In 2000, in order to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Chinese Volunteer Army's going abroad to fight in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, CCTV decided to shoot a 30-episode TV series "The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea."
People have been looking forward to film and television dramas on the theme of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea for too long.
From the 50s to the 60s of last century, the patriotic enthusiasm of the people in our country was unprecedentedly high, and the state filmed many film and television dramas reflecting the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, which aroused strong repercussions and is still an indelible classic in the minds of many people.
For example, "Shangganling" in 1956 showed the fierceness of the battle in Shangganling, the tenacious and indomitable heroic spirit of our army, and the theme song of the movie was Guo Lanying's "My Motherland", a sentence "A big river with wide waves", which has become an eternal classic and has been recited to this day.
From the perspective of the mother of a sacrificial volunteer soldier, "Letter from the Front" in 1958 shows that human nature and the consideration of life and death show that we do not only promote the main theme, but also explore human nature.
From the perspective of international military and diplomacy, "Friendship" in 1959 shows the ubiquitous and deep friendship between China and North Korea.
1964's "Heroes and Children" is the childhood memories of many people, and the protagonist Wang Cheng regards death as a homecoming, and the shot of shouting "shoot at me" is permanently frozen in the memories of a generation.
In addition to the above films, there are classic works such as "Railway Guard", "Long Sky Wing", "Heroic Tanker" and so on, starting from the perspective of a single army and looking at the magnificent war, which is the perfect combination of individual heroism and collectivism.
After the 1970s, as the smoke of the battlefield disappeared, the films on the theme of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea gradually faded out of the historical stage.
After the reform and opening up, the film has been transformed from a plan to the market, the entry of capital has changed the structure of the film market, and the film and television dramas on the theme of resisting the United States and aiding Korea and even the war are not sought after, and it is difficult to find them, and people can only recall the years of burning passion in the old movies.
Until the end of the 1990s, CCTV decided to film this epic War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, so that future generations will remember history.
CCTV's shot, which represents the national standard, must be extraordinary.
CCTV has indeed done enough work, raising more than 30 million yuan to shoot this "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea", which translates to the present, the investment amount is at least 300 million or 400 million, using hundreds of actors, more than 100,000 group performances, it took a whole year to shoot, the degree of care can be seen.
This "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" not only cost a huge amount of money, but also made real efforts, and the directors and actors are the best of the best.
"Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" was written by Zhang Xiaotian and co-directed by Li Qiankuan and Xiao Guiyun.
Zhang Xiaotian is a famous historical writer and screenwriter in China, graduated from the History Department of the University, and wrote the screenplay of film and television dramas such as "Yanming Lakeside", "The Last Empress", "The Founding Ceremony", and "Chongqing Negotiations", all of which are historical dramas with extremely heavy weight.
Li Qiankuan and Xiao Guiyun are famous husband and wife directors in China, and the two have jointly directed revolutionary historical dramas such as "The Founding Ceremony", "Chongqing Negotiations", "July 7 Incident", "Before and After the Decisive Battle", and "Dream of the Century", with excellent reputation.
The screenwriter and director have cooperated many times, and each time it has been a great success, and the degree of tacit understanding can be imagined.
In terms of actors, it is an all-star cast.
Gu Yue played Mao Zedong, Kong Xiangyu played Zhou Enlai, and Ding Xiaoyi played Peng Dehuai, all of whom were superb actors with superb acting skills, playing leaders more than once, which can be described as both form and god, and were well received by the audience.
In order to ensure the authenticity of the characters, the crew also carefully selected actors from 17 countries such as the United States and Russia, and important characters such as Stalin, Eisenhower, and MacArthur were all played by domestic actors, and the degree of character restoration was very high.
In order to make "The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" into an epic masterpiece that truly conforms to history, the crew hired professional historical and military consultants, especially General Hong Xuezhi, who was the logistics commander of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, to personally serve as the general adviser of the play.
Under the premise of high respect for history, with permission, many historical facts that have never been disclosed to the outside world before have been disclosed.
For example, in the second stage of the Fifth Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, due to command errors and other reasons, the 180th Division of the 60th Army was surrounded by american troops during the retreat, and the breakthrough failed, and in the end only more than 4,000 people successfully broke through, and most of the other troops were killed or captured, which became the heaviest loss of our army in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. For this period of history, this film directly faces the historical facts and does not avoid it.
In addition, the army also gave strong support, the crew called more than 100,000 troops, aircraft, artillery, tanks and other equipment are real knives and guns, truly reproduced the scene of large-scale and group operations on the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, many long shots are comparable to the war epic "Armageddon", is a revolutionary historical war theme drama that respects history and shows history in an all-round way.
It is difficult to reproduce such a well-produced, grand scene, and highly restorative revolutionary historical drama.
The film was originally scheduled to be broadcast on CCTV's prime time on New Year's Day in 2001, but it was later hidden by snow.
As for the reasons for this, opinions vary.
Until 2009, Yang Weiguang, the director of the CCTV front desk, appeared to say that in an interview with southern people weekly, he positively explained the reason why the TV series "Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" has not been publicly broadcast, which is also the most authoritative statement at present.
People Weekly: It's not just documentary, you said that TV dramas have to talk about politics.
Yang Weiguang: Yes. But it is very regrettable that it was slowed down at that time, the film was filmed for more than a year, everyone thought it could be broadcast, and the result came to a "9.11". The World Trade Center building was just bombed, and it was not good for you to resist US aggression and aid Korea, but considering some of the situations at that time, it was not broadcast.
Since 2001, international relations have been unpredictable, and various parties have continuously put forward the hope of publicly broadcasting this "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea", but due to various factors, they have not been approved, and finally this TV series has been hidden in the snow, and it has been hidden for 20 years.
In the past 20 years, some of the crew members have not been able to wait for the broadcast of "Resisting US Aggression and Aiding Korea" and have already died, such as Gu Yue, who played Mao Zedong, died in 2005, and screenwriter Zhang Xiaotian died in 2016, which has to be said to be a great regret.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People's Volunteers' war to resist US aggression and aid Korea, and films on the theme of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea have been released successively, giving many people a glimmer of hope for the 2000 edition of "ResistING US Aggression and Aiding Korea" to begin broadcasting, but the newly filmed "Crossing the Yalu River" was recently broadcast on CCTV, announcing that "The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" has been thoroughly beaten into the cold palace, and there may never be any hope of being released.
The "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea," which was hidden in the snow, can only sigh one sentence: It is not the right time to be born! It's not the right time!
Finally, salute the heroes of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea! History should not be forgotten; heroes, immortal!