It stands to reason that a well-known screenwriter and a well-known director should produce a masterpiece. However, based on the trailer and plot synopsis of the TV series "Going North", it seems that it completely deviates from the essence of Xu Zechen's original novel, especially the screenwriter Zhao Dongling, who has repaid the essence of the original novel. Zhao Dongling and Yao Xiaofeng joined forces and probably created a vulgar youth idol drama under the banner of a Mao Dun Literature Award-winning work.
Let’s first talk about the essence of Xu Zechen’s original work “Going North”.
The quality of this novel by Xu Zechen is another matter for me. I will write a special article in the near future to talk about it in the form of literary criticism. Today, we mainly talk about the essential points related to TV series, that is, things that cannot be discarded in the adaptation of TV series. In a word, the real essence of the novel "Going North" is that around 1901, an Italian hired several Chinese people to go north on a boat along the canal.
In the process of going north, the novel tells the customs, natural and cultural landscapes of the cities along the canal from a foreign perspective. The ship went all the way north. When it arrived in the north, something happened, and the foreigner was "knife". Along the way, treatment was delayed and misdiagnosed by the doctors. The cause of the disease was officially found only when we arrived at the border of Cangzhou, but there was no way to save him. Then, he quickly went north to Tianjin, where he looked for foreign doctors, hoping to save his life. However, there is no way to save the day.
Finally, the foreigner and his friends went from Tianjin to Tongzhou, the northernmost end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The foreigner died, and the friends divided the foreigner's property and dispersed. Many years later, these friends had already traveled westward, and their descendants were scattered in various places, and they had some connections because of the canal.
Therefore, the essence of Xu Zechen's novel "Going North" is that the foreigner and his friends went north along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in 1901, and then saw, felt and experienced many things along the Grand Canal. These people and things are the essence of this book. Any adaptation of the novel "Going North" that discards these essences is tampering and fabrication, and cannot be called the TV series "Going North".
Let’s talk about the TV series "Going North" adapted by Zhao Dongling.
The launch press release of the TV series "Going North" introduces the plot content of this TV series:
"Going North" tells a series of stories about a group of teenagers along the canal from acquaintance to companionship to separation and reunion. Contemporary youth identify with national culture and inherit the national spirit. "They" by the canal are just like "us" in real life. The younger generation is rapidly growing into the mainstay of all walks of life, giving back to their hometown and society with practical actions.
The plot synopsis of the TV series "Going North" on Douban is as follows:
The story tells the story of young people who grew up along the canal from Huajie Street to Beijing. They spent their innocent youth and experienced positive and difficult experiences. During the period when they went north to start a business, when glory or failure had become a thing of the past, they once again returned to the Flower Street by the canal to find their true selves and the meaning of life.
Sorry, neither the plot summary in the press release nor the synopsis in the Douban synopsis has anything to do with the novel "Going North". The content that appears in these plot synopses does not appear in the novel "Going North". In the novel "Going North", there is especially no so-called story of a group of young people going north to start a business. Obviously, this was "adapted" by screenwriter Zhao Dongling and director Yao Xiaofeng without authorization. This kind of adaptation is a departure from the essence of the original work.
In other words, if there is a story and characters that are not in the original work, why bother doing it under the banner of someone else’s Mao Dun Literary Award-winning work?
Then, the novel "Going North" is difficult to present in a TV series, but this is its real value.
In fact, whether it is the novel "Going North" or the TV series "Going North", they are all proposition compositions, both of which serve to present the beauty and long history of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. In order to complete this proposition composition, Xu Zechen has actually abandoned the story-telling nature of the novel to a certain extent, and instead adopted a large amount of prose content. The Italian foreigner and his friends went north, which was just an introduction to the real scene of the Grand Canal.
To film "Going North" as a TV series, the essence that should be presented is how the boat floated on a relatively real canal, and how things happened in the process of floating that fit the narrative era. Let me give you the simplest example. In the novel "Going North", there is a section where foreign ships pass through the canal locks. The lock administrator can add three points to the foreigners. This is actually "very canal", with real scenes of the canal, lock scenes, storytelling, characters and conflicts, etc.
However, taking pictures of these requires effort. At least, find a place with a lock. Many of our classic TV series have the courage to exert such hard work. Real-life shooting is a valuable asset left to us by the predecessors of Chinese TV dramas. As for real-life shooting, many current TV drama workers are unwilling to do so. But the TV series "Going North" cannot avoid this, because the original novel shows the scenery of the Grand Canal along the way. Without filming this way, the TV series would not be valid.
Therefore, the time has come to measure whether TV drama workers have a professional conscience and whether the TV series "Going North" has restored and filmed the essence of the novel "Going North". If restored, screenwriter Zhao Dongling and director Yao Xiaofeng can be regarded as models in the industry. If it is a coincidence and avoided, then the screenwriter, director and the TV series itself will become a joke in the industry and a typical setback in the development of Chinese TV series.
Finally, let’s talk about the ethical bottom line of serious literary adaptation, which is also the bottom line of professional conscience.
I don’t believe that screenwriter Zhao Dongling would adapt the serious literary work "Going North" into a youthful pain idol drama that has nothing to do with the novel. For example, if we adapt the novel "Journey to the West", it must be a story about four masters and apprentices retrieving sperm. It can't be a story about a domineering president falling in love with me without Tang Seng, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Seng. For another example, if we adapt " Dream of Red Mansions ", the last time it will be the love story between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, the waiter of Jiangzhu Xiancao Shenying, it can't be a police and criminal investigation story.
When we adapt Xu Zechen's "Going North", as long as we admit that this is an adaptation of Xu Zechen's original novel, there must be a story about the Italian foreigner and his friends taking a boat all the way north from the Grand Canal. Without this story, Just simply adapt "Journey to the West" into the story of Boss Ba, and "A Dream of Red Mansions" into Jia Baoyu's crime-solving drama. The latter goes beyond the ethical bottom line of serious literary adaptation, and of course, also goes beyond the bottom line of professional conscience of TV drama workers.
I believe that screenwriter Zhao Dongling and director Yao Xiaofeng will not be without this ethical bottom line and conscience bottom line. I believe that the TV series "Northbound" will not be without the true essence of the novel "Northbound".(Text/Ma Qingyun)
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