Research on the Rationality of The Journey to the West's Adaptation

Nowadays, The Journey to the West, as one of the four classical novels, is a well-known novel, and most people know the plot of The Journey to the West more or less. Now it seems that The Journey to the West is the novel with the most "derivative products" I have ever seen. The Monkey King's hatred of evil has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts. Recently, a six-year-old boy, an actor who made great contributions to the popularity of Monkey King, said that it was disrespectful to China's traditional culture to adapt Journey to the West at will, and different people had different views. Adaptation has advantages and disadvantages, and it depends on what is reasonable or unreasonable.

A Study of The Journey to the West's Adaptation

1. Background (current situation): As the protagonist of The Journey to the West, six-year-old children once said that adapting The Journey to the West at will is disrespectful to the traditional culture of China and sorry for their ancestors. He said he didn't want to see children ask him, "How many girlfriends does the Monkey King have?" . Ratings and box office are not the only criteria to judge whether a movie is good or bad. Even if it is high, it is not necessarily a classic. He hopes to have more respect for traditional culture.

According to the generation of six-year-old children, their thoughts are in that period of cultural development. The previous culture needs to be preserved and the original work should be respected. They shouldn't be too avant-garde. In order to win the box office, they borrowed the name of The Journey to the West. Culturally, the original is more authentic. What it wants to embody is completely different from the adaptation of The Journey to the West now. They left out many key things just to attract more people. Yes, culture is very important. Traditional culture is for appreciation, and it cannot be called innovation without random adaptation.

2. Overview of examples: You must have seen two films starring Stephen Chow, A Chinese Odyssey, which was released on 1995, but now this film is called Memory of the Times, which was not accepted when it was first released in the Mainland, and people didn't understand what the most important evaluation was at that time, but it quickly became an irresistible phenomenon. This strange phenomenon may be due to cultural intergenerational reasons. In the sixties and seventies of last century, in people's minds, spoofing Journey to the West damaged the image of classics in their own minds. We basically accepted the image of "No" to Tang Priest, who was wordy in heart, and the Monkey King, who was in love with Xia Zi, but it was a fact that many people could not accept the subversion of this image at that time. On the other hand, the post-80s generation can accept the spoof culture and deconstruct this traditional story. Everyone's collective memory of The Journey to the West has become two parts, namely The Journey to the West and The Journey to the West, and Xia Zi has even become more influential than some original The Journey to the West figures. Now all kinds of movies and novels often meet the role of Xia Zi, just to restore the bright smile of the goddess, but in my opinion, this has become a legend and can never be surpassed. The first step: The Moonlight Box on a Chinese Odyssey opened the world view of the film and caused more suspense in the lower part. This film is about a person accepting responsibility and giving up what he loves, which needs the contrast of two eras. When he was free to fall in love, he went to debauchery and didn't know the time, but when he met true love, he met the wrong time and left a regret. Who hasn't had such an experience? I think I can tell the sigh that many people think they have forgotten, but they bury it in their hearts, so that they want to laugh when they look at it in childhood and cry when they look at it in adulthood. Maybe that's why this movie is so persistent. The so-called resistance to learning western classics is entangled with the experiences of Bai Jingjing and Xia Zi. In the end, only when you die once can you see the world clearly and understand that these are just frivolous when you are young, but when the real responsibility comes, you have no choice. In fact, it is very interesting that this story and the original journey to the west lead to the same goal. At that time, the story of Journey to the West was avant-garde enough. A fearless monkey can actually make a fuss about the Jade Emperor. However, the rebellion of the strongest child cannot fight against the whole world. Therefore, this story was born in modern times and is full of postmodern labels. It seems no accident that A Chinese Odyssey, which represents fashion and rebellion, has the same story core as The Journey to the West more than 400 years ago. Society has always played an unquestionable role in China's traditional culture, so that in the collective subconscious of China people, compromise is a normal state of growth. Therefore, we rarely have stories of being complacent when we are young and achieving what we want when we are old, but most of us are frivolous when we are young. Stories of reconciliation with the world after making trouble, such as Journey to the West, Nezha, the White Snake, and a Chinese odyssey, are more to arouse people's unforgettable memories of what they missed. In fact, they are more emotional about being missed since childhood than The Journey to the West.

I agree that the adaptation of Journey to the West cannot be adapted at will, but as a college student, I think its value may not be as good as it is now if it is not adapted. Classical literature was written earlier, and the language and expression of the works are still very different from today. In this society, not everyone will have the time and interest to read those famous books. Who is willing to give up reading interesting and simple books and read complicated and difficult books? The subtleties of many books need to be carefully tasted before they can be understood. For us ordinary people, film and television plays can realize the function of communication, so that the broad masses of people can get in touch with it as entertainment after their spare time. From this perspective, film and television dramas, as modern products, are more influential in the mass class. And adapted it into a new story, because we like this story and hope it can have more content for us to interpret and explore. After all, adaptation is not the original work, and it needs to conform to modern aesthetics.

As far as the six-year-old version of The Journey to the West is concerned, the adaptation has advantages and disadvantages. I changed what I wanted to show, and my thoughts became a little different. The Monkey King, Pig Bajie and Friar Sand in the original work used to eat people when they were demons, but they were not vegetarians. They are ugly and scary in appearance and huge in size, which is far from the adaptation. In fact, pride, kindness and compassion in our eyes are not as kind as in the adaptation, but various bad habits appear frequently, which actually reflect some social problems at that time, and these have been changed, reducing the authenticity. However, this is also to better cater to the audience's mentality. After all, it is a work of the Ming Dynasty. With the development of the times, many people's thoughts have undergone tremendous changes. There are also many people watching movies and TV series, except young people, men, women and children. If you change into a monster with a huge size, it will scare children, women and children, change the bloody story of cannibalism into a vegetarian, lose the style of primitive savages, and change the original method into too decisive and cruel and unfair, which will make people feel that the current state of world civilization is more in line with modern thinking. For example, in A Chinese Odyssey, Tang Priest's nagging was magnified to become an attractive highlight. The sad love story of Supreme Treasure and Xia Zi, even if it later supplemented the audience's needs, made the image of Xia Zi who dared to love and hate more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Adaptation is not random, joking is not nonsense, and we can't come with our mouths open. However, some film and television novels adapted from the original Journey to the West and adapted to the times can not be said to have destroyed the culture and the times are progressing. People in different times will have different understandings of the same thing, and two flowers in style are our real pursuit. I have to say that classics are hard to surpass, and classics will naturally not be forgotten. Although the Monkey King on the Journey to the West and the Monkey King on a Chinese Odyssey are the same characters. However, their task personality settings are completely different; One is to reflect society and truth, and the other is to embody the truth, goodness and beauty of human nature. The same thing can be analyzed and dissected from multiple angles, so don't stand still and stick to your own opinions; Different times have different understandings, just as Shakespeare said: A thousand readers will have a thousand Hamlets.

Similarly, due to the consideration of ratings, inheritance and memory, each protagonist retains its original charm and characteristics when it is adapted and becomes a well-known boutique. It certainly makes sense that this version of Journey to the West can be popular. It retains most of the contents of the original work, and makes some modifications to some bad and negative qualities of the characters, which is upright and upward. Take the Tang Priest as an example. In the original work, Tang Priest is sometimes timid and sometimes just for personal use. The shortcomings of Tang's monk have been greatly weakened in scriptwriting, and some points have been retained. Although Tang Priest still doesn't like it a little, it is simply eight words: keep the charm and make reasonable changes. Make the image of Tang Priest more in line with the image of Buddhist scriptures. The plot is also fuller.

Summary: But what did the success of a Chinese Odyssey bring? More writers and directors want a piece of the action. So many stories in Journey to the West are just a movie. But is this phenomenon really bad? Some time ago, there was a report on the Internet that a six-year-old child played the Monkey King in Journey to the West and criticized a Chinese odyssey. I don't think this kind of drama respects culture, and I also say that writers and directors should apologize to the people of the whole country. For the remarks of six-year-old children, netizens have their own opinions. Some people think that a Chinese Odyssey is a comedy and should not be so strict. Moreover, the times are changing now, so we should keep pace with the times and not just stick to those old ideas. Some people agree with six-year-olds that culture is culture, so don't make fun of it. The spoof culture is not good for young people's three views. Although six-year-old children say that not every movie related to Journey to the West will become a classic, in this world, big waves wash sand, good adaptation will always remain in people's minds and become a classic, and bad adaptation is not without its value. All the film and television directions are obtained through continuous screening and trial. I firmly believe that there will be new breakthroughs, innovations and inheritance in the future journey to the West.