Text | Ling Hu Boguang
"The Long Season" has been over for a few days, it has a score of 9.0, the most worrying thing is that it will be rotten, not to mention that this year there are "Crazy", "Daughter Back", "Who is He" and other rotten works.
As a result, the 10th episode of the show was rated 9.2, the 11th episode rose to 9.3, the 12th episode ended at 9.4, and then rose to 9.5 points, and the rating audience was almost 240,000 before the publication of this post, still standing at 9.5. There is no doubt that "The Long Season" has become a milestone for domestic dramas.
Why the score of "The Long Season" is so high, I believe different audiences have different understandings.
However, I have always loved to start from the perspective of the development of the cultural industry, and I think many have overlooked the most important point, that is, the production level of this drama. It is not very accurate to ignore it, everyone can see that the soundtrack, light and film, television and listening of this drama are very good.
But I believe that many people do not realize that the lens language of "The Long Season" combines narrative text and core thought expression. It is a milestone in the new era of learning the production model of British and American dramas, and finally becoming a new school of domestic dramas of its own, and I think it can lead the model of domestic dramas in the next ten years.
Some people say that it will not be too exaggerated, here is an analysis from the perspective of lens language and the development of domestic dramas.
What era is the best era for domestic dramas? 8090 is art, 00s are the pinnacle
The production of film and television dramas includes art, camera movement, soundtrack, sound effects, editing, service and so on. In fact, film and television dramas are the art of light and film, sight and hearing. Now we often see netizens say that a film and television script is the most important.
The expression core, narrative text, lens language, and then technology are all important parts of film and television dramas.
The peak era of domestic drama art was the 8090s, that is, the period of CCTV's "Four Masterpieces". The mainland dramas of that period reached the level of "artwork" in terms of both art costumes and lens language, and any screenshot was a painting of a different style.
Of course, at that time, mainland dramas, including CCTV's "Four Masterpieces", also had many shortcomings, such as frequent actor changes, big scenes were not good, and various details were worn and so on.
The peak of mainland TV dramas had to be from 00 to 2010, and in the past ten years, masterpieces were frequently released. The real metaphysical text core, the metaphysical production level has reached the pinnacle of the peak.
Historical dramas "Towards the Republic", "Daming Dynasty", etc., war dramas "Bright Sword", "My Regiment Commander My Regiment", etc., spy war dramas "Dark Calculation", "Lurking" and so on.
At the same time, Hong Kong and Taiwan directors filmed the "Fengyun" and "Immortal Sword" series filmed in the north, which are also excellent works.
After 2010, the old-school serious drama team in the mainland declined, and Hong Kong and Taiwan creators also reached their peak. As financial capital replaced the "coal boss" capital into the cultural industry, and later the "traffic economy" was born, Hong Kong and Taiwan creators made peace with these, which eventually led to the complete festering of domestic dramas.
It is not a wrongful Hong Kong and Taiwan creator, everyone who is interested can check the "Anti-Japanese God Drama", A Baoshi skin grinding cutout costume drama, the proportion of Hong Kong and Taiwan creators is surprisingly high.
Anti-Japanese dramas, costume dramas? Last time, this company almost saved domestic dramas
In this case, there are still some teams exploring breakthroughs and finally laying the production model of domestic dramas in the previous decade, what they mainly need to do is to innovate the production level, narrative text and expression Because of the remake of IP such as online novels, the work is too popular and in-depth, but it still saves the domestic dramas in the next ten years.
First, the mainland serious drama team transformed into a popular IP shooting market, at least innovated costume dramas, urban dramas, spy dramas and other themes, kicking the Hong Kong and Taiwan teams out of the top resources.
First of all, Zheng Xiaolong's "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and "The Legend of Miyue" led a trend. Later, like "Yanxi Raiders", "Ruyi's Legend", "That Year the Flower Bloomed and the Moon Was Full", "Da Ming Fenghua" and so on, anyway, the big heroine's costume drama is inseparable from the influence.
The most far-reaching influence is still the noon sun, first "The Pretender" innovated the spy war drama, "Langya List" innovated the costume drama, and "Ode to Joy" innovated the urban drama. Later, "Do You Know" was used to lay down the new costume drama model, and "It's All Good" laid the realistic theme urban drama model.
"Tiansheng Long Song", "Crane Pavilion", "Qing Yu Nian", "Menghualu" and so on.
If you go to check, you will find that it is the transformation of the mainland's old-school serious drama director team, and the production model is deeply influenced by the noon sun.
If you look at the role of the film and television industry, domestic urban dramas have not broken through much until now. "Thirty Only", "Twenty Not Confused", "Elite Lawyers", etc., in which domestic workplace drama, domestic life drama, did you see a huge breakthrough in art, composition, lens, soundtrack and other aspects?
"Dear Child" is not bad, this drama is also the production team (not a director) of "Hidden Corner", such domestic urban dramas are rare.
This is not as good as the main theme drama and period drama, in the early days "In the Name of the People" did not have any lens language, but later "Icebreaker Action", "Black Storm", "Punishment" and "Ice Rain and Fire" lens language are getting better and better, more and more cinematic texture.
The main theme period drama "Mountain and Sea Love", "Age of Awakening", "Merit" and "The World" are the same.
Of course, the breakthrough, exploration and laying of costume dramas for the domestic drama film and television industry has always been one of the most successful themes. In addition to the costume dramas listed above, there is also a team that obviously learns the British and American drama production model and has made a huge breakthrough in the domestic drama film and television industry.
Like Cao Dun's "Kyushu Sea Muyun" and "Chang'an Twelve Hours". Ma Boyong's other costume dramas "Feng Qi Longxi", "Daming under the Microscope" and so on.
The art costume road of costume dramas is getting better and better, and it has laid the aesthetics and film and television industry of costume dramas in the Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, there are many problems in the narrative text and core expression, so I will not expand here.
Finally, there is the suspense online drama behind "The Long Season", which is developed from "The Darker" in 14 years, "Psychological Crime" in 15 years, "White Night Chasing", "River God" and "Undocumented Crime" troika in 2017, and then to the 2020 god work Gemini "Hidden Corner" and "Silent Truth".
This one is completely learning the British and American drama mode, whether it is the production level of the lens language, or the technical processing of text narrative, and then to the length of the short drama, the card points are completely following the British and American drama. However, after learning, the director team slowly integrated and finally established its own system for domestic dramas.
Whether it is the image aesthetic system, the narrative text system, the expression core thought system and so on.
I predict that "The Long Season" will lead the national drama for at least 10 years
Since the beginning of 2023, domestic film and television dramas have exploded, and TV series include "Go to a Windy Place", "The Three-Body Problem", "Furious Rush", "Moses on the Plain", "Daming under the Microscope", "Meritorious Northeast Old Things", "Thirteen Years of Dust", "Long Season" and so on.
If you change the above set to watch, the outbreak of domestic dramas this year is quite interesting.
"Go to the Windy Place", "Crazy", "Thirteen Years of Dust" and so on are all new filming methods of old-school domestic dramas, although their production level has improved greatly, but the mode obviously retains the characteristics of old-school domestic dramas
Ma Boyong's "Daming under the Microscope" and "Old Things in the Northeast" are somewhat similar, but very close to the new domestic drama model.
"Moses on the Plain" and "The Long Season" are the new domestic dramas with the greatest metaphysical and metaphysical breakthroughs. The former lens language is completely literary and artistic filming, and the text and core also rise to the tragedy of the era of realism. An episode is more than an hour, and six episodes are more than six hours of literary films.
However, this drama is indeed too literary and artistic, and the director does not have much commercial consideration, resulting in not much popularity at all.
Although "The Long Season" dissuades many audiences with three clues in three time and space, it is more balanced in terms of the typology of suspense dramas and life dramas, that is, business and art. Even if it is not as popular as "Hidden Corner", it is still a medium-sized blockbuster drama.
The number of domestic dramas with a Douban score of more than 500,000 is a big hit, a medium-sized hit below 500,000, and a small explosion below 200,000.
In my eyes, it is not inferior to the American drama "True Detective" and the German drama "Dark", of course, "True Detective" is also a very dull literary and artistic suspense drama (how many people rush to watch it at a certain minute in episode 2).
The most similar mode of "Long Season" is "Dark", which has learned all aspects of shooting, but it is completely integrated, forming its own film and television aesthetics, narrative texts and cultural and artistic systems.
The most special domestic drama so far in 2023 is "The Three-Body Problem", which has both the filming method of old-school spy war dramas (the director's best previous work is the spy war drama "Red"), and the lens language of "Three-Body Game" is also good; But the urban dramas in front and in the middle, as well as sci-fi dramas, are new filming methods.
However, the director team obviously does not have the aesthetic and industrial capabilities of Guo Fan's team in "The Wandering Earth". Although there are the last few episodes of "Operation Guzheng" to turn the tide, the production level of the entire drama is unstable, and even some scenes have the texture of inferior nets.
The biggest advantage of the "Three-Body Problem" drama version is to restore the original work, some scenes are brilliant, but the whole work is not balanced.
Here is not stepping on "The Three-Body Problem" and holding "The Long Season", "The Three-Body Problem" is also a major breakthrough in domestic dramas (breaking through sci-fi dramas). But I think the main creative team still needs to improve in production, which is not even as good as Cao Dun and other peak domestic dramas in recent years.
The most important thing is to see from the similar style of the soundtrack, and the purchase of the copyright to the "Dark" opening song "Goodbye" as a variation. The creator of "The Three-Body Problem" is obviously also learning the shooting mode of "Dark". But the same soundtrack + lens language + text core expression.
The scene "A Matter of Time" at the end of the second episode of "The Three-Body Problem" is really far from the emotional ability of the snow scene in episode 12 of "The Long Season".
Not only in 2023, but also more than suspense dramas, the impact of "The Long Season" has just begun
"Long Season" is not only the lens language is the ceiling of domestic suspense dramas, its narrative text, actor roles and core expression have all reached new peaks, a milestone of the real new domestic drama.
The success of the show's finale is just the beginning, and its future influence will gradually emerge over time. It is certain that it will affect a domestic suspense drama, but I think it will affect more new domestic dramas and become a milestone.
In my eyes, it is one of the masterpieces of domestic dramas in the past 5 years, and similar to it are old-school domestic dramas "In the Name of the People", "Mountains and Seas", "Age of Awakening", "Nengwen Nengwu Li Yannian" and other works.
The new domestic dramas "Chang'an Twelve Hours" and "The Three-Body Problem" are influential enough, but the overall level is not mature enough.
And it has successfully surpassed the same suspense online dramas such as "White Night Chase", "Hidden Corner", "Silent Truth" and so on. These dramas are only the pinnacle of genre dramas, and the text and expression of "The Long Season" have broken through the genre drama and risen to the era and literature, and it is the highest comprehensive quality work.
Finally, "The Three-Body Problem" is a series after all and there is still a chance.
Xin Shuang's next drama, or other suspense dramas and dramas can still break through, and domestic dramas are really fully revived.