Zeng Yuli
As a drama directed by Feng Xiaogang after 25 years, it is difficult for "North and South" to go unnoticed. There are many female group portrait dramas on the market, and because there are too many shoddy fabrications, the audience has some aesthetic fatigue for this genre, but as soon as "North and South" comes out, the texture is still eye-catching. Putting aside stereotypes, a big director is a big director, and "North and South" makes people feel quite comfortable regardless of the narrative rhythm, or the camera scheduling and art setting.
Poster of "North and South"
Now the main controversy is still at the story level, "North and South" has a mixed reputation. Let's start with the merits objectively.
Set in Beijing, "North and South" focuses on the careers, emotions and lives of five women in Beijing. The series maintains some of the characteristics of Feng's comedies in the late 1990s and early 21st centuries, such as the characters being particularly "poor". This kind of linguistic "poverty" not only fully reflects the charm of the Beijing dialect (although the Beijing dialect of several other actresses except Si Ni is not very authentic), but also reflects the atmosphere of the city and the taste of the common people. If it is other film and television dramas, the audience will feel like pouring water when there are more character lines, but in the Beijing wei'er drama, the character lines come and go, kind, natural and grounded, and the audience always feels like listening to crosstalk.
But looking back, the "poverty" of Feng's comedies such as "Party A and Party B" and "Big Shots" has a different taste. In that turning era, the sublime was disintegrating, new faiths were still being sought, and people were at a loss. Linguistic "poverty" constitutes a catharsis of ordinary people's emotions of the times, so it has the flavor of humanistic care. Feng's comedy once dominated the Chinese film market, which is closely related to its grip on the pulse of the times and the emotions of the times.
Unfortunately, the "poverty" of the lines in "North and South" no longer has the taste of humanistic care. It is just a private chat of a few carefree girlfriends, talking about where it is, the picture is refreshing, the language density is very large, but there is no amount of information to be touched.
Is there any place where this linguistic "poverty" can restore the function of acupuncture? There really is. There are female characters in the play who are engaged in showbiz-related work, and Feng Xiaogang took advantage of their experience to "hack" the chaos of "digital lines" and "grabbing positions" in the entertainment industry.
This part of the digital lines invited Huang Bo as a cameo. Huang Bo played a big-name actor who came over to make a cameo appearance as a director played by Feng Xiaogang. Big-name actors have a particularly tight schedule and don't have time to memorize their lines. Therefore, when shooting, the assistant wrote a teleprompter on the side, such as "the first sentence of the male protagonist 7 words", the big-name actors will read the number to seven, have expressions and emotions, and casually read the number in the back mouth, crying and drooling emotionally, acting like the real thing.
Digital lines
Outrageously, the director was still crying on the sidelines, exaggerating the good actor and being a "performance artist". This really reflects the chaos of "the whole crew serving the actors". Big-name actors are Gods, and they don't say their lines.
The director shoots Mr. Numbers ass
Some people say that this bridge section is not realistic. In reality, digital lines are mainly statements without emotional ups and downs, if it is such a scene in the play, there are generally line prompts, or the assistant reads a sentence to say. But in any case, there is a lot of ridicule on the Internet for digital lines, and the irony in film and television dramas is so ironic, "North and South" should be the first time I have seen it.
Feng Xiaogang's skill is there. If he makes an entertainment industry version of "Party A and Party B", I think it should not be ugly, at least it can be on par with the Feng comedy at its peak.
But "North and South" is a female group portrait drama that tells the story of contemporary women. There is no need to collect some of Feng Xiaogang's previous biased statements about women, and judging from the performance in the play, the main creators really don't know much about women.
The so-called "North Ru Nan Yuan" is the name of a restaurant opened by the five female women in the play, Bao Xue (played by Lan Yingying), Dai Xiaoyu (played by Jin Chen), Si Meng (played by Si Ni), Feng Xi (played by Sui Yuan), and You Shanshan (played by Wang Luodan); "North Ru Nan Yuan" also symbolizes the gap between ideals and reality on the road of women's lives. The five heroines have their own life difficulties, and because of the deep connection established by this restaurant, they overcome the gap between the north and the south and live a new life.
The intention is quite like that, and the effect is not flattering. The five women in the play do not represent universal female group portraits, they all seem to live in the clouds.
Yu Shanshan is the leader. She is a foreign girl, married to a Beijing native, had a son and divorced, and then came out to start her own business, opened a company and invested and speculated in stocks, bought a storefront in the center of Beijing with a big stroke, and estimated that she should be worth hundreds of millions.
You Shanshan (played by Wang Luodan)
As a businessman, she has two unrealistic characteristics: she is very idle, eating and chatting with people all day long; she is too enthusiastic, she has no deep friendship with Bao Xue, Dai Xiaoyu, and Si Meng, and after seeing two or three sides, she pulls them to open a restaurant, and even the start-up funds can be borrowed. This is simply a bodhisattva design.
The problem with "North and South" is not that the women in the play are particularly rich, living in villas and mansions, going to high-end horse farms at the first party, the screenwriter has the right to write about rich women, and we don't want to hate the rich. The problem is that the screenwriters write about rich women, which also seems to be "suspended". You Shanshan is the main backbone of the restaurant and the main backbone of this drama, but her motivation for opening a restaurant and her motivation for assembling these women are too casual and too "family-like". Is it really poverty that limits the imagination of viewers like me? That's how rich people really play?
Yu Shanshan let Bao Xue, who had just met a few times, into the restaurant
If "North and South" wants to be made into "Little Times" and shoot the happy and free life of rich people, then it has done it. But the idea of the series is not so, it is to highlight the breakthrough of women to the dilemma. For example, Bao Xue, a small actor with a dragon set, must face the bone feeling of reality; Dai Xiaoyu and Feng Xi have been subjected to some kind of "betrayal" and "neglect" in the relationship between the sexes, and they need to find themselves; Si Meng is trapped in the identity of a housewife, and the writer's dream can only be put aside...
However, in the plot currently broadcast, we can't see the specific struggle between these women and reality, and we can't see the effective details of their subjective initiative; on the contrary, their various dilemmas are not only quite "routine", but also open a restaurant. It is not difficult to imagine that the series will finally highlight keywords such as "courage", "ideals", and "sisterhood", but it is likely to be just a chicken soup slogan, which does not have much reference significance and practical value for ordinary people.
I would like to ask, where do the audience who encounter the dilemma of the north and south go to meet a rich and generous sister like You Shanshan? How could they possibly resonate with this fantastic plot? But "North and South" believes that it is telling women's stories, telling women's transcendence of difficulties. This is where it deserves special vigilance: the creators treat the world of the rich as it is; they think that the lives of women in the play are the norm, what the women do in the play is taken for granted, and the women in the play who transcend the predicament are easily realized - just like they easily open a restaurant. The creators are too far away from real life, they live in the "stratosphere", and it is difficult to have real care and compassion for the plight of ordinary people.
For example, Dai Xiaoyu's ex-fiancé did not divorce at all, and the previously drafted will give 90% of the property to his daughter and 10% to his "ex-wife". Dai Xiaoyu broke up in anger. The ex-fiancé gave Dai Xiaoyu a sum of money, You Shanshan said that she could not ask for it, the reason was that it was two clear without taking money, and taking the money gave the man a feeling of "making up for you", but "we can't take the price of youth". This sentence is also on the hot search, as a kind of positive publicity. But fellow women, don't listen to You Shanshan's "nonsense", it is not the same thing. Dai Xiaoyu really paid for five years, and the ex-boyfriend cheated on her for five years. Especially if it is joint property of husband and wife, you take what you have paid, there is nothing to feel guilty about.
Screenshot of "North and South"
In any case, it must be said that "North and South" has a good aesthetic texture, which can also be regarded as "washing eyes" for audiences who have watched more shoddy web dramas. But Feng Xiaogang obviously made the wrong subject matter - he didn't understand women very well, let alone the lives of ordinary people. Nostalgic for the "Party A and Party B" period, the Feng Dao who can still empathize with ordinary people. We still welcome Director Feng to shoot web dramas, but this kind of fireworks that does not eat human fireworks is still counted.
This issue is edited by Shan Zou