Yesterday, the "Ideal Shines on China" CENTI TV drama "Meritorious Service" was broadcast on Oriental Satellite TV, Beijing Satellite TV, Zhejiang Satellite TV and Jiangsu Satellite TV, and Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video were broadcast simultaneously.
"Meritorious Service" is a work written and organized by the State Administration of Radio and Television, with Zheng Xiaolong as the general director, Li Xiaoming as the editor-in-chief, and Cao Ping and Dun Yong as the chief producers. "Meritorious Service" takes "national narrative and expression of the times" as its mission, and uses the narrative method of the unit drama to express the brilliant chapters of the lives of the first eight recipients of the "Order of the Republic".
Telling the great and ordinary lives of the founding fathers is the common artistic pursuit of the "Meritorious Service" series. Greatness is because the heroes of these countries integrate their personal dreams into the development of the country and show the power of the model of the times; ordinary, it is the drama that pays attention to empathetic narrative and detail capture in character shaping, so that each character is firmly on the earth.
Last night's first appearance was Liu Gejian, Li Xiuwen's "Nengwen Nengwu Li Yannian", written by Liu Gejian and Li Xiuwen, and directed by Mao Weining. In these two episodes, there is a heroic spirit that overflows the screen and the realistic beauty of restoring history.
Stunning realistic aesthetic
Before the story officially unfolds, the first is the shock of the opening. Eight meritorious characters appeared as actors with makeup. During the march, the face of the character appears "illusion", changing from a young person to a real person in his later years.
This actually shows the aesthetic style of the series: although the people in the play are played by actors, it is necessary to restore the era and get close to the master as much as possible through various technical means such as serving the Tao, recording beauty, etc., and the narrative and performance style must also follow the creative laws of realism.
The story of "Nengwen Nengwu Li Yannian" takes place in the middle of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. It mainly tells the heroic story of Li Yannian (Wang Lei), the instructor of the seventh company of the third battalion of the 418th Regiment, who led the seventh company in the "Autumn Offensive" of the US army in 1951, withstood the enemy's repeated counterattacks, recaptured the 346.6 heights and held on to it.
The opening chapter is not a war drama full of gunfire, but a sword and tongue in the Kaesong negotiations. Shadows are enough, tit-for-tat. Either the prospect is obscured, or the characters are shaking, highlighting the confrontation between the two sides without speculating for more than half a sentence. With our loud words " what you can't get at the negotiating table , you can't get on the battlefield " , the camera turns into the battlefield.
The three companies of the three battalions were fighting for the combat mission to the battalion commander, and it was another verbal argument. The camera is still unstable, it's the unstable atmosphere of the battlefield. The shadow adjustment body is green, a little dark. Without the blessing of the filter, several company commanders and instructors appeared on camera, and you could even see the acne and scars on their faces, which was completely realistic on the battlefield.
After the meeting, there is a long shot: the three company commanders of the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Companies say goodbye, and the seventh company commander Liu Jialong (Liu Hui) and the instructor Li Yannian continue to discuss the war situation. This kind of dialogue between the marches is recorded in a follow-up method, taking the audience to enjoy the landscape and scenery of the battlefield.
Commanders and soldiers have one mouth, shandong, Shanxi, Hebei, and northeast dialects, and the southern and northern dialects highlight the five lakes and seas of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army. This series of combined punches is enough to transport the audience to the battlefield of North Korea 70 years ago.
In recent years, Chinese TV dramas as a whole have transformed into a realistic style, creating a typical environment and typical characters. The most representative work before is "Mountains and Seas", the shape of "gray head and earth face" and the authentic northwest rural tone, creating a strong sense of being in the ground.
Judging from the first two episodes, "Meritorious Service" still moves along this broad road, and in the limited space of the opening game, it lays the background of the story while creating an audiovisual immersion.
Similarly, this unit does not take the fantasy and tricky route in the narrative, but highlights the "no-wen and no-martial" and justified. It did not write the offensive and defensive battle of the 346.6 highlands as Li Yannian's personal myth, but from his point of view, it wrote out the "assist into the main attack" and the doorway of weak victory over strong, unexpected and reasonable.
Striving for the main offensive before the war is one of the externalized manifestations of our army's super combat effectiveness. The Seventh Company, which has always been good at gnawing hard bones, was arranged to play an assist this time, and Liu Jialong, the commander of the Seventh Company, naturally did not do it. However, the instructor Li Yannian did the opposite, directly attacking the essence of this battle, proposing the strategy of "assisting to fight the main attack", and untying the company commander's heart knot.
Li Yannian reversed the situation with three words and two words, and Liu Jialong proposed a strategy of fire reconnaissance, and the old pair showed extraordinary tacit understanding and wisdom. And then the situation developed as they expected, and a battle of preparation was fought with great success.
Chinese the People's Liberation Army was able to crush the Superior Kuomintang army in less than five years; the Chinese People's Volunteer Army was able to defeat the "United Nations Army" armed to the teeth under extremely unfavorable natural conditions and supply difficulties, relying on such countless brave and good-fighting commanders and fighters.
There is no need to exaggerate and deify their writing, but only needs to be faithfully recorded and accurately presented, which is singable and touching. The narrative technique and aesthetic style chosen by "Meritorious Service" are undoubtedly highly compatible with this theme.
The Great Founding War
The more time passes, the more we see the necessity of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea. The more the republic develops with each passing day, the more it reveals the great significance of this war of founding.
In 1950, the new China, which had not been established for a long time, was in ruins and waited to be revived. However, the "United Nations Army" led by the United States burned the war to the Yalu River. The US military landed at Inchon, forcing the Korean People's Army into a desperate situation step by step.
Sending troops to Korea is a full support for friendly countries that also belong to the socialist camp. At the same time, it is also a self-preservation act to avoid the UNITED States from pointing directly at China's borders and winning a strategic buffer zone. Strategically, this battle is imperative.
However, the U.S. military was an undefeated army since the twentieth century, and the United States had developed into the world's number one power in the two world wars. Whether our Millet Plus rifle can withstand the "United Nations Army" with advanced weapons, no one has a bottom in their hearts. And, how to end up once it fails?
This brings us to the strategic boldness of the first generation of leaders headed by Mao Zedong, and also to the combat strength of the frontline soldiers headed by Peng Dehuai. Punch a punch, so as not to have a hundred punches coming. We forced the Americans to sign an armistice without victory, earning a time dividend for China's peaceful development.
The Li Yannian unit of "Meritorious Service" uses a vivid story to explain the reasons and significance of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. The series tells the story of the transformation of deserter Anton Xiao (Sun Xikun).
In the face of war, some people want to rush forward, and naturally some people want to retreat. Little Anton clearly belongs to the latter. Before he became a hero on the battlefield, he first made a "dog bear" who escaped. It shook the hearts of the army so much that the seventh company commander wanted to shoot him.
Li Yannian did not defend him, but instead told a childhood story about Little Anton. He is a competent instructor who can make a clear picture of where you are coming from, no matter where you come from.
At this time, everyone knew what kind of kindness Zhang Erniu, the woman for whom Little Anton had escaped, was kind to him. The purpose of running away is to go home and see if there is anything wrong in Eryou's village.
A legitimate purpose may lead to wrong actions, and the role of political work cadres is to let the right purpose lead to the right action. Little Anton's move shows that the Attack of the Americans has threatened the security of China's border, and if it is not stopped, it is likely that the family is in difficulty and the country has no peace.
The significance of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea is self-evident. Li Yannian said loudly to the soldiers of the Seventh Company, "The motherland will remember us, our relatives will be grateful to us, it is we who let them live a peaceful and happy life, and it is we who let the enemy know that our country is incomparably strong and cannot be humiliated." ”
As the battle began, one comrade after another died in front of Little Anton, one second he was joking about drinking his happy wine, and the next second he was killed in a foreign country. The blood under the fire of the cannon made his soul tremble. This little child, who was protected by the comrades of the Seventh Company at every turn, grew into a warrior in an instant.
For the warriors, they cannot decide whether they live or die on the battlefield. But with their conviction of death, they ended the war in their own generation. With a fearless spirit of sacrifice, they won peace for the people in the rear and a peaceful environment for future generations to grow up.
This logic is embodied everywhere in "Nengwen Nengwu Li Yannian". Such writing is enough to awaken our reverence and remembrance of the martyrs, and to redouble our cherishing of the hard-won era of peace. As a literary and artistic work, it is a positive function and a positive force to feel the hearts of the people with historical narrative and gather the people's hearts and minds.
Colorful hero group portraits
"Nengwen Nengwu Li Yannian" writes about Li Yannian's weightlifting and whipping into it, and also writes about his bravery and tenacity and improvisation. It also wrote about Li Yannian's many comrades-in-arms, who had different looks and shone brightly.
What is rare is that "Meritorious Service" does not over-shout slogans, nor does it deliberately elevate, but relies on many details to touch the audience.
The note with the meaning of Chen Yanzong's (Ji Huanbo) name is a foreshadowing buried in the series. Chen Yanzong was an uncultured old man who couldn't even understand the meaning of his name. Others ridiculed his name as "perfunctory ancestor", so he had to find "Xiu Cai" Wang Yuwen (Shen Hao) to find out.
Xiucai explained that his name meant "marrying his daughter-in-law early and having more children", and he put the note written by Xiucai in his pocket and went to the battlefield, hoping that he would live up to his father's expectations of him.
Xiucai's battle log carries the honor and pain of the Seventh Company. He had never been on the battlefield, and after memorizing Sun Tzu's Art of War, he wanted to go into battle and kill the enemy. But war is not a child's play, and Li Yannian handed him the battle log, telling him that "being a hero is not so romantic, it is to be bloody and sacrificed."
This should be a character who can write a chapter similar to "Who is the Loveliest Man", whose pen will record the heroic deeds of the volunteer soldiers and spread them throughout the world, and his soul will be sublimated.
The seven companies reconnoitred their firepower before the war, on the one hand, in order to disturb the enemy's line of sight, on the other hand, to remove obstacles in advance for the follow-up attack. The minesweeper is a key step in this game. However, there was a crisis everywhere on the battlefield, and if one was not careful, the warrior Li Yuan stepped on the loose thunder.
The enemy patrol is close at hand, and the loose thunder under Li Yuan's (Liu Zixuan) feet is about to erupt. In a critical moment, Li Yannian could only put straw on him to cover his tracks. This was a helpless move, and the key was still to see if Li Yuan could hold out until the battle officially began.
It is difficult to stand still by stepping on a mine, not to mention accidents. As Li Yannian said, "Respect and trust are also combat effectiveness", under the guns of the enemy patrol, Li Yuan was shot in the abdomen and still did not say a word. It was not until the battle began that he was relieved to release the mines and die a glorious death.
This is a latent hero of Qiu Shaoyun's style. Such a story was not made up out of thin air, but really took place among hundreds of thousands of combat heroes in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. Many people buried their bones, but their names were spread.
In addition, Luo Houcai (played by Runo) and Han Dongnian (played by Li Yike) are also worth mentioning. The former was the "old backward" of the Seventh Company, who joined the ranks of the Volunteer Army after the Liberation War and spoke a northeastern dialect with a sense of joy; the latter was a well-known first-class gunner, and he was a divine weapon of the Seventh Company on the battlefield where bullets were to be used carefully.
These two people usually do not deal with each other. Luo Houcai ridiculed Han Dongnian's inferior marksmanship to Li Yannian, and Han Dongnian looked down on Luo Houcai, a surrendered liberation fighter, and this pair of "wrongdoers" cooperated tacitly when the battle broke out, directly smashing the heavy fire of the enemy's machine guns, and winning the victory for the Seventh Company.
This string of heroes is written down, there are tears, there are laughter points, hardcore is there, softness is also there. These details, which are either funny, or bloody, or warm, bring the unforgettable battle to the audience with an immersive sense of presence.
The touch needs to be revisited, the hero needs to be remembered, and this grounded, real, and detailed expression is undoubtedly more acceptable to the audience.
The Battle of 346.6 Heights, commanded by Li Yannian, had just begun. In the subsequent units, Yu Min (played by Lei Jiayin), Huang Xuhua (played by Huang Xiaoming), Zhang Fuqing (played by Guo Tao), Shen Jilan (played by Jiang Xin), Sun Jiadong (played by Tong Dawei), Tu Youyou (played by Zhou Xun), and Yuan Longping (played by Huang Zhizhong) will also appear one after another.
They are all meritorious figures who have been obsessed with one thing all their lives in different fields. Their struggle not only makes dreams come true, but also allows the country to make great progress.
As the main theme of "Meritorious Service" says, "A promising nation cannot be without heroes; a promising country cannot be without pioneers", this group of meritorious figures who have left a deep stroke in the golden years will not be forgotten by the people.
The narrative of the first unit of "Meritorious Service" has ups and downs, and the love is sincere, portraying Li Yannian's outstanding style. The legendary past of meritorious figures has just taken off a corner, and their magnificent and different lives are waiting for us to understand, and more ordinary and great heroic feelings are waiting for us to experience. The good play has just begun, and we continue to follow the play.
【Text/Li Xingwen, Pomegranate】