I combed through 70 years of Chinese fantasy films and finally understood why "Fengshen " can "Fengshen "
Text | Ling Hu Boguang
I belong to the people who have paid attention to "Fengsheng" from the beginning, and the manuscripts I wrote are also biased towards positive recommendations. After watching the screening, it said that although this film is not perfect, it is definitely not a bad film, on the contrary, the money promoted in the early stage of this film is really spent on the movie, and the effect of the film is very significant, of course, because the company's thunderstorm special effects are up and down.
Now the public opinion environment of the Internet, it is customary not to beat you into a water army, but in fact it is not, this person who has read a few of my manuscripts should know that my concept of writing manuscripts is basically from the perspective of "looking at problems from the perspective of development." I paid attention to this film from the beginning, at most, it is filmed well with heart, or bad with heart, and it can never be that kind of money laundering bad film.
Now it has been proved that my observation is not wrong, and it will be like Hong Kong movies, with the first Chinese mythological epic blockbuster, I believe it will affect Chinese commercial blockbusters for a long time.
Ancient Chinese fantasy, Hong Kong movies are indispensable
Since modern times, the theme of Chinese fantasy has used the technical form of the new era to excavate, package, and then establish the Chinese popular culture system of the new era, spreading it at home and abroad, and its influence is still very limited.
In the early Republic of China period, the opening of the Chinese fantasy film of "Burning Red Lotus Temple" will not be mentioned, after the new China, our side is basically gone, mainly to watch Hong Kong movies, Hong Kong films because of economic development and other reasons, can probably be divided into several stages.
The first stage was the 50s and mid-60s, when Hong Kong's economy was developing rapidly and films were in the early stage of development.
If you are interested, you can go to see the 1960 version of "Qiannu Ghost" by the great director Li Hanxiang. The aesthetics of Chinese drama, art, sets, character modeling, character lines and content expression are very traditional.
At the same time, martial arts films and martial arts films are also inseparable from this kind of production, and the same is true for monster films.
The second stage was in the late 60s and early 80s, when Hong Kong became one of the four Asian tigers economically, and films began to lay the groundwork for world-class masters in aesthetics, text, technology and content expression.
It is a pity that at that time, the achievements of Hong Kong directors were highest in the two fields of martial arts films and kung fu films.
Martial arts films have Hu Jinquan, Zhang Che, Chu Yuan and other big directors, and action movies have Bruce Lee. The monster film was also filmed by Shaw at that time, and in the late 60s, he filmed the four-part series of "Journey to the West", "Iron Fan Princess", "Pansi Cave" and "Daughter's Country", as well as "Red Son" directed by Zhang Che in 1975.
The first four are well-made and ingenious, but their influence is far inferior to martial arts films.
The third stage was from the mid-80s to the mid-90s, when Hong Kong's economy reached its peak and the entertainment industry also reached its peak, creating a new peak of Chinese culture.
The biggest contributor to martial arts films in the new era, gods and monster films is Tsui Hark, his innovative new technology, new aesthetic "Qiannu Ghost" and "Green Snake", more than 30 years are still the peak of Chinese costume fantasy films, far-reaching influence. In addition, the "Westward Journey Two Parts" that deconstructs the Westward Journey is also very influential.
There are also some works but they are not so classic, and their influence is limited.
In the late 90s, Hong Kong films for Chinese fantasy films and the construction of comic films through "Chinese Heroes" and "Fengyun", and then Tsui Hark's "The Legend of Shushan", plus the construction of fairy tales in the 7-year "New Shushan Swordsman", which is still inseparable.
Want aesthetics without aesthetics, want technology without technology? Chinese costume fantasy films still have a lot to offer
The peak of Hong Kong film "Qiannu Ghost" and "Green Snake" belong to Chi Wei and folklore, and you can add a 2008 "Painted Skin", but the entire Chinese Chi Wei culture, the degree of excavation of monster culture is still very low, which is also related to the strict censorship in the mainland.
"Soul Ferry" is a typical modern Chi Wei, a low-budget online drama with limited aesthetic and technical influence. But because of the breakthrough in the theme, scale and excellent text content, it is still the representative of China's national history monster film and television dramas in the new era.
But because of censorship, fantasy culture such as strange hunting, oriental horror and monster culture, which used to be only modern and could not be filmed, now it has evolved into ghosts that cannot appear in ancient costumes, and even the demon race has to be adapted into strange things such as 'Moon Clan'.
On the contrary, this strange culture, monster culture and oriental horror culture was completely carried forward by Japan next door, becoming a representative of East Asian popular culture and has a far-reaching influence around the world.
Ancient mythology, film and television dramas, animation and games and other popular culture involve many elements, but so far there is no blockbuster work, such as Greek mythology "War of Gods", "Wrath of the Gods", "God of War", Egyptian mythology "God War Eye of Power" and other movies.
It's like the online novel Hong Huangliu wrote the myth badly, and the novel comic wrote the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" badly. But we still don't have world-class works such as film and television dramas, games and animations that use new-age technology and aesthetic packaging (empty treasure mountains, look forward to sighing).
Xian Xia is a popular theme because it has been brilliant and has the blessing of online novels. But up to now, it is still limited to TV series, from the classical fairy of the early "Legend of Shushan" to the semi-classical and half-romance of the "Immortal Sword" series, and now all of them are fairy ancient dolls.
Foreign young people like to watch it, but in pop culture to establish this piece is not as good as martial arts films, strange legends and so on.
All in all, the Chinese fantasy cultural system is as vast as the sea, but the construction of all aspects of pop culture in the new era is seriously inadequate (the world influence is very poor). Some themes are strictly censored and can not be filmed and can be understood, but there are not many good films, and there is a feeling of tears in the empty looking treasure mountain.
Not perfect, the shortcomings are obvious? I am sure that "Fengshen Trilogy" became the first "epic of Chinese mythology"
The classical immortal system, that is, "Journey to the West" and "Romance of the Gods" are filmed upside down. The early TV series were very classic, and around 2005, Fan Bingbing's version of "Romance of the Gods" was filmed with new technology, and then to "New Journey to the West" in 2011, which was obviously not successful.
After 2010, Hong Kong directors turned over and over to shoot costume magic bad films, and then after 2015, they each shot three or four works, but even the "mythical universe" did not take shape, the color stripe house animation, chasing light animation films. Not to mention the construction of the pop culture animation system in the new era, is it even the aesthetic of animation.
At present, there are only commercial achievements, and the most noteworthy in the future is "Nezha 2".
Originally, with the rapid growth of China's economy after 2012, "Avatar" brought another technological innovation. The Chinese film and television industry should enter the era of digital special effects, that is, around 2012, it should try to enter the film and television industrial era of "The Matrix" and "Lord of the Rings" in the mid-to-late 90s.
As a result, the entire film and television industry and entertainment industry went off track to rectify the "traffic economy" and financial issues. In popular culture, not only is there no creative establishment, but on the contrary, it continues to destroy old cultural classics, destroying the audience's aesthetics and impressions.
Wu Ershan's "The First Part of Fengsheng", as an audience who has seen the screening. I am responsible to say that the mainland young directors represented by Wu Ershan are different from the older generation of mainland directors such as Zhang Yimou, and the current Hong Kong old generation of big directors. They really understand aesthetics, understand technology and have a good attitude.
Like Zhang Yimou's "The Great Wall" is not good, and Tsui Hark does not need to talk about it in the early days, but after 2010, "Di Renjie" is worse than another, and "Journey to the West" cooperated with Stephen Chow, "Xinqimen Dunjia" cooperated with Yuan Heping, etc., are all bad costume films that are not in the ocean.
And directors such as Wuershan used the aesthetics and technology of the new era to complete the establishment of content and expression film and television dramas.
For example, the special effects production in the later stage of "Feng Shen" was thunderous because of the epidemic company, and the special effects were up and down, really.
Because of the epidemic in 2020, the special effects companies that outsourced films were originally different (rumors of many bankruptcy), plus the production time should be some done first, some later, resulting in obvious special effects. The best is Daji, whether it is in spirit form or animal form, including Xiaolei Zhenzi should be the best done by a company.
The battle of Jizhou, the sacrifice of Tiantai, etc. can obviously feel similar to the preview, and the worst are Yuan Shi Tianzun and Lei Zhenzi. This is the same as the pilot trailer in 2020, which was not done well at that time and is not done well now.
However, the film and television industry invested in the early stage is still domestic top, and the aesthetic and technical effects are still outstanding. At the same time, the story plot of the movie is very smooth, the character shaping is complete, and the dramatic conflict and emotional expression are in place. The expression does not deviate from the original but is in line with the adaptation of the new era, and it is still a fairly excellent commercial special effects blockbuster.
Wuershan's "Sealing Gods" can really seal gods, and I hope that it can become a trilogy of mythological epics
I actually have a feeling after watching "Fengsheng", that is, Hong Kong directors can't make historical dramas or mythological epics. It's like mainland directors can't make martial arts films and nonsensical movies.
"Feng Shen" if not the company's thunderstorm post-special effects did not keep up, the overall quality of "The Wandering Earth 1" is similar (the plot is better, the film and television industry has surpassed individually), everyone think carefully, if the special effects of this movie are better on the current basis, is it a Chinese mythological epic?
Mainland young Zhuang directors are really doing things with their hearts, trying to establish China's heavy industry blockbusters in the new era.
"Feng Shen" is definitely not a masterpiece, whether it is a classic depends on the next two films, the first is a very good commercial blockbuster. I think the overall quality is better than Hollywood popcorn movies such as "War of the Gods", and if the trilogy can be successful, it will be the first Chinese mythological epic blockbuster.
You can say that it is a "foil of peers", but it is very rare to do this step in China, and the world is actually the same, after all, in addition to similar Hollywood blockbusters, other countries also have a "Baahubali King" in India, and South Korea has a "Walking with God" series (the latter is not the same from the subject matter).
This Japanese film does not have such a mythological epic blockbuster in Europe and other countries (very sophisticated film and television industry).
In fact, Wu Ershan, like Guo Fan, is already a representative director of Chinese fantasy heavy industry blockbusters in the new era, only one is reshaping Chinese mythology and the other is exploring the future of Chinese science fiction.
I personally hope that "Feng Shen" can return to the book and make money, and then the second and third parts will be better raised, so that the epic blockbusters of Chinese mythology in the new era will be masterpieces, even if this series may not be perfect, but it is also a commercial blockbuster in the world.
Moreover, the new projects officially announced by Wuershan include "Under the Inhuman Trilogy" and "Zheng He Under the Western Six Parts". If "Fengshen Trilogy" can be successful, these two series will definitely be able to do successfully, whether he can save Chinese fantasy blockbusters not to mention, at least he has made this kind of theme have a world-class masterpiece.
ps: Wuershan himself has some cult ideas in fact, if it were not for the strict domestic censorship, he himself might be able to make very powerful classical, classic cult movies.