Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Thank you for accepting our interview, Mr. Kubrick." A reporter from "Rock" magazine, after much practice, finally interviewed Stanley Kubrick who was traveling to Hollywood.

"It has been three years since The Shining. I wonder what new film Mr. Kubrick will bring us?"

"I have several scripts I like in my hands and they are all in progress. Let's wait and see."

Britain is Kubrick's second homeland, and it is also the reason for his mixed British and American accent. Disgusted with Hollywood and the rising crime rate in America, he moved to Britain in 1961. He has lived there ever since.

This time he returned to Hollywood, and the outside world generally speculated that it was related to his preparation for the next movie. So the reporter asked him this question directly, but Kubrick "cunningly" slipped away.

"Which directors have had the greatest influence on you in your career?"

"Ah, there are many, but the ones I should thank the most are the directors of bad movies. The reason I had the courage to work as a film director was because I watched all the bad movies in the 1940s and 1950s. I thought that even though I knew nothing about directing, I could still make better movies than they did."

"Are there any specific directors?"

"Many directors have had a great influence on me, such as Charlie Chaplin, whose "City Lights" is one of my favorite movies. Others like Max Ophüls, David Lean, Elia Kazan, Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini have all inspired me a lot."

"Is there any time away from us? "

"Ha, Steven (Spielberg) and I are good friends, I like some of his movies. In addition, there is a young man named David Lynch who is also good. I like his "Eraserhead" very much."

"How about Coppola?"

"Hmmmm... Lucky guy, his "The Godfather" may be the best casting in the history of world cinema."

"Are there any younger directors that you like?"

"Hmm? I don't know, but there is a movie "Night of the Comet" recently, which is very interesting. The director Ronald Lee is a cunning guy."

...

Ronald didn't know that Kubrick was really "praising" himself to the media.

He was very happy to see that the box office of "Night of the Comet" was still strong in the new weekend. Although the release of "Incredibles III" has taken away some theaters, the remaining theaters still have a high attendance rate.

It seems that the theaters that decide to continue showing "Night of the Comet" will keep the movie running for a long time.

Even Tom Coleman, president of Atlantic, was surprised. This situation was rare in his career. The theaters that continued to show the film were concentrated in the East and West Coasts and the big cities in the Great Lakes region in the middle.

The distributors in those cities went to the scene and reported to the headquarters that there were many young women who went to watch the film, and some students who were obviously good at school, many of whom wore glasses.

Ronald and Tom Coleman discussed why they could attract these two groups of people. Young women are easier to understand. The real protagonists of this movie are two sisters, and the story revolves around two young women.

This is completely different from the male-centered narrative in Hollywood. Many people saw their own projections in Regina and Samantha.

In the 1980s in America, women did not need to be vassals of men. They could achieve their own careers without being hindered from finding romantic love. This is simply an idol for young women.

However, the reason why it attracted nerds was not understood until his cousin Donna called Ronald.

Donna specifically called Ronald to ask for the autographed photos of the heroines. This movie caused a craze in their high school. Many students who took natural science courses, such as physics, biology, geology, astronomy, etc., often talked about this movie with many scientific elements.

As Ronald's cousin, Donna's social status in school is rising rapidly. She needs the autographed photos of the two heroines to consolidate her "social circle".

In American high schools and universities, there are always some students who are good at science and are usually unpopular in social circles. However, they are also quite clingy and regard the boys on the football team and the girls on the cheerleading team as brainless people.

Although they also want to squeeze into the most popular social circle composed of these "brainless people", they can only play intellectual games such as bridge and chess at home with their own nerds to relieve boredom.

The "Night of the Comet" suddenly made them respectable people in the school. There were always students who asked them about things they didn't understand. They would talk endlessly to their classmates about science, and even the cheerleader would listen carefully to them talking about the relationship between comets and the solar system, and why dinosaurs became extinct.

Although the real purpose of the cheerleaders was to get a set of cheerleading uniforms and sneakers like Samantha in the movie, so that when they went to the movies with their beloved football team quarterback, they would not have nothing to say except kissing.

The absolute number of these nerds was not small. Usually they would always complain about the inaccurate scientific details in Hollywood movies. Finally, there was a science fiction movie that was generally acceptable. These people watched it repeatedly, contributing to the box office of "Night of the Comet" twice, three times, and four times.

Ronald also went to Sherman Oaks Department Store again to verify this theory. Indeed, the most visitors were groups of young women, and students who generally wore glasses.

Those young women were not only high school and college students, but also many who were obviously already working. It seems that this kind of story of independent women is also very attractive to them.

"Your movie is still in the top ten of the box office list, which is really amazing." Karate coach Daryl Vidal came to Ronald's apartment again. He saw Ronald flipping through the Hollywood Reporter and the box office rankings on it.

This time Ronald asked him to discuss the tricks, "Yes, I guess I will stay there for two months."

Ronald was in a good mood, "I asked you to come this time to ask, among the martial arts you have practiced, karate, Wing Chun, and Philippine short sticks, is there a move that allows you to stand on one foot, jump on one foot, and attack on one foot?"

"Why use such an awkward move?" Vidal didn't understand. What is the benefit? Such an attack has neither strength nor speed, and it is easy to be defended.

"Not only is there no advantage, but there is also a weakness. The reason is that before the final, the protagonist Danny was beaten by the opposing coach, who instructed other players to use the foul trick of sweeping the hall kick to injure one of his legs. So now he only has one good leg to attack.

In karate, after the leg is injured, it is inconvenient to move. It may not be easy to attack the opponent with intact mobility with fists. So Danny must practice a trick to attack with one leg."

"Is that so." Vidal touched his chin, "Actually there is a trick."

"Oh, what is it?"

"You know I actually learned Wing Chun at the Jun Fan Martial Arts School founded by Bruce Lee. His Jeet Kune Do was not taught there. Bruce Lee's disciples monopolized the teaching of Jeet Kune Do.

But my master and Bruce Lee used to practice martial arts together, so I know some Jeet Kune Do moves. I once asked him for advice, and he said that the biggest feature of Jeet Kune Do is counter-intuitive."

Vidal first made a karate starting gesture, with the left hand and left foot in front, and the heavier right fist and right foot in the back.

Then he stepped forward with his right foot, making a right hand and right foot forward position.

"You see, the starting position of Jeet Kune Do is the opposite of all martial arts, with his strong hand and strong foot in front."

"Bruce Lee is right-handed?" Ronald recalled his posture in the movie, and was surprised to find that Jeet Kune Do was different.

"Yes, his right hand is a strong hand, but it is placed in front. In this way, he can use the strong hand and foot to hit the opponent faster than the opponent."

"Not bad," Ronald expressed his understanding.

"This is back to a famous Bruce Lee trick that my master told me." Vidal returned to the Jeet Kune Do posture, and his left foot suddenly raised, as if aiming at Ronald's leg and kicking.

Ronald instinctively blocked his hand downwards, making a blocking gesture.

Vidal's left foot did not kick out, it was a fake move!

He kicked with his right foot standing on one leg, and kicked Ronald's head with a high kick.

Ronald's attention was on the opponent's left foot. He was caught off guard by this move and had to take two steps back to avoid it.

"This is the true meaning of Jeet Kune Do. It predicts your movements in advance, then misleads you with fake moves, and finally uses the strong side in front to quickly intercept your movements based on your reaction. That's why it's called Jeet Kune Do."

"How did you practice this move?" Ronald was very surprised. Just now, Vidal's left foot pretended to kick, and Ronald didn't notice any preparatory movements of his right foot. Suddenly, he kicked his head with an explosive kick.

"This requires practice. Didn't you say that it needs a single-foot attack? I think practicing for a while is enough for filming a movie." Vidal demonstrated it to Ronald again.

"If you want to mislead the opponent, you can actually use your fists to make a fake move to attack the opponent. First, use a boxing stance, aim at the opponent's head, and when his attention is on defending his head, make a fake move to kick the left leg. In this way, the opponent's defense center is disrupted, and his attention will be completely transferred to the lower body.

At this time, you can use this trick to kick the head, so that the opponent's attention and center of gravity can be shifted back and forth, and the opponent's defense can be completely lost. This kind of single-leg posture actually has poor attack strength and speed. Only by misleading the opponent can the attack effect be achieved."

"Yeah." Ronald also made a Jeet Kune Do posture, but he did not put his right foot forward, but put his feet side by side, and then raised his hands and placed them in front of him close to the sides of his body, like two crane wings that were not stretched out. The five fingers of both hands gathered together to form a bird's beak shape, ready to attack the opponent's head at any time.

Then Ronald made a fake move to attack with his left foot. With his center of gravity on the side of his right foot, he could make this fake move even if his left foot was injured.

Finally, he suddenly jumped up with his right foot, kicked Vidal on the opposite side, and then landed on his right foot.

Ronald almost fell down because he didn't have enough time and height to complete this kick.

Vidal supported him, "You need to practice more. There is a trade-off between speed and strength. But your move is very beautiful, and it will be a good effect for filming. What is the name of this move?"

"White Crane Drying Wings?" Ronald thought to himself, could it be that in the tradition of Tai Chi, this move is actually used like this?

"Let's call it Crane Kick? Look at my hands, they look like the claws of a crane." Ronald raised his hands again, gathered his fingers and waved them twice.

"Hey... Uncle..." Ronald imitated Bruce Lee's movements and calls.

"Hahaha, it's pretty good. Filming requires good moves. This crane hand, plus that front leg kick, is very entertaining."

"Well, in that case, we must add some reaction shots of the opponent Johnny being misled by the fake moves." Ronald took out a pen and paper and began to sketch.