pappabearbooks Chapter 220: Fruit (1)
Chapter 220: Fruit (1)
Following Vanguard’s Instagram post, Netflix Korea also announced that Kang Rojun would be joining ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’ as an actor. After the official article broke, multiple news outlets quickly jumped in.《Rojun’s historical costume teaser uploaded to Vanguard's SNS was indeed for ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’!》
《Tale of the Strange Moon’s Two Top Male Leads’, ‘Vanguard’ Rojun already clinched the lead role / Photo》
《Once again, even as an actor! ‘Rojun’, appearing as an actor in all the works he’s written, including this ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’!》
As expected, fans went wild over the news that Kang Rojun would be appearing not only as the writer of ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’ but also as an actor. You could see mentions of Rojun everywhere - SNS, online communities, and more.
Not only the media and public opinion but also various people connected to Rojun reacted in their own ways.
Choi Rina, who quietly fangirled over Kang Rojun, cheered inwardly while carrying out her schedule without letting it show.
'Rojun in a historical drama version?? This is insane, I’ll definitely watch ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’, twice. No, even 10 times! Ha- I want to be in ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’ too, even if it’s just a cameo.'
Actors who knew Kang Rojun, like Jung Tae-soo, were also busy talking.
“Wow- so that historical drama-style photo wasn’t just a light teaser.”
“Right? If Netflix Korea is pushing this project seriously, it’s going to be a big production. They’re even aiming for a global launch. On top of that, he’s both the writer and actor……”
“But it’s Rojun’s first time doing a historical drama, right? Will he do well?”
“It’ll probably be unfamiliar to him, but I don’t think he’ll struggle much. Since he wrote ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’ himself, he’ll be deeply familiar with the characters’ emotional arcs. Plus, he’s already worked with PD Jung Soo-ryeong before, so their chemistry will be good, I’m sure.”
“Which other actors have been cast?”
“They haven’t announced that yet.”
“Anyway - with Rojun’s absurd visuals, even international audiences are guaranteed to enjoy.”
"Why am I looking forward to this."
PD Woo Han-suk, the broadcasting industry, and various entertainment agencies were buzzing. Given that the announcement dropped just as much attention had been stirred up per Kim Ki-baek manager’s scheme, it would’ve been strange if it wasn’t noisy.
In particular, the jealousy from other entertainment companies was through the roof.
"Ugh- that Rojun guy, seriously, whenever one thing dies down another thing breaks out, and when that dies down another thing breaks out!"
“Exactly my point...... How is this the kind of impact someone who's supposedly wrapped up their music promotions makes?”
“I’m jealous, seriously jealous. GN shot up to the top just by catching ‘Vanguard’ well.”
Even at a glance, this was a successful marketing flow, and both Netflix Korea and GN Entertainment were grinning ear to ear. Sensing the moment was right, both sides kept throwing fuel on the fire without pause. Thanks to that, for a few days, it was all about ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’, ‘Vanguard’, and Kang Rojun dominating everywhere.
By this point, ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’ was even getting international attention.
It became a hot topic on ‘Reddit’, the most famous supermassive overseas community.
《‘Tale of the Strange Moon’ catches fire on ‘Reddit’ too, international netizens say “Curious about Korean traditional drama”》
However, on ‘Reddit’, it was Kang Rojun’s historical drama-style photos that were actually hotter than the drama itself. He had already taken the platform by storm once before.
《Vanguard’s Rojun’s national treasure-level visuals mesmerize international fans / Photo》
Overseas fans, who had rapidly increased by circulating through Vanguard’s SNS and Youtube, kept spreading more teasers. The more they did, the more Rojun’s global recognition rose - and so did Vanguard’s brand power.
Well, on a global scale, it might still be small.
《[Star Photo] The reason to look forward to visual monster ‘Rojun’s historical drama work / Photo》
It was as if the starter shot had been fired.
September 23rd.
While ‘Vanguard’, ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’, and Kang Rojun were rocking the world at full force, Rojun’s own time was melting away.
'Today’s packed again! But since there’s a lot to do, it’s crazy fun. Time just disappears.'
The end of September was right around the corner.
And it made sense. Kang Rojun had way too much going on. He was managing personal schedules too. With the impact of both his main and side jobs, it was only natural.
The work Kang Rojun kicked off from morning was.
"Please take care of me!"
Recording the guide version of ‘zephyr’, Vanguard’s next single. He already had plenty of experience, and since he wrote the song himself, it didn’t take too much time.
Next came his schedule as a writer and actor.
He stopped by Netflix Korea for an interview shoot.
“Hello, I’m Rojun. I do these shoots every time there’s a project, but it still feels a bit awkward.”
There was a basic script, but the format also included answering questions from the writers behind the camera. This footage was scheduled to be used later as promotional video material for ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’. Then, around the afternoon, came the photoshoot, newly received advertisements, and more.
When night arrived, it was time for practice and work.
Lately, the practice had mainly been focused on “Royal Procession”, “zephyr”, and acting, while the work consisted of arranging the acoustic version of “zephyr”, personal songwriting and composing, and commissioned songwriting and composing. With such a routine, it only took a blink for a whole day to disappear, and the week flew by in no time.
Then came Monday once again, September 27.
At the start of the workweek, Kang Rojun could be found at GN Entertainment’s recording studio. However, it wasn’t related to ‘Vanguard’.
“Sunbae-nim, hello.”
“Oh my- Rojun-ssi, it’s really good to see you. Let’s work well together today.”
“Yes!”
“But… the producer’s so handsome, I wonder if I’ll be able to focus.”
Rojun was participating as a producer in the recording of famous singers who had entrusted him with composing. Of course, he wasn’t the main producer, but Kang Rojun was steadily increasing his share of work as a producer too.
‘This is fun! It’s still a bit awkward directing sunbaes, but there’s so much new stuff, it’s super fun.’
By now, in the market, Kang Rojun’s position was already solidifying not just as a member of ‘Vanguard’, but also as a composer, lyricist, and producer, so it was only a matter of time before he’d present himself as a full-fledged main producer.
Two days later.
After spending the morning practicing the group choreography for “Royal Procession”, Rojun, Si-hoo, Kang-min, and Do-kyung gathered in a conference room at GN Entertainment. Of course, this room was also filled with CEO Ha Seo-hwan, other executives, and many staff including Manager Kim Ki-baek.
With everyone gathered, the eyes of the ‘Vanguard’ members sparkled as they looked at the screen in front of the conference room.
It was only natural.
“Then, let’s take a look at the music video for ‘Royal Procession’.”
The music video for “Royal Procession”, the collaboration track with ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’, was completed and about to be unveiled. GN Entertainment might make some edits after reviewing it, but the fact that the music video was complete meant.
“Hmm. Let’s just watch it first.”
That ‘Royal Procession’ would also be released to the world very soon.
For reference, the ‘Royal Procession’ MV wasn’t planned to have just one version. There would be one with ‘Vanguard’ as the main focus, and another version that would later include footage from ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’. The teaser would be the same. Whatever the version, the lights in the conference room turned off, and with the song ‘Royal Procession’ playing, Kang Rojun and the members stared intently at the screen with shining eyes.
-♬♪
The music video began playing. It started with a black screen. As the sound of a gayageum spread, the camera angle first showed the gayageum being played. As the gayageum slowly came into full view, the screen transitioned. A king seated on an ornate throne.
No, it was Kang Rojun.
At the same time, in the editing room of ‘Blood Hunt’.
The film ‘Blood Hunt’ had already passed the halfway point and was now in the process of editing the latter half. The footage being played on multiple monitors was currently paused. It was break time. Perhaps because of that, the editing staff were nowhere to be seen, likely out for a breath of air, and in the editing room sat only Director Yoo Ji-heon, with his flushed face.
Due to pouring nearly all his time into editing, Director Yoo Ji-heon had grown even thinner and was now scrolling on his phone.
“......Hmm.”
Displayed on his phone was none other than an article about Kang Rojun. The content was about Rojun joining ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’ as an actor. It was a hot topic, and Director Yoo Ji-heon, who had a deep interest in Kang Rojun, read the article carefully.
'A historical drama, huh-'
In that moment, desire surged inside Director Yoo Ji-heon. Historical films were also one of his favorite genres, and Kang Rojun in historical costume was more than enough to satisfy Yoo Ji-heon’s creative appetite.
“Tempting.”
He muttered quietly, slowly lowering his phone.
“Maybe my next film should be a historical one.”
In an instant, stories related to historical films began to whirl around inside Director Yoo Ji-heon’s mind. Then, forcefully cutting off the thoughts, he chuckled and shook his head.
“No, no. I need to focus on ‘Blood Hunt’. Whew- this is a disease. Thinking of the next film right away.”
At that moment.
-Knock knock.
A knock echoed through the editing room. The person peeking in was the kind-looking Manager Jang Hak-seon.
“Director, aren’t you going to eat?”
Director Yoo Ji-heon slowly crossed his legs and leaned his head back against the chair, closing his eyes.
“No. I’m not hungry.”
“But you should eat something. You’ll collapse at this rate.”
Yoo Ji-heon gestured with his chin toward the monitors.
“I’ll collapse after finishing this damn edit, so don’t worry.”
"Phew- is there no plan where you don't collapse after finishing editing?"
With a wrinkled smile, Director Yoo Ji-heon changed the subject.
“Editing’s moving faster than I expected. The footage fits right into place.”
Manager Jang Hak-seon’s eyes widened slightly.
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, at this pace, we’ll put the final touches by mid-October.”
“M-Mid-October??”
“Why are you surprised?”
“I figured we’d be lucky to finish by November, of course I’m surprised!”
The pace of a film’s editing varies greatly depending on the director’s abilities. Sometimes filming ends early, but editing takes over half a year; other times, both filming and editing run late; and occasionally, like with ‘Blood Hunt’, editing wraps up quickly. Normally, Director Yoo Ji-heon is known for putting a lot of care into editing, but ‘Blood Hunt’ seemed to be rolling along smoothly without major issues.
Then, standing up and cracking his neck side to side, Director Yoo Ji-heon continued.
“Anyway, schedule the screen test for around the end of October. Let’s aim for the press, VIP, and public screenings in early November.”
He gave instructions regarding the various preview screenings. Around this period, the film’s promotional schedule would also begin in earnest.
“Will Rojun be able to take part in the promo schedule? Have you heard back from GN?”
“They said he won’t be able to do everything, but he’ll join if he can.”
“That’s good enough. He’s probably the busiest of all of us, so even a few stage greetings at premieres would be more than enough. Oh, and about the ‘Blood Hunt’ release...”
Manager Jang Hak-seon cut into Director Yoo Ji-heon’s words with a confident smile.
“Yes, we’ve already started securing theaters.”
Meanwhile.
In Japan, things were buzzing not over ‘Tale of the Strange Moon’ but another project.
《Hot「Like a Kaleidoscope」, less than a week left until launch!》
It was Netflix Japan’s ‘Like a Kaleidoscope’. The official launch of ‘Like a Kaleidoscope’ was set for October 1. In just a few days, ‘Like a Kaleidoscope’, written by Kang Rojun, would be opened to all of Japan, and a week later, it would spread to Korea.
With the launch right around the corner, it was only natural that Netflix Japan was throwing everything into its promotion and marketing efforts.
They were flooding the media with articles, of course.
-[Hello, this is Netflix Japan. Our original series ‘Like a Kaleidoscope’ is launching soon! We’ve prepared a special event for our subscribers……]
They also ran various events through their official SNS channels. Even though ‘Like a Kaleidoscope’ had already become a buzzworthy title with Kang Rojun at the forefront, Netflix Japan, staking its pride on the line, had no intention of being half-hearted in its promotional efforts.
Perhaps because of that, the most recent trailer uploaded to Netflix Japan’s YouTube channel was.
-‘Like a Kaleidoscope’ Official Trailer | Netflix Japan
-Views: 3,741,895
In less than two days, it had surpassed 3 million views, showing tremendous traction. With factors such as Rojun, Japan’s top actors, and Netflix Japan unveiling a big production for the first time in a while, public anticipation in Japan was through the roof.
-So looking forward to it!!
-From which episode does Rojun appear?
-I thought Rojun’s OST would be in the trailer...
-Why is everyone only cheering for Rojun instead of Endo Takuto...!
-I only watched the trailer and it already looks good!
-Feels like it’s been a while since we’ve had a drama worth watching. Lately, they’ve all been trash, so I stopped watching.
As always, amidst the cheers, some hate comments appeared too.
-This is kind of gross, why is it all Rojun worship here?
-He got a full buff just from having a decent face… Honestly, I didn’t like ‘Rental Lover’ either.
-This ‘Like a Kaleidoscope’ already looks overhyped, so I’m guessing it’ll be boring!
Still, its hooking power was undeniable.
And then, the launch date of ‘Like a Kaleidoscope’, October 1, arrived.
《「Like a Kaleidoscope」 releases today at noon》