In the post-traffic era, web dramas solve the main theme of youthfulness.
What kind of hidden feelings are hidden behind the tens of millions of hits of a video?
Will an accidental kidnapping rewrite the prospects of a master's degree graduate? "On the Field of Hope", which was released on the evening of September 15, threw such suspense in the first episode.
What is slightly surprising is that this newly launched online drama focuses on the theme of rural revitalization, and the tension-filled drama hook at the beginning makes the main theme story refreshing.
In fact, what refreshes the cognition of many netizens is not only the breakthrough of the theme of "web drama also shoots the main theme", but also the main creative team of the drama, the way the story is told, and even the picture that makes netizens sigh like a landscape film in each frame, etc., are seeking a youthful state that looks up to the stars and is down-to-earth. Especially in the post-traffic era, how to join hands with video platform audiences to jointly embrace the main theme has become an important proposition at present.
"On the Field of Hope" focuses on rural revitalization, telling the story of Zhang Nan (Cao Jun), who graduated with a master's degree, was forced to give up the great future of Shanghai due to his mother's cancer, and returned to the native Baiguo Village as the leader of the task force with heavy ideological baggage. In the days of working in Baiguo Village, Zhang Nan's perseverance and indomitable personality contributed a lot to the revitalization of the countryside, and also untied the childhood knot, and joined hands with his girlfriend Bian Xiaoyue (An Yuexi) to devote himself to the wider countryside.
"On the Field of Hope" was selected as the key work of the State Administration of Radio and Television in the "Network Audiovisual Program Quality Creation and Dissemination Project in the Second Half of 2020", and also received the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation's major literary and artistic creation fund. The drama is jointly produced by Penguin Film and Television and Fude Culture, Xi'an Film Studio, Shanghai Film and Television Media Co., Ltd., and the Propaganda Department of the Bijiang District Committee of Tongren City, with Rao Jun as the chief producer and screenwriter, and Wang Junye directing.
Interestingly, one of the chief producers and screenwriter of the drama, Rao Jun, has previously been familiar to the public, including "Flowers and Bones" and "Ancient Dust". From the ancient puppet and fairy type to "On the Field of Hope", which carries forward the main theme and tells the revitalization of the countryside, it is a turn for the creators and an attempt for the video platform to step out of its comfort zone.
In terms of content reserves, Rao Jun belongs to be prepared. He has a wealth of experience in rural life, he has witnessed the scene of villagers fighting over water, he has felt the double lack of educational facilities and teachers for rural students, and he has also witnessed left-behind children communicating with their parents by letters... All kinds of past memories have prompted him to write these people and events into the script, restore the real rural life to the greatest extent, and create the image of a group of people and cadres stationed in the Villages in YunguiShan District.
Content first, not only traffic theory, but also in the cast of the show. The male lead is played by Cao Jun, who has been recognized in acting variety shows before, and is also considered by the general audience to be a "lost pearl" that has been obscured by traffic.
The starring cast of An Yuexi, Luo Gang, Zhao Liang, Yang Haoyu, Gao Yiqing, Hu Wenzhe, Cui Liya, Xu Yukun, Jiang Yiming, Cao Yi and other starring actors are also the suitable actors found by the creators for the role from the content.
At the beginning of the series, Zhang Nan, a master's degree graduate who is about to enter the workplace, is full of expectations that he can stay in the big city after graduation, and does not want to be kidnapped by a mysterious person one night. It turned out that a social survey report he wrote about the primary school in his hometown caused an uproar on the Internet, touching the interests of some people and unveiling the fig leaf of various chaos such as local education and engineering infrastructure.
After the fermentation of public opinion, the relevant responsible persons did not think about how to solve the problem and improve the children's learning environment as soon as possible, but tried to use their power to threaten Zhang Nan to delete the post and apologize.
In a society governed by the rule of law, violators of the law are punished. But Zhang Nan's heart was greatly impacted.
Originally, as the first young man in Baiguo Village to be admitted to university, Zhang Nan, who had a hard time getting out of the mountains, was eager to show his skills in a big city. The first and second episodes of "On the Field of Hope" borrow the realistic painting style to show Zhang Nan's bumpy way home, the children's arduous learning environment, and the ignorant ideas of the locals.
Baiguo Village, which has only one way to enter the village, is not only the hometown that raised Zhang Nan, but also the shackles he wants to get rid of. But after witnessing all kinds of unbearable, the young party member began to realize that the revitalization of his hometown was imminent. Especially after being placed under house arrest and threatened with deletion, he realized that he had the ability to contribute to the revitalization of his hometown.
The national narrative of rural revitalization cuts from the issue of education, which is a small incision found in "On the Field of Hope" to explore the big times.
In the play, it not only focuses on the single perspective of "economic poverty alleviation", but also pays attention to the "revitalization of spiritual culture" at the same time, and adopts the two-line parallel structure of "supporting aspirations and supporting wisdom". While paying attention to the cultural revitalization of Baiguo Village, it also involves the dilemma of rural teachers, the assessment of poor households, the support of the elderly in rural areas and other issues that are closely related to the daily life of the people, based on reality, rooted in life, speaking out for the masses, and playing a rural revitalization variation.
Without relying on "traffic" to divert traffic, "On the Field of Hope" has been played nearly 10 million times less than 24 hours after it was launched.
What exactly impresses young audiences?
On the barrage, young people marvel at every frame.
"I yearn for this kind of mountain village life when I live in a big city" "Beautiful like a landscape painting" "This shot is really good" The play can be put on the beginning of the film, and has been brushed by a large number of bullet screens, praising the picture of this play, and even some viewers lament that this play is a movie-level picture, and some audiences have asked about the filming location, wanting to go to the local tourism to see the picturesque scenery.
Young people also recognize the real texture of the play, from dialect to human design, which makes people feel the breath of life.
"Very real drama, chased!" "People don't know this show is so good" "This dialect, good to look forward to!" In particular, the "protagonist group" in the play does not have a perfect image, but has its own advantages and disadvantages. Zhang Nan, the soul of the team, will fight with the villagers because of the speed of the quarrel; Li Shitao, who is well-in-command, will have an inhuman and cold side; Lin Qingqing, a yuanqi girl who is proficient in agriculture, will "cry her nose" when she is frustrated; And Geng Yiming, who is rich in economic acumen, also has her own stubbornness. The portrayal of local grassroots cadres shows their image of oscillating between responsibility and selfishness to the fullest. The true portrayal of human nature, coupled with the use of dialect dubbing throughout the rural scenes, makes the audience more immersive.
The food in the play is also a part that cannot be ignored. "This is the food on the tip of the tongue Ha" "Today I ate the same dish" The drama delicately shows the production process of Yungui specialties such as spicy chicken, sour soup horn fish, rice tofu and so on. From cutting vegetables, cooking, putting spices, and finally eating, it is like the filming method of a food show, which is mouth-watering.
In the development of the story, the play will sometimes be interspersed with some networked clips. For example, when the members of the team stationed in the village appeared one by one, they used humorous narration as a character introduction, which made people can't help but be amused; the live broadcast filmed by Lin Qingqing when cooking in the village for the first time broke through the picture frame in an instant, and the audience seemed to be really watching a live broadcast brought by a network anchor. These vignettes all show the youthful side of the main theme story.
"On the Field of Hope" has just been online for two days, and the story is still very long. Whether the main theme full of youth and vitality can stir more resonance in the subsequent plot remains to be seen.
Author: Wang Jiajing
Edit: Jiang Fang