text | Entertainment Xiansheng, author | Kaka, editor | Xiansheng Editorial Department
Every summer is the battlefield for costume dramas. This year, among the ancient puppets and immortals, a martial arts drama appeared - "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" 》. This drama was launched on Tencent Video on June 17, and the results on the site were acceptable. The popularity on the site exceeded 22,000 on the first day it was broadcast, and it exceeded 23,000 the next day. It ranked first on the list of martial arts dramas on the site.
's performance in "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" off-site is a bit miserable. Maoyan data shows that this drama has a cumulative effective broadcast of 161 million, ranking seventh in real-time broadcasting, and ranking 11th in real-time popularity. It is basically the goalkeeper of the daily list.
I must say something objectively here. The release schedule of "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" is not advantageous. In K-pop terms, it is "hitting a big deal." " Mo Yuyunjian " and " Rose Story " took away most of the audience's attention. Although iQiyi's "Fox Fairy Matchmaker: Moon Red Chapter" has been highly criticized, it is Yang Mi after all. and Gong Jun starring, the appeal is there.
finally waited for "Mo Yu Yun Jian" and "The Story of Rose" to finish airing, and then released "Yan Xin Ji" and " Hua Nian ". At the right time and place, "Jin Yong's Martial Arts Stories" lost its chance at the beginning. Of course, there are many comeback stories about overcoming headwinds in the drama market. "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" has been online for half a month but has not made much progress. In the final analysis, there is a problem with the content itself.
is not bragging, so let us calmly take a look at the quality of the so-called "subversive adaptation".
It's not "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", it's Jin Yong's universe
shooting a white deer in the snow, and the laughing book hero leaning on the blue mandarin duck.
Among the 14 martial arts novels written by Jin Yong, "The Condor Trilogy" is the most famous and has been adapted the most. "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" (hereinafter referred to as "Martial Arts World") chose "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" as the adaptation target. If you use three keywords to summarize its entire adaptation idea, it should be disassembly, acceleration and visual effects.
Let’s talk about disassembly first.
The story of "The Condor" is very familiar to everyone. Even if you have not experienced the era of martial arts craze among the people in the last century, you can generally know the outline of the story from discussions on social networking sites and online games. At least most people know "Guo Jing" and the name "Huang Rong".
Based on this public perception, "Martial Arts World" split "The Condor Shooting" into five units, with a total of sixty episodes. The story of the protagonist Guo Jing and Huang Rong is the main course, accounting for 30 episodes. The remaining four units are: "Eastern Evil and Western Poison" with Huang Yaoshi and Ouyang Feng as the protagonists, "Southern Emperor and Northern Beggar" by Master Yideng and Hong Qigong, and "Nine Yins", a story about the Peach Blossom Island group portraits. "True Classic" and "Huashan Sword Theory" written by "Five Jue". The first three unit dramas are all 8 episodes, and "Huashan Sword" is shorter, with 6 episodes.
I am used to seeing the shooting techniques based on the linear narrative of the original work. This kind of dismantling and adaptation idea is really eye-catching. It feels a bit like the Marvel universe, and important characters have their own independent chapters. Moreover, whether it is the original novel or the TV series, "Wu Jue" has basically appeared as a great master. Wang Chongyang has never even appeared in front of the scene. He always lives in the memories of others. I believe that most readers will be curious about the story of "Wu Jue" when he was young.
In "Nine Yin Manual" Chen Duling plays Huang Yaoshi's wife Feng Heng
But this is also a test of the screenwriter's skill, because this part of the content is original, and Jin Yong often passes by the past of "Five Jue", without An object that can be used as a reference, if not written well, the character will collapse.
Strictly speaking, "Jin Yong Universe" is not the first creation of "Martial Arts World". As early as 1983, after the TVB version of "The Condor" was broadcast, the writers of Jade Channel worked hard to write four spin-off dramas, namely "The Southern Emperor and the Northern Beggar", "Ashes of Time", "Nine Yin Manual" and "Zhongyin Sutra". "Supernatural King Chongyang".
What a coincidence, even the names are the same. But obviously TVB's adaptation of the drama is not as exciting as the original work. After a few rounds of broadcasts, there was no movement. Even many viewers didn't know that someone was already working on a Jin Yong drama 30 years ago.
let’s talk about acceleration.
This is the adaptation with the fastest plot progression. In the sixth chapter of the original work, Guo Jing broke into the practice of Chen Mei and his wife, and accidentally killed Chen Xuanfeng. The Seven Monsters of Jiangnan accepted Guo Jing as his disciple; in the seventh chapter, Mu Nianci met Yang Kang for the first time in a martial arts competition. This was only mentioned in the 10th episode of the 83 version. The 94 version used 6 episodes, the 03 version used 9 episodes, and the 17 version used 7 episodes. This version of "Martial Arts World" only used one episode. The audience said "Guo Jing" "You grow up in three minutes" is really not an exaggeration.
What’s interesting is that although the plot is progressing at a crazy pace, there are still famous scenes that should be there: Guo Jing and Huang Rong’s first encounter, Huang Rong’s ordering dishes and Guo Jing’s surprise, Mu Nianci competing in martial arts to recruit relatives and meeting Yang Kang, etc., and these famous scenes are not from the same area. However, the space given is not short.
This resulted in the disappearance of many side plots and characters. The scenes of Hua Zheng and Temujin could not begin until Jingrong returned to the grassland. The bet between the Seven Monsters of Jiangnan and Qiu Chuji to recruit disciples was also deleted.
Finally, there are the visual effects.
The casting of this version is very subversive. In the previous version, Mei Chaofeng's image was mainly ruthless. The tragedy of Sister Mei's life basically relied on actors to interpret the miserable wind and rain under the ruthlessness. In this edition, the idiot beauty Meng Ziyi was cast as Mei Chaofeng. Now the promotion point of this drama is also based on the main rhetoric of "the most beautiful Mei Chaofeng".
What can I say? The visual effects are very good, Meng Ziyi is beautiful enough, and the blind scene is a beautiful still. However, she doesn't look like the lonely and surly Senior Sister Mei. This version of
also emphasizes fighting scenes. Wu Zhi from the " Iron Blooded Heart " unit once revealed to the media that they designed hundreds of fighting scenes to make the audience feel the charm of "martial arts". It can be seen that the dazzling fight scenes are also an important promotion point of this drama. Amway collections such as "Fight Scene Collection" have appeared on short video platforms.
is not as good as expected, who takes the blame?
A very cruel fact is that although the adaptation of "Martial Arts World" has some unsatisfactory aspects, it is definitely not a bad drama. After all, really bad dramas are often discussed at a high level. The audience will follow the drama and criticize it at the same time, but they want to see what is outrageous about it. "Martial Arts World" has not even been criticized by many people. From the beginning, the market response has been light.
For example, I believe many people have come across the discussion of "The most beautiful Mei Chaofeng". Sister Meng's popularity among the public It's also very good, but no one will go see it. Why?
As mentioned above, the audience is very familiar with Jin Yong's dramas. For purely visual things like "The Most Beautiful Mei Chaofeng" or "Wonderful Fighting Scenes", the audience does not need to watch the drama at all, just look at the stills or cuts.
From the general idea of the entire adaptation, it is not difficult to find that the main audience targeted by the drama is the Z generation. Especially the narrative rhythm seems to be "similar to short dramas", and many plots are suitable for short video platforms. Form into slices and spread.
It is a market trend to turn long dramas into short dramas. "In the Clouds" is also a typical example of using short drama ideas to narrate long dramas. But the difference is that the story of "In the Clouds" is relatively simple, it is Xue Fangfei's revenge, while the original work of "The Condor" is magnificent. The core is not only Jing Rong's love, but also the discussion of national identity and cross-ethnic friendship. etc. Once these things are ignored and only the small part of love is highlighted, then what is the meaning of the word "xia" in "martial arts"?
More importantly, Generation Z, who were born online, have not experienced the heyday of martial arts novels. The involuntary world is too far away from them, or they lack the sense of "it's related to me".
Some people may say that Yishu IP is also an active writer in the last century, so why can Yishu IP be recognized by Generation Z? Because Yi Shu's story is set in modern society, there is a strong correlation between Hong Kong in the last century and Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen today. What's more, Yi Shu's drama also has a "New Middle Class Life Illustration" as a starting point.
Audiences watch Yishu dramas to learn how to dress, advance in the workplace, and learn about the relationship between men and women. Jin Yong's drama, at least judging from the current adaptation ideas, cannot bring these experiences to the audience.
Of course, there are many problems with the details of "Martial Arts World", and it is these problems that make those viewers who were born between 1970 and 1995 who have feelings for Jin Yong's IP and will come to watch any Jin Yong drama "angry".
When I was reading martial arts novels as a child, I always thought, "If I could be in the story, I would definitely let them do whatever they want." And "Martial Arts World" always has the feeling of "making up for the photographer's own childhood regrets." Many of the blank spaces in the original work were directly filled in, leaving no room for the audience's imagination.
For example, Ouyang Feng is actually Ouyang Ke's biological son. This fact is passed over in passing. Jin Yong never said why he fell in love with his sister-in-law and gave birth to a son when he was young, leaving it to the readers to decide for themselves. Ouyang Ke has never asked "uncle" about his life experience, but "Martial Arts World" simply pierced this layer of paper and let Ouyang Ke ask it himself.
Martial arts are like Chinese paintings, with a subtle charm. It is this kind of treatment that makes people feel the weight of the words "people are in the world, they can't help themselves", which pierces this layer of paper. , the charm is gone.
This is also the most worrying point about the four original units at the back. Ni Kuang evaluated Ouyang Feng as a "high-ranking person" at the time. If he was written as being trapped in love and then going crazy, it would change from "high-ranking" to "vulgar".
Jin Yong IP, it’s time to take a break
Jin Yong dramas have shown a downward trend in recent years. I won’t go into details about the declining ratings of
. Childhood filters will always lead to the situation where “new people are not as good as old people”. The number of people following dramas is also getting smaller and smaller. In the past, when there was news about the preparation of "Jin Yong drama", the audience would pay attention all the way from the casting and criticize all aspects. But now with "Martial Arts World", many people are waiting until the drama is released. Only after watching the show did I know who played the characters in the book.
is not just a drama adaptation, Jin Yong IP has never been able to compete in the game industry. This year, NetEase Games' new game "The Condor" was launched, with overwhelming publicity in advance. It was obvious that they wanted to replicate the success of last year's "Backwater Cold Mobile Game". As a result, this family still has to rely on "King Han".
It’s interesting to say that the Waterloo of the “Condor Shooting” mobile game is somewhat similar to the failure of “Martial Arts World”. NetEase Games obviously hopes to attract young players with this game, so from the design to the early promotion, they are leaning in the direction of two-dimensional and infantile. The result is that the big brothers and sisters who love mmo and the two-dimensional players are not the same. None of them are willing to pay the bill. Sugar cane is not as sweet at both ends. I hope all creators will keep this in mind.
Judging from the development of the times, each generation has its own IP. Among the four great masters of "Jin, Gu, Liang and Wen", why is Jin Yong ranked first? Because his works are very contemporary.
First, his martial arts is not just a world of pleasure and hatred, but also contains many metaphors for reality. This point of is most obvious in " Xiaoao Jianghu ", which is easy for people to resonate with.
Moreover, the time when Jin Yong’s martial arts novels became popular in mainland China happened to be an era of change, and there were many stories of little shrimps becoming rich. This is also consistent with the unknown boy in the novel who grows up to be a generation of heroes.
Secondly, unlike the other three masters, Jin Yong's novels have a strong sense of drama.
For example, in "The Condor", Huang Rong was injured, and she and Guo Jing hid in a secret room to heal their injuries. They used the holes in the wall to spy on the outside world. Characters such as Ouyang Feng, Huang Laoxie, Mei Chaofeng, and the Seven Monsters of Jiangnan appeared one after another. This design has the feel of a stage play.
Therefore, compared with other masters, Jin Yong’s works are naturally suitable for adaptation. Many scenes do not require dramatic design and can be used directly. But now, changing for the sake of change and adjusting the already perfect design in the original work has become superfluous.
Based on these two points, Jin Yong’s IP was able to arouse strong emotional resonance among people at the time, and then became the best breeding ground for newcomers, so the gold content of the IP also continued to increase.
But times have changed, not to mention that the era of big water and big fish is gone forever. Now the mainstream audience of dramas cannot get what martial arts dramas want to express. They grew up in the era of online literature, and the narrative they are used to is the cool logic of "Three Lives, Three Worlds, All Around the World". Jin Yong's drama is obviously not cool enough. It is better than Jing Rong and his wife, and the final ending is to die in Xiangyang.
Some people may say that there was also a martial arts drama released during the summer last year, adapted from Teng Ping's "Lotus Tower". But Teng Ping is a writer born in the 1980s. Like Cang Yue and Xiao Li, he is a "new martial arts" writer. Most of their works have a strong sense of Japanese comics, which is completely different from the martial arts of the "Jin Gu Liang Wen" era. .
From the perspective of the adaptation idea, "Martial Arts World" has tried its best to make adjustments to fit the current audience's aesthetics, but the original work itself is like this. Unless drastic changes are made, the problem of enjoyment cannot be solved from the root.
can be changed, and it will no longer be Jin Yong.
Just like you will get tired of delicious food every day, IP also has its own life cycle. I hope creators who have grown up in the martial arts era can let go of your childhood complexes and let go of Jin Yong’s IP.
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