Director Lin Yan mentioned to us that in the creation of "Dragon City", she discussed the commonalities of different family dramas with director Teng Huatao, the executive producer, and finally came to think, "In a big family, everyone has a front, back and gray side, what we want to see is for the family, how do people try their best to pull their black back, push out their white, and hide those ashes." On this basis, screenwriter Wu Nan believes that the innovation of "Dragon City" lies in the fact that it is not created from family ethics and set in the traditional framework of family dramas, but is "like life itself, it comes naturally", and "by writing well about the diversity and multifaceted nature of people, it naturally goes back to the family that everyone cannot do without, so as to explore the relationship between people and family".
Author: Lan Er
Editor: Prince Zhi
Format: Wang Wei
In the view of Xiong Xiaoling, vice president of iQiyi and chief producer of "Dragon City", "every literary adaptation is like opening a blind box", and the basis of each adaptation is different, the works to be formed are different, and the paths are therefore very different.
"Dragon City" is a family ethics drama produced by iQiyi and self-made by iQiyi Esni Studio, adapted from writer Di An's "Dragon City Trilogy", focusing on a traditional and atypical large family Zheng family, the "three uncles" family with unattended nephews and nieces to form an expanded modern family; The three people who grew up in it, Dongni, Xidu, and Nanyin, show completely different personalities and attitudes around life issues such as survival, love, and family.
At the content level, this drama amplifies the interpretation of the multi-level relationship between family and individual, deepens the excavation of the "black, white and gray" dimension of people, and explores the coexistence boundary between individual and family in this era of self-pursuit; At the same time, based on the literary nature of the original work, it has formed a rather flavorful texture in terms of detail elements and image style, which makes people significantly feel the freshness from the field of family dramas.
What does family drama innovation watch?
The audience's criticism of some traditional family dramas is often "old-fashioned" or "weak" - this does not mean that the audience is unwilling to watch it, on the contrary, the market demand for family life dramas is still strong, but the creative positioning of the drama itself has not kept up with the changes.
In director Lin Yan's view, TV dramas may have been the most important entertainment way for the public to understand the lives of others in the past, but today, many new media forms, including short videos, serve as a rich medium for people to observe diversified lives, and the speed of change is fast and the amount of information is huge, so today's family dramas cannot stop at "display", but "dig deep into the core".
The innovation of "Dragon City" comes from its contrast.
In today's life, the family unit is getting smaller and smaller, screenwriter Wu Nan called it "nuclear family", in recent years we often see family dramas around husband and wife life, parent-child relationship, growth education and other topics, are this kind of small family story. The uniqueness of "Dragon City" comes from the composition and character relationship of the traditional Chinese big family.
The "Third Uncle's Family", a small family that does not have to bear the burden of a large family, gathers lonely individuals from other blood relatives to live together; "A complete small family + fragments of other families", which must contain complex events and emotions.
"And in this story, the family's life is viewed from the perspective of a young person, which adds another layer of uniqueness." Chief producer Xiong Xiaoling emphasized.
We can see that there are very rich layers in this story. For example, in the logic of growth, the influence of the original family on people's character and beliefs; There are very personal explorations of different loves; There are collisions about different ways of guarding loved ones; In the era of freedom and independence, there is a flow of trade-offs between overall harmony and individual boundaries; There are people who either flee or cling to it, contradictions about the inheritance of large families...
There are both the genre characteristics of family dramas and the breakthrough of boundaries. It is precisely because of the richness of the layers that "Dragon City" has the possibility of rich interpretation, which allows a variety of audiences to correspond to the "nucleus" they care about, and let them find "answers" in it, which can form the "greatest common divisor" creation that cares for the needs and emotions of mainstream audiences.
In fact, even the main creators have their own different excitement about "Dragon City".
Director Lin Yan corresponds to her own real perception.
"After 2000, we seem to suddenly enter a more self-aware life atmosphere, we flee from our families, we flee our hometown, and when we reach middle age and experience a lot of things and look back, we can know ourselves and pursue many things, but it can actually coexist with our traditions and our extended family." In the past ten years of our independent personality determination, we should face up to the positive and negative emotions brought by the family and deal with it reasonably, which is what we hope to convey through this drama. ”
Screenwriter Wu Nan believes that from the original book to the series, the basis of innovation in "Dragon City" is that it is not created with family ethics as the starting point and set in the traditional framework of family dramas, but "just like life itself, it comes naturally", "by writing well about the diversity and multifaceted nature of people, it naturally goes back to the family that everyone cannot do without, so as to explore the relationship between people and family".
In the view of chief producer Xiong Xiaoling, the difference between "Dragon City" and common family dramas in the past is that "the literary nature of the novel and the drama of reality are better combined", the moderate iterative rhythm of a series of events, the combination of more artistic images and literary element details, "the look and feel will be more balanced, making people feel that life flows quietly".
Such a family drama with a special perspective and texture will form a richer complementarity and symphonic effect when placed in iQIYI's self-made original content array.
For example, iQiyi's 2022 "Home of the Heart" and "Dragon City" are relatively developed at the same stage and on the front and back feet, and they are interesting to form a contrasting cut. From a spatial point of view, the former focuses more on the struggle of life in super-first-tier cities, while the latter presents traditional life relationships that may take root in second-, third- and fourth-tier cities; From the perspective of the time dimension of life, the latter is about the original origin of ordinary people, and the former is about where we go after we go out; From the perspective of family structure, "Dragon City" focuses on the changes in people's original families, perhaps being broken and ushering in new entrants, while "Home of the Heart" is a collision process in which people themselves are new entrants and integrate into other families.
It can be seen that iQIYI continues to do self-control and deep cultivation around the emotions, family and life fields of contemporary people, which is to constantly supplement the observation puzzle of society in the content ecology, so as to dynamically meet the core emotional needs of users for a long time and answer their confusion about the changes of the times at any time.
The meaning of the "family" framework
As mentioned earlier, "Dragon City" as a series hopes to achieve the "greatest common divisor" of issues, aesthetics, and emotions for mainstream audiences, so the biggest difference between it and the original work lies in the core perspective and the background color.
"Do we simply want the audience to see the background and harshness of the characters, or do we want to present the colors of the characters under a warm and cohesive family? We ended up choosing the latter. Director Lin Yan said.
Therefore, for screenwriter Wu Nan, the biggest difficulty in creating is to better balance the rich and layered themes, amplify and transform the binary conflict proposition between the family and the individual hidden in the novel, and take into account the warmth of the family background and the pain of the personal background.
In the process, the series tries to see the meaning of family from the present, and to see more things through family.
Families have their own "Tao".
The "word" of the family sometimes tests people. For example, Xiao Shu is with Xi Jue's ex-girlfriend Chen Yan, and has to face the criticism of the family from the elder to the young, the third uncle may be able to understand his brother's true love, but he must also firmly stand on the side of his nephew Xi Jue; On the other hand, Xi Zhi must be extremely sad, but he has to stand up to comfort Xiao Shu, help turn around among family members, and repair relationships. Obviously, both sides are aggrieved, "when you go to maintain a thing that does not break, you must give up something", screenwriter Wu Nan understands, but this transfer is not an absolute "sacrifice" concept, if you identify with the family, identify with a certain choice, "you lose, you will also be rewarded".
What I hope to shape more in "Dragon City" is that the "Tao" of the family is more often healing people. Whether it is the sharpness of Dongni, the fragility of Xidu, the willfulness of Nanyin, or the immaturity of the emotional entanglements and life choices of the parents and mothers of the previous generation of Dongni, the family will always tolerate your imperfections and support each individual.
From the drama to reality, this may also be the meaning of family to everyone in this era that emphasizes self, individual freedom and individual choice.
At the same time, in the view of screenwriter Wu Nan, "Dragon City" also presents that when everyone really finds a healthier coexistence relationship between individuals and families, people will complete a "post-youth" growth.
For example, in the play, Xidu has an excessive binding and dependence on the big family, adding too heavy responsibility shackles to the self; And Dongni, between the noisy native family that follows the shadow, and the third uncle's family, which can shade herself but does not really belong to herself, she obviously longs for the warmth of a traditional family, but because of insecurity and distrust, she is constantly drifting and fleeing.
So when the series comes to an end, Nishi can truly find himself and have independent individuality; Dongni is able to mend the loopholes in his life and take over the guardianship of the family relatives in the hands of the third uncle and third aunt; On the basis of their original emotional support for each other, they can further support each other geographically, which will be their growth.
When the family is passed on to the hands of a new generation of individuals, the new generation will no longer be the traditional "third uncle" and "third aunt", but will appear to renew the understanding of the family, and after the new generation of relationships is formed between the families, the traditional concept of "family" will also carry out its own growth and development. This may also be the final thinking space in "Dragon City".
Fun to interpret multiple group portraits
Director Lin Yan mentioned to us that in the creation of "Dragon City", she discussed the commonalities of different family dramas with director Teng Huatao, the executive producer, and finally came to think, "In a big family, everyone has a front, back and gray side, what we want to see is for the family, how do people try their best to pull their black back, push out their white, and hide those ashes."
Screenwriter Wu Nan also shared that to move the audience to this drama is actually to "dig into the complexity of the characters and let the audience identify with the imperfections of the characters; The more tension, the more moved you will be."
Indeed, whether in the original novel or the series, the shaping of the group portraits of the characters is very exciting.
For example, Dongni's sharpness is sharp, but also has the enthusiasm to sweep everything, and the tenacity that seems to have nothing to bear. Xi Jue's tolerance and compassion, whenever the family seems to be on the verge of collapse because of contradictions, he can save it with all his might. Nanyin's true righteousness can rush ahead without any burden for her family. The love and sobriety of the third uncle and the third aunt, as an elder, unconditionally tolerate children, but clearly identify their plight and shortcomings.
And importantly, when these group portraits are fully shaped, a special mapping mirror will be formed in the play, so that each character does not have to "backpack". Typical example is Dongni, without being a heroine, the creator needs to follow certain default rules to cover up her extreme character. Because the mapping between different character events will make the state of the character present a more reasonable flow; The sharpness of Dongni's body may seem eye-catching at the previous moment, but when the next moment is suitable for the plot and the needs of others, it may become the key support for breaking through difficulties, fully ensuring the multi-faceted reality and three-dimensional view of people.
However, the shaping of characters in "Dragon City" is not only the fullness of individuals, but also the literary nature it contains, forming some very interesting interpretation values on character group portraits.
For example, how can we view the relationship between Dongni, Xidu, and Nanyin.
Screenwriter Wu Nan believes that East Ni and West are "two sides of the same body" of one person. Everyone has a hidden side in their hearts, "crazy", wanting to "break through", "wanting to be themselves righteously"; At the same time, everyone also has a self-determined side in their hearts, that is, "I am a moral person who can not be judged by morality, and may even be somewhat holy."
Under these interpretations, Nanyin's psychology seems to have become a real and contradictory "audience perspective" that is participating in position discussions while watching, both yearning for the arbitrariness of Dongni and feeling the warmth of Xidu, and her growth arc has actually become one of the thoughts and choices for each of us to watch the drama.
In our view, East Ni and West are also forming other control groups, such as typically, showing the difference in the way people guard love: the former is an "attack" fighter, using a more intense way to tear up the unstable factors before the threat comes; The latter, on the other hand, are "defensive" monks who use a gentler approach to bridge, defuse, and possibly even transform threatening people or things.
There are many such contrasting structures: such as the three uncles and the west decision, the third aunt and the east neon two generations of "watchmen"; The generation and maturity of the two generations such as Dongni's parents and mother, and Dongni's West decision are reversed, and the next generation needs to pay for the choices of the previous generation with their own lives; Wait a minute.
These reveal the unique insight of the creator into human nature, life, and the world from a literary perspective in the creation based on reality. What family dramas will ultimately return to is a deep-rooted and open-ended observation and narration, leaving something that people can taste and echo repeatedly, and this is the most special interest and texture of "Dragon City".
THE END