There is still a market for elderly aesthetics, and younger audiences are not too cold
The legendary bitter drama controls the remote control for the elderly
With the popularity of "big heroine" and "black-bellied woman", the legendary drama has long become a scarce product on screen. But when the familiar formula and familiar taste of the bitter female drama "resurrected", the remote control of the middle-aged and elderly audiences can still be firmly controlled. The new version of "Little Nyonya" that has just been broadcast not only has a high ratings, but also a topical topic. It has a strong Nanyang style of the last century, and the story of a family dog blood that spans decades and generations of "Nyonya" is progressively advanced. "It’s hard for a lover to get married", which gives this drama a strong retro atmosphere. It's a pity that the legendary drama is unacceptable at the moment, and there is a huge gap between it and the young audience.
Qilu Evening News • Qilu One Point reporter Shi Wenjing
Three generations of miserable heroines
Still familiar formula
"Little Nyonya" is directed by Guo Jingyu, and the original screenwriter Hong Rongdi is rewritten. The story takes place in Malaysia. It starts in the 1930s and spans 70 years. It mainly tells the legendary stories of three generations of women.
The male offspring born after the Chinese immigrants in Malaysia and the local indigenous people intermarried are called Baba, and the female offspring are Nyonya. The Nyonya culture gradually formed by these descendants inherited part of the traditional Chinese culture. It is very Chinese in terms of clothing, eating habits, and cultural customs. It also engraves the family spirit of loyalty and filial piety, respecting ancestors, and paying attention to filial piety, womanhood, and wifehood. Starting from this background, the play describes the different attitudes and rebellious spirits of the three generations of Nyonya to the tragic fate.
Because it is a legendary drama, the fate of the main women in the play is legendary. Another way of saying it is dog blood. There are a lot of vicious supporting actresses, and there are groups of weak, boneless men, and the three generations of Nyonya gradually stack up.
The first generation of Nyonya Tianlan was the concubine of the Huang family. She was humble and submissive. She had been a slave for a lifetime. The ending was bleak and she couldn't go through the gate when she died. The second generation of Nyonya is Tianlan’s daughter Juxiang. She was born deaf and mute. She worked as a servant in Huang’s house. She grew up and was sold. By chance, she was rescued by the Japanese Yamamoto Yosuke. However, the war struck and the two died in the war. Next daughter Yueniang. Juxiang is the redeemed generation of women in the play, but the ending is tragic. The story of Yueniang is relatively large. She lost her parents when she was young and suffered abuse in the Huang family, but she is also the most resistant generation of Nyonya. She bravely stepped out of the Huang family, mixed up in the bottom of society, and slowly grew into a female entrepreneur.
Yueniang is the representative of the struggle. She said, "Our destiny is not to be pounded like garlic in a bowl." In the end, Yueniang, who was in control of her destiny, chose to look back and redeem the fallen Huang Family. However, the love line between Yueniang and the actor Chen Xi is still irritating to the audience, and the narrative routine of the bitter drama "cannot love" is still taken. In this relationship line, Yueniang's hesitation and forbearance also exposed this character's backward side.
The women in the play are more independent and courageous than those in the early years of miserable women. Yueniang pursues economic independence and career independence. The gradual awakening and deepening of female consciousness in the play are clearly visible. However, this drama did not make the third-generation Nyonya break away from the traditional narrative style of women's self-sacrifice and maternity. The Yueniang it portrays is still a traditional female image, not a modern woman.
Legendary female drama
Incompatible with young people's aesthetics
From 2005 to 2010, there was a wave of legendary bitter dramas on the screen. At that time, dramas such as "Nine Phoenixes in a Family" and "Dumb Bride" were all the rage. When this type of drama was at its hottest, it has actually fallen into a situation of mechanized reproduction. The heroine of tragic love is either a widow or a disabled woman, or a stepmother and aunt. There are also templates for women’s suffering, including bereavement, bereavement of parents, lost children, and suffer. Abuse, framing, illness, car accident, etc. The female roles in the bitter drama are rigid, and the values conveyed are also rigid. Suffering becomes a means used by the creators to win the sympathy of the audience.
It is also the drama of Guo Jingyu's team. When the retro legendary drama "Mother Way" was broadcast in 2018, the ratings were extremely high, but the word-of-mouth on the Internet is hard to say. This drama is considered to be a feudal ethics and morality drama praising men for the heaven and women for the earth, no matter how strong a woman is, she can't overcome the sky, and a husband is a wife. Therefore, many viewers believe that such dramas must be watched critically.
Although the pedantic thoughts of feudal male power in "Little Nyonya" are less, but in the current film and television works that emphasize the rise of women and the pursuit of great heroines, young people's acceptance of bitter drama is still very low. The perseverance and tolerance of Yueniang's character has become "difficult to calm" in the eyes of young audiences. Some of the virtues of traditional women are understood by young people as "repaying grievances with virtue", and the heroine is criticized as the white lotus flower. It can be seen that there is an insurmountable gap between the traditional drama and young audiences.
This drama has high ratings and low reputation, mainly because it is not filmed for young people. The main audience is middle-aged and elderly female audiences. Director Guo Jingyu said, "I am the only one who insists on making legendary dramas every year." There is a saying that elderly audiences are gradually being "abandoned". If this is the case, the resurrection of the legendary drama of the era will also capture this part of the audience market. With the scarce retro dramas, many young audiences on behalf of grandmothers and grandmothers wrote comments to thank the director and producer, because finally there is a big drama that middle-aged and elderly audiences can understand and get hit.