DISCLAIMER: Full credit goes to Nakamura Yoshiki, the creator of Skip Beat, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Height's, and Yoshishige Yoshida's Arashi ga Oka. A full bibliography of works cited will be included with Chapter 10. The only thing I own is the character O'Hara Cho (an OC).
My thanks to the wonderful OnePlotThickens for their help Beta-ing this story.
They've helped to give it a finesse I couldn't achieve by myself.
STORMY HILLS
6| Revelations
Hidehito found that every time he left the set after completing a scene with Kyoko, a rush of adrenaline would be coursing through him. She was addictive to compete against; the subtle goading glint in her golden eyes, that he was sure she had no idea she was expressing, brought new revelations to him that not even the most attractive woman could.
Not that he wanted Kyoko. No. Definitely not.
Hidehito shook that thought away, willing himself not to seek the young actress out as she milled through the bustling costume, makeup and camera crews near the set. Kami, did he need a cigarette. Director Ogata was giving him knowing smiles every time they locked eyes across the set, and Hidehito wasn't sure how to process them.
It was just frightening how Kyoko could get him to behave that way. He wasn't sure whether he liked being manipulated like a marionette, or that he admired her more for unintentionally pushing him.
Director's O'Hara and Ogata, along with most of the staff, were enthralled by watching them act against one another. Having read the entirety of Wuthering Heights, Hidehito could see why. They were acting like Cathy and Heathcliff. Pairing the two together was like deliberately pouring gasoline over an open flame. Kinu and Onimaru's own relationship was similar, but more restrained in Arashi ga Oka. The period in which the original film had been set dealt with a more superstitious population of Japan, in comparison to the Tokugawa age in which Stormy Hills had been adapted for. The gritty realism of O'Hara and Ogata's Kinu and Onimaru running through the streets of Edo, knowing that they were bound by law and tradition to be separated- it created a tension unachieved by the original film. The couple were desperate to battle against whatever held them back from one another; fighting tooth and nail like utter savages if need be. Wuthering Height's Cathy would be proud of the dignified, snarling and gnashing Kinu that Kyoko had created in the literary character's likeness.
The visceral brutality had remained throughout the remake, though tweaked slightly by the updated usage of camera and special effects techniques.
Kyoko and he were both learning more about each other through this project. He knew she became flustered over any mention of more-than-platonic interaction with the opposite sex. That Tsuruga was her esteemed sempai, and that the Fuwa brat was persona non-grata number one to her. She had told him of Kotonami 'Moko-San' Kanae, her best friend, and of little Takarada Maria, the granddaughter of the president of LME. Kyoko divulged her daily life to him, and he tried to respond similarly though found it difficult without the young actress flushing at his exploits. From them on, he mainly discussed prior work with her, or if she was feeling bold, his own relationships that had ended in disaster.
To his fascination, she seemed captivated by the fact that he could open his heart back up so easily after being rebuked for his caddish behaviour, rejected, or betrayed. Hidehito saw it as his being older and more mature, used to the trials and tribulations of romantic relationships and torrid affairs. Kyoko was just a fragile bud, waiting for springtime to come around before she bloomed. He knew that when she was finally ready to blossom, she would be magnificent. Her acting had already indicated as much. Her reactions to any mention of intimacy were delicious to watch, and delighted in teasing her during discussions they shared between takes.
There was only one major concern: Tsuruga Ren. Japan's number one actor had established himself as a mentor and general guard dog for Kyoko, and it would be increasingly difficult to reach her once Tsuruga obsessively took hold. Everyone but Tsuruga and Kyoko could see his obvious infatuation with the young talent, to the extent where Hidehito pitied Ren somewhat. One thing Hidehito could say that worked in his favour, was that despite his self-imposed titles and concerns over Kyoko's welfare Ren broadcasted to those around them, he wasn't Kyoko's friend.
Hidehito could work with that.
Between takes, getting ready in the makeup chairs and in the costume stalls, at script readings, meetings, and even as they finished filming for the evening, Hidehito would take the chance to just talk to her. Study her. Know her.
Unfortunately for the older actor, this was all it took for him to fall under Mogami Kyoko's spell. Kijima Hidehito was as helpless and Tsuruga Ren now.
"You have to have read the script fully before you agreed to play the part," Director O'Hara frowned as Director Ogata tried to console a weeping and wailing Kyoko.
"I thought she was a rich y-young laaaady-" Kyoko sniffled.
Director Ogata winced. Technically, Kinu was the role of the rich young lady that Kyoko coveted. She'd had her illusions shattered with Mio, and now again with Kinu; who happened to be a lot saucier and selfish a role than the young actress had anticipated.
"But- but-" Kyoko gestured to the page her script was open on, in which Onimaru and Kinu consummated the joining of their two souls.
"You can always pull out of the project if you're not comfortable, Kyoko-san," Ogata placated. "It is rather late, but we could always find someone else-"
"No- please, I can- but-"
Director O'Hara huffed, running a hand through her auburn hair; "I don't see what all the fuss is about. You're not a minor right?"
"Yes?" Kyoko answered.
"Well then, you're old enough to commit to that scene. You've just got to work around your sense of modesty- lose yourself to your character, y'know? Hiroaki tells me you can do that excellently," O'Hara commended Kyoko.
A wide, brilliant smile lit up Kyoko's face; "You're right! I'm very good at creating characters."
Both directors nodded and were ushered away by various staff members.
I can do this! Kyoko thought. A crew member brushed by her, rustling her costume; she had been given tape to place on her breasts so that the wig would hang their and cover the most of her chest. nothing could be done for her lower torso, except for Kyoko hoping that the yukata that she was wearing would slip to cover anything important. The young actress 'eeped' and hunched in on herself chastely.
I take it back, I can't do this!
"I do not want to be a priestess. I want to live as a true woman," Kinu had said.
"You must accept your fate," her attendant had replied.
"How I regret being born a woman," Kinu returned softly, gazing into the oval shaped mirror she held in her palm. Onimaru had returned it what seemed like an age ago.
The camera angle changed, flicking to Kinu's wan complexion reflected in her small mirror. Her eyes watered with grief and anger, her lips pressed closed in silent resignation. She would suffer through this, as was expected of her. That did not mean she had to like it.
Onimaru had professed that he would follow her to the capital when Kinu left. Her lips barely made a thin, bitter smile. She confessed that if that were possible, the worries that plagued her would lessen greatly. She knew however, that he could no sooner follow her as she could remain in her home. They lived on the outskirts of Edo, away from the filth and corruption, yet close enough that their father could travel there for important business. She would be devoured by the grainy world the Tokugawa had spawned through their harsh laws. She would emerge a patterned sheet of silk, no longer soft and unblemished as she had been.
"Fate requires that Yamabe women must become priestesses," Kinu told him sadly, watching as he tipped back a saucer of sake. She thought on this for a while, before realising there was one way she could make her escape from this fate.
Onimaru would not like it.
His response was to down the bottle of sake in one glug, the delicate saucer long forgotten.
Kinu travelled westwards to the branch family of the Yamada Clan's home, in search of her relative, Mitsuhiko. This had been one of the few scenes Kyoko filmed on location rather than in a studio, a minivan transporting her from the set to a rural suburb of Tokyo; the Chiba landscapes substituted for the sacred mountainside. A talented CGI designer would later insert the ever-encroaching structures of Edo, as it spilled outwards as Kinu walked, seeming to creep upon her as she moved away from one line of fate to another. Mitsuhiko bade her to stay, rather than renounce her home and become a priestess in the bowels of Edo.
Unknown to Kinu, her father had been shot down in attempting to stop an armed group of men travelling from Edo from crossing the sacred mountain. Onimaru would become the master of their home until Kinu's older brother returned from whatever business he had in the city, yet she had already signed herself away to another.
"You would leave us?" Onimaru growled. "I curse you!"
"I curse you that you will never cease loving me," Kinu snarled back, her eyes hardened granite chips- (1)
"CUT!" O'Hara bellowed.
(1)These lines are taken from the subtitles of the film Arashi ga Oka