Chapter 88: Yan Meets Rival (Two in One)
Most of the character changes that represent growth like to use running scene changes, and the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha" is no exception.
The audience was looking forward to seeing Chiyo's small figure gradually transform into the graceful figure of a young girl in the backlight. At this moment, Chiyo, played by Yamaguchi Momoe, raised her head slightly, and finally showed her appearance to the expectant eyes of the crowd.
After seeing the girl Chiyo's appearance clearly, many people were stunned.
If Su Yun and Sayuri Yoshinaga represent stunning beauty at first sight, then Momoe Yamaguchi represents the innocence that is latent and lasting to be seen - the former is a "release" with a strong impact, while the latter is a "restraint" that requires time to understand.
Therefore, when seeing the girl Chiyo, many viewers felt a little regretful: it cannot be said that Chiyo is a better actress than the previous one, the girl Chiyo's appearance and acting skills are also not bad... but it's just that the previous part was too stunning, and the psychological connection was not made after the sudden transition, so the sense of gap was a bit too big.
In order to make the audience accept the image of the young girl Chiyo, Su Yun and Kurosawa Akira put a lot of effort into it, and set the plot to be that Chiyo has been taking on heavy chores in the past few years, and she is secretly learning skills in between work.
In the original movie, the heroine was able to defeat a peer who had trained hard for many years after only a few months of assault training. This would never happen in this story that focuses more on reality.
Iwasaki Mineko also scoffed at this plot: the so-called geisha and maiko, those music and dance techniques are acquired through hard study and practice. Even if a person is very talented, it is impossible for him to surpass his peers who have ordinary qualifications but have persisted in studying and practicing hard after giving up studying for many years and then training intensively for a few months.
This is simply an insult to the training of geishas!
Therefore, the version of the movie set by Su Yun shows more scenes of Chiyo's secret learning and secretly practicing late at night. It also explains why the girl Chiyo's face is a little rougher than in her early years - the heavy work and hard practice at night are the best explanation. No matter how beautiful something is, once it lacks maintenance, it will be worn away by life and time.
This part of the plot relies on the excellent performance of the girl Chiyo, which allows the audience to transform their previous shock into sympathy for her.
As the plot progresses, Chiyo finally impresses Mrs. Nitta, the owner of the geisha house, with her outstanding dancing skills. She becomes a maiko again from a handyman, taking the stage name Yuriko.
This kind of refreshing plot line, in which the protagonist falls from a proud son of heaven to the dusty world and then picks himself up and returns to his position, brings great psychological satisfaction to the audience.
Then, after Yuriko became a maiko, she was finally able to meet Seiichiro, the aspiring young man who had rekindled her hope while entertaining guests.
The two young people reminisced about the past and had a great chat, then secretly held hands and fell in love with each other. Everything seemed so beautiful and warm.
But the plot always needs ups and downs. At the same time, Hatsumo, who is worried that her position will be replaced by Yuriko, takes in Yuriko's senior sister, Little Pumpkin, who has already taken the stage name "Hatsumiyo", as her sister, intending to unite with her to fight against Yuriko and compete for the inheritance rights of the geisha house.
When she met Chiyoko in her early years, Hatsumomo already knew that this girl would definitely replace her in the future; only when Chiyoko became silent did she breathe a sigh of relief.
Unexpectedly, Chiyo, who became Yuriko, showed even more terrifying power.
Hatsumomo and Little Pumpkin teamed up with other geishas and maikos whose glory was overshadowed by Yuriko, and always spread rumors slandering Yuriko inadvertently while entertaining guests. They even attacked her secretly and hid needles in Yuriko's clothes...
While patiently resisting the attacks of her supposed companions, Yuriko has already decided that in the future, when she reaches the age of 21 and is promoted to a geisha, she will give up her identity as a maiko and marry her lover Seiichiro.
However, Seiichiro's family did not support their relationship. From the struggles of the two to Seiichiro's accidental death, the handsome man who once spoke softly and laughed with laughter became a mole on the tip of Yuriko's heart that would never be erased and would make her feel distressed at the slightest touch.
This blow almost crushed Yuriko's rare spirit.
However, the love letter that Seiichiro's friend brought to her, which expressed praise for Yuriko's dancing skills, finally cheered Yuriko up. At the karaoke ceremony, she surpassed all her peers with her superb artistic skills and became the most outstanding geisha of this generation in Gion.
Those who had bullied and oppressed her were eventually defeated one by one by her talent and hard work.
Since then, Yuriko has finally fulfilled Hatsumo's worries and become the new generation of king who replaced her as the top star.
The defeated Hatsumo became increasingly depressed, and one night during a sudden heavy rain, she took one last look at the geisha house she had longed for for many years with a look of despair yet relief, and then disappeared from then on.
As for Little Pumpkin, after expressing his apologies to Yuriko for being distracted by his own faults and wasting their friendship, he also left the geisha house with the small bag he had accumulated over the years.
Yuriko stared into the direction she was leaving, and all she had to say about the past turned into an inaudible sigh.
The enemies who were causing trouble around her went away one by one, and her peers in the surrounding geisha house were finally convinced and recognized Yuriko's top status.
Spring goes and autumn comes again. The adult Yuriko, who thought she would never be moved by anything again, met a young man named Takamiya at a tea ceremony and fell in love with her at first sight.
The same handsomeness, the same affection, the same... distinguished family background.
But Yuriko is no longer the Yuriko of the past.
But Takamiya did not withdraw from Yuriko's world just because of her rejection.
In order to win Yuriko's favor, he came to Gion every night for three years, rain or shine, waiting to meet her.
Outside the window, round after round of spring cherry blossoms, summer fireflies, autumn maples and winter snow reflected the picturesque time. Yuriko was finally moved by Takamiya's sincerity and once again stepped into a touching and romantic love.
However, Takamiya's family also began to block their relationship. Yuriko did not want to see the tragedy happen again, and finally reluctantly separated from Takamiya who wanted to persist in the fight, and took over the position of heir to the geisha house.
At this time, it had only been a few years since she defeated all her opponents and officially became a geisha.
In the secluded and idyllic Gion, except for the constant coming and going of companions around, time seems to have never changed.
But in fact, in this society where the old and the new are constantly changing, there are people who leave Gion to work in factories, and there are also people who find soulmates and lovers to spend their lives with...
Of course, there are also people like Yuriko, who cannot live for themselves as they wish, nor can they live by relying on others, and who compromise and hesitate, and finally have to continue to indulge in the "Utopia" where time stands still.
But in the end, Yuriko finally made her choice under the impact of the tide of the times.
At this time, the owner of the geisha house, the mature and elegant first geisha played by Sayuri Yoshinaga, walked slowly in the colorful light and shadow, allowing the audience to once again feel the stunning feeling of that year.
There is no need for explanation or introduction, the audience can understand who is coming: although suffering and hard work may make girlhood dim for a while, the true pearl will only shine more brightly after the baptism of time.
Those colorful lights and shadows that seemed so far away from her world passed away, and Yuriko finally took off all the glamor and began to live a life just for herself.
After choosing a successor, Yuriko retired from Kyoto and moved to New York, where she opened her own teahouse to entertain celebrities and appreciate art.
At the same time, she is also using the words, light and shadow that she can show to promote the traditional geisha culture of the past to the world and to explore the mysteries of the world that will eventually be lost in time.
She had experienced so many hardships, struggles and efforts in her life, and had placed her life on others to achieve her vitality and resilience; but in the end, she still responded to the fable of water and flowed into the vast ocean in her own way.
At the end of the story, Yuriko, still looking beautiful, sits quietly in a teahouse, waiting for a mysterious artist to paint her portrait.
The guest, who was in a hurry, left in a hurry, but accidentally bumped into the artist at the door.
His eyes followed the picture book that had fallen to the ground, which was rustling in the wind. On every page was the image of the former number one geisha.
The camera moves upward from the person in the painting to the smiling face of the person in the painting, and then to the face of the artist Gao Gong who has changed his attire. The ending of the whole story is in the smile between the two people...
Compared to the storytelling of Memoirs of a Geisha that made people smile knowingly, the shocking twist at the end of The Sixth Sense brought tears to countless people's eyes.
Knowing that the box office of "The Sixth Sense" was basically stable, Su Yun wanted to fly to Japan as agreed after seeing off Grandma Su and Jennifer who had gone home to prepare for the Chinese New Year. However, she was suddenly stopped by an unexpected award.
The Saturn Awards are intended to fill the gap left by the Oscars in ignoring science fiction and horror projects. They target science fiction and horror masterpieces in the film and television fields of the corresponding year, or outstanding works with breakthrough and innovative significance.
This year is the second year of this award, and "Artificial Intelligence" won the Best Science Fiction Film and Best Special Effects.
It is worth mentioning that in the Best Special Effects category, both "Artificial Intelligence" and "The Exorcist" were nominated, but there was only one name that remained unchanged: because no matter whether "Artificial Intelligence" or "The Exorcist" won the award, it was the honor of Su Yun, the devil who participated in the post-production special effects production of both films...
No one knew that it was in this year that Su Yun began her career of dominating the visual effects technology awards for many years to come.
Of course, there are gains and losses. In order to attend the Saturn Awards on January 7 in the United States, Su Yun missed the first round of promotional activities for "Memoirs of a Geisha" in Japan.
However, in addition to the second round of film promotion activities, Su Yun still had a mission to fly to Japan, so on the 10th, she once again boarded a plane to Japan.
Most of the people she knew were too busy to contact each other. Su Yun, who was bored in the hotel, took the Martin D-35 that she was going to bring back to Hong Kong to give to Wang Jiaju, played with it for a while, then changed into some heavy clothes and decided to go out to forage for food.
Although it was late at night, there was no shortage of those "late-night restaurants" in Japan that became famous late at night. Moreover, Su Yun did not like the typical artificial taste of those big restaurants. So, taking advantage of the fact that it was winter and the food was strictly decorated and covered by the night, she flexibly went to those small street-side shops.
You will die if you don't seek death. While he was enjoying the delicious food, he was caught by a sharp-eyed and dedicated paparazzi from Japan.
Upon discovering the enemy's situation, Su Yun jumped up from her seat at lightning speed, wiped her mouth, and quickly rushed into the disco next door.
Maybe there was some kind of music competition going on in this disco tonight. It was so loud that even the soundproof walls couldn't block it out. It was already noisy outside, and it was simply shocking once you got inside.
The swaying colored lights scattered all around, coupled with the powerful and fierce rhythm of the music, made people feel as if they had accidentally entered a chaotic world of demons dancing wildly.
With the support of the system, Su Yun's height increased to nearly 1.5 meters during this period. This is slightly higher than the average height of girls of the same age in later generations. Given the average height of most people today, if she tries hard and stands on tiptoe, she can pass herself off as an adult.
This is especially true in Japan, where petite and cute women are popular.
Relying on her agile movements, she slipped to the backstage and saw a row of performance costumes and accessories hanging beside her. Su Yun suddenly had an idea and immediately grabbed a set of clothes and a mask and slipped into the dressing room.
After a while, change clothes and put on a mask, dance and jump past the paparazzi who are chasing after you...it will be perfect!
Su Yun had just changed her clothes and came out happily when several hands grabbed her: "Number 23 is here!"
"What are you doing?!" Su Yun was about to fight, but unexpectedly a guitar came towards her, instantly interrupting her efforts.
"Hurry up and get on stage, your opponent is already on stage!" The hurried staff rushed Su Yun to the stage like a duck on a shelf, "Don't be shy, be brave!"
Su Yun was pushed out unexpectedly. In front of her were the crowds of fluorescent sticks and paparazzi who had called on more companions to roam around searching for her. Behind her were the security guards at the door and the staff who were huddled together in the backstage to prepare for follow-up work. In this situation, she had no choice but to continue to fight on.
So Su Yun held her guitar and looked at her opponent across the stage.
The guy opposite was also wearing a mask and holding a guitar, and he had dyed his hair into a super beautiful golden curly color. The fluffy and elegant style really gave him the charm of the gorgeous and beautiful comic characters popular in this era at first glance.
As for the eyes that were not covered by the mask, they were the typical Asian brown-black color, but the shape of the eyes was very beautiful and the pupil color looked very deep, giving a deep and cold feeling.
Su Yun was standing against the light, and the two of them were far away from each other. The purple in his eyes was so deep that she was able to get away with it.
An expert can tell whether the opponent has any problem with just one move. When they tested each other, they both realized that their opponent was not a good person.
As the music got louder, Su Yun felt more and more that the blond boy opposite her was very powerful. She felt more pressured and had to speed up the tempo and start singing.
It is said that only the Japanese can understand English when they speak it. However, what was unexpected was that when Su Yun thought she could crush the other party with her English pronunciation, the other party also spoke, and with a fluency that was completely different from the average quality of the Japanese, he was not willing to be outdone and struggled with her.
“Join X!” The two were fighting fiercely when a heart-wrenching cry like a sudden attack from an alien army drowned out the music and shouts in the arena.
Su Yun looked down subconsciously and saw a tall and thin boy with dyed blond hair and wearing a mask clinging to the edge of the stage, dancing and shouting loudly.
Most people who play music are eccentric, so she can understand that they like to dye their hair in various colors to show their personality, but this is the first time she has seen someone so eccentric that he would run to the side of the stage and steal people's shoes...
Of course, the golden-haired killer Matt, who was trying to poach someone right in front of him, didn't shout for long before he was carried away by the teammates of the guy opposite and the security personnel in the stadium.
Leaving aside this little episode, Su Yun focused her attention back on the competition on the stage.
Such an excellent opponent is rare, not to mention that the musical collision will only become more and more intense, and every collision is like a confrontation that burns life.
No matter how many tricks she used, the opponent still kept following closely.
Su Yun gritted her teeth and vowed not to give in: her opponent was very strong, but she didn't want to admit defeat!
Just as Su Yun was trying harder and harder, she finally realized from the other party's tiny movements that the person on the other side was just like her, about to reach the limit but gritting her teeth and refusing to admit defeat.
Without even looking, one could clearly see the fighting spirit in the other's eyes. Just when the song was about to end and the winner was about to be decided, a sudden shout abruptly interrupted this confrontation that burned with life and passion.
"This person is not a contestant, he is a fake and got in!"
Discovered!
Seeing the wandering paparazzi looking towards the stage, Su Yun was startled, dropped his guitar and ran away.
Wait, why is that guy across the street following me?!
Our eyes met - after confirming through eye contact, it turns out that you are the same person as me!
Since they were both counterfeits, a kind of friendship of mutual respect seemed to have arisen in the two of them for some unknown reason.
Without saying anything, they held each other's hands tightly and embarked on their "escape".
It was as dark as ink when they left the house, but it was already dawn when they ran out. They ran against the wind through the streets, the grass, and the water, and finally stopped in the shadow under a bridge. When they were sure that they had shaken off the paparazzi chasing them, they loosened their tightly held hands, looked at each other's miserable appearance, and laughed breathlessly.
"Huh, I finally got rid of it." Su Yun had been in the United States for a long time recently, and his mind was not fully organized for a while, so he blurted out English.
"By the way... why were you being chased?" After taking a breath, the two asked each other in unison.
"There's no need to pursue it so much. I just don't want to bother with them." Su Yun waved her hand.
"Me too." The blond guy nodded in agreement.
"OK, I'm leaving then." Su Yun looked at the sky and when he found that he could already feel the warm glow of the early morning sun, he quickly spoke.
"Hey, I don't even know your name yet!" Her hand was suddenly grabbed again. Su Yun turned around and met the deep eyes of the blond boy.
"If you're here... my name is Chiyo."
"My name is Bourne."
"Why did you choose a foreign name?" Su Yun became interested: Are you mixed-race? Or did you grow up in a foreign country? Or is there another reason?
The two of them talked before because Su Yun spoke English first, and then they subconsciously used English to communicate. It is rare for this blond guy to speak English so well.
If she's good-looking... maybe she can be brought here to play a role.
"Well... you should understand when you see me." The blond boy's tone suddenly took on a slightly malicious tone, as if he was trying to play a prank. "But, in exchange, you have to take off your mask and let me see what you look like."
"I'm afraid you might be shocked after seeing my true face." Su Yun raised her eyebrows: After the broadcast of "Memoirs of a Geisha", during a long-distance phone call, Kamachi Noriko kept saying that she had become the white moonlight of this generation of Japanese people, and almost everyone knew her, so she had to be extra careful when she came here.
Su Yun didn't realize it at the time, but now he realizes the reality that people are afraid of becoming famous just like pigs are afraid of becoming fat. This is when he began to regret not listening to his friend's advice.
"I should be the one saying this." The blond guy was still as unyielding as when he was playing against her on the stage.
"Well, let's pick them together and see who scares whom." Su Yun said as he was about to start.
"Wait a minute, what if I picked it and you were just pretending..." the blond guy suddenly put forward a hypothesis.
"I'm scared of you. How about this - you pick mine and I pick yours, then you don't have to worry, right?" Su Yun decisively proposed a solution, and at the same time raised one hand and pressed the bottom edge of his mask.
"Okay." The blond guy agreed and also reached out and pressed the edge of the mask on Su Yun's ear.
"One, two, three...you?!"
No wonder the other party said that.
The moment the mask was taken off, Su Yun was not the only one who understood this.
It was true that the dark brown pupils reflected a look of surprise, but Su Yun herself probably knew that the expression on her face was not calm at all.
The mask that concealed the truth was taken off, and the cold and charming look in his eyes was completely neutralized by the innocent smile on the corners of his lips. His bones were handsome yet powerful, and his eyes were slightly raised with a sense of pure dreaminess.
It seems that just one glance can make one's heart tremble and one's soul break.
At this moment, she finally understood why the person in front of her gave her the illusion that he had the aura of a beautiful comic book character.
Because he is the prototype of all the beautiful comic characters popular in Japan at that time, the one whose beauty in the legend blurred the gender boundary——
The most beautiful boy in the world.
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