"There is nothing wrong with proper remakes. If the trend of remakes becomes more and more intense and becomes a phenomenon, we must be vigilant, restrict and regulate." Mai Jia, vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, recently said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Service that the "remake trend" is in It invisibly harms originality. For literary and artistic works, the original spirit cannot be lost.
In the film and television industry, remakes are not a new term, especially the remake rate of theatrical movies has increased in recent years. Correspondingly, there are very few high-quality remakes, and some of them have failed both in word-of-mouth and box office, and have even sparked discussions on the Internet and are considered to have "ruined classics."
Mai Jia is concerned about the phenomenon of remakes. He believes that remakes are a kind of cultural exchange, and classics need to be interpreted and recreated. The most successful case is the American director Martin Scorsese’s remake of the Hong Kong film classic " Infernal Affairs " " was remade into "The Departed", which also helped Martin Scorsese win the Oscar for Best Director.
Mai Jia's works have also been constantly remade. Previously, a Korean film company found Mai Jia and, after several communications, purchased the copyright of his novel "The Wind".
But right now, there are more remakes on the market, or it can be called indiscriminate filming.
"Capital rushed forward and regarded remakes as opportunistic and profit-making methods without considering the quality of the works. This not only damaged the original IP brand, but also had a negative impact on the film and television industry. Once our industry is flooded with such works , will definitely harm originality." Mai Jia said that articles are written according to the times, and we should cultivate our own high-quality literary and artistic works.
He mentioned the popular time-travel dramas and palace fighting dramas in the past few years, which were regulated by the State Administration of Radio and Television for arbitrarily tampering with history, excessive jokes, and overuse. Mai Jia suggested that relevant departments could follow this example and convene experts to discuss and issue regulations to prevent disorderly remakes.
At the same time, originality should also be encouraged. "Every creator wants to write his own work, but in fact, it is not easy to be original." Mai Jia, a writer who has been in the industry for nearly 40 years and has been successful in the eyes of the world, also faces the troubles of creation.
html At the end of March, his new work will be released soon. This is a work that the Mai family has been working on for 5 years after "Life in the Sea". At the end of his new work, he chose to retreat to create for 10 hours a day.Mai Jia believes that good works are created in this way. You don’t just write whatever you want, but write your own inspiration and show your uniqueness.
He shared his creative process: When Mai Jia started writing his first novel "Decryption" in 1991, there were not many literary works of related types on the market. After "Decryption" was completed in 1992, it faced continuous rejections. , was rejected 17 times in 11 years, until it was published in 2002. It became a phenomenal work, ushering in the "spy war" era of film and television works, and was continuously adapted into films and remakes.
"Compared with the first version completed in 1992, the published novel is not very different." Mai Jia believes that the reason why the two have different endings is because they live in different times and people's thoughts are also different. Regardless of film, television or literary works, the production cycle is long. If you blindly follow the trend, you will easily be abandoned by the times. When
talked about whether he would turn the work into a short video, he admitted that he had not considered it. "Short plays and ordinary film and television works are like shallow reading and deep reading. The former is more entertaining, and the latter may bring ideological enlightenment."
Mai Jia said that good works should contain the thoughts and energy of the creator, which is also the meaning of adhering to the original spirit.
Text/China News Service reporter Zhao Yejiao
editor/Cui Wei
