The TV series "Ah, Cradle" is currently being simulcast on three satellite televisions, and has received praise for its novel theme. In fact, for the post-60s and post-70s, "Ah, Cradle" is not unfamiliar, as early as 1979, Xie Jin's film of the same name was a sensation, inadvertently, "Ah, Cradle" from the movie to the TV series has spanned more than forty years.
In retrospect, Ma Xiaoqing, who debuted as a child star, and Fang Chao, who was 2 years old and "electrocuted", were the most profound impressions that this movie brought to me at that time. However, the era significance of the film "Ah, Cradle" is much more than that. Such a war-themed film completely breaks the inherent pattern of airplanes, bombs, and soldiers, and achieves a classic of emotional narrative, which also lays the foundation for the film style of director Xie Jin: a group of children in Yan'an, braving the rain of bullets and bullets, is transferred, which expresses love, comradeship, mother-child affection, and friendship between children.
I only watched the movie "Ah, Cradle" in 1980, and it was precisely this year that the first domestic TV series "Eighteen Years of enemy camp" was born. The excitement of this TV series presents the audience with a completely different shock from the movie, and the story can be spread out, with more characters and more clues, to tell the audience a thrilling story. More than forty years have passed, and the creation of Chinese TV dramas has long been not the original ten episodes or so, but has flourished to dozens or even hundreds of episodes. "Ah, Cradle" returns to the small screen, can it continue the richness of the film's emotion and expressiveness?
Halfway through the chase, in my opinion, "Ah, Cradle" is remarkable from the actors to the story. The main characters and the movie "Ah, Cradle" basically correspond: an ugly gang who was transferred from the battlefield who "did not want to be a child king", a young nurseryman Tang Susu, a director Shen Yuanhui who had knowledge but was afraid of difficulties, a woman in northern Shaanxi who loved children Ma Wu aunts, several main characters, constituted the main line of the TV series, the orphans of martyrs, the descendants of anti-war soldiers, etc., were handed over to the Yan'an Security Nursery, experienced the "Great War Whooping Cough", "Liu Huabei's Death", "Renamed Los Angeles Nursery", "Enemy Aircraft Bombing", "Secret Agent Counterattack". Fighting to cross the Yellow River," "The Storm of Rice Opera," and "Chinese and Foreign Journalists' Visiting Groups" and other real historical events. It is not difficult to see that these are all things that cannot be fully presented by the movie, and the TV series "Ah, Cradle" uses enough space to enrich this theme.
Ugly Gang's actor Hai Qingyi changed the shape of the urban drama: a worn-out military uniform, a face of wind and sun vicissitudes, a long-term malnutrition caused by scorched yellow shoulder-length hair, and slightly cracked and white lips, and slightly heavy steps... Remember Haiqing at an awards party called for more opportunities for mature actresses, from "Ah, Cradle" out of Haiqing, you can see the love for new roles, no image baggage, from a female warrior to a nurseryman, from the big boss to the serious and responsible "ugly mother" portrayed really, ready to come out, Haiqing this time fully integrated into the role, became the highlight of the whole drama.
In the movie "Ah, Cradle", feelings are the thickest part that Xie Jin wants to express, and the audience at that time still remembers that Uncle Luo listened to the children sing "August 15th Round" at the time of his death in order to protect the children from injury, which has become a classic; and Zhao Yuxia, the sister-in-law of Northern Shaanxi, gave up her son to avoid danger in an emergency in order not to expose the children. These plots are similarly presented in the TV series, and what is more valuable is that the TV series has more fully supplemented the details of the story through interviews with the children in the nursery school that year (Easter eggs at the end of the film).
For example, in the historical presentation of the "Chinese and foreign reporter visiting group", the ugly gang pulled Susu to find a carpenter to build a toilet, the carpenter originally had a secret affection for Susu, and promised to be particularly happy, they tried to draw a bowl to dig a hole in size, this plot is funny and real; when making a shower, the well-informed Director Shen used a clip instead of a switch, showing her wisdom. At the beginning of the TV series, there was a wolf fight scene, using stunts, on the one hand, to show the harsh environment of their living, on the other hand, with the advancement of science and technology, film and television works have a richer means of expression.
More than forty years ago, Xie Jin dared to innovate and used lyricism to achieve the classics of war films, and forty years later, a new generation of literary and art workers passed on the torch, from the level of the role to the polishing of the story, the TV series "Ah, Cradle" has handed over qualified answers.
ZHANG Ying
Source: Qilu Evening News