"I have a martial arts complex, and I have been waiting for a martial arts work that attracts me to do it." Liang Zhenhua said.

In 2018, he read Fang Baiyu's "Thousand Gates" series, and was attracted by the setting of "Smart Heroes" in it. "The general pattern is martial arts, but this character himself stands on the opposite side of martial arts. To a certain extent, it is Deconstructing the world of martial arts is very fresh. It allows me to realize my dream of martial arts, and it also allows me to try to break through traditional martial arts in specific writing." This is where the recently hit "The Legend of Yunxiang" came into being.

"Legend of Yunxiang" poster

In the past ten years, martial arts dramas have not been popular in the industry and the market. Whether it is a remake of a classic martial arts or an original martial arts drama, the response in the market is either mediocre, or it has a reputation but lacks popularity. This is somewhat similar to the situation of martial arts novels in the era of Internet literature. Xianxia, Tomb Raiders, and Supernatural, there are many more creative and pioneering works in Internet literature. "Their steps are bigger and more in line with the Internet age. Audience requirements. Cooler, faster, more extreme, more romantic."

Works such as the original "Thousand Gates" series of "The Legend of Yunxiang" are also the creators of the "new martial arts" generation in China. An attempt to seek innovation and climb mountains. Their texts contain a lot of "rebellion" against traditional martial arts, but can this kind of rebellion be accepted by martial arts audiences in film and television adaptations? Can it attract the attention of non-martial arts audiences?

"Thousand Doors" Book Shadow

The innovation of "The Legend of Yunxiang" lies in "destroying martial arts with wisdom": how a "smart man" who does not know martial arts can stir up the situation in the world with strategy and wisdom. Such a martial arts story will naturally face doubts from all sides - "What is the relationship between martial arts and resourcefulness?" "The protagonist does not know martial arts, so is this called martial arts?" , Coupled with the "restriction of ancient times" a few years ago, Liang Zhenhua said with a smile that under the huge pressure, he even wanted to change "The Legend of Yunxiang" into a Republic of China drama.

It took Liang Zhenhua and his team nearly a year to finally finalize the direction of "Legend of Yunxiang". "First, we are still smart heroes. In the past, we used to be 'invincible in the world'. This is 'wisdom to calm the waves of the rivers and lakes'. In fact, it can also make the audience feel 'cool'; Live, Yunxiang's growth and transformation must be done. He has gone from a "revenge AI" that accurately calculates everyone to feeling love and warmth step by step. He has gradually completed the transformation from human to hero, from revenge to revenge. The sublimation of the common people; third, solidly follow the laws of the drama to solidify the characters, enrich the story, and shape the group portrait more comprehensively."

"With these three directions, we don't look back and go straight forward."

Stills of "The Legend of Yunxiang", Chen Xiao as Yunxiang

Cool dramas also need to respect the IQ of the audience

"Smart Man" Yunxiang strategizes and has exhaustive strategies, which is naturally "cool", but he did not hesitate to take advantage of his friends' indifference to achieve his goals in the early days, which also attracted criticism. A while ago, Liang Zhenhua encountered such an incident: "Someone 'Ait' me on the Internet, saying, 'What kind of broken martial arts are you, the male number one is actually a'bad guy'." He admitted frankly that he really let the male lead In a state of ambiguity between good and evil, it is especially self-interested, and everyone can take advantage of it. "But we still buried some of his little good thoughts in it, and these good thoughts gradually awakened and recovered, laying the groundwork for his growth and transformation." The strong revenge drive of all his actions is also in the category understandable by the audience, and it is not It meets the needs of the story with a strong plot, and can meet the audience's early demand for refreshment.

Stills of "Legend of Yunxiang"

The bigger problem is that this character setting subverts the heroic narrative of the traditional hero of martial arts, and even subverts the audience's expectations for martial arts dramas. Therefore, Shu Yanan and Jin Shiliang made up for this point. The two of them are typical knights in the rivers and lakes. "'s life-saving secret technique, using comedy settings to dilute the "badness" in the early character design, and also increase the temperament of traditional martial arts.

Liang Zhenhua admitted frankly that "The Legend of Yun Xiang" is "cool". In his observations, audiences in recent years have a high demand for "shuangwen" narratives in literary and artistic works, "while our audiences pursue strong stimulation and high-substitution viewing experience, we project our own desires and grievances on the In the characters and stories, some kind of emotional satisfaction and catharsis can be achieved through the revenge or counterattack of the characters in the drama." He believes that the narrative of Shuangwen should not be outdated for a long time.

But how can we be cool while avoiding routines that the audience finds familiar? "Shuang and revenge in "The Legend of Yunxiang", at least in terms of presentation, are different, and they are ascending at different levels. In the process of revenge, I did not write Yunxiang as a golden finger The person who wins will always win." He said that in terms of writing skills in Shuangwen, we must also respect the IQ of the audience and the strength of the protagonist's opponents in the story.

Stills of "Legend of Yunxiang"

"Anti-Martial Arts" martial arts rivers and lakes

Half of Yun Xiang's growth is due to Shu Yanan, because of love and warmth, he found desire and meaning beyond revenge. The contradiction and fusion of true emotion and resourcefulness, love and revenge also make the emotional line and the main story line tightly bound, boosting the staged growth of the male protagonist. Yunxiang has a lot of ingenuity, and Shu Yanan has a strong force. In the play, there are often hilarious plots such as "reverse princess hug" and "reverse wall dong". Many viewers commented that the relationship between this group of characters is "female A male O", which is true There are new ideas, but there is no creative paradigm to follow in the construction of character relationships and emotions, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of writing emotional lines and the uncertainty of audience acceptance. But Liang Zhenhua believes, "Some of the difficulties in writing are indeed here, but we know that as long as we rush through, we will definitely be able to give the audience something brand new, so the hardships of writing are worth it."

"There are so many classic martial arts works, how many women are the top masters? Most of them are men. In the writings of that generation of authors, the world of Jianghu belongs to men, and women are relatively embellishments in this man's world." Liang Zhenhua said, "This On one point, we firmly hope to subvert the tradition, and we have spent no less effort than Yun Xiang in shaping Shu Yanan."

"Legend of Yunxiang" stills, Mao Xiaotong as Shu Yanan

Previously, in the creation of "Blame You Are Too Beautiful" and "The Wind Blows Pinellia", Liang Zhenhua also led and participated in the creation of vivid, strong, and tough female images. The comment from the audience that pleased Liang Zhenhua the most is: This is a typical "anti-male" text. "Some people commented that Shu Yanan proved that this screenwriter is writing about women from the standpoint of women from the beginning to the end. I am happiest to see that the audience's evaluation of Shu Yanan is not inferior to Yunxiang's."

Another part of "rebellion" in "The Legend of Yunxiang" is the reflection on the traditional rivers and lakes.

The character Su Mingyu in the play undertakes some kind of reflection and deconstruction of the concept of Jianghu: a person who seems to know the history of martial arts and martial arts secrets like the back of his hand, a person who yearns for and loves Jianghu. He didn't understand until the blood of the dead was sprayed on his face What is Jianghu.

"Legend of Yun Xiang" Stills, Tang Xiaotian as Su Mingyu

"Why do we like martial arts? Because the spirit of chivalry and the sense of the world meet our needs for another spiritual system outside of real life." Liang Zhenhua said, "Martial arts allow us to put aside all the constraints in real life and yearn for a Galloping freely and freely in this world, there are brothers who are most congenial to you, and lovers who share life and death with you. You ride among them, punish the evil and promote the good, and enjoy your kindness and hatred. But how do you get to this ideal world like a peach blossom garden? " Jianghu's Freedom means that there is no solid order, and the establishment of order in the martial arts can only be achieved through force. "But in the face of villains, is it really that easy to use a knife in your hand?" One side is the romance of the world, and the other is the cruelty of the world. This duality of the world is concentrated on Su Mingyu. In the process of understanding the world, the young man , got tempered personality.

And the character Qi Tianfeng in the play is talking about the world from another perspective. Qi Tianfeng, played by Wang Jinsong, is cruel and ruthless externally, but generous and generous internally. The brothers are willing to do anything for him. In his opinion, good and evil in the world are important, "but when it comes to the presentation of individuals, I hope that regardless of the decent villains, they all have their backgrounds and emotional relationships, which will become the fulcrum of his state in the play." Yunxiang's successful revenge on Qi Tianfeng brought Yunxiang and the audience not only a kind of "excitement" that evil will be rewarded with evil, but also a tragic ending and a complex flavor of life.

"Legend of Yunxiang" Stills, Wang Jinsong as Qi Tianfeng

Refuse to follow suit, no need to benchmark

In terms of innovation, film and television dramas are both encouraged and cautious. From time to time, the screenwriter will face the torture of the platform, what works are he benchmarking against? What audience is the main target? Who is pleasing? These pre-restrictions actually put a lot of constraints on the creation of screenwriters. "I have also heard the complaints of many young creators. They are shackled, come from data, and come from the shackles of some creative intervention. They may be more difficult." I have hardly faced these problems in this cooperation with Yiyi, they believe in the creators very much and are willing to support our innovation."

And has been working hard on the front line of creation, Liang Zhenhua is also trying to figure out the mentality of the audience. "If you really follow the data to create, will the audience buy it? If you really benchmark a certain successful work, the audience will definitely like it? In my observation, the answer is often the opposite. Of course, we must respect Classic narrative, classic character creation methods, and classic creative principles, but the underlying logic is still to create living characters in a way that respects creative principles.”

"Blame You Are Excessively Beautiful" and "The Wind Blows Pinellia", we have no benchmark works. If you understand my creative experience, my works are of high or low quality, but I refuse to follow the trend and try to do something different from others."

Regarding "The Legend of Yunxiang", Liang Zhenhua said frankly, "We have used our sincerity, but we are really not sure about the audience's acceptance. Judging from the broadcast effect of "The Legend of Yunxiang", I think the audience's acceptance is beyond my expectations .” What hasn’t the audience seen today? "If "The Legend of Yunxiang" did not use such a decisive innovation, but converged and polished it into a work that is not much different from traditional martial arts, it would not be possible to achieve what it is today. Because of the classicity and influence of the text, how can we Have you ever won those martial arts masters?"

"But we still have a sense of the world. We definitely have reservations about the chivalrous spirit of love and hatred. We hope that the audience can feel that the martial arts are not dead, and the world is still there."