More than half of the Sohu Entertainment special article (Shanjin/text) was broadcast, and "Flowers" scored 8.1 on Douban.
For many, this may come as a surprise. After all, at the beginning of the broadcast, the discussion around "Flowers" was "dimensionality reduction adaptation", "Guo Jingming", and "exaggeration......
But it's not that surprising.
With the development of the plot, the later "Flowers" has achieved a word-of-mouth reversal to a certain extent, and more and more audiences are paying attention to the discussion, and more and more audiences are speaking out for it.
In fact, even with the blessing of 8.1 points, "Flowers" is still in a situation of polarized word-of-mouth, quite like "the honey of the other, the arsenic of B".
So, how exactly should "Flowers" be defined?
01 "Hell Start"
"Flowers" didn't start well.
With three years of shooting, 500 million investment, and the blessing of Wong Kar-wai's works, "Flowers" at the beginning of the project can be described as highly anticipated. But since the release of the trailer, the expectation of "Flowers" has gradually evolved into "watching fun".
Even many viewers used the "Shanghai version of "The Ferryman" to summarize the temperament presented in the trailer of "Flowers".
Until the series actually started, this situation could not be reversed.
Fans of the original book were dissatisfied with Wong Kar-wai's "magic change", some viewers ridiculed "Flowers" as "the era of flowers in a small era", some viewers questioned the similarity between the opening song of the series and the American drama "Succession War", and another part of the audience debated "whether Shanghai in "Flowers" is really real......
These grievances and controversies are not unreasonable. In fact, "Flowers" is indeed a work that is not so Wong Kar-wai.
There may be a compromise on the part of Wong Kar-wai. For example, the Mandarin narration interspersed in the plot from time to time is mainly used to explain the background of the story and make it clearer for the audience.
Wong Kar-wai also liked to use narration in the past, but whether it is "The True Story of A Fei" or "Chongqing Forest", its narration has the finishing touch, which not only creates the atmosphere, but also makes the mood more vivid.
But most of the narration of "Flowers" shows a sense of reluctance, and the starring Hu Ge seems to be just reciting the text emotionally, which makes the series lose the charm of Wong Kar-wai, but looks like Wong Kar-wai's imitator.
The same goes for the lines. The lines in Wong Kar-wai's works in the past are poetic and can stand the test of time.
But in "Flowers", it is difficult to find exquisite lines worth spreading.
For example, when the male protagonist Ah Bao and his first love Xuezhi said goodbye, Xuezhi said a popular sentence on the Internet, "I hope you are doing well, but I am afraid that you will live too well", as if he strayed into Zhang Jiajia and Da Bing's books, and it seems that it is not contrary to the harmony that it came from Guo Jingming.
The business war in "Flowers" is also difficult to see traces of Wong Kar-wai.
In fact, among all the works directed by Wong Kar-wai, only "Flowers" did not leave his screenwriter's signature. The screenwriter of this work is Qin Wen ("The First Half of My Life", "Son-in-law", "The Pretender").
Judging from the story alone, Wong Kar-wai is indeed more down-to-earth.
Starting from A Bao who speculated in stocks for 100 yuan, to the prosperous businessman Bao Zong, which is interspersed with 800,000 foreign trade business orders, concocted famous brand "Sanyang Brand", Huanghe Road Restaurant Defense Battle and other stories, as well as Miss Wang, Lingzi, Li Li and other female group portraits, the story of "Flowers" is simple, coherent, direct and complete.
Abandoning the fragmented narrative structure that Wong Kar-wai is good at and choosing a simple and easy-to-understand business war story may be the reason why "Flowers" can be closer to the current audience.
But this choice has also lost some of the flavor that belongs to Wong Kar-wai.
In the past, Wong Kar-wai was good at filming emotions, paying attention to people on the margins of society, and relying on emotions to promote the narrative; Wong Kar-wai in "Flowers" was filming business wars, telling the story of the big male protagonist Shuangwen who was a trendsetter of the times. That's probably a compromise.
Filming feelings can be very virtual and abstract, but filming specific business battles needs to be "real".
The more you want to get closer to reality, the easier it is to expose your shortcomings, and the problem with the business war of "Flowers" is that it is too pediatric and too small.
In the first few episodes, Mr. Bao and Mr. Wei competed for 800,000 foreign trade business orders, and the two sides played two episodes of Tai Chi, and in the end, Mr. Bao's magic weapon was "Mr. Wei didn't know that the list had a volume of 800,000, so he could only buy 100,000". By dwarfing the opponent to set off the protagonist, it is not an excellent play.
In the follow-up, Mr. Bao helped Zhizhenyuan to tide over the difficulties, and he didn't have too much technical content, relying on a few Hong Kong businessmen who happened to visit relatives and brought Hong Kong chefs. From the perspective of the play, this is also a bit lazy.
Perhaps compromise is inevitable. A TV series, three years of shooting, and a huge investment, probably can't just belong to Wong Kar-wai and the audience, just like the advertiser LOGO that flashes from time to time in the series, it also belongs to the investor.
02 Getting better
Although the word-of-mouth at the beginning was not too good, after more than half of the broadcast, "Flowers" scored 8.1 on Douban, which is a good result.
It can be used to describe the word-of-mouth trend of "Flowers" with "getting better".
With the development of the plot, the group portraits of the characters are gradually enriched, and the emotional entanglements between Po and female characters such as Miss Wang, Lingzi, and Xuezhi unfold, and "Flowers" is also on the right track, not only the word-of-mouth is gradually reversed, but the discussion is getting higher and higher.
Or it can be said that the later "Flowers" is the "Flowers" that really belongs to Wong Kar-wai.
As we all know, Wong Kar-wai is good at filming feelings and lust. When the emotions and inner states of the characters began to be shown in the later stage of "Flowers", Wong Kar-wai was too handy.
For example, Miss Wang and Po's first acquaintance. Ah Bao helped Miss Wang paste stamps, the light of dusk hit the faces of the two, the kettle was steaming, the camera was slowed down, the passage of time seemed to slow down, and the relationship between the two heated up in the long process of posting stamps, beautiful and full of artistic conception.
Another example is that after the Miss Wang earrings incident, Wong Kar-wai filmed a montage of everyone's emotional state. In the face of Miss Wang, who has no way to write the review book, the lifeless Teacher Ge, the depressed Tao Tao, and the Lingzi who weeps in the rain, are separated, melancholy, and lonely.
These feelings of privacy, loneliness, or confusion are Wong Kar-wai's ruling areas. It may also be said that Wong Kar-wai wrapped the plate of dumplings "Flowers" for this little vinegar.
The word-of-mouth reversal in the later stage of "Flowers" also benefited from the shaping of group portraits in the script.
Although Ah Bao is the big male protagonist, whether it is Li Li, Miss Wang or Lingzi, they are all very three-dimensional and complex.
They are all representative. Li Li is like a chivalrous man who has entered the rivers and lakes of the Yellow River Road; Miss Wang has a complete female growth line, and the sentence "I am my own wharf" has moved countless people; and Lingzi has demonstrated the spirit of Shanghai's own women, and the market is full of vitality.
It is these three-dimensional characters that make Shanghai in "Flowers" vivid. The audience is willing to discuss their lives and also pay attention to their fate.
The presentation of Shanghai's cityscape in the 90s is also what distinguishes "Flowers" from other domestic dramas.
In the past, Wong Kar-wai has always been closely associated with the city of Hong Kong. Almost all of his works are related to Hong Kong, and his works show the relationship between the city, its people, and its times.
The same is true of "Flowers". In order to restore Shanghai in the 90s, Wong Kar-wai spent a lot of energy, such as building the Yellow River Road 1:1 and collecting old objects in Shanghai in the 90s in newspapers.
Although the presentation of the Yellow River Road has caused a lot of controversy, many viewers feel that the neon lights are too bright and like the Republic of China, and compared with works such as "Evil Debt" and "Stock Madness", which more plainly reflect the life of Shanghai citizens in the 90s, "Flowers" seems too exaggerated.
But this may be where Wong Kar-wai's authorship lies. Seeing the later period, it became clear that Wong Kar-wai wanted to show the temperament of the times.
The Yellow River Road in "Flowers" is covered with a layer of bright and nostalgic filters, with busy traffic and people's voices, and there is no sunlight, only neon lights that shine forever, like a city that never sleeps.
Wong Kar-wai's reproduction is not only the Yellow River Road, but also a distorted and beautified memory, the prosperity and rapid progress of an era. As he said in the interview, "What we want to restore is what people felt at that time."
In the era of reform and opening up, there is gold everywhere, and there are opportunities everywhere, so the Yellow River Road needs to be extremely prosperous, and therefore, the protagonist of the story, Ah Bao, needs to be high-spirited and positive - Hu Ge said in an interview that Wong Kar-wai wanted him to perform the feeling of Li Yao, vigorous, fearless, and unwilling to admit defeat.
"I don't see one person or one street, but an entire era. Wong Kar-wai used to describe "The Grandmaster", which happens to be used in "Flowers".
03 《繁花》到底灵不灵？
Half Wong Kar-wai, half Kwok Jing-ming. It is spiritual, and it is not spiritual. So, how should we evaluate "Flowers"?
In fact, for domestic entertainment domestic dramas, "Flowers" is prominent enough.
The script is not injected with water; every actor is very attentive, and it can even be said that Tang Yan and other actors have contributed the best performances of their careers; the photography, lighting, and costumes are exquisite, and the real film texture is real; from the perspective of genre, it also provides a variety of choices in the internal entertainment of idol dramas everywhere.
It's not a big hit, but various data also confirm the popularity of "Flowers" - the popularity of the station exceeded 30,000, the first place on the Maoyan network popularity list, and the first place on the cloud heba screen list. Given that the group portraits of the characters in "Flowers" are more outstanding, there may be a good long-tail effect in the later stage.
Judging from this standard, "Flowers" is even the kind of domestic drama we call for and look forward to.
But this is far from enough, because this is a Wong Kar-wai work. It can even be said that "Flowers" is a "luxury" that belongs exclusively to Wong Kar-wai.
Most domestic dramas are filmed within a few months, even the recognized good drama "The Long Season" takes less than 4 months to shoot, while "Flowers" took 3 years to shoot.
In September 2020, the film was launched, and the actors even returned to the group many times to make up the filming after they were finished, and it was not officially launched until the end of 23.
At the moment of reducing costs and increasing efficiency, it is rumored on the Internet that the cost of "Flowers" alone is as high as 20 million (another is an investment of 500 million).
The 1:1 setting of Huanghe Road, the luxurious production team - the visual director of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", the art of "The Legend of the Demon Cat", the cinematography of "The Red Lantern Hangs High", and even the soundtrack, most of which used the more expensive original recording rights.
The director who can make a TV series at such a speed and with such investment is probably Wong Kar-wai. Top industry resources, top Chinese directors, should also correspond to top Chinese works.
Before the launch of "Flowers", many media, including foreign media, were looking forward to it as "continuing the universe of "In the Mood for Love" and "2046", and after the series was launched, many foreign Wong Kar-wai fans were waiting for copyright and English subtitles.
Before this, almost no domestic drama had such treatment. From this point of view, "Flowers" should have presented a better appearance.
For domestic entertainment, "Flowers" is probably a success, and for Wong Kar-wai, "Flowers" may not be so successful.
Let's watch the movie version of "Flowers".