Iiyota Kiyoshi's sign language. That scene was clearly captured on camera. But the face of the cameraman handling that camera was filled with shock.
'…Sign language?'
Neither Akari's original novel The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice nor the screenplay adapted by Director Kyotaro had any setting in which Kiyoshi used sign language.
'This was completely unexpected. Kiyoshi uses sign language?'
It was a scene the cinematographer had never anticipated at all. It shattered the existing frame. And it was not just the cinematographer. All two hundred people gathered on that wide set were thinking the same thing.
No one had imagined it.
That sign language had come from Kiyoshi. On top of that, the sign language Woojin was using was not Korean Sign Language. It was unmistakably Japanese Sign Language. But almost no one realized that. They only recognized the fact that Kiyoshi was using sign language.
Director Kyotaro's eyes widened as he looked at Kang Woojin standing in the apartment set as Iiyota Kiyoshi, and his expression gradually began to change.
"To overturn everyone's ordinary lives so casually—"
His shock slowly turned into joy. A smile spread across his lips.
"Such a radical interpretation… only Mr. Woojin, who possesses these kinds of brilliant ideas, could do something like this. It is a kind of weapon, and a very sharp one."
Goosebumps rose on Director Kyotaro's arms and neck. And the one facing Woojin head-on was Detective Mochio.
No, it was Kosaku Mana.
"..."
He too was at a loss for words. Before the improvisational acting had begun, he had been determined to press Kiyoshi calmly, but the moment he saw the sign language, his mind went blank.
Meanwhile—
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With an expressionless face, Kang Woojin moved his hands again, carrying an innocent air. His expression was slightly cold, yet pure.
"Just as I expected, you are flustered. It is only natural that you do not know sign language."
"...Ah—"
"Yes, Detective. I knew you were coming. I even waited for you. But now I have to pretend not to know. That is the only way I can finish my task."
Kiyoshi's face was calm, but the emotional line expressed through his sign language was indifferent. His outward appearance and his gestures were completely opposite. But he was still Kiyoshi. More precisely, he was Iiyota Kiyoshi disguised as a stranger.
This was exactly what Kang Woojin had achieved through this role synthesis.
['This is interesting. The situation right now, I mean.']
He had grafted Japanese Sign Language ability onto the mysterious man next door from Frozen love. The vessel that embodied all of it was Kiyoshi. The frame of The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice had been broken, but Kiyoshi's essence remained intact, and everything fused together to create tremendous synergy.
"In a way, this is a confession, but nothing will happen. It was the same before. Even when that child jumped, nothing happened."
The rigid thinking of the hundreds of staff members, along with the film company and distribution executives, slowly began to loosen.
They let out sighs of astonishment.
'Wow, sign language??'
'I can't believe Kiyoshi knows sign language.'
'I never expected a twist like this. This is the most shocking thing I've seen in a while.'
'...Who among these people could have predicted a scene like this? No one. Not a single person.'
It was as if Kang Woojin had smacked each of them on the back of the head.
"This is unbelievable. We were in no position to judge, were we?"
"Be quiet. In a scene like this, just watching is enough."
Some of the staff stood there with their mouths hanging open, some covered their mouths with one hand, and others stared with wide eyes without even blinking.
Among them, one staff member standing beside Director Kyotaro quietly muttered,
"In sign language… what is he saying?"
Most of the staff had no way of knowing. But in this scene, there was only one person who did.
Chairman Yoshimura Hideki knew it clearly.
'Ha ha, this actor truly cannot be measured. The current Kiyoshi is completely different not only on the outside, but inwardly as well. He is pretending to confess, yet he is deceiving not only the other actor but all two hundred people here.'
Of course, it was a play within a play, but it was genuinely thrilling and impressive.
By then, Detective Mochio had barely managed to recover his senses.
"Please wait a moment, Mr. Iiyota Kiyoshi."
Woojin, or rather Kiyoshi, lowered his hands and tilted his head slightly. It was an expression of puzzlement. Seeing that, Detective Mochio—
No, Kosaku Mana—
was bewildered.
'Press him? What exactly am I supposed to press him on?'
It felt far removed from an attack. If anything, it felt empty. Kosaku had calculated many things before acting, but he had never imagined this kind of hollow gap without dialogue. The silence Kiyoshi had shown just moments ago had been much better.
The camera vividly captured Detective Mochio's bewildered face.
It was reality, and at the same time acting disguised as reality.
The contrasting performances of the two actors added dynamism to the scene. The sense of life doubled. It was improvisation, but it felt no different from reality, which made it natural. A strange yet stimulating scene transition had been created. They were having a conversation, yet they could not understand each other.
Meanwhile, writer Akari, who had been seated, unconsciously rose from her seat.
Her heart was pounding.
When Kiyoshi first began using sign language, she had almost clapped. This actor's way of thinking is truly flexible.
"Of course it was possible. Because he was skilled at sign language."
Writer Akari knew that among Kang Woojin's many foreign language abilities, he was also proficient in sign language. She had seen it herself many times in both Korea and Japan. But she had never imagined that ability would reveal itself at a moment like this, and her surprise grew in another direction.
'How many layers are there in the character right now?'
Kiyoshi, who was using sign language, was performing another layer of acting within the acting. But his appearance was both clear and vague. He seemed like Kiyoshi, yet he also seemed like a completely different person. It was that ambiguous. How could he move back and forth across such a subtle boundary in performance?
'Well… he's simply on another level.'
Writer Akari slowly turned her head to the left. She saw Director Kyotaro with his face buried in the monitor.
'It was the right decision to leave this scene to the actors.'
The current scene was close to the very end of the script. Writer Akari imagined that the readers had been watching Iiyota Kiyoshi all this time.
'How would they feel if they saw what I'm seeing right now?'
Then Kang Woojin moved.
He raised his right hand and pointed to Detective Mochio's jacket pocket. The camera filmed the two of them from the side. Soon, Mochio frowned and pulled out the notebook with a pen clipped into it from his pocket. Then he showed it to Kiyoshi. Kiyoshi nodded.
The pen and notebook were handed to Kiyoshi.
Kiyoshi flipped open the end of the notebook, wrote something, and then showed it to Detective Mochio.
-[I'm sorry, but we can communicate in writing. If you speak, I can read your lips. Please speak a little slowly.]
Detective Mochio stared at Woojin's face for a moment and fell into thought. The sign language he had just seen was not something an amateur had learned. Top actor Kosaku was already fully immersed in the character of Detective Mochio.
He was flustered.
Had Kiyoshi been unable to speak from the beginning?
He had never heard about such a thing from the stories of his school friends. Then was he simply acting? But the sign language he had just shown far exceeded the level of an expert. What on earth was this? What was his true identity?
Confusion.
Mochio's resolve began to weaken.
"...Mr. Iiyota Kiyoshi, do you remember Ms. Toka Misaki?"
-[I do, because she was my school friend.]
His motive and suspicion gradually began to fade. Anyone who had witnessed a scene like that would have felt the same way. As new information capable of overturning the situation came to light, Detective Mochio had no choice but to start the investigation again from the beginning.
Kiyoshi, that is, Kang Woojin, knew this very well. That was exactly why Woojin had brought out sign language here.
Detective Mochio would have found Kiyoshi even more unfamiliar.
'You must have retraced my past in order to find me.'
Detective Mochio had come alone to find Kiyoshi. The reason was simple. Kiyoshi's past was unclear. Of course, if he dug into it himself, it might become far clearer than it was now.
That was all.
From the moment Toka threw herself down, Kiyoshi had made up his mind. He would become a stranger in this world. To the point that no one would remember him. He had to be hidden behind fog and ambiguity.
That was why he chose a long-term strategy.
In other words, no matter how much someone investigated, it would be difficult to obtain a clear clue. It would always be insufficient. Besides, human memory is arbitrary. It stores only what it wants and interprets things however it pleases. Meanwhile, Kiyoshi's existence had never been particularly impressive to anyone.
As a result, Kiyoshi became a perfect stranger within thick smoke and successfully completed his task.
Then what was certain? The current Iiyota Kiyoshi that Detective Mochio had witnessed? Or the faint memories of his old school friends from long ago? Or a mixture of the two, turned into speculation?
'No, there is nothing certain anywhere in the world.'
Mochio was a detective who relied on certainty. In contrast, Kiyoshi was like fog. Kang Woojin intensified the confusion for both Detective Mochio and the audience.
Here, sign language itself was not all that important.
The core was doubt.
The character named Kiyoshi must not be judged by any standard. The same went for Detective Mochio and for the audience. From beginning to end, he had to remain a strange and confusing figure.
And on top of that, he had to be bizarre.
In any case, among the many deaths, there was no witness who could point to him. They were all dead. There was no evidence either. On the contrary, it was Kiyoshi who provided the decisive evidence. Even so, Kiyoshi would still remain a mystery.
That bizarre stranger was Iiyota Kiyoshi.
That was Woojin's own judgment.
Moreover, in this world, the only person who had experienced and understood Iiyota Kiyoshi's world was Kang Woojin. He might be wrong, but was it not worth trying?
In the end—
"..."
Detective Mochio, who had opened his mouth and then closed it again, scratched his head.
Then—
"I'm sorry."
He took the notebook from Kiyoshi and bowed his head slightly.
"I'll come back again."
Whatever he did now would be disadvantageous to Detective Mochio. Perhaps he had even begun to doubt whether this entire situation meant anything at all. In any case, he had never been anything remarkable from the start.
At that, Kang Woojin, who slowly nodded, raised both hands again. It was sign language. Was it a final farewell?
Woojin's final short sign.
"...Then I will see you next time."
Detective Mochio remembered it.
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After that, Director Kyotaro's shout of cut rang out across the entire set. Immediately after, Director Kyotaro ran over to Kang Woojin and asked about the meaning of the sign language included in the scene.
Soon, Kang Woojin, who had already shaken off Kiyoshi's presence, spoke.
"At first it meant, 'I'm sorry, Detective, I can't hear you very well.'"
In a low voice, he recited the meaning of the sign language to Director Kyotaro. He also explained all the reasons he had chosen sign language.
In the end—
"Let's go with this."
Director Kyotaro chose Kang Woojin's performance. Of course, no one involved, including writer Akari, opposed the decision. It carried the hope that the audience watching The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice would experience reversal and shock.
The entire set had already gone quiet.
With everyone's eyes fixed on Kang Woojin, Director Kyotaro asked Woojin once more.
"Ah, what did the last sign mean?"
When Kang Woojin explained its meaning, Director Kyotaro hesitated for a moment. About ten seconds. In that brief span, while standing frozen, he created a new scene that had not existed before.
"Good. We'll add one more scene using that sign before the ending. Mr. Kosaku Mana, may I speak with you for a moment?"
He was talking about adding a few more scenes for Detective Mochio before the ending of The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice. Naturally, those scenes stemmed from Kang Woojin's sign language.
"Okay, action!"
After roughly organizing the scene composition, filming continued. The sign language scene was repeated about four times, followed by a few requests for additional reactions.
Because it was such an important scene.
By early afternoon, the filming set had changed. Kang Woojin was nowhere to be seen either. The set had been arranged to look like the inside of a police station. Attention centered on several extras, supporting actors, and Kosaku Mana.
That scene was an edited version Director Kyotaro had created on the spot. Fortunately, the police station set had already been prepared, so there was no real problem.
According to the story setting, about two weeks had passed since Detective Mochio met Kiyoshi. All of Japan was in an uproar over the serial murders, but the police had already closed the case. As a result, the police station where Detective Mochio worked was busy with other cases.
There were countless cases in the world. Naturally, Mochio had also been assigned other cases.
Sitting at his desk, Mochio let out a long sigh.
"Ha, I'm so tired. Really tired."
At that exact moment—
"Huh?"
As Mochio stretched, he noticed a young detective at a nearby desk questioning a witness. Interestingly, one of the witnesses was using sign language, and an interpreter was conveying the meaning.
Suddenly—
"Ah."
In Detective Mochio's mind, the image of Iiyota Kiyoshi using sign language flashed by. In particular, he remembered the very last sign Kiyoshi had made. It had probably been a farewell. He could not remember anything else, but that much remained surprisingly clear.
He walked toward the sign language interpreter.
"Excuse me, but do you know what this sign means?"
Detective Mochio fumbled with his hands, trying to recall the sign from memory as accurately as possible. The interpreter watched him while scratching his chin, looking slightly puzzled.
"I'm not completely sure, but it feels roughly like, 'Will I be able to live a normal life now?'"
"..."
Detective Mochio frowned slightly.
The sign Kiyoshi had used as his final farewell was something like this.
-["I plan to live an ordinary life now."]
Mochio let out a laugh without realizing it.
"Ha ha, I see."
What he focused on in the meaning of the sign was the word now. It was also an answer, but at the same time it was a word that caused confusion. It was unclear whether it meant that he would live a normal life after parting with him, or that only after a long time had passed had he finally returned to normal.
But for some reason—
Detective Mochio pulled out his notebook, tore out the pages related to Kiyoshi, crumpled them up, and threw them into the trash. At that very moment, Detective Mochio clearly realized that Iiyota Kiyoshi was a stranger. Then he spoke to a junior detective.
"If you're almost done, let's go eat lunch."
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Late that night, after filming all day, the team of The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice moved to a nearby subway station. It was because of an outdoor shoot. But because it was late, there were no passengers in the subway, and preparations with the subway company had already been completed.
"We have to shoot fast and get out of here!!"
"I'll prepare the additional things first!"
"There isn't enough lighting! The director wants more light!!"
The filming equipment for The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice was quickly set up inside the subway. The necessary male and female extras entered as well. There were quite a lot of them. At a glance, there seemed to be more than fifty.
Interestingly—
"Everyone, please put on your suit jackets!"
They were all wearing black or navy suits. The actual time was night, but they were trying to create the scene of a morning commute using advanced technology. Countless cameras had been installed throughout the ceiling, the back, the front, and elsewhere. It looked like there were at least seven.
Then—
"Stand by!!"
At the assistant director's shout, dozens of extras lined up in front of the stopped train. Meanwhile—
"Kang Woojin entering!!"
Kang Woojin, wearing glasses and dressed in a suit with a bag slung over his shoulder, stepped in. He stood somewhere around the middle of the crowd.
"..."
Already completely immersed in Kiyoshi, his expressionless face stood out vividly. A dedicated camera for Kang Woojin was positioned in front of him.
Soon—
"All right, let's begin—"
Director Kyotaro's voice rang out through the loudspeaker.
"Okay, action!"
Including Kang Woojin, the dozens of people who had been standing still rushed into the train as if it were second nature. That scene was repeated several times.
"Okay, okay, okay! Ughhh!"
After filming it about five times, this time dozens of extras and Kang Woojin were waiting inside the train. Director Kyotaro, standing in front of the monitor, shouted once again.
"Move!!"
At the same time, countless people poured out of the train. Of course, Kang Woojin was among that wave. No one paid attention to one another or spoke to each other. They looked like robots in black suits.
Woojin, or rather Kiyoshi, looked more lifeless than ever.
But his eyes had not completely lost all vitality. It was faint, but there was an unknown purpose and goal in them. At the exact moment when he was part of that large movement—
As the extras all began climbing the stairs at once, he started to slow his pace. Then he stopped halfway up the stairs. But the suited people around him ignored him and kept climbing. Every now and then, they brushed past Woojin's shoulder.
No one turned back to look at Kang Woojin.
The camera mounted on the small crane slowly approached Woojin from behind.
And then—
"..."
Kang Woojin turned his head with an indifferent expression. He quietly looked at the camera filming him. The camera slowly moved closer to Woojin's face. Now all kinds of emotions were mixed on his face. The lifelessness of Iiyota Kiyoshi was still the base, but somewhere within it, vitality had seeped in.
At the core of emotional growth and a new life, a spark had begun to burn.
He looked at the camera. No, he was speaking to the audience, or to the strangers who would one day see him.
'I am living an ordinary life.'
After about ten seconds of silence—
"...Cut."
Director Kyotaro rose from his seat and quietly murmured toward Woojin, who was standing on the stairs.
"Good."
It was the final farewell of The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice.