Standing in front of the door of Mimuraya Cinema, facing the scorching sun, Tanaka Rui wiped sweat from his forehead and carefully looked at the large publicity poster hanging in front of the cinema door, Kurosawa Akitan, Rashomon!

On the poster, Tasumaru played by Toshiro Mikawa, with his exaggerated expressions, hugging Masasa, the samurai wife played by Kyomachiko, while on the background is Masayuki Mori, who is both ashamed, annoyed but unwilling to accept the samurai, Kanazawa Takehiro. The overall color of the poster is bright silver, which seems to be a little unharmonious with the dark theme of the film?

In addition to Rashomon's posters, there are several pictures next to them, including the stills of "Gray Snake" starring Gao Feng Hideko. It is similar to Rashomon, and the poster is also colorful. In the middle of the picture, Gao Feng Hideko is holding a bloody short knife, and she is also on her back. However, there are very different makeup and clothing. Tanaka Rui has also seen reports about this film and knew that she was playing two roles in it. Needless to ask, another character appears behind her.

After browsing briefly for a while, he walked to the ticket office on Yingjie, took out a 500 yen note and handed it in: "I'm sorry..."

"Hi Yi!" The ticket offices in Japanese cinemas are different from those in China. They are not the kind that only reveals a small space, and customers can't even see the faces of the ticket seller. On the contrary, this is an open ticket hall. When they hear a customer, an old man with gray hair inside immediately stood up: "Sir?"

"I want a ticket..."

"Hi Yi! I don't know which video it is?"

"Whatever."

"Eh?" The old man was stunned for a moment: "Then, I recommend "Rashomon" from Akira Kurosawa, right?"

"OK."

"What time will it take?"

“Anytime at any time.”

If it weren't for a piece of paper money in front of him, the old man would almost think that the other party was joking with him: "Sir..."

"Ah, it's the latest one."

"Hi Yi! Chenghui is 340 yuan, this is 160 yuan for change, welcome."

Tanaka Rui took back the ticket and change, and looked at the time. Fortunately, the movie was about to begin in 10 minutes. I watched it around and saw that there were no audiences entering the venue. What happened? Didn’t this movie win a big prize internationally? Why didn’t anyone watch it? I realized in a second that the weather was too hot. Apart from his purposeful visitors, it might be difficult to attract audiences in the theater, right? With such doubts, he walked into the theater.

After cutting the ticket, Tanaka Rui did not immediately walk into the screening room, but stood beside the ticket inspector and chatted with her: "Is the weather so hot?"

"Hey? Hi Yi!" The person checking the ticket was an uncle over 40 years old, with wrinkles on his face. He stroked the sleeves on his arm up while chatting with him: "Hi Yi, Hi Yi! It's too hot."

"Recently... Mimuraya has been screening "Rashomon"? How are the audience?"

"It's not very good." The uncle wiped the sweat from his forehead: "It's too hot, no one wants to come!"

Tanaka Rui felt funny and gently pursed his lips: "Is this the same thing even for Mr. Kurosawa's "Rashomon" who won the international award?"

"Actually, this film has been screened here for a long time. It seems that it has started since the end of Showa 25. However, it seems that the screening began again after winning the award."

Although Tanaka Rui is not a guy like Ai Fei who has special experience, he can probably tell the owner of the film's pursuit of the market. Needless to ask, Toho is preparing to take advantage of the opportunity to win an international award to launch the market again. However, considering that people who like and have the ability to watch the movie have already watched this film, and due to the weather, it is easy to understand that Mimuraya is deserted today.

Tanaka Rui knew it well and continued to chat with the old man: "You have worked here for a long time, have you?"

The old man who checked the ticket was surprised that the video had already begun. If he didn't go to watch it, he would always chat with him here? But he was not easy to refuse: "Ah, yes! Since the 12th year of Showa, he has been a ticket inspector here. Is it a very hard but happy job?"

“Eh?”

"Isn't it a thing that makes ticket inspectors and seat collectors like me happy? Every time I feel that even an elderly person like me can bring happiness to others!"

Listening to the old man's words, Tanaka Rui was in awe: "So that's the case? I understand!"

The old man laughed: "I hope my random words won't disturb you from watching the movie."

"Where! Absolutely not." Tanaka Rui took out a box of cigarettes from his pocket: "Can you get one?"

The old man scratched his head a little embarrassedly: "Is that OK?"

"Haha...of course!" Tanaka Rui took out a cigarette and handed it to the old man to light it. He stood at the entrance of the theater and sucked the clouds and mist with the old man. Not to mention, although the weather was very hot, the hall of the theater was quite cool: "Is every video screening like "Rashomon" for a long time?"

"Oh, no, I don't dare to do this." The old man was so short-spoken, and he didn't think there was any problem with this strange guest: "If every video was screened at such a time, I'm afraid there wouldn't be many videos to see in a year."

"If..." Tanaka Rui took a puff of cigarette: "I mean, if there were no movies like "Rashomon", how many movies can be screened in a theater like Nakami Murya every year?"

"Is this a number?" The old man was holding a cigarette in his mouth and twitched: "Well, there are always 10 pieces."

“Are there any foreign videos?”

"Hi Yi! Some, but very few, I remember there is a movie called "Ham"? It's been screened here for two months!"

""Hamlet?"

"Yes, it's this name. It seems to look very good. Many people of old age have visited it. Well, that's the first time I've seen many big names?"

"Do you know they are big guys?"

"Of course! There are many young people around everyone, and they must be big shots!"

Tanaka Rui laughed at the old man's words: "Hi Yi Hi Yi! You are right. If there are many people surrounding you, you must be a big shot! Haha!"

Finally, after smoking a cigarette, the old man was reluctant to smoke the cigarette butts so hard that he couldn't take it anymore - the cigarette at that time had no filter - and then threw it on the ground: "Then, I won't bother you..."

"Wait a minute." Tanaka Rui called him and handed him half of the cigarette in his pocket: "Thank you very much for taking the time to chat with me. This is my gift of thanks, right?"

"Ah, no no no no no, how can this work?"

"Take it for you." He stuffed the cigarette into the old man's hand: "I'm in."

"Then, thank you so much! Oh, please let me guide you, it's very dark inside."

When he walked out of the cinema, the old man checking the ticket saw him coming out and quickly put down the tobacco paper and leaves he rolled out: "Are you coming out?"

"Hi!" Tanaka Rui wiped his forehead: "It's really hot inside!"

The old man smiled: "Yes, it's really hot."

After saying this, the two of them seemed to have nothing to communicate with each other. Tanaka Rui looked around and said, "Then, I'll say goodbye."

"Hi! Goodbye, please walk slowly."

******************************************************

In the next three days, Tanaka Rui visited several cinemas around, which was similar to Mimura House. Due to the weather and the schedule of "Rashomon", all the cinemas were in a depressed situation, with pitiful passenger flow and the environment inside was also very dirty. In this hot summer, you can sit in the sofa-style seats that can almost reach the ground. That feeling is simply a pain!

Tanaka Rui really couldn't understand why the president wanted to conduct such a market research by himself? Could it be that he was going to open a cinema by himself? Or did he have any other ideas? He couldn't guess it.

Ai Fei got the report he wrote and smiled at Tanaka Rui's humorous description: I never knew that Tanaka Rui, who looks dull and is not good at dating people, is such a humorous guy? "Very good, Tanaka, very good! I am often satisfied with your job."

"Hi Yi! Thank you Mr. President for your praise. What I can do is very limited. Just..."

"What?"

"I just don't understand why you are conducting such a survey? Is this data useful?"

"Of course it's very useful. You may not notice the problem here..." Ai Fei opened the report he just submitted: "About 10 videos per year. Although I don't know what the box office of these videos are, the approximate situation can be guessed. For example, "Rashomon" started to be screened in the winter of Showa 25, and then it was released before the New Year, and then it was re-released after it won the international award. As the old man said, many viewers' interest and enthusiasm for this video have disappeared from the beginning. From this video, it can be analyzed that about 25 days/the screening period of each movie can retain the audience, only about 10 to 15 days at the beginning. For other times, it can be said that the theater is just showing the screening."

"It's about that, but is it anything directly related to our company?"

"Of course there is!" Ai Fei stood up: "Tanaka, you also attended the regular meeting on Monday. You should also know that in the near future, our company will start to produce animated movies independently produced by our company. These can be completed by the power of "Jump School Children's Animation Club". The main screening work requires the assistance of the theater. You don't think we just shoot it and put it aside, right?"

"What you mean is that after we finish our own shooting work, we will contact the corresponding theater for the screening?"

"This is beyond doubt. But there is another urgent question, that is, after the film is completed, is there any theater willing to open a special show for us and screen a cartoon? And this is the information I want you to get from theaters everywhere!"

“…………”

"Don't understand?" Ai Fei smiled: "That's right. Cinemas everywhere are now in a situation where resources are relatively poor and audiences are lost. As long as we can seize this opportunity and launch our movies, there will definitely be cinemas accepting it! The most difficult thing about this is to be the first one. As long as one cinema accepts it, the following things will be simple."

"Huh? Does Mr. President think they will make some of the shows for us during the gaps in other movies?"
Chapter completed!