The Margin of the film

When I was a sophomore in college, the teacher who taught us foreign literature was a recent graduate student and my hometown friend from the same county. He offered an elective course, Film Literature. At that time, there were very few students enrolled, only three of us enrolled, and I was one of them.

　　I took this course not only because the teacher was from my hometown, but also because I had always loved watching movies since I was a child.

　　I was born in the late 1960s. At that time, the cultural atmosphere in the countryside was very light. There was no TV to watch, not many books to read, and it had become a practice to ask storytellers to read books during the winter. At that time, there was no phenomenon of going out to work, and the commune's movie projection team showed movies once a month from time to time. At that time, they were all black-and-white movies with revolutionary themes, such as "Tunnel Warfare", "Mine Warfare" and "Fighting the Invaders". It was a film that was shown in rotation in more than 10 villages in the whole commune. Therefore, the nearby villages often went to see the movie. It was not unusual to watch a film several times. At that time, watching movies was a cultural luxury.

　　When I was a child, I had adventures in watching movies. I remember I was 7 years old, a year before I started school. The movie "Chaoyang Ditch" was shown at the commune, which was more than 10 miles away from our village, and was a drama film, the first time it was shown in the whole commune. I went there early in the morning with a few of my friends who were about the same age. Before the movie started, it was windy and raining heavily. At that time, all rural areas were open-air movie shows. Of course, the movie could not be seen, we only desperately run home. A few of my friends also ran apart. Because I couldn't see the road, I fell into the river on the side of the road. I tried hard to climb out, but I fell into the river at once. I was covered in water and my feet felt particularly heavy, but my shoes were filled with mud. I climbed up the bank and had to take off my shoes and run home barefoot, carrying them in both hands. I had just entered the alley when I saw a person with an umbrella calling my name, and it turned out to be my mother. Later, when I was watching "Chaoyanggou", I fell asleep halfway through.

　　I remember the movie I watched most often in my rural home was "Shaolin Temple". It was a martial arts film, and the plot was fascinating. Several nearby villages have run to see it, but the first time to see or in the commune. Probably the projection team found the film attractive, special arrangements in a courtyard screening. Tickets were also sold at the entrance of the courtyard, 5 cents a piece. So cheap we can not afford to sell, and too embarrassed to ask parents, so we had to climb on the wall to watch. I remember it very well, it was a cold winter, the weather was particularly cold. After watching the movie, I was freezing. But that movie fascinated me.

　　The movie gave me a wonderful world and opened my mind. In 1978, when I saw "Little Flower", I felt that it was a breakthrough and much better than the previous revolutionary films, and in 1979, when I saw "Love in Lushan", I saw the first kiss on the screen. In the 80s and 90s, controversial films such as "The Wilderness" and "Widow's Village" liberated people's minds and broke many confinements. I remember the first screening of "Widow's Village" in my village, the village secretary yelled: "Why is everything made into a movie? "Later, people gradually got used to it.

　　These are the main reasons why I took film literature. After studying for a while, the teacher saw too few students and did not bother to talk about theories, mainly let us watch some old films made on VCDs, and then talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the film and acting and other aspects and techniques. I saw some Soviet films for the first time, such as "How Steel is Made" and "Anna Karenina", and also some American films, such as "The Watership Down", "The Dream of Love Revisited" and "The Longest Day". The most memorable of course is "red sorghum".

　　The Red Sorghum is the first international award-winning film from New China, winning the Golden Bear Award at the West Berlin International Film Festival. The teacher was very excited to take 3 of us to the cinema to watch it as a group, and then returned to school to talk about the film in class all morning. I was also amazed: "So this is how movies can be made. "The richly colored images, the low, mournful music, the distinctive characters, and the well-timed voice-overs made me stand and watch the whole thing. This winter the teacher also used Sunday break, led us to the film shooting location - Shandong Gaomi. Of course, the red sorghum is no longer there, but the green stone road is still there.

　　Later, I learned that the film also has a location - China Western Film and Television City, in Yinchuan City, Ningxia. In the late 1990s, I was already a newspaper reporter and was invited to Yinchuan to cover the first Halal Food Festival in China. The local tourist attractions should of course be seen, and then to the northwest suburbs of Yinchuan China West Film and Television City. I found that many scenes of "Red Sorghum" were shot here, and the city recorded the specific location and time the film was shot. The east side of the gate of the film and television city is clearly written "Chinese films from here to the world". This is a great sign of the film and the glory of this place. I found that the area was perfect for filming, with castles of all kinds, large and small, a desert and a lake nearby, and an ancient river, the Yellow River, a few dozen miles to the south.