how scary it is when the director gets serious
2024-09-09
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the tv series "our rivers and mountains" directed by the famous director mao weining is about to start filming in yinan county, linyi city. as the start time approaches, he keeps revealing the latest progress of the preparations through his personal weibo.
mao weining said that the shooting and production of this tv series will still first adhere to the pursuit of true details. only true details can bring a shocking power to the entire work, especially for war-themed works. previously, he directed "meritorious li yannian: a man of both literature and martial arts" with this concept, which truly showed the heroic deeds of li yannian (a winner of the "medal of the republic", a "first-class hero" of the volunteer army, and a special meritorious contributor) on the battlefield of the war to resist u.s. aggression and aid korea, and won a very good reputation. now, his anti-japanese war drama dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the victory of the chinese people's war of resistance against japanese aggression and the world anti-fascist war naturally makes everyone full of expectations.
a summer harvest that missed the season
in a weibo post published on august 29, mao weining said: "the authenticity of a work is first reflected in the authenticity of the details." from this sentence, it can be seen that he will continue to adhere to his consistent artistic standards when directing "our rivers and mountains": telling stories with real details.
in this weibo post, he posted 13 photos of the filming site. he wrote: the art department of "our rivers and mountains" has spent a lot of energy on this work. in addition to our off-season planting of crops, the ongoing scene construction has also consumed a lot of effort. for example, the gypsum-replicated stone slab in figure 1 (note: photo of the prop stone slab) is used to build the gun tower. currently, 50 tons have been remade, but it is said that it is not enough. the art department has collected and produced tens of thousands of objects from that era in the local 3,000 square meters of prop warehouse. in short, we hope to make the details as realistic as possible.
judging from the photos he posted, the props prepared on the scene included not only a large number of stone slabs, but also various firearms used on the battlefield of that era, saddles for riding, wooden spinning wheels for people to spin thread, looms for weaving coarse cloth, and packed bedding for soldiers on the march... in short, these were all to recreate the real scenes at that time.
mao weining said that "our rivers and mountains" will write a positive epic of the people's war and truly show the "blood and fire" of the battlefield behind enemy lines. to achieve the goal of "truthful presentation" and to achieve this kind of artistic truth, the first thing to do when shooting is to pay attention to the truth of details.
for example, tv dramas often feature summer harvest scenes. he spent a lot of time thinking about how to set up this scene. mao weining said, "now i am more concerned about whether the nearly 100 mu of wheat we just planted can be turned into a summer harvest scene in october when we want to shoot it."
to film the summer harvest scene, the best effect would naturally be achieved in that season. however, by the time the tv series officially started filming, the time had definitely been missed. mao weining said: "after consulting with local agricultural experts, we rented land in july to plant hundreds of acres of wheat. by the time of filming, there might be a poor summer harvest."
generally speaking, crops must grow and be harvested in season. if the season is missed, both growth and harvest will be affected to varying degrees. some crops may not grow well, or may grow sparsely, or may simply bloom but not bear fruit. this is the case with wheat planted out of season. even if it ears, the grains may not bear fruit. the crew's "prop" wheat field faced this situation.
however, this is not necessarily a bad thing. for the crew, it may be a surprise that "losing in one place, gaining in another". because in the war years, it was difficult to cultivate crops carefully and the harvest was poor. mao weining said: "during the anti-japanese war, wheat did not use chemical fertilizers, the spacing was large, and the harvest was about a quarter of the current one." in this way, the "poor summer harvest" is more in line with the real situation at that time.
of course, the crew also made preparations in case the wheat fields could not meet the filming requirements in the future. mao weining said: "we bought dozens of acres of harvested wheat in advance during the summer harvest in june and stored them in the warehouse. if the planting fails, we will plant it back in the field."
he said: "in short, "our rivers and mountains" starts with farming." in fact, this also emphasizes again that the shooting and production of this tv series started with the pursuit of authenticity in details.
a netizen named "snow mountain cobra" commented on the director's weibo: "from digging 1,500-meter trenches to planting hundreds of acres of wheat: how terrifying the director is when he gets serious." the "terrible" here obviously has a meaning beyond the literal meaning. it expresses the high appreciation for mao weining's directorial philosophy and shooting style, and also expresses the warm expectation for another high-quality work he will bring.
details support the "ceiling" work
director mao weining's works tell stories through details, and he is good at telling stories with details. this is true of "silent oath", "ordinary world", "battle flag", "plum blossom archives", "the dawns here are quiet", and "ten farewells to the red army".
this is especially true of his film "meritorious service: li yannian, both literary and military". this film, which depicts the heroic deeds of li yannian, a recipient of the "medal of the republic", during the korean war, has won great acclaim and is hailed as the best domestic war film in recent years. it is also a "ceiling" work of the same genre, and many viewers have changed their "stereotypes" about domestic war films. it is not easy to achieve this, and mao weining's trump card is precisely those vivid and convincing details.
"the meritorious man of both literature and martial arts li yannian" is not long, with only 6 episodes. the whole story is woven together by a number of details, many of which are impressive.
in the play, a scene in which li yannian carefully observed and calculated the landing point of the shells and led the soldiers to quickly pass through the enemy's artillery blocking area is one of the very real and particularly meaningful details. according to the order from his superiors, li yannian led the 7th company to reinforce hill 346.6. this hill is a very important strategic location. in order to seize this strategic location, the u.s. military used artillery fire on the only way to the hill, and the firepower blocked a narrow road of about 1,000 meters, forming a blocking area to block the reinforcements of the volunteer army. there were two companies in front of the volunteer army charging under artillery fire, and they suffered huge sacrifices.
when li yannian arrived at the blocking area, he did not rashly command the team to rush over. he came to the front of the position, carefully observed the enemy's shelling, calculated with the watch, and basically found out the rules: the enemy usually bombarded continuously for 1 minute, stopped for 3 minutes, and so on. he also observed that the shells fired by the enemy mainly fell in the central area of the blockade area, with very few falling on both sides. based on his own observations and calculations, li yannian gave a strategy for passing the blocking area: wait for the enemy's shelling interval, as a group of two squads, quickly move to the center of the blockade area, run to about 150 meters, and a new round of shelling will almost begin. you need to jump into the shell craters on the side to hide immediately. the shell craters on both sides are basically safe; once the shelling stops, run forward desperately.
to be on the safe side, li yannian personally braved the artillery fire to verify it once. he told the soldiers that the strategy was completely feasible: "i was in the shell hole, avoiding the enemy's artillery fire and returned safely. look at me, i have two arms, two legs and a head, nothing is missing."
using this method, the seventh company successfully passed through this "land of death" with relatively few casualties.
such details are vivid and beautiful, and they also have multiple special meanings. mao weining tells the audience through such details that the volunteers can win battles because they not only have the courage to fear no sacrifice and the heroic and tenacious fighting spirit, but they also fight with wisdom. especially when they are seriously behind the enemy in equipment, communication, and logistics support, they can win battles and continuously defeat the enemy. they rely on courage, fighting, brains, and flexible operations, and they are definitely not blindly hard or reckless.
it is from similar details that mao weining makes the audience understand that the volunteer army can win the battle because it is a team under the leadership of the party, a team with faith, and a team with the sentiment of defending the country. this is the source of their strength to defeat powerful enemies. the "liberation army daily" once published an article to comment on "the meritorious service of li yannian: a man of both civil and military power": the drama breaks the stereotype of military political cadres in previous film and television works, presents a brand-new image of a political cadre who is both civil and military, fully demonstrates the important role of grassroots political cadres, and further enhances people's understanding of political cadres. "it is precisely because our army has many commanders at all levels like li yannian who have strong political work capabilities and high military qualities that it has effectively promoted the generation of combat effectiveness. the many details reflected in this tv series provide useful inspiration for us to do a good job in political work and improve the comprehensive capabilities of political cadres today."
what is more noteworthy is that these vivid details in the play are based on life, and are artistically refined and processed on the basis of real life. art that is separated from life often becomes dull, false, empty or historically nihilistic.
being able to explain the above contents clearly through tv dramas and tell stories very excitingly are the advantages of mao weining, and are also the reasons why his works are praised as "ceilings". this is also the lack of many works of similar themes. it is easier for us to understand why some so-called war-themed blockbusters, with large investments, large productions, large casts, and large scenes, are not recognized by the audience - mainly because of the lack of vivid and touching details, or the details that exist but are not derived from real life, which makes people look neither reasonable nor rational, and the characters and stories cannot stand up - such works lack soul, even if they invest more and the cast is more luxurious, how can they create value that matches their investment? how can they impress the audience and make them applaud?
from "meritorious service: li yannian, a man of both literature and martial arts", we feel the charm and power of real details. we may as well wait and see how "our rivers and mountains", which "starts from farming", will impact the audience's hearts with real characters, real scenes, real stories, and real spiritual power.
(dazhong news reporter yu guopeng)
