Chapter 78: The Director Candidate

  If this story were a fantasy, then the first month that Zhou Xiao appeared in the Japanese entertainment circle should probably be called "The Beginning of Legend" or something like that. The Japanese people who actually experienced this period didn't pay too much attention to Zhou Xiao's appearance after all, it was someone else's business, and even if he did something, it was his own affair, as long as he could bring more and better music to everyone, that was enough.

  However, this seems not to be the case. When Japanese media outlets sent interview requests to AZX, Inoue, who was in charge of receiving them, said that Zhou Xiao was busy with his own affairs and couldn't spare time for an interview at the moment. When reporters asked what Zhou Xiao was doing, Inoue's response left everyone speechless: "He is currently looking for a director to invest in a film."

  What does he want to do? So many things were started but not finished, and now he wants to go make a movie? What about the single? What about it? The advertisement... Okay, let's just say that investing in a movie is one category.

  When reporters asked such questions, Jing's answer was quite concise and without hesitation: "Zhou Xiao's single is expected to be released at the beginning of next year. If there are no accidents, the single will be the theme song and insert song of the movie."

  It's normal for a singer-songwriter to release one or two singles per year, although there are some exceptions who release many. It seems Zhou Xiao doesn't plan on being an exception.

  So what? The media asked relentlessly.

  "The second part has already been delivered to Wen Chun, and it is expected that both parts can be serialized for at least one year."

  ……

  Now, the media can only say that Zhou Xiao has been accumulating wealth and now it's all coming out at once. Although he seems to be doing a lot of things but nothing is perfect, in fact, whether it's singles or albums, they are all his accumulated assets, just being put on the table at the same time. If you understand it this way, then Zhou Xiao's claim that he did these things simultaneously doesn't seem quite right, because actually, at any given time, he only does one thing, and after finishing one task, he won't take a break but will quickly move on to another task. It seems like all his ideas and work have been planned out long ago.

  Why does Zhou Xiao want to do so many things? It's simple, his goal is to establish AKB, not just any AKB, but an AKB that surpasses the previous generation. To achieve this, some hardware is necessary, which Akimoto Yasushi had from the start, but Zhou Xiao currently lacks. Therefore, within a short span of five years, Zhou Xiao must acquire the same level of ability as Akimoto Yasushi in order to do what he can do.

  What is Akimoto Yasushi's strength? He was able to establish AKB, mainly relying on two strengths. One is that he can continuously write lyrics for eight years without stopping. Don't think that this is something that Zhou Xiao can take lightly. If Zhou Xiao doesn't show enough songwriting ability and speed, the public will be very suspicious of his strength. So next year, Zhou Xiao will increase his song release speed and show off his composition speed at the right time. Of course, this is based on the countless Japanese songs in his mind over the past 15 years.

  Akimoto Yasushi's second strength is his diversified power and his extensive social connections.

  In terms of strength, Akimoto Yasushi not only writes songs, but also as a scriptwriter, he has accumulated rich connections in the TV station, and his work as a director and playwright has also brought him a considerable number of friends. These are his most valuable resources, which Zhou Xiao, who started from scratch, must accumulate as much as possible.

  Apart from these two points, Zhou Xiao's ambition to "surpass AKB" with AKB itself necessitates the development of a greater force!

  Because the difference with Yasushi Akimoto lies in the fact that Yasushi Akimoto is actually a salaryman, although he has his own investments, but in reality, the investment he brought in is the mainstay of AKB, and later on, AKB received investments from many entertainment companies, which allowed it to avoid being boycotted or divided up, this point alone makes him far inferior to Johnny's Kitagawa-san, because Kitagawa-san almost has complete control over Johnny's, the entire Johnny's industry is much larger than 48G and also has more power!

  Zhou Xiao doesn't want to be like Yasushi Akimoto, working for others and unable to control AKB. He wants to be the creator of AKB like Yasushi Akimoto, but at the same time, in terms of ruling AKB, he is preparing to be Yuko Oshima!

  The road ahead is treacherous, but Zhou Xiao is not afraid. Since he has come this far, he wants to create a legend; otherwise, the income from just one song would be enough for him to live happily ever after, so why bother rushing around?

  When dealing with the media, Uncle Inoue also found a film director candidate for Zhou Xiao.

  The director's choice of person is not easy at all.

  An unproven newcomer's script, many somewhat famous directors wouldn't even bother to read it. Singing well doesn't mean you act well either.

  Helpless Inoue had to start looking for a relatively young director after getting Zhou Xiao's consent, but Zhou Xiao still insisted that the director should have some experience, even if it wasn't directing experience, just on-set experience would do. With this condition, Inoue could at least find someone to talk to. However, he discovered that young directors weren't necessarily easy to find either. Most young directors had their own distinct personalities and were eager to make their own movies, wanting to have their own personal style. Handing the film over to such a director might result in an excellent work, but it would be detrimental to Zhou Xiao's growth. What Zhou Xiao needed was a director who had been trained under a more mature system, someone with experience but no particularly distinct style.

  Finally, after Zhou Xiao also joined in, the two of them locked onto one person.

  This person is still working under Ryuichi Inomata and cinematographer Noboru Sugita, but according to a friend of Ikeda's uncle, she has already expressed her intention to become an independent director. After learning from Inomata for so long, her level should be quite good. The popularity of "One Litre of Tears" had nothing to do with the quality of the film, and the original book was especially poorly written in terms of plot.

  "If she doesn't object, then it's her, I hope she can teach me a lot of things." Zhou Xiao said, tapping on the table.

  The next afternoon, in a Tokyo coffee shop, Zhou Xiao grasped the hand of his target, a thirty-year-old woman: "Hello, Ms. Nagata Koto, I'm Zhou Xiao."

  "I really didn't expect you to write such a good script." said Nagata Kotono as she shook hands with Zhou Xiao.

  As a Japanese, she naturally knew that Zhou Xiao had been involved in many things during this period of time. What was surprising was that Zhou Xiao seemed to never stick to one thing and had switched to several others, yet he managed to achieve quite good results in each one. After that, he once again set his sights on the film industry. When she first heard that Zhou Xiao wanted to find someone to make a movie with, her initial reaction was a mix of laughter and tears. Could a script be written so easily? Don't treat your own money as if it's worthless, and don't drag yourself down either.

  Although some people looked down on her, she didn't refuse the script like other directors would have. The reason was simple: she had entered this line of work because she wanted to be a director in the first place. In Zhou Xiao's history, it wasn't until 2001 that she could truly take charge as a director. Now that someone was giving her an opportunity, no matter how small, she would try her best to seize it. When she accepted the script, she had already thought it through: as long as the story had even a little bit of appeal, she would take it on, and if necessary, use her influence as the director to get Zhou Xiao to revise the script during filming.

  But as soon as she opened the script, she was stunned.

  Zhou Xiao asked Uncle Jing to get several movie scripts that had already been filmed before he started writing his own script, so when he began writing, he didn't have any hesitation. Moreover, the majority of the movie's plot was already in his mind, and all he needed to do was push it forward bit by bit, delete the unimportant or ugly parts from the movie, and add some good scenes from the TV series version that he thought were okay.