When Wu Chengen finished writing "Journey to the West", he may have vaguely felt that the book would be popular in the future, but he would never have expected that "Journey to the West" would become the most influential film and television IP in China 500 years later, and it would be adapted no less than a hundred times.
It is even more unpredictable that in 2023, a new Westward Journey movie will complete a magical journey in theaters.
Just this weekend, the box office of "Manjiang Red" and "The Wandering Earth 2" reached 4.47 billion and 3.92 billion respectively. "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" led by Huang Zihua also won more than 56 million box office in 3 days of release in the mainland after breaking the box office record in Hong Kong film history.
In contrast, another fantasy movie is a bit lonely.
That's what we're talking about, Goku.
It seems that there are still many highlights, the film claims to cost 30 million yuan, and it was filmed in 2019, and it is also claimed to use the original cast of the 86th version.
Li Shihong, the voice actor of the 86th version of Monkey King, plays two roles in the film, one is fighting to defeat the Buddha, and the other is Sun Wukong.
Wang Yue, who ran away after only 4 episodes that year, played Tang Monk again, and Zhu Longguang and Wang Weiguo continued to play Buddha Rulai and Jade Emperor in the film.
In short, a little bit of the original cast, plus the big IP of Journey to the West, I thought that how could I fight some box office.
On the first day of the result, 5 people watched it, and the cumulative box office was 129 yuan.
On the third day of release, the box office soared to 3376 yuan, the total number of people reached 150, and the box office split reached 1330 yuan.
That's kind of embarrassing.
After all, Gong Li's "Journey to the West: Three Dozen White Bone Essence" had a box office of 1.2 billion.
"The Legend of Wukong" led by Peng Yuyan reached 690 million at the box office.
"Westward Journey 3", directed by Liu Zhenwei and starring Wu Zun, Wu Jing and Tang Yan, also reached 360 million at the box office.
And this one led by Wang Ning, the box office is really not very good.
And behind this box office tragedy, I also discovered one thing: in the past few years, although there have been many Westward Journey themed works, but the best works are only rare.
More of a bad movie with spicy eyes.
It even feels like bad movies are secretly fighting. See who can rot out of style, rot out of level, rot out of new heights.
And a culture of ruining "Journey to the West" and Huo Huo's classic IP is still growing savagely in the entertainment industry.
01, screwed up the signboard of the Westward Journey theme, all the acting skills were off the line, and this film created a new floor for Westward Journey movies
Westward Journey IP+ also has a makeshift lineup, winning such a box office, somewhat unexpected.
But those who have seen the various fantasy operations of the film know that they are not wronged.
First, zero publicity was released.
It can be said that "Wu Kong" was released silently, and if it weren't for the outrageous box office of the film, I wouldn't have known that the film was released again.
Yes, there is another word.
Here's the second reason: the "essence version" of the movie was already broadcast on the online platform last year!
It can only be said that the film side really has something.
The traditional release order is that the film is first rounded in theaters and then broadcast on the online platform. Disney is good enough, at most, it will be released simultaneously in theaters and on the Internet.
And this film is first online and then theater.
The online movie "Wukong: The Little Saint Legend" also led by Wang Ning was launched on May 9, 2022, and the online box office was 650,000 yuan.
However, "Wukong" has an extra few minutes in length, which can also be understood that the theatrical version is an extended version of the online version.
But why don't audiences go to the theater to watch lengthened passages with pride in watching them online?
Of course, there is the third reason: the quality of the film is difficult to say.
Although I didn't go to the theater to contribute to the box office, in the spirit of watching blockbusters for the audience, I still went on the online platform to watch the essence version of the film.
The result, of course, is difficult to say.
Just looking at the styling of several leading actors in the film, I already feel that the big thing is not good, not only the combination of Chinese and Western.
The styling is even more abnormally mixed, opening up a new pattern of fantasy movies.
Sun Xiaosheng, who is dressed in a martial arts shape, Tang Monk and Wukong, who show vicissitudes on his face, and the heroine with a red face on the Internet, are already very discordant.
What is even more exaggerated is that the heroine also has to stage a sadomasochistic relationship with Sun Xiaosheng.
In addition to the characters and shapes, the cinematic realism-style photography and highly concise special effects all make a sense of fantasy come out of the screen.
If we talk about Semyon's version of "Qi Tian Dashen", at least it is a bit of a classic shadow. Then this film is a different way and embarked on a new path.
How magical is the story, although it tells the story of the stone monkeys Sun Xiaosheng and Jin Xiaopeng. It seems to be taken from the original work, but judging from the story presented by the movie, this film can be said to be a collection of all kinds of blood, hypocrisy, logic and inexplicability...
It's just wonderful.
The two protagonists Jin Xiaopeng and Sun Xiaosheng, just the name of the protagonist reveals a sense that the screenwriter does not want to spend brain cells losing hair, and the story setting is also quite puzzling.
You say that it is reasonable that the Golden-winged Dapeng has a son, but Sun Wukong jumped out of the stone ah, and later became a Buddha, so did he get married and have children after the success of the Western Heavenly Scriptures, or did he meet the Zixia fairy bead fetus dark knot on the road?
The film does not say, anyway, there are descendants.
It is said that Sun Xiaosheng inherited Sun Dasheng's great ambition to descend demons and eliminate demons after cultivation, and he went around catching demons with his good friend Nameless all day.
Then, the dog blood came.
Like all bloody idol dramas, Nameless must have a special life. This life is Jin Xiaopeng, the child of the Golden-winged Dapeng who was defeated by Sun Dasheng that year.
As for why this child was lost, why he was not adopted by the demon world, and how he became nameless. Whether there is human trafficking and illegal activities involved in this film is not explained in the film, and we do not know.
However, it is always good that the child survives, but it is doomed that the two are lifelong enemies.
Until Tianxia appeared, Jin Xiaopeng knew his background and decided to take revenge on Sun Wukong, so he wanted to endanger the world.
But what has the world done, and you want to do this to the world? And if Sun Wukong cares about the world, why does he want Tang monks? This move is to take revenge on the Tang monk, right?
Of course, the point of the story is not this.
What's the point? It was Sun Xiaosheng who fell in love with Jin Xiaopeng's sister Little Phoenix.
There are many large plot arrangements for this kind of plot arrangement, and the problem is that there is a sense of violation between the two leading actors.
Even so, it will be forcibly pulled CP.
The ambiguous bridge between the two is not so much industrial saccharin as embarrassing that makes people faint. I can't help but ask, can this also be?
The screenwriter doesn't care so much, anyway, put all the elements that the audience can't think of, and hold out until the progress bar is almost the same, Jin Xiaopeng should come out to take revenge.
Then, suddenly, sadness flowed against the river.
First, Little Phoenix sacrificed himself, and it was useless.
Then Sun Wukong took the initiative to pass away in order to influence Jin Xiaopeng. But you are fighting to defeat the Buddha, Brother Monkey!
What's more embarrassing is that Jin Xiaopeng has not been influenced. So can you do things without being so impulsive?
How does this end? The answer is that when Sun Xiaosheng was about to be defeated, the fighting Buddha Sun Wukong appeared in time, ignited Sun Xiaosheng, and helped him successfully convince Jin Xiaopeng.
I want to ask you why didn't you say something earlier, big brother? Folded your wife before you said? And isn't Sun Wukong dead? So now the resurrection of the immortal world is so casual?
The finale is that the two joined hands to return to Yinhuaguo Mountain to cultivate, and Sun Dasheng saw that the causal calamity was resolved, and he was moved to shed a tear, and the world of drought for many years ushered in Ganlin.
When I saw this scene, I really was...
I want to say, are you playing with the house?
Of course, some people will say that the plot is not important, just be funny.
But the movie is not funny.
All the laughs in the film come from Sun Xiaosheng yelling for Lei to split himself for a while, poisoning after eating for a while, forcibly hitting his face to make the audience laugh, and also interspersing fairy love stories for a long time in the comedy plot that should have made laughs.
The more fatal hard injury lies in the acting.
Wang Ning is both the king of comedy and the saint of love throughout the whole process, but it is too much to act and perform. The performance mode of pretending to be stupid has long been outdated.
And several 86 version actors are obviously here to beat soy sauce.
This broken can of broken plot, acting skills and special effects seems to say to the audience: stick to the end.
I don't know what the choreographers who have worked hard to adapt "Journey to the West" to create a classic will think when they see this work? But what is certain is that as soon as this work came out, the audience's childhood was ruined again.
02, the chaos of the Huo Huo classic is still growing wildly
As a domestic film and television super IP, "Journey to the West" is not lacking in classics.
The classic of CCTV's 86 version of "Journey to the West" does not need to be repeated, and it can still be laughed at on the screen decades later.
TVB filmed two versions of "Journey to the West" in 1996 and 1998, respectively invited Zhang Weijian and Chen Haomin to play Sun Wukong, and Lai Yaoxiang as Zhu Bajie. The witty lines and the actors' acting skills make up for the Wumao special effects, and from the core, it is closer to the original than many versions.
"The words are divided into two ends, and the Bajie side is miserable" is still a classic in the hearts of drama fans.
In terms of movies, there is Xing Ye's "Journey to the West".
But bad dramas have never stopped.
The earliest "Journey to the West" TV series was not born in China, but was filmed in Japan in 1978, and the production cannot be said to be insincere, but the adaptation is too magical: Tang Monk and Buddha Rulai are both women, and Guanyin is a man; The Golden Horn and Silver Horn Kings are husband and wife, and they were stopped after three episodes.
Then the Korean version, the American version, and the Thai version of "Journey to the West" were more shocking than the generation.
In 2001, Hollywood made a TV movie "Qi Tian Dashen", and the American Tang monk fell in love with the Indian Guanyin to save the world.
In 2018, Netflix released another American drama "The Legend of the New Monkey King", this time the sand monk became a junior sister.
Disney is filming the new version of Journey to the West, Wu Yanzu's appearance is like this,
Well, anyway, it's not very optimistic.
The popularity of the Westward Journey theme is due to the strong fan economy and the audience's willingness to buy into the feelings. However, with the outbreak of the film market, IP products have flooded, resulting in the story of Journey to the West still being easily accepted by the public, but excessive consumption has begun to have the opposite effect.
This group of unsupportable Westward Journey works can be roughly divided into the following three categories.
The first category is big-production, large-investment theatrical films.
The "Daughter Country" and "Three Dozen White Bone Essences" that landed in the Spring Festival file in previous years are such examples. The only highlight that can be blown in the entire series all falls on Zhao Liying, Feng Shaofeng, and "Gong Huang" because of the play. And the film's costume design, makeup and visual effects are difficult to say.
There is also Liu Zhenwei's "Journey to the West 3", but the performances of several people in it are really not good!
When I look at it, there is only one feeling, which is embarrassment.
The performance is awkward, the plot is embarrassing, the bridge is embarrassing, the special effects are embarrassing, in short, it is not very good.
Peng Yuyan's version of "The Legend of Wukong", in addition to the special effects are acceptable, other parts are not very good.
The common characteristics of these big-budget Westward Journey movies are big investment, luxurious lineup, and good box office, but the reputation is low, but when the online movie boom comes, the audience knows what the real bad movies look like.
The second category is online movies under the banner of Journey to the West.
The masterpiece in recent years is "Monkey King vs. Pansi Cave" directed by Wang Jing.
The casting alone is very middle-aged and elderly, Chen Haomin who plays Sun Wukong is 51 years old, Lin Zicong who plays Zhu Bajie is 44 years old, and Luo Jiaying, who plays Tang Monk again, is 73 years old.
Let's talk about the shooting style, one is "young children's drama special photography style"
I don't know, I thought it was from the Super Saiyan crew next door!
One is "vulgar soft erotic style". The opening scene is the pansilk hole spider essence bath.
There is also a righteous spider spirit Xiao Qi, lying on the tree. The leading eldest sister is like this -
Although many lines copy Stephen Chow's movie, the movie still has a super reversal: that is, when Sun Wukong can't beat the spider spirit, Tang Monk sits still and cleans up the monster.
So it's still the Tang monks who can fight the most.
And Chen Haomin also remembered him in reverse with various pompous performances. All kinds of strong and funny performances make him not only unpleasant, but even make people feel greasy.
The final film Douban score of 3.0 is really deserved.
Although the film has reached the peak of shoddy online movies, many other Westward Journey online movies are not unmissable.
For example, in 2020's "Great Sage", Sun Wukong was abandoned by the Tang monk, and as a result, he was directly imprisoned by Huang Mei, and Huang Mei's every move was like the Dongchang father-in-law in the Longmen Inn.
The protagonist of the whole movie is extremely unstable in combat, and the yellow eyebrows of the Great Sage were given seconds by the fake Great Saint in the last second, and the story has become a prison break movie by the end.
The third category is online movies that sell the feelings of old actors.
For example, in last year's online movie "Big Dream Westward Journey: Five Elements of Mountain", Chi Chongrui once again played Tang Monk, making it clear that he used selling feelings to attract traffic for the film.
But Chi Chongrui, who was rare in ancient times, has long ceased to be as flappy as he used to be, the whole person is bloated, his acting skills are embarrassing, and all the scenes are less than two minutes.
Many viewers who rushed to him didn't know what they watched in the end.
Such films that sell feelings include but are not limited to the theme of Journey to the West, such as Chi Chongrui's "My Rich Dad" with six-year-old children, Ma Dehua, Wang Yue, and his partner in 2020, with a Douban score of 2.4.
It's not that old actors can't film with Journey to the West, but selling feelings must also have a bottom line, and strong buying and selling will also be ridiculed by the group.
03. Behind the "disorderly growth" of the theme of Journey to the West is the chaos of online movies
Behind the crotch pulling of one Westward Journey work after another is actually the entire domestic film environment.
With the "barbaric growth" of online movies, in 2022 alone, the number of online universities nationwide will reach 394, with a market size of 2 billion.
While growing barbarically, it will inevitably bring all kinds of chaos: rubbing heat, soft pornography, copycats, plagiarism...
Internet movies like "Tough Guy Gun God" with Douban super 7 points are not absent, but they are not mainstream.
Due to the limitations of the main creator, investment scale, etc., compared with solid visual effects or heart-to-heart storytelling, making quick money is the mainstream of NetU, and two of the usual tricks are widely used in various Westward Journey works:
1. All kinds of IP and classics can rub on, applying the classic shell, but selling all kinds of pompous plots or soft pornography——
2. Please stand on the platform as a popular or past star, play the brand of a star, and harvest the feelings of the audience.
Take several online movies starring Wang Ning, "The Laughter of the New Oolong Courtyard", the laughter created is so embarrassing that the toes cut out of the three-room hall, and Wang Ning imitated Stephen Chow throughout the process.
Another "Yipin Jueye", the cast alone includes Wen Jialun, Luo Jiaying, Wu Mengda, Liu Yucui, and clearly benchmarks "Luding Ji".
This new Journey to the West movie is just a product of the same logic.
But without a good story, a good script, no matter how gimmicks you pose, you can't make a work that satisfies the audience.
Therefore, the dilemma of Westward Journey works is essentially the dilemma of online movies, and even the dilemma of domestic movies.
Do those creators really not know that their movies are bad? I prefer to interpret it as a speculative psychology.
They care more about how to accurately grasp the traffic password than polish the content, and deceive the audience.
"Journey to the West", "Great Saint", "Jinpeng"...
Eye-stimulating label arrangements sew gorgeous coats for these pieces.
However, if you open it, you will find that it is only the emperor's new clothes. Obviously there is nothing, but still complacent.
04, the chaos of the Hoho classic, it's time to stop
In general, in this entertainment industry that chases traffic everywhere, "Huo Huo Classic" is actually an inevitable phenomenon. Look back at the Journey to the West film and television dramas.
It is like the embodiment of the embodiment of Chinese film and television, there have been peaks, there have been glory, and today's predicament is embarrassing.
Many years later, we found out that the classic Westward Journey film and television works were almost all filmed before 2,000 years, why is it that the funds are abundant and the technology has advanced, but it is impossible to make good works?
It can only be said that behind the chaos of online movies on the theme of Journey to the West, some bad things are happening in Chinese movies, but some changes are also happening.
Are there really no good Westward Journey works in recent years? "Journey to the West", which was once ridiculed by the group, looking back, although the action editing is rotten, the plot is worthy of domestic magic, and the fanny brain hole of the drama makes it worthy of a "good" word.
Although the animated movie "The Return of the Great Saint" sometimes laughs awkwardly, it is an excellent commercial animated film with laughter and tears on the whole, and the rhythm is accurate.
So you see, brain-opening is not a problem, commercialization is not a problem, the question is whether the main creator can let the audience see that they treat the classics with full sincerity.
What should we do about this wave of bad films on the Westward Journey Network? There are three suggestions.
First, vote with your feet and slap bad films in the face.
Just like this time "Wukong" box office cold, it is the best slap in the face for those who want to go to the theater to rub bad films at the box office.
Second, resist bad films and block traffic.
The reason why the theme of Journey to the West is still in the market of online movies, in the final analysis, there are audiences to pay, for such movies, as long as the audience does not watch and make a boycott, it is equivalent to automatically removing them from the market.
Third, improve aesthetics and encourage good films.
As an audience, you should and must put the improvement of aesthetics first, because this is the best resistance to bad films.
And the bad films under the banner of Journey to the West hit the streets one after another, proving that feelings can no longer be sold.
But the cancer that spoils the classic still exists in the market.
To be honest, in this traffic era, borrowing the classic, the public was originally not excluded.
After all, there is no distinction between expensive and cheap traffic, but the audience hates it, obviously everyone orders for feelings and love.
But there are always some people, with classic IP, they frequently deceive and fool the audience, and finally end up in a market on the street, but what is damaged is the reputation of Westward Journey IP.
And what the audience can do is to shout to bad films with aesthetic upgrades: Huo Huo's classic Westward Journey film and television drama "disorderly reproduction", it's time to stop!
Only high-quality works can obtain the true scriptures in the market, and the theme of Journey to the West is by no means the "West Heavenly Avenue" of those who rub traffic! If you want to earn the box office, take it by skill.