explosive at first glance, but in truth it was little different from flailing around inside an empty shell. That was Director Tanoguchi's philosophy.
'That kind of acting may hit the ear, but it can never truly move the heart.'
Because of that, Japanese acting still worked reasonably well at home, but internationally it was criticized far more often than not. It was not just a matter of personal taste.
That was one of the reasons Japanese content struggled to create a wave like Hallyu.
So what state was Kang Woojin in right now?
Without shouting or screaming, he had delivered his lines in a steady tone and taken complete control of the scene. From the very first line, he had seized Yasuta completely and dominated the frame.
'That's what real transmission and real empathy look like.'
Even the murmurs among the staff preparing for the reshoot made that plain.
"But Woojin's acting… I don't know… doesn't it feel different somehow?"
"Yeah, right? It's hard to even call that 'acting.'"
"Exactly."
"And somehow, even though he spoke quietly, I heard every word perfectly clearly."
The truth was simple. Anyone watching that scene would inevitably end up looking only at Kang Woojin. Yasuta would become nothing more than the sacrifice.
But Director Tanoguchi Kyotaro did not want that outcome. A film could not shine if only one actor stood out. Harmony mattered.
Which meant Yasuta, not just Kang Woojin, had to come alive.
Then the call went out for the second take of the same scene.
"Action!"
They started over from the beginning. Yasuta had improved, showing a little more control, but he still fell short of Director Tanoguchi's expectations.
So there was another NG.
And another reshoot.
The scene repeated itself.
By the fourth take, when another NG was called, Yasuta let out a sigh without realizing it.
Haa.
It was because he still did not understand what the real problem was.
'What is it? What exactly is wrong?'
The lines were not wrong. The emotional delivery was not wrong either. He had even adjusted his acting in line with the director's instructions.
But the result did not change.
Little by little, a shadow fell across Yasuta's handsome face.
Pressure. And frustration.
The pressure bearing down on him was enormous. He had no idea what he lacked.
It was disgusting.
Not because of the situation itself, but because the feeling was simply disgusting.
'…Was I really this lacking?'
His own helplessness was tormenting him.
Yasuta quietly took a deep breath, then glanced toward Director Tanoguchi, who was deep in discussion with the staff.
Was this entire crisis happening because of him?
This was already the fifth response after the opening scene. Filming needed flow, but from the very first scene, it had stalled, and because of him.
Standing on the wooden boat, Yasuta unknowingly clenched his teeth.
Kang Woojin watched him in silence with that same blank face. At the same time, another thought crossed his mind.
'Whew… his breathing sounds rough. Is he okay?'
Yasuta looked slightly short of breath, and the vague concern tugged at Woojin. So in a low voice, speaking in Japanese, he took a firm tone.
"Mr. Ogimoto, take a moment."
"What?"
"Rest for a bit. Slow down."
"…"
What Woojin meant was that Yasuta needed to control his breathing. He also thought the artificial fog surrounding the boat might be part of the problem.
'That stuff they spray from the machine can't be good to inhale.'
But at that exact moment, the handsome Yasuta understood something entirely different.
'…Slow down? Does he mean I need more space between the lines? That my delivery is too rushed? Is he telling me to ease the tension and let the character's inner struggle show through?'
Soon Yasuta looked back over his own performance and asked Woojin,
"Was I too hasty?"
He was asking about his acting.
Kang Woojin gave a cool nod.
"Yes. You're too hasty."
What he meant was his breathing.
The two of them faced each other on the wooden boat. They were close, but there was clearly some misunderstanding in their conversation. They were talking about different things, and yet somehow the communication itself still worked.
Woojin fell silent. Yasuta slowly nodded, as if accepting it.
'Was I too hasty? …Well, he watched me from up close, so Woojin must be right.'
"I see…"
Various emotions began rising inside him. A faint sense of loss. Jealousy. Other things too.
While that happened, Woojin placed a hand to his chest and made a light gesture.
"Lift your head and take a deep breath. You'll feel better."
Was he telling him to calm down?
Was he telling him not to get swallowed by the atmosphere?
Without thinking, Yasuta let out a quiet laugh. Their age gap was not large, but in temperament he felt nowhere near this Korean actor's calmness.
"...Thank you."
Soon Yasuta steadied himself and fell into thought. More than anything, he reconsidered his own acting.
'Was I too busy spitting out the lines instead of delivering the emotion? Like I was being chased…'
At that moment, Director Tanoguchi, watching them through the monitor, tilted his head.
"Is Woojin giving him advice? No, that doesn't seem like his style. They're probably just chatting."
The five Japanese reporters who had entered the set were moving busily around with large cameras hanging from their necks. Naturally, their attention was fixed on the conversation between Kang Woojin and Yasuta on the wooden boat.
"Are those two having some serious conversation?"
"They do look serious. Maybe it's because the first scene is taking too long. This is already the fifth take, right? And Director Kyotaro keeps focusing only on Yasuta, so it really does seem like the issue is with him."
"…I hate to admit it, but honestly, Kang Woojin's acting completely overwhelms Yasuta. Yasuta just feels too ordinary. There's no individuality there."
"Yeah, throughout the shoot, only Kang Woojin really stood out. Was that serious conversation acting advice from Kang Woojin?"
"Still, that can't be it. They've barely known each other. And what kind of advice could a rookie with barely a year in the industry give Yasuta?"
"Exactly. It doesn't make sense that just hearing a little advice would suddenly transform his acting."
At the same time—
Clack!
The sound of the slate rang through the entire set. It signaled the start of the fifth take. Then Director Kyotaro's cue followed.
"Action!"
Kang Woojin and Yasuta began again.
Naturally, it was the same scene as before.
Yasuta had barely managed to restore his composure. Then he found Kang Woojin's completely blank face in front of him. Normally, he would have asked who he was with more exaggerated movement. That was how he had done it in all four previous takes.
But this time—
"..."
Yasuta was clearly different.
As if under hypnosis, he stared at Kang Woojin, then slowly swept his gaze over the fog-covered sea around them. After that, he looked down at his own bare feet.
For a brief moment, he thought.
Once Yasuta fully grasped both his own emotional state and the situation around him, his pupils slowly widened.
Only then did he and Kang Woojin begin exchanging lines.
"Long time no see, Kinjo."
"Who are you?"
There was no exclamation point in Kinjo's tone.
It was not exaggerated. If anything, there was something strangely cold in it.
At that, Director Kyotaro, who had been frowning with his face pressed close to the monitor, clenched his fist.
"Yes, that's it. Kinjo has to begin as if his soul has already left his body."
He hesitated for a moment, then stared at Kang Woojin's blank face on the monitor.
"Ogimoto's acting changed completely… Did Woojin really give him advice?"
The reporters whispered among themselves.
"What, what is this? Yasuta's acting suddenly… Did he cast some kind of spell on him?"
And in the end, their conclusion pointed in only one direction.
"No, Kang Woojin definitely said something to him. He had to."