tl: ksd

    it feels like just yesterday that we were happy winter had ended, but now the warm air is already blowing in.

    a few precious months have passed by like the wind.

    although it feels a little regretful to have invested time in making a movie rather than writing a novel, i have learned a lot in the process.

    movies.

    they are not the art of one person.

    the director is not a creator, but a maestro who leads an orchestra, and the art of film is accomplished through the collaboration of many individuals within that orchestra.

    the roles of the director, actor, and writer are not everything. the roles of numerous staff members, distributors, and even investors are critical. there is no position unimportant in the voyage of a film, like a sailboat moving forward.

    thus, if that long voyage ends in a bad ending, where the ship crashes into a reef and is destroyed, it can be understood that the failure is not solely the director’s, but the failure of all the crew.

    “......”

    “......”

    “......”

    this is why the atmosphere at the dinner party, which felt like a funeral, felt even heavier.

    as the saying goes, the more you know, the more you can see. the more i knew, the more deeply i felt their emotions.

    even the resentful gazes.

    whispers. i could hear the backbiting, though i didn’t know if it was directed at director so tae-woong or at me, sitting next to him.

    the fact that no one could stop those words revealed the stark reality of the current situation.

    but amidst all of this, there was someone who was eating meat without a care. of course, it was none other than director so tae-woong, who was devouring the beef with relish, living up to his family name ‘so’. (tl: ?? (so) means cow in korean).

    “let’s eat. what you eat is what you gain.”

    the moment so tae-woong placed two pieces of meat on my bowl of rice, i couldn’t overcome my guilty conscience any longer and muttered an apology.

    “um... i’m sorry......”

    “what are you sorry for?”

    “i think i was too greedy with the script-”

    so tae-woong cut me off.

    “it’s a co-written script.”

    that answer was enough, so i didn’t say more and just put the beef into my mouth with a small bite.

    but i couldn’t gather any strength in my jaw, so the meat didn’t get chewed properly.

    then i saw kim byul sitting across from me.

    she was staring blankly into space, her pupils unfocused, with her mouth slightly agape.

    she didn’t look like an actor with any dignity left.

    it was painful to see.

    “sigh......”

    i placed a piece of beef that was sizzling on the grill onto kim byul’s bowl of rice.

    then, mustering some energy, i chewed and swallowed my own piece of meat.

    kim byul also glanced at the meat with dull eyes and brought it to her mouth with a dejected gesture.

    yeah. you still have to eat to survive......

    it was a dinner party where soju felt particularly tempting.

    ep 9 – sound

    movies are mainstream culture.

    within the flow of korea’s cultural industry, they undoubtedly belong to the mainstream.

    thus, the mathematical and statistical analysis techniques related to the film industry have been highly developed, which is why experts can get a rough idea of how things are going just by looking at the box office results for the first two weeks.

    – it’s fucked.

    – it’s fucked, isn’t it?

    – looks like it’s fucked...

    the general consensus in the industry was that the movie ‘sound’ seemed to be fucked.

    such analyses were quickly passed on to the higher-ups sitting at their desks.

    “it’s fucked?”

    “yes. the analysis suggests it might not even break even...”

    kim geun-tae, the vice president of baekhak publishing, was one of those higher-ups.

    he couldn’t hide a smile as he set down the status report.

    moon in’s failure? not bad news at all.

    “all right. you may leave.”

    “yes, sir!”

    kim geun-tae, who was the head of the book distribution department, had formed a group with lim yang-wook called kim sang-guk is a fucking asshole club to fight against the corrupt figures in the publishing business department.

    as a result, kim geun-tae became the vice president.

    given that the leadership of baekhak publishing had always been dominated by the publishing business department, and even the previous head of the book distribution department had been ousted by kim sang-guk’s machinations, it was nothing short of a miraculous victory.

    to top it off, baek seol was nothing more than a puppet ceo who couldn’t manage herself, so in effect, kim geun-tae had become the regent of the baekhak publishing kingdom.

    and so, kim geun-tae did what a regent serving a young and inexperienced king would do.

    the ruthless yet realistic politics that a soft-hearted king couldn’t do.

    “how about managing author moon’s schedule more systematically?”

    vice president kim geun-tae is a shrewd individual. no, it’s not that kim geun-tae is shrewd, but that the position of vice president demands shrewdness. someone without such acumen couldn’t have risen this far.

    therefore, kim geun-tae had long since grasped the triangular relationship (literally a triangle relationship) between baek seol, lim yang-wook, and moon in.

    – the general public, who lack deep literary insight, couldn’t recognize its value...

    if there’s an advantage to a survivor group, it’s that they’re quick, and if there’s a disadvantage, it’s that they only look ahead.

    thus, this shortsighted collective behavior happened swiftly, without anyone intervening to stop it.

    and once again, the literary world became a laughingstock for the umpteenth time.

    ***

    “this is why the korean literary world...”

    i savored each and every online reaction that was being read aloud next to me.

    the voice was so clear and refined, it was like a radio broadcast.

    the fact that she even attended voice acting classes for her acting career was really starting to show.

    “...views its readers as complete pigs and fools...”

    the voice spouting off such insulting words in a beautifully melodic tone was none other than-

    kim byul.

    kim byul was narrating to me the disgraceful state of the literary world being peeled like an onion on the internet.

    she was doing it with a purely innocent intent- simply to torment me.

    “hmm...”

    however, i calmly sipped my coffee from baekhak entertainment’s in-house cafe?, enjoying the show unfolding on the internet, as if i were listening to a radio broadcast. kim byul tilted her head in confusion.

    “you’re not angry?”

    “i hear this all the time. why would i get angry?”

    “you’re not suffering at all?”

    “not really.”

    “hmph...”

    kim byul shot me a deeply dissatisfied look.

    i can sense her wicked mindset that she can’t be the only one suffering.

    she stopped reading criticisms directed at the literary world and shifted her attack, reading more direct insults aimed at me.

    “screenwriter moon in? a bubble who only rose to fame because of his age...”

    i took out my phone and started browsing the internet.

    then i pulled up an article about sound and launched my counterattack.

    “kim byul...”

    “don’t dooooo iiiit—!”

    before i called her name, she had been nothing but a nuisance.

    but the moment i called her name, she rushed at me and turned into a little furball.

    just from saying those two syllables “kim byul” she started pulling at her hair, crying out in anguish.

    “heeiiing...”

    like she had been hit by an electric shock, kim byul’s body trembled violently where she stood before collapsing onto the table with a pitiful whimper.

    she had messed up her hair so much that she now looked less like a person and more like a tangled ball of fur.

    i placed a cold strawberry yogurt smoothie on top of her head to help cool her down and said,

    “hey, everyone’s bound to flop a movie once in their life.”

    a voice came from within the ball of fur.

    “they’re all calling me a has-been with the shortest career...”

    “really?”

    “they say i rose with ‘rosarium’ and then immediately went into the coffin with ‘sound’... what am i supposed to do now...”

    “if you rose 10 years ago and are going into the coffin now, doesn’t that make you the longest-lasting has-been?”

    the furball ghost flashed her bloodshot eyes at me, stretching her nails toward my face.

    “i’ll kill you! you! i’ll kill you! you amateur screenwriter!”

    “honestly, i think the script was good.”

    “why didn’t you just stick to making some teen romance instead of ruining a perfectly good script, you overhyped moon in-seop!”

    “i co-wrote it with director so tae-woong.”

    “welcome to the world of has-beens. now you’ll suffer alongside me. have you ever heard of the lost decade?”

    even after that, kim byul continued to complain for quite a while, venting her frustration.

    knowing how much she yearned for success, i let her vent and tried to comfort her.

    however, some time later, i received a slightly awkward message from kim byul, and the message read as follows.

    [hey... in-seop...?]

    [yes?]

    [you wouldn’t mind forgetting what happened that day... would you?]

    [why?]

    [oh, it seems our genius screenwriter hasn’t seen it yet...]

    kim byul sent me a link to a news article.

    “ah.”

    it was breaking news that the movie ‘sound’ had been nominated for the ‘in competition’ section of the cannes film festival.

    *****

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