Become A Star

Chapter 47

Right before the release of Glooming Day, the public either ridiculed the movie or were generally indifferent. The only people who felt sorry for the cast or even looked forward to the release of the movie were the fans of the main leads and movie aficionados who loved Director Choi Yi-Geon's work.

Even though they did everything they could and used every means and tool possible to promote the movie, it did not do much. The prejudice that all G&C romance films were bad had been very deeply ingrained in the public's minds. It was to the point that there was even a joke circulating about how Glooming Day would be considered successful if it had a tenth of Woo-Jin's “Confession” video's viewers. 

The constant ridicule and negative reactions to a movie that had not been released or seen yet spread like wildfire. Nobody had any expectations for this movie. The trailer of the movie was very beautiful and touching, but like it was for all such movies, everyone expected the trailer to be all there was to it. 

When the first press screening turned out to be better than expected, many people said it was because of G&C's aggressive support. G&C's unusually excessive amount of promotion had actually created an adverse effect. The public thought of it cynically as they said that G&C had bought the media with huge amounts of capital.  The public said that's how it had been for the previous films, but it had still been flops. In the end, the film was released to the public with poor reception on the first day. 

However, looking at the facts, Glooming Day had been treated unfairly. Compared to how they had acted with previous romance films, G&C was making a completely different move this time.  Previously, it used to be - publicity? What publicity. I Like terrible parents who were embarrassed by their inadequate children, G&C would screen the movies in as few theaters as possible, and secretly reduce its screening duration.

However, the public did not remember that, and the only thing ingrained into their minds was that the G&C romance films were below average. Naturally, the main leads' fans were the reason behind the increase in the number of reviews written by the public. Needless to say, the public did not think much of their biased ratings and mocked them. The public felt that despite the good ratings left by these fans, it did not change the consensus that the movie was bad; most of the comments under each review mocked the reviewers, asking them if they were part-timers hired by G&C or fans of one of the actors.

However, after about a week of the movie's release, the negative reception started to show some change. One by one, people began to watch it – some accompanied their friends to watch it without any expectations, some watched it with their parents because there was nothing else to watch, while others watched it because they had originally liked the genre.

Soon, the public began to appreciate the movie as viewers, and not simply as any of the actors' fans. It was a movie that reminded them of their first love and left them feeling heavy-hearted at the end of summer. It was not refreshing, nor was it clear, or even happy, but it still left behind a strange sense of excitement and sadness in their hearts. The bleak reality of their beautiful first love dying miserably was frustrating while also leaving behind a  bittersweet aftertaste in their mouths. 

The word of mouth was frightening. The reviews gradually went from 'I watched it without expectations but it turned out to be surprisingly good' to 'It's a movie that's worth watching at least once,' and eventually evolved into 'It's a movie you must watch.'

The stifling midsummer heat remained hot even with light showers as it left behind a subtle heat.  After the heat, showers, and storms had passed, the arrival of fall evoked memories with faint nostalgia. Like this, the movie told its viewers about the love of a glorious day, as well as its emptiness.