The moment I saw the title of the play "Grandma's New World", the freshness of the old age theme really caught my attention.
In recent years, there has rarely been a middle-aged and elderly character as the protagonist in front of the public, and when today's domestic dramas once again focused on middle-aged and elderly women, no one expected that a sixty-year-old mother-in-law's runaway from home could be so exciting.
The screenwriter of the play, Li Xiang, can be said to be one of the male screenwriters who are best at portraying female characters, the sister in "Peacock", Wang Cailing in "Lichun", the aunt in "Aunt's Postmodern Life", and even the boys and girls in "To Our Dying Youth", each role is so three-dimensional and vivid.
As early as 2004, Li Xiang as the screenwriter of "I Want to Fall in Love", the female character said: "In fact, people who hate single women are remembering hatred, remembering that they have fallen into the trap of marriage, because his freedom has been sentenced to life imprisonment" and other classic and profound lines. But here you will find a problem, it seems that all feminist dramas have all eyes on female characters aged 18-35.
Therefore, to today, when the audience sees Jiang Wenli and Ming Dao talking about love in "Love at the Corner", they will have an embarrassing feeling of picking their toes. Leaving aside how well the characters fit together, when a 60-year-old actress begins to fall in love in front of the screen, it seems that the audience will immediately conclude that she has lost her original right to freedom. Love? No way!
So looking at the classic line in "I Want to Fall in Love", we will find that the elderly female character is the one who is most likely to be sentenced to "life imprisonment" or even "death".
This statement does not mean that the portrayal of older women's roles is more rigid, but that they lose not only freedom, but the entire life with the right to make their own choices.
In domestic dramas, most of the audience's common images of elderly women are limited to labels such as "good mother-in-law", "good grandma" or "vicious queen", and the existence of elderly women is only to enrich the texture of life.
But in "Grandma's New World", the audience will exclaim that the elderly can also choose the life they want. The grandmother Sun Yuping in the play has worked for half her life for the family, for her husband, daughter, granddaughter, and even for her son-in-law who has no blood relationship, and her hard-working fate has only one purpose: to be recognized by others.
The more you give, the more you suffer complaints, the more you tend to be kind, the more you do bad things and do more wrong. The image of older women seems to have a natural cage on the head, and they cannot escape the "innate responsibility" of stereotypes, at least she does not have to be depressed because of her daughter's failed marriage or her granddaughter's poor grades.
In the entire episode of complaining and foreshadowing, Grandma's timidity is fully portrayed. As a non-original fan, I will constantly imagine what "New World" means, and the approximate guess is that the series tends to be "fantastical" in style. But in the double-speed narrative rhythm blessed by the narration, "Grandma's New World" surprised me that the screenwriter boldly abandoned conventional reality issues and turned to the most extreme and exaggerated plot: "elderly women + running away from home".
In fact, the audience was shocked by the departure of grandmother Sun Yuping, and the big reason came from society's binding and restraint on women, especially elderly women. Subconsciously, the viewer will think that older women have lost the ability to navigate the world independently, and that they still need to make maximum contributions and sacrifices for their families.
Therefore, when the autonomy of elderly women awakens, not saying goodbye without leaving any information is the best reward for the rest of their lives. She wants to be sober, she wants to be free, she wants to enjoy the world independently, she wants to live a different life, why do we subconsciously think that they can't do it?
Elderly women also want to be themselves, no matter how late the awakening is also an awakening, the awakening of independent consciousness is worth showing, "Grandma's New World" brings the audience new answers.
After her grandmother ran away from home, her granddaughter Dou Qi and her aunt also embarked on the road to find her grandmother. Such a warm and realistic road movieThrough communication with strangers, Dou Qi re-acquainted with her grandmother step by step, and re-acquainted with the "familiar stranger" who almost "ruined" her life.
Grandma's wonderful life really began at this moment, and along the way she met all kinds of women, including female fugitives, old classmates, year-end friends, disabled people... The whole drama is about to enter the altar from the moment it runs away from home, but it plummets in the first story. I understand that the screenwriter wants to show the audience a multi-angle, three-dimensional vivid image, so my grandmother's journey along the way is full of bumps.
Success is also here, defeat is also here, and Grandma's rich experience is like a revised version of the collection of "Story Club", awkward and boring. Grandma's character and personality in each story have not been changed by the increase in experience, but she has always retained her self-considered "kind" appearance, from beginning to end, from beginning to end.
In the episode of the female shopkeeper played by Yao Chen, the grandmother's verbal comfort or any self-assertive behavior did not help such a disabled person, but was an imposed concern for doing bad things with good intentions; Even next to the painter, the offer to send his sister Haiyan to a nursing home and other jaw-dropping ideas ...
Grandma's three-dimensional, multi-faceted, and vivid image is not reflected through her own character arc transformation, because she always plays the "savior" in her heart under the background of narration. In the episode of all female characters, Grandma's rebellious story connects women of all ages, trying to untie the shackles that the era and family have created on women, and discuss and criticize real problems.
But the more you want, the more confusing you become. The collage of the story is like a sitcom, which is not a bargain but makes all kinds of profound issues childish.
Especially in the episode where Grandma Meets an Old Classmate, several people around Douyin live broadcast laughter exaggerated performance, which gave me a sense of déjà vu of "Private Order". So, is this the awakening of the consciousness that shows the grandmother's independent exploration of the world, or the "Truman's world" that plays on the scene?
The original intention of the story is good, we hope that Grandma can be herself, can be an interpreter, and no longer need to be a listener.
The story of her grandmother's journey has indeed affected some people, including her granddaughter Dou Qi, so when Dou Qi meets her favorite boy, she can boldly show her heart and show her naked and hot beating youth.
But what about Grandma? When all kinds of people in the story are telling the sorrow and suffering of all living beings in a flat tone, who really cares about the story of grandma? Dou Qi found a lover she could entrust for life, and her mother and father returned to the family after releasing their previous suspicions, so what about the grandmother, the protagonist of the story, what did she get?
The open-ended ending gives the audience more reverie, maybe this journey is a dream under the children's guilty hearts, maybe they care about their inability to make up for their regrets.
Maybe Grandma's new world is a scam, but at least in this complicated world, Grandma's appearance must have helped some people, even if only one person.
Although this drama cannot be called excellent, she deserves to be seen in terms of the awakening of an older woman alone.