[CH.11] Uiro uri
When you've lived for nearly 40 years, you accumulate various experiences. In my case, during my first year of high school, I aspired to become a voice actor, and I worked part-time jobs to save money to attend a training institute.
Unfortunately, that dream was shattered, but it was enjoyable to study acting with people who shared the same dream once a week. It might be the most enjoyable memory from my previous life.
Now, you might wonder why I'm reminiscing about this. To put it simply, it's a form of escapism.
"Next, let's see if you can cry... Okay, action! Three, two, one, action!"
With a snap of his hands, the man in front of me began the scene. Why I had to do such a thing was beyond me, but there was no use questioning it because right now, I was in the midst of a job interview.
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On the day before Golden Week, after school ended, my mother and I boarded the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo for an early start. I rode on a 0-series Shinkansen*, something I could only see at the Railway Museum in my previous life, and headed straight to Tokyo Station. Come to think of it, there wasn't even a Shinagawa Station on the Shinkansen route back in those days. When I lived in Tokyo, Oimachi was my closest station, so I used it frequently when traveling back home.
*TL Note: The 0 series trains were the first-generation Shinkansen trainsets built to run on Japan's TÅkaidÅ Shinkansen high-speed line which opened in 1964.
We spent one night at a business hotel before heading to the event venue. Renting a six-story building for an event might seem extravagant, even during the bubble period. In the entertainment industry in Tokyo, this might be considered pocket change, but for a country bumpkin like me with a frugal sense of money, it was both astonishing and intimidating. I later heard that they were aiming to complete interviews for over a hundred candidates who had passed the document screening in just one day, so this kind of space might have been necessary.
The interviews were conducted in pairs in front of industry professionals like music producers, film directors, and screenwriters, as well as scouts and company executives. Whether the applicants match the specialists in their desired field is known only to the gods. Well, the organizers probably assign them based on the applicants' stated aspirations in their application documents.
Parents were asked to wait in a separate room, so I parted ways with my mother and headed to the interview venue. When we separated, she whispered in my ear, "If anything strange happens, shout loudly." But there's no way anyone would do anything weird at such a well-known audition like this. I responded with an innocent expression, asking, "What do you mean by 'strange'?" and my mother seemed at a loss for words before waving me off. It probably meant something like "Just go."
As I approached the door to the interview room, I saw a girl who was about five or six years older than me standing in front of it. I thought that maybe I had kept her waiting, so I hurriedly approached her.
"Um, are you Sumire Matsuda?"
"Yes, nice to meet you!"
Wearing an armband that read "Guide," a man approached and asked me, so I bowed slightly. In my mind, I thought I had given a mature and crisp greeting, but due to my slightly lisping speech and a voice that sounded cute, I couldn't help but convert it into hiragana in my mind. It was a bit of a complex for me, especially when combined with my shorter height compared to kids the same age, but there's no use in wishing for something that's not there.
It seemed that the girl next to me was also going to have an interview, so I bowed slightly again to greet her. She had been tensed up and had a stiff expression due to nervousness, but upon hearing that I, a normal kid, was also participating, she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and her lips curled into a slight smile. Whether this girl was a self-applicant or recommended by someone else, I didn't know, but passing the document screening had certainly been justified by her looks. Her smile had a captivating charm, and she was quite the beauty.
"I'm Kasumi Ito. Nice to meet you, Sumire-chan."
"Yes, nice to meet you too!"
If we had more time, I would have liked to chat a bit more, but it seemed that the interview would start soon. We were guided into the room by the attendant. It felt like a job interview I had experienced multiple times when looking for employment, with the same tension and the intimidating presence of the interviewers.
I stood beside a chair, but there were no instructions to sit or introduce ourselves from the interviewers. Kasumi-chan seemed frozen, probably due to nerves, so we ended up in a stand-off with the interviewers and the two of us. Since no instructions were forthcoming, I decided to take the initiative. Even if I made a mistake, I hoped they would forgive me with a child's innocence.
"I'm Sumire Matsuda. Thank you for having me today."
"Um, I'm Kasumi Ito. Nice to meet you!"
As I spoke energetically, Kasumi-chan seemed a bit bewildered at first, but she also gave a clear introduction in a bright voice. Then, the youngest of the three interviewers, a man in a suit, smiled warmly and gestured for us to sit down.
The interviewers began introducing themselves. The suit-clad man was Mr. Kawai, a talent scout for a entertainment production company. The middle-aged man in a sweater was Mr. Ishikawa, a music producer, and the bearded man wearing a houndstooth hat was Mr. Kanzaki, a film director. I had definitely heard of Director Kanzaki's name in my previous life; he was known for creating hit movies with original scripts, even if his popularity had waned a bit.
Then it was our turn to introduce ourselves. Oh, Kasumi-chan was from Kanagawa? She was a high school first-year student who aspired to become a singer and had applied for this audition. I hoped she could work hard to achieve her dream. I shouldn't be saying this, considering that I hadn't achieved much in my previous life, but I still wanted her to succeed, especially since this was likely her first step towards her dream.
"Now, Sumire Matsuda, could you please introduce yourself?"
Mr. Kawai prompted me, so I started my self-introduction from a safe and uneventful point. I mentioned my name, age, hometown, and added a few details that weren't on the application form, just to be cautious, considering that my sister had applied on my behalf. However, I didn't forget to show my enthusiasm as well. Even though I had approached this audition with low expectations, I still wanted to leave a good impression. I didn't have a masochistic hobby of trying to make people dislike me.
Once our introductions were done, it was time for questions from the interviewers. Kasumi-chan, who had clearly expressed her desire to become a singer, received specific questions from Mr. Ishikawa about what kind of songs she wanted to sing and which singers she looked up to. On the other hand, it seemed that the interviewers weren't sure what to ask me, so they stuck to questions about my favorite celebrities and current trends at school.
Finally, it was time for our self-promotion. Kasumi-chan began by singing a ballad acapella. While she had shown some hesitance in her previous answers, her powerful and heartfelt singing left no doubt about her sincere desire to become a singer.
Now it was my turn. Since this was an audition and I had assumed that a self-promotion like this would be required, I had thought about it quite a bit after deciding to go to Tokyo. At first, I thought about singing like Kasumi-chan, but I didn't know many songs from this era, and I didn't want to attract any unnecessary attention by singing a Heisei-era song that people might not recognize. So I decided to showcase something I had learned well.
"I'll perform 'Uiro uri'!"
When I said this, Mr. Kanzaki, the film director who hadn't made much eye contact with me until then, glanced in my direction. The other two interviewers also had surprised expressions.
'Uiro uri' is originally a kabuki play, but nowadays, it's often treated as a tongue-twister used by actors and announcers to practice their diction. However, since it was originally a kabuki play, even within its long monologue, there is a story. The character, a medicine seller, calls out to passersby, promotes his medicine, and conveys its effects, and each of his words should carry various emotions.
"I am the proprietor, and it may be known to some of you gathered here!"
As my instructor from my drama school days, who I had been under the tutelage of for two years, used to say, "The heart is what matters." She emphasized that surface-level acting wouldn't convey emotions to the audience. Understanding the situation and emotions of the character, imagining the surroundings, and thinking about how to stop the pedestrians' footsteps—it was all part of the act.
I was anxious that I might be stopped halfway due to the length of the monologue, but no one interrupted me, and I managed to perform it until the end. My ingrained gestures and expressions came naturally, and my forehead was glistening with sweat. After bowing and saying thank you, I looked at the interviewers, and for some reason, they were all staring at me with vacant expressions. Puzzled, I glanced at Kasumi-chan, who had a similar look on her face.
We were all silent for a while, not knowing what to do, and then Mr. Kanzaki slowly clapped his hands. Hearing that applause, I snapped back to reality. The other two judges also joined in with impressed expressions. When I looked to my side, Kasumi-chan was clapping too, and for some reason, that made me incredibly happy.
Mr. Kanzaki informed the other two judges, "I'd like to ask her a few questions if that's okay," and then turned to me.
"Have you ever studied acting before?"
"No, I haven't."
"Now, let's play a game together, Matsuda-san. I'll give you directions, and I want you to make the appropriate expressions. Let me demonstrate. Kawai-kun, try looking angry," Mr. Kanzaki suddenly said.
Startled by the sudden request, Kawai-san made an exaggerated angry face while crossing his arms. It seemed we were going to do some kind of acting exercise.
I had done similar exercises in my past life, so I nodded in agreement with Mr. Kanzaki's suggestion. Kawai-san, still wearing his angry expression, was left there without any further instruction. I felt sorry for him, but I decided to leave him alone.
"Alright, Matsuda-san, now try making a happy face," Mr. Kanzaki said.
In response, I recalled several happy moments from my past life. Although I had experienced moments of happiness in my current life as well, the emotions from my previous life were overwhelmingly stronger. As I remembered the emotions, the atmosphere, and the surroundings of those moments, my expression naturally reflected those feelings. Mr. Kanzaki then gave me the next prompt.
"Yeah, that's good. Now, show us an angry face."
Following the prompts, I continued to respond to each new request. However, as the exercises went on, I began to feel somewhat fatigued, and eventually, we returned to the beginning. Mr. Kanzaki—or rather, the older man—asked me to cry.
Ordinarily, one might think, 'It's not that easy to cry,' but I had a secret technique for shedding tears. I simply had to recall the moment when I had to say goodbye to my cat, with whom I had spent 19 years in my past life. Thinking of that moment, my eyes welled up with tears, and large drops fell from my eyes.
In less than 30 seconds, I had shed tears, and the older man said, "Thank you, I understand," as he thanked me. It seemed that the game was over with that. However, I realized that I couldn't stop crying.
"Uh, well, from now on, the three of us will evaluate the success or failure of the main selection, so could both of you wait outside the room for a while? We'll call you when we're done," Kawai-san said in a hurried manner, perhaps due to my continuous crying. He gestured for both me and Kasumi-chan to exit. We took a seat on the bench outside the room, but my tears continued to flow like a broken faucet.
"Kasumi-chan, you did great. You did your best, and you were really good, so you don't have to cry. You'll be okay," I said to Kasumi-chan, who was sitting beside me, trying to encourage her. She wiped my tears away with her own handkerchief and offered some words of comfort, though they weren't entirely clear. She must be quite flustered.
Other participants walking down the hallway stared at us, and I felt bad for getting Kasumi-chan involved. These thoughts were hard to put into words, but I made a desperate effort to stop the tears that refused to cease until we were called back into the room.
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