director of the millennium

"Maeno-kun, is this the movie you're talking about?"

Horie Airi pointed at the most eye-catching poster in the cinema.

On the poster, five handsome men and beautiful women dressed in very high-tech style gather in the center. Behind them, there are five virtual characters with half of their faces exposed standing in the air. And further behind them, there are a group of strange people of various shapes and sizes charging towards the sight.

I have to say, just looking at this poster is pretty cool.

Especially if you look carefully, you can see many familiar faces among the thousands of people in the background.

For example, there is a boy with a yellow hedgehog head, a forehead protector, and a face like a raccoon running like a ninja.

Another example is the height of the wings when flying at high speed in bird form.

As a Japanese, even if she is a girl who doesn't like to read hot-blooded comics, Horie Airi is familiar with many of the familiar images on the posters.

"It's this movie, 'Ready Player One'!"

Maeno Yasutomo nodded excitedly and explained to his girlfriend seriously, "This is a new movie directed by my favorite director."

"Airi-chan, you know, I love science fiction the most. I love science fiction novels, science fiction movies, and science fiction games!"

"This movie is a science fiction movie. It tells the story of people immersed in a virtual game called "Oasis" in 2045 when virtual technology is highly developed. 18-year-old Wade and his friends break through many levels and get the Easter egg hidden in the game by the founder of the game, becoming the heir of Oasis."

"This movie is based on an American novel, but the director made a very Asian adaptation, adding a lot of Asian cultural elements, which is what you see on the poster, such as Naruto and Gundam."

"Oh my god, this virtual two-dimensional world with Naruto, Sasuke, Gundam, and Luffy is so attractive!"

"It satisfies my interest in science fiction and anime at the same time. It's perfect!"

Yes, Yasutomo Maeno is not just a science fiction fan, he is also a passionate comics lover.

In other words, which Japanese person didn’t like to read the hot-blooded youth comics in Weekly Shonen Jump when he was a teenager?
So, for Yasutomo Maeno, "Ready Player One", which was released on July 7, is a movie that perfectly satisfies his preferences.

He even brought his girlfriend with him, intending to drag her into the trap.

This movie has been released in China for a week. There has always been a group of Wu Yuan's fans in Japan who pay attention to Wu Yuan's movies.

Naturally, after Ready Player One was released in China, its online reviews, word-of-mouth, and box office performance were translated into Japanese and posted back to the Japanese Internet.

Most Japanese movie fans who are slightly interested in Wu Yuan's films already know about this movie.

Chinese audiences like it very much. The movie uses a lot of Japanese comic characters and also contains many Easter eggs about Japanese anime.

Even if they don't want to be spoiled, Japanese netizens know something about this movie.

Well, then I'm looking forward to it even more.

Finally, after a week of anticipation, this movie was released in Japan. I had to watch it! "Airi-chan, let's go in quickly. The movie will start in ten minutes." Holding the movie ticket, Maeno Yasutomo continued to say to his girlfriend excitedly, "I heard that Sakura will appear in the movie."

"Don't you like Sakura the most? You are the key to the dark power. Show me your true power~"

"I heard there are Sakura's Easter eggs in the movie, and Sakura's magic wand appears."

"And there's the Moon Prism!"

Of course, Wu Yuan wouldn't just bury some Easter eggs for boys in the movie.

The original version of "Ready Player One" contains a lot of elements that have appeared in movies and TV series that European and American boys and girls have watched since childhood, while Wu Yuan's version of "Ready Player One" contains a lot of elements from classic animations, movies, and TV series that Asian boys and girls have watched since childhood.

The magic wands like the one in "Cardcaptor Sakura" and "Sailor Moon" have also appeared in movies.

The main theme is that whether it is a girl or a boy, they can find some surprises in their memories when watching this movie.

This concept was directly copied from Spielberg's idea when he was creating "Ready Player One".

Yes, actually there are not so many Easter eggs in the novel of Ready Player One, and it is impossible to write these Easter eggs using the text of the novel.

The movie made many changes to the book.

Although the overall framework has not changed, the structure, details and characters have been carefully adjusted. The science fiction feel of the novel is quite weak, and it is more like a game or e-sports theme, while the movie has become a real science fiction film.

There are more than a hundred Easter eggs in the original movie of "Ready Player One". It is even called a movie made with Easter eggs. This is because when Spielberg was making this movie, he crammed all the popular elements of the United States from the 80s and 90s, or all of his youth, into the movie.

There are classic car models that appear in his favorite movies, characters from classic Hollywood movies, a tribute to "The Shining", and elements from a large number of popular games.

Of course, many elements from excellent games and movies of the 21st century also appear in the movie, such as the characters in "Overwatch".

Spielberg is just telling the audience that if there is such a virtual world that includes all the popular culture you like, it will surely take up the banner of rebuilding meaning, save you modern humans who have nothing to ask for except entertainment, retreat from the empty desert of reality, and flee desperately to the cool oasis inside the VR glasses.

Wu Yuan retained the concept of the film, but changed all the European and American pop culture in the film into Asian pop culture. In Asian pop culture, Japanese comics are definitely a strong influence. They are even the childhood of several generations of people in China, Japan and South Korea. It is really unavoidable.

Therefore, Wu Yuan's version of "Ready Player One" is actually very much to the taste of Japanese audiences. At least it will give them a sense of nostalgia that also pays tribute to their childhood.

Yasutomo Maeno and his girlfriend were just a tiny couple among the many Japanese audiences who went to the cinema to watch "Ready Player One" on July 7.

In fact, on the day when Ready Player One was released in Japan, the screenings in hundreds of cinemas across Japan were all sold out.

A large number of 2D, anime and movie fans flocked to the cinema to watch this special movie.

Its momentum is almost as great as when "Your Name" was released! (End of this chapter)