Author | Li Xunhuan
Editor | mia
With Jian Qingfen cheating and Rebecca suffering from cancer, "We Are Not Kind Enough" once again made its debut with a heart-wrenching plot.
This two-female drama starring Ariel Ariel and Tiffany Hsu scored 8.5 on Douban. After two episodes, the rating did not drop but rose to 8.8. After four episodes, it rose to 9.0. firmly holds the reputation of Chinese dramas this year. champion .
What complements high reputation is high popularity.
won the drama ratings championship on the first day of its premiere, the Chinese drama ratings championship on the eight major drama channels on that day, myvideo was top 1 on the drama list today, iQiyi International version was top 1 on the popularity list, and it has been in the top 3 of Douban real-time books, videos and videos for half a month since its broadcast.
has achieved a double harvest in terms of word-of-mouth and ratings. What did "We Are Not Kind Enough" do right? Why do Taiwanese dramas become so popular and popular every year? What is the difference between domestic entertainment and the so-called "heroine dramas" that are always criticized by the audience? How to create "We Are Not Kind Enough" on Douban 9.0 by
?
For viewers who are familiar with Taiwanese dramas, Xu Yuting, the director and screenwriter of the drama, deserves more attention than Ariel Ariel, who is making a comeback after giving birth. As a well-known screenwriter in Taiwan,
has created high-profile urban romance dramas such as "I May Not Love You" and "Tea Madness", which have aroused widespread resonance among female audiences on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. She also won the Golden Bell Award for Drama Program Screenwriting.
During the weak period of Taiwanese dramas, she directed the film " Who fell in love with his first " for the first time, which received a Douban score of 8.6 and won the best film, best actor and best actress at the 20th Taipei Film Festival. She won three awards and allowed Xie Yingxuan to wear the crown of Golden Horse Best Actress.
The success of "We Are Not Kind Enough" is largely due to Xu Yuting's narrative techniques.
She combines the lingering charm in youth idol dramas with the harsh silence of middle-aged people in reality, and constantly switches the perspective between Jian Qingfen and Rebecca.
Watching them pull and torture each other like twin flowers, experiencing setbacks and hindsight in various senses, is the pain and pleasure of the audience.
Unsuccessful work, mother-in-law making things difficult, a dull marriage, her mother suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and trivial worries and dilemmas in life frequently make Jian Qingfen fall into serious mental strife.
She has tried her best to grab happiness from the ordinary life day after day, but there is only one way to maintain her love and fighting spirit for life: create an imaginary enemy.
But when the perspective is switched to Rebecca, things are completely different.
Because of the unbearable circumstances of her original family, she was always disliked by He Ruizhi's mother when she was young, and her brother, who had been in prison, frequently caused trouble. Even if she found that Jian Qingfen sent her boyfriend He Ruizhi a loving expression that was beyond the relationship between colleagues, she did not dare to question her.
When she reached middle age, her life became a negative example. She was so busy that she had no friends. No one asked her how her day was. When she went to a restaurant to eat, she could only sit at a narrow bar. And the phrase "every day brings surprises" is She typed a modified version of "There are situations every day."
Based on the solid script and excellent audio-visual language, the performances of Ariel Lin and Tiffany Hsu added another touch of color to the drama.
When the details that are easy for the audience to empathize are conveyed through the laughter and tears of the two people, the characters of Jian Qingfen and Rebecca can successfully stand up.
The so-called bloody setting of "two women competing for one man", after being adjusted by real life, makes them suddenly feel the pain of their life status, self-analysis and the dilemmas they need to face, becoming the audience's understanding of the lives of the two women. An excellent observation sample, it has also become a question that I need to think about: : What should we do if we are in that situation?
Taiwanese dramas have entered the post-idol drama era
In the drama, Jian Qingfen and Rebecca performed a drama of "stealing men" in "We Are Not Kind Enough". When seeing Ariel Lin and Tiffany Hsu playing these two roles, it is difficult not to think of them. They once collaborated on " prank kiss ".
In this classic idol drama from 20 years ago, one of the two played the role of the lovely energetic girl Yuan Xiangqin, and the other played the role of the smart wealthy daughter Pei Ziyu. They also fell in love with the genius boy Jiang Naoshu with an IQ of 200.
is an idol drama adapted from the Japanese drama " One Kiss ". On the basis of retaining the essence of the Japanese plot, it adds many local Taiwanese colors, such as Taiwanese accents and living customs, in an effort to be more in line with the physique of Taiwanese babies.
Once the drama was aired, it became a hit on China Television and the eight major TV stations, and ranked first in the ratings for the same period for 18 consecutive weeks. It became many young people's first imagination of beautiful love.
is a little later than " will love to the end " in the mainland. Taiwan's first idol drama was "Spicy Fresh Master" born in 2000, but in terms of popularity, it must be " Meteor" adapted from Kamio Yoko anime Garden 》.
In 2001, "Meteor Garden" was very popular when it premiered on China Television. The original album sales of the series exceeded 300,000, and set off a ratings storm across Asia.
In South Korea, MBC TV station rebroadcasted it repeatedly; in Japan, 15 TV stations introduced it; in Thailand, sales of F4 records and related products exceeded 100 million baht; in the Philippines, the highest ratings were 57.4%.
Starting from "Meteor Garden", Taiwanese idol dramas have experienced a booming era.
While idol dramas such as "Prank Kiss", "The Prince Turns into a Frog" and " I'm Destined to Love You " are making rapid progress, Taiwanese idol dramas have also formed a fixed routine of "the overbearing president falls in love with me".
In these idol dramas, the male protagonist is often wealthy and has a more or less "evil" personality, while the female protagonist is often sweet and cute, and their predecessors often have incredible emotional and financial entanglements.
is popular all over Asia at the same time as idol dramas, and the leading actors in the dramas have different looks but are all handsome and dashing.
In 2003, when Yan Chengxu went to the Philippines to attend an advertising press conference, he was received with royal courtesy and received an invitation from the President of the Philippines to meet. Indonesia called on f4 to hold a concert there to save the weak economy.
Although the show has been suspended in the mainland, even today, 20 years later, f4 is still imprinted in the collective memory of countless people. Jerry Yan's appearance in "Brother Phi" can also set off a "memory killing".
Starting from F4, represented by Jerry Yan, to Fahrenheit, Ming Dao, and Ethan Juan, Taiwanese idol dramas have created one "top" after another.
In 2012, "I May Not Love You", also written by Xu Yuting and starring Ariel Ariel, won 7 awards at the Golden Bell Awards, but this was the last glory of Taiwanese idol dramas.
With the popularity of variant idol dramas such as "Naked Marriage", "Dwelling", "My Naked Marriage Era", some mainland audiences began to think that "Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou do not believe in tears", "Step by Step", "Palace Lock Bead Curtain" and "The Legend of Zhen Huan" 》 and other costume dramas have exploded in Taiwan, further compressing the space of Taiwanese idol dramas. The increasingly standardized and standardized Korean idol groups have made Taiwanese idols uncompetitive. Taiwanese idol dramas are trying to "single tricks and eat them all over the world" The routine became the last straw that broke its own life. The consequence of
's market decline and the cliche of drama series is that it loses value. During the "Meteor Garden" period, Taiwanese idol dramas could still sell for tens of thousands of dollars per episode, but 10 years later, they could only sell for a few thousand dollars per episode.
Compared with Taiwan’s local market, the mainland market is huge. When Wu Qilong was filming "Step by Step", he was a "dated" Thunderbolt Tiger, and his salary was about 100,000 per episode. But in the sequel, the salary skyrocketed five to six times. It is understandable that many Taiwanese film and television people choose to film in the mainland.
Director Liu Junjie, who has filmed the Taiwanese idol drama "The Prince Turns into a Frog" and also filmed "Shanshan Is Here" once bluntly said: "The remuneration of artists in Taiwan is 1/5 of that in mainland China. The premium rule is that those who have won the Golden Horse Award and the Golden Bell awards or other awards, and the ratings are particularly good. "
When the local market in Taiwan was sluggish, Wang Xiaodi, Tsai Ming-liang and others led the launch of the Zhi Theater series, which was streamlined in style and focused on high-quality short series. In the selection of actors, the old actor model is used to lead the new actors, so that young actors can take the main roles and play opposite actors of the movie king and queen level.
This move can be called a successful gentle revolution in the Taiwanese drama market. It changes the main perspective of Taiwanese dramas from almost dreamy love to real life, focusing on social hot spots and public needs.
The introduction of new actors was also a success. Wu Kangren, who is slightly famous, has become one of the top actors in Taiwanese dramas. Xu Guanghan, who was born in the acting class of Zhi Theater, is even more famous. The movie versions of " Your Wedding " and " Want to Meet You " starring in the Mainland, although the quality is not excellent, can still earn hundreds of millions at the box office.
Taiwanese female drama, can you be a teacher in domestic entertainment?
If we limit our focus to female dramas, then today’s Taiwanese dramas can be said to be quite successful.
From " The distance between us and evil " to the "The Development of a Common Girl" series, from "Her and Her Her" to this "We Are Not Kind Enough", in the past five years, although the number of ratings for these dramas has been different , but without exception it has achieved super high ratings on Douban.
If these Taiwanese dramas are regarded as benchmarks for female dramas, then the vast majority of "female-led dramas" produced by domestic entertainment companies, even though they are clearly ahead in the audience due to the convenience of viewing, are difficult to match in terms of reputation.
is obviously in the same cultural circle, why is the gap so big? Why hasn’t domestic entertainment successfully ushered in the “post-idol drama era”?
The answer may be hidden in the English title of "We Are Not Kind Enough".
The English name of the play is imperfect us, which literally translates to "imperfect us".
In the eyes of the audience, neither Jian Qingfen, Rebecca, nor He Ruizhi, nor Mr. Lin in this drama can be called perfect. They have more or less small calculations, character flaws, and life style problems. But because of these real shortcomings , make these characters full-fledged, grounded, and become you, me and him in life.
In the words of Atwood, the original author of "The Handmaid's Tale": "Is "The Handmaid's Tale" a "feminist" novel? If you mean a pamphlet that promotes an ideology, all women in it Are they all angels, or victims who have lost the ability to make moral choices, or both, then the answer is no, but if you are talking about a novel like this, the women in are all interesting and important human beings - Different personalities, different behaviors - everything that happens to them is crucial to the theme, structure and plot of the book, so the answer is yes, many books are feminist in that sense." of. "
From this perspective, this is the reason why American dramas such as "The Handmaid's Tale" and "The Good Fight" exploded, and it is also the reason why "We Are Not Kind Enough" has won a high reputation.
These dramas are the Each character is written and filmed as a living person.
On the other hand, those domestic entertainment dramas with female protagonists and group dramas that have been criticized by the audience are either suspended or false, and only regard the real plight of women as a kind of propaganda.
The hit drama "Only Thirty" two years ago, the drama poster shows Jiang Shuying, Tong Yao, and Mao Xiaotong standing side by side, each holding a black umbrella, holding " Stereotypes such as "doing well is not as good as marrying well" are blocked.
But after entering the plot, you can find that the drama focuses on the gathering of rich wives, Gu Jia's mistress, and how much green tea Lin Youyou has. In the finale, , either succeeding in starting a business, or becoming a well-known writer through amateur writing.
Independent women are just ratings codes. Catering to secular labels and outdated concepts of appreciation is the core expression of
's creative logic. It is difficult to avoid Douban. A female netizen opened the microphone enthusiastically and said, "I feel deeply offended."
"Hot search first" dramas like "Thirty Only" are quite common in the drama market, and can be compared to "The Wind". Like "Blowing Pinellia" and "Go Where the Wind Is", it is not easy to win the recognition of most viewers.
In terms of the popularity of the series, reputation and popularity of the characters, the most successful female characters in the mainland in recent years are undoubtedly. Chen Shuting, played by Gao Ye in "Hurry Up",
When she appeared on the stage, she not only dared to fight openly and covertly with the gang boss, but also dared to lead a group of subordinates to cause trouble for Gao Qiqiang.But after turning behind the scenes and becoming the eldest brother's woman, her skills and aesthetics were both online. She single-handedly made Gao Qiqiang the dominant figure in Beijing and Hainan, and she also had the scent of cologne.
In the later stages of "Hurry Up", although Chen Shuting was offline early, it did not hinder the audience's love for her. Gao Ye, who was outside the tenth place in the cast, also received role bonuses and successfully entered the public eye, starring in the Spring Festival Not to mention "Article 20" directed by Zhang Yimou, there are still many dramas starring female protagonists to be aired.
Is it because domestic entertainment can’t find another actress with as good acting skills as Gao Ye? Or do the audience not like this kind of character? The answer is obviously no. Domestic entertainment female dramas generally do not receive high reputations because they lack an environment for Chen Shuting to appear, lack the creative logic to write about people as human beings, and lack the creative concept of character first.
Not all markets will see a gentle revolution. At a time when big data is prevalent and the cost of dramas is soaring, making a modern or ancient puppet of decent quality may not be the best choice, but it is definitely safe.
But, seeing the ratings of "We Are Not Kind Enough" skyrocketing, and seeing Gao Ye's popularity, are the domestic entertainment production companies and platforms really unmoved? Are actors really not envious?
Everyone knows the answer, but "the teacher leads you in, and practice depends on the individual."
