How does TVB tell the story of unemployed middle age?

After the Greater Bay Area concert, I see which TVB children started to revisit "Testimonial" and "Laughing at the Storm"?

TVB old dramas endure for a long time, because screenwriters and actors can always accurately and clearly depict the true face of a certain era.

Looking back at the problems faced by the characters and referring to their attitudes and practices is still valuable and inspiring for people today.

The independent woman of Nie Baoyan in "Records of Confirmation" is still a role model for many girls, and Yu Letian's complaint in "Male Love and Female Love" pokes at the heart of every worker.

Recently, a friend was "optimized" from the wave of layoffs in large factories, because she was still carrying a mortgage, she was anxious in her heart, in order not to worry her family, she deliberately concealed the situation and prepared to find a new job to inform her.

So I recommended my collector's treasure series "Unemployed Landlord" to her, and the story of the protagonist in the play is 80% similar to her.

I have actually recommended this drama many times, but I have never started to write it

So, how does TVB tell unemployment stories?

How does TVB tell unemployment stories?

If it weren't for the ancient painting style and the young Liu Songren Jianghua, I would really have thought that "The Unemployed Building" was the story of the moment... After all, the casual dialogue is like the conversation in my WeChat chat box.

The series is about the financial turmoil, Hong Kong's bubble economy burst, the wave of layoffs swept through the major office buildings in Central, and many high-paid middle-class people were regarded as "excess fat" and were fired across the board.

Hong Dalong (Liu Songren), who is a tall and important position, is one of them.

Before that, he fully met the standards of successful people in the golden 90s in Hong Kong, lived in a luxury house, drove luxury cars, and paid attention to quality in food and clothing.

If the TV at home is broken, change the latest model immediately, the price does not matter, the most important thing is to match the furniture, and the one that Wang Taixin bought next door.

At that time, the property market was also very good, and he and his old friend Ling Xis, who was full-time stock speculators, bought the "bamboo shoots" Park Ningyuan for 12 million, and prepared to sell it at 16 million.

Who would have thought that when the storm hit, he would become unemployed overnight...

There was no time for emo, and the first thing Dalong did after being cut was to throttle, find an excuse to return the newly bought stereo, and save a little.

Originally, Hong Dalong was still very confident in himself, feeling that with his qualifications and experience, he would soon be competed for by other companies, and as a result, he was severely slapped in the face by reality.

In the eyes of HR, experience equals age, what he has learned and done before may not be compatible with his new position, how can he compete with those who are younger than him and more familiar with the business?

It's hard to say, even if others want to train newcomer Xiaobai, there is no need to choose a middle-aged man to teach...

I don't want my family to worry, and I don't want to be looked down upon by acquaintances, and the time to test my acting skills will come again.

was met by the family sleeping in the car fully equipped, so he said "just came here to do errands, just take a leave by the way"; When a former colleague was caught wandering on the street, he said that he "recently started his own business and is preparing to expand the Southeast Asian market."

What's even worse is that the house price has dropped!

A few days ago, the guest opened 15 million and he refused to sell, and now no one has come to see the same unit upstairs for 7 million, and he has made a bank mortgage of 8 million, which means that even if 7 million can be sold, he still has to pay 1 million to redeem the deed before he can sell...

This is the legendary negative equity.

In Hong Kong in 1997, there were many Hong Kong people who became negative because of property speculation, and Zhang Xiaohui was one of them.

That year, she proudly borrowed money from Yutaixing Finance Company to speculate on buildings, let her husband Zhong Zhentao sign the contract, and let her lover Chen Yaomin guarantee her, but happened to encounter the 97 financial storm... In the end, the debt of 250 million yuan made the two men declare bankruptcy within a week.

Deng Cuiwen was not a protagonist when she was young, and when she earned money from filming, she wanted to invest in her business and house, but as a result of the 97 financial storm, all investments failed, and she also became a negative asset overnight.

At that time, Deng Cuiwen spent 8W yuan a month to provide for the building, in order to maintain the capital, she took on any job, and was willing to return to TVB to start from a supporting role, and various mainland commercial performances were also not refused.

It's just that the hard-earned money is returned to the bank in a blink of an eye, and because the house is on the market, someone can come to see the house at any time, and she can't live in it herself.

Zhang Weijian only ushered in his career highlight in 1996 because of "Journey to the West", and was on the verge of bankruptcy in 97 because of the financial turmoil.

At that time, all his investments were recovered by the bank, even the house he lived in was mortgaged to the bank, and his savings were only enough for a month's living expenses, and he felt that he was "really going to become a bitter melon."

Even Da Liu lost 20 billion yuan in that storm, and ordinary middle class in this storm was like peeling a layer of skin on Shengsheng.

"The New Wanderer in the City"

Is the plot of "Unemployed Landlord" familiar?

There is a saying that Starbucks is now crowded with unemployed middle-aged people.

Many of them, like Dalong, were once the mainstay of large enterprises, the upstart entrepreneurs, the pillars of their families, and lived a decent middle-class life, and when the wave of layoffs came, they became unemployed overnight.

Once they drank and talked about projects, now they sit in an American afternoon talking about unemployment compensation. Out of habit, they also bring their laptops, but the most open program is the WeChat web version.

Most of the customers who "pretend to work" are actually just staying at home and feeling bored, so they simply walk into cafes and libraries with their computers, brush up on bar exam questions or prepare for interviews, and try to enrich themselves.

Starbucks' always sophisticated and elegant business atmosphere has constructed a comfortable sanctuary that provides a buffer zone for their anxious hearts.

Others may not want to worry their families or are afraid of pressure from their families.

Xu Lu, a post-90s girl, was originally a large factory employee in the software industry, who became unemployed after being told to lay off employees, got up at 9 o'clock every day, and finished breakfast until noon, learning English, preparing for interviews, and chatting with friends...

And her parents didn't know this at all, and thought that she was an office worker who got up at 7 o'clock every day and went to and from work on time.

The pressure of young people to lose their jobs mainly comes from their families, the pressure of middle-aged unemployed, but also related to the food and clothing of the whole family, children's tuition and interest classes, housing loans and car loans.

In May, a Chongqing girl was on the hot search, she tearfully confessed that the couple spent 2.8 million yuan to buy a house, the decoration cost 300,000 yuan, a total of 3.1 million, and not long after the purchase, both husband and wife were unemployed.

At the beginning, the down payment of 1 million yuan for the house was borrowed by relatives, and the bank borrowed 1.8 million yuan, but there was no source of income, and even life was difficult, so I had to sell the house in a hurry, and the price dropped again and again, and finally only sold 2.3 million.

The girl's heart was like a knife, she obviously did nothing, and because she was unemployed, she owed a debt.

Unlike naked resignation, in order to maintain life on a normal track, most people actually have no time to rest at Starbucks, and only rush to interview after interview.

And until they find their next job, the lottery station becomes their only hope and salvation.

This kind of story that is a little sad and helpless, but full of ordinary people's vitality, is indeed very similar to TVB's life dramas.

In particular, these episodes, like "Unemployed Landlords", will be packaged as happy and healing light comedies.

The horse landed dead, and there was at least one opponent

There is a Cantonese saying called "the horse dies and walks on the ground", which is somewhat hard, and this is actually part of the spirit of Lion Rock.

The mansion invested by Dalong in "The Unemployed Landlord" was rented to three groups of people in four and continued to pay the mortgage.

One is because of the rich second generation who lost stocks, and the other is a divorced strong woman who gave up her savings because her husband failed to invest, and as a result, was split; There is also a truck driver who wears many hats, his ambitious wife and two children.

are ordinary people who re-energize and laugh at the storm in the torrent of the times, even if there are many frictions in their initial living habits, but they get along well.

The tenant's rent can only cover part of the mortgage, and Dalong has to actively "open source".

Hearing that women make money well, he has always been arrogant and pulled down his face, cheekily selling shower gel and cosmetics to women, but because his mouth was too stupid to coax people, he hoarded goods under the bed.

I finally found a new job, demoted my salary and was frantically ostracized by my new colleagues. The title is the boss, in fact, he has to kick the goods, meet customers, and arrange all kinds of trivial matters.

It's not easy to start again at the age of 40, but it's good to have the opportunity to start over, and it's not impossible to ride a donkey to find a horse, it's better than sitting on a mountain.

Later, the plot development was also very Hong Kong-style, and the tenants in the same house found that Da Long was very good at mixing food sauces, so he proposed that he start a sauce business.

Starting from a small family workshop, bottle by bottle stir-frying, restaurant after restaurant promotion, finally found a small vendor in the street market willing to sell, starting from the neighborhood business, accumulating word of mouth little by little, and finally received a big order.

It is not that the screenwriter is deliberately beautifying, this is indeed a true portrayal of many Hong Kong people after the financial crisis.

At that time, Zhang Xiaohui's attitude towards the debt problem was calm, she smiled and responded that she was just in a "dream debt", and just after chatting with the media about bankruptcy, she stopped at a high-end flower shop in Central and bought a bouquet of good flowers to go home.

She did not use bankruptcy to escape debts, but sold her beloved clothing, found a lawyer to find witnesses, kept appealing, sued the financial company for miscalculating interest, and finally she won the lawsuit, offsetting 250 million debts with 2.5 million.

She liked Yishu's article "These Hands Are Small", and once called Yishu to ask what she meant, and Yishu told her: "It's the title of a song called "Those hands are small". Those hands are small，but they are mine。 That's the most precious thing, do you understand? ”

Jing Shi was too "awakened", Zhang Xiaohui was more determined to use her own hands to regain all the lost things.

She writes columns for newspapers, works as a magazine editor, does 17-19 pages a week, and officially enters the entertainment industry to make movies, becoming a "star".

After paying off all her debts, she stayed away from right and wrong, went to live in Los Angeles, returned to the fashion industry two years ago, and is still the top matchmaker in fashion KOLs.

Deng Cuiwen is also, at that time, in order to pay off the mortgage crazy work, a show, she can take into account hosting, singing, dancing, lottery all links, one person on top of a team, she feels that this is also her windfall.

The bigger shift is reflected in values. She found that the original property could not give her a sense of security, it would only bring great pressure, "when I earn money to pay off the mortgage, I may not be able to live."

Although that time was difficult, it was actually a combination of challenges and opportunities, and after the rain, we will find that the wind balls are not so terrible, and we have hands and feet to hold on.

Sister E's epilogue:

There is a passage in "Unemployed Landlord", Hong Dalong wants to sell the house he lives in to cash out, and after his cleaning aunt knows about it, he directly takes out 3.8 million to buy it, and transfers it in cash, and really realizes moving in with his bag.

The aunt said: As a person of dozens of years, can't you save a little money? (Heart-piercing)

I used to think it was black humor, but now I look at my aunt's financial concept of "investing less and saving more", which has become the most practical financial advice at present.

When I was in my twenties, I rarely heard of my peers trying to save money, and the people around me were spending lavishly, and "moonshiners" and "kanu" seemed to be the norm.

Speaking of these two words, it feels a bit old, and this generation of young people is popular to "secretly save money, and then amaze everyone". Don't stare at Starbucks' attendance, the Douban money-saving group has more than 4 million netizens sharing money-saving daily life, door-critical sharing, consumption downgrade is a hot topic that everyone cares about.

Saving a suite by thrift is no longer a TVB plot, it is an entry that you occasionally see on hot searches.

Days won't always be smooth sailing, and whether bumpy experiences will become pearls or grit depends on how we treat them today.