It's hard to imagine that Meteor Garden will still be sought after until 2022.
Some time ago, once the Thai version of "Meteor Garden" was launched, it triggered another wave of drama chasing in China, and the Douban opening score exceeded 7 points.
Twenty years later, most of the people chasing the Taiwanese version of "Meteor Garden" have stood in their thirties, but when it comes to this work that opened the precedent of domestic idol dramas, people still can't help but miss it.
The character filters of Sugi and Domingji have made the protagonists Big S and Yan Seung-wook used so far.
I used to think that this slightly old-fashioned love story was just a momentary novelty for the public.
Only now have I found that behind the twenty years of long red, there is its own unchanging core.
The idol era is here
Speaking of "Meteor Garden", we have to mention the most important woman behind it: Chai Zhiping.
Taiwanese host Hu Gua once commented on Chai Zhiping:
"She has a lot of momentum like Wu Zetian and Empress Dowager Cixi."
As a well-deserved "godmother of idol drama", Chai Zhiping single-handedly created "Meteor Garden" and idol group F4, and also became the founder of the "idol era".
△ Chai Zhiping and F4 △
In 2001, the 39-year-old Chai Zhiping's career can be described as a spring breeze.
Her one-handed production of "Super Sunday" won taiwan's Golden Bell Awards three times in six years, and is a gold medal program known to everyone in Taiwan Province, but Chai Zhiping is not satisfied with all this.
She saw the rise and fall of Qiong Yao drama in the mainland, coupled with the decline of Taiwan's local TV dramas at that time, and the market was mostly occupied by Japanese dramas.
After many considerations, she decided to test the waters of the TV drama industry.
The first time she dabbled in TV series production, Chai Zhiping was not too sure of the story, and in the gap between the production of the program, she found several popular Japanese manga to prepare for adaptation.
She chose three comics at the time, and the original Meteor Garden, "The Man in the Flowers," happened to be the first one to agree to sell the rights.
The two sides hit it off immediately, and the filming of "Meteor Garden" was officially put on the agenda.
At that time, the production team did not have a clear concept of the casting of idol dramas, and the mainstream aesthetic of male actors mostly stayed on the characteristics of handsome and tough.
Chai Zhiping decided that regardless of whether the actor was from a class or not, his appearance must be exquisite, and he was required to conform to the impression given by the original "Fancy Man" as much as possible.
Therefore, Yan Chengxu, who is still an unknown model, Zhou Yumin, who auditions with friends, Wu Jianhao, who likes to soak in the gym, and Zhu Xiaotian, who works as a waiter in a barbecue restaurant, have been finalized by her to enter this TV series.
Years later, Chai Zhiping recalled that he took four fledgling boys to buy clothes, and he was still very emotional:
"We didn't have enough budget, so we went to buy that kind of cheap clothes.
I said to them, 'You have to act well, if this play is popular, maybe in the future everyone can make a record and do a world tour.'"
In fact, I set an expectation for the future at that time, if they were not red, it would be regarded as a good memory for everyone, and if they were red, this expectation would be fulfilled. ”
Everyone did not expect that such a TV series shot by participants running to "leave a memorial" has become a phenomenon-level work in the true sense.
Cinderella forever
The plot of "Meteor Garden" is not complicated, it is essentially a story of Cinderella changing her life through true love.
The commoner girl Sugi, who is entangled and hesitant between the rich and noble Prince Daoming Temple and the melancholy and beautiful teenager Hanazawa Class, is both indulged in the former's domineering and fiery feelings, and is attracted by the latter's own melancholy background.
Therefore, while relying on her own "weed" characteristics to fight monsters in the rich campus, she gradually moved from resisting love to the embrace of her lover.
Different from the preference of most viewers today for the "big heroine" who relies on herself for everything, when the time goes back twenty years, the routine of "changing her life against the sky" with the help of feelings and even marriage is the mainstream.
At that time, hong Kong and Taiwan female stars were still proud of "marrying into the giants", not to mention the yearning and envy of the general public.
As a result, in the same period, Taiwanese idol dramas appeared in many different forms of "Cinderella".
Ordinary little clerks are admired and admired by the domineering president, clumsy girls are chased fiercely by high-IQ geniuses, and ordinary girls are targeted by multiple handsome guys...
It sounds clichéd, but in fact, to this day, these plot points that put different shells on cinderella's core are still attracting groups of viewers.
The biggest similarity between these heroines is that they seem weak, but they actually have the same "strong" core.
Sugi, who prides herself on the weeds, when she sees F4 bullying her classmates, will rush out to help regardless of her own safety, even if the price is retaliation.
When others are afraid of wealth and power and kneel to lick the male protagonist, Sugi can teach him to the point:
"You are just a parasite that you have been held in the palm of your hand since childhood, never made money yourself, and have not contributed to society in any way."
When The Daoming Temple said, "There is nothing in the world that money can't buy," even if the other party is confessing, Sugi rushes back angrily:
"Do you want to buy me like a commodity?" I'm the one you can't buy with any money! ”
When a jean-clad cedar dish was designed to be mistaken for a high-end cocktail party, she took a handful of red wine and poured it on the head of the matchmaker to cheer herself up.
Such "differentiation" will now become a "deliberately attractive means", but think about it carefully:
Always only promise will only be annoying, timely display of their own "killing" to defend the initiative in life, can question the authority, refuse temptation, firm faith, and brave "kill the four sides" characteristics, may be the core of Cinderella.
In the story of "Meteor Garden", Shancai is not the most beautiful, not the most gentle, not the most talented, but a little more courageous than ordinary people.
This courage allows her to draw a sword to help each other, to face the courtship of a rich man with an objective but not humble mentality, and to break through the prejudices of the world, thinking that even if she is a "weed", she is worthy of all the beauty in the world.
A strong heart and exuberant vitality may be the real reason why countless girls dream of becoming a shancai.
Everyone has fairy tale dreams
When Meteor Garden first aired, it received an average rating of 6.99 in Taiwan, a record that was not broken until five years later.
In Japan alone, 15 tv stations rolled and even hit a top 57.4% rating in the Philippines.
Chai Zhiping has publicly stated that at least 500 million people around the world have seen F4 performances.
In the past 20 years, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Chinese mainland have been adapted and remade many times, and almost all of them have made a lot of money.
For so long, this story still makes the audience tired of watching.
In recent years, many social platforms have once become popular with "archaeology", and the flashpoints and lightning points in the once popular episodes will be pulled out one by one, and "Meteor Garden" is no exception.
As a result, the fir vegetables that once swung between the Domingji Temple and the Hanazawa class became the "green tea bitch";
F4's dominance of the campus is simply "campus violence" today;
Sugi's remorse in the face of The Daoming temple's mother's difficulties became "indecent"...
Even the male and female protagonists are officially matched, and some people jump out to find problems from the perspective of the door to the door.
Throwing aside this "archaeology", the core of idol drama lies in the freedom and dreaminess that is not limited to reality.
We've seen enough of real love life is always full of calculations, measurements and calculations —
People who have been in love for several years have fallen out because of the bride price;
A couple who met in a small time, one of whom parted ways after the beginning;
Women are required to be housewives, but are constrained at every turn in the family because of their financial inability;
After many years of companionship, it was defeated by a momentary novelty...
When real-life love is always disappointing, heart-wrenching and insecure, we wish we had a relationship that did not care about returns, and the courage to break through all obstacles and be together.
We wish we could be sugi, with our own powerful kernels, saved by a fairytale love.
Who doesn't know that the story in the play is just a story?
But precisely because it does not happen in reality, such a beautiful thing that happens in a parallel world is even more precious.
Compared with later idol dramas, "Meteor Garden" may be a little less fashionable and exquisite, but it is more rustic cute and sincere.
It's like when we were young, when our hearts were just beginning to open, thinking that if we loved enough, we could fight the whole world.
But when 20 years have passed, the teenagers who were once fearless have become mediocre and busy adults, and the girls who were once the most love-oriented girls have been forced to become independent and self-reliant heroines.
The belief and attachment to "true love is invincible" only exists in such a love fairy tale.
Some people say that children need fairy tales, and adults need life.
That's true.
But I think that perhaps adults need fairy tales more because they have too much bitterness in their hearts.
This little bit of sweetness can make people regain the strength to fight against life after a short immersion.
Author | Ju Xiaoxiao, I would like to see the vast world with you. This article was first published by Ten Point Video Original.
Anchor | Yi Fan, radio host, sound temperature explorer.
Image | Originated from the Internet, if there is infringement, please contact to delete.