Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"On the south bank of the river, it is drizzling, and the grass grows very high.

Six dynasties disappeared like a dream, leaving only the crows still crowing.

The willow tree outside the castle in the smoke is the most emotionless,

Still growing happily on the three-mile-long embankment.”

"The poetry of ancient China pays attention to the eye of the poem. A poem can only have one word, which is the most important. If you master the eye of the poem, you can grasp the emotional tone of the entire poem.

Can anyone tell me which word is the word for eyes in this poem? Hannah, you said, very good, it is the crow. The crow represents ominousness in ancient China. As long as there is a crow, tragedy will happen.

This poem is about the original capital of the southern imperial court, which has become a colony of crows, symbolizing the destruction of the dynasty. Students can compare and read it with Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear, both of which tell the story of a great king who destroyed a great dynasty due to insanity in his later years.

In the second act of King Lear, Shakespeare uses the image of a cuckoo bird to describe the ungrateful Goneril. The same is true for the image of crows in Eastern poetry. Everyone must be aware of this writer's technique. "

The ancient Chinese poetry analysis class is nearing the end of the semester. Most of the students who were arty at the beginning have left, and the rest are literary young people and writers who aspire to be writers.

The sinologist teacher analyzed the poems in Three Hundred Tang Poems in English, one after another. However, Ronald did not believe these outrageous analyses. He may have recited Three Hundred Tang Poems in his previous life, and this one was Wei Zhuang's "Taicheng" " He still remembered that the second sentence was clearly about the six dynasties like a dream, but the professor thought it was the crow's crow, and after analysis, it turned out to be very clear.

When the bell remembered, Ronald rushed forward and asked the teacher for leave to attend the Golden Globe Awards banquet at the end of next month.

"Ronald, I don't care what ceremony you attend. My grading standards are the same for all classmates. When Hannah went to Harvard-Yenching Institute to be a research assistant, she also had to write a comparison of ancient Tang Dynasty poetry and Shakespeare's sonnets. I will give her an A grade if she studies. If you want to go to Los Angeles, you must submit your final essay.”

Seeing the professor's unwillingness to accommodate, Ronald became angry and said, "What if I find something wrong with the content of your lecture?"

"That's good, Ronald. I welcome challenges to my academic theories. As long as you can find out where I'm wrong and make sense, I'll give you a good grade. Don't come here again. Individual courses are also available.”

This is what you said. After class, Ronald went to the library to borrow three hundred Tang poems.

The river is raining, the river is full of grass, and the six dynasties are like a dream and the black sky is crying.

The most ruthless willow in Taicheng is still smoke-filled embankment ten miles away.

Ronald flipped through the traditional Chinese version of "Three Hundred Tang Poems" that he had found from the library and was furious. Why? Not only did the character for bird become crow, but the poem called Taicheng was also written as a map of Jinling.

"How is this possible? Ping ping 廄廄, the word "bird" should be pronounced in a oblique tone here." Ronald complained in Chinese.

"Hey, do you also know Chinese Tang poetry?" The Chinese student from the master's class whom I saw last time was also in the library, holding a copy of "Dialogues between Truffaut and Hitchcock" in his hand.

"Ah, it's you." Ronald recognized the boy who was not very good at English. "For the Tang poetry analysis class I took, I wanted to find a good version of 300 Tang poems. The version here was so bad that all the prints were wrong. ”

The boy took it and took a look, "It's indeed wrong. When we were young, all we memorized were the cries of birds. Go and have a look at my place. My girlfriend Jiahui has a version from Zhonghua Book Company. It is a very authoritative version."

"Well, thank you, my name is Ronald Lee."

"Actually, my surname is also Li. My name is Li Ang. You can call me anglee."

Li Ang's girlfriend Jiahui was cooking. When she saw Li Ang bringing a friend home, she quickly invited Ronald to eat with her. Ronald was also happy to enjoy a meal of Chinese food. Jiahui's spoken English was much better than Li Ang's, so he acted as the translator for the two of them and chatted about movies.

"I heard that you have a club that screens movies. Can you introduce me to join?" Leon asked Ronald about the small club that screens pirated movies.

"According to the rules, you have to bring your own copy to the screening. I also borrowed the Soviet Union's 'Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears' before they allowed me to join.

"I can ask the people in the office to borrow Director Hu's 'Song of the Sky'. It was a new film last year and has just been added with English subtitles."

"You borrow the copy, and I will introduce you to Spike, who is also in the master's class. He will organize screenings. By the way, his surname is also Li."

Ronald's "Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears" was screened in small clubs to a modest response. Everyone commented that the aesthetics of the movie are very classical, but the language used in the audition is a bit old, and the values ​​​​are also very traditional. It is a popular drama.

Ronald said the movie had broken attendance records in Seville, but no one believed it. Perhaps it is because the movie involves some plots of single mothers and unmarried pregnancies, which is unprecedented on the Sewell screen. The audience has never seen such a plot that reflects reality, so word of mouth broke the record.

This is also due to the fact that the general secretary-general is a movie fan. It is said that he shed tears after watching it and gave personal instructions before it was allowed to be screened.

Sometimes the box office of a movie depends not only on the performance of the artists, but also on the progress of social trends.

There are many examples of movies that are not valued by artists, but suddenly fit the public’s perception, and the box office suddenly takes off. This is also commonly known as luck.

I had a great time chatting with Li Ang. Ronald borrowed Jiahui's Zhonghua Book Company edition of Three Hundred Tang Poems, and it turned out to be "The Six Dynasties Are Like Dreams and Birds Crying in the Sky". Ronald remembered it correctly. He first photocopied the page of poetry, and then wrote a short essay overnight.

"The words "bird" and "empty" are used together to show that this is a contrasting technique. The bird's cry is a happy and beautiful image, and the "empty cry" is a bird with everything still the same, contrasting with the deserted royal city that has declined, highlighting the rise and fall of the dynasty. The helplessness..."

In the office the next day, Professor Sinologist saw the small paper Ronald handed him, and then saw the copy in the appendix.

"Yes, your analysis can be justified. I can give you a high score. Although you don't have to come to class, I still hope you come more often. Ancient poetry has an imagination like the sea. In 28 words, it's like a movie.

The editing is precise and the narrative is reasonable. I suspect that Chinese people are born to make movies. "

The sinologist professor accepted Ronald's essay with satisfaction, and unexpectedly revealed a set of theories. Poems and movies also had similar treatments.

Ronald nodded and took out another three hundred Tang poems and flipped through them. Is it true that Tang poems are similar to movies? Don't be fooling me again, right?

Watching Ronald leave the office, the sinologist professor also nodded, "Very good, next year's lesson plan can be revised again. I have to talk to my Chinese wife. This typo is so embarrassing."

As New Year's Day approaches, the weather is getting colder and colder. The weather forecast for New Year's Eve unexpectedly included strong cold air and rain. Donna, who originally pestered Ronald to attend the New Year's Eve countdown in Manhattan's Times Square, and her good friend Diane Lane hesitated.

Diane Lane was wearing a newly bought white fur shawl and looked at the mirror and said, "Hey, let's wait until Oscar to wear it. The temperature is too cold. I will definitely freeze to death just wearing a fur shawl."

"I originally wanted to watch the new big ball drop, but I heard that it will be dressed up in a new style this year." Donna also muttered. There is a countdown in Times Square every year. Many people go there to watch a big ball on the Times Building fall to the ground as the countdown continues.

"Okay, don't worry. I have two Macy's vouchers for you to make gifts." Ronald took out two vouchers and gave them to the two girls. They were originally Christmas gifts, but little Bud Things were delayed.

The two girls turned on the TV and watched a black music program called Soul Train. Many black celebrities were performing black music and dance, and the two girls started chirping to comment.

Nowadays, American life is completely inseparable from television. The two people who cannot go to watch the New Year's Eve performance in person will definitely watch the TV broadcast and count down to the New Year with millions of viewers. In fact, when the New Year's Eve is very cold, it may be more comfortable to watch the TV broadcast.

The new season of the TV series "The Family" was delayed for two months due to the strike. In the last episode of the last season, which whetted the audience's appetite for eight months, the footage of Jr. Ewing's shooting finally came to light. It was his sister who killed him.

This episode broke the American TV ratings record, with a peak rating of over 53% and an audience share of over 76%. In other words, three out of four TV sets watched this episode that day. This number of viewers even exceeded the number of voters in the general election.

Even the Queen of Britain and the former Commander-in-Chief asked the crew who the murderer was, and all received no answers. In order to prevent leaks, the producers also filmed scenes of all the characters shooting, and no one knew how the script was written.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the actor who played Jr. Ewing took the opportunity to threaten to increase the price. It is said that the price has reached an unprecedented US$100,000 per episode, which is already comparable to the salary of movie actors.

With such momentum, the old rival ABC TV station has also decided to launch a TV series with a similar theme next year, telling the grievances of Texas oil tycoon families, tentatively titled "Dynasty".

The next day, Ronald took the two girls to Macy's to pick out gifts. Instead of choosing anything else, Donna went to the bookstore and picked out a set of "Feynman Lectures on Physics." Having already begun studying calculus, she became interested in physics again.

Ronald saw advertisements for "Fast-paced Richmond High" already appearing in bookstores, and Simon \u0026 Schuster decided to sell the novel in the New Year.

"Is this a novel you adapted? I wonder if I can pre-order it," Diane Lane asked.

"Yes, I have a sample sent by the publisher. I can give it to you if you want."

Seeing the difference between Donna and Diane in choosing gifts, Ronald felt that this was also a very contrasting contrast. One likes natural science and the other likes youth novels. They have completely different hobbies, but they are good friends. Maybe they both discovered different qualities in each other and became friends.

Ronald thought of the Hamilton siblings in the novel.

The contrast between Brad and Stacey is also a setting in Cameron Crowe's novel.

Whether you agree with Brad's values ​​of serious work and hard work, or Stacey's values ​​of having a boyfriend all over the world, you will not be disgusted with the other brother and sister.

Mark, a nerdy geek nicknamed "Mouse", is timid about things between men and women, and is best friends with Mike Lemmon, a smooth-talking veteran who picks up girls.

No matter which one of them you belong to, you will have a kind of identification with your own type of character, which will create a sense of substitution and deepen your understanding of other types of characters.

The stories behind each character are completely different from what they seem on the surface.

Behind the timidity of "rat" Mark is his respect for his feelings and his secret crush Stacey. Behind the smooth talk of Mike, a veteran in picking up girls, is the choice of being a scalper to earn money to support himself. In the end, he did his best to collect enough money to pay for Stacey's surgery.

Cameron Crowe is full of affection for these characters. They are not simply divided into good and bad people, but have their own thoughts and values. This novel he wrote while undercover in high school for 10 months seems to be a big seller.