I believe that many small partners have guessed, yes, it is "The Moment of The First Encounter with the Fragrance of Flowers".
Just looking at the poster, you have already been "conquered" by half of the show.
Not to mention the appearance of the two heroines, although it is produced by Bay Bay, the popularity in the mainland circle once exceeded that of "Chen Qingling".
The lesbian lily short drama "The Moment I First Met the Fragrance of Flowers" (hereinafter referred to as "The Fragrance of Flowers"), produced by The Gay Online Video platform GagaOOLala, quickly became popular on social platforms after its launch in November last year, and was not only popular in the circle of Hong Kong and Taiwan lesbians, but also stirred up waves in Weibo and Douban in the mainland.
The whole series is divided into 6 episodes, each episode is 20 minutes, although it is short, but the score of a certain valve has reached a high score of 9.1 during the first series, and it has only dropped 0.6 points in the 2 months of release. 48,000 reviews made the show a lot of attention.
American variety magazine "Variety" also selected "Floral Fragrance" as the top 13 of the "Best International TELEVISION Program of 2021", which is the only Chinese drama in the selected works.
01. The difference between lily and lesbian
Reviews of the film are actually mixed.
There are many completely different feelings about the script, the shaping of the characters in the film, the character personality, and the growth of the ending.
But if the analysis is purely in terms of the content itself, or the failure to fully understand the presentation of modern women's emotional repression in this film, this question leads to these important questions: Why is this niche film so popular among the masses and receiving so much attention? Compared with the writing of men and men, what kind of uneasiness and expectations do the stories of women and women in the mainstream discourse face?
Before discussing the work "Floral Fragrance", we can briefly explain the difference between "lily" and "lesbian".
The word "lily" is derived from the Japanese anime subculture and aims to describe various romantic relationships and feelings between women, from close friends to lovers of the same sex, lily can cover.
In Chinese films, "lily" is widely used to refer to all film and television works with female relationships.
Lily and Yumei are two cultural categories that are very similar and are often compared, but the biggest difference between the two is that the main body of female gaze projection in Lily film and television works is a non-heterosexual or sexually mobile female audience, and the subject of the latter desire projection is mostly from heterosexual women.
Another feature of lilies is that they focus on the emotional stories between women, paying more attention to emotional expression than social reality, and most of the portrayal of female emotions is green, ambiguous, pure and beautiful.
Although the labels of lily or lesbian can often be used interchangeably, the two have important differences in the nature of the story.
Usually the reality color is relatively heavy, or the family and minority identity struggle as the main line of the masterpiece, like Taiwan's "Reverse Girl", or He Chaoyi starred in "Butterfly", it is more inclined to classify as lesbian part.
Representative works that mainly present the ambiguous feelings of women "friendship first", such as Japan's "Doctor X", will be classified as pure lily films rather than simply telling lesbian stories.
Looking at the Taiwanese drama "Floral Fragrance", there is both the delicacy of lily and the struggle and contradiction of the heroine in the shackles of social norms, so I define "Floral Fragrance" as between the two, which is a lesbian film with strong lily characteristics.
The lily color of "Floral Fragrance" is not only reflected in the hazy and ambiguous, aesthetic and sincere interaction between the two heroines (the relationship between the sister and the sister), but also in the details of the whole film.
For example, from the time of the encounter, Xuemei Tingting can understand the hidden forbearance behind the "it's okay" that Xuejie Yimin often says - the silent, passive, and obedient Xuejie has gradually been disciplined by the daily discipline of "well-behaved daughters, conscientious mothers and wives" required by social regulations, and many "it doesn't matter" are compromises on these daily helplessness.
02. The emotional development process of lily films
From 2015 to 2021, South Korea has "Lily of the Great Trend", which boldly shows lust, "Irresistible Him", which tells the love life of college art students, "The City That Never Sleeps", which is a business war theme, and "Miss", a god-honored work directed by Park Chan-wook; "Transit Girls" directed by Park Chan-wook; "Transit Girls" with a sisterly love in Japan, "Doctor X" with a strong lily flavor, "I am in The Body of Mari" with a soul crossing, and "She" starring Kiko Mizuhara and Naomi Sato.
However, looking back at the past 20 years, there are very few lesbian films that can get the same attention in Chinese films and television, and the last "Lonely Love Flower" and "Reverse Girl" that were also produced in Taiwan have been works nearly 20 years ago, and the "Yaoting" CP that once appeared in the Taiwanese vernacular drama "Worldly Love" that was a big fire in the female circle was also 8 years ago.
Throughout the Chinese lesbian works of the previous generation (between 1990 and 2010), they are either full of tragic, bitter and vengeful family disputes or dog blood dramas, or they commit suicide or are insulted and persecuted by family members...
These films tend to follow the "popular drama model" of the noisy:
Or in the "Lonely Love Flower" in the big era of turbulent sadism, dancer singers sold themselves and fled;
Like "Reverse Girl" or Taiwan's "Leaping Love Sea" and mainland China's "This Summer", most of them are tragedies with strong bitter feelings, filled with a green and heavy atmosphere.
The above films of more than 10 years ago are too far away from the experience of the new generation of women who emphasize independence and autonomy in the 21st century - even if they are still facing heavy social and family pressures, but after all, all kinds of life and death, passive falls have not been mainstream, with the popularization of feminist consciousness, the new generation of women emphasize the spirit of independent resistance and personal experience.
So these 10-year-old works don't resonate with modern audiences.
Modern audiences are more inclined to see light-hearted and romantic female love stories. What's more, compared with the gay group, the image of lesbians is not very clear in daily life or in the reproduction of film and television.
As Jin Yelu described in his 2014 book "Shanghai Lala: Chinese Urban Lesbian Community and Politics", it has always been unseen, so although the above Asian lily films can be comforted, the Chinese lesbian circle or Ji circle (generally referring to the lesbian sub-circle that likes to watch various lily films) has always been eager to have a chinese lesbian work with excellent plots.
This is undoubtedly rare.
"The Fragrance of Flowers", which appeared in 2021, is the important work that fills the gap of 10 years ago.
Although people still long for the text to explore identity and social oppression, stories like "Floral Fragrance" with ambiguous romantic love as the main line are more acceptable to modern women and closer to the experience of the new generation of lesbians.
In addition, in the context of Asian lesbian film and television works, "Floral Fragrance" is also a representative presentation. The female narratives of Europe and the United States, which are parallel to Asia, tend to be bold and direct, and the rhythm is clear, usually the third episode after the characters meet has begun to kiss and fall in love, and in the next 2 episodes, you may already be able to see some scale scenes.
For example, series such as "Dickinson" and "Sniper Witch Jie" depict female love stories are fast-paced.
Rather than focusing on the process of how the two became lovers, European and American works focus more on getting along, running in and encountering challenges after becoming lovers.
Most of these challenges are the external environmental crises brought about by the main plot, such as the heroine Sarah in the first season of "Legends of Tomorrow" being abducted by aliens, her gay Ava team members to rescue her lover; Skula, who is a spy in "Witch Front: Salem Fortress", is interrogated and temporarily separated because she is in love with Ella of the enemy camp; the female sheriff of Demon Town in "Sniper Girl Jay" breaks into the other world to save the fiancée of the Angel Clan, and so on.
And when the female CP of European and American dramas has confirmed the relationship with three episodes, and the plot setting is diversified, most of the Asian lesbian works are still immersed in the past memories, entangled in the setting of family and social identity, or still let the characters in the process from friends to lovers "extreme push and pull", probably at the end of the series, it will be the moment when the two really confess their hearts to each other. The development after confirming the relationship rarely appears in these female lovers.
For example, the female CP of the sub-line of South Korea's "Irresistible Her" occupies most of the story plot of the female line with the ambiguity of close friends and guessing each other's moods. When the heterosexual CP of the series has appeared countless times in the bed scene, the female CP side line can only usher in the confession at the end of the finale.
However, although the narrative of Asian women is slower than that of Europe and the United States, this kind of narrative that carefully describes the delicate state of mind of Asian lesbians, as well as the careful and speculative mood before becoming lovers, is a projection of the experiences of many Asian lesbians in real social life.
03. The female protagonist is no longer obsessed with the past where there is no way out
"Floral Fragrance" undoubtedly inherits and amplifies these characteristics of Chinese hundred cooperation products.
The sentence "Mrs. Wang, when will we meet again" typically shows the "pushing and pulling" of this kind of female gay in the relationship (Mrs. Wang is the title of the sister after marriage).
In all the interactions between the student and the student, the dialogue between the two is tentative:
"You really don't plan on getting married?" Have you ever touched a girl's body later?" "Do you want to try it?", carefully moving step by step to each other's minds.
These ambiguous details are characteristic of chinese-language hundred cooperation products, and they are also a portrayal of many Asian Lara love.
The narrative of female love in Chinese films often brings up the heroine's memories of the middle school period.
This kind of memories of the romance of female high school students runs through some film and television works, and the heroine is usually a married woman, who indulges in the romance of middle school for various reasons.
Their "present style" is to marry a man, and the "past style" is a time of intimacy with the same sex, and these two timelines are the choices that the heroine needs to face.
This narrative basically implies that there is often no way out of female love after leaving high school life.
The narrative method of "Floral Fragrance", although like the ending summarized above, is also based on the development of the real story as the main line, interspersed with various memories of the high school period, but the female-female love carried out in the "present style" in the play is the opposite of the same-sex feelings mentioned above that have no way out.
The linear development of the female love line leaves a lot of space and foreshadowing in "Flowers".
These reminiscences are not broken with the "present tense", it is reconnected with the current real-time experience, and the "memories" continue to appear and knock on the heroine's tumbling mood of re-encountering old same-sex love.
The heroine no longer lives in the memory, indicating that the reminiscence-style discourse no longer implies a temporary same-sex love of the high school period—all high school memories can be carried over into adult stories, and these lesbians can be close to our present, living in each of our present lives.
The same-sex love memories of the high school period in the play have aroused great resonance among young female audiences on both sides of the strait, whether it is the new generation of Lala or heterosexual girls, they all feel that they "seem to see themselves" in the film.
Those same-sex feelings that are difficult to understand in high school may be the longing and fascination with the sister, classmate or teacher in the basketball club or the singing group...
However, the reality is not so much "long goodbye reunion".
Most of these real-life intimate relationships end in teenage years. The memories of the girls, who often appear in the hundreds of works, are a kind of public "mourning" for being forced into heterosexual norms.
Unfortunately, I would like to say that "Floral Fragrance" is also a product of this kind.
Most Chinese lily films do not explore how lesbian images are aphasia in the mainstream field, and few respond to how the image of female sympathy is constructed in the mainstream discourse of remembrance.
Although "Floral Fragrance" does not respond positively to the lesbian image constructed by memory, the film still tries the "invisibility" of lesbian relationships and images in a short period of time.
For example, even if Tingting and Xuejie have kissed in high school, this love is not recognized even in Xuejie;
Tingting said that she wanted to be with xuejie, wanted a home, and tried to have a future with xuejie, but xuejie simplified it to just a roommate relationship, she could only imagine a traditional future of marriage and children, avoiding xuejie's ardent expectations and pouring cold water;
Even in college, Xuejie said to Xuejie that "friendship and love are still a little different", completely denying the feelings of the two in high school!
……
These all show how this same-sex intimacy in the teenage years was abolished and seen as nothing more than a transitional kind of short-lived same-sex obsession.
Later, the married sister, who can finally face the love with Tingting, is equally denied by her husband the possibility of such a same-sex relationship, insisting that the intimacy between women can only be friendship, not the love recognized in the heterosexual system.
In the pain of the unrecognized relationship between Yi Min and Tingting, "Floral Fragrance" brings out the reality that women's same-sex love or intimacy is often canceled and not recognized in daily life.
Throughout the story, the audience of "Floral Fragrance" basically feels worthless for xuejie, pointing out that xuejie "Jiang Yimin you have no heart".
However, when we look closely at the profile character description of Xuejie, we will find that she is actually a victim of the poison of traditional marriage.
04. The collective resonance of female audiences
Under the masculine social dogma, it is assumed that all people are heterosexual from birth, and only one male and one female are recognized as the only "normal and correct" relationships, and all other non-heterosexual relationships are punished and marginalized.
The same-sex feelings between Xuejie and Xuejie in high school are stigmatized, and other alternative lifestyles and futures cannot be imagined except for the marriage and children of heterosexual formulas.
Under this dogma, the sister needs more courage and dedication than heterosexuality in the face of love with the sister.
Compared with the fearless and active student sister for love, the character setting of the student sister shows a lesbian/bisexual image that is not brave enough, a responsible deserter who does not dare to be in same-sex love. I believe this is also the point that many viewers complain about.
But even in the 21st century, truly free love is not as easy as what we see in the film.
Behind the retreat of the student sister is that the existing social construction mechanism does not give her a really free choice, and every time she chooses a different path from the mainstream, she will be punished and paid.
And xuemei's fearlessness, initiative and intimate forbearance in the whole play, "subverting the sister-in-law tendency of the lesbian circle with one fell swoop", triggering the audience's praise for the role of xuemei,
All of these are longing for the original longing sister or herself to have this brave and proactive honesty in facing herself, making up for the regrets of countless young girls.
It can be said that in these enthusiastic reactions, there is a kind of general public cry for real love.
In the ending of episode 6 of "Flowers", Xuejie was kicked out of the house after confessing with her husband, and was ready to face Xuemei seriously when she ushered in an important turning point in the film - Xuemei actually had a boyfriend.
This twist also caused a lot of controversy among the audience.
Some people think that this arrangement contradicts the image of the student sister who was brave and fearless for love at the beginning.
Some viewers also feel that this turning point is a stroke of God, pulling the original romantic ideal of the student setting back to reality, so that the situation and real life of the student sister and the majority of the audience are closer.
The reason for this turn in retrospective of Xuejie is that 15 years ago Xuejie said, "We are so disgusting."
This dialogue echoes the humiliation faced by the gay community when it grows up.
When heterosexual societies and cultures face the fear of same-sex relationships, they can only use humiliation to erase the legitimacy of same-sex love.
In "Floral Fragrance", this "humiliation" does bring fierce emotional turmoil and huge impact on Xuemei, and the film has not yet been carried out to such a degree that it can be constructed, mainly to present a completely disturbed identity, so Xuemei can only escape back to the mainstream heterosexual social framework.
Although Xuemei's confidence in identity was completely defeated by Xuejie's "humiliation", at the end of the film, Xuemei also fought back against Xuejie's withdrawal, and the two finally understood each other's intentions, hugged each other and cried, and left the biggest foreshadowing in the first season of "Flowers".
We may expect that "Floral" will transform this "humiliation" into a weapon against heterosexual stigma in the second season (the two are generous together).
In past Chinese works, most of the stories were sadomasochistic tragic endings. And whether it can get rid of the fate of lesbians with this bitter ending, female director Deng Yihan undoubtedly left a huge suspense for the second season of "Flowers".
I hope that in the final outcome of this rare Chinese-language hundred cooperation products that can bring heated discussion in the past 10 years, we can see the possibility of lala people living together, no longer cowering, no longer inferiority...
Please fill in the blanks of these same-sex stories in the Chinese-speaking area for the future!
I think this is the main reason why the general public really appreciates this film.
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