"Although the road of life is long, there are often only a few steps at the critical point, especially when people are young."
Such a widely circulated sentence comes from the classic masterpiece "Life" by writer Lu Yao.
Friends who are familiar with Lu Yao know that Lu Yao's life, there are two most important works, one is "Ordinary World" and the other is "Life".
This novella, which focuses on the history of young people's spiritual growth, describes the twists and turns of the fate of young Gogarin after leaving the land and returning to the homeland, and has inspired generations of readers about the "choice".
Jack Ma said: "When I was 18 years old, I was a odd job on a tricycle, and it was Life that changed my life. ”
Looking at the movie "Life" more than 30 years ago, Gao Jialin played by Zhou Lijing and Liu Qiaozhen played by Wu Yufang also became the first national CP in domestic film and television history in a scolding and praising way.
A generation has a generation of "Life", and now, 39 years after the release of "Movie", CCTV has opened this story in another way.
On March 20, that is, tomorrow night, Chen Xiao and Li Qin will once again play the roles that are extremely familiar to the older generation of audiences.
And this CCTV's latest period drama also has a shocking title:
The Road of Life.
At the beginning of 2023, CCTV threw out bombshells one after another.
First of all, the powerful anti-black drama "Crazy" was broadcast, followed by "The Three-Body Problem" opened a door for domestic science fiction, CCTV's eight sets of the latest "Who is He", as soon as it was broadcast, set off a whirlwind of criminal investigation suspense dramas.
However, it seems that a period drama is still missing.
In the past two years, every "era drama" of CCTV has become a hit.
The year before last, there was "Awakening Era" with a score of 9.3 on Douban.
Last year, there was the shocking "The World".
By this year, although Yang Ba's "Love Full of Nine Bends" has Reiza and Sarina sitting in town, and Yang Yi's "Our Day" has old drama bones Song Chunli and other acting schools pressing the formation, they all lose in the plot.
And the last thing to worry about in "The Road of Life" is the story. After all, this story has been tested for generations.
There is no doubt that this will definitely be the most promising period drama this year, and its target can only be "The World".
01, the difficulty of remaking is high, and "Life" is destined to be the most difficult IP
The novel "Life" tells the story of Gao Garin, a rural youth in northern Shaanxi who was replaced as a private teacher, forced to return to the countryside, and then jumped out of the "farm gate" by virtue of his connections, and was later reported to return to the countryside.
This is destined to be a classic IP that is difficult to gnaw and shoot.
And pay attention to CCTV's expression: Part of this play is based on Lu Yao's novella "Life".
This expression is too critical, that is, of course, the story comes from Lu Yao's original work, but it will definitely go far out of the original work, and looking at the synopsis, you can feel the subtle difference from the original:
This play tells the story of Gao Garin, a young man living in Gaojia Village in northern Shaanxi, who strives to change his fate, goes through changes in the world and fate, challenges one after another, and strives for progress in the tide of the times.
Obviously, Gogarin's fate will change to a certain extent from the original work, which will make the story very exciting, but objectively speaking, the difficulty of film and television adaptation is also very large.
First of all, it is classic and difficult to surpass.
In terms of current mass influence, "Ordinary World" is much larger than "Life".
This is largely due to: the dissemination of film and television works to literary works.
"Ordinary World" was moved to TV twice before and after.
Especially in 2015, directed by Mao Weining, the version starring Yuan Hong, Wang Lei, Tong Liya, etc., the series opened low and went high, and the high score of 8.8 on Douban so far fully proved the success of the series, and Wang Lei's name of "Northwest Hammer King" greatly enhanced his reputation among the new generation of audiences.
The difficulty of contemporary film and television adaptation of "Life" is obviously higher than that of "Ordinary World".
In 1984, the film "Life" written by Lu Yao himself was released, and in the era of the rise of domestic film and television, the film became a comprehensive hit in the true sense.
However, in 2014, the TV series directed by the well-known director Yang Yang, starring Wang Yu, Miao Tingru, Peng Yang and so on was launched, but it did not cause a great sensation.
The score of the drama version reached 7.7 points, which is far less than the 8.8 points of "Ordinary World", but it is not bad.
The biggest problem is actually the acceptance of the story by the new generation of audiences, and for the older generation of audiences, the impression of the film version is too deep.
Secondly, it is a story that is difficult to change.
The plot, characters, and scenes are all mountains in front of the filmization of "Life".
But the hardest thing is the story. The story of the original book carries Lu Yao's strong personal writing style and the imprint of the times.
But for a new generation of viewers, there are age barriers to accepting the story.
So, can this drama version be turned over?
Look down.
02, there is a taste of explosive style, the scene is "book-picking restoration", and the plot is greatly adapted
Just two names are enough to provide confidence for the adaptation.
One is director Yan Jiangang.
In addition to Kong Sheng and Mao Weining of "Ordinary World", this is the most suitable Chinese drama director for filming "Life" that I can think of.
Known for his realistic themes, he has won the Best Director Award at the 13th Feitian Awards, the Best Director Award at the 26th China TV Golden Eagle Awards, and has directed high-quality dramas such as "China Land" and "Yuan Longping's Dream of Meritorious Service".
Other representative works include "Qin Shi Huang", "The Orphan Case of Zhao", "In the Silence" and so on.
The director invested half a year, completed hundreds of thousands of words of director's script on the basis of the screenwriter's script, and made a large number of pictures according to the plot scenes.
The other, screenwriter Yang Xiaoyan.
Say Yang Xiaoyan's masterpiece and you will be down-to-earth - "Mountains and Seas", which was nominated for Best Screenplay at the 27th Magnolia Awards.
Another screenwriter, Hong Jinghui, has created "Dear Translator" and "I Am Durala".
Combined with the synopsis and trailer, my summary is: the scene is "book-cut" restoration, and the plot is greatly adapted.
First of all, it is an original copy of the original scene;
It is not difficult to see that the series almost perfectly restores Gaojia Village on the northern Shaanxi plateau.
To this end, the crew teamed up with Lu Yao's hometown Yulin, Shaanxi to create a film and television base, which extremely realistically restored the county road scenes in the eighties and nineties. In order to show the rural style of northern Shaanxi in those years, the crew went deep into Qingjian County and other places to shoot and stationed in nearby mountain villages for a long time, from the general environment to the small details of life props are extremely strict.
The houses in the 80s in the play, shabby and old-fashioned ornaments, etc., truly restore the life scenes of the countryside in those years.
Every actor on the scene was "gray-headed", showing the skin of rural people exposed to the wind and sun.
The pursuit of realism is even detailed to the teeth in the play.
The heroine's red silk scarf is a local fashion after dressing up.
In short, each scene is the familiar taste of book fans.
Secondly, it is a substantial adaptation of the plot of the original work.
In fact, the series restores a lot of the main plot and famous scenes of the original work.
But the adaptation is also quite large, and it is even likely that it will rewrite the fate and emotional lines of the main characters.
Looking at the plot, the part that is basically the same as the original is: In the eighties, Gao Garin, a young man living in Gaojiagou in northern Shaanxi, was a well-known reading "champion" in the village. The college entrance examination was his only chance to change his fate, but he unexpectedly fell off the list. He worked hard to become a private primary school teacher, and the teaching establishment was squeezed out. Gao Garin fell to the bottom of his life, and then cheered up and insisted on writing with Liu Qiaozhen's encouragement, ignited hope in life, and fell in love with Qiaozhen.
Next is the part that is significantly different from the original:
First, the original work was that Gao Minglou went through the back door to provide Gao Garin with the opportunity to go to the county town to become a communications cadre.
And the drama version is Garin's uncle's return to the village, which indirectly provides Garin with the opportunity to work as a reporter in the county.
Second, as in the original book, Gao Garin meets like-minded classmate Huang Yaping in the county seat, and the silent protection of the country girl Qiao Zhen and the warm show of love of the Shanghai girl Huang Yaping put him in a dilemma that is difficult to choose.
But unlike the original, after several struggles and several choices, he brought himself to Shanghai with a pen. This change is too big, because the plot immediately brought Gao Garin from the countryside to the high-speed development of Shanghai in the 90s.
In the end, the test of fate came one after another, and Gogarin learned that his college place had been replaced by his friend Double Star in his founding year. Even so, Garin was not defeated, he worked hard to learn new knowledge and struggled hard to adapt to the times, experienced the changes of the world, and wrote the extraordinary life story of ordinary people in the tide of the times.
This means the key third point -
The character line of the protagonist Gogarin has been completely rewritten.
In the view of chief director Yan Jiangang, "The adapted "Road to Life" has far exceeded the original definition of time and space, and has extended the story space to today, I think this is a creative change, it will make the novel "Life" closer to today's audience, and the novel itself also has a contemporary expression." ”
In the original work, Lu Yao pays special attention to the description of the inner world of poor children, on the one hand, serious inferiority, on the other hand, a strong spirit of self-improvement and self-reliance. The new version of Gogarin maintains an independent and self-reliant personality, but the inferiority character and the character of chaos and abandonment have obviously made major adjustments.
Success or failure? Look not only at the adaptation, but also at the actors.
03. The actor matching degree is high, and 14 powerful actors help
Compared with many IP adaptations, traffic stars are forcibly stuffed, thereby reducing the acting content.
CCTV casting, never moisture.
Traffic stars want to mix names in CCTV dramas, don't even think about it.
Especially "The Road of Life", what is needed is a character who lands and takes root in the soil.
And the new version of casting, obviously enough to fit the face.
Let's talk about the first one, Chen Xiao, who plays Gao Garin.
Like the last time "The World", the first choice of the inner male protagonist mentioned by many viewers is still Huang Xuan.
This is also the first choice to play Gogarin among the current male actors in my mind.
But it's useless for the audience and me to think so, because the director's choice is Chen Xiao.
Last year, Chen Xiao achieved good results, and in "Menghualu", he was Gu Qianfan who formed CP with Liu Yifei.
In "Ice Rain and Fire", Wu Zhenfeng played by him and Chen Yu played by Wang Yibo have a deep brotherly relationship.
But if it weren't for the play, it's hard to imagine him playing a young man who went out of the countryside.
But in the trailer, Chen Xiao only made one appearance, which made me believe that this was Gao Garin.
In terms of the appearance of the deputy teacher, it has the posture of a Sven reader. The most important thing is that he has the strength of Gogarin, the desire for the future, a scene of article publication, he roars desperately on the col alone - "My Gogarin's article, published", the whole person has a feeling of bursting after a long suppression, and the state is too accurate.
The original Gogarin abandoned the chaos and was criticized a lot.
But the drama version obviously modified the plot, and it is not ruled out that the drama version completely rewrites the original emotional line and allows the male and female protagonists to finally come together.
This is both a benefit and a challenge for Chen Xiao, the good thing is that he finally doesn't have to play a scolded protagonist, and the challenge is how to make new and old audiences accept this huge change of Gao Garin.
The second place, Li Qin, who plays Liu Qiaozhen.
Originally, it was difficult for me to imagine Li Qin playing this role.
After all, having seen Tian Xiao'e in "White Deer Plain", Lin Wan'er in "Qing Yu Nian", and Yuan Chun in "The Legend of Chu Qiao", my intuitive feeling is: abandoning such a woman is not something that normal men can do.
But after seeing Li Qin's appearance and interpretation, I was relieved.
In the original book, Grandpa Deshun in the village described Liu Qiaozhen, that is: "a piece of gold".
But she has always been a kind rural girl, and with the appearance of Huang Yaping, Gao Garin changed his heart. But she ended well.
The character of Li Qin in the drama version will undergo major adjustments, and in the trailer, we see her beautiful appearance in a dress in a small Western-style building in Shanghai.
Are you Gogarin will give up such a treasure? Incredible.
Li Qin in the rural part does not have exquisite makeup, but has dark and rough skin, two twisted braids, and wears rustic clothes, showing the roughness after the invasion of the Loess Plateau, which is very similar to the taste of that era.
But the real challenge of this character is the change after going to the big city, and it can be seen that Li Qin's temperament has changed significantly in the later part of the story, which is definitely a new era of Liu Qiaozhen, whether she can surpass the classic version depends on her.
The third place, Tang Zeng, who plays the horse bolt.
This is certainly the most stable casting.
From Wang Qinglai in "Happiness to Ten Thousand Homes" to Ma Shuo in "The Road of Life", there is no difficulty at all for Tang Zeng.
For period dramas, Tang Zeng is no stranger to it, from the early "Zhiqing" to the later "The Day of Pursuing Happiness", he is familiar with similar roles.
His biggest challenge in this play may be age, but the crop people of that era are old, and the most important thing is the character of the performance.
And Ma Shuo, played by Tang Zeng, looked at Qiao Zhen's sincere eyes and had already established his role.
The fourth place, Zhang Jiani, who plays Huang Yaping.
Zhang Jiani plays this role, and the biggest obstacle is also age.
The real Zhang Jiani is 35 years old, about 10 years old from the age of the characters in the original work. But Zhang Jiani, who has played Ziling in "Another Nightmare" and Concubine Rong in "Yanxi Raiders", is a recognized goddess of appearance in the entertainment industry, at least the trailer looks exactly like it.
In the play, she plays a girl from Shanghai, with an outstanding family, beautiful and moving, and proficient in dance.
Zhang Jiani has been learning dance since she was seven years old, and her skills are solid, and there is a passage in the trailer where she dances ballet in the dance studio, which is pleasing to the eye.
Zhang Jiani's performance is characterized by being pure and charming, which is also in line with Huang Yaping's character character, and this role is stable again.
Look at the main supporting characters, which are also close to the face.
For example, Guo Xiaoting, who debuted as a child star, has risen in popularity in the past two years, whether it is the red earth woman in "Canglan Recipe" or the villain in "Acquaintance with Jun Chu", she has made her unique and charming.
This time she played the role of Chen Xiuli, when she wore a dress, her long hair was slightly curly, and she raised her lips and smiled at the camera, she was really as her name and knowledgeable.
Another example is Lin Yongjian, who plays the village secretary Gao Minglou.
Lin Yongjian, who just broke the comedy impression of many audiences with his performance in "The Three-Body Problem", this time challenged a role close to the villain, just one word: stable.
There is also Li Guangfu as Shundeye.
This character, who grew up watching Gogarin all the way, can be called the most heartwarming supporting role in the original work.
As soon as I saw Li Guangfu's eyes, I knew that this role was too fine.
There is also Liu Liben, the father of Liu Qiaozhen, played by Liu Wei.
Liu Wei, who once had a wonderful performance in "Happiness to Ten Thousand Homes", is fully qualified for the role of Gao Minglou, but he played Liu Liben, a rural two-capable man, and the possibility of acting overturning does not exist, the only pity is that it is a bit overkill.
In addition to the above nine actors, there are also He Saifei, Fan Deng, Zhou Yemang, Huang Meiying, Yue Hong, Zhang Tianyang, Lian Lian, Zhao Zheng and other acting factions to help, there is no doubt that these powerful people are the greatest guarantee of the quality of the series.
04. There are hidden dangers in the story, and the adaptation determines the direction of word of mouth
"The Road of Life" will undoubtedly be a ratings hit.
As one of the most popular literary IPs, the drama and CCTV's set of this broadcast platform can be described as a perfect fit, coupled with a good lineup and quality, the show's premiere ratings may exceed 2%, and it is not surprising that it will eventually break 3.
In other words, this is a series that is expected to reach the height of "The World".
But the show's biggest challenge is also that the original book is too classic.
Too many people have already read the original work of "Life", and many have been read more than once.
Like Ordinary World, this book has influenced many people.
But in the original work, Lu Yao specifically mentioned the last chapter: not the end.
Obviously, Lu Yao also hopes that Gao Garin can rewrite his destiny again with the times.
And this time the task of continuing the fate of Gogarin was given to the drama version.
With the development of the times, the difficulties faced by this generation of young people have more diversified choices.
In the view of the main creator, the impermanence of fate experienced by Gogarin in his choices is the soul of the original work, and how the new generation of audiences can see the current confusion in the life choices of the "Gogarins" and gain a more open-minded attitude to life is obviously the key to the success or failure of this adaptation.
In "The Road of Life", Gao Garin not only went out of the countryside, but also came to Shanghai. What will be his fate next?
The only certainty is that this will be a personal epic.
Because Gogarin's life story itself is very grand and epic.
Behind his fate is also the fate of a generation of young people.
And the works that really want to present the era landscape must let the story carry such an epic feeling, rather than let the plot tickle.
Combined with the good hit rate of the CCTV platform, and also combined with the trailer to reveal the texture, this time, I choose to continue to believe in CCTV's vision!
In this era, it is simply a luxury to tell a long life story in a trickle way like a period drama.
Therefore, the series is more precious.
Whether it can create a classic again will soon be clear. The road of life is to come out.
The road of "The Road of Life", too.