5 Mao prize works and 3 were filmed
After breaking the flow-only theory, serious literature is favored again
Recently, the "serious literary adaptation fever" has intensified.
Firstly directed by Li Lu, written by Wang Hailing, starring Lei Jiayin, Xin Baiqing, Xiao Song Jia, Yin Tao, adapted from Liang Xiaosheng’s work "Human World", which won the Mao Dun Literature Award, was announced; then Wang Meng's novel "This Side of the Scenery" was bought for copyright. It is in the stage of script creation.
Before that, Lu Yao's "Life", Mo Yan's "Full Breasts and Fat Buttocks", Yu Hua's "Wencheng", and Jin Yucheng's "Flowers" announced their adaptations.
Throughout the TV drama market over the years, it has always been filled with themes such as fantasy, palace fighting, tactics, sweet pets, etc., adapted from Internet IP.
Nowadays, with the remediation of the rice circle culture, the rejection of abnormal aesthetic trends, and the elimination of the flow-only theory, the serious literature that once occupied an important position in film and television adaptation seems to usher in a resurgence.
5 award-winning works
3 movies to be made
What serious literary works will be filmed?
The Red Star News reporter combed and found that, in addition to "Human World", which was just completed in August, Wang Meng's work "This Side of Landscape", which won the Mao Dun Literature Award at the age of 81, was also bought by Beijing Yiwei Culture for the film and television adaptation copyright, and is in the process of script creation.
Not long ago, Lu Yao's novel "Life" announced the casting information, and it is expected to start after the Spring Festival next year.
A few days ago, the TV series "Palm Eyes", adapted from the gold award work "Old Street" of the first "Lao She Literary Award", also officially announced the cast.
And Jin Yucheng's novel "Flowers", which won the Mao Dun Literature Award, was also directed by Wang Jiawei as the chief director and is currently being filmed.
Wang Jiawei + screenwriter Qin Wen + starring Hu Ge, this configuration has caused great attention before the show was broadcast.
In addition, such as Mo Yan's "Breasts and Fat Buttocks" and Yu Hua's "Wencheng" have also been adapted by iQiyi and Tencent respectively, but there is no specific development yet.
The launching ceremony of "Jia Mu in the South" adapted from Wang Xufeng's "Tea Man Trilogy" has also been held, claiming to have invested 250 million yuan.
Xu Zechen's "Northward" has also been filed with the State Administration of Radio and Television.
Alai, chairman of the Sichuan Provincial Writers Association and author of "Dust Settled", also said before that the film and television adaptation rights of "Dust Settled" have been signed and will be re-shot by the producer of "White Deer Plain".
The Red Star News reporter noticed that among the five works that won the 10th Mao Dun Literature Award, "Human World", "Northward" and "Protagonist" have already been adapted for film and television.
Shaanxi writer Chen Yan's award-winning work "Protagonist" sold its film and television rights many years ago.
Prior to this, the TV series "Zhuangtai" adapted from Chen Yan's novel was aired last year and received a high score of 8.2 on Douban.
Serious literary film and television
Once glorious
The film and television of serious literature has a long history.
As early as the 1970s, 1980s, and even 1950s, many works of the famous writer Lu Xun were adapted into movies. A series of classic movies such as "The True Story of Ah Q", "Xianglin's Wife" and "Blessing" are still fascinating today. Thoughtful.
From the 1980s to the early 1990s, Chinese film and television ushered in a craze for serious literary adaptation. The "Four Masterpieces" have been adapted successively, and they are all classics that cannot be surpassed by domestic dramas.
Lao She's "Four Generations Under One Roof", "Camel Xiangzi", and Qian Zhongshu's "Besieged City" are also excellent works of this period.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Zhang Yimou directed five films, including "Red Sorghum", "Judou", "Raise the Red Lantern", "Qiuju's Lawsuit" and "To Live", making him a world-renowned director.
Among them, "Judou" is adapted from Liu Heng's novel "Fuxi Fuxi", "The Red Lantern Raises High" is adapted from Su Tong's novel "Wife and Concubine Groups", "Autumn Judou" is adapted from Chen Yuanbin's novel "Ten Thousand Family Lawsuits", " "Living" is adapted from Yu Hua's novel of the same name, "Red Sorghum" is adapted from Mo Yan's novel of the same name, and Mo Yan is also a screenwriter.
After entering the 1990s and 2000s, the number of serious literary and film-making works gradually decreased. The most well-known ones are Ye Xin's "The Debt", Liang Xiaosheng's "Annual Rings", Mao Dun's "Midnight", and Liu Heng's works. "The Happy Life of Zhang Damin by Poor Mouth", "The Dust Settled" by Alai, "The Conspiracy" by the Mai Family, etc.
Over the years, film and television series adapted from serious literature have become rarer, only "Red Sorghum" starring Zhou Xun in 2014, "Ordinary World" directed by Mao Weining in 2015, and "White Deer Plain" broadcast in 2017.
From the perspective of word-of-mouth, the Douban scores of these three works reached an average of 8.5 points or more: "White Deer Plain" 8.8 points, "Ordinary World" 8.7 points, and "Red Sorghum" 8.4 points.
The Dilemma Faced by the Film and Television of Serious Literature
Dilemma one:
Has a reputation but not high ratings
Although there is a high reputation, the ratings of these three dramas are not high.
Although "Red Sorghum" has the two trump cards of Zhou Xun and Zheng Xiaolong, its average ratings are 1.5%, failing to enter the top ten ratings that year.
The other two TV series "White Deer Plain" and "Ordinary World" also encountered the same problem, and the ratings also failed to enter the top ten of the year.
"The Ordinary World" director Mao Weining recalled that he would not choose to shoot "Ordinary World" if it was just for ratings and making money.
"What the creators gain in this drama should not only be the ratings, but more importantly, the reputation and standard. As far as this masterpiece is concerned, it is remembered and talked about, this is its due destiny." Mao Weining told Red Star News reporter, he had been in contact with "The Ordinary World" as early as the 1980s, when he had just graduated from university. The book Sun Shaoping's belief in changing his destiny through struggle fits his situation at the time.
"Although the times are different, the works of everyone like Wang Meng and Lu Yao have become classics because they allow everyone at the moment to feel a power, especially like Lu Yao, who treats young people in this situation. Sympathy and motivation are the reasons why generations of young people like this work. This is the power of the classics, which will never go out of style."
Dilemma 2:
The preparation cycle is long and costly
Don't think that only fantasy dramas, martial arts dramas, and sci-fi dramas have large investments. TV dramas based on serious literature like "Ordinary World" are equally invested.
The total investment of "Ordinary World" is as high as 120 million, and the most "burning" place lies in the restoration of the original novel era style.
In northern Shaanxi, especially in the Yulin area, the producer almost reconstructed the scene in the play, rebuilt a section of railway, built a section of dam, and built a corner of the flooded city.
In terms of time, "The Ordinary World" has gone through seven years.
After China Television bought the copyright of "Ordinary World" in 2008, it began preparations in 2009.
It took seven years from preparation to literary creation, project approval, shooting team formation, and finalization.
According to Li Na, the chief producer of the play, the producer hired several screenwriters to adapt the original work. The literary work alone took more than five years. It was not until the addition of the chief screenwriter Wen Haojie that the script was finalized in 2012.
The filming time of this drama has reached 120 days.
For "White Deer Plain" broadcast in 2017, the producer signed an adaptation contract with the author Chen Zhongshi as early as 2001, but it was not approved until 10 years later, and Chen Zhongshi didn't even believe it at first.
From the copyright signing to the finalization in 2016, the whole process lasted 15 years.
The investment in the play is not small, with a total investment of 230 million.
The scenes and art of this play are also where the most money is spent.
According to reports, the art department had surveyed scenes and collected props nearly ten months in advance, and collected several carts of old farm tools and spinning wheels.
Even so, it will be rejected in actual shooting.
For example, Bai Jiaxuan's home was originally built in a shed, and it cost hundreds of thousands, but then everyone felt that the effect was not good and it was too cramped, so they were torn down. "There is nothing to do with distress."
There was a scene with Mr. Zhu's opponent. This scene contacted more than a dozen places in Huashan and Taibai Mountain. "We try our best to ask for real scenes, and old scenes cannot achieve that historical texture."
The finalized "Human World" was bought by the famous writer Liang Xiaosheng after more than a dozen communications with Beijing Yiwei Culture in 2018.
Wu Fengwei, founder of Yiwei Culture and producer of the TV series "Human World", told Red Star News that after buying the copyright, the biggest problem he faced was the formation of the production team. After many communications, he finally cooperated with Tencent Pictures in depth and invited The famous director Li Lu directed and the famous screenwriter Wang Hailing served as the screenwriter, and finally started in March 2021 and finished in August this year.
It is reported that the total investment in this drama exceeds that of "White Deer Plain", and it is almost one of the TV dramas with the largest investment volume of realism TV dramas in China in the past ten years.
Because the original novel focused on a certain northern provincial capital city in the late 1970s, to truly restore the historical scenes at that time, the cost of art, setting, etc. accounted for the bulk.
Dilemma three:
Worry about ratings, it’s hard to get investment
Compared with the film and television adaptation of literary forms such as online literature, the adaptation of serious literature is more difficult in terms of content, ideas, and shooting.
And because of concerns about ratings, these serious literature has discouraged investors for a long time.
Mao Weining recalled that for "Ordinary World", because of concerns about ratings, no investors were willing to make this masterpiece for more than two decades.
In addition, the adaptation of serious literature also faced many twists and turns in its production and broadcasting due to the deep ideological nature of the original novel and some content that did not conform to the presentation of film and television.
For example, "White Deer Plain", from the approval of the project to the completion of the shooting, which lasted 15 years.
After the filming was completed, the schedule was changed several times, and it was finally broadcast on April 16, 2017. Unexpectedly, the broadcast of one episode was urgently stopped, and it was re-broadcast after nearly a month of revision.
Although the film crew did not explain the reason for the suspension, judging from the previous publicity and the final broadcast, the original 85 episodes were finally cut into 77 episodes.
As early as 2019, iQiyi announced that it would start filming Mo Yan's "Breasts and Butts", which is one of Mo Yan's most valued novels.
The famous writer Wang Zengqi once commented that this is a serious, sincere, and symbolic work, which has a high generality of China's century-old history.
An insider told the Red Star News reporter that the content of this novel is too heavy, and there are a lot of detailed "sex" descriptions in the book. After the publication of this novel, readers' evaluation of this book will be polarized. These controversies have led to film and television. The adaptation is extremely difficult.
Three years have passed, and the filming of "Breasts and Butts" has not yet started.
Dilemma four:
Difficult to adapt
Yes, the film and television adaptation of serious literature must not only inherit the essence of mainstream literary classics, but also meet the needs of the current audience. It is indeed difficult for literary and marketability to be compatible.
Wang Meng once said that there are certain difficulties in the adaptation of "This Side of the Scenery". "In the process of writing, I am unwilling to arrange too many dramatic plots. It is more lyrical and thoughtful text descriptions, which will bring to the film and television. Difficulty".
Director Mao Weining also believes that there are three difficulties in adapting literary works:
The most difficult thing is to restore, because this is different from other works. The audience is very familiar with this work from the characters to the plot, and they have their own imagination. So does the restoration of the film and television meet the audience's imagination and recognition?
The second is to let the work have the current mind.
For example, "The Ordinary World", which is a literary work 30 years ago, how to unearth things that are integrated with themes recognized by young people today is the work of the creator;
Third, guide the aesthetics of young audiences.
The creator needs to use more expressions and languages suitable for young people to complete this work.
Wu Fengwei also believes that the authors of serious literary works are literary masters, and they attach great importance to adaptations, worrying that their works will be ruined after the filming and television, and worry about the disappearance of core values.
"For example, "The Scenery" is written by Teacher Wang Lifu. During this process, we communicated with Teacher Wang Meng many times. Teacher Wang Meng reviews every episode, and the adaptation pressure is indeed very high."
Wu Fengwei also told reporters that serious literary adaptation emphasizes quality, and creators must endure loneliness.
For example, in the creation of "Landscape Here", they and the screenwriter Wang Lifu have had more than 20 meetings after more than a year of running-in, and now they basically hold one seminar every week; but even if the adaptation is difficult, But this drama will never be filled with water, and will still go in the direction of a boutique drama, like "The World", continuing the lineup of top directors and powerful actors.
Serious literature returns
Is the need of the market
"The success of "The Ordinary World" actually marks the return of serious realism to film and television." Speaking of the current adaptation boom of serious literature, director Mao Weining said.
Over the years, the film and television industry has been calling for the return of realism.
At the 2016 Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Awards, only 20% of the shortlisted TV dramas reflected realistic themes.
In the 2017 Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Awards, Mao Weining, as the chairman of the jury, led the jury. In the face of the impetuous TV market, he insisted on selecting a batch of outstanding realist works such as "Chicken Feathers Flying to the Sky".
Starting in 2018, with the guidance of the competent authorities, realist themes have increased significantly. In the Magnolia Awards that year, realist themes accounted for more than half.
The ten TV dramas shortlisted for this year's Magnolia Awards are all realist works.
Many people in the industry admitted that the market's attention to realism has become one of the important reasons for the return of serious literature.
Wu Fengwei also told the Red Star News reporter that the return of serious literature is actually the market taking advantage of the trend.
After the savage growth of the film and television market, content with positive energy and positive value is needed, especially in the past blindly chasing traffic, and the market is turbulent. Under the rectification and guidance of the competent authorities, the audience and the market need these works that reflect the times and reflect the people.
"Now is a diversified society, but as practitioners in the industry, we must always consider what to deliver to today’s young people. Famous books like "White Deer Plain" and "Ordinary World", the value they convey is eternal, not just a certain The needs of this era."
Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter Qiu Junfeng