On November 19, the movie "Railway Heroes", directed by Yang Feng and starring Zhang Hanyu, Fan Wei, Wei Chen, and others, was released, telling the story of the heroic "railway team" in Lincheng and Zaozhuang during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
△ "Railway Hero" poster
In fact, the IP of "railway guerrilla" can be traced back to the 1950s. Since the publication of the novel "Railway Guerrilla" in 1954, there have been more than 10 film and television drama versions based on it. Let's review the evolution of the "railway guerrillas"!
A novel written by a junior high school student has spread throughout China
In 1954, a novel called "Railway Guerrilla" was published, which quickly swept the country, and the person who wrote the book was Liu Zhixia. Perhaps at that time, he did not think that his "railway guerrillas" would be so popular, and even today, more than 60 years later, this story can once again appear on the big screen.
Liu Zhixia grew up on the railway side, his father was a railway road guard, and he lived in a village with a railway. The loud whistle, the smoke and the rushing train became the most unforgettable memories of his childhood. And the fate of his life is also closely linked to the "railway".
In 1943, by chance, Liu Zhixia got to know Xu Guangtian, the combat hero of the railway guerrillas, and through many conversations, he had a certain understanding of important battles such as "Blood Stained Foreign Company", "Flying Car Machine Gun", "Battle on Ticket Car", etc. Deeply moved by the heroic deeds of the guerrillas, he had the desire to write novels.
In order to grasp the first-hand detailed information, Liu Zhixia visited Zaozhuang three times, and after accumulating a large amount of materials and materials, he decided to take the real struggle experience of the Lunan Railway Guerrilla Brigade as the context and use the two railway guerrilla brigade leaders Hong Zhenhai and Liu Jinshan as the prototype to create. After 10 years, the novel "Railway Guerrilla" was completed and officially published by the Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House in 1954.
As soon as "Railway Guerrilla" came out, it was loved by readers and sold out soon after it was released. According to historical records, the novel was reprinted at least 7 times in the same year, and the number of copies of the novel doubled the average number of bibliographic prints in that year, and it was translated into English, Russian, French, German, Vietnamese and other foreign languages. The comic strip of the same name adapted the following year, which has been reprinted more than 20 times and has been distributed more than 36 million copies, is a realistic comic strip with the largest number of reprints and the highest number of prints in China.
When writing this popular book, the author Liu Zhixia was still only a junior high school education.
The first film adaptation was filmed in Nanjing, and the director was a Jiangsu native
"The sun in the west is about to set, and the lake is quiet, playing my beloved earth lute and singing that moving song..." For many people, this song "Play my beloved earth pipa" is their first impression of "Railway Guerrilla".
△ 1956 edition of "Railway Guerrilla"
After the publication of "Railway Guerrilla", the crowd's demand for the novel to be adapted into a film grew louder. In 1956, the Shanghai Film Studio decided to shoot the film, and the task was entrusted to the Jiangsu director Zhao Ming, with Liu Zhixia, the original author of the novel, as the screenwriter of the film.
In the face of more than 400,000 words of the original work, how to turn it into an image and condense it in a movie is also a huge challenge for Zhao Ming, who has filmed excellent works such as "Sanmao Wandering" and "Unite to Tomorrow". To this end, the main creators of the crew have repeatedly gone to Linyi, Zaozhuang, Weishan Lake and other places to interview prototype characters and hold symposiums.
In terms of actor selection and shooting, Zhao Ming took a lot of thought. Liu Hong, the core character in the film, specially invited Cao Huiqu, an actor from the Guangzhou Military Region Warrior Repertory Theatre, to star, and the female character Fang Linyi, who impressed many audiences, was played by Qin Yi, one of the "Twenty-Two Movie Stars of New China".
When the filming officially began, the Shanghai Railway Bureau specially transferred trains and crew to assist in the filming, and also filmed in Taihu Lake and Nanjing, Shanghai and other places. It is understood that Zhao Ming also specially invited Liu Jinshan, the prototype figure of Liu Hong, the leader of the railway guerrilla brigade, to be an adviser, and he asked Liu Jinshan to lead the train drivers and actors to practice for many days, and ingested the "flying tiger" heroic postures such as picking up trains, climbing over walls, and riding horses to chase trains.
After the film was released, the response was enthusiastic and was widely praised by the audience at the time, and in the 1957 beijing people's radio station and the Beijing Daily jointly organized the domestic film selection, the film was listed as one of the ten most popular films of the year.
For more than 60 years, more than 10 "railway guerrillas" have been born.
The road of film and television adaptation of "railway guerrillas" has never stopped. Since 1956, more than 10 film and television drama works based on this model have been born.
In 1985, the Shanghai Film Studio carefully filmed the TV series "Railway Guerrilla", which was also the first TV series adapted from "Railway Guerrilla".
The drama is served by film industry businessman Zhang Junxiang as an artistic consultant, and the general director is Gao Zheng, a famous director of Shanghai Film Studio. The series consists of 12 episodes, using the chapter style used in the novel, and each episode begins with a four-word title that summarizes the content of the episode, while the suspense is reserved between the episodes: "Predict what will happen after tomorrow and see the next decomposition".
Since the production of TV dramas in China was still in its infancy at that time, the social response was very enthusiastic when this drama was broadcast.
△ 1995 "Flying Tigers"
In 1995, Emei Film Studio filmed a new version of the story of "Railway Guerrillas", "Flying Tigers". The film is directed by "Jiao Yulu" director Wang Jixing, and this time they adopt a new way of telling. The 1956 version of the film actually adopts the same storytelling method as the novel of the same name, telling the story linearly according to the order in which the events occurred. "Flying Tigers" begins with the memories of her sister-in-law, in which Fang Lin is a former war participant, in this film, the sister-in-law becomes a spectator of the war, and she only tells the story of the railway guerrillas in the form of a voiceover.
△ 2005 TV series version of "Railway Guerrilla"
In 2005, the Shandong Film and Television Drama Production Center filmed a new version of the TV series "Railway Guerrilla". Director Wang Xinmin has created martial arts works such as "Swallow Li San", "Chivalrous Travel", and "Lian cheng tips". Therefore, the biggest difference between this remake and the previous one is that the martial arts action has been heavily introduced into the red classic, and the battle has become the main line of the story.
It is worth mentioning that in 2011, the original team filmed "Railway Guerrilla 2", which tells the story of the guerrillas and the remaining stubborn resistance of the Japanese army.
△ 2016 "Railway Flying Tiger"
In 2016, 60 years after the release of the first version of "Railway Guerrilla", the action comedy "Railway Flying Tiger" was born. Directed by Ding Sheng and starring Jackie Chan, Huang Zitao, Wang Kai, etc., the film interprets this classic IP in another way.
And the "Railway Hero" released on November 19 sang "Play My Beloved Earth Pipa" in the theater again, which gathered Zhang Hanyu, Fan Wei, Wei Chen, Yu Haoming and other powerful actors, which made people wonder, how will they present this history, and how will the old wine be dressed?