sinovels Chapter 286 Child Star Department
Chapter 286 Child Star Department
Chapter 286 Child Star Department
The 1997 Asian financial crisis, as it is now depicted in economics textbooks, was a premeditated act by international speculators like George Soros, who exploited loopholes in the exchange rate mechanisms of Southeast Asian countries. This storm began with the devaluation of the Thai railway currency and quickly spread to South Korea, Japan, and the rest of Asia, causing the wealth of countless nations to evaporate overnight.
Kitahara Shin wasn't a Wall Street financial tycoon in his previous life, but he had a trump card that no financial giant could match—a special golden piece of equipment called the "Business Sand Table".
This business model not only allows for the simulation of the company's development path, but also possesses the ability to provide early warnings of global market crises and major opportunities. It was through the constantly flashing red high-risk warning for the Southeast Asian sector on the business model, combined with his vague memories from his previous life, that Kitahara Shin accurately pinpointed the impending storm.
With this confidence, Kitahara Shin made a long-awaited call to his earliest financial partner, Sasaki.
Sasaki had long since achieved complete financial freedom under Kitahara Shin's guidance, living a very comfortable life. However, he still unwaveringly managed Kitahara Shin's vast overseas assets himself. The reason was simple: making money with Kitahara Shin was just too easy.
From the 1980s and 90s to the early 21st century, the global market appeared prosperous on the surface, but in reality, it was turbulent and rife with financial traps. Early dot-com bubbles and various elaborately packaged Ponzi schemes emerged one after another. Even Wall Street elites frequently stumbled in these makeshift scams.
But Kitahara Shin, with his sand table-based early warning system and astonishingly keen intuition, always managed to accurately avoid all the pitfalls. His investment strategy for Sasaki was very clear: never touch high-risk targets he didn't understand, and only capture the portion of profit with the highest certainty and lowest risk. Even if it was only the smallest profit margin, with their current massive scale of tens of billions, the daily profit rolling into their accounts was still an astronomical figure.
After the call connected, Kitahara Shin briefly explained his prediction that the Southeast Asian currency market was about to collapse, as well as his plan to mobilize a large amount of funds to short the market.
Sasaki, on the other end of the phone, gasped upon hearing the news. Although shocked by the audacity of the plan, he didn't waste any words and immediately stated that he would utilize all available channels to gather intelligence, establish overseas accounts in advance, and devise the safest operational path before taking action.
With the overall capital strategy in place, Kitahara Shin turned his attention back to "Departures," which had just completed post-production.
on.
The first official cut of the film has been completed and has officially entered the review stage. Regarding the film's distribution, Kitahara Shin made a decision that surprised even the company's marketing department: to forgo large-scale pre-release promotion in China.
Shin Kitahara wanted to try something completely new. He knew very well that a film like "Departures," which explores the philosophy of life and death and has a slow pace, didn't have the kind of commercial appeal that would make audiences go on a popcorn binge in the theater. If he insisted on spending a huge amount of money on commercial promotion, not only might the promotion costs exceed the film's production costs, but it might even backfire due to mismatched audience expectations.
This is similar to his earlier film, "The Grand Hotel," which was clearly a profound masterpiece, but received rather lukewarm reviews upon its initial release in China.
Therefore, Kitahara Shin didn't intend to be stubborn this time. He adopted a classic strategy that many great Chinese directors, such as Zhang Yimou and Feng Xiaogang, have liked to use – making a name for themselves abroad while remaining popular at home.
He wants to submit this film directly to top international film festivals like Venice, Cannes, and next year's Oscars. He wants to first conquer the discerning international judges with this masterpiece brimming with Eastern aesthetics, and then win awards galore abroad.
After accumulating unparalleled international renown, it will return to the Japanese domestic market as a "masterpiece that has won international awards." At that point, domestic audiences will naturally flock to the theaters with admiration and curiosity, and box office revenue will be no concern at all.
After processing the film's submission for review, Kitahara Shin sat in his office and began his routine review of the latest status of his core artists.
For Shin Kitahara, there is only one standard to judge whether an artist has truly established themselves: if you remove the halo and resource allocation from Kitahara Agency, can they survive in the entertainment industry on their own merits and thrive?
By this standard, Rie Miyazawa is fully qualified. Her acting skills are now superb, her range as an actress is wide, and she has landed numerous endorsements from major brands. She is undoubtedly a national-level actress and is fully capable of standing on her own in the film and television industry.
While Nanako Matsushima's performance was also quite impressive, in Makoto Kitahara's opinion, she still needed a little something more. Her pairing with Kitahara in *Great Teacher Onizuka* created an extremely strong national CP (couple) effect, and her subsequent portrayal of the beloved team member Rena in *Ultraman Tiga* further solidified her popularity. However, this explosive success largely relied on the immense popularity of the series itself and Kitahara's support. She needs a truly phenomenal work where she can carry the show on her own to complete her transformation.
However, when talking about Ultraman Tiga, one cannot help but mention Kitahara Office's terrifying cash cow matrix.
Ultraman Tiga's DVD sales and related toy revenue in Japan have both surpassed an astonishing 30 billion yen, making it a true national tokusatsu miracle. Neon Genesis Evangelion is even more phenomenal, with sales of various figures, collaborations, and videotapes generating a global phenomenon exceeding 50 billion yen.
In addition, the overseas low-cost CD market, which Kitahara Shin had previously focused on developing, sees tens of thousands of US dollars, Hong Kong dollars, and other foreign exchange flowing into the Kitahara Group's overseas accounts every day through legitimate sales channels.
Even if Kitahara Shin does nothing all day but lie on the sofa in his office and sleep, this continuous and stable huge cash flow is still expanding wildly.
With such a solid financial foundation, Kitahara Shin not only has ample resources to weather the impending financial storm, but also the peace of mind to seek out and invest in startup technology companies that will grow into business giants in the future.
In addition, Takeru Satoh, who voluntarily left the boy band earlier, has also recently received good news. Although he no longer has the shortcut of idol status, he has relied on his stubbornness to work his way up from small supporting roles in various film and television crews, and his acting skills have improved rapidly. He has begun to gradually show his own unique talent.
As Kitahara Agency's reputation grew, it not only attracted a large number of established veteran artists to join it, but also launched a brand-new strategic division within the company—a child star agency.
In Kitahara Shin's memory, Japan's child star industry has always been a goldmine with enormous potential. Although the vast majority of child stars fall into the "prodigy in childhood, but not necessarily in adulthood" curse, fading into obscurity as they grow up, there is a small group of true geniuses who manage to stay popular from childhood to adulthood, accumulating a deep and enviable level of national recognition.
Kitahara Shin's goal was to bring these future superstars under his wing.
The newly established child star department's top-secret list prominently features the names of several children who are currently only a few years old.
For example, there's Ryunosuke Kamiki, who's just turned three and exudes a captivating charm; Masami Nagasawa, who's only nine years old and already a beauty; and Yu Aoi, who's also quite young.
As long as these stars, destined to shine throughout the era, are in their hands in advance, the Kitahara Group's dominance in the entertainment empire can continue for at least another twenty years.
Inside the headquarters building of Kitahara Agency, the private reception room of the child star department was quite noisy at the moment.
Today, several groups of child stars who passed the initial screening were invited to visit the company, accompanied by their parents. For these parents, receiving an invitation from Kitahara Studio was like winning the lottery. But for these young child stars, who are only a few years old or in their teens, the situation was completely different.
From their perspective, they don't want to be big stars at all; they just want to play carefree.
Being forcibly dragged here to "work" by their parents is tantamount to robbing them of their innocent and joyful childhood. Therefore, from the moment these little ones entered the door, they scrutinized everything around them with a resistant and critical gaze.
In fact, if you look at the entire Japanese entertainment industry, Kitahara's office environment and management system have developed to a rather professional and incredible level.
The labor rights protection here is impeccable. Not only do they offer all employees the highest salaries in the industry, but the company's management system is also very flat. There is none of the oppressive seniority system found in those so-called "century-old giant companies," no rigid and corrupt workplace rules, and certainly no demanding overtime work under the guise of "craftsmanship."
Most of the employees in the company are energetic young people in their thirties and forties, and everyone communicates on an equal footing at work.
Everyone has clearly defined responsibilities and can receive substantial material rewards and a sense of accomplishment from their work.
-
This creative and hopeful work atmosphere makes every employee who joins Kitahara Office feel incredibly happy.
But clearly, these children don't understand these things.
"I don't want to stay here, it's no fun at all! I want to go home and watch cartoons!" A little girl of about nine years old pouted and complained as she sat on the sofa in a huff.
Faced with these little devils' nitpicking, the agent in charge of receiving them seemed a little embarrassed, but still maintained a polite smile.
Kitahara Office has always followed this rule: they will provide the best resources and attitude to those who are successfully selected, but they will never force those who are unwilling to join.
If these parents visit a few other traditional vampire agencies, they will naturally realize just how heavenly the conditions offered by Kitahara are.
Seeing the situation reach a stalemate, the parents grew anxious and couldn't help but scold their children in low voices: "How can you be so insensible? Do you know how many people are desperate to get into this company? Apologize to the agent right now!"
Just as the child was about to cry from grievance and the atmosphere was becoming increasingly awkward, the door to the reception room was gently pushed open.
Kitahara Shin walked in calmly, dressed in a sharp casual suit.
His appearance instantly drew everyone's attention. The agents and staff in the room immediately stood at attention and respectfully greeted him, "Good morning, President!"
This greeting is definitely not the kind of perfunctory workplace greeting, but rather a heartfelt expression of respect for the man who led them to create miracles.
Although Kitahara Shin always emphasized to his employees that they were just cooperating and there was no need to be so formal, such heartfelt respect was unavoidable in the context of Japan's large workplace environment.
Kitahara Shin smiled and nodded to the employees, then turned his gaze to the child stars on the sofa.
Strangely enough, the little ones who were sulking stopped complaining the moment they saw Kitahara Shin, and their clear eyes stared at him intently.
For some reason, they felt that the tall man in front of them was particularly approachable. One little boy even excitedly pointed at him and shouted, "He's the team member from Ultraman Tiga!"
That's right, this is the deeper reason why Kitahara Shin specifically went to participate in "Ultraman Tiga" and took on the voice acting role in "Princess Mononoke".
In the entertainment industry, many established veterans always put on airs, feeling that their status is too high and they are too embarrassed to film specials or do voice acting for anime.
But they have no idea that the consumer market and awareness of children are absolutely not to be underestimated.
To build absolute goodwill among the younger generation, simply making those profound TV dramas won't work; you must become the great hero in their childhood memories.
Kitahara Shin's appearance cleverly resolved the awkward situation in the reception room.
He knelt down in front of the child stars and asked gently, "How was it? What did you think of our place after the tour?"
The little girl who had led the nitpicking earlier, though she liked Kitahara Shin, stubbornly turned her head away: "Not good at all—I don't want to work here, because if I work, I can't play."
Kitahara Shin wasn't angry at all; instead, he smiled and nodded. "It's alright, we completely respect your decision. However, I think you might not have seen the full picture of our agency yet. How about we go take a look at a place only children can go to?"
Under the curious gazes of the children, Kitahara Shin personally led them and the speechless, excited parents into the core area inside the building, specially designed for the child star department.
The moment the automatic door opened, not only the children but also the parents were dazzled.
This doesn't feel like a cold, impersonal office at all; it's more like a luxurious indoor children's playground!
It not only has physical education classrooms and performance rooms equipped with top-notch safety measures, but also a huge play area filled with all kinds of the latest toys.
As Kitahara Shin walked with them, he explained, "To ensure your happy childhood, we not only have dedicated tutors to support your studies, but also a professional team of psychologists. Your daily work hours will be strictly controlled, and you can spend most of your remaining time playing and learning here."
He turned to the child stars, who were completely captivated by the amusement park rides, and asked with a smile, "Now, do you feel comfortable here? Is it as bad as you imagined?"
The little ones shook their heads frantically, their eyes fixed on the giant slide not far away, showing no intention of leaving whatsoever.
"If you come here again and have any complaints or suggestions for improvement, please feel free to let us know," Kitahara Shin said, pointing to the colorful suggestion box on the wall. "We have a dedicated feedback department, and children's opinions will be fully respected here as well."
Upon hearing these words, the parents who had initially had some reservations could only desperately suppress their overwhelming joy.
Entrusting their child to such a financially powerful and humane giant is undoubtedly the best decision they've ever made.
While Kitahara Shin was easily handling the business of the child star department upstairs.
Outside the ground floor plaza of the Kitahara Office headquarters building.
Wearing the same thin beige trench coat she wore yesterday, Yuko Takeuchi clutched the gold-embossed business card tightly in her hand as she stood in the early winter wind, looking up at the magnificent skyscraper before her, a building that resembled the heart of a business empire.
-
Her eyes were filled with undisguised shock and unease.
Last night, after receiving the business card from that man, she was so excited that she couldn't sleep a wink all night.
She tossed and turned in the cramped rented room, her mind filled with fantasies about the future and admiration for Kitahara Shin's composed demeanor.
But when she actually stood beneath this building, which represented the highest power in the Japanese entertainment industry, an intense sense of self-doubt welled up within her.
That man is none other than the high and mighty President Kitahara; a single word from him can decide the life or death of countless big stars.
Did he really just give me a chance on a whim yesterday? Could a nobody like me, riding a beat-up bicycle on the street and unable to even get a role with lines, really have a chance to walk into this building and become an actor under Kitahara's agency?