is the work of the famous director Liu Jiang who has returned to the theme of urban emotion after many years. It has been ten years since the filming of " Let's Get Married ", which was popular in the north and south of the country. In the past ten years, Liu Jiang, who has been keenly aware of the latest emotional rhythm of urban young people, has also noticed that contemporary young people's attitudes towards marriage and emotions have changed. The reason."
As a grand slam director who has won the Feitian, Magnolia and Golden Eagle TV awards for best director and best work in China, Liu Jiang's works always carry a strong creative spirit and attitude of realism : " Daughter-in-law's Beautiful Era " let African audiences know Chinese daughter-in-law Mao Doudou, and "Let's Get Married" confronts the phenomenon of "leftover men and women" in real life... In his works, there are both portrayals of modern people's lives It is also a depiction and reflection of people's value confusion.
Nowadays, realist works are becoming a craze, and audiences are increasingly looking forward to urban emotional works with a realist spirit. Recently, we had an exclusive conversation with director Liu Jiang to discuss the spirit behind an excellent urban emotional work.
Prepared in 6 years, a lot of good dramas
"Warm and Sweet" is a rare story in director Liu Jiang's career that focuses on two contemporary young women. The story begins with Nan Fei (played by Song Qian and ) and Qi Jiayi (played by Chen Yanxi and ), the best friends. Nan Fei grew up surrounded by flowers and compliments, and has a flamboyant personality, daring to love and hate; Qi Jiayi grew up in a single-parent family, and he knew how to forbear and compromise since he was a child, and he knew how to achieve his goals in a roundabout way.
However, on the road of love, both encountered difficulties. Nan Fei meets Chen Fang ( Lu Yi ) who is divorced for love Got a piece of chicken feathers...
"This drama is an urban emotional drama that reflects the current young people's views on marriage and love, values, and love. At the same time, it also uses this as a carrier to reflect more profound life and people's livelihood issues. What is it? Real happiness, young people's definition of success, responsibilities, etc., have a lot of philosophical speculation and thinking." Liu Jiang told Red Star News reporter that the show started as early as 6 years ago and interviewed a large number of young people. People's views on love have been continuously improved and modified since then. I originally planned to start filming after the filming of " Old Tavern ", but at that time I received the task of " Glory and Dreams " and had to put it down temporarily. After launching in Shanghai in February this year, it was suspended for another 61 days due to the epidemic.
"The main force was in another hotel, and I stayed in another hotel by myself for 61 days." Recalling those days, Liu Jiang said with a smile, he was still very anxious at first, but when he saw that all the cast and crew were very anxious It was very calm, so I calmed down myself, closed down and perfected the script, and completed many flying pages. The interesting thing about
is that he couldn't cut his hair for two months, and director Liu Jiang, who has been showing his bald head, once again grew his hair again, "I remember the first time I went downstairs, when I walked to Nanjing Road , My tears are about to fall, I'm so excited."
Excellent creator, should capture the emotions of the times
From the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in "Beautiful Era of Daughter-in-law", to the fear of marriage between older men and women in "Let's Get Married", Liu Jiang has an emotional theme about the city With clear cognition and solid creative skills, he is also keenly aware of the latest changes in urban sentiment.
's "Beautiful Era of Daughter-in-law" stills
's "Let's Get Married" broadcast in 2013 has aroused a lot of resonance due to the story of older men and women who are afraid of marriage, and created the highest viewing record in the prime of ten years. Liu Jiang still remembers that when he filmed "Let's Get Married" in 2012, a popular phrase in the society was "Love not for the purpose of marriage is a hooligan". Now that 10 years have passed, young people's views on love, marriage and love have obviously undergone tremendous changes.
Over the years, Liu Jiang has come to a conclusion after understanding a large number of young people's views on marriage and love, that contemporary young people have higher requirements for marriage, they will no longer make do with it. Maybe some young people in the past were forced into marriage for one reason or another. But now no, they are more determined and become "love is not a hooligan to fall in love with." Girls, in particular, are more independent and do not depend on men. They have their own careers and ideas, and they can live well by themselves, so the purity of the pursuit of love will be higher than before. "After the material world is enriched, the self-awakening of contemporary young people in love and marriage and their higher pursuit of the spiritual world, I think this is a manifestation of civilization."
"Life is hard, and creators cannot avoid it" "Warm and Sweet" once released a 4-minute-long trailer. The beginning was Nan Fei's complaint to Chen Fang: After being together for 4 years, the real girlfriend lives like a mistress. At the wedding scene, the bride Qi Jiayi fled in a dress and called her prospective husband to say "I'm sorry, let's get a divorce". After marriage, Qi Jiayi also doesn't seem to be happy, and was told by her mother-in-law: she is to make rules for her... In the
trailer, the current topics such as Ma Baonan, mother-in-law conflicts, marriage urges, and intergenerational conflicts are more intensively presented Although the title of the play is called "Warm and Sweet", it seems that there is no sweetness and warmth, and it makes people quite heartbroken.
"The name of this play sounds very sweet, but it is not only a sweet taste, it also has a bitter taste. In fact, what I want to express is that when we yearn for warmth and sweetness, it is because we have tasted life It is the creator's responsibility to express the hardships of life." Liu Jiang replied to this. The title of
"Warm and Sweet" is inspired by Lin Yutang 's induction of the Chinese concept of happiness: warm, full, dark and sweet. The so-called "intestinal full of good deeds, the rest are luxury." The pain and sweetness of life are accompanied by it. Only by truly experiencing the ups and downs of life can we understand the value of a stable sleep and a full meal. Is
bitter? Chewed. This is a sentence from this year's hit TV series " World ". Liu Jiang said frankly that real life is difficult and life is difficult, and TV dramas must not be ignored, and the romanticism in utopia cannot be taken for granted, and creators cannot avoid the difficulties of life.
But after going through hardships and hardships, I still hope that the audience can feel a kind of high-spirited idealism, "as Romain.Roland said: There is only one heroism in this world, that is, after recognizing the truth of life. I still love life. As a carrier of mainstream values and cultural dissemination, TV dramas must give people hope, and let people see light and light, which is also a reality." From Kenya's "Beautiful Times of Daughter-in-law" to " Before Dawn ", "Let's Get Married", " Go Back ", and then to "Old Tavern", "Glory and Dreams", Liu Jiang's works cover urban emotions and era legends , spy wars, major revolutionary historical dramas. The only constant is to always adhere to the creative attitude and technique of realism.
"Let's Get Married" Stills
After winning the Grand Slam of the Best Director Award and the Best Work Award at the three major TV awards, Feitian, Magnolia and Golden Eagle, Liu Jiang admitted that he had a kind of "system upgrade" for filming. "I can clearly feel some changes in the industry for more than 20 years. I am more and more aware of which mistakes cannot be made, in other words, it is 'zero tolerance' for falsehood."
recalls some bridges shot in the past Duan, Liu Jiang said frankly, maybe he was young at the time, and he had some extra greed for drama. Sacrificing a little truth for some drama would lead to a lot of dramatic coincidences and dramatic emotions, but bystanders can clearly see, oops, this is too fake ! "Now I'd rather not have this drama than incorporate falsehood."
In today's creation, Liu Jiang stretches this string at any time, like a ubiquitous inspection system, such as the root of the characters, the origin of the story, and the relationship between the characters birth, the occurrence of events. Why is there a misunderstanding? How can there be such a development... There will never be drama for drama's sake, simple masking.
"Old Tavern" stills
Liu Jiang's zero tolerance for falsehood actually points to the key points of "suspended", "pseudo-reality" and "ungrounded" in many current urban emotional dramas.
look at today's shadowIn TV dramas, many works with realistic themes are unusually suspended. Originally, they were migrant workers from Shanghai and Beijing, but they lived in Daping. Some urban emotional dramas forcefully "sprinkle sugar" and various "industrial saccharin" make the audience uncomfortable. The acquaintance of the male and female protagonists is even more stereotyped and full of drama: accidentally fall, the hero spins a few circles after saving the beauty, accidentally kisses a piece...
"I didn't actually study other people's works, but I did see a lot of fakes. Realism. Maybe the authorities or the market advocates something, they can change at any time. Encourage romanticism, they will say: oh, this is romanticism; popular idealism, he immediately becomes idealism. Like chameleon Like , it is ready to change at any time. However, the creative method of realism has strict restrictions and considerations. Creation requires a certain ability, not just by opening your mouth. An immature creator may tell a true story It's very fake, because they don't have the ability to restore the truth."
In Liu Jiang's opinion, there may be conflicts in some dramas, which come from positive and negative opposition, but this kind of use of good or bad and various negatives at any time as the engine of the drama, Absolutely the cheapest. "What I want to give people is non-masking, everyone is real, pitiful and complicated, and everyone is pursuing their own happiness." Liu Jiang said, everyone is self-consistent, and their behavior is different Has its own difficulties and reasons. They will also do evil and do some hurtful behaviors, but the motives behind them are pitiful, "It seems that there is nothing wrong with it, but why are they not happy? I may not be able to give you the answer, but I will give you some thoughts. At this time I just feel that the power of realism really exerts its value."
And when your creation really produces the power of realism, the story is not a simple conflict, nor is it a simple social events , social news, maybe It's about life, it's about life and destiny.
"It's better for everyone to be shameless"
As a director who has worked in the industry for more than 20 years, Liu Jiang has witnessed the brilliance of Chinese film and television dramas, as well as all kinds of bubbles and false prosperity when capital poured in a few years ago . "There were a few years when it was really chaotic, that is, the standard was lost, the evaluation system was chaotic, sick, and everyone couldn't tell the difference between good and bad, and slowly the bad money drove out the good money. Because everything is fake, what is the hot search , ratings, and word-of-mouth are all fake."
"Before Dawn" stills
Liu Jiang noticed that at that time, there might not be much thought for creating a work, as long as all the indicators were in place, it would become A so-called explosion. The final result is that there is no good or bad, and people who really have ideals and do well in this industry are hurt. "It's actually quite ridiculous to sell dog meat with sheep's heads. It's better for everyone to know shame."
Liu Jiang is also pleased to see that the film and television industry has slowly returned to the right track in recent years, at least towards the good side. In development, the reason is that there are a group of creators who insist on good content and idealism, and will not compromise because of these chaos, "I am not doing it for others, this is my own spiritual food. , is my survival need."
Red Star News reporter Qiu Junfeng editor Qiu Junfeng
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