In 2024, is there a future for martial arts dramas?

Visual China.

Text |Deep Pupil Business, Author |Shen Fuyi, edChu Qingzhou.

Today, will you still miss martial arts?Uncle Benshan is nostalgic, so there is "The Legend of Magpie Knife Gate", and the ending of Li Lianhua's "Xiaozhou Passed Away" seems to be the martial arts world that used to wave goodbye to us.

The long-awaited "Yi Nian Guan Mountain" has occupied the top of the hot list, but no matter how you blow "chivalry" and "hot blood", the slow-motion martial arts like dance teaching is not as good as Liu Shishi's "Strange Man Yizhimei" filmed 13 years ago.

The word "martial arts" is now not so much a feeling, but more often than not, it is "touched porcelain" and consumed. Is there still less "pseudo-martial arts" like "You Fei"?

Martial arts dramas, is it really exhausted, or is there still a breath left, and there is still something to be done?

In the early years, the old-school martial arts, the world view was majestic, and the Jianghu sects, martial arts moves, and divine weapons derived from "The Legend of Shushan Swordsmen" became more and more vigorous in the hands of Jin Guliang Wen Huang.

Jin Yong's Huashan Sword, Dragon Slayer, Qiankun Great Shift, Gu Long's Nine Sons and Ghost Mother, Tianyi Shenshui, Liang Yusheng's Great Sumeru Palm, Jade Rakshasa, and White-haired Witch can all see the shadow of the ** born in the "Shushan Universe".

Not to mention the various sects and factions of the martial arts, their grievances and grievances have constructed an extremely rich world of rivers and lakes, which means that there is a transcendent reality on the other side, beautiful and abundant. How can you not be dizzying?

Later, the "New Martial Arts School" based on "Ancient Legends: Martial Arts Edition", Xiao Lin, Feng Ge, Cangyue, Bu Feiyan and other authors, followed the tone and historical line of Jin Gu Liang Wen's martial arts world, like Feng Ge's "Kunlun" wrote about the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty, how did a prodigal son become a generation of heroes, a proper Jin Yong male protagonist, right?

The new martial arts are more youthful, trying to integrate elements such as Japanese comics, business wars, strange feelings, and fantasy into martial arts. "Familiar taste" and "original formula", although the revival failed, it is still a test full of feelings.

In the spring of 2023, "Ancient Legends: Martial Arts Edition" will be discontinued.

The martial arts dramas of the past two years are not new, except for the remake of Jin Guliangwen's old works, many of them are adapted from works more than ten years ago.

"A Thousand Doors" is in 2009, "Lucky Pattern Lotus Building" is in 2010, and "Listening to the Snow Building" is in 2011. "Sword in the Snow" is late, it is 2013, and it is already the era of online literature after the ebb of new martial arts.

In online literature, martial arts is unpopular, and it is difficult to have the limelight of paper media, and the low age and fragmented reading make the core of martial arts' former family and country ambitions helpless to collapse, leaving alone and blindly - "cool", equipped with infinite flow or system flow, it is enough to sweep the world surrounded by beauties.

The ones that can be used are like "Heroes" and "Qingxi Chronicle", most of which are old-school martial arts style.

The most creative is the dream of the "Romance of the Dragon and Snake", which dares to break the traditional way of writing, return to the urban background, and use the traditional martial arts such as Pak Mei, Tai Chi, Wing Chun, and Baji to reshape the "martial arts" soul, which can be regarded as a new way to play, but the "martial arts" used for gangsters and martial arts rings, and the "martial arts" of traditional martial arts, are different in concept.

At present, it is indeed difficult for the film and television dramas adapted from martial arts works to form a world system comparable to Jin Yong.

It is worth mentioning that it is the Sigumen and Jin Yuanmeng of "Lotus Tower", the Yuntai, Lingyuan, and Tangmen of "The Legend of Yunxiang", and the eight major schools of "Longhu Mountain, Wudang Mountain, and Huishan Xuanyuan Family" in "Sword in the Snow".

The rivers and lakes universe that has not yet become a climate can no longer form a strong fission and reproduction force.

The younger generations are stepping on the arms of the martial arts masters, and they are also at a loss, and the imagination to create a world view is already lacking, and the shadow of the old rivers and lakes can be vaguely seen, but it is difficult to match in meteorology.

At the same time, it is the collapse of the group drama.

Jin Yong's martial arts group portraits are distinct, even if they only appear for a short time, the characters are unforgettable, Aunt Ying is infatuated and smart, the master of emptiness is frank and fearless, Ping Ah Si will repay his kindness, often meet spring Geng, Feng Mofeng misses the old teacher.

Almost every Jin Yong's work has wonderful little characters and small characters.

Domestic entertainment dramas generally use the protagonist as the core to desperately "pile up the play", and now not only the supporting roles are NPCs, but other NPCs are more instrumental, which is very fatal for martial arts, a type that needs to be brilliant in group portraits.

The rivers and lakes that used to be like huge rivers and lakes have gradually collapsed into small puddles that fall apart, and there is no longer the thriving ecology of that time, and it is not so charming.

The only thing that can be used to comfort martial arts fans is that only in the era of the collapse of the social order there are so many "chivalrous walks".

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the ** period, the chivalrous man existed in the troubled times, and he went to the clothes and hidden his fame.

There have been analogies on the Internet that classify martial arts as similar cultural products to American Westerns, Western chivalric literature, and Japanese samurai films. In this, there is actually something worth exploring - the distance and proximity of the court and the rivers and lakes.

Martial arts, from the day of its birth, has carried a lingering edge and tragic temperament all over it.

It was Mozi's "Mo-top heel to benefit the world", and it was also Sima Qian's five assassins, but Han Feizi characterized it as "chivalrous and forbidden", which was not tolerated by mainstream authorities. It is born as a cold blade, wandering between the gray veins of secular law, piercing the place of power and injustice.

The independent spirit of not attaching, disobeying, and not afraid of power, and the heart of Ren Xia to help the needy are one of the reasons why martial arts made us secondary school teenagers drunk and crazy.

The old-school martial arts write about the rivers and lakes and the court, and the former is obviously better in terms of pen and ink.

The rivers and lakes have their own sense of boundaries, and they are alienated from the court and power, even if they participate in the affairs of the government and state, either out of favor or out of justice, they maintain the independent identity of the people of the rivers and lakes.

Not to mention Gu Long's various "marginal figures", even Jin Yong, whose works are most closely integrated with history, his various chivalrous men are still relatively independent, and Xiao Feng helped Yelu Hongji to quell the rebellion of the imperial uncle, which is purely a sworn brother;Yang Guo Feishi killed Meng Ge Khan for the sake of the righteousness of his family and country. Only people of poor character will cling to the powerful.

It wasn't until the late "The Legend of the Deer and Ding" that Wei Xiaobao, who had no chivalrous style, was allowed to enter and leave the court, slap his beard and pat the horse, and become an official and a knight. Probably Mr. Jin Yong also understands that chivalry is not allowed in the world.

By Huang Yi and Sun Xiao, the knights had begun to voluntarily become pawns of those in power, and the rivers and lakes were just annotations to the phrase "the whole world is not the king's land".

"Xun Qin Ji" Xiang Shaolong used all his wisdom to seize the throne for Zhao Pan, and "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" Kou Zhong Xu Ziling made meritorious contributions to the imperial court after practicing martial arts. The chivalrous man became a general, and the martial arts gradually embarked on the road of "why don't men take Wu Hooks".

With the ubiquitous worship of the power and money class in mainland dramas, the marginalization of small people and the weak, the attitude towards power in the martial arts world has also undergone subtle changes.

Most of the current martial arts dramas will choose "foreign invasion" and "conspiracy of powerful ministers" to do, although the mission of chivalry still maintains the surface of "saving the country and securing the people", sometimes it is inevitable to become the guardian of a certain regime.

For example, the current martial arts are more like Liangshan after being recruited.

The recent "Yi Nian Guan Mountain" is an original script, which is more suitable for discussion.

This drama is set in the Ming Dynasty, and the male and female protagonists are from the two spy agencies of Anguo and Wu respectively, which are themselves in the intricate background of the court, and the female director Ruyi has a great relationship with the deceased queen, and the rivers and lakes and the court are almost melted.

What is the main quest?

Welcome the emperor team", welcome back to the emperor of Wuguo, the male protagonist is good for the dead brother Zhaoxue, the female protagonist wants to find out the real culprit who designed to kill the queen, and the coming and going are all about the ministers and the royal family.

Isn't this recipe familiar?

After all, romance dramas are almost all elite bosses, family dramas are all middle-class or above, and Xianxia dramas are the royal family of the Heavenly Clan. In the face of the "full kneeling" attitude of the elite class, it is more deferential and humble than the autumn recruitment to find a job, and it is no longer the former "invincible benevolent", but "the strong are reasonable".

Under the washes of consumption, capital, and involution, martial arts tend to retreat romanticism, and in this era, they are also forced to be pragmatic - hugging the big guy and worry-free life.

What is standard with it is that the protagonist is blindly strong, either he has no last resort, or his force value is super high, and in addition to this, his personality is lackluster, vulgar and boring.

Paste a few labels of "independent", "sassy", "cool protagonist" and "big male and female lead", catering to the audience's values and serving as "golden sentence containers". is a force output at every turn, strong is quite strong, but it is so strong that it is empty, with the actor's acting skills that are stronger than AI, it is virtual and floating, and there is not much "human flavor".

In the same way, the rebellion in the chivalrous body has also weakened a lot, and he is no longer incompatible with the mainstream world because he is in the rivers and lakes, and there are few contradictions and conflicts between different social strata and between the good and evil factions in the rivers and lakes, and even the conflicts within the self seem to be mild.

All this is like the maverick pig written by Wang Xiaobo, and one day, it will become the same docile and obedient pig. No more rushing left and right, no longer hesitating and pursuing, do the right thing, and do tasks towards a predetermined ending.

The chivalrous ones are getting more and more right, and they are getting more and more vulgar, but they don't impress us so much anymore.

Then you say, how can the current martial arts drama be good?

Some people think that it is necessary to play the superposition of elements, that is, "martial arts", for example, "Lotus Tower" is "martial arts suspense", "The Legend of Yunxiang" is "martial arts business war", and "Yi Nian Guan Mountain" is what is the "martial arts highway", saying that in this way we can break through the limitations of vertical categories and break the circle of clouds.

Let's not talk about this set of tricks, Jin Gu Liang Wen has long been familiar with it, for example, Gu Long's book is like a script killing.

Just talking about the drama genre of "martial arts", does it need to break the circle?It is the last thing that needs to break the circle, don't forget the whole family gathered in front of the TV to watch the grand occasion of martial arts when I was a child.

Because the soul of chivalry is buried deep in the hearts of Chinese, from the elderly to the drooping children, men and men ** all have the gene of "roaring when the road is uneven".

But are we just looking at martial arts for the sake of "burning enough" and to see the crushing of force and intelligence?It's better to play the king directly, not to mention that the current martial arts and fighting talents are withering, all relying on slow motion and circles, and even the "martial arts" part has to copy the anime storyboard.

Hard bridges and hard horses can't come, the most worthy of the audience can only be live-action shooting, the desert bamboo forest play focuses on an artistic conception to give enough, it all depends on imagination.

This is not something that can be solved purely by relying on technological innovation, the strength of martial arts, the spirit of the martial arts practitioner can't fool people at all, and it can't be done by relying on a stand-in alone, how awkward it looks when you change to the picture of the main one.

"Martial soul" is hard to find, and good-looking fighting scenes can only be found in martial arts movies such as "The Grandmaster", "Sword Rain" and "Embroidered Spring Knife", otherwise you can watch martial arts anime, "Bad Guy" and "Dart Man" will not disappoint you.

So, what is the real way to break the game left for martial arts dramas?

In the end, it's still a vernacular: human nature, human affection and life.

Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, because human nature is rivers and lakes. To say something that is easy to be sprayed, there are many dramas now, and the human content is really low.

The market share of online adaptations is indeed high, and the creators mostly use the method of "piling up elements" to write, and with a pat on the head, they want to write a character who is "cold and self-sustaining, decisive and decisive, and deep in the city".

There are characters, but the depth of human nature is less, and it is even more unbearable to forcibly infuse modern concepts into the characters, ignoring the logic of the characters' own words and deeds, and making them indecent.

The requirements of our audience are not very high, at least they have to be real "people", people with flesh and blood, contradictions and entanglements.

First of all, don't be stingy with the difficulty of writing about the growth of the characters.

The green shirt is in danger, and the former martial arts drama is like a fledgling teenager, full of spirit, maybe stumbling, but without losing the truth of life.

Therefore, Xuzhu's forced breaking of the ring, Xiao Feng's identity dilemma, Yang Guo's inferiority complex and loneliness, Ling Hu Chong's deep slander, Zhang Wuji's incompleteness, and Shi Potian's unknown background make us extremely concerned, just like caring about our own lives.

This kind of exploration of the world's youthfulness, recklessness, and confusion is a key point in the moving nature of martial arts, and in this regard, "Da Song Boys' Chronicles 1" is more martial arts than many so-called martial arts dramas.

And now many martial arts dramas with the beautiful name of "focusing on the growth of the protagonist", "growth" is almost not too difficult, and there is no need to face complex individual dilemmas, what "from an emotionless killer" to "can perceive the beauty of the world" and the like, why haven't you gotten tired of the "breaking off love" routine of Xianxia dramas?

Second, don't be afraid to shape the lows, highs, and contradictions of human nature.

There are also those villains who make the words "sinister in the rivers and lakes" extremely real, which is the most subtle and complex part of human nature, but it is a pity that even the villains in current martial arts dramas are "so evil that they are boring", as if the only purpose is to stumble on the protagonist or set off the highlight of the protagonist's team.

Yan Luowang of "The Legend of Yunxiang" gambled, colluded with the Cao Gang, and bullied Yunxiang, so evil and pure, and a bunch of small villains in "Yi Nian Guan Shan" went offline in minutes, doesn't this highlight the neatness of the male and female protagonists?

Compare "Smiling Proud" Yue Buqun Zuo Lengzen, a hypocrite, a real villain;In "Liancheng Jue", in order to grab the treasure, the relatives of the master and apprentice killed each other, and Hua Tiegan changed from extremely good to extremely evil;"Yitian" Xie Xun sprouted a trace of good thoughts from evil;"Tianlong" Murong Bo father and son, Duan Yanqing, and Kang Min correspond to Buddhism's "three poisons of human nature" greed and hatred.

There is evil in good, there is good in evil, from good to evil, from evil to good, its complexity is not only a simple individual good and evil, but also a dark place shared by human nature.

One thought becomes a demon, one thought becomes a Buddha", it is enough to arouse our self-examination.

The most out-of-the-circle martial arts villain this year should be the "Sister Jiao" of "Lotus Tower", right?

Her character is full of contradictions, she is good at charm but has a soft spot for Di Feisheng, but her love brain is a career critic, evil and naïve, cold and affectionate, it is contradictory, and at the same time charming, I haven't seen such a sentimental villain in a martial arts drama for a long time.

Finally, don't stop thinking about life.

To put it simply, many TV series nowadays only feel empty after entertainment, why?

For life, it seems that you can only say some itchy words and some golden sentences that meet the psychology of the audience, and it is difficult to have a more empowering place.

In the past, just by watching a martial arts drama, we could hear "winning is a loss in the end", "wisdom must be hurt, love is not long", "heavy sword has no edge, great ingenuity does not work", "white clouds gather and disperse, life is clutched, and it is also the same", "he is strong, he is strong, the breeze blows the hills", "with the end of the world, Mo Ruo forgets each other in the rivers and lakes" and other insightful reflections on life, the classic martial arts that integrates Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in one furnace, its charm is the charm of Chinese culture.

But we don't have to rush to close the coffin to conclude that "martial arts are dead", although the original martial arts are not successful, and the remake of martial arts has repeatedly been troubled.

Borrowing the sentence "The iron armor is still there" in Jiangnan's "Kyushu Ethereal Record", martial arts is still deeply buried in the genes of the nation.

E-sports teenagers chase their dreams and win the courage of Kyushu, which is martial arts;

In the anime, the hero starts from the recklessness and the injustice of the sword in the world, and it is martial arts;

In reality, it is also a kind of martial arts to save people from fire and water.

*There is young blood,**There is human suffering,**There is injustice,** it gives birth to chivalry. Martial arts dramas may not have found a way out yet, but our love for martial arts will not stop.

The next new actions include the Goose Factory 2024 series "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World", Tsui Hark's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero", Wu Jing's new work "Knife", and Yuan Heping's "Dart Man: The Wind Rises in the Desert".

The expectations of the remake do not need to be too high, it should be regarded as a classic popularization, and it is not bad to stimulate the popularity of old dramas;Wu Jing's box office appeal is there, although the story is old, the play will not let people fail;If the film and television of "Dartman" does not collapse, it can also add a new IP to martial arts dramas in the future, which is not bad.

It is said that martial arts is a dream of adults, and in the final analysis, what satisfies is to jump out of the poverty and pain in life.

is like Li Lianhua, who ploughs acres and grows melons and raises dogs in "Lotus Building", only a drop of residual blood is left to survive, but it is still popular. What is hidden behind this is the heart that we are gradually looking down on the battle for fame and fortune and just want to live a dull life.

We can't do it, but we believe that people in the rivers and lakes can do it. It was like that when I was a kid, and it still is like this now.

The wedge of "Tianya, Bright Moon, Knife" may be changed like this:

"The rivers and lakes are not far away?”

"Not far!”

"People are in the rivers and lakes, how can the rivers and lakes be far away?”