The most popular Thai drama in the past two years is "Forbidden Girl". Different from the previous Thai romance routines, the label of revenge drama, the taboo topic of large scale, the rich oriental horror beauty, and the G-spot of the aesthetically tired audience step on it, which aroused attention as soon as it was launched. The douban score of the two seasons is above 8 points, and the actress Kitty Chicha has also quickly become popular, attracting a lot of fans.
▲Douban score
But the drama party himself died. Recently, in the Facebook thank you poster, the drama side will be China's Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore and other international juxtaposition, and attached hong Kong bauhinia flag, Taiwan's "blue sky and white sun full of red flags". This blatant violation of the red line caused a round of anger and invective at home. Although the relevant logos were removed in the later period, word-of-mouth overturning has become a foregone conclusion.
▲ Poster controversy; image source network
"Forbidden Girl" is now really "taboo". However, putting aside the controversy over political positions, Uncle Oxygen would like to talk about some ideas for this kind of female revenge drama today.
"Tomie" or the "Erinius" of the new era?
"Forbidden Girl" is different from the traditional revenge model of "victory over evil", but punishes evil with "evil". The heroine "Nano" has the dual attributes of a justice judge and a messenger of hell, and in each episode of the independent story, such as "The Devil's Hook" pulls out the hidden evil in human nature and destroys it. "Nano" is actually in everyone's heart.
Many people think that the role of "Nano" is a paraphrase of Junji Ito's "Tomie", and the two do overlap: a seductive and beautiful monster (high school girl), the embodiment of evil, and death.
But there is an essential difference in the core of the story: "Tomie" is an unprovoked evil, independent of the rules, repeatedly killed by desire and then constantly multiplied by itself; the evil of "Nano" has cause and effect, which is built on the soil of social justice, and is both a persecutor and a perpetrator (the avenger). "Tomie" is frightening, while "Nano" gives people a violent aesthetic pleasure.
▲Left "Tomie"; Right "Nano"
"Nano" reminds Uncle Oxy of Erinius. Erinius is a collective name for the three goddesses of vengeance (restlessness, jealousy, and revenge) in Greek mythology, often depicted as a woman with red-eyed snake hair, bat wings, and a whip. They are born of hatred, out of a desire to avenge sin, and their methods of revenge are violent. It coincides with the motives, means, and purposes of "Nano", but the latter is more obscure and sneaks in.
▲ Erinius
There is a Proverb in the West: Revenge is sweet. And people love to watch this kind of female revenge drama, for no other reason than the following points: First, when the heroine is transformed from a victim to a perpetrator, the audience will substitute and empathize with the pleasure and catharsis of desperate revenge, satisfying the revenge psychology. "Dogtown", "The End of the Road", "Fruit Hard Candy" all embody this value.
The second is that the main body of revenge is women in a weak position, corresponding to the awakening feminism. At the same time, exposing the darkness of society, in line with justice, and human feelings, it is sensational, and it also caters to the audience's mentality of sympathizing with the weak. "Forbidden Girls" directly attacks underage sexual assault, school violence, education system and other issues are examples. This is reminiscent of "Young You".
▲ "Young You"
The third is often combined with violent aesthetics, its strong revenge behavior and will break the soft impression of women, the visual landscape of sexy objects + bloody violence, the sense of impact, the dramatic tension is stronger, and it also satisfies the audience's voyeuristic desire. For example, "Kill Bill", "Instinct", "I Spit on Your Grave", rationalized violence is also a kind of baptism.
Tilting a little more towards eroticism and violence is "pink violence".
"Pink Violence" movies were born and flourished in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s, and the story routines are mostly for the heroine to wake up and grow up and take bloody revenge on men after being oppressed and suffering. It is characterized by the incorporation of a large number of soft pornography and violent bloody elements, so it is loved by cult fans. For example, "Female Prisoner No. 701" and "Shuluo Xueji". In a broad sense, "Carrie the Witch" and the like are also considered "pink violence".
The image of the vengeful woman appears on the Korean screen very frequently, such as Park Chan-wook's "Revenge Trilogy", Kim Ki-duk's "Holy Death", Lee Cangdong's "Miyang" and "The Beginning and End of kim Funan's Murder", all of which have created a unique charm of Korean vengeful women. It is more depressing than "Forbidden Girl", because it is more real, more realistic thinking, and also gives the audience a dual experience of violence and justice.
There are also many dramas of the same genre in Japanese dramas, such as "Complaint House", "The Wonderful Story of the World", "Hell Girl" (anime, Taiwanese remake into "Death Girl") and so on. This kind of gothic temperament of the dark drama, Uncle Oxy also thought of "Pawnshop No. 8" more than a decade ago.
▲ "Pawnshop No. 8"
What kind of looks can play the "daughter of Satan"?
Female revenge dramas, from the name can see the status and importance of the heroine. So what kind of looks and temperament can interpret the role of "Nano"? Its actor Kitty is the first category. She is simply not a beauty in the entertainment industry, and can only be regarded as "heterochromatic".
She is very similar to Kwon Ji-yong's gossip girlfriends: the jaw is stubborn and bulky, the cheeks, cheeks and nose shapes that symbolize the momentum are indifferent, the eyebrows are not concerned about the chaos, and the overall skeleton structure of men is used to package the female "sense of superiority". The proportions and silhouettes of Suwon Are the most standard, and it is best to adjust them. Komatsu Naina atmosphere beauty, relying on expressions. Kitty is much more mediocre.
Left to right: Kitty; Kiko; Nana
The "Nano" type of character has an evil attribute, and the beauty of the above-mentioned few that is floating between the mainstream and the edge is more likely to give the audience a "sense of alienation", and it is also convenient to shape this kind of "good and evil" character. In particular, their eyebrows are cold enough, their bones are blunt enough, their temperament is fierce, and their sense of strength and aggression can be full at any time.
After all, the killing knife is blunt enough to be rough enough to cut it up. This kind of example is often used as a model for Chiaki Kuriyama in his youth.
▲Chiaki Kuriyama
The second category can be seen in Baosheng Dance and Wen Qi, who are often nominated for evil women. Much more delicate than the previous set of structures, the facial features are also much more restrained. The left one is also the most beautiful freeze-frame moment of Baosheng Dance, and Wen Qi is beautiful in a pair of hooked charm eyes, which can make people associate it with "evil" is also in the eyes.
But the Baosheng Dance eyeline line is more curved and beautiful, and the tip of the eye is deeply dug inward, which is very sharp and gorgeous. The details are much richer than the latter, and the world that can penetrate people's hearts is deeper and older. The face shape and facial feature ratio of the two are relatively young, and the skin phase is sharply offset. But Wen Qi's face is wide, his face is too wide, and the rest of his facial features are not strong enough, and it is a pity that he is not beautiful enough.
▲ Left Baosheng Dance; Right Wenqi
The last category can be understood by borrowing Zhang Zifeng. "Little Flower" Zhang Zifeng's appearance and momentum are relatively ordinary, and the advantage is that the recognition is good (acting skills are not discussed), and can be invisible to all kinds of life types anytime and anywhere.
But it is this universality that makes the evil it produces the most frightening, because she may be everyone in your life, any person. This is the same as "Memories of Killing". Of course, the clean (or pure) temperament itself also contrasts, amplifying this possible potential "evil".
▲Zhang Zifeng