Comments on the TV series "Bonfire in the Sky"

In contemporary TV series, Feng is a very original figure. This is not only because of his unique material selection and perspective (which is more vivid in Virus Gold Sunday and Atmosphere Disappeared), but also because he often wears several hats. More importantly, he believes in a unique artistic principle. He doesn't pay much attention to trivial matters, preferring colorful and gripping stories, pursuing a bold style and rendering colorful emotional storms. He is not concerned with personal inner life and secrets in people's hearts, but with thinking about the history and destiny of the country. He completely injects his outlook on life and values into his works, and he often cares more about ideas and principles than characters and stories. He is out of tune with the popular civic sentiment, so that his works often reveal a sense of cynicism and arrogance.

Heroism is the main theme of almost all Feng's works. This is not the shy and secret heroism that is common in current works, but a straightforward self-confession. The surge of blood and fire, love and hate, ideal and passion makes his works full of momentum, leading the spiritual life of the characters and giving the audience upward strength. At present, most works try to avoid the hero's words. It seems that once there is a hero's words, it is not true and credible. Feng does not shy away from flowery rhetoric, which has proved to have a strong shock. The key is whether these brave words are consistent with the character, whether they are written with heart, and whether they are spoken with heart.

He is dismissive of the values of contemporary society. "With the progress of the times, it is inevitable that the value standard of' heroes' will constantly change. However, countless people in that era gave their lives for the prosperity of the nation. We can't deny their historical value because of the change of values. " In Feng's view, after elutriation and concentration of history, its sublimity and severity are obviously higher than ordinary trivial daily life, and choosing history is equivalent to choosing ideals. "We are not necessarily historical heroes, but they are already national heroes. They proved themselves by their actions, but our actions proved nothing. Although some' we' seem to be smarter than them. " (same as above)

In the selection of materials, he focused on that turbulent period in history. Such a period is the easiest to inspire patriotism and heroism. Since the 1840 Opium War, the Chinese nation has experienced constant humiliation and humiliation. Foreigners plundered China's land unscrupulously, while a highly civilized nation was at the mercy of others. When people think of their motherland, the first thing they think of is pain and humiliation. War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression is a historical summary of this humiliation. For the first time, the people of the whole country are united under the banner of national liberation. However, even if they fought bloody battles to defend their homeland, they will never be able to erase the pain and humiliation of their national backwardness. Generate's praise of courage and fearlessness is often full of tragedy.

Another unique feature is Feng's thinking about the relationship between personal destiny and national destiny. Modern war works mostly show the fate of individuals under the background of war, while the protagonist in Feng's works is the fate of the nation.

He doesn't value beauty and harmony. The structure of his works is not based on the development of the plot, but on the outbreak of passion. As for ordinary daily life, it is only the brewing and episode of passion in life, and it is a process of energy accumulation. The characters in his works are all shouldering some social mission first. In expressing nature, he chose mountains, seas and long rivers, like the magnificent scenery at the source of the Yellow River in Lighthouse in the Sky. The jet roared, the bubbles churned and washed down with great force. At this time, a group of enthusiastic young people who have no choice but to kneel down to express their great ambition to serve the motherland, the natural scenery and the feelings of the characters are integrated, and the human soul has been expanded and sublimated. Seeing this scene, anyone who can think of the history of the Chinese nation from the Yellow River cannot but be moved by it. Another example is: Sister-in-law bombed the airport by enemy planes, traitors were not allowed to fight, and the China Air Force resolutely raised the flag when it was in danger; Wandering artists are unwilling to accept charity and make a scene for the four brothers. They all show the generosity and tragic hidden in the national spirit. In Feng's view, life without lofty is not life at all. Feng seems to be an artist who lived in the 1990s and 1950s. He has a naive worship of heroism, perhaps because in a certain period, it was all his ideals and beliefs. He focuses on finding the strongest and most poetic things in life, but often ignores the trivial things in daily life, which can and should be processed to the artistic level.

Even in the field of love, Feng's description of it is unique. The love in Feng's works lacks some flowery tenderness, but it is always linked with the spirit of the times. The love of every character in Skyfire is inspired and strengthened by patriotism. What makes the hero win love is not appearance and temperament, but heroism. In Feng's view, unpatriotic people simply don't deserve love. When describing love, Feng is always looking for something other than love. There are few emotional storms here, mostly calm ripples. Even when describing Lagerstroemia indica, which boldly pursues love, it is more calm and restrained. But no matter what kind of performance, the characters in his works are basically modern in terms of love. Apart from describing the destruction of love by war, we seldom see the special brand of love in that special historical period. In addition, all love is spiritual, a mixture of friendship and love. "In short, love is so pure and sacred that it is unnatural. It has no fiery feelings, so it has lost its poetry. " (brandeis:/kloc-the main trend of literature in the 0/9th century)

Of course, the main contribution of Skyfire is to add many vivid and brilliant characters to the character library of TV series. Different from Beiyang Navy, Skyfire does not depict many real people in history, and the main characters and events are fictional, so there is more room for imagination. Although sometimes under the strong light of heroism, those colorful aspects of human nature seem vague.

Big brother is the focus of the whole play. He is Feng's ideal man, sincere, selfless, determined and aboveboard. He is the embodiment of responsibility, courage and strength. A woman can give herself to him completely, and once she gives herself to him, she will never have to worry about danger or betrayal again. This is about Feng's understanding of masculinity. Pu Cunxin's face is angular and grim, which completely conforms to this character in image. He is very attractive to women. He is happy with Wei Zi, but he still loves jade. This is not so much a traditional moral concept as keeping one's promise. In the general conflict between reason and emotion in contemporary works, Feng seems to be inclined to reason without hesitation. Perhaps because it is too perfect and too idealistic, Big Brother's personality is not easy for the audience to agree with. He showed his love for Wei Zi in The Generation of the Last Moment, which is a relatively successful place, but the further exploration of the characters' psychology is still insufficient. Maybe it's because it's not so heroic, but the third brother's character is kind and touching. Hu Yajie's performance was relaxed and natural. No matter how clever he was in robbing enemy planes, he broke into his sister-in-law's house in the middle of the night and left a deep impression on people. But his love for his sister-in-law is full of self-sacrifice, mostly a grateful and kind chivalrous heart.

Wei Zi is another most glorious image in the whole play. She is stubborn, enthusiastic, frank, graceful and youthful. The persistence and boldness of love are in line with the behavior that often goes beyond the norm. Even when you love or are not loved, you will not give up your personality. Youth is the most attractive part of this role. She made no secret of her aggressive love for her eldest brother, whose refusal would only make her love stronger. When she found it impossible to get her big brother's love, she naturally chose the most dangerous road. Chen Xiaoyi's artistic skill can be seen by his generous speech to the duke and his many "Do you know" words in one breath. At this point, she has completely become a role. Because of her sincerity and frankness flowing from the depths of life, the audience happily ignored those places with some modernization tendencies.

Jade is pure, strong and full of sacrifice. Her patience with her eldest brother's misunderstanding is not resignation, but understanding and tolerance. She is more like a wife who has been married for many years than a fiancee. If we can show her pursuit of love more strongly (not in Wei Zi's way, of course), show more tenderness on her, and increase the contrast between her and Wei Zi, then the tragic sense that the pursuit of love and happiness was destroyed by the war will be even stronger. However, Feng evaded a question, that is, her attitude towards. As a modern woman deeply influenced by western civilization, Jade should not be so dull as to know nothing about Wei Zi's feelings for her eldest brother. Her self-awareness is too weak. Her attitude towards her second brother's love is also vague and indifferent. Imagine if something really happened between her and her second brother in Hong Kong (which is of course possible), and a strong sense of responsibility prompted her to return to her eldest brother and love him more strongly than before, maybe the role would be fuller. The virtue of traditional women in China is more prominent in the character of sister-in-law.

However, most of the characters in Skyfire are idealistic, vivid and not full enough. The nobility and bravery of the characters have been occupied from the beginning, and the development and change of their characters have not been shown enough. Of course, some places also describe the complexity of people, such as the fear of big brother after bomb disposal and the cowardice of second brother. But on the whole, most of the characters are successful, such as the squadron leader. The squadron leader carries a torn map of the three northeastern provinces on his chest, and the only power that dominates his character is the pain of broken mountains and rivers and the belief of dedicating himself to the cause of national liberation. He never laughed, but he died laughing when he died for his country. This is a man with a cold appearance and a warm heart. This indifference comes from his intense pent-up passion. Other successful castellans, such as rough and bold castellans, are all traditional chivalrous images, and eldest sister-in-law is the embodiment of traditional virtues, which can all be called typed figures. But sister-in-law and Xiaowen are a little too elegant, more like intellectual women. If we write about their simplicity and extensiveness as professional women, we can create contrasts and contrasts between several women.

In Feng's works, the shortcomings and advantages are almost the same, and they are often interdependent. His works are full of passion, but this passion is sometimes melodramatic. For example, because of the plane accident, Brother Four mistakenly dropped a bomb in the crowd and failed to hit the enemy ship, with deep remorse, while his mother angrily said "worthless" in the crowd. This scene is simple and natural, full of emotion. A few shots and simple conversations depict a mother's intense grief and expectation, especially reminding us of a great woman like her mother-in-law in the history of China. It is enough for the old man to stumble under people's gaze, but Wei Zi's cry of "mother" has not improved, but weakened the expressive force of this scene. In addition, when artists play and bomb Japanese ships in war scenes, people are excited and eager to watch, ignoring the minimum human characteristics. After all, war is not a football match, and no one will watch it at any time, let alone when the enemy is strong and we are weak. In any case, people will choose to hide in bomb shelters under enemy shells, and vagrants will never go to Lugouqiao to tell their feelings when they are highly nervous for the needs of TV dramas. At the same time of fierce air combat, it is obviously man-made that Jade braved bullets to deliver medicine. After seeing Wei Zi off, the stockade owner fired a shot in the air and shouted "See you in the afterlife, miss", which was also suspected of "degree". This is a question of appropriate restrictions.

Roughness is a common problem in almost all Feng's films. He pursues roughness, but he often becomes rough. I'm not here to criticize those cars that lack texture in the air. After all, due to the limitation of technology and funds, it is unlikely that we can shoot such a war scene as "The Battle of Midway Island", but it is obviously the director's shortcoming to fight for bayonets like a child's play and the people will make gestures at will. For another example, Ruyu was chased by sharks in the sea and ran away desperately. It was a close call. But the foreign hero who came to the rescue smiled and shot at the shark, and did not forget to turn the revolver like a cowboy in the west, which suddenly diluted the pleasure of fighting with the shark. Another example is that the people in the play actually call Soong Ching Ling "Mrs Soong Ching Ling", which is a mistake of common sense. These places are completely avoidable. If you can't, you can't.

Another problem is the lack of sense of history. The character's thought and language lack the characteristics of three or four seasons. Finally, the big brother's confession is simply the expression of Feng's personal feelings, which is far from the character's thought. I imagine that Feng may often smile at his personal logistics when writing, but when depicting historical figures, even fictional historical figures, the author and the figures must maintain a moderate sense of distance.

Feng hated traitors, and blamed them for several heavy losses of China Air Force. In Beiyang Navy, the thinking about national history and the sense of hardship are simplified here. Like Lao She's "Four Generations under One Family", the idea of linking national character with national destiny. The failure of China Air Force is due to the backwardness caused by the long-term semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. Air force officers and men are doomed to sacrifice, and their greatness lies in this tragic knowledge of what they can't do. I really appreciate the plot in Beiyang Navy where a government official meets a teenager who entered a military school at the seaside. Li Hongzhang was portrayed as an adult for the first time. In contrast, Guan in the battle of the sky is too funny, just a stupid and conceited villain who only knows evil. This simplification weakened the tragic sense of the sacrifice spirit of the Air Force. As Lessing said, "the biggest villain also knows how to comfort himself, trying to convince himself that his mistake is not a big mistake, or he is forced to make a mistake because of inevitable inevitability." It is against nature to be proud of evil. " Lessing: Hamburg Drama Review.

The plot of the invaders saluting the great soldiers was imitated by many novels and TV plays, and Feng unfortunately fell into this trap. In my opinion, it doesn't make much sense to transplant this plot of the Soviet Patriotic War to China. For Germans, it is entirely possible, not because German fascism is better than Japanese fascism, but because of national character and the differences between guilt culture and shame culture. Japan is a nation with arrogance hidden behind its modesty, so there will never be Japanese fascists saluting the great China soldiers. What they usually do is cut open his heart. In fact, that's what they did to Zhao Shangzhi and Yang Jingyu. It is not difficult to understand this point by looking at the farce of revising textbooks that is constantly being staged in Japanese political circles today.

"Either don't shoot, shoot and shoot the fine products that can stay in history." (Director explains the Great Air War, China TV Station,No. 1 1 issue, 1994) This is what Feng asked of himself and what the audience expected of him. "Fire in the Sky" is a TV series that can be made into a boutique, but it is the first audio-visual work with the theme of air combat after all. Its accumulated experience, even failures and shortcomings in the process of exploration are worth cherishing. Especially when some people in the current art world regard popular things as beautiful and unique things, Feng's persistent pursuit is even more meaningful. He tried to prove to us that great works can also be produced from concepts.

Although the commotion and impetuousness brought by commodity economy cannot be avoided, Feng is still a director who dares to say "no" to popular things.