Then, here I will talk about two highly praised domestic war movies of Amway, and then talk about their interpretation of the war and some truths revealed.
During the War of Liberation, the company commander Gu led 47 soldiers from nine companies to cover the retreat of large troops on the banks of the Wenhe River. Captain Liu ordered them to retreat when they heard the horn. With the roar of artillery shells, a bitter war began. The soldiers of the ninth company suffered heavy casualties. Jiao Dapeng, the platoon leader, said that he heard the assembly number before he died. Gu Dizi didn't hear it himself, so he decided to defend his position.
Nine consecutive strikes repelled the enemy's three attacks, blew up two tanks and wiped out countless enemies. All 47 people were killed except the company commander Gu. The war changed Gu's life. Because the troops changed their numbers, Gu couldn't find an organization, and the martyrs who died in Jiulian were also identified as missing. Gu began a difficult search to find an explanation for Jiulian's brothers and find out the truth of the assembly number.
"Assembly" makes China war movies enter an era of positive description of the individual life value of ordinary soldiers-even if they didn't even leave their names in the end, even if their sacrifice only brought 700 kilograms of millet to their families, even if those soldiers were listed as "missing" when they were obviously sacrificed, they might not even get a birthright in the end. In the war, they were as ordinary as dust and as hard as city walls.
There are many places in Assembly that are actually borrowed from American war movies: in American war movies, generals and leaders have always been behind the scenes and have not been highlighted. Look at the previous domestic war movies, which usually exaggerate heroism and romanticism, praise heroes and leaders, while ordinary soldiers die for nihilistic ideals, socialism and invisible people.
But at the rally, they died for their visible brother and their visible trust. They didn't say a hollow and beautiful nonsense. It abandoned the traditional heroism and romanticism, and restored the cruelty and absurdity of war. It didn't praise or even criticize, but told an extremely cruel and confusing war stories from a calm narrative perspective.
Some viewers described the film like this after watching it: a battle unknown in advance, with no return; A group of soldiers who live and die together and are linked by flesh and blood; A stubborn officer who lost his identity but never gave up; An assembly signal that never sounded, an unknown war stories.
Just as Assembly touched the netizens in China, it also touched a Japanese netizen. The picture above shows the cover of the Japanese edition of Assembly, and its name is "Soul Song of the Battlefield". In order to get more hits, the title of the film was changed to the war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. As can be seen from the barrage, the Japanese audience sneered at the film at first. In the end, I found this movie really good! ! Even let Japanese netizens feel that China movies have surpassed Japanese movies.
Next, I will introduce a war movie "The Devil Comes" directed by Jiang Wen. This film can be said to be one of the masterpieces of domestic war movies, and it is also the most breakthrough work reflecting the theme of "war and people" in domestic movies.
The Devil Comes is a film set in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. It tells the story of Ma Dasan, an honest villager in a remote village in Hebei Province, who was confronted with a thorny problem at the end of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. He was thrown a sack containing a Japanese greenhouse and a traitor translator Dong, claiming to pick them up in a few days, but he didn't see them.
The kind Ma Dasan, while being the parents of the two, discussed the plan with the villagers and finally decided to put them to death, but it ended because of "God's will". In order to save himself, the eloquent Dong tried to get the villagers in Guajiatai to sign a contract with Huawu, saying that after Huawu was safely delivered to the Japanese gendarmerie, the villagers could get several cars of food. Ma Dasan and all the villagers rushed to the gendarmerie happily and handed over the prisoners to the Japanese side. However, the Japanese side did not have the education of "returning a gift with a gift".
You may laugh all the time after reading the first half, but you will gradually stop laughing after reading the second half, and you will only feel deep sorrow after reading it. In War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, we are the victorious strong and the invaded weak. The whole movie is thought-provoking We live in this era of anti-Japanese drama. Should we look at that history more rationally and truly?
The film "The Devil Comes" is contrary to the traditional narrative and foreshadowing methods of China films. It is extremely frank and direct, full of strength and passion, and embodies the complexity and versatility of human nature. The whole film reflects the indomitable character of China people. The audience can see the kindness flowing in China people's hearts, and at the same time, they can feel that this kindness cannot be bullied casually.
The film abandons the theme of "soldiers and civilians bravely resisting aggression" in the original work, and concentrates on refining the side of "ignorance of farmers" and "absurdity of war", pointing directly at the weaknesses of China people and injecting more sense of hardship into the visualized story. This made me see a little shadow of Mr. Lu Xun.
The realism and recording sense of black-and-white movies give real feedback to the audience, and the shaking sense of hand-held cameras gives people a sense of historical vicissitudes and tears of the picture. This film contains Jiang Wen's interpretation of that period of history. The film shows the ignorance of the Chinese nation too much and satirizes this nation. In fact, it reveals the other side of history in a black humor way. So unconventional will stand out in many war movies.
In addition, two self-reports of director Jiang Wen are attached to understand his original intention of making this film.
1. Why should I shoot The Devils Come?
Jiang Wen said: This film is not only a reappearance of Japanese atrocities in those years, but also a warning obligation. In this film, the Japanese army slaughtered the real people in China and China. In fact, the Japanese did kill many people in China. Such a tragedy happened in my hometown Tangshan.
I want to tell the Japanese audience through this movie: You really should face up to this history and stop denying it. I also want to warn the domestic audience not to be kind to the wicked for no reason. Faced with these facts, China people and Japanese people should have a correct understanding to avoid this kind of thing from happening again.
2. Why don't I let the China audience "beat" the devil in the film?
Jiang Wen said that another purpose of making this film is to change some misunderstandings that some "old movies" with anti-Japanese war themes may cause to people, especially Japanese audiences. From a historical point of view, those movies are very good, and they really played a role in educating the people and attacking the enemy. But these movies also have some problems.
For example, these old movies were brought to Japan by the Japanese to educate young people in Japan to say, "Look, which ordinary people in China are not spies and which are not soldiers who don't wear military uniforms?" ? Since they are all soldiers, we can "destroy them". As a result, our old movies became their cover for China's massacre of civilians. But in fact, at that time, we didn't have "all the people are soldiers", it was just an ideal of ours. Now that we are making a movie, we can't give the Japanese such an excuse any more.
I think making a movie is very addictive, and I often get something for quick success and instant benefit, but it has no effect and can't make the audience really think about what will happen later. I filmed "The Devil Comes" just to make the audience understand that there is no other way to avoid the unpleasant history that everyone knows, except for oral addiction. I dare not say that The Devil Comes gives this conclusion. In fact, I can't do a director or a movie. The highest ideal is to have direction!