Wuxia dramas have always been the most special existence in the Chinese film and television industry.
The United States has Western dramas, Japan has Dahe dramas, and China has martial arts dramas.
Wuxia drama, the genre with the most Chinese cultural characteristics, was once a trump card of national drama.
At the fiercest time, Jin Yong Gulong adapted the play, one out, one fire.
The reason why martial arts dramas are wonderful is inseparable from these three obvious characteristics.
One is the intense dramatic conflict.
Martial arts dramas are the most unworried genre of dramatic tension, after watching one episode, I can't help but want to watch the second episode, the drama is full of charm, once in the pit, it is difficult to extricate yourself.
The second is the tight rhythm and plump character portrayal.
Excellent martial arts dramas rarely inject water, and the story develops very quickly.
And the plot of martial arts dramas is often brought out by plump and three-dimensional characters, Xia is the core of martial arts dramas, is the driving force of the story, Qiao Feng, Yang Guo, Li Xunhuan, these well-known characters in the rivers and lakes, themselves have their own super attraction.
Third, of course, there are wonderful action scenes.
Before the advent of super-British special effects blockbusters, it can be said that martial arts action scenes pushed the visual imagination of the action genre to the extreme.
Because it mixes various commercial elements, and has experienced the integration of Hong Kong martial arts, Taiwanese martial arts and mainland martial arts dramas, martial arts dramas, which can also be said to combine the advantages of Chinese genres, make martial arts dramas themselves have their own aura and charm.
But with the rise of new genres such as fantasy, martial arts dramas have also entered a downturn.
Even if martial arts classics such as Jin Yong and Gulong are still being remade, the decline is still difficult to stop.
The martial arts dramas launched in the past two years, such as Yu Rongguang's version of "Dragon Babu", "The Legend of the Flying Fox" starring Qin Junjie, and "Say Who is a Hero" starring Zeng Shunxi and Yang Chao, are difficult to say that the quality is satisfactory.
The excellent quality "Youth Travel" and "Detective Jane Don't Know" are not out of the circle because of the lineup and other reasons.
Is the martial arts drama so sinking?
Just tonight, because of the popularity of a drama, we are likely to wait for the "bottoming out" of martial arts dramas.
It is iQiyi's "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers".
Adapted from the best martial arts film series in recent years - "Embroidered Spring Dao".
In terms of box office, "Embroidered Spring Knife" is not enough, the first part received more than 93 million box office, and the second part is only 227 million, which is not as good as the romance film starring any top little fresh meat that year.
But with countless fans tap water, phenomenal word-of-mouth fermentation, these two martial arts films that have refreshed many audiences, from the inside out, are full of the new director's sharpness, and finally become the last hope of martial arts films.
Now, "Embroidered Spring Dao 3" has not come, the drama version has come.
There are expectations, there are worries: the film version director Lu Yang changed to the producer, and Lu Yang's team action director Cao Hua was responsible for the action scenes of the drama version, and the lineup was a combination of Zhang Yunlong + Chen Ruoxuan + Sun Yi, and Yin Zhusheng and other old drama bones.
Objective commentary, surpassing the film version is not small. But the drama has a few pounds and taels, just look at a few groups of netizens' hot comments.
To sum up, "fierce action", "high-energy plot", "texture", these are the signboards of previous martial arts dramas.
In particular, look at this line of clouds and flowing water, real knives and real guns.
In today's collective dimensionality reduction of Chinese martial arts dramas, who can not burn the head?
Sure enough, it was online for 2 hours, only 4 episodes were broadcast, and it rushed to the top of the soaring list.
Of course, just like "Embroidered Spring Dao", "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers" cannot be satisfactory to everyone.
The rivers and lakes of "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers" are not the rivers and lakes of "martial arts", but the rivers and lakes of "temples", and also the rivers and lakes of people.
It is destined to be different from the past martial arts drama moves, and in martial arts, it has the power to plot and spy war.
But as long as it can bring martial arts dramas back to life, it is a peerless move.
01, martial arts + power scheme, up to 10 years of grievances buried in the line, let people into the pit in one episode
"Shadow of Mountains and Rivers", there is no "Shen Lian" Zhang Zhen, no "Wei Zhongxian" Jin Shijie, so even if you have not watched the first part, it will not affect the viewing of the sequel at all.
In fact, the story of the drama version is several dynasties earlier than the film version, and this time the story opens with the death of Zhu Biao, the crown prince of Zhu Yuanzhang, in the 25th year of Hongwu, which rewrote the fate of the Ming Dynasty.
Unlike "Embroidered Spring Dao", "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers" does not cut into the case right away, but tells about an accident between 3 children.
In the early Ming Dynasty, a prison case involved Jinyiwei's commander Song Heming, his son Song Zhen, the little beggar Li Wu, and the girl Shu Tang.
Song Zhen saves the two children, but when he looks back for Li Wu, he finds him holding a dagger and sitting next to his dead father.
Between the two fighting, fate has quietly changed.
Song Heming was obviously not killed by Li Wu, how could a small beggar kill Jin Yiwei with a sharp blade? Then Why did Li Wu die? Killed by whom?
And what is the conspiracy behind it?
This is the core suspense set at the beginning of the story.
In the blink of an eye, 10 years passed, at this time Zhu Yuanzhang had died, and Emperor Jianwen ascended the throne for three years for Jianwen.
Those who are familiar with history know that it is not far from the battle of appeasement in the history of the Ming Dynasty.
The little beggar Li Wu became a professional thief, and Lu saw that a little beggar was arrested because of the collision with the servant, Li Wu pretended to be a brocade guard in order to save him, and said that the little beggar was the grandson of Wang Kegong, a beggar, a servant in Jinan Prefecture, and went to the servant together to cheat food, clothing, and deception service, and later retreated all over, and also arranged for the little beggar to work in an acquaintance's restaurant.
And Song Zhen of that year has been adopted by Lu Yulin, the commander of Jinyiwei, and changed his name to Lu Zheng with his sexuality, and now he is the general banner of Jinyiwei.
He has never forgotten his father's death, and has always wanted to be promoted to the rank of hundred households and get the opportunity to enter the archive to find his father's case files.
Competing with him for a hundred households, it is Lei Zhen who misbehaves and abuses people's daughters, Lu Zongqi is also a ruthless person, last second Lei Zhen also provoked Lu Zheng at the wine banquet, ordinary people may silently record the account after the autumn, Lu Zheng can pour well, the wine banquet just dispersed, he directly kidnapped people and packed them into boxes and sent them to the north to dig stones.
This hundred households, he should be determined.
But his workplace rival is about to appear, he is Li Wu, or rather, Li Beibei.
Li Wu's target is actually the Wanguan family assets in the mansion of Wang Kegong in Jinan Prefecture, but in order to blend into Wang Kegong's mansion, he robbed Li Beibei, whose identity is mysterious, and obtained the token of Li Beibei's Jinyiwei Baihu, but what he didn't know was that Li Beibei's true identity was actually a thousand households that did not receive at night.
And the night is not a killer organization, but a special force under Zhu Di the King of Yan, specializing in assassination, spying on military information, etc., which can be said to be an agent spy organization of the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, Li Beibei's true identity is equivalent to Dai Li of the Ming Dynasty.
Li Wu, who didn't know that he had stabbed the big basket, just mixed into Wang Kegong's mansion, sneaked into Wang Kegong's mansion to steal treasures, and after successfully succeeding, his family was rich overnight, the problem is that he stole a trouble that he couldn't think of - fish locks.
And at this time, the killer sent by Ye Buhui also infiltrated Wang Kegong's mansion, and the goal was to kill Wang Kegong and kill people and kill people. The second goal is that Yin and Yang mistakenly got into the fish lock in Li Wu's hand.
And at the moment of life and death when Wang Kegong was assassinated, three people who were connected by an unexpected fate 12 years ago met again: Li Wu, a thief who pretended to be a hundred households of Jinyiwei, Shu Tang, who has now become a killer at night, and Song Zhen, who changed his name to Lu Zheng.
In a bloody battle, Wang Kegong was assassinated, Li Wu fled, but Lu Zheng was arrested as a killer by the ambitious Jinyiwei, but his purpose was to fish in troubled waters, take Lu Yulin behind him, and take the opportunity to replace him.
A fish lock, a change of dynasty, a game of thrones,
What is involved is an intricate relationship -
Yan King Zhu Di and Emperor Jianwen, Jinyiwei internal fighting, night does not accept Jinyiwei.
And Li Wu, a thief who is the male protagonist, just accidentally stepped into this quack spy war game.
Just like Shen Lian in "Embroidered Spring Dao".
And this is exactly the difference between "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers" and the real and traditional martial arts:
If we say that the curtain of traditional martial arts is the "rivers and lakes" where love and righteousness are intertwined with blood and blood.
Then, the curtain here is a game of chess that is fully calculated and airtight.
It can be said that the first four episodes of "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers" are not so much like martial arts dramas as more like power spy war dramas.
Li Wu, as the core of the story, and Lu Zheng, who is bent on finding out the truth of his father's death, and Shu Tang, the killer, do not collect the killer at night, in the conspiracy of the power center layer by layer, as if entering a nested secret room.
How do three little people survive the treacherous situation, when can they recognize each other, and can they find out the truth of the year? What is the secret of this mysterious fish lock that makes the power of Jianwen Dynasty and King Yan desperately compete? How will it change the fate of the male protagonist?
Martial arts, action, spy warfare, suspense, just 4 episodes, all the elements are included, making people instantly fall into the pit.
Can this drama become the dark horse of this year's national drama? The answer to this question has slowly emerged as the plot deepens.
02, there are no air waves and slow motion in martial arts scenes, and the style of "Embroidered Spring Dao" is vigorous
We all know that the biggest attraction of martial arts dramas, and also the most criticized point of martial arts dramas in recent years, is all kinds of slow motion and air waves.
And I must be sure of one thing: the action style of "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers" is the standard "Embroidered Spring Dao" style.
Hu Jinquan and Zhang Che started, and China's martial arts film and television dramas were divided into two paths:
One is poetic and ethereal freehand martial arts, more like a dance performance, focusing on the beauty of overcoming rigidity with softness;
One is a realistic martial arts that is fist-to-flesh, paying more attention to strength and explosiveness.
"Embroidered Spring Dao" is both in between.
There is both real kung fu and special effects that conform to the gravity of the earth.
A balance was found between realism and freehand.
And the biggest feature of "Embroidered Spring Dao" is that it spends a lot of ink on weapons and knife techniques.
Zhang Zhen's embroidered spring knife and Zhang Yi's sword technique are all fascinating.
Compared with "Embroidered Spring Dao", another feature of "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers" is that it adds narrative functions to the action. In the first four episodes, the three major action scenes have their own highlights:
First, Shu Tang duels Lu Zheng.
The background of this scene is Shu Tang, played by Sun Yi, visiting the royal mansion at night, and encountering Lu Zheng, a Jinyi Wei, and Li Wu, who is successfully preparing to run away.
The three have their own motives, Shu Tang wants to get out as soon as possible to complete the mission, Lu Zheng wants to capture the assassin, and Li Wu just wants to run.
The orderly action shots make the priority of this fight scene highlighted.
The number of moves, meticulous. Movement changes, weapons and martial arts are all designed according to the personality of the characters.
For example, Shu Tang uses a double knife, and Lu Zheng is an embroidered spring knife.
The two fought hand-to-hand, with no slow motion, only a move competition. The two sides come and go, all of them are the collision of cold weapons, and the rhythm and movements are designed quite exquisitely.
Shu Tang's double knife is not a simple and rough use of brute force, but a skillful maneuver, so close combat, an inch short, an inch dangerous, attack and retreat, if it is not for Li Wu, who is hiding treasures, Lu Zheng is not an opponent.
The camera is dispatched back and forth between the three people, and the "spy heavy" style built by handheld photography and quick editing is enough to make people clap their hands.
The action scenes are decent, and the scene scheduling is more like things, rather than all the dull close-ups or showy long shots.
In the action, there is a hidden psychology; Psychologically, it echoes offense and defense.
Attentive.
Second, Lu Zheng and Li Wu's granary parkour.
Because Shu Tang was injured in the duel, Li Wu was half taken hostage and half of the rivers and lakes took her to the granary to hide, went out to find medicine by herself, and when she returned, she met Lu Zheng, who had already become suspicious of him.
Next, a chase fight in the granary is not only to mobilize the audience's hormones, but also to create a kind of fighting fun.
In a single indoor scene, a lot of environmental depictions are added, as well as props interspersed (food, dust, rice bags).
It renders the tension between the characters who tease each other and are jealous.
The whole scene is both dynamic and real.
But in the final analysis, it is the relationship between the characters, look closely, this chase, like a hide-and-seek between two teenage playmates?
Fight and fight, sooner or later the two turn enemies into friends.
The third is the cross-duel between the killer and the three at night.
The night killer who was sent to the royal palace to assassinate Wang Kejian was Shu Tang.
But another night killer wearing a ghost mask made his own idea to infiltrate the palace to assassinate, she is Zhang Junqing played by Ma Yujie.
And at this time, Lu Zheng had just recognized his father's old friend Wang Kejian, and the killer suddenly attacked,
Lu Zheng only had time to push Wang Kejian away, but the killer smoothly pulled out Lu Zheng's embroidered spring knife and raised his hand to slash it, hitting Wang Kejian's throat.
Lu Zheng, who was about to solve the problem of losing his combat effectiveness in grief, happened to meet Shu Tang, who was about to enter the house to assassinate.
Next, it was actually a fight between the two beauties of the whole drama.
It is still an embroidered spring knife against a double knife.
The camera turned, and as the camera moved rapidly, the embroidered spring knife and the double knife, the white blade faced each other, and the two people looked at each other, full of murderous energy. The sound of weapons colliding reverberated in the air:
The two of them move around, using ingenuity, all the way between the cloisters of the courtyard, the details of the action are completely up to the test of double speed, giving you the psychological pain of punching to the flesh and overflowing the screen.
This action scene is about "sense of speed" and "sense of space".
More rarely, this scene also has hidden clues.
A pre-publicized "dislocation".
Lu Zheng, who should be beaten the most, lost his father's best friend and lost his combat effectiveness, but instead two assassins who did not collect at night confronted each other, and Li Wu, the thief who happened to pass by again, still just wanted to run.
An action scene is interspersed with the interaction of many four people: one sad, one shocked, two accidents.
In the end, the assassin fled, Li Wu ran away, and Lu Zheng, who was left behind, was arrested on the spot as the murderer of Wang Kegong, which also triggered the follow-up story.
Such an action scene, painful.
03, Zhang Yunlong's acting skills exceeded expectations, two beautiful women added, Yin Zhusheng's acting skills were amazing
"Embroidered Spring Dao" series, is famous for his acting skills, a martial arts film, Zhou Wei and Xin Zhilei are out of the circle, Zhang Yi and Lei Jiayin have left excellent performances, Zhang Zhen proved himself in a commercial film for the first time.
What about "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers"?
Zhang Yunlong, who was the most worried before, far exceeded his acting skills.
Prior to this, because of his performance in the anti-Japanese drama "Thunder Warrior", Zhang Yunlong's acting skills were once questioned, and "The Great Detective of the Republic of China" can be regarded as a blood return.
But I didn't expect this time to play vividly.
Li Wu's character is extremely difficult to control, not only to play the perennial wandering in the city to observe words, eloquence, philistine alertness, and even sycophant villain, but also to perform the seemingly selfish, greedy and afraid of death behind the good and righteous.
Zhang Yunlong's performance is very down-to-earth, and many of his lines are very contemporary and non-ancient, but more humorous.
Especially in such a martial arts drama with the taste of spy warfare and power scheme, his role will be particularly unique, a bit of a thief feeling at the bottom of the city, and he will use the identity of changing vests to avoid danger at critical times, but he can stand up at critical moments, and unknowingly be involved in a treacherous conspiracy, but he can turn danger into danger again and again.
The rivalry scene with Lu Zheng, who is also an enemy and friend, mainly relies on Zhang Yunlong's performance to bring out the humor and laughter.
At the same time, many contradictions and reversals are reflected in him alone, and the deepest secret is hidden in the great contrast, which is indeed Zhang Yunlong's best performance since his art.
In contrast, Chen Ruoxuan's action scenes are solid and devoted, and literary dramas are relatively lacking.
The second thing that surprised me was Sun Yi.
The previous two "Embroidered Spring Dao" fully demonstrated the aesthetic advantages and shortcomings of Lu Yang, a "straight male director", and the advantages are action scenes and power dramas.
The shortcomings are emotional dramas and heroines.
The first is Liu Shishi, and the second is Yang Mi.
Once the heroine and Zhang Zhen looked at each other affectionately, the previous rhythm and tonality suddenly collapsed. Slightly procrastinating and deliberate.
And Sun Yi's performance in this play is a surprise.
Her role is not a vase, but a heroic night assassin, costume action, handsome and compelling, the whole person's temperament, bold atmosphere, no mud and water, with a heroine style.
The scene of inviting the maid to drink, the chivalrous energy in the hero came up at once, and the rival scene with Zhang Yunlong was also funny and did not delay him.
The third place is Ma Yujie.
In "Operation Icebreaker", her performance is surprising.
This time, he played the ghost-faced killer of the nightless organization, completed the task and took off the mask, and turned into Zhang Junqing, a well-known courtesan in Nanjing.
Ma Yujie's appearance is cold and beautiful, and he can hook the eyes of all the audience with one appearance.
Of course, the acting is the best, there is no suspense: Yin Zhusheng.
In "Chang'an Twelve Hours", he is the embarrassing Lin Jiulang.
In "Feng Qi Longxi", he plays Li Yan, who is also good and evil.
This time, his role is Lu Yulin, the commander of Jinyiwei, who adopted the son of a fellow criminal minister, who seems to greet people with a smile, but is actually calculating.
A court drama, in the face of the reaction of King Yan after the news of his army, the delicate expression, the interpretation of the gods, is unforgettable, in the treacherous atmosphere, giving people an immersive look.
Beneath the hippie smiley face, there is a deep insight of the city.
He adopted Lu Zheng, obviously not for the love of his colleagues. But he raised and raised his feelings, and gradually regarded Lu Zheng as his own son. This complex emotion, the interpretation of the old drama bones is too wonderful.
But all these characters are, after all, pawns in the situation.
The official uniform is an identity and a cage.
Once you are in it, you can never be freed.
Good show, really good actors to perform.
04, spy war power and martial arts, can it be done? This show may be able to make a sample
After four episodes of chasing, the biggest feeling is still good.
A literal good-looking, excellent art and costume Tao, and realistic action design, some changes to contemporary martial arts dramas: there are elements of the secret agent theme, power plot genre, ingenuity in character settings, and those interesting weapons.
In particular, in the current martial arts drama environment, such a drama is needed, visually exquisite, fine props, no slow motion, which is the basic respect for the audience.
That's right, martial arts dramas are now in deep trouble.
The latest "Dragon Babu", although it has popularity, but the reputation has been a mess, pulling down the lower limit of martial arts dramas.
So the appearance of "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers" is just at the right time. Because it shoots a sense of martial arts.
Where does the sense of martial arts come from?
First of all, it is the distance between rivers and lakes.
Only by making the worldview grand and authentic enough will the audience feel the urge to enter it. The rivers and lakes built by "The Shadow of Mountains and Rivers" are a river and lake built on real culture, which is not fantastic, but a hidden comparison of history in the details, reaching the audience's imagination of the "reasonable" martial arts world.
Secondly, there is the risk of the temple.
The background of the story is the Battle of Jing.
The change of dynasty is just around the corner.
This sense of crisis translates into a visual tension.
It opens with a roaring fire, followed by a night scene, dark and oppressive, mottled with firelight, and danger, and the characters seem to be swallowed by darkness.
I still remember a line from Xin Zhilei to Zhang Yi in "Embroidered Spring Dao 2": Senior brother, don't you understand? For His Highness, you and I are flaws.
Traditional martial arts, good and evil are not separated; "Embroidered Spring Dao", but blurs the boundary between good and evil.
"Shadow of the Mountains and Rivers", the same is true.
Whoever becomes the victor in history has the right to interpret history.
"The Shadow of the Mountains and Rivers" is about the temple, but the preaching is still about the sentient beings of the rivers and lakes.
The core of the story is still "Embroidered Spring Dao"-style, and all the protagonists are small people.
are all "pawns".
No matter how hard the chess pieces struggle, they can't change the game.
They are like Shen Lian, who was selected in the movie, and stepped into the game of power schemes.
Everyone, in the end, is the shadow of the mountains and rivers.
Such a theme pattern, domestic martial arts dramas have not been seen for a long time.
Wuxia is a fairy tale for adults.
Behind the romance is ultimately the reality we face.
The so-called martial arts does not mean that it will definitely be able to rewrite the rivers and lakes and temples, but no matter what the result is, you can fight hard for your affection.
At this juncture, the appearance of "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers" is undoubtedly a shot in the arm.
It is simple and direct, does not drag mud and water, and the unique martial arts flavor is also particularly attractive.
Just as "Embroidered Spring Dao" can't rewrite the fate of martial arts films, "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers" can't rewrite the fate of martial arts dramas.
But at least, it replaces the ethereal ethereal of slow motion with actual combat, and replaces the tricks of "human design" with the flesh and blood of "people", at least, this is a solid attempt.
The martial arts rivers and lakes withered, a good "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers", came at the right time.