丨Muhu Circle
wrote an article丨Momo
Tencent Entertainment teamed up with New Entertainment Partners to launch the "People in the Play" column, focusing on the behind-the-scenes of popular movies and TV shows. This issue has an exclusive conversation with Li Xiao, the screenwriter of Tencent Video's hit drama " The Story of Rose ", and tells the behind-the-scenes story.
"The Story of a Rose" has continued to gain attention and become a hot topic since it was broadcast on CCTV 8 and Tencent Video. It has become the urban drama with the fastest popularity value to exceed 30,000 on Tencent Video. In addition to Liu Yifei 's appearance and performance rationalizing the heroine's "Everyone Loves Yellow Rose" character design, another reason is the successful adaptation.
, " My first half of life ", " Golden Years ", " Cheng Huan Ji " and then "The Story of Rose", as the most popular adaptations of Yi Shu's novels in recent years, because the novels are all published in The story takes place in Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s, so it was inevitable to make major adaptations to fit current values.
And "The Story of the Rose" is particularly difficult to change. Because the novel is written about the heroine Rose from the perspective of other people, Rose's feelings and thoughts are not directly shown. The TV series "The Story of a Rose" not only smoothly transfers the story of Hong Kong in the 1980s to Beijing after 2001, but also creates a character from the perspective of the heroine who not only has a beautiful appearance, but also has an independent and self-reliant core. The woman whose name will be left in the film and television drama gallery is Huang Yimei.
"A Man Gets Married", " A Real Man ", " Mr. Good ", "Mr. Love", " Even if the Wind Rises "... Screenwriter Li Xiao is known in the industry as "the female screenwriter who is best at writing male dramas" ". "The Story of a Rose" proves that she not only has her own way of writing male dramas, but also writes female dramas very well.
The following is the self-report of screenwriter Li Xiao:
When I wrote "The Story of Rose", I realized that the situation of women is so different from that of men.
In the TV series "The Story of Rose", there are some small selfish thoughts of mine. Because I am also a woman in my 40s who has experienced some ups and downs in relationships and career, has some experiences, and has some thoughts and attitudes of my own. I want to integrate some of my feelings, opinions, and insights from the first half of my life into this character.
Perhaps because I was raised by my father as a boy and grew up in a medium-sized city, I didn’t experience much inequality between men and women, so I always felt that there was no difference between men and women. I wrote those male characters before, not because I had to write about men, but because I felt that there was no difference between writing about men and writing about women. They are all human beings anyway, and even the desire of men to both want and want may be more expressive of me. My own opinion. It wasn’t until I wrote a play like "The Story of a Rose" in which a female protagonist is the protagonist that I discovered that the situation of women is so different from that of men.
Writing about men, I don’t have so many concerns and taboos. For example, in "Mr. Good", Lu Yuan, played by Sun Honglei and , almost died for his ex-wife. If a woman pursued her ex-husband like this, she might be called a love brain. When I wrote "The Married Man" and "Mr. Love", the men did not fall in love. People would say that they were just living among the flowers, and no leaves touched them. But if it were a female character, someone might judge her again.
If she is in love a lot, she is said to be a love-minded person who has no career or does not want a career; if she is in love less, she is said to have no interest and only cares about career; if she writes about her getting married and having children and living in a smoke and mirrors, she will be said to be worldly. , how can you give birth to a child? He writes about her being independent and alone, and also says that she lives her life like a black widow. In short, there are various rules and regulations on the value and judgment of female characters.
When men fall in love a lot, they are suave and charming. Men who only care about career and ignore love are young talents who are career-minded and motivated. Women become love-minded when they fall in love, and women become dry strong women when they only care about their career.When we write a character or watch a TV series, there are such strong disciplines and judgments on women, let alone in real life! I think women who are in love can write without love at all, and women who only want to have a career can write. As long as they are charming and make people identify with her and make people think of themselves, it will be successful.
The original novel uses emotion as the starting point and only talks about Rose's emotions. We respect this and mainly talks about her emotions for half her life. Of course, her career line is also mentioned. But what we want to express in the play is that in the three words "I love you", "I" is the focus, and "I" is the subject. Huang Yimei can say "I love you" to many men, and she sincerely says it every time. But "you" can change as time goes by and as her mood changes. I think love is a beautiful thing as long as you don't lose yourself in the relationship and remember that you are the subject. When you come to this world once, don’t you feel it’s a shame if you don’t experience such a beautiful emotion? When you arrive in a city, you still have to check in here and there and be a human being for once. Why don’t you check in on love?
Through Huang Yimei, some of my personal thoughts I want to express are that modern women should be able to afford and let go. When we say this, we usually emphasize "putting it down". In fact, "affording it" is also very important. "Affordable" means that I have desires, I want love, a happy family, a promotion, I want everything. There is nothing wrong with this. Girls nowadays do not need to avoid or hide their desires. Men never hide their desires, they are always praised, and "ambitious" is a good word for them. Why does it become a derogatory word when applied to women? !
wants both and wants them all. In real life, it may not always be possible. Doesn't it matter? In the play, Huang Yimei, an excellent actress, can't always get what she wants. She has suffered a lot of emotional pain and a lot of life. Suffering is not necessarily a bad thing. To experience this in this world, you have to taste the ups and downs and taste everything.
Liu Yifei is very determined and steady. She can play Huang Yimei well not only because she is good-looking.
The heroine’s name was changed from Huang Meisi to Huang Yimei because I think Huang Meigui is a bit unlike the current naming style. The reason why we use "Yi" is very simple, that is, the meaning of the two words "Yi Shu" is very good. We used both Yi and Shu to arrange and combine, and finally selected Huang Yimei. It was also a coincidence that Liu Yifei came to play the role later. The author Yi Shu, the protagonist Huang Yimei, and the starring Liu Yifei, three of them, this is their greatest fate.
Before I wrote it, I didn’t know that Liu Yifei was going to play the role. When I was writing it, I felt like I was always wondering who would play the role. Because the actor must be very convincing, otherwise the plot in the script and the novel will become points for ridicule. I hope that this drama is the superposition of the script, director, actors and efforts of all departments, rather than relying solely on the beauty of the actors. Moreover, Rose is a legendary woman. If she only has the skin of beauty and no inner vitality to support it, , nor can it become a legend.
When the script was almost finished, the producer went to see Liu Yifei, and I also met with her to discuss script creation. Seeing her, I suddenly had a lot of confidence in this character, because the original novel specifically mentioned that Huang Yimei's beauty does not repel people of the same sex, and makes women feel affection for her, and even makes women fall in love with her at first sight. I have a natural affinity for her. Liu Yifei first achieved this in appearance. In addition, I feel aggrieved for Liu Yifei. People always think that Liu Yifei can play Huang Yimei well just because she is good-looking. This is not the case. Frankly speaking, her role as Huang Yimei is a portrayal, not her true character. There is a certain distance between this role and herself. is very steady in person, capable of action but very slow and steady. She is serious and firm about everything. When Huang Yimei was in her 20s, she was innocent, naive, especially coquettish, and even a little crazy at times, which was completely different from her.
If I want to say that she is similar to the character, she has extreme requirements for things. No matter , she is very serious about writing the script, shooting on location, convincing people, communicating with the director about the role, and even watching the finished film bit by bit in the computer room later. I rarely see an actor who is already famous and takes a role so seriously. She herself said, "I don't rush to take roles, I just take my time, and do a good job every time I take a role, worthy of the role and the role." This is what I want Huang Yimei to have, especially in terms of work. She also has this kind of tenacity and this kind of persistence. On the night when
was broadcast, I sent a WeChat message to the producer Zheng Zhongli while watching it. I said that she really blended in with the character, which made everyone misunderstand that she was like this.
I admire Lin Gengxin for being able to play Fang Xiewen. The plastic surgery performance makes people hate
I particularly like several relationships in the drama. Each one represents a different stage of Rose's life. But as soon as it started airing, I saw a lot of people talking about how my ex-husband let a handsome guy act.
The ex-husband Fang Xiewen in the original novel is a particularly mediocre, even ugly, and particularly unlikable character. We started writing it when Huang Yimei and Fang Xiewen met. It was a complete love. Did Huang Yimei give up on herself after being hurt by Zhuang Guodong and marry Fang Xiewen? This may be how the original work explained it, but it is not the rose I want to present. , the Huang Yimei I want must have truly fallen in love with you at some point. In the play, Fang Xiewen had many things that impressed Huang Yimei before getting married. The marriage lasted for many years, and the two had a child. Over the years, many people will change, and this is not Fang Xiewen's personal story. This is a problem that everyone will face.
Many people say that Fang Xiewen’s character design is not good. Maybe for an idol, he is not good because he is not a tall person, but for an actor, he is very challenging in acting. I admire Lin Gengxin for being able to play Fang Xiewen this time. himself joked that it is the dream of 900 million girls. He does have audience recognition, and some girls are fans of him. This requires the personal charm of an actor and the blessing of some characters, but Fang Xiewen will not give him this kind of blessing, and he also needs to mobilize all his acting skills to portray this character. To say that the farthest distance between all the actors in the play and their characters and themselves is probably the distance between Lin Gengxin and Fang Xiewen. I also made some changes because Lin Gengxin came to play the role. At first, I imagined that Fang Xiewen might be a southerner, because he has some southern accent and speaks some hometown dialect. Lin Gengxin didn't look like a southerner because he was tall and tall, so I changed him to a northerner and made some adjustments. After the adjustments, I felt that this character became more reasonable.
If you watch the whole drama carefully, you will know that Fang Xiewen is not a scumbag, and you will also understand that his so-called machismo has external reasons and also has its own problems. I personally think that Fang Xiewen is a very rich character with great contrast between before and after. He is in love, married, successful in his career, became a father, and became an ex-husband. At every age and every stage of life, his performance is very different. are different. This is a very big challenge for Lin Gengxin. But he acted very well, that's the word, plastic surgery performance. The Fang Xiewen he performed was completely unlike himself, and sometimes it really made people gnash their teeth with hatred. This shows that he can not only portray characters close to him, but also characters far away from him. This is what an actor is.
I don’t like to dominate the scene. When adapting, you should hide yourself in the author.
In the play, in addition to the heroine Rose, we also enriched the role of Su Gengsheng and added several distinctive female characters, such as Bai Xiaohe , Jiang Xueqiong, etc.
Because I think the most famous thing about Yi Shu’s works is her female orientation. One is that there are many female readers, and the other is that she writes very well about women. There are so-called Yi Shu girls in each of her novels, and they all have very outstanding female images. .So although we are writing "The Story of a Rose", because it is a long-running TV series with a large volume and a lot of space, I want to show more aspects of women in various spaces and have some connections with the original author. It means that many outstanding Yishu girls from the original author can be included in "The Story of the Rose", so that more vivid female characters can be presented, instead of just showing a yellow rose.
When it comes to original work, it’s more about what I want to express, but when it comes to adaptation, I don’t like to read the novel and then throw it away and change it. Even if most of the plots in the novel are not suitable for film and television presentation, I still I will consider the author's own characteristics and the author's audience, not only the values expressed by the author in this work, but also the concepts she likes to express in all her works, and the type of women she likes to create. I take these into consideration, and hope that Have some soul communication with this author. Therefore, when adapting "The Story of a Rose", I read many books, including Yi Shu's life, hoping that although the characters and plot might have changed a lot, the adapted work would still have the spirit of the author of the original novel in it.
This is also the difference between the adaptation of and the original version. I don’t like to dominate . At this moment, I am actually hiding myself in the author. This is what a professional screenwriter should do, just like an actor, he should look like whoever he plays. As a screenwriter, I have to change whoever’s stuff it is to look like that person’s stuff, instead of showing that my plot is richer and the characters I create are better. I don’t think that’s your skill. If you want to do this, you can create your own script.
