Nowadays, anti-Japanese drama has become a derogatory term.
Last year's "Thunder Warrior" topped the name of "Bright Sword 3", but it is a thunder drama without compromise.
Not only does the plot not stand up to scrutiny, misinterpret and ugliness history, but also the design of many bridge sections is very thunderous.
For example, in the most heinous "clothes in the water" paragraph, the screenwriter seems to be insulting the audience's intelligence.
In recent years, in the domestic anti-Japanese drama, there has been no shortage of various operations that insult IQ, such as:
Slingshot hits airplanes, hand-torn devils, crotch mines, bun mines, etc., and so on.
So many people ridiculed: only you can't think of it, there is no domestic anti-Japanese drama screenwriters dare not make it.
However, not all domestic war films are anti-Japanese dramas, such as the movie "Purple Sun" to be recommended today.
Although there are not many war scenes in the film, most of the plot of the whole film has only three characters, but it does not affect the shock it gives the audience. Although the film was shot 20 years ago, it is still known as:
The best domestic war film, but also the best human nature film!
In this issue of "Forgotten Domestic Genre Films", let's relive this domestic war film from 20 years ago!
"Purple Sun"
Purple Sunset
The film was filmed in 2000 and has won many awards such as the Golden Rooster Award and the Huabiao Award.
Screenwriter and director Feng Xiaoning is a fifth-generation famous director, and Zhang Yimou is a classmate of the 78th grade of North Film.
Feng Xiaoning entered the film circle from an artist and transformed into a director in the late 1980s, and his debut was the science fiction god film "The Atmosphere Disappeared" in the childhood memories of a generation, and he spent ten years preparing for the filming of the famous "War Trilogy", namely "War Meridian" in 1990, "Yellow River Love" in 1998 and "Purple Sun" in 2000.
These three works are all written and directed by Feng Xiaoning himself, and the standard is extremely high. Compared with the domestic war films of the same period, Feng Xiaoning's "War Trilogy" does not show the head-on confrontation on the macro battlefield, nor does it pursue the portrayal of huge war scenes, but instead reflects the cruelty of war and the destruction of human nature through the perspective of individuals.
Among the trilogies, "Purple Sun" is the most prestigious, with a Douban score of 8.3 so far, and better than 82% of war films.
The film stars Fu Dalong, a powerful actor, who and Feng Xiaoning are old partners who have worked together for many years.
Fu Dalong is a child star, who participated in movies at the age of 8 and won the Outstanding Performance Award of the Chinese Film Child Cow Award at the age of 9, which can be said to be a representative of young fame. At the age of 14, Fu Dalong was starred in "Meridian of War" by director Feng Xiaoning, and later cooperated in the TV series "Beiyang Water Division".
In 1994, Fu Dalong was admitted to the acting department of the Beijing Film Academy, and graduated in 1998 with the first overall score in the class, during which he starred in the hit drama "Young Bao Qingtian", playing the sixth son who sold noodles and impressed many audiences.
In 1999, director Feng Xiaoning was preparing to shoot "Purple Sun", and he asked Fu Dalong:
Whether you want to go to the countryside to experience life, you go by yourself, you come back after you have experienced it, and we may not necessarily use you.
Fu Dalong acted seriously, really ran to the countryside, ate and lived with the farmers for two months, during which he planted seedlings and planted fields, and the image of a farmer who was black and black naturally became a type, and finally he was selected as the male protagonist, and the peasant rough man Yang Yufu in the film played three points into the wood.
So much so that the film won the Best Picture Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival, and the judges asked Feng Xiaoning:
Did you get a real farmer to play?
There's a lot of stuff, so let's talk about the story of Purple Sun.
The film begins with a reporter interview, an old man reminiscing and telling the camera.
The old man, Yang Yufu, recalled the painful years when he was taken into a Japanese prisoner of war camp more than fifty years ago.
The camera follows the old man's narration, from a Japanese music box in the old man's hand, slowly pulling away and jumping to that year.
It was August 1945, the War of Resistance Against Japan was coming to an end, and the Japanese army had been gradually defeated.
At this time in the northeast region, the Soviet side sent troops to engage the Japanese Kwantung Army, which was entrenched in the northeast.
The Japanese army was at the end of the road, so it began to massacre the prisoners and zhuang ding, committing countless bloody crimes.
The male protagonist, Yang Yufu, is one of the captured survivors of the Japanese massacre, he was rescued by the Soviet army, and he was taken to the Soviet armored vehicle with the wounded and was about to go to the rear for treatment.
Knowing that there was stubble in the middle of the way, this armored vehicle was accidentally separated from the large troops because of the smoke and dust on the road, and was lost in the Daxing'an Mountains, and actually drove into the fork in the road and drove the car into the rear barracks of the Japanese army.
The Japanese army found the Soviet armored vehicle, and there was a fierce exchange of fire between the two sides, and eventually the Soviet troops on the armored vehicle suffered heavy casualties.
After a scuffle, only one Soviet soldier, along with a female military doctor Nadya and a farmer Yang Yufu, successfully escaped from the Japanese military camp. The Soviet soldiers thought that taking Yang Yufu was a burden and wanted to abandon him halfway.
As a doctor who saved lives and helped the injured, Ke Najia moved her compassion and insisted on taking Yang Yufu on the road together.
After that, the three of them came to a wooden bridge built by the Japanese army, and the Soviet soldiers went up to check it out, but unexpectedly threw a grenade in the wooden house at the head of the bridge.
The soldier was startled, but found that the grenade did not sound at all, and only then did he notice that the grenade did not pull the ring at all.
So I went to the wooden house to check and found two Japanese girls curled up in the corner and sobbing.
One of the girls had just swallowed poison and committed suicide, and Soviet soldiers quickly subdued another Japanese girl, Akiharu, who wanted to swallow the medicine.
The panicked Qiu Yezi dropped a music box on his body and was picked up by Yang Yufu.
The Soviet soldiers never came out of the forest, so they planned to let Autumn Leaves lead the way, so they tied their hands and threatened them with guns to walk in front to show the others the way.
So, under the leadership of Autumn Leaves, the four of them walked out of the forest and came to the plain.
Not far away, the Soviet soldiers noticed a slender wire buried in the grass, apparently with a nearby mine, and Autumn Leaf was actually going to lead the three people into the minefield to kill.
Although the Soviet soldiers were cautious and removed the mines at their feet, they did not expect that there were mines nearby and were eventually killed.
Seeing that her companion had been killed, Nadya lost control of her emotions and shot at Akiba's feet, forcing her through the minefield with bullets.
After walking out of the minefield, Najia handed the bayonet to Yang Yufu and motioned for him to kill Qiu Yezi.
Yang Yufu approached the Japanese girl step by step with a knife, and he remembered the painful memories of his mother being brutally killed by the Japanese.
The distraught Japanese officer actually used Yang's mother as a living target to train the bayonets in the hands of the newly recruited soldiers.
Yang Yufu, who witnessed the tragic death of his mother, hated the Japanese very much, and now the opportunity to take revenge has finally come!
Yang Yufu came to Qiu Yezi with a knife, and looking at Qiu Yezi's crying in despair, he couldn't get his hands on it.
Even though he has a deep hatred for the Japanese, Yang Yufu's conscience is not blinded by hatred and is unwilling to kill innocents indiscriminately.
Although they did not have much dry food with them, the two eventually decided to take the Japanese girl on the road with them.
In this way, three people of different nationalities and language barriers embarked on a long journey through the forests of Daxing'anling.
On the way, passing a one-way bridge, Autumn Leaf fell into the swamp without standing still, and the three of them could have stood idly by.
But at this time, Yang Yufu reached over and took Najia's gun, and Najia thought he was going to give Qiu Yezi a hard time, and couldn't bear to look at it and turned his head around.
Unexpectedly, Yang Yufu actually came to the bridge and handed the butt of the gun to Qiu Yezi, who was trapped in the swamp.
At this time, as long as the other party pulled the trigger, Yang Yufu would be killed on the spot, but the instinct of self-preservation made her not do so.
Finally, Yang Yufu extended his arm, grasped the tip of the gun, and pulled the autumn leaves up.
In the evening, Qiu Yezi, out of gratitude, gave his meal to Yang Yufu and bowed deeply.
Yang Yufu overturned the meal, he was unwilling to kill the Japanese girl, but he could not accept her Japanese identity.
There was no direct hatred between him and the little girl in front of him, but in this special war era, the two brought a lot of hatred and suffering that should not belong to them.
Continuing on their way, they came to a hillside where they encountered a Japanese fighter that had been hit by a Soviet warplane.
Akiharu desperately runs to the crashed fighter and shouts the name of her lover, Dainishi Jun.
As a result, the plane exploded, triggering a wildfire in the grassland, and Yang Yufu and Najia were quickly surrounded by fire.
At the critical moment, it was Qiu Yezi who took the initiative to save them.
She used matches to light a piece of grass nearby, allowing everyone to take refuge in the burned grass, so that the three of them escaped.
The three people who escaped death got up and saw each other's gray faces laughing, this experience of common suffering,
Also truly tying the hearts of the three together, Najia and Yang Yufu also began to gradually understand the little girl of the hostile country in front of them.
In fact, Qiu Yezi is just a simple little girl, and she also has a simple and kind side.
She has always cherished the music box dolls she wants to give to her lover, will pick flowers and wear them on her head, and occasionally play with Nadya.
But on the other hand, limited by the environment and nationality of her upbringing, Akihachi was brainwashed by Japanese militarism from an early age.
His lover, Jun Ōnishi, is a Japanese pilot, and even she herself has been recruited into the Japanese army's standing team, and her education is to tell them to kill the inferiors, so she first met Nadya and led the three into the minefield to kill them.
But in fact, she is essentially just a little girl with a conscience.
Faced with the kindness of Nadya and Yang Yufu, for the first time, she doubted the "education" she had received for a long time.
The three of them continue on their way, but are dispersed by a heavy rain, and Nadya accidentally rolls down the hill.
Unbeknownst to them, Yang Yufu and Qiu Yezi hid under the big tree and shivered, waiting for Nadya to return.
The two waited until the third day, never to see Nadya return.
Hearing a noise in the grass, Yang Yufu happily thought it was Najia, but ran over to see a fierce Siberian tiger coming towards them.
Qiu Yezi was frightened and asked him to shoot quickly, but who knew that Yang Yufu would not use a gun at all, and he pulled the trigger without opening the insurance.
Just when the tiger pounced on him, Yang Yufu finally shot in the panic, and the tiger was scared away.
It was also because of this gunshot that Nadia was able to find them and hugged Yang Yufu tightly.
In the beautiful forest area where the smoke of war cannot be seen, the three of them have experienced hardships along the way, and friendship has gradually developed in the midst of suffering.
Although the language barrier and different positions, the three young people lost in the vast forest were able to temporarily forget the existence of the war and smile at each other.
The most beautiful scene of the movie, the three of them walking on the hillside, behind them is the red and purple sunset afterglow.
Yang Yufu told them:
The sun is purple, which means that it is about to set.
This not only implies that the three-person journey is coming to an end, but also implies that the war is about to settle.
Under the leadership of Akibazi, the three finally walked out of the forest, only to find that they had returned to the Japanese military camp that had accidentally broken in.
Najia and Yang Yufu thought that Qiu Yezi was going to harm themselves, but in fact, Qiu Yezi simply thought that——
As long as she took Najia and Yang Yufu with her to surrender, she could get supplies and help.
However, at this time, the barracks were long gone, and from the radio, they learned that the Japanese army had announced its surrender and withdrew.
Qiu Yezi learned all this, she picked up Najia's gun and aimed it at Yang Yufu, but she still dared to shoot in the end.
Faced with the fact that her country was defeated, her unwavering faith was once again completely overthrown and defeated.
The poison of militarism made her pick up the gun and aim it at her partner who had crossed the Daxing'an Mountains together, but in the end she could only throw the gun down and cry.
Qiu Yezi and Yang Yufu have a meaningful dialogue by the river, which can be said to be the theme of the whole film.
When Qiu Yezi learned of the defeat, she sighed and said:
It was like a nightmare, and it was all over.
A sentence completely stung Yang Yufu, and he frantically questioned Qiu Yezi:
Passed? Is this all over? That's how people are picked alive. Why do you kill people? Why are you coming to us to kill people? Just passed in one fell swoop?
Such questioning was fruitless, and after the quarrel, both fell into dazedness and pain.
Later, the three men left the barracks in a repaired armored vehicle, only to hear the sound of gunfire in the distance on the road.
It turned out that a group of Japanese soldiers knew that defeat was a foregone conclusion, so they planned to commit suicide en masse, even sparing their children.
When Autumn Leaf saw them killing each other, she thought it was because she didn't know the news of the end of the war, and rushed forward.
She shouted:
The war is over! No need to die! We can go home!
Qiu Ye simply thought that as long as he told them that the war was over, he could persuade them to put down the butcher knife.
But no one expected that the Japanese officer who was the leader saw Akiba leaf rushing over and aiming her in the chest was a shot.
Qiu Yezi died at the hands of her own people, under the butcher's knife of the militaristic ideas she had believed in all her life.
Witnessing the tragic death of Qiu Yezi, an angry Yang Yufu and Nadya driving an armored vehicle decide to kill this group of inhuman Japanese soldiers.
Not only for the tragic death of compatriots and comrades-in-arms, but also to avenge the innocent and tragic death of Autumn Leaves.
After the killing, the radio broadcast of the Japanese army signing a surrender agreement in Tokyo Bay.
Yang Yufu picked up the music box left by Qiu Yezi, and together with Najia, walked towards the purple sun that was about to set...
As the finale of Feng Xiaoning's war trilogy, this "Purple Sun" has reached a very high level in terms of story and theme depth, as well as creative standards and artistic exploration. The whole film combines the cruel realism of war films and the profound excavation of human nature, and is full of a humanistic feeling and a poetic romantic aesthetic from beginning to end.
The picture of the film is very beautiful, and the tone of each frame is heavy and colorful, which makes the natural style of Daxinganling like a fairyland on earth, and the presentation of this paradise is in stark contrast to the cruel background of the story itself. Although the war exists as the background of the story, there is only a brief war scene in the opening scene, but the impact of the war is pervasive throughout the film.
In this film, director Feng Xiaoning does not win with the story, nor wins with the tragedy of the war, but finds another way, through three different nationality positions, people with different educations from the initial suspicion, defense, hatred, misinterpretation to the later process of integration, tolerance, understanding, and trust, extending the tentacles to the depths of the character's heart, examining war and human nature from the side.
The conflict of the film is both a war conflict under the hatred of the country and the family, and a conflict between human nature. The transformation of the relationship between the three characters is the core focus of the film, expounding their own views on war and human nature from each person's point of view.
For Yang Yufu, he had witnessed and experienced the cruel crimes of the Japanese army, the epitome of every Chinese who was hurt in that era. For Autumn Leaves, it is naturally full of hatred and hostility, but on the other hand, we also see the kindness and duty of this character, which is an authentic and simple peasant image, although he has not read books, and does not know too many big truths, but in the face of innocent Autumn Leaves, he is not willing to raise his bayonet, kindness is the most precious quality in him.
Correspondingly, the Japanese girl Akihachi, who could have been a naïve and romantic little girl who grew up freely, but became a representative of the individual tragedy under the brainwashing of militarism, and she was convinced of this unjust war, so she was also hostile to Yang Yufu and Najia at first, because the Soviet soldiers killed her friends, so she led the two to death again and again.
But after witnessing the kindness of Yang Yufu and Najia, Qiu Yezi will also stand up when the three of them encounter a fire to help everyone escape the disaster, and the kindness of human nature briefly defeated the hatred brought about by the war at that moment. Autumn Leaf also gradually revealed her innocent, true and kind nature from the beginning of her eyes full of hatred and anger.
Sadly, Akibachi eventually died at the hands of the Japanese soldiers, who were also brainwashed to the bone, becoming the most brutal victim of the war.
Director Feng Xiaoning showed the anti-war thinking of the film as a war film here-
There are no victors in war, only victims.
Whether defeated or victorious, the general public caught up in the war is the most innocent.
Many people say that the best war films are always anti-war.
From this point of view, 20 years later, this "Purple Sun" is still the best domestic war film!