The creative background of dragon species

The "Cultural Revolution" from May 1966 to October 1976 caused the party, the country and the people the most serious setbacks and losses since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Dragon Seed is the first color feature film in Ningxia. The background of this film is just after the downfall of the Gang of Four, when the China film is on ice. At that time, because the two documentaries shot by the restored Ningxia Film Studio were well evaluated by the masses, the film studio came up with the idea of making color feature films. After selection, the Peking Opera art film Eighteen Arhats Teasing Wukong and the musical Mansour, which were not widely distributed, were excluded, and Dragon Seed was finally selected as the shooting blueprint.

Li Qingyue, a veteran of Ningxia film industry, said: "At that time, Shanghai film studios Xie Jin and Bi Likui came to Ningxia to make a thank-you film of herdsman. At a banquet, I heard Zhang Xianliang and Xie Jin talking about the adaptation of Dragon Seed into a movie. I have seen this novel in a magazine before, and it has been highly praised by the central leadership. The novel mainly tells the story of farm reform, which was very practical at that time, low in cost and easy to operate, and coincided with the opportunity, and changchun film studio also planned to make Dragon Seed into a movie. " Later, Li Qingyue simply went to changchun film studio with the writer Zhang Xianliang, hoping that they could help.

Comrade Wang Jiayi, the famous director who was then the deputy director of Changying, was very supportive after understanding the situation. He appointed director Luo Tai and deputy director Liu Shilong, and dispatched art and lighting personnel to assist Ningxia Film Studio in filming. Li Lao and Zhang Xianliang went to Beijing Film Studio to choose actors, with famous actors Guo Yongtai and Yu Pingping as the leading roles, and photography also came from Beijing Film Studio.

In order to cultivate film-making talents in Ningxia, Ningxia sent several people to take the positions of deputy director, assistant photographer and assistant artist, and Wang Wei and other actors were transferred from Ningxia Repertory Theatre and Ningxia Song and Dance Troupe to join the cast. The film was soon filmed in Lingwu Farm. In the meantime, writer Zhang Xianliang and director Luo Tai cooperated many times to adapt the novel into a screenplay. After experiencing such "interludes" as "the director storm" (Barghoorn later withdrew from filming because of the disagreement between directors Barghoorn and Luo Tai on the screenplay), "the heroine changed roles" (the actress Zhu Kexin withdrew due to illness during filming, and the deputy director Lu Shilong tried her best to invite Yu Ping to play the No.1 Muyushan after several twists and turns), "Dragon"

Because the theme of this film was a little sensitive at that time, the producers were afraid that it would not pass the film bureau. However, Shi Tian, the deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee and He Jingzhi, the then director of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee, had cut in line at the same place, and they were familiar with each other, so they got it to Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China first. He Jingzhi spoke highly of the film after seeing it, boasting that the producers were courageous. Thanks to Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China's recommendation, he successfully passed and instructed the amendments when he got the film reviewed by China Film Bureau. Immediately after that, I contacted Zhang Xianliang to go to Beijing, and made some local modifications and remakes to the film. "