In 1995, four films starring Stephen Chow were released.
Among them, "Moonlight Treasure Box of Journey to the West" and "Journey to the West" ranked 6th and 8th in the Hong Kong film box office list that year with a box office of 31 million and 25 million respectively.
It is a pity that the total box office of 56 million yuan is still difficult to offset the total investment of 45 million yuan after the split, and even Zhou Xingchi's own Xingcai company has gone bankrupt.
It was not until two years later that "Journey to the West" quickly became popular in mainland universities and the Internet.
Zhou Xingchi's Supreme Treasure, Zhu Yin's Zixia, Luo Jiaying's Tang Monk, Wu Mengda's Second Master...
Each character has become a classic screen image with distinct personality characteristics.
Coupled with countless classic lines, tragic and joyful love stories, and classic soundtracks, "Journey to the West" once became an insurmountable god in the hearts of countless people.
When these two works were re-screened in 2014, they even won more than 200 million at the box office, and this is still in the case of countless netizens who have seen it many times.
However, one of the reasons why a classic is a classic is its non-reproducibility.
In 2016, director Liu Zhenwei launched "Journey to the West 3" on the 20th anniversary of the release of "Journey to the West".
Only this time there was no Zhou Xingchi, Zhu Yin, Luo Jiaying and others, but replaced by Han Geng, Tang Yan, Wu Jing...
Then, more than 60,000 people scored a failed 4 points.
Compared with the 9 points + given by more than one million people in the first two films, it can be described as a difference between cloud and mud.
The comment area is full of one-star bad reviews.
It is reasonable to say that with the failure of the third part in front, others want to remake this IP more or less have to weigh it up, after all, even director Liu Zhenwei can not create brilliance again.
But recently, there was actually a bold director who filmed "Journey to the West: Origins" in the form of an online movie.
Unexpectedly, there was no bad review on Douban, and even more than 4,000 netizens gave a rating of 5.7.
This score is really rare for "3 points is qualified" online movies.
The story of "Journey to the West: Origins" is also set five hundred years ago in the Great Haunted Heavenly Palace.
The wick purple light in front of the Buddha's seat is about to burn out, and it can only be dissolved if the lamplighter pulls out the sword.
Through the power of the Moonlight Treasure Box, Zixia learned that the lamplighter was the Qi Tian Dasheng who made a big fuss in the Heavenly Palace five hundred years later, that is, the ordinary person Supreme Treasure five hundred years ago.
In the end, the two still could not walk together, but they formed a relationship of "one life to light the lamp, three lives to get together".
The story of "Journey to the West: Origins" can be said to be both a prequel to "Journey to the West" and a relatively independent story.
This is where the film is very sincere.
In many online movies, once it comes to "rubbing IP" and "paying tribute", the bridge section in the classic movie will be remade again.
For example, "New Jingwumen: Martial Soul" also borrows from many of Zhou Xingchi's films, but the plot is extremely rough, and even directly replaces the "palm technique that falls from the sky" with the "fist technique that falls from the sky".
This kind of plot of changing soup and not changing medicine will not only not resonate with the audience, but also expose the lack of creative ability of the director.
Journey to the West: Origins combines old elements such as Qingxia, Zixia, Supreme Treasure, and Sword Drawing to tell a whole new story.
Both emotional and innovative, it is obviously much smarter.
For example, at the end of "The Strange Adventure of the Immortals", there is a plot of the sunset samurai and Zixia standing opposite each other at the head of the city, and "Journey to the West: Origins" was not copied, but changed to the supreme treasure and Zixia sitting together to talk, which became an opportunity for the development of the relationship between the two.
Even in terms of character motivation, "Journey to the West: Origins" surpasses Zhou Xingchi's version.
In "The Strange Adventure of the Immortals", Zixia has a vow that as long as anyone can pull out the Purple Green Sword in her hand, it will be her favorite.
This act was regarded as a great rebellion by the people of the Immortal Realm, so they hunted down Zixia and led to the follow-up story.
In "Journey to the West: Origins", Zixia and Qingxia are destined to "burn out one person and get the Tao", and Zixia is unfortunately the one who burns out.
So she had to find her own lamplighter in order to save herself.
In contrast, self-help is stronger than the vow to find the right person, which gives the story development of "Origins" a more solid foundation.
The Moonlight Treasure Box is no longer just a prop for traversal, but is directly related to the course of history and the remaining time of Zixia's life.
In the end, it even exerted an effect similar to the time gem in Doctor Strange, allowing the Supreme Treasure to travel through the future countless times to find the only correct answer.
The overall story rhythm of Journey to the West: Origins is particularly smooth, and the main creative team should have worked the script.
However, for the classic remake, the story is not smooth enough, and the audience will always subconsciously compare the actors.
After all, Zhou Xingchi's Supreme Treasure and Zhu Yin's Zixia are too classic,
Playing Zixia in "Journey to the West: Origins" is ma Xinrui, a post-90s actress, who has starred in films and television dramas that are basically not very popular.
But in this movie, Ma Xinrui's Zixia is highly recognized, and even some netizens say that it is Zixia whose completion is closest to Zhu Yin.
Similar to the plot, Ma Xinrui did not deliberately imitate Zhu Yin, giving some more personal performance methods.
For example, after the Moonlight Treasure Box was snatched away by Qingxia, Zixia wanted to chase it but was pulled down by the Supreme Treasure, and shouted a sentence "You pull me" before fainting.
Relatively speaking, Wu Haochen's Supreme Treasure is relatively unremarkable, and there are not many impressive shots.
But this mediocre is relative to Zhou Xingchi, and his cp feeling with Ma Xinrui is still very sufficient.
After all, the audience's emotions need to be driven by the movie characters, if the acting skills are not enough or the sense of CP is not strong, the sense of plot tearing will be particularly prominent.
Of course, the 5.7 rating of "Journey to the West: Origins" also hints that it has many shortcomings, especially that some details are not perfectly designed.
For example, after retrieving the Moonlight Treasure Box, the Supreme Treasure deceived the Su Mo Immortal Master, who had been a god, with the broken rock, which forcibly reduced the intelligence of the enemy.
Later, Su Mo Immortal Master was deceived and fixed, and it was also a bit too deliberate.
However, for an online movie, "Journey to the West: Origins" is called excellent in terms of both story and actor, after all, the above comparison with it is a divine work.
What's more, the film shows the right way to remake a classic – with heart rather than feet.
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