Wu Jingjing, chief reporter of Mammoth News Oriental Today
What is the Spirit of The Red Flag Canal? Recently, the TV series "Hongqi Canal", which is being broadcast in a prime time on CCTV-1 CCTV, has triggered discussions and hot discussions among netizens about the "spirit of Hongqi Canal". Under the new interpretation of Yu Zhen, An Yuexi, Zeng Li, Jing Le, Xu Guangyu, Ma Dongyan and other powerful actors, many young audiences have personally experienced the power of the hongqiqu spirit of "self-reliance, hard work, unity and cooperation, and selfless dedication". As the director of the show, Kang Ning also talked about the significance of the hongqiqu spirit and the behind-the-scenes story of the birth of the show in an exclusive interview with Mammoth News reporters.
Live-action shooting
Restore the historical truth to the greatest extent, and the "truth" can move people more
Set against the background of the great drought and water shortage in Linxian County, Henan Province in 1959, "Hongqi Canal" tells the story of the protagonist Lin Jie leading the people of Linxian County to fight the heavens and the earth with the spirit of self-reliance, hard work, unity and cooperation, and selfless dedication, and with the tenacity of "yugong moving mountains", fighting hard for ten years, relying only on a hammer, a shovel, and two hands, digging holes in the cliffs of Taihang Mountain, and relying on his hands to build the "Project of Attracting Zhangzhang into the Forest". It praised the lofty purpose of the CPC to serve the people wholeheartedly and the Chinese nation's national spirit of unremitting self-improvement and indomitable self-improvement. The story begins with a fierce conflict between the two villages, which directly shows the current situation of water shortage to the audience. Many young viewers may not be able to imagine the extent of the water shortage at that time, but director Corning introduced that the use of water as a bride price in the play, because of the water and short-sightedness, these plots are based on real historical events. In order to truly show the water shortage situation at that time and restore the history to the greatest extent, the main creative team also visited the local area many times to deeply understand the history of the construction of the Hongqi Canal, and finally reproduced the great story of "creating a precedent and daring to be the first".
Reporter: Did you know about the spirit of the Red Flag Canal before? What preparations were made before the shoot?
Corning: For me personally, the preparation time was very short, because I was preparing for other plays at that time, and after the group adjusted the team, I was temporarily received a "task", but to tell the truth, as soon as I heard that it was the Red Flag Canal, I "rushed up". Because I studied in textbooks when I was a child, I had a deep impression of Hongqiqu, and after reading the script, there were many stories that touched me, so I pushed other plays to this group, and I felt that everything was worth it. In order to understand the real situation and story of the people in Linxian County, I first went to the Hongqiqu Memorial Hall, where I really touched my soul a lot, to move once, and every time I was moved, every time I was moved was different.
Reporter: Which stories touched you and refreshed your previous cognition?
Corning: The first time I went, I felt that the Hongqi Canal was spectacular, the eighth wonder of the world, but the first feeling after I deeply understood it was "not believing", not believing that the Hongqi Canal was chiseled out by the villagers of LinXian County with a hammer and a shovel, and worked for 10 years... How did they do it? This was a big shock to me! The second time I was most impressed was the spirit and will of the people of Linxian County to repair the Red Flag Canal, and their spirit of persistence, diligence and hard struggle touched me, which is the most typical spirit of Chinese, and from them I can feel a continuation and inheritance of the spirit and civilization of the Chinese nation. At that time, I thought that this play has a dry head, and it is worth it to be tired! The third time was when I met an old man who used to repair the canal, and after he knew that we were going to shoot a scene, he said to us very seriously, "You must be able to film the real situation of us at that time." I said "What is the real situation"? He said, "We bring our own dry food and our own tools, we are not afraid of suffering, we are not afraid of getting tired, we are not afraid of losing our lives, no matter how much we suffer and how much we suffer, we must build the Red Flag Canal and bring in water." I could feel the urgency of longing for water in him. Therefore, our whole play begins with water, and also uses water as a support point to tell the whole story.
Reporter: So in the first episode, there is a story of Shi Shuisheng's mother hanging herself because she accidentally broke a can of water, and netizens were very impressed by this story...
Corning: It's based on real events. In fact, this example at that time I think is light. Because I have checked the data, from the first year of the Ming Dynasty, that is, from 1436 to 1949, when New China was founded, there were 514 spring and autumn seasons, more than 100 natural disasters in Linxian County, and more than 30 major droughts. Sometimes there have been years of drought, the rivers have dried up, the crops have not been harvested, and the drought has been recorded and folklore has been severe enough to be "cannibalism". There are many stories like this, we dig out bit by bit, restore it to the greatest extent, present it in a dramatic way, and tell this story at the beginning, which is also to show the preciousness of water to the people of Linxian County, and also to set the tone of hardship and struggle for the whole play.
Reporter: I also said just now that you received a temporary task, the preparation time is short, and what is the most difficult or biggest challenge in this process?
Corning: How do I restore the process of repairing the Hongqi Canal and the consciousness of those people? How to show it most realistically? This is the biggest difficulty in creation. The second biggest problem is "scenery". Hongqi Canal is now completed, a very beautiful scenic spot, where to find a scene similar to the scene before the canal was repaired? Including many of the caves to be used in the main scenes of the play, there is a plot in the play where thirty or so people are blocked into the cave, which is a heavy scene, what to do with this scene? I'm all sad. If it is a scene, one is the time problem, the other is the cost problem, and it will not look like it. But tell you that I am particularly lucky, I just found such a cave during the scenery, and I feel that this is a gift from God to us Hongqiqu people or the spirit of Hongqiqu.
The mountains are better, the city scene can not find the shadow of the year, we Linzhou people's life has undergone earth-shaking changes, so for the county party committee building in the play we are also looking for more than a month, looking at a lot of places, are not satisfied, leaving the machine time is very tight, the result is that when we watched the scene for the second time, we accidentally found a brewery in the 70s, although not the kind of 50s, but there is an old feeling, and then we used it to do the current county party committee building.
Reporter: So, this drama is all live-action shooting?
Kang Ning: Yes, it is also to more realistically restore the life of the People of Linzhou at that time and the scene of repairing canals, like the stone houses in the play are the original appearance preserved in the original 50s and 60s, and there are houses before liberation. You can see that the stove of the house is black and bright, including the excavation site in the play, which is also looking for the place where the original dug canal was found. But it is very difficult to shoot, because the filming location is relatively scattered, the distance is very far, and the farthest drive takes two hours. But the effect is really good, very real. I think my understanding of art is that you can't see that this is drama, just like the state of life, I think this kind of film is the best, and it is also the direction of my efforts. Therefore, after filming the anti-corruption and anti-black trilogy such as "Snow Without a Trace", my own career direction was also adjusted, especially after filming "Migrant Workers of Survival", I especially wanted to shoot some scenes that reflected real life, and "true" could move people more.
Go to the fields to learn farm work
In addition to the powerful actors, there are also locals in the play
After the launch of "Red Flag Canal", it was liked by many audiences, in addition to the strong plot and fast-paced narrative method, the actors' solid and realistic performances were also well received. In addition to Yu Zhen, An Yuexi, Zeng Li, Xu Guangyu, Jing Le and other main actors, this drama also gathered Li Qinqin, Kou Zhenhai, Liao Jingsheng, Du Yuegang and many other powerful actors, who used sincere and delicate acting skills to bring the current audience into the era of "fighting the sky and fighting the earth". Especially in the first episode, the aquatic bride played by Li Qinqin, who stored a jar of water for her son as a dowry, from seeing hope to the despair of the water can being broken, and finally chose to hang herself, the real and infectious performance touched many people, and also interpreted the preciousness of water and the crisis of the situation to the fullest. When it comes to her performance, director Corning is also full of praise, and in order to let the actors better enter the role, he also let the creators experience life in the countryside in advance, and cut wheat in the field to do farm work to learn. In addition, it is worth mentioning that this time, because they were filmed in Linzhou and around Linzhou, many of the extras are Locals in Linzhou. This drama was filmed for four months from September to December 2020, from summer to winter, but all the crew members also stepped on the footprints of their predecessors and presented a sincere work to the audience with sincere respect and sincere attitude.
Reporter: The actors this time are very in line with the role, many familiar actors also have surprises, like Yu Zhen, the actor of the male protagonist Lin Jie in the play, before everyone would think that he was a "hero professional household"...
Corning: He's the actor I strongly asked for. I think he is more like the prototype of the character in the play, Yang Gui, who is the chief designer of Hongqi Canal. They were relatively close in height, and Yang Gui was as thin as Yu Zhen when he was young. In addition, the most important thing is that Yu Zhen himself is a grounded actor, unlike some male actors who are a bit floating after becoming famous, very beautiful, but not enough to live. I think Yang Gui can decide to repair the Hongqi Canal and he can decide to make a decision, and then complete this matter step by step, he has this kind of domineering and boldness, Yu Zhen can perform the temperament of the character.
Reporter: It is said that a lot of local extras were used this time, how did they perform?
Corning: Great, I often say that there are several places in this drama that God gave me, and you can't think about it. Some of these group performances have parents or grandparents who have participated in the construction of the Hongqi Canal, and have the sweat of their ancestors, and they have deep feelings for the Hongqi Canal. They bring you not only the local state of life, but also tell you a lot of subtle things when the canal was repaired, such as the trumpet they shouted, the way they wheeled the hammer, and they couldn't do it if they hadn't seen it or done it. We had two extras cooking, I didn't tell him what to do, just busy on the spot, a little action on the line, the result I shouted stop, they were still busy... The breath of life and the realism of that life that they bring with them add a lot of color to this play. There are a lot of young actors in our play, and their creative experience may be relatively small, but these extras inadvertently brought them into the life of that era.
Reporter: In fact, in order to let young actors enter the drama as soon as possible, I heard that you also let them go to the ground to experience life?
Corning: Yes, before filming, I specifically asked all the actors to go to the countryside to experience life, eat with everyone, and work with them. At first, they didn't even take a hoe, they were taught by our local people, although the time was short, only three days, but at least they had a sense of closeness to that kind of life.
Reporter: These three days of experience are quite useful, and some young actors have performed with a "sense of age"...
Corning: They're very hard-working. Like these post-90s or even post-00s actors, they have never been in the countryside before, have not been exposed to farm work, but they are particularly happy, saying that the director is "really worth it.". We want to truly reflect the age in the work, the actor's performance should have the passion of that era, including makeup, I also emphasize not to overly whitewash, refuse to wear makeup when working, to the texture of the peasant labor in the sun and rain, especially the actress should not draw eyeliner and eyebrows. Before booting up, I also let them all go to the sun, and the texture of the skin that came out of the sun could not be dissolved by makeup. But unfortunately, the time is a little short, the scale is not particularly well grasped, and the actress's face is still slightly white.
Reporter: The aquatic bride played by teacher Li Qinqin is particularly good, and the chapped lips have a special sense of substitution that lacks water...
Corning: Yes, her makeup is also her own request, and she has always said that my makeup is a little deeper, just to find the imprint of life. Good play, especially dedicated. Including our other actors are very dedicated, we shoot from September to mid-to-late December, when shooting autumn scenes in winter, wearing such thin clothes, talking are all in the air, can only let them talk before a few breaths, bring out the heat in the lungs. There are also scenes of repairing canals, and everyone is also gray-headed and dirty every day. Therefore, I think that when we shoot the Hongqi Canal to show the spirit of the Hongqi Canal, we ourselves are also learning the spirit of the Hongqi Canal, which is also a kind of spiritual baptism.
Spiritual inheritance
It has the significance of the times, and the spirit of "Red Flag Canal" will never become obsolete
In the eyes of the creators, the spirit of "Hongqi canal" is a cross-era spirit. Especially in the era of lack of food and money, lack of steel rim cement and explosives, in that extremely harsh environment where there is no bedding or mat, the people of Linxian County have accomplished the impossible, "This spirit is great, especially now, we are still facing different difficulties, we must continue to pass on this spirit to face the problems we are currently encountering." "Although the play is based on real events, the spiritual core contained in it has not changed. In Corning's view, the Hongqi Canal is a long river flowing with the spirit of the times and will never become obsolete. "With a reverential heart, we use new perspectives and new means to present a simple and noble masterpiece that shows the strength of the Chinese people." Corning admits that they want to make a masterpiece that doesn't live up to the name!
Reporter: For Henan people, the spirit of Hongqiqu and the story of Yang Gui are very familiar, and after watching this drama, I found that there are many innovative places...
Corning: Film and television is an art in itself, and we have artistically processed the original story. With the repair of canals as the main line, the county party committee team represented by Lin Jie and the ordinary people of Lin County represented by the Shi family have two different angles to promote the development of the main line. The original story is presented in a fast-paced and strong plot narrative, and some characters with different voices are also set up, adding some dramatic conflicts, and also combining the processing methods of film art, which also wants to maximize the watchability and trigger the emotional resonance of the audience. Although the story has changed, the spiritual core conveyed has not changed.
Reporter: In your opinion, what is the practical significance of revisiting that period of history now?
Corning: Self-reliance, hard work, solidarity, selfless dedication. This is the core value that we want to pass on in this play, and we also want more young people to see the great innovations made by our parents, and understand that our actual happiness is not easy to come by. In the past, we all said that Dayu Zhishui and Yugong moved mountains, which are familiar to us, but they are too far away to see their more real side, but we can truly express the spirit of modern people through "Red Flag Canal" that "Dayu Zhishui and Yugong moves mountains", I think this is the inheritance of Chinese civilization. In fact, in today's era, we are still facing various difficulties, we must continue to pass on the spirit of the "Red Flag Canal" to solve the difficulties we are currently facing and the problems in life.