Huang Qizhe
The night is as cool as water, and the moon is as silver. Zhao Paner, played by Liu Yifei, stands on a platform and leans on a railing and faces the river. Gu Qianfan, played by Chen Xiao, is out of the city by boat, and he will follow the words of his subordinates.
One is like watching, but also like sobering up; the other is like peeking, but what he is planning is the next step of his own escape.
There is no need for intimate interaction to "sprinkle sugar", and there is no need for the oath of "three lives and three lives" and "four seas and eight wastes".
The barrage sighed that the director of the ancient puppet drama finally abandoned the straightforward and rude love line, and knew how to move people's hearts with subtle romance.
This is a scene in the fifth episode of the hit drama "Meng Hualu", which to a certain extent also explains why the show stands out among the ancient puppet dramas that have always been regarded as a depression of quality.
Before halfway through the broadcast, "Menghualu" was given a super high score of 8.8 by netizens, and it frequently appeared on the hot search topic list on major platforms.
It is not so much that the show itself has been recognized and praised by the audience, it is more that the show has finally fulfilled the long-suppressed viewing demand of the audience of ancient puppet dramas.
At a time when a group of ancient puppets have turned from reality to reality, repeatedly adapted fantasy web IP, repeated vulgar love narratives and rough and exaggerated productions, and concocted the assembly line "fan-only drama", the main creator of "Menghualu" chose to revisit his vision. Returning to history, by absorbing nutrients from ancient literature notes such as "Zhao Pan'er Fengyue Save the Wind and Dust" and "Tokyo Dream Hualu", to enrich the connotation and character creation of ancient puppet dramas, and blow a breeze of elegance to the creation of ancient puppet dramas.
The series is not over yet, and we cannot classify "Meng Hualu" as a high-quality product based on its high scores in stages. However, as an explosive model, it should make the platform and the show side think clearly - what does 8.8 points mean to the audience? 's demands.
If ancient puppet dramas have become a rigid demand for current film and television entertainment consumption and an important branch of popular culture that is loved by young audiences, then what kind of love stories can really move people's hearts?
It means that the public is disgusted with the "feeding" assembly line production of ancient puppets
"Why is "Menghualu" so good-looking", this is the number one trending topic on Weibo recently.
Netizens responded from different perspectives. Some people praised Liu Yifei and Chen Xiao for their online appearance and eye-catching appearance; some people praised that the two partners are a good match, and the opponent's play is natural and fresh; some people pay attention to the composition, mirror movement and art style, and think that their ingenuity is not inferior to the movie.
Among them, there are some good words of marketing, but more voices come from the public who have been suffering from ancient puppet dramas for a long time.
Netizens commented from different angles, but they all pointed to one word-beauty.
And this, which should be the most basic pursuit of ancient puppet dramas focusing on handsome men and beautiful women telling beautiful love, has become the root cause of the continuous decline in the production and quality of ancient puppet dramas in recent years.
Beauty is in the bones but not the skin. This sentence is the same for the overall temperament of an ancient puppet drama.
The first is the choice of the protagonist that is most valued by the platform.
Beauty is not about the same exquisite facial features and microdermabrasion, but the natural charm exuded by frowns, smiles and gestures.
The 35-year-old Liu Yifei no longer starred in the peak period of "Little Dragon Girl" in "The Legend of Condor Heroes", but did not adapt to the current "Internet celebrity aesthetics" to easily change her appearance, but instead has the confidence and charm that has accumulated over the years, and this, It has become her natural advantage in interpreting classical beauty.
The love story, beauty, which is at the core of the content of the ancient puppet drama, is not about pushing high-density "sweet sugar" interactions and sweet love words to the audience, but focusing on depicting the beautiful behavior of the male and female protagonists, and carefully depicting the people and things they experience together, so as to progress step by step. Let a love go deep.
In ancient puppet dramas, we often see the hero and heroine who don’t marry him and the other who don’t marry until she dies, but when the episode is over, only the slow motion of hugging and kissing deliberately rendered by beautiful music is left. , Fully standardized industrial saccharin blending.
As for the stories given by professional screenwriters, they are not even as full and moving as fans' extended interpretations.
From the perspective of the big plot trend, although "Meng Hua Lu" did not escape the familiar first encounter in the romantic drama, the deep sympathy in prison, and the common template of hesitant tossing and turning under the disparity of identities, it can be expanded in the specific development. , but the main creator did not perfunctory the audience with explicit confessions or impatient "sprinkling sugar", but understood how much affection flows in the blank spaces beyond words.
Only the reserved and restrained emotions can be integrated with the ancient costumes, spirits and spirits of the characters, so that they will not appear in the play, and can become the space for the audience to read carefully.
It means that the public is disgusted with the trend of "departing from the real to the virtual" in the narrative of ancient puppets
Whether it is "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", which is regarded as the pioneering work of ancient puppets and now has a score of 9.1, or the subsequent phenomenal dramas "Flower Thousand Bone" and "Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms", they all have one thing in common, that is It is based on the IP of games and web articles, and puts the love story of handsome men and beautiful women that the audience never tires of watching into a beautiful fantasy world.
There is also a reason for the platform drama party to come up with such a template: first, the readers of fantasy web articles often overlap with the audience of ancient puppet dramas, have a traffic basis, and the cost of trial and error is low; The story of the historical background has more room to play in terms of plot logic or expression of character modeling lines.
It is a pity that the creative space that was originally allowed to be creative has become a comfort zone for the main creator to be lazy.
Not to mention that the plot of "power and conspiracy" advertised by some ancient puppets has been criticized as "children play the house", but the makeup of the hero and heroine, which should be the core selling point, also frequently encounters aesthetic "Waterloo".
Under this trend, "Meng Hualu" chose the Northern Song Dynasty as the background of the era, and the main plot line of the first few episodes was adapted from the Yuan drama "Zhao Paner Fengyue Saves Fengchen".
This makes the old puppet love narrative, which has always been exaggerated and scribbled, have a relatively real support.
On the set, whether it is the Jiangnan water town scenery of Qiantang or the brightly lit downtown of Tokyo, they are not empty shelves in the distant view, but follow the camera to lay out the structural space and detailed decoration in front of the audience.
In addition, the tea drinking culture and music membership system of the Northern Song Dynasty were all touched upon.
Take the first episode as an example, the dim sum pear sticks, peach circles, and honey fried carved flowers sold in Zhao Pan'er's tea shop are recorded in the "Drinking Fruits" section of "Tokyo Menghualu", which depicts the life style of the Northern Song Dynasty.
It can be said that it is the profound historical culture that enriches the idealized love narrative of the ancient puppets and makes the audience more involved in the play.
There are two such details about money in the play that are worth mentioning.
In order to rescue her abused sister Song Yinzhang, Zhao Paner first borrowed money from Gu Qianfan, who was fleeing, to set up an arrangement.
The other party had no choice but to take out the gold medal to prove his identity and confessed that he had been relying on cutting the corners above to save his life.
After that, Zhao Pan'er used ten coins as bait to create a chance encounter with Zhou She.
I saw Zhou She staggered out of a large box from the inn three steps at a time, and the audience asked at the barrage: How much is ten dollars?
Immediately, someone was answering on the barrage: One thousand coins are one thousand coins, and ten coins have to have such a big box!
These two plots follow historical common sense to a certain extent, and they are dramatized with a sense of joy, so that the audience can not help but smile when they enter the play.
Of course, compared to many historical dramas, "Meng Hualu"'s attitude towards history is still difficult to describe as "rigorous".
Especially for the adaptation of the original work of "Saving the Wind and Dust", it is mainly reflected in the borrowing of the dramatic plot, and its ideological connotations cannot be fully reflected in the popular dramas that mainly focus on love.
However, for the category of ancient puppets for the general public, especially the youth group, "Meng Hualu" has changed from fiction to reality and tried to seek the creative concept of rich historical and cultural nourishment, which is a gratifying step.
And this step is not so much an innovation as it is a return.
After all, before the term "ancient puppet drama" was born, many high-quality costume romance dramas were all based on legends and folklore of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Works such as "Flying Immortals" and "Love Collection" are still unforgettable by the audience.
Therefore, in this sense, no matter whether the 8.8 rating of "Meng Hualu" is inflated, the public voice it represents has already brought the meaning of the wind vane to the subsequent creation.