Wen 丨 road small energy
"Life Home" is an original realistic female growth drama produced by iQIYI Sesame Pod Studio, co-produced by Yuanxi Film and Television and Hitomi Film and Television, written by the famous screenwriter Zhang Wei as the artistic director and well-known screenwriter Teng Yang. This drama focuses on the ordinary and brilliant life of a pair of "bankrupt mothers and daughters", and is committed to healing the tired hearts of the audience in this era of national chicken babies and crazy inner volumes.
Screenwriter Zhang Wei (left) and screenwriter Teng Yang (right)
Click on "Life Home" and you will be greeted by the real smell of fireworks. In the play, the protagonists Qiu Xiaoxia and Qiu Donna's mother and daughter did not live in a spotless mansion, did not experience a fantasy and magnificent adventure, they laughed and angrily scolded one "thunder" after another that carried life down, and managed the ordinary life vividly.
The wonderful thing is that the protagonists in the play are a mother and daughter, and outside the play, artistic director Zhang Wei and screenwriter Teng Yang are also a pair of mentors and apprentices who have accompanied each other for many years. "Life Home" originated from Teng Yang's short story of the same name many years ago, and this story can finally be presented to the audience because of Zhang Wei's persistence for more than ten years. Today we have the honor of inviting this pair of screenwriters and apprentices to listen to their stories about how "Living Home" was developed.
Tribute to life, the wisdom of the bottom to save the upper class
We seem to have entered an era of national anxiety, and correspondingly, selling anxiety has also become the secret of the ratings of many film and television dramas, so the chicken baby, class differences, and gender antagonisms have taken turns to bombard the audience. "Life Home" does the opposite, telling the story of a poor mother and daughter who run an ordinary life and strive to become a "living family".
For this slightly "rebellious" theme, screenwriter Teng Yang thinks so: "I have been thinking about a question, why is life getting better day by day, but we are more anxious every day? I don't think there's anything wrong with anxiety per se, it emphasizes the causal relationship from "effort" to "success." However, I would like to say that after hard work, it may also fail, but the process of effort itself is also commendable. So in "Life Home", we want the audience to see that every ordinary effort deserves to be recognized, even if your life is low to dust, you can still blossom your own flowers. ”
"The core theme of our play is that the wisdom of the bottom saves the rich and handsome and the white rich in the superstructure," said Zhang Wei, artistic director of "Life Home", "In the current domestic drama, the poor have either disappeared or appeared as even negative images that need to be saved." But "Living Home" is the story of the poor, and the whole story drama is driven by a sentence I said- I want a group of couriers, takeaway delivery, water delivery, nannies, cleaning and security guards to join forces into a complete chain to save a partner in Lujiazui's golden accounting firm. ”
This value proposition of Zhang Wei actually comes from her real life experience. Zhang Wei said that in the most difficult and emotionally depressed moments of her life, the first to reach out to her was her aunt, the first to take her out of the house to see the sun was her fitness instructor, and one by one around her was her students. This simple and sincere friendship left a deep impression on Zhang Wei, and she also poured her own feelings into "Life Home".
Parent-child Shuangwen · The third kind of mother "lights up life."
"Life Home" originated from a short story published by screenwriter Teng Yang in "Sprout" many years ago, and Zhang Wei took a look at qiu Xiaoxia, the mother of the novel. Qiu Xiaoxia suffered a derailment during pregnancy, a person pulled the child up, how to listen to is a miserable single mother, but Qiu Xiaoxia does not allow herself and the child to live a miserable life, on the contrary, she is optimistic and open-minded, positive, and even often self-black, full of femininity in British dramas. Zhang Wei has been obsessed with this short story for many years, and finally has the work "Life Home".
Zhang Wei said that there are two kinds of mothers that we commonly see in film and television dramas, one is the "dedicated" mother who sacrifices everything for her children in "Hello, Li Huanying", and the other is the "oppressive" mother of Jackie Chan, played by Tao Hong in "Little Joy", and "Life Home" writes the "third kind of mother" Qiu Xiaoxia.
Qiu Xiaoxia actually has huge limitations in life, she is trapped in the poor thinking, always unable to live a more generous life; but at the same time she is a very powerful mother, she mobilizes all limited social resources and personal wisdom, gives Qiu Donna the greatest maternal love, but never imposes personal will on the child, does not force the child to become some kind of person, and does not force the child to be like her. This is a rare mother-daughter relationship in the history of Chinese TV dramas, and it is also the biggest innovation in the shaping of characters and character relationships in "Life Home".
"What touched the mother and daughter the most was the tenacious vitality in them, the indomitable desire to live a good life, and the efforts to fight for it." Zhang Wei said: "In the past, Chinese women in Chinese film and television dramas were always tough and tenacious, miserable and kind, silently bearing the hardships of life. But Qiu Xiaoxia and Qiu Donna no longer clenched their teeth and suppressed like this, but smiled and solved one problem after another. Each of us will encounter the darkest moment, do you grit your teeth and endure, or smile to overcome the difficulties? Qiu Xiaoxia chose the latter. Although Qiu Xiaoxia was poor, she gave Qiu Donna the most precious wealth, a good mother with the wisdom of life. ”
Such a fresh and rare mother-daughter relationship stems from Teng Yang's personal experience. "My mother's name is also Xiaoxia, and not only my mother, but also the mothers of some of my friends also call all kinds of different Xia. My mother lost her mother at an early age, and after she gave birth to me, she vowed never to let me suffer a single grievance. My family had been bankrupt, but I grew up in a particularly happy family atmosphere and never even noticed that my family was short of money. Teng Yang shared, "When I went to college, my parents' salaries added up to two thousand yuan, but they took out a thousand yuan for me as living expenses. To celebrate my admission to graduate school, my parents spent all their money to buy a car to go on a road trip, and as a result, there was a car accident on the highway, and my mother's hands were shaking so much that I couldn't even use my mobile phone. It was then that I realized that my parents were such small and humble ordinary people. Their lives are so barren, but they tried their best to give me the best start, which may be what thousands of ordinary parents in China are doing. ”
In the play, In order to let her daughter eat Western food, Qiu Xiaoxia made her own steak with beef brisket at home, and used pepper water to make vegetables to make salads, such vivid and interesting details abound, and these touching details also come from Teng Yang's unique family life: "My parents have been trying to create an illusion for me that 'our family is not worse than others', and I really believe it." In the 90s, our small city just had that kind of fake McDonald's, my mother took me to taste the "Western food" inside, I still remember, hamburger 11 fast one, at that time it was already very expensive, and then my father made me 'Western food' at home, with two steamed buns sandwiched a piece of meat, but also specially used a plastic tray to serve me to eat. I found out after a long, long time that our family was actually very poor, and that many of the things they taught me were actually wrong, but in the illusion they created, I grew into a person who was full of heart and did not feel lacking. ”
Women's Workplace: Telling Emotional Stories in a Workplace Context
In fact, the story of this "bankrupt mother and daughter" is not only chicken and dog jump in life, but also faces various difficulties in the workplace. Teng Yangyuan's short story mainly tells the story of Qiu Donna's first love on the college campus when she was eighteen, but the story of "Life Home" mainly takes place four years later, focusing on the workplace life of Qiu Donna in an extraordinary firm.
In response to this adaptation, Zhang Wei said: "Our first version of the story was actually in school for the first fifteen episodes, telling about Qiu Donna's campus life. But after 15 episodes were written, there was a big problem, it was difficult for my mother to integrate into the campus life environment particularly well, and the mother-daughter drama could not be connected. So I decided to delete all the first 15 episodes, starting directly from Qiu Donna's entry into the workplace. ”
Qiu Donna is an auditor, a profession that is rare in current domestic TV dramas. As a drama based on the relationship between mother and daughter, "Life Home" strives to master the balance between the workplace and life. Screenwriter Teng Yang uses the workplace as a background, showing the emotions and relationships between people in the workplace. But even as a background, Teng Yang still did a lot of interviews, collected a lot of information, tried to make the workplace part real and clear, so that the audience believes and understands the profession of auditing.
Qiu Donna's emotional line also occurs in the workplace, and she and her boss Gu Fei are the main CP of the play. Although Qiu Donna got the standard of "the domineering president fell in love with me", she lived a bitter life of beating workers. Gu Fei not only did not help her open her gold finger and walk all the way to the clouds, but he was the most strict person for Qiu Donna, because he had the highest expectations for Qiu Donna.
For the relationship between Qiu Donna and Gu Fei, screenwriter Teng Yang believes that Qiu Donna did not grow into an independent woman in the workplace under the guidance of Gu Fei, on the contrary, Qiu Donna was first an independent individual, and she was able to fall in love with Gu Fei. Due to the various problems of Gu Fei's original family, his emotional world is a mess, but qiu Donna, who has been nourished by love since childhood and has no lack in love, has led him out of the mud of life. The relationship between the two is mutual redemption and mutual light, rather than Gu Fei unilaterally helping Qiu Donna.
Master-apprentice solidarity bole and maxima
Zhang Wei, the artistic director of "Life Home", and Teng Yang, the screenwriter, have been mentors and apprentices for many years, but this is the first time that the two have cooperated in a real sense. In addition to the artistic director, Zhang Wei is also the co-producer of the show. "Life Home" is derived from Teng Yang's short story, which is based on Zhang Wei's persistence over the years. In fact, when Zhang Wei marketed the idea of "Life Home" to the outside world, it did not go well at first, and most people thought that it was too advanced or too complicated when they heard the idea, not cool enough, not fast enough, not enough to have a sense of networking. In the face of many doubts and resistance, Zhang Wei did not flinch, but faced the difficulties, she found iQiyi Sesame Pod Studio, a like-minded partner, and with the joint efforts of many parties, the work was finally released.
As a screenwriter, Zhang Wei has long been famous, but in recent years, she has bravely stepped out of her comfort zone, opened up new tracks, and transformed into a character and producer. The reason is that in addition to the "love toss" personality and the spirit of hard work, what is more important is the responsibility and love of a teacher and a content creator for domestic film and television dramas. Zhang Wei said: "I have been a teacher for twenty years, a screenwriter for twenty years, and in these twenty years, I feel more and more that finding good themes, incubating good themes, finding good screenwriters, and incubating good screenwriters is something that can be encountered and not sought. I know Teng Yang, she is very spiritual and talented, but for various reasons has not been out of the beginning, as her teacher, I can not let such good seedlings and good subjects be buried, this is my responsibility as a teacher. ”
Teng Yang also said that her cooperation with Teacher Zhang Wei is very comfortable and tacit understanding, and even sometimes she has not yet said what she means, Teacher Zhang Wei has already understood. Zhang Wei single-handedly led Teng Yang into the screenwriting industry, and the two accompanied and supported each other for more than ten years, which is a key and unique existence in each other's lives, they are both teachers and apprentices, sisters, and sometimes mother and daughter. The mother and daughter who support each other in "Life Home" are also a projection of the master-apprentice relationship between Zhang Wei and Teng Yang to some extent.
The smell of fireworks in the world is the most touching to the hearts of mortals, and the story of "Life Home" is written by a group of real lifers, so it can also impress everyone who lives seriously. "Life Home" is currently being broadcast in iQiyi and CCTV's eight sets of networks, hoping that every audience can draw the power to heal people's hearts and blossom like the protagonist in the play.
Editor-in-charge | Weiss