Yan Jizhou's name has long been included in the "Dictionary of Chinese Celebrities", and the three generations of Chinese old, middle and young people, and hundreds of millions of moviegoers all know this artist. From 1954 to 1966, he made more than a dozen films that aroused strong interest among the audience, such as "Growing Up in Battle", "Five Watches of Cold", "Heroes and Tigers", "Sea Eagle", "Good Brothers", "Wildfire Spring Breeze Fighting Ancient City", "The Man with Soldiers" and so on. Ten years of the "Cultural Revolution", Yan Jizhou was criticized, imprisoned in the cowshed, and stood aside. Since 1977, he has made films that are popular with the audience, such as the first and second episodes of "Thousands of Rivers, Thousands of Mountains", "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon", "Breaking the Fog", "Pipa Soul", "The Land of Regeneration", "Chen Gengmeng's Martyrdom", and "Death Camp". Recent
His new work is the 21-episode TV series "He Long".
Yan Jizhou has personally directed 25 films, written three film scripts, and directed the filming of more than 70 TV series.
The works he directed have won the "Golden Rooster Award" and "Hundred Flowers Award".
Step into the world of cinema
In 1938, Yan Jizhou went from Shanghai to Yan'an, joined the army, joined the party, and this young man with only a high degree of Chinese soon became the director of the creative office of Yiye's "Combat Drama Society". Fight with the army.
In 1953, Yan Jizhou served as the director of the People's Liberation Army Film Studio (later known as Bayi Studio).
He Long said to him after watching his first feature film "Footprints": "No! It's too simple, it's not like a movie, there is no art." You have to learn from Cheng Yin Xi. At this time, Cheng Yin had already filmed "Southern Expedition and Northern War". Yan Jizhou was still unconvinced after hearing this, thinking that it was a script problem. asked playwright Hu Ke to turn his famous book "Growing Up in Battle" into a movie. After the shooting, the veteran film artist Cai Chusheng watched it and pointed out to him: "The film you shoot is like a stage play." Ignore the use of special means of movies to dig into the inner world of the characters. The advice against his ears made Yan Jizhou determined to learn from scratch. He selected film classics from the reference room: Marie Curie, Tchaikovsky, The Country Teacher, and The Eternal Secret, locked himself in the screening room, and watched each film more than a dozen times. Also go to the editing table, pull the pieces piece by piece, and measure the length. Combined with the plot, analyze the rhythm processing, character portrayal, and lens use of the film one by one,...... Then, while screening, I compared the results of my own analysis with the effect of the screen. These solid basic skills of self-study and practice have enabled Yan Jizhou to gradually enter the "free kingdom" of directing art.
Three "strict" directors
Yan Jizhou has "three stricts": strict selection of actors, strict requirements for artistic creation, and strict with himself.
As a film director, after the script is determined, whether or not the actors can be selected is often the key to the success or failure of a film. Yan Jizhou selects actors, and has an incisive saying: "It's not about what he (she) has played, but about what he (she) can play." "To do that, the director has to be discerning. Shi Chao's movie script "Five Watches of Cold" is a story about a county party secretary who insisted on the underground struggle in the harsh environment of the enemy-occupied area of Dabie Mountain. Yan Jizhou was deeply moved by the vivid characters in the play; as he watched it, he thought that according to the specific environment in the play, the secretary of the county party committee should be a worker and peasant cadre with an extremely ordinary appearance but rich experience in struggle. The image of Yang Cheng, the head of the Shanxi Repertory Theatre, jumped out of his mind. This literary and art worker who participated in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression is thin, short, and wrinkled, like an old peasant, but he has a resolute inner temperament. So Yang Cheng was invited to play the leading role. The finished movie proves that this actor is well chosen, Yang Cheng, and impresses the audience.
"Heroes and Die Hard" was a rare feature film with a thrilling plot at that time. Yan Jizhou started from the needs of the script and selected actors unconventionally. He invited Yu Yang, who had played a grassroots commander and militia cadre, from Beiying, to play the role of the chief of our army's reconnaissance section who penetrated into the enemy's den. Yan Jizhou said with appreciation: Yu Yang's eyes are very expressive. He asked Yu Yangyi to correct his "Xiaosheng" image and perform a gangster. Yan Jizhou also chose Wang Xiaotang, who often plays innocent girls, to play the female spy in the film. Daniel Zhang was also chosen, and Fang Hui and others all played roles that were very different from previous performances. The actors are also enthusiastic to work with the director to make new explorations in the performing arts. After the film was made, the results were excellent. So much so that in the "Cultural Revolution", when the rebels criticized Yan Jizhou, they said that in the "Heroes and Tiger Courage" directed by him, Yu Yang played more bandits than bandits, and said that the female spy played by Wang Xiaotang was too beautiful, and watching it would make people lose their position.
Li Yingru's novel "Wildfire Spring Breeze Fighting Ancient City" is a popular book among readers, and after being adapted into a movie, Yinhuan and Guan Jingtao became the protagonists in the film. Yan Jizhou decided that Wang Xiaotang, the two sisters of Jinhuan and Yinhuan, would play the two roles with different personalities. Wang Xiaotang's performance has good language, figure, and image, and has a strong artistic foundation, and he is smart and lively, and his acting is passionate. After the release of "Wildfire Spring Breeze Fighting Ancient City", it was "popular" all over the country and was very popular with the audience. Wang Xiaotang was elected Best Actress at the "Hundred Flowers Awards" that year.
Wang Xingang is the main actor of Bayi Factory, who works hard and has a good image. According to his steady and loyal characteristics, Yan Jizhou often let him play a major role such as the leadership of the party. Such as Yang Xiaodong in "Wildfire Spring Breeze Fighting Ancient City", the torpedo speedboat captain in "Sea Eagle", and the instructor in "Good Brothers". There are not many scenes in some films, but Wang Xingang's performance is in place, leaving a good impression on the audience and being loved.
"Good Brothers" is a comedy that reflects the life of the army and is difficult to act. Yan Jizhou saw that actor Zhang Liang showed the naughty character of a little soldier in "Dong Cunrui", and felt that he had great potential to be tapped, so he chose Zhang Liang as the protagonist of this film, and sure enough, Zhang Liang performed extraordinarily and won the Best Actor Award of the "Hundred Flowers Award".
The most embodying Yan Jizhou's strict requirements for artistic creation is the process of his filming of the film "The Land of Regeneration".
The mainland has carried out humanitarianism in the rehabilitation of war criminals, including allowing war criminals to allow their families to visit and live with them during their detention. This is unprecedented in the world. The policy has had an immense impact and unexpected effects. Lieutenant General Shigeru Fujita, commander of the Japanese division, (Hiroichi Ito in the play), was originally very stubborn, but after education and reform, he completely repented and realized that the war of aggression against China had committed serious crimes against the Chinese people. After returning to China, he became a staunch defender of Sino-Japanese friendship, but he was strongly hated by Japanese right-wingers. Once, they surrounded his house and insulted him, and beat him with sticks. Ignoring the dissuasion of his family and risking his life, the elderly Fujita Shigeru bravely stepped onto the steps, held a saber in his hand, and fought the right-wingers face to face with righteousness and solemnity, and finally repelled them. When the old man was dying, his only requirement was to wear the tunic that was given to him when he returned to China and passed away. These touching deeds prompted Yan Jizhou to enhance his sense of responsibility for making this movie. He proposed to make a documentary film that is "open-minded and smooth, strong and vigorous, unpolished, rough and simple, and has a traditional style." In order to achieve this goal, he visited the prisons in Fushun, Shenyang, Changchun, Dalian, Lushun, and other places where war criminals were held in those years, consulted many archives, and interviewed many war criminals who had been detained in Fushun, as well as reminiscences, and Japanese friends who are now members of the "Chinese Returnees Liaison Association." He chose Hu Hao to play the male protagonist Lieutenant General Ito Hongichi, and Siqin Gaowa to play the heroine Kawashima Mamiko. Before filming, he made it clear to the actors: war criminals must not be played as face-painted characters like "Eight Geyalu", and the villains must be played, they are "people" with seven emotions and six desires, thoughts and feelings. The point is to dig into the depths of their souls, otherwise these people will not be able to have a convincing, unexpected, and moving transformation. In order to let the actors have real feelings, Yan Jizhou agreed with the management staff in advance when they visited the prison, and suddenly viciously put all the actors in prison. Because the prison has not been used for a long time and the heating is not warm enough, the administrator is a little hesitant, afraid of freezing bad people. Yan Jizhou still insisted: "Guan!" Locked up for at least one day to let them experience the psychology of war criminals. Sure enough, the role experience of the actors in the future is very unusual.
For the production of the whole film, Yan Jizhou also has very strict requirements. He told the staff: Be real, be real, be real! Fake beards are not allowed, and when he was casting actors, he noticed that people who could really grow thick black beards should play war criminals. The uniforms worn by the Japanese army were not allowed to be made new to be old. He couldn't make enough money from the warehouses of the Bayi Factory, so he went to the "Changying" factory, which was rich in inventory, and even the "Anti-Enemy Troupe" and other old units to borrow real Japanese uniforms. The production of every large and small prop is based on pictures, even if there are several boxes of pastries brought by the families of war criminals from Japan, they must be realistic. He found an old Korean man in Fushun who opened a pastry shop during the Puppet Manchurian period, and made real Japanese pastries to serve on camera. He hired a few "Japanese experts" to join the film crew as consultants, guiding the details of Japanese life. He is most opposed to the actor who plays the Japanese speaking half-tone Chinese, requiring the actor to be familiar with Japanese lines, which is naturally a chore, and in the end, only Siqin Gaowa, who has a high level of understanding and uses her own Mongolian language to read Japanese, passed the censorship, and other actors had to dub. In order to play a good scene in the film, when others were still afraid of the cold in thick cotton clothes, Siqin Gaowa didn't wear a coat according to the needs of the plot, ran out of the door, fell on the snow, and filmed three times in a row, and finally her face was covered with snow and tears.
After the release of "The Land of Rebirth", it caused a strong reaction, and the Yomiuri Shimbun also published a major report. Japanese friends also plan to make a sequel to describe the life of war criminals after they return to Japan.
The film won five individual awards of the "Golden Rooster Award". In 1993, it won the "Humanitarian" Outstanding Film Award issued by the China Disabled Persons' Federation, the Red Cross Society of China, China Film Company, and the China Film Critics Society.
After the end of the "Cultural Revolution", after his comeback, he made "Chen Geng's Martyrdom" and "Chen Geng's Adventure" with serious content and high artistic taste, two good films that were welcomed by the audience.
When Yan Jizhou's films were released, he had to be an audience member at least three times. Once to a high-end theater, once to a mid-range theater, and once to a popular theater, sit in the audience and listen quietly, observing the reaction of audiences at all levels to the film. Sometimes, he thinks that the audience will react, but the audience is indifferent, and in some places, he does not expect the audience to react strongly. He wrote them all down and went back to think about why. He also often goes to film distribution companies to listen to the opinions of business people. He always keeps in mind the national character, mass nature, and the appreciation Xi of the Chinese audience, and takes this as an important factor to consider when creating. It's no wonder that a newly arrived factory leader once said to the young choreographers: "You go and ask Director Yan Jizhou, why his films have a high sales rate and never lose money!"
He Long's "Soldiers"
Yan Jizhou is He Long's soldier, and he is a literary soldier who is very close to He Long. In the late autumn of 1939, the instructor of the Combat Drama Society, led a yellow horse, and transferred the young and talented Yan Jizhou from the Art Troupe of the second branch of the Anti-Japanese University to be a drama instructor of the "Combat Drama Club". When passing by He Long's residence, He Long saw that Yan Jizhou was thinly dressed, and immediately gave him a captured Japanese yellow tweed army coat. At that time, the monthly allowance of the head of the military region was only 5 yuan, while the monthly allowance for these teachers was 8 yuan; Ouyang Shanzun was already very famous, and it was only 12 yuan a month. After a few months, they unanimously reported to He Long: "We are all members of the Communist Party, and we cannot enjoy this special treatment." "It will automatically be reduced to the level of ordinary cadres, 2 yuan per month. Once, Yan Jizhou played Zhou Puyuan in "Thunderstorm" directed by Cheng Yin. On that day, with a bright gas lamp, he performed for more than 3,000 audiences in the square, and He Long also watched below. After dark, the northwest wind blew, Zhou Puyuan lit a cigar cigarette, and struck a few matches to blow it out. Yan Jizhou was "in a hurry", so he ordered three "table lamps" of "foreign wax" and went to smoke. He Long's thick Hunan voice suddenly sounded in the audience: "Hey! Yan Jizhou, it's not right, it's an electric light!" The audience burst into laughter. In the summer of 1949, the "Combat Drama Society" brought the opera "Heroine Liu Hulan" written by Yan Jizhou to Beiping to perform for the first Cultural Congress, which caused a sensation and was full of people. He Long was very happy, invited everyone to a meal, and equipped the "Battle Drama Club" with musical instruments, costumes, stage equipment, etc. With the consent of the mayor of Beiping, 400 trainees were enrolled. Soon after the troupe returned to the northwest, He Long's Yiye troops were going to march to the southwest, and Yan Jizhou was going to break up with his girlfriend Wang Ronghua temporarily, and their marriage problems had not yet been resolved. He thought about it and wrote a report to He Long asking for approval of their engagement, which was forwarded by Vice President Dong Xiaowu. After reading it, He Long said, "Meet, Yan Jizhou is getting engaged." How's this woman? Is she politically reliable?" Dong Xiaowu replied: "Reliable." No problem. It's a schoolgirl. He Long picked up the red pencil and wrote two big characters on the report for approval.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, He Long was transferred from the post of commander of the Southwest Military Region to Beijing, where he served as vice premier of the State Council and was also in charge of military work. He brought a group of literary and artistic soldiers who had followed him for many years during the war years to Beijing. Yan Jizhou followed Chen Bo, the old president of the "Battle Drama Society", to Bayi Factory.
After the "Cultural Revolution" began, Jiang Qing often instructed Bayi Factory to "grasp the revolution and promote production". Yan Jizhou, known as "He Longan's black minion in Bayi Factory," repeatedly named him, slandered him as a "bad person" and a "counterrevolutionary," and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. It was not until Li Desheng was transferred to the post of director of the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army that he examined Yan Jizhou's case and found no evidence of the crime. Li Desheng took the risk and shelved this open-mouthed "sentence" until later, and then "liberated" himself.