To this day, Xiao Fengque remains one of the most classic characters in the history of wuxia novels.
The original author of "Phoenix Playing with Dragon" is listed as "Jiang Shang Nong Chao Sheng".
This was certainly not her real name. But Shang Yechu immediately recalled the old lady with glasses' self-introduction—"My surname is Jiang."
The internet connection at the bubble tea shop was a bit slow, but the search results page finally appeared.
Jiang Shang Nong Chao Sheng, female, whose original name was Jiang Aihua.
The picture on the encyclopedia was of a middle-aged woman, but Shang Yechu recognized her at a glance—it was the same elderly woman wearing glasses at the audition!
No wonder. No wonder.
No wonder Yi Tianzhao and that dance teacher both respected her so much.
A surge of indescribable excitement welled up in Shang Yechu's heart. She had actually met the original author of "Tianji Tower"!
The milk tea had gone lukewarm, but Shang Yechu didn't care at all. She took another big sip to calm the burning desire in her heart.
Despite being a legendary martial arts novel, "The Phoenix Plays with the Dragon" has not been well adapted.
The first adaptation combined the content of the first three books into a martial arts film. However, due to the director's excessive alterations, it was met with widespread criticism upon release.
The second adaptation was a long-running series produced by Formosa Entertainment, which was filmed and broadcast simultaneously. After three episodes, it received positive reviews and feedback. However, at this time, the phenomenal hit series *Justice Bao* emerged, capturing over 80% of the viewership. *Phoenix Plays with Dragon* faltered, ending its run after only five episodes.
The third adaptation was a 20-episode TV series produced by Hong Kong Television. It was a complete series, with one episode per book. Predictably, such a tightly paced series would inevitably omit a large amount of the original plot and details.
As expected, the TV series was met with widespread criticism after its release. Many of the female lead Xiao Fengque's admirable qualities and shining traits were completely removed. This enraged her fans, known as "Feathers" (Xiao Fengque's loyal supporters), who joined forces with Xiao Fengque's fan club and online book forums to boycott the series, sarcastically referring to this version of Xiao Fengque as "Little Fengque the Cripple."
The fourth adaptation was the most controversial. After the turn of the millennium, a co-production between mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, titled "Xiao Feng Que," was produced. Its massive investment and star-studded cast made it a highly anticipated production.
As a result, just as filming was about to wrap up, the female lead, male lead, second female lead, second male lead, third male lead, and fourth male lead—six people in total—had their careers ruined in six different ways!
Drug addiction, prostitution, infidelity, domestic violence, political issues, and so on—it has all five vices!
This drama was dubbed "the most comprehensive TV series in history to depict the collapse of a family," as it single-handedly caused the deaths of six of the most popular actors on both sides of the Taiwan Strait at the time. When the scandal broke, it caused a huge uproar across mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and the repercussions continued to reverberate for two or three years.
Needless to say, this drama was permanently shelved. Furthermore, due to these scandals breaking before filming was even completed, the drama never even reached the final cut.
The three major film and television companies that invested in this drama suffered huge losses, and the director was severely affected, failing to release any new works for five consecutive years. The once big-budget drama king has become a laughing stock of the year.
"The Phoenix Plays with the Dragon" has since been known as "Xiao Fengque's Curse".
The entertainment industry is actually quite superstitious; even the opening ceremony involves burning incense and praying to Buddha. Moreover, "Phoenix Plays with Dragon" has been plagued by incredibly bad luck.
From then on, no investor dared to film "The Phoenix Plays with the Dragon".
Who would have thought that, more than a decade later, the film and television adaptation of this book would be restarted!
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