original title:
2022 National Day Movies: Writing Real and Ordinary Touches with Light and Shadow
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter Shen Jiequn Trainee reporter Yu Bingyue
The 2022 National Day film will hand over the “transcript”. A few days ago, the State Film Administration released data that from October 1 to 7, 2022, the box office of my country’s National Day movies reached 1.496 billion yuan. Among them, the box office of the film “Returning Miles” exceeded 1 billion yuan, becoming the box office champion of this year’s National Day file.
Among the National Day films this year, there are 3 feature films based on real events, namely “Homecoming”, “Ordinary Heroes” and “Iron Will”.
“Ordinary people”, “real” and “ordinary” are the key words of this National Day movie. There are also passionate heroes in ordinary life, and the feelings of ordinary people’s family and country bring the audience a deeper touch.
“Returning Thousands of Miles” reveals the behind-the-scenes behind the evacuation of Chinese diplomats. Director Rao Xiaozhi said that what impressed him most about this theme was the diplomats in the real evacuation incident. “They are ordinary people in life, fathers, husbands, and sons, but their duties require them to be on the front line.”
“I am very touched. Peace is so precious. Behind the stable life are the people who have given up silently. I pay tribute to them.” “I think the moving part of the film is that the characters are created with passion and simplicity, the characters are neither false nor empty, and the emotional handling is very restrained, which makes people truly feel the inner contradictions, entanglement, persistence and dedication of diplomats in critical moments.”
“Ordinary Heroes” is adapted from the true story of “Rescue and Rescue Boys with Broken Arms in Hotan, Xinjiang”. Director Chen Guohui led the team to re-walk the 1,400-kilometer rescue road, trying their best to restore every link in the 8-hour rescue process. Talking about the original intention of filming, Chen Guohui said: “Many people choose to stand up in the face of other people’s difficulties, not only because of their profession, but also because of their kindness and courage. I want to make a film with ordinary people as the protagonists. At the same time, it also shows the beauty and love of the real Xinjiang.”
“Iron Will”, adapted from real history, shows the historical process of the birth of the first molten iron in New China. Actor Liu Ye, who played the fighting hero and iron warrior Zhao Tiechi in the film, recalled that he was subjected to 3 kinds of high temperature tests during the filming. The first is the heat of off-season shooting. In the midsummer of July and August, the main actors need to wear thick cotton clothes to film the scenes in the cold winter and the twelfth lunar month; the second is the heat of burning the boiler. The actors sit in the steam locomotive and shoot, and the temperature of the furnace is as high as 70 degrees Celsius; Finally, facing the molten iron at 1500 degrees Celsius, “As soon as the gate of the factory is opened, a heat wave will push you down.”
Liu Ye sighed with emotion: “The earliest generation of Iron Man really paid a lot. At that time, the iron and steel plant was in vain, and the national defense and national construction needed steel very much. They really made steel by their own will, which is very remarkable.”
Han Xue plays the role of engineer Sun Xuefei in the film. In her opinion, “Iron Will”, under the main theme, delicately tells the inner feelings of people and how people grow up. How to make the audience accept a grand theme? In the end, it has to return to people and human nature.
Director Ning Haiqiang said that he hopes that the film will not only resonate with people who have experienced that era, but more importantly, let contemporary young people feel “the tone of our Chinese people back then”. “At that time, everyone used such hard work and energy to lay an important foundation for the national steel industry. The development of Chinese steel we see today is inseparable from the spirit of that generation.”