The latest immortal drama “Immortal Samsara (沉香如屑)” is on air on July 20. Yang Zi, Cheng Yi, Zhang Rui and Meng Ziyi are leading the cast.
Unlike previous immortal dramas, Immortal Samsara tells the story of Ying Yuan, the emperor of the six realms who guards the boundaries and protects the world, and Yan Dan, the fairy who is kind-hearted and loves righteousness, as they fight against the forces of evil and guard the righteousness of the world together.
The drama strives to break away from the creative shackles of romance and build a more ambitious and meticulous story structure behind the fantastical and magnificent imagery.
World structure of Immortal Samsara
Main characters of Immortal Samsara
Immortal Samsara constructs a vast group of immortal characters, the main characters include:
Yan Dan (played by Yang Zi), the four-leaf lotus fairy. Intelligent and has a powerful gift for learning. However, she is naughty and lively, resting on her laurels, and is happy with her status as a fairy attendant. She is kind, sincere, and truly devoted to everyone.
Ying Yuan (played by Cheng Yi), the leader of the four emperors in the heavenly realm and the first model of the heavenly. He is upright, loving, but he has a demonic bloodline.
Tang Zhou (played by Cheng Yi), Ying Yuan's identity in the human world, Ling Xiao sect disciple, suave, excellent skills.
Yu Mo (played by Ray Chang), the only survivor of the ancient legacy of the Jiu Qi Race. As the king of demons, Yu Mo is sober and persistent, low self-esteem and silence.
Zhi Xi (played by Meng Ziyi), Yan Dan's sister, has a strong sense of self-esteem and is always climbing the ladder of desire.
Heavenly Emperor (played by Zhu Yongteng), majestic and stubborn.
Xuan Xiang (played by Fu Fangjun), the evil god of the demon race. In the human realm, he is the mysterious and unpredictable Liu Wei Yang, the master of the Shen Xiao Palace.
Immortal Fairy Ying Deng (played by Vicki Xu) is the head of the Miaofa Pavilion in the God Realm.
Story timeline of Immortal Samsara
The Battle of the Ancients: The Divine Race battles the Shura Race, and before Ying Yuan's parents die, they entrust him to the Heavenly Emperor for adoption.
The Battle of Creation: The Heavenly Emperor led the four emperors to defeat: Yao, Ghosts and the Underworld, creating the six realms (God Realm, Immortal Realm, Human Realm, Yao Realm, Demons Realm and Underworld Realm).
The Battle of Immortals and Demons: Ying Yuan led the heavenly soldiers to fight the demons, and the six realms were merged into the three realms (the God Realm, the Human Realm, and the Demon Realm).
Two lifetimes of reincarnation
Five hundred years ago, the ancient legacy left behind two four-leaved lotus plants. During the Yaochi banquet held in the fairy world, the Heavenly Emperor invited the Yao, demons and the underworld to come and watch. Later, the lotus acquire a celestial form, became two young girls named Zhi Xi and Yan Dan.
Five hundred years later, Zhi Xi was deeply devoted to her training and was promoted to be the deputy head of the Miaofa Pavilion. Yan Dan became an idle fairy, was sent to the Beiming immortal monarch to be a fairy attendant, and later transferred to the Yanxu Palace as Ying Yuan's immortal attendant.
From the information released by the crew and the direction of the story, some characters in the drama will go through at least two lifetimes of reincarnation. After the reincarnation of Tang Zhou and Yan Dan will also find their lost memories, Tang Zhou will remember that he was once a heavenly war god, Yan Dan will remember that she was once a heavenly fairy, the two had missed the love affair in the past, and then after the bond will solve the past misunderstanding.
Traditional Chinese aesthetic rhythm in Immortal Samsara
The grand and meticulous story structure shapes the traditional Chinese aesthetic rhythm. At the beginning of the story, the main character Yan Dan jumps from the bridge, and the time is instantly set back to 500 years ago: a romantic feast of flowers in the Heavenly Court slowly unfolds like a scroll, outlining for the audience an oriental beauty.
In the immortal world constructed by Immortal Samsara, traditional Chinese cultural elements are presented through the audiovisual language of drama, such as costumes, styling and props, which not only show the vitality of traditional culture, but also inspire the audience to return to and reconstruct the aesthetic psychology and aesthetic habits of traditional culture.
The creative team uses rich characters and diverse characterization to show the connotation of the “immortal” world. In the aired episodes, the elegant traditional Chinese colors, the exquisite costume design, the powerful aura of confrontation between the good and the evil, and the individual characters who appear one after another, all reflect the pursuit of realistic details and the richness of the imagination of the fairy world.
While the sophisticated audio-visual language is the form of expression, the appeal of the plot remains the core of the fairy drama, and Immortal Samsara uses the ultimate romantic special effects to create a scene of the three realms of God, Human and Demon. Using the six realms as the starting point for story development, Immortal Samsara provides the public with a dream-making mechanism for an immortal drama, which in turn shapes a unique traditional Chinese aesthetic flavor.
Along with the scenario of the drama, Immortal Samsara builds a seemingly “unrealistic” but relatively “orderly and reasonable” immortal world, in which various characters appear one after another., Telling the growth of individuals in the battles of good and evil, thus revealing the twists and turns of the mystery of the oriental legend.
Innovative expression of the spirit of Xianxia
In the immortal world constructed by Immortal Samsara, there are both love and hate entanglements between male and female protagonists, as well as the sorrows and joys of minor characters.
In terms of characterization, Immortal Samsara does not forget to explore the fragility and complexity of human nature outside the main line. The drama shows the characters closer to the ordinary people, and infects the audience with more empathetic ordinary people sentiments.
For example, the drama does not create an all-powerful hero, the male and female protagonists both heart of the six realms, but also pure and kind, so that the drama adds a realistic color.
Nowadays, Xianxia dramas are also striving to achieve innovative expression and thus creative transformation of martial arts culture. Immortal Samsara does not fall into the traditional plot pattern of tragic love in immortal dramas, the main characters upholding benevolence and morality , showing their wisdom and commitment in the midst of adversity and hardship.
Immortal Samsara, based on the fine immortal drama, deeply explores the chivalrous in Chinese culture and combines the aesthetics of modern audience with the excellent traditional Chinese culture, showing another way to open the immortal drama and casting a root soul for the dissemination of the drama.
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