Catching up with the tail of 2023, Wong Kar-wai brought his TV series debut "Flowers" to meet the audience with a surprise meeting, which sparked heated discussions.
This play not only has Wong Kar-wai's sincerity in carefully polishing the script for ten years, but the script is also adapted from Mao Dun's award-winning novel, and the audience's expectations were filled before the broadcast.
On December 27, the central eight premiered, and 6 days later, Dongfang and Jiangsu David TV will have a second round of broadcasts from January 2, 2024, with a full schedule.
premiered two episodes, and the performance of "Flowers" was satisfactory, and the ratings easily broke 2, but then controversy followed.
There are bad reviews on various platforms, so "Flowers" seems to be in a predicament, and the layout has become a laughing stock for ten years, why is this?
The plot is suspended
Wong Kar-wai's works are impeccable in texture, but an excellent work needs to have a plot that can move people, however, "Flowers" is obviously failing in this regard.
Some netizens believe that this drama was filmed as four dislikes, and some netizens even used the word "disaster" to describe it, ruining the original work.
Although in the first episode, the clip of Po borrowing money to speculate in stocks was full of life and fun, but then the plot took a sharp turn and turned into an exaggerated business drama.
Judging from the relevant publicity of "Flowers", restoration and authenticity should be the two major characteristics, but many viewers can't feel it after watching the drama, on the contrary, they will feel that the plot is very suspended.
Although many of the scenes in the play show the prosperity of Shanghai at the end of the last century, the overemphasis on mood makes "Flowers" seem somewhat inexplicable.
For example, the plot design of the line "Go to the attic alone, preferably at night" is a little confusing.
There is neither a dark line nor a plot that echoes it, giving the impression that it is purely for the sake of creating a mood.
There are many similar designs in the play, such as a poor boy like Po who finds his uncle and wants to learn from him.
There is a problem of too many lines in the relevant plot display, and a lot of words are still not explained why Uncle Bai is willing to teach Bao.
In addition, Uncle Grandpa insisted that Ah Bao, who had nothing, rent a room for him in the Peace Hotel, even if it was only for one day, and this plot had no obvious basis.
Combined with the related plot, Uncle Grandpa seems to want to tell Bao that living in a decent place is a façade, but before Bao makes money, there seems to be no reason for him to rent a house for himself, and Uncle is not short of money.
And this truth does not have to be told in this way, this kind of plot that is out of touch with reality not only has no effect on the development of the plot, but also seems to be deliberately showy and puzzling to the audience.
In addition, in the drama "Flowers", the director used a lot of suspenseful expressions.
At the beginning of the plot, Ah Bao suffered a car accident, holding 300,000 cash and being hit by a taxi that came straight away, the money was scattered all over the place, and Ah Bao's life was hanging by a thread.
Subsequently, the plot returns to before Po became famous through interludes, telling how he started from scratch.
even showed a lot of content that had nothing to do with this plot, and finally returned to Po's car accident case.
During the hospitalization, Ah Bao was in critical condition many times, and the operating room was surrounded by people who were worried about his life and death, and as soon as his uncle appeared, of course, he concluded that he would not die, and Ah Bao was discharged the next day.
After being discharged from the hospital, Po had bandages and plasters wrapped around his legs, and he still jumped rope to exercise, all kinds of foreshadowing thought there would be some high-energy scenes.
As a result, the truth was just an accident caused by a "back-to-back" incident, and it took several months to investigate the uncomplicated situation.
"Flowers" stretches this plot so long, and the truth is very boring, which is really disappointing.
The second female pulls her hips
Although the cast of "Flowers" is very high, not every actor's acting skills are good.
The performance of the second female Tang Yan was very crotch-pulling, and was complained by many audiences.
40-year-old Tang Yan, as one of the "85 Flowers", is not an acting school in the eyes of the audience.
When it was officially announced that she would appear in "Flowers", many viewers were not optimistic, thinking that she did not have enough acting skills to be competent for this role.
Sure enough, after the feature film was released, Tang Yan's performance did not "disappoint" the audience.
In the drama "Flowers", Tang Yan plays Miss Wang, a character who is innocent, kind, and straightforward, but it is actually easy to win the audience's love.
But Tang Yan's interpretation instead subtracted points, making people feel that she was just repeating the "silly white sweet" role in the past.
In the play, she is in a hurry every time she appears, and her voice and movements make people feel uncomfortable.
Especially when eating steamed buns, her shaking her head and pretending to sulk with Po made people feel very embarrassed.
When Ah Bao left, Tang Yan stared at her eyes and pretended to be innocent, very twisted and unnatural, and was suspected of pretending to be a girl.
When talking about business and cooperation, Tang Yan's performance was even more embarrassing.
She tilted her head and pouted, as if the cooperation had been negotiated, and this kind of performance made people feel very embarrassed.
What's even more disappointing is that there is a scene where Tang Yan needs to show complex emotions such as fear, anger, and grievances.
But she just stared blankly ahead, completely devoid of the emotions that the performance should have.
Tang Yan is no longer a young flower in her twenties, but she is still forcibly pretending to be tender in various dramas, and her acting skills have not improved at all.
It is a pity that Yang Mi, Zhao Liying and other "85 flowers" have long been left behind.
Now, her performance in "Flowers" makes the audience feel very uncomfortable.
Some people even think that she is the failure of the whole play, and she drags down the whole play by herself.
I hope she can seriously reflect on her performance and try different types of roles and themes to bring better performance to the audience.
Suspicion of showing off skills
Judging from the number of episodes updated so far, "Flowers" almost takes the business war as the main line of the plot.
However, viewers who are expecting a detailed depiction of Shanghai's Ichikai culture in the original book may be disappointed.
Some viewers think that in addition to the Shanghainese version of the Shanghainese lines reminding the audience, it may be difficult to perceive how many regional characteristics the story has.
As Wong Kar-wai's TV drama debut, the drama "Flowers" has a strong authorial personality, and the director's camera style has been greatly highlighted in the series.
For example, Wong Kar-wai's signature tonal use uses a large number of vivid and highly saturated colors to complete the lens language.
Yellow, blue, red, and green are intertwined to create an atmosphere for complex character emotions and plot directions.
In addition, there are sports shots, quick cuts, and shots from different angles.
This can be a visual treat for viewers who enjoy this style.
But for most viewers, it's actually unacceptable.
If it is placed in a two- or three-hour movie, this narrative presentation and shooting style will be more attractive and have enough visual impact.
Because the plot needs to be expressed in a limited space, the focus of the story is easy to grasp, and the audience is more likely to accept it.
However, there is a question mark over whether such a presentation is equally applicable to long-form TV dramas.
After watching the two episodes, many viewers said that the shots of "Flowers" are very fragmented, and many shots give people a sense of incoherent information.
For example, in the plot where Li Li asked the factory director to persuade Mr. Bao to come to Zhenyuan for dinner, there is only dialogue between Li Li and his subordinates in the play.
But a long interlude scene about Mr. Bao meeting with the unicorn in the swimming pool was inserted.
The amount of information given by this shot is zero, and the information is still explained through dialogue, and it has no effect if this lens is removed.
There are many similar small interludes in the play, which makes the overall plot seem scattered, and there is a false sense of deliberately showing off skills.
If the language of the lens does not serve the narrative, or even counteracts in telling the story clearly, then it becomes a burden.
The first three focus on promoting the overall plot has an obvious effect on the fact that the director of the silk weaving factory, who originally planned to cooperate with Mr. Bao, was snatched away by Mr. Wei who suddenly appeared.
Li Li planned to ask the factory director to persuade Mr. Bao to come to Zhenyuan for dinner, but Mr. Bao did not come, so Li Li introduced Mr. Wei to the factory director.
However, Mr. Wei's purchasing power was insufficient, he could only buy 100,000 pieces of clothes at most, and after a big circle, the factory director could only choose Mr. Bao, who had the ability to buy 800,000 pieces of goods.
Judging from the plot that has been broadcast so far, this is a very foreshadowing scene for the later plot advancement, and if it is used well, it can add luster to the character building.
However, after going through this episode, the audience doesn't see more information, and the reason why Po wins is still because he can afford to buy more goods.
Bao always has money and strength, sitting on the beach, which has been shown in the first episode.
As for what kind of personality charm and courage he has behind him, it is almost not shown.
Therefore, the setting of this plot seems to be ineffective, neither completing the creation of characters nor advancing the plot.
The film and television of "Flowers" attracted people's expectations from the beginning.
After all, this drama has attractive elements such as the director of Wong Kar-wai, the joining of Hu Ge, and the adaptation of Mao Dun's literary novels.
However, the quality of a drama does not only depend on these eye-catching factors, but also really falls on the content.
Now it seems that the performance of "Flowers" is not satisfactory, and the polarization of word-of-mouth really needs to be faced.
I hope that in the future, there will be more excellent dramas that can meet the audience's requirements for plot, actors, etc.
What is your evaluation of "Flowers", welcome to post in the comment area. #文章首发挑战赛#