Basic information
"Burning the Old Summer Palace" is a historical film jointly produced by New Kunlun Pictures Co., Ltd. and China Film Co-production Company. It is directed by Li Hanxiang and starred by Liu Xiaoqing, Liang Jiahui, Chen Ye and Zhang Tielin.
The film uses the British and French coalition forces to burn the Old Summer Palace as the historical background. It tells the story of how Cixi grew from an unnoticed girl to the favorite concubine of Emperor Xianfeng. On September 21, 1983, the film premiered in Hong Kong; in the same year, the film won a special award for outstanding film from the Ministry of Culture.
Synopsis
In 1852, the beautiful Magnolia, who was born in an eunuch, was selected into the palace and canonized as a nobleman. However, due to the old grudge between the Yehenara family and the Aixinjueluo family to which Magnolia belongs, it failed to get the attention of Emperor Xianfeng. Magnolia struggled to get ahead, and finally attracted Xianfeng with a lingering and sad tune, and then won favor. In the future, the clever magnolia often accompanied the emperor. A year later, Yulan was named a noble concubine by Xianfeng because of her son Zaichun, and her status in the palace was similar to that of the queen. At this time, the Qing Dynasty faced internal and external troubles and crises. The British, French and other eight-nation coalition forces attacked Guangzhou and Tianjin, and then went straight to Beijing. The court was in chaos.
Xianfeng adopted the idea of the imperial concubine Yi and ordered Prince Grinqin to lead his troops to defend against the enemy. In the Battle of Baliqiao, the Qing army was defeated and all soldiers who participated in the war were killed. Xianfeng immediately led his concubine and minister Sushun to escape to Jehol Palace, leaving his younger brother, Prince Gong, Yi Xin, to negotiate with foreigners in Beijing. In the Jehol Palace, Xianfeng ignored the political affairs and still had fun all day long. The memorials were reviewed by the concubine Yi Gui. The arrogant Anglo-French allied forces deceived him and attacked Beijing with foreign guns and cannons. Burning, killing and looting everywhere, doing everything without evil, robbed the world-famous "Park of Ten Thousand Gardens", the Old Summer Palace, and set it on fire. Behind the scenes
- Leung Ka Fai said that he made Liu Xiaoqing angry on the first day of filming. As Leung Ka-fai could not speak Mandarin, when Leung Ka-fai said a line, Liu Xiaoqing, who did not understand Cantonese, suddenly called to stop and asked the director Leung Ka-fai what he said.
- Liu Xiaoqing will make a very detailed transcript of every line, and even the performance of turning around and hands during filming.
- Zhou Jie suffered a lot during the filming of "Burning Old Summer Palace". Not only did she rush to the dressing room in the middle of the night, but it also took three hours to do a styling.
- During the filming of "Burning Old Summer Palace", Liu Xiaoqing had only one steamed bun for each meal, while Leung Ka Fai from Hong Kong had a dining car to deliver meals, and the meals included chicken and fish. Once, Liu Xiaoqing took Liang Jiahui without realizing it and stole some meal tickets to share with three other actors.
behind-the-scenes production of
creative background
"Burning the Old Summer Palace" is a film work jointly created by Hong Kong and Mainland China film workers. During the Second Opium War, China suffered a period of humiliation: In 1860, the British and French forces invaded Beijing. They broke into the Old Summer Palace and plundered everything that could be taken in the park. If they were not transported, they would destroy them at will. Ruined. Finally, in order to destroy the evidence, the invading army set fire to the Old Summer Palace to ashes. In 1980, Director Li Hanxiang had the idea to put this history on the big screen. He consulted a large amount of historical materials, consulted many experts in Qing history, changed the script several times, and finally completed the script creation of "The Burning Old Summer Palace".
actor chooses
"The Burning Old Summer Palace" was originally played by Zhang Jinling as Cixi and Liu Xiaoqing as Ci'an. But Zhang Jinling gave up the opportunity to play the role of Cixi because of her pregnancy, so the role of Cixi was also played by Liu Xiaoqing. Because Liang Jiahui looks exactly like Emperor Xianfeng, the director Li Hanxiang chose Liang Jiahui to play the leading role in the film. In the film, Zhou Jie, the actor of Li Fei did not participate in the audition for "Burning Old Summer Palace". She danced a short dance in the editing car of director Li Hanxiang, and Li Hanxiang decided to play Li Fei by Zhou Jie. During the filming of "Burning Old Summer Palace" in Mainland China, the relevant departments fully cooperated and opened the real scene of the Imperial City Forbidden City for the first time to provide convenient shooting scenes for the film. In the film, hundreds of officials go to court, military aircraft discuss politics, and Mulan autumn hunting , Yuanming ruins are all displayed on the spot. In addition, in order to film the scene of the Old Summer Palace, director Li Hanxiang persuaded the New Kunlun Film Company to build a simulation of the Old Summer Palace in Changping, Beijing at a cost of 640,000 RMB, and burn it with a fire at the end of the filming.
film evaluation
overall evaluation
"fire"Burning the Old Summer Palace" has a grand scene, distinctive characters, exquisite and realistic landscape design, and a strong sense of historical reality. The film is one of the representative outstanding film works jointly created by Hong Kong and Mainland China film workers after the reform and opening up (Netease Review). The film’s rich historical themes and delicate and profound characterization complement each other and become a classic in the history of Chinese film (Sohu.com).
Visual Aesthetics
From the perspective of visual aesthetics, "Burning the Old Summer Palace" is very successful. The magnificent image composition, meticulously crafted props and scenery, epic visual style, freely gorgeous camera and character scheduling, and striving to build a personal "golden and brilliant" Chinese imagination and other forms and styles perfectly combine this paragraph. The grand historical narrative of "Burning Old Summer Palace" maximizes the director's own interest and inner artistic pursuit to the extreme. The film not only retains the exquisite and complicated interior scene creation, but also avoids the rough stinginess of the studio's exterior scene when the iconic push-track lens moves smoothly to the exterior scene. In the film, the restoration of the "Da Water Method" scene in the Old Summer Palace was well-received by the audience for its rigorous textual research and exquisite setting (netease review).
lens language
Li Hanxiang is particularly proficient in the use of lens language in this movie. Several scenes of the film introduce the real scene of the Imperial City Palace Museum and the built Old Summer Palace through different lenses of long and short distances, showing the palace architecture from various angles, scanning the gorgeous costumes of the characters and historical props, thus effectively highlighting the solemn history of the film Picture. In addition, the carefully designed silent episodes of the film also reflect the director's skill. Yi Guifei uses a lingering tune to attract the Emperor Xianfeng. The play is almost entirely explained by movement, music, composition, editing, and camera movement, with very few dramatic dialogues. ; And the two battles with the Eight-Power Allied Forces were also filmed and edited with passion (Netease Review). The narrative of the film
"Burning the Old Summer Palace" adopts a two-line structure. In addition to telling the beasts of the British and French forces, the first half of the film uses a blend of official history and wild anecdotes to describe the story of Cixi’s fortune and the plot of her growth model. The line also runs through clearly. Such a story structure is not only conducive to portray the character of Cixi, but also increases the twists and turns of the story and the interest of details. The middle part of the film like Zeng Gelinqin angrily throws the British invading officer Bashar, and the British and French coalition forces burned the Yuanmingyuan.
movie evaluation
Douban score 7.2
This movie made by Lou Ye is really good! Even if my country has a grading system, the content of the first hour of the film has greatly exceeded the tolerance limits of ordinary Chinese viewers. Many years later, when
learned that Xianfeng was actually Leung Jiahui, he was shocked!
It is said that the things in there are real things found by the director.
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