Author | Stir-fried Hawthorn
Editor | Akagi Bottle
The market is always looking forward to the miracle of bottoming out. So this time, will it be a coincidence?
The natural benefits of the opening of the new year are naturally the first battle for the market to fight back. As of now, there are three movies currently being broadcast on the market: "You Too Have Today", "Our Translator" and "Long Time Love" . The three dramas of
have their own market base: the first two dramas are produced by Ningmeng Film and Television and Huace Film and Television. They have stable market share and reputation output in urban themes. In 2023, Douban 8.2 and 8.7 " Love Only" "" and "Go Where the Wind Is" are from them. "Love for a Long Time" became popular before it was aired. All it takes is a "drama star" Yang Zi . Her "Dear Love" is also the peak representative of the popularity of couples in the past five years.
The market has given enough "sincerity", will the audience pay for it? "Our Translator" was second only to "Flowers" in Maoyan's popularity at the beginning of its broadcast. However, due to the influence of new dramas in the middle and later stages, its popularity declined slightly. "Love Forever" quickly rose to prominence on data platforms such as Maoyan after its release, and the popularity on Youku is about to exceed 9,500. Although it is not enough to say that it was an instant hit and turned the tide after its launch, it has also regained the trust of the audience bit by bit.
According to incomplete statistics, although 2023 has experienced a "big rout" of modern dramas, 2024 will still be a good year for modern dramas, because there are about 20 dramas with actors, IPs, etc. that have attracted much attention, which is a comeback against the wind. Or is it inevitable to escape the downward trend? The market is also waiting and watching.
Modern idols need more "new ideas"
The temperaments of the three new dramas at the beginning of the new year are different, but they subtly represent the three directions of current idol creations:
The first one is the high-concentration sugar-sprinkling represented by "You Too Have Today" The sweet pet drama has a relaxed and cheerful plot style, focusing on "dining", but its shortcomings are mainly concentrated in the younger age, exaggerated performances, and ungrounded plot. The current Douban score of the show is 7.2, which is watchable but not amazing.
The second is "Our Translator" represents the emotional push and pull of mature men and women, reunion after separation, and dual entanglements in career and love. Although common but "effective": has its own stable user group, focusing on "good soil, good routines" The user psychology of "love to watch". But similarly, this drama cannot avoid the inherent problems of this type of drama: workplace suspension, weak story logic, etc.
The third thing is that compared to the first two categories, which are still operating in the "safe zone" of today's idols, "Long Time Love" is not actually a typical idol drama. Although the main plot is that the male and female protagonists have a two-way secret love and finally get married, it is in the story The narrative is closer to a coming-of-age drama, and it also places sweet love in a more realistic and contemporary context: the separation, reunion, and even loss of a group of people.
This may be a way to break out. Last year's "Go Where the Wind Is" also gradually emerged from the entertainment industry due to the desire of contemporary young people to stop and be healed in the involution of work and life. From this perspective, the theme of "Love for a Long Time" is worthy of recognition.
TV series also know how to mobilize public emotions. Since the series was aired, there has always been one line that tugs at the hearts of the audience: How did they get separated? Under the reunion theme of "someone is getting married", a number of very realistic character branches are connected: about the workplace, about academia, about the original family, etc. Although there are only a few strokes, they all subtly touch people's hearts.
In this advancement, a broader public sentiment is also being affected: after all, we have not grown into our ideals, but have compromised and drifted with the flow in the quagmire of reality. Huang Yingzi became a reporter, but still compromised under the pressure of the leader; Fang Mingyu became a white-collar worker but was forced to be the spokesman for the company's layoffs; Zhuang Yuan got a doctorate but could only play the role of running errands every day... Part of the ideal, many people reality.
However, the grand reality presentation and story telling also bring new challenges. The "big rout" that will appear in 2023 not only has "negative" keywords such as death service, ppt mirror movement, and love brain, but also "atmosphere" as a breakthrough keyword. "Long Time Love" strives to achieve the ultimate in atmosphere, and even creates a prose poem feeling through shots, transitions, and lines, but "excessive is not enough."
Because it spans 30 years, including three stages: childhood, 17 years old and 30 years old, the TV series mainly focuses on flashbacks in plot continuity. Frequent operations also make the series complex and the narrative slightly confusing. It’s even easy to jump in and out of it.
When Huang Yingzi wrote the letter of apology, he dreamed back to the heroic words he made when he was 17 years old. They were an effective connection and a sigh of relief between reality and ideals. However, they were followed by a declaration that the six people would not be separated, and it seemed that they were forcibly seeking a graft between the workplace and emotions, creating a double Feeling of regret. In contrast, Fang Mingyu shed tears while eating chocolate pie in the office, and her memories are more poignant to the audience, whether it is the sense of powerlessness in workplace reality or the lamentation of childhood friendship.
In the longer term, when the foreshadowing "misunderstanding" is revealed, will the plot of the upcoming series be able to carry the 12-year separation, or will it forcefully create conflicts and "forcibly express sorrow for the sake of new words"? As the emotional lines of the male and female protagonists advance, can the later stories continue the previous tone, or will they be reduced to a foil for love? This will all determine the "height" of the show.
Is an actor a "minor item" for becoming a current couple again?
The current threshold for actors must be taken seriously. The high degree of compatibility between popular celebrities and current actors has lowered the baseline of actor performance in the current actor market, and also given current actors the stereotype of "no acting skills required". In the past few years, the problems that actors have brought to couples have increased instead of decreasing, and have even begun to become "minus points" for couples.
combs through the public opinion trend of the three on-air dramas and finds that the controversies surrounding the actors, such as appearance, acting skills, and CP sense, are becoming high-frequency words of controversy. What needs to be made clear is that appearance is not a superficial theory. Within the framework of idol themes, handsome men and beautiful women are an important part of creation. After all, they carry the beautiful vision of creating dreams for the audience.
The selection of actors does not have to be about appearance first, but about the fit with the character. In many cases, appearance and acting skills complement each other and are difficult to separate . But this also means that when acting skills cannot make up for the lack of good looks, the impact on the audience's perception will also be amplified.
In "Long Time Love", Fan Chengcheng, as the current male protagonist, is relatively lacking in appearance. However, in strong emotional scenes, such as the heart-to-heart talk after a long separation, he also appeared to be unable to handle Yang Zi's opposite role and had a dull expression. , once again deducting points for the character. The reason why the casting controversy of
is amplified is that the protagonists of need to play the roles of 17 and 30 years old at the same time. With the acting skills of Yang Zi and Zhu Yan Manzi, has no problem in completing the highlight moments with strong emotions, but there are also minor problems in the appearance and status of the characters: for example, the 17-year-old Huang Yingzi is youthful and public, but he also has the characteristics of Qiu Yingying and Wen Xiaoliu. Shadow; 30-year-old Huang Yingzi made people feel separated because of his excessive tenderness when making wontons.
"You Too Have Today" and "Our Translator" also face "troubles" caused by actors. Zhang Ruonan and Song Qian have caused controversy due to their "open and closed" and too superficial acting skills; Chen Xingxu seems to have "passed smoothly", but in fact it is also the problem: two movies are now airing, Weibo The number of followers he gained in a week is only 60,000, which seriously illustrates the lack of charm of the character he interprets. This is also the most direct manifestation of an unsatisfactory drama.
cpThe lack of sense is also a common problem faced by these three movies. From the current point of view, "You Too Have Today" is probably the drama with the strongest sense of CP, especially the contrast between Chen Xingxu's characters before and after, which is quite popular among some viewers. As for "Love for a Long Time", it clearly has the potential for a big CP stew (regardless of gender), but overall it doesn't seem to have the ultimate pull between CPs. It feels a bit lacking, and maybe there will be new highlights in the development of the main love story.
On the whole, the three current actors and the series do not support each other much, and it is unlikely that there will be famous scenes that make stars.From point to point, this actually highlights the reason why today's idols are increasingly unpopular with the audience: 's appearance, acting skills, and CP sense cannot be said to be indispensable, but at least they cannot be completely ignored by the creators.
Perhaps fortunately, in the 2024 current couple film list, there are many groups of surprise partners such as Wu Lei, x Zhao Jinmai, Li Xian, x Zhou Yutong, Zhang Xincheng x Wang Yuwen, etc., and their acting skills are at least comparable. To give the audience some sense of security, as for the metaphysics of cp sense, we can only look at it at that time.
2024, what are you looking at now that the situation has turned against the wind?
2024 is still the new year. This judgment is based on the market layout. According to media statistics, there are 32 current movies on Youku and Tencent Video alone. More importantly, there are some "polygonal" players among them, which naturally makes people full of hope for the future.
If the high expectations of "Long Time Love" are due to the trust in Yang Zi's script selection and ability to carry the drama, then " in Blizzard Time " and "Spring Love" really reveal the quality of head-turning dramas. The former is adapted from Mo Bao Fei Bao's novel. Director Huang Tianren has directed the phenomenal idol drama "I Miss You So Much". The two leading actors, Wu Lei and Zhao Jinmai, are also young actors with both good looks and acting skills.
The latter is the ultimate pull for adults. The partnership between Li Xian and Zhou Yutong has a convincing feeling. This is also the reason why Li Xian returns to the show after "Dear Beloved" and "Go Where the Wind Is", which seems to be forever. His absolute field, this time he will challenge the niche profession. In addition, its director is the co-director of the new year's hit "Flowers", which adds to its quality and appearance.
Just in these seemingly "no shortcomings" combinations, there are actually hidden questions left in 2023: Taking "In Blizzard Time" as an example, can the love between genius boys and girls still attract the empathy of ordinary people? Just like "I Miss You Very Much", which was broadcast at the end of the year, it can be said to be a masterpiece with a sense of atmosphere. It is beautiful and romantic but has never been a hit: those who like it love its pure love and the friendship that goes for love, but those who don't like it love it. Others were unable to enter the drama due to the slow pace and weak plot.
Entertainment Unicorn also pointed out in "2023 National Drama Review: "Fierce Shuffling" in Stability and Improvement" that 's collapse was mainly due to over-reliance on modern IP and was inconsistent with contemporary audience aesthetics. discrepancies, controversies caused by the actors' appearance and acting skills, and insufficient care in the production of live dolls. is limited by the drama production cycle. It is obvious that such a problem will be difficult to overcome in 2024.
In the future, we will still see many "fairly satisfactory" contemporary productions , just like "You Too Have Today" and "Our Translator" at the beginning of the year, which have good market attention, but are also explosive. There is a certain distance between the two, and even the flaws are the same as expected before the broadcast. In the future, this phenomenon may also appear in dramas such as "Don't Move on Me" and "You Are More Beautiful than Starlight", but the specific situation remains to be seen after the show is launched.
But you can still look forward to a "surprise". They may not be polygonal warriors, but they will be noticed by the audience because of a certain element: For example, "Half Mature Men and Women" is adapted from another novel "There Are No Faithful Men and Women Here" by the author of "Apocalypse of Pretending", starring Tian Xiwei, Xin Yunlai and Zhang Zhehua Starring; "Lost Laughter", which brings the identity of a talk show actor to the screen, may make up for the short-term absence of talk shows in the variety show market.
has top-notch hits and dark horse seed players. We are still looking forward to a comeback in 2024. There is always hope, what if it comes true? Just like before 2022, who would have thought that the bottoming out of costume dramas would come so quickly and that they would continue to improve.
