"Water Margin" is a classical masterpiece loved by the majority of readers, and has been adapted and produced into a TV series three times in China for the benefit of the public. In the early 1980s, Shandong Television, co-directed by Chen Min, Liu Liu and Liu Ziyun, filmed a 40-episode "Water Margin" TV series in the form of a biography, which premiered in 1983, which was the earliest systematic filming of "Water Margin". TV series. In the late 1990s, CCTV was directed by Zhang Shaolin and adapted by Yang Zhengguang and Ran Ping, and produced a 43-episode "Water Margin" TV series, which premiered on January 8, 1998. At the beginning of this century, Shandong, Tianjin, Zhejiang and other film and television units jointly produced an 86-episode "Water Margin" TV series, directed by Ju Jueliang and written by Wen Haojie, which premiered on August 2, 2011. So which of these three versions of "Water Margin" is better or worse?
First of all, the 1983 version of "Water Margin", the biggest advantage of this version of the TV series is that it is loyal to the original work, and first of all, it has not been adapted too much in the plot (except for the "Wusong" unit). Although this version of "Water Margin" is filmed with Lu Zhishen, Lin Chong, Chao Gai, Wu Song, Song Jiang, Li Kui, and Gu Dajie as independent units, the story development is basically rolled out in the order described in the novel, so that it can introduce the story in terms of characters alone, and can also show 40 episodes as a whole. The play is still relatively considerate in terms of showing the style of the Song Dynasty: its character costumes are more reasonable, and the language of the characters is also very suitable for the original and in line with the identity of the characters. For example, when Lu Zhishen met with Zhongpupi at the Daxiangguo Temple, the Tokyo slang song sung by Zhongpupi was very witty and real; for example, although Liu Tang was called "red-haired ghost", he was not red-haired, but only a cinnabar mole on the sideburns, and the other versions were changed to redhead without exception; in addition, Pan Jinlian's action of "Wanfu" when he first saw Wu Song was also appropriate and in place... All this proves that the director of the play created this play with great care.
The drama is also very appropriate in terms of casting: Yu Shoujinyuan, who plays Lu Zhishen, is a weightlifter, with a thick appearance and a strong physique (the only deficiency is that he is slightly shorter), looks majestic and has no temperament, and the Lu Zhishen played by him is both deep and godly, which is deeply loved by the audience and has become an indelible classic image in the minds of the audience.
Lin Chong plays a total of three, of which Ding Rujun is the most famous, he looks dignified, although not like Zhang Fei (leopard head ring eyes), but in the play, Lin Chong's sword eyebrows are raised, his eyes are shining, and he is heroic. Many people regard Lin Chong as a cowardly person, but in fact, Lin Chong is still bloody. The appearance of another Han Zhenhua is closest to the original.
Peng Yintai, the actor who played Chao Gai, once played the role of Chen Yi in the movie "Mayor Chen Yi", and played a decent role in the TV series "Water Margin", which basically conformed to the description of the original work.
Zhu Yanping, who plays Wu Song, has always been considered the most successful Wu Song actor, Zhu Yanping is a heroic Shandong Han with thick eyebrows, big eyes, a square character face, and a height of 1.8 meters. Not only does the appearance fit the original work, Zhu Yanping's performance in the play is also remarkable, especially the sharp eyes when he fights Ximen Qingqian and his gaze, which is chilling.
There are two song jiang actors, one of whom is Bao Guoan, and many people know Bao Guoan until they have watched Cao Cao in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". In fact, in this version of "Water Margin", his performance is also very outstanding, I believe that many people inherently think that Song Jiang is a non-committal, bloodless person, the Song Jiang in the original work is only cautious, not a cowardly person, when offended he will also show a tough side, such as the angry killing of Yan Po Xi This episode, interested friends can go to see how determined the eyes of Song Jiang played by Bao Guoan are.
Li Kui's actor Dong Ziwu is 1.82 meters tall, which fits the original description, although the eyes are not large, but the role of Li Kui who plays is both reckless and aggressive, but also thick and ridiculous, and he is a "mangy iron bull".
Sun Cuiping, the actor of Gu Dajie, is more in line with the original work, but what really shines is her acting skills. She played a strange woman who was righteous and heroic.
In addition, the soundtrack of the show is a must! In the "WuSong" unit, the folk tunes "One Branch Flower" and "General's Order" were used many times to set off the atmosphere and play a good role. Using the picture and music to show, the audience can enjoy the beautiful tune while imagining the plot of the picture, and can fully imagine the content of the dialogue, without any sense of violation. At this time, silence (dialogue) is better than sound, which is the director's cleverness. When the drama premiered, the martial arts style of the movie "Shaolin Temple" was in the ascendant, and "Water Margin" also used a large number of these similar moves, which was refreshing and refreshing, and it can also be regarded as the pioneering work of the domestic costume martial arts TV series.
After talking about the advantages, let's talk about the disadvantages: First of all, due to financial reasons, the drama is only a relatively independent TV series filmed in units of characters, so it has caused the incompleteness of the story, only from the appearance of Luda to the end of the three dozen Zhujiazhuang, which makes people seem to be unfinished. However, Song Jiang, Lin Chong and others have adopted multiple actors to play, resulting in different appearances and temperaments of the characters, which weakens the continuity of the story. Due to technical reasons, the quality of photographic equipment and film at that time was not as good as at present, so the clarity was not enough, and the visual effect was generally dark, which was also helpless. The most successful filming of the play is the "Wu Song" unit, but also the most adapted unit of the script, the play uses a large number of commentaries and folk rumors as the basis, in order to reflect the tallness of Wu Song, specially portrayed Ximen Qing, Jiang Men Shen, flying centipede Wang Daoren very strongly, thus reflecting Wu Song is stronger, in fact, in the original work, Wu Song is a few moves to subdue the opponent, which weakens Wu Song's bravery. In addition, the play also added characters such as Li Ersheng and other characters who were not in the original work; it also specially interpreted the plot of Wu Song sharing wine and food with the prisoners in the Mengzhou prison camp to show Wu Song's righteousness and arrogance.
In short, the storyline and character performance of the play are still reasonable.
Next, let's talk about the 1998 version of the "Water Margin" TV series, its biggest advantage is that the costumes and props set are in line with the background of the times, and it is the best in the three versions. And the big battle scenes (infantry battles, water battles) are also well filmed; what is particularly amazing is that the interlude with every fight in the play can be described as a "stroke of God", which makes people's blood boil and swell every time! This version of the fight scene is also the most exciting, basically all in one go, the action is dashing; although the original book actually has some fight rounds that are not so many, but in order to make the audience enjoy watching, the crew added a lot of fight scenes, which is understandable.
The performances of a large number of actors are also remarkable.
Song Jiang, played by Li Xuejian, is very close to the original work, but the Zhao'an part is a bit excessive, too obscene.
Wu Yong, played by Ning Xiaozhi, is first of all in line with the original work, and secondly, it fully interprets Wu Yong's clever calculations and obedience to Song Jiang's only orders.
Although Lin Chong, played by Zhou Yemang, is not like Zhang Fei, he looks good and sympathetic, but he is slightly cowardly (perhaps this is the reason, in many people's minds, Lin Chong should look similar to Yue Fei's appearance). Hua Rong, played by Xiu Qing, is heroic and very successful.
Lu Zhishen, played by Zang Jinsheng, is not inferior to that played by Shou Jin, and the two are similar in the place where Lu Zhishen is righteous and helpful, but in the place where Lu Zhisheng is deep and rude, Zang Jinsheng has more than enough, which is more in line with the original description.
The appearance and behavior of Wu Song played by Ding Haifeng are also in line with the original work, and his performance is very wonderful, which is also one of the important reasons why the audience likes Wu Song the most (by an actor who successfully portrays the role and has more admiration for the role).
Yang Zhi, played by Qu Naishe, is the best of the three versions.
Li Kui, played by Zhao Xiaorui, is the most successful of the three versions in terms of styling, and his acting skills are also good. It is a pity that the screenwriter forcibly portrayed Li Kui as a black man with a slippery tongue and flirting with Pang Qiuxia, it should be noted that in the original work, Li Kui is not only not close to women, but even disgusts women (see Jiangzhou Angry Singer Female Selling This Section).
Shi Xiu, played by Yang Fan, fully shows the characteristics of Shi Xiu's thoughtfulness, vicious means, and thoughtful work.
Yan Qing, played by Wang Guanghui, is warm as jade and pleasing.
Wang Ying, played by Xu Jingyi, is very expressive, but he shows more times in the play, and its importance even exceeds qin ming and others.
Zheng Shuang played the role of Hu Sanniang, who exceeded the role played by wang xiuli in the 83rd version, not only the costume props, but also the acting skills were better.
Sun Erniang, played by Liang Li, is very vivid and vivid, but it is too beautiful and plump, which is inconsistent with the original work.
This version of the "Water Margin" TV series can be said to be the most popular version of the audience, the drama has a huge investment, integrates the best resources in the country, and shoots and interprets the masterpiece with the greatest sincerity. The plot and music in the play have always been talked about by people. The actor's acting skills are also not to be said, but the plot is criticized: 108 will be forcibly compressed, and a total of 46 good men will be cut. Some are merged into one, such as Dong Ping and Hua Rong integrated into Hua Rong, Le He and Yang Xiong integrated into Yang Xiong... Whenever the good men were deliberating in the Juyi Hall, only the three leaders of Song, Lu, and Wu sat high in the middle, and Gongsun Sheng was always artificially weakened. In addition, whenever there is a big battle scene (horse battle), the plot is always compressed, especially gao tangzhou breaking gao lian, breaking the hu yan burning chain of horses, etc., which is not addictive and abrupt; in comparison, the 1994 "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" TV series did a much better job in this regard. Some of the plots are really wishful thinking of the "cool drama" section: for example, the plot of the Emasculation of Gao Ya Nei by the people of the Great Xiangguo Temple is embarrassing, and I am afraid that they will not dare to use a hundred guts to do it, because the ideological consciousness of these pippi cannot rise to such a height, which is the sin of losing their heads. In addition, the role of Pang Qiuxia is really "painting snakes and adding feet", and it is meaningless to add this role. If the director and screenwriter really want to make this drama, they should focus on the story of Liangshan Good Han Juyi before the interpretation, rather than filming the various tragedies of Liangshan Good Han Zheng Fangla, the essence of "Water Margin" lies in the hero's row before the seat order rather than after Zhao'an, according to the row of seats 72 times, each episode has 72 episodes, and the plot after that can be completely brushed over and shown by means of narration.
Speaking of the 2011 version of the "Water Margin" TV series, the biggest advantage of the drama is that the plot is complete, the horse battlefield is filmed more, and 108 will all be introduced. But the casting and adaptation of this drama can be said to be a complete failure.
First of all, the Song Jiang played by Zhang Hanyu is too strong, completely like the historical Song Jiang instead of the Song Jiang in the novel.
Lin Chong's appearance makes people look at it and complain.
This version of Lu Zhishen gives people a very heavy feeling of hostility, completely unlike the careless and wise Lu Zhishen in the original work, not only does the play also speak coldly to Jin Cuilian (seemingly jealous), which is really the excessive interpretation of the original book by the choreographer. Yang Zhi simply became a disciple of the Beggar Gang!
This version of Wu Song was jokingly called the "Caribbean version" of Wu Song by netizens.
This version of Li Kui gives people the image of not being tough and straight, but stupid.
In addition, many of the generals did not have helmets and shawls to distribute, or wrote a ridiculous "Song" on their turbans. Some of the other less important characters are mostly hateful and unpleasant. Watching this drama has the illusion of watching a martial arts movie or a fantasy movie. The real biggest problem with the show is that it tampers with the original text at will, forcibly inserts them into the heads of various characters, and makes the characters say something inexplicable and inconsistent with their identities, which makes people sound awkward. As for Wu Song's one-armed capture of Fang La, it misled many viewers who did not watch the original work.
If the three dramas are partly screenwritten, cast, and music are based on 83 versions; some casting, costumes, props, sets, action, special effects, and music are selected in 98 versions; and 11 versions are used in the horse battlefield, it will be a classic TV series.
Having said all this, I actually want to express a wish: I hope that the choreographer can make an original and suitable "Water Margin" dedicated to the audience, do not engage in fancy things, calm down to deeply eat the original work, and will definitely succeed. Just like "The Age of Awakening" and "Crossing the Yalu River" (only historical real people; the same interpretation of ordinary characters, the movie "Armageddon" is more believable and real), "Journey to the West", (the first part), "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Dream of the Red Chamber" and other TV series, flat and direct, without embellishment, you can tell a good story. What the "Water Margin" TV series really needs to be adapted is the overly bloody massacre fight and the plot of the gods and monsters, to remove its dross and take its essence. The dazzling fights are only temporary attractions, and the wonderful plot is eternal.