"Flower Thousand Bone", "Chu Qiao Biography", "Three Lives and Three Worlds" and "Scented Honey" are all from the hands of "Beijing" film and television people. The Beijing News interviewed practitioners to reveal the reasons.
Why did Hong Kong directors become the makers of popular costume dramas in mainland China?
After the millennium, costume dramas exploded, and diversified genres such as martial arts, fantasy, and fairy tales attracted generations of young audiences.
Looking at the explosive costume dramas in the past two decades, it is not difficult to find that most of them are directed by Hong Kong directors.
From "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", "Hua Qiangu", "The Legend of Chu Qiao" to "Three Lives, Three Worlds and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms"... Hong Kong directors have inherited the production experience of Hong Kong costume dramas, with unrestrained imagination, real and freehand play, delicate The touching emotional shaping has opened a new era of mainland costume dramas.
Why are Hong Kong directors the guarantee of popular costume dramas?
What's so special about them when it comes to filming?
The Beijing News reporter interviewed 6 Hong Kong TV directors to reveal the secrets of the shooting experience of costume dramas.
Hong Kong director opens up the costume drama market
In 2005, Hong Kong director Li Guoli served as the producer, and the costume fairy drama "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" directed by Hong Kong directors Wu Jinyuan, Liang Shengquan, Mai Guanzhi and others caused a sensation in the mainland and became the youth memory of a generation of young people.
Four years later, also supervised by Li Guoli and directed by Hong Kong directors Liang Shengquan, Lin Yufen and Huang Junwen, "The Legend of Sword and Fairy 3" was once again broadcast. Actors such as Tang Yan and Liu Shishi.
The success of the "Xianjian" series led by Hong Kong directors officially opened the prelude to the mainland's ancient costume fantasy and Xianxia dramas.
Statistics can also prove the importance of Hong Kong directors in the theme of mainland costumes.
Looking at the ancient costume works that have scored more than 8 points on Douban in recent years, or have received more than 200,000 evaluations, most of them were created by Hong Kong directors.
Among them, Li Guoli, as the production director of Tangren Film and Television, has launched many milestone and explosive costume dramas such as the "Legend of the Sword and the Fairy" series, "Amazing Heart", "The Strange Man Yizhimei" and so on.
Lin Yufen has successively filmed "Flower Thousand Bone", "Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossom" and "Chen Xiyuan", which established her label as "ace female director" in the costume fantasy market.
Zhu Ruibin won the recognition of many young audiences with "Sweet Honey as Frost" and "Long Song Xing"; Zhong Shujia set off a craze for costume idol dramas with "Lanling King" and "Choose the Day"; Liang Guoguan and Ma Huaqian have a tacit understanding "Old partner", the two have collaborated on hit works such as "Spiritual Realm", "Shushan War Chronicles" and "The Legend of the New White-haired Witch".
Jin Yong's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" were remade again, and Jiang Jiajun, a Hong Kong director with great experience, was also chosen for the film... If we say that in the early years, Hong Kong director "Going to the North" achieved the booming ancient costume fantasy and martial arts market in the mainland; Nowadays, the popularity of costume dramas has also made Hong Kong directors, making them synonymous with popular dramas in the mainland and have more room for development.
Avoiding cultural differences
Why can Hong Kong directors succeed in mainland costume dramas?
"Playing to your advantage" is the most important reason.
In 1999, under the recommendation of industry insiders, Liang Guoguan came to the mainland from Hong Kong to develop with a larger market.
Previously, Hong Kong audiences had few channels to see mainland film and television dramas.
"Later, I got the idea of going north, and I watched some (mainland works). The whole production concept, from the subject matter to the performance mode, is quite different from Hong Kong."
Hong Kong TV dramas follow the factory-style production method, which is fast-paced and highly commercialized; studio scenes and outdoor scenes are alternately shot, and a play can be completed in a few months.
At that time, the shooting speed in the Mainland was relatively slow, there were few commercial elements, the plot was more realistic, and there were more scene framing.
With a little understanding, the first TV drama Liang Guoguan chose after "going north" was the costume comedy "The Legend of Jigong".
"Because my Mandarin is not good, I have problems even listening to it, and I have never lived in the mainland. In the mainland, the styles of lines in the north and the south are different. How can I shoot modern dramas in the mainland?" In Liang Guoguan's opinion, costume dramas are relatively There is no strict reference standard, and the traditional culture of Hong Kong and the mainland is in the same line, and costume dramas can well avoid the cultural differences of Hong Kong directors.
"Coming to the mainland is still what I am good at. The market is so big, I should have a certain degree of competitiveness." Liang Guoguan considered this.
Unlike Liang Guoguan, Zhu Ruibin first came into contact with period dramas and fashion dramas after he came to the mainland to film.
It was only in the past ten years that he gradually switched to ancient costume works, and directed works such as "Qing Yun Zhi", "Sweet Honey as Ashes as Frost", "Long Song Xing" and "Acquaintance with Jun Chu".
But even if he has rich experience in fashion dramas, he has been in the mainland for more than 20 years. Zhu Ruibin still dares not shoot historical subjects, "because I don't think I can handle it yet, and I don't have such a deep cultural background to understand. The dialogue inside. There will be some ancient poems and prose. When I don’t quite understand it, I don’t dare to do it myself. On the contrary, ancient costumes, fantasy, idols, and youth, although they also have historical backgrounds, are not about history, but about feelings. So I can integrate with more wild ideas.”
Zhong Shujia also filmed a lot of costume dramas and fashion dramas, and the period drama "Geometry in a Good Time and a Beautiful Scenery" directed by him was also very popular.
In his opinion, Hong Kong directors should have no problem with urban fashion sense, but life dramas still need to really live in the environment of the mainland in order to feel the real breath of life.
On the contrary, themes such as costumes and the Republic of China are relatively less difficult.
The producers of costume dramas value Hong Kong directors not only because of their personal abilities, but also because they are more convenient to work with the Hong Kong team.
It is reported that many mainland costume dramas are now employing teams with "Hong Kong drama genes", especially martial arts instructors, photography, lighting, etc.
In 2017, the martial arts instructor of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" studied at TVB.
"Many martial arts instructors are from Hong Kong now, or they have worked in Hong Kong, or served as assistants under the Hong Kong martial arts instructors. They are independent in the mainland and have their own shooting styles, but their techniques are still in the same vein as Hong Kong's action design." Jiang Jiajun observed.
In 2022, the main creative lineup of the costume female suspense drama "The Hidden Mother" directed by Qi Qiyi will also be presented as a strong combination of Hong Kong and mainland film and television teams.
"Photography and lighting are all from Hong Kong. I hope to facilitate communication and meet the script requirements more directly and quickly." Qi Qiyi said.
Shooting "Martial Arts" is very thoughtful, taking into account the expression of action and artistic conception
Just as Hong Kong directors are unfamiliar with the mainland market, the mainland has little understanding of the resumes of Hong Kong directors.
Liang Guoguan has participated in the filming of "Bao Qingtian" and "I Have a Date with a Zombie" in Hong Kong and many other works of different themes, but the mainland's initial positioning of him is more limited to "Hong Kong director" - he must be very good at shooting costume dramas and martial arts dramas .
When he was appointed as the director of Group B of the ancient costume martial arts drama "Xiao Shiyi Lang", Liang Guoguan not only needed to shoot a lot of literary and fighting scenes, but was also asked to part-time "martial arts director", "I only left a few martial arts for me, Let me tell them how to fight, and then I will shoot again. There is really no way, so I bite the bullet and shoot." Liang Guoguan said with a smile.
Since the 1980s, "warrior in ancient costumes" has become synonymous with Hong Kong dramas in the hearts of mainland audiences.
"Huo Yuanjia" was the first Hong Kong drama to be introduced to the mainland, and then works such as "Eight Dragons", "The Condor Heroes" and "Eternal Dragon Slayer" continued to be popular in the mainland.
The unfamiliarity and groping of each other, which is hard to give up, makes it logical for a group of Hong Kong directors to enter the mainland costume market.
In Jiang Jiajun's view, the rich and systematic experience in costume dramas has given Hong Kong directors a strong sense of belief in the subject.
"Costume films are about rivers and lakes, a world of martial arts or fantasy. The director must have a very strong belief and believe in the existence of this world before you dare to use your imagination to realize it. Hong Kong directors have been shooting this aspect since they entered the industry. It's relatively easy.”
Taking the action scenes in ancient costumes that require the most imagination as an example, Hong Kong directors have their own set of shooting methods.
"We will refer to the movements of some animals, including the movements of the acrobatic troupe, to study some scenes such as flying in the play." Jiang Jiajun said that when filming "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", he set the martial arts design "use less special effects and realism." The principle of shooting real shooting", and strive to show the righteousness of chivalry with actions.
Like "Eighteen Palms of Subduing the Dragon" in the past dramas, most of them used light-sensing special effects to "draw" a dragon, but Jiang Jiajun asked the martial arts instructor to use some tangible objects on the scene to assist the release of skills, such as leaves in the woods. The appearance of forming a dragon truly embodies the internal strength described in Jin Yong's novels.
In the play, Qiu Chuji and Yang Tiexin's spear and sword confrontation, fighting from inside the shed to outside the house, successively using stools, cups of water, and snow to compete in internal strength.
Jiang Jiajun once revealed in an interview with the media that the actions of this scene are also derived from the real play of swords and guns, with some ethereal light work and ingenious use of weapons in the middle.
In Jiang Jiajun's view, when designing actions, you can't just "fight", but let the audience see something fresher that they can't imagine.
Ma Huaqian is used to leading some martial arts styles.
In one of the costume martial arts dramas he filmed, there are ten different characters called "Ten Evil Ghosts".
According to the characteristics of each character, Ma Huaqian has designed a completely different play style for them.
For example, in "The Hanged Ghost", Ma Huaqian made him step on a steel wire, which seemed to float in the air, and used the invisible steel wire as his weapon, reflecting his "killing" feature of being invisible.
The male protagonist in the play is a handsome boy, but he is actually very thoughtful, so Ma Huaqian discussed with the martial arts instructor that his tricks must look ruthless, brutal, and explosive.
"In the action scene of a martial arts drama, the opponent punches the opponent, and the protagonist is not blocked by light. After blocking the opponent, he will throw the opponent away with a very beautiful figure. For example, if one or two chopsticks fly over, they can fly into the chopstick tube. Inside..." Ma Huaqian said that the action style of costume dramas should not only be beautiful, but also have ideas; after the action, there should be artistic conception, expressing the spirit and integrity of martial arts.
This is also the advantage that Hong Kong directors have in understanding the meaning of ancient costume martial arts.
The combination of unrestrained thinking and tradition
In the TV series "Long Song Xing", there is a big wedding scene between Hao Du (played by Liu Yuning) and Li Leyan (played by Zhao Lusi).
One is a princess and the other is a minister. How should the wedding of these two be held?
Zhu Ruibin was very troubled by this.
He asked consultants such as etiquette and history about the ancient wedding culture, how men and women should walk in, what they need to cross, and how to worship.
In Zhu Ruibin's view, the advantage of Hong Kong directors is their unrestrained imagination and thinking, which can bring more diversified and creative treatment to costume dramas in terms of lens language and picture expression.
But this also stems from the lack of traditional culture of Hong Kong directors.
"When we were young, we didn't have the opportunity to understand Chinese history too deeply, it was very superficial. We all listened to ancient stories, imagined and told them in our own way based on what we heard. It's like the "Journey to the West" filmed in Hong Kong. "Wait."
Therefore, when shooting costume dramas in the Mainland, Zhu Ruibin often asks himself to "grasp with both hands", relying on the professional control of traditional culture by the Mainland team, combined with the imagination and lens language of Hong Kong directors.
Finally, in this 5-minute wedding scene, from dressing, dressing to walking and worshipping, every ceremonial detail was exquisitely displayed; the faintly visible red gauze in front of the camera, and the interlaced shots from far and near, rendered the grand scene. The romance and hazy of marriage.
"I try to put the new lens feel into traditional expressions."
Written by Zhang He, reporter of Beijing News