"The Melting Pot" is being broadcast on terrestrial channels in Beijing and Qingdao. One of the producers and screenwriters of this drama is Li Jingdong, director Huang Kemin, Zhang Yishan, Zhang Xiaoheng, Zhang Zhe, Lan Yingying, Song Jialun, Wang Shasha and others starring.
It's a nostalgic drama, and people who come from the 70s will have a lot to learn. This is a military drama, and the army's earth-shaking slogan and smelting effect have been fully displayed. This is also an idol drama, the three main characters may not be how good-looking, but their enterprising spirit is worth emulating.
This play is consistent in appearance and consistent in the title. The three recruit eggs have a highly generalized sample meaning: Xu Xiaobin (Zhang Yishan) is a city soldier from Beijing, three words describe it as "Hun Bu Stingy", and the four-word name is "Beijing Uncle"; Xiao Shutian (Zhang Xiaoheng) is a rural soldier who drank some ink, two words describe it as "official fan", and four words summarize it as "suffering from gain and loss"; Li Shenzhi (Zhang Zhe) is a mountain soldier from Sichuan, two words describe it as "Shunji", four words describe it as "Bone Qingqi", and the five-word name is "Silent Mountain".
The three men were far away from the qualified soldiers, and in the words of the company commander, they were "scrap steel rotten iron ore slags." How to make such a few pieces of material talent, you have to use the "melting pot". It is said that the army is a melting pot, and there is no falsehood in words, and here we do not play brain teasers, but we will refine them into steel with strong smelting capabilities.
Xu Xiaobin is a core member of the trio. Bad ideas are all out of him, good ideas are also taken by him, the key moment is quite righteous, usually greasy mouth slippery tongue. He has the typical characteristics of old Beijing, but also carries some of Wei Xiaobao's elves and weirdness, and the heroic dream he never forgets belongs to that "sunny day". Like Ma Xiaojun, he looked forward to the early outbreak of the Sino-Soviet war day and night, so that he could become the god of war who smashed the other side's war machine. This character bears the distinctive characteristics of that era, but it also contains the genes of contemporary youth. For example, he was not afraid of heaven, and ironically refused to join the party, claiming that "your party is too high, I am not worthy", and went away in a negative mood. You can't rely on saying that what you have done has made him convinced, and everything will go smoothly. To be convinced that such a thorn cannot rely on sweet words, it must have the fierceness of splitting the head and covering the face, and he knows the height of the sky, the thickness of the earth, and the number of Ma Wangye's eyes.
Xiao Shutian was a patient, and he had a desire for fame beyond ordinary people, and a fear of disasters beyond ordinary people. Accidentally peed on the company commander, almost did not scare to death, reminiscent of "The Death of a Little Civil Servant". Receiving praise from the platoon leader, the muscles on his face twisting and dancing, he was completely the opposite of ordinary mind. Such a person will be crushed until the fluttering heart returns to its true nature, and the idea of always seeking a good reputation is gone, and he can get out of the pit and enter the upward passage.
Li's calm "mountain-digging step" is almost every recruit company. It is a comedy for others, and a disaster for the Lord. His mind was full of six tricks, whether it was skill or three views, which were far from the red dust world. The stalk of the horse is older, and his appearance also looks like a symbolic figure. In fact, it is not, for example, at the party members' meeting, everyone voted in favor of Xiao Shutian, only he was silent, and when he was in a hurry, he said: I can't see his heart. Writing about the reef character is not to portray how wooden he is, but to make him stand out over the crowd on something.
The growth of these three people is the same, the three actors are well selected and the performances are sticky, ensuring that the play has a solid base and structure. But these three people are not the only ones in the show, and the 40 episodes draw vivid group portraits. Comrade Laixi continued his joyful image, and this time there were more parting wounds. Comrade Song Jialun continued his tough guy image, this time more wise and transparent. Comrade Wu Jing'an continued his image as chief, this time with a trick in his heart, and not a mystery about major events. Then there are the flowers that bloom inside and outside the barracks, the fast-talking rural ladies, the seductive and shrewd military roses, the fishermen girls who have always loved each other, the scheming country maids, and with them, the young men in the barracks are still wonderful 8 hours away.
This is a realistic work with a pen and emotion. It does not deliberately tear apart the scars of history, nor does it deliberately render the youth without regrets. The former is too painful and constrained by the general environment. The latter is too vain, youth really has no regrets, and history will not turn. It is to circle the camera in the barracks, telling the process of three semi-finished products to improve themselves and locate their lives. Such a story may take place in the barracks, in the factories, or in the vast world of great achievements. If you remove some of the plug-in era labels, it is not unusual for such stories to occur in today's workplace. In fact, growth is the eternal motif of literary and artistic works, and removing the sharp glitches that do not adapt to society, correcting the tilted and distorted values, making the exuberant disposition of the virtual fire become tough and composed, from panicking to nothing to catch, this is not only a unique story in the army, but the endless growth law of human society from ancient times to the present.
At the end, the three juniors are smelted into manhood in the barracks, while their division commander returns to the civilian population under the metabolic law of "soldiers who hit the hard and flowing water". This reincarnation does not belong only to the soldiers, but to all mankind that lives forever.
While promoting the growth story of the three big boys, this drama also implants some popular elements. In all military dramas, there is no one who does not write about the distinction of comrades-in-arms. In "Soldier Assault", the demobilization of Shi Jin and the dismissal of the Seventh Company of Steel are the two biggest sensational points in the whole play. In "The Melting Pot", the sadness of farewell also struck every time: Luo Baoxiu walked lively, Zhao Dazhi walked tragically, and The leader of the Lang Regiment said let's go, and behind each of them, there were tears flying downpours. All TV dramas, there is no one who does not write about the wolf crossing the street, in the past it was the bad guys who arranged the immortal jumps for the good guys, and this time the good guys used the bad guy method to invite jun into the urn. In all the dramas that have pursuits, there is no reflection on reality, and the deputy chief of staff and Xu Xiaobin, who stands guard, have a 10-minute exchange in "The Melting Pot", raising the issue of army modernization from "single soldiers fighting tanks". Whether it is an emotional narrative, a paragraph narrative, or a reflective narrative, these chapters all increase the texture and strength of the play.
If there are shortcomings, the script is somewhat conformist, the art setting is simple because of the ugliness, and the restoration of the era is not fine enough. However, in the current market of thunder drama and divine drama, this kind of determination of realism and the creation of daily logic is already a rare honest act, a fresh wind. I hope that this kind of perseverance can keep the clouds open and see the sunrise, live up to the realistic tradition created by the artists of the previous generations, and live up to the difficult and enterprising era.
【Text/Li Xingwen】
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