Author / Yu Fugui
"Give them a he ending!"
"Once went to the sea, now ashore."
"The iron rice bowl and the factory plot are really the memories of a generation."
" Young Babylon " is like a small The incision once again presents the story of a Chinese little person in the 1990s.
In recent years, a large number of film and television works like to focus on the 1990s. The reason why the background of the 1990s deserves to be repeatedly depicted in so many film and television works is because the Shili Foreign Market on the Yellow River Road and the Agaricus bisporus in Yuquanying folded at the same time, and the rush and hardship coexisted. From a broader perspective, the entire 1990s, with the special mark of the times given by the wave of reform, witnessed countless seeds of hope being buried in this land.
The story of Lu Xiaolu (played by Hou Minghao ), the protagonist of "Young Babylon", a son of a food factory, takes place in this era.
The play is adapted from Lu Nei's novel of the same name. The protagonist Lu Xiaolu grew up in Fucheng, a small southeastern coastal town in the 1990s. He had a group of friends who could play together in the game hall and billiard room. He temporarily chose to work in a food factory because he missed the college entrance examination. There is also a first love Bai Lan (played by Yang Caiyu) whom he still misses after many years. Why is
always in the 90s? How is Young Babylon different?
About "Youth"
Different from other works focusing on the 1990s, "Young Babylon" chooses a youthful narrative approach, and also makes an extremely stylized presentation in restoring the sense of the times. The first and most intuitive thing about
is its strong visual sense of the times.
Riding a 28-bar on a small road, white and blue shuttles through the factory streets. The lively game hall is crowded with people. Under the colorful neon lights, the protagonists have their hair parted in the middle, wearing toad glasses and jackets. T-shirt, overalls and floral shirt, roller skating, tedious retro white classical wedding dress in the photo studio... The atmosphere of the era permeates every detail of the scene and clothing.
also includes old objects that can be seen everywhere in the play - the bouquet at the wedding of Qin Juan (played by Xiang Hanzhi) and Li Guangnan (Fei Qiming), and the posters of Hong Kong stars such as Leslie Cheung and Wang Zuxian in the bedroom. Even the " The Legend of the Condor Heroes " covering Lu Xiaolu's face is the May 1994 edition.
At the same time, the factory chimney is imagined as a rocket, a metaphor for young people's hope for the future and vigorous vitality, and the brilliant fireworks background is used to highlight the romance of young boys and girls' first love. The lens aesthetics of the series have also been well received by many viewers.
Secondly, in addition to the careful attention to visual and production details, what is more important is that "Young Babylon" uses the design of characters and plots to trigger thinking about the impact of different choices of characters in different eras on their destiny.
As mentioned in the original work, under the background of the 1990s, the second-generation male protagonist Lu Xiaolu was high-spirited and held the key to destiny. After graduating from high school, he followed the path of his parents and entered the factory as an apprentice. He was the leader of most factory children at that time. The preferred employment method is also one of the easiest choices before Lu Xiaolu. The remaining options are to enter a factory and then go to vocational college, or take the college entrance examination, or start a small business, sell cigarettes, work as a salesperson, etc.
Standing at a fork in life, Lu Xiaolu chose to challenge himself and his destiny, and took the college entrance examination with little chance of winning. But by mistake, on the way to the exam, I was too young and impulsive, which delayed my entrance time and ultimately failed to enter the exam room.
After getting to know Bai Lan, they witnessed Bai Lan working hard for the postgraduate entrance examination. Lu Xiaolu gradually realized the importance of knowledge, made time to attend night classes, and imagined a bright future with Bai Lan in Shanghai. It is not difficult to get to Shanghai from Fucheng, but it is not easy to make a name for yourself in Shanghai. After arriving in Shanghai, Lu Xiaolu encountered obstacles in finding a job and encountered the ruthless blow of reality. He paid the price of his youth for his reckless choice on the way to the college entrance examination.
Bailan's body is a concrete representation of the alternation of old and new ideas, as well as the concrete and detailed impact of environmental changes on individuals in the process of changing times.
Therefore, the relationship between Lu Xiaolu and Bai Lan not only contains the beauty and youthfulness of teenage first love, but also symbolizes the integration of the "food factory" and the outside world. The director used the dreamy design of the suitcase exploding at the beginning, as well as the montage of the fight and the appearance of Bai Lan, to metaphorize the first collision brought by the new era wave to Lu Xiaolu, which is specific and vivid.
Finally, in order to fully demonstrate the flamboyant youthfulness of factory life in the first half, many light-hearted elements were added to the plot.
At that time, "天如情" starring Andy Lau was popular. Young people in small towns dreamed of owning a suzuki rg500, so Lu Xiaolu owned one - a "motorcycle" modified with an 28-inch large bumper. Lu Xiaolu and Li Guangnan also made a lot of jokes. The classic villain's kneeling apology gesture was translated into "We can beat you", pigs in the cafeteria and so on made the series become the new electronic pickle of many viewers.
’s creative team has so many ingenious ideas that it often surprises people. It includes tributes to some classic scenes, such as the "sons and daughters" combination of Lu Dajiang and Sister Tao. The strong Hong Kong film style of " The True Colors of Heroes " has attracted many CP fans. The director even performed a group mime at the end of the third episode.
The addition of light comedy elements and whimsy not only supports the atmosphere of the era, but also highlights the "youth" narrative characteristics of the first half of the series.
The heat of youth and the vigorous tide of the times interweave a bright tone, which is the fragment of youth and the gushing emotions of the 1990s that are unique to the 1990s. The food factory and Fucheng are the youth of the road, but growth will not wait or pause. The wheels of the times are rolling in. The former young factory workers have no choice but to wave goodbye to one era and plunge into another era non-stop. .
About "Babylon"
The name "Young Babylon" made people a little confused when they first saw the original work. Now I am re-circulating the TV series version of "Young Babylon", watching Lu Xiaolu being carried forward by the torrent of the times, and finally understanding the meaning behind the abstract words - in the context of the rapid development of the times, the end of an era is like the end of the ancient Babylonian empire of disintegration.
's youthful narrative technique, "Young Babylon" does not obscure the heaviness brought about by the changes of the times.
Entering the new century, in the second half of the story, "Young Babylon" no longer has a warm, bright and youthful tone. The regrets, helplessness and wavering choices in the adult world gradually surface. The Lu Xiaolu people were born at the right time, and their personal destiny is closely connected with the times. They left the shelter of the "food factory" and walked towards different life paths. The plot also returned to the narrative of period dramas that are more familiar to the audience.
First of all, it is the restoration and transformation of the character positioning - in the first ten episodes, some viewers thought that Lu Xiaolu's character positioning was relatively vague. In fact, this was very consistent with the reality of the younger generation at that time. The background of Lu Xiaolu's growth was the 1980s and 1990s when Hong Kong films were popular. He was influenced by some literary and artistic works at that time. In the early stages, he was basically a person who didn't have a strong sense of goal. Sometimes he was a little impulsive and foolish, but he had a sense of justice. young people.
The appearance of Bailan and the death of his mother were important turning points in his life.
The former symbolizes the gap between the utopia of "food factory" seen by Lu Xiaolu and the new era. Happy Puppy fell in love with Bai Lan. He did not leave Utopia with her, but he bravely saw the gap between the two. He missed the college entrance examination and went to night school all over again, trying to enter the new era that Bai Lan longed for.
The latter means countless regrets after becoming a complete adult. The old photos collected by his mother, the certificates for bravery, old clothes... they all belong to Lu Xiaolu's boyhood.
Whether it is the end of factory life under the wave of reform, the separation of a young lover or the departure of a beloved mother, fate and the historical process push Lu Xiaolu forward non-stop, and the core of the characters and the theme of the story are slowly and clearly revealed in the development of the plot. For Lu Xiaolu, the factory that survived when he was 20 years old was the former Kingdom of Babylon.
Secondly, "Young Babylon" is not a love-themed drama. The unique "one factory, one city" ecology in the 1990s and the development of the market economy have brought about different encounters between food factories and people. This story not only tells the confusion and confusion of teenagers. Growth also describes the changes of an era. The essence of the story of
is a fairy tale scroll of the times with a tragic undertone. Behind the bright tonal changes, small things make things big. In the era of rapid development, the changes in factory personnel hide the story of a generation. More importantly, it belongs to countless people who have had shining youth. This is the hundreds of worlds in the ordinary world, and it is the big era of little people. The legendary nature of the
era has given the characters turning opportunities and different paths. Chang Jiao (played by Zhang Teng), who dreams of being a singer, goes to the big city to pursue his dream, and Qin Juan and Li Guangnan get married. Bailan, who yearns for Shanghai with all her heart, has been determined to continue going abroad from beginning to end, but she returns to Fucheng to negotiate the Golden Peacock acquisition on behalf of Huaxing Investment Group. The story seems to have a new beginning.
A picture of a group of people in social changes appears on the screen. The young people in the factory area left the "Blessed City" in their hearts and headed towards the wider world. The people who once thought they would never be separated merged into the current of the times and gradually faded away in the sea of people.
Finally, it must be mentioned that the times ruthlessly coerce individuals, and the attractive background of period dramas is never just nostalgia. The difficulty lies in how to resonate with the differences between history and the present.
"Young Babylon" elicits resonance by distilling the emotional commonalities of different eras.
For example, in the fourteenth episode, Bai Lan and Lu Xiaolu finally decided to live together in Shanghai. When the two were lying on a small bed and dreaming about a better life in the future, the audience who had experienced social beatings began to worry about their future early on. , just like in countless dramas where the protagonist sets the "come back alive" flag, he usually faces a tragic ending.
Today in 2024, we are still in an era of rapid change and uncertainty. Uneasy, confused and brave, it is like this in "Young Babylon". In the changes in the fate of Lu Xiaolu, the audience has gained emotional resonance that spans time. .
Conclusion
Judging from the tone of the story, "Young Babylon" does not follow the common routines of period dramas. Lu Xiaolu, Bai Lan, Qin Juan, Li Guangnan, Lu Dajiang and Sister Tao, etc., these fresh characters seem to It is a footnote to the 1990s. Their life experiences not only include the enthusiasm and splendor of looking back on their youth, but also contain the stories of the times that are heavy, withering and gradually fading. This is also the core reason why the 1990s are attractive. Youth will eventually fade away, and the times will eventually echo.
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