I recently revisited "The Gathering Number", a very good movie, and now I have a pick of "The Gathering Number" you don't know behind the scenes. "Assembling Number" is a war film directed by Feng Xiaogang, written by Liu Heng, starring Zhang Hanyu, Deng Chao, Yuan Wenkang, Tang Yan, Liao Fan, Wang Baoqiang, etc., and specially starring Hu Jun and Ren Quan. The film was released on December 20, 2007 in Chinese mainland.
The film is adapted from Yang Jinyuan's novel "Lawsuit", which tells that during the Liberation War, the Ninth Company accepted a task of blocking the battle, and he agreed with the regimental commander to use the assembly number as the order to retreat. When his comrades were killed one by one, Gu Zidi questioned whether the trumpet sounded, and he vowed to find the truth of the story.
The film tells the story of the Battle of Huaihai in 1948, Chinese the battle between the People's Liberation Army and the Kuomintang army was unprecedentedly fierce. The Ninth Company Changguzidi (Zhang Hanyu) accepts a task of blocking the battle, and he agrees with the regimental commander to use the assembly number as the order to retreat, and if the assembly number is not sounded, the whole company must hold out until the last moment. In an abandoned old kiln, 47 warriors fought bravely, and in the end the firepower was outnumbered, and Gu Zidi watched his comrades die one by one but could not do anything. Platoon leader Jiao Dapeng (Liao Fan), who is Gu Zidi's right and left hand, said before his death that he heard the rallying cry and asked Gu Zidi to retreat with the few remaining brothers, and some of the soldiers echoed and some opposed, and everyone disagreed. At this time, Gu Zidi found that his friendly neighbors had long retreated, and he suspected that he had ignored the sound of the trumpet, causing his comrades to lose their lives in vain. In a strong state of shock and guilt, he ran out of the kiln with explosives packs and headed alone to the enemy trenches. The rest of the warriors were eventually all killed.
After being wounded, GuZidi was captured by the People's Liberation Army as an enemy soldier. In the hospital in the rear, he learned that his original unit number had been cancelled, not only would it be difficult for him to prove his true identity, but even the 47 brothers who died in battle would be considered missing... Gu Zidi managed to join the PLA artillery unit and follow the pace of the team to conquer the north and south, and his only motivation for survival was to find the honor he deserved for his dead comrades. Even if time has passed, even if history has gradually been forgotten, the unforgettable brotherhood has not diminished in the slightest, and in Guzidi's mind, it is always vivid that the images of his brothers are alive.
Poor indeterminate river bones, like people in deep dreams. Just as obsessively searching as Gu Zidi is Sun Guiqin (Tang Yan), the wife of the instructor Wang Jincun (Yuan Wenkang). It wasn't until she met Guzidi that she was convinced that her husband had already died in battle. The two wronged people share common sorrow and faith, and they embark on a journey of verification together. Gu Zidi introduces Sun Guiqin to his best friend Zhao Erdou (Deng Chao) when he was in the artillery unit, witnessing their happy marriage.
When they finally returned to the old kiln where the bloody battle had taken place, they found that the battlefield site had been completely disfigured by coal mining. Except for the millet field, no one knew, or even believed, that just below this kiln lay dozens of warriors who had sacrificed heroically. Gu Zidi was digging like a mountain of coal mines, and no matter what, he wanted to let the truth come out.
In the end, after a frantic search for Guzidi, he finally found his 47 brothers. Gu Zidi and his 47 comrades were awarded the honorary title of Hero of Battle.
"Rally number" you don't know behind the scenes
The film is adapted from Yang Jinyuan's short story "Lawsuit", the original work is only a few pages, and the inspiration is derived from a true story told in CCTV's "The Story of the People". The lawsuit was first published in the April 2002 issue of Fujian Literature and reprinted in The Novel Monthly in June of that year. When Zhang Guoli saw this novel, he liked it very much and originally wanted to keep it for himself to make a TV series, but later recommended it to Feng Xiaogang. The staff of Feng Xiaogang's studio took a lot of effort to find the general catalog of various publications in China, and later found the Fujian Writers Association through the editor of the "Novel Monthly", and it was Feng Xiaogang himself who finally called Yang Jinyuan. During the Spring Festival in 2004, Yang Jinyuan signed a contract with Feng Xiaogang, when Feng Xiaogang was ready to start filming at the end of that year, but later for various reasons, he first filmed "Night Feast".
Feng Xiaogang's original intention in filming "The Gathering" was that he thought that every man had a strong heroism complex in his heart, but this was not cheap heroism, but a heartfelt touch. The film is not intended to explore the metaphysical theme of the value and meaning of sacrifice, but in his mind a "story of a hero wronged" that has not been understood for a long time.
Zhang Hanyu, the actor who plays Gu Zidi, has a lot to do with the process of getting the role. Originally, Zhang Hanyu went to director Feng Xiaogang with the script and took the initiative to ask Miao to play Guzidi, but at that time, the director laughed and said that it was played by Ge You, and he went home and read the script many times. Later, the director decided to let him play Zhao Erdou. Initially, "The Gathering" selected many actors to try the role of Guzidi, and Zhang Hanyu has always played with them in the role of Zhao Erdou, and the director has not let him audition for Guzidi. Zhang Hanyu can also understand the director's ideas, and Feng Xiaogang feels that Zhang Hanyu's beijing courtyard has a strong atmosphere, which is completely different from a character like Gu Zidi. However, in August 2006, the director and investors finally decided that Zhang Hanyu would play Guzidi.
When director Feng Xiaogang first found Deng Chao to audition, he let him try three roles - Gu Zidi, Zhao Erdou, and Wang Jincun. When the audition was performed, it was Zhang Hanyu who cooperated with him. However, due to the problem of schedule, Deng Chao first went to work in the film crew of "Sweet Honey". In the process of shooting, director Feng Xiaogang contacted him again, hoping that he could play the role of Zhao Erdou. Feng Xiaogang also specially coordinated with Gao Xixi, the director of "Sweet Honey", for Deng Chao's schedule. The determination of the heroine of "The Gathering Number" also experienced some twists and turns, and after Chen Shu withdrew from filming, the director finally determined that the role of Sun Guiqin was played by the newcomer Tang Hui at that time. In the process of auditioning, Tang Hui couldn't help but burst into tears when talking about some of her family's encounters, her narrative without any embellishment had no performance traces, and her simple and sincere performance made Feng Xiaogang shed tears. Liao Fan was originally designated as the leader of the troupe, Liu Zeshui, and later changed to the role of Jiao Dapeng due to his age.
Behind-the-scenes information you don't know during filming
Filming officially began on October 6, 2006 in northeast China. Putting the war scene in the northeast is actually to borrow the snow scene in the northeast, and the film crew also built a street scene here to show the scene of the street battle. However, the sky was not beautiful, and the snow in the wide shooting area did not fall for a long time, although it also snowed later, but it was far from the expected snow. The crew had no choice but to prepare 4 tons of fertilizer to create snow scenes, but even if the audition had to be re-sprinkled over and over again, let alone the actual shooting. In the end, the producers reported a surprising figure: at least 10 tons of fertilizer should be prepared. Not to mention the increase in the budget, these fertilizers have great harm to the human body, and the actors have inhaled a large amount of toxins while falling into the "snow", which has caused the soldiers of the whole company to diarrhea and vomit, and the shooting is very difficult.
The filming of "The Gathering" has not been smooth, first in the northeast there were rumors of destruction of cultivated land and unpaid wages, and then the lead actor Zhang Hanyu fell off his horse and was injured in the filming of Jiangxi. The most unexpected difficulty was that the elaborate war scene props were burned, and the models that were rushed out in three months were burned, delaying the filming process. "The Gathering" used the stunt team of the Korean film "Tai Chi Flag Flying". However, because of an unnamed fire, the props prepared by the stunt and art teams for filming the war scenes were burned, including more than 100 dummies used as dead bodies of the war and some fake guns and ammunition, worth about 100,000 yuan. These props have been stored in Korea before. According to Feng Xiaogang's plan, "The Gathering Number" waited for the real snow scene in the northeast to shoot the most important big scene scene of the whole movie. At the same time, the models of these special effects also play an important role, and the props encountered fire at key moments, which made the shooting stagnate for a while. However, in the end, the film was announced on the evening of February 13, 2007 on the northeast set.
Post-production information you don't know behind the scenes
Lee Ji-yun is the executive producer of "Tai Chi Flag Flying" and served as the executive producer of the Korean side in the film, and he was a key figure in the cooperation between China and South Korea in this film. After Feng Xiaogang watched "Tai Chi Flag Flying", he hoped to find the special effects production team of this film to join the film. In May 2006, Li Zhiyun and the owner of MK Company met with Feng Xiaogang and the head of Huayi Company in Beijing and decided on the intention to cooperate.
For the difficulty of shooting, Lee Ji-yun and his special effects team have long been prepared. In his opinion, of all the film genres, the most difficult thing is to make war films, because there will be many unpredictable factors. For the Korean staff, the biggest difficulty is the language barrier and the difference in work habits, but fortunately, as the shooting progressed, everyone slowly ran in and solved the problem smoothly. South Korean demolitionist Jeong Do-on's production of the scene is known for its almost brutal realism and powerful shocking effects. The film was his team's first trip to China to participate in filming. Not only did they transplant the special effects from "Tai Chi Flag Flying" to "The Gathering", but they also found that there were many new things to try, and upgraded and improved the previous technical effects. Because most of "The Gathering" is filmed on location, this also adds problems to their work. Not only is the workload much larger, but the safety factor is also reduced. The two highlights of the special effects in the film are one is the offensive battle and the other is the obstruction battle. When shooting the battle, the director's intention was to strive for reality, mainly to the explosion around the characters, so instead of using fireworks, fragments were used in the shooting. In the process of making special effects, the most important thing is safety
The total investment of the film is 80 million yuan, but the combined remuneration of all the actors is only 1 million. After a few days of filming, the original heroine of the film, Chen Shu, came out with some discrepancies with expectations, and finally decided to quit the crew. On the set of difficult conditions, the actors overcame many difficulties, because there was no toilet, the female staff did not dare to drink water, and their mouths were dry and cracked every day. When "The Gathering Number" was filmed in Shenyang, it ushered in Zhao Benshan's visit. Shenyang is zhao Benshan's hometown, in order to fulfill the friendship of the landlord, he bought 100 pounds of big apples to personally send to the "Assembly Number" crew to comfort the staff. The actors got up at 4 a.m. to put on makeup, started work at 8 p.m., and finished filming at 4 p.m. because it was dark early in Kuandian. At the end of the day's shooting, Feng Xiaogang wanted to find someone to chat with at 9 p.m., only to find that the rooms in the entire corridor were quiet. Because the actors who usually belong to the "night owls" have developed a good habit of going to bed early and getting up early in the crew of "Assembly Number". There was a scene where the director asked the actors to experience and interpret the feeling of 'cold'. So Deng Chao and others stood in the cold and heart-lung wind and snow in the environment of minus tens of degrees in Kuandian, northeast China, and silently experienced it until their hands and feet were all numb. There is a one-second close-up of the hand in the film, but Deng Chao feels that his hand is not rough enough. Later, he thought of a way to use local sand to grind his hands until the back of his hands was worn. Although the pain is not good, the rough effect is achieved. Because Deng Chao is a southerner, his diet varies greatly, and he is not accustomed to the taste of scallion burritos. In one scene, in order to pursue perfection, the director repeatedly filmed several times, so he also ate no less than 10 scallion burrito, which was really difficult to swallow later. But in order to make the shot more real and natural, Deng Chao still pretended to eat with relish, until the director said that he could stop. Because of the close friendship between Jiang Maocai and Lü Kuanggou in the film, director Feng Xiaogang also asked Wang Baoqiang and Li Naiwen to run more and cultivate feelings. The two of them not only live in the same room, usually take care of each other in life, and are often inseparable in the scene, which is of great help for them to understand and perform the role.
The most touching scene of "The Gathering Number" is the scene where Gu Zidi knows that Commander Liu did not issue the order to blow the assembly number, and he carries a wine bottle to the tombstone of Commander Liu, which may be the scene where Feng Xiaogang wants the audience to see a simple story, "The hero has been wronged." The film does not discuss whether war is meaningful, does not discuss whether sacrifice is worthwhile, it still discusses a simple truth that exists in the hearts of ordinary people: good people should have good rewards, and heroes cannot shed blood and then shed tears. "The Gathering" can resonate, to a large extent, to cater to the audience's psychology. The subversiveness of "The Gathering Number" is not only reflected in the improvement of its technical means and the alternative writing of the war, its greatest contribution to domestic films is how to make good use of commercial elements to make a film that the people can understand and gain after watching - this is what the past Chinese big movies have been trying to achieve and have not achieved, Feng Xiaogang uses the firmness and neatness of men to put the audience into the smoke, guns and flesh and blood blur, straight to the point, straight into people's hearts. In the ensuing firefight between the enemy and the enemy, the scene was unprecedentedly exciting: when the bullets with the tail note and light of "whizzing" passed through steel helmets, exploded heads, and splashed blood, it was not an exaggeration to say that it was a realistic war scene on the big screen of China. "The Gathering Number" finally allows Chinese audiences to lift the curtain of heroism and see the true face of war, which is China's first war blockbuster in the true sense. China's war film finally got rid of the straightforward heroism, the simple binary opposition between red and white, and went deep into the perspective of ordinary soldiers, paying attention to the ordinary soldiers who were brave and cowardly on the battlefield, and even made mistakes to shoot prisoners because of the death of their comrades, and they were no longer group exercise members of war blockbusters.
Do you always watch this movie about this? Feel free to leave a message in the comments section.