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Why the seven-year-old domestic drama "Three-Body Problem" has a polarized reputation

  If "Crazy" is the first popular domestic drama at the beginning of 2023, then "The Three-Body Problem", which starts a day later than it, is China's first popular sci-fi TV series. The Douban score rose from 8.1 points on January 15 to 8.3 points after the finale on February 3, and the domestic drama "Three-Body Problem" that has been sharpened for seven years is much more stable than the movie version or the animated version of "magic reform" that has not been released after filming.

  However, this "stability" of the domestic drama "The Three-Body Problem" still caused some doubts - the initial plot drag directly dissuaded many "passers-by", and the "book-picking" remake was like the "Three-Body Problem" reading club, and a New York Times review even evaluated the Chinese version of the "Three-Body Problem" TV series (different from the US Netflix version of "The Three-Body Problem") as a "mediocre work loyal to the original".

  These controversies also reflect the double-edged sword of this IP - people often only see the potential huge benefits of the "Three-Body Problem" IP, but ignore the difficulty of adapting this "China's first science fiction theme". It is true that the domestic drama "The Three-Body Problem" has many flaws, but in 2023, the era of Chinese science fiction TV series has opened, so that the niche field of science fiction has ushered in the spring of Chinese imagery.

Why the seven-year-old domestic drama "Three-Body Problem" has a polarized reputation

Why a "book-picking" remake?

  The most praised on the first day of "The Three-Body Problem" was: "It's too restored to the original." "The first few episodes of "The Three-Body Problem" can almost be said to copy all the story lines, plot points, and lines of the original book one by one.

  At the beginning of the TV series, starting with the suicides of scientists around the world, it is completely based on the narrative of the novel. Among them, the dialogue between Chang Weisi (played by Lin Weijian), the commander of the Space Force, and the scientist Wang Miao (played by Zhang Luyi) about "accident", as well as the billiard ball metaphor used by scientist Ding Yi (played by Wang Chuanjun) and Wang Miao when explaining the particle collision experiment, and several levels in Wang Miao's entry into the three-body game, almost all "copied" from lines to special effects scenes.

  A film review of The New York Times on February 3 wrote that the Chinese version of the "Three-Body Problem" TV series failed to find a more interesting way to present the drama except for the characters repeating the words in the book. This evaluation is biased, in fact, the main creative team of the crew tried other ways, but later found that according to Liu Cixin's "Three-Body Problem" The first "Once Upon a Time on Earth" was honestly filmed, but it could best restore the charm of the "Three-Body Problem" IP.

  In 2009, when the novel "The Three-Body Problem" had just been published, it had not yet become popular. The screenwriter Song Chunyu liked it very much after watching it, and then asked her husband Zhang Fanfan to find Liu Cixin and propose to buy film and television adaptation rights. It is reported that Zhang Fanfan, Song Chunyu and their couple only spent 100,000 yuan to buy the film and television copyright of "The Three-Body Problem" from Liu Cixin. A few years later, Youzu Network won the film and television rights of "The Three-Body Problem" at a high price of 120 million yuan.

  In 2015, the filming of the "Three-Body Problem" movie was completed, but its release was postponed indefinitely, which also poured cold water on the adaptation of the film and television version of "The Three-Body Problem". A year later, Youzu Pictures began looking for a partner who could co-develop the "Three-Body Problem" TV series. Sun Zhonghuai, vice president of Tencent and CEO of Tencent Online Video, happens to be a fan of "The Three-Body Problem". In his view, Liu Cixin's work is the crown of China's science fiction field, and "The Three-Body Problem" is the crown jewel. At his insistence, Tencent Video Platform obtained the development rights of "The Three-Body Problem" and began to look for a production company.

  Based on the past cooperation experience with Bai Yiqing's "Darker", Tencent Video finally selected Linghe Culture founded by Bai Yiqing and officially launched the development of the "Three-Body Problem" TV series. Unexpectedly, the "book cut" script that was later polarized and evaluated by the main creative team was polished for four years.

  Chief screenwriter Tian Liangliang and her team grinded out more than 20 versions in a year, exhausting all conceivable solutions. For example, one of the versions is a pure sci-fi film with high visual impact, using elements of high-dimensional space in the last two parts of "The Three-Body Problem". In one version, the line of Wang Miao and Shi Qiang has been added with more elements of criminal investigation and investigation, and more suspense and tension. In another version, the character of Ye Wenjie's only daughter, Ding Yi's fiancée, and theoretical physicist Yang Dong appears in the image of quantum states.

  During the long adaptation process, the main creative team felt that the script of this TV series was either completely faithful to the original work, or added more popular elements to the market in order to attract a wider audience. At the end of 2017, the main creators of all the crews such as Tencent Video, Three-Body Universe, and Linghe Culture, who had a vacillating script, invited Liu Cixin to a meeting together. Finally, Tencent's Sun Zhonghuai clapped the "Pick the Book" version, and this post-70s graduate of Chinese Min University said: "Since we want to make a boutique, we must take out our favorite and most shocking thing in the "Three-Body Problem" in our minds, and make something different from the past commercial works." ”

Why the seven-year-old domestic drama "Three-Body Problem" has a polarized reputation

Above: The TV series restores the grand scene of the 30 million soldiers "human column computer" in the "three-body game".

The main creative team and the filming location have "three-body fans"

  When the animated version and the TV series version of "The Three-Body Problem", as well as the movie "The Wandering Earth 2" were released at the same time, Da Liu (the nickname given to Liu Cixin by fans) gave this evaluation respectively:

  "The director of the "Three-Body Problem" animation takes himself seriously.

  The director of the "Three-Body Problem" TV series treats Da Liu as a god.

  The director of "The Wandering Earth", Da Liu is a god. ”

  Yang Lei, the director of the "Three-Body Problem" TV series, is indeed a fan of Da Liu, and he watched "The Three-Body Problem" in 2006 when it was serialized in "Science Fiction World", and there was no book published at that time. And it is also a fate that he can become the director of a TV series.

  After the script framework was basically finalized at the end of 2017, the director was delayed in finding a suitable candidate. If you are not a book fan, it is difficult to understand the goodness of "The Three-Body Problem". The main creative team sent invitations to some favorite directors, and almost all of them ate "closed-door soup". One of the great directors' polite reasons for refusal speaks for many people's hearts: "I have a sense of awe for this work, and out of this awe, I dare not touch it." ”

  In 2019, Bai Yiqing, the chief producer of the "Three-Body Problem" TV series, sat next to Yang Lei at an event at the Shanghai TV Festival. Yang Lei, born in Qinghai in 1979, graduated from the 98-level directing department of Beijing Film Academy with a bachelor's degree, and had previously cooperated with Bai Yiqing. Bai Yiqing, a graduate of the directing department of the Central Academy of Drama, is one year older than Yang Lei, and the two have a lot in common. Halfway through the conversation, Bai Yiqian asked Yang Lei casually, the director of the "Three-Body Problem" TV series has not yet landed, is he interested in participating?

  Yang Lei later recalled: "I was blindfolded at that time. Because I'm a heavy science fiction fan, I started subscribing to Science Fiction World in the 90s. When I read The Three-Body Problem for the first time, I was completely blown away. At the time, I thought this was the best science fiction novel in China. So later, I will take it out and look at it again in stages, and I will turn it over when I have nothing to do, and every time I read it, I will have new gains and interpretations. It can be said that I have always been a fan of "The Three-Body Problem" and never thought that I could have any intersection with it. So when Lao Bai asked me, my first reaction was that I had to go home and read the book again and think about it. ”

  Yang Lei's buddy and visual director of "Three-Body Problem" Lu Beike is a "hardcore three-body fan". When he learned that he might want to shoot "The Three-Body Problem", he said to Yang Lei: "Our lives can coincide with "The Three-Body Problem" once, and there are no regrets in this life. As early as 2007, Lu Beike talked to Yang Lei about "The Three-Body Problem". Until 2019, when he really had the opportunity to shoot "The Three-Body Problem", he thought that he must seize this opportunity. That night, Lu Beike didn't sleep all night, and the next day wrote an email of more than 20,000 words to Yang Lei, persuading Yang Lei to take "The Three-Body Problem", and interpreted the novel and the reason for doing it with his own ideas. Yang Lei spent two days re-reading the novel, deducing the scenes of each scene in his mind. When he felt seventy percent sure, he decided to take the order.

  In order to be faithful to the original work for shooting, the hardcore knowledge such as particle collision, astronomy, and nanotechnology involved in "The Three-Body Problem" stumped film and television drama personnel who were mainly engaged in cultural and artistic creation. To this end, during the first three months of preparation, the main creative team discussed and studied with scientists many times, first read all the scientific parts of the novel, and then considered how to shoot. After the photography meeting, the team spent another three months meeting, talking about lighting scene by scene; Post-split-shots, such as the guzheng action, the team made a cartoon of about 30 minutes before the actual shooting, from storyboards to dynamic rehearsals to soundtracks, which took another three or four months... Yang Lei recalled that for a whole year, they spent almost every day in the process of meetings, visiting scenery, and making plans.

  In 2019, 4 years after the script was created, "The Three-Body Problem" decided to return to the direction of the original narrative method, and then experienced the epidemic until it officially started shooting in July 2020, with more than 270 locations and footprints throughout Ningbo, Hengdian, Beijing and Heihe. Completed at the end of 2020.

  The most difficult part of the shooting period is not to set up the scene, but to shoot the scene in real life. National Center for Nanoscience, Beijing National Laboratory for Positron Collider, Astronomical Observation Base... These are real filming locations, and many of them are open to the crew for the first time. In addition to the insistence of the crew, most of the scientific researchers in the center have seen "The Three-Body Problem". They told Bai Yiqi that they are also fans of "The Three-Body Problem" and also want to see it filmed one day.

Why the seven-year-old domestic drama "Three-Body Problem" has a polarized reputation

The sincerity of the crew is not felt by everyone

  Because he wanted to restore the original work as much as possible, director Yang Lei originally reserved three months for post-editing, but only cut out the first episode, and the final post-stage took two years.

  When presenting the "three-body game" in the novel, although the effect of CG animation is still far from that of special effects blockbusters, the restoration of scenes such as Qin Shi Huang's 30 million soldiers "human column computer" has made many book fans very addicted. In addition, the montage charm of the image makes it strongly related to the turbulent years experience of connecting the young Ye Wenjie (played by Wang Ziwen) and the state of the old Ye Wenjie (played by Chen Jin) as a dead heart, which helps the audience understand Ye Wenjie's current state of mind and choices.

  But this sincerity may not be felt by the audience who have not seen the original work for the first time. From the first episode, some people in the barrage questioned why some of the shots were so broken and nourished. Book fans can understand at a glance that it is Tomoko perspective, but it is difficult to explain in one sentence why Tomoko is used and what Tomoko is (the first 27 episodes are not explained).

  In addition, the original work of "Three-Body Problem 1 - Once Upon a Time on Earth" is only more than 200,000 words, but the TV series has been filmed into 30 episodes. Many shots are repeated, a large number of empty shots appear, and it takes a long time to present a story that can be clearly told in the eyes of the audience, and the evaluation of "dragging" and "water injection" in the first few episodes of the broadcast also made many people abandon the show and go to watch "Crazy" next door.

  In this regard, Yang Lei gave the explanation: "We still hope to be more friendly to ordinary audiences. Audiences who have not seen the original work, some of them have no background in science knowledge, and there are certain obstacles to watching this drama. In addition, Yang Lei also mentioned that the characteristics of Liu Cixin's works are that the characters are "instrumental", very calm in the book, and all behaviors serve the plot, while film and television dramas need to present flesh-and-blood characters, which need more emotional foreshadowing. Therefore, the TV series version has added a lot of friendship lines similar to Wang Miao and police officer Shi Qiang (played by Yu Hewei), Wang Miao's family love lines, etc., to show the personality of the characters through different sides and give reasonable motives for later behavior choices. These are particularly lengthy for book fans who are already familiar with the plot and characters.

  And the temporary addition of female reporter Mu Xing (played by Yang Rong), the director originally wanted to make the important character "environmental activist" Pan Han (played by Zhang Junning) appear early through the investigation of this character. Unfortunately, the story line of the female reporter did not have any organic impact on the main plot, but further dragged down the rhythm of the story.

The spring of Chinese science fiction dramas

  Although the quality of the domestic drama "The Three-Body Problem" still needs to be improved, it will not affect it to gain new fans at home and abroad.

  This drama has a good score of 7.9 on IMDb, a foreign mainstream film and television drama rating website. You know, the world-famous sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" has a score of 8.2 on IMDb. Looking closely at the individual episode ratings, the performance of "The Three-Body Problem" is getting better and better, starting from episode 12, each episode has a rating of more than 9 points, and the last few episodes are above 9.5 points.

  In addition, the domestic drama "Three-Body Problem" is also quite popular overseas, with more than 4 million views on the Youtube platform, and distributed in many overseas countries and regions.

  In China, under the Amway of a large number of book fans, many sci-fi "little whites" have also begun to contact the domestic drama "Three-Body Problem", after all, the threshold for sci-fi film and television dramas is lower than that of science fiction.

  The "Three-Body Problem" craze has made the platform firm in the continuous development of sci-fi content in the future. According to incomplete statistics, there will be nearly 10 sci-fi dramas on various domestic platforms in the future, including "Stars", "Time Abyss", "Ball Lightning", "Love Metaverse", "Bionic World" and so on. According to data from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, from January to October 2022, the number of filming and production TV series filed and publicized nationwide was 398, of which 8 were filed with contemporary science fiction themes, accounting for about 2%.

  At present, the domestic drama "Three-Body Problem 2" has entered the preparatory stage and is making an outline. Compared with the first one, it will be more difficult and more exciting to shoot. Reporter | Kim Ji

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