Sohu Entertainment Special Article (Lin Zhenxin/Text) "Not an ancient puppet", is it the "gold medal for scolding" of costume dramas?
Recently, the producers of the costume drama "Palm" starring Liu Shishi and Dou Xiao spoke out on social platforms, saying that the new drama "is not an ancient puppet, not in the pampering theater!
As soon as this remark came out, it sparked a large-scale discussion.
The dramas that are still in the filming period are already anxious to "cut the table" with the ancient puppets, not to mention the projects that the starring actors and creators take turns to emphasize "not ancient puppets" after the broadcast.
In the past, there was an idol drama that was jokingly called "an advertisement on a telephone pole", and then producer Yang Xiaopei confessed that the ancient puppet made her "encounter the biggest dark period in her life", how did the ancient puppet with domestic entertainment characteristics fall to the bottom of the contempt chain?
Ancient puppet = thin?
According to the story synopsis of "Palm", the play tells the story of Gu Qing, the young daughter of a medical family who survived by luck, changed her name to Ye Ping'an and returned to the capital during the holy year of the Tang Dynasty, established the "Heart Disease Hospital", used her own life as bait, laid out the chess of revenge, and started an eighteen-year journey of revenge.
Judging from the introduction, the plot focuses on revenge + cool drama, and there is not even any mention of the male protagonist, as well as the emotional line between the male and female protagonists.
Coupled with the producer's emphasis on "not an ancient puppet" and "original suspense script", the "self-proof" of "Palm" is successful so far. Liu Shishi's fans also responded positively when promoting, and began to use words such as "costume suspense revenge heroine drama".
"I feel that the outside world has a stereotype of ancient puppets, as long as it is a young traffic actor filming costume dramas, it will be defined as an ancient puppet. Affected by this, the fan circle will ridicule the ancient puppets of the family and elevate their own family. Ruby, a big fan, told Sohu Entertainment that in the chain of contempt formed in the fan circle, the ancient puppet is at the bottom.
The proportion of shoddy ancient puppets with love as the main line is too high, so that many viewers feel that there is no threshold for playing ancient puppets: actors can grind their skin and slim their faces and add filters, they can rely on dubbing without the original sound, they can rely on their appearance without acting skills, and they can rely on special effects without action scenes.
From the perspective of fans, Ruby understands very well that fans need the reassurance of "not being an ancient puppet". But to many passers-by, this explanation is redundant. Because when the work is broadcast, whether it is an ancient puppet or not, the audience will naturally have a judgment.
"I can understand that the producer issued a statement to clarify during the filming period. Producer An Qing told Sohu Entertainment that she also paid attention to a series of discussions about "ancient puppets" on the Internet. "I think fans 'boycott' ancient puppets are worried about whether the works will be 'thin' and whether the quality will be too poor. ”
Costume idol dramas, since when did they start to be linked to "thin" and "shoddy"?
There is no widely accepted and clear definition of costume idols in the academic community. Guangming.com Media officially summarized that ancient puppet dramas are idol dramas that integrate ancient costume elements in the local Chinese context from the perspective of title and core. Judging from this, there are quite a few costume dramas that fit this range and can be called ancient puppets.
In the TV era, from countless people's childhood memories of "Huanzhu Gege" and "Marrying the Right Man in the Wrong Sedan Chair", to everyone's ancient puppet enlightenment "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" and "Mythology", all set off a viewing boom.
Later, "Palace Lock Heart Jade", "Step by Step Shocking", "Ancient Sword Strange Tan" and "Flower Thousand Bone" continued to contribute to the vigorous development of ancient puppets in the Internet era.
However, after entering the frenzied period of "traffic + big IP", the ancient puppets with brilliant records also produced some unsatisfactory works. It seems to be golden, but in fact, it has long fallen into the trap of homogenization.
Two faces of an ancient puppet
Nowadays, ancient puppets have split into two different images in the fan circle and the industry.
The costume idol drama in the eyes of the fan circle is like a "flood beast".
In addition to the above-mentioned "shoddy" perception, ancient puppets have now almost become synonymous with love brains - once the series is defined as ancient puppets, it means that one of the male and female protagonists must have a "love brain" character, and both sides will definitely sprinkle sugar and sadomasochism, and the whole world in the story will "make way" for the love of the male and female protagonists.
After seeing the fans' barrage, Liu Yuning also assured in the live broadcast a few years ago: "If next time as long as there is a producer or director, or which company asks me to film, first of all, as long as he mentions the word ancient puppet to me, I will not participate, I promise." ”
"Of course, fans want to be able to play a richer role, not the kind of role that 'you can't live without love'. Ruby said.
And the ancient puppets that producer An Qing understands are much narrower.
"In my opinion, the category of ancient puppets is now dominated by low-cost account-sharing dramas, and basically only costume account-sharing dramas are pure love. An Qing added: "90% of the Xianxia dramas on the market should be regarded as ancient puppets. The current low-quality Xianxia dramas have nothing else to do except fall in love, and saving the common people is also for falling in love. ”
In addition, they all belong to the category of costume drama "Love +", and there are different types of divisions.
For example, Liu Shishi described "Yi Nian Guan Mountain" as a legendary costume group drama, and Yang Yang, the director of "Menghualu", denied the ancient puppets in an interview, saying that "there is no idol in my creative concept".
More and more dramas are trying to "change the vest", from the costume idol drama track to costume legends, costume inspirational, costume emotions, and costume detectives......
"The reason why the ancient puppet despises the bottom of the chain in the circle is because the people who shoot the ancient puppet themselves are embarrassed to admit that they are ancient puppets, and they try to put gold on this theme. A netizen said.
So, is the truth really as netizens say?
"I think it's easier to classify and process. There is a limit to the number of different types of themes that costume dramas can pass each year. The drama Xuan Awen guessed that the reason why different subject categories came into being was related to this quantitative limitation.
In this regard, Sohu Entertainment also verified a number of producers, but did not get a fairly clear affirmative answer. Only one producer from a production company replied vaguely: "In order to control the number of certain genres broadcast in the market every quarter or year, the content allocated to each platform is indeed limited." ”
Ancient puppets, is it still a good business?
In fact, there is no shortage of excellent works of ancient puppets.
In recent years, the traffic popularity of "Canglan Jue", "Xinghan Splendid", "Menghualu" and "Sauvignon Blanc" is obvious to all.
In addition to not being favored by mainstream awards, the huge audience and star-making ability of ancient puppets should not be underestimated.
So, is it still a good business to shoot ancient puppets now?
"There are very few people who can play ancient puppets well, okay?" An artist's agent told Sohu Entertainment that no matter how sensitive the fan circle is, "ancient puppets are top-notch" is a fact that has been repeatedly verified, and they do not reject ancient puppets. "The people who act in the drama also want to enter the ancient puppet circle, the same. ”
Yixuan Xia Xia also feels that for small traffic with "hard injuries", ancient puppets are the best choice.
The artists she brought with her, because they were not tall enough, repeatedly hit a wall when auditioning for their current puppets, but it was no problem to pick up ancient puppets. Although the audience complained about the ugly men of ancient puppets, in general, ancient puppets can cover up their ugliness, and their shapes and clothes can often help artists not expose their shortcomings. ”
Drama Xuan Awen believes that the role of ancient puppets has much more space and imagination than current puppets, which means that ancient puppets will be more dominant when promoting.
From this point of view, the thinking of the fan circle has not yet affected the choice of the artist team on a large scale.
Of course, since Noon Sunshine produced the signboard and the Misty Theater created suspense high-scoring boutiques, many fans also hope that artists can enter the realism and suspense tracks more, and these calls will also attract the attention of artists.
"Fans think that you should play this kind of word-of-mouth direction, and it is worth playing this, but the team will definitely have a lot of schedule and scene considerations, and there are still trade-offs. I definitely hope to receive a better script. Xia Xia said.
So, will ancient puppets get better?
Producer Sara revealed that artists like Liu Shishi will not receive invitations to "pure ancient puppets" now. Because today's ancient puppets are becoming more and more "complex".
"Now most costume dramas will not take the pure love route at the beginning of the design, and will add the family and the country, suspense and conspiracy, business workplace, etc. The script is purely based on love, the volume is not large enough, the rating will not be high, and it is impossible to get in touch with first-line actors with high popularity and good acting skills. Sara concluded.
Producer An Qing agrees. In her opinion, most artists are "a posteriori", they believe more in market-verified cases, and large-scale pure ancient puppets have almost been eliminated by the market. "Artists choose scripts very much on the hit effect, and they will look at what successful projects the creator has done before, what hits the IP author has had, and what characters and stories have become popular in costume dramas. ”
The most typical example is that after "Menghualu" became popular, a group of "female bosses in ancient costumes" were already on their way.
In the ongoing broadcast of "Cherish the Flowers", the heroine played by Zhang Jingyi has begun to engage in the handicraft business; the heroine played by Yang Zi in "The Glory of the Country" is in the peony business; the heroine played by Zhao Lusi in "Bead Curtain and Jade Curtain" is in the jewelry business; and the heroine played by Tan Songyun in "Shu Jinren" is in the brocade business.
I don't know if this batch of "career-oriented ancient puppet dramas" can change the reputation of ancient puppets, but what is certain is that as long as the drama market can still be born with explosive ancient puppets, this theme will continue to be mass-produced.
The names of the interviewees have been changed