Chapter 24 Eat more if it tastes good, and quit until you feel sick
At the invitation of friends in Oceania, after finding a Nasdaq fund worth investing in in San Francisco, Gu Kun planned to go to Los Angeles while there was still time.
That night, Luo Haili happened to take over a new house, so Gu Kun took his subordinates to the new house to have a small gathering, and by the way, he checked out the hotel room he had stayed in when he first arrived.
The Silicon Valley manor of more than ten acres can accommodate a lot of people, so even if Gu Kun's team leader, coach, doctor, cook, and female bodyguards brought a dozen people, it still seemed very spacious.
Let's have a drink and a meal together, and play songs on the home theater left by the original owner of the manor.
Taking advantage of the leisure time of singing, Gu Kun hugged Lin Ying and told Midrova who was waiting next to her: "Tomorrow morning, you go buy a car or an RV. It doesn't need to be too conspicuous. In the future, there will be some on the West Coast.
I'm a self-transporter. After packing up at noon tomorrow, we'll drive to Los Angeles."
"Driving to Los Angeles? It feels so far." Lin Ying's geography is not good, and she couldn't tell how far it was at first glance.
Gu Kun: "When you come to Oceania, you have to do as the locals do. It's more than 800 kilometers away, and it's troublesome to fly. The railways here are at least as shabby as they were thirty years ago. It's still comfortable to drive by yourself."
The infrastructure here in Oceania is really in bad shape. Fortunately, the aviation industry is quite developed, so we can maintain it.
In the 21st century, many trams in major cities in Oceania will be purchased from CRRC.
It’s not that Oceania doesn’t have the technology to build subways and trams, but the railway/subway construction in Oceania was concentrated in the 1950s and 1960s and was completed in a spurt. Then in the 1970s, there were still some replacement orders for carriages, and so on.
There were no more orders after that.
Therefore, the traditional companies in Oceania that manufactured electric locomotives, such as some affiliated with Westinghouse Electric, went bankrupt by the 1970s.
A complete industrial category cannot be sustained if there is not enough sustained and steady market.
Rather than relying on the often broken public transportation system here, we might as well just do as the Romans do and get a fleet of vehicles to drive wherever they go.
Of course no one else would object.
The next day, Midrova carried a box of cash in high spirits, found a place similar to a 4S store, and experienced the life of a wealthy lady.
Although her English is not fluent and she has a thick Russian accent, the owner of the car shop respects her more and more, and regards her as a tycoon like Abramovich who embezzles Lucia's state-owned resources.
Relatives treated me politely.
Throughout the mid-to-late 1990s, in various high-end shopping malls in Western developed countries, it was common to see mysterious, low-key wealthy people who spoke in Russian accents. They did not want to reveal their identity and just bought boxes of cash.
However, the relevant departments in English-speaking countries do not investigate such people when they see them, and even provide convenience for them - who knows that these moths that harmed Lucia are hollowing out the national power of Eastern European countries for the West.
As long as it is a beneficial potential ally, the United States does not care whether you are greedy or poisonous.
Midlova really enjoyed the feeling of elation. After buying the car and returning home, she couldn't help but cry softly.
"What's wrong? Why don't you just buy a car? You're still wronged." Gu Kun was making preparations before leaving and was not in the mood to pay attention to the woman's mood.
"It's okay. I thought about how many people around me were cheated by the people from Oceania in the past few years, and I felt so moved." Midrova quickly wiped her tears and secretly kissed Gu Kun while no one was around, "Thank you.
, let me have another chance in my life to see Americans grovel."
This is too easy to satisfy, but since Gu Kun is a vested interest in this emotion, he has no reason to stop it.
Women in prosperous times are priceless, but Blackland is in troubled times. So Midrova's mentality cannot be understood by women in prosperous times. (I will not use the traditional and vulgar metaphor of "women in prosperous times are like gold".
In that case, women are still objectified. To say they are priceless is not objectification. What is priceless is not necessarily a thing, so I won’t give you a chance to complain.)
After lunch, Gu Kun took the newly purchased Lexus and traveled along Highway 1 to Los Angeles.
The only people in the car were Gao Jianxiong, who was driving, and Gu Kun's two women.
Other bodyguards and entourages followed behind in RVs.
People in China may think that Lexus is not good because it is a Japanese car, but they have to admit that the quality of Japanese cars sold to Oceania is really good, and it is a product that supports the appearance of Japanese cars.
Since it is a good thing for the little Japanese to honor his beautiful father, there is no reason why Gu Kun should not take advantage of it, right? Besides, Lexus is relatively popular among the wealthy people in California and is not eye-catching.
Highway 1 is a very beautiful road, because it is close to the west coast of Oceania. Along the way south, you can see the vast Pacific Ocean directly to the right.
In the "Need for Speed 5: Porsche Tour" back then, there was a map surrounded by mountains and seas, which was a map adapted from scenes taken from California's Highway 1.
So when racing here, it feels like traveling back in time to Need for Speed.
Especially in the evening, when everyone is in the car, you can see the sun setting into the Pacific Ocean, filling the sky with red light, which is a spectacular sight.
"It would be really nice if you could just stay at home here and live a life without fighting against the world." Lin Ying leaned against the car window and couldn't help but sigh.
…
After traveling all the way and sleeping in the RV all night, Gu Kun arrived in Los Angeles early the next morning.
He called his friend Emmerich, who enthusiastically gave Gu Kun an address and welcomed him to his home.
Gu Kun found a villa in Beverly Hills in Hollywood by address.
"Hey, Roland, nice to meet you." Gu Kun said hello stiffly in a translator's English.
"Gu, you are a celebrity now. The Olympics are coming soon, and many people are saying that you are going to win the gold medal like crazy." Emmerich enthusiastically pulled Gu Kun's people into the villa.
Obviously, Gu Kun's reputation has skyrocketed many times over the past year or so.
Before, he was just a rich man with tens of millions of dollars, and there were at least tens of thousands of such rich men in the world, so they were inconspicuous.
But now, with the Olympic year, he has become a hot topic of media speculation. In the past nearly a month, many media in Oceania have been pre-heating reports about Gu Kun.
Therefore, anyone in the Hollywood media circle who can establish some friendship with Gu Kun, as long as they are not among the top celebrities, will definitely tend to have more contacts with him.
The so-called top celebrities, of course, refer to big names like Cameron and Spielberg. They are so superior that they disdain to associate with Gu Kun.
But Emmerich obviously does not belong to that level. He is now just a second- or third-rate director.
Faced with Emmerich's enthusiasm, Gu Kun greeted him warmly, but also did not forget to complain a little bit: "Last year at this time, I was talking to you about your movie in the Netherlands, and you didn't even bother to talk to me.
Say more, if I have money to invest in you, you don’t want it.”
Emmerich was a little embarrassed. He personally poured Gu Kun a glass of freshly squeezed Sunkist orange juice and asked his servant to greet Gu Kun's entourage. Then he made an excuse to explain:
"You're talking about my "Earth Strikes Back", right? Doesn't every circle have its own fund-raising channels? I'm afraid you don't understand, just make a few random bets, and you'll blame me if you lose. We can't even do this
There is no ordinary friendship left.
You may not know that few people in Hollywood are interested in my movies. Fortunately, I have money, so I don’t care about other people’s opinions. I just shoot whatever I want, and I shoot randomly.”
The name "Earth Strikes Back" is actually the Chinese translation on pirated DVDs in China after 1996. It is a blind translation. The original name here in Oceania is "Independence Day".
This film was shot by Emmerich over the past year or so, and it will be released in just a few days to coincide with the Oceania National Day and summer vacation on July 4th.
Of course Gu Kun knew that this film had a very good box office history, but at the same time it also had a very poor reputation in the industry.
How can I put it, just like the people at the China Classic Film Festival, who look down on movies like "The Trouble of So-and-so" and "The Richest Man in So-and-So", feeling that these movies "reincarnate the rebirth and Shenhao system in the Internet articles"
"Vulgar elements" have been introduced into the film industry, lowering the industry's standards to the point where they are as tasteless as Internet articles.
Or it may be similar to the traditional cross talk circle, which looks down upon Guo Degang and thinks that he talks vulgarly and makes cross talk vulgar.
However, these vulgar things actually sell very well in selling tickets.
It's vulgar, it's stigmatizing, and it's a pity that it makes money.
Emmerich's movies are just as vulgar as the plot is not very good, and the logic is not even self-consistent, but he knows that the audience of this era likes to watch special effects.
Ever since, from "Earth Strikes Back" to the later "Godzilla", "The Day After Tomorrow", and "2012", a bunch of plots have been messed up, but there have been things that can definitely handle the huge scenes of destruction.
"Earth Strikes Back" is his first movie that is about to make a lot of money, so his situation at the moment is like a "Hollywood Guo Degang" who is about to make a lot of money but has not yet made a lot of money, and is being criticized by his peers.
Therefore, Gu Kun also knows how to deal with this kind of friend:
"How do you know that I wanted to invest money in you at that time, but I just made a few investments because of my enthusiasm? I don't think I have a bad vision. I have read your book. It was a big and lively scene. You still spent money to hire Industrial Light and Magic
If you do special effects, the audience will definitely love to see it. If you had asked me to vote for it, I would definitely vote for it."
These words really surprised Emmerich, even more surprising than when Gu Kun wanted to invest money in him last year.
Because he is not short of money, he just feels that he has no confidants in the industry.
He asked with a slightly critical eye: "Don't you think the plot of this movie is bad?"
Gu Kun: "It's bad, it's really bad, but it doesn't matter. We've been tired of watching the plot for so many years, and even if it's not bad, it doesn't necessarily have anything new. 95% of Hollywood art films are just complaining.
In this case, why not cater to the audience directly? Even if you put together a bunch of jokes, as long as you shoot a grand scene that scares everyone, it will be considered a contribution to society."
Emmerich smiled bitterly and sighed: "Those academics think this will lower the audience's appreciation ability."
Gu Kun shrugged nonchalantly: "If you become popular, others will follow suit, and the audience will get tired of it after watching too much. I dare say that in less than ten years, the market atmosphere of worshiping stunts and big scenes will be saturated.
At that time, social aesthetics will naturally return to paying attention to plot and ideas.
We Chinese people have a saying as we age, it is better to be sparse than to block. To solve the wrong needs of the people, we must let them eat enough to make them sick. But at this moment, what you are doing is still to satisfy scarcity. What is there to be confused about?
When there is no scarcity in ten or eight years, you can change your career or retire."