The uniform they had for Jean-Claude was silk pajamas, these Chinese silk pajamas. How did that come about?Sheldon Lettich: Well, it's interesting. And Tanaka was well known. I showed him pictures of this ancient fortress on a hilltop that the Russians had converted, so that became the basis for it. And his wife and my wife became even closer friends. Oh yeah! They wanted to stick with the Van Damme formula. "He's a loser. And I remember watching a movie where James Bond was doing jujitsu. I imagine it's hard to write a personal, firsthand account like that.Frank Dux: Here's the thing. But here's a photo from the screening, so I guess at least one person wanted to have their photo taken with me. I don't really want to give this guy a platform for more publicity because that's what he's always looking for.". I literally wrote a good majority of that script with Sheldon, but I never got credit for it. There's not a Tanaka in Japanese history of the ninja families? In fact, I was born with my foot so pigeon-toed that it actually went backwards; my foot, it could go 180 degrees the other way. "Tagline:The True Story of an American Ninja, "All I request," Lettich started off by saying, "is that we try to keep discussion about Frank Dux to a minimum. I met this guy Sheldon Lettich, who had done a play called Tracers and we became friends. This got the people at Cannon re-thinking Bloodsport and they decided to do a test run on the west coast. Bloodsport: Directed by Newt Arnold. Plus, we hear LL Cool J's hip-hop prayer and the best . But there was a Writer's Guild arbitration and the Writer's Guild ended up giving him a co-story credit.Blake Harris: Tell me a little bit about Legionnaire. So he brought Tracers to the Steppenwolf Theatre and he directed it. But he had a great imagination, he had good ideas and he knew the martial arts world pretty well. And he did that to Sheldon several times. But Norris was the one, I think, who they declared as the winner. And then there was the famous meeting between Jean-Claude and Menahem on La Cienega Boulevard. Then we started meeting on a regular basis over at the VA hospital in Westwood. A little bit. Double Impact was financed, mostly, through pre-sales and, as it was structured, each of those companies also own a piece of the movie. This was significant not only because he wrote the screenplay for Bloodsport, but also because Dux had said some unflattering things about the writer. And at the Invitationals, there's Bruce Lee. An animatronic dinosaur with a teen's brain, dinosaur charades, a weird striptease for a brain in a bowl, and much more. Which kind of made Grant feel better about himself. And I'll never forgetand I'm terrified of heights, by the way. Two, actually. Sheldon wrote Legionnaire and was supposed to direct it, but then Jean-Claude got someone else. And I showed that in court. Nothing happened with that, but then he started paying me a little bit to write some scripts for him.Blake Harris: Did any of those get made?Sheldon Lettich: We got really close with one. On May 1, 1988, just over two months after Bloodsport hit theaters, John Johnson of the L.A. Times published this editorial:NINJA: Hero or Master Fake?Others Kick Holes in Fabled Past of Woodland Hills Martial Arts TeacherAs the title suggests, the piece isn't too kind to Dux. So the play was groundbreaking in some ways. Let's make a kickass, balls-to-the-wall revenge movie. Discovered by Player FM and our community copyright is owned by the publisher, not Player FM, and audio is streamed directly from their servers. They were doing a showing of Bloodsport in a theater in my old home town and I just happened to be visiting. And he was friendly to me. It's a sprawling ecosystem. And here it is, years later, I got to go with her and take it to the movies. Like with Legionnaire. I was a gentleman. We thought he was f***ing great. You had mentioned that you and Sheldon reshaped that original script. On Bloodsport, we got into it during one of the fight scenes. I'm not gonna stoop to his level. People would just assume that this is how it worked on those other two movies.Blake Harris: That makes sense.Sheldon Lettich: So I actually suggested to Jean-Claude that he use Frank Dux to write the script. He went in and redid it. But then Ed Pressman, who had done Street Fighter, he wanted to do another movie with Jean-Claude. In the early to mid 90s, dinosaurs were soooo cool! We just became friends almost immediately. Please note as always his opinions, recollections and claims are his own, and not necessarily fact. Plus the guy was just an idol of mine. It made its budget back just the first weekend on the west coast. Bloodsport was produced by Cannon Films and released by Warner Bros. on 26 February 1988. Like, very famously, he turned down Demolition Man. And on it he writes: To the Man Who Beat Me. Enter the Ninja?Sheldon Lettich: No, there was no script prior to the "Bloodsport" script. And basically what happens is I told the story to Sheldon. During that time, he's never felt like he had a platform to defuse those lies and tell his side of the storyuntil now. While trying to gain access into. "But Sly," I said, "it really wouldn't work that way because one thing that's been established with Rambo is that he's the baddest motherf***er in the world, but he doesn't want to fight. So there would be one shot where you would see both brothers in the same shot, kind of talking to one another and then all the other shots were either close-ups or over-the-shoulders done with a double. And separates Mike's shoulder. I wrote the script, got paid a small fee and I can't remember how much time passedprobably less than a yearand via another guy named Lou Horwitza financer who, I believe, did gap-financing at the timeLou took it to Cannon. I saw Sheldon as my friend, and I was trying to help him. I don't know if they ever approached Michael Dudikoff, but basically the producers were in a quandary as to who to cast. But they called me from Hong KongFrank and Jean-Claudelamenting the fact that "Mark DiSalle was messing up the script." I assume you're referring to Jean-Claude. In fact, I never even got story credit for it.Blake Harris: That's rough.Frank Dux: Well, Sheldon has made a career out of coming in behind me and putting his name on my work, okay? And I just want to end it right now." But the truth is, I had already written a script called Enter the Ninja. And it became real clear and finallyI said show me the proof that I represented myself as a war hero, as a Medal of Honor hero? This thingwhatever it was calledit was really cool and it would be a cool way to meet chicks.Blake Harris: And how did you go from passively enjoying these things to actual participating and learning how to fight?Frank Dux: I guess one of the things that helped push me in that direction was that I befriended a kid named Grant who had it far worse than myself. And Jean-Claude's phone began ringing off the hook. And of course he says he did (but he didn't). So to compensate, they put me in these metal boots. Then he said, "It's my movie too and I want what's best for the film! Commander Alexander Martin available for review. But, I mean, he couldn't do a forward roll when I first got him. (w/ Nicole Byer) 4/7/2023 More HDTGM all-star Nicole Byer (Grand Crew, Nailed It!) The piece, entitled "Kumite: A Learning Experience," was written by editor John Stewart and begins with the following note: From time to time, Black Belt learns of unusual events or occurrences in the martial arts; events thateither because of their nature or because they occurred in the distant pastcannot be easily verified. They each got three chances to punch (and block) one another. But it was interesting because he's fighting Mike Stone and Mike Stone had reportedly 91 wins. I mean, he couldn't do a throw. I had my then-fianc back in the United States get all the uniforms for them. So flash forward ten years and I still had this notion of doing a film about the classic era of French Foreign Legion movie. And were just digging this whole notion of Jean-Claude being a Legionnaire. Enjoy, and please share and subscribe! Do you still believe I that?" And they did. He said, "To be the best, you've gotta fight the best, kid." In exchange for dropping the suit, they offered me the rights to The Corsican Brothers, which I readily agreed to because, by then, Jean-Claude was trying to get a project set up with Moshe Diamant. But when we found out Frank Dux was going to be there, we realized that this could go very, very bad, very quickly. joins Paul, June, and Jason to break down the 1994 Sly Stallone & Sharon Stone thriller The Specialist, a movie that argues bombs are more precise weapons than guns. DuBois' Bloodsport first appeared in Superman Vol 2 #4 by John Byrne back in 1987. And it's kind of funny because those are superfluous elements to the film. And it's interesting because they hide that, you know? If he doesn't have any use for people, he throws them to the side. The whole martial arts thing. And, at that lunch, Mark agreed and hired me to write the script for Bloodsport.Blake Harris: Frank mentioned he already had a script? Absolutely. Does that even look the same? His contract was not for writing, it was for use of his name and a portion of his "real-life story." Idc, even have a "Thor and Cap trade weapons moment" in Endgame with those two. KUMITE! I made a joke and it just took him out of it, snapped him out of it.Blake Harris: Laughter is the best medicine, right?Frank Dux: I took him out of it. It was very time-consuming and it was not easy to match things up with the optical printer, but I thought we did a pretty good job of that. Give me a shot with him." And here comes Moore, and Moore drops him in under 30 seconds. We'd shoot one side of the screen with one of the brothers and then Jean-Claude would have to change his hair, make-up, wardrobe and we'd have a double standing in for another brother. He liked the authenticity in it and he'd heard about Tracers also. And what really grabbed Sheldon's attention was the fights.Blake Harris: So what happened with the script? None of that is reported. It's risk free with Nord's 30 day money-back guarantee! Because you didn't do it in Hong Kong." So he started taking me to construction sites where I could get work. During the tournament, Dux battles an array of international fighters from various schools of martial arts. By Earwolf, Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas. It's a way for me to just flow. And they've never wavered from that.Blake Harris: The kick?Sheldon Lettich: Yeah. Very well known. Or actually, a better question: how did Bloodsport first come together?Sheldon Lettich: [producer] Mark DiSalle invited me to lunch. Which was Mike's move. You want to fight, let's fight?" I really screwed up. I felt bad for him.Blake Harris: Actually, if you don't mind, I have one more question for you.Frank Dux: Sure.Blake Harris: We've spent all of this time talking about your life as a fighter and portrayals of your life as a fighter. When I heard that name, it was like bells started ringing. As a result, he's spent the past 28 years dealing with perpetual allegations of being a fake and a fraud. We probably fought for a good 5-10 minutes before getting split up. So he still didn't' have a lot of faith in Jean-Claude's acting abilities and decided not to make it. He says, "I love you. You can listen to theBloodsportedition of the HDTGM podcasthere. In fact, Universal had some problems with what we did there because we did not want it to be a revenge movie. Roger Moore co-starred along side Van Damme in The Quest (1996) ironically playing a James Bond actor which Frank Dux had said inspired him to learn martial arts in the first place. There were a number of people who really liked it. Bloodsport (1988) Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Forest Whitaker based on experiences in the life of martial artist Frank W. Dux My involvement in that tournament was part of a plan, launched in 1975, to infiltrate the criminal organizations that organized the fights. Mr. Dux and I met in Tegucigalpal, Honduras, in the summer of 1985, where I was being briefed by Dux and other intelligence operatives on military targets within Nicaragua. And I said, "Jean-Claude, that's bullshit. I'll tell you one thing: When I was there, I got a standing ovation. It worked great. It was going to be a surprise appearance. He did everything to basically poison the well with Jean-Claude and everybody I worked with. So when he heard that there was another movie with Van Dammeand this time Van Damme was starring in itSammy was totally enthusiastic. Start Free Trial. So I have all these memories of falling down stairs and crawling on my knees. He was pure, he didn't do drugs. So I wrote the script and gave it to a guy named Jacov Bresler. I was just at his house for New Year's Eve. You've gotta kidnap his friend. And this felt very personal because the guys that were up on stage for those initial performances were pretty much playing themselves in many respects.Tracers, as the play would later be titled, was first presented as a work-in-progress performance piece on July 4, 1980. Menahem started to realize what he had with Jean-Claudeand remember, he had two more movies with himso he called us into his office and said, "We need to find our next movie for Jean-Claude." So Frank and I go to a theater and we were both blown away by Jean-Claude. He tells one where he says he met Menahem Golan [a producer on Bloodsport] at a restaurant and [Van Damme] threw out his legs and blah blah blah. Along with Alexander Martin.To this point, on http://frankdux.net/facts/ there is a signed declaration by Lt. Because we don't want our readers to be misinformed, Black Belt has a policy of strict verification of all facts pertaining to any article. Originally he'd planned for it to take place in present day, but I just thought that if you've got all of these fighters coming from all of the world like they did in Bloodsportand basically he was just trying to do a different version of Bloodsportthat it would make things more interesting if, for example, this took place in the 1920s because then it becomes really difficult for all these fighters from different parts of the world to journey to this contest.Blake Harris: So Frank was originally hired to write the script for The Quest?Sheldon Lettich: Frank, and they actually put another writer on with Frank. And Menahem was dead set against it.Blake Harris: Why?Sheldon Lettich: [Laughing at the memory] His word for Jean-Claude was "poison." He was born with all sorts of birth defectshe had one leg shorter than the other, he didn't have a jawboneand because of my own, I don't know, "disability," we became friends. I was not an actor, so it was decided that I would be the writer member of this group. But to my pleasant surprise, Lettich was a complete gentleman. That was invented, right then and there. And everybody had their picture taken with me, and I don't recall anyone having their picture taken with Sheldon, outside of his friends. We have a treatment and we started writing the script. I showed him some video footage, and that's how the project started.Blake Harris: Before talking about next steps, I'm curious to hear more about your initial script. One of these covert operatives was one Frank Dux. The truth of the matter is that Jean-Claude had done a film called No Retreat, No Surrender. U.S. soldier Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) has come to Hong Kong to be accepted into the Kumite, a highly secret and extremely violent martial-arts competition. So I watched that happen and then I watched Victor Moore fight Chuck Norris.Blake Harris: Moore fought Bruce Lee and then Chuck Norris? But Menahem said, "No, I'm not gonna release it in theaters. Both of them wanted to be the cop.Blake Harris: That's so funny (though it makes sense).Sheldon Lettich: It just couldn't be worked out so the project fell by the wayside until they got Stallone and Wesley Snipes to be in it. So it was lot of college hijinks, trying to get girls and all that stuff. Blake Harris: What was the scripting process like for Rambo III, working with Stallone?Sheldon Lettich: He and I were pretty much on the same wavelength for that. So it should be a total of six blows, except this turned out to be a total of eight because of those two to Vic's head. He taught at the Nakano spy school in Japan. That is not to say that the Tanaka name has no meaning. Or any agent's records? And then Troutman gets captured by the Russians and Rambo's feeling guilt because he let his buddy down. Do you see what I'm saying? In the end, his psyche was broken when Jimmy Olsen brought his brother onto the scene. I also was never AWOL. So I ended up writing that script for him. And he said yeah. It was ridiculous what they had. And it was painful. They always gave me one camera to kind of use and shoot it the way I'd like to see shot. A simultaneously misleading and fitting title was certainly bestowed upon Bloodsport 4: The Dark Kumite, by far the worst installment of the franchise by a longshot. And the one twinning shot would sell it and it worked surprisingly well.Blake Harris: The next movie you worked on with Jean-Claude was his directorial debut, The Quest [1996], but only in the capacity of script polishing. I was there at every meeting and, of course, they were getting all the ideas out of me. Jean-Claude was doing movies for Columbia and they wanted him to bring them some ideas for movies and we brought that idea to them. Did that piece directly lead to Bloodsport? I don't know if they ever approached Chuck Norris, but Chuck didn't seem right. This is like 1979 and he wanted to put together some kind of theatrical piece about Vietnam veterans. The 20 episodes of How Did This Get Made listed below offer a taste of the world that the hosts have built. I didn't understand. He actually challenged me to a fight. So any time you want to know who an agent is you can just go down there and file a request? It would have been an expensive movie. Took me a long, long time to write that script. Bloodsport 4: The Dark Kumite. In fact, we explored Post Traumatic Stress in the play, but the term PTSD had not even been coined yet. We Hate Movies podcast did Timecop for one of their eps, and likewise, it is one of their best eps. Dux's trophy from the Bahamas event was at least partially made in the San Fernando Valley. Synopsis:U.S. Army Captain Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), who had been trained as a boy by the legendary Ninjutsu master Senzo Tanaka, decides to honor his mentor by taking the place of Tanaka's dead son in an illegal, no-holds-barred martial arts tournament called the "Kumite. We gave our enthusiastic thumbs up and the next thing I know they're in pre-production and off to Hong Kong. And because of the braces and how the legs were locked togethera steel bar locked them togetheryou couldn't even waddle, you know? How conscious were youand I don't mean with that movie, but in generalabout that kind of formula. Mark was against it first, but I said, "Look, I can do a lot with this guy. And I showed them, here's an issue of Black Belt magazine from two years prior to this; and here's a photo of me in that magazine from January 1976 right after I won it, holding the trophy. And then he did a kick that missed his face by like two inches. And Jean-Claude's got a really good sense of how a fight scene should be edited. And he ends up doing a test of speed with this guy named Vic Moore. They liked the idea, liked the script, and decided to go ahead and do it as a low-budget movie. Wow. Around this time, Leon Isaac Kennedy [from The White House All Stars] had been in in a Chuck Norris movie called Lone Wolf McQuade and there was talk about doing a Part Two. Poison! And I said, "Hey, asshole, I'm right over here." So these kids kind of grew up together. Showed him a few screenplays that I had written and we decided to work together on this. So cool, in fact, that now we have a professional basketball team called The Raptors and no one raised an eyebrow about why a team from Tornoto, Canada would be named that. And that's what I found out later in life. Blake Harris: You had mentioned earlier on that Bloodsport sat on the shelf for two yearsFrank Dux: Yeah, for two years it sat on the shelf. I walked over there and he threw a playful kick at my head. In downtown L.A. And I go: Well, just do me a favor. And it was just surreal to her. Dux said the military ordered his record sabotaged to discredit him. In this declaration, Commander Martin attests to the following: Frank Dux: As far as my military service goes, I should also mention that I'm named as a source contributor in the US Navy SEAL SPECWAR manual. That's kind of how it appealed to me. To turn it into a TV series. Go to https://NordVPN.com/variant to get a 2-year plan at a huge discount plus 4 months free. He would punch the bricks, breaking them apart. So he goes there on his own to rescue Troutman, and that pretty much became the movie.Blake Harris: That's a good point. A lot of those shots came from the camera angles I had been directing. ).Blake Harris: That's great. KUMITE! I thought that was real interesting.Blake Harris: I imagine that at 11 years old that was a pretty inspiring experience.Frank Dux: Yeah and then three years later, I saw him again. That kind of caught my fancy. And the receipt was dated 1982, okay? And I said, "Okay, after dailies, I'll meet you up there." Why don't you go check it out?" Sadly not at all. LIVE from Largo in Los Angeles, Nicole Byer of Party Over Here joins Paul and Jason to discuss the cult 1988 Jean-Claude Van Damme martial-arts film Bloodsport. How Did This Get Made's ad-free archives are available on Stitcher Premium. It's the amazing tale of Frank Dux, a Caucasian martial artist who fought in (and won) a ruthless secret tournament that's held only once every five years. However, speaking of the UFC, Frank Dux does have a tangential connection to the UFC. Stallone's original idea was that [Colonel Sam] Trautman comes to Rambo and says something like: hey, I got a mission for you in Afghanistan. How else could you get a hold of this? Bloodsport hospitalizing Superman was lifted directly from his first comic book appearance. Not looking to find myself embroiled in the middle of a he-said, she-said war of words, I happily agreed to this request. He was the one who actually introduced me to beef and oyster sauce. And so yeah. Jean-Claude?Frank Dux: When we started? He was good at stiff karate moves, but that was it. That's the thing. Over the centuries, however, these . Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers. He's in a documentary saying this. For the first time in about 14 years. It's hard to call the young Van Damme's performance "good" in any traditional sense of the word, but . He didn't know what to think. But the fights in the story were all real. Please note as always our subject'sopinions, recollections and claims are his own, and do not reflect the views of the author or this publication. And he's in this movie called No Retreat, No Surrender. How are you going to get enough guys to fight against Michael who are even going to match his size? I'd been writing screenplays and thinking about films, but what happened was an actor friend mine was reading Drama-Logue and saw an ad from this guy John Di Fusco looking for actors who were also Vietnam veterans. "This guy's never gonna make it," Menahem said. Because Jean-Claude uses people and chews them up as quick as he can. Using tech he got from Lex Luthor, Bloodsport teleported a rifle that fired Kryptonite needles into his hands and shot Superman with it. By their own photographer. And there'd be a bunch of people there with phones to record it, so we don't want this to happen.Blake Harris: Speaking of that screening, Frank had mentioned that you were crushed. I actually sent for and had custom uniforms made. Frank lost that case. You know what I mean? It's a tale so amazing that two months after the film's release, it was dismissed by the L.A. Times as nothing but a fabricated "macho fantasy." And Stallone felt the same way. During my intelligence career, I have met with and been introduced to many covert operatives, whose existence has often been officially denied by the government agencies that these parties have been associated with. But I learned to conquer it, okay? He's a real talent when it comes to that. None of it.Blake Harris: InterestingFrank Dux: And Shoto Tanemura, he says he's never heard of a Dukes or a Tanaka? Like I'm a kook because he comes out of a James Bond movie: You Only Live Twice. Bloodsport (original trailer 720p en) Watch on Synopsis: U.S. Army Captain Frank Dux ( Jean-Claude Van Damme ), who had been trained as a boy by the legendary Ninjutsu master Senzo Tanaka,. How involved were you with that reshaping?Frank Dux: Every day, when Sheldon was writing the script, I would be in the office with him and Mark DiSalle, the producer. Are you kidding me? Everywhere else in my life I'm like a duck out of water, but put me in that arena and I just swim. And I had read an article, in this magazine called M, about the French Foreign Legion. During that time, I gave Jean-Claude some odd jobs. We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Sheldon Lettich: Yeah. And so he told Menahem, "Sell it to me and I'll release it theatrically." Oh man, he f***ing hated that movie. It sold well at the box office, grossing $65 million on a budget of $1.5-2.3 million. So we changed the title to Stryker's Force and we gave the character's different names. It was just a way to release it. And I actually helped John do the casting. That's not even my name. And so he says yeah, sure, give it a shot. The one who's putting up his "dux? I told Jean-Claude I might be getting the rights back to Corsican Brothers so he got Moshe on board. At what point along the way were his fears diminished?Frank Dux: Well it was diminished when they were going to get rid of himJean-Claude doesn't realize how close he was to never having a careerand I took Mark off to the side and I said, "Look, I'm betting it all, Mark." So I was curious why you think you were so skilled? I should also back up and say that I was really poor growing up. I need to tell you about something that happened first. In fact, Midway Games attempted to license Van Damme's image for the game. Bloodsport Oral History Synopsis: U.S. Army Captain Frank Dux ( Jean-Claude Van Damme ), who had been trained as a boy by the legendary Ninjutsu master Senzo Tanaka, decides to honor his mentor. They'll cover Frank Dux being a real man, Van Damme's soft baby buns, blindfolded tea training, the not so secret illegal Kumite martial-arts tournament, Ray Jackson, and much more. Menahem still thought it was a piece of s***.Blake Harris: How come?Sheldon Lettich: Well, I think this might answer your question. If he had to be the bad guy and killed by the protagonist. So I said, "As long as you're going to have martial arts, why not get Frank?" There's a birth certificate and a death certificate for him. And so the ink was barely dry when I drove right over to Moshe's house and we signed a deal to do what became Double Impact.Blake Harris: From a technological standpoint, what were some of the biggest challenges with shooting two Jean-Claudes?Sheldon Lettich: The biggest challenges were that we were still using old technology. It was offered to him and Seagal. And it may be a typical Hollywood story, but you still never see it coming. He saw the script. So we had a number of people come to my apartment; John would test them out for their acting abilities and we would also try to determine if they were for real.Blake Harris: In what sense?Sheldon Lettich: Oh, I just meant we'd try to determine if they were really Vietnam veterans. By this time we knew that Frank was full of baloney with a lot of the stuff that he was saying about his life. I don't know if the word "genius" is maybe taking it too high, but this is a very smart creative guy who is very much underappreciated. Thus, gladiatorial combats originally possessed a sacred significance. We're 60 stories in the air, I'm not kidding you. She said, "Wait a minute, I'll be right back" and then comes in with the same magazine. They didn't have any proper uniforms. But yes, Idris Elba did an amazing job being the reluctant leader. And he was an idol of Jean-Claude's too.Blake Harris: Yeah? When. We do it your way. How did that happen? And was that something that you and Jean-Claude consciously tried to deliver (or to avoid)?Sheldon Lettich: We tried to do something atypical with Lionheart. But Vic explained it to me. Not what's typically expected, which was: Jean-Claude's going to find these motherf***ers and beat the s*** out of them. You know, there's a certain romanticism to that. KUMITE! You can listen to theBloodsportedition of the HDTGM podcasthere. But he was telling me about this tournament that he participated in where all the best fighters in the world showed up. Are you guys still friendly?Sheldon Lettich: Oh yeah. You've gotta [in a dramatic macho voice] PUSHHIMTOOFAR. And we never had a fight from that point on. Why was that the case?Sheldon Lettich: Because Menahem thought it was terrible. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. This is the kind of bond we had. 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