Chapter Eighty A Slightly Different History

  In the history of Aya's story, the movie and TV versions of "One Litre of Tears" were played by two actresses, Misako Nagashima and Haruka Ayase. Haruka Ayase is still a young girl now and has no chance to play the role in the version with Erika Sawajiri and Yui Aragaki. As for Misako Nagashima, she was just 17 years old when she debuted and was an ordinary actress at that time. Four years later, when she was 21 years old, she could have played Aya's role well, but if she had the acting skills of a 21-year-old now, it would be impossible for her not to be famous among Japanese actresses.

  After denying three people, Zhou Xiao and Nagata Koto brought up other popular actresses, such as Taino Makiko who played the most perfect divorce, now 19 years old and just debuted, with an acceptable price, but after inquiring, it was found that Taino Makiko is currently filming a well-known Paradise of later generations.

  "Artificial paradise... If it were Miyazaki Aoi, then it would be possible to act as Ya too." Zhou Xiao muttered to herself.

  "Who is Miyazaki Aoi?" asked Nagata Koto.

  "The heroine of artificial paradise, and she also starred in Obayashi Nobuhiko's 'That Summer Day' last year, right?" asked Zhou Xiao.

  "Who's Miyazaki Aoi? Never heard of her?"

  "Haven't you heard of it?" Zhou Xiao was surprised, and could even be said to be extremely surprised. How could she not have heard of it? Miyazaki Aoi's early films were all high-end artistic works rather than commercial films, which made her win numerous awards abroad while being relatively unknown in Japan, but this is just the perspective of ordinary audiences. Nagata Kotone is a director, and as a director, she must pay attention to domestic and international awards as well as Japanese winners.

  "Inoue Shū, do you know Miyazaki Aoi?" asked Zhou Xiao.

  "No, I've never heard of it." Uncle Inoue shook his head and said.

  "It's really strange... No way, I'll go take a look!" Zhou Xiao said as he stood up.

  "Where are you going?" asked Nagata Koto.

  "Go online! I'll go check something out, you guys wait." Zhou Xiao said as he stood up.

  "Huh? Hey!" Eita Kotone was surprised, but Zhou Xiao had already stood up and walked out.

  Ten minutes later, Zhou Xiao returned with a somewhat strange expression.

  "Strange, did I remember it wrong?" Zhou Xiao muttered to herself as she sat down.

  "What's wrong with your memory?"

  "I seem to have mixed up a girl named Miyazaki Aoi in my memory with Kobayashi Yoko, it's really strange, that Miyazaki Aoi is actually also very good at acting." Zhou Xiao said.

  "Oh? Can you still find this Miyazaki Aoi?" asked Nagata Koto.

  "I'll try then, let's stop here for today. I'll try to find Miyazaki Aoi in the next few days and talk again." said Zhou Xiao.

  "Alright." Nagata Kotaro and Inoue Uncle saw Zhou Xiao say so, no longer insisted, the three parted ways. Zhou Xiao and Inoue Uncle went to find a house together, not a residential house, but an office building for the company.

  All the way, Zhou Xiao was a little distracted thinking about something, and Uncle Inoue didn't disturb him too much, only calling out to him when he needed to look at the house, otherwise, Zhou Xiao remained quietly silent thinking about something.

  What is he thinking? He's thinking of Miyazaki Aoi!

  That little Lin Yangzi, Zhou Xiao had never heard of her before, but she took the path that Miyazaki Aoi was originally supposed to take. The only difference is that this Lin Yangzi obviously doesn't have Miyazaki Aoi's talent and spirituality. Although the few films she shot were still highly evaluated abroad, the female lead didn't get much praise.

  But where did Miyazaki Aoi go? Zhou Xiao suddenly discovered that although it was rare, the history he had experienced undoubtedly had some differences with this world's history!

  And it's not even his fault!

  "Miyazaki Aoi... Although she's only 15 years old now, with her talent, acting shouldn't be a problem at all... Now there's just one question, that is Miyazaki Aoi in this history... Is she completely not the same person or is it just that no one else has noticed yet?!" Zhou Xiao thought.

  The next day, Zhou Xiao began a tight and secretive search plan for Miyazaki Aoi.

  Miyazaki Aoi is a Tokyo native, and Zhou Xiao's previous search online wasn't entirely fruitless. To be strict, he actually found information about Miyazaki Aoi, but it was from eleven years ago when she was four years old and had filmed an advertisement before disappearing. In the history that Zhou Xiao experienced, after filming this CM, Miyazaki Aoi became a child actor and took acting classes every day, which is why she had such good acting skills by her teens. Zhou Xiao didn't know if the current Miyazaki Aoi had undergone eleven years of uninterrupted acting training.

  Firstly, Zhou Xiao had to call the company that Gong Li starred in a CM for and the TV station that aired it, trying to get in touch with her. However, when Zhou Xiao called them, they said that due to personal privacy reasons, they couldn't provide her contact information. Having no other choice, Zhou Xiao could only ask if they could help contact Gong Li instead.

  After a series of twists and turns, Mika's mother finally called Zhou Xiao.

  "It's like this, I wanted to ask, has Miyazaki Aoi been doing any acting training in recent years?" Zhou Xiao asked first after some small talk.

  "She did take acting classes, but at the age of eleven, she had an unexpected injury. Although this injury didn't leave her with any aftereffects, her acting training fell behind." said Aoi Miyazaki's mother. In fact, Aoi Miyazaki's mother is a typical Japanese stage mom, who isn't an actress herself but wants to be one through her daughter, which led to Aoi starting to appear in commercials at the age of four and learning how to act.

  Zhou Xiao furrowed her brow, it seems that the difference between her and her 11-year-old self is just a matter of experience. I wonder if Miyazaki Aoi can still maintain that stunning acting ability after four years without any acting training.

  "Is she herself interested in acting in movies or TV dramas?" Zhou Xiao asked.

  "Of course, she's fine. How could she not be? She actually likes performing, it's just that the injury four years ago made her a bit resistant. Don't worry, she'll be absolutely okay." said Miyazaki Aoi's mom.

  "That's right, our movie has an open casting call for a female lead role, originally only targeting Japanese registered actresses, but as for your daughter, I just happened to see her commercial that year, so I had some intention of getting in touch with her, if she's really interested, please have her come participate in the audition, and don't worry, my expectations for your daughter are still very high," said Zhou Xiao.

  "That's settled then, when is the audition?"

  "The specifics haven't been confirmed yet, can you leave me a phone number? Once the time is confirmed, I'll contact you." Zhou Xiao said this and then hung up the phone with Miyazaki Aoi's mom.

  After hanging up the phone, Zhou Xiao felt a lot more at ease. He was well aware that if there was any way to get Miyazaki Aoi to star in it, that would undoubtedly be the best outcome. Among Japanese actresses who rose to fame after 2000, no matter how many dramas the so-called "four pillars" acted in, Miyazaki Aoi remained the most deserving of being called a top actress of this era. It's not like anyone could help it - after all, those four pillars were at best just TV drama actresses, whereas Miyazaki Aoi was a genuine big-screen actress. There really weren't many TV dramas that could pique her interest; perhaps only something like a taiga drama or an asadora would be worthy of her status.

  The audition for the TV series actors was a long-planned project, as it's not just about selecting the female lead, but also other supporting roles need to be selected as soon as possible. Among the supporting roles, the most important one is the mother of the female lead. Additionally, although the male lead has limited screen time and opportunities for performance, at least some acting skills are required. The remaining roles, including doctors and others in the hospital, do not have high requirements and should be easy to find.

  In fact, before the sea election, Zhou Xiao and Yong Tianqin would still go to find a suitable actress for the role of mother. At that time, there were many middle-aged actresses who were very suitable for this role. If any one of them could be invited, it would be a valuable experience for the entire play.

  P.S. Actually, there's been some minor renovation at home these two days, but this kind of thing is tiring even for a small place, tomorrow will resume to two updates per day