Entertainment: You're asked to make a graduation project, but you're asked to film Ultrama

Chapter 80 Hello, Ultraman

Jinghai City, Chasing Light Cinema.

A new Friday, a new storm.

This time, Gu Nan focused his camera on a group of superpowered individuals who represent a specific group.

It also addresses the eternal theme in tokusatsu dramas—the loneliness behind the hero and the sorrow of being an "outsider".

Episode 39, "Hello, Ultraman".

The trailer for this episode caused quite a stir among fans as soon as it was released.

Hello, Ultraman? This title sounds a bit strange.

[Like a letter? Or someone's greeting?]

[I have a feeling this episode might not be the typical action-packed thriller; Gu Laozei is going to get emotional again.]

When Ultraman Tiga gets emotional, we're bound to cry!

As usual, "Miracle Again" will finish playing.

The main feature begins.

The story opens with a fierce urban skirmish.

The monster Garula wreaked havoc in the city center. The GUTS team launched a fierce attack on it in their Flying Swallow 1, but the lasers hit the monster's hard armor and had no effect.

On the ground, Daigo and Rena are urgently evacuating the crowd.

Just as Daigo ran into an empty alleyway, preparing to pull out his Spark Lens and transform, at the end of the alleyway, a man in a trench coat was gazing at the building alone.

"What are you doing! Get out of here!"

Daigo shouted anxiously.

The man turned his head, his eyes strangely calm. He pointed to a building in the distance: "There was a girl who didn't escape. She's on the seventh floor of that building, in the room next to the stairs."

Daigo was taken aback. Although he was puzzled, saving lives was the priority, so he immediately rushed over.

The man watched Daigo's retreating figure, a meaningful smile appearing on his lips.

Daigo then rescued the girl and, in a moment of crisis, transformed into Ultraman Tiga to defeat the monster Garula.

But he didn't know that the man standing in the shadows had seen it all.

The scene shifts to the mysterious man's residence.

The television was broadcasting news of Ultraman Tiga's heroic rescue. The man stared coldly at the screen, turned off the television, and began typing on his computer.

At this moment, a flashback of a memory stung the audience's eyes.

It was a group of children surrounding a little boy, a boy from childhood.

"You're a bad kid!"

"You're a monster! A monster!"

Stones, ridicule, and insults rained down on this "outcast" with superpowers.

Then, as the camera flashes back, some memories appear.

This also gave some viewers a general understanding of the man's past.

The comments section fell silent instantly.

[Is this... a superpowered person?]

[Was I bullied because I have superpowers, treated like a monster?]

Children can be really cruel sometimes.

He and Ultraman Tiga are both special, but their treatment is worlds apart.

Back at TPC base, Daigo received an anonymous email on his personal computer.

The title is indeed "Hello, Ultraman".

Daigo opened the email, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.

"Hello, Ultraman Tiga. I often see you fighting demons from afar, watching you bravely protect humanity. You are a righteous Ultraman who defends peace among mankind. But to be honest, I don't like people like you, and I even harbor a hatred for you."

"Could we talk in person? I believe I have the right to do so."

After reading the email, Daigo felt a chill run down his spine.

Is this an alien trap? Or is there some other reason?

In the following shots, Gu Nan completely replicated director Kawasaki Gota's god-like camerawork.

The atmosphere in the Victory Team's command room seemed relaxed.

But the camera uses a rotating table to create parallax between people and the background, sweeping past the team members who are chatting and laughing, and finally focusing on Daigo's face, which is full of worries. Then the focus shifts and stays on Rena's worried look at Daigo.

This sense of alienation instantly brought Daigo's inner anxiety to life.

Daigo still went.

In the bustling shopping mall, Daigo met the man who sent the email—Mu Tongye.

The image processing at this point has a very cinematic quality, employing a method similar to slow-motion frame skipping.

The surrounding customers walked briskly, their figures blurry, but Daigo and Kirino, who were sitting, were clearly visible.

It was as if the entire world consisted only of these two "outcasts".

"You really came, Daigo. I knew it was you."

Mu Tongye's voice revealed neither joy nor sorrow.

"What kind of person are you thinking I am? Right? No? Could I be a vicious invader of Earth? But you're wrong. I'm an Earthling, just a little different from ordinary people."

"You are the first person who has so openly acknowledged my existence."

Daigo was shocked: "You're a psychic?"

Mu Tongye sneered: "The voice in people's hearts, and the things that are about to happen, have absolutely nothing to do with my own will. Moreover, I can see things that people can't see. For example, your true face."

At that moment, the viewers in front of the screen were all holding their breath for Daigo.

The feeling of having your identity exposed is terrifying.

[Mu Tongye seems so repressed. It's not just jealousy, but also a deep sense of resentment.]

Both have superpowers, but one is worshipped as a giant of light, while the other is despised as a monster. If I were in their shoes, I would also turn to the dark side.

Is he going to use his identity to threaten Daigo?

Before the two could have a proper conversation, Mu Tongye noticed that Lina had followed him, so he got up and left.

Lina walked over and asked who that was.

Watching Mu Tongye's retreating figure, Daigo could only tell a white lie: "He just came to ask for directions."

However, Mu Tongye had no intention of letting Daigo go.

Soon, the second email arrived.

"Hello Ultraman Tiga, you let that monster escape again, didn't you? Let's start playing a game."

"The rules are simple. I will tell you the exact time and place where the monster will appear next. If you can defeat the monster according to my conditions, you win. If you can't, then you lose."

The stakes in this "game" are Daigo's identity.

The scene shifts to the racetrack.

This is the highlight of the entire series' dialogue scenes.

Gu Nan perfectly recreated Kawasaki's "spatial magic" cinematic language once again.

Kirino stood in front of the railing and posed a probing question to Daigo.

"Do you think this game is boring? Unfortunately, I'm serious."

"I ask you, you have the ability to save many people, so why don't you use it correctly? And why do you hide your true identity?"

As Kirino continued speaking, the relative positions of the two changed constantly in the shot.

One second we're face to face, the next we feel like we're worlds apart.

This sense of spatial chaos perfectly reflects the inner conflict and entanglement between the two.

"What would happen if my abilities were discovered here?"

Kirino looked at the horses running on the track with a forlorn expression.

"Everyone is eager to know which horse will win, but if everyone knows, then horse racing loses its meaning. In other words, the order will be completely disrupted."

"What else is there besides fear for someone with superpowers like me? People just see me as a monster."

He abruptly turned his head, staring intently at Daigo, his eyes filled with jealousy and resentment:

"But you're the only one being praised as a hero! It's so unfair! So I can't stand idly by! People aren't praising me!"

"The condition of the game is that you can't transform into Ultraman the next time a monster appears! You have to fight the monster yourself!"

Daigo was taken aback.

"If you can't follow the rules of the game, then you lose. As the victor, I have the right to reveal your true identity to the public!"

[I'm suffocating, this line is so heartbreaking.]

He didn't hate Daigo; he hated the injustice of the world.

But Daigo is innocent too; he didn't want to be a hero.

[Daigo must be struggling with this too! Should he really remain indifferent?]

[It's impossible for him to remain indifferent! But he needs to refrain from using Ultraman Tiga's power...]

This villain... is hard to hate, you even feel a little sorry for him.

As the plot unfolds, the monster Garula appears in the Jinghai K3 area just as Mu Tongye predicted.

To avoid revealing his identity and to prove himself, Daigo drove the Sherlock car and arrived at the scene with Rena.

When the monster burst from the ground, its enormous body blotting out the sky, Daigo did not transform.

Holding a Hyper rifle, he fired wildly at the monster with his human body.

"Lina! I'll distract the monster! You use this time to help the people evacuate!"

Daigo rushed to the rooftop and shot Garula in the eye with his rifle.

But human strength is far too insignificant in the face of monsters.

Garula roared, its massive tail sweeping across the building, making it teeter on the brink of collapse.

"Daigo! Danger! Don't come any closer!"

Lina screamed in anguish from afar.

At this moment, Mu Tongye was standing on the terrace of the building next door, coldly watching all of this.

In this shot, Daigo can see Rena from the building he's in, but Rena can't see Daigo from the ground, while Kirino is standing at the same height as Daigo.

This seems to suggest that only the two of them are of the same kind.

But at that moment, the building was about to collapse after the explosion, hitting Lina...

At the critical moment of life and death, Daigo looked down at the panicked crowd and at Lina, who was desperately shooting to cover him.

He chose not to continue this foolish game; he raised his magic wand.

A dazzling light! Ultraman Tiga has arrived!

"The game is over."

Mu Tongye said softly, a mocking smile on his face.

You lost.

However, the battle was not as easy as Kirino had anticipated.

Garula's defense is incredibly high, and it seems even more ferocious than before.

In the previous storyline, the GUTS team's research confirmed that this was an ancient monster from the same period as Gol D., and the black corroded pits on its shell were proof of this.

Moreover, Garula's carapace is even harder than Choberie's!

Because of the surrounding buildings and his previous exhaustion, Tiga quickly found himself in a tough battle.

Tiga was slammed to the ground by Garula, and the timer on his chest began to flash.

Seeing this, Kirino, who was originally prepared to laugh at the scene, gradually froze with a smile.

As he watched the figure rolling in the mud, trampled by the monster, a childhood nightmare suddenly flashed through his mind.

"Youkai! Youkai!"

"Kill this monster!"

The little boy who was surrounded and beaten by the crowd and could only curl up in a corner and cry, and the giant in front of him who, even with godlike power, was still struggling in the mud, were actually the same person.

Just then, Lina's voice pierced through the battlefield.

"Tiga! Go for it! Don't give up!"

"Your win or loss is related to the future of humanity!"

Upon hearing this voice, Tiga, who was already exhausted, forced himself to stand up once again.

He endured Garula's overwhelming power without retreating an inch.

This scene deeply shocked Kirino.

He always thought that Daigo was a favored child of God, a hero who enjoyed praise.

But only now did he realize that beneath this glamorous exterior, Daigo was still a person.

An ordinary person who gets hurt, suffers pain, and bleeds, but perseveres desperately to protect others.

"But...but..."

Kirino's eyes welled up with tears as she looked at Tiga's trembling yet resolute back.

The cry of that lonely boy from my memory finally burst forth from his throat at this moment:

"I am...I am a human being!!!"

This shout is not only Kirino's self-redemption, but also the emotional climax of the entire episode.

Kirino closed his eyes and activated his superpower.

This time, he was no longer a bystander.

Kirino's voice suddenly echoed in Tiga's mind:

"Your weakness is in his throat! Shoot him in the throat! He's running out of energy! Don't miss!"

Tiga was taken aback, then looked at the figure on the building in the distance.

Without hesitation, he gathered his last bit of light energy and unleashed a Zepelion Ray that precisely slashed towards Garula's throat!

"boom--!"

The monster's enormous body collapsed and turned into dust.

We won.

As the sun set, Tiga turned around, looked in Kirino's direction, nodded slightly in acknowledgment, and then flew into the sky.

Kirino watched Tiga's departing figure and lowered his head deeply.

At the TPC base, Daigo was completely bewildered when the captain punished him by making him write a self-criticism for acting without permission, and also made Rena take a vacation with him.

But everyone on the winning team smiled knowingly.

……

Back in his room, Daigo received another email.

It was still Kirino who sent it. But this time, the way she addressed me had changed.

"Hello, Daigo."

"It seems I lost this game. I've learned something very important. People praise you not because of your superpowers, but because you possess something that everyone else has, such as courage and the power of love."

"Now I feel like I can live here. I no longer depend on my superpowers, nor am I afraid of them."

"I greatly admire and respect this hero named Ultraman, as an ordinary person."

"P.S. Here's a piece of advice: the girl you're with has a strong personality, so be careful not to let her lead you by the nose."

After reading the email, Daigo couldn't help but sneeze.

"Achoo!"

The camera then focuses on Kirino. He walks down the rain-soaked street, his trench coat collar pulled tighter. Although he is still alone, his steps are no longer heavy, and his eyes are no longer clouded.

Because he too found his own light.

End.

The ending theme song, "Ultraman Forever," began to play.

[Aww, that last piece of advice was so cute! I want my love life spoiled too!]

This episode doesn't feature a grand narrative; it's simply a dialogue between two lonely souls.

When he shouted, "I am a human being!", this character truly came to life.

This is true vision! Accepting yourself, accepting differences—everyone can be a light.

[In Mu Tongye's final silhouette, though he was still alone, it felt like he was no longer lonely.]

……

Within half an hour of the episode ending, "Hello, Ultraman" topped the popularity charts on major platforms.

What moved netizens even more was that, at the same time the series aired, the official account of Light Chaser Animation Studio released an announcement:

"In this world, there are many children like Mu Tongye who feel lonely because of their 'differences'. They may be visually impaired, hearing impaired, or even children from the stars (autism). We hope that light can also shine into their world."

Below the announcement is a donation certificate.

Light Chaser Animation, in partnership with the Jinghai City Charity Federation, donated a batch of customized accessible drama playback equipment, as well as a complete set of Braille books and special edition DVDs with sign language narration to all special education schools in the city.

Gu Nan reposted this Weibo post and added the following text:

"In fact, we are all like Mu Tongye, yearning to be understood and accepted. But as long as there is love in our hearts, we are also Daigo. Hello, every extraordinary you."

That night, countless people left that comment in the comment section:

"Hello, Ultraman. Hello, Gu Nan."