Superstar From Age 0
Chapter 177

Chapter 177

-…Does it sound familiar?

-I think I heard it in history class.

Korean and Chinese characters appeared on the monitor.

[피휘避諱]

“It means this. Avoiding the use of Chinese characters that were used in the names of kings or high-ranking people in the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties.”

-Ah. I remember. They said that if the commoners or servants used the same characters as the king’s name, they couldn’t use those characters at all. So they deliberately chose rare characters for the king’s name.

“Yes. The kings of Joseon usually used difficult characters that people didn’t use for their names. They usually had a one-character name with the surname ‘이李’, but Lee Hongwi was an exception. Do you know the name of King Sejong?”

“Yes. The name of Prince Suyang was Lee Yu. Usually two characters, right? Lee Bangwon of Taejong was also three characters, though.”

The moviegoer continued.

“People usually didn’t call the royal family by their names. Prince Suyang was called Suyang Uncle instead of Lee Yu, and Prince Seongnyeong was called Seongnyeong instead of Lee Jong. That’s how precious the names of the royal family were in Joseon. And if that’s the case for the royal family, how much more for the king’s name.”

Everyone recalled a scene from the movie.

-…!

-Could it be…

“Yes. Lee Hongwi. Sejo revealed his true intentions from then on. Danjong must have known it too. Who would dare to commit such a rudeness as to call the king’s name casually?”

-I thought he was just calling his name. Why? When my mom gets angry, she calls me by my full name.

-222 Me too.

-I knew it!

-It’s more creepy when you know it.

“And his relationship with Kangdol was also touching, right? Of course, this story is fiction, but still. Danjong was exiled to the village of the people he had saved and saw their lives firsthand. I hoped that it would be a little comfort for Danjong.”

-But were there any people who mourned when Danjong died?

-ㅇㅇ His reign was too short.

-ㅠㅠ It’s too pitiful if there was no oneㅠ

“There were only a little over three years of his reign, but there must have been some people who survived by his name. Even if you look at the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, there are records of epidemics and natural disasters.”

-Nosan-gun Diary?

-Isn’t that distorted a lot?

The moviegoer nodded.

“I don’t know where and how much Nosan-gun Diary was modified, but I think natural disasters and epidemics are true. Those things are not related to Jeongnan, after all. Anyway, if there were such people, they would have mourned Danjong’s death like Kangdol’s village.”

-ㅠㅠDanjongㅠㅠ

-If he had taken poison, I would have cried my eyes out.

They were lucky that they didn’t show it directlyㅠㅠ

-Even without showing it, I cried a lotㅠㅠ

-The dialogue was so sadㅜ

-Danjong: …Didn’t I do well enough?

-…Stop making me cry.

-ㅠㅠYou did very well. You really did.

The moviegoer’s eyes were moist too. He had seen it more than five times, but it always made him shed tears.

“Me too. I wanted to praise him and tell him he did well.”

The chat room was flooded with tears.

-I’m planning to go to Yeongwol this summer vacation. I want to visit Danjong’s exile place and pray at his tomb.

-22I also went to Seongnyeong’s tombㅎㅎI’m going to Jangneung too.

-Jangneung?

“That’s the name of Danjong’s tomb. He was recognized as a king only during Sukjong’s reign. That’s nice. I should go to Yeongwol for a trip when I have time.”

-An unexpected Yeongwol trip.

-But they said they were already preparing in Yeongwolㅎ

-Really?

-ㅇㅇ They said they were preparing hard since Lee Seo-jun announced his role. They are planning to have various events like Danjong Festival. If you go to Yeongwol County website, you can see the event schedule.

-Are you related?

-…No comment.

A public official from Yeongwol County was also watching the moviegoer’s video. The moviegoer smiled and continued.

“Let’s leave the Yeongwol story here and go back to the movie review. As in The Physician, they didn’t show his death scene directly in this role either. Maybe the director anticipated that the shock would be immense if they showed Danjong’s corpse.”

-I knew it would be a big deal if they showed it in the movie, when I heard that his corpse was abandoned… Luckily, they didn’t show it.

-It was shocking even without showing it. I cried a lot.

-22 Until Sejo smiled, I thought, let’s kill that bastard and die together. But…

-Divine punishment came down.

-Divine punishment… Scary.

As he read the comments, the moviegoer felt goosebumps on his arm. 

He still felt a chill when he remembered it.

“After Danjong died, the news reached Sejo. Lee Jiseok’s acting was so, so good that I really wanted to hit him, but there was a divine punishment for him. I also thought it might be a divine punishment from heaven while watching the movie. For a moment, I felt sorry for Sejo.”

-Lee Jiseok’s acting was really good.

-But, it wasn’t just Lee Jiseok’s acting… The inside of the bedchamber was scary.

-Agreeㅎ

“Yes. Lee Jiseok’s acting full of horror and fear was impressive, but the inside of the bedchamber was really something, a strange feeling. I heard from someone who knew someone, that Lee Seo-jun was sitting in the bedchamber. He didn’t appear on the screen, but he acted with Lee Jiseok. They said it was amazing during the shooting.”

-…No wonder!

-I thought so.

-But is Danjong alive?

“No. He’s dead. Maybe, when Sejo called him Lee Hongwi, it was that. A kind of hallucination caused by his inferiority and guilt.”

-? He killed him and felt guilty?

-He’s playing both the drum and the gong?

-Right. He didn’t even have that much resolve?

The moviegoer laughed at the witty comments.

“He must have had some resolve. He planned and pushed that far, he must have had some resolve. But the reality was different. In Joseon era, they said that the king was given by heaven. You must have seen it in The Physician, it was an era when they believed in gods more than science. Imagine killing heaven with your own hands.”

-Fact 1) It was an era when they looked at divination when they were sick.

-Fact 2) It was an era when they held rituals to cure diseases.

“He didn’t know it when Danjong was ‘alive’ during Sunwon and Nosan-gun’s reigns. He probably thought it didn’t matter if he died or not. But he realized it after he really died.”

-Guilt?

“Guilt might be one of them. But I think the biggest thing was probably fear. The bedchamber of Gangnyeongjeon was where the previous kings stayed. It was where Sejong, Munjong, and Danjong stayed.”

-…Huh?

“Maybe, the hallucination that Sejo saw was not only Danjong. He saw Danjong, and his brother Munjong, and his father Sejong. How much would Sejo think of Munjong and Sejong in that place? Not only in the bedchamber, but everywhere in the palace, he would have to think of Danjong. Oh!”

The moviegoer stopped talking and widened his eyes. The chat room exploded at his frozen expression.

-Why?

-Why why?!?

The moviegoer came to his senses and swallowed his saliva.

“By the way, in the opening part… Didn’t the camera move around everywhere?”

-…?

-Could it be…?!

The chat room paused for a moment. The camera that had shown the palace, which they thought was just an introduction. They felt a shiver down their spine.

“…Maybe they were all the places where Sejo saw Danjong?”

The moviegoer’s words made the chat room explode again.

-How can there be ghosts in a historical drama?! Ghosts?!

-How can they live in such a place!ㅠ

-ㅎㄷㄷJust get out of Gangnyeongjeon?

-I would burn the palace if I were himㅠㅠ

“Do you think he would leave the place he killed his nephew and took over? The place he wanted so much, he would leave it for some nonsense?”

-It’s too scary to call it nonsenseㅜㅜ

“Well, he wouldn’t die right away. But he probably saw hallucinations at night, even if he was fine during the day. He wouldn’t know it when he was healthy, but when something bad happened, when he got sick, when death approached, he would always think of his sin.”

-I felt sorry for Sejo in the last scene.

-Me too. I pitied Sejo.

-Divine punishment is scary. I should never do bad things.

The moviegoer who had felt sorry for Sejo nodded.

“It’s not a satisfying punishment, but I don’t know how much comfort it would be to see him suffer like that.”

-I don’t know about the original history, but the last scene of the movie was like hell.

-Satisfyingㅎㅎ

-I wonder how he could sleep in such a place.

-Me too. I think I would wake up screaming every day.

“And the last scene and the first scene are connected. It’s like a Mobius strip. Scary. Divine punishment.”

The moviegoer’s words made everyone laugh. He opened his mouth again.

“To be honest, before I saw Lee Seo-jun’s acting video, I thought Danjong was just a weak young king. He seemed like an extra who briefly appeared in Sejo’s story. But he wasn’t.”

The moviegoer looked at the poster. The young king was sitting on the throne.

“It was not someone else’s life, but his own. Danjong’s life, hidden by Sejo, had joy and sorrow, fulfillment and frustration. He was a benevolent king who cared for his people in his role, and a diligent king who studied hard to become a great king. Maybe we have taken a step closer to the truth we didn’t know through this movie. As Director Woo Jung-han said.”

-It could all be fiction.

-Or it could all be true.

The moviegoer smiled contentedly.

“Rebellion, it was a great movie.”

***

Director Choi Daeman scratched his head as he looked at the monitor. The site he was looking at was a movie community site.

Of course, Rebellion was still in theaters, so there were mostly stories about Rebellion.

No.

“There were only stories about Seo-jun, not Rebellion.”

The people who cried, laughed, and were moved by Lee Seo-jun’s works were already curious about his next work.

-Will Seo-jun do a drama this time since he did two movies?

-Drama would be better. Longer to watchㅎ

-I hate waiting for a week ㅠ Movies are better.

-It’s easier to rewatch movies.

-So you don’t rewatch The Physician?

-I do. I’m working hard on it.

-I want a play. I hope he makes a surprise appearance somewhere.

-22 I want to see Seo-jun’s acting in person

-333 I’m thinking of working as a staff for his next work

-Someone else might think the same. They can just cast him later if they get along well.

-Seo-jun seems to work with his connections.

-Even if it’s a series, it’s all connected by Lee Jiseok.

-The Physician cast Seo-jun first, right?

-The Physician’s writer was the same as the drama Resurrection. Seo-jun also appeared as a cameo and became friends with the writer. He also met Director Sara Roth at the wrap-up party of Over the Rainbow.

-So he appears in the works of people he knows?

-He has done that so far, so he probably gives more points to the works of people he knows.

Director Choi Daeman sighed.

“If that was the case, my work wouldn’t have been bashed so much.”

He couldn’t resent The Physician, which was a drama that had gone into his work. 

It was a drama that set an unprecedented record for a Wednesday-Thursday drama. Seo-jun’s eye for works was accurate.

“It wasn’t a flop, but…”

Director Choi Daeman’s work was a decent movie. 

It broke even, and he could probably get an investment for his next work easily.

“But I want to work with Seo-jun.”

There were many good actors, but few who blurred the boundary of the camera. Seo-jun’s acting was realistic, as if he had entered the actual place.

Director Choi Daeman read the comments again.

-But what does it matter to us? I just wish Seo-jun’s work would come out soon.

-But it probably won’t come out this year or next year.

-Yeah. He should rest first rather than doing movies or dramas.

-He worked hard for three years. He did Over the Rainbow two years ago, awards last year, and Rebellion this year.

-ㅇㅇ I hope he rests well and works hard on filming again.

“Right?”

Seo-jun was not very active compared to other actors. Maybe it was because he had to go to school and he was young.

“Rebellion was filmed this year and half a year has already passed.”

Director Choi Daeman scratched his head and looked at his work. 

He saw a script that had been edited dozens of times.

“Should I try anyway?”

Five works that had been rejected by Seo-jun.

Today, Director Choi Daeman challenged him again without giving up.

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