As one of the four classical masterpieces in China, "Water Margin", the martial arts scene in it is the essence of the work, because the personality and characteristics of each good man must be conveyed through his martial arts actions.
The CCTV version of "Water Margin" has taken great pains to design the fight scenes in the play, and invited Yuan Heping, the first martial arts instructor in the Chinese-speaking world, to personally design the action, which can be called ingenious and painstaking.
Among the four famous works, "Journey to the West" is a divine and demonic novel, the martial arts scene in the original work must be imaginative and dazzling, the core content of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is "war", the main highlight is the deer hunting and dueling between the forces of all sides, the description of the armed duel between the warlords is relatively empty, most of them are "N rounds of confrontation between the two sides, regardless of victory or defeat", or a certain warlord, only three rounds, will cut another warlord under the horse, and there are not many descriptions of the personal play of the warlord.
"Water Margin" is different, different chapters of this novel, respectively, describe the details of different good men's lives, but the wonderful portrait, so that we feel like immersed, including the hero's armed duel scene, the author can say that he does not spare any ink, and writes very well. Because, martial arts action is an important channel to highlight the personality of a good man.
Then when Yuan Baye designed martial arts actions for the good men of Liangshan, he personally felt that the principles he followed were: great ingenuity, return to the truth, and vary from person to person. Although Yuan Heping has personally experienced the whole process of the development of Hong Kong martial arts film and television, he did not stick to the fancy, fast-paced, dazzling martial arts scenes in Hong Kong martial arts films and television, but combined with traditional Chinese folk boxing techniques and blade operation skills such as swords, guns, swords and sticks, each good man tailored his own martial arts signature action.
In the impression, in the CCTV version of "Water Margin", the more classic martial arts scenes are: Wang Jin beat Gao Li, Lin Chong and Lu Zhishen competed, and Wu Song beat Jiang Menshen. These few classic scenes can be said to highlight Yuan Heping's ingenuity in the design process of martial arts guidance, worthy of the martial arts fingers of the grandmaster level.
In the first game, Wang Jin violently beat Gao Li and his gang
This is the first martial arts scene in the TV series "Water Margin", which occurred in the first episode, which is equivalent to an appetizer presented to the audience by the TV series, and the audience will have to rely on this martial arts scene to determine whether the show is appetizing.
Wang Jin, like Lin Chong, is also the leader of the 800,000 Forbidden Army in Tokyo, and the force value should be at the same level as Lin Chong, and in the face of Gao Qi's gang of rogues, it is natural to show a one-sided crushing trend. And Wang Jin, as a master from the military, naturally cannot be a flower fist embroidered leg, so the fist style and leg method must be tough, fierce, fist to flesh, so as to meet Wang Jin's identity and temperament, and Wang Jin violently beat Gao Li was originally uneven, in addition to violence and peace, this kind of rigid design, but also to make the audience enjoyable, happy people's hearts. With the song carefully created by teacher Zhao Jiping in "Wang Jin Playing Gao Qi", it was indeed pleasing to the audience, and immediately full of expectations for the "Water Margin" TV series.
The role of Wang Jin is played by Chen Zhihui. Chen Zhihui was originally a martial arts athlete, and his martial arts foundation was very solid. In this fight, Chen Zhihui swept away the decline of the "rice rubbing expert" in "Ip Man" and played the fist style and leg method.
Second, Lin Jiaotou and Lu Zhishen competed
The competition between Lin Chong and Lu Zhishen in the vegetable garden of the Great Xiangguo Temple is also the essence of the martial arts scene in this drama. Lin Chong, as the leader of the 800,000 Forbidden Army in Tokyo, is a first-line master in "Water Margin", and is especially good at the Lin family's gun method. Moreover, the novel's character setting for Lin Chong is very cultivated, quite elegant, and when he appears in a scribe's outfit, so when Lin Chong performs the Lin family's marksmanship with a wooden stick, it is more to highlight a clever, agile, clever revealed fierceness and accuracy, although dexterous, but the lethality is not reduced at all. And Lu Zhishen is a good man of the power type in the novel, and he uses dozens of pounds of Zen staff, this weapon is powerful and heavy, and Lu Zhishen must show a mighty trend beyond ordinary people when he wields it. Lin Chong wanted to beat Lu Zhishen, and he could only win from the dexterity and mastery of the stick technique.
Therefore, when the two men in the play dueled, Lin Chong's stick technique was really dazzling, but it was not scattered, on the contrary, it was pleasing to the eye, and finally it was step by step, gradually gaining the upper hand, which made Lu Zhishen greatly impressed.
Third, Wu Song drunkenly beat Jiang Menshen
Combining strength and combat skills, Wu Song, in a state of drunkenness and distraction, beat up Jiang Menshen Fat, who was also a powerful fierce man. Moreover, both of them were bare-handed, and neither of them had an overwhelming advantage at first, so this martial arts design of the two people needed to be more careful.
To put it more bluntly, Wu Song violently beat Jiang Menshen, the nature of which is somewhat similar to the street two people fighting, so the fight design of the two must be grounded, can not be depicted as a jianghu master duel, competition, because both sides do not play cards according to the routine, nor can they talk about martial virtue, the ultimate purpose is to put each other upside down. Even any artifact at hand can be temporarily used as a weapon to take advantage of. For example, Wu Song used a bench, and Jiang Menshen pushed a wheelbarrow.
Although the foothold of this martial arts scene is based on street fighting, it can not be limited to the form, but the boxing and movements must be scattered, showing the rules, showing the magic tricks, and occasionally both sides can perform one or two sets of their own housekeeper skills, so that the audience claps their hands and applauds.
Also in the music of "Wang Jin Playing High Ball", Wu Song relied on his physical strength and skill, and gradually beat Jiang Menshen to the corner of the wall, and made him kneel and beg for forgiveness with his fist. The whole process is like a flowing stream, there is no shot, the rhythm suddenly slows down to make the audience confused, nor there is any repetitive, superfluous action, clean and neat.
From the analysis of the above three martial arts scenes, it is not difficult for us to see that the martial arts action design in the CCTV version of "Water Margin" is highly consistent with the original work, and the fundamental reason is that the main creators have a deep understanding of the original novel and traditional Chinese martial arts culture.
Only by truly recognizing and understanding traditional Chinese culture can we interpret this magnificent masterpiece brilliantly.