How does the red epic film reflect the creativity of comprehensive art？ Comment on the classic value of the film Shangganling from a new perspective

writing| Qihai

　edit| Lin Lin

Reviewing excellent classic movies should not stop at simple nostalgia.

When I was a child, I watched Shangganling, and I was moved by the dedication of the volunteers in the film. When I became a filmmaker, watching Shangganling added another touch-moved by the professionalism of the film’s creators, who showed me what a real film artist is.

The film "Shangganling" about the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, which was filmed 65 years ago, was the main theme work in the early days of the founding of New China. This film describes how the volunteer army held on to the underground tunnel in the famous Battle of Shangganling. Most of the plots are the interior of the tunnel, the space is narrow, the performance is not easy to unfold, and the design of the scene, lens scheduling and lighting is also very difficult. The film has many contents and a long length, and the screening time is 124 minutes. Therefore, the film is prone to monotonous, dry, boring, procrastination and other ills. The production conditions at that time were far worse than today, and Shangganling was just an ordinary screen black-and-white film. It is extremely difficult to make this film well.

Some people will think that Shangganling can make do even if its artistry is not too high. At that time, just after the victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Shangganling was the most popular major theme, which was strongly supported by the government and the patriotic enthusiasm of the people all over the country was unprecedented. With such a huge political advantage, even if "Shangganling" is a little rough in art, government departments and audiences will understand, and it will not affect the film’s winning and selling.

However, the creators of Shangganling did not rely on political advantages to relax their requirements for art. Artists’ instinct and sense of responsibility make them think that if they take a good theme, they should make it into a high-quality boutique, and they should not be overqualified to be worthy of the audience.

Where is the breakthrough of artistic innovation in Shangganling? The film’s creators believe that many domestic films are not good-looking, and one of the major reasons is that there are too few artistic expressions in these films, which are monotonous. Film is a comprehensive art, among many art categories, film has a unique advantage-it can be used by me by combining various artistic and technical means, and its expressive force is rich and colorful, which is better than literature and drama. It would be a pity if the film does not play this comprehensive advantage.

The creative collective of Shangganling, with the excellent film director Sha Meng as the core, has set a high pursuit goal: innovation in an all-round way. Regardless of the scriptwriter, director, performance, photography, fine arts, scenery setting, lighting, music, editing, fireworks and other departments, they must reach a sophisticated level and unite into a strong synergy. This elite team is as good as its word and fully up to standard. The audience watched this black-and-white film for more than two hours. They didn’t feel sleepy. Instead, the more they watched it, the more excited they were. They all said, It’s so beautiful!

Epic movies are also good to watch.

Shangganling is an epic style blockbuster reflecting major battles. At that time, the model films of this kind were Soviet World War II-themed films "Conquering Berlin" and "Battle of Stalingrad", both of which adopted a panoramic structure similar to documentaries, focusing on the big scenes, and the stories and characters were weak, which was a bit like a straightforward running account.

The director of Shangganling thinks that this mode is not in line with the appreciation habits of China audiences. People in China who have always loved novels and operas hope that the film should also have stories and characters. Therefore, Shangganling dares to break through the mode of Soviet war epic, which not only shows the fierce battle on the surface of Shangganling campaign, but also shows the dramatic scene. However, the whole drama is mainly based on dramatic structure, and the main length is to describe the fighting life of a small volunteer company sticking to the underground tunnel, which is conducive to concentrating pen and ink to weave stories and shape characters.

This war epic pays great attention to story and suspense, and sets up extremely sharp and complicated dramatic contradictions. First, external contradictions: this is a strange offensive and defensive war on the ground and underground. The enemy blocked the entrance of the tunnel, used poison gas, cut off water sources and logistics supplies, and the enemy was strong and we were weak. Can our army save the day? Second, internal contradictions: most of our officers and men are peasants with low education. How can we overcome psychological obstacles such as narrowness, fear of difficulties, anxiety and recklessness in the modern war? This makes the development of the war situation and the fate of the characters particularly exciting.

This war blockbuster pays attention to the relaxation rhythm, not only seeing the blood of the smoke, but also learning the techniques of comedy, youth film and lyric film, which is very vivid and beautiful.

Zhang Zhongfa, the company commander of the film "Meng Zhang Fei", is quite happy with the rough soldiers. He danced with joy when he won the battle, and when he made a mistake, he pretended to be a soldier and the old chief to make fun of him. However, he is careless and detailed, and he will cheat the enemy by playing tricks that are true and false. These descriptions are full of humor. There are many happy and lively life details in the tunnel. For example, the little soldier is not prepared to steal the walkie-talkie by the operator, and a group of big men are chasing the little squirrel in the tunnel like children, which is quite funny and fun.

The company that sticks to the tunnel is a male world. In order to avoid being made into a monotonous and boring "monk play", Shangganling has added a young female role-Wang Lan, a health worker. She is an intellectual youth in New China, whose appearance, temperament, language and action design are different from those of peasant soldiers, which highlights her youthful vigor, cultural flavor and romantic color (such as not forgetting to release the squirrel into nature after the war) and enhances the aesthetic feeling of this war film. There is a scene describing Wang Lan’s beautiful vision of "what to say when he meets Chairman Mao", which is especially characterized by girls’ love of fantasy and shyness. A stroke with more artistic beauty is a homesick song "My Motherland" sung by Wang Lan and sung by male soldiers. The soft lyrics of "A big river is wide in waves and the wind blows rice and flowers on both sides" are full of poetry and painting, which not only adjusts the relaxation rhythm of the film, but also helps to portray the emotional beauty of the characters, indicating that the volunteer soldiers are fighting for peace and are more touching and lovely.

In real life, there are no female soldiers in the company health workers on the front line of Shangganling. The fictional role of Wang Lan is innovative, but it is easy to be dismissed as "untrue". The director had a brainwave, and designed Wang Lan’s identity as a medic of the regimental health team, and went down to the tunnel company to check the epidemic prevention work. When the battle started and he couldn’t get out, he stayed in the tunnel to participate in the war, which was reasonable and credible and acceptable to the audience. It can be seen that artistic innovation cannot shrink back as soon as it encounters difficulties.

More than 60 years ago, there were many taboos in film creation. Shangganling dares to introduce youth films and lyric films for the first time in major revolutionary historical films, which is especially rare.

"Cinematization" of Epic Films

"Shangganling" has a strong visibility, and it is not only good in story and performance, but also attaches great importance to sound and painting modeling, montage editing and lens scheduling, which really makes it "vivid" and greatly enriches the expressive force of the film.

Most of the plot of the film is the interior-the narrow and dim tunnel. Because of the variety of the scene, shooting angle, props display, lens cutting, lens pushing and shaking, and the design of environmental light sources (clever use of oil lamps and incoming sunlight), the play in the tunnel will not be dull and boring.

However, the director still strives not to completely confine the lens to the tunnel. With the help of montage’s staggered flexibility of time and space, the interior and exterior scenes can be cross-adjusted and "jump out" from time to time. It is not difficult to design the battle scene outside the tunnel. The most amazing stroke of genius is that when the soldiers sang "My Motherland", with the fresh and beautiful female solo and vigorous male chorus singing, the camera "flew" out, flew thousands of miles away to the motherland, entered the sunny and vast world, and showed beautiful pictures of great rivers and mountains: the majestic Great Wall, the Jin Tao of the Yellow River, the beautiful scenery of the Three Gorges and the landscape of Guilin.

This combination of sound and picture similar to the scenery documentary (several decades earlier than MV) is not a mere formality, but the subjective imagination of the characters in the play, which is organically integrated with the feature film and has dramatic significance. In the early days of the founding of New China, most movie songs were solo or mixed chorus. The "female lead singer+male chorus" in Shangganling is also an innovation in the singing form of movie songs.

The short shot of Shangganling is well cut, and the long shot also has new tricks. For example, at the beginning of the film, the hand-to-hand combat on the surface position is shown, and the volunteer soldiers in the mountains and plains are fighting with enemy soldiers. The camera uses a long lens similar to a long scroll painting to continuously follow several groups of people wrestling at the same time, making the ordinary screen frame produce a wide screen visual impact!

The Huacai chapter, which can best reflect the comprehensive expressive force of film sound and painting, is a group of interior and exterior scenes of our army’s counterattack. Its light effect design, editing rhythm, character modeling, lens movement, music orchestration, etc., work together to create a film language that combines big splash ink with fine brushwork. However, see: the screen flashes ultra-short shots (each with only a few seconds), and the rhythm is extremely fast, especially the rocket trajectory that quickly cuts through the night sky, which has a strong sense of light and movement. Suddenly, the fast and strong rhythm of the music becomes soothing, and the fast and dynamic exterior scene is connected with the static sculpture of the interior: at the entrance of the tunnel, volunteer soldiers hold the battle flag and stare out of the cave, waiting for an attack. Because of the narrow passage, the team is a single line with one person next to another. The moving long lens slowly shakes the long queue, and the warriors are silent and look determined. The dawn outside the cave is projected on their faces, just like a statue of a heroic warrior, and the painting outside is changed from a magnificent symphony orchestra to lyrical. The rhythm of sound and painting in this group of shots, from fast to slow, dynamic to static, heavy to light, ups and downs, is not only rich in changes, but also quite sacred and solemn … 65 years ago, such a unique film language could be designed, and it was written by a genius!

The exquisite carving of Shangganling is also reflected in the careful design of some seemingly insignificant scenes. For example, the subtitle substrate of the credits, at that time, most revolutionary historical films only used a monochrome substrate such as a red cloth, with a symphony outside the painting; Explaining the historical background only uses subtitles and explanations similar to textbooks, which are relatively simple and blunt. The base of the cast of Shangganling is changed to art works-five paintings that reproduce the bloody battles of the volunteers, and there is a magnificent chorus outside the paintings. Explaining the background of the campaign without subtitles is a close-up of the pen-the 1952 "battle log" of the volunteer soldiers, and the narration is diary language. This makes the opening of the film more epic and artistic, and captures the audience at once.

In terms of "cinematography", until today, many domestic films have not yet passed the customs. In fact, many film directors are confused with stage directors or TV drama directors, relying entirely on storylines and actors’ performances, and do not know how to use the unique means of movies. Therefore, we should learn from Shangganling and make up lessons well.

Innovation courage and craftsman spirit

We don’t demand that every film has a comprehensive artistic expression. If a film has obvious advantages in one aspect, it is also a flower in the film industry, and it is considered successful. However, if the film can learn from others like Shangganling, it will have the most unique characteristics of the film itself.

Re-studying Shangganling, we can see that the innovative courage, meticulous craftsman spirit and versatile skill are all embodied in a creative team, which is a miracle in the history of new China movies and worth learning from any theme and type of movies.

Compared with Shangganling, the creators of some shoddy films should stop looking for various reasons to justify their incompetence, and they should not play the public relations means of "Kung Fu is beyond poetry" for fame.

The fighting spirit of Shangganling will last forever! The innovative spirit of Shangganling will last forever!

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