The undefined "Huan Yan" and the X-Theater of one drama and one frame

In the drama market since the summer, if the topic and popularity are different, but in terms of "differentiation", I am afraid that "Huanyan" is the most...

Text | Zero One

"After eating steamed buns and pickles for many years, I suddenly served me the feeling of a plate of braised pork."

This is a Douban netizen's description of the new drama "Huan Yan". As the successor of Tencent Video X Theater since "The Long Season", "Huan Yan" gathers Dong Zijian, Zhang Yi, Zhang Luyi, Liao Fan, Tong Liya, Tian Yu and other top domestic powerful actors, after the broadcast on July 15, Zhihu, Douban and other platforms received rave reviews, "the role has wind bones", "full of reversals at unexpected nodes" and other audience comments have confirmed the high quality of the show.

"Huan Yan" has only 18 episodes in total, and many of the characters that have appeared have impressed the audience, if placed in other regular period dramas, they may be the soul characters throughout the show, and as a result, when the 8th episode was just broadcast, more than one important character quickly "appeared" and "went offline", and the whole drama style was humorous and profound, making the audience laugh for a while, and want to cry for a while.

The rapid development of the plot rhythm of "Huan Yan", the peculiar way of expression and character shaping style can be said to be beyond the habitual psychology of most audiences. In the drama market since the summer, if the topic and popularity are different, but in terms of "differentiation", I am afraid that "Huanyan" is the most.

1

Peculiar, "brand new version" you've never seen before

Xu Tian, played by Dong Zijian, returned from Nanyang and entered western Fujian, and Lao Sun, played by Liao Fan, was entrusted by the organization task to escort Xu Tian and gold bar materials to Shanghai, and since then the "road to breaking through" has begun.

Powerful actors competed for the show, and the two complex, profound and charming characters of Lao Sun and Yu Yixiu were stunning and quickly "offline", laying a sufficiently shocking and stunning start for "Huan Yan".

Unexpected and impressive characters have been a major attraction since the beginning of "Huan Yan". In just a few episodes of the plot, Liao Fan vividly shows Lao Sun, an atypical heroic character, and the final interaction between him and Xu Tian is full of emotional tension, and the actor's strength is worthy of the name, which can be said to greatly add points to the texture of the entire drama; In addition to Lao Sun, Yu Yixiu, played by Zhang Luyi, has not been out of the house for several years, and his seemingly crazy image has also exceeded the audience's expectations, becoming the most popular character in recent episodes of barrage and commentary.

What is even more rare is that the Republic of China period drama is not a new theme, but "Huan Yan" has forged a new path, which almost makes all audiences feel "unprecedented".

Road dramas, the Republican period, the local forces in the Tulou village in Fujian, the barbaric rule under the warlords, some idealism and love are integrated in it... The first few episodes of "Huan Yan" show a unique temperament, which is completely different from the conventional genre model of domestic dramas.

There are almost no male and female protagonists in the conventional sense in "Huan Yan", but through a narrative thread to connect the customs and people of that era and the group portraits of various forces. Through highly legendary and unexpected story development and character design, "Huan Yan" renders an aesthetic temperament that is extremely fresh in form and interior, not only has a dangerous atmosphere similar to Westerns and "Dragon Gate Inn"-style barbaric turmoil, but also has a bit of Jiang Wen and Quentin-style black humor and plot connotation, and even some plots are quiet and poetic.

The story begins in western Fujian in troubled times, but the protagonists have always been "on the road", and the undercurrent of surprising changes along the way, the world full of danger and chaos slowly unfolds, and there is no lack of black humor and awe-inspiring style brought by flesh-and-blood characters. One after another highly anti-routine characters appear and fall into unexpected endings, making "Huan Yan" like a legendary romantic road drama, and the theme under careful thinking is full of ideals and beliefs, full of stamina.

From the 15th to the 19th, the popularity of "Huan Yan" on the Tencent Video station has continued to rise, the reason is that the innovative expression method has given the audience a strong motivation to follow the drama, and the freshness continues to recede.

This also makes the audience more interested in the development of the subsequent plot. The first three "fellow travelers" played by Liao Fan, Zhang Luyi and Wu Xiaoliang have appeared one after another, each of which is a very charming character shaping. As of episode 9, Zhang Jiayi played by Zhang Yi, Tao Tao played by Tian Yu, Dao Meilan played by Tong Liya, and Yang Zhi played by Ren Min have not officially appeared. The new characters are cloudy, and considering the huge differences and amazing performances of the previous characters, the subsequent new characters and new stories are obviously more worth looking forward to.

2

Solid, successful "façade" of the character

The biggest feature of the early stage of "Huan Yan" is that the protagonist group is constantly changing, "some people get on the car and some people get off".

From Lao Sun to Yu Yixiu and Yu Zhou, the scenes and images of these people in the play are shocking, like holiday fireworks, quickly rushing into the sky, dazzling, but blooming in an instant, and the afterglow is long. This way of shaping characters in "Huan Yan" has a strong literary nature, full of legendary, romantic temperament, and each has different era meanings.

For example, the old sun played by Liao Fan has his own rise, fall and sublimation. Lao Sun appeared silent and firm-eyed, like those heroic protagonists who are reassuring as soon as he appears, invincible, and the train encounters robbers for a period of Lao Sun's performance is indeed capable of culture and martial arts, which seems to secretly match this inertial thinking. But since then, the successive occurrences of revealing wealth, gold bars being deceived, being deceived into taking medicine, and robbing pawnshops have not been smooth, and the audience has slowly discovered that Lao Sun does not have so many "protagonist halos", he is just a relatively sophisticated agent, without the strength of a hundred enemies, nor does he see through all the magical powers of unknown prophets, which is the "high opening" and "return to basics" in the human design.

And as Lao Sun's task gradually moved towards a desperate situation, the brilliance of his ideal faith became more and more dazzling and intense, and with his sacrifice reaching the highest point, he gradually sublimated into the spiritual idol of Xu Tian, Yu Yixiu and others in the play, becoming the father, the original righteous and the leader in the symbolic sense of the whole play, and also hit a large number of audience tears outside the play.

Yu Yixiu, played by Zhang Luyi, is completely different. He is the hidden head of the three villages in western Fujian, but he calls himself a "mud bodhisattva" who has been hiding in the house for several years, full of interest in the outside world, but all from books and maps, and he talks and acts like crazy. Because he admired Lao Sun's sacrifice and firm faith, he promised to give up his identity as a head man and go on a long journey, but he did not expect that he would face the collapse of the spiritual world after that.

Yu Yixiu has extremely contradictory and complex characteristics, in the eyes of Yu Yujun, this character has a strong symbolic meaning, he is an old squire with benevolent morality and idealism at that time, facing the era of warlord chaos and the collapse of etiquette, he can only fall into incompatibility and helplessness.

Yu Yixiu enjoys escaping from the cage and traveling far away, but finds that everything in the world is contrary to the etiquette and righteousness she has received. Walking out of the house to pursue a down-to-earth road, and then having to face all the failures of innocence, rules, and morality, not only can not do anything against warlords like Adjutant Guo, but even in the face of Hu Man, he can only be beaten, no one listens to the truth, the authority cannot be suppressed, and the fight cannot be beaten, and finally can only hope for ethereal gambling luck to fulfill his promises and faith.

And Xu Tian, as the main line of the narrative, is like a blank piece of paper, the first shot of the whole film is the white crane flying back, and Xu Tian also appeared in white, which has to be said to be a metaphor for the lens language. Although Xu Tian has ideals and a high sense of morality and justice, he is also a little stunned and cannot fully understand his direction and goals.

Until the sacrifice of his comrade, the blood stained on his body more and more, the white clothes became more and more dirty, and his fiancée's elevation became a symbol of good hope, these together constituted the process of his growth and maturity after this journey, as well as the real landing, clarity and firmness of his ideas and beliefs.

The characterization pen power of "Huan Yan" is not limited to the main characters. For example, Lao Qi, as the head figure in handling foreign affairs in Sanzhai, is not only a lackey who colludes with local warlords to seize the people, but also a bearer who maintains the life of Sanzhai's paradise; For example, Pengju, who appeared in just two episodes, brought countless laughs and tears to the audience; Even Hu Man, a gambler who "messes around" and forgets his righteousness, finally has a complex manifestation of human nature when his conscience is discovered. The reason why the first few episodes have been recommended by many viewers is also that the images of almost all supporting characters are very three-dimensional.

If the plot and rhythm of "Huan Yan" are the main source of freshness, then the plump group portrait of characters is the main reason for the sense of quality, taking and shaping each character seriously, laying the overall quality, height and thickness of "Huan Yan".

3

The sign of the X Theater stood up

When Tencent Video opened the X theater with "The Long Season" in April this year, many viewers did not understand what the concept and characteristics of this theater really were. Fortunately, the work is always the best interpretation - "The Long Season" has become the best word-of-mouth drama since 2023 with a high opening and explosive momentum, with a Douban score of 9.4, and the surging praise has given this drama a strong "sealing god", and also laid the brand heritage of X Theater's high-quality, high-reputation, stylized and innovative expression, as well as a very high starting point.

Successfully allowing the audience to experience content that has never been seen in domestic dramas is the fundamental reason why "The Long Season" can gain a historical level of word of mouth. On the basis of the high-level aesthetics of the previous work, director Xin Shuang has achieved self-transcendence in editing, soundtrack, and plot expression, and the story has a thick sense of transverse times, and the audience seems to have experienced the lives of many people in just twelve episodes.

The opening of "The Long Season" not only brings the public expectation and attention of the sea tide to the X Theater, but it also means pressure. In the hearts of the public, X theater should have a sense of quality and cutting-edge temperament, well-made, distinctive and fresh, and have the courage to truly stand at the forefront of Chinese dramas, and the emergence of "Huan Yan" proves that X theater is not just suspense.

The "X" of X theater is that it is unlimited, full of possibilities, and realizes "one drama and one style". A variety of genres and personalized styles of works are bold "adventures" by platforms and creators again and again, and ultimately only to bring the audience more novel content and a fresher viewing experience.

Although "The Long Season" and "Huan Yan" have completely different genre positioning and expression forms, they are the same in that they are deeply rooted in human nature, ideals and characteristics of the times, and have a profound background under avant-garde artistic expression, which may also be the common content background of X theater.

After the broadcast of "Huan Yan", X Theater can be regarded as "stable". The most mentioned in the public opinion feedback of the play is the uniqueness and rarity of temperament. From the concept of the legendary romantic road drama, the super-first-line cast, to the meticulous attention to specific details, "Huan Yan" does what an X-theater work should look like - exquisite, fresh, profound and interesting. As the plot enters its climax, new characters played by Zhang Yi and others are about to appear one after another, and the subsequent development and word-of-mouth popularity performance of "Huan Yan" are still worth looking forward to.