On September 22, 2021, the director of the film "Watermelon Team" received a notice that the film had been shortlisted for the 24th International Sports Film and Television Festival in Liberec in the Czech Republic.
Liberec is a tourist city in the northwestern Czech Republic, and the international sports film and television festival was founded in 1998. The 17th edition of 2014 was supported by the Czech Olympic Committee and was divided into five units: the Olympic Games and the Olympic Spirit, Documentary, Sports and Education, Children and Sports, and the Jury Prize. It is a film and television event in the sports industry, which can be called the "Oscar" of sports films. Director Zhang Yimou won the best sports documentary award at the festival for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
A sports comedy film that was previously unknown in China, "Watermelon Team", became the first domestic film to be shortlisted for the International Sports Film Festival in China, and it is a film that reflects the low-cost production of contemporary rural reality dramas.
The film is jointly produced by Shouying (Shanghai) Cultural Development Co., Ltd., Shakespeare Culture Media (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Shanghai Zhongweida Industrial Co., Ltd., directed by up-and-coming director Ge Pengxiang, written by Zhao Xiucai, starring Qiu Endian, Ma Lu, Zhang Mingmin, Guo Zhenyue, Xie Liang, etc. The film integrates basketball, comedy, sense of the times and other elements, warm and inspirational.
The story told in the movie "Watermelon Team" is that the old warehouse in Xingshou Village is the favorite entertainment place of the villagers, where young people can play football, old people can play chess, and big mothers can twist and sing. Due to the change of times, young people such as Sodan, Tractor, Jade Flower, Er FatZi, Walking Tractor and other villagers have renamed this entertainment warehouse that has been carrying for more than 30 years as a club.
However, Xiong Dazhuang, CEO of Xingshou Village Dazhuang Garment Factory, listened to the "scientific superstition" and wanted to occupy the club with good feng shui and change it into the sales flagship store of Dazhuang clothing.
In order to earn the 50,000 yuan that the club desperately needed, for the most precious memory in their hearts and the right of the villagers to entertain, the young villagers led by Sodan signed up for the county's Chicken Farm Cup (or JBA) Farmers Basketball Mixed Boys' and Girls' League.
The reality is that they used to play soccer and knew almost nothing about basketball rules and techniques, so the Watermelons couldn't win the championship. At this time, Li Daqiu of the same village, an old friend of his father Soba Watermelon, stood up, and to Sodan's surprise, Li Daqiu was actually a professional basketball player in the past.
With the strong physique and the guidance of basketball coach Li Daqiu, the watermelon team passed the level and used all their strength, and finally stumbled and staggered to the final, looking like they were about to get the championship title and 50,000 yuan in prize money. However, at this time, there was a dispute within the watermelon team, the team member tractor was anxious to pursue his girlfriend, the fiancée of the second fat man was bribed by Xiong Dazhuang, the tractor and the hand tractor quarreled and left the team in anger, and Sodan also faced Xiong Dazhuang's heavy bribe.
For a moment, the watermelon team was torn apart, and Sodan returned home.
However, Buckdan's father, Soba, now stands up to encourage his daughter, telling her that she should continue to fight for The Village of Koshou and for her friendship with Er fat, Jade, Tractor, Tractor, tractor, and others.
Encouraged by his father, Sodan regained his feet and finally assembled the team again towards the start of the final.
Xiong Dazhuang thought that the victory was in his hands, but he was shocked to see that the watermelon team that had been renewed was once again on the opposite side of him.
The tense final finally began, Xiong Dazhuang's professional basketball team members were outstanding, especially a player nicknamed Big Boy had the strongest ability, Sodan and Mai Ke were not his opponents, the watermelon team was defeated, and when it looked like it was about to lose, the elderly leftover girl Cuihua in the watermelon team shot.
In the end, the watermelon team won the competition with its own tenacity and the cheers of the old and young masters in the village, and Sodan also reaped his love with Mai Ke...
It is not difficult to see from the introduction of the movie that this is a "cottage version" of the funny story of the seven samurai who collected chicken feathers and dusted together and finally defeated the windmill giant, unlike Don Quixote, this group of young people finally succeeded, so that they could continue to live with their fathers and fellow villagers in the utopian pastoral life they defended.
Among them, the sportsmanship of not accepting defeat, not giving up, and getting more and more frustrated is also what resonates with the audience.
The opening ceremony of the movie "Watermelon Team" (aka: McCock Jordan).
According to Ge Hongwei, the producer of the film, in order to shoot this film, the film crew adopted a "return to the basics" film production model, and resumed the performance and production system of the 1980s and 1990s, that is, "under life" and "re-rehearsal". To this end, the director team really led the main actors to experience life in the countryside of Weishan County, Yunnan, learning to do farm work, driving a tractor, playing basketball in the field, etc., so that the actors were more in line with the roles in the script. Before the actual shooting, the crew has given the actors half a month of theatrical rehearsal, so that the actors can enter the role state as soon as possible.
The film's director Ge Pengxiang revealed that, simply put, the film does not try to show how fashionable, avant-garde and trendy it is, on the contrary, it reveals a rare and strong nostalgic mood and atmosphere, whether it is texture or style, it presents a kind of sincerity that pursues the essence of the film and abandons excessive packaging, perhaps the whole viewing process, like returning to the open-air cinema when he was a child, always seems to be able to breathe the taste of the past.
It is worth noting that Zhao Xiucai, the screenwriter of the movie "Watermelon Team", a senior screenwriter of film and television after the 70s, has the reputation of "comedy geeks" in the circle, has participated in the writing and planning of works such as "Family with Children", "Funny Family", "Heaven on the Left, Fiji on the Right", "I Am Legend" and other works, and has mastered the comedy elements like a fish, forming his own unique language tone and style, and is now a member of the Beijing Literary Association Youth Writers Association.
If ordinary audiences want to re-find the original intention of watching movies and taste a movie version of "nostalgia", then "Watermelon Team" should be a choice that will not disappoint you, she is like a plate of cucumbers, can not go to the state banquet, and never positions themselves in a big meal, but just a fresh appetizer is not greasy, but the aftertaste is endless home cooking, such a "Watermelon Team" is worth looking forward to.
Nowadays, on the weekend after the school's "double subtraction", many teenagers have also begun to pick up sports exercises, play basketball, football, table tennis, rock climbing, running, skateboarding... While doing a good job in school, it is urgent to be strong and healthy, so the emergence of the sports movie "Watermelon Team", which exudes a strong local atmosphere, is obviously timely. (Reporting by Li Yu in Shanghai)