March 31, 2023 | Issue 3192
The title of "Love Only" shows an attitude: What are you doubting and afraid of? But it's just love.
It's rebellious enough. Although "sibling love" has become a common social phenomenon, if it really happens to you, is it quite drumming in your heart? Song Sanchuan (played by Wu Lei) is 22 years old, Liang Youan (played by Zhou Yutong) is 32 years old, with a love difference of ten years old, and needs absolute honesty and very hot to be at the bottom.
It's also brave enough. Liang Youan's side obviously has "ideal marriagers" who are more suitable for age, identity and social status. She can also choose the relationship with the lowest cost and the least risk. But in the end, she followed the throbbing in her heart. If Song Sanchuan is still a teenager with a young heart, charging for love and reckless, Liang Youan is really chasing hard and seeking peace of mind.
At the same time, it is reasonable enough. The screenwriter of "Love Only" is Zhang Yingji, who created the myth of "Thirty Only". She is sharp and direct, brainless sugar is not her style. In "Love Only", she traces the psychological motivation and growth foreshadowing of this "sibling love", which not only does not affect the sweetness, but achieves a romantic style quasi-classicism, which will be discussed later.
As a straight male audience, the biggest feeling after watching the ten episodes of "Love Only" is that we are usually too accustomed to reasoning and too persistent in finding the best solution. But the more you listen to the truth and the more correct the planned solution to life, the easier it is to be cynical when it comes to romance, and the easier it is to brush shoulders with love. When talking about love movies, teacher Dai Jinhua once said, "Romanticism without irony is the driving force of society. ”
I think "Love Only" is exactly such a story.
"I've seen this sister"
Viewers who have chased the first ten episodes, if they go back and rewatch the first episode, they may have different feelings.
When I watched it for the first time, the fierce workplace social animal and the depressed badminton player met for the first time, and there was a sense of destiny that "just because I looked at you more in the crowd". Next, add WeChat to each other, meet again, and invite to dinner, just like there is a red thread in the underworld, and the two are naturally accustomed to each other's existence.
Such an opening is a design that we are familiar with.
But when you look back at it a second time, you will find that the subsequent plot is full of footnotes for this encounter.
Liang Youan came from a hard background, has outstanding ability, and has become a well-known special assistant in the industry with amazing execution and control. It is clear that he has a rich resume, is diligent and pragmatic, and only needs one opportunity to advance and grow, but setbacks will always come quietly.
Of course, special assistance is a position that trains people, but there are always times when you reach the top, if you don't withdraw in time and choose a good tree to live, you will soon fall behind. Liang Youan's misfortune is that she was forced to get involved in the company's high-level infighting, and the hope of transferring jobs was instantly dashed, and the boss would not use such a talent as a "capital enemy", and even when necessary, she had to have the consciousness of being a backpot hero and a victim.
An unexamined life is not worth living. Liang Youan, who had been running with all his strength for thirty-two years, finally had the consciousness and courage to stop. It was precisely because of this change that she had the opportunity to patiently look at the things around her.
Zhou Yutong has a rare sense of the same frequency as ordinary audiences. Playing "social animals", she portrays professional women in modern cities convincingly.
Liang Youan's plight also shattered people's wishful thinking about "independent women". Their life's choice of work first and their professional aura of problem-solving first have reasons behind them. They are not so indestructible and not so airtight, which is just the "social performance" she needs to survive in the workplace.
Compared with Liang Youan, Song Sanchuan's heart knot is more deadly. As a badminton player, he has a great fear of the score, especially the number of 18 points, which is his lingering nightmare.
From the moment he embarked on this path, his mother has always been the leader and the most indispensable part of his life. He admired his mother's technique, feared her accusations, and expected her affirmation, but he never thought that one day he would suddenly lose her. When he realized this, Song Sanchuan had just scored the 18th point.
The mother was gone without even a serious farewell. The technology she left for Song Sanchuan is still there, the passion is still there, and the character is still there, but the belief that rules all this slowly withered in his heart. At the same time, memories of my mother always spring up during the game, messing with her mind.
Swiss psychologist Jung once proposed two psychological archetypes of men and women in the concept of love: Anima and Animus. It says that every man carries an eternal female image in his heart, and he establishes a standard against which this standard greatly influences his choice of partner. The same goes for female Animus mental projections.
I don't know if Liang Youan and Song Sanchuan have read Jung's works, but they should believe in this theory of love, because when we return to the first episode and watch the scene where the two first met, Song Sanchuan's eyes clearly have the mystery of "I have seen this sister".
It is not so much that Pingshui met, but that they have been constructing each other's image in their hearts, looking forward to and waiting for a long time, until a chance and inevitable encounter. Only in this case, age is not important, identity is not important, social status is not important.
This is romance.
Ultimate romance, in the workplace, on the pitch and in the alleys
If you want to immerse a discerning young audience in an urban love story, you generally need to meet two conditions: first, I must be able to be friends with the people in the play; Second, the space in the story is in line with my experience and imagination.
"Love Only" on the love line, laid the growth triggers and psychological foundation for Song Sanchuan and Liang Youan to know and fall in love, although the sweetness in the first half is not high, but it really involves the audience.
To confirm this, it is very simple, just go to the "confession wall" special area specially opened by Tencent Video for "Love Only". If it hadn't resonated with the story, if it hadn't been deeply substitutiond, people wouldn't have had such a strong interest in activities outside the play.
The first ten episodes of "Love Only" have a lot of space focusing on workplace dramas, adding texture to the drama with professional knowledge.
As a leader close to him, the special assistant is a firefighter who is ready to fight fires 24 hours a day, and he must also be a master of "reading the air".
In a marathon, Easy Sports was in the limelight by betting on athletes. But at the same time, a dummy dressed in a speedy costume and a wig fell from the sky on the other side, causing public panic. In the face of the crisis of public opinion, Liang Youan went out and did not trace the roots, but solved the problem in a roundabout way in the first time, and the image of an excellent professional immediately became three-dimensional.
But if a person thinks about sharing the worries of others every day, will he also get used to nature? Yes, Liang Youan has the typical symptoms of "caring obsessive-compulsive disorder", but when she integrates this behavior into her interaction with Song Sanchuan, it becomes dark candy in the eyes of the audience.
Her subordinates were unwilling to settle the labor fee for Song Sanchuan, who turned the "closed rabbit" into a "storming rabbit", and she did it in two words; Song Sanchuan was sulking when she was bullied in the team, and she handed over a bottle of water to extinguish the other party's anger; Song Sanchuan was afraid of the scoreboard with 18 points written during the game, and Liang Youan covered his vision with his body. These are the most moving moments in the play, and they are also the direct reason why Song Sanchuan has feelings for her.
Song Sanchuan is closer to the audience. The play uses a long shot to show his growing up environment and living conditions: father and son eating breakfast on the terrace, Song Sanchuan complains that salted duck eggs have no yolk, the people downstairs throw a bag of tea leaves to his father, and the camera then turns to the chaotic alley, the takeaway brother walks through here, parents run with their children, neighbors clean the door in front of the house, at this time the roller shutter door of a wig shop opens, Song Sanchuan comes out and asks for salted duck eggs from the breakfast stall on the street...
As a result, the image of an ordinary and vivid brother next door is firmly engraved in the hearts of the audience.
In a love story, this life-filled drama does not appear obtrusively. Liang Youan obviously lacked such life experience, and when walking through the alley, he almost collided with the oncoming strong man, and was protected by the quick-eyed Song Sanchuan.
So I said, the power of "Love Only" is very coincidental. It writes professional workplace dramas, but it does it to add texture to love stories. It has an extremely urban life flow scene, but it is making a nest for full romantic love.
Not only "love", but also "life"
A Douban netizen is very precise in positioning "Love Only": life flow love drama. A 38-episode urban drama, the depth and sharpness of expression depends on the telling of the main love story, and the breadth and breadth of expression depends on its attitude to life.
The way and emotional mode of Song Sanchuan and Liang Youan break through the differences in secular concepts and identities, and move towards the ideal path of "mutual support and mutual confidence" in love. It is precisely because the foreshadowing of the first ten episodes is solid enough that it can be expected that the next scenes will be sweeter and more healing.
In addition, we also saw other rich family emotional group portraits. Liang Youan's best friend Luo Nian (played by Jiang Peiyao) encountered her husband's cheating during pregnancy, and the two divorced, and even went to court to fight for the custody of the child.
Liang Youan's top boss Jiang Jie (played by Zhu Yongteng) and his wife Chen Ke (played by Guo Keyu) respect each other on the surface, but in fact they look like a god. How these very different emotional relationships will develop is also an important point of interest in the subsequent plot.
Although "Love Only" is based on love, it conveys a comfortable attitude to life everywhere. Song Sanchuan's father opened the wig shop in front of the cancer hospital, not for the prosperity of business, but so that everyone who is terminally ill can actively love life, and earn not fast but familiar with people and settle down.
Song Sanchuan's relationship with his father is delicate, never calling his father but calling him by his first name, the two sides have a knot but no grudges, and the phrase he said to his father "Leave your father alone" shows the unique way of getting along between father and son.
Liang Youan was deeply troubled by her native family, broke off the father-daughter relationship with her father, lived in the emotional cocoon set up by her mother, and suffered setbacks in her career, but she did not lack the courage to start all over again.
From this, we can see that behind the brisk and harmonious painting style, this drama has completed the advancement of life attitude from "love only" to "life only": you don't have to carry it to finally arrive, whether it is love or family, whether it is workplace or life, everyone does not have to give themselves too many restrictions and baggage, just look at life bravely.
【Text/Xu Xinqiang】