Tokyo Literary Masters: Starting from the Late 1980s

"Interviewing Yuko Moriguchi?"

Upon hearing this, Haruki Kadokawa frowned immediately, his businessman's suspicious nature instantly overriding his shock: "What are the higher-ups at Toho up to?"

"You're trying to use our money-making machine to play a cold-blooded killer at Kadokawa Pictures? Is this some kind of publicity stunt, or is there some other business calculation at play?"

Haruki Kadokawa doesn't care about Yasuko Sawaguchi's innocent image at all; he only cares about whether his competitors are digging a hole for him.

However, Ichikawa Kun, who was sitting next to him, had a completely different reaction.

The visual master, whose eyes were originally half-closed, slowly opened them.

As a director who has mastered the art of color and light, Ichikawa Kun immediately sensed a breathtaking visual tension.

This kind of forceful insertion of the purest white into an extremely dark story will produce an incredibly terrifying chemical reaction.

Faced with Haruki Kadokawa's commercially wary questioning, Yasuko Sawaguchi did not get angry; she still wore a perfect smile.

But in those clear, watery eyes, there was a pure and unwavering dedication that belonged to an actor.

"President Kadokawa, you've misunderstood. This isn't Toho's scheme, but rather my personal whim."

She looked directly at Kitahara Iwa, who was sitting in the center, and said in a soft but firm voice, "I read the original work and was deeply moved by the character of Moriguchi Yuko. I have always stayed in my absolutely safe comfort zone."

"But as an actor, I desperately want to break through my own limitations and explore things that are more complex and profound."

"I want to push my limits. So, please let me try Yuko Moriguchi."

Kitahara Iwa looked at the woman in front of him, who was showing amazing determination in order to seek a breakthrough in art, and a subtle smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Then Kitahara Iwao pushed the script of the first scene's core monologue to the edge of the table and said, "Let's give it a try."

Yasuko Sawaguchi stepped forward, respectfully accepted the script with both hands, and quietly looked at it for a while.

Then, to everyone's surprise,

Unlike other actresses, she didn't take deep breaths to deliberately cultivate a sad emotion, nor did she force out a few tears to show a mother's despair.

She simply stood quietly under the spotlight, gently closing the page of script and placing her hands folded in front of her.

Her clean and flawless face still held a gentle smile that was as warm as a spring breeze, as if she had just come to attend a relaxed tea party.

Then, she spoke.

"Aimi's death was not an accident..."

Yasuko Sawaguchi spoke slowly in her clear voice, which was described by the entire nation as a healing voice.

There were no ups and downs, no sobbing; it was as if he were recounting an extremely ordinary daily life.

Logically speaking, this should have been a very incongruous scene, but in the eyes of Kitahara Iwao, Kadokawa Haruki, and Ichikawa Kun, it possessed a suffocating sense of rationality.

As the dialogue progressed, the atmosphere in the room began to change strangely.

When the climax of the revelation of the truth arrived, everyone held their breath.

"So, I added the blood of HIV-positive patients to the milk of those two classmates."

When Yasuko Sawaguchi uttered this line, which was nothing short of explosive, her speaking speed did not increase at all, her voice did not become cold, and she didn't even furrow her beautiful eyebrows.

She spoke as if she were not talking about a deadly virus, but rather something as ordinary as "I added some strawberry jam to my milk."

After delivering the fatal blow, Yasuko Sawaguchi suppressed all her superfluous emotions.

She simply gazed silently ahead, her signature gentle smile still playing on her lips.

However, beneath this calm and gentle gaze, there surged an extreme hatred capable of freezing the soul.

This is the flawless, deathly stillness displayed by a mother who has lost her child, after she has personally carried out the most vicious curse.

This kind of madness, belonging to adults and stripped of all hysterical reason, is more terrifying than any feigned innocence.

That gentle smile seemed to be looking down at the unsuspecting students below the podium, delivering the cruelest verdict in the softest tone:

"Then, live on, carrying the pain of my daughter."

Dead silence.

In that instant, the air in the entire casting room seemed to be sucked out, and the temperature inside dropped directly to absolute zero.

All the men present, including the well-informed Haruki Kadokawa, felt a sudden, uncontrollable chill run down their spines, and goosebumps rose on their arms at a visible speed.

There were no roars, no tears.

Only when the ultimate purity and the ultimate malice are perfectly combined can a chilling feeling spread through one's scalp.

Ichikawa Kun, a film master who has directed countless thrillers and seen many storms, is now staring intently at Sawaguchi Yasuko, who is wearing a white dress and has a sweet smile, under the spotlight.

He finally found it.

This is the morbid and extreme aesthetic horror that he pursued.

At that moment, Yasuko Sawaguchi concealed the chilling, extreme hatred in her eyes.

She lowered her head slightly, and when she raised it again, her face was once again displaying the gentle, refreshing smile of a morning drama heroine.

She stood quietly in place, her hands clasped together, awaiting the final verdict with dignified composure.

"hiss……"

At that moment, Haruki Kadokawa gasped sharply and rubbed the dense goosebumps on his arms vigorously.

Immediately afterwards, the head of Kadokawa Pictures slammed his hand on the heavy solid wood table and burst into a wild, jubilant laugh, like a gambler: "Fantastic! Fantastic! Absolutely amazing!"

Kadokawa Haruki's face flushed with excitement. All the conspiracy theories about Toho's business warfare that had been on his mind were long forgotten in the face of this breathtaking acting.

Pointing to Yasuko Sawaguchi under the spotlight, he exclaimed, "A devil in angel's clothing! This is Confessions! This is the kind of scene I want to see on the big screen!"

Although Ichikawa Kun, who was sitting to the side, did not lose his composure like Kadokawa, the sharp glint in his eyes already gave an undeniable answer.

After venting his elation, Haruki Kadokawa took a deep breath to calm himself down, sat back down in his chair, turned to the two key figures of the production team sitting beside him, and asked, "Director Ichikawa, Kitahara-kun, does Sawaguchi-san's performance meet your expectations?"

Upon hearing Kadokawa Haruki's question, Kitahara Iwa, who had remained silent, turned around and exchanged a glance with Ichikawa Kun beside him.

In that brief second, their eyes met in mid-air, and they both saw unreserved amazement and satisfaction in each other's eyes.

The two looked at each other and nodded slightly in unison.

"call……"

Seeing that the two extremely picky old men finally nodded, Kadokawa Haruki breathed a long sigh of relief, then looked at Sawaguchi Yasuko with a smile: "Sawaguchi-san, then please take good care of me from now on."

Upon hearing this, Yasuko Sawaguchi, who had been standing quietly under the spotlight, took a deep breath and bowed deeply to the three people behind the long table once again.

Please give me your guidance.