It feels like just yesterday that we were happy winter had ended, but now the warm air is already blowing in.
A few precious months have passed by like the wind.
Although it feels a little regretful to have invested time in making a movie rather than writing a novel, I have learned a lot in the process.
They are not the art of one person.
The director is not a creator, but a maestro who leads an orchestra, and the art of film is accomplished through the collaboration of many individuals within that orchestra.
The roles of the director, actor, and writer are not everything. The roles of numerous staff members, distributors, and even investors are critical. There is no position unimportant in the voyage of a film, like a sailboat moving forward.
Thus, if that long voyage ends in a bad ending, where the ship crashes into a reef and is destroyed, it can be understood that the failure is not solely the director’s, but the failure of all the crew.
And so, he began to dig into that part first.
To cut out Lim Yang-wook and Moon In, and become Baek Seol’s first loyal subject.
Vice President Kim Geun-tae, like a teacher comforting a scolded student, tried to console Baek Seol, who had slumped her shoulders dejectedly, with a soft voice.
Or at least, he tried to.
“You don’t need to worry too much. I’ll slowly assist you from the sidelines- huh?”
What caught their attention wasn’t an urgent text.
Or a secretary rushing in, yelling about some major crisis.
It was a TV that was left on just because the atmosphere in the CEO’s office felt too awkward if it was too quiet.
But what they love even more is the ‘fall of a star’.
Because jealousy is a more intense emotion than admiration.
So, it wasn’t surprising that Moon In’s slump began surfacing publicly.
It started, as expected, with the film industry.
They couldn’t tolerate even the slightest tarnish on the reputation of So Tae-woong, the pride of Korean cinema.
It wasn’t so much because they liked So Tae-woong, but because they couldn’t deny the past when they themselves had praised him.
– So Tae-woong is the most outstanding and greatest director in the world, and this can be scientifically proven!
– The box office failure of Sound is due to Moon In, the parasite who latched onto So Tae-woong, and the sinister forces of the publishing industry! If they hadn’t dragged So Tae-woong down, the film wouldn’t have failed so miserably!
– We must purge the treacherous profiteer Moon In, who beguiled the director with sly words, to restore the spirit of our nation!
How horrible and terrifying is that kind of thinking?
Yet, filmmakers, who had long suffered in the industry’s protracted downturn, cheered for such claims. It’s no different from how a starving person can’t appreciate generosity.
In truth, the literary world’s missteps also added fuel to the fire of this public sentiment.
The literary community is a group of survivors.
They are the hardened survivors of the long apocalypse that is the publishing industry.
No matter how much of an oddball Moon In might be, he was still ‘one of their own’, wasn’t he?
When his movie flopped, they still had to make a few Continue reading more chapters on NovelHub for the best experience.
– Sound is an exceptionally literary film…
– It would have done much better if it had been released as a book…
– The general public, who lack deep literary insight, couldn’t recognize its value…
If there’s an advantage to a survivor group, it’s that they’re quick, and if there’s a disadvantage, it’s that they only look ahead.
Thus, this shortsighted collective behavior happened swiftly, without anyone intervening to stop it.
And once again, the literary world became a laughingstock for the umpteenth time.
“This is why the Korean literary world…”
I savored each and every online reaction that was being read aloud next to me.
The voice was so clear and refined, it was like a radio broadcast.
The fact that she even attended voice acting classes for her acting career was really starting to show.
“…views its readers as complete pigs and fools…”
The voice spouting off such insulting words in a beautifully melodic tone was none other than-
Kim Byul was narrating to me the disgraceful state of the literary world being peeled like an onion on the internet.
She was doing it with a purely innocent intent- simply to torment me.
However, I calmly sipped my coffee from Baekhak Entertainment’s in-house café, enjoying the show unfolding on the internet, as if I were listening to a radio broadcast. Kim Byul tilted her head in confusion.
“I hear this all the time. Why would I get angry?”
“You’re not suffering at all?”
Kim Byul shot me a deeply dissatisfied look.
I can sense her wicked mindset that she can’t be the only one suffering.
She stopped reading criticisms directed at the literary world and shifted her attack, reading more direct insults aimed at me.
“Screenwriter Moon In? A bubble who only rose to fame because of his age…”
I took out my phone and started browsing the internet.
Then I pulled up an article about Sound and launched my counterattack.
“Don’t dooooo iiiit—!”
Before I called her name, she had been nothing but a nuisance.
But the moment I called her name, she rushed at me and turned into a little furball.
Just from saying those two syllables “Kim Byul” she started pulling at her hair, crying out in anguish.
Like she had been hit by an electric shock, Kim Byul’s body trembled violently where she stood before collapsing onto the table with a pitiful whimper.
She had messed up her hair so much that she now looked less like a person and more like a tangled ball of fur.
I placed a cold strawberry yogurt smoothie on top of her head to help cool her down and said,
“Hey, everyone’s bound to flop a movie once in their life.”
A voice came from within the ball of fur.
“They’re all calling me a has-been with the shortest career…”
“They say I rose with ‘Rosarium’ and then immediately went into the coffin with ‘Sound’… What am I supposed to do now…”
“If you rose 10 years ago and are going into the coffin now, doesn’t that make you the longest-lasting has-been?”
The furball ghost flashed her bloodshot eyes at me, stretching her nails toward my face.
“I’ll kill you! You! I’ll kill you! You amateur screenwriter!”
“Honestly, I think the script was good.”
“Why didn’t you just stick to making some teen romance instead of ruining a perfectly good script, you overhyped Moon In-seop!”
“I co-wrote it with Director So Tae-woong.”
“Welcome to the world of has-beens. Now you’ll suffer alongside me. Have you ever heard of the lost decade?”
Even after that, Kim Byul continued to complain for quite a while, venting her frustration.
Knowing how much she yearned for success, I let her vent and tried to comfort her.
However, some time later, I received a slightly awkward message from Kim Byul, and the message read as follows.
[You wouldn’t mind forgetting what happened that day… would you?]
[Oh, it seems our genius screenwriter hasn’t seen it yet…]
Kim Byul sent me a link to a news article.