Written by Lyla Editor: Daisy
Starting from December 26, the family emotional drama "Grandma's Dumpling Restaurant" officially met with the audience at Yangba. The drama was broadcast only one week in the ratings of 1, the 11th day of broadcast ratings broke 2, firmly ranked the national star channel champion, the end of the year and the beginning of the year, this drama is extremely warm, but also for 2019 to make a good start.
"Grandma's Dumpling Restaurant" is produced by the Central Radio and Television Corporation and Fujian Century Changlong Film and Television Co., Ltd., directed by Wang Xiaoming, written by Li Liang, and co-starred by the old drama bones Chen Xiaoyi and He Zhengjun, together with Wei Xiaojun, Liu Haowen, Fang Yixuan, Wang Yuwei and other powerful actors.
The play tells the humorous story of the protagonist Jiang Guifang with a family of five children to open and run the "Guifang Dumpling Restaurant" from the 1980s to the present, and unfolds a wonderful picture of the life of ordinary Chinese families since the reform and opening up forty years.
How did "Grandma's Dumpling Restaurant" without traffic students become a popular drama that the whole people are chasing? How did the screenwriters create such a true story? How come the controversial Second Sister Tiger in the play has not been able to grasp the focus of life? With these questions, recently, Toutiao Ji interviewed screenwriter Li Liang and Wei Xiaojun, who plays Fang Yamei in the play.
<h1>Dialogue actor Wei Xiaojun: Heaven will never fail people who are serious about filming</h1>
When she met Wei Xiaojun, she was warm and polite and exuded an intellectual and gentle temperament, not quite like the warm and flamboyant personality of Fang Yamei, played in the play. Many viewers hate the role of Fang Yamei, feeling that she is selfish, hypocritical and ruthless, and in the face of the audience's hot discussion, Wei Xiaojun patiently tells her understanding of this role and the behind-the-scenes story of this play.
Toutiao Ji: What impressed you most about this work: "Grandma's Dumpling Restaurant"?
Wei Xiaojun: This is a realistic theme, all the characters in the plot are small and big, each character is full, she has advantages and disadvantages, there is a small wisdom, there is also a chicken thief side, we did not create a tall image, nor did we deliberately ugly a person. This drama embodies many aspects of human nature to the fullest, closer to life, more grounded.
Toutiao Ji: Why did you choose a role that the second elder (Fang Yamei) loves to make so much?
Wei Xiaojun: When I read the script of this play at that time, the second brother attracted my attention, but I was particularly worried about whether I could be qualified for this role, and later when I had to decide the actor, the director decided for me.
Toutiao Ji: What is the difficulty of playing the role of Fang Yamei?
Wei Xiaojun: One is her tossing, and the other is her personality. You can't play this kind of character well, if there is no support of connotation, the whole person is floating. There is also a kind of difficulty to grasp, that is, her vanity, but in fact, she is also a very strong person, and her kind of strength is that people who understand her can understand it. At that time, I felt that this character was too complicated, and I was afraid that this aspect would be difficult to grasp.
Toutiao Ji: What was the scene that impressed you the most?
Wei Xiaojun: The most impressive thing is the scene where mother and son recognize each other. Because at that time, our whole crew was finished, leaving me with my last scene. Before filming, all of our cast members hugged and cried together, and the feeling of truth was very touching, and now the crew rarely has such a scene. But I didn't have it at the time, because I knew that I had a particularly important scene to complete later, so I accumulated a lot of emotional emotions in it. Including that hug, in fact, if you look closely at my hands, they are frozen, all red, because the director wants to leave a handprint on his body, if the cooperation is not good, you have to get rid of it and re-shoot.
Toutiao Ji: Is there anything interesting about the crew?
Wei Xiaojun: Our crew is so fun, because the creative atmosphere is particularly good, just like home. First of all, it is very interesting to shoot summer scenes in winter, and the original frozen 321 will be very hot when it starts up, but what if there is ha gas in the mouth? Then first put the popsicles and ice water in your mouth, and when you say the lines, you will not be angry.
Headline Ji: Before starring in a lot of TV on "Silly Spring", "Zhengyang Gate", "Love Full Courtyard" most of them are marriage and love themes, do you prefer realistic themes?
Wei Xiaojun: Yes, I have a preference. I like the human touch, the heaviness and simplicity of this script. When the script can hit people's hearts and really touch my heart, I believe that others will also be moved.
Toutiao Ji: What does Grandma's Dumpling Restaurant want to convey to the audience?
Wei Xiaojun: In fact, when everyone is young and vigorous, it will be easy to make some impulsive choices, but the older they are, the calmer they are, the heavier the emotions, the moment when the actual person is old, there are many comprehensive emotions in it, there is a sense of achievement worth showing off, there are also moments of secret sadness, sadness and regret, and finally the most want to rely on nothing more than family affection, which is the most direct thing that our dumpling restaurant passes on to the audience friends: return to family affection.
<h1>Dialogue screenwriter Li Liang: The truth built up by language carries many sincere emotions</h1>
Screenwriter Li Liang graduated from the directing department of the Central Academy of Drama, and the peaceful teaching system in Chinese drama let him deeply know what true realism is. The reason why "Grandma's Dumpling House" can touch the spiritual sensitivity of ordinary audiences is because the camera is directly into the hearts of the characters, and all works that have become the history of the soul can leave its value in the history of artistic development. When interviewing screenwriter Li Liang, he told me that this play has a long creative process of up to 7 years, during which he encountered a series of setbacks such as group building failures, IP grandeur, capital chain breaks, etc. Although it was very bumpy all the way, he still persevered, this play must not be perfect, but it is enough affection, and then Li Liang also hopes that in addition to being a screenwriter, he will return to the directing industry in the future, hoping that there is a suitable opportunity to realize his wishes.
Toutiao Ji: Why did you want to create such a work, did you encounter twists and turns?
Li Liang: At the beginning, it was a flash of inspiration, because my grandmother especially loved me, she used to have experience working in the railway hotel, and Jiang Guifang's prototype was from my grandmother, who always loved to tell me stories, and over time she wanted to write her down. It's the most enjoyable of all my scripts, because it's not a custom commodity, it's an original script in my head.
Headline Ji: The first draft of the script was finalized to the end, what part of the biggest change was made?
Li Liang: The biggest change is that because the production cycle is too tight, I painfully deleted six or seven episodes of the scene, and now only the last three episodes explain the story of the third generation, which is actually a loss to the character of Grandma, because later I spent a lot of space to show her vulnerability and helplessness, and when I really reached the generation of grandchildren, many things he could no longer handle, the personality was no longer strong and powerful, why is it called Grandma's dumpling restaurant, in fact, it is told from Ma Kai's point of view, and finally took away some regrets.
Toutiao Ji: There are some directors or screenwriters who like to project their own shadow on a certain character in the process of creation, which character do you think you are most like?
Li Liang: The thing that must be said is Fangda. The relationship between Fangda and her mother is actually very similar to my relationship with my grandmother, I am a more honest person in my life, the more people have nothing, the more they want to shape something through the characters, so Fonda is more debauched, but his filial piety and responsibility are in his bones, and he slowly grows into a man.
Toutiao Ji: Many film and television works usually show and present the warm harbor of home. Compared with similar dramas, what breakthroughs do you think this drama has made?
Li Liang: For dramas with realistic themes, authenticity is the most important. First of all, our script is to create really small characters, they are not perfect heroes, there is no tall protagonist aura, in fact, everyone has shortcomings, we can't make the protagonist too perfect at the beginning, which will lead to the characters not growing. Secondly, the time and story that occurs, in order to restore specific historical conditions, we must admit that reality is cruel, rather than blindly creating a harmonious and beautiful life.
Toutiao Ji: Why tell a story around "dumplings"?
Li Liang: The people take food as the sky. In the eyes of Chinese, in addition to being a mouth-watering ingredient, it is more because it is a unique way of emotional expression, and the food that can best condense all Chinese emotions is dumplings, which are also the best food to interpret the two words "reunion" of Chinese emotional destination. Those people in this play are the most ordinary people, wrapped in the most ordinary dumplings, but between the blending of the skin and the filling, between the tumbling of the soup and the pot, between the kneading of the noodles and the case, they are soaked with the life of Chinese, hoping that through this play, they can evoke the homeland memory and Chinese story in the hearts of every Chinese people.
"Grandma's Dumpling House" evokes the audience's memories of home with Chinese's most traditional and familiar cuisine, a bowl of steaming dumplings, although simple, contains the most simple emotions of Chinese families. "Articles are written for the times, songs and poems are written for things", "Grandma's Dumpling Restaurant" successfully confirms that film and television creation is a process of dream-making, and only dreams that are illuminated by profound reality candles can shock people's hearts and comfort people's hearts.