A filmmaker's Olympic witness

【Covenant of the Five Rings】

Author:Wang Xingdong (President of China Film Literature Society)

I once said to Xu Haifeng: "Winning a gold medal in the Olympic arena, wearing a national emblem on the chest, raising the national flag in front of your eyes, singing the national anthem in the whole audience, and integrating the three major symbols of the country is an honor that only athletes can enjoy." You won for your country at the Olympics, and you are truly heroes. ”

In 1984, Xu Haifeng shot down the first gold medal at the 23rd Los Angeles Olympic Games with a pistol, and China achieved a breakthrough of zero Olympic gold medals. This news was like detonating a spiritual atomic bomb, which greatly encouraged the Chinese in the early days of reform and opening up. He used bullets to write Chinese confident code on the target paper, expressing the will of Chinese to dare to participate in all competition.

With art to praise Olympic heroes and boost national morale, movies are an excellent vehicle. For example, the British film "Chariot of Fire", which shows the story of Eric Liddhier, an Englishman born in Tianjin, China, who won the 400-meter championship at the 8th Olympic Games, was once popular around the world.

After Beijing's successful bid for the Olympic Games, I thought of Liu Changchun, the first chinese Olympic sprinter. He is my Fellow Dalian. In 1932, he traveled to the United States alone to represent China at the Los Angeles Olympics. Round-trip tickets were funded by General Zhang Xueliang. Due to 23 days of drifting at sea and tiring travel, Liu Changchun was eliminated in the 100m and 200m preliminaries. But he left his descendants with the image of a hero who was not afraid of strong hands, and realized the first Olympic dream of Chinese to participate in the Olympic Games.

I interviewed Liu Changchun's relatives, secretaries, and students in Dalian, went to Shenyang to see the "Hanqing Stadium" where he trained at Northeastern University, and exchanged personal feelings with Olympic champion Wang Junxia about participating in athletics competitions. Only by understanding athletes can we enter their spiritual world. On the occasion of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, before the release of the movie "One Man Olympics", IOC President Rogge wrote the title in English. He said to me: "This is the first time I have written the title of a movie, and I know the story of Liu Changchun, and it is very meaningful to shoot this movie." ”

In order to promote the film, Xu Haifeng was invited to Los Angeles. The city has hosted two Olympic Games. Liu Changchun did not achieve good results here, and even drew duck eggs. 52 years later, Xu Haifeng broke the duck egg here, realizing his second Olympic dream of winning the Olympic gold medal Chinese. Turning Xu Haifeng's story into a movie has also become my new dream.

I thought that sharpshooters were piled up with bullet casings. When he told me that two years before the competition, he was still selling fertilizer in anhui province and county supply and marketing cooperatives, and mystery and drama immediately appeared in front of my eyes. How did a supply and marketing agency employee get on the road to shooting? Why did China's first Olympic champion come from Anhui Province and County? How did he change his fate with a pistol and change the world's perspective on China? How many untold stories are behind this gold medal?

Xu Haifeng won not only the first gold of the Olympic Games in the Chinese, but also the first gold of that Olympic Games, which was personally awarded by IOC President Samaranch. As a result, the award ceremony was postponed for forty minutes. It turned out that Wang Yifu won the third place, and two five-star red flags were raised at the same time at the award ceremony, but the organizing committee only prepared a Chinese flag, so it had to wait for the staff to fly back to the station in a helicopter and take another one.

It's so dramatic! China, which had never won a gold medal before, won two medals at the same time in the first event, forcing the organizers to take another Chinese flag. This plot waiting to be flagged is the most dramatic climactic ending of the movie. Helicopters hung five-star red flags from the sky, and everyone looked up.

The most distressing thing about movies is often that they can't find a wonderful, unexpected ending, and once we have such an ending, it is not difficult for us to write a script from the back to the front. Xu Haifeng's life is like a bullet out of the chest. No matter how many setbacks he encountered, he never lost his fighting spirit, and he kept aiming at his goals. With great ambition, not afraid of strong hands, winning glory for the country and raising prestige for the nation, he finally won this heavy Olympic gold.

The Olympics create heroes, and heroes create spirit. Xu Haifeng created the spirit of "breakthrough of zero". Breakthrough is success, breakthrough has a new life, who has achieved a "breakthrough of zero", who is a hero! This is the philosophy of life that the Olympic Games taught us. The spirit of "zero breakthrough" has become the spiritual torch that inspires Chinese to make breakthroughs and dare to innovate in the early stage of reform and opening up.

A hero is the identity of a national spirit. When I stood on the Olympic field in Los Angeles, I was even more determined to use the film to reproduce the story of Liu Changchun and Xu Haifeng. All artistic creation is more expensive than ever. Liu Changchun participated in the competition in old China without leaving any video materials; Xu Haifeng won the first Olympic gold medal for China, and the thrills on the field and the stories behind the scenes are rarely recorded. To fill in the gaps in history with images, Chinese filmmakers have an unshirkable responsibility. We have the responsibility to tell China's Olympic story with affection and heart, and to show the world a credible, cute and respectable image of Chinese.

At this moment, the fierce battle on the Beijing Winter Olympic Field is in full swing. The world has set its sights on China, which is a major sporting event of the Chinese nation. Reproducing historical scenes can inspire the youth of the moment. Following in the footsteps of The Olympic heroes, you can hear the sonorous footsteps of national rejuvenation. The deeds of Olympic heroes such as Liu Changchun and Xu Haifeng have always inspired us. Later, Xu Haifeng won the title of "Pioneer of Reform" and became the "Most Beautiful Strivers".

Chinese from the medal "zero" to the "breakthrough of zero", and then to today, the world has paid attention to the five-star red flag hundreds of times in the "Volunteer March" song raised in the Olympic arena.

If sports are strong, China is strong, and if the national fortune is prosperous, sports are prosperous. Today, we enter a new era with our heads held high. Under the leadership of the party, sports carry the dream of a strong country and a rejuvenated nation. In the arena of the Beijing Winter Olympics, a new generation of Olympic heroes is shining brightly, and together with all the Chinese, they are showing the world the image of China as a sunny, rich, open and hopeful country.

Guangming Daily ( 2022.02.11. 11 edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily