In an epic drama, how should grandeur and reality coexist? Recently, the reality-themed contemporary drama "The World of Man", jointly launched by Tencent Pictures, Xinli Media and Reading Film and Television "Troika", has set a sample for this difficult problem of literary and artistic creation.
When it comes to "The World of Man", many people are not strangers. The original novel, which won the Mao Dun Literature Award and was created by the well-known writer Liang Xiaosheng, is itself an "epic" of Chinese families spanning 50 years:
The story revolves around the Zhou family in a northeastern provincial capital city, stretching from the late 1960s to the 21st century, showing the great changes in Chinese society. In the Zhou family, Zhou's father is an old construction worker with a red miaozheng, the eldest son Zhou Bingyi responded to the call to go to the mountains and go to the countryside; the eldest daughter Zhou Rong went to Guizhou to join the team in pursuit of romantic love; the younger son stayed in the city and became a worker... Under different choices, in the drastic changes of the times, more than a dozen civilian children have begun a life of ups and downs. Liang Xiaosheng once frankly said that "human world" is a concept that is far greater than the human world.
Such a grand theme is put on the screen, how to let the audience not alienate and move the truth? The good news is that "The World of Man" landed on CCTV and other platforms on January 28 to usher in a hit; and the most touching thing in the series is the "sense of reality" that is down-to-earth and close.
Judging from the content currently on display, this "sense of reality" runs through "The World of Man", which also constitutes the most unique temperament of the series - take the first few episodes, when the neighborhood committee proposed that the Zhou family needed to send a young man to the countryside, the ignorant young people were extremely excited, the Zhou family's mother was worried, and the father determined the candidate for the child who left home in silence - the image of a real Chinese family was presented instantly; as for the set in the play, it was as detailed as a fire, a dirt road, and a clay stove, all of which restored the real scenes of the times as much as possible. Some viewers also sighed because of this, "Seeing more cold light and polishing filters, the grounded scene is so immersive." ”
In recent years, some domestic dramas have indeed gradually drifted away from the "sense of reality": killing enemies hundreds of miles away in the divine drama, the college dormitory of the mansion in the idol drama, the aura of the protagonist who takes off in place and cannot enter the knife and gun in the costume drama... Behind the endless exaggerations and strange settings, to a large extent, is the market need to attract the attention of the audience and give sensory stimulation.
But how many of these works can receive praise, be remembered, and even cause thinking? In other words, a good work of art is a projection of reality, and a "sense of reality" is a prerequisite for leading the audience into the inner world of the creator; and to do this, the first thing to do is to respect life and respect common sense.
In this regard, the performance of "The World" is remarkable. "Respect for common sense" is first manifested in hardware devices such as FuhuaDao. It is said that the main creative team went to Changchun, Harbin, Guiyang and other places to shoot, set up 40,000 square meters of sets, and also built a prop library of more than 1,000 square meters for old props, which can be said to have exhausted their efforts.
Outside the hardware, the setting of the plot and the direction of the logic are the sources of the higher dimension of "realism". In the words of screenwriter Wang Haiyu, "The World of Man" is a series that combines macroscopic and microscopic, "Macro is the big skeleton, and the real details are the flesh and blood on the skeleton." ”
Liang Xiaosheng, the original author, even proposed that the original work of "The World of Man" was "anti-drama and heavy on reality" from the beginning, and that "we design the fate of the characters according to the methods of sociological analysis of various classes; rather than according to the general drama laws, let the workers become big bosses." We feel that this is more in line with the status quo. It is also based on this down-to-earth and simple concept of creation that "The World of Man" can bring together a series of great changes in Chinese society in the past 50 years, such as the years of knowledge and youth, the construction of the third line, and the reform and opening up, into one work, and finally present it in a form that is known, perceptible and credible.
Looking back at the history of human literary and artistic creation, only such works can become true classics. After all, hot spots and passages will only be a temporary trend, and the content that is connected with human nature and connected to life can stand the test of time. This is also why the main creative team has the courage to say that "The World of Man" does not deliberately consider the needs of the market, "This work should pay tribute to the realistic theme, pay tribute to all kinds of characters who have added bricks and tiles in China's reform and opening up in the past 40 years, especially to the tough, ordinary, and people who insist on being a good person." "They believe that as long as they are true to these essences, they will naturally impress the audience."
It is gratifying that "The World of Man" has received a rather enthusiastic response, which is also a manifestation of the gradual improvement of the people's cultural appreciation level in recent years. People are more and more eager to see works that tell good stories in a down-to-earth manner and truly enter the hearts of the people, and the field of literary and artistic creation has begun to surge with a wave of blowouts of works with realistic themes. Taking Tencent Pictures, one of the copyright owners and producers of this series, as an example, a few years ago, it proposed to "observe reality and tell Chinese stories well" and began to systematically lay out realistic themes. "The World of Man" is the second work of the "Times Melody Trilogy" of Tencent Pictures and Yuwen Film and Television, and the first is the movie "1921" released on July 1 last year.
From this point of view, "The World of Man" has undoubtedly made a good start for the industry this time: film and television works are not only a pastime, but also should provide a nutrition. What attracts and impresses the audience the most is not necessarily the exaggerated sound and light visual effects; returning to the principle of artistic creation, presenting the most delicate and moving reality, is enough to warm people's hearts and touch human nature.
Text: Cheng Hang
Image: Network
Column moderator: Zhang Yongqun
Editor-in-charge: Wang Yuanfang
Editor: Zhu Xiaofan, Chang Ying