Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 413
"Darryl Vidal is no longer in Los Angeles. I checked the karate gym he used to be in. It has been closed and deregistered. His name is not on the telephone number register in Los Angeles and surrounding counties. I am trying to find His last record of renting a house may have gone to other cities.”

Richard reported to Ronald in the office to find a karate coach.

"Thank you, Richard. If I can't find it, I'll find another way." Ronald was very satisfied with Richard, who always cared about the tasks he assigned.

"This is the karate you want, the relevant materials about Japanese descent in California, and the records in various libraries in Los Angeles. I called you and asked for it." Richard took out another piece of paper and recorded several The home library has a relatively complete collection of historical records of Ryukyu karate.

Because the Japanese were hostile to America in World War II, they did not have a complete cultural institution in Los Angeles to collect and preserve their own historical records like other ethnic groups.Many existing cultural institutions were built by Japanese-funded enterprises after the economic take-off, and there is no history of native Japanese descent.

For the next few weeks, Ronald spent time in various libraries, looking for the history of karate and Japanese Americans in America.He brought sorting cards, and when he saw interesting history, he recorded it.

It would be even better if the library can copy, and spend some money to copy the contents of the previous magazines and newspapers.More convenient are several university libraries in Los Angeles, which are equipped with a microphotography system, which can be checked on the computer, and then the microfilm can be called out, browsed with a special microscope, and can be printed directly when encountering the required materials.

After Ronald's investigation, he found that Japanese Americans had settled in California on a large scale before World War II.It also introduced traditional martial arts such as karate and judo to the west coast.

However, before Bruce Lee Hengkong was born, karate still paid attention to stopping every inch, that is, hitting as far as possible, and stopping before the moves hit the opponent's vitals, not really hitting.This method dissatisfied the passionate American people, and the karate competition held has never been attended by many spectators.

It wasn't until Bruce Lee demonstrated some of his tricks on the spot at a karate conference that the public had a strong interest in karate.People began to organize various competitions all over the country.

Under the influence of Bruce Lee's ideas, everyone began to formulate various karate rules for real fighting. The common point is to hit the effective part of the opponent's body to score points.However, the rules of each championship are different, and some just prohibit hitting the eyes, throat, lower gear and other vital parts.Some people pursue safety and have to wear a lot of protective equipment. Even kicking the head and hitting the back of the body are prohibited.

Generally speaking, the karate competitions in California are still in a chaotic state of being held separately. There is no unified organization and association to formulate standards, and the levels vary greatly.

On this day, Ronald walked out of the Albert Kinney Memorial Library next to Venice Beach, where there are some materials of early Japanese descent in Los Angeles.

Ronald lived here for a while during the filming of "High School of Rock" and ran a portrait studio for a while, earning a little money.

Break dancing is becoming more and more popular in Venice, Los Angeles. In "Lightning Dance", the scene where the heroine and several Latinos and blacks learn to dance has become a new fashion trend.Ronald saw several young men also forming a circle beside the terrazzo floor, imitating the dance moves in the movie.

One of the young men on crutches was still correcting movements and imparting essentials to others, as if he was the leader of breakdancing in this area.

Ronald felt curious, so he stopped to watch, why so many dancers are convinced by a disabled person.

"Come one, come one, Handyman" several boys booed, let the disabled person to dance a section.

Handyman's original meaning is a repairman, but this nickname is a bit weird to describe this man on crutches.Not only were his feet bad, but Ronald looked a little stunted, which was typical of polio, and he certainly wouldn't be a good repairman who had to climb up and down.

Handyman didn't refuse either, he threw his crutches and fell on the terrazzo floor.Then with both hands ready, a start, Thomas started the gymnastics full spin.His feet are weak, but it doesn't hinder his wonderful movements in the slightest, and he is almost out of play.

Then he straightened up like a carp, and began to use his back as a fulcrum on the ground to spin.Although the legs and feet are disabled, the movements are smooth and smooth, which is very beautiful.A pair of disabled legs turned, and there was no problem at all.All supported by two hands.

"No wonder the nickname is 'Handyman (Handyman)'", Ronald couldn't help clapping beside him.

"Ronald, is that you?" A middle-aged woman passed by with a cloth bag and couldn't help but screamed when she saw Ronald.

"Ah, hello Mrs. Webb!" Ronald recognized as his neighbor who rented a house in Venice at the time, and hired her and her daughter when he was doing portrait photography.

Ronald hugged her warmly, "I'm still working in the film industry, but I haven't seen you for a long time. How are you? How are you doing recently? How is your daughter?"

"I'm fine, my daughter graduated from high school and works as a cashier in a supermarket. She works very hard, boyfriend is a nice Latino boy, and after college she works at a law firm..."

Mrs. Webb, who is of Irish descent, actually has a blood feud with her American cousin, the British.They are also mainly Catholic, so they do not shy away from intermarrying with Latinos who are also of the Catholic faith.Moreover, Latinos can go to college and work in law firms. For Mrs. Weber's daughter, that is a very good marriage partner.

Mrs. Weber was invited to have a cup of coffee. It was a pleasant surprise to meet the old neighbors.Ronald decided to set the protagonist's background as Mrs. Weber's family.An Irish single mother, for a job opportunity, took her daughter, no, it was her son in the script, and drove all the way to Los Angeles to pursue her dream.

And this boy Weber's dream lover is set up as a local upper-middle-class family with a large independent house in the suburbs. His father has a good income from his job, and his mother is a full-time housewife. She is also the school girl in school.

The boyfriend of Xiaohua is a classmate of the same school and also belongs to the wealthy middle class. Because of his tendency to violence, he formed a bullying organization with a group of little boys, bullying weak boys every day.When he beat the protagonist one day, his girlfriend discovered the violent behavior, so he proposed to break up on the spot.

The school belle's boyfriend thought it was the protagonist's fault, and came to bully the protagonist every day when he failed to get back together with his girlfriend.The protagonist's face and body are covered with scars when he is often bullied.

The protagonist couldn't bear it, so he found a karate training class, worshiped the Ryukyu karate master as his teacher, and learned the secrets of the authentic Ryukyu karate.The main character shines in the tournament and wins the championship.

But the heroine of the dream lover, seeing the protagonist also learns martial arts and won the championship by violent means, thinks of the violent ex-boyfriend in her heart, and treats the protagonist neither salty nor cold.

Xiaohua's ex-boyfriend failed to get back together again, and this time he beat the protagonist again to vent his anger.After learning martial arts, the protagonist defeated the villain who bullied him, and he was also ordered not to harass his ex-girlfriend Xiaohua again.

In the end, when the protagonist was able to beat the bullying boy hard, he lowered his fist again, because martial arts does not necessarily require the same violent means to bully him back.

The heroine, who happened to see all this, also changed her view of the protagonist because of this incident, and kissed him together.

After the main story was written, Ronald began to add details and small stories of the characters to it every day.Without the help of dreams, it is estimated that this movie may not do well at the box office, it was not made into a video tape, and I have never seen it in my previous life.

While Ronald was working hard every day, "Girls of the Valley" had been screened for the fourth week, and next week his "Night of the Comet" would take over.

Came to the office of Atlantic Films again, and Martha Coolidge, the director of "Girls of the Valley", was also there, and Ronald chatted with her for a while.

In the first two weeks, the word-of-mouth of "Valley Girl" was quite good, and the average box office dropped by 30.00% in the second week.The box office of the movie, which had been planned to be offline for a month, only dropped by 5.00% in the third week.

The Atlantic thought that word-of-mouth would counterattack, and arranged a hundred more theaters, hoping to get a Cinderella (Sleeping hit), but the box office in the fourth week was disappointing, dropping more than 40% from last week.

Four weekends later, "Girls of the Valley" has dropped $150 million a week.The Atlantic's predictions were mostly right, and the audience for this urban-wacky teen rom-com is very concentrated in big cities, and its potential audience is rapidly dwindling.

The Atlantic is more focused on those theaters that performed well in the early stage. The total number of theaters showing has fallen by more than 200. It is estimated that it will continue to fall next week, and the weekly box office will drop below 100 million US dollars.

"Anyway, the total box office is close to 900 million US dollars, and I finally succeeded." Martha Coolidge was also very emotional when chatting.The filming of this movie was also very difficult, but fortunately, the final result was good. She is not afraid that she will not be able to gain a foothold in Hollywood in the future.

"Yes, congratulations, the first film has earned more than 500 million at the box office, and it is estimated that it will break through [-] million when it turns to long-term screenings."

"Good luck to you too, Ronald, and hope your film is a success too."

Ronald knew in his heart that Martha Coolidge was still a little unconvinced, and the weekend box office figures for her movies were still good, around [-].If her "Night of the Comet" can't be greatly surpassed, Atlantic Ocean will still allocate more theaters for her "Valley Girl".

(End of this chapter)