As early as 34 years ago, Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao vividly displayed the conflict between the protagonist and supporting actors in the sketch "Protagonist and Supporting Actor". The sentence "You can control me, but also who the audience likes to watch" has become a favorite of many people. Classic quotes commonly used when defending characters.
Stills from the 1990 CCTV Spring Festival Gala sketch "Protagonist and Supporting Role".
Vivid characters are the soul of the story. Although today's film and television dramas have their own creative ideas, what can attract the audience and arouse audience discussion is often the dramatic tension brought by the characters. Therefore, the character's emergence from the circle is closely related to the attractiveness of his or her personality. When the audience has the right to speak and the right to choose, they can give the character more connotation based on their own interpretation.
Many times, what the audience is obsessed with is not a specific character, but an interpretive character created through subjective interpretation. Under the audience's interpretation, these characters appear more comfortable, concrete, and rich, and the characters also have sufficient thickness. and a sense of story, which is often the most attractive.
Perhaps this can also explain why many of today’s characters started out of the industry from the second-generation edited videos of station B (video website).
In the summer of 2023, a TV show called "Come on, I saw Wei Daxun playing pseudo-orthopedics!" "The second creation video contributed to Wei Daxun's popularity. The video, which only lasts for more than three minutes, portrays the love and helplessness of Meng Yanchen, played by Wei Daxun, to the extreme. While the audience was moved by the poignant be (internet slang for a tragic ending), they also deeply loved Meng Yanchen. This kind of affection also makes the supporting role of Meng Yanchen outshine the protagonists played by Yang Yang and Wang Churan.
Popular second-generation video "Get up, I saw Wei Daxun playing pseudo-orthopedics!" 》.
Perhaps, for today’s audiences, the desire for expression is more important than the battle between protagonists and supporting actors. Characters in film and television dramas are just tools for the audience to interpret the world.
"Supporting characters on the table" and "aesthetic countercurrent"
In the past, Japanese comics had a default rule: the protagonist is used to promote the plot, and the supporting characters are used to like. Korean dramas also have a similar law: the male lead belongs to the female lead, and the second male lead belongs to the audience. Maybe this is partly a reflection of the struggle between the main and supporting roles. During this period, the audience's affection for the supporting characters will not greatly affect the evaluation of the protagonist. one's man meat is another man's poison.
Today's "supporting characters on the table" is more like a variant of "female supporting characters" in online literature, that is, the supporting characters become the new protagonists, and the original protagonists become some kind of "villains" who are criticized.
The replacement of the positions of the main and supporting characters means that the audience's value preference has also changed. The actions of the supporting characters are rationalized, but the shortcomings in the protagonist's words and deeds will continue to be magnified, thus proving the protagonist's "hypocrisy".
Stills from "The Everlasting Moon" (2023).
Behind this rebellion of the audience is actually the boredom of the perfect protagonist. The classic elements of the past may not be applicable today, and what is admired now may be opposed in the past. This "aesthetic countercurrent" also means that audiences will continue to give new connotations to film and television works.
After the proliferation of Cinderella and Little White Flower stories, audiences began to expect a strong man with a noble birth and a "golden finger" to become the protagonist of the story. As a result, the character who once served as the villainous female supporting character became the protagonist, while the character who was not strong enough and had a fateful fate became the supporting role. Film critic Mao Jian once said in a speech: "Film and television dramas are the most feudal place in China. Appearance is distributed according to status and property, and morality and future are distributed according to appearance." This kind of evaluation is to a large extent in line with "strong women" ”, “strong male” stories are consistent with the settings of dramas with male protagonists and male protagonists after they became popular.
Stills from the Korean drama "Little Ladies" (2022).
On a certain level, the supporting characters are just a tool to create excitement. The evil of the supporting characters is like a clown in front of the all-powerful protagonists. In the end, it is just to facilitate the audience to get an all-round, crushing pleasure after taking the role of the protagonists.
Popular culture is a manifestation of the collective unconscious. When consumers are accustomed to assuming the role of the protagonist who wants to win the wind and rain, the protagonist who is superior is undoubtedly the righteous party, while the supporting character who is killed instantly in all directions is "deserved".But as more and more people realize that we are just ordinary people running for life, those supporting characters who are of low origin and are troubled can easily win our psychological projection.
Life, studies, and work have made our mental state "very beautiful". Then watching the protagonist as a "Dragon Man" cry for love, it is difficult not to feel repulsed. We are willing to admit the existence of "evil" and can even sympathize with supporting characters who have no choice but to wander in the gray area, but we can no longer accept the protagonist who stands in a prestigious position and talks about benevolence and morality but has no empathy. Therefore, the darkened Yao Jinling is better understood by the audience than the protagonist Liu Sanhao (the character in the TV series "The Palace") who "does good deeds, says good things, and has good intentions". Xu Shiqing, who dares to do anything in order to be on prime time She is also more likable than Zhang Jiayan (a character in the TV series "News Queen") who always emphasizes the ideal of journalism.
Stills from "News Queen" (2023).
Some people say that supporting roles are on the table because the audience is disenchanted with perfection, but in fact, we are just more willing to see complex reality than false perfection. Those imperfect characters just highlight the true humanity, and this is probably what the audience wants to empathize with.
Editing and "Database"
Not all characters who appear in the circle rely on complex and unique characters.
Nowadays, many characters have emerged from the Internet subculture relying on second-generation videos and emoticons. Many viewers’ understanding of specific characters comes from these edited and collaged videos. The impact of short videos has made many viewers lose the patience and enthusiasm to watch the whole drama. Simple, repetitive, and memorable short video clips are more likely to stand out. Compared with specific plots and character relationships, concrete symbols are easier to remember. People who know "White Porridge" may not remember the title of the play "My World's Fireworks", and people who use the "digging wild vegetables" joke may not have watched "Xue Pinggui and Wang Baochuan" at all. I haven’t watched a single episode of the show, and it has become a norm to not miss a single joke.
Wang Baochuan in the TV series "Xue Pinggui and Wang Baochuan" (2012).
Clear database symbols are more easily accepted than complete and complex content. Database consumption is no longer a new concept in modern times. The deep grand narrative no longer exists, and the non-narrative "database" exists as the underlying logic to replace the grand narrative, and the "cute elements" pointing to character setting are just a kind of database.
Hoshiki Higashi's book cover of "Animalized Postmodernity: How Otakus Influence Japanese Society" (Animalized Postmodernism: How Otakus Influence Japanese Society).
Just as many "cp-eating" audiences prefer "cute element" settings, the audience's preference for many characters is also based on a "cute element" consumption logic. Here, the characters have been separated from the original narrative text and have The ability to freely enter other narratives also means that the characters have the prescriptive nature of meta-narratives. No matter what world or story the characters are placed in, postmodern audiences can imagine the reactions and actions of the characters.
Short video clips not only cater to this craze for "cute element" consumption, but also strengthen the audience's preference for "personality consumption". This also makes many of the videos we see always highlight certain labels and characteristics of the character, and strengthen the setting characteristics through repeated repetitions, thereby allowing the audience to equate the character label with the label.
"The Language of New Media", [Russian] Lev Manovich, translated by Che Lin, Guizhou People's Publishing House·Houtang, August 2020.
Manovich, who specializes in digital culture research, believes that the database has become an overall cultural metaphor to refer to various data collections including memory and brain. Obviously, the videos and emoticons that make us remember the memes but forget the original series rely on the database cognition we have formed, allowing us to quickly find the corresponding position in the collection. Those characters that stand out often have clear database attributes. The reason why elements such as "yandere", "venomous tongue" and "loyal dog" can become certain labels is precisely because they meet our consumption needs of "cute elements".
also needs to be clear that our consumption of databases is not passive. On the contrary, we can also collage "cute elements" on our own to create new creative sparks. Many times, we extract our favorite elements and settings from the characters and express our interpretation in secondary creation. Calling oneself "Huanmen" does not necessarily mean to become Tianhuan, but just wants to express one's mental state; admiring Jiang Yuyan does not really mean that she is decent, but just shows that she has no power to restrain a coquettish girl. The weak woman gradually becomes the favorite of the ultimate "big boss" beautiful woman.
Stills from "Little Fish and Flowers" (2005). Under the premise of
, the protagonist and the supporting role are not that important to the audience. If you are interested in the role of the supporting role, you can just watch the single editing part of the supporting role. If you are not satisfied with the plot, you can also make a second creation. .
In this "postmodern" context, the audience's subjective initiative can be given full play. They can interpret their favorite characters and create new narratives as needed. As long as there are suitable materials, Lin Daiyu and Voldemort, Aunt Rong and Su Daqiang, Di Jia and Liu Yifei can all write stories of love and hatred. This also means that for the audience, the excavation of the character itself is more important than who plays what role. While many fans care about the order of the series, the audience does not.
Who is the first leading actor?
The term "position" may not have a clear meaning to ordinary viewers, and it does not matter who the actors and actresses are named first. But in today's film and television industry, "role" not only represents order, but also status. Character settings and character arcs, which directly affect the audience's perception of the character, are often directly affected by the actor's status, or cast. .
Lines from the TV series "Made in the Road" (2021).
The rise of domestic ranking battles is related to fan culture. When fans compare their performance with their opponents, they need to show their performance in film and television dramas to demonstrate the actor's market appeal. The second series is often considered to have no actual performance, and the third series and beyond cannot be regarded as masterpieces. As this kind of comparison becomes popular, the film and television industry also has to pay attention to fan status. Even if the actors don't care, fans will express their protest in various ways, and even use the method of "tearing the studio apart" to force the actors to fight for the role. Over time, position has become a resource that actors have to fight for.
In order to appease the actors and fans, the producers had to come up with various ways to "dry the water". The ordering of leading starring, special starring, special starring, and friendly starring may be confusing to many people, but for the film producers, this is a careful choice after careful consideration.
Stills from the Japanese drama "Restart Life" (2023).
Although in the eyes of many viewers, it does not matter who is in the center of the poster, who is in the order of names, who has more plots in each episode, or who has less plots, but in today's film and television industry, every one of these is possible It caused quite a dispute. Because for fans, the role of a drama represents an actor's status in the film and television industry, and after some performance, it can bring other business and fashion resources, and the "appearance" of supporting roles will harm the follow-up of the protagonist. "Bonus", this is undoubtedly unacceptable to fans. In other words, what fans really care about is not the character’s love itself, but the competition for resources after the character “leaves” the circle. In this kind of competitive thinking, actors, whether of the same or opposite sex, can become potential opponents.
Perhaps in the past, fans only cared about appearance, temperament and business capabilities, but in today’s fan culture, all details such as data, endorsements, magazine covers, magazine sales, titles, poster area, and character proportions in each episode can become the object of competition. . In order to win in these competitions, fans not only have to spend their own money, time and energy, but also drive celebrities to occupy the top spots on various lists. This may be a collective sense of honor in the fan circle, or it may just be to satisfy some kind of vanity. Heart.
Stills from the Korean drama "Her Private Life" (2019). A fan ecosystem like
will undoubtedly affect film and television creation.The situation where any project can be used for competition and ranking has further strengthened the hierarchy of the entertainment industry. The hierarchy is strict and the chain of contempt is clear, and the main and supporting roles have naturally changed from the original role distinction to the current status struggle. Because of this, the heroine and the hero have become the types of dramas that fans most want their idols to play the leading role in. It cannot be a series that favors group portraits. It must be an absolutely big heroine and a hero. In order to ensure that the crew strictly abides by the classification, fans will even start supervising the crew before filming begins. They will also purchase notices and scripts during the filming, and compare them after the series is broadcast. All of this is to ensure that the protagonist Absolute status. Some time ago, "One Thought of Guanshan" sparked a heated discussion about "adding more scenes". Fans of Liu Shishi once took out notices to prove that the heroine's scenes had been cut out in large numbers.
As an audience, what we are looking forward to seeing is film and television dramas in which every character has flesh and blood and is real and rich enough. We want to see real people in film and television dramas, see their joys and sorrows, and see them as independent people. The living side of the individual. But in a hierarchical system where the characters are in charge, the protagonists go first, and the supporting characters can be sacrificed, this expectation of the audience has become a kind of luxury.
Perhaps, "supporting characters leaving the circle" is just the audience's resistance to the trend of "absolute suppression of the protagonist". Since the drama cannot allow us to see the diversity of individuals, it is better to reshape the story with the elements and settings that we like. At least you can get a kind of happiness that goes against capital. As for whether the supporting characters "overturn the table", the audience doesn't care, but if it can change some unnecessary trends, it might be an unexpected surprise.
author/Paziliya
editor/Luo Dong Zhang Ting
proofreader/Fu Chunmin
