I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 416: The Trash Director Who Defected at Midnight
Of course, there was a post-credits scene.
After the staff roll finished, the big screen lit up once more.
The stark white decor made the audience recognize it immediately—it was another hospital room.
A girl lay on the bed, so thin she looked like nothing but skin and bones.
Her body was too weak for movement, and she could only stare blankly at the ceiling to pass the time.
Suddenly, the door opened.
The visitor was a tall, well-built man with a stern face.
His expression was grave, as though he were a sage wrestling with an unsolvable riddle, shadows filling his features.
After entering the room, the man simply stared at the girl with those severe eyes.
The atmosphere in the ward became suffocatingly heavy.
"…Are you Kirie Fujou?"
His deep voice sounded burdened, as if weighed down by some unspoken trouble.
The girl—Kirie Fujou—turned her sightless eyes toward him.
"Are you a friend of my father's?"
The man did not answer, but Kirie felt that must be the case.
Otherwise, there was no explanation for why he would continue paying the medical expenses of someone who had already lost her entire family.
"Why did you come here? I'm… useless now." Kirie's voice trembled as she spoke. The man didn't even twitch an eyebrow.
"I came to grant your wish," he said flatly. "A body that can move freely. Do you want it?"
Reason told Kirie such a thing was impossible.
Yet there was something strangely persuasive in his words, something that made her believe he truly could do it.
After a short silence, the girl nodded, her throat quivering.
The man nodded in return and raised his right hand.
He bestowed upon her both the dream she had longed for all these years… and the nightmare that would continue endlessly.
But before that, the girl asked one more question.
"…Who are you?"
The man answered, sounding almost bored.
"I am Araya Souren, a magus."
His voice echoed through the room, heavy as if it belonged to a god.
There was no doubt: this post-credits scene was Shinji's setup for the story following Garden of Sinners.
But the audience who watched it were utterly baffled.
"What the F**k?!" × N
Countless viewers cried out, "You've gotta be kidding me!" Because they recognized the name Araya Souren—it was an alias Touko had used in the movie.
So who was this man in the post-credits scene?
Was he Aozaki Touko in disguise, or the real person himself?
Unfortunately, Shinji had no intention of revealing the answer.
The audience could only head home, filled with lingering confusion.
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After leaving the screening hall, Alice and the others quickly found Aoko, who had slipped out early to use the restroom.
Once the young magi regrouped, they left the theater together. Since their hotel in Fuyuki City was located in the new district, they decided to walk back.
Bright streetlights illuminated the sidewalks. Thanks to the Garden of Sinners premiere, Fuyuki City was far livelier than usual tonight. The bustle gave Alice—still immersed in the film—the illusion that she was in Mifune City itself.
"Hm~ hm~ hm~"
Her heart light, Alice skipped along, stepping on her own shadow.
Smiling brightly, she looked every bit like a carefree seventeen-year-old girl.
"Sigh…."
Compared to Alice, who was still excited, Aoko appeared unusually calm. After her initial enthusiasm faded, she seemed to slip into a quiet, contemplative mood.
'Did they swap souls or something?'
Walking behind them, Shibamatsu lowered his head, occasionally sneaking glances forward, trying to figure out what was going on.
Of course, there was no way he'd actually ask.
Wasn't staying alive nice?
Alice, meanwhile, didn't mind at all. Seeing lively Aoko turn gloomy, she asked directly:
"Aoko, why do you look unhappy? Don't tell me you're pretending to be sad so I'll buy you toys. What are you, a child?"
Aoko curled her lips and shot back, "That's not it. I'm not thinking anything like that. I just feel that this Garden of Sinners…"
She paused for a moment, then shook her head.
"It didn't meet my expectations."
"Why?"
Alice couldn't understand how Aoko could hold such an opinion about such a brilliant film. It had practically flayed those old fogies alive, and it portrayed a mage's life far more closely than Fate. It was a masterpiece.
"It's just… whatever."
Aoko waved her hand casually and explained, "Watching it felt kind of depressing. It doesn't have that satisfying punch like Fate. Especially the fight scenes—aside from the final showdown, the rest were a bit lacking. In short… it just wasn't exciting enough!"
"…Is that so…"
Alice realized she couldn't really refute that. Compared to FA from last month, the action scenes in Garden of Sinners were indeed somewhat weaker.
But the dialogue and character writing were incredible! Especially the characterization!
Alice didn't voice her opinion. She had never been the type who enjoyed arguing.
When faced with disagreements, Alice either set them aside… or used more physical means to persuade the other party.
Whether Garden of Sinners was good or not hadn't reached the level of her personal principles, so she chose the former.
"It's actually a good thing you don't like Garden of Sinners, Aoko. That way you won't cling to me asking me to buy toys."
"Of course I still need toys!" Aoko replied without hesitation. "Movies and toys are two different things. How could I miss the chance to cosplay as Shiki?"
"And you say you're not a child!"
Alice expressionlessly tapped Aoko on the head.
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Although Alice and Aoko disagreed in their evaluation of Garden of Sinners, once she returned to the hotel, lay on the bed, and started scrolling through her phone, Alice quickly found countless people who shared her view.
Putting aside everything else, on Type-Moon's own promotional stronghold—IMDb—within the short time between finishing the movie and lying down on her hotel bed, the number of new ratings for Garden of Sinners had already exceeded 5,000. The score? A towering 9.8!
"Just as I thought, there are more people in this world who like Garden of Sinners~"
Even though the number of ratings was less than one percent of the total viewers, and even though quite a few people had given negative scores, Alice ignored all these "minor extra factors" and concluded that Garden of Sinners was hugely popular.
Alice opened the review section and began browsing the positive comments.
People always like to find kindred spirits. Often, when someone reads movie reviews, it's not because they want to know whether the film is good or bad, they simply want to find others who share their opinion, so they can praise (or bash) the movie together.
One user with the ID [Heroic Spirits Above Type-Moon] wrote:
"In my opinion, Garden of Sinners is currently Shinji Matou's most perfect film. It balances dialogue and action very well, while maintaining its own unique style. It's a model example of the perfect fusion between commercial appeal and artistic expression!"
"The story itself is quite simple, but Shinji uses grand, majestic music, breathtaking visual effects, and deeply convincing performances to let us fully experience the charm of cinema."
"This is absolutely the must-watch movie of this summer!"
Another user named [Arturia Is the Perfect King] wrote:
"The greatest success of Garden of Sinners lies in its portrayal of the Fujino Asagami and Shiki Ryougi. They're like two sides of the same coin—independent, yet complementary."
"The direct confrontation between these two women is undoubtedly the highlight of the film. It also makes Garden of Sinners the movie with the deepest characterization and most profound story among all of Shinji Matou's works so far."
Alice scrolled through a few more comments. After summarizing the ways others praised Garden of Sinners, she combined them with her own impressions and wrote her thoughts in the review section.
"I believe Garden of Sinners is the least 'Shinji Matou–like' Shinji Matou film, because it has the fewest fights and explosions, and instead adds a large amount of dialogue scenes that don't directly push the plot forward but focus on shaping the characters."
"However, this makes it a crucial entry in Director Shinji Matou's World of Magi series. It's the first film where magi step out from being mere supporting characters for Heroic Spirits and become the protagonists themselves! For the entire series, this is of monumental importance!"
"At the same time, the portrayal of the magus community is my personal favorite part. Traits that were previously only mentioned in passing in the Fate series—stubbornness, ignorance, conservatism, and so on—finally receive concrete depiction in this film!"
"I think Garden of Sinners is not just a movie. It's a manifestation of a marginalized society!"
After posting her review, Alice didn't hesitate to give the film a full score.
That's right, in Miss Kuonji's eyes, this movie deserved a perfect ten.
Once her rating was submitted, the webpage automatically refreshed. The number of users rating Garden of Sinners had already surpassed nine thousand—and the score had climbed to 9.9!
0.1 higher than before!
"How strange."
Aoko's voice suddenly came from behind her. She was leaning over Alice's fair neck, peeking at the phone screen.
"What are you doing?"
Alice turned her head, her tone icy.
Aoko gave an awkward smile. "I was planning to play a prank… like blowing on your neck…"
Thump!
Alice tossed a pillow straight at Aoko's face.
Aoko didn't get angry. Hugging the pillow casually, she asked curiously, "Why is Garden of Sinners rated so high?"
"Because not everyone is as shallow as you, thinking only about fighting all day," Alice snorted. "So then—what score would you give it?"
"Seven. The fights were really too few."
Clearly, Aoko didn't rate Garden of Sinners very highly. "The movie was kind of dull."
After saying that, she yawned and crawled back toward her own bed.
"Well, since this is the Matou brat's movie that our Alice likes the most, I won't give it a low score. I'll give it… 9.9."
Alice's response was a second pillow flying at her.
After chasing Aoko back to her own bed, Alice opened a few more movie websites. She discovered quite a few people were organizing groups to watch the midnight screening.
In Fuyuki City alone, there were three such groups—and many of them were viewers who had attended the premiere.
It was tempting. But remembering she had to head back to Misaki Town early tomorrow morning to attend the magus gathering hosted by Aoko's grandfather, she forcibly suppressed the urge.
'Should I mention this movie at the gathering? If I bring it up from a critical standpoint, Lord Aozaki might become interested in it…'
Still wavering over whether she should recommend Garden of Sinners to those stubborn old conservatives—and imagining their furious expressions after watching it—Alice drifted happily into sleep.
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Although Miss Kuonji didn't manage to watch it a second time at the midnight screening, quite a few viewers in Fuyuki City who had attended the premiere made exactly that choice.
It could only be said that the early promotion for Garden of Sinners had been overwhelmingly strong, giving the film unprecedented attention across Japan.
Shinji Matou + blockbuster special effects + Japanese urban horror… with so many elements hitting the Japanese audience's pleasure points all at once, there was no way they wouldn't get hyped.
As midnight approached, the flow of people suddenly increased in theaters across Japan showing Garden of Sinners.
Japan already had relatively few cinemas to begin with. The film's popularity caused ticket checkpoints in many major cities to form lines of several hundred people. At some theaters, the queues even stretched outside the buildings.
With Shinji and his Type-Moon-style films rising in prominence, the number of cinemas in Japan had increased over the past two years. On top of that, Japanese moviegoers were far less obsessed with attending premiere screenings than Western audiences.
Because of this, it had been a very, very long time since such a grand scene had appeared.
"No one doubts that Garden of Sinners will set a new Japanese midnight box office record!"
Ryougi Shiki, her face glowing with excitement, spoke animatedly to Shinji.
This was a film she starred in—how could she not be thrilled?
Compared to Shiki, Shinji seemed calm. He sipped his cola while casually munching on popcorn.
"Shiki-nee, relax. Compared to the waves coming later, Japan's midnight box office is just a small scene. Here, have some popcorn."
As he spoke, Shinji gently fed a piece of popcorn into her lips.
"…Mm. This theater's popcorn is a bit too sweet."
After swallowing, Shiki licked her lips. She glanced around and asked, "Say… is it really okay for us to be here like this?"
Shinji blinked and replied, "Because you didn't want me to make you sore tonight, I decided to come watch a midnight movie after finishing work today. What's the problem?"
"There's a huge problem, okay?"
Ryougi Shiki rubbed her temples, her helpless tone tinged with confusion.
"This is the midnight screening of Pirates of the Caribbean, you know."
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Tn: I updated the story once every 2 days, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 455: Shinji — My Awesomeness Has Exceeded Even My Own Expectations[1]
Link: https://www.patreon.com/Thatsnakegirl/posts/im-not-master-im-160861502?collection=31097[2]
[1] https://www.patreon.com/Thatsnakegirl/posts/im-not-master-im-160861502?collection=31097
[2] https://www.patreon.com/Thatsnakegirl/posts/im-not-master-im-160861502?collection=31097