How to make a movie remake without overturning the car？

　　A while ago, the word-of-mouth of the remake TV series Midnight Food Store starring actor Huang Lei suffered an avalanche collapse, and all walks of life spoke loudly and widely about the play, which can be called an annual cultural event. Dramatically, the remake of The Troubled Family, which was directed by him before, also suffered a box office failure. Before the dust settled, the news that the Hollywood film The Bucket List and the Korean drama Kill Me and Heal Me were remake in China spread on the Internet. John Woo’s remake of the Japanese film Chasing also held its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, which pushed the remake of film and television creation to the forefront of public opinion. From the movie Grandfather’s Age of 38, Hide and Seek, I’m a Witness to the TV series Beautiful Li Huizhen, Marriage Fight and Chivalrous Man, in recent years, remakes have sprung up in the field of film and television creation. However, less than the previous work, mediocre response and even more market results should attract the attention of the industry.

　　1. The remakes have sprung up.

　　Remake is a conventional way of film and television creation, which refers to the adaptation and shooting of existing film and television works based on copyright content, including local film and television works remake and foreign works remake. For the film and television industry in China, the phenomenon of remake is remarkable because of the surge in the number of remakes in recent years. As far as movies are concerned, 2010— In 2014, the average annual remake was only about one. In 2015, the number suddenly rose to five, and in 2016 it reached eight. Among these works, 80% are remakes of foreign works, and Korean, Japanese and American films have become the main remakes. In terms of TV series, it mainly remakes Japanese and Korean classic family dramas and love dramas. According to incomplete statistics, at present, more than 30 Japanese IPS have been purchased by domestic film and television companies, and about 15 remakes of Japanese dramas have been announced. Although the absolute number is not high in the annual film and television drama output, because most of the original works are well-known, their remakes naturally attract attention. As a pioneer in this wave of remake, the China version of Midnight Food Store can cause such a big storm, which is directly related to this.

　　The remake is sought after by China film and television industry for at least three reasons: First, high-quality original scripts are scarce. The scale of the film and television industry has expanded rapidly, but the number of screenwriters has not increased in line with it. The shortage of talents has led to the shortage of scripts. Remaking classic film and television works at home and abroad undoubtedly provides a shortcut to high-quality drama resources. Secondly, the remake has a promising commercial prospect. Most of the original remakes are mature works that have withstood the market test and passed the word-of-mouth certification. The remake has been upgraded in actors, scenes, art and other aspects, which is conducive to creating works that are more friendly to the local audience. In addition, the popularity and fan base of classic original works also provide innate advantages for marketing and publicity, and lay a solid market foundation for remake works.

　　2. Behind the repeated failures of market reputation

　　In contrast to the industry’s growing interest in the remake mode, the audience is increasingly reluctant to buy such works. In the remake films since 2010, 72% of the films have douban scores below the passing line. In the remake of 2016, except for Love Saint, other films such as The Sword of the Third Young Master, My New Savage Girlfriend and Calling for Love in the Center of the World failed to pass the test. The remake of TV series is even worse, with scores mostly below the passing line or even 5 points. Midnight Food Store once approached the lowest score with 2.3 points. This result verifies a fact that is completely opposite to the view held by most people: it seems to have innate advantages such as high-quality scripts, popularity and audience, but remake is not a profitable weapon for making money. If there is no innovation that is close to the current real life and can resonate with the topics of the times, just following the original and copying and pasting without thinking, the remake will become a fried rice, and even if there is no fault, it will easily become mediocre. Especially for the original fans, the story is clear to them, and the emotional agitation and aesthetic feeling that they should have when watching the works will be greatly reduced. For example, "The Dedication of Suspect X" released last year, although the overall level of the film from performance to production is acceptable, many viewers who have seen the original said that the viewing process was very boring. If it is mediocre to say that it is not changed much, on the contrary, it will be criticized if it is changed too much and is too far away from the original. In particular, some clever adaptors, or adding too many so-called modern interpretations that are contrary to the original, stay away from the essence of the original, or deliberately inject water for commercial purposes, and support the contents of more than a dozen episodes into dozens of episodes.Or arbitrarily planted advertisements, which led to the story becoming awkward and procrastinating. These acts of putting "stale wine" into "old bottles" turned the remake into "four unlike".

　　Different from remaking local works, remaking foreign works also needs to face the trouble of "cultural translation" Every film and television work is the crystallization of stories, characters, lines and artistic elements such as clothing, culture, Taoism and photography, which contains rich information of the times and cultural background — — Macro-political, economic and social conditions, national spirit and mainstream values, micro-daily life, eating and drinking, thinking and thinking are all like salt in water. It is hard to imagine how to localize the content with exotic colors, reduce its cultural discount and enhance its cultural adaptability. The reason why many foreign classic remakes are not acclimatized is that the second creation is stiffly grafted without considering cultural differences, and the plot trend, character setting and expression techniques are not boldly optimized on the basis of retaining the general framework of the story. For example, the film Grandfather’s Age of 38 simply implanted a few China elements and online jokes, but failed to transform a Korean bizarre story in which both father and daughter were unmarried and gave birth as minors into a realistic film that conforms to China’s national conditions and convinces the China audience, which made the original fans feel bored and the new audience feel false. Oranges born in Huainan are oranges, and those born in Huaibei are oranges. In the face of remake craze, which foreign works are suitable for remake and how to be the correct posture for remake need rational exploration by practitioners.

　　3. The choice of contemporary art re-creation

　　The more classic the original, the more difficult it is to remake, but this does not mean that there are no good works in remake. In the history of film and television, shine on you, an excellent remake, is not uncommon. Summarizing its success, it is not difficult to find the common law: first of all, remake is not a mechanical copy, but a process of artistic re-creation. Creators should thoroughly understand the essence of the original, bring forth the old and bring forth the new, and carry out creative promotion and even regeneration. The New Longmen Inn, produced by Tsui Hark, retains the original narrative style of enhancing suspense, and creatively creates a brand-new world of rivers and lakes with the setting of the situation in the Huangsha desert, the emotional feelings of children, the action drama as fast as lightning, and the lens editing of the storm. Although it is a remake, it has become a new classic of martial arts. On the basis of retaining the original story frame, the Hollywood film Scent of a Woman adds the theme of loyalty and betrayal, which endows the work with more elegant and deep temperament.

　　Secondly, the remake should be contemporary, incorporating specific personal feelings, social psychology and the spirit of the times. The True Color of Heroes, which was released in 1967, was originally a mediocre film. However, it was remake by John Woo, which melted into and vented the director’s passion for years and his ambition could not be extended. Instead, it became a masterpiece. In addition, the 2014 remake of the movie "Taking Tiger Mountain Outward" enhanced the visual spectacle effect of the film with special effects, while the remake of "Tokyo Family" from "Tale of Tokyo" incorporated new information of the times, all of which are examples of successfully adding contemporary elements to the remake.

　　Thirdly, in addition to the transformation of time and space, transnational remake should also pay attention to "cultural translation" to realize the docking with local culture and complete the combination of cultural commonness and differences. The American film Infernal Affairs, a remake of Hong Kong’s Infernal Affairs, changed the original Hong Kong-style sensational style and turned to an objective and cold narrative attitude to dominate the whole film. The mouse at the end of the film is just a metaphor of the "inner ghost", which is in line with the undercover content of the film. This kind of "translation" can be called a stroke of genius. 12 Angry Men, a classic American film, has been remake in Japanese, Russian and China successively. What is commendable is that these versions have done quite well in combining the original story with the local real politics, society and culture, although they may not surpass the original, they are all of high quality. Among them, China’s version of Twelve Citizens is a rare legal masterpiece in domestic films in recent years. Some critics regard the remake as the bane and lost path of the lack of creativity in China’s film and television industry, but from the example of Twelve Citizens, it can be seen that the remake does not necessarily mean the lack of creativity. As far as artistic innovation is concerned, low-level originality is not superior to high-level remake.

　　All in all, the remake is not a scourge. It is important to improve the concept and level of remake, rather than simply blaming the remake itself. In fact, we remake others and others remake us. Martin scorsese’s remake of Infernal Affairs helped him get the coveted Oscar statuette, and treading on thin ice and Witness of the Whole People have also been remaked or copyrighted by foreign film and television companies. In a sense, remake and being remake are a way of cultural exchange, the introduction and export of culture, and naturally the competition of cultural soft power. Through the translation of the remake, different cultures can understand and communicate in the collision, which may be the contribution and value of the remake at a deeper level.

　　(Author: Zhan Qingsheng, Associate Professor, Department of Cultural Communication, School of Military Culture, National Defense University)