How about the TV series "White Deer Plain"?
It is an expected necessity that "White Deer Plain" deletes and edits the novel's extensive sexual descriptions and "superstitious" content involving gods, ghosts, feng shui, etc.
For example, anyone who has read the novel "White Deer Plain" will find it hard not to remember the first sentence clearly: "What Bai Jiaxuan later boasted about was that he married seven women in his life." The first chapter is devoted to the story of Bai Jiaxuan's first six marriages, six bridal nights, six confused deaths that seemed to be teased by fate, and the rumors of "poisonous barbs"... The content of this chapter is consistent with the whole book. The relationship between the plots is not close, but Bai Jiaxuan's "hard life" is highlighted, and the strange and terrifying atmosphere is also exaggerated. The scene at the beginning of the drama version of "White Deer Plain" shows Bai Jiaxuan and the matchmaker proposing marriage at the woman's house. Bai Jiaxuan did not want to marry a wife who had been exchanged for food, so he got up and left. The six wives who died earlier are represented by only six tombstones in the field.
The grave of Bai Jiaxuan’s sixth wife.
For another example, in the novel, Bai Jiaxuan managed to exchange the Feng Shui treasure land where Bai Lu ran from Lu Zilin, and then his fortune began to change. In the TV series, the land-changing plot is treated as a scientific version of "there are water veins underground". At the same time, it also loses its key structural and symbolic role and becomes just an example to express the character's personality.
This is not to criticize the script of the TV series, because these changes are understandable and necessary. But these elements are, after all, very crucial to Chen Zhongshi’s original novel. The sexual descriptions in "White Deer Plain" have been a controversial topic since it was first published in the 1990s. The final version published now is the result of the author adopting the suggestions and making certain deletions. But as a work that wants to be written as "the secret history of a nation", it is precisely because Chen Zhongshi has managed to get rid of the sense of mystery and voyeurism to face up to sex, and "use a rational and sound psychology to analyze and describe the sexual form of the characters in the work" Sexual cultural psychology and sexual psychological structure", it can realize the pursuit and realm of "national secret history".
The "psychological sexual structure" is particularly important for Tian Xiao'e, the most heterogeneous female character in the entire novel. Sex not only embodies Tian Xiao'e's pursuit of freedom and personal happiness, but it is also the weapon she uses for revenge after being persecuted. She is tortured by her identity as a woman, but she is good at exploiting the allure of her body. But in the TV series version, Tian Xiao'e became the character who changed the most. Tian Xiao'e, played by the cold and graceful Li Qin, mainly emphasizes her weak and pitiful side, but cannot see the wild vitality that pervades lust and exile.
Tian Xiao'e
From a purely characterization point of view, such a Tian Xiao'e who directly arouses the audience's pity is not necessarily bad. But in "White Deer Plain", Tian Xiao'e's full of desire and vitality are not only related to her character, but represent a kind of human nature that the traditional clan culture maintained by Bai Jiaxuan wants to suppress but cannot suppress. She was like a ghost, stirring up gusts of wind in the seemingly peaceful and orderly Bailuyuan. When the TV series "White Deer Plain" unfolds the emotional line between Tian Xiao'e and Bai Xiaowen in advance with a lot of details, it may make such a pair of fateful mandarin ducks lamentable, but the power of oppression and revenge is greatly weakened.
Tian Xiao'e and Bai Xiaowen
"White Deer Plain" seems to continue the tradition of realist creation, but it consciously transcends this tradition. It absorbs Marquez's magical realism and also uses psychoanalytic techniques. These writing techniques are intertwined to become "White Deer Plain". When the desires in the novel are washed away into pure emotions, and when magical realism returns to down-to-earth realism, it is as if the wings that have just been spread out are forced to close again, and some of the unique courage and charm of the novel will be difficult to find. . The TV series has exquisite visual presentation, but the core has become mediocre - at least ordinary. Compared to the original, it's boring.