As the third generation of directors of Chinese films, why did Xie Jin become a palace-level figure in Chinese films, why did "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain" say that he asked about his own experience, what innovations did the military film "Garland Under the Mountain" bring, and what kind of artistic height did the famous reflection trilogy achieve him?
Xie Jin, formerly known as Xie Tian, is a Chinese film director, screenwriter and producer, and is known as a "legendary giant in the film industry". He devoted his life to the film industry, created many popular works, and made great contributions to the development of Chinese films. This article will review Xie Jin's film career, his creative style and artistic achievements. Xie Jin was born in an ordinary family and developed a strong interest in movies since he was a child. While still in school, he began to try his hand at making short films and actively participated in various film activities. After graduating, Xie Jin began his film career by working in a film studio.
Xie Jin's filmography has a distinct realist style, he pays attention to social reality, and depicts the fate of characters with real and delicate brushstrokes. His film works cover various periods, including "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", which reflects the Anti-Japanese War, and "Garland Under the Mountain", which reveals the social changes in the early days of reform and opening up. These works show Xie Jin's profound historical heritage and humanistic care. The name Xie Jin is an existence that cannot be ignored in the Chinese film industry. As a great director, he has brought endless innovations and breakthroughs to Chinese films, and with his unique perspective and deep insight, he has created many classic film works, which have deeply touched people's hearts.
Born in 1942, Xie Jin is one of the representatives of the fifth generation of Chinese directors. His filmography spans decades, spanning a wide range of genres and genres. His works are known as "the model of realist art", through the observation and criticism of social reality, revealing the complexity of human nature and the depth of social problems, as the third generation of film directors in New China, Xie Jin has won numerous film awards, the Public Award, the Huabiao Award, the Hundred Flowers Award and other film festivals of the artistic achievement award, the honorary award, but where he can count, he has won, many awards he has won many times, his works "Cradle", "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain", "Wrangler" and so on are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, became a classic of that era, so much so that some people say that if only one person can be selected to represent the Chinese films of the 20th century, then this person can only be Xie Jin, and it is because of his weight that when he died in 2008, half of the Chinese film industry went to see off Xie Lao.
In the summer of 1980, Xie Jin was full of spirit on the set of "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain", under the blowing of the spring breeze of reform, China was opening a vibrant era, and Xie Jin at that time used the main theme of emancipation to start the creation of "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain", but Xie Jin directed "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain" not only because the original author of this **, the old writer Lu Yanzhou, asked Xie Jin to guide, but also a kind of questioning of his own experience, and his repetition of a thorny road.
Xie Jin is a native of Shangyu in Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang has a drama called Yue Opera, very famous, in the 60s of the last century, Xie Jin took the Yue Opera in his hometown as the theme, and produced a film that reflected the fate of Yue Opera artists, called "Stage Sisters", unexpectedly because of this "Stage Sisters", he was criticized in the subsequent special era, and his artistic path was interrupted for a time. Because of this experience, when he read the script of "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain", Xie Jin was very excited, he felt that the encounter of the characters in the play was the epitome of himself and many relatives and friends around him, Xie Jin is a person who is very emotional, Xie Jin himself said: "After getting the script, I went back at night to open it to see him, cried all night, and was moved to tears, such a story should be filmed, or it would be a dereliction of duty."
So he decisively took on this movie, he hopes that through the tragedy shown in the film's story, it will lead people to look at the past objectively and rationally, and summarize the lessons of history. As far as the story of the movie itself is concerned, this movie is not easy to make, because "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain" is about the ups and downs and changes in the fate of many characters from 1956 to 1978, the first difficulty is that the story spans more than 20 years, and the time span is too large and it is not easy to perform; The second difficulty lies in the fact that the story tells the fate of multiple characters, and if it is not handled properly, it is easy to confuse the main story.
For Xie Jin, these are not impossible, he used more than 900 shots, through several representative characters, including the villain Wu Yao, the heroine Song Wei, Feng Qinglan and the male protagonist Luo Qun, with their encounters as the main line, with the changes in the emotions between them in the face of the world to string together the changes of the times for more than 20 years, this narrative technique can be said to be outstanding. "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain" can become a deep and excellent work, and it is inseparable from Xie Jin's rigor and sincerity of the movie.
There is a scene of pulling a cart, the scene in the movie where Feng Qinglan pulls Luo Qun forward with difficulty on a snowy night, which can be called the most classic scene in "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain", although the clip is not long, it allows the audience to never bow down in the face of life, and dare to adhere to this identity in the face of love has reached a high degree of resonance. After the release of this movie that year, seeing this scene, all the audience's eyes were wet, for this scene, director Xie Jin specially went to the Northeast to shoot, in the background of the environment at that time, he rarely went to the Northeast to shoot on the spot, and Xie Jin resolutely went to the Northeast to shoot, in the real snowy night environment at that time, the actor's emotional interpretation made this clip extremely touching.
In the winter of 1981, "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain" was released like a boulder falling into the water and stirred up thousands of waves, some people did not recognize the film, saying that this ** scandalized the image of the country, but more people think that "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain" is promoting truth, goodness and beauty, Xie Jin pursues and expects to express the people's wishes with a specific artistic image, in a heated discussion, "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain" not only won the Best Feature Film Award at the 4th Popular Film Hundred Flowers Awards, but also awarded the Chinese Film Golden Rooster Award, which has just been founded. The Legend of Tianyun Mountain" won four awards including the Best Feature Film and the Best Director Award, and at the first Golden Rooster Award ceremony, the award was presented to the famous playwright Cao Yu, and it was his former student Xie Jin who received the award.
Xie Jin later said that when he received the golden rooster from his teacher, he cried, not only because of the honor, but also because of his deep feelings, he deeply felt the audience's understanding of his creative intentions, as well as the expectations of the same type of movies, because of this, he also quickly devoted himself to the creation of another reflective work "Wrangler".
Wrangler is based on the writer Zhang Xianliang's short story ** "Spirit and Flesh", the reason why Xie Jin paid attention to this work was because this ** was very famous at that time, but he felt that his name was weird, when he read it carefully, ** said that he had been thinking about the issue of human nature and faith, and he immediately made up his mind to put this story on the screen. However, because the original work is a short story**, and the characters in it are not so plump, Xie Jin took the main creative team to the northwest of the motherland to collect materials, improve the script, and finally set the title of the film as "Wrangler" in order to fit the background of the story and the identity of the actor.
For "Wrangler", readers in the 80s can understand better, because it is the era of the older generation of parents, simple, simple, many things will not change if they are said, many people will not give up if they choose, the motherland is faith, love is also faith, poverty is unswerving, wealth is not lewd, and these are what are urgently needed in today's fast-paced era.
In 1982, the movie "Wrangler" was officially released, in this work, Xie Jin did not arrange the ups and downs of the plot, nor did he set up sharp and fierce contradictions, only used the real and touching artistic image of the hero and heroine, specifically and delicately portrayed the protagonist even if the situation is difficult, he is still attached to his homeland, and he loves the motherland. From "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain" to "Wrangler", Xie Jin uses philosophical lens language to outline a period of turbulent years, which has triggered a wide range of thinking from all walks of life. However, his speculation on history does not mean that Xie Jin is limited by the past, and he has always paid attention to the changing times on the land of China with his keen eye as an artist.
In 1982, the military writer Li Cunbao's "Garland Under the Mountain" attracted Xie Jin's attention, "Garland Under the Mountain" caused a sensation as soon as it came out, and many domestic film studios took a fancy to this work, hoping to put him on the screen. But no one expected that Xie Jin, who directed "Garland Under the Mountain" this time, did not take the route of a single protagonist in previous films, but ingeniously adopted the narrative of two male protagonists. is to let Zhao Mengsheng from a ** family and Liang Sanxi from a rural family make the film more impactful through a huge contrast between ideas and reality.
In the director's explanation, it is defined as a sublime tragedy, which is what sets Xie Jin apart from others, through innovation and change, to serve the theme of the film, but there is one thing he has never changed, that is, the story environment created by the film must be real.
On October 23, 1983, the film crew of "Garland Under the Mountain" was officially established after more than half a year of preparation, and two months later, the interior part of the film was basically completed, and the exterior shooting was immediately started, but where to shoot the exterior was not determined, at that time, the battle on the southern border of our country had not yet ended, and it was still filled with gunsmoke, Xie Jin decided to go to Nanxi, a border town in Yunnan, to shoot the exterior scenes, because the conditions on the front line were very sinister and very difficult.
At that time, they were only 1,500 meters away from the front-line position, and in the dead of night, the other side's engine, the drip and the voice of the voice could be heard, of course, they also knew what you were doing here, and some people were still watching from the trenches, and when the two sides were not fighting, they also looked at it, and the Chinese side was making movies, that is, filming on the front line, especially the scene where our army launched a general offensive, which is what we see now, in fact, the leaders of the military region approved 12 shells at that time, and then the staff officer said to the duty officer, it is a dozen shells, and an average of one second for a shell, so you only have 12 seconds when you shoot in real time.
Xie Jin added cameras to achieve the grand scene in the film that year, and Xie Jin transferred several more machines from Shanghai at that time, using a total of 7 cameras, shooting at the same target from different angles, and then editing the picture to have the effect of the later film. In addition to the cruelty of the war, "Garland Under the Mountain" also let the audience see another kind of surprise in military films, that is, in previous military films, the hero is a face-painted character, but in "Garland Under the Mountain", the hero is not perfect, Liang Sanxi left a bill in arrears, Jin Kailai loves to complain, Little Beijing has its own secrets, Zhao Mengsheng has a selfish side, each character has a distinct personality, but in the war, they grew up and honed, and finally became a wise and fearless warrior, In the eyes of the audience, this is the real flesh-and-blood soldier, and it is more real.
Therefore, with Xie Jin's superb artistic techniques, after the movie "Garland Under the Mountain" was released, it received rave reviews, and successively won the Best Feature Film Award at the 8th Popular Film Hundred Flowers Awards, the first prize for excellent feature films from the former Ministry of Culture, and other awards. Some people say that the film "Garland Under the Mountain" is like a majestic milestone, marking Xie Jin's footsteps with Chinese cinema, but Xie Jin is not satisfied with this, this film artist who dares to be the first in the world is still reproducing the tortuous footsteps of Chinese society through his works.
Furong Town" is another work that reflects on national history, the movie "Furong Town" is adapted from the childhood of writer Gu Hua**, which tells the story of the sixties and seventies of the 20th century, the encounter of several ordinary people in the tide of social change, the world is undergoing great changes, our country is undergoing great changes, all kinds of different new themes, new actions, due to the sensitivity of the subject matter, "Furong Town" reacts to the reality more sharply, and some people's thoughts can't be reversed, so there are many people who oppose or even criticize in the preparation stage, But in the face of criticism, Xie Jin was unmoved, in his opinion, whether the film is good or not depends mainly on whether the audience recognizes it or not, and in his past experience, as long as the film is related to the issues that the people are concerned about, such a ** is vital.
In the director's exposition in Furong Town, Xie Jin emphasized one word, that is, connotation, he said that he hoped that this film would not only have educational value, entertainment value, but also a reflective role. A small town in Yongshun County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province, Xie Jin took the stone street of the town as the main stage, and opened a sneak attack on human nature and anti-human nature, human nature is not easy to analyze, so after arriving in the town, Xie Jin did not start filming immediately, but let the actors first integrate into the life of the local people, the movie "Furong Town" experienced a lot of twists and turns before entering the theater, but after the release, it had proud achievements in the history of Chinese films, in 1987, a movie ticket was only a few cents, and that year's " The box office of "Furong Town" exceeded 100 million, not only that, but "Furong Town" also won the Best Story Award at the 7th Chinese Film Golden Rooster Awards, the Best Story Award at the 10th Popular Film Hundred Flowers Award and many other awards.
Later, because Xie Jin's "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain", "Wrangler" and "Furong Town" all have ideological connotations, these three films are known as "masterpieces of new Chinese realist films", and they are collectively known as "reflection trilogy". With the "Reflection Trilogy", Xie Jin became a palace-level artist in Chinese cinema in one fell swoop, and entered the history of new Chinese cinema. Xie Jin is a great director who has changed the face of Chinese cinema with his filmography. Through his realistic creative style, he allows the audience to gain a deeper understanding of social reality and the complexity of the human psyche. His works not only inspire and reflect on people's feelings, but also arouse people's love for art and life.
Although Xie Jin's career as a director has come to an end, his works will always remain in people's hearts. With his unique artistic expression and depth of thought, he has become a monument in the Chinese film industry. Xie Jin, this name will forever shine in the long history of Chinese films. Classics are classics