Author / Cheng Youqing
The support of Taiwan drama is the consensus of everyone in the past two years. From "The Distance Between Us and Evil" (Douban 9.4 points), which discusses human nature and law, "The Cultivation of Ordinary Women" (Douban 9.2 points), to the brain-burning "Want to See You" (Douban 9.2 points), the win-win situation of ratings and word-of-mouth has made Taiwan dramas have a trend of explosion.
This year's broadcast of "Vulcan's Tears" and "The Moment I First Met the Fragrance of Flowers" also received a high score of more than 9 points on Douban, and Lin Xinru's "Hua Lantern Chu Shang" as a producer has triggered a lot of discussions about social issues such as women and special occupations, and the second season will also be broadcast on the 30th of this month.
From 2001 to 2011, Taiwan drama experienced a "golden decade" that swept Asia. It was the explosive period of Taiwanese idol dramas, which gave birth to generations of idol stars. "Meteor Garden", "The Devil Is Around", "Lavender", "The Prince Becomes a Frog", "Love Troll"... These dreamy idol dramas were once the youth memories of a generation.
By around 2011, in the face of mainland dramas with tens of millions and hundreds of millions of costs, the costumes and picture quality of Taiwanese idol dramas were suspended. High-quality dramas such as "The Biography of Zhen Huan" and "Step by Step" have also appeared in the mainland, and taiwanese idol dramas that are slightly juvenile and not too delicate have gradually lost the mainland market.
Around 2018, Taiwan dramas that have been at a low for a period of time began to appear a lot of high-quality productions, and cultural output also began to move closer to the reality theme from the original single idol drama, the theme is getting richer and richer, and the scale is becoming more and more bold, but it has made the Taiwan drama out of a new development path, and it is sending a signal to the market: Taiwan drama is doing it again.
From dream to reality
"Meteor Garden" is the beginning of the golden decade of Taiwanese idol dramas, and it is also the key to open the door of thousands of young girls Mary Sue, and after many years of mango station remake of "Let's See the Meteor Shower", it still captures many fans.
After that, idol dramas such as "Lavender", "Love Troll", "The Ultimate Class", "The Devil is Around", "Destined to Love You" and other idol dramas exploded in a blowout, these works without exception are handsome men and women, no matter how the human setting changes, it is the story of the prince and Cinderella. At that time, there were no idol dramas in the mainland with such beautiful scenes and dreamy stories, and the emergence of Taiwanese idol dramas satisfies the dream imagination of many audiences in adolescence.
Generation after generation of audiences are always growing, and slowly the needs of the audience are beginning to change. In 2011, when Taiwanese idol dramas were slightly declining, although the number of Taiwanese idol dramas produced more than 30 for the first time in history that year, the ratings champion was "I May Not Love You", which told the love and growth of 30-year-old women.
In the years since, the drama has been circling in place and has not escaped the scope of the Mary Sue. However, during the period, there are also high-quality dramas like "A Handful of Green" (Douban 9.3 points) that are different from traditional idol dramas, which are not only simple male and female love, but also the alternation of humanities and history in a special context. By the time of "Diplodocus" (Douban 8.5 points), Taiwanese dramas began to pay attention to more social realities and women's dilemmas in society and choice. The taiwan drama that has been chasing and leading the dream began to slowly land on the ground.
In recent years, almost all the high-quality Taiwan dramas have discussed social issues and human nature. "The Distance Between Us and Evil" begins to explore the relationship between the media and human nature, how the women in their nearly 40s in "The Cultivation of Ordinary Women" really face this society, and "The Worker" focuses on the small people of "workmanship" and pays attention to the life at the bottom. At a time when mainland dramas were still sinking in the ancient Mary Sue idol dramas and ancient dolls, at least in terms of themes, Taiwan dramas were still one step ahead.
The triumph of human nature
As early as the beginning of "Snail Residence", the mainland has long been involved in works with realistic themes, but with the changes in the entire environment of internal entertainment, realistic theme works are always inferior to the sound of idol dramas in terms of market share, but from the perspective of the explosion of "The Name of the People" that year, the audience is still very fond of realist themes and works that explore human nature.
The discussion of human nature is precisely the specialty of Taiwan drama in recent years, in addition to the theme, the Taiwan drama in recent years is also very daring to shoot.
For example, last year's "Who is the Victim" directly exploded with a large-scale plot. Not only did it land the first place in the number of hits in Netflix's Taiwan region on the day of broadcasting, but it also scored the final 8.0 on Douban.
The same is true of "Reverse Game" broadcast this year, it is rare to see a Chinese drama, there will be so many bloody high-energy scenes. Not only because it is large enough to be exciting, but also because it is real enough, and the needle is harmful. Many details reflect the social reality full of unspoken rules, making the TV series more watchable.
The discussion of the current situation of women is also a key theme of recent Taiwanese dramas. "The Cultivation of Ordinary Women" tells the story of a nearly forty-year-old leftover woman, the distance does not match the heroine with small fresh meat, but really tells the chicken feathers in life, deconstructing the middle-aged dilemma of women in a witty way, looking funny and crying. He also advocated the idea of a new independent woman with great fanfare in the play. A great deal of rebellion against conventional wisdom has been committed.
The same is true of the recently aired "The First Lights", although there are many works that promote feminism, most of them are still in the relatively "superficial" stage of love, and it is easy to return to the embrace of Mary Sue. There is also a description of love in "The Beginning of the Lantern", but her core is actually a group portrait of a group of women, which shows the story of each woman and the bondage between each other. The bitterness, pain and struggle of the women in the play are more full and vivid under the background of each character's experience.
There is no doubt that this realistic theme has raised Taiwan drama to a higher level, and also allowed Taiwan drama to have more room for development.
The Renaissance of Taiwanese opera
In fact, even the idol drama golden decade of Taiwan drama, the theme is also very rich, not simply in the campus and workplace, like "The Ultimate Class", "The Ultimate Family", "Thunderbolt MIT" and other themes including supernatural, suspense, horror, action and other themes, Taiwan drama has always been involved in a variety of topics. As a result, the bold elements plus a wide range of themes have become the unique innate advantages of the revival of Taiwanese drama.
The local themes of Taiwan dramas are also constantly "out of the circle". Like "The Cultivation of Ordinary Women", it is almost a drama with pure Taiwanese pronunciation, and a large number of Tainan scenes are full of strong local atmosphere. The story of "Using Nine Mandarins" and "The Cultivation of Ordinary Women" have the same magic, the protagonists are Taipei office workers, under the yin and yang mistakes, they all returned to their hometowns, which is the output of Taiwanese culture.
In addition to their practical significance, these local dramas also let the audience see the real side of the life at the bottom, although it is full of embarrassment and unbearable everywhere, but it is so vivid and beautiful, it can always regain the confidence of life again and again, and find light and hope in the cracks of life.
In addition to local themes, streaming media platforms such as Netflix, HBO, and FOX have entered one after another, and Taiwan dramas have quickly solved the two key factors that are constantly constrained by production costs and broadcast platforms.
In 2017, HBO cooperated with Taiwan Public Television in the first full-Chinese drama "Psychic Girl", which broke the previous 7-year rating record held by "Leper Hero". "Sin Dreamer" and "Horned Head" are invested and produced by Netflix, "Want to See You" is fox investment production, "The Distance Between Us and Evil" is invested and produced by HBO, and this year's "The First Lights" are also produced by Netflix.
The "special" theme is also a "magic weapon" for the revival of Taiwanese opera. "Forever First Place" (Douban 8.3 points) "Second Place Counterattack" (Douban 8.3 points) "Long Distance In Love with You" (Douban 8.2 points), is a beautiful same-sex theme, this year's broadcast of "The Moment I First Met the Fragrance of Flowers" (9.1 points) is a hundred contract theme, the emotion of this drama is very delicate, the love story it tells, not love to die and live, but both sincere and restrained, surging emotions are hidden in the details.
The support of platforms such as Netflix, the discussion of social issues, and the discussion of special themes have all ushered in the "Renaissance" of Taiwan dramas. Taiwan drama has gradually come out of the Mary Sue, and the mainland drama is still slightly "suspended", the revival of this Taiwan drama has also given the mainland market more warnings, rooted in reality, in order to go further, the film and television market is also time to sink.