The 86th edition of "Journey to the West" is one of the two major monuments of Chinese TV dramas, but the "Journey to the West Sequel" filmed by almost the original team is not.
"Journey to the West Sequel" has always been considered a failure by many people, and director Yang Jie also knows that she is not satisfied with the sequel, in her eyes, the sequel is just making up for a regret.
There are many reasons why the "Journey to the West Sequel" is not very successful, and this article will only talk about one of the factors, that is, the atmosphere of the crew has changed, and there is no cohesion and harmony like the eighties.
The reason for this is not something that can be clearly explained in one sentence.
First, the outbreak of contradictions
As a fan of "Journey to the West", in fact, I have always been unwilling to face the grievances and contradictions of the "Journey to the West" crew, not to mention that the crew has performed very harmoniously and happily in various reunion activities every time.
But behind the harmony, in fact, there are still some obvious contradictions between the crew. The appearance of this contradiction is mainly manifested in three things:
1. Director Yang Jie's famous sad words of "ten years do not read journey to the West".
2. Director Yang Jie in his autobiography "My Ninety-Nine Eighty-One Difficulties" about contradictions and disclosures.
3. The most eye-catching thing is, of course, the change of angles when the "Journey to the West Sequel" began filming.
When the crew of "Journey to the West Sequel" began filming, the actors of Pig Eight Commandments and Sha Monk were all changed, Cui Jingfu replaced Ma Dehua, and Liu Dagang replaced Yan Huaili.
At that time, the official statement was that considering that Ma Dehua and Yan Huaili were older, they might not be able to perform some plays, so they could only be replaced.
But Ma Dehua did not think so, he told reporters that the idea of starting a sequel himself was proposed by himself, and he was initially notified of starring in the Eight Commandments of pigs, but he was canceled for no reason, which made him very dissatisfied.
Director Yang Jie's autobiography also verifies some of Ma Dehua's claims. Her autobiography mentions that in 1994, Ma Dehua, Zhang Jinlai and Yan Huaili came to her home to apologize and proposed the idea of starting a sequel. Note that director Yang Jie wrote the order of names is exquisite, and Ma Dehua ran to the monkey, indicating that the visit and proposal was probably really led by Ma Dehua.
In addition, director Yang Jie's autobiography also mentioned that she was also ready to let the original class of four masters and apprentices immediately, as for the age is fine, you can find a stand-in to shoot the long-range.
However, something happened later that prompted her to decide to change.
What is this thing? According to some newspaper reports that year, it should be Ma Dehua, Zhang Jinlai, Yan Huaili and other people who were keen to go to the cave and anger director Yang Jie, so they decided to "kill pigs to show the monkeys", replaced Ma Dehua and Yan Huaili, and warned the six-year-old children.
So we really saw two Sun Wukong and two Tang monks in the "Journey to the West Sequel", another Sun Wukong "Ding Jian" also appeared in a lot of scenes, and another Tang monk "Xu Shaohua" also accounted for half of the scenes.
Even Liu Jin, who starred in the "Journey to the West Sequel", once revealed that he had also received an invitation from director Yang Jie to let him play Sun Wukong. You know, in terms of appearance, Liu Jin and six-year-old children have quite similarities.
That is to say, when the "Journey to the West Sequel" began filming, the six-year-old child, Ma Dehua and Yan Huaili all encountered a role-changing crisis, which was actually unimaginable at the time, after all, the image of the three of them had long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
It is conceivable that there must be some problems between the six-year-old child, Ma Dehua and Yan Huaili and director Yang Jie, and this problem seems to be not small.
Second, is the Singapore business performance incident the root cause?
Regarding the source of the contradiction between director Yang Jie and Zhang Jinlai, Ma Dehua and Yan Huaili, the most frequently mentioned is naturally the Singapore commercial performance incident in 1988.
There are many versions of this matter, for example, Jiang Dawei mentioned this matter in an interview, he said that the four masters and apprentices (including Chi Zhongrui) cannot be so unrighteous, you do not take Yang Jie, I will not go.
Jiang Dawei's words were widely circulated, but they were clearly a less accurate one.
Director Yang Jie's autobiography "My Ninety-Nine Eighty-One Difficulties" has a systematic description of this matter:
At the end of November 1987, in the post-production stage of "Journey to the West", composer Xu Jingqing came to Yang Jie and said that a local friend in Singapore hoped to invite the "Journey to the West" crew to perform, and Yang Jie gladly agreed. Her idea is that in addition to promoting "Journey to the West" abroad, it can also be regarded as a reward for the old staff of the crew, after six years of hard work.
On December 18, CCTV leaders approved that they could go. The performance in Singapore was scheduled for June 1988.
Yang Jie immediately began to organize a "performance abroad group", in addition to the four masters and apprentices, but also added some other actors, most of these actors are also "Journey to the West" crew often participate in the performance.
During the Spring Festival, the actors from other places stayed in the guest house to continue rehearsals, but Zhang Jinlai, Ma Dehua, and Yan Huaili took leave at the same time, Yan Huaili took sick leave, and monkeys and pigs took personal leave. Yang Jie agreed.
Unexpectedly, these three people were not sick and had problems, but secretly ran to Jinan to join Xu Shaohua in jinan.
After they returned, director Yang Jie severely criticized the three people, believing that they should not let everyone stay in the guest house to eat instant noodles and go to the cave to make money, and if they really want to perform, they can go together.
At this time, the contradiction intensifies.
Subsequently, with the support of some leaders of CCTV, Zhang Jinlai Ma Dehua and Yan Huaili took control of the "Overseas Performance Group", and with the dissolution of the "Journey to the West" crew, director Yang Jie fell into the embarrassing situation of being kicked out for a while. According to the recollection of "village girl" Yang Jun, at that time, there was also a saying that "whoever goes to the director's house will not let anyone go to Singapore".
Even Xu Jingqing, who was the first to tie the matter, was finally kicked out of the "overseas performance group".
Although Yu Guanghua, the head of the overseas performance troupe in charge of CCTV, twice went to the door to persuade Yang Jie to serve as the deputy head of the troupe to perform in Singapore, after all, the propaganda there was a director leading the team, but Yang Jie, who had already been hurt, did not agree.
This is the famous "Journey to the West" crew "Singapore Commercial Performance Incident". It is this incident that has become the root of Director Yang Jie's statement that "I have not watched "Journey to the West for ten years", and it has also become the fuse for the replacement of the sequel.
Third, the foreshadowing may have been laid long ago
Although Jiang Dawei's words are somewhat inaccurate, there is one sentence he is right, that is, "there are contradictions, normal, there are no contradictions, but they are not normal."
The contradiction between director Yang Jie and Zhang Jinlai, Ma Dehua and Yan Huaili did not arise suddenly.
First of all, director Yang Jie's work style is more spicy, and her temper is also large, and the entire "Journey to the West" crew is not afraid of her. Therefore, in the six-year filming process, as the three leading actors from beginning to end, there is no doubt that the six young children, Ma Dehua and Yan Huaili were also scolded the most.
The three people suffered a lot, were scolded a lot, and became famous and became the most popular, so they inevitably had a rebellious psychology after the fire.
Secondly, there are some contradictions between director Yang Jie and Ma Dehua, just when Ma Dehua was injured, the team actor Li Jiancheng replaced Ma Dehua to perform an episode, the effect is good, Yang Jie director simply suggested that Li Jiancheng continue to act, but Li Jiancheng did not dare to agree. The news reached Ma Dehua's ears, and you can imagine his feelings.
In addition, the crew of "Journey to the West" often held parties with local people during filming, so there was a permanent small performance team in the crew, and Yan Huaili was the captain of this performance team. When preparing for the Singapore performance group, Yan Huaili had a considerable say.
Therefore, before the filming of the "Journey to the West Sequel", although Ma Dehua, Yan Huaili and the six-year-old child all went to Yang Jie's home to apologize, in the end, Ma Dehua and Yan Huaili were replaced.
As for why he did not change the six-year-old child, on the one hand, he is the biggest symbol of "Journey to the West", and he will not change it easily. At most, let Ding Jianjin group give the six-year-old children some pressure. On the other hand, when the Singapore business performance incident, the six-year-old child was still young, and at that time, he had a very soft personality, and even some timidities and fears, and I was afraid that he would have to listen to Ma Dehua and Yan Huaili on the big idea. The two of them can be regarded as the old cannons in Beijing.
Of course, don't forget, Monkey Sister-in-law Yu Hong and Director Yang Jie have a good relationship, which is also an important factor.
In addition, even the relationship between the five masters and apprentices (including Xu Shaohua) has some subtleties. For example, Ma Dehua once said that Xu Shaohua quit because of the five-dollar film remuneration, which is obviously illogical. In an interview, he "firmly denied" that the six-year-old child married Yu Hong in order to transfer to Beijing. Hi Teacher Ma, do you want to deny it, we really don't know that there is such a statement.
Fourth, what should we think?
In this "Journey to the West" crew grievances Rashomon, how should we look at it?
The author believes that we can look at it from two perspectives:
One is the perspective of director Yang Jie.
Director Yang Jie's kindness to the six-year-old, Ma Dehua and Yan Huaili is obvious. It should be known that before the establishment of the "Journey to the West" crew, in addition to Chi Chongrui and Xu Shaohua's small achievements in the acting world, the other four (including Wang Yue) were small roles.
The six-year-old child is just a timid and beautiful young man, the monkey play is far less outstanding than the eleven-year-old child Liu Jianyang, the apprentice of the six-year-old child, if it were not for the six-year-old child's efforts to recommend his son, Director Yang Jie would have gone directly to Liu Jianyang.
Wang Yue has just graduated from college, and Ma Dehua and Yan Huaili are not famous small actors.
Some people say that it is the six-year-old children and Ma Dehua who created the glory of "Journey to the West", but in fact, this statement is not accurate. With the qualifications of Director Yang Jie's favorite Dong Zhihua (A Ghost in "Kung Fu") and Liu Jianyang, they must not be able to portray Sun Wukong?
In addition, director Yang Jie is not opposed to Ma Dehua going to the cave, she just hopes that these stars will not eat alone, and the commercial performance of the cave can make money with other actors in the crew, after all, after six years of shooting, others have also paid a lot. For example, the team of actors Xiang Han, Li Jiancheng, Ye Yimeng, Yang Bin, Xu Tinglei and others also have great merit, but the division of labor is different and they have not become stars.
Maybe this idea of looking at director Yang Jie now seems to be somewhat idealized, but in the environment of the eighties, director Yang Jie's ideas and practices are correct.
From the perspective of Ma Dehua, Yan Huaili and others.
First of all, they have also paid six years of hard work, and now that they have become famous, they naturally want to make money to make up for their six years of hard work.
In addition, "Journey to the West" has been completed, the crew has disbanded, and director Yang Jie has no basis for ordering them to obey.
Finally, going to Singapore to perform is organized by CCTV, not counting the cave.
It should be said that from Ma Dehua's point of view, there seems to be some truth, but Jiang Dawei also has a sentence that is also correct: "Without director Yang Jie, where are your today." ”
Therefore, in 1994, Ma Dehua led the way, Yan Huaili and the six children went to Yang Jie's house to apologize, they must have known that without Yang Jie, "Journey to the West Sequel" could not be played at all.
Speaking of the last words, in fact, director Yang Jie is a very nostalgic person, the reason why she changed several people in the "Journey to the West Sequel", there are also some ideas of repaying favors and nostalgia.
Director Yang Jie has been very unsuccessful between 1988 and 1998, and she has successively filmed works such as "Xi Shi", "Sima Qian", "Jigong Living Buddha", "Zhu Yuanzhang", "Tujia First Army" and "Wuyi Xianfanjie", which can be described as prolific.
But these works, without exception, were difficult to shoot, and lack of funding was the biggest obstacle. After filming "Tujia First Army", she even opened her mouth to ask Lin Zhiqian, the "Erlang God" who opened the company, for 10,000 yuan to pay the arrears of wages to the crew.
At this stage, Xu Shaohua, Cui Jingfu, Liu Dagang and composer Yao Ming all gave great help to director Yang Jie, especially Xu Shaohua and Cui Jingfu, Xu Shaohua as the main actor has starred in many Yang Jie's TV series in a row, and also did not make any money. Cui Jingfu is Yang Jie's assistant director, and he has done a lot of work for her before and after running.
Therefore, remembering the old feelings, when filming the well-funded "Journey to the West Sequel", director Yang Jie pulled up several old parts, which is of course understandable.
Of course, it is also nostalgic for the old feelings, although director Yang Jie gave up Ma Dehua and Yan Huaili in the "Journey to the West Sequel", but after all, the two of them have also made great contributions in "Journey to the West", so after entering the twenty-first century, the "Journey to the West" crew still restored its happy and harmonious atmosphere.
The suffering that has been there is the best testimony of friendship.