In 1965, the movie "Eternal Life in the Fire" let people understand the story of the White Mansion and the Zha Di Cave in Chongqing, remembering a series of characters such as Jiang Jie, Xu Yunfeng, Xu Pengfei, Hua Ziliang, and the old lady with two guns.
The film is adapted from Luo Guangbin and Yang Yiyan's novel "Red Rock", named after Premier Zhou, and taken from General Ye Ting's "Prisoner Song" written on the wall of the Zadidong concentration camp.
Poster of "Eternal Life in Flames"
At the end of 1961, when the actor Yu Lan was examining his body, he saw the novel "Red Rock" published in the "China Youth Daily", was deeply moved, and immediately decided to find a way to put the story in this novel on the screen.
"Eternal Life in the Fire" Sister Jiang
She recommended this novel to her friends, and Ouyang Hongying, Zhang Shuihua, Cui Wei and others all expressed great interest. Later, Cui Wei was transferred to the crew of the movie "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", Shui Hua, Yu Lan and Ouyang Hong sakura for more than a year, repeatedly went to Beidaihe, Chongqing, Chengdu, Guizhou to collect information, interviewed the author of "Red Rock" Luo Guangbin, Yang Yiyan and the prototype characters in the novel and many people who had contacted the prototype, and wrote more than 300,000 words of notes.
They wrote three drafts of the script before and after, but they were not very satisfied, and they could only turn to the playwright Xia Yan. Four days later, Xia Yan completed the film literary script of "Red Rock".
Xia Yan et al
Later, Ouyang Hongying was also transferred to the crew of "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", and the filming of "Red Rock" was handed over to director Shui Hua, and Yu Lan, as the actor of Sister Jiang, also served as an assistant director.
She found Zhao Dan, who was at the trough of her career at the time, and invited him to play the role of Xu Yunfeng.
"Eternal Life in the Fire" Xu Yunfeng
When the crew arranged for the actors to experience life in the White Mansion and the Slag Cave, Zhao Dan, who was originally excited, was unusual, shouting at the director Shui Hua: "Enough, I have already experienced enough, shoot it, I don't need to experience any life!" ”
It turned out that Zhao Dan had been imprisoned by the Xinjiang warlord Sheng Shicai in 1941. The 5 years of suffering from all kinds of tortures were the pain that Zhao Dan never wanted to touch again but could never forget, as he said, he "had already experienced enough."
During the filming process, Shui Hua repeatedly reminded Zhao Dan to suppress his emotions, and Zhao Dan also did a very good job, especially Xu Yunfeng's slow walk down from the upper floor when he was arrested and Xu Yunfeng's "play" Xu Pengfei' scene, which are the highlights of the film. This film also became Zhao Dan's last work.
Sister Jiang, played by Yu Lan, was only one of several main roles in the original script, and the role was not much, xia Yan got the script and personally revised the script, so that Sister Jiang became the absolute protagonist in the script.
Xia Yan highlighted the role of Sister Jiang for two reasons, one is that none of the female comrades in the Zha Di Cave and the White Mansion have defected, and the other is that Sister Jiang has a special identity, she is the representative of intellectual women, intellectual, persevering, and very charismatic. Xia Yan once told Yu Lan: "Sister Jiang is not Liu Hulan, nor is she Zhao Yiman, don't cross your eyebrows and be cold, and show it outside." ”
Historically, Sister Jiang's prototype, Jiang Zhujun, did not hold a high position in the party. At the beginning of her imprisonment, she did not admit that there was an underground party organization, and when she saw that the enemy did not believe, she took the initiative to take many things into herself: "I know the name of the superior, and I know the name of the subordinate." In this way, Jiang Zhujun protected the safety of more than thirty comrades, but she herself became the focus of interrogation by prison agents, and was subjected to extreme torture such as wearing heavy shackles, sitting on a tiger stool, hanging ducks floating in the water, and pinching fingers.
One day, looking at Jiang Zhujun, who was put back to her cell by the secret agent after being tortured, several young comrades who knew her well couldn't help but shout "Sister Jiang", and since then, "Sister Jiang" has become the unified name for her by her friends.
After the filming was completed, it was named "Red Rock", and premier Zhou Enlai, after watching it, suggested changing it to "Sister Jiang". But Yu Lan proposed that Sister Jiang is not the only protagonist in the film. After discussion, Premier Zhou Enlai took "Eternal Life in the Fire" from a poem by General Ye Ting as the title of the film, and Guo Moruo wrote the title of the film.
"Eternal Life in the Fire" Xu Yunfeng and Sister Jiang
Many years after the release of the movie, Yu Lan did not dare to watch this film. She is very unconfident in her performance, and feels that she is not in line with the character image, and Sister Jiang's lofty ideological realm is also beyond her reach. In fact, the image of Jiang Jie she created has become a classic in the history of new Chinese cinema.