"If you love him, send him to New York because it's heaven; if you hate him, send him to New York, because it's hell."
This extremely popular line has become the first impression of many Chinese for the United States, whether it is heaven or the naked law of the jungle, for 27 years, it has still been discussed by countless audiences.
27 years ago, the film emperor Jiang Wen performed his first TV series "Beijingers in New York", which caused great repercussions.
According to the statistics of CCTV, after the broadcast of this drama, the rating once reached 67%, which can reach the same level as "News Network".
It can be said that it is a crowded alley, and such a grand scene has been extremely rare for 30 years.
Later, due to the length of the series, the 21-episode TV series was also reduced to a 2-hour movie, which was broadcast on PBS tv in the United States.
It is no accident that I revisit this drama now and find that it is artistically perfect and mature, and that it has achieved great commercial success.
In the 1980s and 1990s, after the reform and opening up, people's lives became more and more abundant, and foreign ideas gradually awakened, but few people knew what the outside world was like.
A "Beijinger in New York" adopts the method of shooting a whole overseas, showing the life of Beijingers in New York in a panoramic way.
Their struggles and struggles, dreams and reality have allowed more people to understand life abroad, and have also become the classic works of the first batch of Chinese emotional journeys to the United States to pan for gold.
This drama is not so much a history of personal struggle as it is the dream and resonance of the whole people.
When it comes to the birth of this drama, it is also full of difficulties and obstacles.
The first is the question of payments.
To present a complete and authentic picture of life in New York means to shoot abroad.
However, in the early 90s, going abroad to shoot was an extremely difficult event.
The high cost of living, the large gap in economic level, and the lack of a complete and systematic shooting plan have caused great trouble to the crew.
At the same time, when director Zheng Xiaolong first filmed the drama, the budget was 1.5 million US dollars, equivalent to about 12 million yuan.
For Beijing Film Production, this fee is still difficult to accept.
Therefore, in order to ensure the smooth birth of the TV series, Zheng Xiaolong's team did something that made many people think strangely.
It's a loan to make a TV series.
Going abroad, spending $1.5 million to shoot abroad, such a very innovative and courageous move, so that Zheng Xiaolong, Feng Xiaogang and others have attracted a lot of attention.
Zheng Xiaolong's team ran around through mortgages and other ways, pulled investment, and almost made plans to break the boat.
With the funds, if the TV drama market feedback is not good, then it will lose the bottom.
The story of the film takes place around 1990, and immigrating to the United States has become a dream for many people.
Beijing-based musician Wang Qiming and his wife Guo Yan have come to live in the United States for a long time.
However, the "paradise" that was once thought of as a paradise has suffered a serious blow.
In order to make a living, cellist Wang Qiming went to work in restaurants, while Guo Yan went to work in factories, embarking on a difficult road full of competition and relying on hard work in exchange for living space.
The harshness and ruthlessness of reality once made them feel sad, whether to give up the persistence of the past and go to a new "shortcut" to happiness, or to live a life of poverty on the ground.
In the pressure of reality, the pressure of competition and the trials of life, they have mixed feelings.
The good point of this drama is that it grasps the most popular topic of going abroad at present, introduces a new trend for the long-dull TV drama market, opens an international window for Chinese audiences who yearn for the outside world, desires wealth and freedom, and builds an imagination for "going abroad", "doing business", and emotions.
As a movie café, Jiang Wen filmed the first TV series in his life.
At first, as everyone expected, Jiang Wen was not willing to take over the play, however, after reading the script, Jiang Wen showed full interest.
The honesty and temperament of this Beijing master will play Wang Qiming, a cellist, to the fullest.
The male actor has landed, but the female actor has become a big problem.
For Zheng Xiaolong, he originally wanted to find a Hong Kong and Taiwan style actress, so he was determined to replace the heroine Wang Ji, who had already been decided.
After Wang Ji got this news, she was very angry, and immediately called and scolded Zheng Xiaolong, but she did not expect that it was this "scolding" that scolded out of strength and achieved this role.
It turns out that Wang Ji's performance is extremely outstanding.
When filming the show, she found out on the set that she was pregnant, but still did not stop to rest, only slept for three or four hours a day, and finally the child was born, with severe autism.
I have to say that it is inseparable from your own fatigue and hard work.
The excellent acting skills of the two make this drama have a heart, blood and soul, and the play achieves each other, causes and effects each other, and achieves a rating myth.
This drama is only 21 short episodes, but it is highly shrunken, condensing all the souls and essences of the script.
Its success is not accidental, and it is the painstaking efforts of the whole crew.
Zheng Xiaolong Feng Xiaogang's desperate bet, Jiang Wen Wang Ji's heartfelt interpretation, and the courage and determination of breaking the boat.
Looking back now, you can feel the feelings of going abroad 27 years ago across the screen.
Remember this play, which one was the one you felt the most?