Mr. Liang Yusheng said: Xia is the soul, and Wu is the shell. Martial arts, on the other hand, is nothing more than a thousand-year dream of Chinese.
However, since ancient times, although there has been a refutation of "chivalry violates the prohibition with force, and Confucianism violates the law with literature", Chinese have long been obsessed with this dream for thousands of years.
From the older generation of people to contact the "flying snow shooting white deer in the sky, laughing book god hero leaning on the blue duck". To the various Hong Kong-style movies we have seen later, this dream is still not over.
It's just that the years don't treat people, and although the rivers and lakes are not old, they will still grow old. With the "retirement of the older generation of martial arts giants", the term "martial arts" seems to become vague and elusive.
Although more and more ancient works have been created under the banner of "martial arts", it seems that the rivers and lakes are getting farther and farther away from us.
What exactly is a jianghu and what is a martial artist. How should this story with the jianghu as paper and the chivalrous as the ink be written. I think we might as well peek out a thing or two from last year's fire in "Five Elements of the Misty Mountains"...
<h2>First, the "micro-world" of Lin Soul</h2>
Before talking about the Five Elements of the Misty Mountains, let's talk about digressions as usual.
Perhaps the audience who has paid attention to Director Lin knows that before the current fire of "Five Elements of the Misty Mountains", there was a work that made countless Chinese comic lovers sigh - "The City of Years".
In fact, when doing "Year City", Director Lin had already made up his mind to make something different. It's just that unlike other animations that want to find a different way, what Director Lin calls "different" actually looks too simple and unpretentious - he wants to do "Chinese-style martial arts".
Although director Lin's ink painting style composition style has already made many viewers praise when the animation is broadcast, when seeing the framed drawing of the set set, I still have to admire director Lin's ink lines.
Taking the OP at the beginning of "Five Elements of the Misty Mountains" as an example, I believe that many people will be surprised by the op's design inspiration, thinking that there are obviously no characters and specific scenes, but with the OP song, there is a very strong sense of picture.
The reason for this can actually be seen from the frame map of the OP in the setting set.
In the OP, Lin Daoyi changed the meticulous painting style in the usual animation, deliberately using thick ink and heavy ink to form the picture, and many pictures often only changed partly between the color matching and the blank space.
However, this kind of stream-of-consciousness ink composition can just constitute a format landscape painting that can be appreciated by ordinary people. The color changes and blank changes between different "landscape paintings" can just interact with the lines.
For example, the OP begins with only the beginning of "white cloth", and when the song "Forest Trees and Hundred Beasts Line" is sung, a very thick dark green color quickly rolls out from the lower right corner, and the lyrics of "Fire Leads demons and chaos" are reflected by the gray-yellow color that slowly floods out of the picture...
This strange experience of watching may be diluted in the animation, but in the setting set, it can be clearly reflected.
Of course, in the process of "freehand", Director Lin naturally will not forget the "gong pen ink" in the animation film, from using the character's light and shadow changes to hint at the mood of the characters during the fight, to carefully drawing the tile wall and window on the upper floor of the feather in the long-range picture. Compared to the smooth interaction of the characters in the animation.
In the setting set, look at the micro-terminal world of Lin Dao's "smuggling", but you can also peek at the leopard and see one or two points of glory of the so-called "Chinese martial arts".
Two or four years to grind "a sword"
As Mr. Liang Yusheng said, "The hero is the soul, and the martial is the shell", although a weak person without the strength of the chicken can also show the heroism of the river and lake, but the jianghu without the shadow of the sword and light sword is like a "lone soul wild ghost" without a shell, and it is difficult to give the character a big enough stage.
For this, I believe that Lin Dao knows far better than I do. Because you can clearly feel from the animation, in just three episodes of 90 minutes of animation, Director Lin almost used most of his budget to forge the "good steel" of "fighting".
Different from the general animation, the special effects are full of "light pollution" fighting, in the fight process of "Five Elements of the Misty Mountains", Director Lin has always used special effects to show the fierceness of the fight with great restraint. Between cool and smooth, Lin Dao resolutely chose the direction of smoothness.
To be honest, it's a very thankless way to behave.
In order to show the unique elegance and agility of Chinese martial arts, Lin Dao must pay more attention to the articulation and pause of each action. If the action is too light and floating, it is impossible to show the sense of strength of the physical collision during the fight, but if the action pauses too heavily, it will depict the character too bulky, without the agility that a martial artist should have.
In the part of the ice lake fight that we laugh at as the "Forest Ice and Fire Man", although the fighting action between the two sides is very fast, under the normal double speed, there will be no unclear movement. The collision between the two weapons is assisted by sound effects, which shows the strength of the fight very well.
However, the relative short-term frustration is extremely crisp and decisive, highlighting the agility and elegance that the hero should have when fighting.
This seemingly natural way of expression actually consumes more time and money than stacking up special effects. Compared with the light pollution in the sky, this smooth action connection can better make the audience feel the real fist-to-flesh pleasure. Although it is an overhead world, it is easy for the audience to see the shadow of Chinese martial arts between one move and one style.
Under the creation of this "detour", the fight scene of "Five Elements of the Misty Mountains" has really become a "real" fight scene that can be reproduced by martial arts fans.
From the fire to the Peacock King, to the old five against the three little demons. Director Lin has always been working hard to implement the idea of natural articulation of action design, supplemented by camera tension, and putting special effects performance in the second place. This is evident in the set.
Although it is only a stop-motion screenshot on the setting set, the power of the character's actions can still be felt from the unique tough and rough painting style on the screen and the slightly exaggerated weapon action. This sense of power is not brought about by special effects, but by simple action design.
Therefore, I have to say that under such a limited amount of funds, Lin Dao really burned out his soul for this "good steel".
3. Sword and Sword
But then again, it only needs to set the time node of the story in ancient China, only need to set the character's martial arts as a Chinese sword, gun and sword, and then occasionally chant poems to the mouth full of "Zhi Hu Also"... Can it become an ancient martial artist?
If this is the case, I think the word martial arts is too cheap.
Since you choose to become a chivalrous guest, you can't help but walk in the rivers and lakes. If it is said that the chivalrous guest is an actor, then this jianghu is the stage that accommodates all the actors, and whether the actors can show their fists and feet on the stage depends on whether the stage of the jianghu is wonderful.
So the question is, what exactly is "jianghu"?
I think almost everyone knows the phrase "where there are people, there are rivers and lakes", and even many martial arts works use this sentence as the blueprint for the so-called jianghu, and the authors of martial arts novels are also obsessed with showing the intrigues between people in the story.
But such rivers and lakes are too small and too simple, and these are only part of the rivers and lakes. If the stories that belong to the jianghu are only these, then this so-called jianghu is just a "palace fight drama" between men.
Speaking of the original meaning of the opening sentence, even the original words are not the same, "Where there are people, there are grievances, there are rivers and lakes, people are rivers and lakes, how do you quit?" "Up to the height of the temple, down to the distance of the rivers and lakes, the rivers and lakes are the game of red dust and happy life, but also the suffering of sentient beings is not by themselves."
The story of "Five Elements of the Misty Mountains" is set in the chaotic world of the strange and chaotic gods, and in the chaotic world, no one can escape the rivers and lakes.
"The Five Elements of the Smoky Mountains Art Set" - the initial world view setting
To be honest, even after paying attention to "Five Elements of the Misty Mountains" for a long time, I can't believe that Director Lin can so naturally cram numerous elements into the three-episode 90-minute animation:
The Five Elements of Yin and Yang, Taoist Culture, Divine Beasts and Demon Beasts, Swords, Guns, Swords, Axes, Hooks and Forks...
Although there are many elements, they are not redundant, and some settings are rare but not obscure.
So much so that the first time I saw a three-episode animation, I could produce a collection of hundreds of pages of settings, but I could still watch a set of settings with relish, and even wanted to brush up on the original animation again.
Under the simple story plot of retrieving the unicorn beast, there is actually a game between quite a few forces. The Five Elements as guardians, the demon beasts imprisoned, the humans who imprisoned the Little Kirin...
So many forces are performing the same story from their own perspectives, and the name of this story is called the human heart.
Fourth, the hearts of the chivalrous
The immortal elder Jin, who died for more than a year, once said proudly through the mouth of the character in the novel, "The so-called hero is for the country and the people", but he also had to sigh in the text, "The lack of people's hearts is greedy, and greed and inadequacy are sad.".
Compared with deliberately showing the confrontation game between different forces, Lin Dao is more intoxicated and shows the complexity and greed of human nature.
In fact, putting aside the miscellaneous settings, these three episodes themselves actually tell a very simple story - smelling people and making mistakes and having to find the lost little unicorn.
Obviously, from the perspective of plot space, Director Lin has the ability to stuff more content into the three episodes. But Lin Dao was partial to the nature and restored the story from different angles. And the purpose of his doing this is actually to show the position and humanity of different characters.
In the play, the old Liuqu Huang of Dishan Village has a very interesting character summary in the setting set - he loves Juxian Pill, ignores the villagers' love, and even is a little obscene and lustful, but he loves his children extremely much. So much so that in the back, he would rather die than resist the desire to kill his own children.
This kind of complexity in the character is actually the complexity in the jianghu. As the saying goes, "What is good in one person can be evil for others." "From different perspectives, it's hard to accuse someone of greed and anger from a God perspective. Because in this chaotic world of strange and chaotic gods, they only want to live by any means and better.
In the plot of the three episodes, Director Lin has always emphasized a very difficult question to answer - as one of the five elements, WenRen Yihang naturally has the duty to protect mortals from being invaded by demon beasts. But in the face of the mortals who imprisoned and abused the little unicorn. Whether this duty of salvation should be fulfilled has become a question that can hardly be answered.
Just as the Peacock King of the Beast said to the smelling man, "The beast has greed, delusion, and anger." And people are greedy and angry, so why do you save them? ”
This question was thrown to the peacock king to the smellers, in fact, it was also thrown to us by Lin Dao. This is actually the most commendable place in "Five Elements of the Misty Mountains". It does not allow the story to impose too much on the author's ideas, nor does it take for granted that complex issues are simplified. He let the smelling man hang on to the mortal with a cold snort, but in the end he did not let him fall.
The characters are not black and white, and every side of the village is shown to the audience. It is only the presentation of an objective state of society. People are not sages, everyone has many faces, and the animation characters can be shaped to this extent, which shows the good intentions of the screenwriter.
Bad people will also have their own lives, and they will also have people they care about, people they want to protect. The bad guys also need the saviors of the bad guys.
I don't want to believe that demon beasts are inherently bad people, nor do I want to believe that human nature is inherently good, I just know that the so-called good and evil are just different choices for different people in a chaotic world.
In this episode, Qu Huang may be a bad person, and even his son is spoiled and not a good child, but all of them, only Wen Ren Yihang has made the choice that meets his conscience and has the least regret, and this may be the best way to answer the dead knot of human nature.
Fifth, everyone is a "chivalrous"
From the smell of people in the five elements, to the ordinary villagers of dishan village. Everyone in this jianghu, in the struggle between what can be done and what can not be done, is the embodiment of chivalry. That sense of fragmentation in life's encounters is a hotbed of chivalry, and it is also the most fascinating place.
Mr. Chen Pingyuan once had a very interesting explanation of the word "martial arts": "The omnipotent god is too illusory, and the hero who fights injustice is closer to the world." "Chivalrous" chivalrous "martial arts" are forbidden by law, and they wander the rivers and lakes to fight unevenly. But it is not something that cannot be said or cannot be done.
For oneself and for others, different perspectives of the rivers and lakes are interlocked, and everyone fights with each other for different interests and beliefs. This jianghu goes up to the temple and down to the grass, which is huge and retains the delicacy of the slightest human feeling.
This is the jianghu in the world of "Five Elements of the Misty Mountains", and maybe even this is the real jianghu.
There is no doubt that the story of "Five Elements of the Misty Mountains" has always given people a refreshing thrill. The battle is full of blood, and for us in the audience, these are enough to catch our eyes at the first time.
However, behind these "refreshing", "Five Elements of the Misty Mountains" has also been working hard to shape a complex world, turning every character into flesh and blood, leaving aside the big scenes that make our blood spurt and fight and kill, and the emotions of each person who react to different identities are extremely real and natural.
Complex interpersonal relationships and emotions make the story of "Five Elements of the Misty Mountains" not degenerate into a blind pursuit of "refreshing" network cool text, and the huge jianghu stage also gives it a stage to tell more stories. This huge story cannot end in only three episodes, and there are also "sinners" with "limited ability" wandering in the jianghu about the human heart.
Of course, I don't think that "Five Elements of the Misty Mountains" is the pinnacle of guoman, and his shortcomings are actually the clearest.
The reason why we keep pulling out our wallets for him is not because of how good it is, nor is it a sentiment, we just want those domestic animation workers to know that as long as you work hard to do each work well, even if it is not 100 points, we will give you back.
Maybe the works of sincerity are not necessarily the best, but sincerity will eventually be rewarded, looking at the staff table of director Lin Soul who monopolizes 14 positions, looking at the six fishless production teams on Weibo and laughing, when the production team "liver explosion" the electric gate in the office of the almost rough room, I think we can still find the sincerity of the producer after all.
Just like the opening sentence of the setting set that occupies a space, "I would like to dedicate this to you who like the Five Elements of the Misty Mountains". Perhaps this time, we should also use our own means to support this different soul.