text | Mouyu
Another major drama has joined the competition for the summer season. Tencent's " Jin Yong's Martial Arts World " started broadcasting on the evening of June 17.
is an adaptation of the classic IP "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", with five chapters totaling 60 episodes, an all-star cast, jointly produced by Tencent and Yaoke... "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" is indeed a rare martial arts drama in recent years.
Big IPs and big dramas mean higher market expectations, but in fact, the premiere results of "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" are not good. The popularity of on Tencent's site has just exceeded 22,000, and the investment situation is not optimistic. has not been able to Continuing Tencent’s advantage of frequent hit dramas in the first half of the year.
coincides with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jin Yong. The film and television industry has launched the " Jin Yong Memorial War ". Jin Yong's martial arts has once again attracted the attention of the market and the audience as a hot spot in film and television creation. However, Jin Yong's IP, which has been "bad" in filming, can be revived. Will the martial arts drama become a hit?
Jin Yong’s Martial Arts World, more innovation than restoration
In fact, before it started, the outside world was not very optimistic about "Jin Yong’s Martial Arts World", and there were many viewers betting on it.
First, the early promotional materials were star-studded but lacked quality. Although there is an all-star cast in front of and behind the scenes, the more intuitive aspects such as the actor's image, makeup, and filters are not in line with the audience's impression of martial arts.
Second, the IP itself is seriously overdrawn. "Legend of the Condor Heroes" is Jin Yong's work that has been adapted into movies the most. The audience is familiar with the plot, and there are already very successful film and television works and character creations. When the plot development can be predicted, it is difficult to give the audience Bring a sense of freshness.
Third, martial arts dramas are in decline. An objective fact is that although China's unique martial arts culture was once a hot spot in film and television creation, there have been no excellent Jin Yong martial arts or even martial arts works in China for many years. The endless stream of bad movies continues to consume the audience's enthusiasm, leaving only The label "Martial arts is dead".
After the premiere, the problems that the audience was worried about actually existed. For example, the actor's image does not fit the character well, the filter is too pornographic, the plot pace is too fast, the studio shooting art setting has no quality... "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" has a bad start.
But objectively speaking, this drama has not been reduced to worthless. The action scenes are good, the shots have a cinematic feel, and the lines are restored. The most important thing is that "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" has subverted the previous Jin Yong IP dramas. There are certain innovations in in the form and content of shooting.
"The World of Jin Yong's Martial Arts" is divided into five chapters: "Iron-Blooded Heart", "Evil in the East", "Southern Emperor and Northern Beggar", "Huashan Sword Theory" and "Nine Yin Manual". Currently airing is the "Iron-Blooded Heart" episode with Guo Jing and Huang Rong as the core.
Although the core plot of the entire drama is still the story of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", the content of the original work has been expanded and innovated more, and the "Dong Xi" Huang Yaoshi, who has rarely been the protagonist in previous film and television works, Characters such as "Western Poison" Ouyang Feng, "Southern Emperor" Duan Zhixing, "Northern Beggar" Hong Qigong, Feng Heng, Mei Chaofeng and other characters have separate chapters. The exploration and shaping of new characters can largely avoid the old IP brings a sense of boredom.
builds a grander martial arts world by enriching the characters and story lines of the original work. It not only focuses on Guo Jing and Huang Rong, but also focuses on more supporting characters that were only mentioned in the original work, so it is not just about Guo Jing and Huang Rong. It is difficult to understand why this drama is not called "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" but called "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World".
This method of expanding the original IP to create a series of unit dramas actually has advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, it does bring a sense of freshness to the audience. More new character stories further enrich the content of the series, which not only reaps the dividends of classic IP, but also gives creators more room to play.
But on the other hand, due to the addition of new story content, the original work of "The Condor" was condensed into the "Iron-Blooded Heart" chapter with only 30 episodes. It is inevitable that the original content will be deleted, resulting in "Iron-Blooded Heart" The plot of the movie is like a quick glance at the progress, giving you a sense of déjà vu as if you were following a drama at double speed.
You can't have your cake and eat it too. Due to market demand, audience preferences, content innovation and other reasons, when it comes to restoring or innovating the content of the series, the producers of chose to compress the original story and repeatedly film it to create new content. provides more space for authoring.
According to the broadcast order, the current "Iron-Blooded Heart" chapter is a restoration of the original content and fails to reflect the adaptation advantages of "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World", so there is no need to rush to badmouth for the time being. As innovative content is broadcast in the future, Maybe there will be a rebound in word-of-mouth.
Keep shooting, keep shooting, keep shooting
At the beginning of the "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" project, the audience's first reaction was: Why is Jin Yong's martial arts IP, which was "bad" in , being filmed again?
"It was badly shot" is a perfect way to describe Jin Yong's martial arts.
The "bad" here refers to the "flooding" of in Jin Yong's martial arts film and television works. Leaving aside the adaptations of Jin Yong's martial arts works by the entertainment circles in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the film and television adaptation of Jin Yong's martial arts in the mainland can be traced back to the 1990s.
In the mid-1990s, most mainland creators participated in Jin Yong's martial arts adaptations as behind-the-scenes producers. Qi Mingyuan, the assistant director of the 1994 version of " Tianshan Tongmu " starring Brigitte Lin, came from Shanghai Studio. Later, mainland actors gradually participated in the filming of Jin Yong's martial arts dramas, such as the 1994 version of " Book of Swords and Enmities" starring Huang Haibing and Cao Ying. Record 》. However, at this stage, the film and television adaptation of Jin Yong's martial arts is still dominated by Hong Kong production teams, and mainland creators are still learning.
Around the millennium, mainland production teams began to lead the adaptation of Jin Yong's martial arts works to . Director Wang Xinmin started this new stage. His Jin Yong martial arts dramas "The Journey of the Knight" and "Liancheng Jue" both became best-sellers that year. The most expensive TV series.
But it was Zhang Jizhong who really achieved breakthroughs at this stage. He adapted many Jin Yong IPs such as " ", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", etc., and achieved word-of-mouth and ratings. The double success has had a great impact on the production of martial arts dramas in the mainland.
At this stage of the production of mainland martial arts dramas, outstanding creators from Hong Kong and Taiwan have actually joined. For example, the original soundtrack of Huang Xiaoming's version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was created by Taiwanese musician Chen Huanchang, and one of the directors of Li Yapeng's version of "The Swordsman" is from Hong Kong. The famous martial arts instructor Yuan Bin, and with the strong support of CCTV, the mainland ushered in the golden period of Jin Yong's martial arts adaptation.
According to statistics, Zhang Jizhong alone has adapted 9 Jin Yong martial arts IPs, and Jin Yong only has 15 martial arts novels in total. Mainland Jin Yong's martial arts dramas are showing a blowout trend, but what follows is a sharp decline in production standards, A large number of Jin Yong's "bad movies" flood the mainland market, which is actually the second meaning of "bad" Jin Yong's martial arts movies.
Taking 2010 as the dividing line, the mainland market ushered in the second round of adaptations of Jin Yong's IP. This stage can be summarized as " bad movies dominate, and occasionally excellent ". Even Zhang Jizhong did not escape, post-production All three of Jin Yong’s martial arts dramas received failing ratings on Douban.
Except for Li Yitong's version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" in 2017, which has a good reputation, Jin Yong's adapted dramas at this stage are basically both word-of-mouth and ratings. There is even "The Swordsman" with a Douban score of only 2.5 points. ", "The Deer and the Cauldron" with a score of 3.3, and "Dragon" with a score of 3.4, Jin Yong's martial arts dramas have become commentary materials for Bilibili's bad movies.
The changes at this stage are due to the obvious shift in the preferences of mainstream audiences on the one hand, especially with the popularity of emerging themes such as fairy tales and ancient puppets, and martial arts dramas are gradually no longer favored by young audiences; on the other hand, It is the film and television industry that has been impacted by the massive inflow of hot money. The film and television production cycle has been continuously shortened, and very few people are willing to really spend time and energy to make a martial arts drama.
Due to changes in the market environment and audience preferences, Jin Yong's martial arts dramas are "continuously shooting in , and constantly shooting in ", which continues to consume the enthusiasm of practitioners and audiences. Although the film and television industry is not short of films and TV shows about Jin Yong's IP However, Jin Yong’s martial arts is gradually cooling down.
Entering 2024, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Jin Yong is ushered in. Jin Yong’s martial arts obviously has a tendency to return to the hot spot of film and television creation. The collective efforts of leading film and television companies are a clear direction. Can Jin Yong’s martial arts creation enter a new era? , a high-level stage is an industry phenomenon worth looking forward to.
Can Jin Yong’s IP return to become a popular martial arts drama?
has made statistics on Jin Yong's film and television works that are waiting to be broadcast on Douban. There are as many as 11 movies in , including some masterpieces.
In terms of drama series, the current broadcast of "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" is only the first season. The innovative adaptation of Jin Yong's IP for unit dramas is one of Yaoke's future priorities. According to the 2024 new drama list released by Yaoke, the "Jin Yong Martial Arts World: The Legend of the Condor Heroes" project is gradually advancing, and this is already the tenth version of " The Legend of the Condor Heroes ". The ninth version is directed by Tong Mengshi, Starring Mao Xiaohui, it has not been aired yet.
In terms of movies, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" produced by China Film Group Corporation is undoubtedly the Jin Yong martial arts work that has attracted the most attention in the current market, and there is no other . Tsui Hark returns to the realm of martial arts, and top-notch Xiao Zhan plays Guo Jing. It has now entered the post-production stage.
Earlier, there was news in the industry that Tsui Hark planned to shoot the movie "The Legend of the Condor Heroes". Tsui Hark revealed through the media that there is indeed such a project, but it has not yet been launched. If the follow-up project can continue to advance, Tsui Hark may lead Jin Yong's martial arts into The greatest help in the new creative stage.
It has become an industry trend for Jin Yong's martial arts to return to the market, but whether it can produce a hit and set off a new round of martial arts craze is still unknown.
Objectively speaking, the gradual decline of martial arts is an indisputable fact , especially as the main audience of moviegoers has gradually shifted from the post-80s and post-90s to the post-00s and post-05s. The changes in popular culture have meant that Generation Z has not been influenced by pure traditional martial arts. , lack of understanding of the spirit and core of chivalry, and naturally not enthusiastic about martial arts-themed film and television works.
If young people in the past had a "martial arts dream" and "jianghu dream", Generation Z who grew up with the Internet is actually more interested in niche subcultures.
Compared with traditional martial arts, is actually the new martial arts that is more popular in the film and television industry, namely "wuxia +" , which incorporates more popular elements into martial arts and gives a new era annotation to the chivalrous spirit. For example, the popular "Swordsman in the Snow" and "Lotus Tower" in recent years have transformed from traditional martial arts focusing on the world of martial arts to a new era of martial arts that takes the world as its own responsibility.
"The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great" directed by Tsui Hark actually also presents a new martial arts style. According to the filing, the film mainly focuses on Guo Jing's guarding Xiangyang. The original work did not pay much attention to this part of the story. In the past, Jin Yong's martial arts films and TV dramas were also created and adapted around Guo Jing's growth line. However, "The Great Chivalrous Man" focuses on the spiritual inheritance of "the great chivalrous man serves the country and the people" and focuses on the story of guarding Xiangyang.
Changes in martial arts themes in the film and television industry have arrived. We will wait and see whether Jin Yong's martial arts can follow this trend and combine it with the martial arts style of the new era to burst out with more dazzling vitality.
