The second IP creation craze needs to calmly think about film and television adaptation without losing the "soul" of the original work

the adaptation of movies and TV series from literary works is not a new topic, but now the strong momentum of IP dramas makes us have to re-examine this issue.

original title: don't lose the soul of the original work in film and television adaptation

in the upsurge of IP, creators need to further calmly think about how to complete the preservation and innovation of the original content and aesthetic meaning in the second creation and new media expression.

the adaptation of movies and TV series from literary works is not a new topic, but now the strong momentum of IP shows makes us have to re-examine this issue. Recently, several TV dramas with high popularity, such as "my first half of Life", "Legend of Chu Qiao", and earlier "Ode to Joy 2", "late Night Canteen" and "Bai Luyuan" have all come from the adaptation of IP. Although word-of-mouth is good and bad, it is an indisputable fact that IP plays far exceed the original dramas in terms of quantity and attention. In the IP craze, we need to further calmly think about how to complete the retention and innovation of the original content and aesthetic meaning in the secondary creation and new media expression.

film theorist George Bruston points out in his book from novel to Film: "language has its own rules, and the characters in literary works are inseparable from the language that makes up these characters. Therefore, the embodiment of these characters in appearance is often unsatisfactory. There is a difference between the characters that appear in our minds through the curtain of language and those that unfold in front of us through visual images. " There are a thousand Hamlets for a thousand readers. From the perspective of reception aesthetics, the literary text itself is a "summoning structure". In the process of reading, readers put their own unique life feelings and life experience into it, filling the gaps in the works. The image means seem to complete this filling for us completely or incompletely, so it is impossible for the image in the play to be consistent with every reader's understanding of the original literary image. at the same time, film and television works are often difficult to fully show the complex details and multiple connotations of the novel, so it must be difficult to be completely "faithful" from these two levels. However, since it is an adaptation, we should have the most basic respect for the original work. The background can be changed and the character setting can be changed, but we should not give up the core spirit to be expressed in the original work. If even this point of "soul" has changed, I am afraid such an adaptation will always be a thankless thing.

the late Night Canteen, adapted from Japanese comics, has been criticized for its rigid copying in an uncultural context. The core of the Japanese version of "late Night Canteen" is that it is full of real quality of life, ordinary cuisine is intertwined with stories of all kinds of guests, food and people form some kind of echo, sometimes warm and sometimes sad, depicting a variety of pictures of real life in Japan, while permeated with simple but scarce human feelings. The adapted version of the Chinese version has forgotten that emotional connection is the soul of the original work. Full of Japanese style and deliberate sensation, it breeds a kind of "literary and artistic sentiment" that does not know what to say, making people at a loss as to what to do.

of course, there is no shortage of high-quality adapted works on the screen." Bai Lu Yuan "is an example, which pays attention to excavating the multifaceted and three-dimensional character of the characters in the original work on the basis of respecting the original work, and some subtle adjustments enhance the dramatic tension of the film and television works. For example, when shaping the role of Tian Xiaoe, she weakens her amorous side and deliberately adds more distressing sadness. What she craves is not the catharsis of desire but real understanding and love. A drama of Tian Xiaoe and Bai Ling spending the night in a cave creates a commonality between two very different young women who are eager to escape from the world bound by etiquette. Creative rewriting coordinated with image means on the basis of grasping the theme core and style implication of the novel can not only help the audience understand the original work better, but also enrich the novel text itself. In addition, we should also see that the successful model of "Big IP+ flow Star" may not be as effective as it used to be, and fine polishing from screenplay and acting to post-production is the real magic weapon.

as two completely different artistic media, words and images have their own strengths. Excellent literary works can become the source of inspiration for film and television dramas, and good adaptation of film and television works will promote the spread and acceptance of literary works. if the film and television adaptation even lost the "soul" in the original work and hung empty the fame of the original work or the author of the original work, it would be better to take off the shackles and make a difference in the original world.

Edit: mary