Part of the poster for the Hong Kong version of the movie "Railway Guerrilla" (1956).
At the turn of the spring and summer of 1955, after the relevant leaders decided to study, Lu Xun's most representative short story "Blessing" (1956) was adapted into a movie, and released in October of the following year to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Lu Xun's death.
Xia Yan (1900-1995) took only 10 days to complete the script of "Blessings" in one go, and first handed over to the original film that was scheduled to shoot the film.
The film attaches great importance to this, and deliberately selects the sang arc that is good at shooting sad and happy social films and is known for its delicate, easy, subtle and timeless techniques according to the characteristics of the film's theme and artistic style.
The movie "Blessing" (1956) character photo - poplar
Just as Sang Arc (1916-2004) set out to find a shooting location in the eastern mountains of Zhejiang, the instructions for the shooting task of "Blessing" to be transferred from Shangying to Beiying came.
Originally, led by Wang Yang, director of the North Film Studio, the film internship group in the Soviet Union returned to prepare for the film, because the main study was the shooting and production of color films, it was decided to shoot as the first color feature film in China as the construction of the North Film Factory, and "Blessing" was selected with the consent of Xia Yan.
Considering that the construction time of the North Film Factory is not long and needs support, and the equipment, technology and other conditions are better than that of Shangying, the Film Bureau approved and agreed, and Shangying had to give up the plan to shoot "Blessing", which had made a lot of preparations.
From left: Qin Yi, Bai Yang, Shangguan Yunzhu, Zhang Ruifang
At this time, it is natural for the North Film Studio to have its own ideas, but it is even more obvious that some "insights" are shown in the corner of Xianglin Sister-in-law.
At first, The North Film side did not recognize the role-playing candidate originally proposed by The Film, but decided to re-expand the scope of selection, and adopted a rather "harsh" test shot method, and all the proposed actors had to enter the studio to try out several of the most important scenes.
Beiying let 7 very good actresses come to audition, some were eliminated due to insufficient acting skills, some were lost due to lack of experience, and finally only Bai Yang (1920-1996) and Qin Yi were left.
Images of Qin Yi and Cao Huiqu in the colored version of the film Railway Guerrilla (1956).
As a result, Beiying itself has nothing to say, a large number of audition films are presented in front of them, and Jiangnan women cannot have a "revolutionary temperament".
And the acting skills of the two are inseparable. In the end, because Qin Yi's appearance was too beautiful on the screen, slightly inferior to the sadness displayed by Bai Yang, it gave way to Bai Yang. As a result, Poplar became the Xianglin sister-in-law in "Blessings".
As the first batch of film treasures of the town factory actresses Bai Yang, Wang Danfeng (1924-2018), Shangguan Yunzhu (1920-1968), Qin Yi and Zhang Ruifang (1918-2012), in the face of the era of rigid creation and declining film production, and there are fewer monks and more porridge, the leaders also advocate the cultivation of more young actors, they also have to go around looking for dramas.
Stills from the movie "Nurse's Diary" (1957) - Wang Danfeng changed his image, exchanged obedience for trust, escaped disaster, and also made some works
Shangguan Yunzhu was in the "idle" stage after filming "South Island Storm" (1955) in 1954, and it was not until the end of 1956 that he was arranged to shoot "Long Friendship deep" (1957).
Zhang Ruifang and Jin Yan (1910-1983) after filming "Mother" (1956) in 1955, they were also light without drama, basically going to the radio station to do programs or go to the factory mine to experience life. It took more than a year before he was placed on the crew of Home (1957).
After Wang Danfeng returned, while striving to complete the task of "creating people", he could only occasionally perform dramas, and then follow the troupe to the mountains and the countryside to participate in social activities.
Image of Feng Zhe and Zhong Xinghuo (right) in the film Railway Guerrilla (1956).
Bai Yang did not say anything on his lips, but his heart was anxious, and the film crew of "Blessing" was officially established, and it was Already April 1956, and Bai Yang followed the brigade of Sang Arc to Zhejiang to shoot.
Qin Yi has been "unemployed" at home for 5 years since he finished filming "Two Springs" (1951) at the end of 1950! Until after returning from the audition of "Blessing", I received the arrangement of filming "Railway Guerrilla" (1956) from the unrelated Xianglin sister-in-law to the revolutionary Fanglin sister-in-law, after which the factory would always give priority to her in the transportation of resources, such as "Red Seed" (1958), "Women's Basketball No. 5" (1958), "Lin Zexu" (1959), "Maya Dai" (1961) and other films.
The main creators of the movie "Railway Guerrilla" (1956) met again more than 30 years later, from left: Feng Qi, Qin Yi, Zhao Ming, Zhong Xinghuo, Feng Xiao
After the novel "Railway Guerrilla" came out, it was immediately popular, and the call for adaptation into a movie followed, and Shangying complied with public opinion and included it in the filming plan.
At this time, the long film "Guerrilla on the Plains" (1955) made a sensational effect, and many readers who loved "Railway Guerrilla" were eagerly awaiting the filming of the film, and they asked and suggested in various ways, and the degree of enthusiasm for its attention was really rare.
Qin Yi's image in the colored version of the film Railway Guerrilla (1956).
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Shangying has always been relatively weak in terms of revolutionary themes, and in 1955, in addition to producing films such as "Tianxian Match" and "Song Jingshi", which they were good at shooting, they also launched films that closely followed the "red route" such as "South Island Wind and Cloud", "Tianluodi Network", "Spring in water towns", etc., but compared with "Dong Cunrui", "Plain Guerrilla", "Nu Hai Light Horse" and other films produced by other factories in the same year, it was a bit "inadequate".
Shangying decided to directly adapt the script by the original author Liu Zhixia (1918-1991), a "layman", and at the same time let Zhao Ming (1915-1999), who had been determined to be the director of "Railway Guerrilla", intervene in advance and participate in the adaptation work.
Liu Jinshan (left), one of Liu Hong's archetypes in the novel "Railway Guerrilla", and Liu Zhixia (right), the author of the novel, take a group photo
Zhao Ming and Yan Gong (1914-2010) co-directed "Sanmao Wandering" (1949), and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, independent directors "Unite to Tomorrow" (1951) and "Three Years" (1954) - these two works are somewhat different from the overall style of Shangying at that time, and "Railway Guerrilla" is the third work independently directed by Zhao Ming.
Zhao Ming helped Liu Zhixia a lot and played a leading role in the first "electrocution", but there was also a lot of debate between the two.
The main creators of the movie "Railway Guerrilla" (1956) took a group photo on location
Zhao Ming, starting from the length of the film can not include the entire content of the original novel, must highlight the most important things, suggesting that the author omit or merge some minor characters and plots, for the original author Liu Zhixia, this kind of abandonment is after all an unspeakable pain. The first few drafts of the adaptation, he believes have been deleted a lot, and can not be simplified anymore.
So Zhao Ming took it and made some more deletions. The length of the finalized film literary script was only one-tenth of that of the novel, and the actual film was compressed, and it was screened in only 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Cao Huiqu's image in the film Railway Guerrilla (1956) – the 26-year-old and the 34-year-old Qin Yi
After intense preparations, the film was quickly put into filming, and the choice of actors was quite painstaking, playing Liu Hong as Cao Huiqu (1930-2018), a specially invited actor from the Guangzhou Military Region Soldier Drama Troupe, and Political Commissar Li Zhengze starring The actor Feng Zhe (1921-1969).
At that time, director Zhao Ming was looking for a candidate to star in "Railway Guerrilla", and after seeing Cao Huiqu in Beijing, director Zhao Ming felt that he combined the temperament of workers and soldiers, which was very in line with the role characteristics of Captain Liu Hong in the film.
Feng Zhe's images from the colored version of the film Railway Guerrilla (1956).
So Zhao Ming suggested that Cao Huiqu go to Shanghai to audition. You should know that there were hundreds of people who participated in the audition for this role at that time, but Cao Huiqu's temperament was most consistent with Captain Liu Hong, and the director said that he was simply a realistic live-action version of Captain Liu Hong.
In this way, Cao Huiqu and Feng Zhe were the first two actors to be determined, one of them was athletic and heroic, quite a military cadre temperament, one was thin and lean, with intellectual characteristics, from the appearance to the inside are very close, "wen and wu" complementary quite matched.
Images described in the film Railway Guerrilla (1956).
Other backbone members of the guerrilla group, such as Wang Qiang, Xiao Po, Peng Liang, and Lu Han, were played by Feng Qi (1924-2015), Feng Xiao (1932-1998), Zhong Xinghuo (1924-2014), Deng Nan (1916-1968), etc. The only heroine in the play, Fang Lin, naturally gave Qin Yi, and the sinister and vicious Japanese Kou special agent Gangcun found a statement (1920-2006) that came to the fore in the villain performance.
Some people thought that Feng Zhe, Feng Qi and Feng Xiao were the same as the "three brothers in the Shanghai film industry" Li Wei (1919-2005), Li Nong (1924-2018), and Li Zhiyu, who were three brothers, but in fact, they were not.
Images of Cheng Zhi and Feng Qi (right) in the film Railway Guerrilla (1956).
They are not brothers, let alone blood relations, they were born in Tianjin, Beijing, Shandong, many people mistakenly think that the three are brothers, but their surnames are misleading.
On July 5, 1956, the film officially began, and after shooting the interior scenes of the four halls in the studio of Shangying, the film crew moved to Wuxi Taihu Lake on July 21 to enter the location shooting.
It is the height of summer, it is very hot, and most of the scenes to be filmed are winter scenes, sweating and having to wear thick clothes, the temperature outside has reached 35 ° C, tens of thousands of light mercury lamps in the studio are illuminated, and the temperature is as high as 38 ° C.
Images from the film Railway Guerrilla (1956).
The actors auditioned the scene over and over again, often when a shot was officially filmed, the whole body was like crawling out of the water, the face was full of sweat, and the makeup staff had to quickly take the hand towel and gauze to help absorb the sweat.
According to records, whenever the enemy situation is serious, the railway guerrillas even use the fields as bedding, and in the spring, summer, and autumn, there are grass seedlings as green yarn tents to cover, and the only way to choose to sleep in the lotus pond or snow nest by the lake during the winter snow season is the only choice.
Feng Xiao's image in the film Railway Guerrilla (1956).
The actual shooting scene is that in the sweltering heat, Fang Lin's sister-in-law is wearing a cotton jacket and playing a sentry at the entrance of the village, lightly climbing over the courtyard wall, fighting with the enemy... Black and white films can only capture the brightness of the sun, but they can't see the hot colors of the sun. At the shooting scene, a horse fell down from heat stroke, and Teacher Qin Yi got up full of prickly heat.
At this time, it happened that the famous Japanese movie star Nobuko Otowa (1924-1994) came to visit China, and the factory instructed Qin Yi to return to Shanghai to come forward to receive him. The weather was too hot, Qin Yi wore a low-necked dress, revealing a ring of prickly heat around her neck, and when they met, Otowa Shinko always stared there.
Qin Yi's image in the film Railway Guerrilla (1956).
Qin Yi saw her doubts and explained, "I was shooting winter scenes in the summer, and I had prickly heat around my neck. Otowa Nobuko still shook her head and sighed, "Why were you tortured like this?" Qin Yi replied: "Nothing, this is the need of filming." ”
The red spots on her neck made Nobuko Otowa exclaim at the harsh shooting conditions. Twenty years later, the two reunite in Japan, and Otowa Nobuko still quips about whether she is still with Prickly Heat.
Character photo of the movie "Railway Guerrilla" (1956) - Cao Huiqu
At that time, because of the shortage of national materials, film film has always needed to be reported for special approval. Cao Huiqu once recalled when filming "Railway Guerrilla": "At that time, the script of "Railway Guerrilla" had been reported, and it was originally necessary to shoot two episodes because of the needs of the plot, but because the number of films was limited, it could only be compressed into one episode, and some of the remaining films had to be left for another rural film. For this reason, the actors especially cherish the shooting opportunity, everyone tries to brew up good emotions, strive for a pass, and occasionally there is an unsuccessful one, and the actors will even slap themselves in the face painfully. ”
Images of Qin Yi and Cao Huiqu in the movie Railway Guerrilla (1956) – Cao Huiqu, who was 26 years old at the time, and Qin Yi, who was 34 years old
Liu Hong, played by Cao Huiqu, is also a big brother who can drink from a large bowl and make the table shake. His one-handed train climbing skill in the film is now "the biggest selling point of the film".
At that time, the comrades of the Railway Bureau acted as stand-ins, and the back shadow naturally appeared to be skilled. Turning to a frontal close-up, it is the real body of our climbing hero.
Cao Huiqu's image in the film Railway Guerrilla (1956).
Cao Huiqu, who is not tall, rides a tall horse in the film, and this well-trained "military horse" has formed its own set of codes of conduct through the tuning of the soldiers, and it is necessary to go and walk, and it is like installing an automatic controller.
However, after all, the horse had not yet cultivated to the realm of facing the train and the road photo was unchanged. In order to seek "surprise", the director asked the horse's tail to pass by the train in a split second, but this intimate contact made the horse almost "dangerous".
Stills from the movie "Railway Guerrilla" (1956), in the era when there were no stunts, these scenes were real shots, which can be described as dangerous
The train howled breathlessly, and within two seconds, the horse suddenly stopped, the rider stunned, the overwhelmed staff covered their faces with their hands, and the camera continued to run. Two seconds later, everyone was there, and cheers were heard up and down the screen.
Sister-in-law Fang Lin, who was pulling the child alone, did not go with the guerrillas to climb the train and blow up the bridge, but as an outsider, she also used a grenade to beat the gangcun head rat.
Stills from the movie "Railway Guerrilla" (1956), Qin Yi and Cao Huiqu
The last action of smashing his heel made Qin Yi, who was called "sister-in-law" inside and outside the play, think a lot. Blocked, pulled out the grenade pinned to his waist, tore it, gangcun skimmed his clothes and escaped, a shot.
In this one-shot shot, Qin Yi's eyes have been staring at the heel of the teacher who plays Gangcun, but only the back of Fang Lin's sister-in-law in the shot, otherwise I am afraid that there will be a suspicion of wearing a gang.
Images of Cao Huiqu and Qin Yi in the film Railway Guerrilla (1956).
In "Railway Guerrilla", when Liu Hong and Fang Lin's sister-in-law had feelings, director Zhao Ming wanted to shoot a more intimate shot.
In the script, Fang Lin sister-in-law stood up and opened the door, leaned against the door, indicating that her feelings were very excited, and asked Liu Hong to put her hand on Fang Lin's shoulder and support her shoulder.
But Cao Huiqu just put his hand on it, and director Zhao Ming said no, not like that.
No matter how many times it was filmed, this emotional scene of Cao Huiqu was always not passed, and Feng Zhe, who played the political commissar next to him, looked at the "wood" of Cao Huiqu and was also anxious, personally demonstrating to Cao Huiqu, but it was still not ok when the machine was turned on.
Cao Huiqu later recalled with a smile: "I also feel very sorry, maybe because I was too young at that time, and I had no experience in marriage, I was also younger than Qin Yi, and I really couldn't let go of such a big beautiful woman."
Stills from the movie "Railway Guerrilla" (1956), Cao Huiqu and Qin Yi
But Qin Yi has always felt that the best thing he has played in the movie is the love scene. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of the times, when the final film was released, two well-filmed love scenes were also forced to be reduced.
When the "Railway Guerrilla" filmed by Shanghai Film Studio at the end of 1956 was screened in the first round in Shanghai, the attendance rate hit a new high and caused a sensation throughout the country.
The film recreates the heroic deeds of an armed force secretly composed of Lunan coal mines and railway workers who tactfully fought against the Japanese along the railway.
In addition to this political correctness, it really allowed Shangying to successfully cross the "dangerous situation" and pass the "pass" under the "mixing" of Lan Ping. Until the release of "Lin Zexu" (1959) and Nie Er (1959), the products of "Wang Fried" (1911-1969) and Zhao Dan (1915-1980).
Poster of the Chinese content version of the movie "Railway Guerrilla" (1956).
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