1905 movie network feature On September 10, 2021, we ushered in the 37th Teachers’ Day. For thousands of years, countless writers and writers have written classic masterpieces praising teachers; in recent decades, a group of filmmakers have also created vivid and lively teacher images on the big screen with light and shadow.
For example, the sunny and cheerful physical education teacher in "Close to Your Heart", the "domineering" teacher who seems to be old-fashioned and impersonal in China, but is actually serious and responsible, and the stern head teacher who says nothing and is full of majesty in China are all remarkable images of screen teachers on the big screen.
Teachers are always a beam of light that illuminates the future of students. Teachers need to remember, and teachers’ kindness should be remembered. On the annual Teachers’ Day, we might as well look at the faces of educators on the big screen while remembering our youth and thanking teachers’ kindness!
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At the 22nd Chinese Film Golden Rooster Awards, a film that focuses on the selfless dedication of teachers in mountainous areas swept four awards: Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.
Zhang Meili (played) is a typical rural woman. After the loss of her husband and children, she devoted all her energy to the children in the village. Before the arrival of the volunteer teacher, she was the only teacher in the village school.
Although her cultural level is not high, she always treats every student with sincerity and enthusiasm, insisting on teaching them every bit of what she has learned.
In order to provide her children with a better learning environment, she sacrificed her dignity and sought funding. For the sake of the children’s long-term teachers, she resolutely gave up staying in Beijing and chose to return to the village to teach.
Zhang Meili’s interpretation is the perseverance, sincerity and simplicity of teachers in mountainous areas.
As a rural teacher, the volunteer teacher she plays is another kind of portrayal. She is from Beijing, can play the piano, can recite, is knowledgeable, and is generous. When she first arrived at the Loess Plateau, she had the idea of leaving because she was not comfortable with the soil, but when she really wanted to leave, she was hesitant to leave because of her students.
The volunteer teacher who once chose to bid farewell to rural teaching did not hesitate to return to this dusty land after Zhang Meili passed away unexpectedly, and consciously shouldered the heavy responsibility of disseminating knowledge to children.
The life of the rural teacher subtly changed the trajectory of her life, and she was enthusiastic and open-minded, and eventually became Zhang Meili’s "successor" to pass on the spark.
In the touching scene of the film, Zhang Meili said to the students affectionately, "People can be poor, but their ambitions cannot be short. Everyone must study hard, walk out of this mountain, get into a good university, and come back to build their hometown, so that they don’t have to eat potatoes every day, and they don’t have to be looked down upon by others…" The tearful admonition is her education to reverse the fate of her child’s life, and it also symbolizes the infinite expectations of a rural teacher for children.
Mention the impressive village teacher on screen, as well as the old professor played in "The Last Lesson."
The professor who was far away in a foreign country suffered from dementia due to a cerebral infarction, but the memory still stuck in his mind was the experience of teaching at Wangxi Village Primary School decades ago. Therefore, a group of grown-up students did their best to restore the changed classroom to its original state, hoping to return to the past with the teacher.
The prototype of Fan Wei’s character is Fang Pinger, a rural teacher who has been rooted in mountainous areas for nearly 40 years. In the play, the students go to great lengths to create artificial rain, the professor leaves in a small boat, and the students stand on the bridge to say goodbye, all based on the real experience of Fang teacher.
Mr. Fang often says, "I can’t let go of the children in the village, especially the left-behind children." This reflects Fan Wei’s role in the play, even when he retires, he never really let go of his thoughts about the students.
Due to the lack of educational resources for children in mountainous areas and the relatively backward educational facilities, the role of rural teachers is self-evident; while urban children are well-off, their growing pains are also entangled in them, and the teacher’s mission to lead students astray is also not light.
In the movie, Chen Xia, who plays the role, becomes a "spicy teacher". Because his students are brave and aggressive, addicted to games, or unable to focus, all of them are poor in their studies, which makes Chen Xia have to compete with this group of naughty teenagers. He even "fights" on campus and adopts extraordinary "alternative teaching".
Fortunately, Chen Xia’s "teaching" gradually worked. He resolved the knot in the students’ hearts, led them out of the vicious circle of "depravity", and finally won the applause and respect of the whole class.
In its bones, "Big Brother" tells the story of a teacher who protects his students and never gives up on every child. Similarly, there are some similarities.
In the movie, the music teacher played by Yan Zilang has to lead a group of useless students who are forced to participate in the "Blood Choir Experimental Project" due to trouble to complete a self-challenge.
In the face of a group of children who are tone-deaf and have no intention of learning, Mr. Yan can be said to have used 18 kinds of martial arts, such as walking blindfolded, playing with two people and three legs, or trying hard to persuade students to learn. He is enthusiastic about leading students to experience the frustration and joy of growth and encouraging them to move forward bravely.
The images of teachers on the screen were always different. Whether they were rural teachers, urban teachers, strict teachers, or loving teachers, their teaching intentions and teaching styles were different, but it was certain that they could always bring new hope to students and water their growth with love.
02
Every teacher’s teaching career has endless happiness and bitterness, and every actor who creates the "screen teacher", while pouring effort into the role, can also deeply feel the difficulty of educators.
Because of the distance between real life and the state of the character, Ni Ping is very stressed to play "Zhang Meili" bluntly. To this end, she has visited many primary schools to observe the little bits and pieces of rural teachers, and started by changing the voice and appearance to be as close to the character as possible.
Nearly 70 days of shooting time, almost all of which are five in the morning and ten in the evening, she shared, "This is the norm for rural teachers."
Fan Wei also confessed in "The Last Lesson" that in order to present the true state of old age, he has to wear makeup for two hours a day. During the shooting process, he can experience the difficulties of the teacher’s profession firsthand. "I especially admire rural teachers!"
"There are a lot of action scenes in this movie, including racing, blasting, and fighting, but the teacher’s setting makes it impossible for me to use weapons, so I can only use local materials, such as using stationery such as chalk to’partner ‘, which is quite difficult."
In addition, in order to play a better role as a music teacher, Andy Lau not only specifically followed the Hong Kong Children’s Choir to experience life, but also consulted professional conductors for conductor details and skillfully integrated them into the role creation.
It is worth noting that the image of screen teachers in recent years seems to be more profound. Whether it is Chen Xia played by Donnie Yen or Yan Zilang played by Andy Lau, their past hides an unknown side.
The former was a special forces soldier who had experienced the pain of war, and he was also a troubled teenager in his youth. He had always felt extremely guilty for "breaking" his classmates’ piano dreams with his own hands. The latter was bright and advocated that there should be no class, but he also escaped drunk driving due to poor teaching results.
It can be said that as teachers, they are completing their own salvation while teaching their students.
Regarding the expansion of the image of teachers in the film, Zhang Ningjuan, a domestic teaching researcher, concluded that "Chinese teachers on the screen" generally present a professional image that treats students with care, regards them as their own, treats teaching seriously and responsibly, is dedicated to work, and is much loved and respected.
However, with the surging of various social contradictions, the image of teachers on the screen has gradually changed from the original high-ranking to the present, paying more attention to communication and dialogue with students, and incorporating more social reality and personal emotional life into the image connotation. In other words, in future movies, the image of teachers may usher in richer connotations with social changes.
In any case, screen teachers are just a microcosm of thousands of educators. For this group of lovely people, what we should do is to transform knowledge into nourishment for life, learn to be grateful, and learn to contribute, in order to repay the teachers for their earnest teachings and their half-life dedication on the three-foot podium.
