"Newlyweds": a new theme of "police and criminal investigation"
The formation and evolution of various early film genres are deeply related to China's specific social and cultural atmosphere, economic, political and even military development.
Ethical films, as a type of early domestic films with the largest variety, largest quantity, most momentum, and highest box office, became the mainstream of the film market in the silent film era. National cultural psychology and the needs of the times have derived social ethics films, family ethics films, love ethics films, religious ethics films, etc.
The stability and maturity of the silent film film genre began to require new changes in film themes.
"The Wedding Massacre" produced by Yihua Film Company in 1936 is a silent film based on social ethics, but the film begins Transforming in a new direction, the main story takes place between the rarely described military police and gangsters, and the plot is based on the structure of criminal detectives, combined with action and fighting scenes, and the integration of "bandit", "spy", "suspense" and "martial arts" elements to create a new look for ethical films in the 1930s.
The film's director and screenwriter are both Wang Cilong. The film tells the story of Huang Jun, the chief inspector of the Peking Police Station. His son Huang Shaojun is also a police officer working under him. His father is senior and respected. The father and son have high prestige in the police industry.
In order to strengthen the police force in Shanghai, Huang Shaojun was appointed as a detective to serve in Shanghai. By chance, she met the famous actress Zheng Ailun. Zheng Ailun was forced to marry General Xiao, the general stationed in Shanghai, to expand her power in Shanghai. Zheng Ailun was forced to marry General Xiao, the general stationed in Shanghai, in order to expand her influence in Shanghai. Zheng Ailun could not control herself. When she was about to marry General Xiao and leave Shanghai for Hong Kong, Liu Qian learned that she sent her gangster Bao to kill General Xiao on the wedding day.
Bao was caught at the scene of Huang Shaojun's murder. Bao refused to confess. Huang Shaojun arrested the gang leader in order to detect him. had to pretend to pursue Zheng Ailun and break into the gang to arrest them all.
Then the news that Huang Shaojun had mixed up with the gangsters spread to Peiping. His father Huang Jun thought that Shaojun was addicted to wine and sex, so he was furious and dismissed him. Shaojun endured the humiliation and stepped up the investigation, but his father was also involved and kidnapped by Liu Qian. Huang Shaojun dealt with the investigation and finally caught Liu Qian with the help of Zheng Ailun and rescued his father. However, Zheng Ailun was seriously injured in this major case and died.
’s pursuit of the “newness” of movie content elements is an attempt and change made by “soft movies” based on the market demand in the new stage. After the film was released, it received mixed reviews. left-wing film critic Ling He attacked the film for its "business vision" and went against social reality.
In the mixture of movie themes, it is difficult for moviegoers to classify them into specific genres. It is precisely because of the ambiguity of film elements that the film has been criticized and doubted.
Generally speaking, it cannot win the approval of professional film professionals. The style of the film is childish and superficial, and the "soft" look and feel of the film is superficial. The bold combination of elements such as "cops and gangsters", "criminal investigation", "suspense", "martial arts" and "espionage" is not mixed and the system has many defects.
provides a text example worthy of reference and criticism for the subject matter and content of domestic modern films. It also provides a creative idea for the development of domestic film themes and the increase of expression styles. The diversity of practice has played an irreplaceable leading role in the specification of theory.
"Crazy ": Realistic material on the theme of nation state
Domestic movies in the 1930s appeared with a new look that was different from the past. This was due to the participation of a large proportion of left-wing movies lineup.The huge influence of
movies led the Left-wing Literary and Art Circles, which originally focused on drama, to devote themselves to the film industry. In 1932, Xia Yan, Qian Xingtun, Zheng Boqi and others entered the star company;
19 In 1933, Mingxing launched the first batch of "left-wing films". Among them, "Crazy Flow" was called the first "left-wing film" and one of the most outstanding achievements since the " emerging film movement " was proposed. Later, with the increasing momentum of "soft films", Wang Chenwu compared this film and called it a "hard" film that could compete with the "soft".
"Crazy Flow", written by Xia Yan, directed by Cheng Bugao , and starring Butterfly and others, tells the story of Fu Xiujuan, the daughter of wealthy landlord Fu Boren, and teacher Liu Tiesheng in Fu Zhuang, the upper reaches of the Hankou River in Wuhan. Due to the disparity in class status, Fu Boren opposed their relationship and wanted to betroth his daughter to Li Heqing, the son of the township chief, in order to curry favor with the powerful.
An unfortunate thing happened later. One day, the water level of the Yangtze River rose, and Fu Zhuang was about to face the danger of flooding. At this time, Fu Bairen secretly embezzled donations for embankment construction and moved his family to Hankou City. Here, Liu Tiesheng was concerned about the crisis and led everyone to repair the dam;
But Fu Boren pretended to be a disaster relief representative and embezzled the disaster funds. When the flood occurred, At that time, Liu Tiesheng rescued Suzhen, a woman who fell into the water. Suzhen stayed in Fuzhuang to repay her kindness and fought the flood with the villagers. She delivered meals to the villagers who were building embankments and took care of Tiesheng. One day, Tiesheng fell ill and mistook Suzhen for Xiujuan;
At this time Xiujuan happened to bump into the two hugging each other and left in anger. Later, Tiesheng was still worried about the flood and led the villagers to repair the dam using cement and wood bought by Fu Boren with the disaster relief funds. Fu Boren was furious and wanted to step forward to stop it, but was washed away by the ruthless flood.
When Xia Yan was writing this script, he considered putting the real flood documentary shot by the director before to show the reality of the film. This was also the first attempt to introduce documentaries into movies in film production, and set a demonstration for the later "Spring Silkworms ", which was also a "hard movie".
On March 5, 1933, "Crazy Flow" was screened for the first time at the Central Theater and the Shanghai Grand Theater in Shanghai. It was praised by the audience and affirmed by film critics. considered it "a masterpiece of epoch-making changes for the star company."
Its appearance was the beginning of the film industry's search for a change in style under the historical situation of intensified national crisis. A movie called "Bailout" during the patriotic national salvation movement aimed to express grand themes at the nation-state level.
"Crazy Flow" uses the bursting of the Yangtze River, which symbolizes the national subject, to directly point to the critical situation of national collapse. Under this situation, the common people can no longer protect themselves, and in times of crisis, exploitation and oppression, struggle and resistance are expressed through class opposition. Liu Tiesheng represents a righteous man who stands up to safeguard the overall situation. What he wants to resist is the gentry and powerful people represented by Fu Boren;
In this way, the abstract national subject image is transformed into a concrete character image. Social reality and fierce rebellion achieve the "hard" effect to be expressed in the film. This theme is a challenge to the strictness of traditional patriarchy and an inspiration to the people's patriotism and national salvation.
The debut of the hardcore movie "Crazy Flow" allowed the commercial movies that had stagnated in citizen interest during this period to see a new way of creation, The creative concepts of left-wing filmmakers have also been accepted by the market in terms of selecting and refining national grand themes.
The ideological and artistic nature of the film has made pioneering achievements under the support of the ideological trend of the times. It mobilized the interest and enthusiasm of film workers and film companies in the creation of emerging films during this period, and also accumulated rich experience for the creation of emerging films in the future. Since then, the creation of Chinese movies has taken on a new look.
"Spring Silkworms": A documentary style exploration
The film of the same name adapted from Mao Dun's novel "Spring Silkworms" is another attempt at a "hardcore" left-wing film style.
Different from the scenes with strong visual impact in "Crazy Flow", "Spring Silkworm" breaks the barrier between documentaries and movie scenes with a non-dramatic recording style. It also inherits and develops the practice of editing real-life recorded scenes into a movie for the first time in "Crazy Flow".
The movie was released in 1933. tells the story of the old Tongbao family who made a living by raising silkworms for their livelihood in the new year.
When it was time to harvest silk, the silk had to be sold at a low price due to the bad market conditions. The entire process of raising silkworms was full of the fervent hope of Lao Tongbao's family. They should have been happy with the results of the harvest, but in the end, the harvest turned out to be a disaster because of the market conditions. The fruits of the working people's hard work were plundered by the capital market under the cloak of "fair trade". The poor family situation was even worse.
Xia Yan achieved to a certain extent the content emphasized in "rigid movies" in the screenwriting of "Spring Silkworms". The film realized the authenticity of the content in a documentary style, and this was not only reflected in the real and frequent labor of the characters, but also in the projection of the environment by the camera.
In order to get close to the vast life scenes in the countryside, countless empty shots and long shots are spread out to explain the time and scene: in the season when the willow trees are swaying and the spring grass is budding, this is not only the vitality of early spring, but also the spiritual vitality of the working people.
The artistic effect of rendering the artistic conception is documentary-style reality. In the transformation of time, space and character shots, the adjustment of the film's rhythm is vividly reflected in the running and working of Lao Tongbao and Xiao Tongbao;
The delicate display of scenery shots is highlighted in the detailed portrayal of silkworm babies. The narrative technique of the silkworm rearing process is presented by the distance of the lens, which strengthens the expressiveness of the film content.This is the success of "hard movie" realism.
However, "Spring Silkworms" has been criticized by "soft film" commentators. Liu Naou, Huang Jiamo and other "soft film" commentators have criticized the film's artistic level, form, content, and even screenwriting and director in many aspects, saying that it lacks beauty, dry content, and "lacks the feeling of a movie."
Facts have proved that after the screening of the film "Spring Silkworms", the audience was indeed not enthusiastic, thinking that the film's rhythm was too flat, there was no vivid plot required by the movie, and it also lacked outstanding dramatic conflicts and climaxes.
Xia Yan has always reserved his own views on this. At a symposium held after the screening of "Spring Silkworms", he once said that when creating this film, he consciously adopted the documentary film method and believed: "Instead of trying to make it more In order to adapt to the needs of the film adaptation, the novel needs to be combined on the basis of being faithful to the original work. The material and plot of the film, and the unique shooting techniques of the film not only need to consider how to convey ideas visually, but also appropriately map the current reality of life and strengthen the theme of the film.
The filming of "Spring Silkworms" was a bold attempt. Although it did not receive great recognition in the audience market, it was a successful stylized exploration.
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