China Art News reporter Wu
What is dying for your country? This problem is actually very strange to people born and raised in peacetime. Although we have learned from textbooks since childhood, today's New China is the result of countless heroes throwing their heads and blood. However, it is difficult for us to really understand and appreciate the courage to die and the tenacity to stick to our beliefs. The film My Mother Zhao Yiman, which was released recently, gives a vivid and soul-stirring interpretation of the entries supporting the backbone of our nation with the choice of a loving mother and a beautiful young China woman in the national crisis and her tenacity in all kinds of terrible sufferings.
"Mom didn't fulfill the responsibility of education for you, it's a pity. Because my mother resolutely fought against Manchuria and Japan, today is the eve of sacrifice. Mom and you will never see each other again before they die ... mom doesn't have to educate you in a thousand words, but educates you in practice. When you grow up, I hope you don't forget that your mother died for her country! " "Dear my poor child! I am sorry about my mother's death, but it is my children who have no one to support me. After mother's death, my children will continue to struggle instead of mother and comfort her under the grave when they grow up! My child, dear poor child! Mother has nothing to say. My children study hard on their own, which is the mother's last glimmer of hope. " These are two suicide notes left by Zhao Yiman to his son Ning Er on August 2, 1936. There are thousands of words in the suicide note, which makes the viewer burst into tears.
"Many years later, including the Japanese executed that year, my mother Zhao Yiman didn't say a word during the whole process. However, as a son, I know my mother's pain. How I wish my mother could cry and shout ... "
The film My Mom Zhao Yiman has a very clever cut-in angle. From the perspective of a son recalling his mother, supplemented by his son's narrative, it shows another tragic beauty of the heroine. Qi Xin, one of the screenwriters, said that among the many materials about Zhao Yiman, the two suicide notes aroused her most interest, and the iron and blood tenderness shown in the suicide notes deeply touched her. She said that Zhao Yiman was as old as he is now when he died. As a mother, she also experienced the pain of being separated from her children for work, and Zhao Yiman died with her children. When writing Zhao Yiman, in order to make the contemporary audience understand, the screenwriter chose to tell the story from the perspective of Ning Er, which brought great freedom to the narrative. Director Sun Tie said that Zhao Yiman left us only two suicide notes and a photo with his son before going to the Northeast, which brought some difficulties to film creation. Connect the plot in the film with the voice of the son's words, so that there is more room for expression. Some background narration can be explained by voiceover, which also plays a very good role in expressing and conveying feelings.
Sun Tie also mentioned the old movie "Zhao Yiman", which was a little strange to everyone. 1950 Zhao Yiman, a feature film shot by changchun film studio at the beginning of the founding of New China, won the Best Actress Award at the 5th Kalovifari International Film Festival in Czech Republic. Sun Tie, who has watched this film carefully, thinks it is difficult to surpass the 1950 version of Zhao Yiman. Because those creators are close to the war years, the movies about the war are very good and shocking. However, the disadvantage of the 1950 version is that the creator didn't know much about Zhao Yiman at that time. They didn't know that Zhao Yiman had a son, and they didn't know that Zhao Yiman had written a suicide note to his son. When we understand this now, I think we should shoot "people". So we made great efforts to express our feelings.
Many places in the film show Zhao Yiman's deep affection for his son. When Zhao Yiman decided to leave Harbin for a guerrilla war in the northeast mountainous area, she realized what road she had chosen. She put the photo she had always taken with her in an envelope and sent it. When she came to the mailbox to prepare for delivery, she hesitated and seemed reluctant to send the photos away, but she finally put them in. She is a gentle mother. But facing the enemy, she is a strong China person.
Xiao Ye: "You are a woman and I am a man. It is not shameful for a woman to say that she is afraid in front of a man. " Zhao Yiman: "No, it isn't. I am from China, you are Japanese, and China people will never say that they are afraid of the Japanese. "
According to historical research, the Japanese army tortured Zhao Yiman in order to obtain information from Zhao Shangzhi's troops, and many punishments were unimaginable. But those Japanese soldiers will never understand why Zhao Yiman kept silent during the torture.