Recently, two urban dramas related to "Jane Eyre" have been broadcast one after another, one is the "big heroine"-style entrepreneurial theme drama "The Sea of Stars", the heroine is called Jane Eyre, which once had a strong rating and triggered heated discussions. The other is "Journey without Confusion", which is highly similar to the story structure, character design and literary masterpiece "Jane Eyre". The two dramas focus on the concept of "middle age", both have a strong lineup and make people look forward to it, but the word of mouth is not satisfactory, and the Douban score is only 5 points, which is worth pondering.
Stills from "The Sea of Stars"
Middle-aged urban dramas have become dark horses in ratings
In the current urban drama market, which is more and more pursuing youthful faces, urban dramas focusing on middle-aged themes can be described as rare species. "Sea of Stars" just started broadcasting not long ago, because the middle-aged Mary Sue-style trailer clip first "out of the circle" - two male and female protagonists who add up to nearly 90 years old are still playing coffee splashing, watering wet, earthy love talk, so that young audiences look like needle felt, but it is this drama in the recent TV series ratings weakened, people are surprised. "The Journey of No Confusion" also has a lot of heat because of the blessings of Chen Jianbin, Mei Ting, Tu Songyan, etc. The reason is that the most important thing is the precise positioning of the circle layer of the two.
At first glance, "The Sea of Stars" seems to be a pot of chaos in the plot, the young girl Jane Ai suddenly suffered the violent death of her parents, and then was adopted by the snobbish aunt, but just as an adult, she was sold to the countryside as a daughter-in-law, and finally escaped from the magic cave and entered the metropolis to start her own legendary road. This drama integrates a variety of bridges such as family ethics, workplace business wars, tycoon robberies, and even police kidnapping, which is almost a smorgasbord of dog blood plots, which is dazzling. As the producer of the show put it, the dramatic elements are used to the extreme. The discerning people can see the commercial considerations behind it, and even so, they have harvested a group of loyal fans. For example, some viewers see Jane Ai working at a roadside stall and think of her own working time, some see Jane Ai fight monsters and upgrade all the way and feel "cool", and some watch the giants compete for family property drama and enjoy it endlessly... Boosted ratings soared.
The characteristic of "The Journey of Not Confused" is that it has a literary tone that never lingers. The opening chapter is the plight of a middle-aged man and woman in a snowstorm, with a certain symbolic meaning for the present world in an exotic narrative, which is very gripping. The heroine is not Jane Eyre in "The Sea of Stars" and the struggling heroine like Fang Xiangjin in "An Jia", but the image of a gentle and elegant intellectual teacher, which is relatively rare. And the male protagonist Malevin is not a common city servant greasy domineering president, but a seemingly full of economic booksellers, opening Tolstoy's mouth to close Chekhov, so that this drama has more bookish atmosphere, the narrative rhythm is also slow, destined for its target audience is slightly thresholded, but also to meet the aesthetic expectations of this part of the audience.
Why win ratings but lose word of mouth
Although these two dramas are related to Jane Eyre, they are far from the reputation of "Jane Eyre". Looking closely, the themes of these two dramas are still new, and there is a chance to shoot better, but their fatal shortcoming lies in the lack of internal innovation.
The biggest problem with "Journey without Confusion" is the mediocre content brought about by blunt imitation. Can the framework of foreign famous stories be used as a reference? Of course. Cao Yu's "Thunderstorm" more or less borrows from Ibsen's "Group of Ghosts", but in order to copy the plot mode, we cannot deliberately arrange plots and characters that do not conform to the logic of reality and emotion. "The Journey of No Confusion" is because of the framework problem that leads to the problem of character shaping. Especially Ma Liewen, played by Chen Jianbin, because the setting is a reader who pursues spiritual satisfaction, his home is stuffed with books and full of messes, but does the real literati have to look so messy? Would a true reader read Chekhov as Chekov? The works only show the knowledge level and ideological connotation of the characters through seemingly literary and philosophical lines, but they do not show his humanistic cultivation through his behavior or specific plots. That is to say, the most proud character traits in him are not expressed, and they lack Rochester charm. Successful artistic borrowing is bound to be a successful localization transformation. The story of Zhuo Xiaoting, a rich woman in the play, falling in love with the poor boy Feng Chunsheng is unconvincing, and it is difficult for the audience to see any attractive advantages of Feng Chunsheng from beginning to end, lacking a sense of reality.
The biggest problem with "Sea of Stars" is in the values. In particular, the complex and bloody battle for family property of Fang Hengyi is like the enduring clichéd tycoon drama on the screen in the last century. The choreographer set this family as a Malaysian, although there is room for maneuver in the narrative, but the aunt encourages her son to compete for the favor and marry for the interests of the family, which is full of calculations of money and interests, on the one hand, it is inconsistent with China's national conditions and traditional values, on the other hand, it also lacks novelty, and the more it develops in the future, the more bizarre it is, and it is impossible to justify itself.
Although these two dramas are named under the name of middle-aged people's emotional themes, they do not reflect the characteristics of middle-aged people. Does the emotional world of middle-aged people necessarily be a chicken feather, tangled and heavy? Doesn't the movie "Dream of the Covered Bridge" and "Talk About Love Dancing" also make the emotions of middle-aged people tasteful? Doesn't Shi Jingcun's "Night of the Plum Rain" also show the inner emotions of middle-aged people interestingly? However, these two middle-aged urban dramas rarely see the adjustment of life comedy, nor do they show the unique wisdom of middle-aged people, but apply the mode of youth idol dramas, coupled with those faces who have long been no longer young to interpret unequal behaviors, which will inevitably cause ridicule from the younger generation that occupies the mainstream aesthetic highland.
Where are the lesions of domestic urban dramas?
Urban drama is an important carrier to show modern urban culture, and modernity is the core of urban culture. The current domestic urban drama has long been modernized in the design of visual expression and costume, but there is no modernity in spiritual expression and lacks a sense of reality.
There are many definitions of modernity, but the most important thing in urban drama is to highlight human subjectivity, that is to say, to show the value trade-offs that people show in the face of rapidly changing modern society, and the unique value of people in the interweaving of courage, persistence, anxiety and tenacity. For example, in the era of the Industrial Revolution, Jane Eyre insisted on the value orientation of "choose what I love", such as Ibsen's "Lady of the Sea" in which Elida was responsible for her own actions, which is the independence of women. However, the women in "The Journey of No Confusion" lack such a value display. The heroine simply encountered her fiancé Feng Chunsheng cheating and repenting, but she became dependent on Malevin in all aspects, her parents' house, her brother's work, and her own entrepreneurship to find investment, all of which were completed with the help of Malevin, although the plot of her opening a barbecue stall was designed, but it was obviously out of reality. In "The Sea of Stars", objectively speaking, from Jane Ai helping in the breakfast shop to the beginning to the foreign trade company, the plot also has a sense of life texture and reflects the character characteristics of the characters, but with the emergence of Fang Heng's family competition for family property drama, Jane Eyre's subjectivity is greatly reduced, the dog blood plot occupies the main position, Jane Ai's character subjectivity is not in-depth, but becomes a tool for plot narrative, and the character image is becoming more and more blurred. In addition, the male protagonists of the two dramas can give up the principle for the sake of interests, such as Ma Levin agreeing to the requirements of the old man and reuniting with his ex-wife against his will, Fang Hengzhi can marry someone he does not love against his heart, and Feng Chunsheng can even repent of marriage in order to climb up, giving up his son's surname and his own surname, fly camp dog goo, no big husband should have the courage, not to mention the subjectivity of people.
Stills from "The Happy Life of Poor Mouth Zhang Damin"
The essence of modernity is reform and progress, which inevitably involves reflection and awakening of the existing environment. If you can't touch the pain caused by the real urban culture, you can only stay at the level of quarrelsome mother-in-law dramas, dazzling business dramas, and superficial cool dramas. The dualistic opposition between urban and rural areas, the gap between rich and poor, the dilemma of maternal employment, the inequality between men and women, the alienation of people, etc., can all be the pain points of urban drama. Nowadays, some urban dramas are more and more in the display of a small number of high society, and more and more pursuit of drama design that stimulates the audience's emotions, but it lacks the courage to look down and lacks attention to the real environment and ordinary people. How long have we not seen the civilian drama of "The Happy Life of poor mouth Zhang Damin"? Even the neighbors who are close to real life have basically disappeared on the screen. The disappearance of ordinary people will inevitably lead to the disappearance of life fireworks. As everyone knows, the more urban drama, the more inseparable it is from the fiery city life. Recently, urban dramas have begun to look for problems to break, and the problem of modernity must be solved as soon as possible, so as to avoid the production of more routine dramas and suspension dramas with no reputation for ratings, and more excellent urban dramas that combine ideology and artistry.