The reputation of "The First Burning Incense" is cold: how difficult is it to reproduce Zhang Ailing's world?

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The movie "First Burning Incense" was written by Wang Anyi, directed by Xu Anhua, starring Ma Sichun, Yu Feihong, Peng Yuyan, etc., and the works produced by this particularly anticipated creative lineup were cold after the release, and on Douban, the film opened with a score of 5.9, and then slid all the way to 5.5, as of November 3, the box office was more than 55 million. It is hard to believe that xu Anhua, the "goddess of literary and art films", met Waterloo.

Like the doubts encountered at the beginning of the movie, the biggest question encountered after the release of "First Incense" is still the casting problem, especially the female student Ge Weilong played by Ma Sichun and the playboy Qiao Qiqiao played by Peng Yuyan, who were spat on the most. This shows that Zhang Ailing's characters are too deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and once the actors and the characters in the original work are not in the right breath, the others are not right.

However, the bad reviews of "The First Incense" are not just casting problems, it involves many difficulties in the transformation of novel films and television, the accuracy of the creator's grasp of the atmosphere of the times, and the huge changes in the audience's psychology. All in all, the version of "First Incense", which is being released, makes people feel the existence of various "obstacles".

Times are changing, and Zhang Ailing is eternal – this may be the main reason for the formation of "obstacles". From the "partition" to the "diaphragm" to the "diaphragm" that some viewers feel after watching, this is both the problem of the main creator and the problem of the audience. The main creator and the audience in the film and television adaptation of Zhang Ailing's works should take the literary and popular route, invariably swaying left and right, wandering, not sure what they want. If it is too literary and artistic, it will raise the threshold for understanding Zhang Ailing again, and if it is biased towards popularity, it may "pollute" the character world created by Zhang Ailing.

Zhang Ailing's novels are notoriously difficult to adapt, first, her works focus on the description of psychological activities, sensitive and meticulous, with a variety of images, suitable for text reading, and can not meet the strong drama required for image presentation. Second, her characters are cold and determined, and they are integrated with the complex and changeable society at that time, and have a certain distance from the current life.

It is precisely because Zhang Ailing's work adaptation is a "hot potato", so generally dare to challenge and get a lot of influence, are the masters of the film and television circle, in addition to Xu Anhua, Li An, Hou Xiaoxian, Guan Jinpeng, have tried... It is precisely because of the creation of these Hong Kong and Taiwan directors that Zhang Ailing can be mentioned again and again with the help of video content in several periods of the image era, reminding people to enter the real, cold and lonely emotional world she created, and have a sense of calm and calm.

At present, the most popular Zhang Ailing film by the audience is probably Xu Anhua's 1997 directorial work "Half Life", starring Shen Shijun starring Li Ming and Gu Manzhen starring Wu Qianlian, which has since been deeply rooted in the hearts of the audience and has become the realistic image of the irreplaceable Character of Zhang Ailing. Xu Anhua's film is very important, it portrays the world portrayed by Zhang Ailing, successfully integrated with the modern audience's understanding of Zhang Ailing, Zhang Ailing's sadness and the end of the century, become the overall temperament of "Half Life", many viewers through this film, truly understand Zhang Ailing.

"Half Life" on Zhang Ailing's almost "monopoly" interpretation, until 10 years later, in 2007, was broken by Ang Lee's "Color Ring", "Color Ring" is not more than 10,000 words, but Zhang Ailing wrote for 30 years, it seems that only Ang Lee, in Zhang Ailing's very special work, found the author's true female mentality. After the release of "Color Ring", it caused a wide range of discussions, the scope of discussion broke through the film, entered the knowledge circle layer, and many scholars conducted in-depth analysis of the film, Zhang Ailing and her female position, including the times and social atmosphere, from the perspective of thought.

Guan Jinpeng's "Red Roses and White Roses" filmed in 1994 and Hou Xiaoxian's "Sea Flowers" filmed in 1998 are all masterpieces in Chinese films, but compared with "Half Life" and "Color Ring", Guan Jinpeng and Hou Xiaoxian's works are still slightly niche.

Success may be Saddle, defeat may be Saddle. After 24 years, not only will Xu Anhua lose his hand in filming Zhang Ailing again, but even if Ang Lee makes a comeback, it will be difficult to make another work like "Color Ring". It seems that the famous directors who have been dominating the direction of film and television creation have been affected by a more powerful consumer environment and psychology, changed, and when creating and producing, the tangible market, intangible concepts, and changing audience groups are all powerfully promoting some things and destroying some things.

As a classic Zhang Ailing, her works already have a sculptural texture and hardness. I think that at that time, Xu Anhua had the sharp eyes of a craftsman and sharp carving tools, creating the legend and glory of "Regeneration Edge"; after 24 years, many things have changed, and many conditions no longer exist, so it is understandable that "The First Incense" could not create the glory of "Regeneration Edge".

(This article is only the author's personal opinion and does not represent the position of this newspaper)

Han Haoyue