At the beginning of June, several previous TV series such as "Deadly Woman" and "Interpreting My Love with Your Heart" have welcomed their second episodes.
Among the many sequels, the Korean drama "Top Tower" is different: one of the differences is its fast-paced update rhythm-"Top Floor 1" premiered in October 2020, and "Top Floor 2" in the following year 2. Yue immediately followed, when the audience had not recovered from its deafening roaring lines and climax of the intensive plot, "Top Floor 3" returned in June this year with full blood; the second difference is that it was watched in other TV series. When the number of people and word-of-mouth are basically the same as the quality and rating of the series, "Top Floor" has a much lower Douban score than that of the same period, the number of well-behaved audiences, and a lot of emotional and outrageous comments.
Every time it is updated, "Top Floor" always dominates the hot search, causing netizens to type on the keyboard and curse "These lunatics on the top floor are back."
Just as Douban netizen "Crime and Punishment" commented highly: You will definitely get a low score when you watch this drama, but you will continue to watch it if you score a low score.
To achieve a great separation of word-of-mouth, attention and enthusiasm for watching dramas, the secret of "Top Floor" is simple: dog blood.
As long as you see Jin Shunyu, the screenwriter of this work, you can know a little bit about its dog-blood level.
Kim Soon-ok is one of the three most recognized screenwriters in South Korea. His previous representative works include "The Temptation of Wife" and "Queen's Character".
Maybe you have never heard of "The Temptation of Wife", but you must have seen its mainland adaptation of "The Temptation of Going Home", and when you saw this title, you heard the famous theme song that it once occupied the streets and alleys. The classic picture of the protagonists being angry to "clear the desktop" emerges.
After "The Temptation of Going Home" was first broadcast in 2011, the highest city ratings reached 5.2%, with a viewership share of 26.7%. This record was not broken until the broadcast of "The Name of the People" 5 years later.
"The Temptation of Going Home" with Korean drama genes almost satisfies all the audience's imagination of "dog blood" and also represents the pinnacle of "dog blood drama".
Looking back, whether it was the popular Korean dramas "Blue Life and Death" and "Miss Mermaid" in the early years, or the enduring Qiong Yao dramas "Deep Love in the Rain" and "One Curtain of Dreams", there is no escape." "Dog blood" label.
But the audience knows the "dog blood", but they are still happy and tireless, and even bring true feelings.
After 20 years, the topic of the plot can still trigger a wide range of discussions.
What are we talking about when we say "dog blood"?
If you want to know the specific connotation of "dog blood", you may first need to "archaeology" it.
This word looks like a noun and is used as an adjective, but the original source is a verb-object phrase-"to sprinkle the dog's blood", which was omitted as "dog blood" in subsequent repeated use.
How does "Sprinkling Dog's Blood" have anything to do with the TV series?
There are different opinions, but they have reached the same goal by different routes.
One said that "spilling dog's blood" is often used in the old pear garden line, which refers to the fact that the actors are disregarded and pretentious in their performances, and even lose their authenticity.
For example, Sun Yangnong, a famous fancier in the early last century, once wrote an article for Yu Shuyan, a Peking opera veteran who was as famous as Mei Lanfang, in which it was mentioned: "... Sprinklers of dog blood, dominate the guests, forget their duties..." In the movie "Farewell My Concubine", Leslie Cheung's Cheng Dieyi scolded Duan Xiaolou's friendliness and also used a sentence: "I haven't learned drama. Then don't sprinkle dog blood here." If you evaluate a drama actor's performance "spill dog blood", it is extremely insulting, equivalent to a personal attack.
Comparing the performances of the actors in the "dog blood drama", the lines of crying, screaming, and roaring almost penetrate the eardrum, and we can understand how straightforward this evaluation is.
The other two theories are related to the tortuous, exaggerated, violent and bloody plot setting.
In the early years of filming film and television dramas, the props and special effects were limited. Whenever there was a bloody scene, if someone was killed, the scene would sprinkle a puddle of dog blood on the side, and the camera was aimed at the bloodstain to create a terrifying effect.
Over time, "spilling dog's blood" was extended to describe the exaggerated violence of the plot.
Secondly, also in the early Hong Kong film and television dramas, there were plots of Taoists or masters catching monsters and fighting against monsters. "Sprinking dog blood" was the last big move. A bowl of black dog blood was poured down, no matter how powerful a monster was, it would cost four. Retreat down.
Used in the plot setting of the TV series, it implies that the director and editor have written that they are already in a bad position, facing the dead end of the plot development, they can only resort to the last trick.
With today’s wide spread, "dog blood" not only describes the actors’ acting skills and the absurdity of the plot, but also adds a layer of accusation of “too routine” in the plot: for example, the heroine and the actor collided and fell down. The posture must allow the two to kiss exactly; a certain protagonist is accidentally involved in a car accident, and if he is not life-threatening, he will definitely lose his memory; the protagonist passes away but returns gorgeously, no need to guess that he/she has twin siblings who have been separated for many years; Needless to say, there will be a downpour during a quarrel, and you will encounter a scandal if you don’t knock on the door and enter the room. When the gun is aimed at the enemy, there must be a flashback...
As the ancestor of the "dog blood drama", the Korean drama has been accurately summarized by netizens, "Korean drama has three treasures, car accidents, amnesia, and can not be cured." Leukemia and cancer have played an important role in promoting the development of the plot and creating plot fluctuations in Korean dramas. , Even made many Chinese audiences have the illusion of "Korean per capita leukemia".
Over the past two decades, audiences have long quit the routine of "car accidents, amnesia, and incurable". The screenwriters have also introduced new ways of creating "dog blood", stimulating the audience's eyeballs with more exaggerated suspense and more intensive reversals. Stirring the nerves of the audience.
Take the three works of the screenwriter Jin Yushun in different periods as an example: In "The Temptation of Going Home", the "dog blood" in the first episode is only the male protagonist Hong Shixian on the wedding day with the female protagonist Lin Pinru, and the second female Ai Li The secret meeting in the room was interrupted by Lin Pinru who broke in; and in "The Queen's Character", the heroine who has developed into a musical actor fell from the stage during the performance, and happened to fall into the role of the Emperor of Korea, Lee Hyuk. In the arms, and therefore married to the emperor, he flew up to the branch and turned into a phoenix; until the "Top Floor", in order to create a more sensational plot development, the screenwriter asked the heroine Shen Xiulian to go through a series of bathing and changing clothes, and then take the landscape elevator from the 100th floor. I witnessed a girl in ragged clothes being pushed out of the window and fell into the arms of the Hera statue, who was in charge of marriage, childbirth, and protection of women on the first floor of the apartment, and died of bleeding from her head. This girl was Shen Xiulian's long-lost birth. daughter.
In the subsequent development of the plot, "Top Floor" is even more "one episode is stronger than six episodes", and a lot of reversals and accidents are packed in every minute.
From this comparison, it can be seen that the screenwriter has done everything.
However, it is inseparable from its ancestry, and it is still inseparable from the "dog-blood drama" actors' exaggerated acting skills, exaggerated plot settings, and abrupt plot development.
The classic ethical dilemma in "dog blood" Korean drama
In spite of the ever-changing routines, there are always some elements in the bloody Korean drama that are consistent.
The most typical is a series of ethical dilemmas caused by the wrong child.
"Blue Life and Death", which was broadcast in 2000, can be described as a masterpiece of early Korean dramas.
At the beginning of the story, two girls with similar birth dates exchanged identities because of the mistake of their brother Yoon Junxi. One became the daughter of a carefree and prosperous professor, and the other entered a poor single-parent family.
On the one hand, the two girls accidentally became classmates in elementary school, and a gap was created due to the jealousy brought about by the gap between the rich and the poor, and their lives have been entangled forever. The love between brothers and sisters at the beginning developed into the love between men and women later, and the unreasonable relationship between the two became another major contradiction in the play.
Because of the wrong child, the 16th episode of the story can be established.
When "Top Floor" is broadcast 20 years later, kinship is still the biggest contradiction in Korean dramas.
Just as the opening scene of "Top Floor 1" mentioned earlier, her mother, Shen Xiulian, witnessed the fall of her biological daughter who had been separated for many years.
Seventeen years ago, Shen Xiulian's current husband, Zhu Dantai, because of strong jealousy and desire for control, killed Shen Xiulian's ex-husband and took Shen Xiulian, who was pregnant at the time, as his own.
Because he could not tolerate the children of other men, he exchanged with another baby girl who was born with stunted growth after the girl was born.
Therefore, the vegetative person Shen Xiulian has been taking care of for many years but has been unable to recover is not her biological daughter.
Her biological daughter came to her house later and became the tutor of Zhu Dantai's children by accident. Because of her identity as an "orphan", she suffered humiliation and finally died.
A mother started a 21-episode plot for the revenge of her biological daughter.
When giving birth to a daughter, he immediately thumped his chest and feet, and cried loudly.
This kind of drama contradiction caused by the dislocation of kinship is not the original creation of Korean drama.
In ancient Greek mythology, there is the incest tragedy of Oedipus killing his father and marrying his mother due to ignorance, but modern British and American dramas rarely have dramas based on this.
Instead, the East Asian countries in the same Confucian cultural circle emphasized the concept of "blood relatives" under the concept of "family world" brought about by the hereditary monarchy in the past.
After all, in the past, only direct blood relatives could inherit the family property. If the child is not the biological one, it means that the family property that has been accumulated so hard has fallen into the hands of others.
Although not as good as the Korean drama "Dog Blood", the classic Qiong Yao drama often uses kinship to promote the plot.
"Han Zhu Ge Ge" may be the most familiar example: due to a misunderstanding by mistakes, Qianlong regarded Xiao Yanzi as his own daughter, and fell in love with his real daughter Xia Ziwei. How to make Ziwei and Qianlong father and daughter match each other The confession and the prevention of Xiao Yanzi from dying for the crime of deceiving the emperor promoted the unfolding of the story.
Even in real life, similar stories can often attract public attention.
The incident of "replacement of life for 28 years" has aroused a lot of attention. Now one of the parties involved, Yao Ce, has passed away due to illness, but the commotion caused by the replacement of life has not subsided.
Yao Ce's adoptive mother sued Yao Ce's wife, hoping to return to the wedding house she bought for Yao Ce before, because she bought it for her "pro son".
But how to define the "mother-son relationship" that has been together for 28 years is really embarrassing.
Perhaps the "tragicomedy" brought about by the wrong life change is also staged in reality, and deep down, everyone may also have the fear that they are not their parents, or the expectation that they are not their parents, in Korean dramas The frequent dislocation of kinship can stir the nerves of the audience time and time again, and will never get tired of it.
The new class differentiation in the plot of "Dog Blood"
In addition to the obsession with kinship, the theme of Korean dramas always keeps pace with the times.
In addition to changing character settings and adding romantic roles, it is difficult to shoot new ideas for simple sons and daughters. Family ethics, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are contradictory to "The Temptation of Going Home" and have almost reached the peak, so more Korean dramas choose to make great efforts in the background of the times. , In an attempt to project reality and reflect the present in the main story line.
"Top Floor" is the product of this effort.
The story of "Top Floor" takes place in a top high-rise apartment named "Hera Palace".
The occupants of this apartment adopt the internal recommendation system, and only "the top 1% of South Korean upper-class people" are eligible to live in.
The higher the floor, the more expensive the house price, which means that the identity of the residents becomes more noble. Zhu Dantai, the developer and investor of this apartment, and his wife Shen Xiulian live on the top floor of the 100th floor.
The people outside the Hera Palace dream of living in the Hera Palace, and the people inside the Hera Palace dream of living on the top floor.
The class difference is clear in the background of the story.
A series of Korean social problems brought about by the gap between the rich and the poor have become a weapon to promote the development of the plot.
As the main line, the initial contradiction between the protagonists was triggered by the shady scenes of entering the middle school entrance examination. The only places for entering higher schools were reserved by wealthy and powerful families, and the wealth accumulation of several major families relied on the collusion of government and business to obtain urban development information, thus real estate. Investment; as a secondary line, as an "orphan" Shen Xiulian's daughter Min Xue'e was sold in an orphanage by a congressman at a high price and adopted by a wealthy family. After donating bone marrow, she was quickly abandoned and sent back to China. Another lawyer was born The supporting actor became a member of Congress by buying votes, while investing in real estate, while protesting against the high housing prices through a "hunger strike"...Every detail can be reproduced with "The Furnace" or "Parasite", but it's stuffed into it. The "Top Floor" is a "big system of dog blood".
In the setting of such a story, "hatred of the rich" and "satisfied with poverty" have become the biggest psychological driving force for the development of different characters.
There are two details at the beginning of "Top Floor 1": When Min Xue'e first went to the Hera Palace as a tutor, she wore a sweater embroidered with insects. The "Top Floor Princess" and Zhu Dantai's biological daughter rolled her eyes. , Took off his jacket, revealing a sweater of the same style but with slightly different details. He laughed at Min Xue'e's posture and "unrecognizable identity". It turns out that this sweater is a limited edition of high-luxury brands. There are only 4 pieces, and Min Xue'e is obviously a pirated copy; it was Min Xue'e, who took off his shoes at the door when he entered the door to do tutoring. Zhu Dantai, who was a little bit hygienic, saw this pair of sneakers full of holes and yellow in color when he returned home. Ji nodded and yelled at the babysitter, then took out a pair of tongs to clamp the shoes and tried to throw them into the trash can immediately. Before Min Xue'e left in a hurry, he ordered the babysitter to sit and sleep in the bathroom. Completely kill, can not leave a dead corner.
Dog blood?
Dog blood.
Is it real?
real.
It is reported that after the two episodes of "Top Floor" were broadcast, the Broadcasting and Communications Commission, which is responsible for the supervision of film and television dramas, received hundreds of complaints. Some parents believed that the part of the drama involved in school violence was too exaggerated and bloody, and would be harmful to children. As a result, there was even a petition to "stop broadcasting "Top Floor"" at the Blue House.
After that, starting from the fourth episode, the crew adjusted the original "15+ suitable for viewing" to "19+ suitable for viewing", which calmed the turmoil.
But this still can't stop the ratings of "Top Floor" from rising.
Halfway through the first season, the ratings in Korea have reached 22.1%.
It is precisely in this drama that many Korean viewers saw the projection of the real dilemma, and they chased it down sincerely while scolding "dog blood".
The public account "Meng Da understand" once wrote an article titled "South Korea's Toxic and More Than Entertainment Circles" after South Korean actress Cui Xueli committed suicide in 2019. It counted the stars who committed suicide in South Korea's public reports over the past 15 years, and pointed out that, The suicide rate among ordinary people in South Korea is the first among OECD countries and the third in the world. According to the statistics in July of that year, the unemployment rate of 15-29-year-olds in South Korea is as high as 9.8%. If part-time jobs are not regarded as official jobs, the unemployment rate That’s 23.8%; the level of solidification is even more monolithic. “Ordinary young people have only one way to get rid of poverty-to enter Seoul (Souel) University, Korea University, and Yonsei University. Get the ticket to enter the political and business world. The initials of the three universities are SKY, the city in the sky that Koreans dream of. If you go in to become a member of parliament and executives, you can’t work as a wage earner.” This is the year of 2018. The reason why the Korean drama "Castle in the Sky", which has a similar theme in "Top Floor", resonates strongly.
A study by the University of Texas at Austin shows that the worse a person feels about himself, the easier it is to pass the time by watching TV shows and try to digest negative emotions.
In 1996, the former US President’s National Security Affairs Assistant Brzezinski put forward the theory of "Nipple Music" based on the "28 Phenomenon" in economics.
Due to the continuous increase in productivity, a large part of the world’s population will not use or actively participate in the production of products and services. Conflicts of interest between classes will be one of the main factors of social unrest—this is the status quo of Korean society— -In order to avoid the conflict between the majority of the people at the bottom and a few vested people, one of the methods is to create ubiquitous comfort and entertainment, so as to find an outlet to escape real life and vent dissatisfaction.
Knowing that it’s bloody, and knowing it’s a routine, the audience of the "dog blood drama" couldn’t help but substituting into the role. In the drama, the upper class was rich and unkind, clenched their fists and yelled at them when they were exhausted. When it comes to retribution, the big ups and downs, I call it a happy and happy heart.
Because of the "dog blood", the world has only big right and wrong, heroes can punish evil and promote good, ordinary people can fly on branches and become phoenixes, and TV dramas can recruit and aim at the cool spots of the audience.
You don’t even need to be logical, just full of emotions, enough to make people want to stay in this fictional world willingly.
Author | Xiao Shuyan