In recent years, in the domestic blockbuster films, various fantasy and mythological themes have sprung up, accounting for a large proportion.
From the "To Catch the Demon" and "Mermaid" in previous years, to the later "Nezha's Demon Child Descending", "Jiang Ziya", and "Assassination of a Novelist", the success of this type of film at the box office also confirms the audience's demand for such films.
In fact, as early as the 1980s, there were many mythological films, such as "The Legend of the Eight Immortals", which was released in 1985, which is a typical representative of them.
The film's active exploration of special effects technology and the irony of the world through mythology can be called a classic model for a mythological adaptation of a movie.
01, the screen reproduction of classic myths
After the release of "The Legend of the Eight Immortals" that year, it received unanimous praise from the audience and is still often broadcast on the movie channel.
The reason why it is regarded as a classic of mythological films is that this film transforms the imagination that originally existed only in words and murals into vivid and intuitive images to present to the audience.
The film takes "How Cao Guo uncle became an immortal" as the main story thread, interspersed with mythical allusions such as "pointing stones into gold", "He Xiangu three scolding Lü Dongbin", "The origin of the Yellow Crane Tower", etc., and unfolds a "floating world of sentient beings" with the help of Cao Guo's uncle's observations and encounters.
Cao Guo's uncle, who was originally a relative of the emperor, was sent to Penglai by the fainting emperor due to his advice, and he decided to return to the hidden mountain forest from then on.
At the same time, the immortals such as Li, who witnessed Cao Guo's uncle's encounter, had the intention to turn him into an immortal, while He Xiangu, who had always hated the officials, was firmly opposed.
These ignorant Uncle Cao Guo had the idea of ChengXian returning to seclusion, but he could not let go of the people of Li Min, until he saw the immortals casting spells to punish evil and promote good, which made him begin to have an obsessive belief in Cheng Xian.
Under the guidance of Lü Dongbin, Uncle Cao Guo originally wanted to worship Elder Zhang Guo as a teacher, but Elder Zhang Guo, who was riding a donkey, came up with a puzzle: If you want to become an immortal, you must first figure out where the root cause of many disasters in the world lies.
Uncle Cao Guo, who was puzzled by this problem, first witnessed the tragedy of his brothers killing their biological fathers and killing each other in order to compete for the treasure.
Later, he saw that the county order was insatiable, and he was only thinking about how to use some gold rods to change more gold, and as a result, he took the lives of the family.
Cao Guo's uncle, who witnessed many absurd things, completely cut off the idea of returning to the world, and finally understood the root cause of "many disasters in the world", which actually lies in a "greedy" word.
Uncle Cao Guo, who realized the true meaning, was recognized by the immortals, and He Xiangu also changed his prejudice against him, and the eight immortals have since settled down and crossed the sea.
The whole story is linked one by one, the rhythm is very tight, the only groove point is probably the opening of the film, the iron abductor Lee turns a live dog into a plate of hot meat, and the immortals eat with relish This paragraph now seems to be very controversial.
Up to now, such a scene is undoubtedly thunderous; but from the perspective of that year, this is actually just a gimmick created by the film to attract the audience.
02. Stunts catch up with the 86th edition of "Journey to the West"
"The Legend of the Eight Immortals" can capture the audience, which is inseparable from the screenwriter Xiao Wen's familiarity with the legend of the Eight Immortals.
Xiao Wen is a native of Yantai, Shandong, not far from the legendary Penglai Xian Island, and has not listened to the legends of the Eight Immortals from adults since he was a child.
Later, as a film screenwriter, Xiao Wen thought about one day bringing the Eight Immortals to the big screen, and it was not until the 80s that Xiao Wen waited for the opportunity to create a film script with the Eight Immortals as the protagonist.
After the creation was completed, he handed the script to the Shanghai Film Studio, and he did not expect that the leader would like it very much after reading the script, so he also found an old director with rich experience, Zhao Huanzhang, to direct the film.
Speaking of Zhao Huanzhang, Presumably many viewers are not strangers, he has directed many popular movies, such as "Our Cow Hundred Years", "This is not a misunderstanding", and "Xiyingmen", which triggered a national movie viewing boom.
Shooting Zhao Huanzhang, who is accustomed to realistic themes, is the first time he has come into contact with this kind of imaginative mythological film, which is definitely an unprecedented test for him.
In particular, how to use stunts to restore the scenes of mythological stories really made the inexperienced directors and film crew rack their brains and use various foreign methods to achieve it.
For example, the scene in the film where animals and people are instantly turned into gold can be seen as a creative use of the stunt photography of stopping the camera.
In addition, the film also uses a very new special effects photography method: creatively combining live-action and animation effects.
For example, in the scene of the Yellow Crane Tower in the film, Lu Dongbin cast a spell to make the yellow crane painted on the wall move, and the yellow crane dancing in the painting was in the same frame as the real scene, which was very shocking for the audience at that time.
What's more, such a technique was new in the world at that time: to know that Hollywood's successful example of combining animation with live-action shooting was the 1988 film "Who Framed Roger the Rabbit", three years later than "The Legend of the Eight Immortals".
Today, the final stunt effect of the film can even be said to be better than the 86th edition of "Journey to the West" in the same period.
In the situation of extremely backward technology at that time, the film was able to create a convincing mythological world, which was undoubtedly a successful exploration of Chinese film special effects.
03. Three of the "Eight Immortals" have died
The reason why the film is known as a classic model for mythological adaptations is not only due to the story and special effects, but also inseparable from the actor's grasp of the role, just like netizens said, these actors rarely performed a sense of natural fairy wind.
For example, Wang Futang, who plays Cao Guo's uncle, wears a dark official robe, wears a black gauze hat, holds a white jade board, and has an indisputable perseverance and righteousness in his eyes, which is very close to the image depicted in the myth.
Many people do not know, in fact, Wang Futang also participated in the 86 version of "Journey to the West", in which he played the role of the Bull Devil King.
Coincidentally, another actor who plays Han Zhongli, Iron Bull, also starred in "Journey to the West", playing the smiling Maitreya Buddha.
Whether it is Han Zhongli or Maitreya Buddha, the Iron Bull has endowed the two gods and Buddhas with natural affinity and wisdom, which has been highly recognized by the audience and is still an insurmountable classic.
The oldest of the "Eight Immortals" is Zhang Guolao, who rides a donkey upside down, played by the old artist Yuan Zhiyuan, in addition to this film, Yuan Zhiyuan's most well-known role is the Antarctic Immortal played in the old version of "Fengshen List".
More than 30 years later, three old artists have passed away, leaving only the classic roles on the screen for future generations to see.
In addition to the above, He Xiangu, played by Tian Xiaomei, as the only woman among the eight immortals, has also received a lot of attention, from a naïve girl to a mature and stable fairy, holding a lotus flower and a fairy-like image that amazes everyone as soon as she appears.
Shortly after filming this film, Tian Xiaomei also co-starred with Feng Gong in the movie "Amateur Police", but after filming these two films, Tian Xiaomei suddenly disappeared in the show business circle and became an unsolved mystery.
Although according to the current standards, the film is slightly outdated from the narrative technique to the special effects technology, but it does not hinder the film's position in the history of cinema, it leaves posterity not only a solid story and special effects exploration, but more importantly, imagination.
Nowadays, we are all advocating the so-called "consumption of imagination", and the key to its realization is not technology, but that today's creators have less imagination like when filming "The Legend of the Eight Immortals". (Author: Pippi Shrimp)