Regarding the comments on "The Beginning of the Lantern", there are several conventional views: one is the bad end, and the other is the most solid core of lin Xinru's film and television works, including the production, which is the Mary Sue complex, all the men revolve around her, and so do women - it is a joke to say, but the jokes are all based. Therefore, some people say that the difference between The Mother Rose played by Lin Xinru in this drama and Dou Yifang is that Rose Mother smokes, while Empress Dou does not.
Two vulgar women compete for a man
More comments revolve around the plot, and Internet terminology gives "The First Light" an analysis system, and almost all the plots and characters are defined: female competition, white lotus, scumbag, poisonous girlfriend, tool man, and so on. But just using these routine routines of the Internet to watch "The First Light" is still wronged by this drama. This work with a lot of investment and ambition is not a bad work to some extent, and it can be seen, at least the Taiwan drama has found a new way to shoot the period drama, between the lights and wine, sketching the Taiwanese characters of a certain period, there is a unique sense of nostalgia, plus the protagonist's special profession - the beauty on the wind and moon field, so that this nostalgia looks beautiful, extra good-looking.
Netflix's previous filming in Taiwan's "Sin Dreamer" also took a similar path, the beginning is also the wind and moon field, wearing a white qipao Fan Xiaoxuan model came, bringing out a shadow of the times: the lights and green mean economic prosperity, the dance hall song stage stage is staged with idiot men and women, are the most basic elements in the legendary drama, the screenwriter at least has the space to imagine.
Unfortunately, the two heroines of "The First Lantern" are really not quite like the flower queens on the wind and moon field, more like competitors who look like gods in the workplace, the whole drama is high and low, and quickly enters the common "good people are good, bad people are bad", the first season makes people wonder, who is the dead; the second season makes you addicted, the bad people deserve to die. It was a legendary concept of drama in the early twentieth century, which made me laugh while watching it.
The setting at the beginning is very good, two girls who grew up together from childhood, experienced a bumpy life: out of school, lost marriage, one of them Su Qingyi was raped by her stepfather to give birth, the other Luo Yunong was implicated in her husband's debt and imprisoned, but the two did not lose their friendship, but supported each other after the ups and downs, and seriously started the Business of Japanese Bars. Lin Xinru and Yang Jinhua grew up to be the bar's mother Sang, Rose's mother and Su's mother, helping each other, quite the most popular "girl helping girl" meaning.
The background of the Japanese bar set by the drama makes the two heroines' professions become mother Sang, which also meets the tastes of audiences in The Chinese-speaking area, the unstained lotus flowers in the mud, not the women who sell their flesh at will, but can choose the object of their choice. Soon, the first conflict began, the traditional bridge section of two women fighting for a man accompanied by the plot deepened, quickly moving towards the core of the plot, the male protagonist played by Feng Xiaoyue was at ease among the two, no wonder some viewers felt that this was a simple female competition, indeed vulgar.
The growth of the two young girls, the life of inseparable after various ups and downs, is obviously influenced by Lennon and Lila in "My Genius Girlfriend". In that novel, the two savage girls also have a common object of contention, Nino, but no one calls their relationship a female competition. In the novel, Lennon and Lila adhere to the division of labor, Lila is like a destroyer, and Lennon is a combination, she combines language, step by step to become a writer, Lennon goes farther and farther, into a different world from Lila, but the genius Lila will always take very little time to enter Lennon's world, including the seduction of Nino, and it is almost effortless, obviously not only by beauty, but more, by some kind of decaying genius characteristics.
"My Genius Girlfriend"
In this case, Lennon's going to have fun with Nino's father means some kind of revenge, the fierceness of some old block girls, and the mysterious connection between the old block and some kind of intellectual community, which does not make people feel that they have fallen into the cliché, but is full of vibrant feelings, and also makes people curious about the growth of the two women, which can be tracked all the way.
It is because the author puts women's love into their growth system, not a simple love story, all the stories have human echoes, intriguing. But in the system of "The Beginning of the Lantern", this route was not taken at all, the feelings of the two heroines happened inexplicably, the bridge section of two women fighting for a man was the most vulgar process, although the screenwriter fantasy was complicated, let Feng Xiaoyue and Lin Xinru peacefully break up, and quickly defected to Yang Jinhua, who had long coveted him, but Feng Xiaoyue always remembered Lin Xinru and gave up on her because he truly loved her. This kind of plot can not make people feel that the heroine Lin Xin is a real Mary Sue?
There is also a criminal police officer Yang Youning who can't leave him.
One is as compassionate as Guanyin, and one is so bad that it is unreasonable
The next plot is the icing on the cake for Lin Xinru, she is so beautiful and kind, and takes everyone who treats her badly. It turned out that her child was the consequence of her girlfriend's rape, and she was really righteous; Aji, who did not obey the discipline in the bar and borrowed a huge amount of usury, she helped to repay the loan; the bullied prisoner in prison, she helped out in both martial arts; the lady in the bar fell in love with the drug dealer, she kindly persuaded; robbed the door and insulted her competitors, and was also treated kindly by her; transvestite, the male mother Sang was in danger, she also stepped forward to save the suffering. This is the mother sang of the Japanese bar, which is clearly the Guanyin in the bitter sea, or the Song River who is preparing to go to Liangshan.
It is too appropriate to say that she is the "embodiment of morality", such a great and honorable character, and Liu Huifang in our "Longing" have a fight.
The other heroine, Mother Su, played by Yang Jinhua, can obviously have a more complex human nature system, but unfortunately, the screenwriter also quickly symbolized it. In the first season, she behaved gracefully and charmingly, there was no man who did not fall in love with her, male college students, middle-aged Japanese businessmen, and the screenwriter lovers of good friends, one by one; each set of suits appeared was carefully designed, which was the main backbone of the bar, and the genius who helped everyone out of the predicament. Such a complex character should have a rich inner world in itself, and I believe that when the screenwriter wrote about her, he wanted to learn from Lila in "Genius Girlfriend", a woman's sexiness, which can be compared with her inner richness.
But in the second season, as the plot unfolds, it is completely opposite, it turns out that she is the most vicious person, bad for no reason, the only reason is to set off Lin Xinru's kindness, the standard dichotomy.
Su's mother carried out crazy revenge on everyone, almost sadistic, the old Ah Ji had to dedicate herself to a middle-aged Japanese businessman, fantasizing about giving herself a way out, she aimlessly snatched love with a knife; the lady who hid the poison was slightly threatened by her and seized the drugs; Hanako, who had a history of suffering and had been a prostitute, was dismissed by her as rustic, vulgar, unworthy of working here, and should return to the countryside as a "dog"; even the most innocent college student Wang Ailian was also photographed and sent to Wang's mother, so that the other party's family relationship was broken.
As for her girlfriend Lin Xinru, she is even more the object of her hatred, not only to regain the children that the other party has helped her raise for many years, but also to hide the seized drugs in Lin's home, so that she can be arrested by the police for the crime of hiding drugs, which is simply crazy. Probably the screenwriter also felt that such a bad needed to be explained, and the result was a clumsy origin theory, to the effect that her mother was an evil woman, and she herself was sexually assaulted by her stepfather since she was a child, resulting in psychological deformities, and the more people who helped her, the more they had to be treated maliciously.
Such a peculiar bad is actually in line with the consistent ethical concept of Taiwan drama, good and evil are clearly distinguished, and evil will be punished. Sure enough, the role played by Yang Jinhua was killed by the bar girl Hanako who had no interest in her because of her many evils, which was a typical reflection of some kind of "evil has evil retribution".
I think this is not only the ethics of Taiwan drama, but also the ethics of many Oriental dramas - in line with the principle that the audience is stupid, we must provide simple and easy-to-understand roles for everyone, and the bad ones are bad in the end, and the good people go to heaven, throw aside the complexity of human nature, and immerse themselves in the sweet trap of ethical dramas. Like another sensational Taiwanese drama, "The Distance Between Us and Evil", the complexity of the beginning, in the middle of the plot, becomes only an ethical question, that is, whether the victim's mother did not forgive the murderer's family - this proposition is infinitely large, and there is no room for discussion.
Complexity is done by supporting characters
The two protagonists, portrayed like two naïve middle school girls, are a waste of the complexity of the plot, the exquisite set, and the hard work of many supporting characters. But then again, the supporting role of the scene is a lot more complicated, but also a lot better, especially the first season came out, many people marveled, the surface is a murder, but wrote a group portrait of a group of women, or very brilliant.
Characters who make people feel interesting, the first to promote the bar Aji and Hanako. Adity is old and fading, sharp teeth, but in fact this character is some kind of revenge against fate, the camera turns, to her ruined home, the elderly parents are full of hatred for her, and rely on her care, several people have created a small world full of hate, hate to be rude, hate to stupidity, you see a shot to understand, the unkempt she got up, the only thing that greeted her was not breakfast, it was a string of insults, you think that everything in Adity can be forgiven, gambling, accounting, failure is meaningless.
The latter plot is also good, the Japanese middle-aged businessman Nakamura first looked at her, because she and Nakamura's deceased wife are somewhat similar, but the screenwriter did not take the vulgar route, so that the two have emotional entanglements, but let Ah Ji be quickly abandoned, there is no romance novel cliché.
And the shaping of Hanako also has unexpected places. She was born in a fishing village by the sea, and her biggest wish was to be a housewife, but fate obviously chose to insult and hurt her, making her a prostitute, and then going to prison for deliberately hurting her adulterous boyfriend, so that after she was released from prison, she did not dare to accept her true feelings.
I like Lin Xinru to go to Hanako's hometown to find her several scenes, the small home in the fishing village, the walls are full of awards from childhood, Hanako and her parents bragged that they were working as a liquor agent in Taipei, and let Lin Xinru help her hide it. The two sat side by side on the couch to eat, not even a table, which also showed the family's sourness and their expectations for Hanako.
This is really a familiar background, not only in Taiwan, but also in any corner of the mainland. Hanako finally goes mad, and the scene of killing Su's mother, along with the scene where she assassinated her boyfriend before, is interspersed with editing, which makes the most gentle of her more violent, and it is also a good design.
The other two bar ladies, one obsessed with love and one looking for a way to grow, are both deviated from mainstream society, have arrogant and indulgent egos, and are also rare roles in previous Taiwan dramas. Unfortunately, it is too much for the plot, less idle pen, of course, this is also a must for commercial TV series, idle pen is not a necessity.
Wu Kangren's opponent Lin Xinru, the male version of mother Sang, is in a turmoil, and has a Taiwanese style of the 1980s and 1990s as soon as he appears, which is purely the credit of the actor; and Yang Youning, the flower protector, has transformed himself at the end of the series, and is no longer the embodiment of justice, but sells himself to the police chief of the underworld umbrella, becoming a new force in the police station, black and white eat all, and it is also the screenwriter's skill, so that there are more gray areas in the confrontation between good and evil.
In fact, the gray places left in the whole play are not a few: the woman who has suffered all kinds of insults from society and finally resisted has become a murderer; the two are obviously in love, but they are made impossible by various unexplained reasons; someone tries their best to protect you, but when you want to save her, you are completely powerless. The powerlessness of life spread again and again, and the characters accompanied by these powerlessness have room to grow and become flesh and blood characters.
Wen | Wang Kai
Edit | Yu Jing