Darryl Vidal is still the same, with curly short hair, broad nose, and dark skin. He looks like he is of Japanese and Southeast Asian or black ancestry mixed together.
Although he was still a pauper with no money, what Ronald saw in his eyes was a happy mood.
"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. Mental training is also a necessary practice to become a martial arts master." Daryl Vidal went to San Francisco for a year, and his speech was tainted with the style of Bruce Lee's apprentice, and he became
It has some philosophical meaning.
"What I'm most happy about this time is not the income, but the fact that karate can appear on American movie screens."
"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 spread from Ryukyu to Japan, it developed into four major schools in history. I learned that the oldest school originated from Ryukyu, called Goju-ryu."
"Goju-ryu?"
"Yes, a combination of hardness and softness, continuous elimination and attack, integrated offense and defense." As he spoke, Vidal demonstrated several basic postures to Ronald.
"There are a total of eighteen moves, which are the 'forms' of Goju-ryu practice, which means frame."
Ronald did a few of them, but they felt a bit like Chinese martial arts and a bit like Bruce Lee's on-screen fights.
"You are right. In fact, Ryukyu Karate is the earliest Shaolin martial arts spread from southern China. The actual founder of Goju-ryu, Mr. Miyagi Chojun (Miyagi Chojun), studied under a White Crane Fist teacher in Fujian.
, a martial art that combines the karate he learned in Naha.
In 1930, one of his disciples won the All-Japan Martial Arts Competition. When asked about the sect, he had no answer. After returning to Naha, Ryukyu, Mr. Miyagi named the martial art Goju-ryu, which means a combination of strength and strength.
and gentle techniques.”
"Well, please speak slowly." Ronald took out a pen and paper and began to write down the secrets within the sect that Vidal mentioned.
"What you mean by combining strength and softness means that you pay attention to explosive power and fighting skills. So what does it mean to fight continuously?" Ronald listened for a while, signaled Vidal to stop, and asked.
"I learned this from the Chin Fan Martial Arts School where Bruce Lee's apprentices taught him Jeet Kune Do and Wing Chun." Vidal stood up and demonstrated a few more Wing Chun moves.
"Chinese martial arts has a big difference from Western boxing, that is, when it attacks, it does not distinguish between offense and defense. The offense of boxing includes straight punches, swing punches, and uppercuts, and defense includes head protection and blocking.
, dodge, and dive. Attack and defense are never confused.
But Chinese martial arts, and the Ryukyu Goju-ryu karate that is deeply influenced by it, each ‘kata’ is both offensive and defensive.”
"In this case, we may not understand what we are talking about, you might as well hit me with a straight punch and try it." Darryl Vidal invited Ronald to attack him.
"Then be careful." Ronald stood up, made a boxing attack stance, and punched Vidal in the face.
Vidal raised his hand to block Ronald's jab, and rotated his wrist to gently move Ronald's jab to the side, blocking the attack.
Ronald's center of gravity was a little unsteady, and he was startled. He stood still. After looking closely, he realized that after Vidal closed his hand, the other hand had already attacked his lower abdomen, only to "stop" before punching him.
on the distance.
"I don't believe it, try again." Ronald felt that he might have fallen into the opponent's trick. Obviously, Vidal couldn't beat him in the Los Angeles Gym at that time. So he withdrew from the prepared position, and then punched Vidal in the cheek.
Call.
Vidal moved his left hand to the side again, took half a step back with his left foot, then naturally turned the right side of his body, and struck a palm strike lightly on Ronald's chest, knocking Ronald back half a step.
step.
"It's really interesting." Ronald fought with him twice, and gradually understood the meaning of the so-called continuous elimination. When a Goju-ryu karate move is made, the entire body is linked, rotating on one side and retreating, to defend Ronald.
When attacking, while releasing the force, the other side turns forward to launch the attack.
When Vidal takes the initiative to attack, his backhand often hides preparations to defend the opponent's counterattack. This method may not be of much use in a boxing match that relies on counting points, but if you can attack with your feet, or purely
In street fighting, this kind of technique of guarding one's vital points every time you make a move can protect yourself to the maximum extent and kill the enemy.
"This is what it means to integrate offense and defense?" 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 if you are attacked in a hurry.
." Vidal explained.
Ronald found it very interesting. This philosophy is exactly similar to the philosophy of Danny Webb, the protagonist in the story he wrote. Learning martial arts is for self-defense and not to be bullied by bullies, but not to actively bully.
other people.
"Not bad, not bad, you teach me how to fight." Ronald asked Vidal to teach him the eighteen-hand 'shape', which is the basic fixed moves.
"Okay, you do it with me. This is the 'three battles', which is the representative form of 'hardness' in Goju-ryu. When fighting, you should imagine that the enemy is right in front of you, and your nerves and muscles will be on high alert.
This is 'turning the palm', which represents the 'softness' in the hard-soft flow. You must control your fighting spirit so that it does not show up, and keep it quietly hidden in your body, as if waiting for the opportunity to explode."
"Does this turn mean that when you defended my fist just now, you were so confident that your center of gravity was off?"
"Yes, you are very perceptive, Ronald. This is actually a characteristic of Chinese martial arts, which relies on small movements of the center of gravity to relieve force. You have to understand it well."
"Why do I feel like this movement is a bit like Tai Chi?" Ronald thought of Coppola's Tai Chi practice on the set of "Children" and asked them to watch the video.
"Haha, you still know Tai Chi? That's great. That's the truth. All martial arts ideas in East Asia are connected."
"Okay, come and see if my posture is standard."
The two of them, one teaching and the other practicing, had a great time. After a while, Ronald dodged and spilled the coffee on the table all over the floor.
"Let's find a chance to go to the clubhouse to practice." Vidal helped clean up the broken coffee cups on the floor.
"That's right. It's better not to fight at home. Then what other styles of karate do you have?" Ronald asked.
"They are all ancient schools. The one that is more prosperous now is the Kyokushin-ryu Karate Kaikan created by Oyama Beida. Their philosophy is different from Ryukyu Karate. They emphasize active attack and full-contact knockdown of the opponent.
By the way, I haven’t asked you yet, what movies are you filming now?”
"There is a film called 'Night of the Comet' currently 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 took Daryl Vidal together to watch his movie again.
We arrived at the Sherman Oaks Department Store, where parking is convenient and there are all kinds of delicious food. The two of them practiced karate for a day, which happened to work up an appetite, and they ate happily at the All-American Burger and Pizza restaurant.
"Here, here..." Ronald, who was eating, saw loud shouts coming 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
There was a playing card with the words "misc.films - Night of the Comet" written on it, so I immediately stepped forward to inquire.
"Did you post it in the newsgroup and say we would meet here? I am Dave."
"Ah, hello, hello, I'm Kessel. There are a few of us left, so we can go in together. Here are the movie tickets. You have to pay me three dollars and fifty cents each." Ronald noticed the sign.
The person in question is the nerdy student-looking guy I visited last time.
"It seems that the reputation is very good. There are so many people going to some news group to call friends. It's probably the kind of bulletin board at the door of the university dormitory. It seems that they don't know each other." Ronald took a bite of the burger.
A good reputation is a good sign.
The attendance rate today was good. Ronald looked around and took a closer look. It was almost the same as the first show he attended last week.
The second time he watched his director's movie in the cinema, Ronald fell into self-criticism again. He kept taking out pen and paper and jotting down areas that could be improved. If he encountered similar scenes and performances in the future, he would be able to make more improvements.
Good leadership and guidance.
"It's a really nice movie. Will your karate movie be so good?" Vidal admired Ronald's directorial skills.
"I don't know about that. I'm just a screenwriter. It depends on whether Columbia and the producer ask me to be the director before we can talk about this."
"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 in ultra-long elliptical orbits, the kind that only come once every few to tens of millions of years."
"Then the extinction mentioned in the movie will produce this kind of situation?"
"I'm afraid it won't happen. The comet's tail is actually very sparse. Last year's comet's tail once swept past the earth, and no one felt it. But if the comet's orbit is too close to the earth, then it might not happen.
bumped into.
A geology professor in my department has always suspected that the Gulf of Mexico was created by a comet hitting the earth."
"No way, it's just a movie, why are they discussed so deeply?" Ronald saw the group of young people who looked like college students with eyes. Could it be that this movie is not suitable for nerds?