In 1958, Comrade Mao Zedong watched the opera "The Legend of the White Snake" when he inspected Shanghai. After the performance, he took the stage and shook hands with the cast and crew. It is said that he shook "Xu Xian" and "White Snake" with one hand and two He shook hands with the "green snake", but he ignored the actor who played Fa Hai, the true character of the great leader, which was revealed incisively and vividly at this moment.
As a folklore, the negative image of Fahai is well known to women and children. Lu Xun didn't like it, and Comrade Mao Zedong didn't like it either. For thousands of years, Fa Hai has been walking in the world as a feudal guardian who hinders Xu Xian and the white snake from falling in love with each other. He does not shake hands after watching the play, and even curses when he eats crabs. His unpopularity is evident.
Fahai is not popular, but folklore like the white snake is a natural and excellent subject for film adaptation. Domestic films are inherently lacking in originality. It is great to be able to make use of these traditional stories, not only to prosper domestic films, but also to carry forward the traditional national culture. Furthermore, the popularity of traditional stories is high, and the established image can be seen at a glance, which can save a lot of publicity costs, so why not do it?
Of course, this is not to say that the promotion cost of "Legend of the White Snake" is not high. In fact, this film is likely to create a new peak in the marketing and promotion of Chinese-language films. The overwhelming advertisements and red envelopes have already spread in the industry. But this is not difficult to understand. As a big production with big scenes and big stars, "Legend of the White Snake" must of course do a good job in publicity-according to the development trend of the mainland film market, "Legend of the White Snake" is a little publicity expense. , it is estimated that it will soon be surpassed.
"Legend of the White Snake" focuses on the creation of special effects. It is considered a leader in domestic movies, but the force is obviously too much, and the effect is somewhat copycat: the animation images such as the king bastard frog are a bit redundant, and the water is full of gold. 2012", the white snakes and green snakes have all turned into underwater monsters, and a group of rat spirits have turned into underwater special forces.
Judging from the star-studded list of creators, "Legend of the White Snake" is a standard Hong Kong film. Cheng Xiaodong brings the style of the film studio to this film intact. Fahai and his Batman apprentice combination are just like that. A remake of "A Chinese Ghost Story", in the film, a Batman apprentice and Green Snake's shemale-yaoyao love is basically the same as the ghost relationship between the little monk and Nie Xiaoqian in "A Chinese Ghost Story".
Compared with the traditional story blueprint, the biggest change in "Legend of the White Snake" is the reshaping of Fahai's image. The legendary single abstinent love executioner became a master of stability maintenance in this film. The fox spirit and bat spirit came all the way, and they were used to seeing the evil spirits harming the world. Make the latter marry him without knowing it—in this way, no matter how high the sympathy score is, the white snake cannot be completely exempted; the final flood is deduced as the emergency treatment that Fahai gave Xu Xian, Helpless, the white snake was puzzled by the style, but instead caused a major natural disaster. As a result, White Snake bears legal responsibility as a citizen who has reached the age of 18 and is banned from Leifeng Pagoda, which is not considered a severe sentence.
From the point of view of the whole film, Fa Hai's scenes are very important, it is not too much to change the title to "The Legend of Fa Hai", and the narrative rhythm of the film is also a bit confusing, especially in the love part of Xu and Bai, the succession and transformation are completely absent. However, compared with many domestic films whose drama logic is not yet tactful, "Legend of the White Snake" can be seen, and after watching it, you can shake hands with Fa Hai.
(Published in the "Beijing News" September 28, 2011 C2 edition)
View more about The Sorcerer and the White Snake reviews
