After the movie "King Kong River", the last train was launched in December.
The TV series "Crossing the Yalu River" was broadcast on the CCTV Comprehensive Channel on December 27.
This is the first time in the past 10 years that CCTV has broadcast a high-profile film and television drama on the theme of "Resisting US Aggression and Aiding Korea" in such a form.
This also conveys two meanings:
First: The state took the lead in filming the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and the original sensitive subject could be boldly filmed.
Second, the theme of "Resisting US Aggression and Aiding Korea" is what it wants to be filmed, and the national team has played a "sample."
As everyone knows, the theme of "Resisting US Aggression and Aiding Korea" is not easy to shoot well, and first of all, it has three difficult problems that cannot be circumvented.
First: how to truly restore this history.
Second: How should the story be told? Is it a group portrait or a personal hero.
Third: Since it is a war drama, how to create special effects.
In light of these three questions, let's take a look at how many points can be completed by CCTV's version of "Crossing the Yalu River" to resist US aggression and aid Korea.
First, let's look at the first difficult problem: how to truly restore this history.
To truly restore this history, it is mainly reflected in these three aspects:
First, the restoration of historical figures.
At present, the first 4 episodes of the series are doing a good job, and under the guarantee of the original recognized special actors, some of the roles of Peng Dehuai and Lin Biao are eye-catching.
For example, in the great discussion of "war or no war," the former style of mao zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Peng Dehuai, Zhu De, Lin Biao, and other state leaders has been revived.
Tang Guoqiang, who plays Mao Zedong, and Sun Weimin, who plays Zhou Enlai, their performances have been basically fixed, and these two are very familiar to everyone, so there is no need to say more.
Here we focus on Lin Biao, played by Ma Shihong, and Peng Dehuai, played by Ding Yongdai, both of whom have large-scale impression-level performances, full of highlights and impressive.
Peng Dehuai is the commander-in-chief of the volunteer army, the key character of the series, and his role is mostly taken for granted.
During this period, as a high-ranking figure in the central authorities, Lin Biao's opinions also occupied a great deal of weight in the party, and the opinions of Mao Zedong, who had always been conservative, were different, which was very interesting.
Ma Shihong, who plays Lin Biao, is also a late actor in the show business circle, born on June 2, 1964 in Suibin County, Hegang City, Heilongjiang Province, debuted in 1995, but it was not until the 2012 Anti-Japanese War TV series "Sharp Gun" was broadcast, in which he played Peng Mingfu, the commander of the 46th Regiment of the 16th Brigade of the New Fourth Army, who was recognized by the audience.
Playing Lin Biao, a highly controversial figure in the history of the founding of the People's Republic of China, is a rare opportunity for Ma Shihong.
This character has been played by many excellent actors in the past, including Li Xuejian, Ma Shaoxin and Yu Liping.
For Ma Shihong, Lin Biao, who was born in Huanggang County, Hubei Province, has a bit of a big gap in height with him, but fortunately, the effect of makeup is still eight points.
During this period, Lin Biao served as the first secretary of the Central and Southern Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the Fourth Field Army and the commander of the Central and Southern Military Region, and had a clear understanding of the situation at home and abroad and the strength of the army.
In several speeches at several meetings, Ma Shihong explained the introverted and calm character very well, which was in stark contrast to Chairman Mao Zedong, who was strategic.
The director still maintains an objective attitude in dealing with this complex role.
The performance of Ding Yongdai, who plays Peng Dehuai, is a different scene, born in 1958, he is much older than Ma Shihong.
He debuted very early, and his luck is still very good, he graduated from the Theater Performance Department of the Inner Mongolia Academy of Arts in 1983, but when he was still studying in 1981, he became the male protagonist of the TV series "The Sini Lama". After entering the show business circle, he has participated in nearly 100 TV series and more than 10 movies.
In this drama, Ding Yongdai plays Peng Dehuai, commander and political commissar of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, but his image is still quite different from the image of Peng Dehuai in history.
If his appearance does not work, he must rely on his acting skills, ding Yongdai still has a solid foundation in acting, and seriously interprets Peng Dehuai's resolute and resolute, rough and thin character image.
When discussing the decision to send troops to Korea, it was Peng Dehuai's judgment that "tigers always want to eat people" and "if you don't fight, you must fight to the end", which made the meeting find direction and also strengthened mao Zedong's final decision.
Ding Yongdai did not have much time to appear, but he contributed the most blood-boiling famous scenes for the first 4 episodes.
As for the "reproduction of the glorious deeds of heroic characters", the current 7 episodes have appeared Mao Anying played by Wu Jian, Deng Hua played by Liu Zhibing, and Xie Fang played by Wang Tonghui, etc., but they have not yet entered the core plot, which need to be verified by the development of follow-up stories.
Second, the restoration of major events
In the current 7 episodes, there are key events before the war.
For example, before the war, China and the Soviet Union signed a contract,
Another example is the major historical events of Truman's initiation of the war and the central government's decision to resist us and aid Korea
On March 4, 1950, Mao Zedong and his party concluded their 79-day study tour of the Soviet Union and returned to Beijing by train.
The biggest gain of this visit was the signing of the "Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance" with the Soviet leaders, which showed that the newly established New China had found the most powerful security guarantee, but the serious problems facing it at home and abroad still existed.
On June 25, 1950, the Korean People's Army marched south, the Korean Civil War broke out, and a war with far-reaching effects on the entire world suddenly arrived.
Under the orders of US President Harry Truman, the US Seventh Fleet left the port from the Subic Bay base in the Philippines and sailed into the two ports of Keelung and Kaohsiung in the Taiwan Strait, openly challenging international law and intervening in the Korean Civil War.
At the beginning of the war, the situation was one-sided, the Korean People's Army was victorious, and by the end of the Battle of Busan on August 31, the advance forces had reached the 35th parallel north, and 90% of South Korea was occupied.
However, on September 15, 1950, the US 10th Army landed at Inchon, causing the Korean People's Army to suffer from the enemy on its back and had to turn to strategic retreat.
On October 8, the DPRK government requested China to send troops, and the Chinese government responded to the decision to "resist the United States and aid Korea and defend the homeland." Later, under the leadership of commander Peng Dehuai, the Chinese Volunteer Army was formed to participate in the war in Korea.
From the North Korean government's request for help to the volunteer army, the Party Central Committee has actually experienced a lot of repeated discussions, and the first 4 episodes of the series have just aired, which is to reproduce this process.
Although the great significance of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea has long been conclusive, it is understandable that these generations who have not experienced that war in the current Internet age will discuss the right, wrong, and necessity of our joining this war.
The drama shows the urgency before the war, and seriously and rigorously explains the reasons and necessity of the decision made by the central high level that year.
All this not only affirmed the justice of this war, but also made the younger generation who had doubts about the confrontation with the United States and aid to Korea better understand and understand this war, and instilled patriotic ideas.
Key historical events, the director basically achieved a 1:1 true restoration, the sense of substitution is relatively strong.
Third, the restoration of the scene
In this play, some scenes, the director has made some re-creations based on history,
For example, in some meetings in the play, the director makes some fiction according to the creative needs. However, although the scene is different from history, the props in the scene are as close to the truth as possible.
For example, the tea cup used by Chairman Mao Zedong when drinking tea at that meeting was exactly the same as in history.
Synthesizing the above three parts, in the restoration of this history, we have abided by the creative principle of not being vain in big things and small things, and basically reproduced that period of history.
Second, the second dilemma: is it a group portrait or an individual hero.
At present, this TV series will be partial to the group portrait, according to the existing characters, from the top level, to the front-line soldiers, to the civilians, there are descriptions, but also further highlight the impact of the war on the whole people.
It is also imperceptible to watch, such as witnessing the war 70 years ago.
Third, the third is how to create the visual effects of war films.
Speaking of "truly restoring war scenes and creating visual effects", Pigo feels that this may become the only shortcoming of the series.
Some viewers who have watched the previous episodes have called this drama a "meeting play", but Pigo does not think so.
Although there are many scenes of "meetings" in the play, CCTV production should not be a small fight to save money.
Based on his perception of the first 7 episodes, Pigo felt that the show had these characteristics in terms of restoring war:
The whole process of on-site shooting, real-life shooting; the production of Fu Hua Dao is very careful;
The shaping of small characters is also in place; the assistance of CG special effects production also increases the realism of the scene presentation.
The form of expression is more diverse, interspersed with a large number of historical video pictures, many of which were news pictures that were broadcast by CCTV in that year, which is both fresh and strange to the post-80s like Pigo, after all, we have not seen these precious video materials.
Being able to dig out these "old antiques" also shows the intentions of the production team.
But the series has not yet been fully presented with a large-scale battle, and perhaps it will be shown in the next 33 episodes, which has yet to be verified.
Pigo previously introduced 1963's "Heroes and Children", although it is a black-and-white film, the presentation of war scenes is very careful, and the shocking scenes of the mountains and the sea of people are still vividly remembered.
And the volunteer soldier Wang Cheng in the movie, holding up a blaster and rushing into the enemy position, inspired many teenagers, if you can see Huang Jiguang, Qiu Shaoyun, Yang Gensi heroes in this drama, and reproduce the heroic feats, it is really worth looking forward to.
4. Summary
Based on the part that has been broadcast so far, on the overall spiritual level, Pigo feels that "Crossing the Yalu River" is not only an anti-war war-themed TV series, but also an excellent work dedicated to restoring the magnificent history of the 1950 War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, showing the fighting stories of the heroes of the Volunteer Army who braved the strong enemy and heroic struggle, and carrying forward the patriotic spirit education.
This TV series is not simple.
For our post-80s generation, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea is also a very distant thing, and for the post-90s, post-00s, and post-10s, this war is even stranger.
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, we need a TV series such as "Crossing the Yalu River" to give us the opportunity to recognize and look back at that difficult and great history.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
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