The literary era since 1979

Chapter 298: The Empire's Literary Adviser

December 10, Tokyo.

Hosoi Eio returned home exhausted in the night and saw his wife Hosoi Rikako walking out of the living room.

"That brat is out fooling around on his motorcycle again, isn't he?"

"No no."

Hosoi Rikako shook her head. "After being taught a lesson by you, Ryoma has changed his ways and never rides a motorcycle again."

"It better be this way!"

Hosoi Eio snorted coldly. The government has recently begun to crack down on bikers and has increased the penalties for speeding.

Hosoi Rikako covered her mouth and asked, "Really?"

"Of course it's true! The bikers are just a bunch of idiots, a bunch of idiots who waste their youth and money!"

Hosoi Eio deliberately walked to the stairs and shouted to Hosoi Ryoma who lived on the second floor.

In the 80s in Japan, there appeared the "bosozoku", a violent group that gradually evolved from biker gangs. Their members dyed their hair in various strange shapes, especially the crew cut.

In addition, they will wear headbands with the group name printed on them, overalls, or special attack uniforms.

In movies, comics and novels such as "GTO" and "Hot Blood School", bikers are basically "regulars".

"Stop talking, stop talking, and let's eat!"

After persuading her husband, Rikako Hosoi went to call her son upstairs to come down for dinner.

Hosoi Eio untied his tie, poured himself a glass of cold beer, then picked up the remote control and turned the channel to Fuji.

At this moment, in addition to the host, Fangyan and Keiko Matsuzaka also appeared on the screen.

At once, he was attracted by the bright and charming beauty of Keiko Matsuzaka, but soon his attention shifted to Fangyan.

Hosoi Rikako brought the dishes in. "He is a writer from China. He seems to be a very great writer!"

Hosoi Eio looked at the host and introduced the dialect.

He has received a series of honors and identities, including "member of the Chinese delegation visiting Japan", "winner of the 89th Akutagawa Ryunosuke Award", and "winner of the US National Book Award", especially the middle-aged name given by Fuji.

"The empire's literary talent!"

“This guy was on TV yesterday, too.”

Rikako Hosoi recalled that it was just on NHK, and the female guest was not Keiko Matsuzaka, but Komaki Kurihara.

"This is normal. If a writer cannot be admired by many women, he must be a failed writer!"

Hosoi Eio said: "Like our great Japanese writers, they are all very romantic."

"He is about the same age as Ryoma, but I didn't expect him to be so amazing." Rikako Hosoi couldn't help but sigh when she saw Keiko Matsuzaka on TV staring at Fangyan without any hesitation.

At this moment, Hosoi Ryoma scratched his messy hair and said, "You can praise me if you want, but why do you have to bring me along?"

Hosoi Eio turned around and was furious:

"If you could be even one percent of him..."

"what!"

Rikako Hosoi interrupted hurriedly and said that the movie adapted from the dialect novel was about to be released, and the family would go together then.

"Watching this kind of movie? Boring, uninteresting, too lazy to watch it!"

Ryoma Hosoi curled his lips, looking like he was saying, "I'd rather jump from here than look at this."

Seeing his attitude, Hosoi Eio's face turned pale and he said angrily: "Humph, do you think I have a lot of time?"

Seeing that the father and son were quarreling again like before, Hosoi Rikako sighed, and then she heard a dialect voice coming from the TV:
“The dilemma between a traditional father and son is usually that they love each other but they don’t understand each other.”

"They wanted to hear about each other, but they didn't know how to start. The son was like a traditional family in front of his father: nervous, restrained, repressed, and taciturn."

"Fathers will not speak softly to their sons like mothers do, or even ask about their well-being. They are silent, always with a stern face, pointing out their shortcomings, which can easily lead to tensions between fathers and sons."

“But this is exactly what fatherly love is.”

“Father’s love is silent. If you feel it, it’s not father’s love!”

"........."

"I think the highest mountain is not Mount Everest, but the mountain of fatherly love."

"The deepest sea is not the Pacific Ocean, but the deepest love."

“The most tacit understanding of hearts is not the connection between hearts, but the connection between father and son.”

"In order to promote understanding between father and son, there must be an opportunity, so I designed the 'son inherits the father's business' in the novel. Through a short period of coexistence between the father and son and the communication during a journey, the father and son can truly open their hearts and eliminate the previous barriers and misunderstandings..."

Hearing this, Hosoi Eio couldn't help but be moved and coughed lightly.

"I thought about it and I think I can squeeze out some time. Rikako, if you want to watch it, I can go with you." "That's great."

Hosoi Rikako saw through it but didn't say anything. She then looked at her son and said, "Ryoma, you can also go with mom to see it, okay?"

Ryoma Hosoi opened his mouth, but seeing that his mother still had a smile on her face, he reluctantly agreed.

"I'm doing this entirely for my mother's sake!"

"Snapped!"

Rikako Hosoi clapped her hands happily, and was looking forward to the movie helping to ease the relationship between father and son.

So on the day of the pre-sale of "The Village Postman", I went out early in the morning and went straight to the nearest cinema.

When I passed by a bookstore on the way, I saw a poster of "The Village Postman" pasted on the door of the store, and almost everyone who came out of the store had a copy of the novel "The Village Postman".

After seeing this scene, I made up my mind to buy a copy when I came back from buying the movie ticket.

However, the truth is far beyond one's imagination.

There was a huge queue outside the cinema, and everyone was scrambling to buy movie tickets.

"No way?"

Hosoi Rikako was stunned.

Especially seeing that most of the team are young people.

Upon asking, I learned that just two days ago, in the NHK Grand Hall, in front of many media, a plan of 3000 people was publicly announced to invite Japanese youth to visit China next year. The reciprocity of gifts immediately pushed the enthusiasm of China-Japan friendly exchanges to its highest climax.

The most important thing is that during this speech, "The Village Postman" was mentioned in passing.

With so many days of promotion, the popularity of "The Village Postman" has been increasing. Now with this favorable trend, it has become popular before it is even aired, and has become completely all the rage in Japanese society. The sales of the novel have also skyrocketed visibly.

Today, it has exceeded the 10-copy mark.

And on the day of the movie's premiere on the 22nd, it was even more amazing. Leaders, directors, and actors from the Chinese and Japanese film industries, including Fang Yan and Keiko Matsuzaka, all came to show their support.

"Hahaha, Mr. Dialect!"

Okuyama Ryu laughed out loud, "I'm afraid I have to congratulate you in advance on the huge success of your film!"

"It's not me, it's us. I think we can pop the champagne at halftime."

Fangyan curled his lips.

Since Shochiku bought the Japanese copyright, no matter how high the box office is, it has nothing to do with them.

"Celebrate with champagne?"

Okuyama Rong smiled and said, "That's a good idea, but we have arranged a better celebration banquet, just waiting for the box office to exceed 1 million!"

Fang Yan raised his eyebrows. "It's probably not that easy for an art film to break through 1 million at the box office, right?"

“That’s usually the case, but things are different right now.”

Okuyama Toshio said confidently that if the box office of "The Village Postman" could not exceed 1 million yen under such favorable circumstances, he would resign immediately and never touch movies again in his life.

As a result, just as he expected, the film's sensation in Japan far exceeded Fangyan's expectations.

The Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun reported on it one after another. Famous writers such as Yamaguchi Shosu, Oe Kenzaburo, and Yamazaki Toyoko also published their film reviews in the newspapers, praising it highly.

“A film that cleanses the soul and brings tears to your eyes!”

"I really hope all the men in Japan will watch this movie!"

“The whole movie is like grass soaked in water, so beautiful!”

"This is a very simple film. The audience not only enjoys the beautiful green scenery of the southern countryside, but also feels the father-son relationship that has been lost in Japan for a long time, and this kind of father-son relationship is exactly what Japan lacks the most."

"The true emotions between ordinary fathers and sons in rural China form a sharp contrast with the weak family concept in contemporary Japanese society. The social problems of Japanese teenagers are directly caused by their lack of family warmth. The theme of the film explores a series of social problems in Japan, which is worthy of people's deep reflection."

Even Japan's oldest film magazine, the Japan Film Monthly, made a special issue on "The Village Postman".

These days, Japan's economy is booming and unprecedentedly prosperous.

Although it has not yet reached the point of the bubble economy when people were clamoring to buy the entire United States, the purchasing power of the general public is frighteningly exaggerated. Therefore, when it comes to such "cheap" movie tickets and novels, they naturally buy, buy, buy without blinking an eye.

Whether it is the hardcover edition or the paperback edition of "The Village Postman", they are all sold out.

Distributors from all over the country called Yuhikaku, urging them to ship the goods quickly. If they were late, they would commit seppuku to apologize!

As for the movie, because of the professionalism in it, some government agencies and political parties used it as an educational film and required their subordinates to watch it. For example, a poster of "The Village Postman" was posted on the outer wall of the Postal Department, and the department organized private screenings of the movie.

Under such circumstances, although the box office is not as good as commercial films such as "Project A" and "Shaolin Temple" that made more than 30 billion yen, it also broke various records for foreign language art films in Japan.

After only three days of opening, it had already reached the 1 million yen mark, and has continued to rise at an astonishing rate.

This is the first time in a Chinese art film!
The opening was explosive! Unprecedented!
(End of this chapter)