Behind-the-scenes production of crows and sparrows

The idea of filming Crow and Sparrow originated from a dinner party, and the script was completed overnight. During the period of 1948, the political situation in China was unstable, and the * * * production party and the Kuomintang fought three major battles. One night, Chen, Shen Fu, Zheng, Chen Liting and Zhao Dan from Shanghai Kunlun Film Company were having dinner and chatting together. Deeply troubled by the social situation, several people foresaw that the situation would change greatly, and prepared to shoot a feature film to record the doomsday scene of the Kuomintang regime and express the filmmakers' hope for a new world in the future. They talked with several screenwriters all night, and soon agreed on the outline of the script, named Crow and Sparrow, and asked Chen to write the script and Zheng to be the director.

Character prototype

Zhao Dan, the movie star, has a neighbor who works in a foreign firm and is responsible for collecting "able-bodied man's fee" and "house number donation", so he is called Bao Jiachang by Zhao Dan. He often goes to Zhao Dan's house, and they talk about everything. In the dialogue, "Jiabao Chang" laughed and denounced and was cynical. He always beats Tai Ji Chuan every day like no one's watching; After taking a nap in the afternoon, he moved a cane chair and sat in the alley, humming a few words of Shaoxing opera leisurely, looking through the world of mortals and enjoying himself. Later, when filming The Crow and Sparrow, this character became the direct image source of Zhao Dan's role in Radio Station.

Shooting process

In order to prevent The Crow and Sparrow from being banned by the Kuomintang authorities, Chen specially prepared two scripts, and sent the edited scripts to review before they passed smoothly. However, during the filming process, the censors found that the censors demanded to stop filming immediately on charges of "disturbing public order and damaging the prestige of the government", confiscated the films that had been filmed and threatened to close Kunlun Film Company. The film crew had to close the door, announced to stop filming, and actually continued filming secretly. On the one hand, the film crew kept the set scenes, on the other hand, Chen further revised the script in order to expose the desperate and dying situation of the reactionaries more deeply. In order to prevent the reactionaries from tracing the script, they also hid it in straw wrapped in broken sacks in the studio. The film crew rested or played mahjong on the set during the day and started shooting quietly at night. Halfway through the filming, Shanghai was liberated, and the film crew could finish the filming aboveboard.

When The Crow and Sparrow was filmed, the role of Hou Yibo, a Kuomintang officer, was uncertain. Finally, Li Tianji was appointed by Zhao Dan. When filming Hou Yibo molesting his neighbor's wife in a cafe, Li Tianji was timid and couldn't do it several times in a row. Director Zheng was so angry that he didn't even pat the table. He also asked Shang Guanyunzhu to drag Li Tianji to a small room upstairs in the cafe to enlighten him for more than half an hour before he successfully finished filming the scene.