TVB's inspirational youth drama "Youth Don't Face" (mainland name "Youth Training Class") played the nostalgia card, and the ratings went all the way up.
The title is taken from Andy Lau's single "17 Years Old"
The story alludes to the entertainment events of Andy Lau, Liang Chaowei, Zhou Xingchi, Wu Junru and others who participated in the parliamentarians' training class that year, and also evoked wonderful memories of my many years of entertainment interviewing career.
The title of the play is known to be taken from the first line of the lyrics of Andy Lau's single "17 Years Old": "Don't face it when you are seventeen, you participated in the challenge." ”
"Challenge" refers to the bitter experience of a group of young people in the play who have a dream of stardom to apply for the artist training class and look forward to becoming popular.
The story is based on real people and real events in hong Kong's television industry in the 1980s. That was also the golden age of the take-off of Hong Kong song and film, and it was also the era when I entered the industry, so I was very fortunate to be acquainted with a group of superstars.
I remember when I visited Andy Lau, I would remind him half-jokingly: "We entered the industry in the same year, you have to give me preferential treatment and give me exclusive good materials." Then laughed.
The story of Hong Kong's entertainment industry has been well received by the mainland
"Youth Don't Face" not only won the praise in Hong Kong, but also won the praise of Douban 7.8 points in the mainland, and ranked 8th in the list of Chinese word-of-mouth dramas in one week, which can be described as dazzling.
It should be known that several protagonists in the play, Yu Decheng, Ding Zilang, Dai Zuyi, and Liu Yingyong, are all newcomers, and mainland audiences are relatively unfamiliar with them, and this good achievement is due to the fact that TVB dramas are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in the mainland.
Many mainland audiences, as China's 100-meter flyer Su Bingtian said, grew up watching Hong Kong TV dramas. Therefore, he is very familiar with Andy Lau, Liang Chaowei, Zhou Xingchi, Wu Junru and other people projected by the protagonists in the play, evoking collective memories.
At that time, the information was not developed, and mainland audiences could only learn about Hong Kong's entertainment events through reports, but now seeing live-action interpretations on TV, it is bound to attract them.
Nostalgia, tribute and special effects fly together
The production of this drama is also very serious, the costume modeling, the set, the dialogue words, even the TVB dressing room, posters are all restored to the reality of the 1980s. Make Hong Kong audiences look particularly familiar!
"Youth Don't Face" is also a tribute to TVB.
The play is interspersed with many shots of classic programs and dramas, paying tribute to many artists, including Bruce Lee, Wu Mengda, Teresa Teng, Weng Meiling, Jin Yong, Shen Dianxia, Zhang Guorong, Mui Yanfang, Chen Baiqiang, etc., and TVB founder Run Run Shaw flashed on the screen.
The play also uses computer stunts to implant the protagonist into previous classic dramas, such as Liu Yingyong and Liang Chaowei playing the opponent scene of "New Brother Za", which spent a lot of effort on post-production.
The fusion of the old and the new means inheritance
Watching the whole drama, there is a feeling of time travel. The story is humorous and funny, and it is easy to remind everyone of a character who laid the foundation for Hong Kong's entertainment industry. It seems to be a funny drama, but it is actually intentional; the series uses a group of new people to interpret those who have become famous, the fusion of new and old, and the meaning of inheritance, so they can be called very careful productions.
In the finale, there is an Easter egg that Ding Zilang, Yu Decheng and other brothers and sisters who care about the quality of the new training class, and everyone discusses the application materials of a group of newcomers, which is very funny to see the application form of Li Yaoxiang and Lin Jiadong.
Not only that, but the play is also interspersed with many former golden songs, full of nostalgia.
Only TVB has such a great ability and so many resources to use in this way.
The story reveals the unspoken rules of the TV station
What is valuable is that the series actually revealed a lot of unspoken rules of the TV station. For example, the artist who promises to sign a long contract will be praised, otherwise it will be hidden in the snow, and the media will describe it as "entering the refrigerator", and obedience can be unfrozen out of the "birth day".
The plot also mentions that the artists wore the stars and the moon to catch up with the drama, and the day and night were reversed, and they did not sleep for several days and nights. Wu Leyi, who innuendo Chen Yulian, was so tired that she fell asleep in the elevator, which is not an exaggeration, but a similar situation may not have happened to Chen Yulian, but it was indeed the real situation of the survival of TVB artists at that time.
In addition, there are artists in the plot who suffer from hepatitis due to physical exhaustion, which is also true. As the dialogue in the play says: "Zhou Runfa and Zheng Shaoqiu also have liver disease." In order to treat liver disease, Zhou Runfa studied foot massage on his own, and still keeps pressing for his friends. One of his liver diseases benefited many people, and foot bath shops in Hong Kong mushroomed.
It's all real people and real things, and Andy Lau was indeed hidden in the snow
There are too many real people in the plot. Take Andy Lau as an example, tvB won five handsome men who graduated from the training class that year, called the five tiger generals: Andy Lau, Liang Chaowei, Miao Qiaowei, Tang Zhenye, and Huang Rihua.
Andy Lau filmed "Run to the Fury Sea" on the recommendation of Chow Yun Fat, which was nominated for the Hong Kong Film Award for New Actor. Although he lost in the end, it ignited a fire in his heart to make movies. TVB asked him to sign an additional 5-year contract, but Andy Lau refused. At that time, it was said that the five tigers would unite and put pressure on the company not to sign a long contract, and as a result, some people agreed to sign it. These were the entertainment headlines of the year.
Andy Lau eats soft and does not eat hard, insists on signing a long contract, so he is treated by the plot - he is hidden by the snow, the company arranges him to be a "vitality star", running stairs and running dragon sets every day to play the role without dialogue.
At that time, Andy Lau in real life was not discouraged, taking advantage of the lack of work, to learn language, learn to sing and dance, learn all the skills needed for acting, in order to arm themselves, only to have the versatile Andy Lau we see today.
The weekly magazine, of which I was editor-in-chief, celebrated its sixth anniversary with a feast at the five-star Regent Hotel. At that time, Andy Lau was being hidden in the snow, and I invited him to attend, and he readily agreed. On that day, he put on flat glasses, a white shirt and tie and a wet and dry jacket (windbreaker), and appeared refreshed and personable, in a brave state.
Influencing the next generation, these artists have done it
In addition, the plot also refers to the fact that the artists refused to play the role of bad people and adulterers in order to protect their image, for fear that the audience would not accept it and was afraid of being stereotyped to play a rape role. Time has changed, and now the actor has an open attitude, as long as the role is played, no matter how negative it is, he is willing to shoot.
The plot of "Youth Don't Face" not only reproduces the entertainment industry ecology of Hong Kong in the 1980s, but also presents the multi-faceted mentality of the artists of that year.
Cai Fenghua's golden sentence is also selected in the plot: "Momentary brilliance does not mean eternity", as a reminder to popular artists, teaching them to learn from it. This sentence is still quoted by many people at present, but this golden sentence has made Cai Fenghua's career fall to the bottom, which is very ironic.
The characters' unanimous ambition is that we want to influence the next generation.
Didn't Andy Lau, Liang Chaowei and Zhou Xingchi already do it? Their influence is not limited to Hong Kong, but to all the Chinese world.
Today's television system has long been very different, a hundred times more enlightened.
It is recommended to start filming the poaching war between Jiayi TV and TVB
"Youth Don't Face" is only 15 episodes short, and the sense of layering is filmed in the funny, and the audience is still unfinished.
Consider opening another series similar to the history of entertainment, so that the image of a star who originally seems to be far away from the public is more three-dimensional, more flesh and blood.
It is recommended to start filming the story of how Jiayi TV (which has gone out of business) used the silver bullet policy to dig corners and how TVB fought a defensive war.
At that time, the battle was very fierce, it was all real people and real events, but it was very dramatic. Therefore, it is rich in entertainment and is definitely another super good TV series theme.