's " Gentlemen in the East Eighth District " won the title of the most watched domestic drama this month with its unprecedented low score on Douban. Before the release of
, the play had two gimmicky promotional labels, one was Zhang Han himself, who served as the male lead, screenwriter, producer and producer at the same time in the play; the other was the "male version". " Thirty Only "", the target is the popular female group drama in recent years. Since the launch of
, the Douban score of "Gentlemen in the East Eighth District" has been fluctuating below 3 points. As of the time of publication, the Douban score has been fixed at 2.2 points. The number of people who have rated it has exceeded 70,000, and the proportion of 1 star is as high as 96%. The throne with the lowest score in the play.
Let's look at the audience's evaluation of this drama on major social media. This is not only the worst time for men to be hacked in domestic dramas, but also makes all " Canglan Jue " and " Xinghan Splendid " The female audience above the male protagonist came to their senses and admitted that there would be no "Dongfang Qingcang" in real life, but there may be countless "children's words" (the character played by Zhang Han in the play). Since
has benchmarked "Thirty Only", this drama should have been discussed in the genre of urban male group portrait drama. The structure of this drama does meet the standards of this type: with several men as the protagonists, the story is told Their friendship, love and career stories. But because this show has too many flaws, it can't be the endorsement for all such dramas.
However, in the past few years when female group portrait dramas have been very lively, male group portrait dramas have indeed failed to find their place in urban themes. A proposition that is still worth discussing is that in the field of variety shows, the elder sister can ride the wind and waves, and the elder brother can overcome all obstacles.
The outdated urban male group portrait
"Gentlemen from the East Eighth District" has dropped to the lowest point of Douban score since its launch, which is the same as the classic film "Dream Showbiz". In recent years, although there have been many bad dramas, there are few domestic dramas like it, and it is almost impossible to see a good review. Every plot and every line accurately steps on the "minefield" of the audience.
Zhang Han, who is also the male lead, producer, producer and screenwriter, has spared no effort in promoting his new works in recent years. The year before last, he posted a small composition on Weibo to express his sincerity, saying that the script took more than three years to create and is "a rare original script in the current film and television industry." Last year, when he participated in the variety show ", we who entered the workplace for the first time", he also talked about his "struggle history": on the first day he started filming for 23 hours, after finishing work at 0 o'clock every day, he held a meeting to discuss the script until 5 o'clock in the morning ——In the play, it is the domineering president, and outside the play, it is also to the extent that employees want to go to the labor rights protection association to complain.
It turns out that slogan-like efforts can't make up for lack of ability. In "Gentlemen of the East Eighth District", there are many outdated episodes of accidentally sharing a bed after walking into the wrong room, and accidentally kissing after a fall. When I picked up the belt, I felt greasy across the screen, coupled with the anti-human scenes of eating instant noodles in a taxi, and the Guo Jingming such as "rainy night, cold iron" can't be written. The hypocritical lines, in short, every second is trying to challenge the content aesthetics of this era.
Of course, aside from the details that have been complained about by major UP masters, what makes the audience even more angry is the values and narrative perspective conveyed by this show. The screenwriting team of
doesn't seem to care about the feelings of female audiences for a second. In the workplace, female bosses with strong working ability must be "superior by appearance"; the regular customers of rich women in luxury stores are buying bags and partying; strangers When the man appeared on his bed, the first thing he did was not call the police, but commit a nympho...
is clearly something that should have been abandoned by the story on the screen, but it still appears at this moment, it is hard to believe that this is a movie. A drama with a broadcast time of 2022-for a domestic drama that has been tilted towards a female perspective for a few years, this is almost a step backward.
The gender migration of domestic dramasis indeed happening. A rule that can be used to corroborate is that when gender begins to become a label for the classification of domestic drama types, the label labeled "female" is often earlier than the corresponding male label, such as "big heroine drama" and "big male lead". Drama", as well as "Women's Group Portraits" and "Men's Group Portraits". The emergence of the
female label is a kind of "correction" against the default male perspective of most domestic dramas in the past, which can also explain why "two male lead dramas" are earlier than "two female lead dramas", because the former also tends to satisfy Narrative Modes for Female Audiences.
Before that, when audiences understood domestic dramas, they seldom thought about gender tendencies. For example, director Zhao Baogang 's classic trilogy "Struggle", " Men's Help " and " Beijing Youth " now seem to be the structure of male group portrait dramas, but at the time few people were discussing, these were male-based dramas. In a story dominated by perspective, how many women's psychological expressions have been sacrificed.
domestic dramas will always only be linked with the current reality. The way the audience understands the content is also related to the background of the times and the direction of the overall social trend of thought. Just like the romance drama lover who was obsessed with He Shuhuan at that time, and now he has recognized his "scumbag" nature, those who dreamed of the "heartbroken utopia" in "Struggle" at that time can only perceive it now. Whether it is "Milai" who has a superior family background and outstanding looks but loves the male protagonist to the death, or "Yang Xiaoyun" and "Yao Yao" who fall in love with the same man, they are all just the dramatic presentation of male fantasy.
"Struggle"
And when the dramas are divided according to gender perspective, the female audience who is recognized by the market as the main force of watching dramas have the right to choose. In the past, the female characters who appeared in domestic dramas with a stereotyped appearance have also changed. Sophisticated and plentiful opportunities—this is one of the reasons why big heroine dramas and later double heroine dramas/female group portrait dramas are so popular, female audiences expect to see more stories about them on the screen. Although
's female group portrait dramas that have been broadcast have their own problems, or they are too suspended and ungrounded, or they still can't get rid of the "Prince Charming" routine in some aspects, they focus on all kinds of urban women. The story still has its value, for example, it begins to show the friendship that is no longer against men, but can truly support each other, and the women in the workplace who no longer exist as vases or weak white flowers, etc.
Therefore, the establishment and development of the concept of female group portrait drama not only includes popular works such as " Ode to Joy " and "Thirty Only" as pathfinders, but also has a suitable public opinion environment and era background. The main audience of
urban dramas has always been women. This is a law that has existed since the era of soap operas. User portraits also prove this point. The 2021 Detawen white paper shows that the proportion of women's prosperity in urban dramas will reach 66.7%, which is twice as much as that of male users.
Because the audience and protagonists of urban dramas are mostly women, the male characters in them all exist as psychological projections of women. But obviously, at the age of 40, Du Chun, who is still trying his best to play a high school student, and Xiong Ziqi, who plays the role of gnawing on an old "giant baby" in " Chasing the Love of the Family ", said, "Just because I love to play, I will "I'm divorced" executive Jin Dong ... The male protagonists in these urban male group portrait dramas cannot satisfy any imagination of female audiences.
In addition, with the emergence of a large number of Internet events advocating gender equality, opposing gender discrimination and gender violence in the public opinion field, the public opinion environment and women's group portrait dramas have formed a clever "intertext": all real topics that are concerned by contemporary women, All are the nutrients for the creation of female group portrait dramas.
and the corresponding male group dramas do not have these soils. If it is said that urban female group portraits are one of the types that best fit the current drama market content laws and audience preferences, then urban male group portraits exist in the "market blind spot" - men do not choose urban dramas, and women do not choose male group portraits. Perhaps, the formula of city + male + group portrait is a false proposition.
Please put men in the jungle
Why is it also storytelling, but the men in domestic dramas are so poorly suited to urban life? To answer this question, it may be necessary to return to the creative logic of female group portrait dramas.
is an urban drama with a few women as the protagonists, and it is the "collector" of all stories. in charactersIn terms of setting, multiple heroines mean that more audiences can have a sense of substitution, each person's independent career line and love line, as well as the friendship between the protagonists, and there is enough room to play, compared to a single protagonist, a single thread The urban drama of has more advantages in the shaping of 's dramatic conflict and the brilliance of the story.
Of course, the premise of all these stories is that women have always been considered to be better at expressing emotions, they are willing to share their daily stories, confide emotional dilemmas to friends, and are more sensitive to understanding feelings and dealing with intimate relationships.
And the emotional expression of men on the screen, similar to how they are disciplined in society, is restrained and not easily exposed. This can be seen from the "Gentlemen of the East Eighth District". The four friends who have been in college until now, often get together just to watch ball games, play games and drink, and at most show off what they have recently girl.
The stereotype of men in society determines that men cannot express their feelings as freely as women, or exchange emotions with friends. In " Twenty Do Not Confused 2" with a Douban score of 8.2, "Stone" will leave letters and restored university dormitories as surprises to others before studying abroad; Girls will sleep in the same bed and talk about the emotional confusion they encounter with each other. " love is delicious " also has a similar plot. These scenarios, which seem so natural in women's relationships, don't seem to happen rationally to men.
In male group portraits, not only is the relationship between the protagonists difficult to establish, but each individual's independent story line is also tightly bound by the city. Let’s talk about love first. Men’s mate selection criteria, as understood at the social level, are relatively simple compared to women’s, which determines that the “perfect partner” in their minds must be stereotyped, or they are unruly and willful young girls. Either a gentle and virtuous housewife.
Let's look at the family again. Most of the men in urban dramas have only two positions in the family. One is the traditional "pillar" type. Earn money to support the family and shoulder the heavy responsibility of the entire family. The other is the "master-husband" type that has become popular in recent years. The representative role is Huang Lei in "Little Joy".
Compared with the female characters that extend to various fields based on emotions, the establishment of male characters in domestic dramas mostly relies on a clear goal and a successful path, which mostly occurs in the workplace. In addition, whether it's marriage, love, or family, it's hard to find emotional anchors that make viewers empathize with .
Due to the relatively distant social distance between men in real life, a more convenient way to tell stories is to place them in a field where strong relationships can naturally arise. Therefore, the most suitable scene for male group portraits is not in the city, but in the workplace. Almost all of
's successful male group portraits have prominent career settings. The most typical is " Soldier Assault ", which "does not have a female character in the whole play", and most military dramas; " Police Honor ", which has received a lot of praise this year, except for "Xia Jie" played by Bai Lu. There are almost all men outside, and with the police occupation as the foundation, the characters will be fuller. Competitive themes such as " Crossing the Line of Fire ", because they conform to the "successful path" narrative mode, are also relatively compatible with male group portraits.
In addition, the types of dramas that are more popular with men in the traditional sense, such as intrigue, history, and espionage warfare, can also naturally accommodate men's stories. However, works such as "No War in Peiping" and "Feng Qi Longxi", which mainly focus on male characters, are still quite different from the narrative mode of male group portraits as understood by the market today, and can only be regarded as "male". Xiang" works, otherwise "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" can be called "male group portrait dramas".
also has a special scene that can accommodate male group portraits, that is, "campus". It seems that men have more abundant emotions, more passionate stories, and purer friendships before entering the workplace. "'s brother sleeping on my top bunk" and " wind dog boy's sky " illustrate a truth, that is, men in domestic dramas are not necessarily teenagers until they die, at least when they enter the workplace, greasy fingerThe number started to double.
When "her theme" began to flourish in domestic dramas in 2020, screenwriter Yu Fei posted on Weibo to mention the lack of urban male group portrait dramas: "After watching a lot of social topic dramas from a female perspective, I think the public opinion has accumulated. The strength is enough, it's time to create a movie where three good men are endlessly tortured by ideals, careers, marriages, and families and have nowhere to talk. Finally, they turned from a vigorous boy on a skateboard to a depression-ridden, daily The process of releasing all the energy in the bald belly in road rage."
But now it seems that at least the creators of domestic dramas have not been able to find the point of convergence between the city and the male group portrait, and they can't let go of the fantasy of successful learning in their minds. Ashamed to show the real "mid-life crisis" on the screen, it eventually evolved into a lot of pseudo-crisis stories like "Gentlemen in the East Eighth District".
Take a step back and look at it. If the female group portrait drama serves the needs of women for self-expression, then what is the significance of the existence of the male group portrait drama? What kind of urban male group portrait can be called an "excellent work"? These questions have not yet been answered. Before
figured out "why, how, and what is good", male characters only exist as embellishments in urban dramas, which may not be a bad thing. After all, these days, even Huang Xiaoming of "I want me to think" has begun to be willing to be a green leaf in the double heroine drama.
