On January 6, the TV series "Flowers" aired to its 22nd episode. When watching the plot content of this TV series, this thought always pops up in my mind: What is the difference between this kind of prosperity, confusion, drunkenness and wealth, and Guo Jingming's "Little Times"?
In recent days, for some reason, a word suddenly became very popular on the Internet—carvings on shit. The word
is full of irony towards film and television dramas. Everyone must have no objection to saying that "Flowers" is a Wong Kar-wai style carving, because this TV series is indeed very exquisite, so exquisite that only Guo Jingming's "Tiny Times" can rival it. And saying this is "shit" is obviously not appropriate. My personal feeling is that "Flowers" is more like a small pastry that is exquisitely carved but is about to expire and has little nutrition.
Why do I feel that "Flowers" is not nutritious? Because this TV series only has 30 episodes in total, and it has already aired 22 episodes. It tells the story of this boss, that boss, the agency being too clever, and trying to make money. These characters, when placed in "A Dream of Red Mansions", are definitely not Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu. They seem more like the opposite characters of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu.
There are two techniques for watching the quality of a TV series. The first is to see what story it ultimately tells and what it wants to reflect. The second one is to look at who is the soul character in this TV series and what is the ideological background of this soul character. Especially through the soul characters in the TV series, it is convenient and effective to gain insight into the ideological background of the TV series.
For example, if you read "White Deer Plain" or watch the TV series adapted from "White Deer Plain", you will find that the soul character in this story is Mr. Zhu. This teacher was always able to point out the way with a few words when Bai Jiaxuan and others were faced with difficult ideological dilemmas. Therefore, the ideological background of "White Deer Plain" is actually that of literati and the essence of Chinese cultural tradition.
For another example, the already aired TV series "The Road to Life" also referred to the model of "White Deer Plain" when writing the script to create an image of Master Deshun. This Master Deshun is deeply loved by young people such as Gao Jialin and Liu Qiaozhen. When young people encounter their own ideological difficulties, they all go to ask Master Deshun. The answers given by Mr. Deshun are simple but transcendent to those of farmers on the Loess Plateau. In fact, this is the answer to Chinese culture, which is cultural tolerance.
So, let’s watch the TV series "Flowers". When it was being created, it seemed that they also wanted to create a "White Deer Plain"-style Mr. Zhu, so the role of uncle played by Mr. You Benchang appeared in "Flowers". This uncle has a similar role to the role of Master Deshun in "The Road to Life". Deshun Ye in Shaanxi and Ye Shu in Shanghai both have the character "ye" in them. But this uncle has a very low rank and is a typical money worshiper.
Coincidentally, Guo Jingming's "Tiny Times" series of movies are also affectionately called money worshipers by a large number of movie fans.
Looking back at the uncle in "Flowers", the outlook on life and world view presented in the current 22 episodes is roughly this: I am here to make money, I am born to make money, and in order to make money, I can abandon my sensibility , I am a purely rational tool for making money, I have great magical powers, and I just want to make money.
Such a pure ideal of making money certainly makes the character of Uncle Ye unique. This is director Wong Kar-Wai's dare to be the first in the world. Before "Flowers", there had not been any positive characters in our film and television dramas. They regarded making money as an important creed in life, even as a belief. Friends who like to make money will of course regard my uncle as a spiritual role model. This is just like people who like to get information first when applying for college and like to regard Zhang Xuefeng as a role model.
Uncle Ye’s credo is to make money, and Zhang Xuefeng’s credo is to provide college entrance examination application information. There seems to be no problem, but in front of the real Chinese culture, they do not seem so high-end. For example, among Zhang Xuefeng's information gaps, there is a saying that liberal arts are all service industries.On the surface, there is certainly nothing wrong with this statement. But if you think about it carefully, this is not the case. In the program "Eight Points", Mr. Liang Wendao gave a special answer to "liberal arts students are really useless", which is a true insight. Everyone should really go see it and realize how shallow Zhang Xuefeng is.
In the same way, if we come across a scholarly figure like Mr. Zhu in classic literary works, and then look at this uncle whose creed is making money, we will feel that he is weak. The frailty of the uncle is actually the fragility of the TV series "Flowers". But this is not because the novel "Flowers" is weak, because Mr. Jin Yucheng's novel "Flowers" does not regard this so-called "grandfather's thinking" as a creed.
Possibly, the uncle’s thinking is just the thinking that Wong Kar-Wai believes in. At this moment, Wong Kar-wai and Guo Jingming formed a very harmonious intertextual relationship. Therefore, I feel that saying that "Flowers" is "carved on shit" is certainly a bad comment on TV dramas, but it is more appropriate to say that it is carved on a piece of mung bean cake that is about to expire. Those who treat mung bean cake as a main dish, a feast, or a full banquet are probably people like my uncle.
Therefore, I tried my best to say yes to the play "Flowers", but I can only say one thing: Look, Wong Kar-wai's flowers are so well carved, they are just like the real plastics in Yiwu Commodity Market. (Text/Ma Qingyun)
