Whether it is the popular "Yinian Guan Mountain", or the "Lotus Tower", "Youth Song Xing", "The Legend of Yunxiang", "The Legend of Magpie Daomen", etc., martial arts dramas are taking on a new look.
In terms of subject matter, they are no longer only confined to the rivers and lakes of "chivalry, courage, pleasure and revenge", but in the narrative type of the martial arts world view, they integrate suspense detectives, comedy, youthful blood, road adventures, and even idolized creative elements;In terms of character creation, new heroes such as "Undefined Heroes" and "Smart Heroes" have also been on the table, and they have won the love and praise of the audience.
In the outline of the rivers and lakes, the traditional martial arts rivers and lakes with fists to flesh and swords will also be replaced by the national style elements, special effects elements, and even the martial arts rivers and lakes that pay attention to the beauty of artistic conception.
This batch of "new martial arts", or "martial arts +", has been recognized by the public and has achieved excellent results.
New martial arts began to "save" martial arts dramas?Compared with male audiences, women now prefer to watch "martial arts"?At the creative level, do the new martial artists have any regrets?You might as well have a try.
The new martial arts "save" martial arts drama.
The emergence of new martial arts dramas has a bit of a sense of "saving" the martial arts drama track.
After all, before this year, martial arts dramas were still being regarded by default as a category of "decline" and "no good".
Guduo data shows that from 2015 to 2022, there are only more than 70 martial arts dramas in the market, and the average number of creations of less than 10 per year is a factor in the decline of martial arts dramas.
The reason for its scarcity is that on the one hand, it is difficult to produce martial arts dramas, and the "dream-making" function has been replaced by more marketable Xianxia dramas;On the other hand, it is closely related to its poor production and IP being magically modified.
In those years, the audience must have seen Douban 25 points of "New Smile and Proud Jianghu", Douban 32 points of "The Legend of Deer and Ding" (Zhang Yishan version), Douban 34 points of "Dragon Babu" (Yang Youning version) and other bad reviews.
Among the few word-of-mouth masterpieces, in addition to Li Yitong's version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", which belongs to the category of traditional martial arts dramas, "Detective Jane Doesn't Know", "Juvenile Tour One Inch Lovesickness" and "Tang Dynasty Legends" are all "new martial arts".
Traditional martial arts dramas are losing their vitality. And the "new martial arts" broke out in all directions this year.
First of all, in terms of quantity, according to incomplete statistics, so far this year, there have been 12 "new martial arts dramas" on the market, a new high in the number of martial arts dramas in the past five years.
In the word-of-mouth dimension, the four works of "Lotus Building", "Youth Song Xing", "The Legend of Quedaomen" and "I Have a Friend" have a Douban score of 8 points +, and "Da Song Juvenile Chronicles 2" and "Yi Nian Guan Mountain" have a Douban score of 75 points and above, except for one of the 12 works that has not yet been scored on Douban, the scores of the rest of the works have stabilized above the passing line, which can be called the "best word-of-mouth" among domestic genre dramas this year.
In terms of popularity, the popularity of the platform of "Lotus Building" and "Yinian Guan Mountain" exceeded 10,000, and "Lotus Building" has a long-tail effect and super gold-absorbing ability - its current number of ratings on Douban has reached 56w, which is 10w+ more than in the finale;And the "Lotus Tower" concert derived from it in the later period also has a derivative income of tens of millions.
During the broadcast of "The Legend of Yunxiang" and "Cloud Feather", the hit indicators were completed. The former is broadcast on dual platforms and ranks among the top 9 in 2023 Yunhe DataThe latter sparked a heated discussion during the broadcast period, and the popularity of the platform was close to exceeding 10,000.
In addition, such as "Youth Song Xing", "The Legend of Magpie Knife Gate" and "I Have a Friend" are also "dark horse" dramas in the same schedule this year. The high cost performance may only be perceived by the platform. These three works are also actively preparing for their performance beyond expectations, or are strongly called for by the audience to make a second part.
Youku is actively increasing the track of comic dramas this year, one of the reasons is that it has seen the "dark horse" effect of "Youth Song Xing".
From quantity, to popularity, to word-of-mouth, the new martial arts has broken through in all directions, "saving" the decadent martial arts drama for nearly 10 years. This is undoubtedly an exciting thing for the audience and the long-term ** platform.
New martial arts", is being "on the table" in all directions.
Take advantage of the "female audience".
Why can the "new martial arts" be loved by the public?Grasping the public aesthetics, or to put it bluntly, it is the key to grasp the female audience of the current mainstream group of dramas.
According to the data of Gu Duo and Yien, the female audience of the new martial arts dramas broadcast this year is generally higher than that of men, and the head martial arts dramas, such as "Yi Nian Guan Mountain", "Lotus Tower", "The Legend of Yun Xiang" and "Cloud Feather", the ratio of male to female audiences has basically reached "28 open".
Why can martial arts dramas born from male frequency ** also usher in a large number of female audiences?The core factor is in the "newness" of the new martial arts.
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the current martial arts drama is undergoing changes in three aspects. Among them, moving from "martial arts" to "martial arts +" is the key.
Just like the "hit drama" "Lotus Tower" is "martial arts + suspense detective", "The Legend of Yunxiang" is based on martial arts elements, and integrates elements such as business war, conspiracy, and suspense;"The Legend of Magpie Knife Gate" and "I Have a Friend" directly combine martial arts and comedy;
The on-air "Yi Nian Guan Mountain" has taken the route of "martial arts + road adventure";"Juvenile Song Xing" and "Da Song Juvenile Chronicles 2" either directly use the manga IP as the starting point, or integrate the patriotic feelings of the teenagers into the rivers and lakes and martial arts.
These elements of "+ martial arts" are also popular elements in the current market, and it is naturally not unusual for them to be loved by female audiences.
In terms of casting, the emergence of popular actors such as Liu Shishi, Cheng Yi, Yu Shuxin, and Zhang Linghe has also accelerated the hit effect of new martial arts dramas. Many head martial arts dramas have ushered in the star-chasing effect, and girls in the fan circle have entered the martial arts drama track, and they haven't run away!
In addition, from the content level alone, this batch of new martial arts dramas also has certain highlights.
Martial arts themes such as "Lotus Building", "Youth Song Xing", "Shadow of Mountains and Rivers", etc., they no longer take the relationship between men and women as the core, but take the growth line of the male protagonist or teenagers as the core of creation, and some martial arts dramas focus on "character group portraits".
Based on this alone, martial arts dramas have thrown out the ancient puppets and fairy puppets that were broadcasting in the same period a few streets.
At the production level, the new martial arts drama has also improved compared with the past. For example, the "real shot + Dunhuang Gobi photo" in "Yi Nian Guan Mountain", the light and shadow composition of "The Shadow of Mountains and Rivers" and "The Legend of Yunxiang", the special effects fight scenes with "aesthetic" design in "Youth Song Xing", and the lens aesthetics in "Cloud Feather" all highlight the creator's intentions and exquisite design.
Some martial arts dramas even integrate "national style" elements into them. For example, the early broadcast of "Mountains and Rivers Order" and the current broadcast of "Yi Nian Guan Mountain" all highlight the beauty of freehand landscapes and traditional culture.
It should be noted that the reason why the current batch of new martial arts dramas exudes a completely different temperament from traditional martial arts dramas is also.
Influenced by the creators of martial arts in the new era.
Like "The Legend of Yunxiang" broadcast this year, and the earlier "Listening to Snow Building", the original works are actually from a group of post-martial arts creators. Including Cangyue, Fang Baiyu, Bu Feiyan, Feng Ge, and Xiaolin, they are regarded by the market as new authors who have a relatively large influence in the martial arts market after the four masters of "Jin Guliang Wen". In terms of narrative type, their works are mainly based on the creation of "martial arts +".
This is also a reason why the current market has changed the creative direction of martial arts dramas from traditional martial arts to "new martial arts". It is expected that in the future film and television drama market, new martial arts will move forward side by side with traditional martial arts.
How far can we go?
There are many gains, and regrets are often there.
For the current batch of new martial arts dramas, after mixing some other elements, the presentation of "martial arts", "rivers and lakes", and even the spirit of "chivalry" is also biased.
Wenwen, an online writer, told Sohu Entertainment that in her opinion, some of the current martial arts dramas are losing their "martial arts flavor".
Wenwen for example, this year's broadcast of "The Legend of Yunxiang", "Cloud Feather", and "Yinian Guan Mountain" are all conspiracy meaning "higher" than the atmosphere of the rivers and lakes. The heroes in some works even have a royal background.
Compared to becoming heroes, they are more like 'official heroes'. Wenwen teased.
In the construction of the martial arts of the rivers and lakes, where swords and swords are shining, and happiness and revenge, some new martial arts dramas also use it as a background embellishment, and do not outline a new martial arts world at a deeper level. However, "Lotus Tower", "The Legend of Magpie Knife Gate", "I Have a Friend" or part of the content inherits the creative style of traditional martial arts, or directly starts the postmodern creative technique of "deconstructing martial arts".
At the production level, although the creators of today's martial arts dramas have given a certain sincerity. But if there is really any work that can leave a full impression on the public with the actors' plays, it is really impossible to say.
This is also closely related to the creation mechanism in the current market.
At a time when platforms are more willing to play the safety card and take the creative route of being more "cost-effective" and having a faster production process, the space that may be provided to directors and martial arts instructors is relatively limited.
Just like the slow motion, quick cut shots, and even the creative mode of filling martial arts scenes with special effects, which the public often sees in costume dramas, do not come entirely from the director's will, but the creative method that the crew can maximize benefits in a limited time, space and funds.
Another core factor that makes it difficult for "martial arts scenes" to retain their fame lies in the professionalism and attitude of the actors themselves. Just like martial arts instructor Guo Li shared, most of the actors he has handled in filming martial arts scenes are "not qualified".
Some of them are because their own conditions are really poor, and they learn very slowly, and the crew can only teach them a few of the simplest moves in order to catch up with the schedule;And some are not good enough in terms of attitude. ”
Guo Li responded that a certain male artist he had handled in the early years had mixed time on the set several times because he "couldn't endure hardship", and even released pigeons. Later, his action scenes in that play were basically completed by special effects + stuntmen actors. ”
Like Liu Yifei, who has a serious attitude and has a dance function, and later filmed a lot of martial arts scenes, I heard that she also went to a martial arts school to learn Xi dance actors later, which is difficult to find in the circle. Guo Li shared.
Although most of them are complaining, Guo Li also expressed his recognition of the more serious attitude of practitioners in the current market towards production than in previous years.
It's just like "the 06 version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", it is still relatively rare to spend five big nights shooting only a shot of a little dragon girl appearing.
When the new martial arts are updating the problems left over from the previous batch of martial arts dramas in a timely manner, they also need to move towards higher standards from a more vigorous and lighter angle.
Perhaps it is too early to say that the martial arts drama track has fully recovered. But in the face of this batch of new martial arts dramas that have made progress, martial arts dramas have at least recovered a little bit of vitality.