"Yellow River Yellow River, I am the Yangtze River, there is an important situation to report to you." Whenever this sentence is heard in the sketch, the audience will laugh, but few people know that this classic line is the dialogue in the movie "Reconnaissance of crossing the river".
Poster of "Reconnaissance of Crossing the River"
This is a black-and-white story film completed by the Shanghai Film Studio, which tells the story of a reconnaissance squad led by Li Company Commander of a certain PLA unit on the eve of the Battle of crossing the river to find out the enemy's river defense deployment and assist the large troops in winning the battle. As soon as the film was released, it was welcomed by a wide audience with a twisty and suspenseful storyline.
The film is adapted from the deeds of the "Pioneer River Crossing Hero Company".
In the spring of 1949, Mao Zedong published an article entitled "Carrying the Revolution through to the End," calling on the Chinese People's Liberation Army to "march south of the Yangtze River" and "carry the Great People's Liberation War through to the end." On April 21, Mao Zedong issued the Order to March Across the Country, and the People's Liberation Army began preparations for a forced crossing of the Yangtze River.
Stills from "Reconnaissance of Crossing the River"
Before crossing the river, the Twenty Corps of the Ninth Corps of the People's Liberation Army dispatched a reconnaissance unit, which crossed the river into the forest and went deep into the enemy's hinterland, obtained important information on the Kuomintang's military deployment, and paved the way for the realization of "a million male divisions crossing the river."
In the autumn of 1951, screenwriter Shen Mojun began to collect the deeds of the reconnaissance camp across the river and conceived the script.
In 1954, the Shanghai Film Studio was preparing to bring the film to the screen, directed by Tang Xiaodan, who had just directed "The Southern Expedition and the Northern War".
When choosing the actor of Li Company Commander, Tang Xiaodan took a fancy to Sun Daolin. Sun Daolin was famous for playing an intellectual, but did not play a soldier, so it was controversial by the crew. However, Tang Xiaodan insisted that Sun Daolin would be able to act well, and wrote a letter of guarantee for this, and Sun Daolin did not disappoint him.
In order to play Li Company Commander well, Sun Dao went to the reconnaissance unit to experience life, eating, living and training with the soldiers. The director also invited the chief of the reconnaissance section and the commander of the heroic company who participated in the battle of crossing the river to be advisers, and asked them to explain to Sun Daolin the professional thinking and personality characteristics that "Li Company Commander" should have when carrying out his tasks. The two advisers also arranged for the staff officer to lead Sun Daolin and other actors who played the scouts to train the soldiers and familiarize themselves with the scouts' movements.
During the filming process, Sun Daolin fell ill with a serious cold, still insisted on shooting, and even went to Nanjing to shoot the location scene with a high fever of 40 degrees Celsius.
Later, Sun Daolin recalled: "When filming "Reconnaissance of Crossing the River"), I was both excited and scared, excited that I liked acting, and this time I played a hero in the Liberation War, and I was afraid of how to shape the image of workers, peasants, and soldiers, and I had no bottom in my heart. As far as my personal temperament is concerned, I know that I have a strong intellectual flavor, and I am afraid of a distance from the image of Li Lianchang. ”
Since then, Sun Daolin has become a professional Confucian general, and has successively starred in films such as "South Island Storm", "Red Seed", "Revolutionary Family" and so on.
In 1954, the movie "Reconnaissance of Crossing the River" was released, and the first round of theaters in Beijing was queued for 15 days, and the attendance rate reached 93%. Half a year later, the film was viewed by 17.33 million people, setting a record for the highest domestic film viewed in 1954.
In 1957, the film won the first prize of the Ministry of Culture for Outstanding Film from 1949 to 1955.