Suffering makes people grow

Nine years once said

“The best teacher is your enemy.”

It was the Jade Emperor who created the second brother

And the second brother created agarwood

Reference

/s/blog_563cccfe0100de2s.html < /p>

In the various myths and legends I have come into contact with, whether it is "Journey to the West", "Fengshen", or "Xi Fangping", Erlang Shen is a handsome guy with a beautiful tree facing the wind, cold and aloof, and strong in martial arts. Why? Did it look like this in "Lotus Lantern"? Moreover, is it only like this in "Lotus Lantern"?

Later I checked online and found that the ancient Chinese mythology system was so confusing and contradictory. Moreover, a lot of information has been lost and cannot be found. Any kind of legend you follow will contradict other legends.

But no matter how chaotic it is, some clues can still be drawn about Erlang's splitting the mountain to save his mother.

Later, I started writing "Lotus Lantern", which was even more painful. Erlang Shen was a villain, which was not consistent with his life experience. How could a man who once cut down a mountain to save his mother treat his sister and nephew like that? This is very unreasonable. I don’t know how the original author of the opera rationalized him and how he made it acceptable to the audience at that time. But when it comes to me, Erlangshen's position has become a very troublesome and troublesome matter.

But if you don’t write it like this, how can you write it? It is a legend that has been circulated among the people for hundreds of years, and a play that has been performed on the stage for hundreds of years. Will the current audience accept the change of Erlang Shen into a positive character? Will the film pass the review?

I had no choice but to "respect the original work" reluctantly and write an idol who has been an idol for many years as a villain. Although this "original work" is not reasonable. Regarding the history of Erlang Shen, I had to say nothing. Because as soon as it is mentioned, this character immediately becomes unreasonable.

After the first two drafts came out, no one had any objections. However, there are also people who feel the same as me and are emotionally unwilling to accept that Erlang Shen is a bad person. Producer Li Gongda, editor-in-chief Ruan Dandi, and executive producer Zhang Zengxiang successively discussed this issue with me. However, contradictions are contradictions, and no one dares to take the risk of changing Erlang Shen into a positive character. If the producer invests 10 to 20 million to shoot a movie and is killed for "tampering with the original work," the investors and producers may lose all their money. At this point, it’s not the screenwriter who has the final say.

There is no risk in writing a villain Er Lang Shen in this drama, but if you want to write a positive Er Lang Shen, or "Er Lang Shen overturns the case", you have to take a risk of 10 to 20 million yuan. We should get royalties for manuscripts, and we should get remuneration for filming, but the producer may be in huge debt because of this, and he won't be able to get over it for the rest of his life.

With this conflicting mood, the crew began to prepare, and the filming date was approaching day by day. Everyone pretended to forget and ignore Erlangshen's conflicting mood. At this time, actor Jiao Enjun, who played Erlang Shen, got the script and once again raised the question of whether Erlang Shen could be written as a positive character, and also considered the image of Erlang Shen as a god in other myths and legends (it seems that he has done some homework of).

The question of whether Erlang Shen is a positive or a negative has once again received attention. The producer and editor came to ask for my opinion. My opinion was that there was no problem and it could be changed (actually I didn’t have any ideas at that time). But I'm also worried, will there be trouble? Will the film pass the review? At this time, it is the producer who has to take responsibility. Making this decision requires some courage.

Everyone knows the result. Changed.

However, the script had been completed by that time, the shooting date was approaching, and time was running out. To change a big villain into a good guy, this operation is not a small one, and many things are unreasonable. It can even be said that if Erlang Shen was a positive character, this story would not be true. Isn't it because the folk opera "Lotus Lantern" exists because Erlang Shen is a bad guy?

How to change it?

I thought for a long time and came up with a famous saying, "The best teacher is your enemy." Then my eyes lit up.

In fact, in addition to filial piety, the most important theme in "Lotus Lantern" is this sentence, "The best teacher is your enemy."

In this case, I only need to retread the "good guy" line of Erlang Shen throughout the play and experience it again according to the psychological trajectory of a "good guy". But, easier said than done? People who write often say that the first impression is the most important. After revising several drafts, I have long since lost my "first feeling" for the plot, characters, and feelings. Moreover, time is very tight, so it is inevitable that there will be some flaws, some bluntness, and some unreasonableness. Alas, it would be great if this was the setting from the beginning.

It will be turned on on the seventh day of the first lunar month. I remember that on the first day of the Lunar New Year that year, while everyone else was happily reuniting with their families, I was still alone revising the script. It took more than a month after the shooting started to make the changes, and the changes were almost completed (of course, it was not just Erlang Shen's line that had to be changed later). At that time, we were making changes while filming, and we would often cover our heads and make changes to scenes that had already been filmed, so the changes would be in vain.

Fortunately, Jiao Enjun is a very experienced actor and made up for many things that were overlooked during the revision process. He understood that character with all his heart. Although it is still not perfect, it is not easy for us to achieve that. In fact, if the film passes the review, it is considered a success.

I didn’t expect that there would be such a strong response after "Lotus Lantern" was aired. This gave birth to another "Prequel to the Lotus Lantern". This time, I can finally tell the story of Erlang Shen calmly and without taking any risks. I think this is an opportunity for me and for Erlangshen. I hope that through this drama, the god Erlang Shen can be carried forward in modern society.