Soon after the beginning of 2023, the field of national dramas has thrown out bombshells one after another.
First of all, the anti-black drama "Crazy" set 8 sets of CCTV's best ratings in recent years, and the actors came out of the circle one after another, becoming a well-deserved king of the opening year.
Followed by the sci-fi drama "The Three-Body Problem" also gained a good reputation, Yu Hewei's version of Dashi and Chen Jin's version of Ye Wenjie both became gods with their acting skills with the broadcast of the series, and domestic science fiction took a precious step.
With the launch of CCTV's 1 set of "Our Day", period dramas have also made a comeback.
Under the appearance of various types of you singing and I appear, there is a kind of former national drama king fried, but it seems a little lonely - historical drama.
Fortunately, tonight, this highly anticipated drama will be released by iQiyi - "Daming under the Microscope".
Not only will it start broadcasting tonight, but it may also break the loneliness of historical dramas in recent years.
In the history of national dramas, there are too many famous historical dramas.
But to subdivide these dramas, there are nothing more than two different types.
One is imperial dramas, such as "Yongzheng Dynasty", "Kangxi Dynasty", "Hanwu Emperor" and "Great Qin Empire".
It can be said that the beginning is the peak, 1999's "Yongzheng Dynasty" has reached multiple peaks in the script, production, acting skills, and theme depth of domestic historical dramas, and the subsequent major dramas have continued the creative height of historical dramas, but in recent years they have been weak, and a "Mountains, Rivers and Moonlight" has disappointed many fans.
The second is people's livelihood drama.
This kind of drama is outside the imperial power, and the story is aimed at the people's livelihood and suffering.
For example, "Daming Dynasty 1566" focuses on silk, "Daqing Salt Merchant" focuses on salt, "Granary of the World" focuses on grain, and "The Long River of the World" focuses on the river.
These dramas are often of excellent quality and thought-provoking, and "Daming Dynasty 1566" has reached the peak of historical drama creation, but it has also hit an unprecedented viewing trough, and historical dramas have been in a slump ever since.
It was not until last year's "The World Has a Long River" won good ratings that it returned blood for historical dramas.
But overall, historical dramas are still at an unprecedented trough, and it is urgent to complete the revitalization of the drama.
The reason is that it is difficult to create, whether it is an imperial drama or a people's livelihood drama, not only the script is difficult to write, but also difficult to shoot, and it will cause controversy if you are not careful, which is far less light than the costume sweet pet drama.
But tonight's drama not only gnaws the hard bone of historical drama, but also creates a new path from the past two genres.
The historical anti-corruption drama of mathematical genius, can be seen?
Who is so artistic? Original book and screenwriter, Ma Boyong.
Starring Zhang Ruoyun, plus Wu Gang, Gao Yalin, Wang Yang and other powerful stars Gongyue.
And the number of episodes, a total of 12 episodes.
So, is it possible for this drama to shake the status of "Daming Dynasty 1566", and will it help historical dramas surpass the momentum of anti-black dramas and science fiction dramas, and let historical dramas revive their prestige?
No need for a microscope, this takes everyone to find out.
01, the difficulty of remaking is high, which is destined to be the most difficult Ma Boyong IP
Speaking of the hottest historical fiction writers in recent years, Ma Boyong must have a place.
With the rapid development of the mainland film and television drama market, the demand for good stories is increasing, so Ma Boyong, who is unique in the field of commercial novels, has become a "fragrant food" in the eyes of major film and television drama companies.
After "Chang'an Twelve Hours" came out of the circle with a very high level of costume drama production standards, the hits of "Three Kingdoms Secret" and "Fengqi Luoyang" made Ma Boyong's three words become a golden signboard.
Even if "Fengqi Longxi" has poor ratings, it will not damage Prince Ma's prestige.
And "Daming under the Microscope" should be the most difficult film and television work written by Ma Boyong.
This play is adapted from the "Silk Case", one of the six cases of "Daming under the Microscope".
It is about how a little-known person, with his extraordinary mathematical talent, shook the tree and let the truth of the "silk case" be revealed to the world.
The reason why it is special is because this book collects many true stories from the grassroots and even the people of the Ming Dynasty, taking us to understand the political life of ordinary people in ancient China from the microscopic perspective of a state and county or even an ordinary person.
Looking directly at the past ideas and stories are very exciting, but objectively speaking, the difficulty of film and television adaptation is also very large.
First of all, it is difficult to present the brain hole in the book.
Ma Boyong is good at combining the real historical background and events, and reasoning suspense, but this time he wrote not a long story, but a short collection, and the series presents only one of the chapters.
The story begins with a chat between Prince Ma and a friend who is a fan of Ming history, and talks about a civil tax riot in Huizhou during the Wanli Ming Dynasty.
A small citizen in Huizhou Xiao County, Shuai Jiamu is a mathematical genius and is very obsessed with arithmetic, he accidentally found a subject called "human silk" from the county tax book, found the doubts of taxation, but accidentally led to the competition of various forces.
What this drama wants to do is to strip away a historical public case that spans ten years before and after and turn it into a gripping story.
At the same time, it is necessary to use a very small incision to complete the insight into the deep historical contradictions of the entire Ming Dynasty, so it is called the Daming under the microscope, which is undoubtedly much more difficult to shoot than ordinary historical dramas.
Secondly, there is the contradiction between real history and historical drama genres.
In the past, Prince Ma's works often used history to play his own super brain hole and fictionalize a story based on the vague details that existed in history.
The familiar "Chang'an Twelve Hours" and "Fengqi Longxi" are the best examples.
So even if the plot is not completely in line with historical facts, the audience does not care.
This time, it is a real "adaptation based on real history", with reality as the main and fiction as the supplement.
Even behind this historical public case, there are very rich and complete historical facts, including the official documents, notices, recitals, notes, and some comments at that time, etc., which are very detailed.
Therefore, the main creator must not only strictly follow history, but also shoot an unknown mathematical genius, mixed with the suspense, thrill, and blood of a huge game game.
This is an impossible task.
So this show lost without watching?
Don't worry, and Prince Ma.
02, Ma Boyong personally wrote the screenplay + "Qing Yu Nian" combination, there is a smell of explosiveness
Although the shooting of the series is very difficult, after the release of multiple versions of the trailer, many netizens have a sense of surprise.
First of all, Prince Ma personally wrote the screenplay.
In the past, Ma Boyong's novels were all screenwriters adapting the original work, some of which were wonderful and a little bit interesting, and this one, ordinary screenwriters are simply difficult to write.
Maybe the drama party also feels that it is impossible to find a new screenwriter to adapt and not overturn. So the only way is --
Adapted by Ma Boyong himself.
Judging from the trailer, the original work, which seems to have a very limited story, can be described as full of drama after being changed into a script.
Starting with the discovery of a huge mistake from the "nerd", it led to the 3,530-two people of the silk tax. The raising of a tax issue has attracted a group of people to fight, some seeking the truth, others making intrigues.
The next is to write a letter to sue and be beaten, and then lead to the truth of the fire when he was a child, and finally the life of the execution site hangs in the balance... Crises have followed, what is the trick of the silk tax? How can Shuai Jiamo successfully break the game and restore the truth of Ding Si silk?
It can be said that the suspense is stacked, the process is ups and downs, the details are interesting, and the ending is thought-provoking, Prince Ma's adaptation this time is quite hard.
Secondly, the director shot the texture of a historical drama.
The director of this play is Pan Anzi, and his masterpiece is "Reboot of the Extreme Sea Listening to Thunder", and the image and strong rhythm are his strengths.
Although this is a historical short drama with only 12 episodes, it is not made into a sketch because it is short, on the contrary, judging from the trailer, it can be said that the production in all aspects is of a high standard.
For example, serve the Tao.
So many Ming Dynasty history fans have not picked out the fault of serving the Dao by half a point, which is trustworthy.
Another example is picture composition.
It can be seen that the director shot the taste of Mango TV's high-scoring historical documentary "China" in the lens language, a historical texture that is not pompous.
Third, what makes fans more reassuring is the reappearance of the combination of "Qing Yu Nian".
Zhang Ruoyun + Wu Gang + Wang Yang.
Especially the combination of Zhang Ruoyun and Wang Yang is the biggest difficulty for fans in "Qing Yu Nian", and this time the two male protagonists are nerds, and the other party invited a big situation, at the beginning they really fought with each other and argued endlessly in the public court.
But Cheng Renqing, played by Wang Yang, was eventually moved by the idealism and perseverance of Zhang Ruoyun, a mathematical genius.
In the end, the two masters worked together to try to break the fog of history before unlocking the truth of the matter.
In the play, Zhang Ruoyun had a execution scene and said to his friends who were beheaded together: There should be no change this time.
Of course, there are variables, and this huge variable is Cheng Renqing played by Wang Yang.
That is, Teng Zijing, played by Wang Yang in "Qing Yu Nian", saved Fan Xian played by Zhang Ruoyun once, and then saved Zhang Ruoyun's "nerd" once in this play.
And guess who is it who sorted out these historical materials in history, edited them into the "Complete Book of Silk Silk", and allowed Ma Boyong to write them into novels hundreds of years later? Or Cheng Renqing.
Therefore, compared with the righteous lord and loyal servant last time, the personality contrast of the two protagonists this time is greater, the relationship between the characters is more interesting, and it will not BE.
Will those who have seen "Qing Yu Nian" watch it? I don't believe it.
03. The actor matching degree is high, and 9 powerful actors help
Of course, another key to the success of historical dramas is actors.
The main actors of "Daming under the Microscope" are Zhang Ruoyun, Wang Yang, Wu Gang, Qi Wei, Gao Yalin, Hou Yansong, Fang Bin, Zhai Xiaoxing, Qian Yi and other 9 powerful people.
What I'm most looking forward to is that there are 6 actors.
The first one, Zhang Ruoyun.
To say who is the first person to choose a script among the popular students of the current national drama, I think Zhang Ruoyun is definitely qualified to reach the top.
A "Qing Yu Nian", a "Defending the Sword in the Snow", are the first male protagonists, costume fantasy dramas are not counted, last year's modern drama "Police Honor" has become a word-of-mouth king bomb.
Although he is called "Zhang Wuji", Zhang Ruoyun is indeed good at choosing scripts and roles that suit him.
This time, he played the handsome Jiamo from a military family, extremely smart since childhood, and extremely talented in mathematics. At first, the talent was not used in the right way, but often partnered with friends to make money by "counting cards", until he fell into this turmoil.
Looking at the trailer Zhang Ruoyun completely performed the feeling of handsome family Mo naïve and stubborn and cute, compared to Fan Xian's cleverness and cunning, Xu Fengnian's stoicism and nobility, the biggest feature of this role is a "stupid" word.
He seems to be very stupid, but he is true and pure, and he is always immersed in his own world, which corresponds to the sentence in Qi Wei's trailer: "Nerds don't stay, he has the purpose he wants to achieve." ”
The tune is right, next, let's see how Zhang Ruoyun performs the absurdity of the character's fate.
The second place, Wang Yang.
For actors like Wang Yang, I always want to say that they should have been popular a long time ago.
Recently, there are two supporting actors of the middle generation in Chinese dramas, and their popularity is very high.
One is the "second generation of stars" Wang Xiao, but unfortunately his acting skills in "Crazy" have caused certain doubts.
The other is Wang Yang, who has never been defeated, and he is comfortable with all kinds of roles, and a supporting role in "Qing Yu Nian" that went offline shortly after the opening was played by him as the white moonlight in the audience's heart.
"Rebel" A villain was played by him into a popular drag king.
"The World" has a very aggrieved role, which makes the audience worry.
The second elder of the Zhao family in "Punishment" simply received a box lunch in episode 2, but the audience still nagged him until the finale.
This time, his character Cheng Renqing seems to be a villain at the beginning, proficient in the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and the city is very deep and difficult to deal with.
But this role is also the biggest reversal of the whole drama, and if he didn't rely on only one nerd, it would definitely not be able to turn over the case.
Wang Yang is a very wonderful actor, he doesn't think he is handsome on the outside, but once he enters the play, he is handsome to the point of scum.
In the play, he shook his fan, full of confidence, and knew everything well, and finally he abandoned the dark and turned to the light, and was able to retreat with his whole body, and the character itself was already full of charm.
Plus Wang Yang's performance, a perfect match.
The third place, Wu Gang.
From the high-scoring spy war drama "Lurking", the recognized old drama bone in "In the Name of the People" that made him completely popular in the circle, to the questionable acting skills, Wu Gang only used one drama, that is, the hit "Crazy".
Therefore, this drama is also very important for Wu Gang, in the case of his wife and children not participating in the performance, if Wu Gang returns to the performance state, he can fight a beautiful turnover.
Wu Gang plays the wealthy nobleman Fan Yuan, who should also be the biggest villain in the whole drama.
Wu Gang's performance in the play is calm on the surface, but every look is a play, conveying a strong sense of oppression, and the performance state in "Crazy" is the same as the two, judging from the trailer, the possibility of the acting turning over is very high.
The fourth place, Gao Yalin.
The last time many viewers watched his play was in "In the Name of the People" in which he participated.
In the past, Gao Yalin gave the audience the feeling of a fat comedian, but from "In the Name of the People" to "Send You a Little Red Flower", Gao Yalin proved that his acting skills are multi-faceted.
This time he played a local official of the Ming Dynasty caught in the middle.
Although he is a county master, being an official in the Ming Dynasty is not as dignified as we think.
Even if you have the intention to find the truth, you need to be careful and balance the interests of all parties, and many times you can't help yourself.
Gao Yalin in the trailer has already acted out this feeling, which may be another brilliant character.
The fifth place, House Bin.
Speaking of Fang Bin, it is estimated that many viewers will be confused, who is this actor? But as soon as the roles he has played are mentioned, everyone suddenly has a picture in their minds.
He is the actor of Gong Weize in "The World", and also participated in "Circuit Inspection Group" and last year's period drama "Hutong".
It can be said that this is a golden supporting role that plays what is what.
In this play, he plays the only local official who justifies the nerd, but the real loyalty is still difficult to determine, and the audience can just look at it.
The sixth place, Qi Wei.
Qi Wei has been active in domestic urban dramas such as "Beauty Heart Scheme" and "Xia Family Three Thousand Gold", but in recent years, her works have only been "Beijing Women's Guide" and the sci-fi drama "Hello, Anyi".
She is actually a sexy actress who is in short supply in Chinese dramas, although her role in this drama is limited, her atmospheric and righteous character is very right with Qi Wei herself, and I hope she can be active again with this play.
04. Can historical skits break the game? Look at it
No matter how you look at it, "Daming under the Microscope" is a dangerous move.
First of all, in the audience's impression, historical dramas can only be big, not small.
Traditional audiences of historical dramas are accustomed to watching dozens of long episodes, and it is still unknown whether they can adapt to the short and concise nature of this drama.
Second, the historical defeats of the Ming Dynasty were many victories and few.
Although there have been many costume dramas with the historical background of the Ming Dynasty over the years, "Daming Dynasty 1566" has an excellent reputation but dismal ratings, "Mountains, Rivers and Moonlight" is disappointing, "Daming Fenghua" is only decent, compared with the Qing Dynasty and Tang Dynasty historical dramas with frequent excellent works, Ming Dynasty dramas can really be called masterpieces.
The third is "Fengqi Longxi" adapted from Ma Boyong's novel, high reputation and low ratings are still in the ears, and whether the more sword-going "Daming under the Microscope" can succeed is really sweaty.
So the show lost?
Quite the opposite.
Because what is most lacking in the current domestic dramas is not to follow the old ways, but to break the game and rebirth.
Historical dramas cannot only rely on old audiences, only by winning a new generation of audiences can there be a future.
The use of more compact skits is the best choice to win over a new generation of audiences.
What about the older generation of viewers?
Back to that question. Old audiences watch historical dramas, what are they watching?
Is it really just to watch the grandeur of historical dramas and the depth of power calculations?
On the contrary, I think that what the audience really loves the most is the deep historical reflection and the Chinese behind history in excellent domestic historical dramas.
The three words "historical drama" should mean truth rather than kerking, hardcore rather than magic reform, and rapids rather than standing still.
"Daming under the Microscope" is the best opportunity to rewrite the situation of historical dramas, can historical dramas seize the opportunity to use such a drama to play a king bomb, stir up the wave of the historical drama market, lead a new generation of audiences into the game, and rise again from then on?
Just look at tonight.