The sound creation of "Nanjing! Nanjing!"
In the works "Looking for the Gun" and "Kekexili", we have seen the young director Lu Chuan's awareness of change, so we are very interested in Lu Chuan's grasp of this time. For works with historical war themes, attention is particularly urgent.
After watching "Nanjing! Nanjing!", I was deeply impressed. In particular, the sound processing in the film is highly consistent with the theme and style of the film, which enhances the sensory experience in terms of audio-visual performance and makes the film's appeal more deeply rooted in people's hearts.
The movie "Nanjing! Nanjing!" is based on the "Nanjing Massacre" that really existed in history and has been shown on the screen and TV many times. It happened in China and shocked the world. The questions are very sensitive and challenging. The screenwriter deliberately avoids the perspective that has been used many times in film and television dramas before. 70 years after the real incident, he went against the norm and boldly used the perspective of an ordinary Japanese soldier who participated in the war as the enemy of the country where the film was shot - Japan. To describe this historical event is an act with the perspective of the times, and it also appropriately reveals a clue that the screenwriter's play is not just to reproduce events, but to reflect "human beings' right to survive" through events.
Personally, I think the film ultimately adopts a connected two-part structure for narrative. The first half of the paragraph mainly tells the story of Lu Jianxiong and other patriotic fighters who were members of the elite troops of the Nationalist Government after Nanjing was surrounded by the Japanese army. They resisted tenaciously and were eventually captured and brutally massacred. The second half is based on the cruel tug-of-war of humanity between the Chinese in the "safe zone" established by the German Rabe and the Japanese occupying forces, which finally led to the return of the Japanese soldier Kadokawa's humanity to the point where he "rescued people" and committed suicide. story.
The characters in the play are mainly from two aspects:
On the one hand, there are various typical characters representing the portraits of Chinese military and civilians: Lu Jianxiong, a woman who is not afraid of resistance, Jiang Shuyun, a dignified woman, and Mr. Tang, who is a man of human nature. , Strong Wife and Mother-Mrs. Tang, The Most Beautiful Sacrifice-Xiao Jiang, Dawn Hope-Xiao Douzi.
On the other hand are the Japanese who represent different attitudes towards war: the return of humanity - Kadokawa, the annihilation of humanity - Ida, and the tragic comfort - Yuriko.
The combination of these characters interprets a realistic war picture from the most basic individual units. In this film, the German Rabe is just an arrangement for the background of the event, without much description.
Personally, the sound style of the entire film is based on a documentary style, with exaggeration, and combines subjective music and emotional music styles. Compared with the first two films directed by Lu Chuan, "Looking for a Gun" and "Kekexili", in terms of the completely documentary style of "Kekexili" and the prominent subjective sound style of "Looking for a Gun", the sound of "Nanjing! Nanjing!" is "brought into the film" The documentary-style sound processing is highly unified with the black-and-white documentary-style handheld photography style. This kind of audio-visual expression is reflected in almost all narrative passages in the film, while most of the lyrical passages are "unintentionally" revealed. way, to match the emotional subjective music.
The overall sound processing of the film has a large dynamic range. The deafening sound of gunfire and the use of percussion instruments mainly "drums" throughout the film, together with the small amount of dialogue in the film, form a volume A sharp contrast in levels. As a result, when I was watching the movie, the girl sitting next to me would unconsciously "watch the movie with her hands covering her ears" every time she saw a fierce and violent war scene.
Through relevant information, we learned that the simultaneous recording of the movie "Nanjing! Nanjing!" was mainly used in the dialogue of the film. Some Japanese actors' dialogue was completed in post-dubbing, and the post-sound production was done by Beijing Yijing Digital Technology Co., Ltd., and the music in the film was completed by Beijing Tiansing Sound Field Cultural Development Co., Ltd., and was finally mixed at the new digital production base of China Film Group. Because the entire film has relatively little dialogue content, a large amount of sound processing and production was completed in post-production. The new technical equipment and talents of the new China Film Group Digital Production Base ensure that the film's sound production and final mixing are Excellent quality and production cycle.
The final screening copy of the film uses the sound recording method of "Dolby Digital Surround Sound" of the American Dolby Company, which is a digital surround sound recording method certified by Dolby Company. It ensures the artistic and technical requirements of the film’s sound quality, sound field positioning, sound space, sound reproduction and other aspects.
In terms of the sound of the film, because of the particularity of the subject matter, the film has ample room for sound design. The war theme itself provides a possibility of expression in many aspects such as region, space, humanities, performance, effects, dynamics, emotions, etc.
In terms of language and sound design of the film, three languages ????appeared, namely Japanese representing the occupying force Japan, English of the German Rabe and his assistants, and Chinese of the Chinese. The Chinese language includes Nanjing dialect, which has strong regional characteristics, and standard Mandarin spoken by several characters. At the same time, there are also content that matches the film’s narrative, with people of different nationalities speaking languages ??other than their own. For example, Mr. Tang's English dialogue, Japanese dialogue; and the simple pronunciation of English and Chinese by individual Japanese. Full consideration of these elements has been well restored from the reality of the event.
Especially the typical Nanjing dialect of Mrs. Tang, Xiao Jiang, Tang Xiaomei and others in the film. In terms of language sound design, the location of the incident is reasonably reflected realistically through the characters' lines and dialogues. The Japanese characters in the film, played by real Japanese, also use authentic Japanese dialogue very well to reflect the film's attitude towards realistic sound and language processing. At the same time, Jiang Shuyun's standard Mandarin is also consistent with her character's identity as a teacher. Some details in the film, such as the Chinese accents of Lu Jianxiong and individual National Government soldiers when they blocked the Nanjing garrison from leaving the city, the dialect and grammar used by Mrs. Tang and the citizens when they played mahjong in the safety zone at night, Tang Xiaomei singing Yue Opera a cappella, etc. They are all rich in strong regional characteristics and real life quality.
The tone expression of the actors’ lines and dialogues, which is closely integrated with the narrative rhythm of the story, also plays a very positive role in promoting the realism of the narrative in the emotional expression of different paragraphs and characters throughout the film. For example, the intense scene starting at 17:20 seconds in the film, in which the Chinese resistance forces ambush a Japanese patrol team, the intense verbal dialogue in the panic of the ambushed Japanese soldiers, and the tense and concise dialogues of the Chinese resistance forces, are very important to the combat scenes described in the film. It fits the atmosphere closely and makes the fierce and tragic resistance scene realistic and shocking. Another example is the scene at 45:00 seconds in the film when the Japanese are chasing Chinese soldiers and civilians outside the safe zone. Jiang Shuyun’s line of shouting “Go back to the tent, quickly..., go back to the tent” also plays a role in the atmosphere of the scene and the emotions of the characters. , played a vital role.
The sound design plays the most critical role in the film’s sound. The film's themes, scenes, movements, machinery, environment, details, effects, styles, etc. are all fully reflected in the sound design of this film.
In terms of environmental space, for example, the long shot of Kadokawa outside Nanjing in the opening scene is a reflection of the environment in an outdoor open space. The deafening sound of tank engines and tracks slowly moves over the head from the right to the left. On the other hand, it intersects with Kadokawa's scheduling movement, and explains the entire environmental characteristics of this scene from the sound shape. The audio-visual method is simple, but the effect is clear.
Starting from the 10:55 second of the film when the Japanese patrol team pushes open the wooden door of the church, the film takes us into a larger enclosed space. In this larger "empty" environment, it is appropriate to The appearance of sound "reverberation", "delay" and "reflection" effects achieves a real spatial environment reflection with the visual environment, bringing the audience into a serious and terrifying atmosphere. In terms of sound processing that matches the scene of the lens, the sound also has a clear sense of distance and depth. The sound is very close in the close-up shot, while the obvious reverberation and delay in the large panorama create an auditory spatial scene. Don't feel it.
When Kadokawa received the order and rushed out of the church to call for reinforcements, although Kadokawa’s shouts also had echoes, they were obviously different from the effects inside the church. The spatial difference between the two shots was Provide a reasonable connection in sound. The "wind box alarm" sounded by the reinforcements who arrived later, and in the scheduling of camera movement and actor movement, the sound direction of the "wind box alarm" produced obvious changes in volume level, movement, and distance in the spatial position. The sound modeling creates spatial characteristics beyond the limited screen.
The most intense war scene in the film occurs from the beginning of the film at 17:20 seconds to the end at 21:00. This highly realistic war scene fully demonstrates the film’s sound design skills. place.
The sound processing of this video is very shocking. The dynamic range is so large that only in the theater can you truly feel the visual and auditory shock of this clip. It is certain that the current audience has almost no real experience of being on the battlefield, and has no reference to the actual listening experience of the shooting sounds of tanks, mortars, and rifles, but they can fully experience this 4-minute war scene and be immersed in it. Experience the atmosphere of an intense battle to the death. If compared with the war scenes in Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan", in terms of sound effects processing, I feel that the sound processing of the war scenes in "Nanjing! Nanjing!" is even more exaggerated and slightly out of touch with documentary. mean. Every gunshot is like an explosion at different distances in the ear. The sound is short and explosive. The direction and distance of the gunshot are very clear; the bullet hits the wall, the ground, the helmet or the human body at high speed, and stray bullets and explosion debris are scattered. , are all clearly identifiable; the differences in the shooting sounds of weapons of different calibers are reflected, all the motion effects are highly consistent with the content presented in the picture, and the overall frequency distribution is very clear, with rich distribution of high, middle and low frequencies, and the sound The sense of distance and direction are very clear, mixed but not chaotic. In terms of the dynamic range and volume level processing of the character's lines and motion effects, the sense of volume of shooting and explosions is highlighted, and the character's lines are drowned out by the use of motion effects, creating a great sense of oppression and fear.
As the scene and the camera gradually get closer, the details and distance of the sound also deepen. The camera shuttles through this ruined semi-enclosed space, capturing the most representative of this chaotic scene at an extremely close distance. Every image and performance of sex. For example, Xiaodouzi pulls out the bullet from the bullet chain, rotates the bolt of the rifle to load the gun, pulls out the safety cover of the grenade and the gunpowder burns, and the bullet continues to fly after penetrating the target and hits another object. Very short continuous sound effects , all of which are extremely textured and enrich the authenticity of this intense scene through sound details.
What is impressive is that at 19:17 seconds, two Japanese soldiers broke through and rushed under the building where Lu Jianxiong was hiding to prepare for a sneak attack. Lu Jianxiong hid behind the wall and threw down two grenades, then turned and quickly walked towards the stairs. The Japanese soldiers who were stunned by the grenade raised their guns and shot. In this narrow space, the huge air energy released by the explosion of bullets and gunpowder drives the air in the stairwell to produce violent vibrations, and this vibration is suppressed in the small space shielded by the hard wall. In terms of sound transmission, the two shooting sounds of "bang" and "bang" are quickly reflected multiple times in this space in a very short time, with high-speed tremors, forming a very realistic blocked explosion sound effect. It can be said that only the sound effects engineer's understanding of the space environment and prop characteristics has reached a very high level, and he can achieve this unforgettable minute detail in such a profound way.
In the close-up tracking shots, the scattered secondary sounds in the background also try their best to expand the space of the scene. Even if you don't see it, you can still feel the space and background battle going on through the sound transmission.
Combining the above aspects of sound processing, combined with documentary techniques such as hand-held follow-up shooting and close-ups, coupled with the actors’ wonderful performances, this epic story of the Chinese military and civilians’ rising resistance is captured. Exciting!
The entire film "Nanjing! Nanjing!" does not have much music space, and is "ambushed" and "scattered" throughout the film. When watching a movie, including the fade-out picture at the end and the emotional soundtrack after the subtitles appear, they all unknowingly stir up the emotions of the viewer. In terms of music creation and design, the most impressive thing is the drum performance that appears intermittently throughout the film. The use of drums also echoes the deep psychological implications of shock and awakening in the film, and carries the theme of the past. In the entire narrative from Kadokawa's perspective, the complex psychological role of Kadokawa changes emotionally during the events he personally experiences.
In most of the previous parts of the film, the use of drums is presented as subjective emotional music. Most of them are combined with the miserable scenes of killing to form a sound-picture counterpoint, oppressing and suffocating, and driving people's emotions. The heartbeat is tense, exciting, and angry. At the end of the film, at the celebration of the Japanese occupation of Nanjing, the performance of drums appeared as an objective and realistic music form. It was said to be a celebration, but in fact it was the Japanese army paying homage to the soldiers who died while occupying Nanjing. The ceremonial giant drum brings an unverified memorial dance form, and the weird movements of the Japanese soldiers, including Kadokawa, form an audio-visual performance of sound-picture counterpoint with the drum sound that resounds in the sky, which is obviously ironic and expresses This reflects the director's reactionary intention towards the celebration of the Japanese army, and another meaning is that this shocking drum beats Kadokawa's already confused heart at all times, and this state continues below with even more rapid drum music. , in the long shot of Kadokawa struggling to carry the drum set from above, a clearer audio-visual expression is obtained. We can hear the vibration of his soul from Kadokawa's wide eyes.
Some of the deficiencies in the sound of the film are limited to my intuitive feeling about the sound processing of the film and do not serve the purpose of objective evaluation. I will not discuss the work here. Taking into account all the sound elements of the film, "Nanjing! Nanjing!"'s film sound design and production, music creation and comprehensive mix synthesis are quite excellent. In Chinese-language films, there are amazing performances both artistically and technically.
;