To be honest, I was a little apprehensive before I went to watch "The King of the Long Sky", although this film has a novel subject matter and excellent production, it has many difficulties in the light and in the dark, and at the same time has to accept the strictest scrutiny of the most "demanding" audience.
Fortunately, the film, like its protagonist test pilots, withstood the pressure, and the final presentation was burning, hard, and bloody.
"King of the Long Sky" pays tribute to this group of "dancers on the tip of the knife", which not only has the appearance and soaring sky of various fighters, but also the sassiness, hard work, hardship and growth of test pilots, and the further heritage and spirit of aviation technology and national defense construction.
Personally, I feel that the best place for the film should be the selection and placement of the angle of the character's story, which is new and good looking compared to similar films, not to mention that it accurately explains the spiritual true meaning of "success does not have to be in me, success must have me".
[Friendly reminder: There will be spoilers below.] 】
Where is "King of the Long Sky" so good? The first most intuitive and "just needed" indicator is: look at the plane.
I'm not a military fan, but I can also see that there are many different types of Air Force aircraft in the film, and through the introduction of knowledgeable bigwigs, the planes that appear on camera include Air Police 2000, J-20, J-11, J-16, J-10C, Wing Loong UAV, etc., which can be called the all-star lineup of the Chinese Air Force.
These planes must not only be photographed (in fact, it is not easy to achieve this), but also filmed well - the film has tried to help these national heavyweights concave their shapes through various forms, including but not limited to close-ups of close-up moving pictures, looking at the distant tarmac fleet, elegant displays when flying in the air, unusual appearances during extreme environmental tests, and so on.
The film also worked as hard as possible on supporting elements, such as lighting, color grading, sound effects, lens angles... It can be said that in terms of basic audiovisual experience, "King of the Long Sky" is definitely passable.
Of course, many viewers are more concerned about the performance of action scenes, to which I can only say "absolutely full".
The film's flight scene types are very rich, the beginning and end of the two quasi-air battles are full of elements, third-generation aircraft VS fourth-generation aircraft, aerial grappling, supersonic flight, sonic boom special effects, etc., and the middle several test flight fighter scenes are also full of details, cobra maneuvering, falling leaves, flight envelope, air parking, stall tail spin and change out, etc. do not fall, even if I am not a military fan, I can watch it with relish simply watching the excitement.
In addition, the real Air Force test pilots have been involved in on-site guidance as early as the script stage, in addition to teaching the actors the basic operation, they will also talk about some test flight feelings, so the authenticity of all aspects of the film is guaranteed.
From the perspective of commercial blockbusters alone, "King of the Long Sky" with so many "plane shows" is enough to make people enjoyable, but it is far more than a simple cool movie.
Before watching the movie, I didn't expect much from the story of the film, because there are many plot and character restrictions in this type of work, it is difficult to have a huge space to play, the story flow is often similar, and it is indeed as I expected for a long time after the opening of the movie.
Lei Yu is a smart, bold, competitive excellent pilot, was recruited by the captain Zhang Ting to participate in the training and assessment of the flight team, where he met Deng Fang, who was evenly matched with him, he not only wanted to become one-seventh of the final pass the assessment, but also had to compete with Deng Fang and compete for the first place.
Choosing an excellent genius with pride as the protagonist is a one-size-fits-all approach, and when the protagonist is hit and reborn, sooner or later he will become the "first" in the standard sense, so there will definitely be nothing wrong.
But not long after, various "anti-routines" appeared one after another: Lei Yu became a test pilot with the second place; After he lost his test flight data and parachuted, he did not intend to be shameful, but applied to be transferred back to the original unit and directly became a "deserter"; Then he was left behind by Zhang Ting, and did not become the chief test pilot until the end...
While we thought that this was another inspirational story of "aspiring young people coming to prominence", "King of the Long Sky" tells the story of a group of heroes in a deeper and more atmospheric manner.
I was very impressed by a line from Zhang Ting, to the effect that the first generation of test pilots on the mainland is "courageous", everything starts from scratch, and they have to rely on fighting for data, and their generation (second generation) test pilots are "technical" and have more experience and skills, but he is more looking forward to today's new generation.
Because the third generation of test pilots are "experts", engineers and designers who can fly.
While waiting for the "departure", Lei Yu gradually showed the ideas and talent of technical research and development (there were signs that his theoretical knowledge was better than Deng Fang's previous achievements), with the tempering of basic affairs such as umbrella installation, and the research outside of normal training, Lei Yu's research and development design for aircraft modification continued to deepen, and finally solved the problem of "testing the limit and keeping the aircraft".
The film does not rely on Lei Yu's "Xueba" character as a plus, to overtake on corners to become the first - in fact, the strongest person in the test pilots at the same time is Deng Fang, who is the undisputed chief - but through Lei Yu's changes from competition to indisputability, to show the true mental outlook of test pilots.
Individual honors and disgraces are small, test tests are big, and they want to prove to everyone that we can build the best new fighter on our own.
In fact, this generation of test pilots with engineering thinking also has the courage and technology of their predecessors, and only the progress of each generation is stronger than the next generation, which can be worthy of the blood and tears paid by the soldiers from generation to generation and the glory passed down from generation to generation.
It is worth mentioning that the emotional drama of "King of the Long Sky" is very restrained and in place under the premise of small space and small proportion.
Taking Lei Yu's family line as an example, Lei Yu and his parents' opponents played two games, but it very clearly expressed the contradictions between the two sides that were difficult to reconcile, the mother was worried about her son's life safety, and the father felt that the gap between China's self-developed technology and foreign countries was too big, they all hoped that their son could stop flying and leave the army, but Lei Yu, who was dedicated to the test flight career, declined his parents' kindness.
This can't help but remind me of the argument of some elders that "if you raise a child too well, he/she is the country and not your own", and "The King of the Long Sky" explains the contemporary version of "loyalty and filial piety are difficult to achieve" in two or three sentences.
Another example is the male and female relationship between Lei Yu and Shen Natural, you can see that the two of them are interesting to each other after a few contacts, but the two have never shown it, and the closest time to breaking the window paper is that Shen Natural withdrew his decision to transfer to the south, telling Lei Yu that the reason is that he cannot be a deserter in a critical period——
Of course, it is correct to say that placing individual personal feelings under collective ideals, or putting the two in the same direction to work together, is the romantic feeling of revolutionary couples.
And what impressed me the most was the heartfelt exchange between Lei Yu and Deng Fang, especially when Lei Yu said that Deng Fang's sacrificial father was a hero, Deng Fang bluntly said that "the reputation of a hero is too heavy", and then said, "I want to test the best plane, so that the combatants on the front line can go home safely and grow up with their children." ”
Recalling that Lei Yu's reason for joining the test flight team was to "fight back the invading enemy", Deng Fang's ideal undoubtedly further sublimated the theme of "King of the Long Sky": of course, the sacrificed warriors are respectable, but if we can, we don't want more martyrs named heroes, and the research and development of equipment and the construction of national defense are not only to fight back against the enemy, but also to protect the robe, so that the safe return of comrades is more guaranteed.
- "Call 81192, please return immediately!" ”
- "81192 received, I can't go back, you guys keep going!" ”
Some spirits and feelings have long been engraved in our bones, even if it is just a glimpse of the explosion in "The King of the Long Sky", it is enough to make people feel thousands of emotions and tears.