" Alley People " has started airing. As expected, it is another high-quality period life drama produced by Noon Sunshine. The plot is set in the late 1970s when the college entrance examination was resumed and the educated youth returned to the city. It uses life in a cotton spinning mill as an entry point to show the alley life of two families under the great changes of the times: Song Ying (played by Jiang Xin) and the tolerant Song Ying (played by Jiang Xin) The virtuous Huang Ling ( Yan Ni) becomes best friends and spends the ups and downs of life together. From the two women, two families and several families in the alley were derived, and the lives of these ordinary people were written in detail.
"Alley People" poster
Director Zhang Kaizhou - Anyone who has a little knowledge of domestic dramas should be familiar with him. After all, his "Know or Not, It Should Be Green, Fat, Red and Thin" is still on the electronic books of countless netizens. Pickled mustard has been around for a long time. The more you taste it, the more fragrant it becomes. Nowadays, when there is a shortage of house fighting dramas, it has become more and more popular. Even the recently popular " Splendid Peace " has been dubbed "the replacement of "Knowledge"" because of the popularity of pickled mustard. Qing was loved by the audience, and the number of hits reached the top of many lists. And his " Qiao Family's Children " is now also the material for countless second-generation bloggers at Bilibili.
Kaizhou's strength is the equally delicate handling of images and emotions. The feeling of watching "Alley People", on the one hand, in terms of character relationships and narrative processing, I feel like I am back to "Qiao Family". A large number of character relationships are unfolded in family units, and there is little stimulation of strong plots. However, due to the character status and relationship, Online, so that the audience can keep watching with interest; on the one hand, the light and shadow have the flavor of the contemporary "Knowledge", and the way of lighting in the opening scenes of night scenes in different scenes is very distinctive .
Zhang Kaizhou is good at using natural light and low light to treat ordinary scenes of life in a warm and layered way, making every alley and every window seem to be telling an old time, with a simple sense of nostalgia (who knows this The pain in your eyes after being polluted by a lot of white flat light from domestic dramas for two years?) His lens language has no extra tricks, but it always brings a soft atmosphere of life.
And I personally feel that from "Please Close Your Eyes When He Comes" to "Know or Not", then to "Qingpingle" and "Children of the Qiao Family", and now to "Alley People", his role as The director's camera scheduling and performance scheduling in a single scene have made great progress. Friends who are interested can go back and watch these old dramas, and they will definitely be able to see the differences.
Stills from "Alley People"
From Zhang Kaizhou's works in recent years, it is obvious that he is good at life dramas. Because life dramas usually lack the stimulation of strong plots, they instead require extremely delicate descriptions of characters, drawing real and touching character arcs, and filming seemingly trivial family stories and human relationships to make them charming and touching. This extremely requires the foundation of creative techniques and the delicate perception of emotions and characters. Zhang Kaizhou happens to have this delicate perception. His works often do not pursue dazzling skills (here I have to mention the outrageous dazzling skills of some directors that have become hot searches), but are committed to making the pictures and characters have their own fireworks.
Stills of "Alley People"
The script of "Alley People" comes from Da Mi's novel of the same name. The novel itself is a warm memory of workers' life in the late 1970s. From the resumption of the college entrance examination to housing allocation in work units and the return of educated youths to the city, the series faithfully restores It captures the real details of the society at that time: the snake melons in the yard, the children playing in the alleys, and the neighborhood relationships where workers helped each other, making people feel like they are immersed in it. This kind of detail processing made the audience resonate with that era. Many people recalled their childhood, as if they were returning to the old streets along with the plot and feeling the humane life.
Still photos of "Alley People"
As for the actors, the combination of Yan Ni and Jiang Xin is very reassuring. Huang Ling, played by Yan Ni, is a tolerant and hard-working woman who faces her husband's filial piety and neglect from her husband's family every day, but still arranges family affairs in an orderly manner; Jiang Xin plays the lively and cheerful Song Ying, who is both enthusiastic and straightforward. In stark contrast to Huang Ling. The personalities of these two characters fit well with the actors themselves. The performances of several young actors in the play are also surprising.In the first episode of
, Song Ying, in order to allocate a house to facilitate her son's schooling, behaved with the leader and resorted to damaging tactics. Although she got the house, she was not eligible for this year's "Advanced Worker" selection. She said it didn't matter, but she was disappointed in her heart, but she didn't expect that, Her son, who was just a few years old, drew a certificate for her and gave it to her. Song Ying burst into tears and was extremely happy. In this performance, Jiang Xin was extremely precise, portraying this stubborn, aggressive, strong-willed, hard-spoken and soft-hearted woman to the core.
has a particularly good shot. Holding her son's certificate, Song Ying hugs her son, but instead of holding her son in her arms, she has his son standing on the bed behind her, and she can just nestle her head on his shoulder. This scene, in which the identities of the guardian and the protected are reversed, is particularly touching.
Stills of "Alley People"
Over the years, no matter how the TV drama market has changed, period dramas have always been indispensable, and excellent works with both good reputations and popularity have appeared frequently, such as "Parents' Love", "Golden Wedding" and "People" "World", "South to North"... countless. Why do period dramas always impress Chinese audiences? Perhaps it is because they allow the audience to see the commonality of human nature: the desire for family affection, the love of life, and the persistence of family responsibilities. In the fast-paced and high-pressure modern life, this kind of warmth and simplicity of interpersonal relationships have become a kind of emotional comfort.
On the one hand, my country’s mainstream values have always valued core family values and human relationships, but the Internet has gradually changed the social form: the closer the network is, the farther away reality is. Due to the convenience of mobile apps, people are increasingly self-isolating in cities with many high-rise buildings. , forming an island. At this time, we will miss the kind of affection between parents and relatives, the help between neighbors, and the pure human touch in the past era.
On the other hand, period dramas often show the impact of the trend of the times on personal destiny, which reminds most viewers of a long-lost state of life. For example, in the current economic environment like this, who can not recall the excitement and heroic spirit in the early days of reform and opening up, and the vast world and great potential? The rise of online articles and short video dramas such as "Rebirth in the 1980s" is also due to this need for nostalgic emotions.
htmlAlthough 0’s period dramas are our strong genre, if we look at East Asia, this genre still has room for improvement. South Korea's "Reply" series (such as " please reply 1988") has become a model of period dramas and has gained long-term popularity and reputation among audiences of all ages. The play deeply explores the character relationships, family concepts and mentality of the era in that era, allowing the audience to have deep emotional resonance. In the "Please Reply" series, the interactions between family members and neighbors reveal the warmth and subtle complexity of human nature, making them appear very natural and life-like.In contrast, although some period dramas in China put a lot of effort into restoring the historical atmosphere and era scenes, they sometimes focus too much on the grand narrative of the era background and ignore the more delicate and complex emotional interactions between the characters, which makes it easy to fall into " The routine narrative of "Wei Guangzheng" and "Gao Daquan". Our period dramas can actually pay more attention to the details of characters and emotions, focus on everyone's daily life and emotional expression, and strengthen the "human touch".
Secondly, our period dramas tend to suffer from the common mistakes of life dramas: dramatizing family conflicts and ethical conflicts. For example, Zhuang Chaoying, played by Guo Xiaodong in "Alley Family", is a typical "eldest son of the family" in that era, with a macho character in his heart. Doctrine, excessive filial piety to parents, and unconditional support for younger siblings have caused many grievances to the wife and children. Among them, there are many scenes of conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and patriarchal preference. It makes people’s blood pressure soar, and it seems familiar. It seems that as soon as we open the life drama, we, the audience, I deserve to be stuck in these issues and have no other ideas for solving the problem.
Compared with the "Reply" series, there is no bloody family war, and it is more inclined to show simple and warm emotions. This "de-dramatic" approach is very difficult and requires extremely keen capturing and reproduction of life details.As the audience's demands for realism and delicate emotional expressions increase, Chinese period dramas can fully absorb the strengths of outstanding global genre works and go further in the in-depth portrayal of characters, emotions, and life atmosphere.
Stills of "Alley People"
From the content point of view, there is still a space worth exploring in Chinese period dramas, that is, how to integrate a broader social perspective into the traditional story of a family and a short life. For Chinese audiences, this more comprehensive social care can not only inspire resonance, but also trigger thinking about different eras. For example, in "Alley People", we see a "progressive" exploration. It not only presents the daily life of ordinary people, but also contains an affectionate tribute to that era.
All in all, "Alley Family" is similar to most period dramas, trying to depict the shadows of thousands of families in a few families. Here, every character, every detail, and every conversation seems to be telling some long-lost yet familiar emotions and memories. When I think of it, the faint moist smell of the yellowed old photos at home seems to linger in my nose. And this authenticity and depth are our enduring expectations and love for period dramas.
