Chapter 1145: The Warmest Season, Winter (17)

1.3 million admissions on opening day.

Setting a record for the ages, Sound of the Sun had sparked a full-blown craze.

-‘Sound of the Sun’ Draws 1.31 Million Viewers on Opening Day… “The Sun Has Returned”

-Sound of the Sun Surpasses 2 Million Admissions on Its Second Day… “Could It Become a Ten-Million-Viewer Film?”

-Sound of the Sun Reaches 3 Million in Just Three Days

It was a film everyone had said was virtually guaranteed to succeed in Korea.

People in the film industry had all said the same thing.

“Sound of the Sun can’t help but be a hit. You know how much people in this country love musical films. On top of that, it’s based on the true story of a star who recently emerged as a national hero, and who is his son? NewBlack. No, the kid who created NewBlack. I don’t think seven million would be unrealistic.”

But when those same people were asked, “Have you heard the latest news?” they tended to react in much the same way.

“If things go well, even ten million shouldn’t be impossib—what? It hit three million in three days???”

“Yes.”

“Why???”

The numbers were completely beyond the norm.

They were the sort of figures that could only appear when the entire Korean public had collectively gone mad for a film.

There were several reasons for this.

First was word of mouth, the thing Koreans valued most when choosing a movie.

“…I heard Sound of the Sun is really good. One of the deputy managers at my company saw it and said it was absolutely incredible.”

“…Have you seen Sound of the Sun? I heard it basically started off by clearing a million.”

“…The internet is going crazy over how good it is. Should we go see it too?”

Praise from the people around them.

The uproar online.

Songs from the film already climbing the charts.

Once news spread that its box-office numbers were spectacular as well, the movie became the trend everyone wanted to follow.

The fact that it was a good film for families also contributed to its success.

“Mom, do you want to go see a movie?”

“Oh, I can’t watch noisy movies. I didn’t like the last one we saw together either. There was blood flying everywhere.”

“This one’s that film. The musical about Wooju’s father.”

“Really…?”

It was the sort of film that older viewers who normally disliked action movies or provocative crime thrillers could enjoy.

Even adults who were not usually interested in films became curious when they heard it was “the Sun Myeongju movie” and made their way to theaters.

Once great music was added to the mix, there was simply no way Koreans could dislike it.

-Theaters, read the room and open sing-along screenings ^^

-I’ve been listening to the Number 4 Line OST all day lately… Try listening to Like The Sun on your way to work. It gets your blood pumping.

-Behold! The freaking awesome sun! Behold! Behold! The freaking awesome sun! Behold! Behold! The freaking awesome sun! Behold!

-Damn it lol because of you I can’t remember what kind of sun the actual lyrics said lolololol

-I seriously love the music in this movie so muchㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

Testimonies poured in from people who claimed the film had left them with lingering aftereffects and said they kept playing the soundtrack over and over.

-The OST is so good because every movie scene plays out in front of your eyes.

-Real life has been awful lately, but this comforted me so muchㅠㅠ If anyone’s feeling low about themselves or completely drained, I seriously recommend this song.

-I sobbed through the whole movie.

-Sun Wooju is seriously insane. The original song was pure jazz, so how did he even transform it like this?

-I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’ve had the OST on endless repeat. Is it worth watching??

┕You really won’t regret it! Highly recommended.

Naturally, since the film left such a powerful emotional aftereffect, plenty of viewers were going back for repeat screenings.

A second viewing, then even a third.

Filled with spectacular sights and wonderful music, Sound of the Sun was like an amusement park for repeat viewers.

The romantic love story.

The splendid ball scenes and dazzling performances.

The beautiful ensemble choreography created by Sun Myeongju and his friends.

By the time they reached the moving final scene, it felt like watching a parade and fireworks at an amusement park after sunset.

And once they walked out of the theater, one thought would rise naturally to mind.

I want to see it again.

Audiences were falling into an endless loop of repeat viewings.

Meanwhile, aside from the simple fact that the movie was good, there was one more reason driving people back for a second viewing.

-Wooju’s Red Carpet Comment at U.S. Awards Ceremony Draws Attention… “The Studio Told Them to Change My Father’s Race”

It was Hollywood’s treatment of a national hero.

The fact that World Art Studio, one of the largest film studios in the world, had said, “Sun Myeongju won’t sell because he’s Asian, so why don’t we change him to another race?” was more than enough to send Korean blood pressure soaring.

Koreans responded in much the same way.

This movie had better be good! Because if it is, I’m watching it twice!!!

If the movie is good, we’ll show them the power of Koreans!

Regardless of how well it performed worldwide, Koreans were determined to show just how massive a success the film could become in Korea.

Of course, this was under the obvious condition that the film itself was actually good.

After all, Koreans were the sort of people who would not watch a bad movie even if a Hollywood star stood on his head while putting on the most fantastical patriotic spectacle imaginable.

With ordinary moviegoers treating a second viewing as the baseline, the box-office numbers continued to soar.

-Sound of the Sun’s Unprecedented Box-Office Storm… “What Made It Possible?”

The press was covering it extensively as well.

Had it been a moderately successful release, they might have fallen back on clichéd analysis about “the popularity of NewBlack, widely regarded as the nation’s idol group, and the positive influence of their fandom, Souffle…”

But the current figures were only possible with support from the entire nation, so every outlet had its own interpretation.

NewBlack’s popularity.

Nostalgia for Sun Myeongju.

The fandom’s aggressive marketing.

The lack of competition in theaters.

Their opinions differed on what had driven its popularity, but they all reached the same conclusion.

-A Sun Myeongju Craze Is Sweeping the Nation.

Even people who were not particularly sensitive to trends could feel the success of Sound of the Sun in the air.

[Your sun, still shining brightly—]

The soundtrack played from the speakers of a mobile phone shop while they waited at a crosswalk.

[Why Sound of the Sun Is Blowing Up Right Now]

[Spoilers) Sound of the Sun’s Greatest Villain]

[The Scene the Actors Said Was Hardest to Film for Number 4 Line]

Posts and videos appeared every time they logged onto online communities or MyTube.

[Wow! It’s New York!]

[It’s New York!]

A New York track from Sound of the Sun played as background music on a television travel show.

All kinds of cable channels were bringing up subjects related to Sun Myeongju or jazz, climbing aboard the Sun Myeongju craze themselves.

And….

There was one more industry feeling the impact of that craze more strongly than anyone else.

“Ah. You’d like to learn piano?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of piano would you like to learn?”

Music academies.

Adults who had come in saying they wanted to learn piano looked off into the distance with slightly embarrassed expressions.

“Out of the different kinds of piano… ja…zz.”

“Pardon?”

“Jazz… piano.”

“Ah! You saw Sound of the Sun.”

“Yes…….”

“We’ve had a lot of people coming in lately saying they want to learn jazz piano.”

Adults who had been struck by the urge to play jazz after watching Sun Myeongju’s film were flocking to music academies in large numbers.

Then they revealed their hopes.

“Obviously, I’m not expecting to become as good as Sun Myeongju. I just want to learn enough to play about as well as Wooju does now.”

“Ah… Wooju.”

“Would even that be too difficult?”

“Haha.”

At first, the adults did not understand why the teachers were laughing.

Once their lessons began, however, they soon discovered why jazz was known as the ultimate endgame of popular music.

While adults were entering jazz and broadening its base, new talent was also pouring into music academies across the country.

“You know Sound of the Sun, right? My child watched it and said they wanted to learn piano like that.”

“My child said they wanted to learn cello. They thought Lee Myeong Eun’s performance in the movie was so cool.”

Children entered academies hand in hand with their parents, eyes shining brightly.

It was much like how the talent pool in an unpopular sport would suddenly expand after the emergence of a star.

Far more children than before now wanted to try learning all kinds of instruments, whether classical or jazz.

Of course, not all of them would continue until the end….

But ten years from now.

The future star performers who would illuminate Korea’s music scene were already being given the answer they would one day offer in interviews.

-Why did you dream of becoming a performer?

-When I was young, I watched a film called Sound of the Sun, and Sun Myeongju looked so cool.

Twenty years after a man like the sun had departed.

Just as the sunset faded and a new sun rose again, new Sun Myeongju Kids were being born into the world.

“I read an interesting article.”

Ri Hyuk spoke in an amused voice.

“It was about how the success of Sound of the Sun is creating all kinds of social trends. Do you know which industry has grown the fastest since your father’s film came out?”

“I’m not sure.”

“The private education market.”

“…….”

All I could do was marvel at this country’s passion for connecting absolutely everything back to education.

Ri Hyuk said, “Isn’t it interesting?”

“And this was the most fascinating part. The number of kids who want to become idols has risen sharply.”

“…Why?”

“They say it’s because of the movie.”

Perhaps because the final scene showed me looking impressive while working as an idol, parents seemed to be watching it and going, “Oooooh…” with growing interest.

I hummed thoughtfully.

“It’s hard to understand… but it’s always been hard to understand, so I suppose there’s nothing particularly unusual about that.”

“Exactly.”

The important thing was that the film was sailing smoothly… no, that it had become an unimaginable box-office sensation.

People were now saying that at this rate, it might genuinely reach ten million admissions within ten days.

Jiho said, “I think fifteen million might even be possible. It really feels like it could go that far.”

“Wow…….”

I was still marveling at a scale so enormous I could hardly imagine it when Junghyun asked me a question.

“If it reaches that level, how much would that be in dollars?”

“Probably somewhere between a hundred and a hundred fifty million dollars?”

“Then that would take some of the pressure off the global results too.”

“It probably would.”

That was a real relief.

Since the film was performing far beyond expectations in Korea, the pressure surrounding its international box office had eased a little.

I had no idea how well it would do in other countries, but I had heard that advance ticket sales in the United States were not bad.

-Looking only at presales, they’re solid. There isn’t much difference compared to other American films.

Hearing that from the publicity staff might make someone think, Huh? Doesn’t that mean the opening isn’t very strong?

But presales at that level were nothing short of miraculous for Sound of the Sun as it currently stood.

Apparently, if I had not attracted seventeen million viewers to a live broadcast and pushed the promotion myself, the current numbers would probably have been cut to a third.

“It has to do well.”

I stretched as I said it.

After opening first in Korea, Sound of the Sun was now preparing for its global release.

It would soon open in the United States.

Japan and Europe would follow after that.

Today’s schedule involved attending the Japanese premiere and conducting television interviews.

“Hmm…….”

Biju was fumbling through Japanese internet searches and confusing one Chinese character for another when Ri Hyuk told him what it meant.

Looking at the charts, Biju said, “There doesn’t seem to be much discussion about us in Japan. There’s a lot about your father’s movie, though…….”

“There isn’t much talk about us, right?”

“No.”

It was exactly what I had expected.

Japan was the one country where Overcooked, which had continued to remain within the top five on charts around the world, had failed to gain traction.

I still vividly remembered Overcooked losing to a magical-girl anime last time.

If even Overcooked had fared like that, then naturally our carol, which was currently sweeping North and South America, had received no response in Japan either.

“Seriously… what even is Japan?”

“Wouldn’t Japan just be Japan?”

“Junghyun.”

“Yes.”

“Go back to sleep.”

“Yes.”

And so, after getting a brief nap on the plane, we flew to Japan.

Our destination was Tokyo, where the premiere

[N O V E L I G H T]

would be held.

Just as in the United States, the schedule in Japan was not especially different.

We would conduct interviews with the local press and watch the premiere together with fans of my father who had been invited.

And while we were there, we would also promote NewBlack’s carol.

It was supposed to be an entirely ordinary schedule.

Lee Gyeonwoo [ㅂㅅㄱㅁㅅㄷㄷㄹ]

Lee Gyeonwoo [13ㄱ5]

At least until strange messages arrived from Lee Gyeonwoo.

“What is it, hyung?”

Biju rubbed his eyes as he woke up, and I answered.

“Biju, can you try to decipher this?”

“Spring apples are delishish~?”

“…I don’t think that’s it.”

As our kid looked up at me with sparkling eyes and said spring apples were delicious, I stared at my phone.

“?”

I could not make sense of the message.

Because each cast member had a different schedule for the Japanese premiere, everyone had traveled separately.

As far as I knew, Lee Gyeonwoo had arrived before us… so what in the world was this text supposed to mean?

Ding-dong—

Lee Gyeonwoo [(Photo)]

The photo he had taken, which was to say a terribly blurred one, showed an enormous crowd gathered at the airport.

It was obvious at a glance that they were not all our fans.

Older people.

An extraordinary number of cameras.

“Guys.”

Seokhwan approached us.

“There are seriously a lot of people outside right now. Probably two or three times the number that usually waits for you at airports.”

“What happened, hyung?”

“Looks like your father’s fans came to welcome the cast.”

“Ah…….”

I recalled the older people in the photo holding banners.

“And the press… they’re here because of all the attention on Sound of the Sun.”

It seemed the film was drawing more interest than I had imagined.

Still, I only thought, Wow, they must be pretty interested, as we entered the arrivals hall.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaah—

An overwhelming roar of cheers and a barrage of camera flashes.

“Wooju-san! We heard Sound of the Sun is achieving extraordinary box-office results in Korea. How do you feel?!”

“How much of Sound of the Sun takes place in Japan?!”

“We’re from Nippon Television! Just one question….”

My members and I stared blankly at the people trying to report on Sound of the Sun with astonishing fervor.

…Why?

Why is Japan this excited…?

The intensity was every bit as tremendous as it was in Korea.

To summarize the situation, it went like this.

-Wow! They’re releasing a Sun Myeongju movie!

My father had tremendous name recognition in Japan.

In fact, he had been more famous in Japan than in Korea, so when people heard that a film about him was being released, the Japanese public had apparently reacted with interest.

But then one or two additional pieces of news emerged, and the excitement began to build.

-They even held a premiere in Times Square in America!

There was the news that it had drawn attention in the United States after attracting seventeen million viewers.

-Soundo obu San, which is making incredible box-office history in Korea~!

They also grew curious after hearing that it was a massive success in Korea.

The statements made in various interviews seemed to have attracted considerable attention as well.

-Director Kim Bora: “Japan Is One of the Settings of Sound of the Sun”

Because Japan was one of the places my father had actually passed through, the film included scenes set there.

They did not account for a major portion of the story, but extra scenes were scheduled to be added to the Japanese theatrical version of Sound of the Sun.

They had been removed because they risked slowing the pacing, but were restored as fan service for Japanese audiences who would enjoy seeing scenes set in their own country.

That was certainly one factor, but from what I could tell, the greatest reason for the film’s popularity was the way people viewed my father.

-Japan Raised the Pride of Asia!

They seemed to feel tremendous pride in the fact that a genius artist whom they had supported when Korea showed him little interest had gone on to succeed in the United States.

And since he truly had not received much attention in Korea, it was not entirely wrong.

“Sun Myeongju-san began his true rise to success—that is, his path to the United States—with his activities in Japan, didn’t he?”

“That’s right.”

The interviewers’ strange determination to emphasize that point left me with mixed feelings.

“Wouldn’t his activities in the United States have been possible because of the solid support he had in Japan? Because he had somewhere to return to.”

“All the answers to questions like that are in the film. You’ll understand once you watch it.”

I simply smiled and answered the interviewers who were clearly trying to draw out the headline they wanted.

Their understanding and mine seemed somewhat different, but this was film promotion, after all.

The priority was to maximize the box-office numbers by any means possible.

I conducted the interviews while feeling grateful simply for the fact that they were showing such enormous interest.

“Ah, I have one more question. When people in Japan think of Sun Myeongju-san, his relationship with Hashimoto Kenji-san is one of the most famous things associated with him. In Japan, they were treated as the rivalry of the century!”

“Oh. I see.”

“Will that aspect be explored in the film as well?”

The reporter added,

“Not long ago, Hashimoto Kenji-san said in an interview that he expected he might appear in the film.”

“I see….”

“So how about it? Could you give us just a small spoiler about the film!?”

So he was still insisting they had been rivals.

At those words, I began to smile….

No, I meant to give only a small smile, but I lost control of my expression and ended up grinning brightly.

Because I knew about the Japanese scenes that would appear in the film.

“Well…….”

I smiled into the camera.

Toward someone who might be watching this interview.

“I believe you’ll find the answer to that question once you see the film as well.”

I truly had been waiting for this day.