"Song of Youth": Let youth integrate into the torrent of the times

The film "Song of Youth" is a revolutionary historical drama film produced by Beijing Film Studio, adapted from Yang Mo's novel of the same name, released in 1959. Set against the background of the "918" incident to the "12.9" movement, the film tells the tenacious struggle of a group of young college students in Beijing to oppose feudal rule, resist the aggression of Japanese imperialism, and save the motherland in danger, and truly and vividly reveals the inevitability of a generation of intellectuals represented by Lin Daojing, an intellectual woman, to march toward revolution.

Dark clouds rolled in the sky and waves crashed against the reef. The night was pitch black, and the rain was still pouring. On such a dark night, Lin Daojing, a desperate young student, ran straight from the temple to the seashore and threw himself into the wild waves without hesitation. Then, a young student, Yu Yongze, a young student in the Department of Chinese Literature at Peking University, rushed into the sea to rescue her.

Lin Daojing confided in Yu Yongze that she was born in a large landlord family, and her biological mother was born into poverty, was occupied by her father Lin Botang, and was forced to die. After graduating from high school, the family went bankrupt, her father ran away from home, and the family forced her to marry Hu Meng'an, a member of the Kuomintang Party Department, hoping to turn her into a cash cow. Lin Daojing angrily escaped from his home in Beijing and came to Beidaihe to join his relatives and seek employment, but he did not expect that his cousin and his wife had resigned and left the place. At the time of the embarrassment, the headmaster Yu Jingtang conspired to marry her to a local magnate. Cornered, she could only choose the sea as her destination.

This familiar scene is the beginning of the movie "Song of Youth". "Song of Youth" is a semi-autobiographical novel created by writer Yang Mo based on personal experience. Taking the "918" incident of the 1930s to the "12.9" movement as the historical background, through the growth story of the heroine Lin Daojing, the novel reproduces the tenacious struggle of the awakened intellectuals to resist the aggression of Japanese imperialism and save the motherland in danger, constructs a classic narrative of revolutionary history, and also reveals the historical inevitability of the growth path of intellectuals.

The film "Song of Youth" was adapted by Yang Mo, the author of the original novel, and filmed by Beijing Film Studio. Peng Zhen, then the first secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, attached great importance to the filming of the film, and proposed: We must shoot "Song of Youth" well, shoot it with the best film, and all work will give the green light for its filming. "Song of Youth" has a huge lineup - Cui Wei and Chen Huaigao as co-directors, Xie Fang as the heroine Lin Daojing, Qin Yi as Zheng Jin, so Yu Yongze, Kang Tai as Lu Jiachuan, Yu Yang as Jiang Hua, Zhao Lian as the traitor Dai Yu.

In 1959, "Song of Youth" was released with great success. Many people lined up in long lines to buy tickets, theaters were full, and some theaters even staged on a 24-hour loop. The anti-Japanese pop song "Flowers in May", composed by Qu Xixian and conducted by Li Delun, was also popular again throughout the country with the screening of this film. At the same time, the film has also caused a sensation in Japan, North Korea, Vietnam and other countries. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the founding of New China, from September 25 to October 24 of that year, the Ministry of Culture held the "Celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China Domestic New Film Exhibition Month" held by the Ministry of Culture in major cities across the country, and "Song of Youth" together with 35 films such as "Lin JiaPuzi" and "Lin Zexu" was warmly welcomed by the audience. This is the largest new film screening activity since the founding of New China, and the advent of these films marks the second climax of film creation since the founding of New China. Premier Zhou Enlai praised Chinese cinema for having begun to create a "new style that combines revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism" that reflects our great era.

The unique feature of "Song of Youth" is that it successfully shaped the character image of Lin Daojing, an intellectual woman, wrote about her wandering, her despair, and her helplessness, and even more wrote about her rise, her resistance, and her growth under the influence of the Communist Party of China, and wrote about the tortuous process of embarking on the revolutionary road and becoming a proletarian fighter from a "petty-bourgeois intellectual".

Lin Dao Jingyuan is a beautiful lady from a large family, and in the novel, she writes: "Her face is oval, white, crystal like transparent jade. Her eyebrows were long and dark, and they seeped into her sideburns, and the most beautiful thing was her melancholy and moving eyes. She did not like to talk, did not like to laugh, was lonely, and did not love people since she was a child. Born in the feudal era, Lin Daojing could not control her own destiny, in order to find a way out of life, to escape the tragic fate of becoming a man's "plaything" and "vase", she had to embark on the road of exile. The sincerity of "poet and knight" Yu Yongze touched Lin Daojing and awakened her enthusiasm for life, and under the touch of Yu Yongze's love, she promised to build a love nest with him, and Lin Daojing, who was lonely and lonely since childhood, temporarily enjoyed the warmth of home.

But she was not willing to be supported, and first she was frustrated in her search for a job, and her thoughts fell into a daze. One night, Yu Yongze was busy greeting Hu Shi's secretary, waiting for the secretary to wait for the left and right to wait, but the old tenant Wei Laosan ran to borrow money because he was desperate. Yu Yongze gave him a dollar to take him away, Lin Daojing looked at it, chased after him and gave him ten yuan, and a quarrel broke out between them. Lin Daojing was taken to the student apartment by a friend, and a group of young students felt the danger of the nation and sang "On the Songhua River" sadly. At this time, Lu Jiachuan, the leader of the student movement and a member of the Communist Party, pushed the door in, and he told the students that the Red Army had crushed the encirclement and suppression and gone north to resist the Japanese.

When he met Lu Jiachuan, Lin Daojing began to come into contact with revolutionary ideas. At the same time, Lu Jiachuan's patriotic enthusiasm contrasted greatly with Yu Yongze's philosophy of a city servant, and Lin Daojing was deeply fascinated by Lu Jiachuan's new ideas. However, Yu Yongze repeatedly prevented her from participating in revolutionary activities, resulting in the arrest and death of Lu Jiachuan, who had taken refuge in the Yu family. The tragic facts made Lin Daojing wake up like a dream, and she made up her mind to leave the vulgar, selfish, and mediocre Yu Yongze and plunge into the torrent of anti-Japanese salvation.

Due to the betrayal of the traitors, Lin Daojing was arrested and fell into the clutches of Hu Meng'an, and with the help of Zheng Jin, she fled to Dingxian county and continued to teach. Jiang Hua's visit restored her ties with the party, the peasants' suffering made her quickly awaken, she participated in the autumn harvest struggle led by Jiang Hua, because of the exposure, she returned to Beiping, unfortunately arrested again. In prison, Lin Daojing was tortured, filled with pepper water, iron bars and cannons, until he passed out, and never surrendered. While in prison, Lin Daojing was encouraged by his friend Zheng Jin: "A revolutionary should not be said to be in prison, even if he sacrifices his own life, he not only does not feel wronged, but also feels honorable." In particular, the scene of Zheng Jin stepping on the beat of "Internationale" walking towards the execution site without hesitation deeply shocked Lin Daojing. Lin Daojing was released from prison on bail and discovered the true face of Dai Yu, a traitor who betrayed Lu Jiachuan. At this point, she finally grew into a mature proletarian revolutionary fighter and gloriously joined the Communist Party of China. In the magnificent "12.9" movement, she and Jiang Hua stood on the front line of the struggle, led the student team, broke through the military and police blockade, and marched forward triumphantly under the red flag.

"Song of Youth" was one of the few films at that time that mainly depicted intellectuals, which inherited the Enlightenment tradition since the May Fourth Movement and successfully portrayed many vivid artistic figures - Lin Daojing, Yu Yongze, Lu Jiachuan, Jiang Hua, Zheng Jin, who presented the diverse life forms and ideological states of that era. In particular, through the outdated intellectual Yu Yongze, the Marxist practitioner Lu Jiachuan, and the Communist Party member Jiang Hua, who is integrated with the workers and peasants, the film rhythmically narrates the three important changes in Lin Daojing's thought -- the whole process of becoming a petty-bourgeois individualist and a well-deserved communist and proletarian fighter. Her transformation reflects the process of intellectuals from the pursuit of individual liberation to the pursuit of national liberation, and conveys the spirit that integrating youth into the torrent of the times is an important symbol of realizing the value of life.

When the youth are prosperous, the country is prosperous, and when the youth are strong, the country is strong. Since the May Fourth Movement, Chinese youth have fought for the people, sacrificed themselves for the motherland, and struggled for a happy life, composing a magnificent song of youth, of which Lin Daojing, Lu Jiachuan, Jiang Hua, and Zheng Jin are all outstanding representatives. History will only favor the firm, the enterprising, and the fighters, but will not wait for the hesitants, slackers, and fearful of difficulties. Only by letting the beautiful youth integrate into the torrent of the times can we compose the song of youth in the new era in the commitment to struggle.