First, be loyal to the original type.
This type of adaptation is the most common and universal way. Most movie scripts keep a faithful attitude to the original works, do not make big changes, and try their best to convey the information, thoughts and feelings in literary works to the audience.
Tiny Times and Ideal City released this year are based on novels by Jing M.Guo and Han Han. Among them, two Tiny Times movies written and directed by Jing M.Guo have accurately targeted the audience at Tiny Times fans around the age of 20. Therefore, although movies have attracted overwhelming criticism, they have made hundreds of millions of box office and become successful examples of film adaptation of literary works. Apart from the works of these two writers, Adventures of Li Xianji, 33 Days Lost in Love and The Girl We Chased in Those Years are basically faithful to the original works, showing the audience the transition from literary works to film and television works. Although some of them are very popular and successful, others are depressed and indifferent, this kind of film with literary works as the theme has indeed become a trend of film creation. Such works, not to mention the four classic novels and other classics, have been presented countless times in the history of movies. At present, the whirlwind of adapting best-selling books and online serial novels into movies in the film market has made best-selling books and online serial novels themselves a selling point and a gimmick, which has promoted the popularization of works with greater influence. If the original commercial film wants to catch the audience's eye, it is necessary to create more attractions before the film is released, so that more people are interested; The adaptation of literary works that are popular with the audience will inevitably attract the supporters of the works themselves. Therefore, it is an important way to create movie scripts according to the current situation of literary works to meet the needs of the audience.
Second, "parody" sublimation type
Parody, also known as parody, is borrowing and recreating other works from one's own works to achieve the purpose of teasing, mocking, playing games and even paying tribute. Hong Kong films often use parody to create comic effects. Among them, Stephen Chow, the representative of Hong Kong films, even carried parody to the end, and his films were mixed with many references and adaptations from other literary or film works. In the adaptation of literary works, Stephen Chow seems to have a soft spot for Journey to the West. His most classic work "A Chinese Odyssey" and the best-selling movie The Journey to the West changed the story of Tang Priest's learning from the scriptures into something else, only using some characters and general stories, and made subversive changes in characters and plots.
As the pinnacle of Stephen Chow's works, A Chinese Odyssey is a parody to the extreme. The Monkey King became the supreme treasure, and the peerless love affair with Xia Zi became the main line of the film. As a monk in the original work, the Monkey King has been entangled in his mentoring relationship with Tang Priest, his brotherly relationship with Friar Sand and Bajie, and the part about love is completely blank. Stephen Chow's adaptation of the film completely weakened the Monkey King's loyalty to Tang Priest, and also set up his resentful accusation against Tang Priest. A classic "Only You" made the audience remember this brand-new image of Tang Priest. Some plots in the film may be difficult for the audience to accept for a while, but Stephen Chow, as the director and protagonist, integrated the absurd elements of postmodernism into his works, which produced a very strong funny and ironic effect. Meaningless funny ideas abound in this film, which undoubtedly created a precedent for a film type. The Demon Journey to the West is also an adaptation and parody of Journey to the West. Judging from its box office and audience evaluation, the combination of "star +3D+ funny" is still very promising. Obviously, what is completed here is the transformation of commercial comedy movies. It is no accident that Stephen Chow's works are so successful. From the previous view that this subversive attempt completely changed the content of the original work, it was a meaningless and unintelligible failed creation, and later the audience accepted and recognized this "laugh", although it was only a few years. It can be said that the rules and regulations will naturally not go wrong, but they may lose their highlights; Put aside the rules and regulations, do not follow the routine, and keep trying to innovate, and you may be a great success.
Third, the "makeover" type.
The "makeover" adaptation basically kept the original plot, but made a series of adjustments and changes to the scene, time and country. As a representative of this kind of works, The Legend of Don Quixote was adapted from Don Quixote by Spanish novelist Cervantes. The film moves the Spanish stories of 16 and 17 centuries to ancient China, and a series of characters in the original works can also find corresponding roles in this film. Influenced by chivalrous novels, Don Quixote decided to embark on the road of chivalry. In the film, Tang Ji is immersed in martial arts novels every day, imagining the scenes in the novels into reality. In the original work, Don Quixote regarded the country inn as a castle, regarded the innkeeper as the owner of the castle, and asked the boss to make him a knight. However, in the film, martial arts novels are used. Don Quixote wants to find an old beggar in a temple in the mountains and regard him as an old hero with unparalleled martial arts. As long as he can get through the second pulse of Ren Du, he can become a real hero. After Don Quixote made up his mind to uphold justice and eliminate violence, he often drew his sword to help him when he saw the bumpy road. As a result, he often harmed the interests of others and got a good beating himself. Although Tang Ji also believes that spirit can solve all problems, he can always make a fool of himself at a critical moment and save the day. The adaptation of the screenwriter turned Don Ji into a hero in the movie. Finally, with the help of all the righteous people, the evil forces were wiped out in one fell swoop, and they accompanied the beautiful fairy couple from then on, subverting the image in the original work. Although the box office of the film is not satisfactory, its spirit of "some things must be done, and it is incumbent on smart people to stand by and I am a fool" is really worth pondering, and it has a lot in common with our present life.
The Golden Flower in the City is adapted from Cao Yu's representative work Thunderstorm, and the time of the story is shifted to the late Tang Dynasty during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The king in the movie represents Zhou Puyuan in Thunderstorm; Yuan Xiang, the eldest prince, is the role of Zhou Ping, the eldest son in the original work. The queen played by Gong Li is Fan Yi; General Xie alluded to Lu Dahai, and Jiang Chan was Lu Sifeng. The eldest prince played by Liu Ye had two complicated incestuous relationships with his sister and queen, but he was at odds with the second prince. The relationship between the king and the prince also depicts the relationship between father and son. These plots correspond to Cao Yu's Thunderstorm to a certain extent, and the character and atmosphere of the whole film are basically consistent with the original. However, this makeover adaptation failed to bring full applause to the director, which is worth pondering.
In a word, China's film adaptation of literary works tells us that these so-called film adaptations are no longer satisfied with reproducing the original works, but begin to try to present them with different ideas. In addition to showing popular novels in the form of movies to cater to the audience's interests, nonsense spoofing and subversive re-creation have also opened up a new way for this kind of movies. Classics are always rare, and remaking classic works can only pick up people's wisdom; Only by adapting to people's appreciation interest in the new era and constantly exploring ideas and directions is the general trend. Filmmakers should first improve their own cultural literacy, and then transform literary works into film art after they have a profound and accurate interpretation of literary works. Only film works with profound spiritual connotation can be truly recognized by people and occupy a place in the history of film.
Precautions:
[1] Giotto Canudu, an Italian poet and film pioneer, published his seventh art manifesto in191,claiming for the first time that film is an independent art, consisting of three spatial arts (painting, architecture and sculpture) and three time arts.