On the Relationship between Film and Literary Works Adaptation in China

Abstract

With the rapid development of social economy, people's living standards have been greatly improved, and people no longer meet the material needs, and gradually began to pay attention to the spiritual enjoyment. As a very important art form, film integrates performing arts, script writing, dubbing, photography and editing, etc., so that people can relax in their leisure time and meet their spiritual needs. As a very important source of films, the change of literary works can enable people to understand literary works in a more vivid and intuitive form, and expand the dissemination channels of literary works, but at the same time, there are also some disadvantages, especially the unique quality of literary works, which makes many fans of the original work disappointed. According to the characteristics of literary works, literature can be said to be a kind of social ideology. This type of works is a reflection of social life and a kind of works that narrates stories with time as the main line. For film and television works, space is the clue to present relevant stories. They have something in common to some extent. In the process of the continuous development of China's film and television industry, the connection with literature is a natural cultural phenomenon, and there is an indissoluble bond between film and television and literary works. In recent years, the rapid development of online drama has deepened the relationship between literary works and film and television works. This article mainly explores the film and television adaptation of literary works, hoping to be helpful to their mutual promotion and common progress.

Headnote

Abstract

With the rapid development of social economy, people's living standards have been greatly improved, and people no longer meet the material needs, and gradually began to pay attention to the spiritual enjoyment. As a very important art form, film integrates performing arts, script writing, dubbing, photography and editing, etc., so that people can relax in their leisure time and meet their spiritual needs. As a very important source of films, the change of literary works can enable people to understand literary works in a more vivid and intuitive form, and expand the dissemination channels of literary works, but at the same time, there are also some disadvantages, especially the unique quality of literary works, which makes many fans of the original work disappointed. According to the characteristics of literary works, literature can be said to be a kind of social ideology. This type of works is a reflection of social life and a kind of works that narrates stories with time as the main line. For film and television works, space is the clue to present relevant stories. They have something in common to some extent. In the process of the continuous development of China's film and television industry, the connection with literature is a natural cultural phenomenon, and there is an indissoluble bond between film and television and literary works. In recent years, the rapid development of online drama has deepened the relationship between literary works and film and television works. This article mainly explores the film and television adaptation of literary works, hoping to be helpful to their mutual promotion and common progress.

Keywords Film, Literary works, Adaptation

Introduction

According to the trend of film development in China in recent years, adaptation of literary works is the actual demand in the development of film works. This phenomenon can also provide a continuous stream of shooting themes for film works and inject new impetus into the development of the film industry. In particular, the rapid development of online drama in the past two years has promoted the film adaptation of literary works (Tong Chen, 2022). No matter what kind of works are adapted, the staff should pay attention to following certain adaptation principles, so as to create better film works on the basis of literary works, convey the theme and ideas of literary works to people, and enrich the channels for people to receive literary information.

1. Advantages and Disadvantages of Film Adaptation of Literary Works

1.1 Advantages of film adaptation of literary works

The cinematic exposition of literary works can promote the universality and visibility of literary works and promote the promotion of literary works.

1.1.1 Extensiveness

According to the film adaptation of literary works, the biggest advantage of this process is universality. The expression form of literary works is no longer limited to simple written expression, but began to transform from fresh words to three-dimensional expression, so that more and more people can understand literary works through film works. In this process, people will also start from the traditional way of reading and gradually develop into films. If you are familiar with Journey to the West, it can be said that each episode is an aesthetic feature that transcends the age limit and has no class limit. Through interesting stories and distinctive characters, the film tells and interprets the eternal life of the work itself in a popular way. The audience will realize the deeper theme of the work every time they read it, which is where the charm and value of literary classics lie (Shen Yizhen, 2021).

At the same time, in order to meet the aesthetic and entertainment needs of the audience, when literary masterpieces are adapted into film works, in order to make it easier for the audience to accept them, their texts often change from profound to popular, thus expanding the influence of literary works. For example, when the 87 version of A Dream of Red Mansions was broadcasted, many original lovers paid close attention to it. Whether in terms of characterization or clothing, the play has become a very hot topic of discussion. The most discussed topic is whether the screenwriter can express the profound philosophy contained in the original work, while meeting the aesthetic needs of mass communication. Facts have proved that the play strives to follow the original work in terms of the expression of the connotation and characterization of the original work, but the plot content tends to describe the love between children, and involves a little less in the spiritual connotation of the original work. However, its adaptation is in line with the aesthetic taste of the current public, and is favored and pursued by many audiences. Up to now, the subsequent remakes of several new versions of Dream of Red Mansions are not as popular as the 87 version.

1.1.2 Visibility

The second advantage of adapting literary works into film works is visibility. Compared with literary works, film works themselves have good stereoscopic viewing effect, and are more easily accepted by people. In this way, a small number of people who cannot accept boring and boring words can accept the main idea conveyed by literary works through audible, perceptible and visual art styles (Hao Siyu, 2021). For example, a large number of novels by Zhang Ailing, a modern Chinese literary writer, have been adapted into film works. Among them, the earliest film was Love in a Fallen City directed by Hong Kong director Xu Anhua, followed by the film Half Life. Later, director Guan Jinpeng made Red Rose and White Rose, and Ang Lee made Lust, Caution. These two films have won recognition from domestic and foreign industries and audiences. Hou Xiaoxian, a director from Taiwan, China, also directed Flowers on the Sea. The TV series "Half Life" and "Golden Lock" are the adaptation of Zhang Ailing's works by directors in Chinese Mainland. From the above film works, we can see that Zhang Ailing's literary works have been frequently adapted. The reason is that her novels have very significant cinematic characteristics, and most of the language and text descriptions in the novels have strong montage effect and camera sense, so her works have won the reputation of "film on paper". At the same time, Zhang Ailing had professional painting training when she was young, so she had very keen observation and sensitivity in color and other visual aspects. It can be seen that film adaptation should first pay attention to the audio-visual feasibility of literary works themselves. On this basis, when film adaptation is carried out, literary works with strong audio-visual interpretation and specific images are more conducive to creation. However, too abstract literary works such as the stream of consciousness novel "Recalling the Past" are much more difficult in audio-visual presentation.

1.1.3 Wider promotion scope

One of the advantages of adapting literary works into film works is to promote literary works more widely, make literary works more widely spread and more easily accepted by people, and solve the limitations of reading time and reading speed in traditional literary works reading activities. The development of film works has prompted people to watch film works at a speed far faster than the reading speed of literary works, thus expanding the promotion scope of literary works. For example, the 1993 film Farewell My Concubine, directed by Chen Kaige, is a classic in terms of language features, characterization, portrayal of the background and color of the times. So far, the film has still been highly praised by the audience. The film Farewell My Concubine was also adapted from a literary work during the crea- tion process. The author of this literary work is Li Bihua. In fact, this literary work did not win the love of a large number of readers before the creation of the film, but after the film was released, the novel was eagerly pursued by mainland readers.

1.2Disadvantages of Literary Works Adapted by Films

At present, in the process of film adaptation of literary works in China, there are many problems, including serious commercialization, adaptation loopholes, and the fetters of characters by actors (Liang Qianqian & Jiao Xinyi, 2021).

1.2.1 Serious commercialization

According to the current situation of film adaptation of literary works in China, commercialization is relatively serious. For example, in How to Play Silently, the appearance rate of RIO in the play is far higher than the value of the play itself.

1.2.2 Adaptation vulnerabilities emerge endlessly

In the process of adapting many literary works into film dramas, there are endless adaptation loopholes, some of which are details, while others are more serious, which directly affect the people's understanding of history and literature. In some adapted plays, the trend of historical chronological errors has only increased.

1.2.3 Characters are bound by actors

In literary works, characters can be people's all-round imagination, and they are people's imagination. However, in the film works, the invisible words bound the literary works in the rules. Many characters are bound because of the relationship between actors, and the character may also be limited because of the performance problems of actors.

2.Film adaptation of literary works

2.1 In the early days of New China, films learned literature

A successful film needs distinctive characters, so as to fully express the idea of the whole film. Through the description of the story, it reflects the soul of the film. The film adaptation in this period was faithful to the original work. Based on the original work, the film took the initiative to learn literary works, and flexibly displayed the characters and film ideas. The film adaptation in this period was not large, focusing on the imitation of the original work and the transmission of the original work. However, many film themes are also limited, mainly because of the red revolutionary ideas of the s, and the films adapted from revolutionary literary works help to promote the development of the times, point out the direction for people's thoughts and actions, and make people full of yearning for a better life while praising socialism. For example, in the adaptation of Blessing, the social background, culture and era elements are integrated into the script Zhang to set off the background and elaborate the plot of Xianglin sister-in-law's donation threshold. The film brings a bright and revolutionary future. Another example is the film "The Marriage of Little Erhei", in which the contradiction between the protagonist Jin Wang and the little Erhei has gradually deepened the contradiction between the enemy and our class through literary treatment. The role of the second uncle has been added to the film, so that he can act as the behind the scenes agent, which further deepens the contradiction

2.2 In the 1980s and 1990s, revision and editing were carried out simultaneously

In the 1980s, literary creation had a better development. Many subjects were no longer restricted areas. Writers had more rich life experiences. Foreign works also poured in, and the breadth and depth of scripts had a deep development. There has been a breakthrough in the selection of themes, and literary works are gradually developing in the direction of humanistic color. Many classic characters in this period left a deep impression on people, such as Pan Dongzi and Xier. The film has a strong social atmosphere and social elements. Turning to the human cultural defense line, through deep cultural criticism, we can think about the interpretation of human nature in movies, which is different from the previous red classic movies. This reform is very popular and plays an important role in promoting the development of world films. During this period, film production focused on exploring film language and creating films through unique symbols. Film adaptation of literary works is not only superficial, but also to get rid of the shackles of literature on films. From a deeper perspective, literary works are still adaptation of films, not just formal, but more to extract the essence of literary works, and experience the environmental atmosphere and ideological realm (Zhao Qingchao, 2021). No longer traditional imitation, return to realism, and pay attention to the expression of humanistic color. For example, the Wrangler reflects the war life, and the Raise Red Lantern is an ethical analysis of culture.

2.3 Contemporary, independent screenwriters create films

Art film adaptation, focusing on personal experience. There are two types of art films. One is the transformation of filmmakers' creative methods at the end of the 20th century, which combines commercial and artistic forms, also known as commercial art films. The second is the independent creation mode of the director, which focuses on the display of personal experience and is a more pure artistic work. In the 1980s, Chen Kaige adapted Jingke Assassinate the King of Qin. The film adaptation re positioned the historical destiny through art and description methods. However, due to the particularity of the times and differences in social backgrounds, the box office of this period was not good. Zhang Yimou's adaptation of My Father and Mother shows the social life form around the background at that time, which has the characteristics of the times and innovation.

Commercial films focus on the characteristics of market entertainment. There are different types of commercial films, represented by director Feng Xiaogang, including martial arts films such as Hero, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and New Year movies such as Mobile Phone and No Thieves in the World. Many of the films directed by Feng Xiaogang come from Wang Shuo's novels. More than 20 of Wang Shuo's novels have been adapted into films, mainly because his novels convey an attitude of alienation brought about by elite culture, and the language is humorous and contains many factors of the times. Feng Xiaogang created a new language and expression of Chinese films by ridiculing social phenomena through enlightenment. You can see many interesting and profound lines in the film, which become the highlight of the film and can attract the attention of the audience. Feng Xiaogang's films focus on the fun of details and let people feel the daily life through exquisite lines. Through the adaptation of Wang Shuo's novels, ordinary language is processed to highlight the elements of the times, show the elements of individuality, integrate the market and popular culture, and adapt literary works to create many films with high box office, such as Party A and Party B, Night Banquet, etc.

3.Concluding remarks

Film adaptation of literary works is a good idea, which saves the pain of film creation, and can also use the influence of literary works to make the film box office big. Movies and literary works promote each other to achieve win-win results. However, in film adaptation, it is also necessary to pay attention to be faithful to the original literary works, to develop strengths and circumvent weaknesses, so that the adaptation can go further and further, and present more high-quality film works for the audience.

Sidebar

How to cite this paper: Fang Chen. (2023). On the Relationship between Film and Literary Works Adaptation in China. The Educational Review, USA, 7(6), 718-721.

Received: May 31, 2023

Accepted: June 29, 2023

Published: July 25, 2023

References

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