Ma Yili was ridiculed again.
She has the courage to play a 28-year-old beauty at the age of 47; Thick and ill-fitting bangs hood; A red leather coat with a red sweater and gold earrings...
Successfully created another negative teaching material for female characters in Chinese dramas.
But think deeply.
Spit on a mature actress who is not beautiful enough and "tender" enough, which is also like a lazy criticism.
Does the collapse of a drama only need the actor to back the pot?
Sir is doubtful:
Dragon City
Adapted from Di An's "West Decision", "East Neon", "Nanyin", "Dragon City Trilogy".
It was serialized on "The Smallest Story" that year, and later published a book, setting a million-sales record and becoming popular among boys and girls.
It is slightly deeper than the pure pain literature of boy and girl love, and more girlish than real serious literature.
It stands to reason that the space for adaptation into a TV series is quite large.
It can be perfected in detail and made into a family epic; Retreat energy simply goes to the unreal, filmed into the youth pain of literature and art.
But the drama version chose a style that is most inconsistent with the original:
Middle-aged family ethics.
To say that it is middle-aged, it is not that Sir also followed the netizens to ridicule the actor's age, but that the overall impression of the drama is "aging".
On the one hand, it removes the passion and sharpness of the original.
On the other hand, as most viewers complain, casting.
Especially the heroine Ma Yili.
But Sir does not think that the casting of this show is a "mistake", but a "misplacement".
The key lies in the word that the national drama is secretive:
"Sex".
00
Let's start with a brief description of the story of "Dragon City".
A complex family of traditions.
The four brothers of the Zheng family, the eldest, the family of steel mill workers, the two are good at torturing each other and rotting together, the daughter is the heroine Zheng Dongni (played by Ma Yili), a bright beauty, almost never felt the warmth of the family, dropped out of high school to be a singer in Singapore, all the way to live a refined life by themselves, more by men.
The second old engineer family died early, leaving Zheng Xizhi (played by Bai Yu) to live in the third uncle's house since he was a child, and grew up to become a middle school physics teacher.
The old three families do business and have a rich family background, which makes their family not only able to support their own little princess Zheng Nanyin (played by Li Tingting), but also wholly take in Zheng Xizhi, and occasionally let Zheng Dongni take the "uncle's family as their own".
The "Three Uncles' Family" is the spiritual bond of all people and the base camp of all stories.
With great tolerance, the two forgave everything that happened in this family:
Girlfriend becomes aunt, pseudo-orthopedics, teacher-student love, unmarried daughter, divorce war...
There is also a younger brother among the four brothers, whom the children call "Little Uncle", a talented middle school Chinese teacher, who is high-spirited and handsome - the kind of teacher that adolescent girls are most likely to fall in love with.
It is easy to see that "dog blood" is the background of this story.
On the other hand, the more this kind of transcendent dog blood, the easier it is to erupt into "anti-moral" sexual tension - as long as it is not dealt with hysterically.
"Dragon City" did not go in the direction of splashing dog blood, but it also did not go to the extreme and romantic, but slipped to the mediocre and safe middle ground.
01
Casting is certainly a problem.
Although Sir is skeptical of the actress's age, it has to be said that letting Ma Yili play Zheng Dongni is by no means the most suitable choice.
Not age, but temperament.
Ma Yili's temperament is not a mother-in-law, but she is very "real" and down-to-earth "real".
A little idealism in "real" is the most wonderful.
She plays a delicate and delicate, shrewd and decent Shanghai woman, lively and recognized as the most suitable;
Play a somewhat smart, anxious but always cheerful middle-class woman, also alive.
In any case, Ma Yili gives the impression that it is upward, and if she encounters difficulties, the attribution is clear and solvable.
Like Zheng Dongni, her problems are circular and endless.
There is a temperamental misalignment between the characters and the actors.
When she commanded her family in a commanding tone.
- Well, strong mother.
When she poked the secrets of everyone, she put the unbearable into the sun.
- Well, the original match for playing green tea.
When she pointed out everyone's hypocrisy, she opened all her fire to fight for the Western Decision.
- Well, righteous leadership.
Found no, mother, original match, leader... It's all about identity that is greater than women's significance.
Ma Yili put these symbols into play.
Only did not perform the "big woman" named Zheng Dongni.
The little sister Zheng Nanyin in the original book always resists the next generation calling her "aunt", and vile some concepts to let people call her "aunt".
Why?
Not yet in today's social context, "aunt" means motherhood, hard work, tolerance... Everyone benefits from her, and identity comes before the individual.
"Auntie" is different.
The youngest child in the family, no one has any expectations for her to "support this family", she represents personality, pampering, and flamboyance...
The smaller the taste of "aunt", the stronger the "femininity" is possible.
And the mystery, dust, charm, and fragility that belong to Zheng Dongni are difficult to see in Ma Yili, the "aunt" of wind and fire.
Of course, this can't all blame Ma Yili, the plot, atmosphere, and shape of the pot are larger.
As for the other characters, thank Ma Yili for the controversy.
The fire on her styling and acting skills covers up the mediocrity of other characters.
Xi Jue, played by Bai Yu, said in the words of the barrage, "Move the Leshan Buddha away and let him sit."
It's a character with a burst of self-dedication.
The third uncle's family was kind to him, he wanted to inherit the mantle of the third uncle and be the big patriarch of this family, and he did not hesitate to give up the opportunity to study abroad that Dongni gave him, and he refused twice.
It stands to reason that he sacrificed his life, suffered emotional blows again and again, and was noble and not greasy, the key is to be handsome.
Isn't this the most popular "broken feeling" character of the moment?
It's just that let Bai Yu, who is used to playing the "aggrieved big brother", play it, a face that is rubbed round and flattened by life, all the grievances are all given to him by life, pure unlucky, pure innocent, and have nothing to do with his own personality.
He carries the most explosive plot of the first half of the novel:
His girlfriend turned out to be a female student who Xiao Shu had an ambiguous relationship with when he was young.
Because of this love, the lives of Xiaoshu and the female student were both ruined, and now by chance, they have come to the same family.
Once dry firewood and broken mirrors were reunited, the two renewed their relationship when they were young, and their girlfriends became aunt.
The noble West of course chose to give in.
Not only to give in, but also to sincerely wish, but also to give up their place in open classes, but also to help create conditions for their showdown.
"Leshan Buddha" this Buddha.
Such a role that is already very down, but also let Bai Yu's good-tempered "grievance face" play.
That's down and down, wilt and wither.
- There is no more three-dimensional imagination at all.
But in fact, in the original work, a large part of his life difficulties are caused by his own personality.
And Bai Yu's "Western Decision", the symbolic meaning of "pitiful" on his body is still greater than the gender meaning of men.
When the woman held his face and said "what a cute face", in the original book, the two immediately began healthy exercise, but Bai Yu's pitiful face appeared in the play...
Sir was really afraid that the woman would shell out a wad of money to donate to him.
02
The original book of "Dragon City" is not mature.
The plot is too presumptuous, and the forced tragedy is used to move the story forward.
It's just that it's a little good, even if we find that many of the characters' dilemmas are because of their own "doing" after careful consideration, it is undeniable that the characters in the book are extremely sexual.
Whether it is Dongni, who lives by men, or Xidu, who is like a Buddha, or even supporting roles, such as Jiang Wei, a female reporter who has a relationship with Xidu, there will be a desire to let the opposite sex find out.
(Sir is not talking about "sexual charm" that both men and women want to sleep with, but the gender attractiveness of being a "man" or "woman.") ）
First of all, to have some sexual attraction, people have to be vigorous, even if you want to go in the direction of depravity, you can't be lifeless and really tired.
Why does Sir say that the drama version of "Dragon City" has a sense of middle age?
Because of its exhaustion.
Everyone seems to have been defeated by life, living solidly in this world, with trivial troubles.
The troubles in the original book are different, they are all very macroscopic events.
Divorce, giving birth to a child with cerebral palsy, opening a store, earthquakes, paternity tests...
But none of the original surrendered early.
Secondly, the original characters are not spread out and looked at the end, they are somewhat mysterious.
For example, the image of Zheng Dongni is the most "real" and the least upward.
She is a person with strong self-destructive tendencies, and her intention described in the original book as "moth".
He did not hesitate to put out the fire, knowing that this act would burn himself to death.
My favorite song is also Faye Wong's "Fighting Fire".
Loving moths to the fire is a kind of depravity
Who likes to treat torture every day as enjoyment
But devotion for love
Makes me feel proud and great
It is "depravity", "torture as enjoyment", and "dedication to love" as "pride and greatness".
Dongni's sense of self-destruction is vividly expressed by her favorite songs.
But she is not completely passive and self-defeating.
Zheng Dongni knows that he is "not interesting to live", but he wants to live to show everyone, "the old lady can live better than you".
Although no one wants her to have a bad life.
After graduating from high school, he went to Singapore to sing and earn money. There was no money to buy lipstick during the interview, so she picked up the lipstick left by others on the bar and applied it from an unknown age, and pouted the lipstick with too much force, singing nervously while worried that people would find her for a claim.
I didn't expect it to pass.
Neither the reader nor Dongni knows whether she passed because of her singing voice or beauty.
In short, during the days she was out and about, she knew her strengths and made the most of them.
Zheng Dongni's beauty level is not a small beauty that is easy to be raided, but an undoubted big beauty, using men while also carrying the pride of beautiful women.
Mean-spoken, hot-tempered, and not taking moral rules into account, there are still people holding her (of course, even if no one is holding her, she will still go her own way).
One of Sir's most memorable episodes is that he smokes hard despite Xi Jue's advice, even though she knows that smoking will cause lung cancer.
Sometimes I think I'm going to have lung cancer. I already have lung cancer. My lungs have turned gray, black. The more I thought about it, the more scared I became. The more I was afraid, the more distracted I became. And then I thought, I've got to smoke one to calm myself down. She smiled, "Zheng Xizhi, I am a person who has no cure.
Dusty and dashing, is one of her sides.
And vulnerability is another side of her.
The injury came from the family of origin.
Dongni's parents, "crazy approval" this batch - love is vigorous, and when Dad was young, he fought with his love rival in front of the steel furnace and almost beat people into hot molten iron.
From the current point of view, this is pure violent tendencies.
But in those oppressive times, this was about "romance."
It's just that this extreme romance evolved into conflict after marriage. Dongni's mother will break the kettle in front of the child because of a disagreeing sentence; Dongni's father will stuff the broken warm pot into his wife's mouth in front of the child because of this act.
Zheng Dongni inherited these madness to a certain extent.
She indifferently pushed the third uncle's family who came to help out the door and faced these storms alone.
In a beautiful woman who gathers mysterious, dashing, and fragile characteristics, coupled with tragic origins and experiences, there is no need to be flattering at all, and the opposite sex naturally wants to explore.
These plots, except for the interview scene told through the mouth of the actor, most of the other plots were weakened, the stuffed pot was gone, and the mutual torture of the two became reasonable: the father suspected that his mother was having an affair with another man.
It would seem more reasonable to find a reason, but it also transferred the madness in the love between the two to reality.
The sharpness of the character of Dongni also plummeted and became flattened.
The same is true of the West.
His "Great Buddha" behavior stems from a deep sense of inferiority.
Because he received too much favor from the third uncle's family, he had nothing to reward, he could only do his best to be good to everyone, and he was eager to stay in Dragon City to be the next generation of third uncles.
Like an ostrich, he uses his devotion to dissolve all problems, not solve them.
There were two redactions that Sir was impressed with.
One is that Nishi never drove and switched to riding a bicycle.
It's not just the difference in economics, driving is a sign of a man's maturity in the original book, and the driver is able to plan a trip for the whole family.
Cycling is a little less "mature", and the stereotypical "male charm" is reduced by one point.
The more deadly adaptation is the dewy affair with Jiang Wei.
In the play, it was Zheng Dongni who brought Xidu into Jiang Wei's house to borrow, and the original work was a spontaneous act of the two:
Drinking rolled together.
For the next period of time, the two had a purely physical relationship, until they had feelings, and Xi decided to confess impulsively, and Jiang Wei said:
I have a husband.
This house is the "safe house" where she has private meetings with men.
This period was the moment when the "Buddha" nature returned to man, from symbol to man.
And the drama completely deleted the physical relationship between the two, and changed the reason for Jiang Wei's break with him to "is separating from her husband and divorcing".
△ So bright, how to produce love?
Na Xi Jue's departure seems too fussy and conformist - what difference does it make with her who is divorced, months earlier and months later.
He turned back into that boring and languishing moral symbol.
03
Now you can tell:
The misalignment of the actors and the plot is actually the adaptation and the appearance of the original work.
The series smooths out most of the sharpness in the novel.
It stands to reason that the elements in the book, the original family, are all plots that can stimulate bloody conflicts.
But "Dragon City" has the ability to shoot these things extremely flat.
The plot of Xi Zhi catching Uncle Bao and his girlfriend has a great impact in the original book:
The uncle suddenly suffered a stroke and was hospitalized, and Xi Jue went to Xiao Shu's house to inform him.
Xiao Shu Shen did not give up and answered what he asked, because his heart was weak and evasive, and he became a spinning top.
In this fiery moment, Xidu's girlfriend came out of the kitchen. Or a very life-like scene:
Complain that the kitchen is too small and dark.
It's like she's coming to examine the living space of the future.
Silent explosion of thunder, bloomed in the middle of the three, and even more exploded the readers who saw here.
And the drama version is much softer.
When he arrived at Xiao Shu's house, Xi Jue first found a pair of women's high heels, and asked innocently:
Uncle, where is Sun Lu?
(Sun Lu is his blind date, an unimportant NPC)
He found that the relationship between Xiao Shu and his girlfriend would have to wait until many episodes later.
The pain of the West and the vulnerability that followed it seemed less important.
Similarly, after his girlfriend broke up, the portrayal of his pain was too much less dramatic, leaving only Bai Yu's tired and confused eyes like a middle-aged man.
Passion is gone, why talk about sexual charm?
The same is true of the portrayal of Dongni.
One of the most important changes, the child she gave birth to, in the original book, is a child with trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), the appearance is very obvious, and you can tell at a glance that it is an unhealthy child.
And in the play, it was changed to asthma, and it was only a high chance of getting asthma.
Dongni's pain was relieved by more than half.
Her low self-esteem sensitivity has also been reduced by half.
There are many episodes in the book, it is he who carries this sick child who can be seen at a glance, suspecting that others are looking down on him.
I don't have the courage to think about what Beibei will think of Zheng Chenggong when he becomes an adult, anyway, it's like a ball game with a terrible disparity in strength, the score of the Beibei team has gone all the way up, and Zheng Chenggong will always have only a ridiculous, lonely "1". Zheng Chenggong was born to me, so I had no choice but to sit in the empty Zheng Chenggong fan area forever, cheering for this eternal first game like a clown, enduring the embarrassment and loneliness of a stand...
This caused her to have a certain degree of psychological distortion, and she would even pinch the flesh of her own children.
This is definitely not in the play.
And Dongni's bad and hard-hearted heart are only reflected in other people's mouths.
The only plot that can tell her "bad" is the-for-tat confrontation with her parents.
But even these-for-tat confrontations have been erased, including the dereliction of duty of parents and the madness inherited by Dongni.
In a harmonious and beautiful world, Dongni's character seems to be just a big sister with a poisonous mouth.
Without this madness and self-destruction, the mystery is gone.
Leave a correct and perfect shell.
Less extreme is less romance, less romance is less filter.
And these filters are the root of increasing the attractiveness of men and women:
The essence of character charm comes from imagination and brain supplementation.
So look at Sir.
It's not that Ma Yili wasted the role of a "big beauty".
But the national drama once again wasted the sexiness that a female character should have.
The picture of this article comes from the Internet
Editorial Assistant: Kitano Martial Arts Master