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In just three months this year, three overseas dramas have gained quite good attention and reputation in China, they are HBO's doomsday survival theme "The Last of the Survivors", the time-traveling life comedy "Restart Life" created by Japanese TV, and Netflix's revenge Korean drama "Dark Glory".
They are either faithful to the original, good at acting, or smiling, or thought-provoking. In any case, among the many works at home and abroad, these three stand out with their own characteristics and have been appreciated and recognized. In the face of objective cultural differences and regional characteristics, what makes them turn their shortcomings into filters? What myths do we have? Please follow me to comment one by one.
The Last of Us (The Last of Us): A new template for the game
In the data that can be counted by the platform, the finale of "The Last of Survival" (episode 9) has reached 8.2 million viewers. Looking at this data alone may not be real, but we can deepen our understanding through a few comparisons:
First of all, the first episode of "The Last of the Survivors" attracted 4.7 million viewers, ranking among the top three in the premiere results since HBO's inception, and as soon as the second episode started, HBO confidently released the news of the renewal of the original cast of the second season, and at the end of the first season, the broadcast data almost doubled. Secondly, it is worth mentioning that the night of the finale is the annual Oscars, and although Asian actress Michelle Yeoh seized the global vision with her strength, "The Last of Us" still achieved a perfect end in high ratings; Not only that, but the first six episodes of the show averaged 30.4 million viewers, surpassing last year's rookie "Dragon Family" and second only to the eighth season of HBO's classic ace "Game of Thrones".
In China, "The Last of Us" has also gained a lot of audiences. The play tells the story of twenty years after the destruction of modern civilization, the male protagonist Joel, as a survivor and smuggler, and Ellie, a 14-year-old girl carrying "hope", escaped the depressive and suffocating quarantine area, and crossed the metropolis like a ruined jungle while dealing with the threat of infected mutant humans and other survivor groups.
Among them, whether it is the bloody and violent aesthetics brought by "apocalyptic context + modern infectious disease + extinction crisis", or the strange father-daughter combination of "Uncle + Lori", it has brought a lot of highlights to this drama. At present, Douban alone has nearly 80,000 people giving a rating of 9.1, which is even more than a considerable number of domestic dramas.
However, the main reason why "The Last of Us" received such a high level of attention as soon as it was released was the game "The Last of Us", which provided it with a blueprint for it. As a masterpiece that has been well received by players around the world and has won numerous awards, the game has had many fans since its birth. It can be said that film and television adaptations, whether for HBO or "The Last of Us", are a risky move with high risk and high reward. For now, The Last of Us has become the best game adaptation of all time.
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In fact, when the casting was first announced, Bella Ramsay, the actor of the little girl Ellie, was boycotted by many game fans, and voices such as "not close to the face" and "unmatched" rose and fell one after another, but as the plot progressed, the chemistry between her and Pedro Pascal (Joel's actor) comparable to a father and daughter, as well as the control of Ellie's character "natural leader" and "quick and courageous" characteristics completely conquered the audience.
The Last of Us is a game known for its complete apocalyptic worldview structure, rich inner growth of different characters in life and death, and a high level of immersion experience. Obviously, the series "The Last of the Survivors" has cut some of the gore on the basis of the original story, focusing on strengthening the delicate emotional rendering, and the cost investment of more than 10 million per episode has also made the show score in terms of picture texture.
It can be said that in the process of live-action, the show, with its effective trade-offs and targeted strengthening, sits on the top spot of the current game adaptation film and television drama with the gaze of judgment, pointing the way for subsequent game adaptations, and also makes the leading creators behind it and even HBO and the game itself get more recognition.
"Restart Life": When the ordinary people's daily life begins to sparkle
The setting of rebirth has always been the standard for many cool texts, such as the once popular "Little Son of the Chaebol" last year effectively uses this setting, allowing Song Joong-ki to open his golden finger and write a picture of a poor boy reborn and returning to hang old money to achieve a class leap of counterattack, this kind of "cool" against the sky and change life is indeed a big reason why the rebirth terrier is sought after.
But in the Japanese drama "Restart Life", the rebirth context that has always brought its own sense of coolness and dramatic tension gives a new interpretation. The heroine Asami Kondo (played by Sakura Ando) originally worked as a civil servant in the municipal government of her hometown, complaining to her colleagues about work, enjoying life with friends after work, and being stable and dull can almost string her life for the first 33 years. But after an unexpected death, she carries her memories to a pure white space similar to a life's transit station, meets a receptionist who works similarly to her before her death, and between being arranged to be reborn as a large Guatemalan anteater and choosing to be reborn in order to become a human, Asami Kondo begins her rebooted life.
In this way, Asami Kondo experienced 5 reincarnations before and after, and also experienced the different lives of civil servants, pharmacists, TV producers, medical researchers, and pilots. However, in this drama, what we see is not the story of the heroine holding an experience card and maximizing the perspective of overdraft rebirth to reach one peak of life after another. On the contrary, "Restart Life" renders loss and fills regret with delicate and trivial daily life in the process of repeating it over and over again. Wrapped in a unique Japanese drama atmosphere, "Restart Life" seems to tell the audience, "The reason why you want to live again can not be to become stronger."
The reason why this drama can become the opening year healing drama in the hearts of many people (Douban score 9.4, 70,000 ratings), in addition to the superb acting skills of many famous casts such as Sakura Ando, and the unconventional rebirth story from the hands of Japanese funny artist Stupid Rhythm (Hidechi Shono), is also related to its inner reality observation.
In such a female rebirth drama that does not need the assistance of male power, almost using brushstrokes full of modern spirit to depict a restart life that is not for worldly success, not involuted and not lying down, amplifying the trivial and specific daily life of ordinary people, and facing up to the solid friendship that may also have a mid-life crisis...
"Restart Life", which is out of the context of cool text, is no longer limited to distant and grand narratives such as class, struggle, and human nature, but also has become a shining point that moves the audience with daily conversations after school, gasps and breaths between words, and the subconscious of singing while stuffing snacks into the mouth before the KTV leaves. Here, the interesting rebirth setting combines the sensitivity to the subtle and the bland, creating a peach blossom source for the audience, especially the 30+ audience.
Dark Glory: A perfect commercialization tutorial
Compared with the previous two, the Korean drama "Dark Glory" may be the overseas drama that has aroused the most repercussions and discussions in China recently. On Douban, more than 310,000 people rated the first season with an 8.9, and the second season, which was just launched last Friday, has accumulated 210,000 people and 9.2 points. It can be said that "Dark Glory", which baptizes the world with dark revenge and makes the sequel reputation even higher, is actually explaining to the world that film and television commercialization can be "clever".
Needless to say, the starring and the team needless to say, Song Huiqiao went to that station, the two Song split the gimmick of revenge, and immediately the topic was there, plus South Korea's "national treasure" screenwriter Kim Eun-sook (masterpiece "Descendants of the Sun", "Ghost" and "Mr. Sunshine"), at least it will make people want to watch. But to be honest, we've seen too many "luxurious messes, but the content is comparable to dog x" things, and the transformation of middle-aged women has always been twists and turns, so before the first season of "Dark Glory" was launched, not many people believed that there would be today.
But I have to say that Song Hye Kyo is indeed explosive, and Kim Eun-sook is also quite discerning. "School bullying" is a social issue that will arouse heated discussion and attention no matter what section it is placed in, and it is undoubtedly a very flattering and can expand the audience from this perspective. And "class contradictions and dark privileges", it can even be said that as long as it is a plot that attacks high society, it will basically get the attention of the Korean people to a certain extent. On the basis of these two basic propositions, supplemented by the "horse grabbing" element that has been quite popular in South Korea in recent years, "Dark Glory" has added an absurdity and refreshment from the level of extreme personality.
"Dark Glory" is a work born between Netflix's industrialization and the local system of Korean dramas. Therefore, it has both business missions such as seasoning, pulling new ones, and earning membership fees, but also conceals some tried-and-true atmosphere and classic push and pull. At the same time, the overwhelming publicity at home and abroad has also turned into a blade in the process of "Dark Glory" stir-frying its own popularity, and the effect is indeed outstanding at present, especially during the launch of the second season, Bao Yuan's hot search can not be beaten.
However, at this time when the whole world is eager to find more middle-aged women, Song Huiqiao appeared as a dark nun and staged a revenge drama of judging demons, refusing family consummation, recovering lost dignity and glory, full of pain and romance, "Dark Glory" can be described as born at the right time.
「Summary」
In this way, Europe and the United States survive the apocalypse, Japan heals and lies flat, and South Korea tears up revenge, it seems that everyone is still engaged in creation in their "comfort zone", and they all seem to have an exciting future. But the reason why this state can still be recycled and recognized by more audiences at home and abroad is actually premised, that is, it is necessary to really engage in industrial "creation", rather than assembly line production.
As a creator, once you start to fool the audience with a lack of reverence, you have been abandoned by the times.