Teaser video, sneak peek!
At the beginning of this year, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television released data on the box office of Chinese films in 2014: the total box office of films in China in 2014 was 29.639 billion yuan, an increase of 36.15% year-on-year; the box office of Its Chinese films was 16.155 billion yuan, accounting for 54.51% of the total box office.
Nowadays, the Chinese film market is becoming more and more prosperous, and it has become the "ultimate dream" of many movies today. In fact, as early as thirty years ago, in that era when the ticket price of the film was only 3 cents, a Chinese red film with a cost of only a few hundred thousand yuan actually realized the dream of 100 million yuan, creating a "myth of the Chinese film industry" with 600 million people watching the movie and a box office of 180 million yuan.
This film is "The Gunshot of the Secret Bureau" filmed by Changchun Film Studio in 1979. At that time, the Associated Press also specially reported the pomp caused by the "Gunshots of the Secret Service", and the title of the article was called "Chinese mainland's First Spy Film and Its Sensation".
But you may not imagine that such a popular film was not optimistic about experts at the beginning of shooting, but a small production that was not focused, low-cost, and starless. So how did this small film become so successful and earn a high box office?
This novel, published in 1962 by the Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, is "Fighting in the Heart of the Enemy," which tells the story of our party's underground workers fighting wits and courage with agents of the enemy's unified secret bureau in the heart of the enemy in order to win the liberation of Shanghai. The ups and downs of the plot and the gripping suspense make this novel popular.
One of the many die-hard fans of the novel is a very special one, who contributed to the final adaptation and filming of the novel into "Gunshots of the Secret Bureau", whose name is Chang yan.
Chang Yan
Chang Yan, the director of Changchun Film Studio, when he first read the novel "Fighting in the Heart of the Enemy", Chang Yan felt that it should be put on the screen, but due to conditions, it was not until more than ten years later that Chang Yan began to prepare for film shooting.
In order to restore as much as possible our party's underground work in Shanghai at that time, Chang Yan and five other people went to the Shanghai Garrison District Headquarters to consult the past enemy and fake materials and fully understand the arduous fighting environment of underground party members. Chang Yan said, "These played a decisive role in the overall conception of the film. The final adapted script was even affirmed by the original author Lu Zheng, who said to Chang Yan: You have done a very beautiful job!
To Mei
In the film, it is she who plays the heroine Shi Xiuying - Xiang Mei, and director Chang Yan has taken a lot of effort to find her. At that time, Changchun Film Producers had been looking for actors for the film. Once, after Chang Yan saw Xiang Mei in a theater audience in Shanghai, he thought that the role of the heroine Shi Xiuying was none other than Xiang Mei.
At this time, Xiang Mei was already in her early 40s, and according to the thinking of people at that time, women at this age did not seem to be the best candidate for the heroine. Before filming "The Gunshots of the Secret Bureau", Xiang Mei had not even acted in a movie for ten years. Why did director Chang Yan insist on asking her to be the heroine?
It turned out that director Chang Yan was interested in Xiang Mei's mature, stable and beautiful atmosphere. He said that a resourceful, brave, and improvised female underground worker should have life experience and work experience, not just find a "little girl film" to act well. It is precisely because of director Chang Yan's insight that he has achieved the film "The Gunshot of the Secret Bureau" and also achieved Xiang Mei's second artistic life.
Chen Shaoze, the actor who played the male lead in "The Gunshot of the Secret Bureau", was a "new recruit in the film industry" at that time, and "The Gunshot of the Secret Bureau" was his "debut work". So why would the director choose someone who has never acted in a film to play the most important role in the film?
Chen Shaoze
Director Chang Yan's vision is not wrong, in the film, Chen Shaoze wears an American military uniform, straight and heroic, dashing and free, after playing the lieutenant colonel of "The Gunshot of the Secret Bureau", Chen Shaoze is popular all over the country and has become an idol of a generation.
"The Gunshots of the Secret Bureau" was filmed in 1979, at that time, color movies had begun to gradually become popular, so why did Chang Yan, who valued his own "Gunshots of the Secret Bureau", give up the beautiful colors and choose simple black and white film?
The film "Gunshots of the Secret Bureau" was successfully filmed in 5 months. Director Chang Yan still remembers the scene when "The Gunshots of the Secret Bureau" was last reviewed at the Changchun Film Studio. At that time, the 12 screening rooms in the studio were full of people, the aisles were blocked, and as soon as the film was finished, the audience stood up and applauded for five or six minutes, which was a scene that had never appeared in the long film studio.
The film was sent to the National Film Administration for review, and it was directly distributed and screened without cutting, and it was very popular. In Beijing, more than 30 theaters simultaneously released "The Gunshots of the Secrecy Bureau", which was played non-stop for 24 hours, and some audiences watched it 8 times in a row, and the plot could be reversed.
In an era when it was not known what "box office" and "New Year's file" were, movies were the first industry to be measured by data - tickets. According to statistics, the number of viewers of "The Gunshot of the Secrecy Bureau" was 600 million, and the box office reached 180 million yuan according to the calculation of 3 corners per ticket price at that time. Is the success of the film accidental, or is it inevitable?
For more exciting content, lock in the Hubei Satellite TV "Big Reveal" movie classic "The Gunshot of the Secret Bureau of Film Classics" broadcast at 6:30 on May 10.