What do you think of the movie "Old Summer Palace"?

Now is the schedule for the latest "martial arts masterpiece". Watching "Old Summer Palace" has taken a lot of trouble, and I have made more than a dozen calls to the theater to inquire about the film. But the setbacks are well worth it, because the documentary "Old Summer Palace" is very beautiful. I originally thought this was a documentary introducing the history of the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens", covering nothing more than rare treasures and pavilions. However, the director of "Old Summer Palace" looked down at this human miracle that emptied the wisdom of the entire Qing Empire artists with a piercing historical perspective. "Old Summer Palace" diverges in several dimensions such as history, art, politics, and economy, but it is always filled with a helpless emotion about the passing of beauty. Such emotions are almost suffocating.

"Old Summer Palace" has two clues. One is that the palace painter Lang Shining tells the construction of the Old Summer Palace and the "emperor's secrets" in the first person, and the other is that the rise and fall of the Old Summer Palace and its history are told through narration. The two clues complement each other. The former focuses on fun and is accompanied by a well-designed storyline. It is relaxed and humorous, adding excitement to the slightly dull documentary and making the atmosphere of the film lively. The latter uses a rich and deep male voice as the narration, using a lot of Paintings, documents and three-dimensional animations show the entire process of the Yuanmingyuan from scratch, from construction, glory to destruction.

"Old Summer Palace" is not limited to the stacking of bricks and tiles or the story of a certain treasure. Its ambition is to tell the story of the rise and fall of the entire Qing Empire. The Old Summer Palace existed during the heyday of Kangxi and Qianlong, when the Qing Empire was at its most prosperous and nationally powerful. The description of it takes the viewer's breath away. Although the narration of historical events such as the Battle of Baliqiao in the film is not impressive, the tragic and cool scenes it shows make people unable to calm down for a long time. Merely comparing the destruction of the Old Summer Palace with the decline of the Qing Dynasty is not a new approach. The most touching power of this documentary lies in its dream-like depiction of the Old Summer Palace. I believe that many people’s impression of the Old Summer Palace is limited to the stone pillars of Dashuifa. However, through the design drawings of the Old Summer Palace and the three-dimensional animation of the Old Summer Palace restored in the film, I have a better understanding of the grandeur, vigor, beauty, and poetry of the Old Summer Palace. Perceptual knowledge. The Old Summer Palace is not just a garden, nor is it just the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens", it is the dream of the entire human race and a miracle that exists in the world. To destroy it is actually a crime against humanity. As Hugo said, the Old Summer Palace was only a fantasy, but it turned out to be a reality. This beauty has left us forever. How can we not gnash our teeth and sigh. I began to complain to the director. You really shouldn't have painted this garden that should only exist in the sky so vividly and charmingly, because the more beautiful it is, the deeper the pain. Of course, this film made people remember two names. One of them was France and the other was England. For gangsters and robbers like them, all future generations can do is to always keep a clear mind

1860 On October 18 and 19, 2011, a barbaric fire reduced a world-famous architectural wonder called the Old Summer Palace to ashes. 146 years later, the documentary "Old Summer Palace" directed by Jin Tiemu completed an image reproduction of this "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens" and artistically sorted out the historical cross-sections related to it, allowing us to review history in the image. Examine in history and reflect in examination.

"Old Summer Palace" is always called a documentary, but it is actually quite different from traditional documentaries. One cannot write in a realistic style about an architectural group that no longer exists. To this end, the film flexibly "marriages" various narrative methods of feature films with documentaries. Actors are used to interpret the life of palace emperors and the history of the construction and destruction of the Old Summer Palace. Digital technology is used to virtually reproduce the "real Old Summer Palace" in history. It is also shot with documentary techniques that display paintings, archival documents and the ruins of the Old Summer Palace. It tells the story of the Old Summer Palace from The whole process from nothing to something, from small to big, from glory to destruction. Interesting, humorous and relaxing plots are added to the story sections such as "The emperors of three dynasties gathered at the Peony Terrace" and "Yongzheng refining the elixir of clothing", which adds to the viewing pleasure of the film. This cross-use of reality and virtuality, history and interpretation is a bold attempt at historical documentaries, which develops documentary expression methods and can be called a feature film that records history.

In the longitudinal direction of time, "Old Summer Palace" adopts a linear narrative, taking the history of the Old Summer Palace from its construction to its destruction as the main line. The content is expressed with originality, mainly from the perspective of foreigners, and the correspondence and diaries of missionaries and British and French soldiers at that time are used as the starting point. Among them, Castiglione, a foreign court painter, is the main narrative clue. The narration of Castiglione and the chaplain McGee of the British and French allied forces serves as the voice-over throughout the film. This kind of expression is different from the traditional "own side" perspective. It tells the architectural history and fate of the Old Summer Palace in the words of "other sides", avoiding the "subjectivity" of historical judgment and increasing the "objectivity" of revealing history. sex". In this way, it is futile and meaningless for anyone to try to deny the truth of this history by elaborating a period of history from a new "other" perspective.

At the same time, this single expression of an external perspective also makes the film lack a sense of heaviness. The documentary presentation of historical buildings and their events should be a comprehensive recollection.

For the history of the Old Summer Palace, we should not be limited to external perspectives, but can use a combination of multiple perspectives: the official (official history) narrative of the Qing Dynasty, what the Qing Dynasty thought of the "burning of the Old Summer Palace"; the common people (common people) and literati What were the views after witnessing the destruction of the Old Summer Palace (there is no shortage of such information in existing documents); historians’ conclusions and understandings of this period of history (you can interview contemporary history experts in this regard); Western powers (governments)’s views on this period of history The attitude towards looting and burning the Old Summer Palace, etc. It is a pity that neither the director nor the producer has explored and explored these aspects, and then carried out a comprehensive and panoramic historical display of the Old Summer Palace, which makes the film itself appear monotonous and small-minded. In fact, a 90-minute movie cannot carry the profound historical theme of Yuanmingyuan, and a magnificent epic series is the best choice.

It is not difficult to judge from this that "Old Summer Palace" should not and will not become a visual summary of the history of the Old Summer Palace. It is not a full stop, but a finished product and a node of the artistic expression of the Old Summer Palace. The Old Summer Palace needs more artworks to give a deeper and broader description to tell her glory and tragedy, as well as the associated history of national glory and humiliation. Forgetting history means betrayal. We have reason to believe that the Chinese people who will not forget history will use the Old Summer Palace as an object in the years to come and leave a series of artistic wealth to mankind.

In the vast sea of ????films, "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" shot by Hong Kong Shaw Brothers gold medal director Li Hanxiang in the 1970s is an artistic masterpiece that tells the story of the Old Summer Palace through images. This film, with the Empress Dowager Cixi as the core character, blends historical facts with unofficial history to present the history of the destruction of the Old Summer Palace in an affectionate and tragic style. Even looking at it from today's perspective, passages such as the Battle of Baliqiao are magnificent and show the vicissitudes of history. At the end, the narration of the burning of the Old Summer Palace is low and angry, with three chants and three sighs, making the audience feel heartbroken and sigh with regret. As French historian Bernard Blisset wrote in "The Catastrophe of the Old Summer Palace": "The destruction of the Old Summer Palace is equivalent to the burning of the Palace of Versailles, the Louvre Museum and the National Library of France." For this nation. , how can we not sigh in pain? For the sake of all mankind, how can we not sigh?

After the screening of "Old Summer Palace", it received unanimous praise from the media and relevant people, especially in the commercial development and special effects production of the documentary. It was praised as "as good-looking as a Hollywood blockbuster" , "Special effects are unprecedented." After carefully savoring this historical documentary, I feel that similar high praise is obviously exaggerated. Because the film focuses on the history of the Chinese nation, and the content undoubtedly has obvious Chinese characteristics, it cannot produce "The Day After Tomorrow", "Birds and Dreams Flying", "Diary of the Emperor Penguin", which are about the future and destiny of mankind, express the laws of nature and eulogize The global influence of documentaries such as Vitality will generate worldwide commercial value. After the raging fire, more than 5,000 acres of garden buildings were reduced to a wasteland, leaving almost no complete ground-level buildings. The special effects production team only relied on limited ruins and a few documents such as "Forty Scenes" to restore the overall style of the Old Summer Palace. , which is a huge challenge. On the whole, the special effects of the film have fulfilled this important task, allowing us to "see" the grandeur of the Old Summer Palace in its heyday. However, there is a lack of refinement in the details. For example, the palace with the word "tian" only appears in appearance and lacks a three-dimensional sense of space. It avoids showing the internal structure and shows the creator's incompetence in digital technology. In the end, The Burning of the Old Summer Palace was mostly close-ups and static images, and there were no dynamic shots of the burning garden buildings. It was not even as atmospheric as "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace".

As far as the technical language of the film is concerned, the film's photography and soundtrack are remarkable. Many of the shots showing the Old Summer Palace in the film are very dynamic and can produce a beautiful visual impact. During the construction of the Old Summer Palace, the film is shrouded in the golden tones of the sunset, accompanied by long, soothing music, tranquil and full of vitality. During the catastrophe of the Old Summer Palace, the traditional black and white blue and gray colors dominated the screen, accompanied by deep and pathos music, revealing an almost suffocating despair and desolation. These will undoubtedly help to integrate the audience into the history told in the film, communicate spiritually with the creator, and stimulate inner national emotions.

"Old Summer Palace" is not only a movie about the "past and present life" of the royal garden, but also tells a social law that "if you fall behind, you will be beaten." During the narrative process of the film, the development of China and the development of the West are compared horizontally at all times, and the reason why the Old Summer Palace was destroyed is told to the world very clearly. The Qing Empire, which regarded itself as the kingdom of heaven and the king of the world, had made no progress in technology for more than a century since its founding. It believed that relying on sabers and bows and arrows was enough to dominate the world. In the eyes of its ministers, the advanced astronomical observation instruments of the West were nothing more than Kangxi's. The emperor's "things". This arrogant and conceited mentality directly derived from the backward policy of closing the country. When agricultural society reached its peak during the Qianlong period, Western society underwent earth-shaking changes. Britain completed the Industrial Revolution and expanded its colonies aggressively, establishing an arrogant "empire on which the sun never sets"; America got rid of colonial rule and established the United States of America; France won the victory of the bourgeois revolution. The development of the West is in sharp contrast to the stagnation of the East. Macartney, the British envoy to China, pointedly pointed out: "The Qing Empire is like a dilapidated first-class battleship.

The reason why she has not sunk during the past hundred and fifty years is only due to the support of a group of lucky, able and alert officers, and she is superior to her neighbors only in her size and appearance. But once an untalented man takes command on deck, there is no longer any discipline or safety. "Decades later, Macartney's conclusion was fulfilled. In 1860, the British and French allied forces attacked Dagukou, Tianjin from south to north along the coast, and entered Beijing with overwhelming force. As the lord of the empire, Emperor Xianfeng fled in panic like a bereaved dog. At the Chengde Summer Resort, the gate of the Qing Dynasty was forcibly opened, and the humiliating history of modern China began.

History and reality have both proved that the law of the jungle is not only a law of survival in nature, but also an inevitable trend in social development. Hidden rules. Civilized ideas such as democracy and peace are only the purest pursuit of goodwill by human beings. They pale in comparison to national economic interests and political power. Otherwise, the United States would not act in the name of the "world police" on a global scale. In the Western Expedition, there would be no powerful international political events such as overthrowing Iraq, suppressing Yugoslavia, and attacking Afghanistan by oneself. In the same way, the burning fire in the Old Summer Palace a century and a half ago left behind for the Chinese nation. Bloody Lessons!

Throughout the entire film, the director used a lot of contrasting techniques to interweave the digitally restored original Yuanmingyuan ruins with today’s real Yuanmingyuan ruins, arousing people’s pain. The once splendid palace was reduced to ashes, and only sections of ruins reflected its magnificence and desolation. The once prosperous Oriental Museum was gone, and only pieces of art treasures scattered around the world bear witness to it. and dignity and sorrow. After learning from the pain, "Old Summer Palace" has become a true warning of the prosperous times, making people living in the peaceful era be prepared for danger and prepare for rainy days. After the baptism of blood and tears, we refuse to re-enact the historical tragedy.

"Old Summer Palace" is not limited to the gorgeous stacking of pavilions and pavilions, nor is it limited to the historical stories of rare treasures. It also tells the story of the Qing Empire's rise and fall from strength to decline. The film begins with: Footage of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty crossing the Great Wall and marching into the Central Plains to establish the empire. Subsequently, from the construction of the "Changchun Garden" and the initial construction of the "Old Summer Palace" by Emperor Kangxi, to the expansion of the "Old Summer Palace" by the diligent Yongzheng, and then to the comprehensive overhaul during the Qianlong period. It was the process of the Qing Dynasty from the establishment of political power to the prosperity of the country and the people, and reached a rare prosperity in ancient China. One-third of the world's silver was stored in the Qing treasury. The prosperity of "how to spend money was a problem" was a major construction project. Although the film omits the Jiaqing and Daoguang emperors and goes directly to the Xianfeng period, it undoubtedly feels rushed, but this cannot conceal the profound historical atmosphere brought by the film, as if it is a period with the theme of garden architecture. A historical educational film.

Facing a historical theme like the Old Summer Palace, the creator will naturally not give up on expressing national feelings. The film always tells the wisdom of the Chinese nation about an ancient mining miracle that no longer exists. At the same time, the director quoted the words of the great French writer Hugo to severely criticize the destroyer of this wonderland of architecture on earth: "One day, two robbers walked into the Old Summer Palace, one robbed something, and the other let it go. fire. It seems that after winning the war, we can engage in robbery... In the face of history, these two robbers, one is called France and the other is called England."

Old Summer Palace witnessed the glory and decline of an empire. "Old Summer Palace" ", recording the glory and humiliation of a nation. In the name of civilization, a barbaric fire lit by two robbers burned down a unique world architectural treasure. However, the barbaric fire could not burn away her splendor. In the city of Danfengbailu in France, we can still appreciate the artistic temperament she exudes. The barbaric fire cannot burn away a nation's memory of her, because she carries the history of honor and disgrace and the cultural blood of a nation.

I would like to conclude with a paragraph of "paying homage to the Old Summer Palace":

I thought I could forget

As long as I don't look back

I Thinking that I can pretend that nothing happened

As long as I don’t open yesterday’s diary

But you always appear in my dreams

Wake me up I can’t forget the longing for you in my heart