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is it right that he plays song jiang?

2024-09-26

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the sea embraces all rivers; only the tolerant are great.

author: wang chongyang lp

editor | xiaobai

typesetting | die

it doesn't seem surprising to me that the japanese are going to remake "water margin".

of the four great classical chinese novels, the japanese have made two films from the 1970s to the present. japanese anime and games based on water margin and romance of the three kingdoms have been very popular in mainland china since the early 1990s.

but filming the movie can really look weird because of cultural differences.

just like every japanese version of journey to the west, tang seng is played by a woman, and sha seng is basically played by a kappa. this is mainly because the japanese think that tang seng looks like a woman, and as for the kappa... it is completely for localization needs.

the 1973 japanese version of "water margin" was produced by nippon television as a celebration program for the 20th anniversary of its founding. this shows the status of "water margin" in the japanese cultural circle at that time.

at the same time, it is also a political tribute drama for the normalization of diplomatic relations between china and japan, directed by toshio masuda and starring atsuo nakamura, tamba tetsuro and others.

however, in addition to being adapted from shi naian's novel of the same name, the manga of the same name by yokoyama mitsuteru is also an important reference source. combined with the characteristics of japanese actors' film and television performances, this heroic story that takes place in the late northern song dynasty is full of the atmosphere of a taiga drama.

however, an earlier version of "water margin" was a japanese film directed by kei okada in 1942. some stills from this film can even be found online.

the saying "separated by a strip of water" is not an empty phrase. since the tang dynasty, when china and japan started cultural exchanges, many of china's cultural treasures have been regarded as classics in japan. since the 1970s, the japanese have successively filmed "water margin" and "journey to the west". the latter was too eye-catching, which directly led cctv to decide to film its own "journey to the west"...

in the era without the internet, domestic audiences did not know much about this. after the advent of the new century, information became more accessible and the past was no longer a thing of the past, and people finally understood the reason behind it.

take journey to the west as an example. if you watch the 1978 version starring natsume masako (who played tang monk) now, many chinese audiences will not accept it. but the japanese really love it. in 1993, miyazawa rie played tang monk, and until 2007, fukatsu eri continued to play tang monk. later, a theatrical version (movie) was made, with a style similar to dragon ball, with qing dynasty costumes, glasses, and shoulder bags... from our perspective, it is hard to say whether it is good or bad, we can only sigh "what a big imagination".

compared with journey to the west, the japanese version of outlaws of the marsh is acceptable. in 1973, the drama was a big investment and production. it used a single character as a unit story, and the content setting was similar to that of china:

lin chong, lu zhishen, wu song, and song jiang, just a few people.

objectively speaking, that version of "water margin" is very close to the original, but the expression and style still have to follow the habits of japanese counterparts.

in addition, japan has not filmed the romance of the three kingdoms, but it has invested in the production of cctv's romance of the three kingdoms. canon was one of the main sponsors of the show because they loved the three kingdoms so much. however, the sheer size of the show and the demanding filming conditions, including manpower, scenes and props, made it difficult for them to handle it.

who can mobilize tens of thousands of people to shoot continuously for a whole year?

cctv must have the ability to coordinate resources from all parties.

later, when "romance of the three kingdoms" was broadcast, several actors became famous, and some of them have become big names in the industry.

in 2020, japan made another "three kingdoms" movie. i watched it and i have a simple sentence:

there's nothing wrong with considering it as a fan-made derivative work.

ultimately, it means being more inclusive.

we have to mention "dragon ball" here again. as chinese people, of course we hope that this "sun wukong" will be famous all over the world. for more than 30 years, many fans in europe, america, japan and south korea have spontaneously organized various offline cos.

so is "sun wukong" famous?

certainly.

so does "sun wukong" conform to the "monkey king" that most chinese people understand?

of course not.

he also has another name, "kakarot".

so after black myth: wukong was launched, i was very supportive of it.

it's time for china's "monkeys" to show their faces.

in addition, we must consider an era issue:

in the early to mid-1970s, the japanese cultural and film circles were dominated by the left. what was "water margin"? it was about "the lower class overthrowing the upper class" (this was an old tradition for the japanese), resistance, and heroism.

it is very suitable for adaptation and can easily arouse the audience's emotions.

haven’t you seen that when the 1998 version of “water margin” was popular on cctv, domestic social news often reported “murderous” things? audiences need to find pleasure in movies and tv series, whether it is love between men and women or the demeanor of heroes. everyone has a corresponding story as a reference for their life.

this is the charm of classic movies and tv series.

what's more, the 1973 version of "water margin" designed all the characters in the play mainly based on the comic characters of mitsuteru yokoyama. when people today watch it, they generally feel that the "middle school" temperament is indeed consistent with fuso.

the most interesting thing is that the director and screenwriter at the time simply promoted lin chong and made him replace song jiang as the leader of liangshan, while wu yong and gongsun sheng were merged into one character, and the whole drama only had 26 episodes.

this kind of parallel character design was also used in the 1998 cctv version of "water margin".

to be honest, in the early days of reform and opening up, we did learn a lot from other people's cultural creativity. it was only after the mainland's cultural and entertainment industry really developed that we gradually formed our own set of theoretical systems.

looking across east asia, china, japan and south korea, the history of their film and television entertainment is similar.

so back to the topic of "inclusiveness":

the sea embraces all rivers; only the tolerant are great.

no matter who films a classic, they should adopt an objective and appreciative attitude.

it is said that yuji oda will play song jiang in the new version of "water margin". i can't say i have high expectations for it, but he is also a senior figure in the japanese entertainment industry. the first work of his i saw was "tokyo love story" in 1991. as for the other actors, they have not been announced yet.

when i watched the theatrical version of "journey to the west" starring eri fukatsu a few years ago, i was impressed by the opening shaanxi shadow play. although the voice-over was in chinese spoken by japanese actors and it was difficult to understand, fortunately there were subtitles to help.

so i think that if national treasures can be recognized by others, then we should acknowledge the recognition of others, and then follow their example, making the best use of our strengths and avoiding our weaknesses.

in this way, cultural output will have a feasible practical basis.