The author of this article is a contributor @ Cat Slave Twelve Years
Cats enrich material life, and movies enrich the spiritual world
While waiting for the release of the Spring Festival file of the national comic "New God List: Nezha Rebirth", the light-chasing animation team of "White Snake: Origins", which created a double harvest of box office and word-of-mouth, officially announced the launch of the sequel to the film, and the title of the film was set as "White Snake 2: Green Snake Robbery".
The Easter egg of "New God List: Nezha Rebirth" will also be linked with it, and this Saturday will open a limited time ahead of the screening, which can be expected.
This time, the protagonist of the story changes from a white snake to a small green, and she will be accompanied by a mysterious teenager to rescue her sister who is under the Tower of Thunder Peak.
Given the quality of the previous work, if nothing else, "Green Snake Robbery" should bring us another surprising national comic drama.
When it comes to green snakes, most people will think of her green-clad dressed, smart and straightforward personality.
It is not as dignified and elegant as the white snake, but it reflects another kind of beauty of women, and the white snake sets off and embellishes each other.
Among the many adaptations of the "Legend of the White Snake" story, the 1992 TV series "The Legend of the New White Lady" is recognized as the most classic one, in which Chen Meiqi's vivid interpretation of the green snake has become the eternal Xiaoqing in the hearts of countless people.
Although in the story of the white snake familiar to the public, it is always the white lady who is right and Xiao Qing as the match, in fact, many literary and film and television works have already pushed the green snake from the supporting role to the protagonist position.
For example, in the 1980s, Xiao Sai's novel "The Legend of the Green Snake", the Peking Opera "The Legend of the Green Snake", as well as Li Bihua's novel "Green Snake" and Xu Ke's film of the same name adapted from it.
These works allowEd Green Snake to gain more space for display, enriching her personality traits that she could not fully express in the past.
But in the overall setting, she is still a beautiful green snake with heavy feelings and hatred, which is also in line with people's basic cognition and aesthetic expectations of this character image.
But can you imagine that the green snake was once not a snake but a fish, not even a beautiful woman but a macho man?
In addition, the well-known good sisters of the green snake and the white snake have actually been wandering in the ambiguous area of sisterhood, master-servant and same-sex relationship, hiding many stories beyond our understanding.
After watching some adapted versions, I have to say that the creator's imagination is really strange. Here are a few examples to give you a taste.
It is now generally believed that the story of the "Legend of the White Snake" began in the "Three Pagodas of the West Lake" in the Southern Song Dynasty, and was formed in a short article in Feng Menglong's famous "Cautionary Tales" of the Ming Dynasty - "White Lady Yongzhen Leifeng Pagoda".
And it is in this molding work that Xiaoqing appears in the form of a fish.
The setting of this "Blue Fish" was continued to be used by some adaptations later, the highlight of which was the process of Bai Suzhen defeating the Aqua led by Qingqing and then ambushing her, and the bridge section where Qingqing mobilized the Aqua to participate in the "Water Flood Golden Mountain".
This setting was even seen in the recently restored Japanese director Taiji Sakashita's anime masterpiece The Legend of the White Snake, as lately restored as 1958.
1958 Japanese anime version of The Legend of the White Snake
It is hard to imagine that the good sisters who do not abandon Bai Suzhen and have a sharp heart will not be changed by snakes!
However, if their species are different, how can people believe that they can talk like this?
Therefore, in the beginning, the book writes that Bai and Qing only talk about the master-servant relationship of work, which is equivalent to Bai Suzhen fighting just to get an entourage.
But obviously, the sister relationship is much more interesting than the master-servant relationship, and the subsequent development of the story also makes the two people full of the possibility of deepening emotional exchanges, and it is the general trend to become equal with the species and identity.
Therefore, I don't know exactly when it began, and the setting of Qingqing changing from a blue fish to a green snake has gradually become the mainstream.
The new version of "The Legend of the New White Lady" in 2019 believes that many people have watched it, and they have probably heard about it if they have not seen it.
There is a refreshing (or shocking) setting in this drama: Xiaoqing is a man! He became a woman to protect the White Lady.
This point, which was complained about by many viewers, is actually not their original.
As early as the 1950s, the Sichuan opera "The Legend of the White Snake" suddenly changed Qingqing's gender to male, and from the beginning it was a strong, grumpy male snake demon image, and vowed to "seize the spirit to become the Jade Emperor".
But unlike the TV series, Qingqing in the Sichuan opera originally did not intend to protect the white snake, and even wanted to snatch the white snake as a lady of the village...
In a fierce battle, he is defeated by the white snake, and then he loses his mana and becomes a woman, and the subsequent story is known to everyone.
Setting the initial state of the green snake as a fierce man is probably to pave the way for the brave combat effectiveness of the green snake in the later period, but this transformation is really strange (with the face change and spitting fire of sichuan opera, the painting style is unimaginable).
So that in addition to this less successful 2019 version of the TV series, there are no other works that follow this setting and can make a little waves.
In contrast, the character setting of the white snake is still relatively stable, and the only change may only be in the nature of good and evil.
The original white snake stories were all aimed at maintaining feudal rule and consolidating the social status of Confucianism, so the indoctrination intention of "preserving heavenly reason and destroying human desires" was very strong.
The white snake is portrayed as a "snake and scorpion beauty" who is not shallow, and Xu Xian is a negative teaching material that pays the price because of his lust.
However, after the "May Fourth Movement", the mind began to be emancipated, society began to progress, and the White Lady no longer had to bear the charge of "harming people" and degenerated into a beautiful image of daring to pursue love and freedom.
"Evil snake" Bai Suzhen gradually withdrew from the stage of history, that is, in today's film and television works that are keen on deconstruction and new compilations, we can rarely see the blackened white lady.
However, it is not blackened, and it can be "vanized".
In the complicated adaptation of "White Snake Legend", White Snake and Green Snake have also become ordinary people with no mana.
Removing the mythical nature of the white snake story and recreating it was a common trend in the 1930s and 1940s.
The reason is simple, the author wants to express a critique of superstitious ideas (specific epochal reasons) by realistically presenting mythological stories.
For example, in Xie Songlan's novel "The Legend of Leifeng Pagoda", Bai Suzhen directly said: "To be a person, you need a little common sense, people will not become snakes, snakes will not become people..."
This is afraid to vomit out a mouthful of old blood from readers who buy books and want to see the second snake.
Since the established image of the character can be changed in order to adapt to the changes of the times, the established relationship of the character can also be "used by me" in order to express specific ideas.
It was also during the same period that the "lower mortal" Bai and Qing were developed into various new relationships other than sisters or master and servant, the most amazing of which was the novel "The Legend of the New White Snake" created by Ping Xiangya.
In the book, Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian came to Shanghai to open a medicine shop, hoarding drugs and selling them at high prices during the war to earn money from ordinary people; Xiaoqing was a sister invited by Bai Suzhen to help, and then she also opened a coffin shop and made a fortune.
In addition, the author also changed the "stolen silver treasury" to white, Qing went to the rice warehouse to steal rice, and changed the "thief immortal grass" to Bai Suzhen took a plane to buy medicine abroad... Such a brain-hole adaptation is intended to satirize the despicable behavior of speculative businessmen.
In addition to the above examples, there are various and bizarre versions of the "White Snake" that have survived.
Read it from beginning to end, I'm afraid I've long forgotten what the story looks like.
This also tells us how vast the interpretation space contained in the story of the white snake and the green snake is, and the future adaptation of it is always worth looking forward to.
Note: Some of the pictures in this article come from Douban and the Internet, if there is infringement, please take the initiative to contact us.