text | Linghu Boguang
Recently, the martial arts drama " Who Are the Heroes " adapted from Wen Rui'an 's original work was launched. Martial arts can be said to be a unique cultural type in China. When it comes to martial arts, besides Wen Ruian, Jin Yong is a writer who cannot be avoided, and among Jin Yong's martial arts works, this late " Swordsman of the World " is definitely the work of his peak period.
There are also a large number of film and television dramas adapted from "The Swordsman", if you don't count the two versions of Tsui Hark . As for this TV series, the most popular ones are still the 1996 Lu Songxian version of "The Swordsman" and the 2001 Li Yapeng version of "The Swordsman".
Which version of "Swordsman" is better? Netizens have been having too many debates about them. Just like the male protagonist Linghu Chong in these two dramas, which one is better, Li Yapeng's version or Lu Songxian's version? Is
cool or depressed? What kind of person is Linghu Chong in "The Swordsman"
Since both works are adapted from Jin Yong's novels, let's start from the perspective of the original work. In fact, the vast majority of people have never read the original work. Many people have only one impression of Linghu Chong, the leading actor in "The Swordsman": chic.
But here comes the question, is Linghu Chong in the original work really handsome?
's answer is not cool. On the contrary, the protagonist is very depressed. Even if the audience has not read the original work, if you think about it carefully, Linghu Chong in the beginning of the plot of is a cheerful and optimistic middle school boy. By chance, he is suddenly pushed to the center of the whirlpool of power and is exploited in various ways.
In terms of martial arts and life experiences alone, he practiced "Dugu Nine Swords". However, due to Feng Qingyang , it cannot be said that his swordsmanship suddenly became stronger, which made everyone misunderstand that he had mastered "Evil Swordsmanship". 》. And because of the injury and the relationship between Peach Valley Six Immortals , Linghu Chong didn't have any internal strength. Although his swordsmanship was superb, this man was always sickly until the middle stage.
was misunderstood by the junior sister, used by the master, constantly humiliated, and then was helped by people from the demon sect because of the holy aunt .
But the more the holy aunt and people in the demon sect helped him, the more he was misunderstood and humiliated by his junior sister, master, master and righteous people. After all, Linghu Chong was the great disciple of the Huashan Sect, and he was a great disciple of the famous and upright sect. There may be some wildness in my heart, but I have accepted this concept since I was a child. The entire work of
is until the appearance of Ren Yingying , or to be precise, until the entire life dilemma caused by the lack of internal strength in the middle and later stages. Linghu Chong was extremely struggling and hesitant in the complicated world. After struggling to understand the dangers of the human heart and the temptation of power, he was still able to not be fettered by power.
This is the so-called "Swordsman", and this kind of smile is not limited to Linghu Chong and Ren Yingying. Qu Yang , Liu Zhengfeng , Feng Qingyang, these hermits who broke through the shackles of power, are also "smiling proudly".
Jin Yong’s martial arts novels, especially long-form martial arts novels, actually have a process in terms of theme alone. This "Desert Trilogy" fully explains the relationship between the three main cultures of China: "Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism". The protagonist's goal even has this code name.
The male protagonist of "The Condor" Guo Jing is a Confucian knight, the male protagonist Yang Guo of "The Condor" is a Taoist knight, and the male protagonist of "Yitian" Zhang Wuji can be regarded as a "Buddhist knight". "Tianlong", "Swordsman" and "The Deer and the Cauldron" were written after "The Desert Trilogy". Jin Yong's writing techniques and his thoughts on martial arts and Chinese culture have become more profound.
The three main protagonists "Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism" in "Tianlong" are each entangled. Duan Yu and Xu Zhu both came from Buddhist backgrounds, but in the end they learned Taoism the supreme cultivation method of immortality; only Qiao Feng Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism have all encountered it, and combined with their life experience, they have formed a huge tragedy.
"The Swordsman" is about hermits in traditional Chinese culture. They all have life ideals like Tao Yuanming 's "The Peach Blossom Spring" , but they end up involved in rivers and lakes disputes that are metaphors for political struggles. The male protagonist Linghu Chong is a hermit who struggled extremely, and finally achieved his goal through hardships.
The character of Linghu Chong has the arc of a hermit. He has a growth process and is extremely artistic.
26 years have passed, is Lu Songxian the best Linghu Chong? I don't think so.
Jin Yong's portrayal of Linghu Chong in the original work is indeed like this. tvb in the 1990s was very experienced in filming Jin Yong dramas. Moreover, the directors, screenwriters, martial arts designers, and actors' acting skills were all very mature at that time. He can create characters that the audience likes and wants, but the character creation may not be in line with the original work, but more in line with the market.
For example, Huang Rihua 's Qiao Feng in "天龙八部", the audience likes it very much, right? It is still the most classic screen image of Qiao Feng. But the screenwriter took away the ruthless, wolfish and berserker side of Qiao Feng in the original work, and turned him into an image of a hero who is benevolent, tragic and intolerant.
Huang Rihua’s version of Qiao Feng is very classic, but some fans of the original novel complained that this was the middle-aged version of Guo Jing.
Lu Songxian's adaptation of Linghu Chong is almost the same. tvb was afraid that the audience would not be able to appreciate it, so they directly changed it into a naturally optimistic and unrestrained character, with strong martial arts, status and girls, which defined "laughing" Proud of all corners of the country." Lu Songxian's portrayal is indeed such an image. But this image is very different from the image in the original work, in which he looked down on power and retired to seclusion in relief after experiencing a struggle.
If you have read the original work and just thought about Linghu Chong's portrayal, then the Lu version is just a superficial image of a handsome young man, but the rivers and lakes in "The Swordsman" are political metaphors. As long as you have experienced setbacks, choices, and struggles, I won’t agree too much with Lu Songxian’s version of Linghu Chong.
How can a hermit who feels pain in political games be such an optimistic and unrestrained young man.
There is no need to look at Tao Yuanming and other hermits in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Li Bai in the Tang Dynasty is the great poet who has the most special characteristics of the hermits in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Talented and wild, but faced with political and officialdom, if you look at his poems, you will see that he is not an optimist. Although you can use to make the audience like a handsome young man, the political metaphor of the original work makes people feel uncomfortable. Linghu Chong is not a handsome young man.
For example, Duan's young master is a careless young master who doesn't have to worry about life. He is ambitious and has ideals. Like most college students who have just graduated from college, he entered the society and had to become a prodigal son after experiencing various hardships.
Their wild and unrestrained behavior is an escape from reality. It is possible for a prodigal to be unrestrained. This is also the inner state of most people. However, most people cannot become prodigal because of reality. The unrestrained and unrestrained are just pretended. To be unrestrained is to be unyielding. The performance of reality is also a kind of escape from reality. This is reality, and it is by no means superficial. Even if you have difficulties, you can be a carefree and unrestrained young man.
is also Linghu Chong. Comparing Lu Songxian's version and Li Yapeng's version, the difference will be revealed.
Since we have analyzed Lu Songxian's version and Li Yapeng's version, there is no need to analyze it in detail. Li Yapeng's version of Linghu Chong is indeed a more accurate that captures the original Linghu Chong. The essence is that Linghu Chong in this original work is really a cool and unrestrained character on the surface but bitter in reality.
Chinese-speaking areas want to film politics, especially the essence of traditional cultures such as Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.0, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 1990s and 2000s cannot be compared with the mainland. At that time, we had just ended the political movement, and cultural workers had not fully faced the current commercialization. They had inheritance and thinking about politics and traditional Chinese culture. The inheritance has philosophical thoughts , which is why so many classic historical dramas and film and television dramas that reflect on traditional culture have been born.
Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 1990s were already at the pinnacle of commercial culture. The works that really had this kind of thinking were in the 1960s and 1970s when great directors such as Li Hanxiang and Hu Jinquan were around. If you are interested, you can go and watch their costume films. The thinking on Chinese political thought and traditional cultural philosophy is actually above Tsui Hark. The adaptation of the character
is actually very suitable for many things of the same era, such as the actors' performances.
tvb The acting skills of actors are assembly-line, and even most actors in Hong Kong are like this. For example, when they act scared, their hands are shaking all the time; when actresses are acting voluptuously, they always lower their heads and blink. They lack the kind of psychological changes that mainland actors at that time had to explore the characters. the process of. However, the TVB plot is smooth and compact, the martial arts action is smooth, and the plot and characters are distinct and distinctive.
In the past, the type that mainland China was good at was fighting, but the martial arts dramas that it was not good at were a little bit inferior. This is one of the reasons why audiences like TVB martial arts dramas.
Who is more classic, Li Yapeng's version or Lu Songxian's version of "The Swordsman"? The answer is surprising
Finally, when many people read this, they will think that this article praises Li Yapeng's version of Linghu Chong, and belittles Lu Songxian's version of Linghu Chong. The answer is no. This is about another thing. After all, novels and film and television dramas are two cultural carriers. As for the success of adapting novels into film and television dramas, the original works are always only part of the reference and do not play a decisive role.
In human terms, as long as the characters in film and television dramas are very successfully created and the audience recognizes them, does it matter whether they match the original work or not? The reason is that although the film and television drama is adapted from the novel, it and the original work are already two different cultural carriers.
For example, comparing the movie version of Tsui Hark's "The Swordsman" with the original novel, Jet Li 's Linghu Chong's image is average, but he only completed the martial arts design with superb swordsmanship. The most successful character creation is Brigitte Lin 's Oriental Invincible . In the original work, the eunuch was a political metaphor, but in the movie, she was changed to a Japanese beauty, and the male protagonist is in love.
We can’t say that Dongfang Invincible is unsuccessful, right? On the contrary, this image is very successful, and the image is even more popular than the original work. You can say that the film and television adaptation of The Invincible is good, but you can hardly say that it is the original version of The Invincible.
Lu Songxian's Linghu Chong is more controversial because he did not make a shattering adaptation like The Invincibles of the East. He just changed the "profound" parts of the original work and made it more chic and optimistic. If you look at the level of film and television dramas that can be interpreted by the public, it is true that Lu Songxian is much better, because people don't like to watch TV and have to analyze the complexity of the characters. Just one obvious characteristic is enough, and it is easy to be deeply rooted in people's hearts.
is like Song Jiang in "Water Margin". What the public believes is righteousness. If the film and television drama is filmed with this, it will not be bad. If the actors can perform better, it will be a classic. But how dark is Song Jiang in the book, how many political games and profound human things are there? Fans of the original work and literary youths can write tens of thousands of words of analysis papers, but ordinary viewers don't care.
If you want to express the complex characteristics of the characters closely to the original work, it will be difficult to like. If the actors' acting skills are not good, it will indeed be difficult to convince the audience. Li Yapeng did capture the essence of the original work in terms of shaping and expression, but the image and acting skills really need to be discussed. Lu Songxian's version is not very consistent with the original work, but from the perspective of the TV series, he does look good.
Generally speaking, book fans and movie fans, readers and viewers are not the same kind of people.
