Swordsmith (×) Architect (√)

Li Shuwen smiled dismissively, "Completely inadequate. Their physical fitness is barely passable; none of them died after taking a punch from me. But their movement techniques are terrible; they'll probably need to work on them."

Shinji's lips twitched violently.

The fact that I survived one of your punches is already pretty amazing, okay?!

What else do you want? To fight you for hundreds of rounds?

I don't know if it's a problem with the Nasuverse, Old Master Li ridiculously strong.

According to Little Yi Ge, if the two only compared their fist techniques, he would probably only be able to run for his life by the third round.

Despite his inner turmoil and dissatisfaction with Master Li, Shinji kept it to himself.

"Then I'll leave it to you, Old Master Li. I hope you can train them well before the official filming of the action scenes begins."

"Don't worry, Master." Master Li nodded slightly. "You summoned me precisely to train these good-for-nothings, didn't you? I won't let you down."

After saying that, the old man turned and walked towards the resting Heroic Spirit.

"You lot, how long are you going to lie here? Get up and get to work!"

"Oh no! The devil!"

"Grandpa, you've gone too far!"

"Enkidu will cover for me; I'll take him down!"

"Gil, you can do it! I'm going to lie down now."

"Depend on!"

Looking at the chaotic scene of the heroic Heroic Spirit, Shinji wore a helpless smile.

"Fine, it'll teach them a lesson."

These guys have been getting a bit too lively lately, so having a "discipline director" to keep them in line isn't a bad thing.

However, Shinji's initial purpose in summoning Master Li was to ask him to be the action choreographer.

Unlike previous Fate series films, the Ultraman in Super 8 already had a fixed fighting style, and almost all of them fought hand-to-hand.

As for the Heroic Spirit like Cú Chulainn, they were good at weapon combat, but hand-to-hand combat was not their forte.

It's not that their unarmed combat isn't strong, but it's not as visually appealing as their weapon-based combat.

After all, visual appeal is always the top priority.

Little Yi Ge is good at playing around with things himself, but he's not up to the task of teaching others, let alone teaching several different styles.

To change this situation, Shinji directly summoned Master Li for help.

The old man had traveled all over the country during his lifetime, and he had seen all kinds of boxing techniques.

Baji Quan was the old man's most powerful martial art, but that doesn't mean he only knew Baji Quan.

It can only be said that Nasu's personal touch is indeed quite ruthless; the old man is truly an invincible figure in the field of martial arts.

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While Master Li was training the Heroic Spirit, Shinji began filming the dialogue scenes.

As a massive tokusatsu film, the most distinctive feature of <Super 8> is that the difference between action scenes and dialogue scenes is much clearer compared to other films.

After all, the key factor in distinguishing the two is very clear – just check if there is a leather case.

"Daigo, your expression is off! You need to look slightly surprised, but also like you've finally realized something."

On the set of <Super 8>, Shinji is standing in front of the camera, explaining the scene to Hiroshi Nagano.

"You need to understand that, to some extent, the future's unfolding has confirmed your suspicions. Therefore, you should treat him with even greater kindness—"

"You need to be eager to know why the other person is here," Hiroshi Nagano blurted out. "Before Hibino Mirai appeared, he always thought he was dreaming."

"That's right!"

Shinji nodded.

"Daigo idolizes Ultraman, and even though Ultraman Mebius wasn't his childhood hero, he still wants to understand him as much as possible."

"All right!"

Hiroshi Nagano understood what the Director meant, and he touched his nose somewhat awkwardly.

Compared to Shinji, who is extremely enthusiastic about Ultraman, Hiroshi Nagano is actually not that passionate about the Ultraman IP.

He was born in 1972, and completely missed most of the Showa-era Ultraman series, only watching Ultraman 80 Ultraman.

He had watched other Ultraman videos when he was a child, but he only watched them intermittently and never watched them from beginning to end.

Of course, Hiroshi Nagano still has a deep affection for the characters he Lead Actor in, such as Ultraman Tiga and Daigo.

However, Hiroshi Nagano's understanding of other Ultraman works is probably not as good as that of the few Heroic Spirit in the production team—in order to make the suit actors play Ultraman well, Second Master forced them to watch the Ultraman series repeatedly.

"Actually, this plot design is a bit fake. It's impossible for the three of us—me, Kariya- san, and Mr. Yoshioka (the actor who Gamu)—to have watched the premiere of the Original Ultraman."

Shinji simply shrugged in response to Hiroshi Nagano's helpless words.

"It's okay, the audience won't mind. Older viewers are more concerned about whether their nostalgia can be satisfied."

However, what Hiroshi Nagano said is not without reason; all three of his Heisei-era human incarnations were born after 1975.

Let alone the original series, even when it came to the Ultraman Leo series, they couldn't even speak.

So if we're really talking about plot coherence and logic, the three people at the beginning of the movie should have been watching the Ultraman King 80, not the wrestler, Brother Man.

However, the matter of Teacher 80 involves a lot of dirty dealings between Tsuburaya Productions and TBS Television, so Tsuburaya's attitude towards Teacher 80 is very subtle, basically ignoring him whenever possible.

Moreover, in terms of influence, Brother Man is undoubtedly the pinnacle of the Ultraman series and the origin of all Ultraman.

When the final episode of the original Ultraman series aired, countless windows across Japan were opened, revealing children loudly bidding farewell to Ultraman.

Therefore, using the original film as the opening scene is the most appropriate choice from any perspective.

The selling point of the movie <Super 8> is nostalgia, and since that's the case, Shinji naturally wanted to carry that nostalgia through to the end.

"Anyway, your ages and eras aren't officially revealed in the movie, so just pretend you're kids from the 60s," Shinji joked with a laugh.

"Then let's leave it at that."

Daigo nodded reluctantly.

"Don't worry about the details. You don't need to take the tokusatsu setting too seriously anyway," Shinji said with a smile. "Thailand has made those absurd Ultraman movies, so our serious Ultraman movie is definitely better than that kind of stuff."

"Damn, don't even mention that Thai guy, just thinking about him makes me angry."

"I've already returned from the lawsuit in Thailand and am now participating in Filming, "Kariya said irritably.

Kariya's trip to Thailand went very smoothly. With Tsuburaya Productions having prepared ample evidence and with the help of Mage Families in Thailand, Tsuburaya easily won the case.

Of course, as long as Kariya went smoothly, he was forced to stay in Thailand for so long because of that Thai guy, so how could Kariya possibly have a good impression of him?

Actually, Tsuburaya's lawsuit this time was handled quite quickly. With the help of a local Mage Families, the case trial and related procedures were at least twice as fast as other cases.

It has to be said that Shinji and Kenseth's names still carry significant weight in the Magecraft's world.

Upon hearing that Shinji Matou needed help, the local Thai Mage Families immediately declared, "No matter what the Modern Magecraft Department wants to do in Thailand, our local Mage Families will definitely lend a hand!"

As it turns out, having local connections to help can really make things much easier.

For example, that Thai businessman.

To prevent a repeat of his previous life where the opponent recklessly sold the copyright before the Precognitive Aura was about to lose, Shinji directly asked a local Mage Families to help monitor the opponent.

The Thai Mage Families turned out to be even more ruthless than Shinji had anticipated, directly arranging for local police to block the door and place the man under house arrest.

That businessman never dreamed that he, a person convicted of economic crimes, would actually enjoy the treatment due to a criminal offense.

Shinji thought that the businessman who was now in prison for fraud could brag about this to his fellow inmates for a long time.

Chapter 124 Swordsmith (×) Architect (√)

Unlike a certain technically skilled Director who blurs the lines between public and private matters, inserts personal agendas that negatively impact the viewing experience, and likes to indiscriminately promote his own idols, Shinji, as a mature commercial Director, knows when to insert personal agendas and when to compromise with commercial interests.

Of course, in the movie <The Super 8>, so-called commercial appeal can be replaced by sentimentality.

If he were to disregard all consequences and simply make films for himself, Shinji Heisei Ultraman Trilogy from the movie and replace them with Crown Prince, Ultraman Leo, and Teacher 80.

Ultraman Mebius's role in the movie will be replaced by that person.

Shinji was born in the 90s in his previous life, and one of the earlier ones.

For the Second Master personally, his childhood and sentimental attachment consisted only of the Showa Ultraman.

Although Shinji really liked the Heisei Ultraman Trilogy, he was already in junior high school when Shinji Tiga aired on TV. No matter how much he liked him, it couldn't be considered his childhood, so his feelings for him naturally couldn't compare to those Showa-era predecessors.

If Second Master were allowed to write the script without any worries, the main characters of the movie would definitely be Thanks Man and Jack, with Ultraman Leo Brother Man the third male lead.

When Shinji child, his family had the most Ultraman DVDs, especially those of Thanks Man and Ultraman Leo. Other Ultraman had to wait for TV broadcasts, but he watched X-Men and Leo every day as a child, and he could recite the plots by heart.

As for Brother Man, although Shinji didn't have DVDs when he was a child, he bought a lot of cassette tapes and comic books.

When he couldn't watch TV, Shinji's favorite thing to do was listen to cassette tapes while reading comic books.

It's called a comic book, but it's really just screenshots of the story with text.

Shinji was too young to read at that time, so he could only rely on the stories told to him by people on cassette tapes and then imagine the animated scenes from the comics.

These cherished memories represent an irreplaceable part of Shinji's childhood.

After being transported to another world, Shinji finished watching the series featuring the Heisei Ultraman Trilogy. However, being Transmigrator, his mindset was completely different from that of a real child. He watched the series more as an Ultraman fan.

However, as a Director, Shinji is well aware that a Director can include his own personal touches in a film, but not too many.

With more opportunities, film opportunities become very private, which is not conducive to dissemination.

If it were a niche art film, Shinji, but Shinji is going to make a standard big-budget commercial production, so this situation should definitely be avoided.

"I guess I'm just born to clash with the number of characters in a movie."

Looking at the script for <Super 8>, Shinji immediately made a self-deprecating remark.

Although Shinji always adheres to the principles of commercial cinema to the extreme when making movies, there is one Shinji he has never followed: no more than five main characters.

Let's not even talk about those two Fate movies; the number of Masters and Servants alone exceeds ten.

The same goes for this one, "Super 8". Since the movie title has a big "8" in it, the main characters are naturally eight Ultraman.

Otherwise, wouldn't it be like putting up a sheep's head while selling dog meat?

However, a movie's runtime is limited, and even though Shinji's version of "Super 8" had a runtime of at least 2 hours, it still couldn't cover all the characters in detail.

Therefore, the screen time of the eight Ultraman will vary, and in Shinji's plan, the main characters of the <Super 8> movie can only be Daigo and Hayata Shin.

As for Hibino Mirai of Future Past—a key character in the plot, but the main characters are still Professor X and Magneto.

This is not only because the relationship between the two fathers-in-law and sons-in-law can bring out other human forms, but also because of the immense popularity of Tiga and the original Ultraman.

Perhaps because there are so many die-hard fans of Tiga and they have elevated Tiga to such a high level, Shinji often sees comments online such as "Tiga is actually not popular in Japan" that are meant to belittle Tiga fans.

In reality, Tiga's popularity is very high both in Japan and around the world. As the only Ultraman series before Tsuburaya to have won the Seiyun Award, Tiga's popularity has never surpassed that of his father-in-law, but it still ranks in the top three.

This is why Shinji, despite his dislike for Johnny & Associates, still invited Hiroshi Nagano to be the lead actor.

For no other reason than his popularity.

As for the first generation, there's no need to mention it; with an average viewership rating of 36.7%, the Second Master is something I'd call an eternal god.

Of course, to make a good film like <Super 8>, it's not enough to just hire actors to act in the movie.

In that case, we should just turn the movie into a human-themed fashion show.

A compelling story and exciting action sequences are the keys to a successful Ultraman movie.

However, Old Master Li hasn't finished training the Heroic Spirit yet, and the battle stage in Yokohama City is still under construction, so the action scenes will have to wait a while longer.

Shinji is currently filming a scene set in the city—a scene where the future has just arrived and Daigo drags him to meet his elders.

Such indoor scenes are easy to film and require virtually no technical skill, making them ideal for Director into their roles.

Of course, based on the movie's premise, the protagonist will meet these "brothers" in the future, but the "brothers" will have no idea who this guy is.

Therefore, the old men were completely bewildered by the prospect of being called "brother" in the future, and the hot-tempered Hokuto even kicked this guy out of his restaurant.

As for Daigo, he could only frantically apologize to his elders on the sidelines, putting on an awkward yet polite smile, looking like a useless man caught between his mother and wife.