On the evening of February 26, the TV series "Goodbye Pillow Man" premiered in a single episode on TVB Jade Channel. This TV series stars actors such as Made-Chung and Huang Zhiwen. It tells the story of a wife's revenge in the urban environment of Hong Kong. This TV series has a typical Hong Kong drama style, with the story being told at a later stage. However, at a time when micro-short dramas have become popular, the narrative style of this Hong Kong drama is obviously out of date.
The opening plot of "Goodbye Pillow Man" is a small suspense. The heroine was chased to the edge of a cliff and jumped directly into the sea. Seven years later, she was discovered in Indonesia. The male supporting character, a lawyer practicing in Hong Kong, rescues the heroine and helps her find her memory. In the gradual recollection, the heroine remembered that she had a husband and son.
The next plot is from the male protagonist's side. The male protagonist is the former husband of the female protagonist. According to local laws and regulations, his wife has been missing for seven years, and the male protagonist has applied to the court to sentence the female protagonist to death. Therefore, at this time, the male protagonist can fall in love freely and get married. There is indeed a female partner beside him. The father of the female partner is also a top rich man. Obviously, the male protagonist has climbed to the top.
The more interesting thing is that the male protagonist’s son is nine years old and has a very good relationship with the female protagonist. By the way, what does the rich man’s daughter want from the male protagonist? Can you become a stepmother if you want to get married? Do you want to stop having children after marriage? Or does the picture show the male protagonist having a successful career and strong creative power? Anyway, this drama didn't make it clear. Maybe, in Hong Kong, talented men really don't have to worry about finding a wife.
The male protagonist and the female protagonist are about to get married. At this juncture, the female protagonist appears. The heroine doesn't want to disturb the male protagonist's happy life, but she wants to retrieve more of her memories. Then, at the wedding of the male protagonist and his female partner, the female protagonist appeared, and the male protagonist and his female partner had no choice but to postpone the wedding. The male protagonist acts like a good man and helps his ex-wife regain her memory. The female supporting role also expressed understanding. Up to this point, this TV series is all heartwarming. Audiences who don't understand the style of Hong Kong dramas may even think that it's so loving and beautiful, why not just let the three of them live together.
In fact, the relationship between husband and wife between the male and female protagonists has long been very dangerous. Both of them are journalists, but they have different ambitions. Before the heroine jumped into the sea and became frustrated, the couple had already experienced an emotional split. The reason why the heroine was chased by many people was because she discovered the crime scene, and in this scene, the male protagonist happened to be present.
The male protagonist is not good for the female protagonist, and he is not a good man. The female supporting character does not necessarily have to be patient. On the contrary, the female supporting character wants to take back what she loves. On the heroine's side, part of her memory is missing and she is in danger. Once the heroine regains her memory, she may start revenge mode. The final plot trend of "Goodbye Pillow Man" must be the wife's revenge.
But the narrative style of this wife’s revenge drama is outdated. This Hong Kong drama is still like a traditional Hong Kong drama. The important stories are put at the back, and the unimportant ones are told first to lay the groundwork. This way of telling stories is easily dismissed by many current micro-short dramas. This batch of micro-short dramas is a front-end of the story, putting the most important content of revenge at the front, allowing the audience to stand from a God's perspective.
Stories like wife's revenge are already everywhere in micro-short dramas. Therefore, this type of story line is also very familiar to the audience. Because of this, a work with a post-story like "Goodbye Pillow Man" cannot have a narrative effect, because the audience can know what is next at a glance. The audience disintegrated the story content in advance, resulting in the lack of storytelling in the entire TV series.
At the same time, a story about a wife's revenge can be told in 10 minutes, and can be completed in 24 consecutive episodes. For the Hong Kong drama "Goodbye My Pillow Man", efforts were made to expand the 10-minute content to more than 40 minutes. This kind of expansion will inevitably add water to the plot, which is not as fast as similar micro-short dramas. In the face of new changes in TV drama types, the traditional Hong Kong drama model of wife's revenge drama no longer adapts to the trend of the new era.
are all commercial dramas, and the narrative rhythm is much slower than that of micro-short dramas. "Goodbye Pillow Man" is destined to be a Hong Kong drama with no sound. (Text/Ma Qingyun)
