Photographer Li Cun

In China's film history, there is a unique term called "Old Three Wars", namely "tunnel warfare", "mine warfare" and "fighting in the south and fighting in the north".

Among them, for most people, tunnel warfare is the most familiar one. In addition to a large number of copies (3,700 copies) and a large audience (more than 3 billion people), the film also has two classic episodes, among which the theme song "Tunnel Warfare" of the same name is simply a regular track of the annual chorus competition.

There are also many stories about "tunnel warfare", and the author will restore the screenshot of the HD version through color.

First, the shooting background of tunnel warfare

Strictly speaking, tunnel warfare is not a serious film, because it is actually a military education film, mainly used for teaching. 1963, due to the change of the world situation, Bayi Film Studio received the task of shooting the military educational film "Tunnel Warfare".

Generally speaking, military educational films are very professional videos. For example, Xudong Ren, a famous director of military education films in Bayi Factory, has made such military education films as Ban Attack, Pai Attack and Lian Attack. So why did the tunnel warfare finally make a movie?

On the one hand, it has something to do with director Xudong Ren. 1939 Veteran who joined the army, 1955 filmed China's first military education film with a story, Border Guard. This film has changed the boring problem of military educational films and become lively and interesting. Although it caused some controversy, it finally won the film award of that year, so Bayi Film Studio began to produce military educational films with stories.

On the other hand, it is also related to the dystocia of the script Tunnel Warfare. This military education film was co-produced by Bayi Factory and the Engineering Corps Art Troupe. The intermediate light script has been written for more than two years, but not by three people. One month before shooting, there was no way out. The superior gave Xudong Ren "privilege", so you can shoot without a script. There was no script when you were fighting.

In this way, Xudong Ren got more room to play. He is good at making military movies with story lines, and he made tunnel warfare into a classic movie.

Second, the prototype village of tunnel warfare

At present, the more famous "tunnel warfare scenic spots" are in Ran Village, Hebei Province and Jiaozhuanghu, Beijing. In fact, the total length of tunnels in the central Hebei plain has reached more than 10,000 kilometers. They are scattered in more than 8,000 villages in central Hebei, but for a long time, the original tunnels were rarely preserved.

When collecting materials, he went to Gaoping village instead of Ran village. Gaoping Village is a famous "Anti-Japanese Pioneer Village" in central Hebei, which has fought many battles, so the prototype of Xudong Ren's play Tunnel Warfare is Gaoping Village.

However, the tunnels in Gaoping Village have already disappeared because of the flood, so they can't be used as location, while the tunnels in Rancun, Licun and Tangcun are still well preserved. The final location was chosen in these three villages, which is another form of Gaojiazhuang, Zhaojiazhuang and Ma Jiahe.

At that time, the crew of "Tunnel Warfare" wanted to dig another big pit in the original site and then make a tunnel section, but they had to give up because of the heavy workload. Most of the scenes we saw digging tunnels and fighting in tunnels were filmed on the set.

The film Tunnel Warfare was filmed by Yang Guangyuan, a famous director of Bayi Factory. He made full use of montage to combine the real inside and outside organically, which brought a strong sense of immersion to the audience.

Third, the prototype of Gao Chuanbao

The main actors in Tunnel Warfare mainly come from two parts, one is the famous actors of Bayi Factory, such as Liu Jiang, Zhang Yongshou, etc., and the other is the engineering corps art troupe from the co-production unit. Longguang Zhu in The First Hero was still an unknown newcomer at that time.

The prototype of Gao Chuanbao is generally considered to be Liu Fool, the militia captain of Gaoping Village. He commanded Gaoping villagers to defeat the Japanese puppet troops five times in a row. After 1945 repelled more than 2000 Japanese puppet troops, he went out of the tunnel to clean the battlefield, but unfortunately he was killed by the sudden fire of the Japanese army. The superior artillery fire of the Japanese army is also reflected in tunnel warfare.

The prototype of Gao Chuanbao's father, Gao Laozhong, is generally considered to be Zhang Senlin, an anti-Japanese martyr in Ran Zhuang. He also led the militia to use the tunnel to repel the enemy's attack, and was unfortunately captured and sacrificed heroically.

Four, two famous villains

Gao Chuanbao, Niu Wa and Lin Xia's sister-in-law played very well in the tunnel warfare, but Zhang Yongshou, who played Zhao Pingyuan, secretary of the district party committee, was not easy to recognize. You know, he played Shao Jianbo in those days, but his beard is old this time.

Relatively speaking, the two villains in tunnel warfare are also well shaped. Although according to Mr. Liu Jiang, their villains are to set off the positive role, it is undeniable that the two villains in tunnel warfare have their own characteristics.

Wang Xiaozhong, who plays Captain Yamada, was born in the northeast. He has been exposed to all kinds of Japanese invaders since he was a child, and he can speak Japanese himself. So he is very experienced in shaping Japanese officers. At that time, he was also regarded as "an expert of Japanese officers."

Some people say that theme films always make villains stupid. In fact, Captain Yamada played by Wang Xiaozhong in Tunnel Warfare is not stupid at all. Whether it is to arrange a late-night sneak attack or to rescue Zhao by besieging Wei, there is nothing wrong with his style of play.

Wang Xiaozhong paid a huge price for the fireworks display that Bayi Factory was particularly good at. Two explosion points exploded around him, which directly caused the symptoms of long-term deafness in his right ear, but he did not delay any filming.

Liu Jiang, who plays Commander Tang, sacrificed his image for this role. He took the initiative to design a kind of' buck teeth' for himself, which highlighted the disgusting character of Commander Tang. I have to say that old artists really work hard for art.

These two distinctive villains contributed some classic lines for tunnel warfare, such as the famous "high, really high" and "don't enter the village quietly, don't shoot".

In fact, Gao Chuanbao also contributed some classic lines, such as "shoot a gun to change a place" and "don't shoot an empty gun".

V. Classic episodes of tunnel warfare

As mentioned earlier, one of the factors that made tunnel warfare stand out in the "Third War" was the excellent episode.

The song "Message from the Chairman" is very popular in Hebei, and the singer Deng Yuhua has an invincible voice. Before that, she sang the more difficult "Affectionate Friendship" in "Dongfanghong", and her voice was as clear as a lark, so few people could successfully imitate the episode "Tunnel Warfare" she sang.

However, the chorus "Tunnel Warfare" is different. This song is very imposing and rhythmic, especially suitable for chorus. So the author's school has this song in almost every year's chorus competition.

It is worth mentioning that the author of Tunnel Warfare has been writing about Fu Gengchen. Later, around 2000, Xudong Ren, the director of Tunnel Warfare, successfully sued, and the court recognized his co-author status. Therefore, Xudong Ren is also included in the follow-up author of Tunnel Warfare.

6. Is tunnel warfare the originator of anti-Japanese drama?

In recent years, people on the Internet often raise objections to the "third war", especially the "tunnel warfare", and even call "tunnel warfare" the originator of the anti-Japanese drama "in a strange way". Some people even think that "tunnel warfare" is too idealistic and does not exist in reality.

The author's point of view is that it is wrong to evaluate tunnel warfare in this way.

First of all, tunnel warfare is a special form of warfare in the central Hebei plain, which is based on the reality that there is no danger to defend in the central Hebei plain. In fact, it is also a kind of street fighting, which can effectively offset the enemy's powerful firepower advantage, which is not unique to China. For example, in Iwo Jima and Songshan, the Japanese army also used a large number of tunnels to resist.

Secondly, tunnel warfare was born in the 1960s, and both the international situation and the domestic situation are very different from now. We can't judge whether the works of art and aesthetics more than half a century ago conform to the views of modern people from the present perspective, which is unscientific and unfair.

Finally, Tunnel Warfare is not only a film, but also a military teaching film, and teaching and demonstration are its important tasks. Therefore, in addition to maintaining objectivity and truth, the filming of Tunnel Warfare should also ensure victory, and a failed work should not be used as a teaching material.

In any case, the military film "Tunnel Warfare" has been integrated into history both in reality and in art. Now the film has been released in high definition and color, so you can review it.