■Our reporter Wang Yan

　　"I was inspired by a Hong Kong drama line for ten years" and "Why Hong Kong dramas attract three generations of audiences". For several days, Hong Kong dramas have occupied a seat on the hot search list.

　　On the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, Xinhuanet and Youku released the "2022 Hong Kong Drama Watching Report".

There are several data that attract attention: in 2021, on the platform of Youku Gang Theater alone, the audience will spend nearly 4 billion hours in total; Hong Kong drama audiences cover three generations from the post-60s to the post-00s, and the post-90s and 00s. The latter accounted for 42.8% in total; among the provinces that prefer Hong Kong dramas, Guangdong Province, which is close to its regional culture, ranks first, and the three northeastern provinces, which are thousands of kilometers away, all rank among the top six. Together with Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, a Hong Kong drama cultural bond has been formed. .

　　For a long time, Hong Kong drama has always been one of the shining ones in many city cards in Hong Kong.

If in the 1980s, many mainland audiences had an intuitive understanding of Hong Kong's life and urban workplaces, it was from Hong Kong dramas and their classic roles; then 25 years after Hong Kong returned to the motherland, Hong Kong dramas are like a lens, which reflects the era of Hong Kong's eternal flow. Recording the spirit and fireworks in social changes, it also witnessed the iterative evolution of Hong Kong's film and television creation ecology from "going north" to "integrating" into the mainland market, and constantly incubating new classics of new Hong Kong dramas.

The changing "Hong Kong flavor", the unchanging Chinese cultural genes

　　4 billion hours a year, what are the audience watching at the Hong Kong Theater?

"Buying a drama", this verb for chasing dramas may refine the audience's mentality of watching Hong Kong dramas with "Hong Kong flavor".

　　For creators, "Hong Kong flavor" has an open definition.

　　In the understanding of Chen Dexiu, CEO of Media Asia Television Production Co., Ltd. and executive director of Shanghai Media Media Asia, "Hong Kong flavor" cares about objective creative elements such as team members and actors, and subjectively "takes over the local atmosphere of Hong Kong".

Le Yiling, executive director and general manager of Hong Kong Shaw Brothers International Film Co., Ltd. believes that "Hong Kong flavor" itself is not mobile, and "the 'Hong Kong flavor' will change a bit in each era."

Dialogue, rhythm, and aesthetic style are part of the "Hong Kong flavor". The loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, family and country feelings in "Ip Man" and other kung fu films also carry a strong "Hong Kong flavor".

　　According to the observation of Zhong Shujia, director of Hong Kong TVB NEW WINGS LTD (customized drama/synchronized drama/co-production drama), "Whether a small town or a big family, a family drama or a commercial war movie, any Hong Kong drama of any subject will eventually return to human nature and human feelings. The value output is positive energy. The audience will feel particularly warm in those moments, Hong Kong flavor is a kind of life flavor and human touch."

　　The "2022 Hong Kong Drama Watching Report" confirms that the creators of Hong Kong dramas and mainland audiences have the same heart.

In the voting for classic lines, "Being a human being, the most important thing is to be happy", "Laughing all the time, good luck will come naturally", and "The family just needs to be neat and tidy" ranked in the top three; "Learn to value family," "love career more," and "positive energy heals people's hearts" are all high-frequency words.

In the hearts of audiences, the "Hong Kong flavor" of Hong Kong dramas can be reflected in professional professional dramas with strong rhythm, criminal investigation dramas with tight rhythms, and business war dramas with smooth narratives. , optimistic and positive attitude towards life.

These are exactly the common spiritual temperament and the unchanging cultural genes that the Chinese nation can bond with each other.

　　Based on this "Hong Kong flavor" connotation, on the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the Hong Kong Theater "Drama Festival" officially announced more than 30 works, including "feeling killing" and new classics.

The new film list includes "White Strongman 2", "Forensic Pioneer 5", "Detox Strongman", "Integrity Sniper", etc.; in the classic film list, "Apostle Walker", "Flying Tiger's Stealth Battle", "Sneak Sniper", "Forensic", etc. The ace IPs such as Pioneer 4" and "Benevolence Decoding II" are about to return.

The creator of "Beijing" has a deep "meeting" with hundreds of millions of viewers

　　In the film and television memory of the post-80s and post-90s, there is always a work produced by Shaw Brothers.

In recent years, Shaw Brothers' most famous work may be the "Flying Tiger" series, a word-of-mouth IP that has joined hands with mainland platforms.

According to Le Yiling, the hand-in-hand between Shaw Brothers and mainland counterparts began in 2016.

The most important reasons for them to "go north" are their partners who understand Hong Kong dramas and the market with the same origin.

"The works can be seen and recognized by 1 million people, 10 million people, and hundreds of millions of people. This will bring great satisfaction. Cooperation is an opportunity." In her opinion, the cooperation between Hong Kong creators and the mainland is a great Some degree of deep "mutual encounter".

Hong Kong actors and their works are familiar to more mainland audiences of Generation Z, and from the high-quality works from the mainland, Hong Kong counterparts have seen the constantly upgrading production level, "I often follow mainland TV dramas and movies, and I feel that we must increase the production level. strength".

　　Needless to say, the creators of Hong Kong dramas have gone through a break-in period to integrate into the mainland market.

With the passage of time, Hong Kong and the mainland have become more and more integrated in their development, and exchanges and cooperation in the field of film, television and entertainment have deepened.

On the one hand, mainland dramas such as "Langya Bang" are very popular in Hong Kong, and the values ​​and traditional aesthetics in them have won great resonance.

On the other hand, since 2013, Youku took the lead in reaching a strategic cooperation with Hong Kong counterparts in the long video platform. It has entered its tenth year so far. With the most abundant Hong Kong drama resources on the entire network, it has attracted a growing circle of friends, allowing Hong Kong drama creation. The readers get to know each other better in the dialogue with the netizens.

　　The medical drama "White Strongman 2" is on the air. Netizens lamented that "TVB is a hard-core film for professional dramas", and they counted the scenes shot in Shenzhen.

While strengthening its own distinctive characteristics, "Wuhen" incorporates more mainland elements, and the drama is regarded as a successful model for co-production of Hong Kong dramas.

Producer Luo Yongxian said: "In the past 10 years, we have cooperated frequently with mainland counterparts and interacted with mainland audiences a lot online. China is too big. South and north, urban and rural, the tastes will be different, but I think it is 'and and while'. Different'. Hong Kong and the mainland need to be integrated, so our orientation in making plays is not only to touch people in a city and a place, but also to touch people in a country."

　　As for Zhong Shujia, he seems to be a veteran "beijing drifter".

Since 2005, he has settled his home in Beijing.

Now sometimes when I go back to Hong Kong, "life is a bit unaccustomed to".

New modes, new horizons, new users, when the Hong Kong Theater upgrade is in progress

　　Zhong Shujia said that Hong Kong dramas once faced a bottleneck in development, "because with the development of the Internet, the update of electronic products, the rise of video websites and self-media, the entire world cultural industry has undergone drastic changes."

When the audience's viewing level and appreciation requirements are getting higher and higher, the vitality of the film and television industry must progress and innovation.

　　Le Yiling and Chen Dexiu hold similar views: the environment facing Hong Kong dramas has long exceeded the fixed audience of TV stations.

The Internet era has brought about a competition of "everyone and everyone". No matter where the dramas are produced, they must stand on the battlefield competing with global streaming media.

Under such a pattern, the creation of Hong Kong dramas is inevitable.

Taking user portraits as an example, for a long time, the mainland of Hong Kong dramas has received many people over the age of 30, and they are a group of people who were deeply influenced by Hong Kong dramas in their childhood.

When they consume Hong Kong dramas, they tend to consume feelings.

Therefore, attracting young people is the key to maintaining iterations of Hong Kong dramas, otherwise, you can only see a fixed lineup forever and play the emotional card all the time.

　　Since 2018, Youku has used the classic film library of Hong Kong dramas as the base, and the in-depth cooperation between the platform and Hong Kong drama producers has created the "Xingang Drama" signboard, forming a unique "Hong Kong Theater" on the long video platform.

Xie Ying, general manager of Youku Drama Center, believes that "Xingang drama" is a new model, new vision, and new users: the new model refers to the integration of the mainland and Hong Kong teams; the new vision refers to the addition of an international story core on the basis of classic Hong Kong dramas ; New users refer to breaking the limitation of Hong Kong dramas "watching dramas" and attracting users from a wider range of age groups to follow dramas.

　　In 2020, the suspenseful love drama "Bridge of Sighs" caused heated discussions on the Internet.

With its unique narrative style and sophisticated photography style, the play has a high score of 8.7 on Douban.

Since then, Xingang dramas such as "Criminal Investigation Diary", "An Unexpected Case" and "Family Glory" have achieved good broadcast results on video platforms.

These new Hong Kong dramas are eclectic in content and shooting techniques, boldly experiment, seek innovation and change, presenting a Hong Kong drama that is different from the impression of most audiences.

　　More importantly, relying on the mainland market, Hong Kong dramas interact with mainland culture and the Internet market to develop interactively and jointly participate in the current Chinese narrative.