"Ugh......"
Kwon Do-gyeong, CEO of Lime Entertainment, drew a hand down over his face.
Since began airing, the love calls for Seo Gang-woo had started coming in a flood.
Work kept pouring in without a break.
"This is genuinely maddening."
Kwon Do-gyeong let out a sigh.
The desk was heaped with documents he had failed to process these last few days.
Every one of them came in for Seo Gang-woo.
Advertising agencies, drama production companies, film companies......
Kwon Do-gyeong muttered as he sorted through the papers.
Properly speaking this is not the CEO's job.
A dedicated manager sorts them at the first pass, and the planning team sifts them again after that.
Those middle steps have been skipped. Because Kwon Do-gyeong appointed himself manager.
"Being busy is work in itself. I dug my own grave......"
Grumbling aside, Kwon Do-gyeong's expression was bright.
There is no reason to be unhappy about a signed actor doing well.
And more work means the company's revenue rises as well.
Increased revenue leads directly to the salary of the dedicated manager he will attach to Seo Gang-woo.
'I only have to endure exactly one year.'
Kwon Do-gyeong was swallowing his tears and going through the papers when the mobile on his desk rang loudly.
Groping for it, Kwon Do-gyeong pressed the answer button.
"Kwon Do-gyeong of Lime Entertainment speaking."
[CEO Kwon! Do you remember me?]
It was a voice he had heard before.
Asking whether you remember me is certainly meant to press the point that you have met.
In business, making a show of acquaintance matters.
Kwon Do-gyeong quickly put the papers down and checked who the call was from.
[Director Kim Jae-gu]
Kwon Do-gyeong's eyes went round.
'Kim Jae-gu? That Kim Jae-gu?'
He is a director Kwon Do-gyeong knew from his time as Im A-rin's manager.
The Kim Jae-gu who won critical praise two years ago with .
Why would a director like that be getting in touch?
Naturally the cause would lie with Seo Gang-woo. Kwon Do-gyeong called out.
"Ah, yes! Director Kim! Of course I remember! Your voice hasn't changed a bit. Have you been well!"
[Yes! Me, well, I live because I can't manage to die. Ha ha ha ha.]
Kwon Do-gyeong's mind began to turn fast.
'Kim Jae-gu, is it. Not bad. Not a colossal director, but he's cleared break-even consistently.'
And not only break-even.
The appeal of a Kim Jae-gu film for actors lies in its range of genre.
Not simple entertainment films but a rare director who pursues genre films with character. There is one label attached to an actor who appears in that kind of director's film.
An actor who speaks through the work.
A child actor's filmography has to be approached with a long view.
Because the roles a child can carry are limited, and once an image sets, escaping it is difficult.
Made your face known to the public in the role of a crybaby? Industry people will then propose crying roles morning, noon and night forever after.
'......Not that I think Gang-woo would be unable to shed an image like that.'
Caution costs nothing. Kwon Do-gyeong thought.
'As long as it isn't too odd a role.'
He spoke. It was time to end the pleasantries that were only surface.
"Might I ask what sort of role you had in mind......"
[Ah, that. It's a little special.]
"Special."
Not unusual, but special. The word chosen makes him uneasy.
Kwon Do-gyeong pressed the smartphone hard against his ear and waited for the director's answer.
[It's a deaf-mute role.]
"A deaf-mute? You mean a character with a disability? The kind who can't hear......"
[No. He can't speak. He can hear. It's a psychological matter, so it's closer to a speech disorder.]
Kwon Do-gyeong's eyes widened.
"Are there no lines at all, then? Does he have to act with gestures and expression alone?"
[There are a few lines, but, ahem. You may as well say there are almost none.]
Sign language, and acting that fights it out with expression and body alone, without dialogue.
Even a man who had never acted in his life could easily guess how difficult the part was.
'What sort of role is that to give a child? That's absurd......'
However well Seo Gang-woo acts, this role is close to too much.
Kwon Do-gyeong felt his heart go cold. He spoke without letting it show.
"That's a considerably challenging role."
[......It is, but I think it's a role with plenty of appeal. Ah, and actress Im A-rin has indicated she'll appear. You were A-rin's manager, so you'll have heard?]
"Sorry? Noona — no, actress Im?"
[Yes, yes! She says she very much wants actor Seo to be in it, so I'm counting on you. The script has gone by courier and should arrive shortly!]
Shortly apparently meant now, because a hearty male voice came from outside the door.
"Courier!!"
"......They work fast, at least."
What is he supposed to do with this?
Kwon Do-gyeong stroked his chin for a moment and then got up from his seat.
The deliberation was short.
The work should be left to the actor's choice, shouldn't it.
Kwon Do-gyeong meant to respect Seo Gang-woo's wishes.
***
On a rare day off, Kwon Do-gyeong called me out to the cafe in front of my building.
In Kwon Do-gyeong's arms was a script with a black cover. He said.
"There's good news and bad news. Which do you want first."
"......The bad news first."
"No. Hear the good news first."
What is with this man?
When I sat there blankly, Kwon Do-gyeong grinned as if he had landed a hit.
"Gang-woo, do you know a director called Kim Jae-gu?"
"Yes, I know him."
"Hm? How do you know him?"
"I saw one of his films a while back. Was it ......"
I named the one film among director Kim Jae-gu's work rated for all ages.
Every other film of his is rated fifteen or nineteen, so saying one of those could raise suspicion.
Kwon Do-gyeong let out a sound of admiration.
"There's a reason you're good at acting, isn't there? Anyway, that man is thinking of shooting his next work. He wants you in it, Gang-woo."
"Is sunbae-nim Im A-rin appearing too?"
"Huh? Oh, yes, that's right. It looks like she's considering the lead."
My guess was correct.
. That screenplay has come round and round and reached me.
A film that never existed in my past life. My chest was pounding.
Smiling faintly, I looked at the script and asked.
"Can I see it?"
"Yes. Look while you listen. Guess what the bad news is."
Rustle—.
I opened the script and the identity of the bad news showed itself. Deaf-mute; those two words were giving off a presence.
"......The role's a deaf-mute?"
"Yes. The acting will be considerably demanding. There are no lines, and you have to act with gesture and expression alone."
"......"
"You don't have to do this one, all right? Look how many other good projects are coming in. Say so if it looks hard. I'll turn it down flat."
"No. I'll do it."
"......What?"
This time it was Kwon Do-gyeong who wore a dumbfounded expression and looked at me.
It was worth being startled by.
Because this part carries a difficulty that most adult actors would balk at.
'But not for me.'
If anything, the drawback of having no lines came to me as an advantage.
Because I can make full use of my experience as a figure artist.
The process of observing relentlessly and reproducing something perfectly down to the last grain — that is what I did day in and day out.
The difference is only that a posture I used to capture with eyes and hands is now expressed with my whole body.
Grinning, I looked over the script.
'Let's take a look, shall we.'
But something was strange. Several passages of dialogue had been masked over in black.
Some pages were papered over in black outright.
I get a bad feeling. This is that sensation of being given a partial script again. I asked.
"......But boss. The script is covered up."
"Ah, that. There are scenes in it that aren't appropriate for you to see, Gang-woo, so I covered them. Don't worry about it."
"I'm all right seeing this sort of thing......"
"All right my foot. Absolutely not. Shall I tell them yes for now?"
"Yes. On one condition, though."
Kwon Do-gyeong looked at me with a questioning face. The condition was simple. To be given reference material worth using for a figure — no, for the acting.
"Could I visit a school for the deaf?"
A deep smile spread at the corner of Kwon Do-gyeong's mouth as he caught the meaning of it.
***
A week later, at Kim Jae-gu's workroom.
Kim Jae-gu received the answer from Seo Gang-woo's side that he would accept the film. Kwon Do-gyeong said.
"He says he'll do it. He wants a little time in exchange."
"How much does he need?"
"At a generous estimate we'd have to give him two months. The role being what it is, Gang-woo seems to be approaching it carefully."
"Carefully?"
"Yes. He says he wants to live among deaf people himself."
"......That suits me fine. Two months goes past in a flash once we get through the investment review anyway."
With the screenplay and the bones of the casting complete, one actor had voluntarily set off to research the acting.
It was a moment to be glad about, and yet Kim Jae-gu's expression was not bright. No — complicated and hard to read would be the fairer description.
'Should I call this a trick of fate.'
is a screenplay completed two years ago.
Casting offers went out to several actors starting with Im A-rin, and there had been an actor who had his eye on the mute role Seo Gang-woo has taken.
The child actor Lee Yu-chan.
He is now sixteen and working prolifically as a teen actor.
The work he has appeared in recently is , which recorded a peak rating of twenty-four percent.
Lee Yu-chan, who had once considered the mute role, sent Kim Jae-gu his actor's profile.
Whenever the word got out, it seems he indicated his interest the moment news spread that the team was at the pre-production stage.
The problem was the agency Lee Yu-chan belongs to.
Lee Yu-chan's agency is a subsidiary of AJ Group, one of Korea's three great film distributors.
AJ Group is one of the three dragons that have carved up the Korean film market amicably between them; the distribution bully of the film world.
To make a commercial film in Korea you must never fall out of this company's favour.
And that AJ has offered an investment review.
Clear that review and the film's production would be as good as fitted with wings. Only, the condition AJ presented was as follows.
'Assign Lee Yu-chan to the mute role.'
An investor with solid backing, or a child actor who can act. Kim Jae-gu's deliberation was short.
"There's no need to give up both, is there."
He could not let go of Seo Gang-woo or of AJ Group. His eyes shone as a clever move came to him.