Ethan Ruan went crazy in " Get Rid of the Three Evils in "!
There is no dispute that the movie is good, but the copyright dispute outside of the movie is also a big drama. The two parties had already gone to court last year. After "Zhou Chu Destroyed Three Evils" was released in the mainland, it immediately rose to the forefront of domestic entertainment.
Who is the prototype of "Zhou Chu"?
Let me briefly talk about the plot of "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils".
The wanted criminal Chen Guilin, played by Ethan Ruan, has lost his only relative and has advanced lung cancer. He is desperate and ready to surrender at the police station. Unexpectedly, the young policeman does not recognize him at all and pushes him to queue up on the other side to register.
Then he found out that he was only ranked third on the wanted order list, and half of his photo was torn...
The "third brother on the list" couldn't swallow his anger no matter how much he thought about it, so he decided to do something big before receiving the box lunch. Yes, kill the first and second eldest brothers on the list so that everyone in the world can remember him.
"Zhou Chu eliminates three evils" itself comes from a legend in "Shi Shuo Xin Yu":
Zhou Chu, a naughty young man, used his martial arts to run rampant in the countryside. The villagers dared not speak out in anger, but they just tacitly called him one of the "three evils" together with the white-fronted tiger in Nanshan and the dragon in Changqiao, Xijiao.
Someone persuaded Zhou Chu to assassinate the dragon and the tiger. In fact, he hoped that the three scourges would kill each other. When Zhou Chu came out after three days and nights of ups and downs in the water, he found that the whole village was applauding him for being buried at the bottom of the river, and then he realized that he was one of the three hated people.
He repented, was inspiring and eager to learn, and eventually became a virtuous and loyal minister.
This story was adapted into "The Legend of the Dragon Tiger" as early as the Ming Dynasty, and there is also a repertoire of "Extermination of Three Evils" in Peking Opera.
The movie "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" uses allusions to move the story to modern times and integrates the background of the Bayan gang. The male protagonist Chen Guilin is also said to have a prototype, Liu Huanrong, the deacon of the famous Bamboo Union Gang Zhongtang.
Liu Huanrong was a gangster who hunted gang bosses, but also repeatedly stole money from gangsters to run charitable relief and child welfare organizations. He was considered a legendary boss.
We will tell his story later when we have the opportunity
In addition to Chen Guilin's acting style being similar to Liu Huanrong's, the mysterious smiles they wore when they were arrested were also similar.
Last year, "The Three Evils" was nominated for 7 Golden Horse Awards, and finally won the Best Action Design Award; this year, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Asian Chinese Film.
The movie has unlimited fame, but it is accompanied by the controversy of "plagiarism". Taiwanese screenwriter and director Qian Renhao publicly claimed that "Zhou Chu Destroyed Three Evils" plagiarized his story.
"shared stories" with peers, and ended up being made into a movie?
Qian Renhao said that "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" plagiarized the story "Lawless" that he had been preparing for many years. Not only was the outline almost identical, but the names of the protagonist and supporting characters, the famous lines of dialogue, the storyline, and even the slogan were also copied exactly.
He mentioned that the team and some familiar actors who have worked with him for many years in the industry have known about this story for a long time. He mentioned it more than once at the press conference in 2017~2018.
Initially he did not name "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils", and film producer Li Lie said he could not respond.
Li Lie's disregard infuriated Qian Renhao. He directly attacked the production company of "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" on Facebook, implying that he had been suppressed by his eldest sister for many years, and at the same time targeted the director Huang Jingfu.
was accused by Qian Renhao by name, and Huang Jingfu also responded to his creative process and denied plagiarism.
He said that as early as 2010 when he was filming "Avenger's Death", he had the intention to explore the proposition of "good and evil". Later, he chatted with the group members excitedly, and he came up with the idea of exploring "good and evil", "human nature" and "religion". idea.
After that, he continued to discuss the outline with fellow producers and absorb their opinions, until he reached a consensus with Li Lie and others in 2019 to shoot "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Pests". In August 2020, he completed the story outline, which is 12 pages in total.
The plot structure, characters, themes and religious propositions are in the same vein as his previous work "Avenger's Death".
The origin and timeline of the story inspiration are also important information for identifying the originality of the work. Qian Renhao’s response directly yanked the timeline to 1997.
He said that the inspiration for the story of " Lawless " originated from his experience of struggling for a living on the streets of Linsen North Road in 1997. Later, when he was the director of "Underground Order" in 2006, he met several big brothers from the Bay Gang who came to make guest appearances in the film. I found it very interesting to hear them share a lot of life experiences and secret stories about Taiwan. Then I made reference to Taiwan's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, and combined it with my own imagination to create "Lawless". Huang Jingfu had not even heard of it before. Been to Taiwan.
In the same year, Qian Renhao went to Hong Kong to develop and met several producers and directors such as Huang Jingfu. At that time, he brought with him the paper outlines of several works, including "Lawless". He tried his best to "sell the story" to the producers and directors in Hong Kong, but unfortunately no one took notice of the story.
During the years of waiting for the opportunity, he and Huang Jingfu went out to drink many times and shared each other's stories.
Not only shared it with friends and colleagues, in 2018 he also posted the script outline of "Lawless" on Weibo .
I am quite puzzled by this. According to my own writing habits, I will not make the unfinished manuscript at hand public. I also asked a director friend, and he said that some people do share scripts with close friends in the industry in the hope of absorbing revision opinions. However, like Qian Renhao, who directly posts the outline of the script on Weibo, he doesn’t understand. What is the operation.
... I always feel that Qian Renhao doesn't have a strong sense of protecting the script (of course this is not the reason for being plagiarized).
Now Qian Renhao simply published the complete script with the writing time on Facebook, officially suing the movie "Zhou Chu Destroy Three Evils" for plagiarizing ideas.
He made a color palette manually, compared the similarities between "Lawless" and "Zhou Chu Destroy Three Evils", and said that the repetition rate of script content was as high as 72%.
There are also some similarities in the main plots, such as the character "Chen Guangzhou" in "Lawless" became "Chen Guilin" in "Zhou Chu"; at the beginning, the male protagonist of the gangster went to the police station to surrender, and was asked by the police to line up and the male protagonist The plot of being cheated of having cancer, the relationship between the second person on the list and the girl in the massage parlor, etc. The lines and sentences of
are also very similar. For example, Qian Renhao wrote "I'm not afraid of death. I'm afraid that even if I die, no one will know." In the movie, it's "I'm not afraid of death. I'm afraid that even if I die, no one will remember." ."
In addition to presenting evidence, he also specifically mentioned in the interview that Miss Li Lie is very powerful in Taiwan, but others are soft-spoken.
The Miss Li Lie he was talking about is a Taiwanese actress and producer, and Luo Dayou's ex-wife.
It was she who invested in and produced "Monga", which allowed Ethan Ruan to get rid of the label of male protagonist in idol dramas. She also won the 47th Golden Horse Award for Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year.
Li Lie is also a controversial woman in Wanwan.
In 2017, she was publicly accused of workplace bullying by Chen Junzhi, the director of documentaries such as "Beautiful Boy" and "The War of the Roses".
Regarding Qian Renhao’s accusations, the film crew said they were all rumors and also sued Qian Renhao for defamation. Since the case is under trial, the film crew chose not to disclose the information.
As for the reactions of netizens, some felt that Qian Renhao was "simplifying traffic" because after all, he had very few works that he could produce before.
Some netizens feel that although the synopsis of the story is similar, the content and details are different. Compared with plagiarism, it is more like "stitching and blending", like the plot of " Kill Bill 2" where the coffin board is kicked open after being buried alive. The cult brainwashing is also similar to "Midsummer Night's Terror".
Three endings of "Plagiarism Gate"
Every once in a while, you will see accusations of plagiarism of a certain work. Last week, even ", the killer is not too cold" was also published with the entry of "plagiarism" Hot search.
Of course, this hot search went away as quickly as it came, because everyone found that in addition to the setting of "a child paired with a killer" and the story mode, the core characteristics, key main lines, and painting styles of 's character relationships are completely different.
This kind of "plagiarism" accusation is obviously untenable, and the "plagiarism case" that actually goes to court is much more complicated. Referring to previous cases, the "Zhou Chu" plagiarism scandal will probably have three endings:
Chapter 1 One: Key evidence is missing and the matter is left undisturbed.
After "White Night" became popular in 2018, screenwriter Chen Qiongqiong told screenwriter Han Bing that "白夜" was co-created by her and Han Bing during their relationship.
The man only wrote the outline of the novel, which she rewrote into a 10,000-word script. The setting of the twin brothers, the fourth episode of the online drama script, and the short version of the synopsis were also completed by her and Han Bing, as evidenced by the exchange of emails.
In the next twenty episodes, she said that she and Han Bing also had a lot of meetings and discussions, but she thought they were a couple and did not leave any recordings. It wasn't until "White Night" became a hit that she felt that this emotion was used as a stepping stone for others.
At that time, many netizens sided with the "ex-girlfriend" and felt that the second half of the plot of "White Night" was indeed worse than the first. However, Han Bing himself was also very strong and claimed to be the "sole author" of the script.
Due to the lack of key evidence, the matter was later dropped. Chen Qiongqiong’s Weibo pin is still relevant to this infringement case. And "White Night Chase 2" was delayed until last year before it was launched. It is said that the core setting has been significantly changed.
However, similar themes have become popular in the industry. Several criminal investigation dramas with the shadow of "White Night" were aired immediately, and they have also been involved in "plagiarism" controversy...
The second type: Difficult rights protection Success, but the plagiarists have not expressed their stance.
There are two very classic plagiarism cases in domestic entertainment. One is that Yu Zheng's "Gongsuo Liancheng" plagiarized Qiong Yao's "Plum Blossom Brand", and the other is Guo Jingming "How Many Flowers Fall in Dreams" "Plagiarized Zhuang Yu's work "Inside and Outside the Circle". The plagiarism on the palette of
was a sure thing. Because the plagiarist refused to admit his fault, the dispute lasted for a long time. Even after the court determined that the plagiarism was established, the person involved still did not issue an apology.
Qiong Yao waited for 6 years, while Zhuang Yu waited for 15 years before finally getting an apology.
Guo Jingming proposed to give Zhuang Yu all the online and offline profits from "Meng Luo", and Zhuang Yu responded beautifully, accepting the apology and proposing to use the profits to set up an anti-plagiarism fund. The fund
is really not just for finishing off Guo Jingming. During the 15 years of waiting for an apology, Zhuang Yu had helped many authors who had been plagiarized. She knew deeply how serious a drain on an author's mental, physical and financial resources the road to rights protection had, and she had wanted to set up such a fund for a long time.
The first case supported by the Zhuang Yu Anti-Plagiarism Fund was the case in which the Internet writer Zu Zhan sued another Internet writer Jiu Yuexi for infringing the copyright of his work "Embrace You Across Time" by his "Xiao Nan Feng". (The results of the trial have not yet been released).
So regardless of whether the apology is sincere or not, at least it can be regarded as a victory for copyright awareness.
The third type: changing the signature of the work + box office dividends and reconciliation
The most famous plagiarism incident in film history occurred in Hollywood in the 1960s.
In 1964, Leone adapted Akira Kurosawa's 1961 film "Yojimbo " into his own "Red Dead Redemption." Except for the scene changing from a Japanese village to a western town, and holding a knife to playing with a gun, other character designs, plot trends and even lines are exactly the same as Kurosawa Akira's "Yojimbo".
Akira Kurosawa filed a lawsuit and eventually won the lawsuit, and finally received 15% of the global box office profit of "Red Dead Redemption". This profit even exceeded that of "Yojimbo", and Akira Kurosawa's name was also added to the screenwriter column.
Akira Kurosawa expressed satisfaction with the result, and even praised "Red Dead Redemption" as a good film and worth watching. With "official" support, the film became famous and was even regarded as the pioneer of Italian western films.
This "reconciliation" situation has also made plagiarism a tradition in Hollywood. Plagiarism scandals occur every year. The solution is simple and crude: sue if you are not convinced. As long as the infringer spits out the proceeds from the infringement, the case will be settled.
e sister’s conclusion:
Returning to the matter of "Zhou Chu", the Taiwanese director really confirmed our stereotype of the literary youth style...it is often a thousand-word long article, but judging from his current public information, can it be It’s hard to define plagiarism. After all, the Copyright Law protects expression, not ideas.
Before the case is decided, everyone still needs to look at the incident rationally, especially not to deny the possibility of infringement simply because a work has achieved great success. Zhuang Yu also said that many times the plagiarist's works are better than the original ones.
After all, the plot and characters in the original version were constructed by the original author with huge intellectual and labor costs. If a plagiarist adds icing on the cake to someone else's work, he will certainly write better.
Qian Renhao was dissatisfied, but he also expressed his affirmation of "Zhou Chu": the story is really good, the actors are innocent, and their performance is also excellent.
So as a passerby, if you want to watch it, you can still go to the cinema and watch it without feeling "guilty". The court is a court, and I believe the law will give justice to the original author.
Today’s topic:
What do you think of this plagiarism incident?
Come and chat in the comment area~
