Introduction: Integrating various elements such as light comedy and suspense into genre creation, "Micro Swift Double Flight" completes the genre regeneration and quality upgrade of costume dramas.
Text | Niessing
As an important part of the domestic drama landscape, costume dramas have always attracted widespread attention from the industry and audience. In recent years, creators have continued to try innovative breakthroughs in genre themes. "Micro Swift Double Flight", which landed on Youku on June 5, has also become a powerful explorer of the costume drama track with its genre innovation, production ingenuity and value keeping.
Based on the novel "Wind and Rain, Rouge Chaos", this drama is produced by Dongyang Huanyu Film and Television Culture Co., Ltd., and directed by Wang Wei, starring Zhang Nan, Wang Yuwen, Sun Yizhou, Zhao Yingbo and Liu Meitong. The play tells the story of two sisters, Mo Xi played by Zhang Nan and Feng Yao, played by Wang Yuwen, who have experienced ups and downs and grown up together. After the series was broadcast, it received wide praise from the audience, and some young viewers even actively discussed the plot trend, actor performances and costume props on social media, saying that they "want to watch it" and "can't stop at all".
Why is such a drama that focuses on the growth story of two women loved by the audience? And what kind of new style will be given to the costume theme? When we sort out its creation and play performance, we may be able to find the answer to the innovative expression of costume dramas.
The content is always innovative, see the ingenuity
"Watching six episodes in one breath is not boring!" "The pace is fast, funny, the heroine is online, very clever and fun." On Weibo, "Shangtou" has become the keyword for netizens to comment on "Micro Swift Double Flight". And the reason why it can quickly "become popular" after being launched is inseparable from the good product of its play.
"Micro Swift Double Flight" sets the story in the early years of Anping in the Jing Kingdom, just when the young emperor took the throne at the beginning, and Zhong Yuqi, the Marquis of Mingde, joined forces with Prime Minister Wu Lang to provoke the states to make trouble. Under such a background setting, two sisters, Mo Xi and Feng Yao, appear as the protagonists, one of them is the niece of Bai Wentai, a six-pin official, who has been sending people under the fence since childhood but always dares to think and dare to act; The other is the "pearl in the palm of the second master" of the second old man Bai, who has been pampered since childhood but does not have a trace of delicateness.
The shaping of these two female characters is precisely the key to impressing the audience. Abandoning the "silly white sweet" character and the "big heroine" aura in the previous creation of the same type of theme, the character images of the two sisters in this drama are not only accepted by the audience, but also more real and cordial. They have very different origins, looks and temperaments, but they have the same integrity and kindness, they take care of each other in the small world of Baifu, and they also think about each other in the face of changes in life circumstances. When Feng Yao predicted that Moxi must have another purpose in moving out of the city and moving the grave, she immediately followed and secretly protected.
This sisterhood of walking hand in hand and helping each other in times of crisis and predicament is moving, and with female friendship and emotion as the background, this drama's grasp of story style and exquisite conception of the plot are also remarkable.
Integrating light comedy, micro-suspense and other elements, various clues are grass snake gray lines in "Micro Swift Double Flight", outlining a spirit animation scroll. On the one hand, the occasional suspense and reversal pull the audience to chase the drama; On the other hand, the quirky characters and funny and humorous lines add a lot to this drama. In Moxi's daydream, Mrs. Bai scolded her with a fierce expression one second, and greeted the official with a smile the next. In the face of Mrs. Xiangfu's sugar-coated cannonballs that did not go to the Three Treasures Hall for nothing, Second Old Master Bai bluntly said that "the ancients sincerely did not deceive me"... These light and humorous dialogues undoubtedly bring novelty to the audience, and the sincere and down-to-earth expression of life flow also expands the malleable space of costume dramas, giving the audience an ideal experience of entering the story more intuitively and feeling the story more truly.
Aim to see growth and style
With the changes in society and culture, women, especially young women, expect to see more works that reflect and express women's emotions, so in the shaping of traditional female images, the discussion of women's personal value is obviously the most colorful.
This is also vividly shown in "Micro Swift Double Flight". In the preview of the episode released by Huanyu Film and Television earlier, there was such a accompanying sentence, "The situation is unpredictable, only affection is deep, Fang Du's original intention." As the series continues to advance, the "original heart" here has a richer meaning, which not only means the strong sisterhood between Moxi and Feng Yao, but also their straightforwardness, courage in the face of love, and the protection of their feelings for home and country.
When the second old man Bai wanted Moxi to marry Chen Wende in order to win over Chen Wende, the clever Moxi used Chen Wende's majesty to seek benefits while planning to escape. Even if Feng Yao couldn't let go of her parents and family, she always stood by her side. When Moxi agreed to Chen Wende and said that she wanted to complete the marriage contract, she was ostensibly to move her mother's coffin to the ancestral grave for her parents to bury, but in fact she was to help her sweetheart Wan Jiagui escape from Jingzhou. It is understood that in the story that unfolds later, there will also be more writing about the protagonist who has the heart of the world and serves his country. In this sense, the fusion of personal ideals and family righteousness also raises the audience's expectations for chasing dramas.
Whether it is walking hand in hand in difficult situations or how to protect the home country as a young person, the emotional intention of "Micro Swift Double Flight" has the spiritual power to connect with reality. Through the screen, the mutual understanding and help between women, the precious true love between people sharing happiness and suffering, and the personal choice to live up to the righteousness of the family and the country are all the same as the inner thoughts of countless viewers in front of the screen. And this is also the embodiment of the positive values of current film and television dramas that keep pace with the times.
Just as the name of this play comes from, the Song Dynasty poet Yan Dao's poem "Linjiang Immortal Dream Hou Building Platform High Lock" "Falling flowers are independent, micro swifts fly together", the creator uses this ancient famous sentence of beautiful nature to derive the praise of women's growth and female power. When the flowing true feelings and the stirring feelings of home and country meet, "Micro Swift Double Flight" also updates the appearance of costume dramas at the conceptual level.
Culture sees tradition and self-confidence
Putting aside the intuitive aesthetic feeling full of pleasure, the traditional culture behind this drama has attracted more heated discussions among young audiences. From hairstyles to courtyard scenes, every detail reflects traditional culture and oriental aesthetics. For example, Moxi's early clothing was mostly based on half-arm open, and the clothing color was also more distinct, magenta, rouge, tiger orange and other colors reflected her lively and straightforward personality, and in the female school period, her dress was more formal, wearing a narrow sleeve shirt and a high-chested belly colored valerian skirt, which was more in line with her family status.
There are many more such elaborations in the play: in the processing and selection of clothing fabrics, the creative team not only chose to sew patterns by hand, but also went through layers of processes such as collage, grinding, and smudging to have the gorgeous costumes presented in the play today; In the hairstyle design of the characters, the creative team deliberately retained the fluffy and natural feeling, in order to make it more effective with real human hair combing; In terms of architecture and scene construction, "Micro Swift Double Flight" refers to the architectural style of the late Tang Dynasty, neat but not dull, gorgeous but not slender...
From the big frame to the small details, all of them have been carefully studied and repeatedly scrutinized, and these "time-consuming and laborious" designs have also achieved the cultural background of this show. It is understood that "Micro Swift Double Flight" has only been prepared for more than three months, and the art team has produced more than 300 scenes and a total of more than 1,600 sets of costumes, on the basis of referring to the aesthetics of the Tang Dynasty, this drama shows its own unique aesthetic pursuit and artistic proposition in terms of costume props, color light and shadow, picture lenses, artistic conception and charm.
On the basis of ensuring the rigor of details and historical fit, the fit of modern aesthetic appeals has made this drama widely recognized by the audience. This is inseparable from Huanyu Film and Television's deep cultivation in the costume category over the years and its exploration in the field of traditional Chinese aesthetics. Excellent traditional culture is presented in the form of cultural works, which not only allows traditional culture to be inherited, but also helps to deepen the understanding of the audience. At present, more and more TV dramas and online dramas are focusing on the style of the country and infecting the audience with familiar Chinese elements. This is exactly the direction that Huanyu Film and Television has been working towards. From "Yanxi Raiders" to "Yulou Chun", "Shang Food", "Li Ge Xing", and then to "Swift Double Flight", "Huanyu Production" has long condensed distinctive genre characteristics, and the continuous improvement in oriental aesthetics has also allowed Huanyu Film and Television to lead the trend of costume drama creation again and again, allowing people to understand the heritage of Chinese culture for thousands of years in the fine and silent moisturizing.
It is reported that "Micro Swift Double Flight" will soon be launched overseas, so that the unique charm of oriental aesthetics and the spiritual power belonging to Chinese women can be seen by the world, which is undoubtedly another beneficial attempt by domestic costume dramas in innovative expression.