Journal on July 19, 2021Total no.2360
After a lapse of 25 years, Xiaogang Feng directed a TV series again. The last time I was a TV director was a short play in 1997The back of the moon. Later, after the movie "Party A and Party B" directed by him became a hit, Xiaogang Feng withdrew from the TV drama circle.
This return, the outside world has great expectations for it. What people didn’t expect was that Xiaogang Feng chose oneOnline drama with female themeAs a return work, when it was published at that time, "North Road South" attracted high discussion voices in the industry, and the public also expected Xiaogang Feng to make new innovations in the content of female themes.
When the drama was finished, Feng Dao announced in Weibo that the drama:If you don’t agree at all, you won’t agree.. Not only Wang Luodan, Gina, Lyric, Han Geng and other popular actors sat in the town, but also Liu Xiaoqing was invited to make a special appearance, and Song Dandan, Bo Huang and other movie stars made guest appearances. Such a big coffee lineup with the theme of "women’s growth" has made many people look forward to this drama at the beginning of the broadcast. Just looking forward to it, but after the real broadcast, the word of mouth was "opposite" to expectations. Many viewers commented on the drama the most."suspension"More viewers compare it toMiddle-aged version of "Tiny Times".
Women’s growth depends entirely on dog blood.
In recent years, film and television works with the theme of "Urban Women’s Growth" have emerged in an endless stream, which is largely due to the improvement of women’s social status. Female drama is a microcosm of women’s growth, so it has attracted more attention. Most female dramas are based onBeijing, Shanghai, GuangzhouAs a background city, this drama "North Road South" is no exception, which focuses on the career, emotion and life of five women in Beijing. At first glance, it tastes a bit like Ode to Joy, but the life of five people is much more dreamy than Ode to Joy.
The first isDai XiaoyuAfter graduating from graduate school in Norway, I never worked. At the age of 30, I was eager to get married, only to find that my boyfriend not only didn’t divorce, but also made a will that had nothing to do with himself to his ex-wife and children. Angry, she wasted her five years of youth after scolding her boyfriend, and made herself the most annoying mistress. After that, she broke up freely and went back to Beijing to take refuge in her grandmother and sister with only 50,000 euros left on her card. She had no goal and no ideal. After returning to China, just like living abroad, she slept in the sun for three hours every day, had an unexpected dinner, and impressed her boss with her eloquence, earning 20,000 yuan that night.
Bao XueDai Xiaoyu’s cousin, an 18th-line actress who graduated from Chinese opera, is still a walk-on at the age of 25. She is lively and cheerful. When she has no guest appearances, she goes to the villa to see her grandmother during the day and drives her car back to her home in the hutong at night, without the sadness and hardship of the 18th-line actress. The sadness and experience of the leading role of a walk-on in Stephen Chow’s "king of comedy" can make people resonate, which is a true and touching presentation of the young actor’s mental journey. Obviously, Bao Xue in "North Road South" has excellent capital to pursue her dreams, which is far from the real eighteen-line actors in the eyes of the audience.
YoushanHer experience is even more dreamy. She dropped out of school in her sophomore year to get married and give birth to a child. She was looked down upon by her husband’s family without income, and finally she couldn’t stand the life of being dependent on others. After a few years of divorce, she became the boss of an investment company. It is also because of her that these five women who meet by chance can become friends. Imagine a workplace white, relying on their own efforts, a few years to achieve the worth of hundreds of millions of investment company boss, which is obviously too divorced from reality.Feng XiI graduated from a vocational college. My boyfriend came to Beijing to study as a postdoctoral fellow. After coming to Beijing, I stayed with my relatives who went abroad. After three years without a stable job, I saved 300,000 yuan in savings. My boyfriend who has been in love for ten years has to go to Germany for further study. She didn’t mention marriage, and she was not in all plans, but she can still take good care of him.
Compared with the previous ones, housewivesSimengSimeng graduated from the Chinese Department of Beijing Normal University, and just got married and had children. Her husband worked hard to become a partner in an accounting firm, and after having two children, she taught her children at home. Being good at writing novels, she wanted to have her own job, but every time her husband refused because her children were left unattended and her aunt couldn’t take good care of them, so she had to write small articles in her spare time to make herself feel alive.
From the perspective of people’s design, the five people do have different lives and different personalities, occupations and growth backgrounds, but all they present in the play areExquisite and carefree image of "petty bourgeoisie"Too far away from the lives of ordinary people. Especially you Shanshan, as a businessman, she has two unrealistic characteristics: one is very idle, eating and chatting with people all day long, and there is no actual work description; Second, she was too enthusiastic. The 30 million yuan she lent to a friend said no after something happened to her friend. She didn’t know Bao Xue, Dai Xiaoyu and Si Meng very well. She could send an expensive washing machine to Feng Xi who had just met twice, and even if Bao Xue said she had no money, she would rather lend her money than pull her to open a restaurant together. This is simply a god of wealth. In addition, grandma who plays mahjong in a big villa, Bao Xue, an eighteen-line actor who lives in a quadrangle, and even Feng Xi, who describes ordinary people drifting north at the bottom, have no roots in life.
The problem with "North Road South" is not that the women in the play are particularly rich, live in villas and luxury houses, and go in and out of high-end clubs. The main problem is thatThe life of rich women written by screenwriters is too "casual", while the real bottom girls are too stress-free.If you want to film the happy life of the rich, you can refer to Tiny Times, but the intention of the drama series "North Road South" is to highlight the breakthrough of women in the face of difficulties. For example, Bao Xue, a walk-on actress, must face some skinny reality, Feng Xi will no longer lose herself in the relationship between men and women, and can wake up a little. How can Si Meng, who is trapped in the identity of a housewife, realize the writer’s ideal step by step by her own efforts? But the series has been broadcast for more than ten episodes. Except for the necessary love segment of dog blood, other plots are too "suspended", not only the struggle of women is not reflected, but also the plight of five women does not seem to bother them.
It’s time to bring forth the old and bring forth the new in the homogeneous female group drama.
The reason why the audience can’t really empathize with the drama "North Crossing the South" is that the story of city girl’s growing struggle is divorced from the real life situation of growing struggle. It’s an obvious point of the drama "North Road South" to shoot TV dramas from an artistic perspective. This highly suspended drama mode, far from the reality of ordinary people’s lives, is like a pink filter, which blurs and over-beautifies the real female perspective and female situation. Such a script does not reflect the main issues that contemporary women really care about.
Since the fire of Ode to Joy, the trend of female group drama began to blow up, such as Beijing Women’s Picture Book, Shanghai Women’s Picture Book, Youth Fight, Nothing But Thirty’s Twenty Don’t Confuse, Just Youth and so on. Although these film and television works will get some unrealistic bad reviews, they can still arouse the audience’s resonance and discussion at some points. In Ode to Joy, there are some fresh graduates who are struggling for a full-time job, such as Xiaoqiu and Guanguan, and some fans who have worked for many years and have the anxiety of ordinary women at the age of 30. Nothing But Thirty Wang Manni has worked hard in Shanghai for many years, trying to live a quality life, but her ability doesn’t match what she thinks, and she has been struggling in a "delicate and poor" life. In last romance, although Zhu Suosuo can have some luck by virtue of her beauty, she is very aware of her environment and will not be too unrealistic.
These female group dramas, the audience can more or less resonate through the background of the characters or social topics in the drama. It stands to reason that there are more film and television works to show and discuss the situation of women of different ages, which is a manifestation of social progress and is very gratifying. However, most of the dramas are in the same way, and the homogenization phenomenon is very serious. The women in the drama can’t get around it.30-year-old anxiety, career promotion plan, love, marriage and infidelityThese words, and many times after the TV series throws out the problem and causes public opinion, are simply taken over when solving the problem. Although women can grow up overnight, not every woman can grow up overnight.
In today’s environment, it is actually difficult for domestic dramas to really explore some such asAnti-marriage, anti-parenting, domestic violence and sexual assaultSuch sharp and deep topics. If you can’t directly poke the pain point, you should at least find the cool point and burning point from the female perspective. Why a nonexistent drama "A Lady’s Character" can cause such a heated discussion is precisely because the public wants to see a group of truly outstanding independent women. In the final analysis, female audiences are more willing to see how women face all the difficulties in life bravely and gracefully, not being kidnapped by their daughters, wives and other social identities, and really living in depth, rather than being surrounded by some dog blood stories.
Film directors frequently try water and film dramas.
In the past, movies were considered to be higher than TV series in terms of aesthetic value and commercial value, and film directors seemed to be more artistic. Over time, an invisible "contempt chain" was formed in the industry, and many directors active in the film industry were reluctant to participate in the filming of film and television works. However, with the development of the industry, the continuous emergence of fine dramas has also loosened this "contempt chain", and many film directors have even begun to break the chain with actions. In addition to the plot being discussed, another hot topic of this movie is that the film director turned into a film and television drama.
In fact, there have been many cases of film directors switching to film and television before. In 2015, he was a Hong Kong director who made famous films such as Dark War 2 and Whenever Things Change.Wing-cheong LawDirected the online drama Tomb Raiding Notes for the first time, which set off a wave of film directors moving to the online drama market. In 2017,Guan HuPhotographed "The Yellow Leather Grave with Ghost Blowing Lights"; In the same year,Patrick Yau Tat ChiPhotographed "Unintentional Master 2"; In 2018,WaiMan YipFilmed the crime of the original. In addition, more and more film directors, including Jing Wong and Li Lichi, began to challenge the "film-to-drama" and achieved success.
However, the drama market is quite popular for the entry of film directors, compared with the fact that TV directors switch to movies. In the eyes of the industry, these directors have accumulated a lot of filming experience and shooting skills in the film field before, and these qualifications are enough to create a high-quality TV series and give the work a "film texture". At the same time, with its own appeal, it brings higher attention and commercial value to the works. Last year,Wong Kar-waiAfter the exposure of the Blossoms Shanghai poster, the most talked about by the audience is not the film starring Hugh, but the director Wong Kar-wai. Unlike some previous posters with the leading role occupying the "C position", the most conspicuous position of the poster is the name of the director Wong Kar-wai. Well-known directors and powerful actors have provided a guarantee for the word-of-mouth of the work to some extent, and they have already received high attention before broadcasting.
Of course, the phenomenon of "shadow-to-drama" puts a high-quality coat on the film and television drama works, and at the same time, it also drives the directors to a high level, and the public’s expectations for the works will be higher. However, in the eyes of the creators, the transformation filming actually has its own thoughts, and there is also a matter that it is difficult to adjust. However, it is undeniable that with the joining of these directors, more excellent teams will be attracted to participate in the creation of works, and the quality of domestic TV dramas will be raised to a new height.