China News Service, Guangzhou, May 29 (Reporter Cheng Jingwei) After a lapse of one year, the first domestic 4K panoramic sound Cantonese opera film "The Legend of the White Snake: Love" recently launched a new round of screenings.
"The Legend of the White Snake: Love" is directed by Zhang Xianfeng, the national first-class director Mo Fei is the screenwriter, the national first-class actor, the winner of the Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award and the Chinese Wenhua Performance Award Zeng Xiaomin and the national first-class actor Wen Ruqing starring, Wang Yanfei , Zhu Hongxing co-starring.
"The Legend of the White Snake: Love" is based on the folklore, photo courtesy of Zhujiang Film Group
"The Legend of the White Snake: Love" is based on "The Legend of the White Snake", one of the four major Chinese folklore. It is a creative transformation and innovative development of this well-known folklore, and actively creates the effect of "breaking the circle" and "crossing the border".
The plot of the film is closely linked to the word "love". Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian's sweet but not greasy husband and wife relationship, Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing's sisterly love, and even Fa Hai, monks, and Kunlun fairy children also shine with the light of humanity. , which broke the previous masked image of "unselfishness" and conveyed the theme connotation and cultural values of "true love is everywhere in the world", making it a new trend.
While innovating and integrating popular elements, the Cantonese opera film "The Legend of the White Snake" focuses on retaining the essence of opera, cutting out a large number of narrative paragraphs and retaining the parts with strong lyricism.
In terms of filming and production, the Cantonese opera film "The Legend of the White Snake: Love" focuses on the aesthetic expression that young people love to see and hear, and promotes the vivid integration and complementation of film technology and traditional art.
The film makes full use of modern film technology to innovate and present traditional opera, and the special effects shots that account for more than 90% of the film present an audio-visual feast for the audience: the white snake and green snake flying in the wind, the snow-capped Kunlun mountain top, and the romantic scene of flowers. ...The most exciting is the 6-minute "Water Over Gold Mountain", which is the culmination of the conflict in the film. The audience is like being there, and many fans commented: "It is comparable to Hollywood special effects."
In terms of clothing and modeling design and production, the film art team has drawn more than 600 storyboards and edited them several times, focusing on the artistic characteristics of Song Dynasty painting that are simple, subtle, charming, and blank.
On the basis of plain clothes, the clothes are specially dyed with the ancient method of "grass and trees". The patterns of the clothes are also hand-embroidered, and the headdress is made of filigree technology, so that the clothes and shapes of "The Legend of the White Snake" are both antique and in line with the contemporary young people's style. aesthetic.
"The Legend of the White Snake: Love" set the highest box office record for a Chinese opera film Photo courtesy of Pearl River Film Group
Many experts and scholars in the film industry praised that "The Legend of the White Snake: Love" opened the blockbuster era of opera films, attracting more young audiences to pay attention to traditional art, even those who do not understand Cantonese, are unique to the textured pictures and theatrical culture. The expressiveness is also praised.
Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Association, said that traditional opera art is high and low, and in the process of filming, the original "reproduction" is difficult to attract young people's attention, let alone carry the responsibility of its cultural heritage.
"The Legend of the White Snake: Love" is an artistic and technical filmic creation, which makes the classic opera "Old Tree" blossom into a new film of Lingnan opera, and also provides reference for the modernization and youthization of other types of opera art.
It is understood that "The Legend of the White Snake: Love" will be released nationwide on May 20, 2021, breaking the historical box office record of the opera film "Li Sanniang" in less than 20 days and becoming the box office champion of Chinese opera films in film history.
According to the Pearl River Film Group, as of May 9, 2022, the film has produced a box office of 23.006 million yuan, and the total number of theater viewers has exceeded 594,000.
At present, the inheritance and promotion of Lingnan culture by Cantonese films is gradually forming a wave of upsurge.
In addition to the Cantonese opera film "The Legend of the White Snake: Love", films with a strong Lingnan flavor such as "The Lion Boy" and the Chaoshan dialect film "Take You to My Mother" have also been frequently "updated" in recent years.
The Pearl River Film Group revealed that the group and Guangdong Cantonese Opera House have started preparations for the Cantonese opera film "Mrs. Qiao Guo", actively striving to form a "Cantonese opera film phenomenon".
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