About twenty years ago, at the junction of the century, it was a booming explosion of youth literature and youth film and television dramas. Yu Xiu's "Flower Season, Rainy Season" written at the age of 16 won the "Five One Project Award" and the "National Book Award", and the success of this book opened the tide of writing for underage writers.
A few years later, the "New Concept Composition Award" once challenged and even shook the inherent concept of education, and changed the admission system of independent enrollment in colleges and universities, in comparison, although the ten-episode series "Seventeen Years Old Don't Cry" did not trigger such a phenomenon-level public opinion trend, many concepts and thinking about problem angles, but also quite real and avant-garde.
The drama focuses on portraying characters rather than creating ups and downs, which is not available in most of today's youth-themed film and television dramas, but "Seventeen Years Old Don't Cry" has done it.
Yang Yuling (Hao Lei) has a straightforward personality and is competitive, but because he does not know how to be flexible, he has a bad relationship with his roommates and classmates. The personality of Lexin (Wang Zhuo) at the same table is the opposite of her, gentle and cheerful and understanding, her eyes can bend into a pair of moons when she laughs, and whenever Yang Yuling can't convince the public in class, Lexin always smiles and giggles to help her break the siege.
The rich girl Lin Lin (Played by Chen Yanyan) is pampered and habitual, and she has a temper with her temper, and she once clashed with her overly principled roommate Yang Yuling. As soon as she started school, she once quarreled with Yang Yuling because of the problem of bunk beds, because she thought that the class was too boring, and proposed that her roommates skip class to watch a movie collectively, because she was afraid that Yang Yuling and the teacher would make a small report and give up.
Later, Lin Lin's mother's business went wrong, she changed the problem of loving to spend money, and learned to think from the perspective of others. At the beginning, she was as hard as Yang Yuling, but she became soft under the silent influence of The Happy Heart.
Yue Xiaodan (Niu Mengmeng) is a completely different painting style from the extroverted girls in front of him. Coming from a rural background, she has some low self-esteem and believes that reading is the only way to get ahead. Introverted and weak, she is not good at expressing, even if she has a crush, she only suppresses her feelings in her heart.
Boys have the same strengths as girls. The class leader, Jian Ning (Li Chen), is introverted and calm, with top grades and strong self-discipline. Whenever the whole class mourned during the raid exam, only he quietly took the pen out of the pen case and prepared for the exam.
The wild boy Raymond (Zhang Chao) is the complete opposite of Jenning, who is not good at exams but loves sports, and the best of all subjects is the computer (in the late 1990s, this is the avant-garde among high school students). In his own words, what he is best at is "helping his buddies fight and raising bars with Yuling." Although the wild is a little wild, it is a hot-blooded teenager with a hot sausage in the ancient road.
Luo Yang, the secretary of the Regiment Branch, was in a situation somewhat similar to Yue Xiaodan's, but he was more cunning and fierce than Yue Xiaodan. Luo Yang, who came from a humble background, realized the cruelty of competition and the importance of power earlier than Yue Xiaodan, who had a simple personality, so he made a small report and squeezed out competitors all the way to the top level of the student union as vice president, but because of this selfishness, he was isolated by other classmates.
The sensitive, intelligent and precocious high school students in "Seventeen Don't Cry" are not measured by a few car accidents or abortions, but by the fact that as soon as they enter high school, they are already aware of the conflict between themselves and the object environment, and realize that the transition from adolescence to adulthood requires heavier responsibilities than junior high school.
Faced with the heavy pressure of further education, they fall in love and know that whether they confess or not is not only about themselves, but also responsible for each other's future. Faced with the sudden change of family situation, they choose to change their luxurious lifestyle habits and share the pressure for their families.
What complements the character's early wisdom is the actors' situation outside the play.
Hao Lei, who is as strong and fierce as Yang Yuling, has experienced several twists and turns both emotionally and in her career, and Li Chen, who is as steady and down-to-earth as Jian Ning, has ushered in a bright light although the star path has slight ups and downs.
Niu Mengmeng, who plays Yue Xiaodan, is probably the most changed among the actors, and later she made her debut by starring in Haiyan's series "Five Star Hotel", and compared with when she made "Seventeen Years Old Don't Cry", she is a real ugly duckling transformed into a swan. Unfortunately, this light did not last long, and after a few years, it disappeared again.
Zhang Chao and Chen Yanyan have been filming one after another, but none of them have ever been popular. Chen Yanyan also worked as a shopping girl for a period of time in the Central Television program "Lucky 52", which is not much different from when filming "Seventeen Years Old Don't Cry".
Although times have passed, today's aesthetic has changed dramatically from twenty years ago - today's high school students are probably not proud of having a copy of Sanmao, Kitajima or Xi Murong in their bags, will not move to hang confusion and confusion on their lips, and will not think that girls wearing suspender jeans, with their hands in their pants pockets and whistling is a kind of dashing and cool, but "Seventeen Years Old Don't Cry" portrays a group of young people who are at a turning point in their lives and are highly malleable. This is also due to the keen sense of touch and advanced consciousness of the original author Li Fangfang.
After graduating from the Journalism Department of Chinese Min University, Li Fangfang went to New York University to study for a master's degree in the Directing Department of New York University and became Ang Lee's sister. Her directorial debut "Post-80s" was staged in 2009 and attracted widespread attention, and the second self-written and self-directed film "No Questions Asked" starred Zhang Zhen, Zhang Ziyi, Huang Xiaoming and other stars, is a work about Tsinghua University.