"You and I are both mortal, born in this world." In the 1990s, a song "Mortal Song" was widely sung. Recently, a TV series of the same name with the song "Mortal Song" as an episode was aired, once again arousing public attention. In a familiar melody, the play revolves around th

​"You and I are both mortal, born in this world." In the 1990s, a song "Mortal Song" was widely sung. Recently, a TV series of the same name with the song "Mortal Song" as an episode was aired, once again arousing public attention. In a familiar melody, the play revolves around the daily lives of several couples and lovers in Beijing. Different from some previous urban dramas that focused on showing the glamorous work and superior life of white-collar workers, the work uses a series of dramatic conflicts to show the various changes, worries and pressures that the protagonists face in their careers and lives. The series attempts to allow the audience to examine the positive attitude of the characters and strive to realize self-worth, while also gaining enlightenment on practical issues such as the workplace, age, marriage and love, and gaining an understanding of the essence of life.

As an urban-themed drama, the creator has set up three groups of characters in different age groups and playing different social roles. They are like prisms, reflecting the diverse life aspects of contemporary urbanites. Company executive Na Wei was fired, and full-time wife Shen Lin had to return to the workplace. The couple worked together to overcome the difficulties. Na Wei's younger brother Na Juan suffered from panic disorder due to high-intensity work. Girlfriend Li Xiaoyue regards "enjoying life" as her life pursuit and has the courage to say "no" to unreasonable workplace phenomena. The two people have different concepts and constant conflicts, which reflect the different perspectives of young people when facing the issue of balancing work and life. Shen Lin's younger brother Shen Lei is a civil servant, and his wife Xie Meilan works in an investment company. From campus to society, the two of them have drifted apart in terms of their work attitudes and life concepts. This difference in concepts is not only a collision of views on consumption and marriage, but also stems from deep-seated considerations such as life attitudes and future plans.

While exploring hot social issues, " Mortal Song " also strives to restore reality in polishing details and outlines the delicate texture of metropolitan life. For example, Shen Lin returned to the workplace and re-adapted to the crowded subway in the morning rush hour and changed into simple but more suitable clothes for the workplace; Shen Lei and Xie Meilan lived in poverty and could only rent a narrow rental house and use a "small e-mule" as a means of commuting; Although Na Juan and Li Xiaoyue live in the same city, long overtime work and traffic jams during the evening rush hour prevent them from seeing each other often and they become a "long-distance relationship"... These contents restore the ordinary daily life of many people and easily make the audience emotional. A sense of immersion. It is worth mentioning that the music selection and creation of "Mortal Song" is also quite original. This is closely related to the fact that the show breaks the convention and allows the music producer to lead the team in advance and perform music production simultaneously with the filming progress. The soundtrack of the play uses the twenty-four solar terms as a variation theme, which symbolizes "the four seasons come and go and life keeps moving forward", allowing the audience to experience different life situations.

While "Mortal Song" received high ratings, it also caused some controversy, which also revolved around the reality of the work. Some viewers believe that although the creator consciously kept close to life in character settings and detailed descriptions to create a sense of reality, he improperly grasped the narrative rhythm and plot design, causing the work to be overly dramatic and giving people a suspended impression. Although the play breaks down social issues such as mid-life crisis, fertility choices, and career planning into the life experiences of the six main characters, when designing the story of a single character, the debt crisis, mid-life, and middle-age are superimposed in a short period of time. There are too many difficulties and challenges such as unemployment, entrepreneurial failure, emotional conflicts, marriage breakdown, etc., resulting in some plot distortions. After Na Wei lost his job, he was burdened with a large amount of debt; Shen Lin returned to the workplace, but within a short period of time she encountered difficulties such as being rejected for job applications and being squeezed out by young colleagues... Problems emerged one after another. The dramatic conflict is too dense, and without appropriate white space, it cannot leave enough room for the audience to think. In addition, some plots did not provide realistic and convincing solutions when exaggerating conflicts. For example, when Xie Meilan encountered a financial crisis, she was able to easily obtain help from her boss of 400,000 yuan; when Shen Lei encountered a marital crisis, he chose to resign. Leave Beijing. This narrative method cannot properly guide the audience's emotions, and even contributes to the growth of anxiety.

 Although "Mortal Song" has its shortcomings, its popularity has aroused heated discussions, which has an enlightening effect on current creation. Because it puts on the table how to balance emotional rendering, realistic expression, and dramatic construction in urban drama creation, making the work both topical and realistic, as well as dramatic issues, making practitioners aware of the popularity of urban dramas The topic should also bring fire to life. Thinking about this issue may be an opportunity to improve the concept of urban drama creation.

(Source: Guangming Daily author: Ji Fenglai, deputy dean and associate professor of the School of Continuing Education of Zhejiang Conservatory of Music)