After most of 2022, before the arrival of the Taiwan celebration file, on the TVB drama ratings report, only a few dramas such as "White Strongman 2", "Menghualu" and "His Royal Highness the Riffraff" broke 20 points, including imported dramas from the mainland. Hong Kong dramas are burdened with the old and difficult problems of insufficient creativity, low ratings, and low social topics. Where is the explosion of Hong Kong dramas this year? Who can be the hit of TVB's best actor and actress this year?
Until the Taiwan Qingyue Month, the four major Taiwan celebration dramas were staged one after another, and the explosive models that could heal the lost heart of Hong Kong dramas finally came. Produced, written and directed by Ye Nianchen, Chen Ying, Chen Shancong, Zhu Chenli, Liu Peiyue, Jiang Jiamin, Fang Lishen, Chen Xiaohua, Jiang David, etc., the first shot of Taiwan's celebration drama "Beautiful Battlefield" has caused high popularity in Hong Kong since its launch.
The six glamorous heroines on the series poster are entangled in endless intrigues on the screen every day. Some people changed from "little white flowers" to "black roses", and the initial "sisterly affection" evolved into later deceitful and parting ways. Family, giants, business wars, entertainment circles and vanity fair are the elements that TVB dramas are best at, the tug-of-war between the "modern version of Liu Sanhao" and the vicious sister, the "palace scheming" on the beauty pageant, several TVB little flowers play seven emotions, and the plot goes all the way in the direction of "extreme" (also regarded as "dog blood"). In the eyes of young audiences, the Hong Kong drama of "Beautiful Battlefield" is ancient and extremely sensational, and even a little "noisy" and "too routine". In the eyes of ordinary family audiences or audiences with a Hong Kong plot complex, "Beautiful Battlefield" is fierce, and the dialogue "intrigues and lungs" affects the audience's emotions. TVB flowers were forced out of their acting skills that they usually can't see, and the audience scolded the treacherous characters in the play while watching, and their jaws dropped by the constantly reversed plot, which was very enjoyable. Aren't the classic Hong Kong dramas of those years also such an extreme style that combines grievances and hatreds and evil seas?
Under such a divergence of tastes and polar controversy, the ratings of "Beautiful Battlefield" performed well, and the finale recorded the highest rating of 22.8 points in Hong Kong, watched by 1.48 million viewers, and is currently ranked second in the annual ratings list of TVB dramas. The "city-wide effect" brought by "Beautiful Battlefield" is still eye-catching, which has made enough momentum for TVB's celebration ratings. The heroines frequently shuttled in front of the scene, and the Hong Kong media kept tracking and reporting, and there would definitely be a place for them at the year-end award ceremony.
How exactly should "Beautiful Battlefield" be defined? Controversy is inevitable. Interestingly, Ye Nianchen does not care about controversy, he said in an exclusive interview with Nandu reporters: "I will accept all the positive and negative comments of drama fans." Beautiful Battlefield is a controversial project. The style and character design of this play is a more extreme, intense and exciting style, people who like it will like it, and those who can't accept it are very unacceptable. Then he told about his first intimate contact with Hong Kong dramas. This is also a story of how a Hong Kong film director groped, stumbled and clinged to himself during the adventure of a TV series.
Cross-border
One of my wishes was fulfilled
Nandu Entertainment: "Beautiful Battlefield" has received a lot of heated discussions in Hong Kong, which drama fans have commented that you are more concerned about?
Ye Nianchen: I will accept all positive and negative film reviews from fans. I was a film critic when I was young, and I wrote my own film reviews, so I would read and accept all film reviews. Beautiful Battlefield is a controversial project. As soon as you watch the play, you will understand that the style and character design of this play are relatively extreme, which I deliberately established. Ye Nianchen's works, people who like them will like them, and those who can't accept them are very unacceptable. Someone commented and discussed, and it achieved my goal.
Nandu Entertainment: You are good at filming love stories, why did you enter TVB as a "foreign aid", but make a drama involving family and female fights?
Ye Nianchen: In the middle of last year, Mr. Zeng Zhiwei asked me to make a play. At that time, I said: I am interested, but I may not be able to make romance dramas or idol dramas. Everyone naturally feels that Ye Nianchen is the most suitable for filming TV dramas, romance dramas or idol dramas. I don't think so, if I were to make a drama, I would love to make a genre drama of fighting, deception, and business war. Because I am a Hong Kong drama fan and grew up watching TVB dramas, I like battle dramas such as "Rogue Tycoon", "Inexorable" and "Golden Branch" very much. With 20 episodes of TV series, I really wanted to do a genre that I might not do in the movie, so I chose to make a "modern version of "Golden Branch" theme. TVB has not filmed this kind of drama for many years, I think there will be a topic and everyone will have expectations when it is filmed. This is my first time filming, but this time it is a real Hong Kong drama style.
Nandu Entertainment: Does "Beautiful Battlefield" pay tribute to "The Golden Branch"?
Ye Nianchen: I haven't worked in a TV station, and filming dramas is done occasionally. "Beautiful Battlefield" is one of my essays on TV series. I put all my favorite TV drama elements, characters or scenes into this paper as a tribute. I grew up watching this type of drama until I became a director. I have always written reviews, criticized and studied this type of drama, and this time I will shoot my battle drama for everyone to see. "Beautiful Battlefield" is a little similar to many TVB classic dramas, and there are also some new styles and orientations. For example, the relationship between characters, Zhong Jiabao and Zhong Jiaqi sisters, someone asked: Why does Zhong Jiaqi always do all the bad things, but Zhong Jiabao will always forgive her? In fact, it is like the relationship between Wen Zhaolun (played as the unscrupulous brother Ding Youkang) and Huang Rihua (played by Geng Zhi's brother Ding Youjian) in "Inexorable". "Beautiful Legend" is a drama supervised by Wang Jing 20 years ago, which has a beauty pageant, and "Beautiful Battlefield" also has a beauty pageant. I had tea with director Wang Jing earlier, and he was also watching "Beautiful Battlefield". I said: I have a tribute to your Beautiful Legend, but it will not be exactly the same, I have some modern elements.
Nandu Entertainment: Why did you love watching Hong Kong dramas so much back then?
Ye Nianchen: Because when I was a child, my parents had to go out to work, they sent me to my grandparents' house, where the TV was on from morning to night, and the TV would not be turned off until the end of "Happy Tonight" at 8 a.m. I spent my childhood watching TV for more than a dozen hours a day. I am very familiar with TVB dramas, such as "Senior Brother Xinzha", "Rogue Tycoon" and "Five Tiger Generals" in the 80s of the 20th century. I'm a longtime TV fan, and although I've been making movies ever since, I'm a "TV savvy". Mr. Zeng Zhiwei asked me to make a TV series, which fulfilled one of my wishes. I hope that one part of my career journey is to make a 20-episode TV series, and I strive to write and shoot myself, insist on doing the whole thing, which is a dream I want to achieve.
controversy
I wanted to make a sharp scene
Nandu Entertainment: The online controversy over "Beautiful Battlefield" focuses on the sisters Chen Ying and Jiang Jiamin, how do you evaluate their performances?
Ye Nianchen: This time all the characters were chosen by myself. In Hong Kong, the more controversial is Chan Ying. Her role is difficult, the role itself is passive and slow, I often say that I will watch 20 episodes before commenting on Chen Ying's performance, and she will have a relatively big breakthrough in the finale week. I want my heroines to impress the audience. Their roles are all untried in TVB before. I asked the "good girl" Jiang Jiamin to play a big villain, and her acting skills can impress everyone. Jiang Jiamin acted in one of my movies "The First Time Is Not You" in 2013. She was 21 years old at the time, playing a bolder role, selling herself to support her family. I found that although Jiang Jiamin looks very well-behaved, but her heart is very strong, that play has a lot of emotional drama and very bold performance, she is a good actress, that play made her nominated for the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best New Actor. I didn't work with Jiang Jiamin again over the years until I started filming "Beautiful Battlefield". I immediately asked Jiang Jiamin if she had the guts to try this villain, she was happy and relieved to hand herself over to me, and I asked her to do whatever she wanted. Nine years apart, the last time she co-made a movie, she was nominated for an Academy Award, this time she co-produced a drama where she was the villain, and she also received the most applause, I hope she can win the award at the TVB awards ceremony.
Nandu Entertainment: The big traitor is very popular in Hong Kong, but many viewers think that the performances of these heroines are "too forceful", do you intentionally let them perform like this?
Ye Nianchen: Everything was consciously arranged and designed by me, and the actors followed my opinions. I think "Beautiful Battlefield" should be such a drama. TVB has not had more dramatic and sharp dramas in the past ten years, more of a gentle and skillful romance and love, and everyone is accustomed to indifferent stories. I'm going to make some breakthroughs, success or failure is not clear, at least do something different from them. It's just my choice, I decided to make a more intense and exciting scene.
Nandu Entertainment: Young audiences feel that modern dramas will not have such extreme treachery, this technique is a bit of an ancient Hong Kong drama, you and the audience have different ideas colliding?
Ye Nianchen: "Beautiful Battlefield" is not a professional drama, especially in the first five episodes, the characters are relatively low-level people. Their world will not be so convergent, and "Anti Bone Qi" makes people feel dazzling when they appear, because her upbringing background allows her to do so. When it came to the second "beauty pageant" battlefield, I put some "golden branch" female struggles on the beauty pageant stage. By the last battlefield "high society", I deliberately pressed down the sharp things. For example, Zhu Chenli, her fight with others is not saber rattling and noisy, I have a design. One of the functions of TV series is to allow the audience to project. You don't like "Anti-Bone Qi" very much, you really want to see her end, will it be very pleasant. When the audience substitutes themselves into that role, they will have the feeling of wanting to scold. I saw the online reaction, and I am very happy as a creator.
Nandu Entertainment: As a person who has watched Hong Kong dramas for decades, what do you think of the statement that "Hong Kong dramas are in decline"? Do you think there are some traditional advantages of Hong Kong dramas worth preserving?
Ye Nianchen: I don't think the question of whether there is a decline or not is just from the perspective of how you see it. The taste of TV series is always going to a diversion, you like to watch this kind of drama you will like to watch, you don't like to watch the drama you will never watch. We make TV dramas first and foremost to satisfy audiences who like this type of drama. The style of Beautiful Battlefield is very uniform. If I hesitate, sometimes the style is very revealing, sometimes very restrained, I will lose the audience who like to watch this kind of drama. I set a goal and style because I knew there was a group of people waiting for a show like this. I'm a critic, and there's not going to be a perfect piece that everyone likes, and everyone's tastes are different.
Newport drama
Creating well is the first priority
Nandu Entertainment: Will a film director make a cross-border TV series bring some new changes to TVB?
Ye Nianchen: I made some changes, I hope the audience can see it. Many people ask why "Beautiful Battlefield" was filmed for 20 episodes instead of 30? I think 20 episodes is just right, I don't want the plot to drag on too much, so it's so fast-paced, especially in the last 5 episodes, I use the rhythm of the movie. In the eighties and nineties of the 20th century, I could only watch one TV episode a day. In the new era, many platforms can watch dramas, and it is very exciting to chase dramas at one time. I think "Beautiful Battlefield" can be the same, the ending rhythm is deliberately accelerated, allowing the audience to chase 5 episodes at once, and now this rhythm is very good.
Nandu Entertainment: Will you add some film shooting techniques? How is your tuning of actors different from TVB?
Ye Nianchen: My first time making a TV series, I may only shoot this once. I dare not say that I can influence or change some atmosphere or system, it is not my task to make this show. This time, everyone feels that this drama will be filmed soon and broadcast soon, which will make the actors' satisfaction and morale higher. Working with TVB actors, I have a little feeling to share. For example, in some scenes I used a long lens, a quarrel scene between Chen Shancong and Chen Ying in the office, I used a long lens to shoot the whole time, one shot to the end, no shearing. In my experience of filmmaking, the more a scene that requires the energy and emotions of the actors, the more it needs to be rehearsed beforehand. I rehearse first every time, and when I rehearse well, I start shooting. The best state is definitely the first few times, and the energy of the actor will disappear if you continue to shoot. After this long-shot scene, both actors were very happy, they felt that they had done what they wanted to do in one go. After filming in a short time, I also captured the best of the two actors. Because I'm used to making movies, I know how to train the actors and improve the efficiency of shooting.
Nandu Entertainment: In recent years, the "resurgence of Hong Kong wind" has attracted a lot of attention, what do you think of this boom and what changes have it brought to your creative mood?
Ye Nianchen: This craze has definitely made us think a lot more and brought a lot of new impacts. But we always have to do our own creation, as long as your creation is done well, you don't have to worry, if your creation is not done well, even if the market is large, it may have nothing to do with you.
Written by: Nandu reporter Cai Liyi, Liu Yifan, intern Luo Yunqing, Zhang Mingjia