Netflix's penetration in the Asian market is still accelerating, compared with the "Squid Game" that broke out some time ago, and the more eye-catching recently is the drama "The First Lights".
It is understood that the investment amount of the drama has reached 250 million Taiwan dollars, which is currently the highest investment in Netflix in Taiwan. In addition to starring Lin Xinru, Yang Jinhua, Yang Youning, Feng Xiaoyue, etc., Huo Jianhua, Zheng Yuanchang, Xiu Jiekai, Ren Rongxuan and others also appeared in the special starring list, which can be described as gathering "half of the country" in Taiwan's performing arts industry.
Judging from the current broadcast performance, "The First Light" did not disappoint. Not only did it surpass "The Minister of Hell" as soon as it was launched, it reached the top of the daily list in Taiwan, and its suspense background and content texture also frequently aroused heated discussion in the mainland market, and the current Douban score fell at 8 points. However, although the market heat and word of mouth continue to ferment, the show and Netflix signed a three-season contract, and the first season of the current update is only "the beginning of the lights".
Atypical suspense narrative
At the beginning of "The Beginning of the Lantern", several middle school students went to a dense forest to take pictures, the mountain road was slippery, and behind them, a street sign was shaking, and the red words on it read: No traffic. Immediately after, the hand of a female corpse appears in the camera, and the suspenseful atmosphere is filled.
However, the narrative method of "The First Lights" is somewhat different from previous suspense dramas, which jump out of the clues of the police investigation and turn to lay out the story in the direction of the audience's questions. For example, when the police find a business card with the word "light" written next to the body, the camera does not continue to present the police investigation, but turns in reverse order to three months ago, and the main body of the narrative also becomes the bar of "light".
"Light" is a relatively mature local bar, the two mothers are Luo Yunong (Lin Xinru) and Su Qingyi (Yang Jinhua), the former is smart and capable, but the poisonous tongue is strong, the latter is gentle and intellectual, left and right. In addition to the two, there are four escorts in the shop, all of whom may be dead or suspected.
As the main line revolves around these six women, their respective personalities are enriched a little along with the character experience, the setting of "all poor people" and complex emotional hookups, constantly introducing new questions, and then constantly amplifying the suspicion of "who is the dead" and "who is the murderer", and continue to mobilize the audience's curiosity and sense of participation, allowing people to substitute. Many netizens also talked about: "Unconsciously chased after 8 episodes", "I saw 3 a.m. in one breath and wanted to know who the murderer was." ”
But the fly in the ointment is that only from the currently broadcast plot, several women have a bit of "love brain", Luo Yunong and Su Qingyi, two good girlfriends who grew up together and started a business together, turned against each other for the same man; the superficially cold escort lily, even knowing that it is a trap, is willing to become a "tool man" for her boyfriend to sell drugs... The similar plot seems to be somewhat bloody, which is also the place where "The Beginning of the Lantern" is currently criticized the most.
In addition, after the relationship between the characters is clear, most of the audience has guessed who the deceased is, and the overall sense of suspense has been weakened. However, fortunately, the details of "The Beginning of the Lantern" are solid, the actors' acting skills are also online, the pace is bright, and there has not yet been a large word-of-mouth reaction. However, if it continues to develop in the direction of the current emotional line, it will indeed make the "Hua Lantern Chu Shang" with such a configuration appear to be small.
Typical Netflix-style creation
"The Beginning of the Lantern" focuses on Taiwan in 1988, when Japan's economic crisis had not yet arrived, and Taiwan, which had close economic ties with Japan, was also a prosperous scene. Under such a special era background, Linsen North Road in Taipei City has become a gathering area for Japanese people, and a unique "Tiaotong culture" has been derived from it.
"Jotong" means alley in Japanese, in line with the consumption needs of the Japanese, when there were many Japanese bars in the area of Linsen North Road, the mother of the bar Sang and the drinking girl, providing ambiguous services and spiritual comfort for the guests here, but they do not sell their bodies, and they are wandering in the gray area all year round, "The First Light" presents such a special group of women.
At least for now, such themes and scales have few opportunities in the domestic market. However, in Taiwan, the content creation environment is relatively relaxed, and after Netflix's entry, the platform covers distribution channels in more than 190 countries, which can also ensure greater creative freedom for partners.
Moreover, from the perspective of Netflix's long-term drama creation model, capturing the preferences of core consumer groups with the help of background big data and thus providing reference for content screening is an important reason for the high probability of Netflix's explosive incubation.
Specific to "The First Lights", female group portraits, scumbags, and suspenseful short dramas are all popular drama creation labels at present. After the broadcast of "The First Rise of the Lantern", a hot topic quickly appeared on Douban: "Who is more scummy of these three scumbags?" "The series' control over market preferences is evident from this.
On this basis, it is more noteworthy that in the process of Netflix's efforts to develop original content, it has gradually formed a corporate culture of "freedom and responsibility". Netflix founder Reed Hastings once said, "The fewer decisions I make on management, the more proud I am of them." ”
The willingness to delegate power to creators is an important differentiator between Netflix and other streaming platforms. Today, Netflix is accelerating the pace of globalization, and to enter new markets faster, most of the time it needs to work with excellent local creative teams and give creators the greatest freedom in cooperation. The "Squid Game" of the previous fire is the product of this cooperative model, and today's "Hua Lantern Chu Shang" also reflects such characteristics.
On the one hand, Netflix invested 250 million Taiwan dollars and directly signed a three-season contract, which can be said to be with absolute sincerity and gives partners a lot of trust. On the other hand, the main creative team and actor configuration of "The Beginning of the Lantern" are all top-notch in Taiwan. The chief producer of the drama is Lin Xinru, director Lian Yiqi has directed many high-profile film and television works such as "Cape Seven", "Forgetting", "Rolling Stone Love Story" and so on, and the main screenwriter Du Zhengzhe is also quite prestigious in the industry.
From this point of view, "The Beginning of the Lights" continues the typical Netflix model. The platform does not interfere too much in the entire creative process, which is undoubtedly the situation that creators are most happy to see. The cooperation between the two sides with sincerity is also more conducive to the production of high-quality content, and finally presents today's "Hua Lantern Chu Shang".
How do you continue to be free?
However, freedom has always been relative.
As many people know, "House of Cards" is a milestone that made Netflix famous in the industry. But perhaps few people know that "House of Cards" was actually the first project Netflix was commissioned, and at the time, "House of Cards" involved a lot of transactions, and Ted, one of the management, thought it was a worthwhile bet, and Reed quickly agreed with him, on the grounds that", "It wasn't me studying the script, it wasn't me meeting Kevin Spacey." ”
However, when "House of Cards" reached its fifth season, creator Paul Willimont was kicked out of the series creation team because he resisted the Netflix executives' suggestions for deletion. Dana Brunette, producer of House of Cards, also said, "Netflix once had an innate advantage in digital streaming and gave artists more freedom, but now it has become indistinguishable from other traditional cable networks or studios." ”
Perhaps, for Netflix, which has just launched original content, the platform really needs to use the strength of creators to ensure high-quality content output. But today, Netflix's market capitalization has exceeded $270 billion, and according to the earnings data, Netflix's cash flow is mostly negative. In the face of an increasingly large capital market, the responsibility on the shoulders of the platform is heavier, and the freedom of creators will encounter more resistance.
Previously, after Netflix took over the creative rights of "Black Mirror", there was a continuous decline in word-of-mouth, and by the time the fifth season aired, the Douban score had dropped from the initial 9.4 points to 6.9 points, and the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes had also dropped significantly. One of the important reasons is that Netflix's dependence on big data has constrained the expression space of "Black Mirror" itself. This year, similar problems appeared on the second season of "Love, Death and Robots", with the Douban score falling only at 6.7 points, while the first season rushed to a high score of 9.2.
Although at present, Netflix still continues to have a high degree of freedom in the exploration of globalization, this is more of a compromise that the platform has to make when opening up new markets, and once the new market matures, the openness of creation will gradually decrease like the European and American markets.
Goldman Sachs predicts that Netflix's investment in content will reach $22.5 billion in 2022. However, judging from the current development trend, in the process of rolling out a larger chess game, Netflix should perhaps think more about how to give creators continued freedom.