from novel to tv series: the gains and losses of the adaptation of "the edge of water"
2024-09-05
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"the past by the waterside" has emerged as a "dark horse" and has stirred up the rather dull chinese drama market this summer. pictured is a still from the series
lu peng
right after it concluded, 75,000 people gave it a score of 8.3, and "waterside story" became a dark horse, stirring up the rather dull domestic drama market this summer.
the series tells the story of shen xing, a college graduate, who went to the fictional xiaomo nong in the bomo federation to seek refuge with his uncle who was doing construction work there. his uncle was detained in the armed blockade conflict zone for asking for construction funds. in order to settle the wages for the workers and find his uncle, shen xing accidentally got involved in the power struggle in sanbianpo and became a member of the local water business under uncle cai, thus starting an adventurous and exciting life in a foreign land.
the drama is adapted from the serialized story of the same name, "the talented catcher project". the original author shen xingxing completed this memoir-style novel based on his personal experience in myanmar. director lao suan has participated in directing the web drama "the beginning". he also co-wrote the screenwriter with cui xiaoxue, and the producer is cao baoping, who is good at shooting small-person realistic crime themes.
from novels to tv series, film and television adaptations have greatly expanded and deepened the original works, and the use and expression of film and television language are worthy of recognition; at the same time, there are also aspects worthy of discussion and improvement in the process of adaptation and presentation.
adapted from:
authenticity, pioneering and details
the first commendable aspect of the adaptation of "border water memories" is the change in its pronouns or narrative perspective.
the novel is based on the first-person perspective of shen xingxing, who reminisces about his life in a foreign land for a year. the memories are presented in the form of biographies of different people he has come into contact with, and in the process of narrating the characters, many trivial details about the local environment and background are provided. because memory is unreliable, incomplete, too personal and emotional, the presentation of the tv series can only be in form but not in substance like a novel, so the screenwriter adapted the first-person biographical autobiographical memories into a third-person collection of bo mo stories in the style of a period drama. the stories of the characters who appear one by one in the novel have become a series of events represented by interests, which revolve around the interests of the sphere of influence with sanbianpo as the core and space and field as the boundary, thus connecting the characters who appear continuously.
this is the brilliance of the film and television adaptation. otherwise, the tv series "border water past" can only be filmed as a series with a low degree of connection between episodes rather than a serial drama.
changes in narrative perspective or person also provide possibilities for in-depth development of the story and deep involvement in local society.
the original work uses "i" as the perspective, and the stories that can be expressed can only be those that "i" have experienced or that "i" know. narration in the third person goes beyond the scope of "i"'s experience. although the story of the protagonist shen xing is still the main line, in theory, the experiences and experiences of all the characters and the forces and black or white industries they are connected to can be expressed in a more informative audio-visual language, which greatly expands the scope of expression of the tv series.
the second aspect of the adaptation that deserves recognition is the tv series's fictional treatment of the country in the original work. this fiction adds a sense of reality to this type of crime adventure tv series.
if the realism of a novel comes from the author's narration of personal experience, then the realism of a tv series comes from our recognition of the limitations of our own vision and experience - that is, no matter how broad our vision and how rich our experience, the world we can perceive is only a very small part of this world. this provides a meaning for the existence of various news media and even literary and artistic works such as film and television.
the sense of reality in the tv series "border water past" is based on the cruelty, blood, jungle law, etc. in this world that most people cannot set foot in and experience. the tv series fictionalized the federation of bomo, which is a union of the bo and mo peoples, to replace myanmar in the original work, so that it can be free to create based on the chaotic reality. as a result, many gray and black industries took turns to appear, and many details can be laid out to maximize the presentation and satisfaction of the audience's real imagination of the exotic rivers and lakes and the bloody world. of course, this kind of reality is based on the tv series presentation of specific stories, actor performances, human expression and environment shaping, but if there is no such setting, this kind of creation will definitely be timid and limited.
in addition, the tv series's careful study of many details is also its highlight. the story in the novel begins in 2009 and ends in 2010. in addition to the use of non-smartphones, which can give people a sense of the times, the rest of the tv series will not make people feel like they are back in the past, but it still cleverly explains this era. at the beginning of the tv series, shen xing said that he was about to turn 22 years old, and then the close-up of the passport showed that shen xing was born in 1987, so 2009 was implicitly presented. in fact, for the fictional "bianshui past", time and place are not very important, but the respect for the original work in the tv series adaptation and the audio-visual language expression in the adaptation also show its intentions. in addition, in order to fit the personal characteristics of guo qilin, who plays shen xing, the birthplace of shen xingxing in the original work, was changed from the zhejiang town to tianjin in the tv series, which can be regarded as a self-consistent operation.
errors in the adaptation:
personality, transformation and reflection
although "the past by the water" is a dark horse in the domestic drama market this year and has performed impressively, from the perspective of adaptation and creation, it is not without its debatable aspects.
in the original work, "i" was mainly engaged in water-handling work in sanbianpo, but in the tv series, water-handling was just a job for shen xing before he found his uncle. the so-called water-handling is actually the transportation of daily necessities to drug dealers in the mountains, which is divided into two links: receiving water and walking in the mountains: transporting goods to the warehouse is receiving water, and then transporting the goods to the drug dealers is walking in the mountains. with the help of water-handling, a panoramic view can be presented of the state in which the various forces in sanbianpo and even bomo, an exotic world, are extremely disordered and operate in an orderly manner in disorder. it contains a large number of details that the audience may have heard of but never seen in person, allowing people to experience novelty and reality while feeling excitement and shock.
as mentioned above, from the novel to the tv series, the narrative perspective of the story has changed, expanding the background or other people's stories in the original work into experiences related to the protagonist shen xing. the advantage of doing this is that it expands the story capacity of the series, but it also causes two problems: first, the series uses the 11th episode of shen xing finding his uncle but choosing to stay because of passport problems and unable to return home as a dividing line. before the 11th episode, shen xing mainly narrated running to bianshui, while after the 11th episode, he participated in other affairs such as cai shu's casino and no longer ran to bianshui. this makes the title of the show suspected of not matching the reality. because if bianshui is shen xing's past, then it obviously cannot cover the content of the later part of the series; if bianshui is bomo's past, then it cannot cover other illegal and criminal activities in the play. the stories in the second half of the tv series are almost based on the original work, and seem to return to the narrative perspective of the original work, highlighting the lack of imagination of the screenwriter in the creation compared with the first half. the end of the tv series returns to shen xing's first-person narrative with a voice-over, and the perspective changes from free to real, which is superfluous.
the bigger problem of the tv series compared to the original work may be the character setting of shen xing. guo qilin, who plays shen xing, is too relaxed and true to his character in his performance. compared with the exquisite, appropriate and credible acting skills of other actors, he seems too raw. but it seems unfair to attribute all the problems to guo qilin's performance. the "i" in the original work entered society early, with the cunning and secular nature of the bottom, but at the same time there are entanglements, kindness and fear, while shen xing in the tv series is loyal, wise and brave, slick and always at ease. this character setting not only makes shen xing's transformation around episode 11 seem unreliable, but also adds too much protagonist aura and drama to his adventure in bomo, such as being able to successfully transport pigeon blood red from the mine, being lucky enough to pick up tapirs, escaping pursuit again and again, and even running a casino skillfully from the start. after episode 16, the tv series focuses on showing that he wants to break away from uncle cai, and calls his active choice to stay in episode 11 as his "naivety". in the original novel, the reason for fleeing was because i felt insecure after seeing uncle cai killing his men. the far-fetched reason in the tv series was that uncle cai was involved in drug trafficking. although it was righteous, it lacked the rationality and persuasiveness of the plot. this replaced the desolation and struggle of the anti-heroic little characters in the original novel with an unconvincing anti-gangster personal hero story of growing up in the gang. the reflection and criticality of the intention were deliberate and pale, which made it inferior.
in fact, narrative is not to make us remember the story or a certain detail, but to trigger the audience's reflection and criticism of the story or details. this kind of reflection and criticism can enable us to maintain some spiritual understanding in the accelerated and tired society where short videos are popular, thus forming the source and nourishment of our spiritual world. this world is naturally not like the peach blossom spring, "pain is infinite and it has various forms." watching the "pain of others" in the distance, as kolilaqi's research, is to transform it into our own social solidarity. from this perspective, we watch the stories of the marginalized people in the abnormal society of bomo, which are full of curiosity, blood, bestiality and suffering, in order to deepen our love for the peaceful and safe life at present on the basis of reflection and criticism. the adaptation of the tv series at this point, especially the rather hasty ending of the last five episodes, lacks the rationality and emotional sigh of the original work, and obviously leaves regrets in achieving this goal.
(the author is a researcher at the institute of journalism of the shanghai academy of social sciences and director of the center for film, television culture and audiovisual communication research)
(source: wenhui daily)
