The “Knife in the Snow”, which was highly anticipated by book fans, audiences, and the market, was officially launched, but the results were not ideal.
The TV series “Swordsman in the Snow” produced by Xinli Media, a subsidiary of China Reading Group, is adapted from an aerial fantasy martial arts novel of the same name by the Internet writer “The Warlord of the Beacon Opera”. The IP itself has a broad fan base, and at the same time, it gathers the opinions of the screenwriter Wang Juan and men. Ruo Yun and other original crews of “Celebrating More Than Years” are regarded as this year’s “quasi-explosive” masterpieces.
However, after it was officially launched, “Snow Fighter” was complained by netizens in martial arts special effects and other aspects. Douban scored only 6.0 (now reduced to 5.9), which is lower than “Qing Yu Nian”, “Zuo Son”, and “Douluo Dalu” “A series of web-based adaptations.
Image source: Douban screenshot
The original crew of “Celebrating the New Year” is highly anticipated before the broadcast
On December 15, 2021, “Knife in the Snow” was broadcast simultaneously on CCTV TV drama channel and Tencent Video. Long before it was officially aired, this TV series with a “final” meaning had already attracted the attention of many people.
As soon as the golden sign of “Wang Juan + Zhang Ruoyun” came out, it was hard not to think of the phenomenon-level hit TV series “Celebrating More Than Years” two years ago. In fact, there are many similarities between the two.
The two TV series “Celebrating More Than Years” and “The Fight with the Knife in the Snow” are both changed from online novels of the same name. They are both broadcast on a quarterly basis. They are both typical “big hero” stories, and both include martial arts, tactics, and tactics. For elements such as fantasy, the original Douban scores are all above 8 points, and even “The Snowy Swordsman” is slightly higher. In the “2018 Hurun Original Literary IP Value Ranking List”, “Knife in the Snow” ranked 9th, and “Celebrating Yu Nian” ranked 21st.
Photo source of the stills of “A Fighting Knife in the Snow”: Cat’s Eye Professional Edition
The TV series “Fighting Knives in the Snow” is directed by the gold medal screenwriter Wang Juan. Although the director Song Xiaofei has only directed one film of “The Sage of Love”, he has served as “Bullfighting” and “Taiyu of People’s Embarrassing Journey”. The photographer of many well-known films such as “The Great Master”, and has won the Golden Horse Award for Best Photography.
As for the cast, Zhang Ruoyun, who was shown brilliantly in “Celebrating More Than Years”, once again shoulders the heavy responsibility of the male protagonist. Li Chun, Liu Duanduan, and Yu Rongguang are also the “old faces” of “Celebrating More Than Years”. In addition, Hu Jun, Liu Peiqi, Shen Baoping, Du Yuming and other powerful old drama players joined, as well as Li Gengxi, Ding Xiaoying, Zhang Yishang, Mencius and other “post-00s” and “post-90s” actors played important roles, and played important roles in “Celebration.” The similar collocation of new and old actors and actresses in “The More Years” also makes it highly anticipated whether “Snow Fighter” can replicate the success of the former.
With the influence of IP itself and a deep fan base, coupled with the strong lineup that has the experience of “Celebrating Yu Nian”, the fire of “Knife in the Snow” seems to be a certainty.
Explosive IP adaptations are hard to shine
The “2020 Blue Book of Chinese Online Literature” released by the Chinese Writers Association shows that in 2020, the number of Chinese online literature users will reach 467 million, and the total number of works on the entire network will be about 28 million, which will drive the downstream cultural industry’s total output value to more than 1 trillion yuan. The continuous expansion of the market size provides an opportunity for IP adaptation. The report shows that in 2020, there will be about 140 film and television series adapted from online novels. Among the most popular online dramas, the proportion of online literature adaptation reaches 60%.
There is no shortage of high-quality and explosive styles under the craze of online literature adaptation, but there are also adaptations that are not ideal.
On December 22, 8 days after the official broadcast, Douban scored 6.0 for “Snow Fighter”, which was a big gap compared to “Qing Yu Nian” with a score of 7.9. In fact, whether it is literary IP film and television or film and television IP gamification, it is not easy to surpass the hits and become the IP adaptations of the new hits. How to maintain the original flavor of the original work to satisfy the old fans, and to attract passersby into the pit with distinctive highlights is a common problem that every IP has to face when adapting.
Photo source of the stills of “A Fighting Knife in the Snow”: Cat’s Eye Professional Edition
Since “Celebrating More Than Years” has already been in front of the jade, the high expectations of netizens for “Snowy Knife” may also be one of the reasons for the large gap.
The martial arts special effects of “Snow Fighting Knife” were also complained by the audience. The action scenes in the play use a large number of upgraded shots, which are neither aesthetic nor “master style”. For example, Nangong Pushang played by Zhang Tianai is a female heroine with good looks and martial arts in the book, but when it comes out in the first episode Netizens complained about “playing in slow motion like ppt”.
Although there are many slots, with the advancement of the plot, “Swordsman in the Snow” has gradually gained a lot of pertinent comments in terms of character setting, actors’ acting skills, and group portraits. Now that more than half of the episodes have been broadcast, it may be hopeless to surpass “Qing Yu Nian”, but it is also a well-deserved explosion in terms of traffic.
According to the data of Maoyan Professional Edition, as of December 23, “Knife in the Snow” has won the best TV series broadcast volume for 9 consecutive days, with a cumulative broadcast volume of 1.317 billion. Since its launch, the single-day broadcast volume has exceeded the level of the same period of “Qing Yu Nian”. .
Holding multiple IP sequels, hoping to create more “celebration for more than a year”
Whether it’s “Celebrating More Than Years” or “Snowing the Knife”, the same production company, Xinli Media, stands behind both. Xinli Media Group is a well-known online drama, TV drama, and film production and distribution company in China. The previous “Remaining Sins”, “White Deer Plain”, “My First Half Life” and “Kite” are all its dramas.
In October 2018, China Reading Group (00772.HK) acquired 100% of Xinli Media for 15.5 billion yuan, and the two parties reached a three-year gambling agreement. However, at that time, the capital of the film and television industry was cold, and Xinli Media did not complete the performance bet for two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019. Although “Qing Yu Nian” became popular on the Internet at the end of 2019, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, Xinli Media’s performance in the first half of 2020 still fell short of expectations. Reading accrued the impairment of goodwill and trademark rights related to the acquisition of Xinli Media As much as 4.41 billion yuan, it has become the main reason that drags down the losses of listed companies.
In October 2020, Cheng Wu, CEO of China Reading Group, said frankly in an interview with a reporter from “Daily Economic News” that China Reading and Xinli have not yet achieved true linkage and integration, and expressed that the large number of high-quality IPs of Reading has been transformed into a better one. More hope of “Celebrating more than one year”. “The first season of “Celebrating Yu Nian” was a success, and we hope to turn this few practical projects into batches, scale and long-term through systematic integration.”
Picture source of “Celebrating More Than Years”: Maoyan Professional Edition
From “Celebrating More Than Years” to “Zui Son-in-law”, “Douluo Dalu” and “Snowy Knife”, Xinli Media has accumulated experience in the film and television adaptation of literary IP, and has created a number of hits. In the future, the second season of “Celebrating More Than Years” and “Zui Son” has been put on the agenda, and the serialized drama series will further enlarge the value of IP.
In 2020, Xinli Media achieved a net profit of 407 million, exceeding the re-signed gambling agreement between the two parties. In the first half of 2021, Xinli Media is betting on the popular movie “Hello, Li Huanying” during the Spring Festival, and will produce the hit drama series “Zuo Son” and “Rebel”. The financial report shows that in the first half of 2020, Xinli Media has already achieved a net profit of 291 million yuan, which is only 9 million short of the 300 million yuan in the annual performance.
