Perspectives | A New Hope
Regarding the entertainment industry or all forms of literature and art, the first thing that the majority of audiences are keen on is not the aesthetic sense of "grid", "realm" and "Tao", but "new". The content is new, the form is new, the face is new, and of course, the combination of the three is even better. On this basis, if you pursue a little more connotation, then the literary and artistic work basically has the potential to be a "hit".
Talking about it in this way, it seems to be "utilitarian", but in fact, it is in line with the law of the development of literature and art. Whether it is "metabolism" or "innovation", the key is in a "new". As long as this "new" can stand up to scrutiny, it can at least keep the audience curious and attentive at all times, and fight against those unexpected aesthetic fatigues.
The above content is partly derived from the thinking in recent years, and partly is the feeling when watching Ma Shaohua's new drama "Ding Baozhen". "Ding Baozhen" was filmed in 2018, and it is also a rare historical drama in recent years. It is worth mentioning that it is another big drama starring Ma Shaohua. As a new generation of iconic film and television performance artists after Li Xuejian, Gao Ming, Yao Anlian, Cheng Yu and others, Ma Shaohua's performance in "Ding Baozhen" is as wonderful as ever, worthy of the respect of the audience and the media. The only pity is that the image vocabulary of the whole play is still old, a bit back to the era of "Yongzheng Dynasty", and the picture refinement is slightly inferior.
Costume dramas are the darlings of the recent screen. In addition to "Ding Baozhen", which is a historical drama, there are also many dramas such as "Under the Prosperous City", "Tian Gengji", "A Thought of Flowers Blooming", "For the Dark Fragrance", "Years of Green Lotus" and many other dramas. As the third major play launched by "X Theater" in 2023 (the first two are "The Long Season" and "Huanyan"), "Under the Prosperous City" has aroused a lot of heated discussions with its strong suspenseful color, avant-garde literary narrative, and the overall excellent performance of the actors. The most shining point of the play is that it breaks the simple revenge thinking of suspense dramas in the past, and introduces a modern inquiry into the guilt of each major authority, as well as the ultimate thinking about fairness and fate. This makes the series not limited to the revelation of human nature in classical situations, and opens up a broader narrative space.
For costume dramas, the emergence of "Under the Prosperous City" is a new and remarkable successful attempt. Although in recent years, most of the popular costume dramas have come from the suspense category, but in the short term, it may be more difficult for works in this category to surpass "Under the Prosperous City". At the same time, the costume comedy "The Happy Affair of the Lan Boudoir", led by Liu Lin, also has a very high rating on the platform, but I am more optimistic about another fashion sci-fi suspense drama "Bionic World" in which she participated. "The Bionic World" fictionalizes the conflicts and social problems caused by the coexistence of human beings and "androids" in the future period, and the show is probably another science fiction work in the strict sense since the successful release of "The Three-Body Problem" on TV.
The three directors who co-directed "The Bionic World" - Chen Zhengdao, Ke Zhennian, Xu Zhaoren, female lead Wen Qi and special star Li Hongqi, are all from Taiwan, China; Male number one Song Weilong, starring Zu Feng, Song Ningfeng and Aruna who became popular because of "Hurricane", are all from Chinese mainland, this novel team geographical proportion matching, as well as the slightly obscure visual effects of the whole play, all bring a refreshing look and feel, showing strength on the screen of the highly competitive 2023 drama. It can even be said that because of "The Three-Body Problem" and "Bionic World" in the past, dramas like "Science Fiction - Suspense" will finally be successfully established in 2023.
The biggest surprise of domestic TV dramas in the autumn and winter stages comes from the anti-fraud drama "Anti-fraud Police". If you are picky from the perspective of modern images, the image sense of the show is not outstanding in the hit dramas with unprecedented fierce competition, but its plot is too "anti-deceptive", and the male lead also has a distinct personality. Zhou Chengao has already had two brilliant performances in 2023. The first time was in the first half of the broadcast of "Hou Lang" to play a young Western doctor who suspected Chinese medicine, this time he starred in "Anti-fraud Police", and his dedication to the image of "young police/fraud gang undercover" can be called gorgeous. The acting tension shown by Zhou Chengao in the play even reminds me of Tony Leung who played "Little Fish" and "Wei Xiaobao" in the TV series. As an anti-fraud theme drama with both educational significance and viewing interest, "Anti-fraud Police" has also reaped the double success of acting skills and social benefits.
At present, the unprecedented prosperity of the drama market provides infinite possibilities for a new generation of "treasure actors". Zhou Chengao is like this, Wei Daxun in "Agent Mission" is also like this, Bai Yufan, Yu Yao, and Zong Juntao in "Under the Prosperous City" are still like this, plus Ning Li, Yang Haoyu, and Jia Jinghui, who have a growing reputation among the audience in recent years, and new powerful factions like Jia Jinghui... The rapid rise of these actors of different ages on the screen and screen has somewhat offset the visual anomalies brought by the "fresh meat" actors in previous years, and continued the healthy "metabolism" of male performers in the film and television industry. The latter point is not only important in the present, but also has far-reaching significance.
Hope will always exist, and there will always be a new generation to join the ranks of creating it, as long as the film and television industry has been like this, constantly giving everyone new space to show.
(Xu Jiang is a poet, writer, and cultural critic.) Born in 1967, he graduated from Beijing Normal University in 1989. He currently lives in Tianjin. ）