Flowing fairy tale dramas, none of them surpass it

The author of this article is a contributor @Luo Hanguo

Want to peek into the world through light and shadow

Some time ago, a piece of news in the game circle tugged at the heartstrings of many people.

The technical team of Beijing Softstar, the stand-alone developer of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", was disbanded, and "Sword of Fairy 8" is likely to be stillborn.

Although other IP-related projects such as online games, film and television works are not affected, the classic single-player game "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" as the "origin" may be withdrawn.

On the one hand, people's sighs about this news are related to the first generation of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" game produced in 1995. After all, "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" opened a new era of Chinese single-player games, and producer Yao Zhuangxian is also known as the "godfather of Chinese single-player games".

On the other hand, closely related to the "Legend of Sword and Fairy" game, there is also a more popular TV series of the same name, and the "end" of the fairy sword game has also aroused the feelings of fans.

In 2005, "The Legend of Sword and Fairy (hereinafter referred to as "Immortal 1") starring Li Guoli as the chief director and Hu Ge Liu Yifei was officially launched, which has been exactly 18 years ago

The drama first set a rating record of 11.3% on local stations, and after the first round of star broadcasting, the average rating reached 3.8% and the highest 4.9%, becoming the third place in the "Baidu Top Ten TV Series" that year.

You know, that year and "Immortal 1" competed on the same stage, there were "Bright Sword", "Hanwu Emperor", "Great Song Ti Criminal Officer" and many other boutique dramas.

With the accumulation of years, the status of "Immortal 1" in the hearts of the post-80s and post-90s generations is increasing day by day. In terms of Douban score, it first rose from 7 points to 8.6 points in 2018, and gradually climbed to 8.8 points in the following years.

Just last year, with the news that "Xian 1" was about to be remade, fans' nostalgia was aroused, and they went to Douban to give "Xian 1" five stars, making it rush to the current 9.1 points.

The TV series version of "Xian 1" can become a generation of classics, there are many factors, first of all, the production level is excellent.

The producer of costume idol dramas at the turn of the new century, Tang Ren Film and Television Company called it second, and no one dared to call it first.

At that time, Tang Ren Film and Television cooperated with people from all walks of life on both sides of the strait and three places to concoct a bunch of applauded and popular dramas.

For example, "Peerless Double Pride" starring Su Youpeng Lin Zhiying, "Fish Beauty of the Legend of Heaven and Earth" starring Xu Huaiyu and Guo Jingan, and "Yangmen Female General" starring Li Ruotong, Jing Jing and a large number of actresses.

Tang Ren Film and Television focuses on the development of costume idol dramas with martial arts and legend themes, which coincides with the "fantasy fever" triggered by the game "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" at that time, so the adaptation of "Xian 1" was put on the agenda.

But when it comes to the crucial candidates, there is a big divide within the creative team.

Most people tend to choose popular students like Nicholas Tse and Zhang Weijian, but Cai Yinong, the owner of Tangren Film and Television, does not see it this way, advocating the use of newcomers, believing that dramas adapted from games need fresh faces.

In this way, Hu Ge was praised as "Li Xiaoyao", Liu Yifei, An Yixuan, Peng Yuyan were also selected, this group of newcomer actors with an average age of 20 became the heroes and heroines of "Immortal 1", and was also regarded by countless people as "white moonlight" and "difficult to peace" in their hearts.

At the content level, the main story line of the TV series version of "Immortal Sword 1" is not much different from the game, both are Li Xiaoyao, who was born as a city gangster, while lowering demons and practicing swordsmanship, while wandering between two girls - Zhao Linger (played by Liu Yifei) and Lin Yueru (played by An Yixuan), comprehending the true meaning of love.

But the difference is that the series uses the cultivation of the level as an auxiliary bridge, and enlarges the seemingly inconspicuous characters in the original game to make them have their true temperament.

For example, "Tang Yu" in the game is just a passerby who leads the protagonist, but Tang Yu Xiaobao, played by Peng Yuyan, is resolute and pure, hiding a child's heart under his restrained and dull appearance, and the sense of character existence is greatly enhanced

It can be said that the most tearful part of the entire "Immortal 1" at the plot level is that it makes a multi-dimensional interpretation of love.

Cai Yi falls in love with Liu Jinyuan without complaint; Liu Jinyuan is in one-way love with Lin Yueru; Lin Yueru and Li Xiaoyao have complicated emotions, but Li Xiaoyao's only white moonlight is Zhao Linger.

It seems to have the "polyamorous love" setting of modern bloody love dramas, but what the creators want to express is obviously not only the dramatic conflict of "catching horses", but also extending the introduction of "love is better than knowing each other" through the tragic background of "love but can't".

This sentence was first said by Liu Jinyuan when he was consoling Zhao Ling's childhood, and after that, Lin Yueru was also deeply touched by this sentence. When obsession cannot be fulfilled, knowing each other to achieve love may be the best solution.

Most of the pairs of lovers who appear in "Immortal 1" end sadly, but the more they end up, the more free they live, the fundamental reason is that they are growing step by step and learning to let go.

Growth is not only about love, but also about attitude towards life and respect for all living beings.

When Li Xiaoyao and Lin Yueru first got rid of the demon, they dismissed the snake demon and fox demon who had been in love for a hundred years, believing that the goblin was equivalent to evil. So when they killed the goblin lovers, they didn't feel the slightest bit guilty.

But when they saw Cai Yi, the "butterfly spirit", sacrificed his life for Liu Jinyuan, and said the phrase "not worth it, only willing or not", Li Xiaoyao and Lin Yueru changed their deep-rooted prejudices.

Anu's feelings for Tang Yu, from playfulness to life and death; Jiang Ming's infatuation with the female garden has gone from being difficult to fill in to being willing to bear the world; Yin Ruohui's feelings for Lin Qinger have sublimated from individual love to great love in the world.

There are many more such couple combinations in "Immortal 1", they represent completely different love patterns, and they also give us more insight into the proposition of love.

In contrast, many domestic fairy tale dramas nowadays, either the heroine tries in every possible way to get the preference of the "love-incompetent" male protagonist, or all the members match, so that a pair of seemingly incompatible happy wrongdoers finally love each other and sprinkle sugar.

To be honest, this kind of interpretation and thinking about love, compared with the originator of the fairy drama "Immortal 1", not only has not made the slightest progress, but has lagged behind in great strides.

In addition, when we revisit "Immortal 1" again, we will find that the most chewable character in the whole drama may be the villain Baiyue.

Over the years, there have even been many good deeds on the Internet who "whitewashed" the Moon Worship Sect Lord (played by Xu Jinjiang), claiming that he just wanted to prove that the earth was round, but was severely hammered and suppressed by a group of feudal immortal cultivators.

Of course, this is naturally a joke.

Xu Jinjiang's Yueyue Bai vividly interprets the gloom of a careerist and the loneliness of a lover, and the grace of the body is no less than Hans Landa in "Inglourious Basterds" and Dr. Hannibal in "The Silence of the Lambs".

In fact, all the actions of Baiyue in the play stem from the lack of love in childhood.

He blamed all this on his righteous father Shi Gonghu, so he stripped his emotions from people, believing only in reason and knowledge, and despising sensibility and true feelings. Ironically, Moon worship is defeated by true feelings.

The master-apprentice relationship between Jiu Jianxian and Li Xiaoyao is also outstanding

Overall, although the drama version of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy 1" takes "chivalry" as the core concept, it is unknown that only sentient people have chivalry.

Eighteen years later, we still miss this classic series, not because of its special effects or game adaptations, but because it touched the softest parts of our hearts and gave birth to our earliest views of love.

Although the "Immortal Sword" game has had many adaptations after "Immortal 1", except for "Immortal 3", which was also played by Hu Ge in 2009, the rest are mediocre in quality and have little response.

In the past two years, there have been many news of adaptations and remakes of the "Immortal Sword" IP, but many people are not optimistic about this wave.

There are also a large number of "Immortal Sword" IP works "on the road"

First, because the "Immortal Sword" series of games, the subsequent ones have received mediocre responses, and they are not as emotional and sincere as the first one in 1995 and move people's hearts;

The second is that the creation of fairy tale dramas has fallen into a rut, and it is impossible to show the concept of love and chivalry in "Xian 1" again.

It is not for nothing that fans collectively miss "Xian 1", because we all know that the peak of Xian Xia drama may stop in 2005.

What a pity.