"When Meng Yuan, a mining worker, went up to the mountain to investigate, he accidentally traveled to ancient times, led the villagers to develop planting and tertiary industry, and taught the rural revitalization experience of modern society, which was appreciated and reused by the imperial court......"
The movie "Wumeng Qiyuan", which is about to land in theaters nationwide on January 31, has not yet been released, and it has been complained on the Internet: "Douyin short drama quality things can also be released in theaters..."
Obviously, the audience is classifying film and television works through the story setting, thinking of online movies when they see domestic monsters, and thinking of micro-short dramas when they see time and space travel. "Wumeng Qiyuan" is innocent, and its underestimation is undoubtedly directly related to the sudden rise of micro-short dramas known for their "earthy flavor" in the past two years.
At first glance, time and space travel dramas seem to have become the exclusive domain of micro-short dramas in the minds of the audience. In fact, long dramas have always been produced, but more attention is paid to the packaging of the setting, such as "Celebrating More Than Years" and "Son-in-law", which are all brought out in the form of novels written by the male protagonist, unlike micro-short dramas that are straightforward and rude.
The integration of games and system elements is another way, like last year's hit on iQiyi's "Tian Gengji", although it is a modern girl who messes into ancient rural life, but because of the existence of the game, the task interface that flashes out at any time on the system is like a reminder, so that the audience can jump in and out at any time, and it will not be too "immersive".
Yu Shuxin and Ding Yuxi have a to-be-broadcast "Eternal Night Starry", which also takes this route.
In addition to packaging the setting, dramas, as a literary and artistic form with a wide audience, cannot ignore the potential risk of public opinion, so compared with micro-short dramas and movies, it needs to increase disinfection efforts on the basis of the original IP.
Like "Return to 1993", which has recently been broadcast in the third season on Tencent Video, the male protagonist was reborn into a domestic violence man in 1993, although the result was that the domestic violence man died, but can you imagine that such a plot happened in a long drama? Let the male protagonist live happily with the domestic violence man with the face of the domestic violence man, I am afraid that it will not be able to pass the audience.
iQIYI broadcast a low-cost online drama "He Came Across the Mountains and Seas" last year, telling the story of his son going back to the past through a time machine to save his mother who was deceived by so-called love and miserable all her life, even at the cost of his own life. Under the shell of science fiction, it is full of touching mother-son love. Although this drama is not out of the circle, it has a good reputation (Douban 7.4 points), but the narrative of the drama "Men Save Women" has still encountered a lot of criticism.
In fact, under the dual influence of policy and public opinion pressure, video platforms and production companies have put forward new requirements for the IP of this kind of theme.
Originally, the time and space travel in the online text is generally accompanied by two basic tasks or cool points: first, the protagonist uses the advantage of the prophet to realize the "daydream" in another time and space;
Nowadays, the new requirements put forward by film and television adaptations are: more in line with the current mainstream values, that is, the main theme.
We have mentioned in the article "Selling 39 Film and Television Adaptation Rights in One Go, Tomato Novel Strongly Cuts the IP Supply Market" that among the IP copyrights sold by Tomato Novels, "Changle Li" related to time and space travel is in line with the popular theme expression of "This prosperous age, as you wish" in recent years, "The Beggar's Son-in-law" has poverty alleviation elements, and "Homecoming" is the theme of pension......
"My grandfather and I are comrades-in-arms" that has attracted much attention in the market is a unique red theme, and the original work has won the national "Five One Project" award, and the author hopes to use such a work to let young students realize that today's happy life is the blood of the revolutionary martyrs, not just as a slogan.
Among Changxin Media's IP reserves, there is a "Reverse Age of Innocence", in which a large part of the male protagonist goes to the mountain village to teach after traveling through time and space, and leads the local villagers to become rich, these poverty alleviation elements that are in line with today's mainstream values should be the direction of the drama adaptation.
Today, when the audience attaches great importance to the "sense of substitution" and the main theme works emphasize "effective broadcasting", the main theme of the time and space shuttle theme just provides a channel.
Of course, this is not the only way to go, among the similar themes to be broadcast, we have seen that some IP adaptations have completed the "de-traversalization", changing the protagonist to the indigenous of another time and space, and some have strengthened the entertainment attribute and brought simple happiness to the audience with a relaxed and humorous tone.
In the final analysis, no matter which path you take, time travel is an incredible dream for the audience, which can not only help people go back to the past and examine themselves in an acceptable way, but also help people withdraw from the anxiety of reality and get a relaxed emotional experience, which is the value of its existence.
[Text/Xu Xinqiang]