Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ralph Mazzio, wearing shorts, walked into the waves to practice balance. He tried to keep his balance as the waves hit the shore.

"Basic skills, basic skills, pay attention to breathing, keep balance" Master Miyagi on the shore began to shout at him, asking him to practice the three basic skills as the waves hit the shore.

The dark waves, backlit by the sun, shone like dragon scales.

Daniel gradually gained a foothold in this golden light and continued to practice.

Ronald, who was behind the camera on the shore, thought of the past when he was shooting "Rock High School" and took a group of backlit shots that were too artistic, which eventually did not fit into the plot and had a bad effect during editing.

Five years have passed, and now Ronald can finally take the helm of shooting an eight million dollar blockbuster. His aesthetic taste, which he repeatedly trained when he was a portrait photographer, is just right for showing off in this movie.

Demura Fumino and his disciples have left the crew and returned to Northern California to open a karate gym. This is how filming works. Except for the director and the main character, everyone else comes and goes.

The filming has entered the second month. The temperature in Los Angeles in late autumn is OK, but it is cold to go into the water. Ralph Mazzio also tried his best for the filming effect.

"Cut!"

As soon as Ronald called for a stop, Ralph Mazzio's manager rushed over and put a blanket on him to keep him warm.

Morita Noriyuki and Elizabeth Shue envied this the most. Ralph Mazzio could get a salary of $200,000 in "The Karate Kid". He was the only actor in the crew who had a personal manager to take care of him.

The next shot was that Master Miyagi supervised Daniel practicing in the waves. He stood on a wooden stake by the sea and began to practice the Ryukyu Goju-ryu karate trick - "Crane Kick".

This time, the stand-in was completed by Ronald's friend, action assistant Daryl Vidal, wearing a wig.

Vidal is also very short. Except for his darker skin, he looks almost the same as Morita Noriyuki in the medium shot after wearing a wig.

In order to avoid mistakes and enhance the beauty of the shot, Ronald used a backlit lens.

Under the sunlight, Master Miyagi was surrounded by a halo of golden light. He opened his arms and raised them to his shoulders, then kicked with his left foot.

At the moment when Vidal stopped, everyone suddenly saw him jump with his right foot, kick forward with his right leg, and then land on his right foot.

Raising his hands like a crane and pretending to attack with his left foot, two consecutive fake moves attracted the opponent's attention to his left side. No one expected that the right foot, which was used as a supporting foot, could still kick.

"Cut!"

"What kind of move is this? Why did the right foot kick out in the end?" Winterraub, who came to watch the "ultimate move" shooting, was surprised.

"This is called the shadowless kick in Wing Chun, a southern martial arts in China, because in this case, the opponent's attention is on both hands and left foot, and they can't expect that the right foot can still be raised here." Ronald explained.

Before the filming of the movie, Daryl Vidal received Ronald's request and began to carefully think about the kicking method of this special move. He looked for many martial arts moves, and finally found a shadowless kick in the ancient boxing manual of Wing Chun, and then combined it with Ronald's imagined and romanticized Tai Chi move, the white crane drying its wings, to create this extremely beautiful special move - the crane kick.

"A!" The camera continued to shoot.

Daniel, wrapped in a blanket, and with Master Miyagi, turned his back to the sea. Under a halo emitted by the backlight, the head, shoulders, waist, legs, and the bodies of the two people slowly appeared on the horizon and walked towards the camera.

Daniel asked Miyagi, "What is the name of the move you just practiced?"

"Crane kick, the white crane drying its wings."

"Is it a special move? Is it useful?"

"If used correctly, it is invincible." Miyagi replied.

"Can you teach me?"

"Learn to stand first, then learn to fly."

The two walked towards the car. At this time, two white people who discriminated against Japanese were leaning against Miyagi's car and drinking beer, and casually put the beer bottles on the hood of the car.

When Miyagi politely asked them to take the beer bottles in the car and leave, the two white people spoke racist language:

"Here comes a little Japanese, if you have the ability, take it yourself."

"Ah!"

Miyagi made a side chop, and the bottle broke in the middle.

The bottle was cut by a diamond in advance, and Morita Noriyuki caught it.

"How did you do it, breaking all the bottles at once." Daniel asked Miyagi in surprise after getting in the car. He felt that this teacher often gave him surprises.

"I don't know, it's my first time."

Miyagi still looked full of humor. He didn't want Daniel to be too ambitious, so he should concentrate on preparing for the karate championship.

"Cut!"

"Let's take a photo, Darryl," Ronald pulled Darryl Vidal, and both he and Morita Noriyuki were dressed like Master Miyagi. Ralph Mazzio, Ronald himself, and Weintraub took a group photo at sunset.

"We've finished filming here. Remember to follow me during the tournament. In addition to playing a guest role as a player, I still need you," Ronald told his good friend Vidal, and then returned to film the rest of the scenes.

The next shot was Daniel secretly practicing the Crane Kick on a wooden stake, and standing on a boat with him to practice balance. At the beginning of the practice, the shadowless kick could not be used, and Ralph Mazzio almost fell several times. After practicing it many times, Ralph Mazzio barely kicked it out.

Ronald captured all the shots of him from unfamiliar to proficient, from which he could pick out the appropriate shots and use montage to explain the process of Daniel practicing the special move Crane Kick and gradually getting better.

The championship was about to start, and Miyagi began to train Daniel. He put on the equipment of a baseball catcher and put a piece of armor made of bamboo strips on his chest, asking Daniel to punch with all his strength.

"Push hard, push hard!" Miyagi taught Daniel how to punch, and after training him how to maintain balance and the basic skills of blocking, Miyagi finally started to teach him how to punch.

"Very good, keep it up like this" Miyagi drew a bull's eye on the bamboo armor to make it easier for Daniel to aim. He admired Daniel's understanding. Gu Dian

"Yeah, yeah, butterfly-like steps, bee-like punches" Daniel began to imitate the butterfly steps of boxing champion Ali, circling around Miyagi non-stop. Since Master Miyagi praised his punches, he felt that he was already invincible.

This frivolous behavior made Miyagi angry. One fell to the ground, and the right foot clamped his legs and put it on Daniel, "Focus! Focus! Daniel. The championship is coming soon. If you don't want to be beaten black and blue, just focus."

After practicing, Daniel hoped that Miyagi would teach him more moves. Punching and kicking alone were not very exciting. Can you do some tricks like crane kicks?

"Quality is better than quantity. These moves and basic skills are enough to be used in the championship." Miyagi still had an attitude of "Don't want to learn to run before you learn to walk."

The crew then moved to a mansion borrowed by Winterraub, not far from Sino, on the edge of Mulholland Park. This is not a luxury mansion area in Beverly Hills, but many new movie stars like to buy houses here.

The neoclassical mansion, with columns and arches, looks very grand. Ronald arranged for the photography team to set up several people. The large living room on the first floor can hold a dance party. Opening the two back doors is the kitchen, which serves food to guests all night long.

Daniel put on a nice red and white dress and made an appointment with Ali to pick her up at her house for a date. But when he arrived at Ali's mansion, he found her dancing with Johnny in her arms.

It turned out that Ali's parents wanted to match her and Johnny together. When the two were forced to dance, Johnny wanted to kiss Ali forcibly, and was seen by Daniel who walked in.

Daniel had an inferiority complex and turned around and ran away. He ran into the servant who was delivering the meal, and his clothes were covered with baked beans. All the guests laughed.

Ali slapped Johnny who kissed her forcibly, then turned around and saw Daniel running away, and couldn't catch up.

Daniel returned to Master Miyagi's house in a daze, and found that Miyagi was as lost as himself, drinking alone.

Master Miyagi showed Daniel a photo and told him that this was what Mrs. Miyagi looked like when she was young. He asked him if his wife was a top beauty.

"She was beautiful. Where is she now?"

Master Miyagi took a big sip of the wine glass. He talked about how beautiful his wife was when she was young, how she could do needlework, and that they had a child, the first baby of the Miyagi family to speak in America.

Finally, Miyagi said some incomprehensible words, such as complications, regretful to inform you, concentration camp, 442. Then he walked into the bedroom, sat on the bed, and went to drink by himself.

Daniel saw a small box on the table. He opened it and found Miyagi's collection that he only took out and looked at secretly on this anniversary every year.

Inside the box was Miyagi's war merit report of the 442nd Infantry Regiment in World War II, and the medal. Daniel couldn't understand what level it was.

Ronald asked the props to make the highest honor that a US soldier could receive - the Congressional Medal of Honor. Its blue ribbon and the inscription containing the word "valor" can be easily seen by experts.

In addition to this medal, Miyagi also received a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star, and a Purple Heart. Daniel picked up the medal and saw that it was a notification from the concentration camp that his wife and child died of complications during childbirth. The reason was that there was no doctor inside the concentration camp, and the obstetrician from the hospital came late.

Daniel was shocked to learn about Miyagi's tragic past. He went to see Miyagi in the bedroom.

Miyagi sat motionless on the bed, as if he had no sound. Daniel's eyes flashed with fear, and he quietly approached, trying to observe Miyagi's breathing, and suddenly found that Miyagi was snoring.

Daniel breathed a sigh of relief, helped Miyagi to the bed, and covered him with a blanket. He bowed slightly to him, then closed the door and left.

"Cut!" Ronald stopped filming, and then the props quickly began to be rearranged. Next, they were going to shoot the scene of Daniel and Miyagi's birthday. The props team brought a real cake and put candles on it.

Daniel's birthday, Miyagi bought him a cake and candles, and the two wore birthday hats and blew out the candles together. This was the first time Daniel celebrated his birthday with a father-like character. He and Miyagi have a father-son relationship with each other.

Miyagi took out a birthday gift, a karate uniform. There was also a bonsai logo, Miyagi's favorite, on it.

"My wife embroidered this for me, and I'm giving it to you."

"This is too precious. I can't have it." Daniel knew about Mr. Miyagi's past.

"Ah...ah...put it on." Miyagi treated Daniel as his godson. He gave his godson the karate uniform that his wife had sewn by hand. This was also considered to have fulfilled his wish.

Daniel suddenly remembered that he still had to finish his meal with his mother. Miyagi certainly understood. He said that he had another gift for him and asked him to pick a car from the cars he had washed and waxed in the yard as a gift and drive away.

Daniel had just got his driver's license and couldn't refuse, so he jumped into the convertible and drove away.

Miyagi watched Daniel drive out of the yard from behind, and the lonely old man felt a little comforted.

Daniel drove along the way and passed the carnival where he and Ali played together.

A girlfriend of Ali, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, ran to Daniel and said that Ali was forced to dance with Johnny and she slapped Johnny.

Daniel realized that he was not dumped and Ali was not getting back together with Johnny, so he went to find Ali to reconcile.

Daniel met Ali, who still had feelings for him, and after explaining, the two men reconciled. "I'm going to participate in the karate championship, and I don't have a cheerleading team." Daniel, who had his own car, became more confident, and he wanted to invite Ali to accompany him to the karate championship.

"I can be your cheerleader." Ali just wanted to go out on a date with Daniel, and she didn't care what they did.

"I might lose the first game."

"Then let's go early."

"Ali!"

"Daniel!" The two hugged each other.

The two young people realized that they really liked each other's personality, not because of the vanity of being a karate champion or a rich girl.

The two kissed each other.

"Cut!"

The shooting was completed smoothly, and everyone had a weekend off.

Weintraub came over and confirmed with Ronald the final championship scene to be shot next week. They rented the gymnasium of California State University Northbridge and hired more than 500 extras to act as the audience. The success or failure of the movie depended largely on whether the climax of the third act was well shot.