◎ Zhao Hui
Excellent main theme film and television works usually have profound social reflection significance and historical value, and the light of human nature folded through in their works of art is enough to illuminate the darkness of history and society, giving people upward spiritual strength and the belief of striving to govern. From this point of view, the main theme of the TV series "The Age of Awakening" directed by Zhang Yongxin, and the film "Revolutionary" directed by Guan Hu and supervised by Xu Zhanxiong are all representative works of the new mainstream film and television.
The TV series "The Age of Awakening", represented by Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Cai Yuanpei and other characters, shows the vigorous New Culture Movement in China, the May Fourth Movement and the founding of the Communist Party of China. The film "Revolutionaries" takes Mr. Li Dazhao as the core and tells the revolutionary process of the early leaders of the party in leading groups of enthusiastic young people, benevolent people, and people from all walks of life to join the revolution and establish the Communist Party of China in the process of seeking the revolutionary road.
The creators of these two films seem to have tacit understanding, both taking the important historical event of the New Culture Movement that originated in Peking University as the background of the story, and using poetic images to tell the revolutionary road of China's communist ancestors who sought to save themselves and survive. Zhang Yongxin, director of "The Age of Awakening", gave the film a high evaluation at the premiere of "Revolutionary": "I watched the film intently, because I knew something about Mr. Li Dazhao when I made "The Age of Awakening". I would like to thank the "Revolutionary" crew for telling the details that we did not talk about in the play, such as the piano and the gallows marked 001, which is said to have been hanged by Mr. Dazhao for 30 minutes, and I saw the heartache there beyond words, and I saw the moment of looking back in a trance. ”
It should be said that awakening is the instantaneous state of ideological nirvana, the awakening of culture is not limited by the times, and there are forerunners of foresight in any era, and this awakening of the times must be based on the extraordinary judgment of historical truth and social reality. These revolutions are often accompanied by rebellion and struggle, but they also require the courage to break the old system, the old custom, the old system, these ancestors are the thermometers of the progress of the times. Speaking of Li Dazhao's important contribution, Mr. Lu Xun pointed out that "his last words will live forever, because this is the legacy of the pioneers and a monument in the history of the revolution." As revolutionaries, Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, one south and one north, reflected each other from afar, constituting the most magnificent and lofty chapter of Youth in China at the beginning of the last century.
The vitality of film and television art lies in innovation, and the expression of new mainstream film and television creation is no exception. Young director Xu Zhanxiong said when talking about the creation of "Revolutionary", this film boldly adopts different presentation methods and narrative methods, hoping to make the audience have a refreshing feeling, "Through vivid and three-dimensional character images, the audience can more truly perceive Li Dazhao's great ideals and get emotional resonance." As Li Dazhao's biopic, the movie "Revolutionary" has a unique narrative characteristic.
Taking the 38 hours before Li Dazhao's execution as the time range of the story narrative, the film adopts a non-linear narrative technique, and selects several historical highlight moments from the magnificent historical process from 1912 to 1927: for example, the first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in 1924, the "May Thirtieth" strike in 1925, the "March 18" massacre in 1926, The arrest and imprisonment of Li Dazhao on April 6, 1927, and the heroic inauguration of Li Dazhao on April 28, 1927, these events include Zhang Xueliang, Chiang Kai-shek, and other events. Historical figures such as Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong, Duan Qirui, and Zhao Shulan also include fictional social figures such as Ah Chen and Qingzi. Although they have different classes, different political views, and different positions, they all have a cross-time and space dialogue with Li Dazhao that goes deep into their souls. From their different perspectives, the film restores Li Dazhao's flesh-and-blood image as a revolutionary in multiple dimensions and at multiple levels. This fragmented narrative approach can be seen as a new expansion of the narrative structure of "wearing sugar gourds" favored by mainstream films in recent years, which realizes another innovative expression of its narrative method.
The director uses non-linear montage narrative methods to realize the modern interpretation of Li Dazhao, a revolutionary, by historical figures of the same period. In Zhang Xueliang's eyes, Li Dazhao was a patriot with a pure heart; his love for the street boy Ah Chen, his hatred for the foreigners in the concession, and his benevolent heart forged a solid foundation among the masses of the people; in chiang kai-shek's eyes, Li Dazhao was a dangerous element, he was Sun Yat-sen's guest, a competitor who dared to say", and a key figure in promoting cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party; in Chen Duxiu's eyes, Li Dazhao was a close friend in spirit, a true brother in emotion, and a propagator of Marxism in China. In the eyes of Mao Zedong, Li Dazhao was a Bole and a leader of the revolution; in the eyes of these little people such as Qingzi, he existed like a god, he mingled with the toiling masses at the bottom, his prestige and his political ideas came from the people; in the eyes of his wife Zhao Shulan, he was an admirer worth following all his life, and he was a good father who loved his family and children. Rather than saying that the movie "Revolutionary" is a biographical film of Mr. Li Dazhao, it is better to say that this film is a memorization of Li Dazhao's youth and growth history of Li Dazhao's friends, allies and even enemies.
The creation of new mainstream film and television works is not only manifested in the exploration of narrative methods, but also in the excellence of narrative images. In the movie "Revolutionary", the director uses different techniques such as light and shadow, props, scene scheduling, etc., to express the lofty spiritual world of the revolutionary forerunners. For example, the silhouette light of Mr. Li Dazhao in the prison not only illuminates the darkness, but also represents the ideological light of the cultural awakeners, realizing the aesthetic conception of "going forward and not looking behind, turning back on the darkness and going to the light".
When Li Dazhao was tortured in prison for 22 days, he learned that the revolutionary volunteers were unfortunately killed in the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup, although he was never afraid of sacrifice, but in the face of the withering of his young life, he cried bitterly. He rejects the advice of the forensic doctor Keiko and lives to the death, using his own death to awaken the sleeping Gou. His hand reached out into the distance in the darkness, as if it were a kind of thought leading. This poetic shape also abounds in the TV series "The Age of Awakening". The use of poetic image language in mainstream film and television works seems to pay tribute to the Russian montage master Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin and Pudovkin's "Mother", and to praise the cultural awakeners and social revolutionaries in the torrential changes of the times with poetic images.
In addition, the success of mainstream film and television works depends on the clever combination with commercial narrative. The new mainstream film and television creation actively integrates the popular concepts of commercial films such as "hot blood youth" and "burning cp", and this mainstream narrative actively seeks commercial expression, which does not reduce the artistic character of this type of work, but successfully wins the love of young audiences.
The "hot-blooded youth" in the new mainstream film and television drama is not the recklessness of the domineering president of the sweet pet drama, nor is it the arrogance of the youth idol drama teenager, the hot-blooded youth under the domination of the mainstream narrative is the passionate presentation of the philosophy of life, it is the feeling of "I wish my dear youth, born in youth and died in youth, born in youth and died in youth", is the ideal state of youth of "with youth, to create a family of youth, a country of youth, a nation of youth, a human being of youth, the earth of youth, and the universe of youth". The use of this commercial element goes beyond the consumption of the appearance of the traffic stars in film and television works, it is the soul dialogue of the characters on the real spiritual level, the pious interpretation of the creator's true, good, and beautiful life, and the same frequency resonance of the dramatic characters' belief in communism. For example, the shot of Li Dazhao being hanged, the empty mirrors such as birds and chains with sound and music constitute the empty beauty of audiovisual aesthetics, and a complex interpretation of death – this 26-second clip has 1.5 million likes on Douyin.
The new mainstream film and television works can only have a way out through innovation, and the burning narrative dominated by mainstream values has revolutionized the tone of mainstream discourse, realized the circle-breaking dissemination of such film and television works among young people, and won the double affirmation of society and the market with the real mainstream film and television strength.