Every holiday, others always run to the beach, the author always prefers the desert, presumably because of the complex left by watching movies when I was a child.
The two most memorable films about the desert are "Mirage" starring Yu Rongguang, which tells me how cruel the desert is.
The other is the epic film "Dunhuang", which in addition to letting the author feel the depth of the desert, there is also a strange feeling, how the style of this movie is a little strange.
When I grew up, I learned that "Dunhuang" was originally co-produced by China and Japan, from the original author, screenwriter, director to actor, almost all of them are Japanese, which is a work of Japanese history.
Moreover, it is surprising that the domestic dubbed version of the film is actually about 40 minutes less than the Japanese original, accounting for nearly one-third of the entire film.
This article will review this classic epic movie "Dunhuang" from several aspects.
First, the shooting background of "Dunhuang", the bubble economy lucky
On December 13 of the second year of Weishi Jingyou, the capital of the Great Song Dynasty Tan Prefecture raised a man, Zhao Xingde, to the west of the river, suitable for Shazhou. Now that the thieves were covering up and the land was disturbed, the monks of Dayun Monastery moved the Bible to the Mogao Caves, and hid them in the walls, so they sent their hearts to write a scroll of the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra and placed it in the cave. Wishing the Eight Parts of the Dragon Heaven, the Elders as Protectors, the City God Antai, and the People Kangning; the Second Wish Ganzhou Little Lady, inheriting this good cause, not drowning in the netherworld, the karmic obstacles of the present world, and all are destroyed, blessed and immeasurable, and eternally full of offerings.
This is a passage from the novel "Dunhuang" written by the famous Japanese writer Yasushi Inoue, which is basically a synopsis of the story of the movie and novel "Dunhuang":
The Great Song Dynasty sent Zhao Xingde to Western Xia to investigate, but unfortunately encountered on the road, he was forced to join the Western Xia army, exhausted in order to survive. Later, he was given the opportunity to work in Dunhuang as a copyist and protector of ancient scrolls, during which time he had a love story with a "little lady of Ganzhou (Uighur princess)".
Many people think that this passage comes from the ancient books collected by the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, but according to the research, Zhao Xingde and the "Little Lady of Ganzhou" are both fictionalized by Jing Inoue, and there is no such person from Hunan in history.
However, some of the history involved in the movie "Dunhuang", such as Li Yuanhao's attack on the Ganzhou Uighurs in the Western Xia, and the occupation of the rebel army are real.
The novel Dunhuang was written in the early 1960s, and by the end of the 1970s, it was being targeted by many film and television companies and producers.
After a complicated copyright contest and two changes of directors, Dunhuang was decided to be directed by junya Sato, a famous director who has made films such as "The Hunt", starring Hiroshi Sato (as Cho Xingde), Nishida Toshiyuki (as Zhu Wangli), Tsunehiko Watanase (as Lee Won-ho) and newcomer Annai Nakagawa (as Princess Uighur).
Among them, the actor who is more familiar to domestic audiences should be Toshiyuki Nishida, who was once the actor of the Eight Commandments of pigs in the Japanese "Journey to the West".
"Dunhuang" is co-produced by China and Japan, and it is also to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan. However, it is said that it is a Sino-Japanese co-production, the film Chinese mainland very few actors, most of the staff and actors are sent by Japan, the Chinese side mainly provides locations and mass actors and other assistance, of which several large-scale desert cavalry battle scenes in the film are taken care of by the PLA cavalry unit, and the light cavalry has dispatched more than eight hundred.
The filming of "Dunhuang" just caught up with the era of Japan's bubble economy, so the Japanese side was very generous in spending money, the total investment of the film is said to have reached 4.5 billion yen, some people once estimated according to the 1987 exchange rate equivalent to about 100 million yuan, in that era can be called a super investment, to know that the same period of "Journey to the West" filmed for 6 years and 25 episodes to spend 6 million yuan.
The film investment included the construction of an ancient dunhuang city worth more than 20 million yuan, and the Japanese originally planned to burn down the ancient city of Dunhuang at the end of the film according to the script, but at the insistence of the Chinese side, the shot only burned a wooden shelf, and the ancient city has now become a scenic spot and film and television base.
Although the investment is huge, "Dunhuang" has also brought super revenue, it won the Japanese box office in 1988, with a total box office of 8.2 billion yen, and also won ten "Japanese Oscars" awards in art, which can be described as a double commercial and artistic harvest.
Filming and release were made during Japan's bubble economy, and Dunhuang was a lucky film.
Second, the three major points of "Dunhuang"
1. Ancient meaning
It is true that the Japanese filmed "Dunhuang", although they strive to restore the style of the Northern Song Dynasty in detail, their production is also
Very sophisticated, but still caught by many domestic audiences a lot of wear.
However, whether it is the historical details of the dress or the imprecise of the emperor's costumes, this is actually not an important issue, because although the theme of "Dunhuang" is a historical film in costumes, its central idea is to shoot a kind of "ancient meaning", so that the audience can enter the ancient atmosphere and feel the thickness of history in this atmosphere.
It should be said that "Dunhuang" has indeed reached a very high height of historical films, and many people on the Internet have commented that it is the best historical film in China, calling it an epic film is no problem, compared to many costume films filmed in China, it is obviously too modern in atmosphere.
2. War
I believe that many viewers will be impressed by several cavalry battles in "Dunhuang", especially the battle of Ganzhou, which has a high technical content.
In this scene, the Western Xia army and the opponent Ganzhou Uighur army show their magic in formation, type, tactics, and equipment.
We can see that the suppression of the cavalry by crossbow arrows, the way the infantry phalanx meets the cavalry, the power of the stone thrower and other equipment, and the thunderous "iron harrier" and "serial horse", in addition, Li Yuanhao's superb command art is also breathtaking, coupled with the surging drum beat, the whole picture is like a battlefield reproduction.
The Battle of Ganzhou can almost become a benchmark in the history of Chinese cinema, and in the author's opinion, its technical content is no less than that of Hollywood classic blockbusters such as "Gladiator" and "Braveheart".
There is also a wonderful passage about the war, that is, Zhu Wangli led a small number of cavalry at the end of the film to repeatedly attack the Western Xia army to kill Li Yuanhao, and was killed after three failures.
This plot should be based on the history of the famous Warrior Sanada Yukimura in the Sengoku period who killed Tokugawa Ieyasu, who is also known as the "First Soldier of Japan", which may be a special plot for the Japanese filmmakers to please japanese audiences, and also conforms to the brave and fearless character of Zhu Wangli in the film.
3. Civilization
If you only look at the war, "Dunhuang" is good enough, but the soul of the film is actually civilization.
There are many plots in the film that revolve around words, names, languages, books, paintings, and history about the imprint of civilization:
Zhao Xingde's purpose in going to Western Xia was to learn Western Xia characters and understand Western Xia culture, so that he would not fail again in the temple examination in the future.
The first Western Xia woman he met gave him a pass to write in Western Xia script.
After Zhao Xingde was forced to join Zhu Wangli's mercenary army, he wrote his name on his clothes, unwilling to be a nameless dead man, and the soldiers of Zhu Wangli's department who could not write, including Zhu Wangli himself, begged him to write his name on his clothes as well.
Zhao Xingde learned the Western Xia script in the Western Xia system and compiled the Western Xia dictionary.
After coming to Dunhuang, Zhao Xingde devoted himself to the copying and protection of the ancient scrolls, sealing the scrolls into the Mogao Grottoes on the eve of the destruction of Dunhuang City, and he told Zhu Wangli that this was a valuable thing he was willing to sacrifice his life to do.
The film was evaluated by some netizens as the most valuable clip, which is a scene in which Li Yuanhao gives orders to the soldiers of all ethnic groups under his command, Li Yuanhao speaks the tested Western Xia language of the Eight Classics of Zheng'er on the stage, and then the translation is conveyed to the soldiers of all nationalities who do not understand the language. It is said that this is the first time that the Western Xia language appears in the film, and the historical and civilization inheritance is of great significance.
It can be said that if "Dunhuang" only has the love of Zhao Xingde and the Uighur princess, as well as high-tech war scenes, then the epic meaning of the film will be greatly reduced, and it is precisely because the film incorporates a lot of elements about civilization that this film is better than commercial historical blockbusters such as "Braveheart" in the historical sense.
However, the fate of the film being cut when it was released in China seems to be related to these civilized scenes.
Third, the reason behind the deletion of 40 minutes
The version of Dunhuang is 143 minutes long in Japan and 99 minutes in China.
At first, I was skeptical of my own eyes, after all, a movie cut by 40 minutes, close to a third of the plot is also too incredible.
Later, the author checked the professional platforms at home and abroad, and found that this is indeed the case, showing that they are all 99 minutes long, so what is the forty minute plot that was deleted?
Because the memory of watching the dubbed version of the Chinese before has been blurred, the author is not sure which parts have been deleted, and later found a 143-minute long Chinese dubbing version on the Internet, and found that there are some Japanese original sound clips mixed in the Chinese dubbing, technically speaking, this part of the Japanese fragment mixed in the Chinese dubbing is estimated to be the deleted part.
The author re-watched "Dunhuang" and came to the conclusion that most of these deleted clips are cutscenes or dragon sets of little significance, which have little impact on the main line of the plot.
However, there are two segments of dialogue in the middle that are more conspicuous, and one of them is also recognized by netizens as one of the deleted segments.
At the end of the film, Zhao Xingde and Zhu Wangli have a conversation on the city wall the night before the city is destroyed, and Zhu Wangli asks Zhao Xingde to erect an inscription for him.
Another clip that netizens recognize should be deleted is Li Yuanhao's dialogue with Zhao Xingde at the Xixia Wenguan.
Realistically speaking, whether this line is for Japanese audiences or Chinese audiences, it is estimated that everyone can read the deep meaning of it, so it is understandable that the clip was deleted when it was released in China.
Of course, the flaws are not hidden, the epic film "Dunhuang", although it is a work of more than thirty years, its influence is very huge, not only triggering the popularity of Dunhuang research in Japan, but also setting a benchmark and example for domestic costume history film and television dramas.
Finally, re-watching "Dunhuang", the most sentimental plot for the author is not the death of the Uighur Princess, not the grandeur of Zhu Wangli, not the fate of Zhao Xingde, nor the tragic experience of the Mogao Grottoes.
Instead, Li Yuanhao said this line to Zhu Wangli, who rushed to him in the distance: It is not you who can leave a name in history.
END