Episode 11. Child Actor Debut (2)
At the news that three main and supporting actors from the movie ‘The Culprit’s Place’ had visited the cinema, people flocked like a cloud.
Because of this, Min Seung-yeon worried that she might accidentally lose her child, swept away by the crowd.
“Yebin. You have to hold Mom’s hand tightly. Okay?”
Kang Yebin, forgetting to answer, stood on her tiptoes and made constant efforts to see the actors among the adults.
Just as Kang Yera admired and liked her senior idols, Kang Yebin likewise wanted to see the young appearance of the actors who were her seniors with her own eyes.
Seeing her second child’s desperate attempt, Min Seung-yeon gave a wry smile and picked her up.
“There, can you see well like this?”
“Thank you, Mom.”
It felt as if her height had suddenly grown.
Kang Yebin’s eyes, looking at the actors through her unobstructed view, sparkled even more than before.
Before causing more congestion in the cinema, the actors headed into the screening room early.
At the same time, the bustling cinema suddenly became quiet.
Min Seung-yeon put Kang Yebin back down and asked.
“Daughter. You don’t really know who those people you just saw are, do you?”
Min Seung-yeon thought Kang Yebin had seen the actors without knowing their identities.
However, Kang Yebin shook her head and spoke as if she knew everything.
“They are the ones who played the main detectives and the culprit in ‘The Culprit’s Place’. Hwang Yi-hyuk, Seo Soo-young, and Choi Young-cheol sunb— No, actor-nim.”
She quickly changed the honorific ‘sunbaenim’ that was about to pop out to ‘actor-nim’.
Fortunately, Min Seung-yeon didn’t pay much attention to Kang Yebin’s tone.
Instead, she was surprised that Kang Yebin knew all the actors’ names.
“How did you know?”
She couldn’t possibly not know.
Because they were also the great sunbaenims who had once worked with Kang Yebin and taught her acting.
However, she couldn’t tell her mother everything as it was, so to make a suitable excuse, she pointed to a movie pamphlet nearby.
“I knew because I saw that earlier.”
“Oh, really? When did you see it? Mom didn’t know.”
“Director Kim Gab-young was in charge of the direction, and Director Hong Il-yoon did the music, so they say. Especially Director Kim, this was his first challenge in a crime thriller movie, and he mainly used long-take techniques for his direction, so…”
In front of her daughter’s endless explanation, Min Seung-yeon couldn’t help but be dumbfounded.
Her daughter, much younger than her, was pouring out movie knowledge like a machine gun, knowledge that only film industry professionals would know, so she didn’t know how to respond.
Just then, a young staff member working at the cinema shouted towards the people.
“The actors’ stage greeting and movie screening will begin soon in Hall 3, so please enter within 5 minutes!”
“Hall 3… Oh my, that’s us, isn’t it?”
Min Seung-yeon, thinking ‘That’s good’ to herself, grabbed the hand of Kang Yebin, who had become quite talkative.
“Let’s go quickly, Yebin.”
“I haven’t finished talking yet…”
“Later, when we go home, Dad will listen to everything, so you can do it then. Okay?”
From a mother’s perspective, there’s the best shield to use.
Namely, the Daddy shield.
Kang Yebin, reluctantly, bit her lip and headed to Hall 3 with her mother.
Was it because of the actors’ stage greeting?
Despite it being a weekday morning, all the seats in Hall 3 were completely full without a single empty spot.
Most were people who, like Min Seung-yeon, had booked tickets without much thought and were lucky enough to see the stage greeting.
Before the screening began.
The actors came out in front of the people for their stage greeting.
“Hello. I am Hwang Yi-hyuk, the actor who played Detective Kang in ‘The Culprit’s Place’.”
“I am Seo Soo-young, who played Jin Go-eun, Detective Kang’s junior and a passionate rookie detective!”
People gave warm applause to the greetings of the two main actors.
Unlike the young actors, a middle-aged man who looked a bit older picked up the microphone.
“I am actor Choi Young-cheol. I was excited to play a villain after a long time, and at the same time, I was nervous. Although my acting skills are lacking, I hope you will enjoy watching it.”
At Choi Young-cheol’s short greeting, Kang Yebin vigorously shook her head.
There was a reason for her negative reaction.
“For sunbaenim to say his acting skills are lacking… that’s absurd.”
Fortunately, Kang Yebin’s quiet murmur didn’t reach Min Seung-yeon’s ears.
After the stage greeting.
The screening of ‘The Culprit’s Place’ immediately began.
Perhaps because it had been a long time since she came to the cinema after giving birth, Min Seung-yeon gazed at the screen with an even more excited expression than Kang Yebin.
Kang Yebin, quietly watching her mother, felt an inexplicable sense of pride.
It was because she could give her mother, who had struggled to raise them, a brief healing time.
The movie itself was quite entertaining.
Especially when the trick behind the culprit’s modus operandi was revealed at the end, gasps of astonishment erupted from various parts of the audience.
“Oh my goodness…! So that alibi was all false?”
“I had no idea.”
“Now that I think about it, that phrase written on the blackboard, I thought it was a bit awkward. It was a hint for this twist!”
“Director Kim Gab-young, I see him in a new light. To think he could direct something like this… He always only shot comedies or romance movies, so when they said his next work was a crime thriller, I came without much expectation.”
When the audience realized that the movie they had come to see just to kill time was surprisingly a masterpiece, they felt a strange catharsis.
Meanwhile, Kang Yebin already knew that this movie was a work worthy of good reviews.
This was because she had already watched ‘The Culprit’s Place’ multiple times via VOD.
However, no matter how good VOD or OTT services were, they couldn’t replicate the experience of watching a movie directly in a cinema.
The immersive power felt from the giant screen and booming sound system is almost impossible to recreate.
So, after the movie ended.
The actors stood in front of the screen once again.
The temporary MC held the microphone and asked the audience.
“Everyone, did you enjoy the movie?”
“Yes―!”
“That’s a relief. We heard the actors’ impressions earlier. May we also ask Director Kim Gab-young, who was late today, for a self-introduction and a few words about his impressions?”
Perhaps he had a separate schedule before this, Director Kim Gab-young, who hadn’t appeared during the stage greeting, awkwardly raised the microphone and opened his mouth as per the MC’s instruction.
“Hello. I am Kim Gab-young, the director of the movie ‘The Culprit’s Place’. Originally, I wanted to stand alongside the actors and greet all of you. But on the way here, there was an accident on Olympic-daero, and traffic was heavily congested. So, I unintentionally ended up being late. I apologize.”
The audience reacted as if they didn’t mind Director Kim Gab-young’s apology much.
This was because such a stage greeting wasn’t planned from the beginning today.
It was part of a surprise event, and the stage greeting schedule was suddenly arranged, so they understood that he must have had a hard time making time on such short notice.
“Since the Director-nim is here anyway, shall we talk a bit more deeply about the movie? I think the scene that garnered the most enthusiastic reaction from the audience was probably the moment it was revealed that actor Choi Young-cheol was the culprit. Director-nim, you like to lay out hints like ‘tteokbap’ (foreshadowing) in the early and mid-sections of the movie, don’t you?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Were there any such ‘tteokbap’ (hints) in this movie that allowed one to figure out the culprit’s identity or modus operandi beforehand?”
“Of course there were. I believe quick-witted individuals probably know them, but…”
Director Kim Gab-young looked towards the audience and passed the turn to them.
“Is there anyone here who knows the answer? I will give a small prize to those who guess correctly.”
“Oh! What kind of prize is it?”
“It’s something I prepared with the actors in the waiting room earlier… It’s this.”
It was a poster for ‘The Culprit’s Place’ with the autographs of actors Hwang Yi-hyuk, Seo Soo-young, Choi Young-cheol, and Director Kim Gab-young.
For movie fans, especially those who found ‘The Culprit’s Place’ impressive, it was an undeniable treasure to own.
Naturally, Kang Yebin also became greedy.
However, perhaps due to the difference in physique compared to adults, no matter how much she raised her hand, she kept losing opportunities to others.
Even after giving opportunities to six people.
“The answer I’m looking for hasn’t come out yet.”
When Director Kim Gab-young said he would take only one more, the seventh volunteer, many adults raised their hands again.
Kang Yebin also diligently raised her hand, but her short arms couldn’t even reach over the seats in front.
At this moment, Min Seung-yeon picked up Kang Yebin just like before.
“My daughter, Mom will help you.”
When she was suddenly lifted above her mother’s head, a situation unfolded where she stood out more than anyone else.
Coincidentally, this scene caught Director Kim Gab-young’s eye.
“A young lady has also raised her hand.”
Thanks to her mother’s nice assist, Kang Yebin finally got her chance.
Kang Yebin, who received the microphone, stood on her mother’s lap and shone with sparkling eyes.
“Our little princess, what’s your name?”
Kang Yebin answered the MC’s question in a cheerful voice.
“Kang. Ye. Bin. is―!”
At Kang Yebin’s cute appearance, speaking each syllable clearly, the heated atmosphere of Hall 3 instantly softened.
“Will the baby really know the answer?”
“Yes, I know.”
Kang Yebin calmly brought out the knowledge she possessed.
“S#24-1, the water glass and medicine packet shown using the mise-en-scène technique in the scene where Jung-tae and Min-yu are talking. From that, you can infer that the two people were poisoned.”
“…???”
Mentioning the cut scene numbering was one thing, but saying the word ‘mise-en-scène’ was even more surprising.
“Do you know what ‘mise-en-scène’ is?”
“Yes. It’s a directorial technique that plans and composes camera positions, lighting angles, etc., with the purpose of subtly showing the audience the plot or setting of a work, or the director’s intention.”
“…”
Everyone present at the scene was left speechless.
Only her mother, Min Seung-yeon, who vaguely knew that Kang Yebin had excellent movie knowledge, let out an awkward laugh.
The MC, who had been momentarily flustered, belatedly regained his composure and asked the director.
“Director-nim. Is that the correct answer?”
Director Kim Gab-young’s head soon moved up and down.
“Yes… that is the perfect answer.”
Kang Dae-oh, who returned home late today after a tiring day, after the children had already fallen asleep, found an object he hadn’t usually seen at home.
“Honey. Isn’t this a movie poster?”
“That’s right. Yebin won it as a prize?”
“What prize? Was there some kind of event?”
“Well, about that…”
A wry smile spread across Kang Dae-oh’s face as he heard the story of what happened at the cinema.
“People must have been very surprised.”
“Being surprised is one thing, but…”
This story wasn’t over yet.
Min Seung-yeon showed Kang Dae-oh another item.
“What’s that? Isn’t that a business card?”
Min Seung-yeon, who nodded, brought out one more surprising story.
“Director Kim Gab-young gave it to her. He said he absolutely had something to tell our Yebin.”
Not just Kang Yera.
Kang Yebin was also slowly beginning to move towards her own dreams.
