Text | Ling Hu Boguang
The previous article wrote the manuscript of the excellent domestic drama in the first quarter of 2023, and it was divided into two because the manuscript was too long. Bo Guangjun has always started from the development of China's film and television industry, and the standards are not only quality, word of mouth and achievements. Breakthroughs in the film and television industry, subject content, story plot, etc. are also important criteria.
The previous six dramas happened to be six dramas that broke through insufficiently, but the quality was not bad. The 10th place "Summer Flower", a good quality urban romance drama, a kind of drama worthy of learning from the mainland with uncles and little girls. No. 9 "When I Was a Boy", a very good quality era youth group drama, but unfortunately it is not too popular.
No. 8 "Starfall Condensed into Sugar", a costume fairy romance drama with excellent quality but not much breakthrough, and is also very popular, this is the first fairy ancient puppet explosive drama in 2023. No. 7 "Ligong, Old Things in the Northeast", a northeast urban drama with a movie texture, but it is a pity that it is not "Liu Laogen" and "Ma Dashuai".
No. 6 "Youth Song Xing", a film and television industry breakthrough, very restored animation of Xian Xia drama, Chinese animation adaptation network drama in addition to "Bad People", now finally another excellent work. No. 5 "Come on today", a rare high-quality sitcom for domestic dramas, that's enough.
So, what are the top works of the best domestic dramas in the first quarter of 2023?
4th place: "Moses on the Plain" Douban 7.7
This drama belongs to the Northeast era from the theme point of view of suspense, but the sense of suspense is not heavy, this is a serious literary drama, producer Diao Yinan filmed "Daylight Fireworks" and "The Party at the Southern Station", director Zhang Dalei has filmed the literary film "August", which is a literary drama so the results are quite poor.
Maybe many people don't understand why this drama ranks so high, and even the Douban score hasn't broken 8?
Have you ever seen such a literary drama in domestic dramas over the years? It is a slow narrative, production details in place, a large number of long shots, very particular light and shadow, 6 episodes and 6 hours of literary drama.
Just like when American dramas were at their peak in the past, in addition to the top of the film and television industry such as "Game of Thrones" and "Breaking Bad", there are very balanced dramas in art and business. There are also dramas such as "True Detective" and "American Spy Dream" that completely pursue art and hardly take care of business.
"Moses on the Plain" can appear, which represents that the current domestic drama market has developed to a certain point, and has been able to accommodate literary dramas that pursue art. We used to only have period dramas, urban dramas, and there really was no such literary drama.
We know how the tragedy happened from the beginning, but we don't know where the fate of the protagonist goes. Compared with murders, the lives of everyone who are involuntarily promoted by the historical process are more essential tragedies. The director doesn't care about the case itself at all, he doesn't create the past, but records it.
Its score is not above 8 points, the main reason is its original work, the background and filming location of the work is the northeast, but compared with "Daylight Fireworks" and "The Party at the Southern Station", this drama has less Diao Yinan's taste, and the emotion that has been laid down for a long time with a long shot did not burst out in an instant.
At the same time, many of the processing of this drama is not northeastern, and even the actor's accent is not northeastern. I myself am a person in a heavy industrial city, and I admire the director's meticulousness and this pursuit of art, but unfortunately his efforts can only be applauded.
The loss of this drama's reputation in China is lost in the "cultural environment", that is, ordinary audiences will not watch this kind of literary drama. The audience who will go to see it are movie fans, Wen Qing, and Wen Qing, who has Northeast identity. In addition to artistic pursuits, these audiences will also have high requirements for "cultural details".
If the audience thinks that the cultural details are wrong, they think that the play is made, and they will give a bad review. I am very sure to tell you that if "Moses on the Plain" is a foreign drama with a "cultural gap", Douban will be at least 8.8 or more, and even easily can score 9 points, and then scold a wave of domestic art dramas that do not have this kind of art.
Finally, all in all, I am glad that such literary dramas can appear in China, and I hope that the more the better.
3rd place: "Crazy" Douban 8.5
This drama is recognized as the first national drama super hit in 2023, and there is no need to talk about how popular it is. The only pity is that it is slightly rotten, if this is not the case, it can be compared to "In the Name of the People" and become a benchmark work for domestic "anti-gang and evil" dramas in the new era.
The production level, actor performance, and story plot of this drama do not need to be analyzed.
From the perspective of the development of domestic dramas, the breakthrough of the theme content of this drama itself is not particularly big, because there have been many domestic anti-gang dramas in recent years, but "Crazy" is indeed the pinnacle of similar works in recent years, don't you believe it? Let's talk about it here.
Earlier domestic anti-black dramas such as "The Way of Heaven", "Conquest" and "Black Ice" will not be mentioned. Around 2010, for various reasons, we can't see any police dramas on big and small screens, not to mention anti-black dramas, although the TV series has the beginning of the online dramas "The Darker" and "Psychological Crime" (or cut and removed).
But the benchmark work for the official, mainstream media, and the entire market and audience is "In the Name of the People" in 2017.
"In the Name of the People" belongs to an anti-corruption drama in terms of subject subdivision, and it also opens the lifting of the ban on domestic police and bandit dramas. You will find that after this, there are more domestic police and bandit anti-drug dramas, police and bandit anti-crime dramas, police and bandit court dramas, etc.
Like the police and bandit anti-drug drama explosion is obviously the beginning of "Icebreaker Action" in 2019, and there will be "Ice Rain and Fire" in 2022. Anti-black dramas have "Anti-Black Storm" in 2021 and "Punishment" in 2022, which are also popular dramas on the market. There are more middle episodes that are not blockbusters.
These dramas have a problem, either because of the deletion and re-dubbing problems, or the middle and later stages are seriously rotten.
The next dozen episodes of "Crazy" also have this problem, but it is still the closest to a similar drama in the name of the people. There is a simplest way here, other dramas such as anti-drug dramas "Icebreaker Action", "Ice Rain and Fire", anti-black dramas "Sweeping Black Storm" and "Punishment", do they have many entertainment memes representing Chinese society?
"In the Name of the People" has been broadcast for 6 years, and the metaphor behind Hou Liangping and Qi Tongwei about China's political ecology.
Then to learn a good foreign language Chen Qingquan, with the universe Sun Liancheng in mind, did not move Zhao Dehan for a minute, Zhao Donglai, a master of flirting with sisters, Bingqingyujie Gao Xiaoqin, laughing at Fengyun Sha Ruijin, black and white eating Zhao Gongzi, etc., after so many years, it is still deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, which shows the ability of excellent works to create terriers.
Although "Crazy" is not as good as "In the Name of the People", it is like "Arita goes down the mountain", "Tell Lao Mo that I want to eat fish", "What grade, use the same TV as me" and so on. These are enough to prove how strong this drama is, and it's really a pity that it is a bit rotten.
Finally, it is now rumored that "Crazy 2" and the movie version are being prepared, I hope to make a good film!
2nd place: "Daming under the microscope" Douban 7.9
This drama belongs to the breakthrough of domestic historical dramas that "see the big with the small", and I predict that this drama belongs to the kind of TV series that the longer the time, the higher the rating, and it is expected to rise above 8.5 in the end, really. This drama has two big breakthroughs for domestic costume dramas, and both of these breakthroughs are watersheds.
The first breakthrough is the breakthrough of fine arts, service and other exquisite restoration, which is the benchmark of costume dramas in the Ming Dynasty.
After 2010, the domestic costume drama costume was made up and fabricated, and the controversy over Wadaihua became more and more serious. However, in the past few years, there have been works in which the art costume is exquisite and restored, and the texture of the film and television industry has made a comprehensive breakthrough.
Like the Tang Dynasty costume drama is obviously "Chang'an Twelve Hours", you see that the Tang Dynasty drama behind is all the aesthetic model it set. It even affects the "Chang'an Twelve Hours" scenic spot in Xi'an, and then the costume culture of Xiangyang Tangcheng and so on.
Like the costume dramas of the Song Dynasty, there were first "Know No" and "Qingping Le" in the noon sun, and then there were "Great Song Palace Words" and "Menghualu", etc., and the aesthetics of costume dramas in the Song Dynasty were gradually established.
However, whether it is the earlier Tang Dynasty costume drama "The Legend of the Female Doctor Ming Concubine", the historical drama "Mountains, Rivers and Moon Ming" in the first two years is a little worse in systematic restoration. The movies "The Great Ming Calamity" and "Embroidered Spring Knife" did not burn into the field of TV dramas.
At this time, "Daming under the Microscope" appeared, from lens language to art costumes, from official uniforms, businessmen to civilians, etc. (the only pity is that there is no army and involves other regions), it is a new benchmark for the aesthetics of Ming Dynasty costume dramas, and I believe it will definitely lead the next ten years of domestic Ming Dynasty dramas.
The second breakthrough is at the level of content and expression, domestic macro narrative historical dramas like "Daming Dynasty" have long declined, Ma Boyong's "Chang'an Twelve Hours" and "Fengqi Longxi" still belong to the genre drama of deconstructing history, anti-terrorist spy war is played flower, the quality is also good, but unfortunately it is a breath worse.
"Daming under the Microscope" belongs to the public court drama in terms of genre, and the closest to it is "The Great Song Ti Criminal Officer".
Take a small case to glimpse the decline of an empire from the micro level, court politics, intermediate officialdom and merchants, and then the social ecology of the Ming Dynasty, composed of ordinary people. "The Great Song Ti Criminal Officer" is a fictional story, this drama is a real historical adaptation, its public court drama is very well filmed, and it is very meaningful for domestic dramas.
The original work of this drama has 6 stories, and if the remaining 5 are not bad, it is the trump card of domestic historical dramas in the new era.
No. 1: "Go to a Windy Place" Douban 8.6
Many people may not understand why this drama ranks so high, just like its rating is so high. But is it that some viewers like to watch romance? It's really not, this drama is a considerable breakthrough for domestic dramas.
Its first breakthrough is a breakthrough in domestic dramas urban pastoral romance dramas, which is equivalent to a breakthrough from rural dramas to urban dramas.
In the 8090s, China had just opened up and began to develop rapidly, but in addition to heavy industry and national defense, it was still an agricultural country, so the fifth-generation great director represented by Zhang Yimou either filmed history, or the Republic of China, the War of Resistance and the old society, or the scar literature of the previous decade.
In the 90s and 10s, China was rapidly urbanizing, and a large number of farmers moved to the cities to work. The films of the sixth generation of great directors represented by Jia Zhangke are actually the pains in the process of urbanization transformation and the reflection of the social changes of small people.
Film and television literary and artistic works were such expressions until after 2010, and the traffic economy that fell into later was not representative.
It only began to rectify the chaos after 2017, but similar domestic dramas are either rural life dramas such as "Ma Dashuai", "Liu Laogen" and "Country Love"; Or the main theme of poverty alleviation such as "Mountains and Seas" and "Daughter of the Mountain".
Is this drama a breakthrough in China's urban idyllic romance drama? Although its tourist resorts are not particularly representative either.
If it is only a breakthrough, it will not be so high in the score, this drama reflects the pressure of life in China's contemporary metropolis, reflecting rural families, villagers, and then many characters around the hero and heroine have quite rich shaping, both authenticity, artistry, and life.
If you want to say that the shortcomings are still too complicated, the plot is a little too slow.
"Three-Body Problem" above the first place Douban 8.7
This drama is a breakthrough from zero to one for domestic sci-fi dramas, which is almost equivalent to "The Wandering Earth" to a Chinese sci-fi blockbuster. At the level of story plot, character creation and content, "The Three-Body Problem" is a true sense of high spirits. Although this drama did not become a big hit, the adaptation of the middle episodes was almost meaningful.
But it was stable at the beginning, and the last dozen episodes have been climbing step by step, and the originally somewhat weak film and television industry has also broken through one after another. Although it can't do the level of the movie "The Wandering Earth 2", it is definitely a benchmark level in domestic dramas.
All in all, as long as the original work of "The Three-Body Problem" is not outdated, as the first most successful film and television drama work, it will go down in history, even if its success is to do its best to restore the original, but this is enough.
Finally, I hope that "Three-Body 2" can start filming as soon as possible, and strive to be launched with "The Wandering Earth 3"!
![The "embarrassment" of domestic animation is vividly reflected in "The Three-Body Problem" and "Chinese Strange Tan"[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)