In the history of domestic science fiction films, the movie "Shanghai Fortress" starring Lu Han undoubtedly has special significance.
Compared with "The Wandering Earth", which was also released in 2019, "Shanghai Fortress" proved the standard gap between the two with strength, so that many netizens commented that the former opened the door to Chinese science fiction movies, while "Shanghai Fortress" closed it and put a lock on it.
Of course, the failure of a film does not represent a judgment on the entire film industry.
However, it cannot be denied that the mistakes in the creation of "Shanghai Fortress" have exposed all kinds of impetuous chaos in the current mainland film market: the producers believe in traffic + the so-called big IP, but in the hardware of the film, that is, in the production link, there are hard injuries everywhere.
Among other things, as a science fiction film, the film is extremely lacking in the imagination and expression of science fiction elements, especially in the creation of the sense of science fiction and futurism in the film, it is also a visible "false big space", disaster and war scenes such as children's plays, not to mention the crotch of the special effects part.
After watching it, it is really difficult to understand, where is the investment of up to 360 million yuan in the movie?
After the release of "Shanghai Fortress", the lead actor Lu Han and the director Teng Huatao were both criticized by public opinion, and the fiasco of word-of-mouth even forced the director and the original author to apologize together, which was unprecedented. Director Teng Huatao's original words, "(The audience's criticism) is not only dissatisfaction with the film, but also the expectation of Chinese science fiction films has been disappointed."
Many people attribute the film's failure to director Teng Huatao, and the reasons for questioning and criticizing are nothing more than one point:
A director who makes a romance film, who gives the courage to make a science fiction film?
However, what many people don't know is that Teng Huatao's mother is the famous director Weng Luming, who was once known as the pioneer of domestic science fiction films, and as early as 33 years ago, he had filmed a classic in the history of domestic science fiction films, and has been regarded as the most cattle X domestic science fiction film.
In this issue of "Forgotten Domestic Genre Films", let's revisit this sci-fi masterpiece from 33 years ago.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="26" > Thunderbolt Babe</h1>
Wonder boy
The film was filmed in 1987 and produced by Children's Film Studio.
There are two directors of the film, Song Chong was the director of the children's film studio at that time, it was during his tenure that he formed the golden period of domestic children's film creation, and the other director, Weng Luming, was also not small, her husband was a famous director Teng Wenji in the 1980s, and his son Teng Huatao later filmed masterpieces such as "Snail Residence" and "33 Days of Lost Love", which can be said that the family is a big director.
However, the biggest contributor behind the scenes of "Thunderbolt Babe" is zhang Lu, a writer as a screenwriter.
Zhang Lu is a well-known children's literature writer, began to work as a screenwriter for the children's film studio in 1987, his novels and scripts are known for their brains, full of imagination and childlike fun, many of his works have been adapted into popular films, which impressed those who have seen it, and Zhang Lu is known as a pioneer in the history of domestic science fiction films.
In addition to this "Thunderbolt Babe", Zhang Lu's representative works in the children's film studio period include: "Magic Watch" and "Crazy Rabbit", etc., of which "Magic Watch" starred Zhang Jiayi, telling the fantasy story of a skinny boy who grew up overnight after accidentally obtaining a magic watch that can control time, and "Crazy Rabbit" is called by countless audiences: domestic children's science fiction cult films.
Compared with the later "Magic Watch" and "Crazy Rabbit", "Thunderbolt Babe" is Zhang Lu's first work written by The Children's Film Studio, although it was born in the 1980s, limited by the production conditions at that time, the film seems very rough, but the brain holes and plots in it are not inferior to some blockbusters even if they are looked at now.
The original name of the movie was called "Charged Child", the original inspiration came from the common static electricity phenomenon in daily life - dry weather with the hand to touch the doorknob will be "static electricity", as if the human body is charged, Zhang Lu took this as a brain hole, extended to come up with the story of a child born with electricity.
Zhang Lu's script concept was strongly supported by director Song Chong, so he completed the script in a month, just when the foreign film "Break Dance" was introduced to China, and the "electrocution" action in break dance gave the director Song Chong inspiration, so he decided to name the movie more interesting "Thunderbolt Beibei".
After the audition, the crew selected Zhang Jing, a young actor who was only 5 years old at the time, to play the protagonist Ofbe in the film, and the success of this film made the national audience know a little boy with a big head, big eyes and a round face, and later he also participated in the two movies of "Magic" and "As a Little Man", and then quit the film circle and now becomes a film recording engineer.
It is worth mentioning that the alien in the movie who is dressed in tin foil and appears with a shiny silver light is actually a famous director, Feng Xiaoning, a big director who has filmed business cards such as "Purple Sun", "Yellow River Love", "Raise Your Hand" and so on, when he was just an artist in the children's film studio.
The story begins on a cold winter night, when the city is full of wind and rain.
Suddenly, a huge ball of light swept through the dark sky, and it chirped and emitted a strange brilliance.
At the same time, the delivery room in the city hospital suddenly lost power for a short time, and a young couple had just enjoyed takako.
This baby, who does not seem to have any abnormalities, is the protagonist of this film, Liu Beibei, who was born with thunderbolts.
Excited parents can't help but want to hold the child, but the child's father has just come into contact with Babe, he feels the tingling of his arm like a pinprick,
The child's father, an engineer at the local electrical company, realized—
His own son was born unusual because his body was actually charged.
Although the son is gifted, the family is worried about this superpower, so after discussion, they decide to hide this secret and let Babe live as normally as possible, otherwise he will probably be regarded as a monster by other children.
But as Babe grew up, the current in his body became stronger and stronger, and his parents were afraid that Babe would accidentally hurt others, so they could only put on insulating gloves for him and lock him up at home, never allowing Babe to have contact with the outside world.
In the blink of an eye, Babe is 6 years old, with a lively and naughty personality, he is very envious of the children of the same age who play freely downstairs, so he often sneaks away when his parents do not pay attention, and as a result, the children of the next-door neighbors come to complain, saying that "Babe pricked him with a needle".
Babe who returned home was blamed by her parents, but Babe was very wronged-
The other parents were very close to the child, except Babe, who was never held by her parents.
The father explained to his son that he was different from other children, so he had to wear gloves at all times.
But even so, Babe's superpowers are increasing day by day.
As the current in Babe's body gradually increased, he even had the ability to discharge electricity in the air and control the electrical systems around him.
Follow your parents home in the car, waiting for the traffic lights,
Babe couldn't help but work in the air, directly controlling the traffic lights, causing chaos in the street traffic;
There was a young man and a grandmother scrambling for a seat, and Babe quietly took off her gloves and screamed at the young man and stood up;
Going to the amusement park to play, Babe directly discharged and controlled the facilities in the playground, and the play could not stop at all.
Babe's father discovered that his son was abusing his special functions, so he went home to educate Babe and warned him not to discharge the electricity casually.
Later, When Babe reached the age of school, he still hid his superpowers when he entered the school.
But because she has to wear gloves often, Babe sometimes causes the exclusion of her classmates.
In a music class, the teacher taught "Clap Hand Song", but Bebe was not willing to take off the gloves and was misunderstood by the teacher;
Because Babe does not take off her gloves, she is regarded as impolite by her classmates, resulting in Babe not being able to make friends at school.
Female classmate Yang Weiwei was the only little girl in the class to talk to him, and they quickly became good friends.
Although the special ability brings Babe a lot of trouble, there are advantages and disadvantages to everything -
Superpowers can also help Babe complete the "open and hang".
In the football game organized by the school, Babe relied on the discharge, easily passed, and helped the team score goals;
When you don't want to go to class, you can control the end bell of the classroom with a finger, and skip class if you want to skip class.
The family broke into the thief, Babe just reached out and touched the other party, so that the thief screamed and took the initiative to admit it.
On a rainy night, Babe meets a blind old man who can only use his voice to guide him.
However, the old man accidentally fell down on the steps, Babe went up to help, and the result was that the old man was indeed electrocuted, but the magic was that under the stimulation of the current, he actually made the old man's eyes regain his vision.
The grandfather found the school afterwards and told the teacher about Babe's magical superpowers, and the teacher and the classmates understood Babe, and Babe was finally no longer excluded by the classmates.
But because of this, Babe's special function was exposed, began to be interviewed by various media, and was invited to shoot advertisements.
Even the local institute of human sciences took Babe and studied the phenomenon of his human body being charged.
After the analysis of Professor Wu of the Research Institute——
Babe was born with a flying saucer passing by, so they suspect babe to be a "cosmic man".
The institute considered this to be a major scientific discovery, so Babe often came to the institute to participate in research work.
In the eyes of adults, Babe has never been a "normal child", but for Babe, he just wants to go home and school.
Fortunately, with the help of BeiBei's friends, with the help of Yang Weiwei and other friends, Beibei quietly slipped out of the scientific research institute.
The friends learned that Babe's special function may be related to aliens, so they proposed to go to the Great Wall to summon aliens to meet.
The children then ran to the Great Wall and shouted collectively, unexpectedly, they actually summoned aliens.
The alien admits that he gave Babe a superpower when he passed through Earth, and he sees it as a gift, but Babe does not want to have this superpower anymore.
The alien reached out and grabbed Babe's palm, and Babe fell into a coma with a scream.
When Babe woke up again, it was already in the hospital, Professor Wu and other scholars found that There was no current in Babe's body.
Babe's parents rushed forward and hugged Babe, which was their hug for their son for many years.
Back on campus, Babe finally turned into a normal child, running and extending his warm hand to everyone!
This concludes the story of the film.
This "Thunderbolt Babe" is not the earliest science fiction film in China, before this film, there have been many movies with science fiction elements in the mainland, such as the fantasy film "Little Sun" in 1952, the "Imagination Song of the Ming Tombs Reservoir" in 1958, and the "Dead Light on the Coral Island" in 1980, but compared to the above works, "Perak Babe" is considered to be: the first true science fiction film in China.
From today's point of view, the sci-fi elements in "Thunderbolt Babe" may be relatively simple, but going back more than thirty years, "Thunderbolt Babe" is a fashionable movie with a big brain.
Regardless of the gimmicks involved in the movie, such as the setting of the human body's charged superpowers, the appearance of aliens and spaceships, and the study of human experiments, it is only the theme of the movie "the protagonist as a superpower is facing the dilemma of not being able to live like a normal person due to the superpowers of the body", this kind of discussion can be said to be common in today's Hollywood superhero movies, and it can be said that such a brain hole can be described as avant-garde in the domestic movies of that era.
Assuming that the same story is handed over to foreign Marvel and DC to shoot, it is not difficult for the audience to imagine a superhero movie with the same setting: the protagonist is a child of aliens living on Earth, who has powerful superpowers since childhood, is jealous of society, discriminated against by classmates, and even arrested for live experiments.
But even so, he still does not abandon or give up, because he still has the adoptive parents of the earthlings who love him, and the young plum bamboo horse female classmates who care about himself, he understands that the greater the ability and the greater the responsibility under the guidance of his parents, he insists on using his superpowers to punish evil and promote good, but he is more eager to be an ordinary person than the feat of saving the world.
His name is Electromagnet, and Chinese name is Thunderbolt Babe.
From this point of view, the avant-garde script of this film is almost completely inferior to many of the current science fiction blockbusters.
Not only that, but the more memorable thing about "Thunderbolt Babe" is that although the film is a children's film, it is sincere and interesting, and the story is grounded and conveys the positive theme of truth, goodness and beauty.
The film is not deliberately preachy, Babe is misunderstood in school, the loneliness and exclusion she experiences, used as a money-making machine by advertising agencies, and regarded as experimental objects by unsympathetic scientific research institutions...
These twists, absurdities, and humorous plots show the life of a child with a different modern consciousness than before, and the seemingly simple details all reflect the creator's deep thinking about reality.
The success of the film lies precisely in this, the whimsical sci-fi brain hole is just a coat, and caring for reality is the reason why the movie is moving.
As a children's science fiction film shot in the 80s, although this work does not have a particularly profound cultural connotation, the special effects are also very rough, but its ease of understanding and humor are the key to the success of the film, as the earliest contact with domestic science fiction films, the name of this film can be described as well-deserved.