January 29, 2023 issue | Total Issue 3131
Written by Zhang Wei and Teng Yang, directed by Yi Jun, starring Wang Ziwen, Tang Yixin and Myolie Wu, "This Life is also the First Time" is on the air. In the Spring Festival file surrounded by big dramas, this 14-episode short drama broadcast on Hunan Satellite TV's Monsoon Theater broke into the audience's field of vision with its interesting painting style.
At the beginning of the story, the female producer Lu Yuanfang (played by Wang Ziwen) stepped on high heels and spoke domineeringly: "The project is the eldest of our family, the second in the belly, both of them are my children, I want them." On the other side, Chen Lanqing (played by Tang Yixin), who wrote online articles, opened his mind and imagined a Mary Sue about giving birth to a baby confinement. Time and space switched back to the 90s, and the details control Dai Sijin (Myolie Wu) fell into the suspicion of her husband's "cheating" and became Sherlock Holmes on the eve of childbirth. And these three new mothers with zero experience points immediately ushered in the production scene comparable to disaster comedies.
The audience has watched a lot of female group portrait stories set by the "three heroines", but "This Life is also the First Time" highlights the characteristics of "anti-routine" in terms of theme and narrative, injecting a touch of fresh vitality into women's dramas.
It is different from the girlfriend setting of general group dramas, and does not focus on the discussion of women's age and love views, but presents the B-side life process of women's pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum parenting to the audience in a cross-time and spatial comparison.
At the same time, it did not shoot it bitterly, but ran through the whole film in a comedy style, showing women's pain and troubles in life trivial matters in humor, completing the interesting cognition of childbirth, and also bringing a rich viewing experience to the audience.
Starting from fertility, three women represent three groups
"This Life is also the First Time" has created the image of three generations of mothers Dai Sijin, Chen Lanqing and Lu Yuanfang, who reflect the fertility attitudes and parenting concepts of post-60s, post-80s and post-90s women respectively.
Dai Sijin, played by Myolie Wu, is a representative of "traditional mother", regards a good wife and a good mother as her life script, and always gives face in the face of her macho husband Lu Minglei (played by Liu Kai).
When she was due to give birth, she went to the hospital alone for examination, and did not forget to excuse her husband. Because the doctor told her to walk more to help give birth, she refused to be picked up by car, and before returning home, she still carried large bags and small bags to the vegetable market with difficulty, just to pack dumplings for her husband to eat; After making the meal, I matched my husband's clothes and did not forget to take care of my husband's food and clothing with a big belly.
This scene was filmed with fireworks and full of details, so considerate and meticulous, but what she greeted was her husband Lu Minglei's hand-off and debt runaway. Childbirth allowed Dai Sijin to see her husband clearly, and also brewed a change in characters.
Chen Lanqing, played by Tang Yixin, represents the awakening post-80s mother. She is an only child, she is still a small child, she has her own online literary career, she has her own BGM and a funny girl in the small theater, thinking that she "just cares about giving birth", but she has encountered the most tortuous birth process.
Following her perspective, we see the different stages of childbirth. First prepare for the birth of the child, then experience waves of pain, crying and begging; After the painless injection under the doctor's advice, Chen Lanqing had a short period of calm, followed by the moment of childbirth, which required excessive force and wrestled with death.
After giving birth, a new condition was discovered - the uterus needed immediate surgery. Chen Lanqing, who saved her little life, wanted to see the baby, but was so ugly by the newborn child that she doubted life... In Chen Lanqing, the whole process of childbirth of a new mother is completely reproduced.
Lu Yuanfang, played by Wang Ziwen, is a single mother who is engaged in a career and a "strong woman" who walks with the wind.
After divorcing her ex-husband, she found out that she was pregnant, she was rich and good at time management, she did not panic at all, made a plan for both career and baby, and the child could also take her surname. However, Rao is such a fierce heroine, and it is difficult to escape abuse.
One second before production, she was still grasping the project, and the next second, her car was rear-ended; The amniotic water ruptured, and she calmly "arranged" the driver's brother to pretend to be her own family member and accompany her to the hospital to give birth. It's just a gap to give birth, and her projects are at risk of being robbed. During the postpartum recovery period, she had to endure severe pain to hold a video conference, and the daily chaos of the army began.
Caring for women × comedy strokes
Childbirth is the sum of a series of trivial matters in life, and after experiencing 9981 difficult births, the two major problems of female confinement and childcare officially begin.
At the moment of the birth of the child, under the traditional social inertia, the identity of "Lu Yuanfang, Chen Lanqing and Dai Sijin" will also be replaced by the title of so-and-so's mother. "This Life is also the First Time" in the first few episodes showed a number of fertility subdivision topics such as cesarean section, painless delivery, breastfeeding, etc., improving the sense of substitution, but also popularizing an important common sense: that is, a woman can have multiple identities, she is first of all herself, is the wife, mother, motherhood is far from the only measure.
Different from the bitterness of showing the role of a mother in the past, this drama aims to explore how women should love themselves after becoming a mother and show female power. For example, Lu Yuanfang is still concerned about the script in his hospital bed; Chen Lanqing fought wits with her mother-in-law and mother, and worked hard to win the "freedom" during confinement; Dai Sijin, on the other hand, keenly grasped the business opportunity and went to the sea to do business.
Lu Minglei, Cheng Cheng (played by Allen) and Xia Zhixiong (played by Ma Zhiwei) represent the group portraits of multiple fathers growing up in the historical context, Lu Minglei and Xia Zhixiong are absent when women give birth, one represents unreliable machismo, and the other represents the "ex-husband" who is trying to save the family.
Allen's Cheng Cheng has a unique sense of existence. On the day of his wife's delivery, he stayed outside the delivery room, specially changed his suit, bought flowers, full of ceremony, and sent his wife cheering photos, and also showed his warm male nature during his wife's confinement.
It can be said that Cheng Lingling is a typical post-80s "little husband", with cunning life wisdom, and shows a lot of his husband's traditional art - double-sided tape, responsible for maneuvering between his wife, mother-in-law and mother-in-law, mediating the contradictions of several women. Such Cheng Ling and Chen Lanqing, who loves to open his brain, are full of feelings, and the brain holes of the two are shuttling between ancient and modern, and they are the funny assassins of this drama.
This kind of TV series with women's issues is easy to shoot angrily and heavily, but "This is also the First Time" is carried out in a relaxed comedy atmosphere throughout. The warm reality superimposed on the comedy brushwork aims to reconcile and heal, dilute the gender opposition, and convey fertility common sense in the laughter and banter, so that the audience can let down their guard, and decompress and have practical significance.
Across generations, every "first" is worth recording
"This Life is also the First Time" is unique in conception and novel in perspective, and adopts the structure of time and space in a different way, putting women's fertility in the intergenerational dimension. From the post-60s to post-80s to post-90s, the degree of "women's liberation" of the three women living in different eras has increased, which shows the changes in social concepts, customs and people's hearts.
This setting is different from the conventional three-female protagonist drama, realizing the simultaneous companionship of career and love. Women tend to feel loneliness at the highest level when it comes to childbearing. Everyone who comes over will downplay the painful memory of childbirth, using the phrase "whoever has a child is like this". The word "also" in "This Life is also the First Time" shows the same fate of Lu Yuanfang, Chen Lanqing and Dai Sijin in different time and space.
Fertility profile of three generations of women in the same maternity hospital. If you link their fertility process with the turning point of life, you will find the deep meaning of this drama in shaping characters and expression. Three generations of women have each groped forward in their destiny, using wisdom and strength to clear the level layer by layer, echoing in the air, and gathering warmth.
The setting of "This Life is also the First Time" has another advantage: the protagonists of the three generations will form a coverage of female viewers of all ages, and the audience of each generation can immerse themselves in the situation of the characters for self-projection.
The main creator of "This Life is the First Time" builds a drama structure based on the changes of the times and women's sense of destiny, so that three generations of women have distinct characteristics of the times. Although social concepts and technology are advancing, the loneliness and troubles of childbearing have not decreased.
Director Yi Jun has filmed many dark horse dramas with distinctive styles such as "Borderless" and "The Year of Overflow". Screenwriter Zhang Wei has always been good at understanding the fate of women and dyeing the brilliance of women's growth with vivid brushwork, whether it is the costume drama "The Legend of the Female Doctor Mingfei" and "Menghualu" or the modern urban drama "Dulara Promotion", or the now popular "This Life is the First Time", the women she writes have never given up their pursuit of themselves.
Zhang Wei is also the chief producer, screenwriter Teng Yang and producer Jiang Yao are graduates of Nortel's literature department. Teng Yang's previous works include "Dear Translator" and "Life Home", Jiang Yao participated in the production of "Menghualu" and "The Gate of Rebirth", and producer Que Zhisheng has also accumulated rich creative experience in dramas such as "Buy and Leave I Love You" and "Life Home", it can be said that "This Life is also the First Time" is the product of the main creative team's proper balance between creation and production
Small incision narrative, chic structure, brushwork intertwined with reality and comedy. If the female characters in the play are crossing the river by feeling the stones, for the creators behind the scenes, "This Life is also the First Time" is not a groping for the expression range. It is precisely with such creative breakthroughs that the audience of Chinese opera has more choices.
【Text/Flying Fish】