【Red Culture Pickup】
Author: Zuo Heng (Director of Film Culture Research Department, China Film Art Research Center)
In the summer of 1942, the Yanhe River flooded, and the fields on both sides were washed away. Many literary and artistic young people in Lu Yi came from the city, had never seen such a scene, and ran to watch. Some people found that muddy water flooded the melon field, and as soon as you stepped on it, there were watermelons floating. This made them feel novel, and after playing, they also brought a few melons back. That night, the General Branch of the Lu Yi Party held a general meeting of the whole court to talk about this matter. At first, the young people felt that it was a fuss, until they heard that they were stepping on melons, and the crowd was in tears, and they realized how distressing that behavior was. The playground was silent.
Character sketches of Sister Jiang and Xu Yunfeng in the movie "Eternal Life in Fire"
26-year-old Shui Hua felt ashamed. He suddenly remembered one of the core issues of literature and art mentioned by Comrade Mao Zedong in his speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art not long ago—for the masses. Shui Hua originally thought that as a comrade who had joined the Nanjing Branch of the Left-wing Theater Alliance in 1934 and had just joined the party in March 1942, he would not have a problem in this regard. The laughter in the melon fields showed that they were still alienated and estranged from the masses.
Shortly thereafter, Shui Hua choreographed and directed the opera "Zhang Pimo Hoeing Rape", the protagonist is a peasant underground party member. The music of this drama adopts the folk "five more tunes", and it should be said that the main creators of the intellectuals in the big cities have sincerely tried to get close to the masses. But the actors were stunned after singing their lines, and they couldn't say why, it just wasn't right. Among them is Yu Lan, who is sometimes 21 years old and came to Yan'an from Beiping. Shui Hua moved smartly and invited a mass with experience in struggle. He taught Yu Lan how to do underground work: change the Red Army uniform into an old sheepskin coat as soon as possible, listen to the code before opening the door, and light the lamp at night must be covered with a rice spoon ... Yu Lan felt that the play was alive all of a sudden.
This year, Zhao Dan, a movie star who was once popular on the beach, spent his third year in prison under the Xinjiang warlord Sheng Shicai. Tricked by Sheng's false policies, he and several friends traveled thousands of miles from Chongqing to the northwest of the motherland, expecting to display their artistic ambitions, but unexpectedly saw and experienced the brutality of the Kuomintang reactionaries in an extreme way. At the same time, cellmates from all nationalities gave Zhao Dan meticulous care. In order to protect Zhao Dan from being severely beaten by jailers, a Uyghur brother blocked a club with iron nails with his palm, bleeding all over the ground. Zhao Dan hugged his cellmate and cried bitterly.
Also that summer, the US Naval Intelligence Agency Meles and Dai Li of the Survey and Statistics Bureau of the Military Commission of the National Government began preparations for a military secret service. The institution, founded in Chongqing the following year and named the "Sino-US Institute for Special Technical Cooperation," committed heinous crimes. However, contrary to the original intention of its establishment, the fire of purgatory has exercised the "Red Rock Spirit" that can be sung and cried. The spirit of Hongyan ignites the minds of countless people and illuminates the historical path and future direction of a nation.
From right to left: Yu Lan, Zhao Dan, Wang Yang (former director of Beijing Film Studio), director Shui Hua, photographer Zhu Jinming courtesy of China Film Archive
In 1962, Shui Hua began to work on adapting the novel "Red Rock" into a movie. History once again highlights its sense of drama: Yan'an and Shanghai, the two most important forces of modern Chinese literature and art, will converge into the mainstream of new Chinese films, and Yu Lan and Zhao Dan will star in this film. Their previous lives seemed to be making some accidental and inevitable preparations for the birth of this film.
In 1958, the revolutionary memoir "Eternal Life in the Fire" was published, and in 1961, the novel of the same theme "Red Rock" was published, which caused a sensation and was soon adapted into various versions of drama and opera, and the story of Red Rock began to be known to the general public. Yu Lan read the novel serialized through China Youth Daily during her hospitalization and was deeply fascinated. She recommended it to the Beijing Film Studio and ran to the newspaper office to ask for the author's contact information. In 1963, the original authors Luo Guangbin, Yang Yiyan and Liu Debin were invited to Beidaihe to write the first draft of the script. As a reader of the novel, Shui Hua is also extremely excited and passionate; As a filmmaker, he shows a strong power of reason. When he wrote the second draft, he not only communicated deeply with the writer, but also led the main creative staff to travel to Beijing, Chongqing, and Guiyang to find living people related to this history, not only Sister Jiang's classmates and sons, Che Yaoxian's (Xu Yunfeng prototype) daughter, Hua Ziliang's prototype Han Zidong, Xiao Radish Tou's sister, etc., but also Xu Yuanju (Xu Pengfei prototype), the military commander who is serving a sentence in the People's Prison, and Shen Zui (Shen Yangzhai prototype), who has served in the Cultural and Historical Materials Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, etc. to understand the psychology of those characters and the logic of their actions. After returning from the interview, Yu Lan and others sorted out more than a dozen character biographies, totaling as many as 300,000 words. Neither historical evidence nor emotional reserves are insufficient. It is precisely because everything is ready, to find the most powerful east wind from the perspective of art, it is difficult to condense and sublimate the spirit of Hongyan in the limited duration of the movie.
This problem was handed over to Xia Yan, one of the pioneers of left-wing theater and film. The opinion he gave was unexpected: Jiang Jie, who only had two scenes in the second draft, as the main line, runs through the whole film. Xia Yan decided that Sister Jiang would be the one that the people of the whole country would care about. In Yu Lan's memory, Xia Yan then said "Don't bother me, I'll change it", and then, in the fragrance of magnolia flowers in Xinhui County, Guangdong, he wrote the third draft in a week, and the title was changed from "Red Rock" to "Eternal Life in Fire". Shui Hua read it and thought it could be filmed.
The new script caused Yu Lan a lot of trouble. She originally planned to learn to be a director through this shooting, and has been doing the work of an assistant director, but now she has to return to the starring position, and seriously ponder Xia Yan's advice: You play Sister Jiang, don't play Liu Hulan, and don't play Zhao Yiman.
At this time, Shui Hua entrusted Yu Lan with another job: inviting Zhao Dan to play the role of Xu Yunfeng. This casting suggestion was made by photographer Zhu Jinming, who is Zhao Dan's general friend and a martyred cellmate in Xinjiang, and determined that this role is none other than "Adan". Prior to this, Zhao and Yu had collaborated on the preparation of a biopic of Lu Xun, and this letter was suitable for Lan to write. But Yu Lan felt embarrassed, feeling that with Zhao Dan's status in the film industry, it was difficult to ask someone to play the number two. However, when Zhao Dan received the earnestly worded and tactful letter, he did not care about the importance of roles, and he immediately replied: How I yearn for Comrade Shuihua and the collective where you work together! I'm coming, I'm coming!
At that moment, Zhao Dan may remember that in 1933, when he directed the American playwright O'Neill's play "Outer Heaven" in Shanghai, Shui Hua first appeared on the stage to play his younger brother.
That letter was sent by Zhao Dan overnight using the fastest airmail at that time. Two days later, he received an invitation telegram from the Beijing Film Studio.
In 1964, Zhao Dan arrived in Chongqing by boat. He left Chongqing in 1939 and was soon imprisoned; This time I want to give a "prison song" again. It was Zhu Jinming who greeted him at Chaotianmen Wharf, which made Zhao Dan, who had experienced many vicissitudes, difficult to let go for a while. When Yu Lanyo invited him to visit the Sino-US Cooperation Institute and other places, Zhao Dan refused. After Luo Guangbin came to the door, his heart knot opened. Zhao Dan immediately realized that his familiarity with old Chongqing was limited to daily scenes; And the environment of the White Mansion in Zaludong is impossible to empathize with imagination alone.
After entering the creative state, Zhao Dan found that the three original authors also seemed to have a knot. Their attitude towards the current script is respectful and polite and disagreeable. After many earnest conversations, they confided their true thoughts: the novel follows a combination of revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism, and is legendary; The script is realistic and subtle and restrained. The two aesthetics are far from each other. Therefore, Shui Hua, Yu Lan, Zhu Jinming, etc. also joined the discussion. From the perspective of art philosophy, that discussion actually delved into the level of how modern Chinese literature and art complete theoretical construction. When they finally settled on the style of "Eternal Life in Fire" as "a magnificent ode to romanticism based on revolutionary realism", they actually inadvertently completed an innovative practice with the thinking of "degree" in Chinese philosophy.
At the same time, preparations for the live shooting were in full swing. Chongqing Duyou Street changed back to its appearance in the 40s of the 20th century in the hands of the art team of the Beijing Film Studio, and the comrades of the Chongqing Art Troupe, who acted as a group performer, mobilized the masses to rummage through boxes and cabinets to find old clothes, and the final effect was comparable to documentary images. At that time, the Chinese film industry had all kinds of forced simplicity, as well as a texture and sincerity that could no longer be reached by the overdeveloped technological myths of later generations.
Years later, when Yu Lan reviewed this creation, the first thing she mentioned was a regret: in the film, Sister Jiang first witnessed her husband's head hanging high on the city gate, and then met the old woman with two guns, she acted too strong and self-controlled; If she cried out loud, it would be more in line with Sister Jiang's mood. In contrast, when expressing her feelings for her young son and for the little radish head, Yu Lan's maternal expression is much more natural and abundant, which comes from the deep shock she gets from Sister Jiang's true deeds. On the other side, Shui Hua's handling of a scene where Sister Jiang was arrested and tried is full of tension in the space shape. After the enemy's coercion and inducement failed, the door of the torture room was opened, and the flames of the burning iron illuminated the new space that stretched out. Sister Jiang walked into purgatory on earth with a calm expression. Later, the accusation that Lan performed "heroic enough" actually showed that the artistic image that Shui Hua pursued—"a strong warrior, a gentle mother"—was successful. Yu Lan has been embraced by generations of audiences as a result, and this has made her feel a little uneasy.
Zhao Dan, who is willing to be the number two, fully enjoys the enjoyment of creation. His two most proud scenes were improvisational. First, when he appeared on the scene, he encountered the military police checking pedestrians on the street, and Xu Yunfeng, played by Zhao Dan, vigilantly bought a copy of the "Central Daily" as cover. The newspaper created by the Kuomintang was so unpopular with the people of Chongqing that the military and police were a little surprised when they opened it, and there was a small pause in the rhythm of the performance, and Zhao Dan suddenly grabbed the newspaper and walked away, leaving two confused group performers. Second, Xu Yunfeng met with Fu Zhigao at the café and realized that this person had put the party organization in danger, and he was angry. Zhao Dan subconsciously moved, the small spoon fell into the cup, and when it clicked, it reminded Xu (also Zhao) to exercise restraint. By the time Xu was arrested, Zhao Dan had turned into a revolutionary martyr and was completely selfless. He calmly stands on the wooden ladder of the tea house, attracting all the attention of spies and traitors, and withstanding all the pressure of the plot. On the screen, Zhao Dan slowly paced down the diagonal, heroic and forceful, so that his old friend Xie Tian looked at it, and even shouted "the most tasteful" and "the most tasteful", and even said that he would definitely go down the stairs next time.
Everything follows the artistic laws of realism, and everything also contains the original romance and poetry of history and reality. Yu Lan and others remember that Fang Shu, who played the little radish head, was only 6 years old and was ignorant of performance. Shui Hua hugged her in his arms, supported her two small hands with his hands, and told her not to hurt the little butterfly in her hand, but also to let it fly higher. In 1986, scholar Chen Xihe Dao broke the mystery: when Shui Hua expressed a strong revolutionary passion, he did not lose his moving taste for life, so that the concept of "revolution", which became more and more rigid at that time, became humane and touching in his works; It is hard to forget the little radish head under the bars yearning for freedom and happiness.
After the sample came out, Guo Moruo wrote the title. First of all, it caused a sensation in the film circle, and it was also accompanied by visiting Japanese counterparts, who excitedly pointed out that this is a kind of film that Japan will never have. As assistant director Zhao Yuan later realized, Chinese and foreign films reflect a lot of prison struggles, but none of them will appear in these scenes like "Eternal Life in Fire": the victims are wearing shackles and twisting songs, holding flags to hold memorial services in prison, and several female prisoners secretly embroidering the five-star red flag they imagined...
By chance, Yu Lan was able to convey to Premier Zhou Enlai his willingness to come and review the sample. Premier Zhou is really here. Accompanied by the main creator and others, he once again saw the mountain city where he had fought and left footprints in the newsreel studio screening hall through artistic images. When the scene of the martyr Long Guanghua was shown, Premier Zhou cried softly and said to himself: It's very touching.
This review not only paved the way for "Eternal Life in Fire" to finally meet the public, but also promoted the final completion of the creation. Premier Zhou suggested that a magnificent scene of martyrs heroically fighting for righteousness should be filmed, and he also specifically instructed to call Zhao Dan, who was already in Shanghai, to be summoned back. This scene was filmed in Xishan, Beijing, and the poster of the movie also used the styling design of Xu and Jiang when they died generously.
In the summer of 1965, "Eternal Life in Fire" officially came out, and it was loved by the audience without suspense. The praise of the people is the greatest affirmation of artists and works of art.
"Eternal Life in Fire" is Zhao Dan's last film work, which is hailed as the peak of his actor career.
In 1981, the film "Sadness and Death" was released, and director Shui Hua reconstructed Lu Xun's famous passage with an amazing avant-garde concept, exploring the hearts of a generation of Chinese intellectuals.
In the same year, Yu Lan became the first director of Beijing Children's Film Studio, contributing the second half of his life to China's children's film industry. That is also for Sister Jiang's children and for the little radish head.
The Jialing River is still gushing, and Chongqing's modern urban wonders continue to arouse the laughter of young people in the new era. In the Red Rock exhibition hall, some of the martyrs and victims still have only names, and people have not been able to find their photos.
The spirit of Hongyan entered Chinese cinema, and Chinese cinema was integrated into Chinese history.
Guangming Daily( October 29, 2022 09 Edition)
Source: Guangming Net-Guangming Daily