In the past two days, has the brain of the "four masters" all played? Some time ago, I wrote an article for Phoenix Weekly entitled "Commemorating the Ten Years of Zhen Huan's Biography" and moved it to my own number for everyone's entertainment.
At the recent Mid-Autumn Festival Gala in Henan, the two actors who played "Shen Meizhuang" and "Wen Shichu" in "The Biography of Zhen Huan" once again played the classic role, and the CP who was eternally separated in the play finally ushered in a reunion in the Mid-Autumn Festival 10 years later. The two people in the same frame not only reached the top of the hot search, but also made the audience shout that it was no longer difficult to be peaceful.
10 years ago, "The Biography of Zhen Huan" was broadcast, and it set the first rating for 24 consecutive days. At the time, no one could have foreseen that it would have such a profound impact on our lives in the next 10 years. Whether it is the subsequent development of the actors, the shock to the television industry, or the golden sentences and famous scenes in the play are constantly being reinterpreted and grafted, as if "The Biography of Zhen Huan" has never left us, but exists in various forms in life, memes, bullet screens, the same humanities on the knowledge, various edited videos, and the successors who have been imitated and never surpassed, this spectacle exists like a subculture. The ten years of "The Biography of Zhen Huan" are not only the opening of the palace fighting drama, but also the final singing of the palace fighting drama.
Zhen Huan chuan, ultra-long long tail effect
In this year's "Answer Strange Night" party, Tao Xinran, the actor of "An Lingrong" in "The Biography of Zhen Huan", once again restored the role in the play, and came to a wave of memory killing. At the party, a Zhihu user named "Spicy Chrysanthemum Small Tuanzi", because he was dissatisfied with the ending of An Lingrong in the play, spontaneously wrote a 67-chapter article on the Internet entitled "The Rebirth of Zhen Huan's An Lingrong", hoping to rewrite An Lingrong's life, touching Tao Xinran to cover his face and cry, choking up several times when speaking.
It seems that in the past 10 years, "The Biography of Zhen Huan" has never faded from the audience's vision, and it can still easily set off phenomenal discussions on the Internet. After the removal of the other two palace fighting representative dramas "Ruyi Chuan" and "Yanxi Raiders", the controversy over the "Biography of Zhen Huan" has occupied the hot search for a long time; Luo Yonghao, who is about to pay off his debts, said that he would make a documentary on the process of repaying debts, and the title of the film should also rub the hot spot of "Zhen Huan", called "True Return".
Since its broadcast in 2011, "The Biography of Zhen Huan" has indeed achieved remarkable results: it has ranked first in the ratings for 24 consecutive days, the first in the number of network on-demand broadcasts for 34 consecutive days, and 29 times in one year in the three places across the Taiwan Straits, with a total network demand volume of more than 2.5 billion times. Even if more than 440,000 people scored, it still maintains a super high rating of 9.3 on Douban. It is preceded by either grand dramas such as "Daming Dynasty 1566", "Towards the Republic", and "The Gate of the Great Mansion", or traditional classics such as "Journey to the West", "Dream of the Red Chamber" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Even compared with the high-scoring dramas with a mass base, such as "Soldier Assault", "Wulin Wai Biography", and "Great Song Ti Criminal Officer", the "pattern" of "The Biography of Zhen Huan in the Harem" seems to be a little smaller. It does not belong to historical dramas, war dramas, love dramas, nor does it belong to suspense, comedy, or espionage, but is an independent drama: palace fighting drama. But that doesn't stop it from being red for 10 years.
This drama has sent a large number of outstanding young and middle-aged actors to the film and television industry. Needless to say, the two who were already first-line actors at that time accumulated a more sticky national degree with this drama, and Jiang Xin and Cai Shaofen ushered in the second spring of their careers. Some netizens ridiculed the 2021 Magnolia Award, which can be called "Shilang and his harem group": Chen Jianbin, who played "Yongzheng", was nominated for best actor with "Trident", "Chun Guiren" Tan Songyun ("In the Name of Family"), "Ning Guiren" Re Yiza ("Shan Hai Qing") was nominated for best actress, and Mao Xiaotong, who was shortlisted for best supporting actress, handed over the topic drama "Thirty Only".
Soon after the drama was broadcast, various "thick black studies" under the banner of "The Biography of Zhen Huan" were put on the shelves, with ubiquitous imperial power, strict promotion system, and the glory and loss of the harem and the previous dynasty. The most applicable scene is the workplace, "From Rookie to the Ultimate CEO: Workplace Revelations in Zhen Huan's Biography", "Watching Zhen Huan Pass on Workplace Survival Techniques", "Zhen Huan's Biography: Huafei Already Knows How Good the Truth Is", "80 Things That Zhen Huan Taught Me After The Transmission of Zhen Huan"... There are even scholars who have published academic papers: International Relations in the Biography of Zhen Huan.
Meals and medicines, which appear frequently in the play, have also become hot topics of discussion. Some people have restored Zhen Huan's favorite lotus powder osmanthus sugar cake, the jujube mud yam cake made in Shen Meizhuang's small kitchen, and some people are curious about whether the Chinese medicine in the play really has a "miracle effect": Shu scar gum can remove scars, and musk is not conducive to pregnancy.
"The Biography of Zhen Huan" also gave birth to "bullet screen science". Bullet screens are short comments sent by viewers as they watch online, and these short comments appear on the screen in real time. Audiences who are familiar with the plot will also leave a variety of funny "baggage". Open this 2011 drama again, the screen is full of bullet screens left by netizens in 2021, this sense of contrast between time and space dislocation makes the bullet screen of "The Biography of Zhen Huan" can be watched independently of the plot, and even like a comedy program with the participation of the whole people.
There are also all kinds of strange "butterfly effects". For example, the Taiwan media has reported that the popularity of "The Biography of Zhen Huan" has made the heroine Sun Li a new goddess, and her "electric eye" has also become a plastic surgery model, and the double eyelid surgery in various plastic surgery hospitals in Taiwan has increased by 30%. The Taipei Municipal Government has also opened a road called "Yizhanghong", although the "Yizhanghong" in the play specifically refers to torture, but this avenue in Taipei is planted with red and tall hollyhocks, the reason why it is called "Yizhanghong" is undoubtedly to rub the popularity of "The Biography of Zhen Huan".
In early 2011, in China's social media circles, there was also an event that profoundly changed China: WeChat was born. Weibo, which was born two years before WeChat, was the hottest social platform at that time. The role of social media in promoting the broadcast effect of TV dramas is vividly reflected in the biography of Zhen Huan. Nowadays, social networks have almost become the main publicity platform for new dramas, and the proportion of delivery has exceeded the promotion of offline roadshows, and many new dramas will also trigger discussions by making memes and editing "famous scenes" when broadcasting.
Open the era of the big heroine, but it has become a palace fight drama
The long-tail effect of "The Biography of Zhen Huan" on the domestic TV drama industry is more direct.
"The Biography of Zhen Huan" has a total of 76 episodes, and at that time, it sold an episode for a sky-high price of 3 million. After it, the number of episodes of the TV series also increased. Taking TV series broadcast in 2020 as an example, the proportion of more than 40 episodes is as high as 70%.
In the producer's view, the more episodes, the higher the revenue. The sequel to "Langya List", "The Wind Rises in the Long Forest", has a total of 50 episodes, with a single episode of 6 million, the 68-episode "Shangyang Fu" episode sold more than 8 million, and the 87-episode "Ruyi Zhuan" sold 9 million in a single episode. If it were not for the two lead actors being included in the "blacklist" one after another, "Win the World" (the original "Ba Qing Biography") could also sell 8 million episodes. This has also led to "water injection dramas" becoming the norm in the industry.
The explosion of "The Biography of Zhen Huan" also made the palace fight drama usher in the spring again. Its original author, Liu Yizi, once said: "China's history will always be a man's history." As women, only a few characters of extreme good and evil have left a few strokes in history, completely losing their personality. ”
This also gives the TV series more imagination and creative space, and GongDou realizes empathy with the audience by expressing the desires and appeals of various characters. The cool point of the protagonist's "upgrading and fighting monsters" is also more able to meet the needs of ordinary people at present. In addition, the struggle between women has a natural attraction for TV audiences whose audience is mainly women, and there has been no shortage of palace fights and house fight dramas in domestic dramas, especially after the Hong Kong TVB broadcast "The Desire of the Golden Branch" in 2004, a number of court dramas from the female perspective such as "Beauty Heart Plan", "Palace Heart Plan", "Great Qing Harem", "Mother's Day", and "The Secret History of Filial Piety" were born.
There is also an interesting phenomenon that many of the works of the crowded alleys are women as the protagonists.
After the explosion of "The Biography of Zhen Huan", some media compared it with "Longing" in 1990. The two dramas that also set a record for ratings are also "big female lead dramas", but the values conveyed are very different. "Longing" carries forward the qualities of the heroine Liu Huifang's hardworking and simple, virtuous and virtuous, while Zhen Huan, who is "blackened" in the later period, is a female character who will stop at nothing for power, which also reflects the change in the audience's values and aesthetic orientation.
Therefore, rather than saying that "The Biography of Zhen Huan" opened the "Palace Fighting Era", it is better to say that its emergence directly gave birth to the "big heroine" fever. In addition to the palace fighting house fight, the category of "big heroine" has also spread to xianxia, martial arts, and modern dramas. Coupled with the collocation of "big IP + traffic actors", a number of works such as "Three Lives and Three Worlds and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms", "Lonely Fang Does Not Appreciate Himself", "Tiansheng Long Song", "Chu Qiao Biography", "Drunken Linglong", "That Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Round", "Chen Xi Yuan" and so on.
But these dramas do not say that the success of copying "The Biography of Zhen Huan", some even do not reach the level of touching porcelain. For example, the "Legend of Wu Meiniang" broadcast in 2014, under the banner of "Big Heroine", still filmed the "Mary Sue" core, and the "Great Song Palace Words" broadcast in the first half of this year, the heroine Liu E was originally a successful female politician with the same name as Lü Hou and Wu Zetian, and the thin personality and chaotic editing shaped this ambitious and strategic woman into the Great Song version of "Virtuous Wife". Even if the explosive drama "Yanxi Raiders" seems to be the opposite, making the heroine a "black lotus", her existence still relies on the emperor's favor, and the final depiction of imperial power is still romantic and beautified.
Even Zheng Xiaolong's original class of people and horses filmed 4 years later in the "Biography of Mi Yue" and the sequel to "The Biography of Zhen Huan", also written for Liu Yizi, it is difficult to continue the glory. Until 2018's "Yanxi Palace Strategy" and "Ruyi Zhuan", the final carnival of the big female protagonist drama officially came to an end.
In contrast, the "Biography of Zhen Huan", the female alliance established between Zhen Huan and Shen Meizhuang, and the friendship between Zhen Huan and JinXi and Liu Zhu beyond the master and servant, is the real conscious placement of male roles in an attached position, the promotion of positive values among women, and the subversion of the stereotype of patriarchy and imperial power. And this is the contemporary era of the gradual awakening of female consciousness, and the audience needs female characters.
In addition, it is also from the beginning of "The Biography of Zhen Huan", the ancient Dialect drama began to intentionally or unintentionally mark the list of positive drama, and the selection of actors will also emphasize the joining of old drama bones and acting schools.
Chen Jianbin, who was 43 years old at the time and had never taken the idol route, played the male protagonist by the crew of "The Biography of Zhen Huan", had fully stated his position: this was not an idol drama, nor was it a harem drama popular in the market at that time, but a palace fighting drama with a positive drama texture, no talented beauty, no love for the country and the mountains, no weak water three thousand only take a scoop to drink, no Mary Sue-style imaginary court, only distorted power and emotions. This drama is as restored and detailed as possible in casting, setting, lines, limbs, and props: concubines of different positions perform different rituals; in order to reproduce the prosperous dynasty, director Zheng Xiaolong also had people renovate the walls of the Hengdian Forbidden City, because "how can there be broken walls and ruins at the peak of the Qing Dynasty".
Whether it is Tang Wei's "XiaFan" participation in "Daming Fenghua" or Zhang Ziyi's "Shangyang Fu" that Zhang Ziyi single-handedly organized, what is emphasized in propaganda is power, history, and counterattack, and there are also powerful factions such as Zhou Zhouwei and Zhu Yawen participating in the performance, but in the end it is still inevitable to degenerate into a Mary Sue drama, the so-called court party struggle, planning and strategy are like children in the family, the core is still talking about love.
The "Biography of Zhen Huan", which preceded them many years ago, cloaked in the cloak of palace fighting, was not limited to the corner of the heart, but through the multi-angle game, the era at that time was profiled, not sticking to talking about love, but in the condensed history and emotions to reflect the fate of the characters. In this war without smoke, serious intrigue and romantic love have found a certain balance. And the loyalty, betrayal, taking sides, strategizing, calculating, complex human nature involved in it, in the foreseeable future, will be universal significance.
Director Zheng Xiaolong said in an interview that he personally believes that "The Biography of Zhen Huan" is anti-feudal, and it makes girls give up their fantasies by showing the cruelty of feudal society to the audience. Shao Yanjun, a young critic, also commented: "This drama does not promote goodness and beauty, but it reveals the truth and cruelty of the rules and unspoken rules of our world." "The 76 episodes of "The Biography of Zhen Huan" is the road for Zhen Huan to grow up, and it is also the road to her heart's death. The sense of tragedy from beginning to end in the play has always conveyed the core value of "there is never a winner in the palace fight".
After so many years, there are only a few dramas that can combine character fullness and power online at the same time. Do you know? Do you know? It should be green fat red skinny" to do the former, "Langya List" to do the latter.
I originally thought that the "Biography of Zhen Huan" 10 years ago would be the beginning of the domestic boutique palace fighting drama, but now I find that although it is the beginning, it is also a climax. It almost depicts palace fighting and power plots to the extreme, and it is difficult for a drama to open up new angles. But it may also mean that a new epidemic is coming.
Recently, it has been reported that 10 years after the broadcast of "The Biography of Zhen Huan", Zheng Xiaolong will once again work with Sun Li to shoot the Qing Palace drama "The Great Qing Xiangguo", but as far as the current news revealed by the crew, this is not a big female lead drama, but a big male lead drama. Compared with another "Zhen Huan Biography 2", this is really more exciting news.