"Their men (Indian soldiers) emerged from behind the cliffs, and black pressure crowded the river beach. Although we have few people, we can't retreat even if we fight hard! ”
Qi Fabao's regimental staff officer Chen Hongyu recalled this when facing the border conflict in the Galwan Valley between China and India on June 15.
But at that time, Qi Fabao, who had been in the army for more than twenty years, was not afraid, and opened his arms in front of the Indian army and said loudly:
"You will bear all the consequences for breaking the consensus!"
At the same time, Qi Fabao began to order the few soldiers under his command to organize their formations and began to fight with the Indian army, which was several times larger than himself.
Later, under siege by these Indian troops armed with steel pipes, sticks and stones, Qi Fabao's left forehead bone was broken.
Han Ziwei, a military doctor, recalled: "He (Qi Fabao) ripped off the bandage on his head and wanted to get up and rush forward, that was his last bit of strength, and then he fainted again. ”
In addition to Qi Fabao's sacrifice of his life, but fortunately he was rescued in time, four more soldiers, Chen Hongjun, Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan, and Wang Zhuoran, sacrificed their lives for the country and fell in a pool of blood on the side of the weiguo.
And heroic warriors like Qi Fabao, in fact, there are many more after the founding of the country.
The film "Garland Under the Mountain" recommended for everyone tells a touching story based on the theme of the 1979 self-defense counterattack against Vietnam.
In 2017, when Feng Xiaogang's "Fanghua" was released, many people compared it with "Garland Under the Mountain" and lamented that even if there are many long-legged dances, it is difficult to compare with the film.
In the same year, in the early days of the release of "Wolf Warrior 2", many war film fans once again missed "Garland Under the Mountain", even if the former's fighting and weapons were so modern, it was still difficult to look back on the reflection on the war, the irony of history, and the expression of patriotic feelings.
What is the reason for the classic "Garland Under the Mountain"? Why has it been released for 36 years and has not been badly reviewed so far? To know all this, you have to start with its birth.
One
In 1979, Vietnam began to continuously invade China's southwest border, which had an extremely bad impact on the lives and production of local people, and the People's Daily even published an in-depth report and commentary entitled "Is It Tolerable, But It Is Intolerable".
Soon, our People's Liberation Army began a years-long self-defense counterattack against Vietnam.
In 1982, based on this incident, the military writer Li Cunbao created a novella "Garland Under the Mountain", which was published in the "October" series of books, which aroused strong repercussions from all walks of life.
Since then, the novel has been adapted into dramas, operas, commentaries, comic strips, tv dramas and other literary and artistic works. So, it's only a matter of time before it's adapted into a movie, but the question is, who will direct it?
In fact, at that time, the beijing film studio, the Bayi film studio and the Shanghai film studio all expressed a strong willingness to adapt to Li Cunbao, but because the novel had a strong criticism of the unhealthy trends in the military system, the North Film Studio and the Bayi Film Studio all said that they would make too many adjustments and deletions.
Xie Jin of The Shanghai Film Studio, with his tolerant attitude of adaptation and great enthusiasm for the work, made Li Cunbao finally decide to hand over to the standard-bearer of the third generation of Chinese directors to shoot.
After Xie Jin took over, he made important considerations in the two general directions of actor casting and war scenes.
He asked assistant director Wu Zhennian to cast all over the country, and he must choose a appearance and personality that is in line with the appearance and personality of the male protagonist Liang Sanxi, who is as thick, simple and loyal as a peasant man.
After four days of "tracking" inspection, Wu Zhennian finally selected Lu Xiaohe of Changchun Film Studio, a young actor who was extremely close to Liang Sanxi in all aspects.
As for the male number two in the film, It is Tang Guoqiang who took the initiative to ask Xie Jin for help, wanting to change the impression of "cream boy" left by himself to the public before.
However, the selection of actors does not mean that they can shoot immediately, Xie Jin in order to let these actors have a standard military demeanor and habits when performing, specially sent them to the Yunnan border defense front, as well as the remote farms of Yimeng Mountain, and spent more than half a month with the local Border Warriors and rural peasant women, and then began to rehearse the sketch, rehearsal, to ensure that after the official start of filming, they can be accurate in position, dialogue and demeanor.
Why spend so much time on upfront preparation?
On the one hand, it is related to Xie Jin's rigorous attitude, and on the other hand, it is related to the special location during the filming of the film.
In order to ensure the real texture of the war scene, Xie Jin specially wrote a report to Yang Dezhi, chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, which received strong support from the military.
At that time, an infantry division, a howitzer regiment and a tank regiment of the Kunming Military Region and the Chengdu Military Region were mobilized to participate in the exercise, which was rare in film shooting in the 1980s.
The war clip in the film where the artillery fire roars and the ground shakes is not deliberately done by the props division, but the real army was specially invited by Xie Jin to capture the photographer of the Central News Documentary Film Studio during the exercise.
What is even more frightening is that the site where Xie Jin was filming at that time was actually within the range of the enemy's artillery fire, and once an accident occurred, the consequences were unimaginable.
Therefore, even if this film is put into the present, it does not have the slightest sense of cheapness and obsolescence at the level of morality, but in the eyes of many fans, even if it is compared with "Wolf Warrior 2" and "Red Sea Action", it is still not inferior, the root lies in its authenticity, roughness, and no pretense.
Two
However, although "Garland Under the Mountain" is only a war film, its war scenes add up to only 20 minutes, accounting for only one-seventh of the 140 minutes of the entire film.
Compared with many well-known classic war movies, it does not have too many hot action scenes, so why can it make people impressed after watching it?
This has to start with the emotional story of the film. In fact, this film mainly tells the performance of three soldiers and five families in the war.
The male protagonist, Liang Sanxi, is a company commander who has been in the army for many years, whether in tactical skills or in army management, he has a good performance and sense of responsibility, in order to ensure that the soldiers of his company can complete the examination, and even postponed the family leave only once a year.
But the male number two, Zhao Mengsheng, became a variable of this company. He was a high-ranking cadre, his parents held important positions in the army, and even the commander of a certain division had served as his father's guard.
However, he was a young man who was addicted to photography and literature, and he knew nothing about the military war and had no interest.
In order to transfer him to the superior management, Zhao Mengsheng's mother "delegated" him to Liang Sanxi's company as an instructor through connections. After he had "plated a layer of gold", he would transfer it away.
Zhao Mengsheng had the attitude of temporary play and did not care about the big and small affairs within the company. His brother-in-law's behavior caused the third male Number, Jin Kailai, to be very dissatisfied, and the two repeatedly clashed.
Jin Kailai was an informal, serving as an artillery platoon leader, thick and thin, caring for his subordinates, but daring to face the improper practices of his superiors and not paying any attention to his feelings.
And the sudden outbreak of a counterattack against Vietnamese self-defense completely disrupted their plans. Liang Sanxi was unable to take leave of absence to go home to take care of his wife, who was about to be born; Zhao Mengsheng's "roundabout" was raised, and his plan to get rid of the danger of war was also frustrated.
In the end, Zhao Mengsheng, who had originally acted clumsily and did not have the great righteousness of the country in his heart, was rapidly transformed into a qualified and heroic warrior in the course of cruel war experience, while Liang Sanxi and Jin Kailai died heroically in the course of the battle.
In Li Cunbao's original novel, the story actually revolves mainly around Zhao Mengsheng's personality transformation, but for Xie Jin, in this great and magnificent self-defense counterattack, he wants to express what he carries is undoubtedly more.
The first is to satirize the bad style, which makes countless viewers feel a rare awe after watching it.
The film constantly contrasts the gray personality of Zhao Mengsheng and his high-ranking official mother with others.
For example, when showing the beautiful love between Liang Sanxi and his wife, it is a simple and grounded marriage and love experience; while Zhao Mengsheng is holding a camera and a westernized wife in the room for pleasure, superficial and artificial.
When Jin Kailai faced the arrival of the war, he was full of pride and ambition, although he was also full of reluctance for his wife and children, he could say to Liang Sanxi heroically and fearlessly: See you in the martyrs' cemetery!
However, Zhao Mengsheng and his mother were afraid to avoid it, and constantly played the idea of transferring to the rear, and even took a personal relationship in the incomparably important phone call of Commander Lei.
Therefore, when we see That Commander Lei at the oath-taking ceremony, he said to all the soldiers his hatred for the behavior of the powerful and the powerful to avoid harm, it was so gratifying.
However, if there is only irony and criticism, it will only make "Garland Under the Mountain" full of strong gunpowder flavor, and will not be a tear-intensive respect and indignation for the feelings of home and country.
In addition to Xie Jin's gray transformation from Zhao Mengsheng, the reflection is actually more of a sincerity and righteousness that is rare in this era.
Even in the parting note, Liang Sanxi was worried about the bills owed to others, and asked his wife to pay them all.
Jin Kailai was not afraid of dogma and bravely said: 20 billion relief funds can not be exchanged for a bundle of sugar cane!? He then led the soldiers to cut sugar cane and save the lives of the whole company.
Or captain Lei, a hero who has the great righteousness of a country behind him, does not dare to favor favoritism and neglect small righteousness, and even sends his only son to the front line of the war to fulfill his promise to the country.
This is also why, when Liang Sanxi's mother learned of This righteous act of Commander Lei, she said the following sentence: Hello! China (with you) can thrive!
Xie Jin's seemingly unfazed literary dramas make our hearts surging with emotion, which is no less than the martial arts dramas of guns and thunder in these domestic war films today.
This is the skill of the older generation of directors, who know how to hit the atrium between the national righteousness and the personal affection, and play one generous and majestic song after another.
At that time, after the filming of the film, Xie Jin and the entire film crew saw the courage and heroism of the border guards, so they decided to arrange the premiere of the film on the front line of the old mountain where the artillery was in full swing. At this time, some of the soldiers who had participated in the group performances could no longer be seen.
"Garland Under the Mountain" is such a classic masterpiece with unclear meanings with war, and now many viewers see this name alone, perhaps reluctant to open it and look at it again, after all, its title is too symbolic, not as fierce and exciting as the current war action title.
But all the audiences who have seen this film can't help but sigh that we made war films with such reflective meaning as early as the 1980s.
On Douban's "Unpopular Masterpiece War Film List", this film turned out to be the only Chinese-language film among all 20 films.
Nowadays, foreign anti-China forces are rampant, and looking back at this movie, it is like a monument, always reminding us that clear love is only for the motherland.
Salute to the martyrs!
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Tang Si
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