The Paper's reporter Wang Yi
On the day of the February 15, 2022 Yen Supper Festival, the movie "The Island Keeper" was launched online. This film, based on the 32-year-old touching deeds of Comrade Wang Jicai, a "model of the people", will undoubtedly gain more audiences on the Internet. At the end of 2021, the movie "Shoudao Man" successfully won the "Best Feature Film Award" with the heaviest weight and the highest gold content in the Golden Rooster Award, the highest award for Chinese cinema, and the film was nominated for both the "Best Screenwriter Award" and the "Best Actor Award". The Golden Rooster Award's affirmation of "The Guardian of the Island" fully demonstrates the jury's recognition of the film's value transmission and artistic standards.
The crew of "The Island Keeper" appeared on the red carpet of the closing ceremony of the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival.
It is worth mentioning that this is also the first time that Jiangsu has won this award in the 40 years since its establishment in 1981, which can be a successful example for the Jiangsu team to tell the story of Jiangsu, pass on the spirit of Jiangsu, and create a peak for Jiangsu films. A few days ago, in the office of the Jiangsu Radio and Television (Beijing) Program Production Center, Meng Qingfeng, the film's producer, accepted an exclusive interview with the surging news reporter. Meng Qingfeng was born in November 1978, a member of the Communist Party of China, and is currently the deputy general manager of Happy Blue Ocean Film and Television Culture Group Co., Ltd.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the movie "Shoudao Man" broke through the 100 million yuan box office mark a month after its release on June 18, 2021. "As a realistic biographical film, we set a total of four records: a single-day box office record, a cumulative box office record, a box office record and a premiere date box office record for a summer biopic in mainland film history." Meng Qingfeng looked back now, and it was still difficult to hide his excitement.
Producer Meng Qingfeng
"Every era has models and heroes, and their deeds are worth remembering and passing on to each of us, but how to put their deeds on the big screen?" After all, this requires the audience to vote with their own feet. Frankly speaking, there have not been many successful biopics in China before, and "The Island Keeper" was finally fixed at the box office of 138 million, which was achieved during the epidemic, which is even more rare. ”
Meng Qingfeng said that as of now, "Shoudao Man" has won the Jury Award and Best Actor Award of the 16th China Changchun Film Festival, the Best Actor and Best Actress Award of the 8th Silk Road International Film Festival, the Golden Angel Award of the Year, the Best Screenwriter of the Year, the Best Actor of the Year and the "2021 National Defense Military Festival" excellent film and many other awards.
Graduated from Nanjing University of Science and Technology with a bachelor's degree in international economics and trade, and studied Marxist philosophy and ideological and political education with a doctorate, Meng Qingfeng's major is actually not directly related to film. I recall my contact with the film and television industry, or since I joined jiangsu radio and television station in 2007, "I have worked as a director, screenwriter and producer. In that year, I did a series of programs "People Chatting about Fasting", the main theme was 'talking about fireworks in the world, playing the style of the city', and the creation was completely based on real people and real events. It was also from that time that I decided that all creation should revolve around a 'true' word. ”
Since joining the Blue Ocean of Happiness in 2011, Meng Qingfeng has participated in the production of TV series "Our French Years", "A Friend", "Snowy Eagle", etc., and served as a producer of TV series such as "Glorious Times", "Trident", "Stone Blossom" and so on. The movie "The Island Keeper" was his first official film project. "Mr. and Mrs. Wang Jicai guarded the island for 32 years, and we kept watching for 7 years to make this movie, during which time I landed on the island 14 times, and the official script was changed no less than seven drafts." Meng Qingfeng said.
Poster of "The Keeper of the Island"
At first sight, "the silent him is like a reef on an island"
Since 2009, the Jiangsu Provincial Radio and Television Station has been tracking the deeds of Wang Jicai, director of the Militia Post on Kaishan Island in Guanyun County, Lianyungang City, and his wife Wang Shihua, who are guarding the island. "It was tracked as a news event. Wang Jicai and his wife have successively won the titles of "Loving a Good Family for National Defense" and "Patriotic Support for the Army Advanced Individuals" and so on. ”
In September 2014, Wang Jicai and Wang Shihua were awarded the title of "National Model of the Times" by the Central Propaganda Department. In October of that year, Jiangsu Radio and Television received instructions from the Propaganda Department of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee to put the story of Wang Jicai, the hero of shoudao, on the big screen, and Happy Blue Ocean quickly mobilized the backbone to form a project team. "While collecting reporting materials, we thought about how the film would be presented, and began to go to the island to interview the style. Many times on the island to coexist, Wang Jicai and his wife also from strange to familiar to trust, in February 2015 in Jiangsu 'Model of the Times' release hall, Wang Jicai and his wife signed the film authorization to us. ”
Wang Jicai (left) and Meng Qingfeng chatting on Kaishang Island
Meng Qingfeng led the team to the island for the first time in December 2014 to interview the couple on the spot. They had already done the preliminary data collection work and made a long outline of the interview. But the interview didn't go well. "Probably because they've been interviewed too many times before, asked the same questions, and lack vivid details."
Meng Qingfeng recalled that the first time he saw Wang Jicai himself, he was silent like a reef on the island. Ask him questions, and he always smiles and doesn't talk. Interviews are hard to go into.
"What to do? We decided to stay on the island and go and feel their daily routine. Approach their hearts from the subtleties. ”
Wang Jicai wore a militia training uniform, and the camouflage function of the clothes itself made him almost merge with the yellow earth and stones around him. Or the dress opened his box of words. We talked from 'people' to 'soldiers'. It turns out that Kaishan Island is a stone island, and a typhoon and rain can wash away the soil on the island. In order to plant trees and vegetables, whether it was the garrison troops of that year or the later Wang Jicai, they had to constantly carry soil from the port to the island. Many trees were planted, but they did not survive, but finally from the crevices of the stone, neem trees grew. At the same time, the construction of the island is also made of local materials, all of which are chiseled from the cliffs under the island and carried back to the island. Over time, one of the characteristics of the veterans stationed on Kaishan Island is that not only the shoulders and tiger mouths (caused by gun shooting training) have calluses, but also pieces of cocoons on the back, which are grinded out of the back stones. ”
Stills from "The Island Keeper"
Raising the flag every morning is the most ritualistic event of the day on Kaishan Island. Meng Qingfeng noticed that the base of the flagpole had obvious traces of repair, and the flying national flag was also particularly dazzling. After asking, I learned that the national flag was actually donated by the three squad leaders of the Tiananmen National Flag Squad. The Tiananmen national flag class gave him many national flags, one of which once flew high over the square. The quality of the flag he used was not so good, basically fading and rotting after a few weeks on the island, but each side is still preserved. After Wang Jicai's death, he counted the relics, and a total of 368 national flags he had waved during his lifetime were neatly stacked and placed in boxes. ”
As an outpost of the Yellow Sea, another notable landmark on Kaishan Island is the "Gate Fire (Lighthouse)". "Although the military function of the island was later lost, it was still important for the people's boats and fishing boats that came and went. Because the coastline of the Yellow Sea is very long, when it comes to the return trip during the fishing period, if the weather is not good, it is easy to hit the reef and run aground near there. "Meng Qingfeng said that the searchlights of the gate fire are generated by diesel, and they are often not bright when they are bright." In the event of a typhoon weather with particularly strong winds and waves, worried that the crew could not see the lighthouse, Wang Jicai would take out the basin and knock on the ship's home as he ran to warn the ship. He did encounter ship destruction and death on the island, and also saved many fishermen who fell into the water. The character played by Zhang Yishan in the movie is indeed his own person, after he was rescued by Wang Jicai, the family came to the island every year to visit the benefactor. ”
Stills of "The Island Keeper", Wang Jicai repairs the "floodgates"
Through consulting the information, Meng Qingfeng learned that Kaishan Island is 12 nautical miles away from the coastline of Lianyungang, "under normal circumstances, the boat has to drive for an hour, and the wind and waves are a little stronger than an hour and a half to dock." The historical role and strategic significance of Kaishan Island can be roughly divided into three stages: in 1939, the marine corps of the Japanese army invading China was located here at the transit station of the Landing in Lianyungang, and the small island became a springboard for aggression; after the founding of New China, this island became an outpost to prevent small groups from attacking and infiltrating and fleeing; after the reform and opening up, it became the forefront of anti-smuggling and smuggling.
"Later Kaishan Island was no longer a military fortress, but the barracks remained there, with a total of five or six rows of barracks, and we lived in the barracks 'Chase Shop'. The barracks are all white, and in the morning the sun shines brightly, and the golden splendor is very beautiful, and the local fishermen vividly call Kaishan Island 'Potala Palace on the Sea'. In fact, the island is only 0.013 square kilometers, which is the size of more than two football fields. It takes more than half an hour to circle around the island. ”
Compared with the magnificent scenery, experiencing life on the island is self-aware. There is a reservoir for collecting rainwater in the Cave, and there are many loaches in the pond, "Loach can sink sand and play a role in clearing muddy water, and as long as loach can live in water, it means that this water can be drunk." "What Meng Qingfeng remembers most is going to the toilet." The toilet is built on the edge of the cliff, and from the pothole you can see the sea under the cliff, and the paper cannot be littered, otherwise it will be blown upside down by strong air currents. During the day, everyone joked with each other, saying that "flying down three thousand feet". But at night, no one dared to go out alone. One day I chatted late with Jicai's eldest brother, and I felt uncomfortable in my stomach and didn't dare to go by myself. Jicai's eldest brother saw that I had a hard look on my face and said he wanted to go to the toilet. In fact, he knew that I was afraid and wanted to accompany me to be bold. ”
So in the toilet two people inside the door and outside the door of a ride without a ride chat, Meng Qingfeng complained that the toilet was panicked, there was no light at all, the sound of the waves and the wind blowing was filled with ears. Wang Jicai replied, he himself was afraid. It turned out that when he first arrived on the island, the fishermen who sent him also half-jokingly told him that he might find a "big yuan treasure" on the island. "What is this 'Great Treasure'?" It is a floating corpse that soaks into swelling after falling into the water. Although it is a legend, the more you think about it, the more frightening it becomes. ”
Stills from "The Island Keeper", the Morishima couple salutes the national flag
Get along, "not an axis person, can't do this"
Scenes of Wang Jicai and his wife patrolling the island rain or shine, raising the flag, tapping the washbasin to warn the fishing boat, and going to the sea to save people were later written into the script and became unforgettable moments in the movie. With the deepening of exchanges, Meng Qingfeng and Wang Jicai and his wife have gradually become acquainted, and many stories and details are that the two of them talked about two small dishes at dinner, and a cup of "Mirror Flower Edge" (local liquor) that Yun people most often drink.
The Qing Dynasty scholar Li Ruzhen's novel "Mirror Flower Edge", which originally bears the mark of a mythological novel, is a "strange story of the sea" of that year. Unexpectedly, the liquor with the same name as this novel also intermittently led to the strange things that Wang Jicai had experienced on the island.
Originally, the Tibetan soldier caves on Kaishan Island were accessible in all directions, not only with reservoirs, but also with granaries and communication rooms. As soon as Wang Jicai landed on the island, he encountered a typhoon that lasted for more than forty days, and originally told him that he only stayed on the island for three days, and someone came to change the guard, so the dry food was only enough for a week. "One night, when the wind was still blowing outside, he felt someone with a whip whipping the doors, windows and houses... Who knew that the next morning when the door was opened, the mountains were full of grass snakes, voles and frogs - it turned out that the water level of the irrigation river rose, poured into the sea, the snakes and rats were washed into the sea and climbed to the island, and the door of the house was knocked on at night, which was the tsunami blown by the typhoon and the sound of snakes and rats smashing on the doors and windows. At that time, he had not seen meat for several days, and he used a knife to pry open the clams on the shore to eat raw, and after eating it, he would have diarrhea. So I took a shovel to shoot the snake, and then roasted the snake meat to eat, which was a good meal. ”
Wang Jicai, whose voice was somewhat hoarse, said that before landing on the island, he did not drink alcohol and could not smoke, but when the Minister of Human Resources sent him to the island, he incidentally carried a box of wine and a few cigarettes. He said he didn't need to at first, but later thanks to the wine he survived.
Days of storms poured into the house, and he roared into the sea until he could no longer make a sound. In order to avoid the wind and rain, he had to hide in a relatively dry and warm cave. In the bitter days, he often drunk himself to sleep, and one day after drinking, he was confused to hear a burst of women's voices. Frightened, he quickly ran out of the cave, "Only after dawn did he find that it was the instrument monitoring the tide that reported the water level and temperature." ”
Although it was a false alarm, he thought that there had always been rumors of "fox immortals" on the island, which made him dare not go near the cave for a while. He couldn't tell whether it was a dream or an illusion, "I vaguely remember that one night it was raining heavily, and the white 'fox fairy' jumped into the room, and even burrowed into the poncho... Then there was the sound of the water level being reported. In the movie "The Island Keeper", this legend is handled as a "white light flash" in the Tibetan Soldier Cave, and Liu Ye, who plays Wang Jicai, widens his eyes...
"You say that he is dreaming or hallucinating because of fear, so let's put ourselves in the shoes of a person on the island, he just looks at the sea, looks at it for hours, and can see something in the water." There is a saying about it: When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also stares at you. Nature always has some mysteries to be solved. Wang Shihua later told us that after she went to the island, she did not recognize her husband's appearance at first sight, her beard was pulled, her hair was long, and her body was too thin to be good, like a wild man. ”
In Meng Qingfeng's view, whether it is the audience who enters the theater today, or the main creative team wants to know About Wang Jicai, the first question with him will be: Why does he want to keep the island, and it has been kept for so many years?
In the secular view, it seems that people who decide to do anything should have a purpose to get something. We asked him questions with this inertia of thought at first, but he was either silent or smiling. It wasn't until a drunken ear fever that Wang Ji talked about his family lineage, and only then did he know that his uncle and the minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Armed Forces were comrades-in-arms, and Wang Jicai himself had always wanted to be a soldier, and he had had an opportunity before, because his uncle and the minister of the Ministry of Human Resources were acquaintances, and in order to avoid suspicion, it became a regret in his heart. Although he later became a militia company commander, he still failed to realize his dream of being a soldier. Being able to stay on the island is actually more or less fulfilling his wish. Wang Jicai is the 'three generations of single transmission', when he was a child, his family did not even let him go near the sea, and he never expected that he would be stationed on an isolated island surrounded by the sea on all sides, and guarded for many years. ”
"Not an axis man, can't do this." First of all, Wang Jicai had the complex of being a soldier, and then a northern Jiangsu region was the place where the canal detachment and the railway guerrillas came out. Under the influence of Chu Yun's Han style, he was a man with a promise of thousands of gold and morality," Meng Qingfeng said, "He promised his uncle and the minister of human resources to guard the island, and he would keep it to the end." At first, I was told that it was 'three days', but I didn't think it was three years and three years... During this time, someone was found to replace him, but the substitute stayed on the island for two or three days before leaving. Later, minister of human resources himself had to come to take his place, and he could not bear to let the elders suffer at an old age. His wife, Wang Shihua, could only resign and go to the island to accompany him. ”
Stills from "The Island Keeper", Wang Jicai and the local minister of the Armed Forces Department (Hou Yong) watch the sea under the national flag
Creation, "all coincidences are not as good as a real"
"When Jiangsu Radio and Television handed over this project to the Happy Blue Ocean, everyone felt a lot of pressure - first, the deeds of Wang Jicai and his wife have been reported and widely praised, and their stories are so simple that they can be told in one sentence; second, they spend two hours to talk about the span of decades. From a dramatic point of view, there is no strong plot, there is no special character conflict, and some people have proposed that a documentary can be made. As the project director of Happy Blue Ocean Pictures at that time, Meng Qingfeng was thinking, "China has always lacked an island type film - we are on the shore, watching him on the island and not abandoning." Conversely, he was also on an isolated island, carrying a stool alone to watch our busyness and the passage of time on the shore. Perspective is everything. ”
"Like a wild man", this sentence also reminds Meng Qingfeng. Through the days of getting along with Wang Jicai and his wife, a series of movies about people and isolated islands also came to his mind. "American films include "The Rest of a Desert Island" (2000, starring Tom Hanks), Japanese films include "Naked Island" (1960, directed by Kanehito Shindo), Korean films include "Kim's Crusoe" (2009, directed by Lee Hae-joon), etc. China has never had a realistic film that tells the relationship between man and nature and society through people and islands, islands and shores. Wang Jicai's deeds, in the eyes of others, he is 'retreating' - in the 80s of last century, the tide of commodity economy came, and everyone was looking at the 'front'. There is a poem that says, 'Fill the field with your hands and look down at the sky in the water.' The pure heart is the way, and the retreat is the forward'. It is precisely his seemingly 'regressive' persistence, a lifetime of persistence, which is precisely the moral concept that we need to regain most after forty years of reform and opening up. ”
Meng Qingfeng also wanted to make Wang Jicai a Chinese version of "Don Quixote". "Since the mid-1990s, many people have told Wang Jicai that Kaishan Island has no military significance, and now there are satellites and radars on the shore, which can monitor the sea situation anytime and anywhere. Wang Jicai always asked without waiting for the other party to finish speaking, what if it was not monitored? He was such a person. Why did he stay on the island for 32 years? If you have 100 hypotheses, there will be 100 answers. After so many years, I finally figured out that Kaishan Island is his position, his home, he is the island owner, he is the lighthouse! You see him, or you don't see him, and he's there to watch. Whether it is the responsibility of the puppet or the responsibility of guarding the land, from personal righteousness to heroism, it is often a thought. ”
After receiving the filming authorization in February 2015, Meng Qingfeng recalled that Director Bu Yutai made relevant instructions for the production of the movie "Shoudao Man": "First, adhere to the core value tone can not change; second, the expression method is bold and innovative; third, choose the main creator who takes into account the market and mainstream values; fourth, do a solid script." "Our first job is to collect as many films of the same genre as possible, about man and nature, man and desert island, man and lonely environment." I wanted to find some of these commonalities, to find some tips and methods that I could learn. ”
"The Rest of the Desert Island" needless to say, and the project team was also dazzled by the movie "Groundhog Day" (1993, directed by Harold Remis). The film tells the story of a "one-day prisoner": when an anchor reports on the American rural folklore "Groundhog Day", he finds himself stuck in the previous day and cannot take another step forward, so he can only start his own life story. "This angle coincides with Wang Jicai's 32 years of keeping the island like a day."
Equally enlightening are the films The Belliers (2014, directed by Eric Lattigo) and Babel Tower (2006, directed by Alessandro González Iñárritu). "The former tells the story of a French family whose whole family is mute and whose daughter can only speak, so they can only rely on their daughter to make supplies from the outside world. This point is very similar to the family of Wang Jicai and his wife, their eldest daughter has been staying on the shore, giving them supplies, and can use the daughter's efforts to reflect the image of the hero model; the latter is to tell a story from many angles and aspects, which we can use as a collage of Wang Jicai in the eyes of his wife, children, fishermen, and minister of people's armed forces. Or if Wang Jicai himself does not appear in our movie, it is okay to completely narrate it by the people around him? ”
"We have referred to more than 120 related films, tried different creative methods, and formed seven scripts."
Regarding the director, Meng Qingfeng first contacted director Chen Li, "When I watched "Blood Battle Xiangjiang", I couldn't imagine that this was made by a female director, which can not only shoot the heroic sense, but also have a female perspective, rigid and soft. I think director Chen Li is the perfect candidate to shoot Wang Jicai and his wife. However, she was busy creating the movie "GutianJun" at that time, and she was lacking in skills. ”
While the creators continued to polish the script and look for actors, on July 27, 2018, bad news came, and Wang Jicai died. The crowd was in grief, and the film project came to a standstill. This also means that the content of the script has to be significantly adjusted, and Meng Qingfeng led the team to revise it for three days and three nights without closing the eyes, so that the "alkali poisoning" suddenly collapsed on the high-speed train from Beijing to Nanjing. "This thrilling experience also made me and Jicai big brother have a feeling of life and death. I came out of the hospital on August 1st, and the later film also coincidentally cooperated with Bayi Factory. So in the years since this movie was being made, there have been too many inexplicable and inexplicable things. When I climbed Kaishan Island again, Brother Wang Jicai had become a statue. Every time I go to the island over the years, Wang Jicai will joke with me: Brother Meng, your movie is going to start shooting, right? It is a great pity that I did not let him see this movie before he died. Looking back on the bits and pieces of the island, we are more determined to make a good movie. I found director Chen Li again, and the director gladly agreed, and led the main creator of the project team to the island again and devoted himself to the creation of the script. Bayi Film Studio also joined us in co-producing and producing. ”
Regarding the actors, the director first thought of actors Liu Ye, Gong Zhe and Wang Jicai's Lianyungang compatriot Hou Yong. Liu Ye impressed Meng Qingfeng in his "Mu Ne", "Liu Ye is not a person who is very good at dissecting himself, but he has a dull feeling in him, and his shaft strength, all of which are similar to Wang Jicai' gods." The two men were also close in height. In addition, Liu Ye has played many military figures before, and he also has the temperament of combining 'soldiers' and 'people'. ”
Under the leadership of director Chen Li, the entire creative direction has also returned to the basics. "Instead of working on narrative techniques, it is better to use the most sincere attitude and the most authentic restoration to tell a most true story." Especially the death of Wang Jicai, I suddenly felt that God has finished telling his story, and we should also abandon all deliberate screenwriting skills and return to the original. We adhered to the creative purpose of 'all coincidences are not as good as one truth', and finally finalized the draft. ”
Bronze statue of Wang Jicai on Kaishan Island
Awarded, "We are all running hard, we are all island keepers"
Before the movie started, Meng Qingfeng and the director Chen Li, actor Liu Ye, Gong Zhe and other creators accompanied Wang Shihua's eldest sister to present flowers in front of the tomb of the martyr Wang Jicai. I said at the time: Lord Wang Dao, I am your old brother Meng, to tell you a good news, the movie is about to start, we will definitely use your spirit to tell your story well. What made Meng Qingfeng even more emotional was that after he took everyone to the island, the first thing he saw was the sculpture created by Jiangsu sculptor Wu Weishan for Wang Jicai, "The sculpture looks at the sea in a standing posture, and the right finger points in the distance... I think back to the first time I met him, he was like a reef, and now he is a statue, but more like the patron saint of the island, a monument on the sea. ”
Chen Li, Wang Shihua, Liu Ye, and Meng Qingfeng (from left to right) paid their respects in front of Wang Jicai's tomb
In May 2020, "The Island Keeper" was officially launched - because Kaishan Island itself is too far from the coastline and does not have the conditions for filming. The crew chose to "restore" a Kaishan Island in Pingtan, Fujian Province, and director Chen Li led the crew to withstand the scorching sun and typhoon, and the shooting conditions were extremely difficult. Local sea breezes also have a minimum of 5-6 and a maximum of more than 10. "On the first day of booting, there was a level 9 wind, no one was left behind, and even many people had to support the machine together to shoot..."
"Director Chen Li distilled the most simple values of this film in the film, 'A person who does one thing well in his life will not lose his heart'." Meng Qingfeng said that director Chen Li is even more amazing in grasping the details, "The three puppies in the film, the shell necklace made by the father for his daughter, and the five-star red flag in the typhoon... Instant flashes hit the key nodes, causing people to cry. ”
On the evening of December 30, 2021, the 34th China Film Golden Rooster Awards Ceremony and the closing ceremony of the 2021 China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival were held at the Xiamen Straits Grand Theatre. Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Feature Film, "The Island Keeper", which received three nominations, and finally won the Best Feature Film Award.
When the awardees, Mr. Wang Xiaotang and Mr. Ren Zhonglun, read out the best feature film awarded to "The Island Keeper", the audience boiled. I jumped straight from my seat and hugged the team members one by one. When I came on stage to receive the award, I said that it took 7 years and 14 times to land on the island, and the release of the film was affirmed by the audience. The only regret is that Wang Jicai's eldest brother did not see it. However, when people from all walks of life across the country stuck to their posts and inherited the spirit of shoudao under the inspiration of the movie, it was a consolation to Wang Jicai's eldest brother in the spirit of heaven. The Chinese nation is a nation that admires heroes, and there are heroes and role models in every era, and it is they who lead us forward. Passing on the spirit of heroes is the responsibility and mission of our generation of filmmakers. We're all running hard, we're all dreamers; we're all running hard, we're all island keepers. Meng Qingfeng said.
Meng Qingfeng and Liu Shaoyong, director of the Film and Television Department of the People's Liberation Army Culture and Arts Center, received the award.
Among the many excellent films "Chinese Doctor", "My Hometown and Me", "My Sister" and "Revolutionary", "Island Keeper" stands out. The judges unanimously agreed that "The Island Keeper" wrote a civilian heroic epic that combined realism and romanticism with accurate camera language and smooth plot narrative.
"The film has innovations in the performance of the heroic characters in the main theme, integrating the personal feelings of the people's model Wang Jicai and the feelings of home and country, reconstructing the hero's coming path from the perspective of a civilian, restoring the real hero in the way of life-like character shaping, superimposing extraordinary heroic achievements with ordinary life details, bringing the audience a spiritual impact and shock, and vividly interpreting the 'people's nature' theme of the film."
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Yijia Xu