Chapter 900: I only Hear the Chirping of the Hu Cavalry at Yanshan

Under the careful filming of my beautiful wife, the filming of "Mulan" in Jiaozuo Film and Television City was finally completed on the 18th day, and it did not take more than 20 days to complete as Wu Yuan imagined.

The main reason is that the progress in the next few days was caught up. Both Liu Yifei and Wu Yuan adapted to the shooting rhythm.

Well, it was mainly Wu Yuan. After shooting for more than ten days, he had some experience in shooting costume films. The number of shots for each scene was reduced a lot, and the speed naturally increased.

So, at the end of November, the crew of "Mulan" moved from Jiaozuo to the Hulunbuir grassland that the entire crew had been thinking about.

In fact, it is not suitable to come to the grassland in this season.

Winter is the snow season of Hulunbuir grassland. At this time, the grassland is covered with white snowflakes, and the scenery is poetic and picturesque.

The snowy grassland seems to be a pure world, giving people a sense of tranquility and peace.

However, the grassland in winter is covered with snow, which does not have the endless green grassland and the scene of cattle and sheep in the public impression.

So the shooting in Hulunbuir this time is divided into two seasons. First, the normal shooting in winter, then the shooting is completed around the New Year, and then it will be officially completed in the spring and early summer of the next year.

It’s not that they are afraid of trouble, but the story of "Mulan" itself should have this kind of four-season span.

Mulan served in the army for twelve years. Although she didn’t go to the grassland to fight every year, for the movie, using the four seasons to describe Mulan’s years in the army is a very normal and suitable shooting method.

Otherwise, the background is all in summer, and after a few battles, there is a subtitle "Twelve Years Later", and then Mulan returns home?

This kind of shooting is too third-rate director, Wu Yuan is definitely not able to do such a thing.

So they must shoot in Hulunbuir in winter and spring and summer, so that there can be a smooth enough sense of time transition.

And Hulunbuir in winter is really beautiful.

When Wu Yuan brought the crew here, what they saw was a snowy prairie and a forest dotted with snowflakes.

There were patches of forests scattered on the prairie, and the winter forests were dotted with snow, forming a beautiful picture.

The trees in the forest were surrounded by snow, as if they were elves wrapped in silver, giving people a mysterious feeling.

In such a scenery, people seemed to be able to integrate with nature and feel its beauty and power.

Whether it was Wu Yuan or Liu Yifei, or Cheng Long and Gong Li who came to join the crew, they were all shocked by the beauty of nature when they came here by car.

"It's so beautiful, Hulunbuir." Cheng Long exclaimed as he looked at the white grassland in the distance that directly reached the sky.

The guide who brought them here smiled and said in not very standard Mandarin: "You came at the right time. It just snowed heavily two days ago, so it's so beautiful."

The location of Hulunbuir is similar to that of the Northeast. It snows very early every year, and it starts snowing in mid-to-late November.

However, in recent years, due to global warming, there have been cases where Hulunbuir has not snowed for the entire winter, but there is not as much heavy snow as before.

Just like Wu Yuan in the past few years in Beijing, he rarely saw heavy snow, unlike his memory when he was a child, when Beijing was often covered with heavy snow.

But this year, he was lucky. Hulunbuir had a heavy snowfall, and it will snow frequently in the future, as if to welcome the crew of "Mulan".

Wrapped in a thick down jacket, Wu Yuan put his hands on his waist, breathed, and muttered: "I left the Yellow River in the morning and arrived at the Black Mountain in the evening. I didn't hear my parents calling me, but I heard the chirping of the Hu cavalry in Yanshan."

"Unfortunately, this is not Yanshan, and it hasn't snowed much at the foot of Yanshan in recent years."

The Yanshan Mountains are just north of Beijing. The former Yanshan Mountains, the climate differences between the north and the south have shaped different social and cultural models. To the north of the mountain, the plateau is bitterly cold, dry and rainless, and nomadic people live by following water and grass, migrating constantly.

For thousands of years, smoke and beacon fires have alternately curled in this mountain range, and the competition around Yanshan has run through Chinese history.

South of the mountain, the farming society is rooted in the land, and grains and fruits grow in fertile mountains and plains.

The social forces on the north side of the mountain often have the motivation to cross Yanshan and conquer the land in the south.

Protecting the homeland and resisting invasion are long-term challenges faced by the regime on the south side of the mountain.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Northern Qi Dynasty abandoned the northern part of Yanshan and moved the Great Wall line south to the south of the mountain. "The Ballad of Mulan" also tells the story of the Northern Dynasty in the south of the mountain resisting the invasion of nomadic peoples.

Hua Mulan came to the foot of Yanshan and became a soldier guarding the border here. The general died in a hundred battles, and the warrior returned after ten years.

The authenticity of the story itself is questionable. After all, the age is too long, and Hua Mulan herself is not a person recorded in the history books, but a story in the folk songs of the Northern Palace.

But Hua Mulan is a microcosm of thousands of soldiers guarding the border in that era.

Actually, Wu Yuan was planning to find a place to shoot in the Yanshan Mountains, but to be honest, after he went to the site to scout the location, he still felt that Hulunbuir was more suitable.

Filming is ultimately about pursuing beautiful images. Although the Yanshan Mountains are very famous, to be honest, it is not a place with beautiful scenery, and it is not a tourist attraction to this day. It can be seen that it is just an ordinary mountain range, but its location happens to be on the dividing line between nomadic peoples and farming cultures.

There is also a Great Wall built along the ridge of Yanshan Mountain. The Ming Dynasty used the old foundation of the Northern Qi Great Wall. The towering Great Wall still lies on Yanshan Mountain today. If it is really shot, it will be quite out of place. After all, the existing Great Wall is the restored Ming Great Wall, which is too far away from the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

If you want to pursue the aesthetics of the picture, it must be a grassland like Hulunbuir that is beautiful enough, and there are also undulating mountains in the distance, which is suitable for shooting large-scale war scenes.

"In the next period of time, we will stay here to film."

"It just so happens that we can also experience the Mongolian yurts of the herdsmen brothers and eat the special cattle and sheep delicacies of the grassland."

After coming back to his senses, Wu Yuan returned to the topic and said to Cheng Long who had just arrived with a smile: "Hulunbuir is very cold in winter. Brother, you have overcome the difficulties."

"What's the big deal." Cheng Long smiled and patted Wu Yuan's shoulder indifferently: "I have not experienced any hardships."

"It's just that I am a little older now. The kang must be heated up for me at night, otherwise I can't sleep."

"Hey." Wu Yuan was happy, "Brother is professional, and he even knows to burn the kang here at night!"

"Don't worry, I promise to keep it warm for you." Wu Yuan patted his chest and promised.

In the next period of time, they will have to live in the Mongolian yurts on the grassland. In fact, modern Mongolian yurts are quite comfortable to live in. At least they are very warm. The internal temperature can reach 20 to 30 degrees. Even wearing single clothes will be hot. It's just that there are indeed many things that are not adapted to life.

But they can all be overcome! (End of this chapter)