Author / BJT
Female group portrait dramas have entered the "blowout" period, which has become a major creative phenomenon in the drama market in 2020.
On the one hand, the fermentation of "sister learning", 30+ women continue to occupy the C position of public opinion; on the other hand, the homogenization of the subject matter is seriously competitive, and the audience's expectation threshold is raised accordingly. Women's theme dramas standing on the cusp of the wind are facing a new proposition of "not breaking and not standing".
"The Ideal Life of Love", which was broadcast yesterday, handed over its own thinking on this proposition.
The drama is adapted from Zhu Deyong's classic comic "Shibu Girl", directed by Li Jiangming, produced by Shen Yan, Tencent Pictures, Yuwen Film and Television, Lerong Pictures, Gu Yuan Culture, Litian Film and Television, Weike Media, Three-dimensional Pictures, yin Tao, Song Yi, Zhao Jinmai, Xia Ruoyan, Hu Lianxin starring, telling the story of five urban women with distinct personalities and different experiences, after experiencing various life difficulties, finally found their own stories, which have been officially launched yesterday in the Golden Eagle Solo Theater of Hunan Satellite TV, Tencent Video, Mango TV premiered on the entire network.
The new interpretation of classic IP outlines the group portrait of women in the new era
In 1992, Zhu Deyong's comic work "Shibu Girl" was first published, which quickly swept the Chinese-speaking area and became a must-read marriage and love treasure book in the hearts of a generation of women. 29 years later, the times have changed, the female readers who followed "Shibu Girl" have entered the next stage of life, at this time to develop such a classic IP, the creators must not only retain the "soul" of the original work, but also make a new expression in line with the context of the new era.
"The Ideal Life of Love" did not disappoint the audience.
Caring for women's fate, paying attention to women's hearts, respecting women's perspectives, and using women's unique wisdom and humor to deconstruct and cope with issues such as marriage, emotion, and life, this is the spiritual core of the original comic of "Shibu Girl", and "The Ideal Life of Love" has not lost this "soul". In line with Zhu Deyong's original comics, the play sets up several female characters with distinct personalities, aiming to focus on several different types of urban women who are representative in real life, and outline a group portrait of urban women full of realistic care.
As soon as the three starting heroines appeared, they threw out three kinds of female dilemmas.
Is marriage a must in life? This is a big problem that plagues many contemporary women, especially some 30+ women. Wen Ruxue's answer is, NO!
As a high-end wedding planner, this character appears as a "marriage immunizer". Believing in the "live a dashing" life credo, marriage is not a necessity for 30+women, and the "hardcore" image of freedom, beauty and self-knowledge makes this female character sparkle.
Should women resign for marriage? In the play, Dai Xixi made the choice to resign without hesitation; outside the play, this problem caused the audience to think. The audience's choice is not necessarily consistent with Dai Xixi, and Dai Xixi does not hold the standard answer, from inside to outside the play, this topic has aroused discussion, at least to prove that "The Ideal Life of Love" is not superficial, but has a strong realistic orientation.
Workplace "soaring", accidental encounter with ex-boyfriend, do you need to avoid suspicion? Behind the seemingly simple problem is the embarrassing situation faced by women in the workplace: your efforts will either not be rewarded, as long as you get a little reward, others will care infinitely about your appearance, gossip, emotional experience... In short, everything that has nothing to do with effort.
Strong woman Ding Huiqiao does not drag mud and water, and responds happily: Sister relies on real skills to promote the position, why give up for an expired love? Faced with such a perfect answer, the audience can only shout: Well done!
There is inheritance, but also there must be ingenuity. In order to make a classic IP from 29 years ago empathize with contemporary audiences, "The Ideal Life of Love" has made a new attempt, which can be seen from the deep excavation of the two characters.
The first is as warm as snow.
From "women pleasing themselves" to "pleasing themselves and being proud", under the new conditions of the times, this character appears more free and more egotistical on top of the setting of "charming appearance" and "rich emotional experience". As she herself said, instead of pursuing the pursuit of tens of thousands of people on the skin, it is better to believe in inner solipsism, and in the public opinion environment where "appearance anxiety" plagues contemporary women, this progress is the correct way to open women's inspirational dramas.
One of the more interesting characters, Dai Xixi.
Since its inception, this role has always been the focus of public opinion.
On March 1, the topic of #Song Yi's good marriage style dressing appeared on Weibo's hot search, which caused waves for a while, and then Song Yi himself and the drama side expressed their positions, saying that it was the expression of the characters in the play and "no intention of offending".
The so-called "good marriage style" generally refers to the style of women dressing and dressing up favored by the opposite sex and elders, highlighting the feminine temperament. Objectively speaking, this is indeed The style of Dai Xixi at the beginning of the plot. From another point of view, "good marriage style" is a manifestation of "marriage brain", which is also the stage of life in which the character of Dai Xixi is located. Judging from the plot that has been broadcast, it is better to say that she is a perfect practitioner of the "life plan" than a "marriage maniac", and getting married at the right age, although not necessarily her real pursuit, is undoubtedly something she thinks she "should pursue". This is her obsession, her confusion, and the starting point of her growth.
From the perspective of the play, the controversy caused by the character of Dai Xixi precisely illustrates the connection between the characters and reality, and the thinking that the story brings to the audience.
In the past, women's inspirational dramas were prone to the problem of "point of view first", and crudely exported values from the beginning, which was counterproductive. "The Ideal Life of Love" is more like a slowly unfolding urban women's marriage and love picture book, which opens the portraits of different stages of life and different ideological concepts to the audience without reservation, as for what questions and answers the audience will be stimulated by this, it does not make too strong a preset, and each audience can have its own answers.
The word "sister is coming" has hit countless women this year and become the "she power" that has swept the Internet; now, "Shibu Girl" is coming, bringing the same power.
In the play, the character arc shows the strength of women in the new era, self-reliance, self-reliance, and positivity; outside the play, the stories of the five heroines reflect the emotional and workplace problems that contemporary urban women may encounter in real life, and female audiences can find the shadow of self-projection from a certain "shibu girl", and under their encouragement, live out their true colors and become better themselves.
New combination, strong CP, interpret the romantic love story
As mentioned above, "The Ideal Life of Love" contains responses to current hot emotional topics and social issues; but at the same time, it is a youth emotional drama tailored for young audiences. The romantic love stories staged by several pairs of heroes and heroines are also full of highlights, which makes the audience addicted.
At the beginning of the official announcement, the freshness of the cast and the sense of CP between the characters have triggered heated discussions.
After the Grand Slam, Yin Tao and the powerful actor Yang Shuo cooperated for the first time in the play, wen Ruxue & Bai Xiangwen of "male and female double strength", the top chef who took the initiative to attack the high-end wedding planner PK wanted to welcome and reject, both of them were strong masters in the love field, and they were also unmarried people who were absolutely confident in their "concentration", so they launched a battle of equal strength, see tricks, and have come and gone love limit attack and defense war, full of points to watch.
Song Yi, Wei Daxun two excellent young actors, appearance and "flow" at the same time, handsome men and women beautiful, they composed of Dai Xixi & Duan Order is a "high female male low" combination, the immature Bai Fumei meets the rational warm man with strong self-esteem, the dilemma faced is unique, the journey of love, there are many ups and downs, but only by themselves can they solve.
"Post-90s group" Xia Ruoyan & Wang Youjun, one is a Taiwanese royal sister model, and the other is a fledgling mainland newcomer actor. In the play, Ding Huiqiao and Luo Shang, played by the two, are charming enough to rely on their appearance alone, and they also take the popular sister-brother love route, and the strong woman who is alone × year old man, where the emotional line goes, makes the audience curious.
In the broadcast plot, several pairs of main CPs have not appeared one by one, but the high-energy interaction of the first few episodes of Dai Xixi & Duan Sequence still makes the audience who have watched it laugh, and perceives a hint of alternative sweetness from it.
"I don't want bottled water, you don't have to come in!"
"If you feel stuck in traffic, take the subway."
In the follow-up plot, the straight male style "bet on the lonely life" paragraph sequence, how to look at the eyes with his "disgusted" Dai Xixi, is also a major attraction.
Arriving at reality, it is better not to be a hard-hitting girlfriend
The protagonists of "The Ideal Life of Love" are five women, and the display of girlfriend love is indispensable. In previous episodes of the same theme, it is not uncommon to pay attention to women's emotions. But the real difficulty is that several women of different ages, classes, and educational backgrounds eventually become intimate girlfriends, and there must be a lot of inevitability and contingency factors behind them. How to skillfully arrange and present these factors tests the skills of creators.
"The Ideal Life of Love" does a clever approach.
The external identity labels of the five heroines are not the same, but the common experience and keen empathy of women have contributed to their similar intentions.
At the first meeting, Wen Ruxue did not agree with Dai Xixi's emotional view. A royal sister who has "experienced hundreds of battles" in the love field cannot understand, why is Bai Fumei, whose family lineage and identity are very decent, so obsessed with the marriage relationship? The age, occupation, and class divide is there, and the first meeting does not look right, normal.
Then, in dealing with the ambiguous relationship between the female subordinate and Dai Xixi's fiancé, Wen Ruxue's understanding of Dai Xixi changed. In the café, Dai Xixi was aggressive, misunderstood that Wen Ruxue had an improper relationship with her fiancé, and always dared to be warm to the air, facing such a heavenly cauldron, and unusually chose to hide it. The reason for this was answered in a conversation with Ding Huiqiao's girlfriend afterwards: "Dai Xixi's 'innocence and self-confidence in the sky' are very much like himself in college. ”
Similar emotional experiences, coupled with women's innate keen empathy, make Wen Ruxue subconsciously choose to protect Dai Xixi, who does not know the truth, pamper her naïve but beautiful vision of marriage, and further deepen the bond between the two. Whether from the perspective of dramatic truth or logical truth, such a plot laying out is reasonable.
Using a logical framework that conforms to the characters themselves, let the five protagonists come together naturally, and make the interaction between the girlfriend group more convincing, which is the cleverness of "The Ideal Life of Love". Driven by the two-way drive of the real drama and the real life, the five women empathize with each other from the heart, experience each other's joys and sorrows, become each other's strongest backing and most inclusive harbor, and reflect a more real and perceptible contemporary female friendship.
After the blind date dinner, Ding Huiqiao saw through Wen Ruxue's fake drunkenness at a glance, and a sentence of "OKAY, can't see it", you can see the tacit understanding between the two for many years. The passage where the two exchange "should not break up" with each other in the car is completely two adults exchanging their views maturely, allowing each other to have different views from themselves, and can also confide their views without scruples, which is the perfect interpersonal relationship that contemporary women generally yearn for in real life.
With the continuous development of the follow-up plot, the five "shibu girls" will live under the same roof, at that time, five different values will violently collide, and five different colors will blend with each other, and its wonderful degree can be imagined.
On the issue of insisting on their own personality, the five heroines without exception choose to be "positive", bumping forward in the bumps of life, and living their true colors at great cost. At the same time, in the theme of marriage and love, the diverse romance brought about by the different concepts of love reflects the power of "softness". In the end, the two forces of "rigidity" and "softness" are reflected in the girlfriend's emotions: in this emotional community, everyone can get unconditional warmth, tolerance and empathy, and can draw the most powerful strength to realize their dreams, so that everyone can become their own "million charms".
Rigidity and softness, Fang is "her strength". At the moment when women's theme film and television works broke out, "The Ideal Life of Love" gave its own attitude. Not flattering to cater, not to be innovative, both flattering and pleasing, such a suitable work of care, the audience will definitely "receive the goods".