In 1986, the area near the Wusong Fort ruins in Baoshan District, Shanghai was quite desolate.
Not only are the areas around the fort overgrown with weeds and rarely visited, even the wide Yangtze River estuary is rarely visited by ships.
Only occasionally can you see a few large warships passing quickly.
As for the Pudong riverside coastline across the river, within a radius of several miles, there is a vast wilderness.
Except for a stone pier that can barely accommodate fishing boats, there are flat beaches everywhere.
However, the natural scenery is quite beautiful.
Underneath the stall are overgrown with water plants and reeds.
There are many unknown birds hiding deep in the reeds and singing softly, and their chirping sounds are endless.
There are also some beautiful and light geese flying low and patrolling in search of food.
The branches and leaves are swaying, the water is rippling, and occasionally wild ducks fly out from the water plants.
Or split the water surface, plunge down with a sudden thrust, and see you again as a black dot in the distance.
When you get close to the water, if you look carefully, you will see small fish the size of grains swimming in the water in the reflection of the reeds.
If someone hadn't destroyed the tranquility here, they would have built a lot of construction work here and dug ditches and built up soil.
There is a high probability that this situation will remain here.
As for those who suddenly broke in and changed everything, they were the crew of the movie "Li Xianglan" who went south.
The shooting plan formulated by director Yoshitaro Nomura is as follows.
Here, in addition to filming the "August 13" Incident in 1937 during the day, before the fall of Shanghai, local fishermen had to take their families and fled to the city of Shanghai in panic to escape the war.
And the Japanese army brigade followed, occupied this place, and fought fierce battles with the Shanghai and Hainan defenders across the river.
At night, it was necessary to film a highlight scene of Keiko Matsumoto - the scene in which she plays Li Xianglan singing for the labor force.
It is worth mentioning that this plot is not fictional.
It comes from Li Xianglan's autobiography, a past event that left a deep impression on her.
In 1937, when the Japanese invaders went south to attack Shanghai, a Japanese army brigade transported by warships landed near Wusongkou and fought across the river with the Shanghai defenders to capture Wusongkou.
Since we had been fighting for two days and still couldn't take the enemy, we wanted to boost morale.
The person in charge of "Manying" received an order from the Japanese military headquarters and forcibly brought Li Xianglan to the front line to perform for the labor force.
In order not to expose the Japanese position, Li Xianglan sang a cappella at a suppressed voice.
The venue where she performed was also very simple, a simple stage built with sandbags in the wilderness not far from the trenches.
At that time, in addition to the natural starlight, there were only two weak lights placed at the feet to illuminate her, barely allowing the soldiers to see her.
Needless to say, according to the requirements of the Japanese military headquarters and the person in charge of "Manying", the song Li Xianglan sang must be a song to encourage the morale of the soldiers.
But Li Xianglan is also half Chinese, so when she thinks of her adoptive parents and Chinese classmates and friends, her eyes blur with tears.
Halfway through the song, I couldn't help but sing a Japanese folk song, expressing my feelings of homesickness and war weariness.
What was even more unexpected was that after singing, many Japanese soldiers started singing along with her.
But such a situation is obviously not conducive to the morale of the troops in the war.
As a result, a Japanese commander in the army brigade became furious and stood up angrily. He expressed his indignation and dissatisfaction to Li Xianglan on the spot.
But just when he was looking fierce and wanted to get into trouble with Li Xianglan, his whereabouts were revealed due to too much movement.
As a result, the Shanghai defenders discovered that something was wrong here, and fired several rounds of artillery shells from the other side, killing the colonel and many soldiers on the spot.
Fortunately, Li Xianglan escaped unscathed, but she was also blamed for killing the Japanese colonel and Japanese soldiers because of this incident.
Not only was he severely reprimanded by the Japanese military headquarters, but he was also punished by the top management of "Manying".
Therefore, in order to shoot these important shots here, it reflects the evil of war that destroys human nature.
The crew also invested a lot of money.
The art team not only had to spend time building a small fishing village including four or five farmhouses.
It is also necessary for the gunsmith of the pyrotechnics team to prepare enough guns and ammunition, and the pyrotechnician will do the special effects of the close-range explosion of the shells at the performance site.
They also jointly arranged gunfire and smoke from the two warring parties across the river at night. It was expected that after burying the fuses, hundreds of bombs would be exploded.
In addition, the crew also spent money to hire almost two battalions of extras through its partner, Huhai Production Company, to play the roles of Japanese soldiers and Shanghai defenders.
In addition to the more than 200 crew members, the total number of people can be more than 1,300, which is quite a big scene.
But what needs to be explained clearly is that it was because I was working in the field, and this was a time when the economy of the Republic had not yet developed.
The shooting conditions here are quite backward and difficult, and neither material supply nor transportation conditions are adequate.
To put it bluntly, it’s to the extent that even if you have money, you can’t buy anything, so there are many shooting obstacles that shouldn’t have arisen.
For example, the generator originally brought by the Japanese staff broke down.
And they needed help from China to provide a generator, but it was delayed, so they couldn't shoot night scenes and scenes on cloudy evenings.
In addition, this place is in the outer suburbs of Shanghai and is far away from urban hotels. It takes more than two hours to drive back and forth every day. It is also a wild area, so it is not easy to transport anything here.
So all this has delayed the filming progress. Many people in China and Japan are anxious and anxious about the filming of this big scene. It can be said that morale is seriously low.
Like director Yoshitaro Nomura, although this old man is mainly worried about the problem of lack of electricity.
But in fact, his body is the biggest hidden danger that affects the shooting.
Since filming "Dangerous Woman" in 1985, this old man has suffered from cardiovascular disease and needs to take medicine regularly every day.
In addition, he is really old and his body cannot withstand high-intensity work, so he needs a relatively quiet environment to have a good rest. Therefore, this kind of outdoor working environment directly poses a serious threat to his health.
If he was really tired and fell down, or was sick with anger, then everything would be over, and how could the movie be made?
The Japanese gunsmiths and pyrotechnicians were also troubled by the "guns and ammunition" provided by the Shanghai Film Studio.
Although this batch of props is large in quantity, with hundreds of them, the quality and type are not satisfactory.
Many guns are wooden guns, simply painted with a layer of black paint.
Moreover, there are actually a batch of Soviet-made AK47s and Colt revolvers that are inconsistent with the historical background.
These things cannot appear in close shots at all, otherwise they will be confusing.
It can only be used to make up the numbers, when shooting a large panorama or when people are far away from the camera.
The only ones that can really be put to use are a few machine guns, hundreds of Type 38 carbines, dozens of Mauser rifles and tortoise boxes, and a dozen sabers.
In the eyes of the Japanese prop masters on the crew, this was just like a joke.
So the Japanese gunsmiths and pyrotechnics had a dispute with the person in charge of docking props at Shanghai Studio.
In fact, it’s no wonder, don’t look at Japan’s short skits in which Superman fights little monsters, which have always been famous for being shoddy.
But when it comes to Taikawa dramas and war themes, the Japanese really work hard and are willing to spend money.
What's more, the film is an anti-war theme. People want to use this film to reflect on themselves and express the crimes of the war of aggression against China.
This is a very serious matter, how could you be willing to make it into a drama?
But then again, these things are indeed the bottom-of-the-line stuff of Shanghai Studio.
But then again, these things are indeed the bottom-of-the-line stuff of Shanghai Studio.
No way, under the current domestic environment, film studios are really poor.
To put it bluntly, with half of these guns, Shanghai Film Studio produced a movie called "Reconnaissance Crossing the River" that year.
From their perspective, they certainly felt that the Japanese were deliberately looking for trouble and making things difficult for them with unreasonable demands.
So over this matter, the Japanese and Chinese staff got into trouble, and there were big differences between the two sides in terms of cooperation.
If you can't always coordinate well, it will definitely affect the smooth progress of the shooting.
There is also the issue of eating, drinking and diarrhea. It may seem like a small matter, but in fact it has a greater impact on "military morale".
If nothing else, let’s talk about water first. In mainland China in this era, except for star-rated hotels, bottled water is rarely available.
Given the economic level of the Republic, ordinary people still think that spending money to buy plain water is a very uneconomical thing.
Water pipes are everywhere, why can’t we quench our thirst?
What's more, even in star-rated hotels, the only bottled water available is "Laoshan" produced in Qingdao.
The ones with the red label are not breathy, the ones with the green label are breathy, and there is also a snake water with an extremely "overbearing" taste.
That's just three options.
And because it is not packaged in plastic bottles, it is packaged in glass bottles.
It is extremely inconvenient to carry it out, and it cannot be opened without a screwdriver.
Therefore, the problem of drinking water for these thousands of people is a huge problem.
The ten large enamel bottles of boiled water that were brought with the crew's car were so stuffy for a long time that they had a strange smell.
The key is that on such a hot day, everyone can only take one teapot at most.
But everyone has to shoot here from morning to night, which lasts for at least ten hours. How can people live like this?
The same goes for eating. The conditions for outdoor shooting are not very good, so meals are provided by the cafeteria of Shanghai Film Factory.
The rice is just boiled rice, without flavor or flavor.
The dish is just stir-fried green vegetables with a salted egg. Japanese people also have a little special treatment, and they have some extra smoked fish.
But the Chinese people in the mainland, including the extras who assisted in the filming, are all vegetarian.
The key is that the taste is almost the same, but the quantity is still small.
Even the Japanese don't have enough to eat. You can imagine how the Chinese staff feel.
So not only the Japanese are dissatisfied, but also the Chinese staff are complaining.
Under this situation, the person in charge of the Chinese side who was responsible for the logistics support became a street rat that everyone yelled at.
Unfortunately, he had no choice. Even such standards were far beyond the guarantee capabilities of Shanghai Studio.
As a result, he could only pretend to go back to the city and think of a solution, but in fact he just ran away.
However, compared with eating and drinking, the problem of diarrhea is more fatal.
Everyone knows that there are no toilets here, so you have to relieve yourself outdoors.
It’s just a man, the “tool” is simple and the operation is not complicated.
But women are in big trouble, especially Japanese staff who are extremely private and live a delicate life.
Of course, that doesn't mean that they never had such situations when filming on location in Japan.
However, actors of Keiko Matsumoto's level usually have RVs available for use.
Moreover, the crew also has a large amount of sawdust so that the Japanese personnel can use it to cover the area after going out in the field to reduce odor and help nature "purify".
But the problem is that Chinese people don’t have such a habit.
What's more, there are more than a thousand people who can't even guarantee basic food supplies, so they can't use such extravagant methods.
The actual situation that resulted was that the scene was very disorderly.
The shooting location is surrounded by plants’ good friends—natural fertilizers donated by thousands of people.
I don’t even know which of them were so incompetent that they secretly used several rooms used for filming as toilets.
Even the last few rooms in some farmhouses were sneaked into, leaving excrement behind.
The stage manager went in to get something, then came out cursing and looking ugly.
So don't just walk around casually if you don't say no, otherwise you will step on someone.
Let’s just talk about the smell. It’s hot and a gust of wind is about to blow. It’s really exciting.
This is not the Japanese invaders entering the village, but the pickling ghosts.
So think about it, under such conditions, it would be uncomfortable for Matsumoto Keiko to stay here, waiting for filming.
Her treatment is undoubtedly the highest, but the hardware conditions cannot be changed.
At most, I only have more parasols and more water to drink than others.
She couldn't avoid the stench, so she could only rely on her own perfume to relieve it, but spraying it too much would also attract mosquitoes, so there was nothing she could do about it.
In addition, she was still suffering from the bitter summer and was a little acclimatized. She couldn't eat at all in such a harsh environment.
No matter how attentive the assistant she brought was, she couldn't make her favorite lemonade.
Unfortunately, the toilet conditions made her afraid to drink water. Occasionally she had to go to the toilet and had to drive two miles by car.
So she only worked here for two days, and she lost a lot of weight.
That's not all, she just memorizes her lines and concentrates on her performance.
I also have to worry about Nomura Yoshitaro's health and worry about the relationship between the Japanese and Chinese crew members.
After all, she is still an investor and a producer. Compared with the past when she was just an actress, it is really not as tiring.
It is also for this reason that during the Obon Festival a few days ago, according to Japanese custom, the crew also took several days off.
But she couldn't leave. There was no way she could fly to the capital to meet Ning Weimin according to her own wishes.
He was forced to stay in Shanghai and accompany the director to meetings with people from the Shanghai Film Studio to discuss all aspects of the film.
I still have to find time to accept invitations from Shanghai-based cultural groups and deal with media interviews.
This is the price you have to pay for those with different statuses!
Frankly speaking, this is almost the time when Matsumoto Keiko is at her most psychologically fragile.
Although she could talk to Ning Weimin every night, she still missed her lover extremely.
In the irritating cicada's voice, looking at the bright sea water, she couldn't help but feel aggrieved, and she felt sincerely.
China is so big. Although they are in the same country, they are so far apart.
And the transportation is too inconvenient.
If this were in Japan.
Even if one of them is in Tokyo and the other is in Osaka, they can meet each other in two or three hours by taking the Shinkansen.
How good that is!
The result was so amazing, perhaps because the sigh in her heart was too plaintive. It was as if God heard her wish and actually made a miracle happen... ()
