Written by/Beijing News reporter Wang Xueqi
Editing /TONGNA
Image from the web
Martial arts dramas are making a comeback. At the beginning of the new year, "Drifting Sword Rain", adapted from Gu Long's novel, Jin Yong's classic novel adaptation "New Laughing Proud of the Jianghu", and the new work of the mythological new martial arts "Shushan Zhan Ji" series,"Shushan Zhan Ji 2 Treading On Fire Song", came to the audience one after another. The emergence of wuxia dramas in batches is not an accidental event, and the TV series "Absolute Double Glory" adapted from another novel of Gu Long and one of the representative works of the mainland's new martial arts, "Listening to the Snow Building", have begun to be filmed. According to the public filing information of TV dramas, there were 6 ancient martial arts themes in February 2018, and the number of records was the sum of the first half of 2017. Why is the martial arts style rising again, and how can martial arts dramas be filmed to bring freshness to the audience who are familiar with various routines? The Beijing News reporter interviewed Li Yingying, senior director of iQIYI and general manager of Qixing Drama Studio, and wuxia drama directors Hu Mingkai and Jin Chen, to explore the changes and changes of martial arts dramas.
Lost: Limited share of costumes, difficult martial arts scenes
Strictly speaking, the martial arts dramas in the past few years have not disappeared, it is just not popular, and even classic IP such as Jin Yong and Gu Long cannot save this decline. In 2016, "New Shaw Eleven", "Five Rats In Tokyo", "Flying Knife and See Flying Knife" were broadcast one after another, but it did not bring too much splash, and many people did not even know who the main actors of these dramas were, let alone the plot.
The last time wuxia dramas became the focus of the public was 5 years ago, in 2013, Yu Zheng's "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu" and Zhong Hanliang's "Tianlong Babu" were broadcast, both of which have memory points that can penetrate time and space. The former is "the two or three things that the East is undefeated and Makes Fox Chong have to say", and the latter is "the three brothers from the Beggar Gang and the lowest-looking Wang Yuyan in history". However, the two major changes that followed made it difficult for martial arts dramas to maintain their status as even being ridiculed by the group.
"Eight major TV stations can broadcast costume dramas in prime time each year is limited, and it can't accommodate so many martial arts dramas." Jin Chen explained. On the other hand, the rapid rise of the fantasy big IP drama and the big female lead drama has hurt the vitality of the martial arts drama. In the summer of 2014, the broadcast of "Ancient Sword Qitan" became popular with Li Yifeng and Chen Weiting, who had debuted for many years, and also made the Xuan fantasy big IP become the darling of the market. In 2015, "The Legend of Wu Meiniang" and "The Legend of Mi Yue" made the concept of big female protagonist drama deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and these two types of dramas are all costume dramas. Many industry insiders have said that "following the trend" is a major feature of the current domestic film and television drama industry, and after the fire of individual fantasy IP dramas and big female lead dramas, the core resources and main teams of film and television companies will be inclined to this field.
"We used to shoot scenes in real time, but now there's a question, will the actors do that? Their sense of self-protection is too strong now, and when they take the scene, they will say, 'Director I don't hang Weia, I don't want to ride a horse'. Even the capital did not want to do this, in case the actor was injured while filming a martial arts scene, it would delay the filming process. Everything in life is risky, and our attitude was to try to minimize all the risks, and the actors could accept it, they knew that any career was risky, and they were willing to accept the challenge. But now the actor, sorry, is too easy to get (successful). Hu Mingkai believes that the many restrictions brought by actors to martial arts dramas have made the impact of many martial arts dramas on the screen much weaker.
Return: Heroes and heroes who have never been far away
Although the bottleneck period of the theme has been encountered, the yearning for heroes and chivalry has always existed. Hu Mingkai and Jin Chen both said that heroes and chivalrous guests are different, and the former must have a life in their hearts, accompany the great cause, and be the savior in people's hearts. The latter are more jianghu people who pursue justice, but both are some kind of morally noble and perfect personality.
When talking about this topic, Hu Mingkai recalled that when he was in the third grade of primary school, he listened to the teacher tell Jin Yong's serial story in Ming Pao. "There's only one small section a day, and often everyone is listening intently and it's over, 'Eh, gone?' The teacher said, 'No,' and didn't listen to the story until I graduated from elementary school. "For many boys, the martial arts world is a very important adolescent fantasy." Jin Chen said so, but he also said that in the post-00s world, the contact with martial arts comes more from games than novels, "so they will be more receptive to Xian Xia, and as they get older, they will slowly understand the difference between the two, and why they want to see martial arts, which takes time." ”
Compared with the director who is in the front line of creation, Li Yingying will look at martial arts dramas more from the perspective of the industry. For video sites that increasingly emphasize intensive audience segmentation, martial arts dramas are a very important vertical category. Li Yingying said, "There has always been a market for martial arts dramas, and everyone still likes this kind of genre, especially for young audiences. Young people will feel that society is also a jianghu, and in the past they may have used preachy to talk about chivalry, but now they have changed their ways, through the drive of the plot, let them experience it themselves. ”
Change: old stories, new ways of telling, new faces
Among the martial arts dramas that are being broadcast and filmed, the works of Jin Wen Gu Liang Huang (short for Jin Yong, Wen Rui'an, Gu Long, Liang Yusheng, and Huang Yi) are still the mainstream. In 2017, the TV series "The Legend of the Eagle Shooter" supervised by Guo Jingyu was broadcast, and in the face of this story that has been interpreted many times, the performances of newcomer actors Yang Xuwen and Li Yitong still made the demanding and picky audience buy it, and Li Yitong even harvested a large wave of fans in the well-known Internet community tiger puff known for its poisonous tongue with his interpretation of Huang Rong.
Why shoot?
Li Yingying: "A complete world view, a rich character image, a fascinating story" Classic works have elements that are always attractive, and can be customized according to the different preferences of new and old audiences when specifically produced. Old audiences look at classic bridges, and younger audiences look at stories and characters.
Jin Chen: Jin Yong's work is a Rubik's cube that can be deconstructed in many ways. You can start spelling anywhere, as long as you can finish the story at the end. Whether it is one side, four sides or six sides, it depends on the creation. Although there are also many young and excellent martial arts writers, the works of Jin Wen Gu Liang Huang have created a very perfect martial arts world under various restrictions of the real world, and it is difficult for latecomers to look back.
Hu Mingkai: The works of the older generation of martial arts writers still have a lot of room for excavation and adaptation, and Wolongsheng still has many works worth excavating.
Compared with the new works, classics that have undergone many remakes will inevitably face the lack of suspense, and some of the puzzles carefully created in the novel will lose their charm because of the spoilers of the previous work, which is a problem that all remakes have to face. More than a decade ago, Hu Mingkai once directed "Young Bao Qingtian", which is regarded as a classic by many reasoning enthusiasts, and he modestly attributed the success of this series to the time and place created by the market gap. He admitted that it is much more difficult to shoot detective reasoning themes now than it was then. "At that time, no one had done this type, there was a lot of creative space, and after so many years, everyone was too familiar with various techniques and routines, and it was difficult to create suspense." Now shooting this kind of drama can only put the dramatic pressure on the characters, and explore the deep humanity behind the characters' choices and behaviors. ”
This principle also applies to martial arts dramas, "Yitian Slaughtering Dragon" has a classic puzzle, Zhang Wuji and the three heroines are trapped on ice and fire island, Yin Li is killed, the dragon slaying knife is stolen, who is the murderer? In the 2001 version starring Wu Qihua, the producer adapted according to the plot of the original book, and the audience was placed in the perspective of the protagonist, and the truth was revealed step by step with the development of the event. In the 2003 version starring Su Youpeng, the audience was given the perspective of God, paying close attention to the murderer's every move, so as to experience her inner struggle and pain.
The change in perspective is also reflected in the main character shaping, and the martial arts novels loved by film and television dramas often have a narrative line about the growth of teenagers, which can make ordinary audiences empathize and feel empathy. Jin Chen had a bold idea, and although he knew that doing so would incur infamy, he still wanted to try a new perspective. "He's a man first, and then he can become a man. Since they are human beings, they must have shortcomings and shortcomings. ”
"New Laughing Pride Jianghu" chose the plain-looking Ding Guansen to play the protagonist Ling Huchong, and in the plot, he also tried to restore the "misery" of Ling Huchong, who was misunderstood by the surroundings, was involved in a conspiracy, and lost his loved one. As the name suggests, the book "Smiling Proud of jianghu" is more of a story about the jianghu itself, so the nominal protagonists Ling Huchong and Ren Yingying appeared later. Jin Chen chose to put more ink on Ling Huchong to show his heart and growth, "Ling Huchong has always wanted to be an ordinary person, learning the Lone Nine Swords and being the leader is not his original intention, in this drama, he completed a wish to be an ordinary person." ”
Even so, the difficulty of remaking classics is still increasing, and creators are facing an increasingly powerful audience that can easily access a variety of excellent works. For creators, classic works are not the only choice, and batches of new IPs and works are being incubated, but for some people, Jinwen Gulianghuang is still difficult to replace.
Li Yingying said that the young audience faced by martial arts dramas today has changed a lot compared with before, "They have seen various storytelling methods in various American dramas and movies. They prefer strong plots accompanied by various flipped stories, so when we made "Fragrant Sword Rain", we made the original suspense line deeper, increased the reversal bridge, and combined important plot points with the time points of Zhou Geng to enhance the suspense effect. ”
According to her, "Fragrant Sword Rain" uses the "League of Legends" mode in the narrative mode of the story, "In the previous drama, the characters may have appeared at the beginning, and then various side character stories also happened at the same time." But this drama is more like the model of American dramas, in which the martial arts characters are out one by one. ”
While changing the way the story is narrated, wuxia dramas are also trying to absorb more new elements, and the "Shushan Battle Chronicles" series has added some elements of immortals and myths while following the earliest martial arts world of "Shushan". In addition, "Shushan War Chronicles" also added more two-dimensional elements to the specific shooting and storyboard scripts, such as adding two-dimensional style scenes, and the opening also has animation elements displayed. "The audience covered by the Shushan Battle Chronicles series will be younger, and the audience under the age of 25 accounts for a large proportion, and this group of people is very familiar with the second dimension."
Comparison at the beginning of different versions of "Laughing At the Beginning"
Original: Lin Pingzhi, a young dart head of the Fuwei Dart Bureau, stopped in the inn where Laudno and Yue Lingshan were lurking in disguise, in order to relieve Yue Lingshan and kill a young man with the surname of Yu, and caused the Fuwei Dart Bureau to destroy the door.
1996 Lü Songxian version: The Five Yue Sect gathered to discuss the matter of electing the ally, the Sun Moon God Sect Director I Xing invaded, defeated the four factions one by one, and was forced to leave due to the reaction of the True Qi when he confronted zuo Leng Zen of the Songshan Sect. Let me act as a wounded person and leave the teaching affairs to the Undefeated In the East, which begins to exclude dissidents.
2001 Li Yapeng version: Ling Hu Chong met Qu Yang, the elder of the Sun and Moon God Sect, and when he met the latter, he was hunted down and killed by the demon cult people, so he came to his aid. Lin Pingzhi stopped in the inn where Ling Huchong and Yue Lingshan were lurking in disguise, and in order to relieve Yue Lingshan, with the secret help of Ling Huchong, he mistakenly killed a young man with the surname of Yu, causing the Fuwei Dart Bureau to destroy the door.
2013 Huo Jianhua Version: The Five Peaks Sword Sect joined forces to encircle and suppress the Sun Moon God Sect and attack its headquarters, Heimu Cliff. Ren and I are in retreat and do not want to confront each other head-on. At the instigation of Dongfang Undefeated, Ren Yixing's wife was defeated and captured in battle against the Wuyue Sword Sect, and was killed by Dongfang Undefeated after escaping with the help of Lady Yue Buqun.
2018 Ding Guansen Edition: The opening chapter introduces the past when the ten elders of the Sun Moon God Sect were trapped in a cave eighteen years ago, and the Five Peaks Sword Sect formed an alliance to defeat the Sun Moon God Sect. Many years later, Shangguan Yun, the lord of the White Tiger Hall of the Sun Moon God Sect, was hunted down and killed by everyone and saved by the undefeated East, who subsequently recaptured the Black Wood Cliff.
The use of new actors is a major feature of this wave of martial arts dramas. In Jin Chen's view, doing so allows actors and characters to grow together. Chen Xun, who played Lin Pingzhi in "New Laughing Pride of jianghu", was initially trained as the actor of Ling Huchong, and before starting the camera, the director team felt that Ling Huchong should not be so handsome, "If Ling Huchong is more handsome than Lin Pingzhi, Yue Lingshan of Qingmei Bamboo Horse chose the latter, do you believe it?" So Chen Xun was adjusted to the role of Lin Pingzhi. For the actor himself, losing the role of absolute starring is a very disappointing thing, but Jin Chen told him, "Just take this loss to play Lin Pingzhi, the process of your loss is the process of Lin Pingzhi's loss." ”
Some of the "new" brought about by the new version of "The Legend of the Eagle Hero" is precisely the "old". After several years of baptism of fantasy dramas, the picture of flying cornices and walls in the wilderness, the audience has begun to feel aesthetic fatigue. Guo Jingyu brought back the sincere and down-to-earth martial arts scene, and the short-term connection between the blades is the necessary label for martial arts dramas as a specific type. "Real martial arts scenes" were extended to "Fragrant Sword Rain" and "New Laughing Pride", and the newcomer actors were more willing to cooperate with the presentation of martial arts, "Before shooting, we asked the actors to enter the group to train martial arts 1 or 2 months in advance." Jin Chen said.
"It should be the actors who serve the play, not the actors who serve the actors." Hu Mingkai told reporters that the process of filming "Fragrant Sword Rain" is very happy, although the use of young actors will bring some risks, but when shooting everyone's goal is the same, the actor is no longer the core, the drama itself is.
At the end of the interview, Hu Mingkai remembered a small thing. More than ten years ago, he went to Zhuozhou to see the scene, and the crew's car could not sit down, so he took a taxi. The driver talked about his three recent favorite dramas, "Tianlong Eight Parts", "Ping Trace Shadow", "Yitian Slaughtering Dragon", because the chat was too exciting, the car speeding was ticketed, Hu Mingkai helped him pay a large half of the fine, "Two of the favorite three are my plays, is my audience!" ”