The number of martial arts IP remakes： In 2018, the number of remakes of Jin Yong series TV dramas reached 8.
Jin Yong once said that the best life is "make a scene and leave quietly". This is his life.
Mr. Jin Yong used a pen as a sword to make the whole Wulin lively. Fifteen martial arts novels, with a word count of over 8 million, a global circulation of over 300 million, and more than 100 related movies and TV shows … all these make every reader have his own martial arts world in his heart. It is precisely because of this that countless directors are willing to remake Jin Yong’s series of film and television dramas many times to express their understanding of Jianghu and Wulin.
Count Yujun takes stock of Jin Yong’s series of remakes and takes you back to the classics.
▍Type analysis
Figure 1: Type map of remake TV series from 2000 to 2019 (data source: Mathematics)
According to the incomplete statistics of the remakes from 2000 to 2019, it is found that there are 34 martial arts dramas in all the remakes, accounting for half of all the remakes, and Jin Yong series is the majority in the martial arts remakes. Secondly, the number of love dramas accounts for about one-third of the total number, while historical dramas and comedies add up to less than one-fifth of the total. Martial arts dramas and romantic dramas have become popular types of remakes in the film and television industry, which are closely related to the audience’s preferences and the number of classic IP.
▍A detailed analysis of Jin Yong’s series of remakes
-The most remakes
Figure 2: 2001 version of "the legendary swordsman" stills (Source: Douban)
Taking the titles of Jin Yong’s series of novels as the key words, Yu Yujun found that the legendary swordsman has been remake eight times since 1984, surpassing the seven-time remake of "Eternal Dragon Slayer" to become the most frequently remake TV series of Jin Yong.
Figure 3: 1989 version of "Chivalrous Man" stills (Source: Douban)
At the same time, among Jin Yong’s 15 novels, Chivalrous Man is a film and television drama with fewer remakes. After the first edition of "Chivalrous Man" TV series in 1989, the drama was only remake twice.
-Longitudinal comparison of remake scores
Figure 4: stills of the 1983 edition of The Legend of the Condor Heroes (Source: Douban)
Among more than 100 TV series of Jin Yong, the 1983 edition of Legend of the Condor Heroes topped the 1995 edition with a douban score of 9.1 points. From today’s point of view, the 83rd edition of The Legend of the Condor Heroes is obviously not atmospheric enough, and even its production is too rough, but the classic can stand the test. Even after more than 30 years, it still makes people miss it, especially the theme songs of the play, which have been passed down to this day. In the eyes of many people, there is no Guo Jing after Felix Wong Yat Wa, and there is no Huang Rong after Barbara Yung.
Figure 5: 2018 version of the legendary swordsman stills (Source: Douban)
Figure 6: Douban score of 2018 edition of the legendary swordsman (Source: Douban)
The 2018 edition of "the legendary swordsman" is the one with the lowest score in Jin Yong’s series of remakes, and it is also the one with the lowest score in several editions of "the legendary swordsman" in recent years.
In 1996, the Jackie Lui version of Douban scored as high as 8.2 points, which was called a classic; In 2001, Li Yapeng version of Douban scored 7.8 points, and the results were good. In 2013, the Wallace Huo version of Douban scored 5.1 points, which was barely readable; In 2018, the score of Ding Guansen version of Douban was only 2.6 points, and 86.9% of Douban users only scored one star, which was severely criticized by netizens.
However, the Ding Guansen version of the legendary swordsman in 2018 is related to malicious rating in the eyes of some netizens. In the Douban discussion forum, some netizens thought that the play had been scored maliciously, and many "black powder" denied the acting skills and ability of the starring role by deliberately scoring low points.
-Horizontal comparison of remake scores
A comprehensive analysis of Jin Yong’s series of original dramas and remakes shows that the average score of the original drama is 7.3, and the average score of the remake drama is 7.045, with an overall decrease of 3.49%. This tendency seems to be consistent with everyone’s overall impression of the quality of the remake.
Figure 7: Grades of the editions of Chivalrous Man (Source: Douban)
Figure 8: Rating of the editions of The Condor Heroes (Source: Douban)
Figure 9: Grades of the legendary swordsman (Source: Douban)
It can be seen from the scores of the above-mentioned remake versions that the scores of the remake dramas have generally declined, and one is not as good as the other, as if a vicious circle has been formed. In the past twenty years, the film and television shooting technology and shooting environment have been continuously improved, and the production investment has also risen, but the quality of remakes is mostly unsatisfactory.
In addition, a small number of remakes are also worthy of praise!
Figure 10: Grades of the editions of Legend of the Condor Heroes (Source: Douban)
Throughout the various editions of Legend of the Condor Heroes, the 83rd edition is indeed the most classic edition, and it is the best in its influence, role selection and martial arts scenes. Even the walk-on stars are big coffees nowadays, and Ng Man Tat, Adam Cheng, Stephen Chow, Andy Lau, Wu Zhenyu, Carina Lau and others all appeared. Subsequent editions have remained at a high level, and the 2017 edition of Legend of the Condor Heroes even surpassed the previous two editions, reaching 7.9 points.
Figure 11: Grades of all editions of Eternal Dragon Slayer (Source: Douban)
Similarly, except for the 09 edition, The Dragon Slayer with Eternal Feelings has maintained a high standard as a whole and has become a wonderful childhood memory for generations.
-The best remake year
The history of the remake of Jin Yong’s series of films and TV plays can be traced back to 1980s. Hong Kong and Taiwan took the lead in the film adaptation of Jin Yong’s series of novels, and many classic works were remake, among which TVB was the main remake company. In inland areas, the development of Jin Yong’s series of novels is slow. In 2001, China TV Production Center remake the legendary swordsman, and in 2003, Huaxia Audiovisual Global Media (Beijing) Co., Ltd. remake Eight Dragons and Legend of the Condor Heroes, and the domestic remake drama started.
Subsequently, with the fiery market of film and television dramas and the wide and stable audience of remake dramas, Jin Yong’s series of TV dramas ushered in the year of blowout. After sorting out the remakes of Jin Yong series, Yu Jun found that the number of remakes in 2010-2018 showed an overall growth trend compared with 2000-2009 (a total of 10 Jin Yong series remakes), among which the number of remakes of Jin Yong series TV series reached its peak in 2018, reaching 8.
Figure 12: Number of remakes of Jin Yong series from 2010 to 2018 (Source: Mathematical Figures)
▍The most cast members
-remake company analysis
Among the remake production companies, Huaxia Audiovisual Universal Media Company and Huace Film and Television Company are prominent, among which Huaxia Audiovisual Universal Media has made more than ten remakes since 2000.
-cast analysis
1 director
In Jin Yong’s series of TV dramas, director Yu Min participated in the remake of the series of TV dramas the most, up to five times. The specific TV dramas are respectively the 03 version of Legend of the Condor Heroes, the 03 version of Eight Dragons, the 06 version of The Condor Heroes, the 08 version of The Duke Of Mount Deer, and the 09 version of The Dragon Slayer.
2 actors
Looking back on Jin Yong’s TV series in the past ten years, Yu Jun found that there were as many as 15 actors in Jin Yong’s TV series, and some supporting actors had been playing soy sauce for many years before they became classic figures in your impression. In this paper, 15 actors who have participated in many performances and left a deep impression are selected for details.
Bayaneruul
Number of participation: 5
Play a role:
Xiang Wentian in the legendary swordsman, 01 edition;
Zhe Bie in The Legend of the Condor Heroes (03 edition);
03 version of "Tianlong Babu" plays Jiu Mozhi;
In the 06 edition of "The Condor Heroes", he played the Golden Wheel French King;
Genghis Khan in the 06 edition of The Legend of the Condor Heroes;
Bayin (Source: Baidu)
Emily
Number of participation: 4
Play a role:
Yin Li appeared in the 03 edition of "Eternal Dragon Slayer";
06 version of "The Condor Heroes" starred in Guo Fu;
Xiao Furen, the mother of Xiao Feng, played in the 13th edition of "Tianlong Babu";
The 14th edition of "The Condor Heroes" plays the heroic and brave autumn.
Emily (Source: Baidu)
Ji Qilin
Number of participation: 4
Play a role:
The 95th edition of Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain is decorated with Fu Kangan;
Yin Tianzheng, the white-browed eagle king, is decorated in the 2002 edition of "Eternal Dragon Slayer";
In the 07 edition of "sword stained with royal blood", he plays the role of Mu Sangdao;
Wang Zhongyang in the 08 edition of The Legend of the New Condor Heroes;
Ji Qilin (Source: Baidu)
Elvis Tsui
Number of participation: 4
Play a role:
Played the role of vulture in the 2002 edition of "Book and Sword";
Xie Xun, the golden lion king who plays Wang Zhiyi, the four major apologetics of Zoroastrianism, in the 2003 edition of "Eternal Dragon Slayer";
In the 08 edition of Legend of the Condor Heroes, he plays the number one villain nicknamed "Xi Du" Ouyang Feng;
The Duke Of Mount Deer in 2008 plays Ao Bai;
Xu Jinjiang (Source: Baidu)
Apart from these supporting roles, Huang Xiaoming and Liu Yifei played soy sauce in Jin Yong’s other plays before they became leading roles.
▍Xiaobian has something to say
In recent years, there have been few successful examples of remaking classic film and television works, almost once. Most viewers have stricter standards for classic remakes, and have a strong memory foundation and emotional elements for classic originals. A slight change may arouse their "sensitive nerves".
The remake of classics can easily become chewing gum, and the more you chew it, the less it tastes. In fact, on the one hand, we can watch TV dramas that "go abroad", and domestic original dramas such as "go princess go" and "treading on thin ice" have also been remake in other countries. It is worthy of recognition that more and more outstanding China TV dramas can go abroad. On the other hand, a series of excellent IP dramas such as Ode to Joy and nirvana in fire also show that we can produce new and popular TV dramas.
Constantly remaking the classics reflects the embarrassment of the film and television industry’s lack of creativity. The film and television industry should not be used to "being lazy" with classic IP, and creating new things is its correct attitude.
Content analysis: Liu Yuanyuan, Xiong Kang, Yang Jie, qi zhou, Zhang Yinchu.
Computer aided: Gao Hanning
Written by: Zheng Yuyu
Typesetting: Zheng Yuyu
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