Although the box office of the movie "King Kong Chuan" did not meet expectations, it also achieved more than 700 million box office and triggered a lot of discussion. Almost at the same time, in the Youku and Central Eight-linked drama "The Crucible of War" to resist US aggression and aid Korea, after the 13-episode finale, there was almost no sound.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Chinese Volunteers' overseas combat, and coupled with the complicated international situation, the official commemoration of this historical event has been carried out in a high-profile manner.
As far as literary and artistic works are concerned, not only do they schedule many documentaries and feature films, but also specially edit some old movies and TV series. However, as far as the "newly released" film and television dramas on the theme of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea are concerned, strictly speaking, there are only two -- the movie "King Kong Chuan" and the drama "Our War" and the drama series "Our War" are concerned.
As we all know, "King Kong Chuan" was rushed, started in early August, and released at the end of October. The tight production cycle led to the use of "ingenuity" in the text - telling a story four times from four perspectives, which also caused a lot of controversy.
According to reports, "Our War" started at the end of September 2018 and ended in March 2019 - it is not a "rush" drama.
At the end of July this year, the General Administration included the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in the sequence of "TV dramas with key themes." At that time, "King Kong Chuan" was preparing to start. There is only one "Our War" in the national film and television drama inventory of this theme.
Scarce things are precious, and "Our War" was edited into a web drama and a theatrical movie. This web drama is the "Melting Pot of War" that "hides the merit and fame", and the movie is the "Hero Company" that has been officially announced before.
Not long ago, Fu Ruoqing, general manager of China Film Co., Ltd., revealed that the movie "Hero Company" is a 17-episode web drama combing materials, and reshooting shots and scenes suitable for the big screen, remade, and is expected to be released on November 6.
Today, the author strongly recommends "The Melting Pot of War" for the audience who have not yet paid attention to this 13-episode war drama.
"The Furnace of War" tells the story of a "liberation fighter" (who joined the People's Liberation Army after being captured in the Liberation War) Zhao He in the Korean battlefield, and the soldiers of the four companies who experienced the baptism of war and accepted each other. The shortcomings of this drama are obvious, but it is still difficult to hide its brilliance in domestic war dramas.
The biggest shortcoming of "The Furnace of War" is incoherence, and there are often jumps between plot and plot, between battles and battles. Although the subtitle board has been used for series, it is still difficult to hide the separation in the middle of the play.
Taking the third episode as an example, the beginning of the episode is that the soldiers are talking about winter clothes, and as soon as the switch is changed, it becomes a platoon leader who orders Zhao He to negotiate with the black American company; the episode ends with four companies preparing to attack at night, and in the blink of an eye the battle begins to clear the battlefield. That is to say, the process of how to encounter the black company and the night battle was skipped.
There are many similar clips, and only the last 4 episodes of the entire series have encounters with US paratroopers, which is relatively complete.
There are two reasons for the emergence of this "fragment", first, to cut the material into the film and embezzle it; second, there is no shooting at all, and the reshoot is not completed in the later stage. After all, war dramas are too expensive.
Although a bit mutilated, "The Melting Pot of War" is still a characteristic war drama. Martial arts drama is exquisite, literary drama is brilliant, and the theme is profound - these three longboards can cover up the destructiveness caused by the "residual chapter" to the viewing of the drama to a certain extent.
Let's start with martial arts. On early posters, "Our War" was described as "a war series against international productions." And "for the first time, the real-time ordnance armor was enabled, and the panoramic restoration of the battlefield group portrait" was restored. Judging from the texture of the final presentation, the film side is not a boast.
From the perspective of story structure, "The Furnace of War" is somewhat similar to HBO's "Company of Brothers". This is not only because both dramas focus on one company in the battlefield, but also because both of them continue to push the battle line through the combat tasks of the company, and finally present the whole picture of the war.
The story of "Company of Brothers" continues from the Normandy landings to the capture of Berlin, while "The Furnace of War" connects the five battles of the Volunteer Army in the Korean Battlefield (October 25, 1950 to June 10, 1951), and the panorama shows the first phase of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
In order to show this time shift, "Furnace of War" used two locations in winter and summer to shoot. In episode 4, the four are connected to the temporary mission to support the Eastern Front, and after the battle begins, they sprint on the ice lake in white camouflage suits, which is likely to be the "Battle of Chosin Lake".
Whether it is ordnance, battle experience, or the restoration of the atmosphere of the battlefield, "The Furnace of War" has impressed the audience. It can at once bring people living in peacetime into a fierce battlefield where the equipment of the enemy and us is extremely different, but the morale is still high. In contrast, most of the previous anti-war dramas were too rudimentary in this regard.
Let's talk about literary drama. There are a lot of "idle pens" in the play, but in fact, they are not so simple. The fourth company captured an Associated Press reporter, and as a "former soldier of the Nationalist Army" who knew English and knew Americans well, Zhao He had a lot of common topics with this American reporter.
But when the American friend calmly said, "Nine out of ten Americans think Chinese should have braids, and before I met you, this is all I know about you" and "This war is a game of superpowers, and China is not in this ranks, and it is not eligible to participate in this game." This is what most people recognize", when he was still stimulated. This was the beginning of Zhao He's ideological transformation, and he began to think," "Why am I fighting?" ”
As a female warrior of the Fourth Company, Yu Sanwan has a legendary lineage. She was an abandoned baby, and in 1927 she was picked up in the rain by 8 soldiers from the ninth class of workers and peasants in Sanwan Village, so she named her "Rain Three Bays", so she had eight fathers.
The birth of "Rain Three Bays" symbolizes the famous "Three Bays Adaptation" in history. Mao Zedong creatively established that "branches are built on companies" and established the party's absolute leadership over the army. The trajectory of her eight fathers' lives outlines a history of the glorious struggle of the people's army.
"A father died in the town of Zhiluo at the hands of the Northeast Army." This was the "anti-encirclement and suppression" before the Southwest Incident.
"The second father died in Pingxingguan, and the third father and the fifth father jumped off the cliff during the 'May 1st Sweep'; the fourth father was blown off a leg by a ghost in the Battle of Guanjia'an, and he lost too much blood and was not saved." These all took place in the anti-Japanese battlefield.
"The fifth father later went to Shanghai and died at the hands of No. 76; the sixth father was transferred to Pingxi, and for four or three years the situation was tense, personally staring at the radio every day, walking dozens of miles of mountain roads to deliver intelligence, tired to vomit blood, and still writing telegrams before swallowing his breath." This was an intelligence war between the occupied areas and the enemy lines.
"The Seventh Father went to the artillery school in Yan'an, and later went to the northeast, and in early October 1948 in Yixian County, Principal Zhu wanted to go up to see the bullet point, and he was not at ease to go with him and stepped on the anti-infantry mine." Principal Zhu refers to Zhu Rui, the principal of the Northeast Artillery School, who was the supreme general of the People's Liberation Army who died in the Liberation War.
Bada is her current boss, Yu Wanli, director of the military political department, fighting in the Korean battlefield.
Finally, let's talk about the theme. A drama drama on the theme of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea must first answer two questions -- for whom are you fighting? Why can it win? These two questions began with a question – what kind of army was the People's Volunteer Army led by the Communist Party?
If we leave these issues aside, then we are really blind to the theme of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, which is indistinguishable from other anti-Japanese dramas.
The protagonist of the story, Zhao He, is a "liberation fighter" who has not completed ideological transformation, and he uses "we" and "you" to distinguish between the People's Liberation Army and the National Army in his daily communication. At the same time, because he had dealings with the US military, he had a strong fear of the United States, and at first he thought that the volunteers were sending them to their deaths in vain and that the sacrifice was meaningless.
And in the daily battle, Zhao He gradually integrated into the volunteer army, from the thought, belief, spirit of a new look, no longer distinguish between "you" and "we" - because this is "our war", no one can stay out of the matter.
In a sense, "The Crucible of War" and the TV series "Amnesty 1959" have similarities in thematic expression. Both are about the ideological reform of the Nationalist army after the defeat, one in the Gongdelin prisoner of war prison and the other in the Korean battlefield.
When Zhao He was mobilized for battle as an acting company commander in the last episode, he had already been "reborn":
"The enemies in front of us now have never seen us as enemies because they feel we are unworthy. They can ignore our warnings, they can bomb our homeland wantonly, they think, yield or die, we can only choose one. They are wrong because we are coming, we are standing here, we will never back down, and we will never compromise.
Our nation has spent 100 years fighting for independence and equality, we have been fighting for 100 years, and we can continue to fight for 100 years. This war will not end until equality comes; this war will not end until victory comes; this war will not end until justice comes. ”
【Text/Yang Wenshan】