Recently, the official WeChat account of the China Film Archive stated that my country’s first anti-US aggression and aid Korea feature film "Shangganling" has received a "new life". It has been reproduced on the screen after exquisite 4K restoration and is expected to be screened in multiple cities across the country in the future.
The reporter learned that "Shangganling" was released on December 1, 1956, and the Douban score is still as high as 8.0.
Although the smoke of war has long since dissipated, the achievements of the heroes shine in the annals of history. For a while, this history and the stories behind related films have attracted widespread attention from netizens.
Yangtze Evening News/Ziniu News reporter Kong Xiaoping
"See the big from the small" focus on a tunnel and a company
As one of the few war films since the founding of New China, the movie "Shangganling" caused a sensation immediately after its release, and it is a generation's memory of watching movies.
The reporter saw that on Douban, under the entry of the movie "Shangganling", it was shown that 19,000 people had watched it, with a score of 8.0.
In history, the Battle of Shangganling was one of the most tragic battles in the entire War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. The U.S. military mobilized more than 60,000 troops, more than 300 artillery pieces, more than 170 tanks, and dispatched more than 3,000 aircraft. The two companies of the volunteer army were about 3.7 square kilometers. More than 1.9 million artillery shells and more than 5,000 bombs were poured out on the position of the United States. The two sides continued to fight for 43 days. The enemy and ourselves repeatedly fought for positions 59 times. Our army repelled the enemy more than 900 charges.
The revolutionary heroism of volunteer soldiers who regard death as home has made "Shangganling" synonymous with bravery and tenacity, and has since become the eternal spiritual highland of the people's army and the Chinese nation.
In 1956, with this battle as the theme, the black-and-white feature film "Shangganling" shot by Changchun Film Studio was released. This was my country's first anti-US aggression and aid Korean film. The film was adapted from the film literary script "Twenty-Four Days", telling the story of the battle of Shangganling. In the story, the Eighth Company of the Volunteer Army, under the leadership of company commander Zhang Zhongfa, stood firm and fought bloody battles with the enemy.
It is reported that, in order to experience life, the director led the film crew to North Korea before shooting to conduct field trips to the Shangganling battle. After that, he visited Shangganling twice and interviewed more than one hundred volunteer soldiers who participated in the Shangganling battle. One hundred thousand words.
The film does not "restore" the battle of Shangganling to the audience in a panoramic manner. Instead, it breaks through the frame of traditional war genre films and casts the film's perspective on a tunnel and a company in the battle of Shangganling, and uses the technique of "seeing the big from the small" to show the volunteers. The heroism of the commanders and fighters is indomitable.
Radio calls, squirrel catching and other bridge sections are still classic
In today's view, many classic clips in "Shangganling" are still bright spots.
For example, the radio calls between positions at that time were replaced by "Zhangzhuang" and "Lizhuang". When the outdoor movie was shown here, the children were the happiest and imitated them over and over again.
In addition, the intention of squirrels in "Shangganling" is also a classic that many people talk about.
In the film, during the rest scene of our army's underground tunnel, a little squirrel ran in, and the soldiers caught it and protected it.
Some film critics said that this squirrel's bridge segment is very valuable for movie intentions.
In the end, the battle of Shangganling won a decisive victory, and the little squirrel was also sent back to the forest. The squirrel was caught to show revolutionary optimism. This creative style was later inherited by many movies.
It is reported that, until the filming of the film, there was no idea of using squirrels to act.
In the original script, the design was to catch sparrows, and the sparrows flew into the cave, which aroused the interest of the soldiers, and everyone rushed to catch the sparrows.
However, in Korea at that time, due to the impact of the environment and the war just after the war, the sparrow was frightened and it was very difficult to find.
At that time, the war also destroyed the homes of squirrels. A large number of squirrels had nowhere to go. They ran around the scene of the filming, and the creative team immediately changed it into squirrels.
The only female character is a warm sun in the war
The only female character Wang Lan in "Shangganling" is played by Liu Yuru.
It is reported that after the keynote of the film was determined, the screenwriter Lin Shan entered the creation and completed the first draft soon, but he was still not satisfied. After seeing a report about the deeds of the volunteer soldier Wang Qingzhen in the Battle of Shangganling, he decided to add female nurses to the script. The image of Wang Lan.
In this way, the whole story immediately comes alive.
It is reported that Wang Qingzhen is one of many female nurses on the battlefield. She was responsible for more than 20 severely wounded people in 3 tunnels during the Battle of Shangganling.
Her daily duty is to fetch water, feed, injections and dressing for the wounded, and sometimes help the wounded to urinate and defecate. The hard work and hardship can be imagined.
But no matter how bitter and tired, Wang Qingzhen always has a bright smile, injecting vitality and vitality into the cruel war, and becoming a ray of warm sun for everyone.
In the film, Wang Lan singing "My Motherland" is also a classic moment
"A big river is wide and the wind blows the fragrance of rice and flowers on both sides..." The film episode "My Motherland" sung by soprano Guo Lanying has been sung for more than half a century and has become the emotional memory of every generation of Chinese people.
On CCTV Spring Evening in 2020, 90-year-old Guo Lanying once again sang "My Motherland", which moved all audiences on New Year's Eve, which became special this year due to the epidemic.
In the film, the 22-year-old Liu Yuru played the role of Wang Lan and sang many classic songs, such as "Nanniwan", "The Sky in the Liberated Area", etc., especially in the tunnels where food and medicine are lacking, and the instructor is seriously injured. At the moment when his life was dying, he said in a faint voice to the nurse Wang Lan next to him: "Xiao Wang, please sing "My Motherland" to me again!..." Looking at the chapped lips and longing eyes of the instructor, Wang Lan sang "My Motherland" with tears in his tears, and the soldiers sang along with them... This scene together with Wang Lan's beautiful figure became a classic scene in the film "Shangganling".
Exquisitely restored version of "Shangganling" brings immersive experience
According to media reports, in order to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Volunteers’ going abroad to fight the United States and Aid Korea, the China Film Archive organized a restoration team this year to carry out a 4K exquisite restoration of "Shangganling" in order to pay tribute to the heroic Chinese People’s Volunteers and the great spirit of resisting the US and aiding Korea.
It is reported that the quality of the repaired film is quite high, without dirty spots, scratches, jitter, and flicker.
In addition, due to the limitations of early recording technology, the original sound was monophonic, and the distortion was severe after digitization. Therefore, in the sound restoration, the team reset the sound to 5.1 channels, especially in some war scenes, Over-sounds and bomb explosions are all reset through modern dubbing technology, making the film a better immersive experience.
The most surprising thing is that the song fragment of "My Motherland" is being restored, and a combination of traditional restoration techniques and artificial intelligence coloring technology has been adopted to complete the conversion from black and white images to color images.
It is reported that in order to achieve a high degree of restoration, the restoration team rented some clothing from the volunteers from the props group. The colorist adjusted the color frame by frame for the last time. The short 6-minute video took three weeks.
In addition, they also used cameras to shoot military uniforms from different light ratios and angles, and created a training set for AI technology, so that the results of coloring after training are much ideal.