Chapter 682

Having shaken off the reporter's harassment, Naoki Nagayama was able to focus on continuing to prepare for the filming.

Just at this moment, Shizhi Araki led over a few guys dressed like hoodlums. As soon as they arrived, they bowed to him and shouted:

"Naoki Aniki!"

"Hmm?"

Naoki Nagayama looked over. These must be the hoodlums managing the summer festival who were supposed to appear today, but why would they call me boss?

"You are..." The few of them looked quite familiar.

"We are the men under Big Brother Feng!" the lead hoodlum said, "My name is Shuto Nishi, and they are Sakata, Obara, and Tsunoda respectively."

"Ah, so it's you guys."

Naoki Nagayama remembered. When his cousin Feng Yongshan finished filming "Crows Zero," he established an artist management agency and recruited a group of local hoodlums as subordinates.

These guys even appeared as background lackeys in "Crows Zero"!

"Hai! The manager of Shuyou sent an invitation, and we agreed immediately!" Shuto Nishi nodded and said, "It is our honor to be able to act in Boss Naoki's movie again."

"Hahaha, it is my honor that you could come. Keep up the good work in the future!"

"Hai!"

After some encouragement, he let the few of them go to prepare for filming, and only then did Naoki Nagayama curiously ask Shizhi Araki:

"Kijima-kun, is Big Brother Feng's Yongshan Agency actually still operating?"

He had always thought that after Feng Yongshan focused on KTV, that shell company used to enter the entertainment industry had been shut down.

"Hai, it's actually operating quite well... Currently, most of the artists under the agency play young hoodlum or yakuza roles and have already gained a bit of a reputation in the entertainment industry," Shizhi Araki explained.

"Oh ho~~"

Now that there are more and more yakuza movies in the entertainment industry, this small agency has actually grown so tenaciously; it's truly a pleasant surprise.

After saying a few more words, the filming of the movie was about to officially begin.

This part of the plot was about Kikujiro bringing Masao to the summer festival, where they angered the hoodlums managing the event due to their rowdy behavior and were beaten up severely... In the end, Masao bought him medicine~

"Kitano-san, remember not to be too fierce! When you ask the stall owner for the bear, you have to act spoiled! Act spoiled!"

Naoki Nagayama reminded Takeshi Kitano during filming. He was a bit impatient today, and his tone was a bit heavy while acting...

Then he shouted towards Takehiko Takei:

"Takei-san, you have to handle the trouble you caused yourself!... Block the audience outside the set for me!!!"

Takehiko Takei could only take two people and start trying to persuade the onlookers nicely.

The tourists who came here were originally just here to visit the summer festival, but they actually heard that someone was filming a movie here, and it was the famous director Naoki Nagayama!

Suddenly interested, many tourists brought their children to the outside of the set and started watching the filming of the movie.

Usually, Japanese people would also watch the excitement, but at those times, it was either daytime, they had things to do, or they were afraid of causing trouble for others... In short, there was always a limit to knowing when to stop.

But today, coming to the summer festival was specifically to join in the fun!

Who could say that movie filming wasn't a special themed activity held by the organizers!!!

Look... there's nothing much to it anyway~

Thus, a group of audience members gathered at the filming site...

"Kitano-san, you are a professional actor, don't pay attention to irrelevant people!" Naoki Nagayama reminded Takeshi Kitano to adjust his mindset. Only when he signaled that it was okay did he shout through the megaphone,

"Everyone in position! Ready! Action!"

8:00 PM, Yokohama City.

Akina Nakamori, who had finished her concert with great effort, didn't want to return to the hotel immediately for the first time in a long while.

"Mingxing Fangze-san, is there anything fun to do in Yokohama at night?"

Akina Nakamori, sitting in the back of the car, was a bit tired, but after all, she was a young person and still a bit curious about the new city, so she asked Norinori Akiko.

"At night?"

In this era, small cities in Japan basically had no nightlife. The so-called 'city that never sleeps' could only reach this standard in Tokyo at the moment.

Except for big cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nagoya, most cities only had the light of street lamps in the downtown area after midnight.

However, Yokohama was at least considered a big city within the Tokyo metropolitan area. At least before midnight, there were still lively places.

"At night, there are many bars and nightclubs over at Yokohama Port... there are many foreigners." Norinori Akiko recalled previous memories, "Yokohama Marine Tower can overlook the night view of the entire Yokohama Port. If you're lucky, there's a restaurant on the Hikawa Maru nearby..."

"And if you want to go shopping, Motomachi Shopping Street has many foreign stores..."

Listening to Norinori Akiko listing one place after another, Akina Nakamori looked at the scenery sliding by outside the window, her thoughts somewhat scattered. Should Naoki-san be filming right now?

"Akina-chan?" Maki Ueda next to her smiled and leaned over, asking, "Why do you want to go out for a stroll today? Didn't you always return to the hotel to rest as soon as the concert ended, and by the way... call Naoki-san?"

Akina Nakamori's face turned red. The secret of her calling Naoki Nagayama naturally couldn't be hidden from the team; at least the phone bill for the next day couldn't be hidden~ Now this had become an open secret in the team.

"Naoki-san is filming night scenes today, so we can't talk on the phone."

Akina Nakamori explained slightly,

"I'm not very tired after the concert today, so I thought about going out for a stroll."

Norinori Akiko in the front row sighed in his heart, truly an energetic young person!

"Then where does Akina want to go?"

"Let's go to Yokohama Marine Tower to take a look, and then stroll around the nearby port area a little."

Although she couldn't go to a bar to drink, if she saw other nightclubs, she could go take a look, right? Doesn't the port area have many foreigners? There must be many foreign stores too~

"Hai, then I'll change direction~"

Norinori Akiko had been to Yokohama before, so he didn't even need to look at a map and drove directly towards the Marine Tower that could be seen now... The light of the lighthouse was very obvious...

After arriving near the port area, the few of them got out of the car and started strolling on the street.

Bars and cafes visible everywhere were the characteristics of the port area. Even at night, the brightly lit glass windows and the pedestrians walking on the street could explain the prosperity here.

Since the opening of Yokohama Port, countless foreigners and foreign goods had poured into Yokohama Port... also making Yokohama one of the few prosperous port cities in Tokyo Bay.

"Akina-chan, the lighthouse is here."

Norinori Akiko led the two to Yokohama Marine Tower. Besides serving as a lighthouse, this tower was also an observation deck for Yokohama. The special ten-sided observation windows allowed it to completely overlook the night view of the entire Yokohama Port.

After paying the fee, Akina Nakamori and the others took the elevator to the top floor and looked at the port area below through the glass.

In the pitch-black night, the prosperous shopping street was particularly eye-catching. The dense signs and shops, plus the street lamps, formed several long strips of light, and one could vaguely see pedestrians walking and stopping among them.

Crossing the Yokohama port area, the twinkling lights in the distance were like stars in the sky, reminding you that there were still people who hadn't fallen asleep.

Occasionally, night-traveling cars drove out of Yokohama, dragging red taillights towards other surrounding cities. If you looked far into the distance, besides a patch of dark night, it seemed you could also see the blurry scenery of other cities...

Suddenly, in a certain direction, there seemed to be colorful light spots flickering... just like fleeting colorful bubbles~

"Maki-chan, is that... fireworks?" Akina Nakamori pointed to the southwest direction and asked.

"Eh? Where, where?" Maki Ueda looked over, but could only see small, flickering five-colored light spots, "It really is! Such distant fireworks!"

"So small, so cute... It's my first time seeing such small fireworks!"

Akina Nakamori's heart stirred:

"Mingxing Fangze-san, what direction is that?"

Norinori Akiko also looked over and thought about it, combining it with the address of Yokohama: "It's Kanagawa Prefecture!"

"Kanagawa, huh~" A kind of emotion seemed to well up in Akina Nakamori's heart, "Naoki-san is right there!"

Norinori Akiko gathered his hands next to his eyes:

"It's really lucky. This distance is almost 20 kilometers, right! If it weren't night, if the weather weren't good, if we weren't on such a high Yokohama Marine Tower, we definitely wouldn't be able to see these fireworks!"

"Haha, that's true~"

Akina Nakamori revealed a bright smile,

"These are lucky fireworks!"

On Naoki Nagayama's side, he was annoyed by the onlookers. Except for the scene where he was beaten up, which was in a relatively hidden place, for other filming, there was a circle of audience members around...

But there was no good way. The crew didn't have law enforcement power, and they didn't do anything too excessive; they were just joining in the fun to take a look.

But the reporters who came to interview were very happy, occasionally finding a few audience members to interview about their views on the crew, whether they knew Naoki Nagayama/Takeshi Kitano/Yuko Tanaka, whether they would go watch the movie when it was released...

With all kinds of questions, he could surely produce a content-rich news draft tomorrow.

"Kijima-kun, aren't they tired?" Naoki Nagayama looked at the circle of audience members and sighed, "We've been filming for more than three hours... it's almost midnight, aren't they going home to sleep?"

"....... Maybe entertainment activities in small places are relatively scarce, so they are reluctant to leave." Shizhi Araki thought for a moment and answered like this.

"This is completely treating our crew as entertainment!"

At this time, Yuko Tanaka, who had been playing in the summer festival, walked back and specifically brought a portion of takoyaki for Naoki Nagayama. After hearing Naoki Nagayama's trouble, she said:

"Naoki-san, that's because the summer festival hasn't ended yet!"

"Hmm?"

"Look, because it's a filming set, all the small vendors and shops are still open, brightly lit... Also, the summer festival hasn't finished its performances, so the tourists naturally won't leave."

"Finished performances?"

"Yeah, aren't there usually parades, singing, or fireworks or something?" Yuko Tanaka said as a matter of course, "When that ends, everyone will know the summer festival is over, and they will leave..."

Hearing these words, Naoki Nagayama looked at Takehiko Takei:

"Takei-san... for our summer festival, did we buy fireworks?"

"Ah! Fireworks! Of course we did!" Takehiko Takei said immediately, "Everything is prepared according to the most authentic summer festival!"

"......" Seeing Takehiko Takei still looking proud, Naoki Nagayama shook his head, "Then what are you waiting for? Go set them off!"

Takehiko Takei confirmed: "Now?"

"Right now!"

"Hai! I'll go prepare immediately! About ten minutes..."

After Takehiko Takei left, Naoki Nagayama said to Shizhi Araki: "Kijima-kun, it just so happens that we are going to film the two tengu dancing in the courtyard next...

Go spread the news among the crowd, saying this is the last program of the summer festival—call it 'Tengu Blessing.' Once the tengu pray for fireworks, the summer festival will be over!"

"Uh... Hai!" Shizhi Araki seemed to have some thoughts, but still honestly went to do it.

Yuko Tanaka laughed on the side: "Haha, Naoki-san is really good at making things up!"

"This is called adapting to circumstances, okay!"

Naoki Nagayama waved his hand, signaling the rest of the crew to prepare for the start of filming.

When the two actors wearing strange tengu costumes really started dancing in front of the big tree tied with shimenawa in front of the shrine, the onlookers naturally knew this was the final performance—Tengu Blessing. Although they didn't understand what it meant, they were all still watching very seriously.

After the strange blessing dance was performed for a while, the audience at the shrine all heard the 'xiu xiu' sounds, and then fireworks began to explode in the sky, colorful and diverse... suddenly lighting up in the night sky, erupting with the most brilliant colors, and then quietly extinguishing, having their luster stolen by another firework.

The sudden fireworks drew cheers from the children.

The colorful fireworks reflected on the faces of the audience looking up, and it seemed to reflect into their eyes as well, as if the tengu had really prayed for good fortune.

"So pretty~" "So beautiful~"

"We'll have good fortune again this year!" "The tengu prayed for lucky fireworks!"

Praises came one after another, and everyone was admiring such beautiful fireworks.

After the fireworks ended, the tourists seemed to really believe that the summer festival was over and began to leave sparsely~

And Naoki Nagayama, who was also watching this scene, was silently keeping track of the time... until the last firework extinguished~

"Five minutes! A full five minutes!!!"

Every minute of fireworks is money!

Originally, Naoki Nagayama wouldn't care about this money if he had planned to spend it himself... but this was clearly an unnecessary expense!

This summer festival was equivalent to Shuyou Film paying out of its own pocket to hold a celebration for the locals of Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, and by the way, holding a fireworks display...

The key was that when the city government and the shrine hold such activities themselves, they either have subsidies or sponsorships. He, Naoki Nagayama, really came to do charity!

"This money..."

Naoki Nagayama just wanted to say to let Takehiko Takei pay for it all, but he couldn't bring himself to do it... After all, it wasn't a small amount, and Takehiko Takei, as a salaryman, might suffer a huge loss...

So he thought viciously in his heart:

"For this year's year-end bonus, this guy Takehiko Takei will definitely be rated the lowest!!!"

He turned his head to look at the crew. They were still discussing the fireworks just now, and everyone had a happy smile on their face... Sure enough, those who don't know are the happiest!

But the happiness of these guys is built on my money!

He clapped his hands to get everyone's attention:

"Minna-san, the fireworks are over, come back to work!"

"Today we still have to film the final scene! The scene of the summer festival closing, and the scene of Masao buying medicine for Kikujiro!"

"Move quickly! Let's try to get off work before dawn!!!"

"Hai~~~" XN