new trend of domestic dramas: genre dramas are more "life-like"
2024-08-31
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gong weifeng, omnimedia reporter of yangcheng evening news
compared with previous years, the 2024 summer season of tv series seems a bit "fragmented" due to the paris olympics. however, there are still many interesting tv series before and after the olympics. moreover, there is a trend of more "life-like" expressions in genre dramas.
in the costume drama track, in addition to "mo yu yun jian" which uses the thinking of short dramas to shoot long dramas, the "second generation of dramas" represented by "chang xiang si 2" and "tang dynasty strange stories: journey to the west" have made strong efforts; in the suspense drama track, "lonely boat" by zhang songwen and zeng shunxi, and "waterside story" by wu zhenyu and guo qilin have passed on their acting skills; in the reality drama track, "hai tian xiong ying" focuses on aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft, and "nine prosecutors" focuses on the protection of minors. the social areas that film and television dramas pay attention to are still expanding.
what tv series have you watched this summer?
costume drama
representative works: "longing 2", "the strange stories of the tang dynasty: journey to the west"
in previous years, the highlight of the summer season was costume dramas, and this year is no exception: in june, dramas such as "mo yu yun jian", "jin yong's martial arts world", "du hua nian", and "yan xin ji" were popular, which opened a good start for costume dramas to dominate the screen. in july, dramas such as "longing 2", "tang dynasty strange stories: journey to the west", and "young white horse drunk in the spring breeze" each had their own characteristics. in august, "liu zhou ji" and "si fang guan" were broadcast one after another, and their popularity remained unabated. however, there were only three dramas that reached the popularity of hit dramas during this period.
starring wu jinyan, "mo yu yun jian", which uses the short drama thinking to shoot a long drama, is the first to hit the summer season. the main creators used a fast-paced, strong plot, and the "rebirth and revenge" narrative line to create a "cool" costume drama. the highest popularity on the broadcast platform youku reached 10,000 (peak value) for 23 consecutive days. co-director ma shishi said that the methodology of turning a long drama into a short drama is to use all means of content to capture the audience: "i want to make the plot more exciting, the dramatic conflict greater, the character portrayal more three-dimensional, the narrative reversal more, the information more dense, and the empathy points between the drama and the audience more accurately." this drama production idea was widely recognized by the industry at this year's shanghai tv festival and will affect the production of future domestic dramas.
"longing 2" is a sequel to the previous hit, and the story changes from sweet to cruel. xiaoyao's life has encountered countless twists and turns and pain. the return of the original cast, including yang zi, zhang wanyi, tan jianci, and deng wei, brought high popularity to the opening stage of the show. the biggest feature of the show is that the fairy tale drama is grounded. the chief director qin zhen said: "before filming, i agreed with the producer to make a new costume drama with a realistic style - although the story has a mythological color, it should present a more down-to-earth story." the second season of the show has only 23 episodes, and the broadcast cycle is not long. the update frequency has also been adjusted in the second half. the finale stage just happened to catch up with the opening of the olympic games, and the peak of popularity has not reached a higher level.
in 2022, the first season of "the strange stories of the tang dynasty" was broadcast, and it became a "dark horse" in the drama market that year with its small scale and great success. "the strange stories of the tang dynasty: journey to the west", which premiered on july 18 this year, also continued the hit predecessor, telling the story of the strange legends encountered by "shaoqing of the dali temple" lu lingfeng and "qianling cheng" su wuming on their way to the west. it is no coincidence that the second season can break the "sequel offline curse". screenwriter wei fenghua said: "the strange stories of the tang dynasty: journey to the west is essentially a western legend and a suspense version of journey to the west. it was born out of the real historical and social and cultural environment, and it has the colors of oriental fantasy and chinese strange stories. so the second season is more like a kite, with historical and humanistic lines pulling it."
suspense drama
representative works: "lonely boat" and "past events by the waterside"
in recent years, many suspense dramas have added elements such as love, comedy, and family ethics to enrich the plot and meet the audience's diversified viewing needs. there are many suspense dramas in the summer season, and each has its own characteristics: the social suspense drama "misplacement" starring ma yili and tong dawei uses the mysterious connection between detective novels and real unsolved cases to stage a human nature game in the puzzle of "novel murder"; "the boy who can't see the shadow" tells the story of an old criminal policeman wang shitu (played by zhang songwen) who has lost his orphan and an orphan "xiao qi" (played by rong zishan) who returns as "bian jie". from hostile temptation to mutual redemption, they explore the truth and move towards light together. an emotional suspense story: "forensic heroes 6" starring huang zongze, yuan weihao, cai jie and others set a record for hong kong drama reservations in youku's history with more than 3 million reservations before it was broadcast... but these dramas failed to cause a big splash after they were broadcast. this summer season, suspense dramas performed poorly overall, and there were not many breakthrough works. relatively speaking, the more popular ones are "lonely boat" and "past events by the edge of water".
starring zeng shunxi, zhang songwen, wang yuwen, and chen duling, lonely boat is set in suzhou during the wang puppet regime during the anti-japanese war. it tells the story of suzhou in the 1940s, where gu yizhong (played by zeng shunxi), a son of a prominent family and a talented returned architect, is forced into a crisis and faces a duel with the spy zhou zhifei (played by zhang songwen). the story is about the development of a young spy in the confusing and bizarre narrative of life. interestingly, zhang songwen took zeng shunxi to act, which became a major attraction. zeng shunxi and zhang songwen have many rival scenes in this drama. in zeng shunxi's opinion, many of his emotions, actions, and tones are presented step by step with zhang songwen's reactions: "he is an actor who does not follow the beaten path and does not play by the rules. when he feels it, he acts it out smoothly. so i had to put aside all my previous designs and communicate with him face to face." although the show's premiere coincided with the end of the olympic games, its ratings performed very well. when it was broadcast on jiangsu satellite tv, dragon tv, and beijing satellite tv, its ratings ranked first in the tv drama rankings in the same period.
the drama "waterside past" starring guo qilin and wu zhenyu tells the survival adventure story of shen xing (played by guo qilin), a fresh graduate, who works in a foreign country to pay off his debts. the drama is adapted from the real experience of the original novel author shen xingxing. the protagonist goes to a mysterious and dangerous foreign country to work for his uncle, but is inexplicably deceived and framed, and is in debt, so he starts a career of paying off debts to save his life. the similarity of the theme and plot reminds many viewers of the movie "all or nothing" starring zhang yixing last year. zhang yixing also sent a weibo greeting to guo qilin: "brother guo, how come you are even worse off than i was last year?" the drama received good reviews after it was broadcast, and its douban score was as high as 8.1 points.
reality drama
representative works: "sea and sky eagle" and "nine departments of prosecutors"
it is not easy for reality-themed dramas to become hits in the summer season, but there are also some well-received works. interestingly, the reality-themed dramas that were popular in july and august this year showed different characteristics.
in july, the main theme drama from the perspective of ordinary people became a major attraction. the first domestic military drama about aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft, "sea and sky eagle", has been gaining popularity since its broadcast, and the ratings of kuyun prime time have been leading for 18 consecutive days. the drama is set against the backdrop of the launch of china's first aircraft carrier and the initial establishment of the naval carrier-based aircraft test flight team. it interweaves military and life narratives, focusing on the dimensions of test pilots' family, love, and affection, showing their emotional dilemmas, inner struggles, and growth tests. director liu jiacheng revealed that the drama changed the characters' personalities and images in the early stages of creation, breaking through the stereotyped "great and formal" role arc, focusing on exploring the ordinary aspects of being a father, a mother, and a couple in the image of a soldier, allowing the audience to personally feel the extraordinary courage of the people's army to face difficulties and obstacles with flesh and blood.
there are many entrepreneurial stories in july. as the first drama focusing on the chip industry, "red heat" starring huang xiaoming, wang ou, zhang chao and others reveals the 20-year evolution of china's semiconductor industry and interprets the innocent heart and struggling life of chinese scientific and technological entrepreneurs. "dream city" starring yang shuo and jiang xin focuses on digital technology, integrating international trends, personal growth, romantic love and family and country feelings, presenting the youth record of young scientific and technological personnel starting their own businesses, pursuing their dreams, and experiencing love, hate, sorrow and joy. "you are more beautiful than starlight" starring tan songyun and xu kai tells the story of ji xing (played by tan songyun), a technical talent who works diligently in a technology company, who is unwilling to suppress the involution of the workplace life and resigns for his dream to embark on a difficult entrepreneurial journey. after obtaining investment support from han ting (played by xu kai), the president of dongyang medical, ji xing joins hands with him, transforming from a business partner to a soul mate, and harvesting love in his career struggle.
in august, especially after the olympics, reality-themed dramas began to become "topic works" in the field of workplace dramas. after the broadcast of the crime-themed prosecutorial drama "the prosecutor of the nine departments" starring zhang yi and qin lan, it became popular due to the social topics involved in the plot. this is the first drama in my country on the theme of juvenile prosecution work. while digging deep into the truth behind the case, it calls for attention to the protection of minors and the prevention of juvenile crimes, which is of far-reaching significance. in addition, the banking workplace inspirational drama "boundless future" directed by shen yan and starring bai yu, wang zhifei and others has also received considerable attention.
