Editor's note: This is a nostalgic theater.
On January 24, 2005, "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" was first broadcast on Taiwan's CTS. On January 31, 2005, the series was shown to the audience on the TV series channel of Shanghai TV and the film channel of Chongqing TV. In a blink of an eye, it was exactly 20 years ago.
Poster of "Legend of Sword and Fairy"
When talking about this drama now, the scene that flashes before many people's eyes must be the ten-year agreement made by the protagonists facing the wheat fields and the starry sky at night. On many video websites, this plot appears most frequently. This is the "unforgettable" feeling left by the drama for the audience, and it has also become a secret connection between many people and their youth.
Yes, let alone the ten-year agreement, it has been twenty years. Have you fulfilled the wish you made silently back then?
"Ten-year agreement"
Of course, the most important reason why this scene can still move us today is the youthfulness it exudes. Unlike many current fairy tales and fantasy dramas, the leading actors in this drama are all real "young people".
At that time, Hu Ge was not the suave and charming Bao Zong he is now, but a young boy who "didn't know how to act"; Liu Yifei was only 17 years old at that time, and she was highly compatible with the role of Zhao Linger, showing an innocent image of being ignorant of the world both in and out of the play; Liu Pinyan was supposed to play Lin Yueru at that time, but at the age of 16, she herself admitted that her mental age was not mature enough and she was not qualified for this role, so she became the unforgettable Anu. As for Peng Yuyan and Ady An, perhaps they should also thank "Chinese Paladin" for recording their immature acting skills, immature appearance and what may be the most innocent performance in their lives.
Hu Ge as Li Xiaoyao
Liu Yifei as Zhao Linger
Some people say that the theme of "Chinese Paladin" should be the presentation of love and the exploration of fate. This statement is of course correct, but I still think that without the "youthful feeling" of the drama, those so-called themes will lose the most important support and become castles in the air.
Over the years, the reputation of "Chinese Paladin" has been rising, and now the score on Douban has reached 9.1 points (390,000 people have rated it). However, the drama has also encountered a lot of controversy or criticism in recent years. For example, some netizens took screenshots of many of Li Xiaoyao's "vulgar" lines in the drama, believing that his "three views are not correct"; for example, the love triangle between Li Xiaoyao, Zhao Linger and Lin Yueru has also become evidence of his being a "scumbag".
The most interesting thing, of course, is the "reversal" of the biggest villain in the play, the Moon Worshiper. In the eyes of some netizens, the Moon Worshiper, who always remains rational and restrained, is much more reliable than the reckless and naive protagonists. This guy's famous saying is "Without fools, there would be no war in the world, everyone is smart, and everything is beautiful." In comparison, Li Xiaoyao, who only knows how to "love and love", is indeed not very smart, and is always causing trouble. Therefore, the evaluation of the protagonist and the villain is reversed in the evaluation of some netizens.
Xu Jinjiang as the Moon Worshiper
But is this really the case? In fact, the Drunken Swordsman and his senior brother Sword Saint in the play have already discussed this issue. Sword Saint, Yin Ruozhuo, was in love with Lin Qing'er, a descendant of Nuwa. At the critical moment, he chose the "Tao" that he thought he should stick to, and gave up "love", which eventually led to Lin Qing'er sacrificing herself to save the people.
Why did he choose this? "Tao" means to follow nature's course, strictly follow the existing facts in the world, let everything happen naturally, and never intervene artificially. Since Qing'er's fate is to sacrifice, then her fate should be fulfilled in exchange for world peace and the safety of the people of Nanzhao. The choice of the Sword Saint also represents the views of the previous generation such as the King of Nanzhao and Elder Shi - Qing'er's sacrifice is at least in line with the practical interests of most people.
Bai Yue disagreed with this. In his opinion, Elder Shi and others had sacrificed Qing'er before, and now they were going to sacrifice Ling'er. In order to preserve themselves, humans had reached a point where they were beyond redemption. What was the point of the Nanzhao Kingdom continuing to exist like this? This was why he was determined to destroy everything and create a new world.
But Baiyue is obviously unwilling to admit that in addition to "Tao", human society also has true "love". Indeed, in "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", many mortals are selfish, profit-seeking, and even ugly. From a moral perspective, they are not even as good as many monsters and animals, such as Caiyi who is willing to sacrifice for Liu Jinyuan. But the birth of love allows each individual to learn to think for, understand, and tolerate each other. It can be said that as long as there is "love" in the world, the world is not hopeless and there is hope. The failure of Baiyue is not due to the lack of power, but to the lack of understanding of the true meaning of "love".
Knowing this, we can understand the choices of the protagonists in the play. Zhao Linger once avoided Li Xiaoyao, not because she was wavering in her feelings, but because she was worried that her mission would drag down and affect her lover's life; Lin Yueru was willing to withdraw from the triangle relationship and help Li Xiaoyao and Zhao Linger, not only because she was generous and open-minded, but also because she sincerely wanted to see the person she loved be happy; similarly, Liu Jinyuan knew that his efforts would not be reciprocated, but he still chose to silently guard his cousin Lin Yueru. Let me ask, are they really "stupid"?
Ady An as Lin Yueru
The criticism and complaints that "Legend of Sword and Fairy" has encountered today are largely due to the change of times and environment. Aren't Li Xiaoyao and his lovers and friends typical "love-brained" people? Isn't the concept of worshiping the moon or the sword master more practical and effective? Whether it is taking the civil service exam or the postgraduate entrance exam, whether it is work or marriage, the big Vs and Internet celebrities on social media are trying to teach us various "ways" to let us know how to better preserve ourselves, reduce losses, and how to maximize real benefits. As for the "youthful feeling" that does not conform to the success theory, it seems to have been slowly submerged in the tide of the times.
It is true that the protagonists in this drama, including Li Xiaoyao, are imperfect. The male characters are not "male gods" like He Yichen in "Silent Separation" and Bai Zihua in "The Journey of Flower", and the female characters are not "Mary Sue" in the current fairy tale fantasy dramas. Their youthfulness may mean mistakes and failures, or even the same as Li Xiaoyao, who is young and ignorant and speaks without thinking, but youthfulness also means the most precious "possibility". This is the true value of the ten-year agreement - maybe we may not be able to realize our dreams when we were young, and we may not be able to stay with the people we love most for the rest of our lives, but at least we have fought, worked hard, and struggled for it.
If today's idol dramas offer audiences industrial syrup from an assembly line, then "Legend of Sword and Fairy" retains the roughness and reality unique to youth - it may not provide the so-called emotional value, but it allows the audience to experience what real life is.
More importantly, 20 years later, the scale of Xianxia fantasy dramas has become larger and larger, with scenes of the vast seas and the battles between immortals and demons, but they are more like standard templates for realizing the audience's fantasies. Although they also involve love, the narrative content is limited to the level of "whether the male protagonist is infatuated with the female protagonist" and "whether there is a sense of pleasure", completely losing the fireworks of the protagonists in "The Legend of Sword and Fairy". Compared with this drama, today's Xianxia fantasy dramas may have more exquisite makeup, cooler special effects, and more sophisticated production, but they have lost the ideological value that can be chewed over and over again.
The ending of Li Xiaoyao and Zhao Linger not being able to stay together for life has become an eternal pain in the hearts of our generation of viewers. But don't forget that the real ending of the play is that Li Xiaoyao, with his daughter Li Yiru in his arms, meets the Sword Saint again with a stubble on his face. At this time, he is no longer the young man who travels the world with a sword and is infatuated with his beloved, but a man with vicissitudes of life written all over his eyes and eyebrows.
The Sword Master said "child" in a trembling voice and tried to comfort Li Xiaoyao with his hands, but the latter calmly asked him: "Do you understand?" The Sword Master was unable to answer and raised his head to hold back tears. The play ended here.
So, what should the Sword Saint "understand"? In the eyes of the wise Sword Saint, Li Xiaoyao's life of gaining everything and losing everything is tragic, and the idea of being obsessed with the world is wrong, but in my eyes, his life of escaping from Qing'er on his wedding night and personally persuading his beloved to go to Nanzhao to save the people is not worth living.
Twenty years have passed, and more and more people think they have seen through the "world". They always hold the thick black theory in front of their chests and hide the success theory in their hearts. Like the "smart" swordsman and Baiyue, they try to teach us how to live. Li Xiaoyao and his friends seem to have disappeared, just like the youth we once had, which has drifted away in our youth that we can never get back.
