National Tide 1980

In the eyes of the general public, the life of a celebrity is undoubtedly glorious and colorful.

Especially in contemporary society, many ordinary people envy celebrities for being shrouded in a special halo, enjoying special treatment everywhere in society, and also having a rich material life.

Almost everyone thinks that celebrities who are loved by many people just live a carefree life and can spend money as they please.

There are almost no worldly worries in their lives, and they are so beautiful that they are simply impeccable.

But to be honest, this view is definitely the subjective conjecture of people who do not understand the actual situation.

Although becoming a big star does require you to earn a little more than ordinary people, you will often have to be in the limelight.

But precisely because this industry is a highly speculative one, it can easily make people gain both fame and fortune.

Not only is the competition extremely fierce, but it has also attracted all kinds of ghosts and monsters to fill this industry.

Looking at the entire entertainment industry, it is full of intrigues and lies and plots, as well as layers of suppression and coercion by power.

Especially in Japan, there are even gangsters who have penetrated deeply into the entertainment industry, and many artists cannot even protect their own personal safety.

So you can imagine how difficult it is for a person to become a star in such a harsh ecological environment.

Not only does it require talent and hard work, it also requires the awareness to pay a huge price, and it also depends on a certain amount of luck.

Is there any star who has not shed tears or suffered behind his back?

Which celebrity has not endured humiliation that is unbearable for ordinary people?

What's more, even if you are lucky enough to become a big star and live a good life with both fame and wealth, it does not necessarily mean you have gained happiness.

In fact, while celebrities enjoy a glamorous and pampered life, they also have unknown anxieties.

Instead, they worry about many things that ordinary people don't have to worry about.

For example, worrying about your body shape, your skin, your hair, and your age.

Worry that your own glory will no longer exist, worry that new people will emerge in the industry overnight and replace you, worry that competitors of the same type as you will get better career development opportunities.

They are also afraid of being secretly photographed by paparazzi when they go out, and they are afraid that their private life and personal information will be leaked.

Even when I get along with others, I always wonder, "Is this person plotting something against me?" and "How much of what the other person says is true or false?"

So in this world, I am afraid that few people really know such a cruel fact - the probability of celebrities suffering from depression is actually several times higher than that of ordinary people.

Why is this happening?

In fact, the answer is very simple, because even if you have achieved financial freedom, your desire for upward is still unlimited.

Man, the more you taste the taste of fame and wealth, the more reluctant you are to let go.

Pain and troubles have arisen since then and cannot be let go.

In fact, in this world, the higher a person climbs, the more tiring his life becomes, and the easier it is for him to become a slave bound by fame and fortune.

The most beautiful woman in Japan's Showa era, movie star Keiko Matsumoto, her current life is almost like this.

…………

At six o'clock in the morning, except for the occasional chirping of birds on the ginkgo trees, Denen Chofu, the most famous mansion plot in Ota District, Tokyo, the entire neighborhood is very quiet.

Most of the rich ladies from every household here have not gotten up yet.

Only Matsumoto Keiko, who lives in the 4th-chome, got up on time with extremely high self-discipline.

In order to maintain her figure and beauty, she strictly follows her biological clock every day.

After getting up, I drank half a cup of honey lemon water, and then went to the sunflower room on the second floor terrace of my villa to do morning yoga.

Keiko Matsumoto is extremely serious about this matter.

Not only did she put on a pure white yoga sportswear, her curly long hair was also carefully combed and neatly and meticulously tied into a simple bun.

The weather was exceptionally sunny that day. As half past six came, the orange-red sunlight shone on the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the sun room, reflecting a dazzling, dreamlike light.

Matsumoto Keiko's flexible and slender body began to stretch and change in the light and shadow of the morning light.

For a while, it transformed into an inverted crane, and for a while, it transformed into a bird flying sideways, blooming flowers, a curved bow, and erratic clouds...

Her yoga skills were taught by famous teachers, not to mention she has been practicing seriously for many years.

Now my level is professional and proficient enough, and I am fully qualified to be a teacher for others.

She continued doing yoga until seven o'clock, then washed up, changed clothes, and then went to the restaurant downstairs for breakfast.

The maid prepared breakfast for her according to a fixed menu.

At seven o'clock every day, two domestic helpers who have been employed by Matsumoto Keiko for a long time will come to work at home on time.

One is responsible for the kitchen and home shopping, and the other is responsible for cleaning and garden maintenance until 4 p.m.

They don't live here, they just work according to fixed times and almost unchanged procedures every day.

Needless to say, most of the food used in Keiko Matsumoto’s kitchen is high-end.

In addition to Japan’s local high-quality specialties such as milk, eggs, and strawberries, there are also many imported foods.

For example, Peruvian red potatoes, Danish bacon, British oats, Greek olive oil, etc.

However, her personal meals are not complicated, and her appetite is still small.

Just like today's breakfast, she just drank a small bowl of oatmeal, a small plate of cold vegetables and natto, a small cup of egg custard, three slices of Sunkist orange and a nutritious lozenge that is good for the skin.

Once breakfast is over, Keiko Matsumoto will start her first important task of the day - makeup.

As a public figure and a contemporary national goddess, in order to present herself with a flawless appearance, Matsumoto Keiko never borrows the hands of others for her daily makeup.

Its level of detail is comparable to that of a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Almost every time it takes more than an hour.

In fact, it didn't take so long originally.

Especially under the premise that practice makes perfect, Keiko Matsumoto's makeup skills have already become increasingly proficient.

But precisely because Matsumoto Keiko was born in 1952, she was already thirty-three years old before she knew it.

Due to the psychological fear brought about by her growing age, she inevitably got into trouble with this matter.

Now, she is increasingly unable to accept the traces of time that time has left on her appearance.

The hidden worries of old age and sexual decline have almost become her main source of mental distress and pain.

Thirty-three years old!

For any actress, this is an embarrassing age.

Why?

Just because an actress of this age is obviously not suitable to play a young and beautiful female role.

The female characters in their twenties and seventies are often the protagonist's relatives, friends or housewives, and they are supporting roles in each drama.

If you are not willing to accept such a role, and are not willing to play a middle-aged woman of a higher age.

Actresses who are over 30 may have no more roles to film.

But how can the pride of being a female star be abandoned so easily?

Especially for Matsumoto Keiko herself, the first few years were the highlight years of her acting career.

In fact, since 1980, she has become the leading lady of Shochiku Pictures.

Until 1983, she starred in "The Gate of Youth", "Love in the Waves", "Dotonbori River", "March of Kamata", "The Theater of Life", "Gobancho Yugiri Tower", etc. for Shochiku Pictures. Many well-known movies.

She even broke the record in Japanese film history and became the only winner of consecutive Best Actress awards at the "Japanese Oscars".

In 1982 and 1983, she won the Best Actress Award at the Japan Film Academy Awards for two consecutive years.

Especially at the 1983 Japan Film Academy Awards ceremony, the most dramatic incident occurred.

Originally, according to the historical tradition of the Japan Film Academy Awards, the previous winners presented awards to the new winners every year.

But it turned out that at this awards ceremony, Keiko Matsuzaka, who had just won the Best Actress award for "Gate of Youth" last year, read out the award list on the spot, and it was her own name.

Moreover, she was also the first actress to be elected at the Film Academy Awards for her two films, "March of Kamata" and "Dotonbori River".

These two unprecedented situations both broke the convention since the establishment of this award.

One can imagine how excited Matsumoto Keiko, who had no prior knowledge and was completely kept in the dark, was at that time.

To be honest, she thought she just won the award last year, so it would be impossible for her to win consecutive awards this year.

So with thunderous applause, Matsumoto Keiko gave herself the award at the scene, and couldn't help but cry with joy for this honor.

This scene not only moved all the viewers who watched the awards, but also confirmed Keiko Matsumoto's status as the number one female star in contemporary Japan. This scene has also forever become a classic scene worth remembering at the Japan Film Academy Awards.

In the decades that followed, this famous scene was often used by television stations as material to recall the past and was replayed repeatedly.

It's a pity that this miraculous life achievement has become the bottleneck of Keiko Matsumoto's career development.

After 1983, although she has reached the top of the Japanese film industry, her fame and worth have surpassed her long-time competitor Sayuri Yoshinaga.

But Keiko Matsumoto, who has been crowned Best Actress twice, has found it difficult to further her career on this basis.

This special type of role has indeed made her successful, but it also severely limits her acting potential.

In addition to love ethics movies, she is good at the kind of female characters who are labeled by their beauty and can charm all living beings.

Major directors are often reluctant to cast her for other female roles in other types of movies.

However, after becoming famous, she is no longer willing to accept bad movies for money.

She is more picky about scripts and only wants to star in roles and scripts she likes.

She really wants to break out of the original character frame and change her acting style.

She even wants to develop on the drama stage, and longs to completely break away from the role of a "beautiful vase" who entertains people with sex.

As a result, the actual feedback was unsatisfactory. Not only did her work drop sharply, but her attempts to change her acting style also failed miserably.

In the entire year of 1984, she only took on three carefully selected films.

They are "Shanghai Life", "The Mouse Monk" and "Make Up".

But I never expected that after these films were released, they all received mediocre reviews.

Neither critics nor audiences seemed to buy it.

So by 1985, the film works she starred in suddenly became nothing.

Not only did he deliberately try out several roles, but they were ultimately rejected by the directors.

Even for the roles she was good at, no one came to her to film them.

But that's not the worst thing. The worst thing is that blessings never come in pairs, and misfortunes never come alone.

At this time, Matsumoto Keiko's career in advertising endorsements also suffered a heavy blow.

Originally, she held the title of Best Actress and was at the peak of her looks.

It stands to reason that for at least a few years, Keiko Matsumoto should be the advertising spokesperson favored by big brands.

From the perspective of fame and fortune, it doesn't matter if she doesn't have a movie to shoot. She can get paid just by shooting commercials to the point where she can't help but maintain her fame and celebrity status because of the broadcast of commercials.

But no one can imagine that there are unforeseen circumstances, and people have misfortunes and misfortunes.

Just at the beginning of this year, a tissue commercial she was filming unexpectedly fell into a supernatural incident.

After this TV commercial about paper towels was aired, not only the commercial producer but also the actors in the TV series died mysteriously one after another.

And the background music was later found to be a cult language sung in Russian.

In the end, the advertisement was blocked by Japanese media and was completely banned.

As a result, Matsumoto Keiko also suffered a lot and became an unlucky artist, and was terminated by the major manufacturers she originally signed.

I have to admit that the Japanese are the most superstitious.

As soon as this happened, Hitachi, Sony, Mazda, Japan Airlines, Mitsui Banking Corporation, Shiseido, Issey Miyake... almost all came to terminate the contract.

For Matsumoto Keiko, the economic losses directly caused by this incident may be calculated as one billion yuan.

What’s the use of the appearance that captivates thousands of people, the honor of being a double-acting actress?

She is so pitiful now. She is even worse than becoming a box office poison. She has simply become an advertising poison.

Not to mention that the house leaked even though it rained all night.

As soon as the "Plaza Accord" came out, the company run by Matsumoto Keiko's father suffered a heavy blow from the exchange rate and was in urgent need of tens of millions of yen for turnover.

So, how cruel real life is.

Although she has just reached the peak of her career, Keiko Matsumoto is facing the threat of becoming obsolete.

Obviously, she should have lived a prosperous life for a few years without worrying about food and drink, but Matsumoto Keiko is now even more short of money than when she was not a movie queen.

In this case, as a weak woman who only knows how to act, if she wants to get out of adversity, how many options does she have?

He wants to make another movie that will make him famous and regain a lot of advertising revenue.

So besides her appearance, which has supported her career to this point, what else can she rely on?

It's no wonder that she cares so much about appearance, right?

This is what it's like to be a star.