Zeng Yuli
"That Year, Our Summer" (hereinafter referred to as "That Year We"), more than 30,000 people on Douban have scored a high score of 9.1 points (the highest 9.2 points, because the latest plot is too abusive to lose 0.1 points), which is currently one of the hottest Korean dramas in China. Of course, there have always been voices of dissent, believing that domestic audiences have filters on such dramas abroad, is this not a common "little sweet drama" that breaks the mirror and reunites?
Poster for "That Year, Our Summer"
Purely from the perspective of the story synopsis, "That Year We" is a bit "unremarkable".
Ten years ago, in 2011, Choi Woong (Choi Woo-sik), the first-to-last high school student in the school, and Guo Yeon-so (Kim Do-mi), who ranked first in the school, participated in the documentary filming of the first and last place in the school to study together for a month. In the beginning, the two people looked at each other wrongly, and the process of getting along was completely "happy and wrong".
At first, they didn't look at each other right
But filming, the two people will have feelings, the last day of the documentary shooting they were together, love is 5 years. After that, Guo Yanxiu proposed to break up without expectation, and both of them were in pain.
Two people together
Fast forward 5 years, Guo Yanxiu has become the team leader of the advertising agency, and Cui Xiong is already a well-known illustrator. Guo Yanxiu found Cui Xiong because of a company event, and the two reunited after a long absence. It just so happened that the documentary of 10 years ago caused a great response on the Internet, the TV station wanted to film the situation of the two people 10 years later, all kinds of yin and yang mistakes, Cui Xiong and Guo Yanxiu once again participated in the documentary shooting...
After 10 years, the two co-produced documentaries again
Rejoice in the enemy, reunite after a long absence, break the mirror and reunite, female school bully VS male school scum... These are the old terriers often used in idol dramas, and it is no wonder that some viewers are not so interested in this drama.
However, one of the places where Korean romance idol dramas are very good is the "5% innovation" written by Kim Eun-sook: a seemingly old-fashioned story, it can always give you something new.
"That Summer" is first reflected in the innovation of the theatrical structure. It is not in a linear order from 10 years ago to the present, but the past and the present are interspersed; not only that, for the same thing, it sometimes has both the perspective of the man and the perspective of the woman, both the man's inner monologue and the woman's inner monologue...
This makes the structure of "That Summer" like "polyphony", the simple story has complex and exquisite layers, and the characters also reflect the richness of the inner world in the jagged contrast.
For example, the screenwriter must be a fan, because the subtitles and themes of each episode can correspond to a movie, such as episode 5 called "The Secret That Cannot Be Said", Episode 6 called "Pride and Prejudice", and Episode 8 called "Love at Sunset and Dusk", forming an interesting intertext.
What is even more rare is that the screenwriter is surprisingly delicate. Although the love story has been filmed countless times, it is very difficult to express the emotions such as throbbing, sweetness, regret, love and hate intertwining in love accurately, layered, and resonant.
The author's personal real entry into this drama is from episode 3, which starts from Cui Xiong's perspective and tells 10 reasons why Guo Yanxiu is annoying. For example, Guo Yanxiu is "selfish", her classmates ask her to borrow notes, she would rather tear them up than borrow them; she wants to win everything, even drinking to win over others; she has a low emotional intelligence, and she is troubled everywhere; she does not understand the style, postpones the agreement to see the cherry blossoms several times...
Guo Yanxiu did not understand the style
At first glance, this looks a bit like a complaint about an ex after a breakup. But as soon as the screenwriter's words turned sharply, Cui Xiong said that even if there are so many shortcomings of Guo Yanxiu, there are many places that make him move. For example, spare no effort to help him review his homework, will carry the drunken Cui Xiong home, go to his house to help, get along with his mother very happily, hide cherry blossoms in his hands in front of Cui Xiong, and create romance for Cui Xiong...
"She only showed me this side, and I had to fall in love with her."
Confused, she brought romance to him
Yes, the saying of "the lover's eyes out of the West" is actually too general and vague, we fall in love with a person, it is difficult to say that even the shortcomings of TA love, but the love for TA is far greater than the shortcomings of TA, so the deficiency of TA always breeds unlimited compassion and tolerance. Such an imperfect TA, still loving himself, will make us gentle and heartbroken.
The delicacy of "That Year We" is also reflected in its profound exploration of inferiority in love.
Guo Yanxiu is also deeply in love with Cui Xiong, why did she suddenly propose to Cui Xiong to break up 5 years ago?
This is closely related to her upbringing. Guo Yanxiu and his grandmother are dependent on each other for their lives, and their family is poor. Because of her poverty, she could not exchange snacks with her classmates equally, and she was often criticized by her classmates, which made her hate poverty to the bone. The way she maintains her self-esteem is that she presents herself with a cold face, cuts off socializing, and then pretends to be very free: it's not that I don't have friends, it's that I don't need friends at all.
Guo Yanxiu uses indifference as armor
After falling in love with Cui Xiong, in front of Cui Xiong, who is as simple and loyal as a dog, Guo Yanxiu can temporarily abandon her armor and forget the heavy reality.
At the threshold of graduation, the family suddenly has a huge debt, and at the same time, the grandmother is seriously ill, and the pressure of survival makes Guo Yanxiu overwhelmed. At this time, she also learns that Cui Xiong gave up valuable communication opportunities because of her.
Cui Xiong, who grew up in a happy and comfortable environment, pursues comfort in life, "I hate my days most tired" and "living a hard life is not what I want"... The speaker has no intention, the listener is intentional, and Guo Yanxiu is worried that he will pull Cui Xiong into his own quagmire, worried that Cui Xiong will have to go to the days of "exhaustion" and "desperate efforts".
Therefore, seemingly without warning, Guo Yanxiu proposed to break up. In the face of Cui Xiong's questioning, "So, the reason why we have to break up is", she did not answer positively, only told the audience the answer in her inner monologue: "Because you are different from the reality I face, no, in fact, it is because I can't even bear my real life now, no, in fact, the real reason is that I am afraid that if I continue to interact, my strong sense of inferiority will be seen through by you." ”
Kuninobu Shunai Shin monologue
Behind Guo Yanxiu's disguised arrogant self-esteem, there is a deep inferiority complex. She would feel that she was born so poor, was she really worth Cui Xiong's strong love? So she had to ask hypothetical questions over and over again, throwing out all kinds of premises to see if Cui Xiong would still love her. She lacks the courage to love people, and she lacks the confidence to be loved, so obviously in a happy love, she has the fear of loss, and when her reality is dark, she simply proposes to break up.
"Of all the things you have, am I the easiest to give up?" Cui Xiong asked. Guo Yanxiu replied, "No, I can give up, only you." The beautiful Cui Xiong is a luxury for her, and she "does not deserve" to have it at this time.
Guo Yanxiu answered the reason for the breakup
The protagonists of "That Year We" are very distressing. The abandoned "dog" Cui Xiong is heart-wrenching, the "cat and cat" Guo Yanxiu, who dare not be loved, her vulnerability and her unknown humility are even more painful. There are so many love stories, but it is indeed rare to delicately dissect the breakup from the level of "inferiority". "That Year We" makes every audience who has had an unconfident experience in a relationship have a relationship.
"That Year We" is a love fairy tale after all, because Cui Xiong is waiting silently, and Guo Yanxiu is also aware of his "arrogance" in the long pain after the breakup, "the arrogance of thinking that he can live well without you". In the TV series, we know that no matter how they go around (which is now quite abusive), as lovers, they will eventually become dependents (unless the screenwriter wants to be scolded to death by the audience). But back to real life, how should those secular men and women who are troubled by inferiority in love place this torturous emotion?
Frankly, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. If the truth is useful, love will not bother thousands of men and women. The only thing you can try to learn is to be brave, and if you love each other, don't assume that it wouldn't be better if the two weren't together, but imagine if the two people continued to be together, it wouldn't be better. Just like Cui Xiong said that he hated to live a tired day, he added a sentence later, "I like to live such a day the most, stay with my family and you."
Believe that the power of "like" will triumph over "tiredness"
This issue is edited by Zhou Yuhua