My own movie
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A poster of film version My Own Swordsman. [China.org.cn] |
After the huge success of wuxia (martial arts) sitcom My Own Swordsman, the long-running CCTV-8 kung fu comedy series which hit screens in 2006 and, at its peak, claimed a 9.49 percent audience share, a film version was inevitable.
The show, which is frequently repeated to high viewing rates across provincial channels, opened its filmic spin-off in cinemas this week. This time round, however, the focus of My Own Swordsman is as much on serious social issues, including housing problems and materialism, as the screwball hi-jinks it is famous for.
"Wuxia is probably the most frequently used element in Chinese TV series and films, but regular people only see it as fascinating, dreamy and distant. Our film mixes wuxia comedy with daily elements and social issues," Shang Jing, director of the film and original TV series, told the Global Times.
Much influenced by American sitcom-classic Friends, which had a huge fan base in China, My Own Swordsman centers on six characters whose relationships intertwine through friendship, family and romance, and is set in a hostel being managed in ancient China. With the same cast, director and screenwriter, the film version continues the initial's stories, while injecting today's social including house purchase and relocation, family finances and the "marriage crisis."
"The six characters are like a family on TV, while audiences see the characters as their close friends. After four years, audiences wanted to know how the characters are doing, so we thought it was a good time to write a new story for film," scriptwriter Ning Caishen said at the film's press conference last week in Beijing.
"Making an 84-episode TV series into a 90-minute film is not easy. We highlighted the social issues each of us is having right now with funny dialogue and more than ten dialects added. It is an updated story for 2011," Ning added.
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