The film recording Sun Dianying’s tomb robbery

The movie "Aventurine Robbers" started a commercial film craze

Aventurine Robbers (produced by Xi'an Film Studio in 1987)

Director: Li Yundong

The director's contract responsibility system is the first in the country

"The Bandit of Dongling" was originally planned to be shot for ten episodes. In addition to the pre-liberation martial arts film "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple" which was shot for eighteen episodes, the new No Chinese film has ever been made into a series.

We started planning and preparing for this in 1984, and the shooting officially started on February 28, 1985.

Later at the factory affairs meeting, I proposed that I should take over the contract myself, and that "human rights" and "financial rights" would be managed by me. The director would control the economy. As a producer, I also proposed that the box office should be divided proportionally. This was actually the first of its kind in the country, and Xiying back then really dared to think and do it. Wu Tianming and I clapped our hands to express our agreement to implement it.

At that time, the factory offered me three assistant directors, and I said I wanted one, namely He Ping. He was very thoughtful and capable. After "Aventurine", he got the opportunity to make independent films, and made films such as "Kawashima Yoshiko", "Double Flag Town Swordsman", "Bombing Two Lanterns", etc. I think they were very good. Yang Lun, the assistant cinematographer of "The Bandits of Dongling", later also worked with He Ping as a cinematographer on "Cannonball", "Sunlight Canyon" and other films. The factory invested 1 million to 1.5 million yuan at that time, which is now equivalent to 15 million yuan. We used the most advanced photographic equipment in the factory at the time, and the film library was also opened for us, so we did not have to strictly adhere to the usual 1:3 consumption ratio. Film ratio.

The shooting of the bombing of the mausoleum was earth-shattering

The exterior scenes were mainly in Tianjin and Dongling in Beijing. The interior of the underground palace was built at Xiying Film Studio at a cost of more than 400,000 yuan. The ratio of the specifications to the real Tang Tomb is 1:1. The artists and setters painted the murals and carved beams accurately in the underground of Dong Tomb in Beijing and then simulated it. Shooting the interior of the underground palace was very hard because it had to be done in one go. The crew stayed in the studio for several days. We didn't sleep well for three days and four nights. Some people even fell asleep standing there, and others kicked them. , wake up quickly and continue shooting.

Because everyone’s eyes are red after staying up late, there is no need to put on makeup at all, and the actor plays the red-eyed thief very realistically.

It was a little better to make movies at that time. We would not charge high location fees like now. We shot in Tanglin for such a long time and only received a symbolic fee of 1,000 yuan. It was quite desolate at that time, especially at night, which was very cold and pitch-black. Our film crew lived very far apart, several miles apart. Especially since we were filming a true story, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid.

I remember a strange thing. Although the Chiang Kai-shek scene played by Sun Feihu was not heavy, it still needed to be shot on location. When filming in Tangling, he always complained that he had a headache, but as soon as he left the boundary of Tangling, he was fine. , we joked at that time that "the Kuomintang's stolen treasure in Dongling will also be punished."

Not only that, we also spent money to rent a lot of real cultural relics from Beijing, which were specially escorted by security guards and police dogs. Because these cultural relics were kept overnight for fear of causing problems, we rushed to photograph them on the same day and then took them away. At that time, the army was also used for filming. Tank troops, infantry and engineers dug fortifications and buried explosives. When the mausoleum was blown up, it was really shocking. I heard that nearby houses were damaged, so we paid compensation. During the filming process, several horses died and soldiers were injured. Now that I think about it, I think it was quite tragic to make this movie. They are all able to endure hardships and worked together to make this movie without negotiating the price.

Western Movies ate up the profits from "The Bandits of Dongling" for several years

After the filming of the first and second episodes of the film was completed, a press conference was held in Beijing. Many film critics expressed their opinions on the film. The review is very high and it is considered to be a "milestone of China's high-end entertainment films". However, there were some twists and turns when the film was submitted to Beijing for review, because the film is completely adapted from real events and retains the real names of real people. Although it is a commercial film to a certain extent, It also has a certain historical documentary nature. It is not only a legend, but also involves many aspects.

When I was revising the script, I made very big changes. The Kuomintang who appeared on the screen were all regular troops, without the ugliness of facial makeup, and it made the purpose of stealing treasures more complicated.

The film still had a lot of cuts, including hundreds of shots, including two-thirds of the brutal fight in the underground palace; after the soldiers entered the Dongling Tomb, they hallucinated that Cixi was coming, and were considered It was the propaganda of superstition that was cut; the scenes in the bathhouse were also deleted.

After I finally passed, I went to premieres all over the country, from Fushun to Shenyang to Dalian. It was so crowded that some people even sold black tickets at more than ten times the price at the entrance of some cinemas. Because "The Bandit of Dongling" created economic benefits for Western Film, someone at the distribution company called me the "God of Wealth." We dared to do it at that time. We used a van to scrape off the paint, wrote "Anglin Bandits" and the content introduction, and drove around the streets. This was also the first time that something new happened. It should be said that Xiying ate up the profits of "Anglin Bandits" for several years. When it continued to shoot three, four, and five episodes after a year, it had missed the best period, and the audience's mood also dropped. We also wrote "Please watch Episode 6" at the end of the fifth episode, but due to objective reasons, we couldn't film it again.

Because this drama is basically attractive with a storyline, and it is also a "monk drama". There are no beauties and no strange emotions. It can be said that it took a different path. It would have been different if it could have continued to be filmed. .

There are also some follow-ups, because the "Donngling Treasure Stealing" incident is one of the "Top Ten Mysterious Cases in China". At that time, many people hoped that I would put all these ten mysterious cases on the screen. Unfortunately, Couldn't make the trip. A while ago, some people in Hong Kong were discussing with me the idea of ??turning "The Tanglin Bandits" into a 40-episode TV series, and I am also considering it.

Oral narration: Li Yundong, director of "The Bandits of Dongling"