has passed five levels, cut six generals, and "Eight Hundred" is finally officially released. The idea of
to make this movie lingered in the director Guan Hu’s mind for many years. It was launched in 2017, closed in 18, and withdrawn in 19, and then in this year's most special year in the Chinese film market, it became A "rescue work" for the industry's high hopes.
In and out of the play, these eight hundred heroes are ill-fated. Public opinion's attitude towards history, Schrödinger's schedule, the new strict regulations for issuance and keys, are like cold guns all around, and a few bullets fly by without warning. Z1z
put aside these external factors, today we return to the movie itself to talk about: Is
"Eight Hundred" a good war film?
The opening poster of the movie "Yu Bai" when it was released on August 21,
History·Enthusias
The new version of "Yu Bai" has added words like "The story originated from real historical events". But of course, war films are not video materials. There must be a lot of artistic processing elements.
So far, there have been three movies devoted to the 800 heroes, the 1938 version, the 1975 version and the new version this year, all starring popular stars of the year. The same story was born in a different time environment, and naturally conveyed different perspectives and shouldered their respective missions.
1938, the 1975 version of "Eight Hundred Warriors" related to the 2020 "Eight Hundred" poster
The story of the Eight Hundred Warriors is indeed very suitable for film and television-
has a clear time to fight: Chairman Chiang ordered the death to last until October 30, the League of Nations On the day of the meeting in Brussels; the Japanese army had to use all means to take down the four-row warehouse within three days;
has a special location: the four-row warehouse. Because it is the warehouse of the four major banks, it has strong walls. , There is grain and grass, and it is also close to the concession, with warehouses as the boundary, half hell and half paradise;
has the disparity between the enemy and the enemy: the millions of troops of the national army had been defeated in the Battle of Songhu, Chiang Kai-shek ordered 88 The division stayed in Shanghai, but Sun Yuanliang, the "flying general", was as timid as a mouse, and took the lead in running away, leaving Xie Jinyuan's 400-member regiment behind. In order to boost morale, Xie Jinyuan claimed to have 800 people.
movie "Eight Hundred" stills, Du Chun playing Xie Jinyuan, Tang Yixin playing Yang Huimin
What are the more than 400 people? Basically, they were recruits and stragglers from various places. Even Xie Jinyuan was originally from Cai Tingkai and was not considered an orthodox army. This regiment is a "unknown army" that is destined to be abandoned. The most joking thing about
is that the nature of this battle is a performance battle. Chiang Kai-shek intends to sacrifice the lives of eight hundred soldiers to engage in a political game for international support. The masses on the south bank were watching by the river, and the news agencies of various countries on the airship were watching from the sky. In the current words, the whole process of the war was "live broadcast" globally simultaneously.
Because they were afraid that heavy artillery would ignite the gas tank and accidentally injure the South Bank, the Japanese army did nothing except heavy artillery: tanks, infantry phalanx, excavators, death squads, cold guns, planes... and continuous insidious tricks. The national army used traps, rifles, grenades, and human bombs. In the end, even the housekeeping skills of the tomb robbers in the village were used.
movie "Eight Hundred" stills, Jiang Wu
would say it is miserable, the 800 warriors in the War of Resistance are not tragic, and the casualties are even more horrible battles. Someone asked why so many people were sacrificed in the first half of the movie "Eight Hundred", why it seemed that there were still hundreds of troops when they finally crossed the bridge?
According to records, among the eight hundred strong men who died under the guns of Japanese soldiers, not many, about a dozen. The casualties of the Japanese army have always been a mystery. The national army reported that one or two hundred people had been killed, while the Japanese army claimed that only one soldier had died.
Four-line warehouse, historical picture
So why has this battle become a model in history books? The first is Xie Jinyuan’s commanding command. He was originally thought to be able to hold on for a day. However, the soldiers did not eat or sleep and survived four days and four nights;
The second and most important point was that the battle was fought. The national integrity. All the soldiers have written their suicide notes and are ready to die. They call the Four Lines Warehouse "our tomb", fearing sacrifice, preferring to die, fighting bloody battles, killing the enemy, and promoting the power of China. Make people excited.
movie "Eight Hundred" dramaAccording to
, one of the most stubborn things is to raise the national flag sent by the Girl Scout Yang Huimin to death in the rain of bullets. The background of the film through Professor Zhang’s telescope perspective was explained. At that time, there was no longer a blue sky and a white sun flag in Shanghai. It was all the rising sun flag of the Japanese army. This flag rising in the middle of the battlefield greatly inspired people.
is dramatic, legendary, and historically reflective, making this battle immortal. The deeds of the 800 heroes were hailed by Chairman Mao as the "model of the national revolution" and recognized by Chiang Kai-shek as "faithful to Japan". They are highly recognized by both parties, demonstrating a simplicity that transcends parties, military lines, classes, and groups. Patriotism, this is why we still affirm it today.
Yang Huimin and Lin Qingxia who played her (the 1975 version of "The Eight Hundred Warriors")
When Yang Huimin was young, the historical pictures
group portrait·Awakening
Think about history.
War films since New China are basically divided into two major themes, one is victory in the war, the other is heroic deeds, and the basic mission is to assume the function of mission.
While the Soviet Union has "41" and "Goose Flying South", and the United States has "Apocalypse Now" and "Deer Hunter", they have turned to the direction of humanitarian complaints of war disasters. "Lawrence of Arabia", "The Bridge on the River Kwai", and "General Patton" all express the author's attitude towards war by portraying flesh and blood characters instead of just rendering war scenes. The
domestic film reached the "Assembly Number", and a watershed began to appear. The first half of the movie still talks about war, but in the second half, nearly half of the space is used to talk about how Gu Zidi "asked for arguments" for the dead comrades. Z1z
movie "Assembly Number" stills
"Yai Hundred" is also a valuable point, which restores the grand narrative to a specific, vivid, not so perfect person, showing the real and complex human nature.
, as a two-hour movie, "Eight Hundred" rarely portrays so many characters, switches so many perspectives, and covers soldiers with different concepts, as well as the various spectators on the other side representing the three religions of the society at that time. With so many characters, the movie tries to make every character, regardless of size, have a growth arc, for example-
knife refused to open the door at first, and Yang Huimin was not allowed to enter the door to hide from the bullet, but later signed up to "race" the bullet; Sister Rong
should be the widow of the military. At first, she let the knife "just take care of your casino", and then volunteered to donate the national flag and morphine;
Liang Jing's wife, Professor Zhang, leaked water upstairs when the Japanese attacked. The trivial quarrel, telling her husband not to "watch the excitement" on the balcony, and later acquiesced to her husband taking out a gun and shooting at the deceptive Japanese soldier; the reporter of
appeared like a traitor, and was curiously asked by Western reporters "this The war seems to have nothing to do with you." In the end, he also put on a military uniform and insisted on with the soldiers until the end.
Jiang Wu’s Lao Tie has always been a "melon counselor", hiding in sack as soon as a war, but in the last scene, he sang "head through drum, war rice; two drum, tight shirt; three Tong drums, swords out of the sheath; four drums, hand in soldiers", heads up to the battlefield;
Xiaohubei witnessed the brothers around him leave one by one, only 13 years old, he became calm and calm, seeing death as home, drinking wine Say "I'm not afraid", and finally give up the chance to survive, and firmly choose to stay with the death squad until the end;
So, what exactly did Guanhu say through the group drama of "Yaobai"? It is about "awakening."
The story of the Eight Hundred Heroes is an awakening legend. This is the core value of "Eight Hundred" as a war film and a unique historical proposition in China. The Chinese have stood up in unity. They don't engage in nest fighting, and no one can bully or pinch.
stills from the movie "Eight Hundred", the proposition of Wang Qianyuan
is still out of date. Many historians believe that the War of Resistance is the first time that China has formed a sense of community that transcends a region, and it has begun to have the concept of a "national state". What does
mean? The common people in the past did not have the feelings of family and country and the "Chinese nation"Conceptual—the city’s head is changing, and it doesn’t matter who comes to power. It doesn’t matter if you fall in Northeast China. It doesn’t matter if you fall in Northeast China. When the devil enters the village, no one resists and surrenders directly. In "Yaobai" at the beginning, a melon eater on the other side of the river said, "Calling all the time, it's good for us to do a little business. "Z1z
Xie Jinyuan said: We lost, why did we lose? Because our nation is sick.
Historical pictures
Some scholars have done statistics. By the end of 1919, the probability of the word "Chinese nation" appearing on the "Report" was on average every year. Less than 4 times; and in 1938 after the July 7th Incident, the word rose to 183 a year, and 372 in 1939.
So a character change in "Yai Hundred" and the masses after the national flag was raised Shouting "Long live the Chinese nation! "They are all condensed and refined of the mood of the times. The
movie "Eight Hundred" stills, Du Chun played the feat of Xie Jinyuan
Xie Jinyuan group, at least awakened the spectators on the South Bank and aroused the patriotic enthusiasm of the masses. During the retreat, They are trying to retain a part of the revolutionary fire, hoping to pass it out in the future. "Eight Hundred" depicts such an endangered but hopeful stage.
Unfortunately, what happened to the 800 warriors after crossing the bridge is again. Another tragic story. Z1z
historians believe that the violent acts of the Japanese army during the War of Resistance against Japan had a huge catalytic effect on the growth and formation of the Chinese national spirit; the Chinese government, especially the CCP’s resistance efforts behind enemy lines, ultimately ensured its endurance. Existence and development. The spirit of the eight hundred heroes is still preserved.
stills from the movie "Yai Hundred", Li Chen
commercial author
As mentioned above, "Eight Hundred" has broken through the comfort zone of domestic war films in terms of themes and themes. . In terms of production and techniques, "Yubai" has also reached the first-class level of domestic commercial films, and has the basic hardware conditions to rescue blockbuster films. The
crew manually excavated a "Suzhou River" and built a complex of buildings with 1:1 real scenes. Total film investment At least 500 million or more, it burns money visible to the naked eye.
is the first film in Asia to be shot with ALEXA IMAX cameras. The picture has a lot of fine details and transparent depth, like stray bullets flying under the eyelids. The back and the hand-held lens with a sense of record and presence, and the sky filled with cannon fodder debris...
Sometimes in one shot, the three groups of characters in the foreground, the middle and the background show different fates, which satisfies such an information-intensive movie. Needs.
stills from the movie "Eight Hundred", Wei Chen
praised the "Eight Hundred" photographers already many people, in fact, the sound design of this movie is also full and excellent. From the beginning, all the film company logos have been replaced with a unified In the first half of the
movie, voice-overs are often used to express collisions from different positions. For example, there is a scene where soldiers risk their lives to repair fortifications, Japanese soldiers use big horns to persuade them to surrender in Chinese, and the feasting and feasting songs on the opposite shore are cut together. The Bai version of "Being Embarrassed on All Sides"; there are also some designs with mismatched sound and pictures, such as Fang reporter introducing the situation of the four lines warehouse to the Japanese commander, etc.
In some details of the design, the director does not hesitate to express himself. Such as Guanhu always likes Use animal images to convey the main idea. Like the ostrich running wild at the end of "Old Paoer", the first scene of "Eight Hundred" was filmed with rats and a group of "rats"; the security group arrived in Shanghai, the first The shot is a crow standing on the skull; the white horse of
broke free several times, and was later dedicated to Xie Jinyuan by Xiaohu Hubei. Although the national army was defeated at the end of the battle, the white horse that symbolized the national spirit stood up from the ruins.
Bai The white horse
also cleverly echoes the drama and plot: during the awakening of the masses in the South Bank, the one-act play by patriotic youths running on the streets to promote is "Let Down Your Whip"; when the
battle is deadlocked, the troupe no longer sings "Pick the Pulley". Changed to "Changbanpo" with seven inputs and seven outputs; the Shandong soldier played by
Li Chen painted a shadow play screen before the soldiers were determined to die, and then sang the play while stroking the Chinese territory with his eyes affectionately;
The poster of the movie "Yao Hundred" during the Shanghai Film Festival last year, using the shadow puppet details in the film
Jiang Wu’s Lao Tie sang the Huang Zhong chants of "Dingjunshan" before his death, expressing that although the veteran was old, he did not diminish his feelings for serving the country. Handsome man".
Someone compared "Yabai" with some text and video materials. Generally speaking, the film respects historical facts, such as the appearance of the four-line warehouse and the occupied area, and the state of the soldiers, which are tied with a few bamboo stalks. The flagpoles, the behavior of Yang Huimin and other surrounding characters, etc., can be seen that the creator has done a lot of homework.
But it must be true that "Yu Bai" has completely restored the history, it must not be. Any film, feature film or even documentary will include the author's expressive intention and traces of reprocessing the material. So you can evaluate whether a movie is good or bad, but the movie and reality will never equate.
At the end of "Eight Hundred", the audience in South Bank was very passionate, and they all rushed to the dividing line. The first person opened his palm, the second person clenched his fist, and the third person gave a thumbs up. This is obviously the director's support The written paragraph. To be honest, this ending is a bit too deliberate, it is better to jump directly to the last modern Shanghai pan.
Stills from the movie "Eight Hundred", Jiang Wu, Zhang Yi, Wei Chen
Regret
"Eight Hundred" Are there any regrets? There are too.
Although Guanhu's ability to portray group portraits is pretty good, there are still no beginnings and ends. What happened to the old abacus? Why did Xie Jinyuan only appear in the second half? There are too many characters on the stage. If the audience is blinded, several actors may be offline before being recognized. The most puzzling thing about
is that towards the end, the last "death squad" resistance scene composed of Jiang Wu, Li Chen, Wang Qianyuan, Yu Ailei, etc. was deleted. In the old version last year, the scene of Jiang Wuda drinking and firing was shocking. For some reason or because of the length, the ending of this group of people was "hold down". Similarly,
also has an end caption introducing the archetypes of the eight hundred heroes. The duration is compressed and flashed quickly. The scenes of
flag-receiving and flag-raising have also been significantly cut, which has little effect on the content of the plot, but the changes in emotional rendering are subtle, and individual lines are also suspected of changes.
stills of the movie "Eight Hundred"
completely deleted Ruan Jingtian's scenes, which is a pity. He plays a Japanese anti-war journalist. The mission carried by this role is different from the main line of "Awakening", which can bring the depth, complexity, and thinking of the whole story to a higher level. Why just delete him and whether the current audience can accept the existence of such a role is also a matter of interest.
Huang Xiaoming said that he originally thought it was a cameo, but the director handed him four pages of lines, which scared him almost back.
Huang Xiaoming’s role is very important. Guan Hu almost put his thoughts and opinions on the whole matter of the 800 heroes into these four pages of lines. Huang Xiaoming is equivalent to a human interpretation of a long summary of the topic. Sublimation of the main theme-behind the
war is politics.
Some people regard you as heroes, and some people regard you as fools. Z1z
has merits and demerits, everything can only wait for future generations to comment.
Stills from the movie "Yu Bai", Huang Xiaoming
In the ups and downs of 2020, in the turbulent moment, can "Yao Bai" become a movie that is recorded in history? What will it bring and what it will end can save the market It's still awake, maybe, and I have to look at it in a longer time.
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