Who said you can only write about heroines who give up on love
Author丨Li Nan
Cover source丨Douban
Back to the beginning of her creation, when she first got this essay, she felt "scalp numb" because she couldn't change it.
After reading the original work for the first time, she thought "The Story of Rose" is not only the story of Huang Yimei, but more like the story of the men around her. In the emotional entanglements, the latter's trade-offs when faced with desires and choices are written very delicately. When adapting, Li Xiao and his partner Wang Si tried to shape Huang Yimei into a spiritual aristocrat, a person who can practice "true heroism".
From love to career, Huang Yimei has been making active choices: putting love before work, breaking up with her first love Zhuang Guodong, moving to Shanghai for graduate school, marrying Fang Xiewen, getting divorced... The original intention is to highlight Huang Yimei's subjectivity as a woman, But some of her choices have also led to her being labeled a "love brain."
Li Xiao does not agree with such a check. If Huang Yimei was a love brain, she would not choose to break up with Zhuang Guodong.
From this point of view, Huang Yimei is similar to other women in Li Xiao's works: they can take it but they can put it down. In the past, Li Xiao has written many stories that revolved around men, such as "The Real Man", "Mr. " and "Mr. Love". But there is no shortage of outstanding female characters in the story, and they all have a certain energy in them: Sa.
Li Xiao told Xuebao Financial News that the word "Sa" in Northern languages means to be brave enough to take responsibility. This is traditionally a requirement for men, but she has long felt that women with this trait are very attractive. , so I repeatedly put such characteristics on different characters.
After 20 years in the industry, Li Xiao has produced many high-rating works, but her belief as a screenwriter has long ceased to prove herself. Because no matter how the previous one goes, the next one still has to be written from scratch.
The following is the transcript of the conversation between Li Xiao and Snow Leopard Financial Society (excerpt, edited):
The spiritual core of Yishu girl: independence and freedom
Xuebao Financial Society: Your first time reading " How did you feel about the original version of "The Story of a Rose"?
Li Xiao: The first time I read "The Story of a Rose", it was also the first time I read Yi Shu's novel from beginning to end. After reading it, I read many other works of hers. I want to know what is the spiritual core of "Yishu Girl" besides wearing cashmere.
I summarized two points: independence and freedom.
They value love but they value themselves more. They value material and have high spiritual pursuits, which can be understood as "both want and want". I think there is nothing wrong with this. Why can't we have both love and our own career? I want to apply these points to other female characters as well.
Among Yi Shu's works, "The Story of Rose" is a very special existence. Huang Yimei is the Yi Shu girl who is the most unlike Yi Shu girl. This story depicts men through Huang Yimei's love, and describes their trade-offs and entanglements in making choices in detail, but very little about what she thinks.
Snow Leopard Finance and Economics: Are there any areas of difficulty during the creation process?
Li Xiao: Huang Yimei The male protagonist in each relationship is a bit difficult to write.
For example, Fang Xiewen is very different from the original work. I thought for a long time how to make Huang Yimei fall in love with him instead of marrying Zhuang Guodong just to grudge or make do with it. So I wrote about his many advantages, such as kindness, integrity, studiousness, and responsibility.
We chose not to respect the gap after marriage. For example, he quit his job for Huang Yimei, and then rejected the offer for Huang Yimei. This slowly turned into paranoid control, causing the spiritual distance between the two parties to grow further and further. In fact, he is afraid of losing his relationship with Rose, and he has low self-esteem. Every time he jumps and screams, it is when he is particularly afraid.
Snow Leopard Finance: Zhuang Guodong and Fang Xiewen both have obvious "bugs", but in the past, many male characters in dramas tended to be perfect.
Li Xiao: The word "bug" is generally used to describe computer programs that can be continuously repaired. The characters are real people, and if they are people, they must have "problems", such as Fang Xiewen's low self-esteem. He may not be able to repair it for a long time, or even in his lifetime.
In fact, there are still perfect male characters. I think it is a compensatory way of writing, because the reality is not that beautiful. But it exists more in romantic love stories, and our show is more realistic.
Huang Yimei is not a love brain
Snow Leopard Financial Society: "The Story of Rose" has been on a lot of hot searches recently. Have you noticed it? How do you feel?
Li Xiao: I don’t read Weibo. I only know that there are some hot searches, but I don’t know what they are. The film producers and friends would forward me funny memes or in-depth interpretations, such as analyzing Zhuang Guodong’s MBTI and Huang Yimei’s uniqueness as a woman. Many of them are very well said, but my partner Wang Si and I did not think of them when we wrote them. As a creator, seeing these interpretations will give you a feeling of respect.
Snow Leopard Financial Society: From personality, relationship to career, what kind of Huang Yimei is in your mind?
Li Xiao: Due to the background of the times, Huang Yimei in the original work came from a wealthy family and basically made no active choices. But this background is a bit unrealistic at the moment. I want to write about her spiritual richness.
So from the beginning, my setting for her was very clear: a spiritual aristocrat. Her love affairs and career are all proactive choices, highlighting her subjectivity as a woman. The career line is auxiliary. After all, it is an adaptation of Yi Shu's novel, and emotions must be the entry point.
I think feelings are a very important part of women's life experience, and there is no need to avoid it because of some current remarks. There are many girls in this world who like to fall in love, get married and have children, but many people dare not say that they like it, as they seem to be inferior to others. These are just different life choices. You can be Tina, or you can be like Huang Yimei. I think both are good.
Snow Leopard Financial Society: What do you think is the most valuable thing about Huang Yimei?
Li Xiao: Huang Yimei has a lot of energy. No matter how many times you are let down or disappointed, you will still be fully committed to love the next time you encounter it.She can perfectly implement a sentence that I personally like very much: true heroism is to still love life after recognizing the truth of life.
When feelings happen, she will not avoid them and knows when to get away. I don't think she is a love brain, otherwise she would not break up with Zhuang Guodong when she was deeply in love with him. Liu Yifei acted very well. She and Zhuang Guodong quarreled repeatedly and reconciled. Every time they reconciled, the intensity of her eyes would decrease a little.
Snow Leopard Financial Society: Huang Yimei’s divorce process was very peaceful. Some viewers said that this is very rare in domestic dramas. How did you come up with the concept?
Li Xiao: In fact, not only does Huang Yimei not quarrel during divorce, she also does not quarrel when facing those suffocating moments in life. Because she was looking down at her husband and mother-in-law, there was no need to (make a noise). If she really fights for her rights, she will no longer be Huang Yimei and will lose the color of this character.
She is a person with a very high spiritual level, and Fang Xiewen is not a spiritual match for her. There is a detail in the play, a pair of identical vases, used by Huang Yimei to arrange flowers and used by Fang Xiewen to grow onions. It’s not that who is higher or lower, it can only be said to be the difference between romantics and pragmatists.
Therefore, when Fang Xiewen pressed the calculator and calculated with her, Huang Yimei was disdainful. Her attitude was, "You can take everything you want. I can just clean myself and leave the house." Some people may say that her family is rich and confident, but I think it’s more that she is not afraid of living a hard life without money.
Snow Leopard Financial Society: In your mind, what standards should national-level works meet? Has "The Story of a Rose" achieved that?
Li Xiao: It is definitely like "Crazy" and " Blossoms ", but I don't have this kind of evaluation system myself. I won't pay too much attention to these. If you keep staring at the data, it will be like stock trading. Once the data goes up, you will be particularly afraid of it falling. You may also be afraid that a better drama will surpass you in the future, and you will become worried about gains and losses.
The heroine does not have to give up love
Snow Leopard Finance Society: You have portrayed many women with distinctive personalities in your works, such as Jian Bing, Yao Lan and Jiang Dayan. What do they have in common?
Li Xiao: These women all have an energy in them: Sa. This word has a meaning in Northern languages, which means to bravely bear responsibility. This is traditionally a requirement for men, but I like the kind of girl who can bear the consequences no matter whether she is right or wrong. In fact, she can afford to take things and let them go.
Many times when people mention this statement, they emphasize "putting it down" and rarely pay attention to "affording it". But I think it is more important to be able to take it. It has become very difficult to dare to give and open your arms to accept others.
I have long felt that such women are very attractive, and I hope to be such a person myself, so I will repeatedly put such characteristics on different characters.
Gu Xiaojun, played by Li Xiaoran in " The Big Husband ", is sharper and more angular. In recent years, maybe I have become older and softer, and the women I write are also softer.What affects the character is not the changing times or the state of women in general, but changes in my own personality.
Snow Leopard Financial Society: You have been a screenwriter for many years, what is your belief?
Li Xiao: I want to prove that I can become a very good screenwriter, so that others can praise me for my good writing, and the ratings of my works are also very good.
But now I don’t think so, because I found that with a work with high ratings, the right to speak will become larger, but the next one will also be written from scratch, and it will also have to go through the process of giving in to the opinions of the market or actors. There are many steps to adjust yourself, and the writing gets harder and harder towards the end. Just because a book is written, it doesn’t mean that the road ahead will be easy, unless it’s never written again.
Snow Leopard Finance and Economics: Which node makes you feel that you have proven yourself?
Li Xiao: "When Mother-in-Law Met Mom", when I wrote that drama, I was only in my 20s, not yet married, and had no sense of life at all. I revised the first draft seven or eight times. But after it aired, it went viral, and the ratings were extremely high. Many people scolded me on Weibo. Maybe even now, the people who scolded me because of it are still on my Weibo blacklist.
Actually, I have no sense of accomplishment. Only with this stepping stone did I have the opportunity to cooperate with Xinli and then write "The Big Man". "Big Husband" is a story I really want to write. If it airs well, I feel a sense of accomplishment.
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