"Mountain Porter Wang Meiying", a Shanghai opera film, won the Best Opera Film Award at the 32nd China Golden Rooster Hundred Flowers Film Festival on the evening of November 23.

Hua Wen, head of Baoshan Shanghai Opera Troupe and leading actress of "Mountain Porter Wang Meiying", said, "Thank the judging panel for this award. I think this award is for the mothers on the world for their selfless dedication as well. Shanghai Opera is a local opera in Shanghai; the Troupe is a small one at the grass-roots level; and Wang Meiying in the opera film is an ordinary person. But the movie screen offers us to eulogize Chinese people's perseverance in the great era. The spirit of mountain porter not only touches many audiences, but also inspires us along the way. "

As China's first color Shanghai opera film and Shanghai's first realistic opera film since the reform and opening-up, "Mountain Porter Wang Meiying", starring by Hua Wen, head of the Troupe and winner of the First-class Performance Award of Plum Performance Award and the Wenhua Award, is based on a true story that a single mother with a completely-blind child and a boy-girl twins had broken more than 140 pairs of “Liberation Shoes” and more than 70 carrying poles in the past 17 years, and finally raised the children with her own efforts.

After watching the opera film, Zhong Chengxiang, Chairman of China Literature and Art Critics Association (CLACA), said, "It is a successful work integrated with the spiritual aesthetics of opera and the realistic aesthetics of film."

Different from traditional opera films copying the record, "Mountain Porter Wang Meiying" fully respects the original stage work, retains classical paragraphs and arias of the operas as far as possible, and intersperses the paragraphs and arias in the whole creation process in the form of documentary.

The audience can enjoy the 5-minute Shanghai-opera Fuzi-style song named "Bright Sunny Skies after the Rain" with more than 80 tinged sentences, and see how Hua Wen playing Wang Meiying in the opera film carries the pole, follows Wang’s footprints, and climbs to the top of Qiyun Mountain step by step.

After watching "Mountain Porter Wang Meiying", Rong Guangrun, a professor of Shanghai Theatre Academy, said to Hua Wen that "it is a great success".

In the shooting process, Hua Wen has worked hard in the more-than-40°C shed and under various kinds of lighting. Hua has been working over 70 hours without sleep, and has changed makeup 7 or 8 times for continuous shooting in different views, in order to speed up the shooting. The last set of shots involved the snow scene, and all the air-conditioning and ventilation equipment in the shed was turned off to avoid scattering the snowflakes. Despite of the pent-up feelings, Hua put on the thickest cotton-padded jacket in the film, and finished the high-difficulty singing and performance under the extreme fatigue. She eased up until the director Wang Hao yelled “cut”, and then she fainted away right there. “Misery is probably the way to success and a new world, which looks like the Phoenix Nirvana. Actually, no pain, no gain”, said Hua.

"The directors of opera film need to be familiar with both the aesthetic characteristics of opera language and the rules of film language." said Zhong Chengxiang, "Mountain Porter Wang Meiying" organically blended the archetypal character with the stage art image. "It is not mutually resistant but complementary, preserving the advantages of opera and film."

After watching the opera film, Geng Xuhua, editor-in-chief of "Chinese Opera", said, "It’s a surprise that it is simple and innovative." Ma Lili, Shanghai-opera performing artist, praised that it has great and modern technique suitable for the film. Gong Hede, the opera theorist, admitted that the opera film surprised him, and said, "I think it is a cinematographic Shanghai drama. I surprisingly find that the actors come into contact with the life prototype, and find the reaction between the screen image and the stage audience. The film is innovative, comfortable and moved." Mao Shi’an, Deputy Chairman of CLACA, commented that the film is not just a film or made in a creative form, but a moved story with a simple film language.

The opera "Mountain Porter Wang Meiying" has been performed hundreds of times since its premiere in 2012. Through three national tours, it has been performed in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, Beijing, Anhui, Guangdong, Hong Kong and other places, with more than 230,000 spectators. It has won the 13th "Five-one Project Award" for Spiritual Civilization Construction of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, the 14th Wenhua Award for Outstanding Drama, the Outstanding Contribution Award for Modern Chinese Opera and other 15 national or provincial awards. The leading actress Hua Wen wins the First-class Performance Award of Plum Performance Award and the Wenhua Award for playing Wang Meiying in the opera.

“Buddhist Arhat Coin” and “The Sparks of Fire”, both Shanghai opera, were adapted for the screen in 1957 and in 1959 respectively. As the selected one of excellent digital films starring the actors winning Plum Performance Award, "Mountain Porter Wang Meiying" is the first realistic opera film in Shanghai since the reform and opening-up. Unlike operas which face a maximum of 1,000 audiences, the opera film attracts more audiences in a wider scope. Not worried about that Shanghai opera films would be hit by regional barriers, Hua Wen said, "Shanghai opera may have limitations because of its language. However, great stories can speak for themselves on account of common human emotions." Taking the opera film performed across China as an example, Hua said, "Southern operas are difficult to be popular in the north. However, many audiences are moved when we perform it in Beijing. When we go down to Guangdong, the audiences who only understand Cantonese clap with all their might. It is clear that great stories have no language barriers, and great works can overcome the opera limitation itself."