Text: Eye Entertainment
2024 can be called the "Year of Martial Arts".
At the beginning of the year, iQiyi released a new "Zichuan · Bright Three Heroes" and "Flame" two martial arts dramas, and Tencent "followed the card" to broadcast "See You Again", followed by the coming summer file, Tencent's "Jin Yong Martial Arts World" and Youku's "Young White Horse Drunk Spring Breeze" continued the hot momentum of the martial arts track.
At the same time, martial arts has also returned to the ranks of popular themes in the drama market, with Tencent's "To the Mountains and Seas", iQiyi's "Yunxiang Legend 2", Youku's "Dark River Biography" and many other martial arts projects have been launched in a centralized manner, and this martial arts wind has blown from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
In October, China Film's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was hotly searched on the front foot, and iQiyi's new martial arts drama "Seven Nights of Snow" was launched on the back foot. Co-produced by Syndicate Film and Television under Great Aim and iQiyi, adapted from Cangyue's classic martial arts IP, co-starring Zeng Shunxi and Li Qin, directed by Ren Haitao, director of "Lotus Tower", "Seven Nights of Snow" with a gold medal team is indeed worthy of the sentence "all eyes on it" before the broadcast.
However, the highest popularity of the first broadcast of "Seven Nights of Snow" on iQiyi Station did not exceed 6000, and the average broadcast volume of Yunhe and Kuyun's estimated episodes is about 5 million, which can already be regarded as a "sky collapse start", and the anticipation before the broadcast has become negative comments such as "serious traces of cutouts", "not exciting to focus on", "rough post-production" and so on.
Bad news: iQiyi's new martial arts drama "Seven Nights of Snow" has a mediocre reputation, and the broadcast effect is not as expected.
Good news: The current broadcast results of "Seven Nights of Snow" are not bad in this year's martial arts track.
In the process of martial arts returning to the popular themes of the film and television industry, the market feedback is not "invincible", and even in 2024, the singing and declining voices of martial arts-themed works are more than applause.
The change of martial arts dramas in 2024
2023 can be seen as a year of revival for martial arts dramas.
Youku's New Year's Eve low-cost martial arts drama "Youth Song Xing" won a high score of 8.3 on Douban, and the average broadcast volume of cloud collections reached 44.9 million, becoming a dark horse in the drama market at the beginning of the year, and Tencent's martial arts comedy "The Legend of Magpie Knife Gate" Although it is not "popular", it can be regarded as "applauding", with a Douban score of 8.2, but the most outstanding performance this year is iQiyi.
iQiyi, which has zero content of martial arts dramas in 2022, will achieve a martial arts "triple explosion" in 2023, which can be said to be "a high-rise building from the ground". "The Legend of Yunxiang", "Lotus Tower" and "Yinian Guan Mountain" have all entered the top 12 of Yunhe's annual list, especially "Lotus Tower" won the fifth place on the annual list, which further consolidated the market advantage of martial arts themes and established iQiyi's leading position in the martial arts track.
But at the end of the year, the high start and low departure of "Yi Nian Guan Mountain" and the unfinished end seem to have indicated that the martial arts wind in the drama market will not be "smooth sailing".
The recovery of martial arts dramas in 2023 has given the market great confidence, which can be glimpsed from the number of top martial arts projects in 2024.
As of press time, there are a total of six head martial arts projects that have been broadcast on the three major long video platforms in 2024, in addition, due to the lag in film and television development, the martial arts projects launched this year will be more affected by the recovery of martial arts in 2023, which is obviously more convincing.
Tencent and iQiyi jointly created "To the Mountains and Seas", starring Cheng Yi, the actor of "Lotus Tower", adapted from the novel "Shenzhou Wonders" by Wen Ruian, the four great masters of martial arts; the martial arts drama "Yulin Ling" co-produced by Noon Sunshine and Youku and starring Yang Yang; Youku has created the "Shaoge Universe" martial arts series, "The Legend of the Dark River" starring traffic actor Gong Jun; is adapted from "Water Dragon Yin" starring Luo Yunxi and adapted from another masterpiece "Thousand Tribulation Eyebrows" by Teng Ping, the original author of "Lotus Tower"; iQIYI joined hands with famous director Cao Dun to create "Night Doesn't Close"; The sequel to the hit drama "The Legend of Yunxiang 2" ...... They are all well-deserved head projects of long video platforms.
In fact, the number of martial arts dramas in 2024 will still be only a fraction of the number of ancient puppet dramas that are also costume tracks, but the reason why it is called the "martial arts year" is more because compared with the martial arts track in previous years, the number of head projects and attention continue to grow, and the declining martial arts theme has picked up.
However, contrary to the optimism of film and television producers, the market feedback of martial arts dramas in 2024 has not continued the hot trend of the previous year, but has shown a trend of "going low".
Eye Entertainment has conducted a statistical analysis of the top martial arts dramas that have been broadcast so far in 2024, and judging from the two data of word-of-mouth scores and broadcast volume, the market feedback of martial arts dramas this year is indeed not good. Not only are the Douban scores hovering around the passing line, but only the two drama collections of "Flame" and "Young White Horse Drunken Spring Breeze" have more than 20 million views, which is on par with last year's least popular "The Legend of Magpie Knife Gate".
In addition to the overall poor performance, another highlight worth noting is that the performance of the new martial arts is significantly better than the traditional martial arts. "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World", which is adapted from Jin Yong's classic martial arts IP, and "See You Again", which is adapted from the Sword and Fairy series, are far inferior to the two new-style manga martial arts dramas "Flame" and "Young White Horse Drunken Spring Breeze", and the overall preference of the market has actually shifted significantly.
In fact, in 2023, when the martial arts track is fully recovering, many popular martial arts dramas have also been clearly distinguished from traditional martial arts, and the "new martial arts" are encroaching on the martial arts market with a strong attitude, but the key is whether this change can become the key to opening up the drama market for martial arts themes?
A new martial arts that is not good when it is timely
What kind of martial arts drama can be regarded as "new martial arts"?
Looking at the martial arts track in the past two years, the number of works with a single traditional martial arts flavor has actually been greatly reduced, and the "martial arts +" model has emerged in content creation, that is, on the basis of retaining the characteristics of traditional martial arts dramas that distinguish them from other types of dramas, more new elements have been integrated.
The essence of traditional martial arts dramas lies in the special martial arts culture, and the elements that highlight the word "chivalry" such as the flowing fighting scenes, the stories of chivalry and righteousness, and the spirit of rebellion and resistance all belong to the martial arts culture. The new martial arts need to retain the essence of martial arts culture while adding new genre themes to reach a wider range of users.
For example, the most popular martial arts drama "Lotus Tower" in the past few years belongs to the "martial arts + suspense" mode, and the addition of suspense and crime-solving content further enriches the plot, and depicts the group portrait of the rivers and lakes by creating a "detective team";
"Yi Nian Guan Mountain" is the mode of "martial arts + highway", which integrates the road movie originating from the trend of modernity in the ancient costume martial arts, and completes the self-structure and exploration in the road adventure, so the expression of modern ideas such as feminism and liberalism can be seen in the play, which brings a strong sense of freshness;
The manga martial arts "Flame" is "martial arts + fantasy", and the value system of "mortal killing" retains the rebellious spirit of martial arts culture, and at the same time uses the fantasy background to build a larger world view, reflecting the growth of the character through ideological progress rather than force upgrading, and broadening the definition of martial arts.
There is no doubt that martial arts themes, as a unique genre theme in the Chinese film and television industry, still have a wide audience, but martial arts culture is gradually declining, and it is also an indisputable fact that the market share is being eroded by Xianxia and ancient puppets, and "martial arts +" is actually a solution to adapt to market changes.
On the one hand, compared with male audiences, female audiences have a crushing advantage in the contribution to the drama market, according to the statistics of Detaven TV drama database, among the most popular genre dramas in 2022, women's prosperity will contribute more than 65%, and the proportion of women's contribution in the head market will be further strengthened, which also promotes the film and television industry to enter the "she era".
In the process of film and television creation further tilting towards female audiences, with the rise of women's thoughts and consciousness, the traditional concept of "men look at Jin Yong, women look at Qiong Yao" has long been unworkable, and the creation of martial arts dramas has also incorporated more elements that female audiences like, such as the group portrait of the men's group in "Youth Song Xing", the image of the big heroine in "Yi Nian Guan Mountain", and the independent and sober female characters in "Lotus Tower".
On the other hand, the main group of Generation Z drama watching has grown up under the influence of ancient puppets and fairy tales, and their dedication to the "martial arts dream" is far less than that of the post-80s and post-90s audiences who have experienced the peak of martial arts, and it is actually difficult for a single traditional martial arts to attract them.
The transformation of the audience group requires traditional martial arts to face the market in a more modern and popular form, so there is the birth of "martial arts +", which integrates more popular elements of the current drama market, breaks through traditional martial arts routines, and makes martial arts bloom with new brilliance.
New martial arts is a product of market changes, but it is indeed an unavoidable problem at the moment, and "Seven Nights of Snow", which integrates a large number of female elements such as "Daughter Country", is obviously "not working", how to accurately find the type of elements that can touch the audience on the basis of ensuring the essence of traditional martial arts, is the key to the success of new martial arts.