When I saw the all-female team of "Today's Them", I took a gamble.
Director Du Xiaoyu, a new generation of directors, is not limited by the shooting routine.
Screenwriter Qin Wen has been playing steadily.
starring Song Yi, Charmaine She, and Li Chun, they are not masters who love hype and demons, and their acting skills are not bad.
But I still lost the bet.
Even if it is an all-female creation, it still can't escape the vulgar plot and abstract growth line.
Even all-female creations are still exaggerating women's anxieties over and over again, solidifying ideologies with conservative and old ideas.
We have always hoped that the creative method of "all-female team" can revitalize the film and television industry and at least make something different, but practice has proved that this may not be a new solution in the creative field.
A female team may not be able to shoot women's works.
The three female images in "Today's Them" are very typical: love brain Lu Zhenzhen (played by Song Yi), his wife Gu Manting (played by Li Chun), and strong woman Liang Qingran (played by Charmaine She).
These three branches were parallel in the early stage, but they were occasionally related.
Love brain is really true, born in a single-parent family, in order to escape his mother's desire to control for ten years, during which he had almost no contact with his mother, and would rather die than stay in Beijing, wanting to be free and independent.
She works as a PR manager at one of the best Sichuan restaurants in Beijing, and in her career, she (seems) to be impeccable.
No matter how big or small, strive for perfection.
Even if it wasn't because of the restaurant's food that caused the customer's allergies, she was willing to compensate according to the price, just to keep the customers coming back.
But the problem appeared at a low level, and she handled it at a low level.
In other words, because she handles it in a low-level way, the corresponding problem should also be less difficult.
Which girl who has just finished medical beauty on her face will not be afraid of eating spicy dishes?
If you don't have common sense, won't the doctor tell you?
At this point, it can be seen that although Lu Zhenzhen has the title of public relations manager, the plot is still like a child pretending to be a family wine.
The sales of Chengdu hot pot restaurants were not good, so she proposed to send ice powder, so there was a long queue in front of the door.
This method, a group of people who are deeply involved in the catering industry can't think of it, but the heroine alone has come up with it, it's really smart to open the door to the little smart, and smart to the home.
In order to create the image of the characters, problems and contradictions are forcibly created, there is no character arc, and some are just the self-congratulatory of the characters.
The subordinate chewed the root of the guest's tongue in front of her, and her attitude was just one sentence:
Is it really good for you guys to do this?
And the "old woman" they talk about looks like this: ↓
excuse me？
The professionalism is all set off by peers, and the characters are brainless and only emphasize stereotypes, and I have a bad premonition when I see this.
Next, her love appeared, with the manager of the restaurant, Liu Siyuan.
The two have been in love for five years, supporting each other, and (seemingly) they are evenly matched.
BUT！！！
When their restaurant is bought by a strong woman and everyone is facing unemployment, Liu Siyuan will think about fighting for new job opportunities.
When he got a job to go to Chengdu, he started booking air tickets without saying a word.
What about girlfriends? Girlfriends don't have a job that matters. Respect~
And her girlfriend, although she is also a manager, was fired and her first reaction was crying.
To rationalize her sadness, it also happens to be her birthday, and the world's coincidences revolve around the protagonist.
I just sent my boyfriend to the airport early the next morning, and at noon I discussed with my best friend, my little wife Gu Manting, to go back to Chengdu.
My boyfriend's first reaction when he learned about this was:
That's how a normal adult with a brain should react.
And her best friend said this:
It's 2024, and I'm still engaged in love kidnapping.
Mother's bitter heart is worthless in the face of love.
Subsequently, she returned to Chengdu and began to be idle.
Ten years of drifting north, less than a week after leaving the job, the savings were gone, no wonder they all said, "Beijing makes money and Beijing spends, don't want to take home a penny." ”
In the end, I found a job with the help of my boyfriend's boss, a strong woman, but I quit after a day of work and planned to start a business.
Let's talk about his wife Gu Manting, a housewife with a rich life.
Her daily life revolves around her husband, from accompanying her husband to drink and socialize as a façade, to helping her husband take a taxi and order takeout.
The only thing that's new is that she's dink, and she is vehemently opposed to inducing.
She loves to read and listen to the radio, especially about women's independence and growth.
The lines on the radio seemed to make her think, and when I thought this was a more multifaceted character, the plot gave me another slap in the face.
In the face of her best friend who is looking for work, her first reaction is to ask her best friend to go to her boyfriend to show weakness and ask for money.
As for her Dink, the follow-up plot explained that her first child was not saved, and she had a special physique and was not easy to have children.
But her first reaction when she knew the news was divorce, not because of a broken relationship, but simply because there was no way to give birth to each other.
She shrunk herself down to only one uterus.
In the face of the ridicule of her mother-in-law, her attitude was as forbearant as a big house that could not give birth to children in the feudal period, and she was generous enough to accept a man's three wives and four concubines.
And her so-called Dink and independence are just a guise for her wife.
Just like she suspected her husband of cheating, her knee-jerk reaction was to dodge, and then find a dessert shop to show off her little cakes.
As soon as some people appear, you know who is the most capable in the play.
Liang Qingran, a strong woman, appeared in a suit with slender high heels and walked in a small alley. It is a stereotypical torture instrument, and it is a woman who has to take care of her career and appearance.
For his own body management, he is extremely strict.
For the career to cut through the mess, confident and disregard for human feelings.
For love, this is what I said:
For women, say this:
It's hard to judge, and I wish you success.
Since she is invulnerable, let her suffer a little in love.
So a "father" descended from the sky and began to preach the essence of love.
I can't laugh anymore, Sister Man came to the mainland, and she has to fall in love to grow up.
And the problem of her role is the same as the love brain, there are golden sentences in her career but no practical operation.
Low-level business wars are often just because the leader handles them in a low-level way.
As long as a woman wears slender high heels, dresses up beautifully, and says a few shocking golden sentences, she is a successful independent woman in the workplace.
Every sentence emphasizes women's independence, but the point of view is the most stereotypical image of women.
Using the experiences of women with three different identities and personalities, they build up and amplify stereotypes and women's situations to increase anxiety.
At present, more than half of the plot only amplifies the negative characteristics of the characters and the surrounding contradictions, in an attempt to achieve the role of wanting to promote and suppress, that is, to pave the way for the subsequent growth of women.
But now the effect is counterproductive.
Let's take a look at the male characters that have been interspersed in this play, their roles are extremely unified-
The final "independent" stepping stone for the female characters, but some are sleek, some are flat.
First of all, Liu Siyuan, a boyfriend with a real love brain.
His role is to provide emotional value to Lu Zhenzhen.
Her boyfriend compares her to a strong woman, saying that she is more beautiful than a strong woman, and she laughs "hehe".
She didn't notice that her boyfriend didn't approve of her ability to work.
At the same time, when Lu Zhenzhen can't find a job anxiety, provide spiritual food.
Will I eat this bread before or after a meal?
If he could do it, he wouldn't say anything, but his fiancée's savings were almost gone, and he didn't realize it, and he didn't say anything about helping him.
Lu Zhenzhen was found by his mother and returned to Chengdu, sitting on a small bench ready to be questioned by his mother, but her boyfriend suddenly appeared, and after a big cake was drawn, her mother was happy.
He solved his mother's difficulties for Lu Zhenzhen.
And what Lu Zhen really has to do is to obey her boyfriend's decision and follow her boyfriend's footsteps step by step.
Inexplicably thought of the "heel" of the Beijing circle
Such a "considerate" boyfriend can't help Lu Zhenzhen grow, so let his temperament change greatly and empathize with him, Lu Zhenzhen will want to leave him and start a career without distractions.
At this point, the value of the tool boyfriend is reflected.
Suspected of affectionate confession to female boss
Secondly, Lu Zhenzhen's partner - Chen Dong, a chef with good skills but extremely irritable.
The customer can't tell the difference between the spicy fried chicken and the kung pao chicken, and he just said to the guest:
When he found out that the anchor who came to promote the friendship of the restaurant was vomiting, he immediately lost his temper in front of the live camera.
A well-known photographer came to take pictures to promote the restaurant, and his attitude was to say "hand over a fart" to his face.
Young man, I appreciate your frankness~
is such a grumpy character who doesn't think about the consequences, and when Lu Zhen is really confused, he wakes her up with a word.
The heroine has worked independently for ten years, and she doesn't even know what she wants.
Hey, as soon as I heard you, she immediately opened her mouth.
Plug in, the business that the two of them are engaged in together also makes me feel very low-level.
When the customer cancels the order, they will come to the door to serve, but looking at the guest's family environment, the family is surrounded by walls, and they still insist on cooking for others, is it really necessary?
and family banquets, don't you pay attention to the large amount and affordability.
For this amount of dishes, you have to listen to the heroine make a long list of clichés before eating.
Anthracene, isn't this an urban drama? Why do I see the solo stage of the heroine?
Liang Qingran has many warblers and swallows around her, but she has the only fixed friend and colleague of the opposite sex.
And this friend persuades her to fall in love every day, helps her love with advice, and makes her a normal woman. (Aren't you a normal woman if you're not in love?)
It seems that a strong woman has to be unable to fall in love, and she has to be a social idiot to become a strong woman.
The husband of the last petite wife, not to mention, is machismo, conceited, although he wants to cheat, but fortunately he braked the car in the end.
His role for his wife is to make his wife realize the reality that her husband needs to go out and have intimate actions with other women in order to live.
So I guess that the later plot trend is that in order to put an end to her husband's "laughing" behavior, she will go to the workplace and make a big career.
This is an urban drama that promotes women's independence, but can you say that these women choose their careers on their own initiative?
Aren't they influenced by inexplicable reasons, and then passively divided into the camp of engaging in careers?
And the men in the play just act as these inexplicable reasons.
The screenwriter's intentions are already very obvious and routine.
First, the situation of women and the stereotyped discipline are fully displayed, and then through the experience of gender relations, women can learn to be independent and grow.
And this experience, the screenwriter doesn't seem to be able to come up with a good trick, it can only be some love.
Another misunderstanding is not to say that women cannot have independent germination and thinking through gender relations.
is like the marriage maniac in "Pink Girl", she is a person who completely obeys female virtue in her bones, and then gradually becomes an independent woman by constantly being hurt by men.
The same process is love, why is the independence of a marriage maniac worthy of appreciation?
Just because of the final good point, the marriage maniac's pursuit of love is good for herself from beginning to end.
She is changing and growing, she can gradually clarify the relationship between love and the opposite sex, and the main perspective in the play is from the marriage maniac.
But in "Today's Them", the official partners of those women do not seem to be the original partners, which means that they have to experience a wave of bloody love stories.
In the end, although it shows that it is good for women, but the process in the middle is completely dominated by men, only the result is good for women, the process is dominated by men, and women are like empty shells without thinking, being pushed to divide camps, which is the inexplicable reason I mentioned earlier.
Coupled with the screenwriter's focus on portrayal, you will find that although these plots are unreasonable, from a male perspective, they can all be rounded.
After Liu Siyuan got drunk, he hurt Lu Zhenzhen because of work problems.
It was his female boss who drank with him, and it was his female boss who picked out his problem, but he didn't dare to blame his boss for the problem, so he could only go home and be angry with his girlfriend.
The screenwriter set off the situation of women only to arch the fire, and then handed it over to men to extinguish the fire, it seems that women grow up independently, but in fact, it is just a woman who praises men from a female perspective.
The most typical is Liu Siyuan, just like when he was unemployed at the beginning, he immediately looked for a home.
Why can't the heroine think of finding a job immediately after losing her job?
The creator has a preconceived ending in his mind, but there is no intermediate process, and then he can only fill it with the simplest gender relationship, and then in the process of filling, he still unconsciously stands in the position of a man to do the old-fashioned story.
Obviously, in the past two years, women-related works have been a trend, and shouting a few slogans can gain attention.
Attention is always more important than content, which is why we have been calling for all-female works.
Director Du Xiaoyu wrote and directed a 26-minute short film "Pork Rain Moon" in 2013.
The texture is very different from what it is now, but the emotion is the most sincere.
Mother Yang Hongyu is a worker in the slaughterhouse, and her unruly son Jiabao brings his girlfriend, Yueyue, a girl from a hair salon, home to live together, and Yueyue and Hongyu get along with each other full of contradictions.
Yueyue would laugh at her mother's sagging breasts, and would dislike the stench of the slaughterhouse on Ruby's body.
Ruby will monitor all the intimate actions of her son and Yueyue, and will rush directly into the toilet when Yueyue is taking a bath, and will not hesitate to take away the necklace that Jiabao gave to Yueyue.
All the hostility is because of Jiabao, and they all want to prove that they are the most important to Jiabao.
Jiabao disappeared not long after, and only Ruby and Yueyue were left in the house.
They still don't like each other, but the only thing they can rely on during that time is each other.
When Hongyu was injured at work, Yueyue would take her home and squirt wine to rub her waist. Of course, I don't forget to talk about Hongyu's wine and spicy mouth.
When Ruby is violated, she will bluntly say that she is her family, and then listen to her tell her about her background.
Yueyue didn't think that cutting her hair at the hair salon was a job that couldn't be on the table, just like Hongyu had to work to live on a pig farm.
At one point, the two of them reached an emotional fit.
And this subtle sympathy will be broken because of the return of the family treasure.
The relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law should be the most fragile, but mutual understanding between women has begun to appear.
This is also a kind of female independence, Hongyu went from a hostile attitude towards Yueyue, to understanding and empathizing with her, and even reluctant to let her go.
What she has done is a detachment from her motherhood.
And Yueyue's departure is her realization that she is not just Jiabao's girlfriend.
This is the real focus on women, from a female perspective.
Obviously, many years later, "Today's Women", also directed by Du Xiaoyu, lost this purity.
There is no splash, so the announcement starts with the golden sentence of Charmaine Sheh's heroine.
This also corresponds to the problem of the plot: the problem is low-level, and the way of dealing with it is also low-level.
Feminism is not more in line with the trend, constructing a beautiful but empty utopia.
Maybe their ideas are good, but they haven't really landed, and now they are more regretful than dissatisfied.