Recently, the large-scale revolutionary historical drama "Hundred Refining into Steel", produced by the Propaganda Department of the Hunan Provincial CPC Committee and the Hunan Radio, Film and Television Group, is being broadcast on Hunan Satellite TV.
Since its broadcast, the drama has won the first place in the ratings of the two networks for the first time, and since then it has ranked first in the ratings of satellite TELEVISION for 3 consecutive days and has received a lot of attention.
"Hundred Refining into Steel" uses music as the medium, and selects eight popular classic melodies such as "International Song", "Long March Suite Song", "Defending the Yellow River", "Without the Communist Party, There Is No New China", "The Loveliest Man", "Singing the Motherland", "Toast Song", "Meet Again in Twenty Years" and other eight popular classic melodies to connect eight sections of theme stories.
The stories in each section are both independent and interrelated, which is very distinctive and interesting. The classic reductive acting skills of each actor in the play have been well received by many audiences.
Among them, Xia Dejun, the actor of "Premier Zhou Enlai", has attracted the attention of the audience with his superb acting skills.
A classic gray tweed suit, strong eyebrows, and resolute eyes, the "Premier Zhou" played by Xia Dejun passed the extraordinary image of the prime minister from the screen as soon as he appeared.
It is reported that this is the sixth time that Xia Dejun has played "Premier Zhou" in film and television works. As early as 2013, in the large-scale historical revolutionary epic TV series "Mao Zedong" directed by Gao Xixi, Xia Dejun once played the young Premier Zhou.
After that, he played the young Premier Zhou many times in the TV series "Autumn Harvest Uprising", "Sun Yat-sen" and "The Age of Awakening", no wonder he appeared on the scene, and the comments were all voices of amazement.
"Premier Zhou is too handsome!"
"Premier Zhou was really well chosen and full of vigor."
"Without subtitle introduction, I know it's Premier Zhou at a glance!"
"Who is this actor, too much of a premier Zhou temperament."
For the role of "Young Zhou Premier", the most important thing is the book temperament on his body, and Xia Dejun himself is a person with his own book temperament. There is a temperament fit in the actor's body, and this fit will make the interpreted role become particularly natural.
The temperament of the books on the body, the sharp revolutionary temperament, and the acting skills that are retracted freely are combined to interpret a "tangible and more divine" Premier Zhou for us.
In the later play, when everyone meets, Xia Dejun's calm demeanor, thinking or affirmative eyes, and soothing and powerful voice when speaking make people always unconsciously trust and follow.
It is this innate affinity and calm aura, as well as the acting skills that are relaxed freely, that will make the audience exclaim "not only looks more like a god".
"Every time I play Premier Zhou, I feel even more different from before, because he is too legendary and too perfect. The closer such a figure gets to him, the more he admires him and understands why he has such thoughts and achievements. ”
Xia Dejun also played the great man again and again, getting closer to and understanding the great man again and again.
"Hundred Refining into Steel" is Xia Dejun's sixth time to play Premier Zhou, and this time it is quite special for him.
The drama spans 48 years of Premier Zhou, and needs to show the young Premier Zhou, the Premier Zhou who fought during the Long March, the Premier Zhou who played a steady role in the work, and the multi-faceted image of Premier Zhou.
Among them, the impression of the young Premier Zhou to the audience is the most unfamiliar, in Xia Dejun's view, compared with the impression of Premier Zhou Enlai to the people in the later period with elegance, humility, and politeness, he was in a period of exploration of Marxist thought in his youth, and his youth was enthusiastic and vigorous.
And many people only know that Premier Zhou is full of literary talent, but they do not understand that when he was studying at Nankai School, his sports achievements were also very remarkable, not only was he the captain of the basketball team in the class, he participated in volleyball competitions, but he also won the third place in the high jump competition, and he was an energetic and positive student inside and outside the school.
Therefore, although there are not many scenes in "Hundred Refining into Steel", Xia Dejun still hopes to try his best to show the spirited side of Premier Zhou when he was young.
The special significance of "Hundred Refining into Steel" to Xia Dejun is not only in the change of the role of Premier Zhou, but also in the precious expression of the script.
The highlight of "100 Steel" is that the play does not simply list historical events, but through one familiar song after another, stringing together the plot development, panoramic show how the pioneers in such a turbulent and chaotic era, from the darkness to find the path of light.
Xia Dejun believes that great people are also ordinary people, people who come out of ordinary people, and have the joys and sorrows of normal people. Premier Zhou will also be anxious, sad, and happy to laugh.
"As long as the true feelings of the characters are truly expressed, rather than completing the concepts and symbols, I think it will definitely make everyone feel grounded."
At the same time, the restoration of historical facts in "Hundred Refining into Steel" is equally accurate and rigorous. The selection of the play is a classic textbook plot, which can be called "party history study video materials", of which, especially the classic quotations and mantras of each character, are strictly studied and queried.
"The audience will be unconsciously pulled back to that era by us."
Throughout the history of film, the role of Premier Zhou is most deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and there are three teachers, Wang Tiecheng, Sun Weimin and Liu Jin.
Wang Tiecheng
Born in 1936, Wang Tiecheng graduated from the Acting Department of the Central Academy of Drama. In 1977, he played Premier Zhou in the dramas "Turning" and "Newsboy". In 1978, he starred in his first film "The Great River Rushing", which was the first film to appear as the leader of Premier Zhou after the founding of New China. In 1992, he won the Best Actor Award at the 12th Golden Rooster Awards of Chinese Film and the Best Actor Award at the 15th Hundred Flowers Awards of Popular Film for his biographical film Zhou Enlai.
On November 23, 2019, the 32nd Golden Rooster Awards Ceremony of Chinese Film was held in Xiamen, and Wang Tiecheng won the honor of "Lifetime Achievement Film Artist of China Federation of Literature and Literature".
Premier Zhou, played by teacher Wang Tiecheng, is said to have been affirmed by Comrade Deng Yingchao and is the earliest image of "Premier Zhou" in the minds of the audience.
Sun Weimin
The second is Teacher Sun Weimin, who graduated from the Acting Department of the Central Academy of Drama and is a national first-class actor of dalian repertory theatre. Since the 1990s, Sun Weimin has played Premier Zhou Enlai in dramas, TV series and movies many times. In 1997, he played Premier Zhou again in the movies "The Army Marches: The Pursuit of the Southern Front Army" and "The Great Turn". In 1999, "Chen Yun in 1949" was broadcast, playing Premier Zhou.
On December 27, 2020, he played Premier Zhou again in the major revolutionary historical drama "Crossing the Yalu River", and the Premier Zhou he played made countless audiences cry.
Liu Jin
The premier Zhou who is most familiar to young audiences should be Teacher Liu Jin. Born in 1963, Liu Jin has since played Zhou Enlai in "Zunyi Conference" in 1996, and has since embarked on the road of special actor.
In 2003, he starred in the historical drama "Ode to Yan'an", played Premier Zhou, and won the "Audience's Favorite TV Drama Actor" award and the "Most Popular Actor" award at the 5th China Golden Eagle Television Arts Festival. In 2007, he starred in the TV series "Zhou Enlai in Chongqing" with Zhou Enlai's revolutionary practice in Chongqing as the main line, and won the first prize of the 27th China TV series "Feitian Award" long-form TV series and the 24th China Television Golden Eagle Award for Outstanding Long-form TV Series.
Teacher Liu Jin also named his daughter Liu Lai'en in honor of Premier Zhou.
Nowadays, the baton of the image of the young Premier Zhou is handed over to Xia Dejun, because the image of premier Zhou in his youth lacks the comparison of video data, giving the actors a certain amount of performance space and testing the actors' own understanding of historical figures.
In "A Hundred Refining into Steel", Xia Dejun showed the image of Premier Zhou who was full of vigor and enthusiasm in his youth, as sharp as a sheathed sword, so that the vast number of young audiences understood the style of the great man when he was young.
Have you chased the drama "A Hundred Refining into Steel"? What's your favorite story about that clip in it?