Recently, Zhou Xun was "scolded on the hot search" because of "The Legend of Ruyi" starring six years ago, and was questioned about his "no acting skills" and "no works".
As everyone knows, as early as 24 years ago, Zhou Xun, who was 26 years old at the time, shined in the rivalry of old actors such as Gui Yalei, Chen Hong, and Zhao Wenxuan in the TV series "Daming Palace Ci".
She is a good actor who was once in the limelight, and has made many young men excited. Her contemporaries, there are countless names that shine brightly. But time has passed, memories have diluted, and several people have changed their opinions, and those who are important on the screen have also been kicked out of the circle of respect at the moment.
It's kind of sad.
That was the beginning of the golden age of domestic dramas, but we didn't realize it at the time.
It is said that 2009 is recognized by many people as a "big year for domestic dramas". When I was in elementary school that year, I didn't feel it deeply, and when I grew up, I couldn't help but look back: we could see "Latent", "Snail House", "Great Qin Empire", "My Captain, My Regiment" on the TV screen in the same year. In 2010 and 2011, the heat of the drama still existed, and we waited for "Teahouse", "Before Dawn" and "The Legend of Zhen Huan".
Stills from "My Leader, My Regiment".
Those good dramas make our "cyber memory" not shabby, but very lively.
And do you want to come to this party?
Plan to market
In the early years of the new century, genre dramas were in full bloom, the TV was full of vitality, and the audience couldn't stop and was full of red faces, because they were culturally fed too well.
Since the first TV series "Eighteen Years in the Enemy Camp" in 1981, domestic dramas have relied on good works that have been called "divine dramas" to accumulate artistic fame for themselves. If the description of "debut is the peak" is not accurate enough for domestic TV dramas, the truth is that we only waited four or five years from having the first TV series to meeting the adaptations of the four famous novels in the history of drama.
Whether it is the "Four Great Masterpieces" or "Jigong" and "Liao Zhai", such adaptations are more like "classical literature rescue plans". At the end of 1981, Hong Minsheng, then deputy director of CCTV, mobilized literary and art workers to shoot famous works at the regular meeting of the Ministry of Literature and Art. The adaptation of the four famous novels is actually a way to protect cultural heritage. Hong Minsheng appointed Wang Fulin, the director of "Eighteen Years in the Enemy Camp", to shoot "Dream of Red Mansions", and he looked at the female director Yang Jie: "If you are given "Journey to the West", do you dare to shoot it?" Yang Jie said: "As long as you have money, why don't you dare!"
With a budget of 3 million each, they were filmed for six years and seven years respectively, and the "86 version" of "Journey to the West" and the "87 version" of "Dream of Red Mansions" have been widely and persistently disseminated, allowing a generation of people's imagination of famous works to be completed on the screen. From the very beginning, they have cherished the cultural appeal of bringing literature to life on television, especially "Dream of the Red Chamber", which has raised the cultural insight of Chinese audiences with less than ten years of experience in watching dramas to the world level as soon as it came out - the BBC has Jane Austen, we have Dickens, we have Cao Xueqin, and we do not lose.
Stills from "Journey to the West".
Most of the domestic dramas that started in the 80s were planned production with the power of the whole country. With the restructuring of the operation of TV stations, the mode of creation and production of TV dramas is also changing.
In 1988, four of Wang Shuo's novels were adapted into movies, and the scenery is incomparable. Wang Shuo is an outlier in the literary world, and also an outlier in the 80s. He doesn't talk about the noble, he doesn't talk about the lofty, he ridicules scholars, and he has also been to the sea as a "fallen master", as a novelist, but he writes the most popular TV series. In 1990, he participated in the creation of "Desire", and some people scolded him for betraying intellectuals, Wang Shuo felt that there was no more shameless criticism than this: "How did "Desire" betray intellectuals, what values do you have, do you stand on the opposite side of the people?"
The sublime of the 80s and the impetuosity of the 90s meet in the TV series. According to data from the National Conditions Research Center of Tsinghua University, the number of television sets owned by 1,000 people in China reached 156 in 1990 and 293 in 2000. No matter what we want TV dramas to be at the beginning, under the strong domination of media forces, TV dramas are destined to be popular and popular.
Ten thousand empty alleys originally referred to "every household coming out of the alley to celebrate or welcome activities", but in 1990, China's first indoor drama "Desire" redefined this idiom: When it was broadcast time, the streets and alleys were empty, and they all felt sorry for Liu Huifang at home and scolded Wang Husheng.
Stills from "Desire".
The TV drama industry also formed a real industrial model at this time. "Desire" does not rely on the financial allocation of the TV production center, does not have the task of rescuing the literary heritage, does not take lofty values as a cultural mission, it is purely an indoor family ethics drama that meets the entertainment needs of the common people.
Dai Jinhua once described it vividly, saying that the production of high-quality TV dramas is a process of "elite culture descending to popular culture". In the era when domestic dramas are frequently produced, cultural elites have always grasped the production chain of TV dramas. Wang Shuo made "Desire" - a real soap opera, which is out of the interest of intellectuals, and our domestic drama is the first time to consider what ordinary people like to watch.
Entertainment is no longer the original sin of culture, it is a foregone conclusion that mass culture will become mainstream, and TV dramas have taken over the task of long-form serialized novels and become the "after-dinner after-dinner" of ordinary people.
Literature and drama
The dialogue between the elite and the masses did not lower the level of TV dramas as expected. On the contrary, a more free and active market allows TV dramas to explore conscious creation more freely from the base of classic literature.
Novelists who are accustomed to writing serious literature and are in the right years rush to try the water of TV dramas. Wang Shuo, Liang Zuo, Liu Heng, Liu Heping, Zou Jingzhi, Erhe, and Liu Zhenyun spread the literary background of TV dramas, and even at the academic level, TV drama scripts exist as one of the departments of modern and contemporary literary research.
Speaking of the literary nature of the TV series, "Daming Palace Ci" broadcast in 2000 cannot be mentioned. Zheng Zheng and Wang Yao, two young and beautiful young screenwriters like European youths took over the story structure of "Daming Palace Ci" from Li Shaohong's hands, and they put a copy of "Don Juan" at hand to shuttle between poetry and Tang history, filling the flesh and blood of the peaceful and prosperous era with bright and enthusiastic European language. They have created a rare lyrical way in domestic dramas, where the characters express their desire for love and power bluntly, and even the most humble male favorites have frank and direct life confessions.
The straightforwardness it creates is in keeping with one of the most robust dynasties in ancient history, and we hear the Taiping Duke say affectionately: "I have never seen such a bright face, and a soft smile on his resolute cheeks." For the first time, all the hazy yearning that I had nurtured in my fourteen years of life had a clearly visible image. "It's like a declaration of the artistic energy of TV dramas.
Stills from "Daming Palace Ci".
Until Zou Jingzhi wrote "Iron Tooth Bronze Tooth Ji Xiaolan", Lan Xiaolong wrote "My Regiment Leader, My Regiment", and even "Wulin Gaiden", which was once not accepted by the mainstream public, all have their own language style and dialogues with distinct personalities. "British ghosts died of narrow-mindedness and arrogance, and Chinese ghosts died of resignation and carelessness", such lines blurred the boundaries between TV drama and literature.
Unlike movies, which pay more attention to the lens and audio-visual, TV dramas are not entirely visual arts, and it focuses more on "talking well". One of the characteristics of a good drama is that the lines are always worth reading and pondering, and when we say "literary", there is a level that refers to the narration and dialogue of the TV series.
In terms of composition, 80% of domestic sitcoms are language comedies. Wang Shuo wrote "The Story of the Editorial Department" that it is not easy to say that it is not easy for people to live a lifetime, Liang Zuo, the screenwriter of "I Love My Family", wrote that Ji Chunsheng rubbed rice, "I don't feel solid when I eat like this-do you have garlic at home", which is a pure cross talk burden.
Speaking clearly, toughly, and happily has always been the bottom line of a good TV series. In this age of scarcity of divine dramas, we have also lost a clear and healthy language. Xianxia dramas talk about half-literate and half-white nondescript dialogues produced by the assembly line, while urban dramas are full of painless nonsense.
Stills from "The Story of the Editorial Department".
In addition to literature, another kind of palace art drama has built another dimension for the quality of TV dramas - performance. Beijing Renyi, the National Theatre, and the Art Troupe have sent a large number of outstanding actors to the film and television industry, and they have stepped down from the altar to TV dramas, and their spirit is not reduced.
TV series are more rough in creation than movies, but for good actors, in the production backstage of TV series with an annual output of xx films, they still have knives and knives, accurately dissecting the flesh and blood of the characters, and supporting the appearance of the drama.
In 2000, the civilian drama "The Happy Life of Poor Zhang Damin", which reflected the little people in Beijing, almost all of the team were drama actors. Zhu Yuanyuan, who plays Yun Fang, played an aunt in "My Sister" twenty years later, she went to the café to catch Zhang Zifeng, the girl ran away angrily, Zhu Yuanyuan poured the unfinished coffee into the thermos cup, and before putting the coffee cup down, she licked the rim of the cup quickly and skillfully.
In recent years, when we mention film and television dramas, we must call them "realism", but those dramas and performances packaged in emotional confrontation and bloody plots seem to be closer to realism than this action of licking the edge of the cup.
Stills from "My Sister".
And our nostalgia for the golden age of TV dramas can be more specific on this basis: such details are everywhere in Zhu Yuanyuan's masterpiece "The Happy Life of Poor Zhang Damin" twenty years ago, under the hands of excellent screenwriters and excellent actors.
Genre & Topic
If movies provide imagination at the level of creating artistic space, then a good TV series will become a correction of reality because it is closer to the people. We will see how we quarrel, how we cook, and how we fall in love in TV dramas, and most of the dramas will make the audience feel: "That's right, that's it." ”
Even the most commercial, dramatizing genre drama is no exception if it's good enough.
In the first decade of this century, domestic genre dramas blossomed everywhere. If in the last century, our TV dramas were still busy descending from elite culture to popular culture with the mentality of literary creation, then in the new century, the form of TV dramas is consciously highlighted, the genre consciousness is complete, and while maintaining artistic standards, there is a timely and even advanced exploration of local social issues, and a benign dialogue has been formed between creators and audiences for the society.
TV dramas are naturally suited to creating social topics. It unfolds a story slowly and unhurriedly, with enough ups and downs to breed countless discussions, and for any hit drama, the story is written by the writer and the audience.
When divorce was still a scandal for Chinese people, "Chinese-style Divorce" had already smelled the change in social atmosphere; Feng Yuanzheng (he is also a top actor in Renyi) has been hideous in the memory of a generation of TV children for more than 20 years because of "Don't Talk to Strangers", and his role is still the most classic case of domestic violence; in "Snail House", Li Nian's seaweed can't restrain himself from exchanging his dignity for a red coat like an addiction, and at the same time triggers the whole society to discuss Xiaosan and housing prices; "Struggle" It accurately preserves the youth of a generation like a photo, and Lu Tao and Milai's understanding of the world makes us envious: "None of us are afraid of bad things!"
Stills from "Chinese-Style Divorce".
Let's take a look at the postmodern drama "Wulin Gaiden", which was regarded as nonsense by the old master of the defender at that time, it ridiculed fake medicine and fake singing, satirical advertisements and drafts, and selected people by sable cicadas, it doesn't matter if the singing skills are good or not, it doesn't matter if the dancing is good or not, and it doesn't matter if you find someone to sing on your behalf, because "Master Cui is not there". The obsolescence of this line shows how sensitive this drama was to the touch of society at that time.
Our creators want after-dinner discussions, but they also want to earn the respect of the TV set. From this point of view, genre dramas are the product of the conscious combination of market demand and form, and it is said that Liu Heping said after writing "Ming Dynasty 1566", "No one will look down on TV dramas in the future."
Historical dramas, spy war dramas and criminal investigation crime dramas (and similar police and bandit dramas) are high-incidence areas of divine dramas, and historical smoke and life and death crimes are a rich mine of stories.
Our historical dramas do not delve into historical facts and uniforms, on the contrary, they either use extremely romanticized strokes to reconstruct the entanglements of love and hatred between historical figures, or let historical figures pinpoint contemporary ills in the ancient political structure, but they still become "national dramas" because of their unique emotional expressions and historical speculation based on history.
Stills from "Wulin Gaiden".
Spy war dramas often strive to deduce the limits of human nature in the gaps of the revolutionary context, but the most successful spy war drama "Latent" is the most "anti-type", its spy war is not so meticulous and clever, but it makes us realize that the perspective of soldiers as human beings is so rare.
The scenery of criminal investigation crime dramas is even more prosperous. From the unit drama "Six Groups of Serious Cases" to the ancient costume "Da Song Ti Criminal Officer", solving cases is a genre element, and human nature is the flesh and blood of the drama. "Chasing the Murderer in the White Night", "The Silent Truth" and "The Long Season", which prop up the waist of the online drama, prove the immortal vitality of this genre. In 2023, "Hurricane" will be popular at the beginning of the year, and for lovers of Chinese dramas, we are using it to look at the golden age of criminal investigation and crime dramas.
Mass to Focus
Around the turn of the millennium, the drama was brilliant. Critic Mao Jian happily predicted that our TV series will soon "catch up with the United States". But the optimism about the future did not come true, new media emerged, popular culture turned, and domestic dramas were once compromised.
"Latent" and "The Legend of Zhen Huan" are not far apart, and there is a rather interesting phenomenon when they are on the air: many people use these two dramas as teaching materials.
Yu Zecheng is a revolutionary soldier of our party, but for Tianjin Station, he is a guy who can't do anything, but in the end, Stationmaster Wu still has to take him on the plane. This is an interesting point of "Latent": when Yu Zecheng is not doing revolution, he is an old fritter who is still in danger in the unit. The conflict between friend and foe in the spy war story was deconstructed into thick black studies in the workplace, and Yu Zecheng became a national mentor.
"Put me in the palace fight drama, I won't survive the first episode", this saying that is still popular today is the sequelae of the hit palace fight drama. The life-and-death struggle between the harem concubines in "The Legend of Zhen Huan" has also become a living workplace teaching, we were once very keen to learn from the concubines how to talk around the corner, how not to let ourselves suffer and please the superior at the same time, but we almost forgot that this palace fighting drama with a Douban score of more than 9 points was originally intended to show the squeeze and harm of the feudal system to human nature. Those who are forced to seek perfection by survival are regarded as treasures for learning, so is the strength of criticism still there?
Stills from "The Legend of Zhen Huan".
New media are becoming popular, grassroots culture and Internet capital are approaching us at the same time, the elite's right to interpret stories is diluted, and we are beginning to have a more personal and deconstructive way of viewing TV dramas.
In 2024, 13 years have passed since the premiere of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", and it is even more popular than it was then. The sayings of the workplace canon are outdated, and "The Legend of Zhen Huan" is still fresh, which cannot but be said to be a cultural miracle, but maybe it is also a cultural disease, and the cause is the lack of an element called common memory in our body.
I think we still crave a collective memory that can be tacitly understood by everyone, and the enduring "stalk" in "The Legend of Zhen Huan" is the "palace jade liquor" that belongs to our generation. The cultural merit of domestic drama is probably that it has a very good memory and glues the life experience of the same generation.
Our society has not become so atomized and isolated for no reason that it is difficult to dialogue, and the absence of the national drama may confirm it.
What disappeared with the whole people watching the drama was the demise of the national topic. Nowadays, when we open social media, it is difficult to see that everyone has a common discussion object, a flat discussion base, and everyone cares about different topics, just as everyone has their own cultural interests.
Stills from "The Legend of Zhen Huan".
TV series can't dominate the world anymore, but is its life over?
Online dramas have gone through the process of "goodness" from extensive to standardized, the screen has long been an old-fashioned word, and video websites have become giants in drama production, and "IP" has replaced the old screenwriters to take over the production of stories, and I think the concept of "TV series" also needs to be updated.
More people began to call the cultural products that look like jumping into another world, can't let go of chasing them, and are unforgettable after watching them, "dramas", and "TV series" are already in the past life. We have witnessed many good examples, such as the masterpiece "Mao Liar", which was born in the early days of online dramas, "Langya Bang", which is adapted from IP but has the appearance of a historical drama, and "The Long Season", which has both literary temperament and online characteristics.
Reboot the timeline of the episodes, sculpt the world view of the episodes, and delineate the horizontal line of the episodes, the good dramas of the future can be niche, or even niche, but we hope that it can be like the divine dramas of the past: there is a serious artistic pursuit, and each character speaks and does accurate things.
Stills from "The Long Season".
Literature is still needed in this era, and we need to watch dramas as much as we need literature. In the depths of the story, we want to see ourselves - this is the original motivation for us to watch the show, and it is also the reason why we re-watch the work.
It is said that we are the last generation of TV children. In the sound of dishes and chopsticks every day, turn on the TV, and TV dramas come as scheduled, acting as the most popular literary education, the most interesting moral debate, and the warmest life companion day after day.
Bad dramas and bad movies have their own bad methods, but good works are supported by the same backbone. When we look back at the magnificence of the past today, we are not indulging in the glory of the past, but hoping to find the solution of domestic dramas in the present. The latest issue of Nanfeng Window magazine, reviewing the "Chinese-style drama", this is a nostalgic carnival of young people, and it is not only nostalgia, we want to see the possibility of rediscovering dignity and cohesion of the times in popular culture.
This article was first published in the eighth issue of Nanfeng Window magazine
Author | Zhao Shuhe
Editor-in-Chief on Duty|Huang Mingting
Edit | Xie Yiqiu
Typography | promise