Urban emotional dramas have always been a popular type of drama that is often filmed and new.
How to define urban emotional drama?
Professor Liu Yeyuan from Communication University of China believes: "Urban emotional dramas are a branch of family ethics dramas. Since they are limited to showing the marriage change between husband and wife, they discuss the orientation of women in family and career after marriage, and explore the reasons for the change of husband and wife's emotions. , so it has its own category." This view highlights two characteristics of urban emotional drama: it is a branch of family ethics drama, and it focuses more on the changes in the marriage relationship.
Director Liu Xin believes: "The urban emotional drama mainly depicts the tortuous experiences of young men and women in love and marriage, as well as the inner torment and test in the face of real problems, and reproduces the emotional concept of contemporary urban youth." This point of view emphasizes the importance of urban emotional drama. Urban background, its definition of "emotion" is broader, in addition to marriage, it also covers the emotional changes of urban youth.
Of course, urban emotional drama's strong concern for reality also distinguishes it from ordinary romance idol dramas.
In a word, urban emotional drama takes the city as the background, pays attention to the expression of urban people's love attitude and the relationship between the sexes in marriage, and discusses the emotional attitude, experience and changes of Chinese people during the transition period; urban emotional drama has a strong sense of reality and is a show. A window to the spirit of the times and value orientation.
In recent years, urban emotional dramas have become a hot spot on the screen.
During this period of time, many urban emotional dramas with high popularity or high ratings have appeared.
For example, at the end of 2021, "Journey of No Confusion", "Xiao Min's Home", "Love Is Delicious", "Perfect Companion", "Two Conjectures of Marriage", "Our Marriage" and "Meeting Season" in 2022... The urban emotional drama closely follows the changes of the times, fully demonstrates the creative spirit of realism, and calls for the return of fine family values.
At the same time, the excessive "eliteization" of urban emotional dramas, obsession with drama conflicts and so on, are also worth thinking about.
Play "Variations"
With the continuous development of my country's economy and society and the continuous advancement of urbanization, cities have increasingly become an important living space for Chinese people, and urban culture has also profoundly affected the ideological trend and value orientation of the entire society.
In the process of moving from "rural society" to "urban civilization", there will inevitably be frictions and collisions between the traditional emotional concepts of the Chinese people and the emerging value system, and new shocks, new confusions, and new contradictions have erupted.
This provides a rich treasure trove of material for urban emotional dramas.
As a mirror of the emotional development and changes of urbanites, urban emotional dramas change from time to time, constantly playing new variations.
This is the inherent requirement of realism.
As the well-known screenwriter Zhao Dongling said, realism must be able to convey the spirit of the times, reveal the laws of historical development, and express the creator's aesthetic attitude.
This determines that urban emotional dramas as realistic themes should be rooted in reality, observe reality, intervene in reality, echo reality, and extract new "typical environments" and "typical characters" from changing real life, and truly reflect the laws of reality. , respond to the needs of the times.
Therefore, there have been three distinct changes in recent urban emotional dramas.
First, the family division model of traditional marriage is facing challenges.
Both "Perfect Companion" and "Our Marriage" focus on the issue of family division of labor, subverting the traditional division of labor mode of "male lead outside, female lead inside", conveying "full-time mothers are also respectable jobs" and "full-time mothers can work in Re-prove yourself in the workplace” and “full-time dads are not eating soft food” and other concepts.
Second, the composition of marriage is complicated, but an open and tolerant attitude towards it is held, and the value of family is highlighted.
For example, in "Journey of No Confusion" and "Xiao Min's House", the "second spring" of middle-aged people's love does not have to be just chickens and dogs, but also more warm and romantic.
The family reorganization of middle-aged people may need to overcome more obstacles. For example, "The Season of Reunion" is mixed with elements such as business warfare and revenge, but the foothold is the willow and dark flowers of "the season of falling flowers and the king again".
Third, young people's views on marriage and love are more free and more selfish.
In "Love is Delicious", love is like delicacy, and the three women's attitude towards love is a gesture of tasting, experiencing and enjoying.
In "Two Conjectures on Marriage", love in the fast-paced era may also be "faster". Two young people actually rely on big data to flash marriage, and various new problems will inevitably arise.
Turn on the "Guide Light"
Generally speaking, traditional family ethics dramas are more based on rural society.
The interpersonal relationship in rural China is a "differential pattern", and the relationship between people is expressed as an overlapping interpersonal network. This network is an individual-centered, concentric system extended based on the principle of blood or geographical relationship.
In an "acquaintance society", the relationship between people will inevitably be constantly cut and chaotic.
In contrast to cities, there are clear boundaries between people, and the relationship between people is often a contractual relationship.
As a branch of family ethics dramas, urban emotional dramas also take family as the main field and focus on the changes in ethical relations. Formed a "deviation" from tradition.
In the past, the depiction of family relationships and emotions in some urban emotional dramas often fell into the "negative" value orientation.
For example, they are keen to express the negative factors in family relationships, which are full of calculations and betrayals; they portray their parents as "superior" parents and exaggerate the negative tendency of "both parents are scourges"; highlight "little three" and "derailment" in marriage relationships, etc. elements; strengthening the crushing of love by material and housing prices in love writing... Although these urban emotional dramas highlight the will and choice of individuals like never before, they also ignore traditional family ethics and social warmth.
As Ferdinand Tunnis worries in his book "Community and Society", the traditional rural community that shares weal and woe and weal and woe has been shattered.
Needless to say, some of the previous urban emotional dramas have moved towards new misunderstandings, with more selfishness, impulsiveness, sensory enjoyment, and material pursuits, but less responsibility, dedication, morality, and spiritual pursuits.
"Story is not an escape from reality, but a carrier that leads us to pursue reality and strive to discover the true meaning of chaotic life." One of the core values of literary and artistic works is the guidance of ideas and values.
A gratifying change in recent urban emotional dramas is that while embracing new concepts and new values, they also face up to the impact of traditional family ethics, and finally get out of the way and protect the value of family and excellent ethical concepts again.
Therefore, in "Xiao Min's Home" and "Meeting Season", family relationships are intricate, and various contradictions are indistinguishable, but the protagonists believe that "home and everything are prosperous" and "family is for love, not for hurt." , they resolve conflicts with love and tolerance.
In dramas such as "Love is Delicious" and "Two Conjectures on Marriage", which reflect young people's concept of love and marriage, the protagonist pursues individualism, and always believes in the beautiful love of "holding the hand of the child and growing old with the child" and the value of marriage , they dare to give and receive a loving response from each other.
In "Perfect Companion" and "Our Marriage", the rise of women will inevitably bring about changes in family relationships. It is necessary to abandon the dross of "men are superior to women", and still affirm the cooperation of partners and work together to build a better family.
The imagination and construction of love relationships, marriage relationships, and family relationships in excellent urban emotional dramas support the spiritual world of Chinese people in the changing era, play the role of "guide lights", encourage more tolerance, understanding and cooperation, which is beneficial to young people. People create more harmonious emotional and marital relationships, and prevent young people from falling into the emptiness of value loss and moral stance.
Beware of "dog blood"
Urban emotional dramas will naturally show a materially prosperous and economically developed urban space.
Almost all of the urban dramas mentioned in the opening chapter use Beijing and Shanghai as the background of the story. The urban landscape of high-rise buildings and busy traffic has a certain spectacle effect, which can attract audiences living in small and medium-sized cities and rural areas.
As international metropolises, Beijing and Shanghai also provide a stage for countless professional elites to sway their wisdom.
Therefore, the protagonists in urban emotional dramas are often engaged in elite industries. For example, the heroine of "Perfect Companion" is the ace lawyer of a top law firm, the hero of "Our Marriage" is an investment bank elite, "Journey of No Confusion" and "Meeting Season" "The male protagonists are all company bosses...
It is not impossible to present the most prosperous side of the city and pay attention to the most elite group of people in the city.
However, if the urban emotional drama is too "elitist", the protagonists live in luxury houses, drive luxury cars, and open and close tens of millions of businesses, which will also bring new limitations - neglecting the observation of ordinary people's life, not grounding enough It will make the audience feel that "it can only be seen from a distance, and it is difficult to resonate".
In addition to excessive "eliteization", another problem that needs to be vigilant is "dog blood" - obsessed with catering to various hot topics.
Urban emotional dramas can focus on topics - after all, topics are a condensation of reality, but one should be wary of topics first, and avoid creating conflicts and conflicts to cater to topics, even sacrificing plot logic and character logic for this purpose. The plot goes to hell, the characters go to extremes, and the artistic value of the work is greatly reduced.
And the current urban topic dramas generally fall into this rut.
In "Xiaomi's Home", Xiaomin encounters a "superior" ex-husband, and Xiaomin's sister encounters a "perverted" partner; in "Meeting Season", the "superior" sister and "superior" ex-wife surround the male protagonist; "Perfect Companion" and "Our Marriage" are all limited to the interpretation of the topic of "family division of labor". Both the characters and the plot are only for this topic, and the plots also appear to be similar, and the artistic charm is too single.
It can be said that the urban emotional dramas in recent years lack the bland and meaningful artistic charm.
Although it is lively and lively, it is also a little impetuous; although it is very popular and there are constant dramas, it also seems to be modeled and routine.
Recalling some urban emotional dramas in the early 21st century, such as "The Happy Life of the Poor Zhang Damin" and "The Empty Mirror", they paid more attention to the life of urban civilians. , True thinking, and the value guide it conveys to the audience is "forgetting to tell the truth".
This is the direction that the current urban emotional drama should also strive for: let the audience not only enter an urban space, but also enter an immersed and lingering art world.
Zeng Yuli