The movie "Winning the Championship" is a sports movie based on the story of the Chinese women's volleyball team.
The film takes Lang Ping as a player and Lang Ping as a coach as the main story line, showing the arduous process of two generations of women's volleyball players "winning the championship".
In 1981, the third Women's Volleyball World Cup was about to begin.
At this time, in the Zhangzhou training base, a group of Chinese women's volleyball girls under the guidance of coach Yuan Weimin, practiced rolling again and again, hitting the ball over and over again, even if exhausted and full of scars, the girls did not dare to stop for a moment, just to win the Japanese Women's Volleyball World Cup championship and win glory for the country.
As the match approached, Chen Zhonghe, as a sparring partner, failed to qualify to go to Japan with the Chinese women's volleyball team, so he had to guard the black-and-white TV in the factory with other people to fight alongside the Chinese girls playing in Japan.
On the other end of the TV, the Chinese women's volleyball girls did their best to play a fierce final with the Japanese team.
At the key point of the game, team member Chen Zhaodi endured a back injury and insisted on finishing the game; The main player Lang Ping played poorly due to lack of physical strength.
At the critical moment, coach Yuan Weimin said to Lang Ping: "At the age of eighteen, I recruited you into the national team and trained you so hard for today. ”
This sentence gave Lang Ping strength. She played well in the tiebreaker and finally helped the Chinese women's volleyball team defeat the Japanese team and win the third Women's Volleyball World Cup in 1981.
In 2016, as the head coach of the Chinese women's volleyball team, Lang Ping led the Chinese women's volleyball team to Brazil to participate in the women's volleyball competition at the Rio Olympics.
Before that, Lang Ping served as the head coach of the U.S. women's volleyball team and led the U.S. women's volleyball team to defeat the Chinese women's volleyball team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
But Lang Ping has always been concerned about the Chinese women's volleyball team, and the death of his old teammate Chen Zhaodi has strengthened Lang Ping's belief in returning to China to lead the team, and finally, Lang Ping became the head coach of the Chinese women's volleyball team in 2013, and boldly proposed reforms in the talent selection and training mechanism of the Chinese women's volleyball team.
Between 2013 and 2016, Lang Ping insisted on implementing the reform plan, repeated trial and error, and finally formed a strong team to face the battle in Brazil.
Without a doubt, the group stage against world number one Brazil is the biggest challenge for the Chinese women's volleyball team.
Since 2008, Brazil has held an 18-1 head-to-head position. The competition was more difficult and intense than ever.
Under the guidance of Lang Ping, the women's volleyball team fought bravely, especially the main player Zhu Ting took Director Lang's words "playing for yourself" to heart. She played well in the tiebreaker and helped the Chinese women's volleyball team win the Rio Olympic Games.
Interpretation of the character symbols of the movie "Winning the Championship"
Film is a special artistic expression that integrates characters, narratives, culture and other elements.
Film and television works express the director's thinking about the real world and the transmission of emotions through a series of symbolic language and "metaphorical" means of expression.
The film "Winning the Championship" shows its charm that is different from ordinary movies in terms of character symbols and narrative symbols.
The cultural symbols and consumption symbols expressed throughout the film are also remarkable.
When they turn to the first identity and express their concrete words and deeds, their focus is false, in order to express emotions and thoughts that transcend these concrete words and deeds."
The shaping of characters in film and television works is not only the display of characters, but the connotation derived from character symbols, and Saussure, the founder of semiotics, believes that language is an abstract symbol system.
It includes the two basic elements of "signifier" and "signified".
The signifier is the material form of the symbol grasped by one's own senses, and the signifier is the mental concept formed by the symbol user about the object to which the symbol relates.
Therefore, film is not only a facsimile of reality that provides people with a perceptual whole, but also a symbological system with composition.
Film works express the "signifier" and "signified" in film by showing the operation between symbol systems.
The main characters of the movie "Winning the Championship" have distinct character characteristics, and the old coach Yuan Weimin's treatment of "big me" and "small me" in the context of the 80s not only completes the image shaping of the characters, but also conforms to the theme expression of the film.
The setting of Chen Zhonghe and this role, in terms of the theme reflected, echoes the role of Lang Ping, and both serve the theme of "Contrast between the Old Era and the New Era".
The setting of Zhu Ting's role "refers to" another theme idea: a country's cultural confidence comes from individual confidence in culture.
Yuan Weimin: The interweaving of "big me" and "small me"
The film introduces the appearance of Yuan Weimin from a third perspective.
Taking the Zhangzhou training base in the 80s of the 20th century as the environmental background, the camera first gave the female volleyball players training pictures, tense and rhythmic music combined with the live sound of the smash, showing the high-intensity training content and creating a highly tense training atmosphere.
After laying the groundwork for these shots, the camera close-up Yuan Weimin, "The Chinese women's volleyball team sheds blood without tears." As soon as coach Yuan Weimin's words came out, his character image jumped on the paper, which was Yuan Weimin's first impression to the audience, that is, the "referent" of the movie.
When Wang Wang, the director of the Department of Science and Education of the National Sports Commission, introduced computers to Yuan Weimin, mentioning that computers are equivalent to a thousand human brains, which can analyze the technical characteristics, habits and tactical changes of athletes.
He also pointed out that American coach Salinger has applied computer technology to training, and knows the athletes of the Chinese women's volleyball team and coach Yuan Weimin himself.
But when he learned that it was unrealistic to apply the computer to the women's volleyball team, Coach Yuan raised the net by 15 centimeters, allowing the players to brush and touch the height, and the portrayal of this series of shots deepened the shaping of the character, "If we do this, can the computer calculate it?" This line further reinforces the coach's image of the "devil".
The descriptions of the above two shots are based on the preparation for the third Japan Women's Volleyball World Cup.
Guided by the slogan of "Rushing Out of Asia, Going to the World", driven by the mission of winning the world view scroll and winning glory for the country, coach Yuan Weiping showed the audience "Big Me".
In the final of the third Women's Volleyball World Cup in 1981, China played against Japan, the two sides drew 2-2 in the first four games, and in the most crucial fifth game, the Japanese team played at home, the momentum was like a rainbow, and the score steadily suppressed the Chinese team.
As the absolute offensive core of the team, Lang Ping's physical strength declined, and his personal attack method was gradually guessed by the opponent, and the Chinese team's attack frequently lost.
Coach Yuan Weimin saw the frequency, decisively replaced Lang Ping, and said these words in a serious voice: "At the age of eighteen, I recruited you into the national team, and I trained you so hard, all for today. ”
It can be seen that Yuan Weimin, as a coach, has always put family and country feelings and national responsibility before personal value, and he regards the victory of the Chinese women's volleyball team as a way to realize the "big me".
Backbone athletes like Lang Ping also bear great responsibilities when competing.
Under the indoctrination of the coach's thinking, the inability to realize the "big self" is a comprehensive denial of personal value, which is the deficiency of the old era, who is playing volleyball for?
The answer given by Yuan Weimin is for the country, in order to make the team members obey the arrangement, he chooses to train the team members under strong pressure and machinery, he or the older generation of sports people he represents, chooses to whip the team members forward with heavy psychological shackles, and does not take the initiative to guide the team members to pursue the realization of self-worth, such volleyball or such sports, there are shortcomings.
On the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, the coach arranged for the parents of the players to make dumplings and eat Chinese New Year's Eve with the players.
The camera first depicts the picture of family reunion and happiness, and then pushes the camera to the coach standing outside the door and looking into the house, at this time, the silence is better than the sound, and the warm music and the slow and close lens show the humane and delicate side of the coach.
Then, the coach gathered the women's volleyball players together to talk, coach Yuan Weimin confided to the players, the 1966 Chinese men's volleyball team was the ninth in the world made him full of confidence in Chinese volleyball, but the difficult situation of not playing for ten years has always made the coach linger.
Compared with the developed economy abroad, the incomparably backward Chinese women's volleyball team can only work hard to make up for the lack of training conditions.
The country's backward economic strength makes the Chinese people more in need of cultural self-confidence. As a result, the shaping of the character of coach Yuan Weimin also has a destination.
"Winning the world championship" is not only China's need, but also the inner desire of coach Yuan Weimin, which is the "little me".
The needs of the country have made Yuan Weimin's image of "devil coach" deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, he holds high the Chinese flag, trains Chinese women's volleyball players beyond the normal acceptance intensity of human beings, and fights for the Chinese people, which is the performance of the "big me".
And when the "big me" prevails, it will become the force for people to move forward, the realization of the "big me" is the completion of the "small self", the situation creates heroes, in the context of the times, characters like Yuan Weimin also represent a type of people of that era, which is the "signifier" implied by the "signifier".
Chen Zhonghe: Old-school coach - the pedestrian of the times
Chen Zhonghe first met the Chinese women's volleyball team because he participated in related work during the secondment period.
However, he was appointed by coach Yuan Weimin as the companion coach of the Chinese women's volleyball team, and has since become associated with the Chinese women's volleyball team.
However, during his tenure, Chen Zhonghe was deeply influenced by Coach Yuan Weimin's training ideas, and the training methods were similar to those of Coach Yuan Weimin.
On the day of the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner arranged by coach Yuan Weimin, Chen Zhonghe was deeply affected and cheered to the players: "As long as you can win the championship, you can let me do anything."
In 1980, 125 days before the third Women's Volleyball World Cup, Chen Zhonghe had a mature training system as a companion coach, and he assisted coach Yuan Weimin to do training guidance for the Chinese women's volleyball team.
The description of this series of shots shows Chen Zhonghe's inheritance of training techniques by coach, and also paves the way for Chen Zhonghe to stay in China to teach.
From 1981 to 1986, the Chinese women's volleyball team became the first team in the history of world volleyball to win five consecutive championships, and the spirit of women's volleyball became the memory of a generation.
In 1987, Lang Ping went to the United States to study, Chen Zhonghe stayed in the national team to continue to play, and led the Chinese women's volleyball team to win the ninth Women's Volleyball World Cup in 2003.
After seventeen years, the Chinese women's volleyball team has returned to the top of the world.
In 2004, the Chinese women's volleyball team achieved a shocking reversal, and finally defeated the Russian team 3:2 to win the Athens Olympic women's volleyball championship.
So far, until Lang Ping returned to China to teach, the Chinese women's volleyball team did not have a good performance record.
The film repeatedly uses subtitles as a timeline and partially restores the scene of historical events.
On the one hand, it directly shows the passage of time and the changes of the times, and at the same time, it also lays the groundwork for Chen Zhonghe's plot of "Let Xian" for Lang Ping in the later period.
In 2005, Lang Ping was invited to become the first female head coach of the national team in the history of U.S. volleyball, and at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he took the American team to meet the Chinese women's volleyball team led by Chen Zhonghe.
On the field, the two teams clung to the score, and when it came to the fifth game point in the United States, the United States scored the crucial goal to win the game.
Chen Zhonghe carried the burden of the state on his coach, "Give me the ball back." It inadvertently shows that the Chinese women's volleyball team plays more for the country and for him.
Among them, "no fight and no chance" is also the baggage carried by the team where Lang Ping was in the 80s, from which we can see the old-school coaching style of Chen Zhonghe coach.
Here is once again a continuation of the previous foreshadowing, Chen Zhonghe "Rang Xian", and supports Lang Ping's reform of the training system of the national team.
In 2013, Lang Ping became the head coach of the Chinese women's volleyball team, and the new official took the post of three fires, Lang Ping with many years of coaching experience in the United States and the training ideas received, as soon as he took office, he proposed a reform plan for the development of the Chinese women's volleyball team.
At the women's volleyball expert seminar, Lang Ping proposed a large-scale training and reform plan for the Chinese women's volleyball national team.
The experts present expressed their opposition, but Chen Zhonghe expressed support for Lang Ping's reform plan, believing that Lang Ping was the best head coach candidate for the Chinese women's volleyball team and voluntarily withdrew from the race.
In the early stage of the film, Chen Zhonghe's "Yuan Weimin-style" training method was portrayed, and this clip is what makes Chen Zhonghe different from Yuan Weimin.
From this point of view, although Chen Zhonghe is not the leader of the times, he is also the walker of the times.