In the Bayi Film Studio, it was easy to distinguish which photographer was taught by Xue Boqing. His habit was to hold the camera forever, and none of his apprentices would put the machine on the ground at work.
Xue Boqing said that the camera is my weapon.
During the recording of the CCTV special program to resist US aggression and aid Korea, I saw a thrilling scene in the database - tanks, cars, and cannons discarded by the US military roaming the mountains, while volunteer soldiers shuttled through it, looking for booty.
This short video shows the real scene of the US 8th Army under the Songkuo Peak abandoning its equipment and breaking through in the second campaign to resist the United States and aid Korea - it is the battle here that made the writer Wei Wei write the immortal masterpiece "Who is the Most Lovely Person".
We have always thought that the battle is only written, but in fact a Soviet photographer followed the footsteps of the volunteers to the pine bone peak where the smoke had not yet dissipated, leaving a memorial for the victory with the last bit of film. This film has been quietly existing in the archives of foreign countries until 2020, when we brought this glory of the volunteer army back to our hometown.
It proved decades later that the painting was not an exaggeration, but merely a reproduction of the battlefield where the ghost was crying.
Therefore, the choreographer on the scene sighed with regret: "If we had photographers there in that era..."
Lao Sa did not answer when he heard this feeling, but I knew that in that war, we had many excellent photographers on the front line of the battle, and their works left the eternal figure of the officers and men of the volunteer army, such as Xue Boqing.
Xue Boqing (left) and his comrade-in-arms Xu Jinqiang (the prototype of the protagonist of the movie "Soldier Station 51").
Xue Boqing, a native of Wujin, Jiangsu Province, entered the Shanghai New Art Company in 1928 to study film photography, and worked as a cinematographer in Shanghai Fudan, Dadong, Jinan, Dahua and other film companies, shooting the movies "Midnight Song" and "Top Gun".
In 1938, Xue Boqing joined the underground party organization under the mobilization of Ren Bosheng, and together with Ren Bosheng and Xu Jinqiang, formed a three-man group of the 4th Division of the New Fourth Army stationed in Shanghai, which was active in the front behind the enemy lines. Born and died with his comrades-in-arms, he shuttled between Shanghai and the base areas of the New Fourth Army, passing on information, transporting equipment, and even shooting movies for the New Fourth Army.
After the liberation of Shanghai in 1949, Xue Boqing returned to the team and served as the first captain of the people's navy photography team, and then transferred to the Beijing Bayi Film Studio as deputy chief technician and photographer, and successively filmed works such as "Five Heroes of Wolf's Tooth Mountain", "Hunting Character No. 99", "Erquan Yingyue" and so on. China's earliest war documentary, The Battle of the Lark Temple, is also the work of Xue Boqing, who is an authentic war photographer.
"The Eternal Radio Wave" is also xue Boqing's work, and Li Xia's image is also well known, but few people know that when Li Xia's prototype Li Bai had an accident, Xue Boqing was also arrested by Kuomintang agents for implicating the case, and later escaped from danger because of his resourcefulness and rapid rescue.
This weathered veteran cinematographer was one of the Chinese cinematographers who appeared on the battlefield of North Korea, and perhaps for this reason, in 1964, the North Korean film study group went to Beijing to learn art, and Xue Boqing was their teacher. To this day, I am afraid that at the top level of the Film Industry in North Korea, there are still people who call him Master or Master.
At the end of 1952, the General Political Department issued an order to the Bayi Film Studio to set up a 26-member General Political Photography Team to go to North Korea to shoot documentaries, of which Xue Boqing was one of them. They have entered the DPRK twice, worked in the DPRK for almost a year, and filmed high-quality documentaries including "Steel Transport Line" and "Heroes Who Saved Lives and Helped the Injured". Huang Baoshan, a comrade-in-arms at the time and later a first-class director of Bayi Factory, recalled: "Xue Boqing was the oldest in the team, and also the most experienced and capable. ”
Because of his age, tall stature, and speaking Shanghai Mandarin with a little curly hair, there was even a case of Xue Lao being arrested by volunteer soldiers as "American agents".
A glimpse of the steel transport line — volunteer train speeding past the repaired railroad, on the side of the road by destroyed American tanks.
Ms. Liu Qian, Xue Boqing's granddaughter, mentioned his experience in North Korea when she talked to Lao Sa about Xue Lao's fate with the camera— Liu Qian said that her grandfather had rushed into the sea during the US air raid for the camera.
Rushing into the sea? Did the camera fall into the water?
Under the questioning, I found that there was a thrilling story behind this, and I suddenly understood the spirit behind the words "Chinese photographer".
The accident occurred on May 26, 1953, when the film crew was filming "Steel Transport Line".
The content in the documentary is all from the front line, and the US air raid in the picture - "extras" are real American bombers, and they come uninvited.
The train that rushed out of the bomb smoke was really killed from the death line.
This is the real shot shot in the rain of bullets, on the video website, when it is known that the film is a live-action battlefield shooting, there is a barrage shouting: "If only we had a Pulitzer Prize..."
Pulitzer Prize? The only "prize" he won for filming a documentary in North Korea was a shell shell that did not explode, and their family made this thing into a table lamp, which was quite beautiful and was still used two years ago.
Back to the point.
That time, Xue Lao and they went to the west coast of Theo mi Island to shoot, which is the key area to prevent the landing of US troops. Xue Boqing has a detailed record of the work - his careful habit gives us a very detailed understanding of the battle.
The island was not large, but it was a support point to prevent the landing of American troops, so at that time, the troops were trying to transport materials to the island to build fortifications and store supplies. There is a gravel road between this small island and the mainland, which can be used after the low tide, and when the sea floods the road at high tide, the island will become an isolated island, so the military and civilians rush to transport supplies before the high tide.
Because of the requirements of the shooting light, Xue Boqing chose the shooting time at 9-10 am, when the tide had begun to rise.
By about 10 o'clock, the sea was fierce, the highway was about to be submerged, and the officers and men of the army and the civilian workers were still desperately fighting with the tide for time, desperately grabbing ammunition and grain, the scene was extremely warm, such an atmosphere was undoubtedly beneficial to the film, but...
At nearly 11 o'clock, a group of US aircraft suddenly flew from the sea.
According to Xue Lao's recollection, there were 26 US fighter-bombers, and they may have had another mission, but after discovering the transport team, they immediately separated two planes and pounced on them to bomb.
For a time, the transport troops and migrant workers jumped into the sea to avoid the bombardment, and Xue Boqing's two assistants also jumped down and shouted at Xue Lao: "Old Xue, hurry up and jump into the sea!" ”
It is reasonable to say that at this time, jumping into the sea is the safest choice, but Xue Boqing can't make this choice - once a person jumps into the sea, the camera and film are all finished, and he is reluctant to have his own camera.
But you can't run without jumping, and once you run when the enemy is bombarding, you obviously provide a target for the enemy.
Fortunately, Xue Boqing, an old war photographer, reacted quickly, and he immediately made a move that stunned his assistant - he squatted down on the ground, man in the water, and lifted the camera high above the water.
In this way, the target is small, the enemy is difficult to capture, and the camera does not enter the water.
In an instant, three bombs exploded in the nearby sea.
Xue Boqing recalled: "At that time, a piece of shrapnel landed on my leg, about a foot away, and suddenly felt a hot gas rushing towards me. ”
In "Steel Transport Line," Xue Boqing has shots of revolutionary optimism ringing the bell on an American bomb, but the real power of this thing is not a joke.
It's never a good thing to feel a fever when you're fighting a war—often when you're injured, it's not pain, it's hot. So Xue Boqing was shocked, holding the camera with one hand, and the other hand quickly touched himself up and down to confirm that there was no wound, which put his mind at ease, but the shrapnel was too big, and the nearby sea water was just hot.
In fact, another threat made him remember it more deeply. After the US plane dropped the bomb, it refused to leave and continued to use the machine gun on the plane to strafe the target on the sea surface, so Xue Boqing had to continue to hide in the sea. However, the sea was still rising and soon the camera was about to be flooded, so he had to slowly straighten up, from half-crouching to standing straight, until he tiptoed up.
Fortunately, at this time, the US military plane probably ran out of gasoline, so it had to be sad, and Xue Boqing and his camera were able to escape. However, the accompanying officers were not so lucky, being hit by shrapnel from the bomb and wounded, but fortunately not fatal.
According to his comrades-in-arms, Xue Boqing was carrying an Ammu camera at the time.
This reminded me of another battle. On October 17, 1952, the photography team of our army went to Sungcheon County, North Korea to shoot the footage of the Korean masses paying tribute to the martyrs of The Luo Sheng Sect, but they were suddenly attacked by the US military, Huang Baoshan's eardrums were blown through and wounded, and The photography assistant gao Qingsheng, who was responsible for protecting the camera, died heroically.
When Gao Qingsheng died, the camera in his arms was intact, so the camera was named "Glory" and has been preserved as a cultural relic.
It was also an Eim camera.
To be honest, after learning this, looking at the "Steel Transport Line", the feelings are completely different.
How can the lens of life not be cherished?
【End】
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