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Author | Wei Jian

Five days after its release, "Under the Aliens" finally broke through 100 million yuan with difficulty. The box office forecast dropped from over 300 million yuan on the premiere day to less than 150 million yuan, and the excitement in the public opinion field has not yet ended. The most lively one is nothing more than some marketing accounts shouting "the fans of the original book bully the fans of the movie". This statement is a crude opposition between the fans of the original book and the fans of the movie. It also raises a question for us: For comic-adapted movies, are the fans of the original book important?

The answer given by the market now is obvious: important, very important!

As a major IP that is "one of the pinnacles of Chinese animation", "Under the Aliens" has a wide fan base, so it is understandable that it emphasizes the fit with the original work in its early promotions.Fans of the original novel do not demand a 1:1 reproduction, but they do have basic requirements for casting, character design, and plot fluency. When they find that the film version fails to meet their basic needs and makes unreasonable adaptations to the parts of the original work that they found attractive, they will also output negative reviews.

Director Wuershan emphasized in an interview that one of the directions of the adaptation of the film version of "Under the Alien" is to make it acceptable to a wider range of ordinary audiences. Judging from the results, the overall viewing experience of the audience who are not familiar with the original work is indeed much better than that of the original fans. Many positive reviews focus on the cool special effects, stylistic innovation and novel worldview, but the shortcomings in the basic narrative and character development still failed to attract a wider range of audiences to enter.

As for the influence of fans of the original novel on the movie, on the one hand, fans of the original novel are the core fan group, and on the other hand, most of their demands actually reflect the core charm of the original IP content.

In line with the consistent position of Entertainment Capital, we believe that commercial movies are essentially a kind of product, and the methodology of movies as a product is completely applicable to other classic business theories. The core users of the product "Under Aliens" should be fans of the original novel. In this regard, we tried to use the classic Kano model in user analysis in business school textbooks to disassemble the five major needs of the audience of "Under Aliens" and summarize the priority of making a good comic adaptation.

The Kano model divides user needs into five categories: basic needs, expected needs, exciting needs, indifferent needs, and reverse needs.

Basic requirements: Complete plot structure

Basic needs refer to the attributes that users believe a product must have. If these needs are not met, users will be very dissatisfied; but even if they are met, users will just take it for granted and will not have a special increase in satisfaction.

For a movie, the basic requirements are a complete plot structure and a proper narrative rhythm.

The film version of "Under the Aliens" is mainly based on the plot of the original comics, chapters 1 to 57, "Feng Baobao's Chapter". The main plot is Zhang Chulan's understanding of his alien identity, his transformation from hiding his identity and abilities to joining the alien world to protect his relatives and friends, and the revelation of Feng Baobao's life experience. The first season of the anime version released in 2016 also ended here.

Logically speaking, if the film is based on the original novel, the basic requirements should be met. But the problem lies in the final "original" plot, that is, the battle between Nadutong and the four crazy people of Quanxing.

Wuershan revealed his principles of adaptation during roadshows and interviews. First, the film must be understandable to audiences who have not read the original work, and different concepts such as "Qi", aliens, and factions must be introduced to the audience. Second, the film needs to have a climax, so new settings were added to the last third of the film to intensify character conflicts and allow the four Quan Xing madmen to join forces to complete the challenge to the protagonist Zhang Chulan.

But from the final presentation, it seems that in order to achieve the final "climax" plot, the film has adapted some of the previous character settings and plots in reverse, making the original characters appear in a revolving lantern style, and the presentation is not three-dimensional enough.

The first person to be affected was the protagonist Feng Baobao.

Originally, Feng Baobao's "three-nothing" character and the setting of a combat power ceiling were one of the "highlights" of the original work, but in order to complete the plot line of Zhang Chulan and Feng Baobao meeting - getting familiar with each other - misunderstandings - resolving misunderstandings - awakening battle, the movie version made Feng Baobao be injured by Xia He, Shen Chong and others who were originally less powerful than her, and finally saved by Zhang Chulan. After the change, the charm of Feng Baobao, the focus of the play, was weakened, and the combat power system collapsed.

The second is that the character growth and arc of the protagonist Zhang Chulan are not obvious enough.

At the beginning, Zhang Chulan hid his strength because of his grandfather's advice that "a tree that stands out in the forest will be destroyed by the wind." However, due to the struggle between Feng Baobao and various parties for the source of Qi, he was forced to be involved in the world of aliens and used Yang Wu Lei. Later, when preparing for the Alien Conference, he suddenly remembered that his grandfather's death was caused by him (Wuershan said in an interview that this is an original plot and he hopes to make the character's psychology solid).

From the perspective of film creation logic, such an adaptation is understandable, but in actual presentation, it is difficult to see Zhang Chulan's struggle and psychological transformation between "out" and "in".

Moreover, the early part of the movie emphasized Zhang Chulan's decision on whether to hide his identity. The core conflict in the second half is set as Zhang Chulan's "low-level misunderstanding" that Feng Baobao killed his grandfather. Zhang Chulan neither considered the abnormality of the villain's sudden intervention, nor ignored his previous interactions with Feng Baobao. It seems that the adaptations are all to serve the final original "climax" battle.

This pattern of working backwards from the result has a far-reaching impact, causing the film to vacillate between "writing about people" or "writing about events". In the end, the characters are not three-dimensional enough and the narrative rhythm is out of balance.

For fans of the original novel, the failure to meet this basic need will lead to obvious dissatisfaction. For ordinary audiences, although they understand the uniqueness of each sect and character, and some are excited about the strangeness of the alien world, the flaws in narrative and characters will prevent the movie from becoming a highly recommended good movie, thereby driving more audiences to watch.

Expected demand: role adaptation and face-fitting

Expected demand is proportional to the performance of the product. The better the performance of the product, the higher the user satisfaction.

For comic-adapted movies, the audience's typical expectation is that the characters are adaptable and true to the original characters. The higher the adaptability and closer the characters are to the original characters, the higher the satisfaction of the original fans will be.The casting of comic adaptations is also the first to be scrutinized, and the transition from the two-dimensional to the three-dimensional is indeed difficult to satisfy everyone.

Most of the casting choices in "Under the Stranger" are pursuing "resemblance in appearance". Zhang Chulan's hot-blooded and immature character, Feng Baobao's "three-nothing" indifferent character, and Xia He's natural charm are basically trying to be close to the characters, but not completely similar in appearance.

For example, the facial features of Feng Baobao in the movie version are actually a bit too "gorgeous" and even "internet celebrity", which runs counter to the "three no" attributes.

Judging from the feedback from fans of the original novel, the casting of Zhang Lingyu is the most controversial. In the original novel, he is an "immortal" dressed in white, but the character's appearance in the film version is obviously not suitable enough and has been repeatedly complained about.

The last Chinese comic-adapted movie was "The Walled City", in which the casting and styling of Shinichi and Tornado were highly praised. It not only referred to the comics, but also had an understanding and innovation of the characters. Shinichi's middle-parted ramen hair and motorcycle handsomeness are full of charm, and Tornado's white hair and brown sunglasses make him look intimidating. The two roles are very well matched, which also adds to the actors themselves.

In fact, casting for comic adaptations does not necessarily require pursuing the "exaggeration" of the comics, but rather how to combine the actors themselves to bring out their strengths.

Excitement (charm) needs: action design or rich characters

Exciting needs refer to needs that are not overly expected by users. When a product has these characteristics, users will be surprised, which will greatly improve satisfaction and loyalty, but if they are not met, it will not have any impact.

For film and television works, this kind of demand that can exceed expectations means that while the basic and expected needs are basically met, reasonable adaptations and innovations can be made to the original work, thereby increasing the richness of the characters, improving the smoothness of the plot, taking the essence and removing the dross.

Previously, "Hikaru no Go" was well received for the details of the localized adaptation after the original Japanese IP was moved to China, thus satisfying the audience's excitement needs and becoming the fulcrum of a large amount of positive word-of-mouth.

Similarly, there are also film and television works such as "The Three-Body Problem" that are completely copied 1:1 from the original work and receive attention and praise, which shows that the creativity of the adaptation should not only be adapted to local conditions, but if the original work itself is good enough, even if there is no corresponding adaptation and innovation, it will not affect the audience's favorability. Of course, such a strategy may not be able to gain users' support.It is a need for excitement (charm), but it is also a wise move of retreating in order to advance.

It is undeniable that "Under the Alien" is indeed innovative. The specific fighting action design of the aliens, the cyberpunk-like stylistic unification and the further integration with traditional Chinese culture (such as the manifestation of meridian luck) actually give this story that has been interpreted in animation and TV series a new way of expression. However, this kind of innovation needs to be based on the basic needs and expected needs being basically met in order to work.

The excitement that the audience expects also includes how to combine the core of the original comics with the present.

Last year, "The First Part of Investiture of the Gods" received rave reviews for its modern adaptation of the story of Daji, the "beauty who brings disaster", but this time it lacks the kind of word-of-mouth appeal that would make people feel "eye-opening".

No difference in demand: AI copying

For fans of the original novel of "Under the Alien", the undifferentiated demand is actually the 2.5-dimensional real-life imitation part combined with AI.

This is not the "high point" for fans of the original novel, but it has been magnified in marketing promotions. In interviews and production specials, Wuershan believes that the attempt to use 2.5-dimensional real-person imitations is an innovation that is close to the sense of comics, but in fact, there are a large number of two-dimensional fans who do not like AI-produced ones.

In terms of specific presentation, the originally highly emotionally intense "Feng Baobao's Memories" part lost the details of the emotional flow due to the live-action copy. The emotional bond between Feng Baobao and Gouwazi and the interaction details between Zhang Chulan and his grandfather were weakened a lot. Although the movie also added two specific details of Feng Baobao protecting Zhang Chulan, it is difficult for the audience to establish an emotional connection with the characters due to the disadvantages of AI animation.

To be fair, AI is not actually the core concern of fans of the original novel. It just becomes an outlet for their emotions when the first few demands are not met.

Reverse demand: suspected SM hint

Reverse demands refer to characteristics that cause strong dissatisfaction among the audience.

Under the AlienThe most obvious one is the male gaze perspective that has been discussed for a long time and is suspected to be SMThe original novel is indeed more male-oriented, and the protagonist Zhang Chulan also has the characteristics of a wretched virgin at the beginning, but "Under the Alien" does not weaken this but amplifies it, and even adds unnecessary "innovations". For example, Xia He's twisting posture, close-ups of her breasts, Zhang Chulan being tied up and stuffed with a ball in his mouth, and the threat of asking Tu Houzi to rape Liu Yanyan when forcing her to confess.

These plots will increase the discomfort of ordinary female viewers, thus causing disgust. However, it is of no benefit to male fans of the original novel, because the "vulgar" temperament in the original novel is more obviously for the purpose of being funny, or to make Zhang Chulan appear more approachable, rather than for pornography.

Summarize

From the perspective of film industrialization and genre innovation, "Under the Aliens" can hardly be called a "bad movie", and most of the reviews are concentrated around 3 points (out of 5 points).Both the stylized production of special effects and the innovation of combining the action training camp with traditional Chinese martial arts are worthy of recognition.

However, from the perspective of the special attribute of comic adaptations, the misplaced perception of the "high point" of the original fans caused the film to lose the support of the core audience group from the beginning and the possibility of subsequent long-tail word-of-mouth fermentation., and it also loses the uniqueness of comic adaptations, because our expectations for "Under the Aliens" are more than just "a qualified popcorn blockbuster."

It should be made clear that fans of the original comic book are also part of the general audience, and the two are not in opposition. What fans of the original comic book expect is not a 1:1 copy of the film and television adaptation, but to make the plot of the adapted work smoother, the details more realistic, and the characters more three-dimensional and rich, within a reasonable range and while meeting the core needs, so as to adapt it in a "good" direction.

If we analyze the starting point of "Under the Alien" based on the user demand theory, it must be to unify "filming for the fans of the original novel" into "filming for more audiences". Paying attention to the needs of the original fans is an important key to the success of future comic-adapted movies and is also a necessary skill for all commercial film directors.