“Chong Zi” tells the story of Chong Zi, a girl who is pure and kind by nature but born with evil spirits, destined to be an evil spirit, and Luo Yinfan, the Venerable Chong Hua, who reincarnates in three generations, loves and abuses each other. The picture is stills.
■Reporter Wei Zhong
The Xianxia ancient puppet drama “Chongzi” has been broadcast for several days. It ranks first on the third-party data platform Maoyan’s popularity list on the entire network, and the market share of the main feature film on the Lighthouse’s entire network ranks third. Although the broadcast data is good, the word-of-mouth is not good. Low; and the word-of-mouth and performance of another “Starfall Congealed into Sugar”, which was broadcast almost at the same time, is not satisfactory. Judging from the audience’s feedback, the negative opinions on the high degree of homogeneity of Xianxia puppet dramas and lack of innovation and breakthrough are more prominent.
According to incomplete statistics, in the future there will be many ancient puppet dramas such as “Heart Protection”, “Walking with the Phoenix”, “Long Moon Ember”, “Fate”, “The Order of Thousand Years”, “Flower Rong”, “Covering the Sky”, “Praying for the Present” and so on. It is expected to meet with the audience one after another within the year. Similar routines, similar shapes, and the same “sweet” taste… How to stand out from a large number of homogeneous creations has become an urgent problem to be faced with this type of theme. Many experts and scholars put forward opinions from various aspects. Creators need a high-dimensional and grand vision in order to launch higher-quality fairy tale puppet dramas.
“Sugar” is still sweet, but the audience is a little tired
The outstanding actors, sweet and heart-wrenching love stories, exquisite and gorgeous costumes, magnificent fairyland and grand fighting scenes and other advantages have attracted quite a lot of audiences to enjoy the love stories of “fairies and men and women”. The Xianxia puppet show has a relatively stable audience, which has also prompted the film and television industry to launch a large number of such works. However, as the two works of the “Pioneer” of the Xianxia puppet show in 2023, the results are not good.
After going through hardships and dangers, she entered Nanhua to study art, but she was turned away because of the evil spirit diffused on her body, and was even injured… The girl Chongzi progressed from surprise, doubt, grievance, and anger, like a girl who met her. The kitten that blows its hair when it is in danger, baring its teeth and “roaring” but it will not make people feel dangerous. The barrage was full of anger for the heroine: “It’s not fair to be defined as good and evil if you haven’t done anything bad.” “Chong Zi” is adapted from Shu Ke’s novel of the same name. It tells the story of Chongzi, a girl who is pure and kind by nature but born with evil spirit, destined to be an evil spirit, and Luo Yinfan, the venerable Chonghua, who reincarnates in three generations, loves and abuses each other. Judging from the plots that have been aired, the rhythm is relatively fast. The main plot revolves around the joys and tribulations that Chong Zi encountered during his growth. The controversy is relatively high, but it provides the audience with a heroic, stubborn, unyielding, cute and kind-hearted heroine image. Judging from the comments in the comment area of the show, most “book fans” approve of her performance: “And in the book Chong Zi’s personality is different, but I can accept it.” Shu Ke, the author of the original novel “Chong Zi”, also expressed his satisfaction with the drama version of “Chong Zi” on his Weibo: “It feels pretty good, and overall it has exceeded I met my expectations, and I can see that the production is very sincere.”
Although the broadcast data of “Chong Zi” is good, the evaluation is not very good. There are endless criticisms around the actors, service, and plot clichés, forming a situation of “fans of the original work think it is good, and passers-by complain a lot”. Also as an IP adaptation, “Starfall Congeals into Sugar”, carrying the residual heat of the series’ popular previous work “Sweet Honey, Ashes Like Frost”, also performed mediocrely. This made many viewers lose confidence in the Xianxia puppet show: “I’m afraid there will never be a big hit show again.”
How to Avoid the Homogenization “Trap” of Xianxia Ancient Puppet Drama
“Chongzi” was compared with the previous popular “A Thousand Bone of Flowers”, and “Starfall Congealed into Sugar” was evaluated by some viewers as the fairy version of “Marrying the Right Man on the Wrong Sedan Chair”. In fact, “similarity” is not terrible However, countries with well-developed film and television industries often remake the same IP multiple times and still produce new ideas, which shows that in highly mature categories, only continuous improvement of quality is the key.
In the comment area of ”Cheavy Purple”, many viewers expressed disappointment with the presentation of the characters’ makeup, hair, and clothing scenes in the play. It is regrettable to see the audience say “plastic” and “cheap” in 2023 . In recent years, in the wave of “going overseas” of Chinese film and television, Xianxia puppet dramas have also occupied an important position, not only showing traditional Chinese costumes and other national style elements in front of overseas audiences, but also the setting of Chinese Xianxia mythology system, which is refreshing to overseas audiences . Shi Xiaoxi, a teacher at the School of Journalism and Communication of Nankai University, believes that China’s long history and civilization, vast aesthetics and cultural materials should be organically integrated into the drama, so as to bring more cultural and aesthetic impact to the audience in terms of plot drama and visual presentation. imaginative experience. This requires the creators to take the service, scene, and animation special effects of the work seriously, and strive to improve the quality so that the work can be better presented in front of audiences at home and abroad.
Since the Xianxia puppet show has assembled the three superficial settings of “idol drama”, “ancient” and “Xianxia”, which are out of reality, it is easy to make the audience lose empathy while being “fairy”. Some popular Xianxia dramas have consciously strengthened their links with real life. For example, the plot of asking the little fairy to take the rating test reminded the audience of college students to think of their “English grade test”, and related entries were also on the hot search . Yan Bin, deputy director of the Department of Radio and Television Director of Tianjin Normal University, believes that audiences in the past cared about the legend of the story, compared with the current audience, they care more about the “emotional value” conveyed in film and television works. Providing nourishment will make the story more dramatic.
In recent years, the more common trend of fairy tale puppet shows is that the content of “chivalry” is getting lower and lower, and there is rarely any so-called spirit of “the great chivalrous man, serving the country and the people”. Whether it is the identity setting of immortals or gods and demons, they just put on a gorgeous coat for “artificial sugar”. In response to this narrow emotion of “one’s own joy”, Xu Ying from the China Association of Literary and Art Critics believes that the spirit of “Xia” should be returned: the “Tao” of Xianxia dramas exists not only in the rebellious spirit of my fate, but also It exists in the responsibility of punishing evil and promoting good, and helping the world and the common people.
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责编：张晓荣 ]