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“why can’t domestic tv dramas and movies produce classics nowadays?”

i remember that in the 1980s and 1990s, many domestic films and tv series were never boring to watch. among them, the laughs and tears are timeless, and some even make people miss them for a long time. from time to time, they are taken out and re-watched on short video platforms, exuding the endless charm of classic film and television works.

for example, the cctv version of journey to the west, directed by yang jie, has maintained high ratings since its release in 1986. the theme song "cloud palace swift sound" composed by xu jingqing and the monkey king portrayed by liu xiaolingtong have almost become the iconic symbols of journey to the west. from then on, no one can surpass or replace it.

more than 30 years later, it remains a miracle.

similar examples include "the legend of the new white snake", "i love my family", "the secret visits of kangxi", "my fair princess", etc. perhaps when their stills or opening songs are played, we can smile knowingly and feel an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

if after the millennium, names like "the emperor of han wu", "soldier assault", "ming dynasty 1566", "empresses in the palace", "wulin wai zhuan", "bright sword" and "the disguiser" were still familiar to people, then after the 2020s, the output of domestic dramas has skyrocketed, but high quality and good reputation seem to be becoming scarce.

except for "the long season", "fang hua" and "kuang hun", other popular dramas were popular for a while, but were quickly abandoned by the times.

we can't help but ask -

compared with the past, why can't we produce classic film and television works today when productivity is relatively developed?

01

let’s get straight to the point and talk about the domestic censorship system.

at present, my country's film censorship system is composed of three major laws and regulations: the film industry promotion law implemented in 2017, the film management regulations implemented in 2002, and the film script (synopsis) filing and film management regulations revised in 2017.

as a superior law, the "film industry promotion law" was drafted in 2003 and implemented in 2017, completing a 14-year legislative process.

among them, legislative experts have had a heated debate over whether to adopt a grading system or a review system, but have not been able to reach a consensus so far.

ultimately, the legislation shifted from the original broad perspective covering the entire industry to a single perspective of promoting industrial development, avoiding the discussion of the "grading system."

the root cause is that the censorship system is led by the government, while the rating system is led by the industry. for the government, protecting special groups such as minors is uncompromising, but for the industry, the impact of rating is significant and plays an immeasurable role in promoting the prosperity of creation and expanding the market.

the interests and conflicts among all parties were constantly entangled, and the game could not be settled, so they had to be put aside for the time being.

but the longer it is shelved, the heavier the shadow of the sword of damocles of censorship becomes. the standards for censorship are relatively flexible, and changes are common. over time, creators begin to "self-censor" and "self-castrate" at the beginning of their creations, reducing the risk of changes in advance.

this has undoubtedly had a huge impact on the industry's overall innovation capabilities. this situation has developed into the 2010s, and even caused many creators to avoid reality and instead focus on historical themes, or even create fictional worldviews.

fiction is free, but if a generation of filmmakers does not pay attention to the times and create works that record the profound changes of the times, the vitality of this generation of works will definitely not last long.

in recent years, our overall public opinion atmosphere has called on creators to pay attention to reality and encourage the creation of realistic themes. but it is obvious that the shackles and setbacks of the past have far-reaching effects and it is difficult to recover quickly.

what's more, the elephant in the room has always been there. of course, there should be supervision and minefields, but when there are too many restrictions, creators cannot stretch their hands and feet to create sincerely, and classic works will naturally die in the womb.

of course, censorship is not a cover-up for bad movies.

in recent years, too many works that have passed censorship and been publicly released have also had many problems and have been criticized.

our asian neighbor iran is an islamic country with a combination of religion and politics. it has one of the most perverted film censorship systems in the world. if filmmakers dare to cross the line, they will not only face being banned, but may also lose their lives.

but even in such a difficult environment, excellent works such as "taste of cherry", "little shoes" and "a separation" were created, and world-renowned filmmakers such as abbas kiarostami and asghar farhadi were born.

censorship should not be demonized. it is just a basic system construction issue. ultimately, it is the creators' mentality that is problematic.

02

once upon a time, the creation of domestic film and television dramas focused on content and creativity. this concept subtly pushed creators to put aside all realistic distractions, stick to history, close to life, and devote themselves to creation.

this is why we have works such as "the iron teeth and bronze teeth ji xiaolan", "the miraculous doctor xilaile" and "drawing sword", which are based on historical prototypes but combine the laws of dramatic conflict and conform to the mainstream values ​​of modern society.

a good script grows from the screenwriter's most primitive creative impulse. that impulse is pure and free of distractions, and naturally retains the most solid creative foundation.

but starting with "far cry" starring yang mi in 2011, "fan movie" has become a hot word in domestic dramas and films. the "tiny times" series in 2013 took advantage of the trend and pushed fan movies to the extreme.

it was an era of hot money pouring in, with a large number of movies being produced by outsiders. even after the variety show "where are we going, dad?" was born, the film producers forcibly produced a movie "where are we going, dad?" this kind of rigid transplantation of content that originally belonged to the screen to the silver screen has changed the taste of film creation.

so much so that yu dong, ceo of bona film group, admitted in an interview: i think the movie "where are we going, dad?", let's just call it a "movie", i don't think it is a complete film production.

"fan movies" not only have low production costs, but also cater to the tastes and needs of fans, infinitely magnifying the advantages of idol stars, and even customizing movies specifically for the stars.

nowadays, the era of hot money has passed, but the influence of "fan movies" still exists. we can still see in cinemas or on the internet that some dramas or movies force a certain star into the starring sequence in order to increase his box office appeal, and arbitrarily modify the settings of the original script. in the end, the star's performance reputation collapses, and the expressiveness of the work itself is greatly reduced.

relying too much on actors to carry the box office actually exposes the limited abilities and impetuous mentality of the creators themselves.

in addition, most of the current domestic dramas and films mainly rely on ips that have been tested in the online literature market for adaptation, and very few original innovations are made. this phenomenon is also worthy of our deep consideration.

in the cold winter, the motivation to seek stability is understandable. however, if the focus on originality is reduced for the sake of efficiency, the output content will only become more rigid.

the audience will ask: why do we have to watch the content and characters we have already seen again? the audience will also ask: why did you change it so arbitrarily, or even "magically"?

wuershan’s recent film “under the alien” which suffered a market failure is a typical example.

gao xuan and ren baoru said in an exclusive interview with "the four poisonous uncles" that it has been difficult to create original works in recent years, but they kept persisting, which led to the brilliance of "imperfect victim" at the magnolia award at this year's shanghai tv festival.

03

another point that must be mentioned is that young audiences have always been the mainstream audience in the film and television market. the new batch of young audiences is a generation that grew up after the millennium and has been constantly exposed to the internet culture.

unlike the audiences in the 1980s and 1990s who had just experienced the reform and opening up, this new generation of audiences has a broader horizon. they have been able to watch film and television content and information from all over the world since they were children. in addition, the explosive development of various media, games, short videos, script-killing, etc. continue to grab the audience's attention.

attention is the most scarce thing in this era. whoever grabs the audience's attention will occupy the market.

obviously, the audience faces too many temptations. as long as the quality of the film or television work itself is not solid and interesting enough, they will be distracted by other media if they are not careful.

if the audience doesn't buy it, it will naturally affect the upstream of the film and television industry chain, and the creators will be silent and tread on thin ice.

in addition, the chinese film and television market has gradually begun to reduce the situation of low reputation and high box office like before 2017. for example, films such as "the breakup master", "no. 81 beijing", "dwelling in the fuchun mountains" and "bad angels" have almost one-sided bad reviews, but the box office is rising steadily, and investors have made a lot of money. similar movies are replicated again and again in the market.

the situation was so critical that feng xiaogang cursed some movies as "garbage" and the audiences as "garbage".

the audience criticized "under the alien" for being a magical change, "reverse life" for exploiting the lower class, "wild child" for not being sharp enough and being superficial, and "decision to leave" for creating gender confrontation. although some remarks were too extreme and emotional, they also showed that the audience's aesthetic level had improved.

after all, this group of "experienced good things" audiences have sharp eyes, are very picky about film and television works, have their own unique insights, and are no longer as easy to fool as before.

the improvement of the audience's vision has led to an improvement in their aesthetic level, which is also reflected in the box office. a good reputation does not necessarily lead to a high box office, but a bad reputation will definitely not lead to a high box office.

the watered-down dramas, suspense dramas, shocking dramas, and 50-cent special-effects films that were popular in the past have been swept into the dustbin of history amid the audience's applause.

does it hurt? of course it hurts. movies and tv series are no longer as profitable as before, and the creators' lives are not so easy either.

but the pain brought by squeezing out the bubble is something that the industry must inevitably experience on the road to healthy development.

the tide of the times is mighty and the movement of history repeats itself. this is what i want to say -

why can’t we produce classic movies and tv series nowadays?

after the heyday, the curve has reached the bottom. but everything will rebound after hitting the bottom. as the saying goes, "heroes emerge in troubled times", a classic work may be brewing.

maybe, good things are happening.

〇

author/colon fish

editor/xiaobai

typesetting/die