This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and looking back at this century-old history, there are many important events that must be mentioned, and the Xi'an Incident is one of them. The peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident prepared the necessary prerequisites for the establishment of the anti-Japanese national united front and became a turning point in the transition from the civil war to the anti-Japanese national war. The first film to seek to reflect this historical fact completely and objectively was the film "Xi'an Incident" released in 1981.
Poster for the movie "Xi'an Incident"
The birth of this film can be described as a series of twists and turns, from the beginning of the concept in 1962 to the release of 1981, a gap of nearly 20 years.
Stills from "Xi'an Incident"
Director Cheng Yin had the idea of bringing this history to the screen very early. His father-in-law, Shen Bochun, was the head of General Yang Hucheng's communications office and the liaison between the underground Communist Party and the Northwest Army, and he always had a wish to let the public understand the truth of that period of history. This also happens to be Chengying's wish.
In 1962, Cheng Yin wrote an outline of a script about the Xi'an Incident, and asked Premier Zhou, who meant that he could get it later. In 1965, Premier Zhou once again expressed his thoughts to Cheng Yin: while many of the parties were still alive, he first collected materials, sorted out the facts, and made the script, so that the film could be made later.
Unexpectedly, this delay is more than ten years, and when everyone mentions this shooting idea again, Premier Zhou has long passed away.
In 1978, in order to commemorate Premier Zhou, the Gansu Provincial Repertory Theatre and the Xi'an Drama Theatre respectively created the drama "Xi'an Incident", especially after the performance in Beijing, which was greatly praised. The Ministry of Culture decided to shoot a film version based on the drama and gave the task to the Xi'an Film Studio, which was directed by Cui Wei of the Beijing Film Studio.
However, in the preparatory stage of the film, Cui Wei died of illness. In 1980, the heavy responsibility of filming the movie "Xi'an Incident" fell to Cheng Yin.
"Xi'an Incident" Yang Hucheng
Under the tide of "emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts", director Cheng Yin and the screenwriter solemnly decided to reconceivide the script and strive to restore the real history. But even when it came to the shooting stage, they were skeptical.
Regarding whether or not to shoot "Xi'an Incident" and how to shoot it, there are many opinions in the industry, and some people even say: "If you repeat the 'Xi'an Incident', don't you secretly instigate Taiwan to engage in a second military consultation?" This is not conducive to winning Taiwan's return to china. The film crew asked Wang Tiecheng, who was in Beijing, to understand the spirit above. Wang Tiecheng specifically mentioned this film when he met with Deng Yingchao. Deng Yingchao said: "You are engaged in creation, you will come by yourself!" The film crew was relieved.
"Xi'an Incident" Zhou Enlai
There are more than thirty famous and surnamed characters in the film, most of whom have their own people in history, in order to find the most suitable actors, the film crew took photos of prototype characters and ran to many provinces and cities.
"Xi'an Incident" He Yingqin
At that time, the film crew found an actor in the northeast who looked very much like Zhang Xueliang, "but the actor came and went to act like a battalion commander at most, and even the regimental commander was not enough", but the actor Jin Ange, who was originally scheduled to play the secret agent leader Dai Kasa, passed the acting skills, and Zhang Xueliang was somewhat similar. Later, Zhang Xueliang, played by Jin Ange, was known as the most restorative young marshal in the history of new Chinese cinema.
"Xi'an Incident" Zhang Xueliang
In addition, the famous Chiang Kai-shek special actor Sun Feihu was also discovered by this film, and Sun Feihu at that time was only a drama actor in the Guizhou Provincial Repertory Theatre and had never made a movie. It was also from this film that one of the "golden partners" and "highest configurations" in major revolutionary historical films was officially formed - By Gu Yue as Mao Zedong, Wang Tiecheng as Zhou Enlai, and Sun Feihu as Chiang Kai-shek.
"Xi'an Incident" Chiang Kai-shek
In order to change the actor's drama style and create a real and natural character image, director Cheng Yin can be described as painstaking.
When Sun Feihu first started filming, his waist was always standing up, and he had a "commissioned" posture. As soon as director Cheng Yin shouted "start", Sun Feihu took "Fan'er". In order to correct this habit of his, Cheng Yin said it over and over again.
Jin Ange and Xin Jing, who are also drama actors, are the same. When filming the scene of Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng mobilizing "soldiers", as soon as the camera was turned on, Cheng Yin shouted to stop. Cheng Yin asked Jin Ange and Xin Jing, "What are you standing for?" Jin Ange replied: "Observe whether the personnel have arrived." Cheng Yin said, "Why do you have to stand still and observe?" Why can't you observe while taking off your coat and walking? Jin Ange recalled filming this scene, and said with emotion: "Although the screen is only a few seconds, but standing still is not standing, the artistic effect obtained is completely different." The former is a man-made performance, the latter is real life. ”
"Xi'an Incident" Zhang Xueliang, Yang Hucheng
In addition, the character modeling, habits, language, art sets, and storylines in the film all follow historical facts, opening up the trend of genre films at that time.
In 1981, the movie "Xi'an Incident" was released, and the number of mainland viewers reached 450 million. The film was also screened in Hong Kong for more than 20 consecutive days with a total of 472 screenings, with 250,000 viewers, and many Taiwan compatriots also rushed to Hong Kong to watch the film. Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po commented: "This is a real blockbuster. ”
In 1982, "The Xi'an Incident" received 6 nominations at the 2nd Golden Rooster Awards of Chinese Cinema, and finally won the Best Director Award, the Best Supporting Actor Award and the Best Makeup Award.
-- END --
| This is the fourth article in the "History of the Party in Cinematography" series |