interface news reporter | Hu Yujing
interface news editor | Zhang Youfa
In September 2022, "The Strange Stories of the Tang Dynasty" was broadcast. Starting from the Chang'an black tea case, Jinwu Wei Zhonglang general Lu Lingfeng and Di Gong's disciple Su Wuming led the audience into Strange anecdotes behind the eight mysteries of the Tang Dynasty. Combining legends of the Tang Dynasty with suspenseful investigations, "Tang Dynasty Strange Stories" became the dark horse of the costume drama that year.
On August 4 this year, the sequel to the "Tang Dynasty" series "The Journey to the West" ended on iQiyi members, with the highest popularity of 10,205, and the Douban score also increased from 8.1 points to 8.4 points, becoming a iQIYI’s first summer series is a hit.
Before the filming of "The Secret of the Tang Dynasty: Journey to the West" started, the "curse of the series" - it was difficult for the second part to surpass the first one, deeply troubled director Bai Shan. He finally decided not to make horizontal comparisons with others. I only want to compare it with the first one and surpass it in details.
In his opinion, "Tang Wei" is a mirror of the Tang Dynasty. In eight cases this season, the five-person detective team was demoted from Chang'an and went west to take office. Along the way, they overcame demonic changes, experienced the death of a widower, and stayed at Mojiadian in the wind and snow... In the end, the story ends at The case of donors in Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. The main genre of suspense investigation incorporates elements such as roads and supernatural beings, and the group portrait unit narrative shows the local customs, customs, and mystery of the people under the temples of the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Stills of "The Legend of the Tang Dynasty"
Screenwriter Wei Fenghua is the soul of the "Tang Dynasty" series. The earliest starting point for the story is his "Tang Dynasty Legend" reading notes, until he and director Guo Jingyu discussed Lu Lingfeng and Su Wuming With these two core characters, who can reach the court and go deep into the market, the series can really start.
When writing the "Tang Gui" series, Wei Fenghua referred to many documents and Tang Dynasty novels such as "Tang Dynasty Traffic Illustration", "Youyang Zazu", "Natural History", "Duyi Zhi" and "Wenqi Lu". In his opinion, among the suspense dramas, the elements of "Tang Suspense" and "Tang Zhiguai" are the core competitiveness of the "Tang Wei" series.
The key physical evidence "Human Face Flower" in the first season of "Human Face Flower" is taken from the collection of notes and novels "Youyang Zazu" written by Duan Chengshi in the Tang Dynasty. The original description of it is only a few dozen words. But in the play, it appears as physical evidence in the investigation. The unit name and murals of "Conquering the Demons" in the second season are both taken from Dunhuang murals. The plot also uses the story of Buddha before he became enlightened. He faced the challenges of the demon king Bo Xun, the three witches and the demon army, and finally resolved and conquered the demons and became enlightened.
In the case of "The Death of Wu Zuo", the ancestral treasure of the deceased Dugu Yang was the "Dugu Xin Polyhedral Coal Seal Seal" hidden in the Shaanxi History Museum. Dugu Yang died for Wu Zuo's faith, and he left Chun Tiao's "Fang". "Wife's Letter", the sentence "The lonely man is pale and the wife is green" moved the audience, and its source is the Dunhuang suicide note of the Tang Dynasty.
In his opinion, there are three floors in the creation of costume dramas, and the "Tang Wei" series is the "second floor aesthetic": the first floor is traditional costume dramas and historical dramas, the third floor is flying fairy tales and fantasy dramas, and "Tang Wei" series "Between the two, between reality and virtuality, like a kite, there is a thread of history and traditional culture pulling it.
"Death of Wu Zuo" unit
In recent years, due to its strong economy and open diplomacy, Datang has become a treasure trove of materials for creators of suspense and fantasy film and television dramas. Previously there were "The Legend of the Demon Cat " and "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", and in the past two years there have been the "Dali Temple Shaoqing Tour", "The Case of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty", "Tang Gui" series, etc.
In Wei Fenghua's view, the spirit of the prosperous Tang Dynasty can be summarized as poetry and swords, driven by two tracks of literature and martial arts. The halo of Tang Dynasty novels is overshadowed by Tang poetry. There is still a lot of room for exploration of Tang Zhiguai and Tang legends. "Tang Wei" also Just a drop in the bucket.
Yesterday, the third part of the "Tang Dynasty" series "Tang Dynasty Strange Stories in Chang'an" released a concept poster, confirming the long-term development of the "Tang Dynasty" series. The first part goes south, the second part goes west, and the third part will return to Chang'an. The vitality of the "Tang Wei" series continues.
The following is a conversation between Interface Entertainment and other media and the director Bai Shan and screenwriter Wei Fenghua of "The Journey to the West". The content has been slightly edited and deleted.
"The suspenseful version of "Journey to the West""
q: When did you start writing the script for "Tang Wei's Journey to the West"? Why is "Westward Journey" used as the story clue?
Wei Fenghua: The script was created in the early summer of 2022 when the first season is still in the post-production stage. Because the first season went south geographically, I thought as a series, the second season could go west.
The west of the Tang Dynasty is very mysterious and has elements of the Western Regions. From Chang'an to Dunhuang, there are various cultural landmarks and strange customs in the play, which is very suitable for suspense and adventure genres. Moreover, the Tang Dynasty was different from the previous Han Dynasty or the subsequent Song and Ming Dynasties. The characteristics of the entire dynasty were that they were more magnificent and high-spirited. The story of "Tang Gui" would be inconsistent if placed in the Han Dynasty or the Song and Ming Dynasties; but it is very suitable to be placed in the Tang Dynasty, because the Tang Dynasty was a grand and open dynasty, and many civilizations from outside the region came in and interacted with the Chinese civilization. The blending makes this era more fantasy-like, making it the most suitable "hotbed" for strange stories.
q: Filming "Tang Wei" can be regarded as a turning point in your career. What inspired your interest in this subject?
Bai Shan: The most important factor in is to make a change. We have filmed too many period legends before. As a director, you will want to try new themes. It happened that Teacher Wei wrote the script at that time, and the script itself also gave the creator a lot of inspiration. Space can be presented in an unconstrained and extreme way.
Our main creator has never dabbled in a theme like "Tang Wei" before. During the one month before the first film was pre-launched, we were just exploring. I told the team to be bold, because if you are not bold enough, the market may not recognize you. , and in a fantasy theme like "Tang Wei", it is inappropriate to recycle the style, so the makeup of people like Yinjuro and Eleven Niang in the first part are very memorable.
Wei Fenghua: When my master, director Guo Jingyu, and I were filming the Anti-Japanese War legendary drama "Braveheart2" in 2017, I happened to write the original work of "The Strange Stories of the Tang Dynasty", which is actually an interpretation of the legends and legends of the Tang Dynasty. Note: At that time, I didn’t even think that it could be made into a drama, because there was no protagonist throughout, and they were just short stories. Then Director Guo said there was a way, and he and I discussed it. After setting up two protagonists who could reach the court and go deep into the folk, the story came naturally.
"The Provider" unit
q: What historical documents and texts were referenced this season?
Wei Fenghua: The route of "Westbound" was determined based on Mr. Yan Gengwang's "Tang Dynasty Traffic Illustration", and also referred to "Youyang Zazu", "Natural History", "Duyi Zhi", "Wenqi Lu", etc. .
In "Du Yi Zhi", a man mistakenly entered a manor, was turned into a slave by the manor owner, and was thrown into a large wine cellar. This paragraph is short, but I feel it could form the basis of the case.
In "Fengxuemojiadian" there is a character named Jiang Wei who is disguised as a mountain man. The Shanren was a character in the Tang Dynasty who was between the world and the world. He had an elegant style that was close to becoming an immortal, but he was not a monk, so he used illusions and some elements from "The Scholar of Yangxian". Because the outbreak of supernatural beings in China occurred during the Six Dynasties period, it is also a kind of tribute.
Frankly speaking, before writing the Tang Gui series, I read very few detective novels. Because my literary tradition started with postmodernism, postmodernist novels do not focus on stories, and there were very few genre literatures in the books I read before, so I encountered great difficulties when I first started working as a screenwriter. Later, I made amends in this regard. However, I also like some American TV series, including the works of the Coen brothers, such as "Fargo", "Breaking Bad" and "The Wire", which have also had a certain influence on me.
Because "Tang Wei" is not purely a case-based reasoning, case-based reasoning is considered a niche subject, and may be welcomed by drama fans in this circle, but the audience is still narrower.We don’t want to make it a particularly niche drama. We want to make it a popular drama that men, women and children of all ages would like to watch. It is essentially a legendary drama. If it were purely a mystery drama, I don’t think it would have as wide an audience as it does now.
q: Overall, what upgrades have been made in the second season compared to the first season?
Wei Fenghua: There are more monsters in the second season of . My initial positioning was to make it a suspenseful version of " Journey to the West ", so I may have subconsciously added more flying content, but from my current perception Generally speaking, there seem to be a little more monsters, and it would be better if the monsters in "Mojiadian" can be removed.
There are also more female characters in the second season. In fact, there are many beautiful female characters in Tang Legend, such as Hongfu Girl, Assassin Nie Yinniang, etc. In the first season, we did not show too many female characters, and we want to improve them this season. this part.
Breaking the Curse of the Series
q: There is a gap of two years between the second season and the first season. Judging from the broadcast effect, it involves a lot of framing, the scenes are also very complex, and there are many big scenes. From the later stage, how to do it in a limited time Completed within the time limit?
Bai Shan: It only took four months from the completion of the first part to the start of the second part of . Our team was very efficient. We didn’t even set up a team in Beijing to prepare for the casting of actors for the second season. We went directly to Hengdian. , it started shooting directly after half a month. Of course, other departments are preparing step by step, but because we are the original crew, as long as the script comes out, everyone has a tacit understanding on creation. We were under a lot of pressure before the second part of
was launched, because the curse of a series is difficult to break, but if the creators are under too much pressure and fail to produce good things, it becomes the last straw that breaks the camel's back. We don’t want to make horizontal comparisons, we only compare with the first season, we don’t lower our standards, we will be bold if we can, we just need to follow the standards of the first season, put quality first as our original intention, and do every detail better than the first season.
Our art team also put in a lot of effort, because I think it is too difficult to capture the western style in Hengdian. We demolished the streets in the south to create a western style, and spread dirt on the cement floor to create a yellow sand look. It feels like a lot of effort has been put into these aspects.
"Tang Gui's Journey to the West" poster
q: After the beginning of "Westward Journey", what changes have occurred in the relationships between the characters in the detective team?
Wei Fenghua: Character relationships are quite difficult to write. For example, Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Inspector Morse, etc., they have all entered the "temple", and there are relatively few changes in growth and internal relationships. When we watch Sherlock Holmes, we will pay more attention to the case itself, rather than the growth and relationship between Holmes and Watson. However, domestic dramas cannot follow the logic of British and American dramas, and still require subtle changes in the relationship between characters.
Regarding the internal conflicts of the detective team, the second season is more about the conflict of concepts, while the first season is mainly about the conflict of personalities. Lu Lingfeng is a member of the fourth surname noble family, while Su Wuming is at a lower level. For example, in the unit "Yunding Zui", they passed through the wine country on the Silk Road and held different views on the opening of the night ban. Lu Lingfeng believed that the night ban was an ironclad rule of the imperial court. According to the law, opening up will increase public security cases, but Su Wuming believes that the local can't help but promote business and trade, because he started from a low-level official and is more familiar with the lives of ordinary people. In the end, the case was solved, and Lu Lingfeng supported the opening of the night ban. From this perspective, we have taken the changes and growth of character relationships a step further.
q: "Tang Wei" is a series, do you have any creative experience you can share?
Wei Fenghua: From a writing perspective and technically speaking, if you want to complete the first draft of a long play, I think the most important thing is to pay attention to the structure.
When a screenwriter wants to finish a story, the most important thing is to use changes in the relationship between the characters to promote the story. In specific writing, sometimes the story cannot be pushed forward, maybe because there is too much pursuit of perfection in a certain link. This path is wrong. Because the most important thing is to write the first draft first. After you have the basic structure, make adjustments. Moreover, characters are also included in the structure. It can be said that the structure is the characters.
The Tang Dynasty is a Mirror
q: There are both real historical figures and fictional imaginations in "Tang Wei". How does the screenwriter balance the two?
Wei Fenghua: I have said before that "Tang Wei" is a "second floor aesthetic". There are three floors of costume dramas. The first floor is a traditional costume drama, and the third floor is an imaginary fairy tale drama. "Tang Wei" is in The second floor between the two uses real history and social humanities as the soil, on which suspense, detective and adventure stories with oriental fantasy and Chinese weirdness are produced. It is actually like a kite. No matter how high the kite flies, the string is still tied to history and traditional culture.
q: "Tang Wei" is set in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. What will be the subsequent development direction of this story?
Wei Fenghua: The trend of is definitely upward. As long as the audience likes it, we will do our best to satisfy the audience. In fact, each work has its own characteristics. The characteristic of "Tang Wei Universe" is to show the two sides of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Just as Su Wuming said on the tower, the gorgeous Tang Dynasty is like a mirror, with singing and dancing on the other side. On the other side, there are strange shadows. We put these two together to not only display China's traditional history and culture, but also have a certain degree of appreciation.
q: How much room is there for adaptations of Tang Legend and Tang Zhiguai?
Wei Fenghua: is just a drop in the bucket now. When we talk about the Tang Dynasty, we think it was a dynasty of poetry. The legends of the Tang Dynasty and the legends of the Tang Dynasty may have been overshadowed by Tang poetry. It is too broad and profound, and it is also an important part of Chinese classical literature. We are now "salvaging" it again. Come out and hope to inherit the excellent traditional culture.
"Letter from Shangxianfang" unit
q: How do you think the spirit of the prosperous Tang Dynasty can be summarized?
Wei Fenghua: Poetry and swords, or poetry and horizontal swords, are the spirit of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Our great literary tradition began in the era of the Book of Songs and the era of Qu Yuan, until the prosperous Tang Dynasty, which gave birth to the greatest poetry and the greatest poet; but at this time, our nation also had a martial spirit, and Hengdao was the embodiment of the martial spirit of the Tang Dynasty. The best representative. For any nation to develop, both civil and military forces are indispensable. People like Su Wuming and Lu Lingfeng are both civil and military, forming a closed loop.
q: As a costume suspense series, what are the core themes of "Tanggui" that are closer to the present?
Wei Fenghua: Let me give you an example. At the end of "The Death of Wu Zuo", Dugu Yang wrote the "Book of Release of Wife" to Chun Tiao. It refers to the Dunhuang suicide note, which actually existed in the Tang Dynasty. It is called "The Book of Release of Wife". "Book" but is actually a love letter. Nowadays, many young people always say that one person is great, and we don’t need love or anything, but I think love in any era is great and has the power to transcend ancient and modern times. Once you meet that person, you must cherish it.
