The novel is adapted from shadow puppetry to silent, and then developed to sound, taking you into the development history of "Journey to the West".
Since 1926, when the first movie of "Journey to the West" was born, traditional "Journey to the West" operas and puppet shows have also been "electrocuted", and anime and actor versions of movies and TV series have emerged in an endless stream.
The process of writing the novel "Journey to the West" has undergone a variety of artistic transformations, and the wisdom and aesthetic needs of the nation have been imprinted in the novel "Journey to the West" through various forms of participation.
Literary classics have connotations that transcend the times, and are constantly enriched with the passage of time, which not only retains the existing culture, absorbs foreign culture, and inherits diversified national cultures. Literary canons are not static.
"Journey to the West" uses symbolism to express the theme, heaven and earth, gods, demons and monsters, etc., which are all symbols of all aspects of social life, and the content of the main story of "learning from the scriptures" can add new phenomena and content with the development of the times, which is the eternal charm of literary classics.
It is precisely for this reason that in each period, film and television adaptations can express the spiritual state and cultural demands of the era through it, and it can be transformed into a new art form in the flow of mass media.
The themes of "Journey to the West" are diverse, the characters are also multifaceted, various research results of "Journey to the West" are constantly emerging, new theories interpret the work, and new critical perspectives will attract editors to adapt this literary classic.
For example, Liu Zhenwei, the director of "Journey to the West", felt the helplessness of Sun Wukong and felt the tragedy hidden in it because he felt the helplessness of Sun Wukong in the process of reading "Journey to the West", which was something that had not been explained in previous "Journey to the West" film and television works.
The common starting point of the adaptors is the dissatisfaction with the original. One of the motivations of the adaptor is to give the previously dry story a richer emotional element, and to shape the "flat characters" into "round characters" (multiple emotions and complex personalities) to make them more concrete and sensible.
Advances in filming technology have led to the development of film and television art, from the original silent film to sound film and now to 3D film, which is a manifestation of the advancement of film and television technology.
When there are no computer stunts, it is not only very difficult to express the changing shots in "Journey to the West", but also it will seem stiff and contrived, and when computer stunts are developed, all kinds of beautiful changes can be displayed.
After the 87 version of "Journey to the West", there was "Journey to the West Continuation" created by the original team invested by CCTV, and one of the driving forces for its filming was the advancement of technology. Zhang Jizhong's version of "Journey to the West", released in 2011, shows this technological impetus to the fullest.
The success of the 2010 3D movie "Avatar" has led to a boom in 3D films in the film and television industry, and the 3D version of the movie "Havoc in Heaven" and the TV series "Wu Chengen and "Journey to the West" have been released, and it is foreseeable that more 3D versions will appear.
The convenience and speed of film and television communication require works to be constantly updated and replaced to meet people's viewing desires. The popularity of various film and television styles is the driving force for the adaptation to proceed further.
In the film and television industry, the completion of a work may mean that it is outdated and needs new works, such as the success of the "Harry Potter" series of films, which has led to the emergence of a concentrated number of films with magical themes and magical genres.
Although the TV series "Journey to the West" directed by Cheng Lidong was only released in 2010, director Zhang Jizhong immediately announced that he wanted to make a "Journey to the West" as magical as "Harry Potter".
The renewal appeal of film and television works coincides with the audience's psychology of "liking the new and hating the old" to a certain extent and pursuing visual stimulation, "giving the work a new meaning will make the audience have a sense of freshness, that is to say, giving the traditional work a modern meaning, that is, a new character relationship, and a new value concept that meets the aesthetic requirements of modern taste."
Conversely, "if the adaptation does not give new meaning to the work, the adaptation is likely to fail." "To a certain extent, generations of film and television works reflect the aesthetic psychology and aesthetic taste of generations of audiences.
The first movie with the theme of "Journey to the West" was born in Hong Kong in 1926, and many film adaptations were produced in the same year, in addition to "Sun Xingzhi vs. Money Leopard", there are also "Zhu Bajie Recruits Relatives", "Daughter Country", and "Iron Fan Princess". The first TV series adapted from "Journey to the West" was born in Japan in 1978, and it greatly subverted the text of "Journey to the West", which was one of the driving forces for CCTV to shoot classical masterpieces.
In 1982, under the call of "promoting the classics", CCTV raised funds to shoot the first domestic "Journey to the West" TV series, which has been greatly sought after since its release in 1986 and has become a classic in the hearts of a generation, and is still broadcast by various radio stations. Since then, domestic TV series adapted from "Journey to the West" have sprung up one after another.
"Journey to the West" opera film is a very special kind of film genre, in 1963, based on Shao opera, "Monkey King Three Fights White Bone Spirit" has caused a strong response, by the attention of national leaders, praise, and distributed to 72 countries and regions.
So far, the public release of Peking Opera film works include "Three Troubles - Fighting" ("Haunting Dragon Palace", "Haunting Heavenly Palace", "Haunting the Underworld", "Eighteen Arhats Fighting Wukong"), "True and False Monkey King", "Monkey King Havoc Bottomless Pit" and so on.
Literary classics are dynamic and fluid classics, and their connotations are constantly excavated and enriched with the development of the times. The birth of film and television media, the communication space of "Journey to the West" has been expanded, and the classic cultural connotation has been dissolved in various film and television works.
The long-term development of the dissolution of the adaptation will not be conducive to the spread of "Journey to the West", so the adaptation is a "double-edged sword", and the film and television media participate in the deconstruction and reconstruction of the classics.
The film and television adaptation of "Journey to the West" should also maintain the enlightenment of rational thinking for human development, so as to maintain its influence in various fields and diverge the eternal charm of classic texts.
