"The Sea of Dreams": The youthful breakthrough of Peking opera
Beijing Daily Client | Reporter Li Xiazhi
The youth inspirational emotional drama "The Sea of Dreams" is being broadcast on CCTV Eight Sets, Oriental Satellite TV and Tencent Video. Getting rid of the common alley narrative of Beijing-style operas, this drama integrates the background of youth into the period drama, and relives the beauty of the era with the passionate struggle story of a generation of young people.
The play takes Xiao Chunsheng (played by Xiao Zhan), Tong Xiaomei (played by Li Qin) and the growth experience of several "post-70s" young people in Beijing as the main line, depicting their struggle history of swimming against the current and pursuing their dreams together in the wave of changing times. In the story, the idealistic young Xiao Chunsheng sincerely pursues his dreams, and he finally finds the direction of struggle after experiencing setbacks in life; Tong Xiaomei is soft on the outside and tough on the inside, persistent and brave, she regards doctors as a firm believer, and has written her brilliant life on the career path.
At the beginning of the series, Xiao Chunsheng, Ye Guohua and others began to create a youth group portrait of Beijing's youth. In order to restore the texture of life in the 70s, the main creative team has polished it with ingenuity, whether it is clothing details such as stick-knitted sweaters and military coats, or the Shichahai Ice Rink and the old Beijing Hu and other city styles, everything and scenery pursues a sense of realism and substitution. In order to achieve the truth of the scene, the play invests a lot of energy in collecting information and presenting details. It was revealed that because the beer mug used that year could not be found, the crew specially used 3D printing technology to make more than 50. When the series was broadcast, Xiao Chunsheng's age-rich stickers and the "bomb dropping instruction map" with the characteristics of the times were discovered by sharp-eyed audiences one by one.
On the day of the premiere of the drama, the national live broadcast attention of Kuyun exceeded 1.6115%, ranking the top 1 in the same period, and the popularity value on Tencent Video Station exceeded 23,000, and the high-energy plot caused heated discussions. According to China's Audiovisual Big Data (CVB), the real-time attention of Kuyun ranked first in the whole channel within 4 days of the series, with a peak of more than 1.8%; The webcast platform also performed well, with the popularity value of Tencent Video Station exceeding 25,000. The youthfulness of period dramas provides the show with innate viewing advantages, and the vivid group portraits of characters and the unique era imprint from the "70s" have narrowed the distance with the audience.
The play is directed by Fu Ning, who has directed many realistic dramas such as "Hutong" and "Family Portrait", Ye Jing as the chief planner, Xu Bing and Zhou Heyang as the screenwriter, and Yang Xiaopei, who has handled many popular and high-quality dramas, as the artistic director and chief producer, she strictly controls the core and artistic level of the series, and penetrates high requirements and high standards into every link of creation. Yang Xiaopei said that he hopes that through the story of ordinary little people's growth and struggle, the style of the times will be reflected and the upward values will be transmitted. As a rare drama in the current film and television market that uses youth in the 70s as an incision, the story will also show Xiao Chunsheng and others choosing their different life directions under the impact of the trend of the times. Individual destiny echoes the big era, and the struggle stories of young people also echo the trend of the development of the times.
This is also a way for period dramas to break through the past family narrative and move towards a broader home country narrative. Peking opera breaks the inherent habit of time narrative, and comes out of the short and short in the hutongs, from the more traditional value orientation and family stories, to the more local characteristics of Beijing's youth group portrait growth story. The "post-70s" Beijing youth, represented by Xiao Chunsheng, have added more ambition and vitality linked with the times, and the stories of him and his friends will reflect the growth of a generation of Beijing youth, and also reflect the impact of the changes of the times on personal destiny with a small group of characters. This is the youthfulness of Beijing opera, and it is also a further expansion of the theme of period drama, and this kind of vigorous character has also created another typical image for Beijing opera.