The sequel to Journey to the West: Eight factors that can't surpass the 86 th edition

Because of well-known reasons, the 86th edition of Journey to the West originally planned a script of 30 episodes due to financial problems. Director Yang Jie reluctantly gave up what she loved and deleted five episodes, such as Monkey King and Rescue of Children's City. After only 25 episodes, it ended hastily, leaving a lot of regrets. 1998, with sufficient funds and technical permission, Yang Jie restarted the filming task of The Journey to the West after applying to CCTV leaders, reporting and establishing the project. This is Yang Jie's wish for many years, an imperfect work of art, which does not conform to Yang Jie's character. On the basis of the original crew, after more than a year of shooting and post-production, it met the audience in the Spring Festival of 2000. Once it was broadcast, it once again triggered a ratings boom. This sequel is divided into 16 episodes, 1 1 stories. According to Yang Jie's original plan, after the new broadcast, 16 episode will be edited and added to 25 episodes of the 86th edition, making Journey to the West a 40-episode TV series with more coherent stories and plots. After the play was broadcast, although the ratings were high, some negative comments were overwhelming. For these questions, Director Yang Jie has long been psychologically prepared, and quoted the Monkey King's lines: "Heaven and earth are incomplete, beyond human power!"

In the TV series The Journey to the West, besides the four Tang Priests and apprentices, there are many colorful immortals and ghosts, which are very strict in character modeling and makeup, and the workload is also very heavy. At the beginning of the filming of the 86th edition of The Journey to the West, Yang Jie invited Wang Xizhong, a makeup artist from Beijing Film Studio (who plays Jinding Daxian). This teacher studied makeup technology in the former Soviet Union, but he is a well-known figure in Beijing Film Studio. After receiving this job, Wang Xizhong forgot to eat and sleep, studied hard, and made thousands of mythical figures with his rich experience in makeup technology and profound accumulation of classical culture for many years, all of which were lifelike. Especially when making the image of the Monkey King, it is also a few drafts. The audience can see that the first few episodes are different from the image of the Monkey King later. At that time, it was constantly improved during the filming process, including the mask of Zhu Bajie. Now it seems that the Monkey King's monkey face is very real and natural, although his hair is a little messy. The masks of other monsters are the same. It looks a little rough, but they are all different and have their own characteristics.

When shooting the sequel to The Journey to the West, Yang Jie invited Wang Xizhong to design makeup and character modeling, but in fact, most of this work was done by Yang Jie's daughter Yaya. When filming the 86th edition of Journey to the West, Yaya joined the group to learn makeup under the arrangement of Yang Jie. At that time, Ya Ya was still a little girl. She can only learn makeup under the guidance of teacher Wang Xizhong, and the specific work is also checked by Wang Xizhong himself. After more than ten years, Yaya has made great achievements in the art of makeup. Teacher Wang Xizhong is also old, and a lot of work is given to Yaya's makeup team, but many of the characters we see on the screen are far less vivid and real than the 86 version. Although the technology was limited when shooting the 86th edition, and it was a new thing, it was through those magical hands that Wang Xizhong created the characteristics of man, god and demon. However, the characters created by the Yaya team lack spirituality, have stiff faces and a strong sense of the times, but they have lost many simple and traditional things.

For a costume drama, the shape and color of clothes are very important. According to the different identities and personalities of the characters, the costume designers in the 86th edition of The Journey to the West have different shapes and colors, which are generally simple and retro. For example, the Monkey King's hat and clothes always appear alternately in yellow and blue. Tang Priest's clothes are all brown except the cassock and hat, which meets the color requirements of Buddhist robes. The black of Bajie and the green and purple of Friar Sand are obviously designed for the role. The costumes of some immortals are largely based on the materials provided by statues and murals in the history of China, which have the characteristics of traditional culture and conform to the image of the audience. The costumes of various monsters in the play are also designed according to the identity, image and status of the characters, which can highlight the character and destiny of the characters.

We turn to the sequel. Those colorful clothes are gorgeous and beautiful, with good texture and color. Whether it is the protagonist or the supporting role, whether it is the fairy or the ghost, they all put on new clothes. Even the four masters and apprentices who live in the wind and sleep, there seems to be no trace of hard work. In the late 1990s, the technology of cameras and televisions was updated, and the screen images were very high-definition, which made those clothes more beautiful and bright, and there was no 86 version of the ancient style.

The script for the sequel is still written by Dai, Zou Yiqing and Yang Jie. When I decided to cut five episodes, the script was already written. When making a sequel, you should directly provide the script of that year. However, in the sequel, these five stories feel that the plot is particularly protracted and the water injection is serious. Not only these five stories, but also some other stories from the original book were added to the sequel, which expanded the plot to 16 episode and creatively added many female characters, which puzzled many viewers. These characters that were not added according to the original works include Princess Peacock in the Lion Camel Bell, the daughter of Heishui River God, the couple who cut firewood in the mountains, the robber's wife in The Monkey King, and Mr. Kou's wife. With so many female characters added, there will naturally be more scenes. Moreover, these female characters either fall in love with Tang Priest, or are attracted by monsters, and even have a lover relationship. Even the father-daughter relationship between deer essence and goddaughter in the original work has been adapted into a lover relationship. This adaptation makes the story structure chaotic and the relationship between characters complicated, which is far from the classic of 86 edition.

Another problem is that in the sequel, many lines are wordy and not refined enough. In the dialogue between characters, there is a suspicion of deliberately delaying time, which is full of nonsense. The Monkey King even shouted "Stop that now, it's boring", and the plot progressed slowly, which also affected the characterization. Version 86, the story is compact, the lines are classic, humorous and easy to understand, and it is really an excellent work. Then why do the same three screenwriters turn the story upside down so fragmented after many years? Is it intentional, or is it forced by investors? Director Yang Jie and screenwriter Zou Yiqing have both passed away. I'm afraid no one has uncovered this doubt.

When it comes to acting, the audience is naturally most concerned about the Monkey King played by a six-year-old boy. In the 86th edition, six-year-old children vividly interpreted the Monkey King's intelligence, liveliness, love and righteousness, especially the various body movements of monkeys, and became an unsurpassed classic image. But in the sequel, the spinning monkey disappeared, lacking a lot of aura and becoming unhappy. Wearing fat clothes, I kept rubbing my sleeves, and my movements were very slow. Talk to Pig and Master from time to time. Where is the Monkey King, which just covered the sky? If the six-year-old boy was 40 years old and his movements were a little slow, then the most basic monkey show movements should not be much different from the old version. No wonder netizens said that the Monkey King looks more and more like a human being when commenting on the sequel. In fact, although the six-year-old boy was born in a family of monkey shows and his father was well-known in the national drama circle, filming TV was different from filming the stage, and all kinds of body movements and stages were different, which was a test for the young six-year-old boy at that time. We can see from some shooting tidbits of the 86th edition of Journey to the West that during the shooting process, six-year-old children, under the on-site guidance of the deputy director or the monkey drama expert, also learn while shooting and strive for perfection. Every movement is brainstorming, not a six-year-old child. More than ten years later, the six-year-old boy has become a famous monkey opera artist in China. When the sequel starts shooting, who dares to direct a monkey performer to play the Monkey King?

Besides the Monkey King, Xu Hechi, the actor of Tang Priest, is unwilling to give up this opportunity. Both of them were accepted by director Yang Jie. Because of their age, the two handsome Tang priests are gone, and the years have left traces on their faces and bodies. Hard as they tried, they couldn't pursue Tang Sanzang. To the audience's surprise, Pig Bajie and Friar Sand are played by Cui Jingfu and Liu Dagang, and they are also trying to imitate Ma Dehua and Huaili Yan, but the audience's preconceived impression cannot be changed and they are not satisfied with the shaping of these two roles. In addition, the actors in the roles of Tathagata and Guanyin are also difficult to restore their elegance because of their age. Longguang Zhu's Tathagata lacks the majesty of the 86th edition, and is more like a kind-hearted old man. Other fairy and magic performers have changed to new people, and their performance style is really not as classical and elegant as the actors who came down from the stage of national drama.

There are many action scenes in Journey to the West, especially in the Monkey King, where fighting monsters is indispensable. The 86th version of the martial arts design is Xia Bohua and Lin Zhiqian (playing Erlang God). In today's view, the 86 version of the martial arts design is not wonderful. After all, times are different, and we prefer to see those wonderful fights flying from sand to stone. In version 86, the martial arts design of two people in the play is still very novel. After all, the battle between gods and ghosts is different from that between people. When designing actions for the Monkey King, you have to consider that he is a monkey, and when designing actions for the black bear monster, you have to consider that he is a bear. The two of them fought, one clever and the other clumsy. This kind of fighting is very happy. However, the battle between Erlang God and the Monkey King is different. Diamond cut diamond's action design should reflect the strength of both sides, but also be wonderful and beautiful.

In the sequel, the martial arts design was changed to Cao Rong, and from the subtitle, there was Lin Zhiqian. In fact, the martial arts design style of the whole drama is obviously Cao Rong's style. Yang Jie may consider keeping pace with the times in action, which is in line with the tastes of contemporary people, but she completely deviates from the original intention of integrating the sequel into the first 25 episodes. How does a Hong Kong third-rate martial arts instructor integrate Hong Kong-style action scenes into China mythology classics? Many mainland audiences know Cao Rong, a Hong Kong actor who plays the Monkey King in The Journey to the West. He performs one action three times. Needless to say, no matter who plays the sequel, the action is fast and clean, that is, no one can hit it, either flying or rolling, followed by indiscriminate bombing, just like watching Dong Fangbubai. Isn't the action design in the 98 edition of Water Margin also from Hong Kong? Why is it beautiful? This is the difference between martial arts drama and divine drama. Whether it is a fairy or a monster, the battle between them often depends on mana and magic weapons. As for martial arts and weapons, they are just foil. If the Monkey King and the monster really took off their clothes and wrestled there, would everyone think it would be nice? To put it bluntly, the martial arts design in the sequel was a failure.

At that time, when the light came to 1998, the world's film special effects had emerged one after another. Hollywood's "Star Wars" and "Jurassic Park" attracted hundreds of millions of viewers, and the wonderful and realistic special effects were staggering. The Journey to the West sequel was born at this time. The audience thought that the special effects of The Journey to the West filmed by CCTV at this time would be refreshing, and they had great expectations before the broadcast. On the contrary, when the scene of the Monkey King walking around appeared in the opening remarks, the audience was extremely disappointed, which was not much different from the special effects of the 86 version. The spells cast by various immortals and monsters are not very bright compared with the old version, but they have made great progress when the characters change, and they can show the whole process of change without cutting a shot. In fact, this technology existed in some TV dramas in the early 1990s, and it was not the first of The Journey to the West's sequels. Seeing such special effects, I really miss the instant changes of the characters and the obvious traces of flowing water after the white smoke in the old version.

When it comes to the music of TV series The Journey to the West, we have to mention the impressive opening song "Yin Xun in the Cloud Palace" and 14 classic episode, which is attributed to composer Xu Jingqing and lyricist Yan Su. As for their contribution to the music of Journey to the West, everyone is familiar with it, so I just want to introduce them more. Classics will always stand up to the years and change with each passing day.

In the sequel, I don't know why Yang Jie chose Yao Ming instead of Xu Jingqing. Yao Ming is also a famous composer of lyrics in China. His works include "Talking about Singing Face" and "Qianmen Love Big Bowl of Tea", which have a high reputation in the music industry. However, compared with, Yao can't say who has deep and shallow artistic skills, different styles and different strengths. However, the audience's nostalgia for the old version and preconceived reasons make Yao Ming's songs in the sequel to Journey to the West hard to be accepted by the audience. In fact, the audience's understanding of "Tian Tong Avenue is Wide and Wide" and "Dare to Ask Where the Road is" is not at all the same level. Fortunately, the ending song retains the song "Dare to ask where the road is". If we continue to use Xu Jingqing to compose the sequel, will it become a classic again? There is no hypothesis about this question, and it is hard to say.

The TV series The Journey to the West is based on classic literature. China's first ghost novel belongs to chapter-by-chapter style. The 86th edition of Journey to the West is based on one story per episode, which can be coherent or independent. It is also called TV series, and each episode lasts about one hour. In the sequel, I don't know why, two episodes edit a complete story, which is equivalent to three episodes telling two stories, giving people a feeling of water injection. Many netizens are sarcastic. Otherwise, how could it be edited into 16 episodes?

It has been 20 years since the sequel of TV series The Journey to the West. Over the years, the debate about the sequel has never subsided, and different people have different opinions. As an enthusiastic audience who watched The Journey to the West grow up after 1970s, based on his love for classic literature and keen interest in film and television culture, he comprehensively and objectively analyzed the sequel and thought it was a play of dog tail and mink. If the production unit has a responsible attitude towards art, it should not be filmed at the beginning. Even with the original crew, sufficient funds and technological innovation, it is difficult to surpass the 86 edition, because the audience's love for the old edition is more of a feeling. No matter how gorgeous and cool the effect of your remake is, it cannot replace the position of the old edition in the eyes of the audience.