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text丨hua xiang liao

editor: ai luo

half a month after its release, the popularity of the phenomenal game "black myth: wukong" is far from over.

after the initial surprise and fresh "battle excitement", players and viewers are now turning their attention to the detailed design of this work. first, a clip of huangfengling lingji bodhisattva telling a story in shaanxi dialect has become popular through short video platforms, and then many game characters, mainly simei, nezha, and kangjinxingjun, have begun to attract fans on the entire network.

the popular character "fourth sister" in "black myth: wukong" 

in addition, the unique fragmented narrative style of this work has also generated heated discussions in the public opinion field, and it seems that "internet monkey studies" has begun to take shape. beyond the field of games, "black myth wukong" has also triggered a chain reaction in offline cultural tourism, art collection, book publishing and other industries, and its influence has spread to major overseas platforms. in the lively atmosphere, the sales of "black myth wukong" have been pushed all the way to 18 million copies, winning the global championship on the steam platform for four consecutive years. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

as of september 8, black myth: wukong has sold more than 18 million copies worldwide. 

as a cultural and entertainment-related field, the film and television industry, which just bid farewell to the summer season, is in a slightly longer ice age cycle. in the past few months, the film and television industry has rarely heard exciting good news. whenever it is listed, it is usually news like this: a big-budget movie that the industry has high hopes for has suffered a failure; during the release period, a movie has repeatedly lowered its box office expectations.

whether it is the stagnation of cutting-edge technology, the bottleneck of marketing, or the change of audience mentality, the creative team always has reasons for the current situation of box office failure. after the release of "black myth: wukong", "entertainment review" had in-depth exchanges with the top people in the film and television industry about this work. they also quietly embarked on their own journey of "facing destiny". in this precious cultural carnival, we tried to find some thoughts and inspirations that can be used for chinese film and television.

revelation 1: the core of adapting classic works is to extract the spiritual core

is the film and television adaptation of classic literary works, especially the adaptation of well-known allusions such as "journey to the west", still a good business today? this is a topic that is debated every once in a while in the film and television industry. the advantages of national ip are obvious: the audience base of hundreds of millions or even billions is unshakable. however, classic works also mean that there are gems before, which means that audiences are more difficult to be impressed and examine the works with a more rigorous and critical attitude.

the 1986 cctv version of "journey to the west" classic four masters and apprentices and the white dragon horse 

so,adapting classic stories can have two extreme results in the film and television industry.

the first is similar to the status of "black myth: wukong". it was a huge hit at the box office and received rave reviews, becoming the best-selling movie of the year.

earlier, there were animated films such as "the return of the great sage" and "nezha: the devil child comes into the world", and last year's "investiture of the gods part i: chaoge storm" were all like this.

stills from "the legend of the gods part 1: chaoge storm" 

the second is to go the exact opposite way, not only failing to gain recognition, but also becoming a laughing stock on social media.

not to mention the distant past, "a dream of red mansions part two", which was released almost at the same time as "black myth: wukong" and was also based on the four great classical novels, was once rumored to have an investment of more than 200 million yuan, but it only earned more than 5.4 million yuan at the box office before hastily withdrawing. during its short release period, there were one turmoil after another, and the collapsed reputation even directly affected the director and actors.

"a dream of red mansions: a marriage of gold and jade", netizens: one dai is worse than another 

fans of the original book are criticizing"magic change"when it comes to the phenomenon of "adaptation", it is often emphasized that the best adaptation is to restore the original. however, from past creative experience, this is not easy. the text leaves ample room for readers' imagination. everyone has their own preset character image in their mind. the creative team tries their best to follow the original treatment method, but it is bound to fail to meet everyone's expectations.

when communicating with a senior executive of a film company about the film and television adaptation of classic works, we came up with a trick:being faithful to the spiritual core of the original work is more important than being faithful to the original text.

the mini version of zhu bajie in "black myth: wukong" is widely praised 

in terms of the adaptation of "journey to the west", "black myth: wukong" has many outstanding features. take the second brother zhu bajie in the game as an example: his figure is completely miniaturized, which is in stark contrast to the impression of being wide and fat in the original work. usually he is very cute when he follows the protagonist and chatters, but through the unfolding of the plot narrative, people gradually feel the charm of this "most affectionate person in journey to the west". he and the spider spirit have a different and abusive love across the three realms, and even many overseas anchors who have not watched "journey to the west" can empathize with him. and facing the scene of the water curtain cave in huaguo mountain where everything has changed, he sits on the throne of the eldest brother and reads out the dialogue of the year, and only a few words can pierce the audience's tears.

the image of the monkey king in black myth: wukong 

of course, the adaptation of "black myth: wukong" is still not perfect, and people still have complaints about the monkey king in the game: before and after the journey to the west, he owed a lot to his old brother bull demon king and his family, while the white bone demon continued the controversial setting of "former lover" in works such as "a chinese odyssey" and "god of war".

even so, most players will recognize this person as "monkey king" as soon as they start to operate. his combat experience is in line with the ever-changing 72 transformations. under his quirky appearance, his yearning for freedom, his compassion for the common people, and his rebellious spirit that is unique to the "monkey king" are also fully preserved.

so,being faithful to the original work does not mean sticking to every detail. the best answer for all parties is to fully understand the work, extract its spiritual core, choose the right way to present it, and properly place this spirit in the right place.

lesson 2: content creation doesn’t have to be dominated by hashtags

as early as 2018, black myth: wukong received 50 million hits with just one actual gameplay demo video, and has since captured the interest of players with 1-2 video clips each year. as soon as the project was released, many media outlets labeled black myth: wukong the "first domestic 3a masterpiece." this concept is somewhat unfamiliar to viewers who don't usually play single-player games, but it easily reminds people of a "5a-level scenic spot," which sounds like some kind of high-end industry standard.

the "3a" label of "black myth: wukong" follows you everywhere 

the so-called 3a masterpiece, which means a lot of money, a lot of resources, and a lot of time, was first proposed by the 1997 game "final fantasy 7" as a marketing gimmick. in the game industry, there was no so-called 3a standard. what is counterintuitive is that the core team of game science, the production company of "black myth wukong", is actually reluctant to mention the label of "3a" and even hopes to get rid of this label. when facing the camera, they prefer to repeatedly emphasize the sentence:the key to the game is to have fun.

"black myth: wukong" producer feng ji talks about what "3a" is 

let's talk about the film and television industry again. the overall environment makes it difficult to have a hit, and the summer box office is sluggish. this is no longer just a unique state of the domestic film and television industry. "hollywood productions", which symbolize the world's top film and television industry standards, have also fallen into a creative drought. in 2024, north american summer box office revenue is estimated to reach 3.67 billion us dollars, a decrease of more than 14% from the same period in 2023. with innovation and breakthroughs as the original intention, domestic and foreign film and television works have chosen to find another way, such as starting with marketing methods, setting some labels that are close to off-site hot spots to attract audiences; or simply chasing the trend of social topics and using creation."tag-based tv series"attract specific groups. a large number of cases have proved that labels other than content cannot take on the responsibility of timely assistance, thus truly promoting movies and tv series to become popular among the public. excellent movies and tv series with good reputation and box office are still popular in terms of content alone, even if additional items are removed."nice"the movie "fengshen i: chaoge fengyun" mentioned in the previous article also carried various labels before its release, such as "chinese version of "the lord of the rings trilogy"", "the culmination of the current chinese film industry standards", etc. after its release, what ultimately retained the audience was the viewing experience, the handsome men and beautiful women, the unique film style, and the grand and stunning large-scale performances.

the famous scene of yin shou's fiery war horse in the movie "investiture of the gods" 

labeling movies and tv shows is an objective behavior of the media and the audience. people are happy to label popular things in order to facilitate group discussion and create emotional resonance. however, turning labels into movies and tv shows is a deviation from subjective judgment. the original intention of the creation seems to be to take a shortcut, but in fact it is a detour.the key to movies and tv series is that they are good to watch.

revelation 3: film and television works should find ways to attract young users

in our communication with professionals in the film and television industry, we feel that after the release of "black myth: wukong", in addition to the excitement of being in the same culturally related industry and national sentiment, there is also a hint of anxiety. putting aside all content forms and objective conditions, and only considering consumer appeal, "black myth: wukong" sold more than 18 million copies at 298 yuan. if converted into box office revenue in parallel, it would be as high as billions, especially overseas, where the revenue could reach tens of millions of us dollars, which may be unmatched by any previous film or tv series. this can't help but remind us that after the emergence of movies and tv series, radio programs and audio stations collectively declined.the rise and fall of a form of popular culture may not be due to itself, but to the rise of new external forms that have a dimensionality-reducing impact on it.as there is a famous line in "black myth: wukong":since you have seen the future, why not worship it?

classic lines from the yellow eyebrow king in black myth: wukong 

in fact, "black myth: wukong" is both the future and the past for the film and television industry. players often recite a passage: i used to play the god of war in northern europe, became a warrior on the hyrule plain, played a ninja in the japanese warring states period, and wandered on the roof of notre dame de paris as an assassin, but i still want to be the monkey king in my mind. the birth of this game carries the long-cherished wish of tens of millions of stand-alone game users in china. it is "the first college student in the village" and represents a huge breakthrough from zero to one in the stand-alone game market. after opening up the situation, the field of stand-alone games still faces a long way to go. in the past, the domestic film and television industry has experienced its own "wukong moment", and now the film and television industry is facing a new situation of "re-entering reincarnation". one of the reasons is that it is becoming increasingly difficult for long videos to capture users: after people get used to short video content, they can no longer get excited about long video content. andwhat is even more serious is that a group of young audiences born in the 2000s and 2005s are growing up in such an environment and will become the mainstream movie-watching group in the future. they have not only watched countless excellent domestic film and television works, but have even become aesthetically fatigued by works from the hollywood film industry system. they have also been exposed to top game works and all new internet content for a long time, and are familiar with the routines of fantasy, science fiction, and mysterious fiction.

this generation of young users has a very high aesthetic ceiling 

for the group that currently holds the core discourse power in the film and television industry, it may no longer be able to impress the audience if they continue to create works based on the old concepts. as the saying goes, "the most feared thing for an industry is that young people will not play with you anymore." when a new cultural form emerges, young people may immediately abandon traditional movies and tv series and turn to more attractive game works.

how to keep up with the young people is the core proposition that is most directly facing us. how to make long videos capture audiences of all ages and dimensions again, so that they will not become a niche entertainment method in the future. the film and television industry needs to better understand the interests of the audience and innovate and experiment based on the essence of creation.

revelation 4: film and gaming are linked, and the film and gaming industries can complement each other

however, if we do not view games like black myth: wukong from a confrontational and competitive perspective, the film and television industry may be able to complement the game industry. in the process of black myth: wukong, we can actually see a lot of intersections between the two fields. several characters use facial capture and motion capture technology, and the actors themselves are familiar faces from the film and television industry. for example, the actor who plays "kang jinxingjun" is zhang yishang, who has appeared in the snow swordsman and ghost blowing light: the ancient city of jingjue.

film and television actor zhang yishang on the facial capture set of "black myth: wukong" 

in addition, the many fighting scenes and plot planning of "black myth wukong" are also very close to the creative methods of the film and television industry. in addition to arpg-themed actions like "black myth wukong", there is also a type of "interactive movie games" in the overseas stand-alone game market that is deeply loved by players. "detroit: become human", a masterpiece released by sony interactive entertainment in 2020, is almost a movie in which players immerse themselves. the project also gathered many decision-makers and top talents of sony's film projects during the production stage. it is not difficult to find that there are more potential categories of content to be developed between game works and the film and television industry. in a broad and mature entertainment system, a film and television work or game work may have the functional attributes of two-way adaptation at the beginning of the project. for example, the global popular ip marvel cinematic universe, game adaptation of film and television works has almost become a standard supporting process. while the movie box office is selling well, game works such as "marvel galaxy guardians" and "marvel spider-man" have also won consecutive victories in the corresponding fields. and mature game ips including "tomb raider" and "assassin's creed" have also had successful precedents of film and television adaptation.

detroit: become human has been called a "cinematic game" 

recently, there have also been media reports that film and television director lu chuan is in contact with the black myth wukong team to prepare for a film and television adaptation of the work. this summer, we also saw a strong stylized film such as safe escape from the 21st century that used games as the core high concept to attract audiences. at present, the large-scale stand-alone game market is in its infancy, and many models and ecosystems are still in a state of being belatedly aware and urgently needed to be developed.

revelation 5: film and tv overseas markets are still waiting for super platforms

when black myth: wukong was first released, the first round of sales results on steam showed that more than 90% of the purchasers were chinese players. this ratio is somewhat different from the global popularity and cultural output that many netizens expected. some fans of major japanese, korean, european and american game companies also pointed out that black myth: wukong is still a self-entertainment game imagined by chinese players and cannot be recognized by overseas users at all.

after the sales of black myth: wukong continued to rise, the data began to show an abnormal trend, with overseas users gradually accounting for 25-30%, and still showing a rapid upward trend. according to the sales of 18 million sets, there are still more than 6 million players from overseas, which is actually a very amazing number. the industry-recognized japanese cultural export game sekiro: shadows die twice only sold 2 million copies worldwide in its first week.

japanese game "sekiro: shadows die twice" 

putting aside the hard-to-understand statistics, the influence of black myth: wukong overseas is clearly visible, and the characters loved by domestic players are also widely popular among overseas users. on mainstream overseas live streaming platforms such as youtube live and twitch, black myth: wukong has already occupied the top two positions in prime time, and online memes such as "buddha's head in the british museum" have become popular, which can make both domestic and foreign players smile.

the headless buddha lingji bodhisattva in black myth wukong 

feng ji, founder of game science, the production company of black myth: wukong, said when talking about the overseas expansion of the game:"the prerequisite for going overseas is to first gain the recognition of local users to the greatest extent possible."this is consistent with what mr. lu xun proposed in "chejieting essays": "only what is national is global."

"black myth: wukong" producer feng ji xinhua news agency interview clip 

marketing overseas and cultural output are also issues that cannot be avoided in the domestic film and television industry in recent years. not only do video platforms and production companies have demands for this, but audiences also look forward to it. regarding this topic, industry professionals expressed some envy for "black myth: wukong".there are differences in the objective conditions for going overseas in the gaming and film and television fields, and there is no room for catching up in the short term.

faced with the cultural gap between the east and the west, domestic filmmakers have also created chinese stories from the perspective of "black myth: wukong", and distributed works that have already been certified by both word-of-mouth and box office in the domestic film and television market overseas. they have even tried to directly bypass the barriers and re-create content from an absolutely western perspective. however, the results are often not satisfactory.

"black myth: wukong" has become a hit overseas 

the successful overseas launch of black myth: wukong is largely due to the overseas distribution platform steam.there is currently no such open, equal and highly centralized platform in the film and television industry for global game companies and game players.if you want to sell high-quality domestic films to north america, you must invest a lot of energy and financial resources to get the five major film companies in the local area. this is an almost impossible task for any domestic company or team, which means that it is impossible to compete with foreign films on equal or even similar conditions.

polishing content is important.in the new era, film and television distribution may need a full-link upgrade to meet the needs of going overseas. in other words, the entire industry is looking forward to the emergence of a platform that can carry good stories and good content.

all in all, this game is likened to the film and television industry, which is both the future and the past. "black myth wukong" carries the desire of single-player game players for domestic world-class masterpieces, as well as the simple love of every chinese audience for "journey to the west". with the technical dividend blessing of the unreal 5 game engine and the escort of multiple distribution platforms, it realizes the joy of all the people when the world is united. as netizens have concluded, every time the cultural industry encounters stagnation, monkey king is always needed to help. in the past, the film and television industry has had many "wukong" moments. the monkey king has always been there. he once entered the painting and played himself in the animated film "the return of the great sage". he also performed the seventy-two transformations, transformed into a human form and boarded the spacecraft, and ignited jupiter in the science fiction film "the wandering earth".

no matter what, the climax and the hardship repeat themselves. after we have leveled the bumps and made a road, we will set off again after overcoming the difficulties. we will always look forward to meeting the monkey king again in the future.