This TV series is known as the originator of domestic dramas, and the story of only 20 episodes was edited into 30 episodes, and was nicknamed "the originator of ghost animals" by the audience. Although the editing level is average, with excellent acting skills and wonderful scripts, the score has gone from a low of 39 points climbed to 81 point. This is the "Journey to the West" broadcast in 2000.
The story takes place after the four masters and apprentices finished learning the scriptures, and they faced the ** demon Wutian and helped Qiao Ling'er, the reincarnated spirit child, to return to Lingshan. Back then, the popularity of "Journey to the West" has not decreased, and repeated broadcasts have always received high ratings, and "Journey to the West Sequel" is also in preparation. However, it was in such a situation that a businessman chose to take a different path, taking a fancy to the story after learning from the scriptures, believing that there was a huge space for creativity. With a story of only 20,000 words and an investment of 15 million, he asked the director to prepare for the filming of "Journey to the West", and said that he would not interfere with the filming process, and had only one request: to shoot a story of 30 episodes. This also explains why the TV series, which only has 20 episodes, was cut into 30 episodes.
However, with only 20,000 words of storytelling, it is difficult to make a TV series last 30 episodes. But fortunately, screenwriter Qian Yanqiu's strength is very strong. Under his adaptation, the story content has been enriched, but even so, it is only enough to shoot 20 episodes of the plot. Therefore, in order to meet the requirements of investors, the director had to fill the episodes by repeating martial arts actions, ** the full theme song and ending song, and setting up a 2-minute character introduction. Therefore, even if each episode is 40 minutes long, the actual plot may only occupy more than 20 minutes. It is precisely because of this patchwork that there are 30 episodes, and it is therefore known as the "originator of domestic water injection dramas".
During the filming, a series of problems were encountered. The first is that the lead actor suddenly gave up. Cao Rong, who used to be a martial arts instructor, directly thought of Liuxiaolingtong when the producer asked the actor for the role of Sun Wukong. However, Liu Xiaolingtong suddenly said that he could not act before the start of filming, on the grounds that his wife did not allow him to continue to play the role of a monkey. Unable to find a suitable replacement, Cao Rong had to play the Monkey King himself. Unexpectedly, his performance was not bad, and he successfully created a different image of the Monkey King.
In addition, during the casting, the director originally invited Juan Zi to play the role of White Lotus, but later decided to let her play Biyou Fairy. The image of Sun Wukong's "facial paralysis" stems from the makeup artist's mistake in the styling process, causing Cao Rong to dare not make too many expressions.
Chen Wuzhen in the play also left a deep impression on the audience, especially Xie Dajia and Yu Yuexian in "Country Love", which was surprising.
This drama boldly adapts the original book, and the character settings are very different from the traditional image. Tang Seng is no longer the gentle and elegant image in the original book, but has become a "fighting monk" with strong martial arts, and he is not even inferior to Sun Wukong in terms of subduing demons and eliminating demons. And the plot of the Buddha going down to fall in love subverts the traditional concept.
"Journey to the West" once had a score as low as 39, known as the "originator of bad movies". But as time went on, the audience revisited the show and found the charm in it, and the rating soared all the way to 81。What is the charm of this drama? I believe it's worth everyone's go**.