After "Flowers", Hu Ge came out again
Documentary "Why China",
Douban 5,000 people scored a high score of 9.2,
This documentary about 5,000 years of national treasures,
There are more than 100 top luxury archaeological experts sitting in the array,
attracted Hu Ge, Huang Yao, Cao Lei, Wu Qian, etc
Powerful actors are assisted by zero pay,
It is Hu Ge's second work after "Flowers".
A comment said: "I have studied history for 30 years,
I didn't see anything wrong. ”
"The details of this film are so good,
Even the texture of the clothing and the utensils used in daily life are restored 1:1!"
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Hu Ge plays Si Fuhong, a grassroots official in the Han Dynasty
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Because of "The Awakening Age", Cao Lei, who played Lu Xun's fire,
plays the son of a politician in the Spring and Autumn Period in the film
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Wu Qian plays the role of a good general
One visited the chief director Gan Chao in Shanghai,
He said: "Archaeologists are honest scholars.
Let's make a film honestly,
Never go to any laziness,
Definitely not take any shortcuts. ”
Statement: Dry super
Editor: Liu Yameng
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The film restores the birth of the Sanxingdui Golden Mask
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Cinematic-grade cinematography
"Why China" is a slow-burning good film, hiding countless god-level details.
Qin Ling, an associate professor at Peking University's School of Archaeology and Museums, said: "Every detail of the service in the filming of the film can become the topic of a short essay in archaeology. ”
The art team has worked on films such as "Burst Silent" and "Moses on the Plains", for which they have a large team of props and sets. The costume group restored more than 2,000 sets of modeling costumes from the Paleolithic Age to the Qin and Han dynasties, and made more than 1,255 pieces of jewelry.
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Xuzhou Beidong Mountain West Han Chu Tomb terracotta figurines
Hu Ge plays Si Fuhong, whose appearance (including the mustache) is based on the image of the terracotta figurines of the Western Han and Chu Tombs in Beidong, Xuzhou. A "Little Red Riding Hood" on its head, its shape, texture and color, the team honed it for weeks.
The objects used by Hu Ge, including brushes, grinding stones, calligraphy knives, hanging spring and Han Jian, shoes and socks, and even hanging small seals, can be found in archaeological relics and images, which can be restored one by one.
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General Meng Tian in "Why China".
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A pottery horse unearthed from the terracotta warriors and horses pit of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang
There is a thin layer of mat "soft saddle"
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General Meng Tian's "rabbit crown" in the film
It is also modeled after the unearthed cultural relics
They pick out the details, pick them out "on horseback".
Executive director Wei Guoge said that once the actor who played Meng Tian, Mr. He Gang, fell off the horse, "fortunately, the ground was full of thick sand, and the actor was not injured." It's not that the horse is not well-behaved, nor is it that the actor is not good at riding, the main reason is that there is no stirrup and Takahashi saddle to maintain body balance.
"The stirrup appeared and matured during the Wei and Jin dynasties, and the wooden high bridge saddle did not gradually replace the soft saddle until the Wei and Jin dynasties. Therefore, stirrups and saddles did not appear in the first season of "Why China". So every horseback riding scene is extremely tense. ”
For the ancient society 8,000 or 5,000 years ago, there are no books and paintings that have been handed down to the present for reference, so the team can only go to archaeological sites across the country to consult experts and restore the food, clothing, housing and transportation of the primitive society.
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Turquoise dragon-shaped ware unearthed in Erlitou
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Erlitou Shenwu, accessories refer to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Photographs of the excavation of the tomb in the "Erlitou Archaeological Report Atlas".
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The remains of two clogs unearthed from the Cihu site are reproduced in the film
It is the earliest remains of clogs seen in China
Erlitou Shenwu held a turquoise dragon-shaped vessel in his hand, and the crew used nearly 2,000 pieces of turquoise with a diameter of two to nine millimeters spliced together.
The clogs of the Liangzhu people 4,900 years ago are based on the remains of two clogs unearthed from the Cihu site.
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A portrait of a lecture in the Sichuan Museum
The scene of Taixue lecturing in the Han Dynasty in the film refers to the patterns on the portrait bricks of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Above the lecturer, a strange thing hangs. This is because there was no ceiling in the Han Dynasty, and in order to prevent the dust on the beams from getting on the clothes, a "dust-bearing" hung on the top.
There are countless details like this in the film. This stems from the "ambition" of the "Why China" team - not to use myths and legends such as "Pangu to open the world", but to "restore ancient times" with real cultural relics dug up with a hoe and a hoe.
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Gan Chao visited Mr. Yan Wenming, a leader in the Chinese archaeological field
The lineup of the invited expert group can be called "extravagant", almost all archaeological units in the country participated in the filming and help, and the main writers of the 8 episodes of the text are all scholars in the archaeological field. "Of the 50-minute film, 8 minutes at the end are dedicated to the team of experts."
At the same time, under the premise of professional security, many important cultural relics are separated from the display cabinet and photographed in a combined way, Gan Chao said: "This has never happened before, and it is unlikely to be in the future." ”
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Wu Weihong and Zhang Xiaolei experts arrange jade
For example, at the Lingjiatan site in Hanshan, Anhui Province, the film crew invited archaeologists Wu Weihong and Zhang Xiaolei to "invite out" 300 pieces of jade artifacts from tomb 07M23 from the warehouse, and re-place the burial goods layer by layer according to the scene when the nobles were buried more than 5,000 years ago. Through such archaeological restoration research, the audience in front of the screen can truly feel the way in which the Lingjiatan people constructed the jade ritual system and expressed social order and power status.
Director Gan Chao said: "I used to think that documentaries should be works of art with personality, but now I hope that "Why China" is a heavy archive. ”
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Right: The letters of Hefu and Shock
It is included in the "Bamboo Slips of the Qin Tomb of the Sleeping Tiger" found in Yunmeng County, Hubei Province
It is one of the earliest physical letters in the history of the mainland
In addition to the dignitaries in history, "Why China" also focuses on portraying ordinary people at the grassroots level of society in various eras.
The beginning of the first episode of "Qin and Han" tells the story of two soldiers in the late Warring States period, Heifu and Jing, who wrote two letters home with wooden slips when there was no paper at that time, telling about the tense life in the military camp and the homesickness of relatives separated by relatives.
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Hu Ge plays the role of Si Fuhong
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Huang Yao plays the role of Princess Anxiety
Hu Ge plays Si Fuhong, a "grassroots official" who has served in Hanging Springs for 18 years. Actor Huang Yao, who once won the Best Actress at the Pingyao International Film Festival, played the princess of Anxiety, because she was far away from her hometown with her relatives, her life was full of twists and turns, and she was able to return to her homeland in her later years.
Cao Lei, an actor who once played Lu Xun in "The Awakening Age", played the role of Zichan, encountered obstacles in the reform, and his eyes were full of emotions and thousands of emotions.
"The history we think of is often related to power, wars, and dynastic changes, but in fact, what really supports the thousands of years of human civilization and temperature is those daily lives that rise day and night, and smoke curls up. ”
The following is Gan Chao's self-report.
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Gan Chao and Yi Yi talk about "Why China"
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Sanxingdui cultural relics, combined shooting
We often say that China has a history of 5,000 years of civilization, does the rest of the world see it that way?
The history before the Shang Dynasty is mixed with myths and legends, and some people believe that the Xia Dynasty did not exist at all, and it is doubtful that "five thousand years up and down". Therefore, since the beginning of the Republic of China, there have been both the ancient skepticism represented by Gu Jiegang, and the "archaeological school" from Wang Guowei's "double evidence method" to Li Ji, Fu Sinian, Xia Nai, etc. The academic tradition of using archaeological data to verify and find truth began at that time.
After the efforts of generations of archaeologists in the past 100 years, a lot of excavation results have been accumulated, so that we have the opportunity to respond to this question today. Based on this, "Why China" shows the archaeological achievements of the past century, and also explains the fact that Chinese history has a solid basis and basis, and presents China's million-year human history, 10,000-year cultural history, and 5,000-year civilization history in a panoramic manner.
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40,000 years ago, the pastoral cave people, the life scene restored
In the part of the movie reproduction, we went to 8 places, Jiande in Zhejiang, Yili in Xinjiang, Yulin in Shaanxi, etc., with about 4,000 actors and more than 3,000 props.
Among them, it has received the support of many star artists, such as Hu Ge, Huang Yao, Cao Lei, Wu Qian, etc., all of which are public welfare performances and do not charge fees.
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Hu Ge plays Si Fuhong, a real historical figure
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The unearthed hanging spring placed Han Jian, and the crew made it into a "simple array"
Hu Ge plays a grassroots official named Si Fuhong, who has kept more than 70 records of Han Jian, and many domestic and foreign events related to the Silk Road and Sino-Western transportation are directly or indirectly related to him. This is a small person who is loyal to his duty and has witnessed a lot of history.
In the process of filming, I am often fascinated by good actors.
When Hu Ge was studying this character, he asked if he could give him a piece of cloth? What do we say you want cloth for? He felt that an official who was so loyal to his duty should care about every stroke he wrote, and the wind and sand were strong, and he needed to keep it in a clean state.
So when he performs, before picking up the pen, he wipes his hands with a cloth, which represents a kind of solemnity.
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Cao Lei plays the role of Zichan
Cao Lei played the role of a child, promoting reform in a difficult era, many nobles had opinions about him, and he still insisted on his original intention.
We only have six or seven minutes to show such a large span of character, to find the key nodes of his life, and the emotions are accurate and not too exaggerated.
During this period, Mr. Cao Lei came to me and told me that he felt that acting in a documentary was particularly difficult, because there were no lines and no strong dramatic conflict.
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Huang Yao plays the role of Princess Xie Wu, who is married to Wusun Kingdom in the Western Regions
We asked Huang Yao to play the role of Princess Xie Wu, and specially went to Yili in Xinjiang, because the historical Wusun Kingdom was near here. Just for the costumes to relieve worries and the architectural space of Wusun, there are 4 groups of experts who give us advice.
The theme song was composed by Mr. Luo Dayou, which is really beautiful and meaningful.
When I talked to Mr. Dayou, he felt that our ancestors were closest to nature and to human life itself, and he was very eager to do it.
There are a lot of natural sounds in the arrangement, but there are no lyrics, and he says that no matter who sings, it is a contemporary sign, and he chooses not to sing it because he wants to immerse the audience in the atmosphere of the show's narrative.
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Sanxingdui cultural relics restoration
We spent more than 3 years on the whole production, and many of them were done during the pandemic. It took nearly 500 days to shoot and walked through more than 230 places in China.
Our list of staff members for this time end credits is 12,000 words. In the past, when I was making documentaries, I had a staff list of up to 3 sheets of A4 paper, but this time I wrote 24 sheets of A4 paper.
There are about 100 archaeologists in the expert group, and we may have gathered the best teachers in the field of Chinese archaeology around this program. For example, Professor Yan Wenming, a leading scholar in the field of Chinese archaeology, Professor Zhao Hui and Professor Qin Ling of Peking University, and Professor Li Xinwei of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, etc.
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The crew restored 13,000 years ago
A primitive burial ceremony in Qingtang, Yingde, Guangdong
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Sanxingdui No. 8 pit captures the work of archaeologists
There are moments when I come into contact with these archaeologists that really touch me. For example, a teacher told me that he went to a prehistoric cave to do excavations, and in those days, he had to sleep in the cave at night.
But what if there were rats in the cave? He couldn't sleep himself, so he sat down at the entrance of the cave and lit a fire, looked at the starry sky, and said, "I was thinking about a question, how did our ancients survive such a long night when this night was so hard for me?"
Therefore, what we want to do is not only to photograph cultural relics, but also to restore them as much as possible based on the current archaeology. Even if it took us 2 months to restore an ancient pouring system that only appeared in the film for 5 seconds, it would be valuable.
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The team photographed carbonized rice at the Liangzhu site
Mr. Wang Ningyuan of the Liangzhu site, he has always felt that one of the things we should do as archaeologists is called "experimental archaeology". He posted on Moments that we took 5 seconds to shoot the carbonized rice on his side. I joked that when I went to many ruins, people were afraid of us, saying that if you go, you won't be able to leave.
Like the episode "Yin Shang", let's draw a map of the Shang Dynasty. Where is the song of the court? Where are the sand dunes? It is almost not recorded on paper. We consulted with Mr. Niu Shishan, an archaeological expert in Yinxu, and drew 40 drafts of the map back and forth.
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The oracle bones restored by the crew can successfully emit the sound of "waves".
During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, people burned the tortoiseshell and animal bones and divined according to the hexagrams. We photographed oracle bones, so we went to consult Mr. Tang Jigen, who studied Yinxu, how to get it, he said that he really didn't know, and he didn't succeed.
Our art team went to try, with red-hot carbon strips, burned about 40 pieces of cow shoulder blades, one morning called me, very excited to say, "cracked!", Tang Jigen teacher asked, "Did you hear a pop?", the art team said that they heard this, everyone was very happy.
In the early days, there was a big tripod in Zhengzhou Mall, which was cast by a large furnace system, and we really wanted to restore this thing.
We discussed with the archaeological experts for about two months, and when the design drawings came out, Mr. Yue Zhanwei from Yinxu said that a new Yinxu Museum is being built now, and this furnace system may be put in the museum in the future.
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Restore the scene of Ji Chang's marriage
I think that the talk about bringing cultural relics to life today is not to say that it is made into an idol, made into an ice cream, and a cartoon avatar is done. I think the real "living" is to understand the emotions and stories behind the cultural relics.
You say that for an ordinary person, why should he know people thousands of years ago?
After I finished the film myself, I felt that history does not end because it has passed, and that we live in the continuation of history and use it as a basis to perceive today and the future.
I think the issues we encounter today are the relationship between man and nature, the relationship between man and the world, and the relationship between man and our own heart...... Our ancestors have all encountered and thought, chosen, and created their own paths. Together, these roads have become the roads we walk as Chinese today. Therefore, today we are not alone, when we encounter difficulties, we will think calmly, we will have strong determination, and we will also do new developments.