author | shadow
editor | Joe Joe
So far, the box office of " eight hundred " has exceeded 200 million!
This is a movie about Chinese soldiers fighting the Japanese attack at the end of the Songhu Battle. The biggest feature of the film is that it has greatly weakened the high-level role and replaced it with a large number of ordinary soldiers and recruits from their standpoints to tell this battle of great significance to the Chinese people.
Although "Eight Hundred" spot screens get good reviews. But from other perspectives, because some of the characters in the film are fictitious, coupled with some technical adjustments, the film has some limitations in restoring that period of history. And those parts that are selectively ignored can help us understand that period of history more deeply. The movie is not about restoring history, but the details of history will enrich the flesh and blood of the movie. The same is true of "Eight Hundred". It takes a scoop in the long river of history. Let's add a few splashes of water.
01 Yang Yangzheng: The Last Lonely Army
At the end of "Eight Hundred", the audience sees a hopeful ending: as the hands passing through the iron gate of the concession are about to come out, the national consciousness is also awakened. With such an emotionally contagious lens rendering, the soldiers' future seems bright.
But in reality, they had a miserable life after they retreated to the concession. First, he was inexplicably disarmed by foreigners and sent to a concentration camp as a prisoner. After the Pacific War broke out, these people were either escorted overseas by Japanese soldiers in the occupied concessions to work overseas, or they were enslaved by the Japanese at home. As one of them, Yang Yangzheng, the last known survivor of the Four Elements Defence War on the mainland, was reported by mainstream media in 2005 and let the world know for the first time that after the millennium, there will still be "Eight There are veterans of the "one hundred heroes".
In an interview with Phoenix Satellite TV's "Cold and Warm Life", the old man told reporters many wartime details and the various hardships he experienced under the changing times after liberation. The outstanding part of the show is that it allows people to see a hero who once fought for the country. For various reasons, he had to bury his glorious deeds and chose to survive. As a response to the ending of "Yaobai", this documentary can give you an intuitive understanding of the veterans of the year. Just like the host Chen Xiaonan said, by talking to them, you can feel a forgotten history and slowly open it in front of you.
02 The neglected hero behind Xie Jinyuan
In the movie, as a left-behind officer in the Four Elements Defense War, Xie Jinyuan’s main role is concentrated in the third act, and this scene is relatively thin about him, so that the director tried to pass When this character awakens the audience's resonance, it has little effect. In addition to the director's own consideration of the compression of Xie Jinyuan's scenes, it is also easy for the audience to question: Does this role play a less important role in the battlefield?
In the official statement, Xie Jinyuan is often defined as the commander and hero of this battle. However, in the review of "My Father General Xie Jinyuan" written by his son Xie Jimin, there are opinions that this work is too high for Xie Jinyuan's position in the army.
This view is not groundless. In fact, Xie Jinyuan was the chief of staff of the 262 brigade before serving as the deputy commander of the 524 regiment stationed at the Sixing warehouse. Later, when he was in danger, he became the supreme officer of the 524 regiment. Although from the military rank and administrative level, Xie Jinyuan is undoubtedly the highest officer of the garrison. But during the battle, someone who is more familiar with the troops should be in command. This person is Yang Ruifu, the 1st Battalion Commander of the regiment. In "Yao Bai", Yang Ruifu played by Lu Siyu is basically reduced to a symbolic role in the group portrait, and does not provide too many highly distinguished characters.
In addition, Yang Ruifu's "Four Diaries of a Solitary Army" can also prove that he is not just an ordinary battalion commander in the army. This memoir-like article records a lot of detailed battle details. Judging from the fact that Xie Jinyuan arranged for him to cut off the troops who had retired from the concession, it also showed that Commander Xie was right.His trust, not like "Eight Hundreds", after the group of dragons has no leader, he will casually hand over the heavy task of breaking to some soldiers and soldiers. It is such a hero who supported Xie Jinyuan's smooth retreat, but in the film it became a little transparent. It has to be said that this is related to the Guanhu 's pursuit of group portrait description and neglect to portray representative characters.
03 What other works have reflected the defense of the four elements?
Long before Guanhu's "Eight Hundred", there were two versions of the film in the history of Chinese film that were filmed in the background of the War of the Four Lines Warehouse. One is "Eight Hundred Heroes" filmed by Ying Yunwei in 1938 (the year after the Defending War); the other is directed by Taiwanese director Ding Shanxi in 1975.
38 years of this edition due to a long history, coupled with the limited preservation technology at the time, currently only a 53-minute residual copy (the original version was released for 140 minutes). It is worth mentioning that this silent film is the first main theme film in the history of Chinese-language film that positively expresses the resistance of the Chinese army.
Although in terms of lens grammar and scene rendering, it is not the same as "Yai Bai". But in terms of the structure of the play, it also adopts a multi-dimensional perspective. Through the environmental differences of the theater, the Kuomintang-controlled area, and the concession, it creates a distinct dramatic conflict and restores the anti-Japanese group portraits at that time in three dimensions. Coupled with the time advantage of this work and a large number of star guest appearances, once the film was released, it caused great repercussions at home and abroad.
37 years later, Taiwan’s main melody movie "The Godfather" Ding Shanxi remakes a new version of the same title based on the original work. The film brings together two major dramas, Ke Junxiong and Xu Feng, as well as newcomers like Zhang Aijia, Qin Han and Brigitte Lin. The overall framework of the film is basically the same as the silent film version of 38 years. However, due to the influence of Taiwan’s military education films, the film’s performance and theme presentation are somewhat exaggerated compared to "Eight Hundred". However, due to the work of a Taiwanese director, the Taiwanese version has a more direct performance than "Yai Hundred" in the link of flag raising and flag sending.
In addition to the above two films, there are also TV series adapted from the background of 800 warriors-"Iron Warrior" and "Eastern Battlefield". The former tells the story of the Kuomintang leader Xie Yunhan escaped from the concession with the help of the underground party of the Communist Party of China, and successfully escaped with gold; the latter is the story of the entire history of the war of resistance, from 31 to 45 years, under the mixed domestic and foreign perspectives, restored the KMT The two parties jointly resisted the entire process of Japanese fascism. Among them, "Battlefield" also reproduces the defense of the four elements with focus on brush and ink. Judging from some of the lines, there are obvious traces of reference to the Taiwan version of "Eight Hundred Heroes". But relatively speaking, the realism of "Battlefield" is still higher than that of "Iron Blood." However, the common problem with "Yai Bai" is the castration of the flag of the Republic of China, which caused it to suffer some criticism after it was broadcasted that year.
