March 19, 2023 | Total Issue 3180
At the 27th Hong Kong International Film and Television Festival held this week, a group of leading Chinese drama companies released film lists, allowing practitioners to clearly feel the signal of the industry's recovery. As the saying goes, spring is full of preparation. The drama industry has clearly ushered in a busy sowing season.
Today is the next part led by Huace Film and Television, Perfect World Film and Television and other emerging forces.
Huace Film and Television
As a leading enterprise of Chinese dramas going overseas, Huace Group is a "frequent visitor" of the Hong Kong International Film and TV Festival. The "Huace Hong Kong Night" held every time the exhibition participates has also formed a considerable brand influence.
At this year's "Huace Hong Kong Night", Huace Film and Television released a TV series list composed of eight seed works.
From the perspective of genre, these eight dramas belong to three major areas: urban emotion, industry workplace and costume.
Among them, there are three costume dramas. "Spring Purdah Dream People", "National Color Fanghua" and "Taiping Year" belong to three branches: romantic light comedy, female legendary drama and historical drama.
In recent years, the overseas dissemination of Chinese dramas has still played a pioneering role in high-quality costume dramas that can reflect oriental aesthetics and integrate into Chinese traditional culture. Huace's "Spring Dream People" released this round focuses on comedy and pure love; "National Color Fanghua" combines peony culture, ancient female entrepreneurship and border trade plots; "Taiping Year" revolves around the famous "return of the land to the Song Dynasty" incident in history, which is obviously aimed at overseas markets.
There are 2 dramas with distinct industry elements, namely "Our Translator" and "Three Points". Among them, the young people who are dedicated to the research and development of China's Beidou system positioning and navigation are the protagonists, and the side reflects the urgency and difficulty of the research and development of the Beidou system, which has attracted a lot of attention because of its special theme. This is a veritable story of China in the new era. If you can successfully go to sea, it is quite valuable to let overseas audiences know what China's "Beidou" is about.
There are 3 films that are relatively biased towards urban emotions. They are the women's story "Chenghuan Ji" adapted from Yishu's novel of the same name, "Please Fall in Love with Me Like This", which tells the love story of the magazine's male editor-in-chief and female physical education teacher, and "All the Way to the Sun", which tells the story of a pair of girlfriends who have worked hard in Beijing for twelve years.
Among them, "All the Way to the Sun" explores the relationship between buying a house and taking root in the city on the structure of the two heroines, and is closely connected with current issues, and is the seed contestant of the "explosive" drama.
Perfect World Pictures
Perfect World Pictures released the 2023 episode list at last year's Autumn Fair. On this basis, coupled with Perfect World's new filing drama from January to February this year, you can spell out its layout on the drama line.
Perfect World Pictures is known for its mature studio system. At present, Perfect World Film and Television has more than 10 studios with distinctive characteristics and high degree of differentiation, including Perfect Pengrui led by director Liu Jiang, Youth Hello led by screenwriter and producer Liang Zhenhua, Li Zheng Studio led by producer Li Zheng, Perfect Yuanfang led by producer Miao Meng, and Bai Nian Hemu led by director Li Jun.
Each studio develops separately, exploits its strengths and avoids its weaknesses, which has achieved the characteristics of Perfect World Film's "Hundred Flowers" film list.
In the next 1-2 years, Perfect World Pictures' reserve dramas will include both large market genres such as urban emotional dramas, martial arts fantasy dramas, and niche theme exploration.
Perfect Pengrui's urban emotional drama "Warm, Sweet" focuses on the emotional life of mature men and women in contemporary cities. The awakening of women's independent consciousness in the new era, the ideal gender relationship from the perspective of women, the understanding of marriage and love by the younger generation, and the intergenerational concept conflict between elders and younger generations are the four fists of this drama.
During the filming of this drama, it experienced a 61-day epidemic lockdown and shutdown, and it took 199 days to complete the filming. But the twists and turns did not affect the quality of the creation. This drama has obtained a distribution license, and I believe that it will be able to meet the audience soon.
Hello Youth's "The Legend of Yunxiang" is a martial arts drama that many fans are looking forward to. On the one hand, look forward to Chen Xiao and Mao Xiaotong's costume rivalry; On the other hand, it can be regarded as a round of the "pie" drawn in the hit drama "Strange You Are Too Beautiful".
In the drama, which is also produced by Youth Hello and takes the film and television industry as the background of the story, a drama called "The Legend of Yunxiang" was a difficult project that made the people in the play scratch their heads. Now, "The Legend of Yunxiang" is really going to meet the audience, and it has been filmed as a fluttering martial arts, which is really exciting.
Li Zheng Studio's Splendid! Splendid" and "May Your Years Be Quiet" from a perfect distance have their own eye-catching elements.
Li Zheng Studio has always been known for pure love emotional dramas before. The classic pure love drama "Suddenly This Summer", which tells about the ten-year love run, and "The Best You in the World", which reunites childhood sweethearts, are his masterpieces. But this time "Splendid! Splendid" jumped out of the comfort zone and filmed a story similar to "Spring in the Cattle Herding Class". Guo Jingfei's teacher will lead the problem class to sprint for the college entrance examination in the play, and achieve mutual redemption with the students.
Audiences who have watched "Suddenly This Summer" must have learned the team's extraordinary ability to shoot "real learning", coupled with Guo Jingfei's high degree of adaptation to this role, I believe that this drama will be very burning, very funny, and very youthful.
The perfect distant "May You Have a Quiet Year" is a military emotional theme, and the words "Chinese Navy Special Forces" on the chest of the male protagonist Jin Han in the poster are particularly obvious.
From the perspective of the synopsis of the story, this drama wants to tell the story of the male and female protagonists from wronged families to confidants, and it is also a military emotional story with compromises and run-ins. From a market point of view, uniform plus love is a rigid theme. As long as it can meet the audience smoothly, the commercial return of "May You Years Be Quiet" can be expected.
Other key projects of new force companies
In addition to a large number of traditional head companies, there are also some new force companies that have exploded frequently in recent years.
These companies have established new labels by established creators from scratch, such as Chunyu Film and Television, directed by Zheng Xiaolong, and Changxin Media directed by Guo Jingyu; There are also platform companies that have grown rapidly after working closely with video websites, such as Stellar Gravity, White Space, and New Power Film and Television; There are also medium-sized production companies that have steadily developed in recent years, such as Linghe Culture.
Chunyu Film and Television has recently had two dramas, which have attracted a lot of attention inside and outside the industry.
One is the war drama "Reconnaissance Heroes" with the theme of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea. This drama takes the reconnaissance company as the main performance object, and the battlefield scene is difficult to film. At the same time, it also involves the love scenes of the protagonist Liang Chen, the head of the reconnaissance section, and Wen Jie, a member of the literary team, and the literary drama is more difficult to film. Such a difficult major theme is difficult for creators who are not of Zheng Xiaolong's magnitude to control. At the beginning of March, the drama has already started. How Chunyu Film and Television wins this tough battle, we wait and see.
The other is "Small Station Police", which tells the story of grassroots stationed police. This drama is adapted from writer Xiaozhong's Golden Shield Literature Award work "Station", focusing on special police types, with a pure grassroots perspective and real and meticulous policing details. From the perspective of subject matter and team, there is a possibility of comparing with "Police Honor".
Based on the suspense novel of the same name by Jiusuke, Linghe Culture's "Mystery of Brown Eyes" is a 16-episode suspense short drama developed for Tencent Video. "Douluo Continent 2" should be another large-scale drama produced by Linghe Culture after "The Three-Body Problem". At present, "Douluo Continent 2" has completed the filing and is believed to have entered an intensive preparatory period.
2023 is a big year for blank film and television, and there have been a national hit and a word-of-mouth hot drama broadcast in the opening year.
This year, Liubai Film and Television also has a female urban drama "Mature Year" to be broadcast. Starring Hao Lei, Wang Ou and Tang Yixin, this drama focuses on the midlife crisis of women. From the perspective of the lineup, it should still be a female group drama. However, from the perspective of story tone, keywords such as cheating, marriage change, illness, and death are not the same as female group dramas on the market. It is expected that this drama can bring a new atmosphere to the urban women's drama that is currently in a bottleneck.
In addition, Liubai Film and Television also has a batch of IP reserves of Ma Boyong's novels, which have always been concerned by the market. Among them, "Litchi of Chang'an", which has appeared on the Tencent video film list, is of particular concern to everyone. It is understood that the 100,000-word novel will be adapted into a 6-episode short drama. At present, there is no specific promotion information for this drama. The audience wants to meet the story behind this "red dust concubine laughing", I am afraid it will have to wait a little longer.
Other seed dramas worth paying attention to, including the costume romance drama "Seven O'clock Auspicious ", which is stellar gravity, and the urban business war drama "I Want to Go Against the Wind"; New Power Film and Television's tax-themed drama "The Water of the Great River", and the just filed urban industry drama "Orange Light"; Changxin Media has been brewing a period drama "Nanyang Daughter Love" for a long time.
Judging from the inventory results, in the past three years, although the production rhythm of the film and television industry has been disrupted, there are still many projects that have stabilized the confidence of development and the progress of production. Now that the water temperature in the industry is gradually suitable, it is time to find a vacant land and sow the seeds in your hands.
【Text/Tin Snare Drum】