Movie "Heroes and Children": Always Remember "The Cutest Man"

"The wind and smoke billow and sing heroes, and the green mountains on all sides listen to the ears." The names of the martyrs of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army are engraved on the hero wall, and the great spirit of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea inspires the people of Chinese and the Chinese nation to overcome all difficulties and obstacles and defeat all powerful enemies.

This issue of "Taste the Red Classics" invites Huang Huilin, a senior professor at Beijing Normal University, to write an article about the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea that she personally experienced, and to taste the red classic movie "Heroes and Children".

- Editor

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In my lifetime, I am probably the most well-known identity as a teacher. Since graduating from Beijing Normal University in 1958 and staying in school early, he first taught literature, then drama, and then transformed into film and television, and then engaged in cultural communication, never left the pulpit, and has been a teacher for more than 60 years. But few people know that before I became a teacher, I was a Chinese volunteer soldier.

"Although the young man is not a penman, he still wants to ask for a long rope on merit," I joined the army at the age of 16, and then embarked on the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. If the podium is the place of return, then the battlefield is the starting point. The various experiences on the front line—personally experiencing large and small battles and witnessing the sacrifice of soldiers—laid the foundation for my worldview, outlook on life, and values, and will forever become the background of my character and the cornerstone of my faith. If I were to use a film as a reflection of that experience, I would choose the red classic "Heroes and Children", which was born in 1964.

Writer Ba Jin and his wife completed the novella "Reunion" in the Korean battlefield to fight the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, telling the moving story of the reunion of a long-lost father and daughter on the Korean battlefield from the perspective of the first person "I", which attracted the attention of Xia Yan, then vice minister of culture. Xia Yan asked changchun film studios to make the novel into a movie, and Changying gave the task to director Wu Zhaodi and screenwriter Mao Feng, both of whom were witnesses of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. On the basis of a large number of real experiences and real deeds, they completed the story adaptation of "Heroes and Children": In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Wang Cheng, a volunteer soldier, was discharged from his wounds and quickly threw himself into a new campaign, in order to stop the US offensive, he stubbornly held on to the nameless highlands, and finally gave his life heroically. His sister Wang Fang, with grief, greatly inspired the officers and men of our army with a song of "Heroic Hymn", and inherited her brother's legacy and fought heroically on the front line. Political commissar Wang Wenqing recognized Wang Fang as his daughter who had been separated many years ago, but suppressed his feelings and did not recognize her. In the end, Wang Fang learned of his origins from his adoptive father and was reunited with Wang Wenqing.

"Heroes and Children" has been released for more than 50 years, and it is a household name and has lasted for a long time. The sublime heroic aesthetics, the poetic spiritual temperament, the warm revolutionary romantic style, and the heavy chapters and repetitive "Heroic Hymns" make it a classic work of art. There is so much to say about its brilliance, and as a volunteer veteran, I will briefly talk about the most touching thing about the movie "Heroes and Children": authenticity.

This film is real, believable, sincere and feelable. On the one hand, although the story and characters are fictional, they incorporate a lot of real material. In order to portray the protagonist Wang Cheng, who "fired at me", the screenwriter read thousands of warrior notes and collected countless sacrifice feats of "ending up with the enemy". From pulling the blasting canister, to detonating the grenade, to picking up the big stone and rushing into the enemy position, there is even a regiment, in a battle, there are 25 martyrs who died with the enemy, which shows the fierceness and cruelty of the battle, the blood and courage of the soldiers! In the end, the film integrates the deeds of Shuchang, Yang Gensi, Teng Guiqiao and many other people, casting the image of "Wang Cheng", a fighting hero who runs through Changhong. Director Wu Zhaodi also deliberately selected Liu Shilong, who has a simple appearance, to play Wang Cheng from the candidate actors, rather than other tall and handsome actors. Wu Zhaodi once said: "What we want to create is an ordinary warrior image." The ordinary appearance makes the audience feel the authenticity, simplicity and a great universality of the hero, as the film line says: "In the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, there are thousands of Wang Cheng." ”

I was also fortunate to fight side by side with a "Wang Cheng"-style soldier whose name was Liu Xingpei, who served as the squad leader of the high-altitude testing squad of our anti-aircraft artillery unit, and was a cheerful and kind soldier. On weekdays, he wiped shells with us, cleaned up ammunition, nibbled dry food, sang military songs, and talked and laughed. As soon as the battle began, he would maneuver the altimeter and reconnoiter the height, orientation, and direction of the enemy aircraft, thus becoming the "eye" of our army's artillery. In a major battle, he faced the bombardment of enemy aircraft alone, and used his body to protect the precious altimeter, but he himself died heroically. The living life of more than 20 years old is forever frozen in the smoke of the flames. We are also like Wang Fang in "Heroes and Children", singing his deeds in the army. The name of Liu Xingpei's class leader is little known, but his voice and smile will always remain in my heart and will be unforgettable for a long time. Like Wang Cheng, and many of Wang Cheng's archetypes, he is the epitome of thousands of warriors who died heroically on the battlefield.

"Heroes and Children" exudes natural and authentic emotions everywhere. Its narrative inherits the reunion theme and ethical core of Ba Jin's original novel, and in addition to the fierce battle, it also delicately expresses the love of brothers and sisters, the love of father and daughter, the love of comrades-in-arms, and the sincere friendship between the Chinese and Korean peoples, and the intertwining of blood and tenderness, the sublime and simple. For example, the main plot that runs through the film is the reunion of Wang Fang and her biological father Wang Wenqing, which is handled with twists and turns, delicate and vivid. When Wang Fang was immersed in the sadness of losing her brother, Wang Wenqing experienced the joy of her daughter's "loss and recovery", but he resisted the urge to recognize her relatives and encouraged her to cheer up to live up to her brother's instructions. Suppressing the "small self" in order to achieve the "big self" and sacrificing oneself for the sake of perfecting others, the simple and vivid humanity of humanity is integrated with noble and pure moral ideals. At the end, the father and daughter finally recognize each other on the battlefield, and the reunion scene becomes the climax of the whole film, and the hero's image not only has height and depth, but also has an emotional temperature. As Bai Juyi said, "Those who touch people's hearts, do not first feel affection", literary and artistic works can only further resonate with grand ideas and beliefs if the audience first empathizes with specific people and things.

When watching "Heroes and Children", the faces of my comrades often appear in front of my eyes, and there are too many cute and respectable, ordinary and great warriors. After crossing the Yalu River, not to mention going to bed, many people have not even taken off their shoes. When they went to the camp to rest, the soldiers unloaded their backpacks and fell asleep, and when they had the enemy situation, they jumped up at the sound of an order and rushed into the position to meet the rain of bullets and bullets.

I will also see my young self in Wang Fang: two braids on her head, still childish on her face, teaching the soldiers to read and sing during the interval between battles, performing for them, sending shells when the battle starts, carrying the wounded, carrying four boxes of hundreds of pounds of ammunition and running, the shrapnel fired by enemy planes swooping down and strafing hit my steel helmet, and the bombs of heavy bombers rumbled and roared beside me. Once or twice, the mud and stones raised by the bomb almost buried people, and I thought that this time I would have to sacrifice, and finally I survived.

Wang Fang lived, Wang Cheng sacrificed; I lived, and many of my comrades-in-arms sacrificed. Heroes and sons and daughters, buried in other places, many people did not even leave their names. After returning to the motherland with the title of meritorious hero of the volunteer army, to this day, I often think of the young comrades who died on the battlefield, and I think of myself as a survivor, I must repay the motherland well. This is both my own mission and their entrustment, so in my work and study, I dare not slacken off in the slightest, decline for a moment, work hard, and keep walking. War can destroy people, but it can also shape people, and I am a lucky person who has been shaped and refined by war.

The rain of bullets and bullets is gone, and the glory of heroes and children will last forever. People who hope to enjoy the peaceful sunshine and the sweet life will always remember that magnificent past and always remember those "loveliest people". (Huang Huilin) People's Daily ( 2021-09-23 20 edition)

Source: People's Daily - People's Daily