In 2001, "The Mansion Gate" triggered a frenzy of ratings as soon as it was broadcast. In the end,
, with a super high ratings of 17.74%, overwhelmed the three hit dramas at that time: "Kangxi Dynasty", "Swordsman" and "Deep Love in the Rain", and won CCTV's annual ratings champion.
Today, 22 years later, its rating on Douban is still as high as 9.4. Such an achievement, whether it is in the category of "Zhaimen drama" or in the history of domestic dramas, can be called "the pinnacle". It's no wonder that
Siqin Gaowa who starred in this drama also praised it as "contemporary "Dream of Red Mansions". After
"The Mansion Gate", director Guo Baochang still wanted to continue the classics. In 2003 and 2013 respectively, he created "The Mansion Gate 2" and "The Mansion Gate 1912".
But the quality of the episodes can't be compared with the first one.
Especially "The Mansion Gate 1912", although on the basis of the original cast, it also invited powerful actors such as "beauty in ancient costume"He Qing and "Desperate Saburo"Wang Zhifei. The scores of
's works on Douban are only 5.6, which doesn't even reach the passing mark.
It can be seen that "The Gate of the Mansion", which is at the pinnacle, has become a classic that cannot be copied. Since
is a classic, it must be worth repeating.
Next, Mr. Tomato will take you to review this classic work, to see what little-known behind-the-scenes stories it has, and what exciting artistic value it has.
01, Guo Baochang: If I don't write "The Gate of the Mansion", I will die in peace
"The Gate of the Mansion" uses the history of the rise and fall of a Chinese medicine shop "Baicao Hall" to connect the love and hatred between the three generations of the medical family and the White House.
On the surface, this is the entrepreneurial history of a family, but as long as the audience has watched this drama, it is difficult not to be attracted by the love and hatred of the characters in the drama and the background of the times shown in the drama. What makes
even more admirable is that these fascinating situations are all hidden in a series of details, allowing the audience to enter the world created by the creators without knowing it.
Give a very typical example: Even after so many years, many viewers still remember how Bai Jingqi used a piece of shit to get two thousand taels of silver from the pawn shop.
has such legendary details, novelty, fun and down-to-earth, it is hard not to have a place in the audience's memory.
Successful details like this abound in "The Mansion Gate".
For example, at the funeral of the second grandmother, Huang Chun and Yaping passed away one after another; Alcohol” committed suicide.
was able to create a "house drama" spanning many years with such a life texture, which has to be attributed to the screenwriter and director of "The Mansion Gate" - Guo Baochang .
And Guo Baochang can create such a successful work, and he has to attribute it to the life in the house that he has personally experienced.
Viewers who have a little understanding of "The Mansion Gate" may have heard that this drama is based on reality. The prototype of Baicao Hall in
is "Tongrentang" in reality, while the Baifu people in the play are compared with the musicians who founded Tongrentang in reality.
Guo Baochang lived in Lejia for many years, but he was bought as an adopted son, and he officially entered the Lejia compound when he was 12 years old.
It is this identity of an outsider who is difficult to integrate into the house, which made him reflect on the life in the house.
In addition to his talent and intelligence, he could sing at the age of 5 and write articles at the age of 8, so at the age of 16, he wrote the prototype of "The Gate of the Mansion".
It's a pity that after reading it, the adoptive mother felt that he was exposing his family's scandal, so he set fire to his manuscript.
Later, Guo Baochang started to write the script of "The Mansion Gate" twice, when he was in college and after he got married, but the scripts he wrote these two times were destroyed by the turmoil of the times and the great changes in his family respectively.
It was not until 1994, when the 54-year-old Guo Baochang took up his pen for the fourth time and retreated for 8 months, that he finally wrote the story of the house gate that he had been thinking about for nearly 40 years. When
was asked about his motivation for writing, he said: "I know that if the wish of "The Mansion Gate" is not fulfilled, I will not be able to live in peace in this life, and I will die with peace." It didn't stop there.
When Guo Baochang broke through many difficulties and decided to put "The Gate of the Mansion" on the screen, one difficulty after another came quietly.
02, Guo Baochang was kicked out of the crew, Zhang Yimou refused to shoot, Chen Baoguo sold his house,
In 1995, the text creation of "The Mansion Gate" finally came to an end, and what Guo Baochang had to do next was to find an investor to support his film and television creation.
It may be because the wait of nearly 40 years is too long, so Guo Baochang, who was eager to start shooting, did not go in-depth to understand the investors who were about to sign the contract.
So much so that he filmed 3 episodes smugly, but was cheated by the other party to take away the script, kicked out of the crew, and also owed 3 million .
After Guo Baochang left, investors with ulterior motives decided to keep the original crew and find other well-known domestic directors to continue filming.
Chen Baoguo, who is the male protagonist, heard about it, and immediately took the 90,000 yuan paid by investors in advance on the table, saying: "I'm sorry, as long as it's not directed by Guo Baochang, I won't participate."
Other directors, after knowing that this was director Guo Baochang's hard work for most of his life, also declined the investor's invitation.
At first, the investors didn’t believe in evil, and they were going to pay a high price to hire Zhang Yimou’s director , but the latter directly refused to shoot and said, “Do you know my relationship with Director Guo?” Filming had to come to an abrupt end.
It was not until 2000, when production director Yu Shengli secured investment from CCTV for Guo Baochang, and finally restarted the filming of "The Mansion Gate", which had been delayed for many years.
During this period, the disheartened Guo Baochang drank at least two tons of liquor.
And in order to be ready to play Bai Jingqi at any time, Chen Baoguo never took on a movie, and later he sold his house because he had no money to live on.
This is why, when CCTV suggested that Jiang Wen should play Bai Jingqi, Guo Baochang would not agree with anything. When
brought up this matter later, Jiang Wen's words revealed a bit of regret.
However, although Jiang Wen did not act as Bai Jingqi, he still played a wonderful rivalry with Chen Baoguo in the play. In addition to
Jiang Wen, Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Li Xuejian, Zhang Fengyi, Tranquility and many other "big names" all left wonderful performances in "The Mansion Gate".
Of course, although the guest actors are good, the brilliance of the protagonists cannot be ignored.
Whether Chen Baoguo waited for Bai Jingqi for three years until the house was sold, or Siqin Gaowa lost 18 catties a month in order to play the second grandma. big reason.
However, in the casting story, Mr. Tomato is most impressed by Jiang Wenli .
Because she played the image of a brothel girl in "Farewell My Concubine", Guo Baochang wanted her to play the role of a brothel girl Yang Jiuhong in the play. But after she read the script, she insisted on acting as Bai Yuting, who had fewer roles.
She said that it is very difficult to meet women like Bai Yuting who married with photos in the future.
Looking back at it now, the creation process of "The Mansion Gate" and the vivid characters and superb performances in the play will still make me very emotional.
Perhaps, it is because of those creators who don't care about the gains and losses, who are not afraid of the hardships and dangers ahead, and those actors who don't care about the number of roles, regardless of their roles, but only focus on shaping the characters, "The Mansion Gate" can go through tempering and become classic.
03, Why "The Gate of the Mansion" became a never-endingtime classic?
The behind-the-scenes story of "The Mansion Gate" is indeed moving, but in the era when word-of-mouth was not yet controlled by marketing methods, it was not because of these external topics that it was loved by the audience, but because of its own quality. In other words, the series itself is attractive enough.
The reason why "The Gate of the Mansion" can not be outdated and become an unrepeatable classic is mainly due to the following three aspects.
The first aspect, the story is ingenious.
"The Gate of the Mansion" is a historical play, a house door play, a workplace play and a civic play.
In this play, the audience can see the grievances of the small family and the changes of the great era, but they will not feel boring and boring, and even feel kind and familiar.
Because it combines the grand history into a house, so that the audience can see all kinds of witty and funny stories in the daily life of a medical family.
The audience cannot see a series of solemn historical events such as the Reform Movement of 1898, the Boxer Movement, and the Revolution of 1911 in the play, but the rise and fall of "Baicao Hall" are all closely related to these events.
uses the story of the family to write about the suffering of the country, and the fate of the people to write about the great changes in history. Such an ingenious setting will naturally bring many unexpected surprises to the audience.
The second aspect is that the characters are vivid.
Although Bai Jingqi played by Chen Baoguo and the second grandmother played by Siqin Gaowa are the absolute male and female protagonists in "The Mansion Gate", but it is undeniable that it is an out-and-out group drama .
Because the characters appearing in the play are too vivid, and some of them are so vivid that the audience can never forget them.
Just the six important women in Bai Jingqi's life are enough to watch. Mother Bai Wenshi is strong, sister Bai Yuting willful, Huang Chun is virtuous, Yang Jiuhong is charming, Huaihua is cowardly, Xiangxiu is pungent.
are both women, they each have their own personalities and charms.
Especially the second grandmother, Bai Wenshi, who acted resolutely and said one thing, supported the precarious Bai family with her own strength, and at the same time, she was kind, saving the uncle, raising the sister-in-law, and spreading benevolence.
is such a strong woman, but she is extremely traditional and ignorant. She refused to recognize Yang Jiuhong as her daughter-in-law until her death, and forced her into a lunatic. Such completely different characteristics of
make the image of the characters more three-dimensional and fuller.
third, the actors have superb acting skills.
As I said before, "The Mansion Gate" has gathered many "big names", from protagonists like Chen Baoguo and Siqin Gaowa, to supporting actors like Liu Peiqi and Jiang Wenli, to guest actors like Li Xuejian and Ning Jing.
Almost all the actors, regardless of the number of scenes, portrayed the characters vividly.
This makes the audience not have the feeling of being in a play when watching a play, let alone feel that they are watching a performance, but will involuntarily "breathe and share fate" with the characters. The combination of these three aspects gives "The Mansion Gate" a profound artistic value.
Conclusion: A good work of art must be full of artistic value and full of earthy fragrance
Chen Baoguo, who once played Bai Jingqi in "The Mansion Gate", said such an impressive sentence.
He said: "As actors and performers, we must experience life deeply, absorb rich materials and creative sources from life, and strive to create works full of artistic charm and earthy fragrance."
In this paragraph In the words, he did not mention "The Gate of the Mansion", but Mr. Tomato found two important reasons for the success of "The Gate of the Mansion" - full of artistic value and full of earthy fragrance.
Today, 22 years later, I will watch "The Mansion Gate" again and again.
The authentic Beijing taste, simple lines, old-fashioned persuasion, and those memories that have not faded will tell us at the first time that this is a work that was born many years ago.
But the long time has not made "The Mansion Gate" behind the times.
Because, the rich artistic value and down-to-earth details of life are enough to make it a timeless classic after years of refinement.
(Movie Rotten Tomatoes editorial department: Zihan)
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