The birth of "Five Golden Flowers" and related memories

Today, Zhang Yanli, a supplement to the People's Daily, wrote: "Documentary Creation and Dissemination - Contributing to Telling Chinese Stories and Spreading Chinese Voices (Light film and television industry)": "On top of chai rice oil and salt" is directed by Ke Wensi, a British director and two-time Oscar winner of the Best Documentary Short Film Award, through the 4 short films of "Kai Yong", "Lin Bao", "Huai Fu" and "Zi Xu", telling the story of 3 ordinary Chinese and 1 Chinese village. Wu Zimu of the Song Dynasty recorded in the "Mengliang Lu • Kunpu Shop": "Gai people can not be queened every day, chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea". The film is acceptable, relying on touching people's hearts, not logical reasoning, so that overseas audiences can accept these ordinary Chinese from the bottom of their hearts.

One novelist said, "The ultimate test of a novel's success is whether it can arouse our empathy."

Artworks that lack artistry, no matter how politically progressive, are powerless. We oppose both works of art with wrong political views and the tendency of so-called "slogan-style" that only has a correct political point of view and no artistic power (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 3, p. 871, "Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art").

Two years ago, CCTV's "old story" "Five Golden Flowers" was born: in 2005, the top ten domestic films were selected nationwide, and "Five Golden Flowers" was first listed. As a gift for the tenth anniversary of the National Day, Premier Zhou instructed the filming of a joyous film of Yunnan's customs and customs, and Xia Yan, then minister of culture, accepted foreign propaganda films for foreigners without the slogans of "Long live the Communist Party" and "Long live Chairman Mao", positioning light comedy, Dali landscape scenery, and Bai people singing and dancing. A record was set for release in 46 countries. Taiwan commented that the mainland is the best propaganda film that does not talk about politics.

Xia Yan, who had presided over the meeting in Dali and was overwhelmed by the scenery of Dali, Zhao Jikang, the screenwriter of "Moyatai", and her husband Wang Gongpu, who was 28 years old at the time, were inspired by the misunderstanding of the twins of the foreign film "No Address" and Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", borrowed the same name to "fabricate" the conflict, the male and female protagonists met at the March Street Jockey Race, met each other in the next year, the good man of Jianchuan went to the appointment as scheduled, at the foot of Cangshan Mountain, on the edge of the Erhai Coast, "several misunderstandings", and the lovers finally became dependents.

In order to make the story "complete" within 1.45 hours of the film, Xia Yan compressed the seven golden flowers into five. Highlighting the song and dance, director Wang Jiayi asked the screenwriter to change the large section of dialogue into a song, achieving classic lyrics such as "singing a song and throwing it over the wall" and "the Yang Sparrow flew over the top of a high mountain, leaving a string of ringing bells", and Lei Zhenbang composed music for "poetry". Implementing premier Zhou's requirements for highlighting local characteristics, the Yunnan Song and Dance Troupe sang by singers, Zhao Luzhu's female voice, and Changying's famous singer Li Shirong served as male voice.

"Love begins with an unexpected discovery" (Momoe Yamaguchi). Implementing Premier Zhou's policy of local actors, Wang Jiayi unexpectedly discovered the most beautiful "camellia" Yang Likun (then 18 years old) in the Yunnan Cultural and Labor Troupe (the predecessor of the Provincial Song and Dance Troupe) selecting actors "disappointed", and decided that he would star in the most beautiful vice president Jin Hua, Yin Peixian, who was engaged in sanitary glass cleaning with Yang Likun when the director selected actors, played the golden flower of the livestock farm, and Wang Suya of the provincial repertory troupe was the golden flower of the ironworks with a heavy role, and the golden flower of the Tan Yaozhong livestock farm. Each of the five golden flowers is an advanced producer in the industry.

Jianchuan good man Ah Peng rode on horseback to appear for two days, and Ji Kang sighed that the director was too patient. At that time, film films were imported, and only 30% of the "loss rate" was given, that is, the positive film and the available film were 1:1.3.

The film began filming in April, and was completed before the National Day, "Great Leap Forward Speed". When reviewing the film, contrary to the love theme of "serious theme", the long film studio and the Central Propaganda Department did not make the main decision alone, so they missed the gift season. Entering December, just after the premiere of the meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Zhongnanhai, all the members stood up, warmly applauded for more than ten minutes, passed on the spot, and released nationwide before the end of the year...

(Ma Xiushan, November 25, 2021)

Related links: Mao Zedong's inscription to Yan'an Luyi: anti-Japanese realism, revolutionary romanticism. Never been to the United States but identified with their values through Hollywood films (People's Daily, 2015).