A few days ago, "Hello! Gong Xue, screenwriter of "Mother Adult", said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from the Beijing News that family affection is the easiest for the audience to empathize, it is an advantage, and it is also the place that tests the creators the most. "Because it's a little more levitated, the audience doesn't believe it. To make the audience believe in the story we create, we must find the theme and entry point. ”
Dong Jie and Yin Fang starred in "Hello! Mother Lord".
Adaptation: Mom should also have her love
The drama is adapted from the collection of bad essays "On the Clouds: Goodbye! Mother Adult", in the book, shows the "99 pieces" story of the mother and son themselves. In contrast, Hello! "Mother Adult" outlines the worlds of mothers and sons, respectively. In the adaptation stage, the main creative team determined the two-line parallel strategy of the life experience of son Ding Xiaojun and mother Ding Biyun, changing the author's second perspective of seeing his mother in the original work into the third perspective of the audience to see mother and son.
The biggest character change in the drama version is the addition of Mei Zhong, a Japanese executive played by Lu Fangsheng. He is a warm male character who appeared after Ding Biyun's divorce, and gave her enough understanding and protection in the experience of Ding Biyun losing her job and raising her young son alone. In fact, the character has less than 100 words of description in the original book, and has no name yet. In the original work, when Ding Xiaojun was collecting his mother's relics, he found an unsent letter, which was a passage written by his mother to "a man with the surname Mei", and this "uncle" was more like a kind of spiritual sustenance of Ding Biyun. Gong Xue said frankly that when adapting, everyone hoped to give Ding Biyun a love line, so that she had sweet and warm moments, which was a little selfishness of the main creator, "Ding Xiaojun has his love, and his mother should also have her love." ”
The drama adopts a strategy of paralleling the story of mother Ding Biyun and son Ding Xiaojun.
Narrative: The double line can make the audience see more three-dimensional
"Mother and child story" can easily be told as a bitter melodrama of "only mothers are good in the world", Gong Xue said, "Hello! The story of "Mother Adult" does not render sadness, the emotional point is reached, love and pain are very restrained, mainly writing warmth, companionship and growth. In a two-line parallel manner, the play presents Ding Biyun and his son Ding Xiaojun, who have experienced marital changes and shouldered the burden of raising their son and life alone, relying on each other for thirty years, and their own wonderful lives. "Hello! The whole story of "Mother Adult" begins with the birth of Ding Xiaojun in 1986 and ends with the death of Ding Biyun in 2015. Among them, the two lines run parallel, when the mother ushered in the first marriage, the son also met his first love; when the mother challenged the new profession, the son also stepped into the society; when the young mother spent the New Year with the young son, the son who returned home also heard the firecrackers of the New Year with the mother. After 20 episodes, the two-line combination is a daily life for mother and child to fight cancer together.
How do I pick these mother-child nodes? Gong Xue said that her mother was also young, and at the same age, she encountered the same confusion as her son, and had a dilemma. Therefore, each episode has a subtitle that determines the theme of the episode, focusing on the theme of the story of the mother and son of the two characters. In the eyes of her son, Ding Biyun only has one role as a mother, and she is not complete. Similarly, the adult Ding Xiaojun will have his own secrets. The two-line narrative can allow the audience to see a more three-dimensional Ding Biyun and Ding Xiaojun, "so that after 20 episodes, the audience will go to see the mother and son, and many of their choices can be understood." ”
Shooting: I hope everyone does not watch at double speed
The director of the play, Cao Dun, has directed works such as "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" and "The Record of Muyun on the Sea", and his personal characteristics are very distinct, and he is good at detailing. Gong Xue said that in "Hello! In the work "Mother Adult", from the perspective of art, photography, clothing, makeup, etc., the presentation of details can be convincing, and you can feel the appearance of northern Jiangsu under the changes of 30 years, so that everyone can believe that these people are real. For example, when Ding Biyun and Ding Xiaojun spent the Spring Festival, Zhao Benshan's Spring Festival Gala sketches were placed on the TV set in the foreground; for example, her mother Ding Biyun poured hot water bottles, made lard bibimbap and so on. Gong Xue said that he and Ding Xiaojun are the same age, "these are also the pictures that I have sealed in my mind, and I believe that this is the memory of a generation." The details make the story more real. ”
"Hello! In terms of art, photography, costumes, makeup, etc., "Mother Adult" has tried its best to restore 30 years of historical changes.
The whole drama is slowly advancing under the lens language of Cao Dun and Jing Chong, with its own narrative rhythm, Gong Xue hopes that everyone will not watch it at double speed, "Really entering the emotions brought to us by the director, there will be that kind of emotional resonance, and there will be their own thinking after watching." ”
Theme: The family story is suspended a little, and the audience will not believe it
Recently, there have been many film and television works that express the theme of family affection, such as "Hello, Li Huanying" and "Children of the Qiao Family". In Gong Xue's view, it is a good thing that more and more creators pay attention to family affection, the family as the smallest unit of social composition, relatives are the driving force for everyone's struggle, the comfort of our emotions, and the shackles that cannot be escaped in a lifetime. "Family affection is the easiest for the audience to empathize, it is an advantage, and it is also the place where the creator is most tested." Because of the suspension, the audience will not believe it. To make the audience believe in the story we create, we must find the theme and entry point. ”
Although there are many works depicting the theme of mother and child, in Gong Xue's view, Ding Biyun and Ding Xiaojun are like the most "ordinary" and "ordinary" mothers and sons in life, their lives are not smooth, life is also a place of chicken feathers, even they are not perfect people, but they have truth, goodness and beauty, and they have been living bravely and hard.
The drama shows the story of Ding Biyun and Ding Xiaojun for two generations.
——Creator Q&A——
Beijing News: The actual age difference between Dong Jie and Yin Fang is only 6 years old, why did you choose these two actors to play mother and son?
Screenwriter Gong Xue: Dong Jie is weak and has a firm force, and Yin Fang is melancholy and sensitive. I think the two lead teachers have performed the state of each period very accurately, which is remarkable.
Producer Zhang Ayi: When we chose the role of mother, it was the most difficult, and the son was not so difficult, because his age span and growth experience were empathetic with many actors after 80 or even 90. But the role of mother we can't find a real post-60s or 50-year-old to play, and there is no way to find a particularly young, 20-something actor from young to old. We most value whether the actor's own life experience is similar to Ding Biyun's, first of all, Dong Jie is also a mother. Yin Fang himself has a similar experience to Ding Xiaojun, so he can appreciate the character when he sees this script. Overall, the emotional intersection between Dong Jie and Yin Fang is very much in line with the design of the characters and the story.
Beijing News reporter Liu Wei
Edited by Tong Na Proofreader Wang Xin