Li Mu has always believed that images are the best carrier to convey concepts and thoughts, which is why he pays so much attention to the shooting and editing of this documentary. He knows that he cannot bring every Chinese person to Chuncheng and to the life of Sun Xiaozhong. He went to the mountain village where he had spent most of his life to see and hear with his own eyes. All he could do was record everything with images and then pass it on to the whole society.
The video played by Li Mu at the press conference is already the third promotional video for the project to find the surviving Flying Tigers.
The earliest version was just a rough cut of the footage and was played to hundreds of wealthy second-generation people who only spend money and pick up girls every day. It moved these people to tears and donated more than 80 million yuan;
The second version adds relevant materials about the veteran American Flying Tigers, as well as shocking clips of the Boeing 747 in shark mouth painting of Air China taking off and landing. What touches people the most is the first time in 60 years that the Chinese and American veteran Flying Tigers At the moment when we got together at the airport in 2017, the last time we parted, we were still young adults, but this time we reunited, everyone was already in their octogenarian years. Playing it to all the actors, including Mr. Li Xuejian, also moved all the actors beyond words;
The third version is the final version based on more careful editing and arrangement of the second version, and adds some new materials. From 1937 to 2003, the Flying Tigers and the National Army Air Force More than sixty years of experience are condensed in this version.
It contains cherished air combat scenes from the past, including footage of searching for the elderly Sun Xiaozhong in the mountains, oral histories of the American Flying Tigers facing the camera before setting off, as well as close-ups of the Shark Mouth fighter jets of the Flying Tigers back then, and the current Air China Shark Mouth 747 flight. , there are high-spirited group photos of the Chinese and American Flying Tigers back then, and there are also images of old Flying Tigers from the two countries hugging each other and crying. There are aerial shots of the hump route back then, the air battles over Spring City, and the prosperity and peace of the Spring City Airport today.
When the scene first started, what was shown in the video was a video of daily training at Jianqiao Central Aviation School. Since these are precious historical records, all reporters were attracted to it;
Subsequently, the Battle of Songhu began, and the entire aviation school began to move westward;
Then, the Chinese Air Force began to fight with the Japanese Air Force in various places. The real images of the air battles were all in black and white. Although there was no color, it was more heroic than the color images;
When they saw old man Sun Xiaozhong uttering the famous line "Sacrificing one's life to the national calamity and seeing one's death as if one were returning home" in that extremely dilapidated thatched hut, almost everyone was already in tears.
Sacrificing his life to go to the national disaster, seeing death as if he were returning home, all the feelings of a veteran towards this nation are vividly highlighted in these ten words.
In the video, when the old man finished speaking these words, the screen gradually faded to black, and then the screen showed the scene of the martyr Chen Huaimin dying together with the enemy in the air battle in Jiangcheng. At the same time as the screen, the background music carefully selected by Li Mu— "1492 Conquest of Heaven".
After the 19-second prelude to this extremely majestic and tragic piece of music, the collective hum suddenly appeared, instantly bombarding everyone's heart like a tear-jerking cannonball.
The reason why I chose this music is because Li Mu was completely moved to tears by this music back then.
In a TV series called "Soldier Assault" at that time, when Shi Jin, the squad leader played by Zhang Yi, cried bitterly while driving in front of Tiananmen Square after being discharged from the army, this music made Li Mu cry into tears in front of the TV. Idiot.
From then on, whenever he heard this piece of pure music, Li Mu couldn't help but recall that scene in the TV series.
Back then, this music was used in TV dramas to highlight the patriotism of modern soldiers. Today, it is still the same music, showing the bloodshed and sacrifice of veterans in the war years for this country and nation in the real images of the year. As the best foil for these video images, the combination of musical notes and pictures creates a wonderful chemical effect, so that every note and every picture can go straight to the heart and make people feel the trembling of the soul.
When the music started playing, there was no other sound at the scene. Everyone was staring at the big screen intently. In front of this kind of shocking image data, no one could hold back their tear ducts. At that moment, everyone realized that what they saw today was the most shocking, heart-wrenching, and most embarrassing and guilt-ridden of all the charity projects they knew so far.
All previous charity projects, no matter how touching they are, can only arouse people's sympathy and desire to donate to a certain extent. People will sympathize with children who have not gone to school, will sympathize with disabled people who have lost their healthy bodies, and will sympathize with those who have lost their health. Infants and young children with congenital diseases, but they will not feel any shame or guilt towards these groups, because although they feel that these groups are pitiful, they essentially do not owe them anything.
But veterans are different.
In the picture, those pilots who risked their lives and flew their planes in a desperate battle with the invaders in the skies of the motherland. They shed blood and sacrificed their lives for the country and the nation. In order to protect their country and future generations, some of them have already sacrificed their lives, and some have sacrificed their lives. have disappeared over the long years. Most of the remaining people live such a hard life, but none of them has reached out to this society.
No veteran said that the country owed them, and no veteran said that the nation owed them and the people owed them. Without exception, they regarded the sacrifices of those years as unshirkable responsibilities and obligations. They shed their blood in the war years, and then spent their lives in poverty in the peace years. Even though he had no food to eat and no clothes to cover his body, he never asked the society for a dime or a grain of rice, and he never even disclosed to the society the history of his bloody battle for the country.
These reporters who were born in peaceful times had no excuse for not paying attention to this group before. Now they finally know their stories, know the sacrifices they have made for this country and nation, and know that today's peace and development are entirely based on them. After the bloodshed and sacrifices back then, when we see these real old heroes now living such a poor but humble life, how can we not feel ashamed and feel guilty for them
Facts have proved that although society is indifferent, most people's blood is still warm.
Every reporter at the scene was deeply touched by this video. Their eyes were red and tears were shed, but they watched intently. They didn’t even know they were crying. They had forgotten that they were attending a press conference. , they forgot the cast they had been eagerly anticipating, they forgot the gossip related to Li Mu, and they also forgot their original intention of making things difficult for Li Mu at the press conference and crowding Li Mu to get news topics.
In fact, the last two points that reporters were thinking about before have been vaguely but clearly answered in the video.
In the video, images of Li Mu flashed several times. He was on the mountain cliffs of Yun Province. He was on the steel cable crossing the Nu River. He was in the dilapidated thatched house of Sun Xiaozhong. He was in the ward of the Yun Province Military Region Hospital. He was there when we greeted Air China 747, and he was there when the elderly spent the Lantern Festival together in the hotel.
Now the reporters finally knew what Li Mu had been doing these days when he disappeared in front of the media. It turned out that he had prepared such a significant charity foundation and personally initiated and participated in the charity foundation's first public welfare project. , which is what everyone is seeing now, the operation to find the surviving Flying Tigers that made everyone burst into tears!
Through this video, Li Mu not only made the whole society aware of the importance and urgency of caring for veterans, but also used practical actions to tell the whole society that he is not only the founder, initiator, and funder of the Veterans' Immortal Charity Foundation, but also himself. He is also a personal participant who is personally involved in it. An Internet tycoon with a net worth of over ten billion US dollars plunges headlong into the mountains of Yun Province. How many rich people of the same level can do this? Even a rich man a few levels below Li Mu can't do it, right
While everyone's souls were being greatly shocked, the video was coming to an end.
The background music gradually faded out of the picture, and only old man Sun Xiaozhong remained in the picture. He was still sitting in his extremely dilapidated thatched house, facing the camera, with a smile on his old face, and said: "Society does not owe me anything." What, those brothers in Paoze who fought side by side back then were all passionate about resisting Japan and serving the country. Soldiers serve the country, just like being filial to their parents. It is our responsibility and obligation since we were born. We failed to fulfill our responsibilities. The Japanese have been allowed to come in and run rampant for so many years. If we say we owe a debt, it is we owe it to the country and to the ordinary people who died at the hands of the Japanese... "
After the old man said this, two tears suddenly appeared on his smiling face. The scene of the old man wiping away his tears was slowed down to 0.2 times by the editor. The slow motion allowed people to see clearly the flash of joy in the old man's expression when he wiped away his tears. Too sad.
The picture faded to black, and then, a deep and solemn narration voice, paired with white subtitles, appeared in the center of the picture:
“In the summer of 1937, Sun Xiaozhong moved westward to Chuncheng with the Jianqiao Central Aviation School. In the autumn of the same year, Sun Xiaozhong’s father moved his family of seven from Hangzhou to Jinling to settle down in order to escape the war;
In December of the same year, Jinling fell. Since then, there has been no news about the whole family for more than sixty years. Later, after volunteers checked, the old man’s parents, brothers and sisters were found in the list of victims of the Jinling Massacre. As well as the names of the six elder sisters-in-law, the old man’s nephew was three years old at the time. The volunteers did not find his name in the list of victims, but it is believed that he also died in the massacre;
In 1952, when Sun Xiaozhong was undergoing rehabilitation, his lover Chen Jinyu left his hometown with his only son Sun Lianli because he could not make a living. His whereabouts are still unknown. Entrusted by Sun Xiaozhong, the Veterans Immortal Charity Foundation is now seeking help from the whole society. The old man is looking for the whereabouts of his lover and only son, and hopes that any kind-hearted person who knows relevant clues can take the initiative to contact the Veterans' Immortal Charity Foundation. "
At the end of the video, ten words appeared on the big screen again: "Veterans never die, they just fade away..."
(End of chapter)