Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Daryl Vidal was still the same, with curly short hair, wide nose, dark skin, and looked like a mixture of Japanese and Southeast Asian, or black blood.

Although he was still a poor man without money, Ronald saw a happy mood in his eyes.

"I hope you are satisfied with the conditions here, Daryl." Ronald drove him to a motel near his apartment. Except for the slightly shabby decoration, the accommodation conditions here were good.

"That's nothing. The tempering of the heart is also a necessary practice to become a martial arts master." Daryl Vidal went to San Francisco for a year, and his speech was stained with some of Bruce Lee's apprentice's style, and it also became a bit philosophical.

"What makes me happiest this time is not the income, but that karate can appear on the American movie screen."

"Well, you are welcome to join." Ronald took him to his home to discuss the history and philosophy of karate.

"You already know a lot about the history of karate, Ronald. After it was introduced from Ryukyu to Japan, it developed into four major schools in history. I learned the oldest school that originated from Ryukyu, called Goju-ryu."

"Goju-ryu?"

"Yes, it combines hardness and softness, and it combines attack and defense." Vidal demonstrated several basic postures to Ronald.

"There are a total of 18 moves, which are the 'forms' of Goju-ryu practice, which means the posture."

Ronald did a few of them, but it felt a bit like Chinese martial arts, and also a bit like Bruce Lee's fighting on the screen.

"You are right. In fact, the earliest karate in Ryukyu was Shaolin martial arts that came from southern China. The actual founder of Gangju-ryu, Mr. Miyagi Choshun, studied under a white crane boxing teacher in Fujian and combined it with the karate he learned in Naha to form a martial arts.

In 1930, his disciple won the All-Japan Martial Arts Competition. When asked about his school, he had no answer. After returning to Naha, Ryukyu, Mr. Miyagi named martial arts Gangju-ryu, which means a fusion of strong power and soft skills."

"Well, take your time." Ronald took out a pen and paper and began to write down the secrets of these schools that Vidal said.

"What you said about the combination of hardness and softness is about explosive power and fighting skills. So what does it mean to fight and defend at the same time?" Ronald listened for a while, motioned Vidal to stop, and asked.

"I learned this from the Jun Fan Martial Arts School where Bruce Lee's disciples taught him Jeet Kune Do and Wing Chun." Vidal stood up and demonstrated a few more Wing Chun moves.

"Chinese martial arts are quite different from Western boxing, that is, when they attack, they do not distinguish between offense and defense. Boxing offense includes straight punches, swinging punches, and hooks, and defense includes head protection, blocking, dodging, and diving. Attack and defense are never confused.

But in Chinese martial arts, and the Ryukyu Goju-ryu karate that is deeply influenced by it, each 'form' is both an attack and a defense."

"So, we may not understand it by talking, why don't you try to hit me with a straight punch." Daryl Vidal invited Ronald to attack him.

"Then be careful." Ronald stood up, made a boxing attack posture, and punched Vidal in the face.

Vidal raised his hand to block Ronald's jab, and rotated his wrist to gently pull Ronald's jab to the side, thus blocking the attack.

Ronald was a little unbalanced, and was startled, so he stood still. After a closer look, he found that after Vidal blocked his hand, his other hand had already attacked his lower abdomen, but it was "stopped" at the distance of one punch from him.

"I don't believe it, come again." Ronald thought that he might have been tricked by the opponent. Obviously, Vidal couldn't beat him in the Los Angeles gym at that time. So he withdrew his preparatory posture, and then hit Vidal's cheek with a swinging fist.

Vidal moved his left hand to the side again, took a half step back with his left foot, and then naturally turned his right body over, and a palm strike gently hit Ronald's chest, knocking Ronald back half a step.

"It's really interesting." Ronald fought with him twice and gradually understood the meaning of the so-called joint defense and attack. When Goju-ryu karate makes a move, the whole body is linked. One side rotates and retreats to defend Ronald's attack. While unloading the force, the other side rotates forward to launch an attack.

When Vidal actively attacks, his back hand often hides the preparatory action to defend against the opponent's counterattack. This method may not be very useful in a boxing match where the winner is determined by points, but if you can attack with your feet, or in a pure street fight, then this method of defending your vital points every time you attack can protect yourself to the maximum extent and kill the enemy.

"Is this what attack and defense mean?" Ronald imitated Vidal and made a few turns.

"Yes, Goju-ryu does not advocate active attack. Our philosophy is that karate is for defense. If you attack, you may want to have a weapon in your hand. Karate is just a means of self-defense when you are attacked in a hurry." Vidal explained.

Ronald found it very interesting. This philosophy is exactly similar to the philosophy of the protagonist in his story, Danny Webber. Learning martial arts is for self-defense, not to be bullied by bullies, but not to actively bully others.

"Not bad, not bad, teach me how to fight", Ronald asked Vidal to teach him the eighteen-hand 'form', which is the basic fixed moves.

"Okay, follow me. This is the 'three battles', which is the representative form of 'hard' in the hard and soft flow. When you hit it, you have to imagine that the enemy is in front of you, and your nerves and muscles are in a state of high alert.

This is the 'turning palm', which is the representative of 'soft' in the hard and soft flow. You must control your fighting spirit and not show it, so that it is quietly hidden in your body, as if waiting for the opportunity to explode."

"The meaning of this turning is that when you were defending my fist just now, the grasp brought the center of gravity to the deviation?"

"Yes, you are very insightful, Ronald. This is actually the characteristic of Chinese martial arts, relying on a small movement of the center of gravity to unload the force. You have to experience it well."

"Why do I feel that this action is a bit like Tai Chi?" Ronald remembered Coppola's Tai Chi practiced by watching the video when he was in the crew of "The Kids Out There".

"Haha, you also know Tai Chi? That's great. That's the reason. All the martial arts ideas in East Asia are interconnected."

"Okay, come and see if my posture is standard."

The two of them, one teaching and the other practicing, had a lot of fun. Not long after, Ronald dodged and spilled the coffee on the table all over the floor.

"Let's find a chance to practice at the club." Vidal helped to clean up the broken coffee cups on the floor.

"That's right, it's better not to fight at home. What other schools do you have in karate?" Ronald asked.

"They are all ancient schools. The more prosperous one now is the Kyokushin-ryu Karate Club created by Masuda Oyama. Their philosophy is different from Ryukyu Karate. It emphasizes active attack and full-contact knockdown. By the way, I haven't asked you yet, what movie are you shooting now?"

"There is a 'Night of the Comet' playing. If you are interested, I invite you to watch it."

Soon it was the second weekend of the release of "Night of the Comet", and Ronald dragged Daryl Vidal to watch his movie again.

They went to Sherman Oaks Department Store, where parking is convenient and there are all kinds of delicious food. After practicing karate for a day, the two of them had a good appetite and had a great time eating at the All-American Burger and Pizza Shop.

"Here, here..." Ronald, who was eating, heard a loud shout from the opposite side. He looked over and saw a few fat men wearing glasses coming to the door of the cinema. They saw a man holding a sign with the words "MISbsp;-Night of the Comet" written on it, so they immediately came forward to ask.

"Did you post in the News Group that we would meet here? I am Dave."

"Ah, hello, hello, I am Kessel. There are a few more of us, so we can go in together. Here are the movie tickets. You have to give me three dollars and fifty cents each." Ronald found that the man holding the sign was the student-like nerd who came to see him last time.

"It seems that word of mouth is very good. There are so many people going to some news group to call friends. It's probably the bulletin board at the door of the university dormitory. It seems that they don't know each other." Ronald took a bite of the hamburger. Good word of mouth is a good phenomenon.

Today's attendance rate is good. Ronald looked around and took a closer look. It was about the same as the first show last week.

The second time watching his own director's movie in the cinema, Ronald fell into self-criticism again. He kept taking out paper and pen to write down the areas that could be improved. If he encounters similar scenes and performances in the future, he will be able to direct and guide better.

"It's a really good movie. Can your karate movie be shot so well?" Vidal praised Ronald's directing level.

"I don't know. I'm just a screenwriter. I can only talk about this if Columbia and the producer ask me to be the director."

"Do you think there is such a comet with a long return period?"

"It's hard to say. In the Kuiper Belt at the edge of the solar system, there are many comets with super-long elliptical orbits, which come only once every millions to tens of millions of years."

"Will the extinction mentioned in the movie happen in this way?"

"I'm afraid not. The tails of comets are actually very sparse. Last year, the tail of a comet swept across the earth, and no one felt it. But if the orbit of a comet is too close to the earth, it may hit it.

A geology professor in my department has always suspected that the Gulf of Mexico was formed by a comet hitting the earth."

"No way, it's just a movie, why is it discussed so deeply?" Ronald saw the group of young people who looked like college students wearing glasses. Could it be that this movie is particularly attractive to students like nerds?