"Heroes and Children": Why is the battle flag so picturesque?

In the hit movie "Chosin Lake", Yang Gensi, the commander of the volunteer company, in order to prevent the enemy from continuing to approach, picked up a bag of explosives, pulled the fuse, and rushed to the enemy group, and died with the enemy who climbed into the position. This scene made us deeply shocked and tearful, and we could not help but think of another heroic character in the classic movie "Heroes and Children" - Wang Cheng.

From "Reunion" to "Heroes and Children"

March 1952 was the most tense moment of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. Mr. Ba Jin, a writer, led the creative group of the "China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Visiting The Korean Field Mission" and set foot on Korean soil accompanied by the loud battle song of "majestic and exuberant, crossing the Yalu River".

Among them, Ba Jin experienced life in the 194th Division of the 65th Army. In October 1952, the 582nd Regiment of the 194th Division of the 65th Army of the Volunteer Army, under the leadership of Zhang Zhenchuan, regimental commander and political commissar, was ordered to compete with the enemy for the "Red Mountain Pack" and "67 Highlands", fighting for five consecutive days and nights. In the final scramble, the regiment's 6th company was ordered to hold the high ground and repelled many enemy attacks. On 5 October, the enemy concentrated a battalion of troops and attacked the heights with the help of aircraft and tanks. The 6th Company fought tenaciously, and all the companies, except for the wounded deputy instructor Zhao Xianyou and the correspondent Liu Shunwu, all died heroically.

When the enemy was about to attack the high ground, Zhao Xianyou and Liu Shunwu shouted loudly to the regimental command post with a walkie-talkie: "Commander, fire at me!" Zhang Zhenchuan ordered the artillery group to shoot fiercely at the enemy troops occupying our positions, covering our counterattack squad and rushing to the position. After our army recaptured the position, it was found that Zhao Xianyou and Liu Shunwu had died with the enemy...

After Mr. Ba Jin heard the deeds of these heroes on the front line of the Korean battlefield, he did not speak for a long time. The idea of creating a classic work to comfort the heroic souls of martyrs has been weighing heavily on Mr. Barkin's mind. After years of brewing and precipitation, Ba Jin finally used his creative vacation to write a novella "Reunion" in one go in a guest house in Hangzhou, which was published in the August 1961 issue of Shanghai Literature.

In this novel, Barkin uses the first-person approach, using "I" to hear and witness, telling the reader a moving story that took place on the Korean battlefield. After the novel was published, it immediately attracted the attention of all parties. Xia Yan, then vice minister of culture, read the novel and immediately approached the Changchun Film Studio and asked to adapt it into a film. After research, the shooting task was handed over to the director Wu Zhaodi, who after reading the novel, covered up his long thoughts and was deeply infected by the novel, so he rushed to Beijing to find Mao Feng and invited him to adapt the script together.

Three years later, "Reunion" was filmed by Changchun Film Studio into the classic film "Heroes and Children". The hero Wang Cheng, the protagonist of the novel and the film created based on the deeds of the martyr Zhao Xianyou, has become a classic heroic image of Chinese red films, and the theme song of the film, "Hymn of the Hero", has been widely sung in the troops, factories and mines, organs, schools and villages, inspiring generations of Chinese sons and daughters.

"For the sake of victory, shoot at me"

The reason why the red literary and artistic classic "Heroes and Children" is deeply touching is because it is rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese culture and comes from the front line of the heroic war to resist the United States and aid Korea. The heroes Wang Cheng and Wang Fang have distinct personalities, love and hatred in the face of the great righteousness of the country and the nation, and have become the classic character images of China's red literary and artistic works.

Excellent literary and artistic film and television works have temperature and emotion. There is such a classic plot in "Heroes and Children": In order to drag the enemy, Wang Cheng's unit of the volunteer army held its position and repelled the enemy's attack again and again, delaying the enemy's occupation of an important strategic high ground and winning precious time for our army. One by one, the comrades-in-arms fell down, desperately running out of ammunition, and in the desperate situation of the outnumbered people being surrounded by the enemy, Wang Cheng did not fear, but regarded death as a homecoming, and shouted to the headquarters of our army with a walkie-talkie, "For the sake of victory, fire at me!" Wang Cheng immediately pulled out the explosive canister and rushed to the enemy, ending up with him. Since the release of this film, every audience in China will be unforgettable and unforgettable for this movie scene.

The film "Heroes and Children" has always revolved around the theme of heroes in the conception of the whole movie. Wang Fang was injured by an American plane for rescuing the cook, and Wang Wenqing came to the rear hospital to visit her. After Wang Wenqing praised Wang Fang for being as brave as his brother Wang Cheng, there was such a dialogue between the two sides.

Wang Fang: "I'm nothing, it's not an earth-shattering thing." Wang Wenqing: "Oh? What about your father (referring to Wang Fang's adoptive father)? He has worked all his life, suffered half a lifetime, and Uncle Kim (referring to the Korean grandfather who went through all the hardships to send Wang Fang to the rear hospital), none of them have done anything earth-shattering, don't you think they are all heroes? ”

This dialogue is thought-provoking, and I believe that thousands of moviegoers will cause them to think when they see this place. The movie tells us that Wang Cheng, a volunteer soldier who sacrificed his life for the motherland and the people, is a hero, and Wang Fang, who abstains from self-denial and dedication in his post, is also a hero. These heroic sons and daughters are the good sons and daughters of the Chinese people, and the Chinese nation is a heroic collective. In this sense, the ideology contained in the film "Children of Heroes" has the immortal power to transcend the times.

Hero praise

In particular, it should be pointed out that the theme song of the movie "Hero Hymn" is no less influential than the movie "Heroes and Children", which has been sung by the people to this day. Even today, decades later, it's still catchy. Composer Liu Chi and Gong mu, the lyricist of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Military Song, composed the song together. "The wind and smoke billow and sing the hero, and the four green mountains listen to it" "Why is the battle flag so picturesque, the hero's blood stains it red." Today, although we cannot be in the battlefield of gunfire and smoke at that time, we can feel the will of the volunteer soldiers to fight in this classic melody and lyrics.

In the film, Wang Wenqing, as a political commissar, was not satisfied after reading a lot of propaganda materials about Wang Cheng, so he found Wang Fang and encouraged her to recall and praise her brother: "You know your brother best, you should write him out and sing it, let the whole army know, let the people of the whole country know." But when Wang Fang shed tears and wrote the first draft, Wang Wenqing was not satisfied. He asked the warrior Xiao Liu to express his opinion, and such a conversation took place.

Xiao Liu: When I saw the back, I felt very sad and couldn't get up.

Wang Fang: I think it really wrote out my true feelings.

Xiao Liu: Anyway, I think it is soft and does not collapse.

Wang Fang: I wrote it with tears in my eyes.

Wang Wenqing: Can you write your brother by tears alone? You write about him, you sing about him, for what? Is it to make everyone cry with you?

The writer and director cleverly borrow the words of political commissar Wang Wenqing to reveal the core of the entire film. Why do we celebrate heroes and praise heroes? This is because heroes are the brightest coordinates of the Chinese nation, they are like stars, lamps, clusters of fire, shining in the sky, candles shining on future generations. A nation with hope cannot do without heroes, and we must draw strength from heroes to forge ahead.

Today, peace and development have become the theme of the times, let us once again relive those red classic works, relive those familiar classic melodies: why the battle flag is picturesque, the blood of heroes stained it red. Why is the earth always springing, and the life of the hero blossoming... The Chinese nation is a nation that advocates heroes, achieves heroes, and produces heroes, and it also needs heroic feelings in peacetime. These red classic literary and artistic works represented by "Heroes and Children" have their indelible significance and value in the new era, and these glories and dreams should become the collective memory of the Chinese nation.