bloom america

Chapter 215 Shocking Premiere

Time has entered May, and IBM's Watson is already feeling tremendous pressure at this time.

Because of her relationship with the Taiwan factory, Catherine did not hesitate to reduce production to support the production of Microsoft II computers.

With a large number of Microsoft II computers flooding into the market, Watson Jr. felt that his IBM plan to enter the microcomputer market did not seem feasible.

Watson Jr. originally planned to completely defeat Catherine's Ark Group, but unfortunately, his company is being investigated by the US Department of Justice.

If you go too far, you will face various antitrust investigations.

At that time, I had a headache.

You can't lose sight of one thing or the other.

Moreover, Watson felt quite helpless when faced with the other party's low-price strategy.

In Watson's view, even if the other party's price increases tenfold, it will not have much impact on their sales.

However, the other party's low-price strategy actually hit IBM.

IBM needs to study the computer architecture from scratch. They must use a new architecture to enter the microcomputer market.

Because the opponent's system is already 8-bit, IBM's next-generation computers must target 16-bit computers in order to defeat the opponent.

——If when IBM develops an 8-bit computer, the other party has already developed a 16-bit computer, then IBM's money will be wasted.

So I have to develop the 16-bit machine directly.

However, their company cannot recover costs step by step like Catherine's company, starting from 4-bit computers. Instead, it must do it in one step. This means that the research and development costs are much higher than Intel's.

After all, the other party has come a long way and developed two generations of computers and various game consoles. The previous research and development costs have been almost recovered. Even if the other party develops a 16-bit computer, it only needs to be based on an 8-bit computer.

Cost savings reduces need - What little Watson didn't know was that Catherine could point the way for the company, which also saved the company a lot of costs and avoided many detours.

Coupled with the other party's low-price strategy, resulting in low profits, unless the other party is completely squeezed out of the market, the market can do what it says.

——You know, IBM achieved a profit of 80 times its market value for a period of time. This is entirely because the pricing power is in their hands.

However, the profit on microcomputers can only reach 50% at most, and Watson really doesn't like it.

His original plan was to squeeze out Ark and then control the pricing power himself, thereby making money in the microcomputer market.

But now...this plan is obviously not feasible.

Little Watson now has a huge headache.

"Maybe……"

Little Watson suddenly thought of a trick - to divert trouble to the east.

Maybe... we can let the Japanese market enter the microcomputer market first, and when the two sides fight to the death, IBM can take the opportunity to reap the benefits?

The Japanese are very good thugs, this trick seems to be very effective?

But soon, Watson Jr. rejected this view.

The Japanese entering this market will only make prices lower, not higher.

——The Japanese have the country’s anti-tax policy, so they can cut prices unscrupulously.

correct……

Little Watson's eyes suddenly lit up.

Ark Company is very popular in the United States and has also set foot in the European market, but... they have not entered the Japanese market.

Japan has gradually begun to become one of the most important emerging economies in the world, and it has been the world's second largest economy before the rise of China.

Watson Jr. has a strong business vision.

He immediately targeted the Japanese market.

IBM is not Ark. They have strong strength and it is possible to enter the Japanese market.

——In fact, IBM has done this in history, and they successfully entered the Japanese market and forced the Japanese PC98 to be terminated by IBM machines.

However, Watson is still very cautious. Specific matters need to be discussed with a think tank and a board of directors must be convened... And to be honest, Watson is not very confident.

…

Just when Watson was considering whether to enter the Japanese market, on the other hand, Catherine's film was about to be released.

"The Gray Zone" is the first part of a trilogy about Catherine's Concentration Camp.

Old Pete also rarely left home, left the TV set and VCD, and came to the cinema.

Old Pete is now very worried about the "Zombie Survival Manual". He is very strange, what exactly does DreamWorks want to do?

"Oh, Peter, I think again of that time when we came from Europe to the United States..."

His wife sat next to him.

"Everything is over."

Old Pete patted his wife's hand.

They are also Jews who narrowly escaped death and came to the United States during World War II.

In addition to them, there were many young people who came here. They were all couples. They laughed, held popcorn, and made embarrassing and ambiguous movements.

Because there was a girl on the promotional poster, they probably thought that the film should be about a love story, so they came here.

Old Pete and his wife found their seats and sat down in the cinema. At this time, the lights dimmed.

The video starts.

First there was silence for half a minute.

Then, a hoarse voice suddenly appeared.

"We personally pushed the corpses of our compatriots into the crematorium

Then the next one

Another one

Those ashes are like the snow that never stops

breath it into your lungs

Penetrate into your skin

Integrate into your veins

Penetrate into your bone marrow

I can no longer be separated from you..."

Then, the dark scene began to light up.

An oppressive atmosphere existed from the beginning.

It's suffocating.

At the beginning of the film, what appears on the screen is an incinerator, where dead bodies are burned.

Several people were coughing while sending the dead body into the incinerator, and wiping their faces at the same time.

Then the scene changed and we came to the gas chamber again - there is no doubt that this is the origin of these dead bodies.

Immediately afterwards, several people found the girl who was still alive and took her to the only doctor.

The doctor began to fight against the Nazis and saved the girl's life.

At this time, the original cool colors gradually become warmer.

The Jews in the concentration camp began to organize an underground organization to prepare for their escape, and doctors also participated.

Everything seemed to be moving in a good direction, and at this time, the picture began to become more beautiful.

At night, the people in the concentration camp finally started an "uprising". At this time, the tone of Catherine's pictures began to turn cold again.

——Their escape plan failed and everyone was arrested.

Then, they were taken to the playground, laid down on the ground, and shot to death one by one.

The screen turned, and the little girl from the beginning appeared again.

No one said anything, and the girl was led to the front door.

At this time, the color becomes warm again.

The girl looked around and then ran outside.

At this time, the Nazi officer suddenly took out his gun.

The next moment, the camera began to shake - at this time, the camera had switched to the little girl's field of view.

"Bang"

With the sound of a gunshot, the camera began to fall to the ground...

Then, the screen turned gray.

However, the film is not over yet at this point.

The scene changed and it was night again.

Several people took the girl's body to the crematorium.

At this time, it seemed that only the sound of the flowing air was left, but the voices of those people had disappeared.

The screen keeps showing these people working, just like the beginning of the film.

At this time, the girl's voice suddenly sounded.

“After the uprising, the stove was still there. I was moved in with them.

I quickly caught fire

Smoke rose from part of me, mixing with other people's smoke

Then the bones were left, fell into the ashes, were swept up and sent to the river

at last

part of our ashes

Floating in the air, surrounded by a new batch of people coming to work

We stay on their shoes, on their faces

stay in their lungs

They gradually got used to us

They stopped coughing and kicked us away

Here they just move

Breathe and move

Like everyone else, still alive here

Work, that's it

continue……"

Then, the picture became darker and darker during this self-narration, and finally turned into complete darkness.

The picture is completely dark.

There was also dead silence in the cinema.

When the "uprising" began, almost everyone thought the ending would be happy.

However, Catherine did not hesitate to crush people's hopes and trample them under her feet.

Unusually, there is no music at all in the film, and at the end of the film, there is not a long list of thanks, but a list of those who died in the concentration camps during World War II, which Catherine painstakingly found.

But at this time, the music started to sound, but it was a funeral spiritual music.

Some people want to cry, but they just can't.

The depressing atmosphere seems to make people lose their breath and forget that they are still alive.

The extremely depressing atmosphere is almost suffocating, but it seems to make people want to stop.

"Oh, Pete..."

My wife and I hugged each other tightly.

"Okay, let's go back."

Pete patted the other person on the back...

The video ends, and then the cleaners come in to clean up, and they find a lot of popcorn that has barely been touched...

"There is nothing more shocking than this, nothing more capable of making us reflect on the sorrow caused by war."

--"New York Times"

"This is a tragedy. According to the tradition of Hollywood, such films are often not popular. Who would like a tragedy? But Miss Catherine Edson tells us that Hollywood needs more than just

It’s nothing more than sensationalism, but it needs a kind of sublimation.”

——"Los Angeles Times"

It must be said that "The Gray Zone" was an unexpected success for Catherine, and even received praise from critical film critics. Logically speaking, Catherine should be very happy at this time, but this is not the case because of a major event

The occurrence of this incident left her with no thought to take care of it...