The founding fathers of New China were more concerned about the development of the people's film industry. Chairman Mao once suggested that the Shangganling Battle be made into a movie to inspire future generations; the film "Outwitting Huashan" was suggested by Marshal Peng Dehuai and the title was changed by Commander-in-Chief Zhu; and the film "Southern Expedition and Northern War" was suggested by Marshal Chen Yi. and the founding major general Wang Yaonan personally directed the filming of "Tunnel Warfare" and "Mine Warfare".
In the fifties and sixties of the last century, there were three films that had been guided and affirmed by the founding generals Su Yu, Chen Geng, and Luo Ruiqing.
General Su Yu and "Southern Expedition and Northern War"
In 1952, when a team wearing Kuomintang military uniforms and carrying American-style equipment suddenly walked into the Yimeng Mountains of Shandong Province, the old anger of the local people was ignited again, and they picked up stones and sticks and threw them at them. The PLA military staff officers present hurriedly ran over and explained to the old folks: "This is a movie we are making, and this is all playing... ！”
This movie is the first war-themed feature film "Southern Expedition and Northern War" filmed in New China.
Because this is the history of the conquest left by the East China Field Army, the predecessor of Sanye, in Shandong, Marshal Chen Yi and General Su Yu, who commanded Sanye, have always paid close attention to the creation of "Southern Expedition and Northern War" and put forward many important opinions and suggestions.
General Su Yu personally participated in the review and approval of the film's plan for filming military scenes.
At this time, General Su Yu had already entered Beijing and was transferred to work in the General Staff Department. The battle depicted in the movie is an unforgettable experience that he commanded, and he is very familiar with the details of the battle.
In order to objectively and truthfully reproduce that period of history, Su Yu specially invited the film's directors Cheng Yin, Tang Xiaodan and other main creative personnel to come to Beijing for exchanges. In his office, Su Yu spread out a map and explained in detail to the artists the military and political situation on the battlefield in East China at that time.
When talking about the Battle of Laiwu in February 1947, General Su Yu vividly recalled: "This large-scale campaign lasted for 63 hours in total, captured more than 40,000 enemies, plus those killed and wounded, and annihilated more than 50,000 enemies, while our side suffered more than 6,000 casualties, liberating 13 county towns in one fell swoop. The liberated areas of Bohai, Luzhong, and Jiaodong were connected together, and the conspiracy of the Kuomintang army to attack from the north and south was smashed. ”
Su Yu believed that the PLA troops not only fought bravely, but also seized the fighters of the northern front of the Laiwu Campaign in time, quickly moved north, concentrated their forces to solve the Kuomintang 73rd Army and 1 division of the 12th Army, and then quickly went straight to Xintai, quickly took the enemy's 46th Division, and attacked the Jiaoji line. Finally, an ambush was set up north of Laiwu and a pocket-shaped position was arranged, and when the enemy entered the pocket, our army immediately stopped the head and tail and attacked on both wings, annihilating the enemy in the movement war.
Su Yu said: "By concentrating superior forces and annihilating the enemy one by one in a mobile war by means of ambush, we can ensure a quick victory and complete victory in the campaign, so that our army will always be in the initiative position, and this also fully embodies Chairman Mao's military thinking." ”
For some of the questions raised by directors Cheng Yin and Tang Xiaodan, Su Yu explained them in detail one by one. made the crew and directors admire this general who is good at fighting the "fairy battle".
During the exchange of conversations, Su Yu also told them many details of the famous Menglianggu battle. Su Yu said that back then, after learning that our army had annihilated the 74th Division, the ace of the Kuomintang, Chairman Mao asked: "Do you know who did not expect the 74th Division?" People said that Chiang Kai-shek did not expect it. Chairman Mao asked again: "Who else didn't think of it?" Everyone guessed for a long time, but they didn't guess. In the end, Chairman Mao pointed to himself and said, "There is another person who is me." ”
Some of the main creators of the crew thought that they were very familiar with the battle of Meng Lianggu, but after listening to General Su Yu's explanation, they realized that what they knew before was just the epidermis.
It was after listening to General Su Yu's explanation that the arrogant Commander Zhang of the Kuomintang Army designed in the film directly alluded to Zhang Lingfu, the commander of the 74th Division, the ace of the Kuomintang.
Su Yu also made suggestions for some of the filming details in the film "Southern Expedition and Northern War".
The crew originally arranged to blow up the Mihe Bridge, but Su Yu thought that the loss of blowing up the Mihe Bridge was too great, so it was better to change it to blow up the Mihe Dam, which could not only ensure the quality but also reduce the investment. The crew respected the general's suggestion and immediately revised the shooting plan.
With the care and support of Marshal Chen Yi and General Su Yu, the East China Military Region of the People's Liberation Army dispatched a unit that had just returned from the Korean battlefield to assist in the shooting, using real guns and artillery. At first, some commanders and fighters were reluctant to play the role of the "national army," and some even became emotional. The leaders of the army repeatedly taught everyone that this was a political task, and that the purpose of making a film was to expose and accuse the Kuomintang of its crimes. Only then did the soldiers put down their ideological baggage and actively cooperate with the shooting, but they were still "misunderstood" by the Shandong villagers.
In order to shoot the panorama of the battlefield of our army's counteroffensive, the film crew also made a wooden elevator that can swing left and right, and can rise and fall up and down, leaving a good story in film history.
General Chen Geng and "No. 51 Military Station"
The film "No. 51 Military Station" produced by Shanghai Haiyan Film Studio, released in 1961, tells the thrilling story of our underground party transporting military supplies to support the Soviet-Chinese base during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
The film was very popular after its release, and the audience still flocked to it for several months.
At that time, there was even a saying in the society, "Where there are Chinese, there is "No. 51 Military Station", which shows the great influence of this film.
After the production of "No. 51 Military Station" was completed, it was first sent to General Chen Geng for review.
Because General Chen Geng had worked in the Shanghai Central Special Branch in his early years, he was particularly familiar with underground work. General Chen Geng watched the film submitted for review and gave it a high degree of recognition, and felt that it properly restored the work of the underground party back then.
Chen Zhijian, the son of General Chen Geng, was in junior high school at this time, and he did not fully understand his father's glorious experience of underground work, and after watching the movie "No. 51 Military Station", he said to his father: "This movie can really brag, when the Japanese occupation and the White Terror were so powerful, the Communist Party members in the movie could get police cars and disguise themselves as Japanese military police." Make it up... ！”。
Chen Geng listened to his son's words and rebuked him a little angrily: "You know what a fart! We were really like that at that time, we could do whatever we wanted, and we drove all day long." Why don't you believe it?"
Chen Geng saw his son's unconvinced look, sighed, suddenly remembered something, and smiled at his son: "The important personnel of the Kuomintang have our people around them, and later their war chiefs all helped us send intelligence, do you believe it or not?"
Chen Zhijian hesitated, he knew that his father had done underground intelligence work when he was young, maybe he was really that powerful.
Chen Geng looked at his son, patted his head gently, and couldn't help laughing.
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the work of our party's hidden front also involved state secrets, and Chen Geng could not talk about it in detail with his children. In fact, the story described in the movie "No. 51 Military Station" is real, and most of the supplies of the New Fourth Army during the Anti-Japanese War were transported back from under the noses of the enemy, and the story can find a real prototype.
Although General Chen Geng has not served in the New Fourth Army, he is familiar with the story told in the film. His early experience working on the hidden front was even more thrilling than the movies.
Because he was young and didn't know much about history, it is understandable that Chen Zhijian did not believe in the stories in the movie when he was a teenager.
More than 20 years later, Chen Zhijian went to work in Chongqing and served as the deputy commander of the garrison area.
In the cadre retreat under his management, there is an old revolutionary man named Guo Rugui. He once lurked in the enemy camp and served as the director of the War Department of the Kuomintang Ministry of National Defense, and the information he provided played a great role in our army's victories in the Menglianggu Campaign, the Huaihai Campaign, and the River Crossing Campaign.
After Chen Zhijian learned about Guo Rugui's extraordinary experience, he suddenly woke up and knew that the director of the department who provided us with information that his father Chen Geng said back then was Guo Rugui.
Chen Zhijian later said in an interview with the media: "This time I really believed it. When I think back to the training I received from my father because of the evaluation of the movie "No. 51 Military Station" when I was a child, I still feel unforgettable and meaningful. ”
General Luo Ruiqing and "Secret Drawings"
In 1965, the anti-special film "Secret Drawings" produced by Bayi Film Studio was based on a real case and told the thrilling story of our public security officers who caught the secret agents hidden behind the scenes by detecting a case of loss of state secret drawings.
The film is set in Guangzhou in the early sixties of the last century. Li Hua, a researcher at a military research institute, was mentally paralyzed, did not abide by the secrecy system, and went out to a meeting with secret drawings, but unexpectedly lost a briefcase containing secret drawings at a crowded train station. Shi Yun, an experienced female scout, accepts the task of tracking down the secret drawings.
However, it took almost no effort for the briefcase to be found, the money and food stamps were missing, but the secret drawings were intact, and on the face of it, it seemed to be an ordinary theft just for money.
But my public security officers are keenly aware that there is something strange behind it. They tracked down a tall, fat, slightly stuttering man and found microfilm from his pipe where secret drawings were taken.
At the same time, Chen Liang, the husband of public security investigator Shi Yun who works in the security section of the military region, is also secretly carrying out the task of tracking the spy organization deployed by his superiors. Shi Yun deduced that the "No. 23" in the organization was the one who was going to take away the secret drawings. The husband and wife cooperated and the military and police finally cracked the spy organization in one fell swoop, and successfully prevented the state secrets from being lost abroad.
"Secret Drawings" is directed by Hao Guang, Tian Hua plays the role of public security investigator Shi Yun, Wang Xingang plays Shi Yun's husband and Chen Liang, a reconnaissance staff officer of a border defense department, Xing Jitian plays Director Ding of the Public Security Bureau, Li Renlin and Liu Jiyun play the hidden agents Ye Changqian and Gu Zhongru, and Shi Wei plays the female spy Fang Li.
The film, "Secret Drawings" was written, directed, and acted very successfully, and was well received by the audience after its release.
Many people call "Tunnel Warfare", "Mine Warfare", "Southern Expedition and Northern War", and "Secret Drawings" as the "three wars and one secret" of early New China films, and give this film a high status in their hearts.
The line "Who is on fire, fire, fire?" by the stammering spy in the film once became a popular golden sentence talked about by countless audiences.
Actor Tian Hua, who successfully played the role of public security investigator Shi Yun in the film, revealed in his later years that he almost passed by the role of Shi Yun back then.
Tian Hua recalled that she recommended herself to play the role in the film, but Director Hao Guang felt that her eyes were too gentle and she did not have the sharp and fierce energy of the investigators, so she politely refused and chose another actor.
Soon, General Luo Ruiqing, Vice Premier of the State Council, who served as the Minister of Public Security, watched the sample of "Secret Drawings", and he felt that the actress who played Shi Yun in the film was too foreign, not like the public security investigators he had led, but more like a spy. So, Luo Ruiqing suggested to the crew to change the actor who played Shi Yun.
Director Hao Guang thought about it, and finally felt that Tian Hua was actually more in line with the simple and dignified spiritual temperament of the character, so he asked General Luo Ruiqing for advice.
Luo Ruiqing heard that Tian Hua, who played Xi'er in "The White-Haired Girl", waved his hand and told Hao Guang that it was her.
Thank you very much for reading "Spring and Autumn in the Palm of Your Palm", if you like it, you can click "Subscribe" or "Follow". Let's appreciate the anecdotes of history and reminisce about the past... (Disclaimer: The references and pictures in the article are from the Internet)