Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

The four men arrived at New Otani Hotel in Tokyo. Director Yan Wu seemed to be impressed by the stunning look of the hotel. He exclaimed several times, “Oh, Piaoliang (It’s so pretty)!”

Director Woon-Hak Sim looked also amazed, especially when he saw the 400 years old traditional Japanese style garden there.

Gun-Ho walked to the lobby and checked in the rooms for four people.

“Shoot. I should have accompanied a secretary or someone to take care of all this tedious work. Now, I’m the one who is handling the check-in process for everyone here, even though I’m the boss.”

Gun-Ho received four keys for four separate rooms and gave one key to each person.

“Let’s break up here, and have free time until 6 pm. Don’t forget to come to the lobby by 6. We will leave for the bar in Shinjuku City by taxi.”

Director Woon-Hak Sim had a question.

“Do we need to prepare some money for a tip when we go to the bar?”

“No, you don’t need to.”

Gun-Ho then asked Mr. Yoshitaka Matsuda to come close to him, and said, “Would you give a call to Mama San Segawa Joonkko for me? Tell her that we will be there by 6 pm. You probably want to let her know that four men would be there including you and me, and also two movie directors.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And, tell her to get Mori Aikko ready for her dance performance. I want to show these two movie directors Geigi’s Odori (geisha’s dance).”

“Okay, sir. It has been several years already since I saw Geigi’s Odori in a bar. I’m so excited.”

Gun-Ho then talked to Director Yan Wu, “We are going to a bar here, and the floor of the room in the bar would be covered with tatami, and we would sit on the floor without a chair. Will it be okay with you?”

Chinese people slept in a raised bed and sit on a chair. Many of them felt extremely uncomfortable when they had to sit on a floor, unlike Koreans and Japanese who were very familiar with a floor sitting setting.

“I can use two-floor cushions to raise my seat height a little bit. I will be good.”

Mr. Yoshitaka Matsuda, who was watching Gun-Ho talking with Director Yan Wu in Chinese, was astonished by Gun-Ho’s fluent Chinese.

“Oh, Mr. President Goo. You speak Chinese very well.”

It was 6 pm, and the four men headed to the bar in Shinjuku City. The bar was a traditional Japanese style house with bamboo trees in the yard.

“I have to take a picture of this place. It’s so beautiful.”

Two movie directors— Director Yan Wu and Director Woon-Hak Sim— started taking pictures of the bar house. Gun-Ho told them, “You probably don’t want to do that. The bar owner might not like it.”

“We need to collect data like this Japanese traditional style house for our movie. This might come in handy when we set up our movie studio.”

The four men were led to an extremely clean room with tatami floor. Once they sat on the floor, the room door opened. A middle-aged woman in Kimono entered the room and sat in a kneeling position in front of the four guests. She then gave a full bow to her guests and said, “Ohisashiburidesu, Kyu Shacho San (Long time no see, Mr. President Goo).”

“How have you been, Mama San?”

The elegant middle-aged lady was the bar owner— Segawa Joonkko.

“Mama San, it has been a while since I saw you last time. It’s Yoshitaka Matsuda.”

“Oh, Mr. Yoshitaka Matsuda!”

“I’m so glad to see you again. You are still very elegant, Mama San.”

“Ha, Arigato Gozaimasu (Thank you).”

Gun-Ho could speak very simple and basic Japanese. He introduced the two movie directors to Mama San in Japanese.

“This is a very famous movie director in China— Director Yan Wu.”

“Oh, is that right? Pleasure meeting you, sir. I’m the owner of this bar— Mama San Segawa Joonkko.”

Gun-Ho continued, “And, this gentleman is another famous movie director— Director Woon Hak Sim. He is Korean.”

“Oh, I see. It’s very nice meeting you, sir.”

“I guess I can skip introducing Mr. Yoshitaka Matsuda to you since you two seem to know each other well.”

Mr. Yoshitaka Matsuda and Mama San looked at each other and laughed.

Segawa Joonkko filled up four empty cups with Matcha tea in a white porcelain kettle and handed them to each gentleman. Gun-Ho said after taking a sip of the tea— Gun-Ho spoke in Korean and let Mr. Yoshitaka Matsuda translate for him, “We are producing a movie called Menghuan Yinghua, in China, and we want Mori Aikko to take the leading female role in the movie.”

Mama San seemed to be surprised and said, “I thought this was about her brief appearance on TV.”

“No, Mama San. It’s about a main role in a movie. These two movie directors are here to audition Mori Aikko for the role. I think this could be a good opportunity for Mori Aikko. The movie is about a love story between a geisha and a Chinese spy.”

“Is that right? It sounds very interesting.”

“Before you say anything further, I want to let you know now that the role that Mori Aikko would play is a geisha who betrays her country for her lover. Will it be okay?”

“It would be better without that betrayal part, but it should be okay. It’s just a movie. It doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter in China actually. If an actor or an actress plays a role in a movie betraying his or her country, they will be hated by the public for a long time.”

“They get confused between the real world and the movie world, huh?”

Gun-Ho noticed that Director Yan Wu was sitting there not understanding the conversation. Gun-Ho briefly summarized the conversation for him in Chinese, “She said that it’s not a perfectly pleasant role because of the betrayal part, but she will accept it since it’s just a movie and an art.”

Director Yan Wu smiled, and said, “Chinese movie viewers should grow in this aspect. During the era of the Republic of China (1912-1949), there was this actor who played Cao Cao in a movie— Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He was eventually killed by the people who watched the movie. They beat him to death with a rock.”

“Wow, really? That’s extreme.”

Gun-Ho said while sipping his Matcha tea, “If Mori Aikko passes the audition, how do you want to get paid for her performance?”

“That would be the earnings of Mori Aikko. You can just send the fund to her personal bank account.”

Gun-Ho wanted to ask Mama San about how she would share Mori Aikko’s income, but he didn’t ask her. That was the business of Gion (Kyoto’s famous geisha district), and he was not in a position to interfere with the business. Gun-Ho guessed though that maybe Mori Aikko’s personal bank account was being managed by Mama San.

“For today, we will enjoy Mori Aikkos’ Odori, and her official audition will be held tomorrow morning by these two movie directors.”

“Understood.”

Mama San left the room, and a large table with food and liquor on came in. Many fish dishes were prepared to eat with liquor including sashimi. Several ladies with Japanese traditional musical instruments— Shamisen— came into the room, and started playing them. The four men slowly drank the liquor while listening to Shamisen.

A moment later, Mama San came back to the room and sat in a kneeling position again and asked, “Mori Aikko is ready. Would you like to see her now?”

“Sure.”

“We will take out the table then.”

When Mama San clapped to give a sign, several good-looking men came into the room and lifted the floor table and took it out of the room, leaving a small table behind in the room for serving tea.

A geisha with the right outfit and make-up was sitting outside the room in a kneeling position. Gun-Ho could see her through a small gap between the sliding doors. She said, “Maiko San is coming in.”

It was Mori Aikko.