The main theme of the film and television works bloomed

Author: Lei Jun, former professor of the Basic Department of the Military Economics College

2021 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, but also the beginning of the "14th Five-Year Plan", at this important time node, the main theme of advocating mainstream values and praising the spirit of the family and the country has appeared frequently, creating a strong atmosphere of celebrating the centenary birthday and building a great cause of history. This year, the main theme drama runs through the whole year, the climax is repeated, "The Age of Awakening", "On the Cliff", "Top Secret Mission", "Rebel", "Mountains and Seas", "Meritorious Service", "Armageddon" and a series of main theme film and television works, resonating with the times, breaking through themselves, innovating the literary realm, literary connotation and aesthetic value, pushing film and television creation to a new spiritual height, and warmly responding to the cultural needs of the people.

Poster for the TV series The Age of Awakening

Smooth out the turmoil of history and ignite the enthusiasm of reality. In 2021, the historical theme film and television drama "small in capital letters" chases ordinary individuals in the giant wheel of history, freezes the moments of their historical performance, shows their rational grasp of the moments of life, and firmly chooses to leave the scene vigorously. The TV series "The Age of Awakening" highlights the process of nirvana rebirth of young awakeners, and the vigorous vitality, steaming spiritual weather and sincere feelings of home and country stir up the long-dormant national grief. Decomposing national and ethnic events into real details, the characters accumulate and burst out layer by layer in one event after another, and the confusion of the characters' thoughts, the uneasiness about the future, and the judgment of sacrificial value are magnified in the conflict between rationality and sensibility, showing how tortuous the road to national awakening is. The movie "Chosin Lake" understands the war, accepts the war, and participates in the war from the perspective of the Chinese people who just felt the dawn of peace at the beginning of liberation. The film's aesthetic proposition of restraining violence finds noble purity and hidden loyalty from the barren lives of Wu Qianli, Wu Wanli and others. In 2021, historical theme films and television have achieved the infiltration of history and culture and the unity of entertainment viewing, deepening our cognition, "it turns out that everything we are accustomed to today is not the inevitable result of the historical process", we have always underestimated the firm faith and greatness of revolutionaries, and their spirit is like a grain of sand into the hot land of reality, for the latecomers to take root and sprout.

Dissecting the revolutionaries' logic of faith and relaying the resilience of life. In 2021, spy war films such as "On the Cliff", "Rebels", "Top Secret Mission" and other spy war theme film and television works "with small cases are large", showing the experience process of revolutionaries' mental paths. The work stands on a neutral standpoint, balancing the factors of intelligence and strength, thinking about how Lin Nansheng realized his own revolution under the education of the two spiritual teachers of the enemy and us, how the black violence under the white snow forced the righteous into a desperate situation, and how Pan Yuqing and Zou Shubao achieved "small people big pattern, small site big storm, small story big wisdom". These works respond more uniformly to the decision between the enemy and us to win or lose, not to wisdom but to virtue, focusing on the stretching and straightening of human nature and the natural expression of survival. The dark, evil environment gives rise to utilitarianism, instrumentalism and authoritarian desires, and the revolutionary goal is to return the possibility and freedom of human life to man. These works move from the fog of the plot to the decoding of human nature, combining the solemnity of the plot background with the fiery heat of revolutionary responsibility, and the solemnity of the dark system is hidden in each flying plot fragment. It has successfully solved how ordinary people's lives are reasonably linked to historical narratives, how faith rises from the abyss of the sin years, and how feelings of justice are gradually generated, which has contributed to the reconciliation of personal life trajectories and revolutionary aesthetics. "Live well" is the common expectation of these works for life, even if ordinary life still needs the support of faith, behind the vast number of fates are the unremitting pursuit and struggle for a better life, encouraging people to fight with resilience, expel panic, and warm life.

Present the value adsorption of the times and build an intimate relationship with reality. As a benchmark work of poverty alleviation drama, "Mountains and Seas" takes the incident of the relocation of the masses in Xihaigu to get rid of poverty as a breakthrough and engraves the significance of the poverty alleviation cause. Based on a set of real group portraits, Merit plays the story of the recipients of the Order of the Republic. Both works seek a true and precise connection between individual life and the structure of society, a metaphor for each person to be absorbed in the times and to be a member of society. Realistic film and television works reflect real life, create lifelike character images, and integrate with the viewing interests of contemporary audiences, with a strong sense of substitution. In the era of network information, entertainment consumption and historical nihilism have grown, various value concepts have eaten and gone, and the core values of society have also been tested. "Meritorious Service" and "Mountains and Seas" take spiritual transcendence as the realistic dimension, question the relationship between individual growth and social development in the new era, question the presentation of individual ideals, virtues and human nature in the new era, find spiritual storage in the personnel of habit, depict the genealogy of silent heroes, connect the historical spiritual line, and innovate the connotation of the values of the times. "Meritorious Service" and "Mountains and Seas" use specific people to pierce the concept of nihilism, face the shocking suffering, and awaken the spiritual numbness with the pain of reality; use the bloody strivers to interpret the connection between the values of the historical era and the inner life of the individual.

The main theme of 2021 film and television works strive to replace the suspended consciousness of the historical era with daily life, shape the character sequence of awakened people, believers and strivers, tell Chinese stories and Chinese-style survival experiences, identify the picture of reality from historical circumstances, alleviate the crux of reality from the spiritual thorns of characters, enrich literary forms, and enhance the audience's confidence in the development and control of the times. In the future, the transformation of art consumption into mass cultural practice becomes inevitable, and art works should adhere to the principle that "art should become the logic of understanding life and expressing life", adhere to "the aestheticization of daily life is a sign of the complete liberation of mankind", and look back at the daily understanding of reality, the expression of reality, and the appeal of the reality of innovative works of art. (Lei Jun)

Source: Guangming Network - Literary And Art Review Channel