In 2011, Liu Meng once again served as director and screenwriter, making his first full-length military novel,"The Last Bullet Left to Me," a TV series called "I Am a Special Soldier."
After the drama was broadcast on CCTV 1, it set off a ratings frenzy. The brotherhood of Many Tough Guys such as Xiao Zhuang, Qiangzi, Ostrich, Hygienist, Old Cannon, Geng Jihui, Dog head Lao Gao, etc., as well as the love of Xiaoying, Yatou, Xia Lan and several other girls makes the audience want to stop.
At the same time, the film not only won the first prize of the 28th China TV Drama Feitian Award, but also triggered a wave of military fever, becoming another military-themed phenomenon after "Soldier Assault".
However, you may not know that this TV series was just two days after the start of the CCTV golden file, Ji Daoqing, who is the production director, received a call from his superiors, asking him to stop broadcasting immediately, do a serious inspection, and deal with the relevant responsible persons.
What's going on here? Next, let's talk about the behind-the-scenes story of this TV series.
In 2003, Liu Meng, who studied in the directing department of the Central Academy of Drama, created his first novel on the Internet, "The Last Bullet Left to Me", which received high praise and was praised by readers as "China's first truly international military novel".
In 2005, Liu Meng published a novel "Wolf's Tooth", which showed the panorama of the Special Forces of the Chinese Army, but unexpectedly this work attracted the attention of Ji Daoqing, a state-level screenwriter and deputy head of the front-line cultural and labor corps of the Political Department of the Nanjing Military Region.
According to Mr. Ji Daoqing, he saw Liu Meng's novel "Wolf's Tooth" in the newspaper serial, and he liked it very much. With his many years of professional experience and sensitivity, he realized that the author of the novel is a rare talent.
Therefore, he contacted Liu Meng through others and invited him to join the big family of "frontline combat". Liu Meng gladly agreed to go, but he put forward such a condition - he wanted to be a director.
Although Liu Meng is from the directing department of the Central Academy of Drama, he has not directed any works, and a TV series at that time required at least millions or even tens of millions of investments, and no one dared to let a hairy boy who had not even been an assistant director serve as an artistic commander such as a director.
After investigation and demonstration, Ji Daoqing agreed to Liu Meng's request, and Liu Meng officially joined the front-line cultural and industrial corps of the Nanjing Military Region.
In order to fulfill his promise, Ji Daoqing persuaded investors to push Liu Meng, who had just passed his 30th birthday, into the position of director of "Sniper Life and Death Line" in 2008, and also set up a strong production team to fully support Liu Meng.
"Sniper Life and Death Line" is adapted from Liu Meng's novel "Assassin", the first day of the series on Qilu TV, the single episode ratings reached 7.29, the market share of 16.79%.
After that, the average rating of the show rose steadily, and a week later, the show's market share accounted for 20.42%, and the highest rating of a single episode reached 10.18.
After "Sniper Life and Death Line" knocked on the door for Liu Meng, the shooting plan of "I Am a Special Soldier" was determined, Liu Meng continued to serve as a director, and Ji Daoqing served as the production director.
In terms of actors, because "Sniper Life and Death Line" is also a TV series with military themes, Liu Meng has used many actors who have starred in "Sniper Life and Death Line", such as Xu Honghao, Fu Chengpeng, Zhou Huilin, Yang Shu and so on.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to Gu Zhixin, who is not a soldier, the other five are active military actors of the Nanjing Military Region's frontline cultural and labor troupe.
Before Xu Jia took over this play, she was still a small supporting role, that is, "Dragon Set". It is said that for the two months he was poorest, he ate only one meal a day, and this meal was two five casseroles.
After entering the crew, I found that the crew was also poor, there was no money to do special effects, and all the explosion shots were really shot.
And Fu Chengbo can play the hadron because he starred in "Sniper Life and Death Line", and through the interpretation of "Mountain Eagle", he successfully got this role. However, he was not so lucky on the set.
During a late-night filming of a mud pond special training scene, Fu Chengbo was accidentally hit by the butt of a gun and hit his eyebrow bone, breaking a long opening. Everyone was frightened and rushed to the hospital for rescue, fortunately the eyes were not serious.
In addition, in addition to being poor, the crew is also very "ruthless", in order to catch up with the progress, after the actor is injured, he will not be sent to the hospital if he can not go to the hospital.
After Zhao Xun, who played Xiwa, injured his finger, he couldn't bear not going to the hospital, and then he couldn't stand the pain and asked the crew for leave. The leader said to wait two more days, and the result was to wait and wait.
When it was time to shoot the scene of military training, Zhao Xun flipped down from the high wall and suddenly found that his fingernails were gone. The doctor said that in this case, it would be necessary to have an amputation when it was too late.
Of course, the director is not abusing the actor, in order to achieve the effect, he has to come up with the strength of the child who can't catch the wolf, so every scene director has to play the actor himself.
Due to the need to often shoot wild jungle scenes, it is necessary for the actor's face to be painted with jungle oil paint, and Lang Feng, who plays a hygienist, is allergic as soon as he puts oil paint on his face.
Ren Kono, who played the paratrooper, would swell up in the place where he had painted it, so that he couldn't put on makeup the next day, but they all gritted their teeth and persevered.
By the way, there is a scene in the play where Xiaozhuang fights with the elder cannon of the class, when it was minus seven degrees, the snow had just melted, the ground was still some ice slag, and the two were improvised, and the mood was very good.
When Xiao Zhuang turned around and dropped the old cannon, he accidentally hit Xu Jia's stomach and fell to the ground fiercely, Xu Jia was in pain and "hideous", but he did not shout to stop, so he did not dare to look up and pat his face.
In fact, the six leading actors are not blindly "suffering", because these six brothers can always "make fun in pain"!
In the play, there is a scene in which the ostrich is interrogated, he needs to keep his head in the water in the winter, and the other brothers are next to him to "watch the play".
According to the setting, after the scene is finished, one of them needs to take off his clothes to help wipe the water. Because the weather was so cold that no one wanted to, in the end they actually used scissors and stone cloth to decide who to undress.
Perhaps, it is precisely because of this extraordinary relationship that the personalities of these big boys are particularly fascinating.
In this way, these brothers, who are full of joy in the play, finally finished the scene after suffering, however, before the TV series began, they encountered a troublesome thing.
In January 2011, Liu Meng and a group of creators gathered in Beijing to celebrate the broadcast of "I Am a Special Soldier" on CCTV's golden file, and on the way, Ji Daoqing received a phone call from him, telling him that the drama could not be broadcast.
The next day, Accompanied by the CCTV editor-in-charge, Ji Daoqing went directly into the computer room to make changes, and that night, Ji Daoqing received a smooth broadcast of the news on the train back to Nanjing.
Unexpectedly, only two days after the broadcast of "I Am a Special Soldier", Ji Daoqing received a call from his superiors again, asking for an immediate suspension of broadcasting, serious inspection, and handling of relevant responsible persons, on the grounds that this drama was suspected of leaking secrets.
After many mediations, especially after receiving the affirmative opinions of the special brigade of the Nanjing Military Region, "I Am a Special Soldier" was able to continue to be broadcast.
Although "I Am a Special Soldier" was able to continue to be broadcast, CCTV still had requirements: change while broadcasting, and after broadcasting, it is not allowed to be broadcast again! At the same time, Ji Daoqing was also mentally prepared to "resign from the blame".
After the Spring Festival, Ji Daoqing received a notice that "I Am a Special Soldier" was affirmed by the central leadership, and he was invited to Beijing to introduce his creative and shooting experience. As a result, a person who is ready to "resign" has become a positive model.
Finally, let's talk about the theme song "Forever Brother" and the interlude "Nameless Path", which are still widely sung today.
It is said that after the lyrics of the ending song "Forever Brother" came out, the crew originally wanted to find Wang Feng to sing, but Wang Feng did not pick up the song because of the problem of schedule.
After being rejected, "Forever Brother" was bought by Dao Lang for 800,000 yuan, but he did not expect that this song actually became popular quickly, and occupied a certain list for 4 consecutive weeks with an unexpected attitude, becoming the second place in the best theme song of the Huading Award, second only to the king of the ringtone of the year, "The Provision of Love".
In addition, the interlude "Nameless Path" is quoted from the theme song of the film "Chinese Overlord Flower". The melodious tunes and monologue-style lyrics subtly interpret the spirit of silent sacrifice and dedication in the play.
In short, this drama can be presented in front of everyone is really a twist and turn, but the most regrettable thing is Xiaozhuang Gu Zhixin. He entered the group on the seventh day of the New Year, and after more than ten days of military training, he officially started shooting, and there were no more comfortable days after that, but he did not cry out a bitter.
Unfortunately, Gu Zhixin withdrew from the filming of the follow-up series, and the lack of Xiaozhuang's special forces series has also become an eternal regret in the hearts of the audience.
To this day, the special forces series has produced a lot in succession, but countless netizens said: The most nostalgic is the first one! After Xiaozhuang, there were no more special forces.
Why didn't Gu Zhixin participate?
The director admitted that in order to avoid interspersed characters, plus The first Xiaozhuang has taken off his camouflage costume, the plot logic is not reasonable. Therefore, the second Part Gu Zhixin did not participate.
Perhaps, with the joining of Wu Jing, Gu Zhixin is no longer the trump card in his hand.
In 2013, Gu Zhixin accidentally fell off a horse due to the filming of "Soldier Out of Tongguan", resulting in spinal cord injuries and suffering from mild depression. Although he took over several scenes after his recovery, he has been tepid.
Maybe he is waiting for an opportunity, and before the time comes, hibernation is also an experience!