介绍:
Xiaohua: The remake of "The Return of the Condor Heroes" produced by well-known scriptwriter and TV producer Yu Zheng is broadcasted several days ago and it is strongly savaged by critics and savvy viewers across the nation.
12月3日，于正版的《神雕侠侣》在湖南卫视开播。此前这部剧未播先热，其雷人的台词、廉价的特效还有定妆照都遭到媒体以及网友一致的吐糟。
Why do people care so much?
Heyang: Because this is a huge classic that when you look at it has been remade at least twice every decade that shows how popular this book is, and also the whole franchise. Jinyong, he is, sort of like the modern Shakespeare in Chinese literature. (John:Really?)
Because he is that how big he is.
Xiaohua: In Wuxia xiaoshuo.
John: In terms of influence.
Xiaohua: In terms of influence. Certainly we are not talking about artistic achievements.
Heyang: Not really in literature skills and aesthetics that way. But it’s a huge deal and always creates a lot of controversy when people are not faithful to his original works. And I think that’s what’s happening here, as the heroine Xiao Longnv has been changed from an ice queen into a cute girl next door, just totally shakes our belief and what this character should be. That is something that we are not happy about.
John: I’m having absolutely no connections to this. I think this is just what happens with remakes, adaptations, and reinterpretations. And this happens more specifically in Hollywood these days where you take a book that is becoming very very popular and you adapt it into a movie. And of course those die-hard fans who have invested so much of their emotions, so much of their life into these characters and into the story. They go into the theater and see something that was quite not what their imagination gave to them originally, they are going to be disappointed.
Heyang: But here I think Yu Zheng has really gone down the path of …
John: Could it be just as said that everyone hates Yu Zheng?
Xiaohua: Could be. It really could be.
Heyang: That’s (because) he already ruined another piece of classic that Jin Yong wrote, the Sword’s Man笑傲江湖. He has already made that into something that anyone who read the books don’t recognize at all. And maybe he’s trying to make his work fit the taste of his core audience, which is probably those post 1990s, born after that year or the Millennium. But it just seems like he is not doing a really good job, and I think that’s something that’s annoying people a lot. Here I am talking about the really disgusting CGIs.
John: This is a problem with Chinese production in general perhaps. But when you look at reinterpretations, I think the aesthetics are going to change. The last time this was made was in 2006. There was a remake of this specific story. That’s 8 years ago, that’s quite a long time and especially in terms of China’s development, cultural and economic. So I think the aesthetics and the story telling style have probably changed enough, for at least people to give this chance, maybe.
Heyang: Actually I don’t think people’s aesthetics has changed that much. Just he is doing a bad job because the remake in 2006 starring Liu Yifei as the main heroine, it actually received quite a lot of applauses. And this one, oh man, I looked at people’s messages after viewing it online, I couldn’t see one good praise.
Xiaohua: But sometimes I think people are being picky. Because you remember all those previous remakes, when they first appeared, there were a lot of criticisms as well. There were criticisms about Liu Yifei’s face is being too round, although this time the heroine’s face is rounder than hers.
John: But she has a sharp chain, right?
Heyang: No, she does not.
Xiaohua: Yeah the current one doesn’t, but Liu Yifei did. So she was a better looking person.
John: I just think it’s always interesting because a lot of the comments whenever we deal a topic like this were like, why can’t Chinese people be more creative? Why can’t we have new original movies? Look at Hollywood, the past two years, how many times are we gonna see another fairy tale remake? We have (Xiaohua: the mirror mirror) yeah, also different ones like Sleeping Beauty, we have one, we have Snow White, there’s one. There are so many different remakes so you have to wonder if it is not just China but in terms of these very very well-funded big projects hasn’t that much creativity because creativity is risky.
Xiaohua: Yeah I think so. Also I wonder why Chinese people are specifically not fond of changing the original plot a little bit because all those remakes that you talked about fairy tales and stuff, and Spider Man, they were way different from their originals. But you don’t see people complaining. Maybe people do complain, you know in the west as well.
John: It’s different. I think it’s a topic for different discussion.
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