On January 11, produced by Noonday Sunshine, co-directed by Sun Molong, Liu Hongyuan and Suan, starring Bai Jingting and Zhao Jinmai, and starring Liu Yijun, Liu Tao, Huang Jue, etc., the time-loop short drama "Beginning" was launched. At present, 15 episodes of short dramas have been completed, and the number of broadcasts has exceeded 1 billion, becoming the best start of the TV drama market in 2022.
Netizens called it the first "infinite stream" drama in China, which integrates science fiction, looping and high concepts. Although Guan Bo voluntarily denied the statement of "the first domestic unlimited stream work", he had to admit that domestic film and television works with corresponding themes were indeed very scarce, and for me, I really couldn't remember anything.
When it comes to infinite streams, the film masters are familiar with the classic "Groundhog Day", the seemingly enlightened "Butterfly Effect", the horror and black humor of "Happy Death Day", popcorn cool film "Leader Level" and other works, while the novel masters may focus more on online texts, such as zhttty's "Infinite Horror", the comedian "Ace Evolution", the black book 'Final Faith', the three-day two-sleep "Thriller Paradise", etc., so what is infinite flow?
#无限流: #Chinese unique mode of web text
Imagine that one day because of an accident, you hung up... Wake up again and find yourself in an unfamiliar space. At this time, there is a voice telling you (mostly it calls itself "system"), if you want to survive, you must constantly shuttle through the various space universes to complete the task, these space universes are mostly movies, television, anime, games, novels scenes, complete the task you can live, you can get incredible props and powers, you can go further on the road to "becoming a god".
If you put aside the shell of fantasy, suspense, thriller, etc., this road of "becoming a god" is no different from the upward road of the real world, it will experience painful torture, bizarre betrayal, deceit, and will also have sweet love, do not break the foundation, but the cost of failure in the infinite flow world is greater - DEAD.
In 2007, zhttty's Infinite Horrors, known as the originator of Infinite Stream, laid the basic framework for Infinite Stream: the protagonist enters the mysterious "reincarnation space" and travels to the dungeon worlds of movies, games, anime, and novels to complete the adventure, thereby gaining extraordinary powers, but having to never stop adventure and reincarnation in the other world. Since then, a large number of infinite-stream novels have been published, which has contributed to the establishment of the infinite-stream novel genre, and even the traditional infinite-stream and data-infinite streaming genre branches have emerged.
But the "infinity" of infinite streams actually has a conventional explanation: it is all-encompassing, not infinite loops. Like "Infinite Horror", "Thriller Paradise" and other novels, "infinite" more means that the novel contains a nearly infinite worldview, which can cover science, religion, mythology, legend, history, reality, movies, anime, games, novels, etc., and higher than them. Theoretically, as long as the author has unlimited brain holes and unremitting pen cultivation, then the infinite stream novel can be infinite nesting dolls and never end.
From this point of view, "The Beginning", "Groundhog Day" and "Happy Death Day" do not seem to be infinite stream works, but can only be classified as time and space theme works. At this point, the TV series official Bo can be described as sober in the world and take the initiative to give an explanation.
#"Beginning" novel: #天生适合影视化
"Beginning" is an online novel created by Jinjiang author Qijun, compared with "Infinite Terror" and other multi-million word novels, "Beginning" can be described as short and concise, only more than 200,000 words (which also contains another story), and the world view is quite simple: the female protagonist's time loops on the bus, during which the male protagonist is also caught in the cycle, and the two try to escape from the bus that must die again and again, rescue everyone, and avoid this disaster.
The world view is simple, the scene is single, and it is based on the real world, so the difficulty of the production of "Beginning" and the like of "Infinite Horror" are not an order of magnitude at all, and the time loop + confined space + suspense puzzle + heroine perspective can also be described as having a film and television point of view. Therefore, the natural possibility of the filming and television of "The Beginning" is greater than that of a group of infinite stream novels.
In the novel, a large number of characters are ordinary people, ordinary such as you and me, and even the female protagonist and the male protagonist: a female college student, a company employee, the IQ is not human, the psychology is not too hard, the force does not need to be mentioned, only by relying on repeated cycles of trial and error, mistake once and death. They don't have the thrill of grouping up to brush copies, nor are they endowed with goldfingers and good luck, they are more like us in life, collapsing in mistakes, growing in mistakes, choosing in mistakes: I have escaped a bus that is destined to explode, do I still want to go back?
It is worth mentioning that compared with the novel, the drama version of "Beginning" gives more attention to the secondary characters, making the characters more standing, and can even be regarded as a condensed social group portrait. For example, there is an asthma and love of cats in the depth of the second sick little brother Lu - the cat's apostle - asthma terminator - the person selected by the light - flute, there is Ma Guoqiang, who is cut off by his family but is worried about sending watermelons to his son, there is a migrant worker Lao Jiao who carries debts but wants to pick a shoulder, there is happiness is always more than trouble, and if you want to be happy, you can find a brother... These small characters give the plot more tension and make the audience think a little more while appreciating the story.
Whether it is a novel or a drama version, "Beginning" may not be perfect, such as the time loop setting is not rigorous enough, the sense of suspense urgency is not strong, it is not brain-burning, etc., but it undoubtedly opens a good end for the 2022 web drama, after all, for the domestic film and television drama market, such a perspective can be described as a novel angle. And if you are interested in the works of the heroine and are not afraid of spoilers, reading small and beautiful novels is also a good pastime.
In the end, I felt that Xiao Heyun was right.