"Did you get Cher's autograph?" Ronald asked Tom Cruise as he left the wedding reception.
"Ah...yeah, I got (her phone number)." Tom showed the sweet boy's smile in "The Good Guys Are Crazy" again.
"Have fun", Ronald glanced at several members of the "Kid Gang". After drinking some alcoholic drinks, they returned to their normal state and started to have fun, looking for beautiful girls at the scene to ask for their phone numbers.
"His true nature has been exposed again." Ronald shook his head and got into the car. It was none of his business.
Returning to the apartment, Ronald found that the light in the living room was still on and his accountant Lawrence was waiting for him.
"Are you coming from Chinatown?" Ronald remembered that Lawrence also went to welcome the state guests, and said that he and some friends from Chinatown would go to the movie premiere to promote the Chinese zodiac culture.
"Oh, Ronald, I'm so angry... They actually..." Lawrence saw Ronald coming back, hugged him, and then began to curse the movie "Year of the Dragon" in Cantonese rapidly, along with
Director Cimino scolded him all over.
"What's going on?" Ronald noticed that Lawrence's face had turned red. He was obviously very angry, and he was scolding him in his native language because he was dissatisfied with the fact that he couldn't scold him enough in English.
Yeah, but I like to listen to it.
Who makes director Cimino always have trouble with him? Producer Dino De Laurentiis also took advantage of the situation and wanted to force him to sign multiple film contracts and prevent him from directing this Chinese-American drama that took place in Chinatown.
story.
"The movie premieres tonight, and as soon as it is shown on the weekend, our Chinatown will suffer again. How many families will lose their jobs, how many travel agencies will close down, and everything will be like 1974 all over again."
Lawrence's eyes turned red as he spoke.
"Don't be angry. If there is any problem with this movie, tell me slowly. If there is a problem, we will find a way to solve it."
Ronald was startled, wondering why Chinatown's economy was involved. He quickly gave the accountant a cup of black tea to calm him down.
"When I was young, I worked in Chinatown. In 1974, the movie 'Chinatown' portrayed Chinatown as a dirty place where no police dared to go. As a result, the Chinatown trip that year
More than half of the projects went bankrupt, and many Americans no longer dare to come to Chinatown for special tourism.
The retail business of other normal souvenirs and specialty products also plummeted. I had no choice but to go against my parents' wishes and leave Chinatown, find a job in a Manhattan accounting firm, and finally move out of Chinatown. No.
Thinking of all this, this nasty movie is going to do it all over again.”
"Nicita", after Ronald heard Lawrence's complaint, he knew that he was worried about the impact the movie would have on Chinatown, so he picked up the phone and called his agent.
"Is the Year of the Dragon picture bad? My accountant says it will cause a Chinatown depression."
"Absolutely. I haven't watched it, but I heard that Mickey Rourke is like a bull in heat in it, and the female reporter in Chinatown is going to chase him. But the young man who plays the Chinatown boss is very explosive...
…”
"No, no, no, I'm not asking about the artistic value of this movie, but whether it will make ordinary Americans have a worse impression of Chinatown, or even affect Chinatown's economy."
"To be honest, it's possible that I watched the movie Chinatown in 1974. But I can't tell the audience's reaction to this movie. The actor who played the Chinese boss Joey Tai has a good temperament. Maybe there are audiences
You might even fall in love with him, just like after The Godfather was filmed, many people admired the respect for family culture of Italian gangsters."
"Get ready and watch a show with me tomorrow."
"Does Ronald have Chinese ancestry?" Niceta asked his wife Paula Wagner.
"Never heard of it? But he likes to use actors and subordinates with Chinese ancestry. The heroine of the fast-paced movie, Phoebe Cates, is of Chinese ancestry. His accountant is also of Chinese ancestry. And he filmed
Longwei boy' is also..."
"That's Japanese, right?" Niceta corrected, saying that many people don't really know what the three East Asian ethnic groups look like.
"It's really racist."
The next day, I watched Michael Cimino's new film "Year of the Dragon" with Niceta, and he was a little uneasy.
In the movie, some offensive words were said about Chinatown through the mouth of the starring Mickey Rourke, such as derogatory terms such as Chinatown and squinty eyes.
The public's disgust with this kind of name may not be as high as the word starting with "n" when calling black people in America. But the degree of badness is the same.
But the disgusting thing about Cimino is that he did not let a good man scold him, but the half-black policeman. Call him racist, the audience knows that the scolder is a bad policeman.
You said he was not racist, but he arranged for an Asian actress to fall madly in love with the policeman, and finally killed the new generation boss of Chinatown who was kind and loyal.
Moreover, the movie’s depiction of Chinatown is indeed too dark. It ignores the virtues in the original novel that the Chinese respect the old and love the young, raise funds to do charity for the elderly, weak, orphans, and arrange funeral arrangements. It highlights many gang vendettas and the like.
plot.
The most ridiculous thing is that in this Chinese-American story that takes place in Chinatown, the Chinese-American protagonist Joey Tai is asked to go to Southeast Asia and has to be connected with the Vietnam War, creating a long and smelly plot.
A new 'godfather'-like figure who was kind and righteous, leading Chinatown towards order and prosperity, died in Thailand.
"If I were to shoot, I would make him look like Michael Corleone in Chinatown," Ronald complained to his agent.
"What do you want?"
"I will use my influence. I don't want to see a certain ethnic group fall into economic depression because of a movie. The movie has influence beyond the box office, and it is best to be positive, like the break dance tape I made.
The dance class industry started, and Kid Longwei made karate popular again. I can’t understand at all how a movie that slanders a race like this could be made in Hollywood.”
"Oh, what you said is a bit like a donkey gang." Niceta was a little surprised.
"Of course, this is an opportunity. I have disliked Cimino for a long time. And the producer Dino De Laurentiis, he should know who to cooperate with."
"I will help you arrange some public relations activities, but it is best not to get yourself involved in this matter."
"I know, I'll just hide behind and pay some money."
After the weekend, new movie reviews came out one after another.
Some Hollywood tabloids where Ronald's influence can reach have begun to criticize Cimino's new film after "Heaven's Gate", which is still a mess. The film is full of prejudice against Chinese Americans, and the director's level is getting worse...
On the contrary, the big media in Ronald's hometown, New York, began to take the initiative to attack Cimino.
Vincent Canby of The New York Times, wrote, "Year of the Dragon is still a long way from being a classic, but it doesn't pretend to be some elaborate gangster movie, and it's not boring for a minute.
Consisting of over-the-top behavior, language and visuals, it ultimately exerts its own hypnotic effect."
Another New York Times film critic, Janet Maslin, also said, "It laments the lack of feeling, rationality, and narrative continuity, and in this case the performance of the actors, especially Mickey, who plays the police officer, is particularly poor."
Rock, and Ariana, who plays the Chinese reporter, their roles in the movie are useless and lifeless. Only the performance of Zunlong who plays Joey Tai is exciting...
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, on the other hand, had two good words for "Year of the Dragon," saying, "The plot is strong and moves forward with power and efficiency."
Chinatowns in New York, Los Angeles and other places organized actions to oppose and boycott the film. Not only Chinese Americans, but also Japanese, Koreans, Southeast Asians, etc. from East Asia were also mobilized to oppose Cimino.
Verbal and written criticism.
The mobilization mechanism used in the previous Chen Guoren case has once again come into play.
These boycotts, partially sponsored by Ronald, had a fatal blow to the box office of "Year of the Dragon." The state guest had just left for his first state visit, and the White House did not want to see such a movie start to offend Chinese Americans.
Media across the country began to report this controversial event intensively.
A television station intercepted Michael Cimino in Los Angeles and asked him what he thought of Chinatown's boycott of his film.
"The film was accused of being racist, but they didn't pay attention to what people said in the film.
This is a movie that deals with racism, but it's not a racist movie. To deal with this kind of subject matter, you have to inevitably reveal its tendencies.
This is the first time we have dealt with the issue of the marginalization of Chinese Americans. So little is known about this issue. Americans were surprised to learn that until 1943, Chinese Americans had been excluded from U.S. citizenship.
They could not bring their wives to the United States. The female reporter, who spoke to Stanley, received applause. For all these reasons, Chinese Americans will like this movie. And the negative reaction of reporters may be a shield to hide these unpleasant facts.
.”
Cimino ran away from the interview after talking nonsense.
"What to do? Mr. Laurentiis", Michael Cimino came to Dino De Laurentiis' office in despair. The movie began to show a strong negative social effect, and movie theaters everywhere began to consider
Reduce the screening time, or simply release it early, leaving the screenings for "Back to the Future" with a strong reputation.
"This trash", Dino De Laurentiis glanced at the lost Cimino, hoping that with this movie, he would make a comeback after "Heaven's Gate", but he was hit hard again. He was hit hard again.
I really made a mistake. Cimino, the Oscar-winning director, has lagged behind the times and can no longer make good movies. If the box office is not good, what's the use of being cheap?
"I have urgently ordered that a subtitle be added to the front of the copy to express our position." "This film is not intended to belittle or ignore the many positive characteristics of Asian Americans, especially the Chinese American community. The description in this film
Any resemblance to any association, organization, individual or Chinatown existing in real life is incidental."
All copies of "Year of the Dragon" include this subtitle at the beginning.
Dino De Laurentiis was a bit heartbroken. Large-scale development and replacement of copies cost him a lot of money. And all of this was caused by Cimino, an outdated director.
"Ronald, what do you think of the recent controversy caused by the movie Year of the Dragon? What do you think of Cimino's defense?"
A calm Ronald appeared on the TV, accepting an interview.
"I think he needs to see an eye doctor first. No one in Chinatown will agree with him that this movie is not racist. Their banners and flyers have clearly expressed their views.
In addition, not all movies have to be related to the Vietnam War. In my opinion, the story of the entire movie would be much better without the slow plot of the Vietnam War. Of course, Director Cimino may prefer this kind of doctrine.
In that famous movie..., that's what was done."
"You mean Heaven's Gate?" The reporter was happy. It's rare for a director to criticize directly like this.
"I originally wanted to say Deer Hunter." Rona laughed and put on his sunglasses. He didn't want to admit that he was laughing at Cimino.
"It's him, it's him, it must be him, behind the scenes." After watching the interview, Michael Cimino jumped up and pointed at Ronald on the TV and shouted to producer Dino De Laurenti
Si reveals.
Laurentiis is from Naples, Italy, and his background is no joke. If the movie loses money, he will definitely be targeted by him, and he will definitely find a scapegoat.
"Really?" Dino De Laurentiis squinted his eyes and looked at Ronald on the TV.