"Heroes, when there is no war, are ordinary people." This line is the best portrayal of the Xinjiang Construction Corps. The stories of soldiers are not necessarily about war. Small stories of men and women in love can be equally moving.
"The Valley of the Ili River," is the embodiment of this thinking. 1951, the liberation of Xinjiang, 170,000 soldiers put down their guns, pick up hoes, and join the ranks of production and construction. "No wife can't settle down, no child can't put down roots." Under General Wang Zhen's consideration, tens of thousands of female soldiers entered Xinjiang in the early 1950s, and formed revolutionary partnerships with male soldiers, sticking to Xinjiang for the rest of their lives.
The movie uses this as a backdrop to depict the journey of our female soldiers as they integrate into the Cavalry Regiment, a formerly manly family, and find their other halves. Five female soldiers fall in love, each with their own characteristics, no blood and fire, no Mary Sue, but evocative.
Lu Hua, Wang Xifeng, and Xu Zuxiong, the head of the regiment, form a complicated love triangle. Xifeng is kind and has leadership qualities, and is the big sister in the hearts of the female soldiers. She and Xu had been in Shandong **** thing, both experienced the pain of widowhood, Xifeng came to Xinjiang soon, expressed the heart of love.
Lu Hua is the youngest female soldier, with a little childishness written on her round but not fat face. She is the younger sister of Xu's late wife, and in addition to her own adoration for Xu, she also has the idea of taking care of him for her late sister. Xu was in love with Lu Hua, but he read Wang Xifeng's name when he finally drew lots for her.
There are all sorts of speculations about the reason for giving up Lu Hua. Some people think that the chief was worried that the age gap would prevent him from giving happiness to the other, some think that the chief was burdened with a moral burden because Lu Hua was his sister-in-law, and Lu Hua's own speculation is that the chief was worried that he would be criticized for marrying the youngest female soldier.
But in any case, as a modern person, I find it hard to accept this kind of behavior, which is supposed to be the love between two people, but lost to too many concerns, which is not to be sighed at. He was brave and fearless on the battlefield, but he was timid when it came to his feelings, which did put a stain on the chief's image, but such contradictions also made the character more vivid and real.
Zheng Zhaodi, originally a member of the underground party, was transformed as a dancer because her handler was out of touch, and joined the People's Liberation Army to enter the frontier in search of her fiancé. The initial experience made her discriminated against, even if the lot caught her all balled up and thrown back, preferring to abstain. But she was lucky enough to meet Qiu Kefa, a man who loved her with all his heart and didn't care about her origins or what others thought of her.
Eventually she meets her fiancé, but she is determined to stick to Yili, and parted ways with him who insisted on going back to Shanghai, and Qiu Kefa started a new love that really belongs to her. On her wedding night, she ran 100 laps around the bonfire naked to express her wish for a hundred years of happiness with her lover. It can be said that this part of the love, is the most gratifying in the whole movie.
The most interesting couple in the movie is Xiao Yingchun and Zhang Dali. Zhang gets close to Xiao as soon as they meet, and then makes repeated advances; however, Xiao's response is very sharp: "Even if there were only two men left in the world, I would never marry you." When we all thought Zhang was destined to end up with a hot face, the face-slapping drama appeared: Zhang drew lots and caught another female soldier, Xiao burst into tears on the spot, scolding Zhang why he didn't catch herself, and then begged her comrades to let him have their husbands, so we finally saw the truth!
Maybe this is the reverse mechanism in psychology? Often times, people subconsciously make reverse statements in order to hide their emotions and minds. It's not uncommon in love, but when it happens to a big-hearted northeastern girl, it's unexpected, and all the more adorable because of it.
There's another couple that pushes both comedy and tragedy over the top: the only two pairs of glasses in the entire troupe - Wu Culture and Xueran. Wu Culture not only has the eloquence of a river, but also has a great understanding of music, and soon learns the local folk songs and dongbula; Xie Queran is well-mannered and talented, with the openness and understanding of a progressive young man, but also the courage to pursue love.
Their love developed very quickly and smoothly, so much so that when they stayed in the herdsmen's felt room, the kind of thing that happened, resulting in the quietly pregnant, Xifeng had to help them in the lot of the ghost, so that Wu will hide the note in the sleeve on the stage. Who would have thought that his hand shivered and the note slipped into the box, his and Xifeng's hearts were in their throats, and the theater went silent.
When Wu grabbed one with trembling hands and handed it to Xifeng, the latter also shivered and opened it. Fortunately, the fate of the three words "to solve the quiet" revealed, Xifeng loudly announced, quiet excitedly ran forward, Wu culture a moment to pick her up, the atmosphere of the theater also relaxed, many audience members can not help but applaud for them.
But the joke of fate is sometimes excruciating. In the rescue of his Kazakh friend Aiguli, pregnant quietly because of strenuous exercise collapsed in front of the camp, due to the rescue in time to miscarry, she herself due to blood loss and incurable. When she woke up for the last time, Wu culture and comrades tried their best to put on a happy face, lied to her that the child has been born, a moment after waking up to carry over. Quietly thinking she must have guessed that her comrades had lied to cheer her up, she excused herself, only telling her lover that she wanted to hear him sing a joyful song.
In the song of her lover and comrades, she closed her eyes peacefully and left everyone forever, leaving the land where she lived and fought. The language class always speaks of such a trope: to mourn the scenery against the sadness, more obvious its sadness. But in this scene, the contrast created by this happy scene against the sadness, but makes the grief more y rooted in the hearts of the people; if there is anything else that can make the grief more into a layer of words, it is to use the comedy for the tragedy to do the padding.
The movie is ordinary because it's about life and love, but it's great because it's about history. When the film appeared many times the PLA and the local minority compatriots *** with the labor, play together, learn from each other, my mind came back to the learned history.
The reason why Xinjiang is so remote is that the harsh climate of "spring winds do not pass through the Yumen Pass" has prevented many Han Chinese from settling there for a long time, and the ancient military cantonments could not last long, so the cultures of the ethnic groups did not mix, and there was a longstanding barrier between the Han Chinese and the Xinjiang region.
The Corps people went deep into the barren, sleeping in dens, facing bandits and wild animals, enduring fire and ice, and taking root there for generations, mingling with their minority compatriots. They brought advanced technology and culture, turning Gobi beaches into good fields and melting snow to irrigate farms. As a result, the people of Xinjiang and the people of the mainland are tightly linked together, and this land of intersecting nationalities can no longer be separated. Every scene in their lives is an indispensable picture in the history of China's national unity.
The whole movie is divided into several main lines, and there is no overly obvious core character. The youthful baby soldiers, old cadres, intellectuals, straightforward northeastern chicks, and reformed prostitutes who are burdened with discrimination and try to integrate, their stories are spliced together, which is the emotional journey of the first batch of mothers of the military reclamation in those years. Regardless of the category, they are all women heroes who have made indelible contributions to the consolidation of unity and national unity and the promotion of regional socio-economic development, and they are all equally great and lovable, and the creators have paid equal tribute to them.
It is true that "The Valley of the Ili River" is a little stiff in some places (more on that later), but I think its plot design is still quite remarkable. For example, in order to welcome the female soldiers, the officers and soldiers bathed in the river, but they met the female soldiers by chance, and the scene was awkward for a while, but at the critical moment a male soldier sang "Lift Your Cover", followed by other male soldiers, and then the female soldiers sang together, and the joyful songs floated in the river valley, and the awkward atmosphere became relaxed and happy all of a sudden.
In the final tearful farewell quiet scene, all of them sang the song again under the leadership of Wu Culture, recalling their initial encounter, echoing the beginning and the end, and setting off the sadness with music, which made this sentiment even more long-lasting. Again, Xifeng galloped after Xu Zuxiong, but could not catch up with him, while Lu Hua stopped in front of her, he directly picked her up, and Xifeng, who was chasing after her, had to stop her horse and silently shed tears on the sidelines.
Through this stark contrast, Xu's beloved is clear at a glance. This kind of treatment of the heart, in many other film and television works, may be the public announcement of "my true love is xxx", or simply the direct confession of the two people face to face, but in "Ili River Valley" through the scenario, reflecting the beauty of the literary innuendo.
A classic movie always leaves a lot of classic lines and dialogues. In Ili River Valley, from the leader's teaching to female soldiers: "When there is no war, heroes are also ordinary people", to Xifeng's "If she really loves that man more than me, I am willing to fulfill their love", and Lu Hua's discovery of the truth of the lottery and his relationship with Xu Zuxiong. After discovering the truth of the lot, Lu Hua's final dialog with Xu Zuxiong, "You have the right to reject my love, but you don't have the right to arrange my love! , not to mention profound and brilliant.
These bright lines exude the writers' understanding of the spirit of the times, as well as their understanding of love, and I can't help but admire the writers' writing skills.
The cinematography and music of the movie are also very powerful. The cinematographer has a good grasp of light and shadow, the magnificent scenery of the river valley, the cavalry regiment of ten thousand horses, the sweetness and coziness of passionate love, all of which are reflected; the music to match the scenario, some majestic, some joyful, some long, some heavy, aptly set the atmosphere, but also vaguely with the regional flavor. These create a sense of immersion, making the audience feel as if they were there, and adding a lot of infectious energy to the movie.
Some people have accused the movie of "blatantly" showing the distribution of marriages at the time, but I think this is not a blot, but a highlight. First of all, it is in line with the historical facts of the time, when female soldiers were mobilized into the frontier so that the soldiers could indeed put down roots. And, although the original policy was "introduction by the organization, exchange between the two sides, voluntary and legal procedures", the middle and lower levels did have a forced allocation in order to solve the problem quickly, as well as the phenomenon of casting lots in the film.
So the creative team did not avoid these facts in order to celebrate them, but boldly showed these inhuman phenomena. To falsify and erase all the events because they don't fit in with current values, and to make a movie that is only about simple righteousness and illusory romance and beauty, while deviating from the history that it pays homage to, is this the kind of historical sentiment that an artist should have, and is this kind of work still considered a work of conscience?
Of course, the movie is flawed. First of all, it's probably because of the time-controlled editing, which makes individual places seem a bit raw. For example, Lu Hua's transition from beginning to dislike the headmaster angrily to falling in love with him, as well as quietly becoming an instant companion to Wu Culture, with no buildup or explanation, is a bit jarring.
Secondly, the original story and screenplay mentions, "This casting of lots is a bonding exercise, and if people find that they don't fit after contact, they are not forced to do so." I think the movie would have been more acceptable to the audience and in line with the original intent of the policy at the time if this had been reflected in the movie (though perhaps filming it this way also affects the later episodes, such as Lu Hua's questioning of the head of the group at the end. Or maybe the director intended to criticize the excesses in the execution).
Additionally there are the details, such as the fact that the chief was actually the head of the regiment from '44 to the early '50s, which is unthinkable for a combat hero and a senior student who stayed in the Soviet Union. In the original, he studied and fought in the USSR throughout WWII, returned home in the Liberation War, and fought his way up from company commander to regimental commander, while his ex-wife, who studied with him, was killed in the Soviet-German war, which is a much better setup, in my opinion.
By the way, he studied in Voronezh is a middle and senior officer academy, so how he must be a battalion commander in China, so the school should also be changed to the basic officer school. But the flaws do not hide the fact that it touched me and brought me y into the plot for a long time, so this work is undoubtedly a success, if someone in the future when remaking or borrowing, can fill in these pits, perhaps like "Fang Hua", leading people to remember the past of the military reclamation in the revolutionary era.
Just as that civilian troupe in the southwest carried Liu Feng, Ping, Spike and their fang hua, the Ili Valley, the construction corps, also carries the fang hua of this group of people. They devoted themselves to Xinjiang and made indelible contributions to the economic development of the region and the consolidation of national unity and national solidarity. Mr. Jin Tao and Mr. Liu Fan would like to use this film to pay tribute to the most adorable people, and their faraway fame. It is true that some behaviors and concepts in the movie are not suitable to be accepted by today's people, but please always remember their contributions.