The movie "Chosin Lake" was screened, triggering discussions in all aspects, which is expected, not only because it is a rare huge investment in domestic films in recent years, with many famous directors, powerful actors and traffic stars to join, but also because this is a film that has attracted much attention from all parties in terms of theme, and the historical events themselves have given it the greatest blessing.
The Battle of Chosin Lake was an inflection point in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and in any sense, it was quite important to China's international and domestic situation at that time, and its results even affected the pattern of the Cold War, China's international relations and the environment for internal development since then. In the current geopolitical situation, the movie "Chosin Lake" has the function of retelling the history of contemporary China with the nature of the founding of the country to the public, and the audience often has the dual expectations of viewing the audiovisual appreciation of the film and the popularization of historical knowledge. So, did "Chosin Lake" meet expectations? This is clearly a matter of opinion. In terms of personal experience, I think this is still a movie worth watching.
One
The creation of historical themes, especially contemporary historical themes and films that are not too old, has to face great challenges. First, because the historical records including words, images and physical objects are quite detailed and complete, how to select, extract and refine in the historical materials, and sublimate the art, it is necessary to maintain the balance between historical truth and artistic truth, neither can it follow the trend of historical facts, and become a mechanical reproduction of documentaries and feature films, but also can not be separated from history, so as not to suffer from the details and the authenticity of the context. Second, it is precisely because of the continuity of contemporary history and politics that the video narrative must also meet the requirements of mainstream values, so the balance between the expression of the theme and the concept of art has become the proper meaning of the topic. Third, as a product of the film industry and a cultural commodity in the market, it also needs to take into account the audience's sensibility, acceptance and aesthetic habits when expressing images and conveying interests, so it is necessary to consider seeking the approval of the audience in the largest range when creating. In short, the theme of "Chosin Lake" has great educational, cognitive, aesthetic and market potential, but it faces the difficulty of telling history.
In the past experience of film history, the main theme of war movies basically has two major narrative grammars. One is to take a small perspective, take the development of company, guerrilla and even individual behavior as the plot clue, and use individual and local stories to reflect the development of the war, infect emotions and inspire people. Such films only set in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea include Shangganling (1956), Raid (1960), Beacon Train (1960), March 8Th line (1960), Heroes and Children (1964) and My War (2016), adapted from Ba Jin's novel Reunion, and Fierce Battle of the Nameless River (1975). The advantage of this perspective is that the incision is smaller, the ornamental and entertaining is stronger, and it is easy to let the audience emotionally substitute. The other is a grand perspective, telling the overall pattern and trend of the war, although it is not without the portrayal of characters and details, but focusing on the decision-makers and commanders of the war, it is intended to establish a general cognitive structure of the historical process, and then let the audience accept the understanding and interpretation of the historical process and trend when watching the film. The most famous of this grand narrative is the "Great Armageddon" trilogy ("Liaoshen Campaign", "Huaihai Campaign", "Pingjin Campaign"), in which individuals often merge into the collective and appear in a group style. As far as the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea is concerned, so far no such film has appeared.
From this observation, in the sequence of domestic war-themed films, the narrative of "Chosin Lake" should be said to have its unique position. It attempts to explore a fusion perspective, that is, to integrate the grand historical background pattern with the specific experiential feelings of individuality. The former constructs a framework of historical discourse and makes the film rich in educational and cognitive functions; the latter is intended to stimulate empathy in order to achieve the effect of full expression and dissemination. That is to say, it has a macroscopic vision, but it is entered from a microscopic perspective, which is not easy. The practice of "Chosin Lake" is through the decision-making at the highest level, the pre-war mobilization of Song Shilun, the direct commander of the war, and the self-statement of Mei Sheng, an instructor of the Seventh Company who retired from the army, returning to the battlefield, and three times to show why this battle is fought: resisting the United States and aiding Korea, and defending the family and defending the country.
Two
The first is the feeling of home and country. At the beginning of the film, the seventh interspersed company commander Wu Qianli returns to his hometown to visit his relatives, and the tranquility, harmony and beauty of the mountain water town reflect the destructiveness and injustice of the Un Army that came from the Inchon landing. The action that the AID KOREA had to take in order to go north to resist the United States was not only a great aid containing the spirit of internationalism, but also a just act of defending the country, and its logical focus lay in the yearning for and safeguarding a peaceful life. This is different from the illusory pacifist tone films— there is a specious view that all war films should be anti-war films — they seem to be politically correct, but in fact they are confused with right and wrong, ignoring the difference between justice and injustice in war, and history has repeatedly proved that all peace is achieved through resistance, and cannot be obtained by appeasement or prayer, and the meaning of the sacrifice of the heroes of the past is precisely this. The environment of peaceful development in the decades after the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea confirms a line of Mao Zedong in the film: "Fight with one punch, so as not to come with a hundred punches." In this sense, the plot of the film reiterating three times why the war is fought is not redundant, but it is necessary to build the legitimacy of the war. The "Secretary Liu", an ordinary soldier who entered the army and became an ordinary soldier in the army, Mao Anying, is the manifestation of the people's war mobilized from top to bottom, which is the spiritual legacy of equality and moving in socialist China.
The point is that the course of war falls on top of specific characters and plots. The focus of the film is on the seven consecutive series, in which the narrative appears a symptom worth exploring. That is, the Seventh Company is a team connected by brotherhood, the blood relationship between Wu Qianli and Wu Wanli, and the robe emotion between other soldiers in the company, and even set up the role of "Lei Dad" of the veteran Lei Suisheng, metaphorically referring to his relationship with the company soldiers as a bond with father-son feelings. In this narrative, the Seventh Company has become a community with blood-like colors, such as brotherhood and brotherhood, father and son succession, "fighting tiger brothers, fighting father and son soldiers", so that it can exert extraordinary cohesion and combat effectiveness in the battle. On the one hand, such plots and character relationships seek emotional resources from the traditional native community, on the other hand, some of their settings are imitating the character plot patterns of some previous war blockbusters, which is a widely accepted type of routine, with the intention of catering to the popular emotional structure of the public.
The advantages and disadvantages of the genre narrative of "Brother Company" are obvious, it cannot show the military strategic layout, international diplomatic situation and domestic politics of the enemy and us, but it plays the advantages of commercial production in the film, showing the characters and flexible tactics of the grass-roots combat groups of the volunteer army. The two scenes of the Battle of Yunshan And the Battle of Blowing Up the Signal Tower are the most colorful passages in the film, such as hand-to-hand combat, artillery platoon suppression, long-range sniper, grenade air explosion... A series of tense, urgent and blood-curdling scenes not only show the hardship and cruelty of the battle, but also highlight the heroism of the volunteer army in the inferior situation. This kind of individual and individual martial arts is extremely exciting, but the problem that comes with it is the chaos of collective combat and large-scale scheduling in the siege of Chosin Lake. Like the setting of "Brotherly Company", the overall emotional structure of the film is not described as a collection of comradeship, faith, and the willpower brought about by faith.
What distinguishes the volunteer soldiers of the Republic from the old army and the individualist team is that there is certainly brotherhood among comrades-in-arms, but more importantly, comradeship after the baptism of revolutionary ideas, and there is a difference between the two. Comradeship points to a common struggle based on common ideals, beliefs and goals, not just an original community based on personal feelings. Therefore, in the film, Wu Qianli specifically explains that Lei Dad wants to bring Wu Wanli out of the battle alive, although the blood bond may be better than the comrade-in-arms relationship in intimacy, but it is not appropriate to emphasize this point in the war with the same enemy. For example, for Wu Wanli's remarks on the significance of "passing through ceremonies," the foothold is on "the honor of military personnel," which is also worth discussing, because the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea is not, at least not all, a personal issue of "the glory of military personnel," but an overall issue of defending the family and defending the country.
Only on the basis of collective ideals and convictions can we understand why the soldiers of the Seventh Company were able to throw themselves into the battle of sacrificing themselves and forgetting themselves regardless of their own safety when they encountered setbacks in attacking the US communication tower by fraternal companies, because everyone is a comrade-in-arms who fights against the enemy together, and there is no need to distinguish between relatives and relatives from near and far.
Three
Regarding the Battle of Chosin Lake, China, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the DPRK have different historical records and literary and film narratives, I have previously read the writer Wang Jun's "Chosin Lake" and "Symphony", and the most impressive thing is the scene where the soldiers of the avant-garde battalion ambushed the American troops in the ice and snow, and finally froze into ice sculptures. The work's discussion of the organizational, comprehensive, and three-dimensional combat characteristics of modern warfare is of great value to the modernization of the armed forces, but war technology is only one aspect that determines success or failure; on the other hand, at least for the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea at that time, the most important thing is the ideal, will, and spirit. In the movie, when the Seven Companies were ambushed on the shore of Chosin Lake, Wu Wanli mistakenly thought that the signal bomb that suddenly rose above the camp was of the US army, and at this time there were two lines of dialogue: Have we been discovered? The comrade-in-arms replied: No, we are going to attack! This kind of self-confidence in daring to attack in the face of a strong enemy is the embodiment of the spirit of the spirit.
Limited by historical facts, the plot of the movie "Chosin Lake" seems to be somewhat scattered, but there are three paragraphs that seem to me to constitute the internal coherence of the narrative. The first is that Wu Wanli's younger brother Wu Wanli followed his brother to the front line (although this plot is somewhat unconventional, but the need as an artistic fiction can be put aside for the time being), because the character stubbornness can not be integrated into the company at the beginning, and when he wants to jump out of the car, the Great Wall of Ten Thousand Miles is magnificent and shining in front of the soldiers. The weather is full of great rivers and mountains, which shocked him and his comrades-in-arms, which is the inspiration of patriotic feelings. The second was that the Seventh Company encountered enemy aircraft when they marched to a deserted rocky beach covered with corpses, and the enemy aircraft did not find them, but in order to have fun, they shot the corpses in the riverbed, resulting in the death of their comrades-in-arms, which allowed Wu Wanli's hatred to rise, prompting him to overcome his fears in the subsequent battles and quickly grow into a qualified warrior. The third is that when the American army retreated, it found the remains of the frozen volunteers, and raised its hands to salute the fearless soldiers, which is a sublimation of the faith of the volunteers, although there is not much ink, but it is enough to make people unforgettable.
In the early days of the founding of New China, the weakness of national strength, the lack of logistical strength, and the urgency of military intelligence made the People's Volunteer Army have to face the cruel reality of fighting steel with flesh and blood. The fierceness and movingness of the film "Chosin Lake" comes more from the tragic and moving nature of the real past, and its significance lies more in re-reminding people that "flesh and blood build our new Great Wall" is not an empty lyric, but a real history and reality. Pulitzer Prize winner David Haberstam once wrote a famous nonfiction work, The Coldest Winter, which recounts the war in its entirety from an American perspective, and I would say that for those volunteer soldiers, for those who are the cutest, even in the coldest winter, faith does not freeze.
Author: Liu Daxian (The author is a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Editor: Guo Chaohao
Planner: Shao Ling