T/N: The raw uses < > for titles even in speech; I’ll italicize it in speech and keep < > in narration.
A few days later.
One hour before Chester was due to arrive at Incheon Airport.
I drove there myself and waited in the airport lounge, listening to music so I could pick him up.
“Excuse me… aren’t you Director Gyeong Chanhyeon?”
A man I had never seen before came up and spoke to me.
“Ah… haha. Ah, yes, that’s right.”
“Wow! Really? I just thought maybe… haha. You look way better in person!”
The man said that to me with his eyes wide in surprise.
“I really watched Space Vagabond and seriously… Wow, I became a total fan!”
“Haha, thank you.”
Maybe because the man’s voice was so loud, a few people nearby gradually started paying attention.
“Wow! Could I get a photo with you?”
“After watching Space Vagabond, my son’s dream became being an astronaut!”
“Congratulations on one million! It was seriously so fun!”
Once people realized I was Gyeong Chanhyeon, more and more of them began gathering.
And the greetings they gave, thanking me for making a good film…
They were greetings I had received when making previous works too, but this time the feeling was especially different.
Maybe because I had gone through every kind of hardship.
Even just hearing greetings of thanks made the tip of my nose sting.
“Could I ask for your autograph too?”
“Of course. It’s thanks to people like all of you that I’m able to make a living.”
At my words, they looked at me with touched expressions.
“Wow, he’s talented, and he speaks so nicely too.”
“Seriously. He’s really kind.”
“Some actor I saw before looked at people like they were bugs.”
When their whispers reached my ears, something I had heard before came to mind.
‘Because fans exist, the cultural industry runs.’
Sports, art, music, film, and so on.
In industries like these, the existence of fans is more precious than anything else.
‘The moment you forget that, the ending will be miserable.’
Without fans, sports becomes just pointless ball play, art becomes scraps of paper, music becomes noise, and film becomes just a video.
There are people who act as if they have forgotten that.
With the thought that I should never act like them, I smiled sincerely and answered the fans approaching me.
At the same time, Chester finished immigration, picked up his suitcase, and entered the airport lounge.
“Hm… where is Director Gyeong…”
No matter how much he looked around, Gyeong Chanhyeon was nowhere in sight.
Frowning, Chester took out his phone.
Then his gaze naturally went toward a place where an unusual number of people were gathered.
“Huh?”
In that crowd, he saw Gyeong Chanhyeon, sweating profusely as he ran toward him.
“Chester! Have you been well?”
“Could I have been well? I told you I haven’t even been sleeping.”
“For that, your face looks way too good.”
When Gyeong Chanhyeon said it with a smile, Chester let out a playful snort.
“Forget that. But what are those people over there?”
Still looking toward Gyeong Chanhyeon and murmuring among themselves. Looking at those people, Chester asked.
“Ah, that. Haha. A few people happened to recognize me, so I was giving out some autographs.”
“Hah, quite the superstar, aren’t you?”
“Space Vagabond is doing so well right now. Haha.”
Gyeong Chanhyeon’s bashful smile.
At that gentle looking smile, Chester looked at him as if he were looking at a cute child.
“Is the reaction different from when Jawol came out? I hear that film was pretty successful too.”
“It succeeded, but this film feels different somehow. The media keeps going on about how it’s better than Hollywood, so it feels like people are going even crazier over it because of that……”
At Gyeong Chanhyeon’s words, Chester tilted his head.
“Hm? Better than Hollywood?”
“Haha… I think it would be better if you judged that after seeing it yourself.”
“Hm…”
A film made with an amount far below the average Hollywood production budget.
Unless the Korean media were fools, that kind of excessive nationalism driven marketing would more likely become poison.
And Gyeong Chanhyeon was definitely not the kind of director who went around with excessive confidence.
But the fact that he was not denying the news saying his film <Space Vagabond> was not behind Hollywood film technology made Chester even more intrigued.
“Let’s go.”
“Wouldn’t it be better for you to rest today? The flight was so long, so it would be better to adjust to the time difference before watching…”
“Forget it. I won’t be able to sleep anyway thinking about this film. What time difference?”
A little later.
“Chester. Wake up.”
“Hm… uh? Ah. Are we here already.”
Chester rubbed his eyes and spoke, with a clear line of drool still left at the corner of his mouth.
“It took two hours, you know? Are you sure you hadn’t been sleeping? You were even snoring.”
“Hmm. Let’s get out.”
Chester answered briefly, as if embarrassed, then got out of the car and asked Gyeong Chanhyeon,
“You heard, right?”
“Yes? What?”
“That Taylor is my niece.”
“Yes.”
At Gyeong Chanhyeon’s lukewarm reaction, Chester tilted his head.
“Doesn’t it matter much……?”
“The film’s quality is what matters. What does that matter? If anything, I should thank you for hiding it.”
Gyeong Chanhyeon continued with a bright smile.
“If I had known Taylor was your niece, then I would’ve had to clap while looking at the CG from the failed Jurassic Park. Haha. Then what we made now might not have been Space Vagabond, but some dinosaur movie.”
Gyeong Chanhyeon showed an awkward smile. It was easy enough to tell that what he was saying was a lie.
A man that stubborn about film would never use someone blindly just because she was somebody’s niece.
“Hehe. You’re damn bad at lying, aren’t you?”
“Ah… what? N-no.”
“That’s fine. What would be the point of saying things like that to me? Hehe.”
“Haha…”
When they came out into the parking lot, Taylor was standing out front, waving her hand.
“Uncle!”
Seeing Taylor once again wearing space clothes without fail, Chester let out a deep sigh.
“Good grief, that outfit again? I told you to stop wearing things like that.”
“Why? This is a totally pretty Saturn, you know? Can’t you see the rings?”
Taylor pointed at the ring of Saturn drawn on her clothes and smiled brightly, and Chester frowned at the sight.
“Director Gyeong, while Taylor’s been here, has she really worn nothing but clothes like that the whole time?”
“…No comment.”
“Good grief.”
“But it’s because she’s that obsessed with space that Space Vagabond came out. Haha.”
At Gyeong Chanhyeon’s words, Taylor nodded.
“Director Gyeong is right! Uncle, once you watch Space Vagabond, your thinking will change too.”
“Hah, absolutely not. Let’s get inside already. Tsk.”
“Oh, Uncle~.”
Taylor hooked her arm through Chester’s and acted cute, and although Chester was still frowning, he did not seem to hate it that much and just let her do it.
Chester was led straight to the meeting room.
Speakers and a screen.
Looking at the meeting room, which had been turned into a small movie theater with a proper setup, Chester nodded as if satisfied.
“Hm, this is decent enough.”
“I’m glad you like it. The translated script is here.”
A translated script of the dialogue, shorter than expected compared to the film’s length, as if there was not that much dialogue.
‘Looking at that script, I could feel Gyeong Chanhyeon’s confidence that he could definitely dazzle people’s eyes.’
“Shall we start?”
“I’d appreciate it if you would.”
At Chester’s words, light spilled from the projector. And <Space Vagabond> appeared on the screen in front.
With the start of the film, Chester’s eyes filled with anticipation for how entertaining it would be.
He was not all that surprised by how space was depicted.
Because Taylor had already shown him that.
It was like the Milky Way and the softly glowing stars in space she had shown him a few months ago.
But what made Chester’s mouth fall open was Nix Road’s appearance.
CG and acting so natural.
At the sight, Chester jumped in surprise, paused it for a moment, and asked Gyeong Chanhyeon in front of him,
“Th, that’s Andrew Sakil?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“What in the world is this…”
In <The Lord of the Rings>, which he had watched a few years ago, Chester, who had mercilessly torn that film apart in his review, had not hesitated to attack Andrew Sakil in that piece either.
But what he was seeing now was completely different from back then.
Nix Road’s expressions were vividly alive, and his movements too were perfect.
“The Gollum from The Lord of the Rings… You’re saying that’s really the same actor?”
“Yes.”
Gyeong Chanhyeon said to Chester with a bright smile.
“They’re scenes the CG designers ground their souls down to make.”
“Ha… it’s incredible. It really is incredible.”
Motion capture technology.
It was the same technology that had been used in <The Lord of the Rings>, and yet to the point that he wondered if it really was the same thing, the CG team of <Space Vagabond> had rendered it perfectly.
How could something like this be possible.
Gyeong Chanhyeon was a film director, not even a CG expert…
“Come on, Director Gyeong worked the hardest.”
Taylor, who was beside them, said while looking at Gyeong Chanhyeon.
“I’m telling you, he kept going back and forth between the set and MILM and barely slept. He even personally checked every single piece of CG. So the CG team had quite a lot of complaints too. Haha.”
Taylor said it while looking at Gyeong Chanhyeon with eyes full of reverence.
“There was not a single thing where he ever thought, this much is enough. I’m telling you, I think Director Gyeong’s eye for CG is even stricter than mine.”
At Taylor’s words, Chester looked at Gyeong Chanhyeon with a pleased expression.
Maybe because that gaze felt burdensome, Gyeong Chanhyeon quietly looked away. Then he took a sip of the water in front of him and wet his throat.
“Haha, this kid. Getting embarrassed, of all things. Anyway, let’s keep watching.”
The visual effects became more dazzling as the film went on.
How could a film like this come out of this country before Hollywood.
No matter how hard he tried to understand, it was a film he absolutely could not understand.
Completely absorbed by it, Chester immersed himself in the movie.
Kwaang!
The highlight was the dogfight scene between the character Ryu Seongmin and Selene’s guards.
At that scene, Chester’s eyes widened even more.
The appropriate spaceship POV cuts and the perfectly timed cross cutting with Ryu Seongmin’s point of view.
That cross cutting was so excellent that even though the cuts changed frequently, the immersion never disappeared at all.
‘Gyeong Chanhyeon… just praising him by saying he’s incredible is an understatement now.’
The films of Gyeong Chanhyeon he had seen before…
Those films had mostly been films centered on story.
But this film was definitely different.
‘If a Korean film is going to make its name known to the world, it has to dazzle their eyes.’
Those words Gyeong Chanhyeon had said were not simple bluffing.
The Eastern film director in front of him, still strikingly young.
This director might have the ability to shake up the film world.
Chester, full of admiration, quietly glanced at Gyeong Chanhyeon.
He was completely absorbed in his own film.
Even though it was obvious he must have watched it dozens of times already, Gyeong Chanhyeon looked at his own film with a pleased smile, as if he were watching it for the first time.
An expression like someone truly in love with his own film. Looking at that expression, Chester smiled soundlessly and focused on <Space Vagabond> again.
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