Criticism of Male Group Drama

　　After nearly a month of verbal criticism, "Gentlemen from the East Eighth District", known as a "bad drama", was removed from the shelves.

This makes people start to reflect, what kind of male group portrait drama is suitable for the current screen?

　　In recent years, women's group portrait dramas have been surging, while male group portrait dramas are weak.

Although this type has never been absent, it is often low in popularity and has many slots.

After being cold and ridiculed one after another, it is not only necessary to think about the creation of male group portrait dramas, but the bigger problem is that the film and television image of urban men is already in jeopardy, how should it be presented properly?

The creators are collectively helpless, and the audience is increasingly disillusioned.

　minefield dance

　　When Zhang Han proudly put his name on the producer, producer, screenwriter, and starring column of "Gentlemen of the East Eighth District", he would not have thought that the show would be banned after it was broadcast. Viewers pinned to a "pillar of shame."

　　This drama really does what netizens say - "jumping on the minefield".

At first, "Gentlemen in the East Eighth District" was criticized for being greasy, suspended, and depressing.

Later, the repeated episodes of objectifying women, offending women, and playing erotic edge balls have made people angry, and the audience called it "spiritual pollution".

　　"Gentlemen of East Eighth District" is a typical male group drama, featuring four male protagonists, telling their friendship, love and career stories.

In the play, the actors who are over 35 years old are running in the rainstorm to play the role of college students, and in the blink of an eye, they are the best men in suits and leather shoes. A little bit, I feel that there is a high probability that it will be a thunder drama.

The follow-up plot trend of "Gentlemen of the East Eighth District" is even more surprising: foreign beauties embrace the male protagonists. The story of going to the wrong room and accidentally sharing the bed in "I'm Doomed to Love You" was staged again, and the heroine's first reaction was not to panic, but to look at the other party and start to become nympho; when the heroine was about to fall, the hero dragged When her underwear was lifted up, she would be asked by her best friend, "Is it comfortable for you?"; while eating and chatting, the hostess suddenly began to praise the man: "You are a man with a handsome face." The male protagonist replied: "So this meal is still up to me to invite, because you are a woman."

　　There is also general malice towards women in the play. For example, seeing the female boss and the boss eating alone, they maliciously speculate that the other party is superior in terms of appearance, and stigmatize women's menstrual period, calling women "an animal that "bleeds forever".

Plots like this have precisely hit the audience's thunder point.

　　After the emotional dimension of both sexes was completely overturned, "Gentlemen in the East Eighth District" did not make any achievements in friendship and career direction.

A few buddies get together for nothing more than eating and drinking, watching football games, and playing games.

The so-called occupational crisis seems to be nothing but fussing and scratching, and there is also an anti-common sense bridge such as eating instant noodles in a taxi, which is jaw-dropping.

　　During the post-production of the play, Zhang Han confidently said that he understood the audience very well, "because I know what they are thinking and what they want to watch", but the fact was slapped in the face.

"Gentlemen in the East Eighth District" turned the creative attitude of "confidence of fans" into a low-level "Jack Sue", and the audience evaluated it as "ugly and confident, inferiority and narcissism".

This may be able to put some men's fantasy expectations on the table, but the female-dominated audience has turned the table over.

　full of slots

　　Before "Gentlemen of the East Eighth District" was broadcast, some people marked it as "the male version of "Thirty Only".

However, it turns out that the two are not on the same baseline.

Compared with the popularity of female group portrait dramas in recent years, male group portrait dramas have always been stagnant, even full of slots, and it has always been difficult to find a suitable way of expression.

The screenwriter Yu Fei once expressed his regret for the lack of male group portrait dramas. He said, "It's not easy for women, and men also have snot and tears, but they all swallow beer in their stomachs." Some netizens believe that men are very Less drama, not the first user portrait of the video website.

Female audiences do not have the patience to listen to men's "snots and tears", while male audiences don't focus on film and television dramas at all. If things go on like this, it will be difficult to have masterpieces of this kind.

　　In 2002, "Pink Girl" was broadcast, and in 2004, there was "I Want to Fall in Love". As early as 20 years ago, female group portrait dramas began to take off.

Although in these dramas, the female characters are basically "love brains", strong women are portrayed as "tigresses", and career women are stereotyped as "men's wives", but film and television dramas still began to be created in groups of women An attempt was made to express.

Since then, women's screen images have been struggling in plots such as longing for love, urging marriage and childbirth, relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and family chores, until "Ode to Joy" came out in 2016.

"Five beauties" no longer need to rely on men and families to start their narratives. They also have their own career aspirations, friendship and mutual assistance and personal growth, and their images are more three-dimensional and full.

Andy's success is because of her outstanding personal ability, not because of "the boss". In the first part, she doesn't even need the existence of sexual feelings; In the past, she could only appear as a supporting role or villain in film and television dramas. She was accepted on the "22nd Floor", and she chased Dr. Zhao madly. It was also an expression of women taking the initiative in emotion; Fan Shengmei aroused the audience. New thinking about the family of origin; characters like Guan Juer and Qiu Yingying are usually regarded as "silly and sweet", but they are also growing up step by step on their own.

"Ode to Joy" established the dominant position of the female group for the first time in domestic film and television dramas.

　　Since then, works such as "Ode to Joy 2", "Thirty Only", "Twenty Not Confused", "I'm Good in Another Country", and "Love is Delicious" have gradually expanded the camp of female group portrait dramas.

Women's emotional concentration, delicate expression, self-awakening, pressure of marriage and childbirth, etc., have become the continuous creative material for such themes.

　　Compared with the female group portrait drama that started first, the male group portrait drama can be traced back to the "Struggle" broadcast in 2007.

Although this drama is a map of urban youth, the story is basically created with male characters as the main body.

In the play, the male characters are entangled in the realization of personal values ​​that strive for their ideals, while the female characters are only trapped in love around males-Charlene and Mi Lai both have a soft spot for Lu Tao, Yang Xiaoyun and Xiang Nan are extremely involved, and kneel down Ask for remarriage.

Later, there were "Beijing Youth" and "Beijing Love Story" in 2012. These works are also group dramas from the perspective of men.

　　In 2011, "Men Gang" directed by Zhao Baogang was broadcast, which more clearly brought out the concept of male group portraits.

The protagonists in the play are three men, the literary youth Gu Xiaobai, the technical otaku Luo Shuquan, and the "Diamond King Five" Zuo Yongbang.

The narrative style of "The Men's Gang" is consistent with that of the American drama "Sex and the City". The topic is discussed at the beginning of the film and summarized at the end of the film. It also discusses love from a male perspective, which is advanced even now.

"Men Gang" subverts the previous mainstream image of "steel straight men", and the three male protagonists are more softened.

Especially the thoughtful Gu Xiaobai has been favored by women of different ages, occupations, and personalities from strong women, female college students, and fashion models.

However, in terms of the underlying logic, "The Men's Gang" still did not break out of the framework of traditional values. For example, the model Mo Xiaomin in the play surpassed in economic strength after becoming famous, and Gu Xiaobai chose to break up because he felt his dignity was hurt.

Looking forward to breaking

　　In the past two years, male group portrait dramas have begun to focus on male midlife crisis.

　　In "If Time Could Turn Back", the three "white, yellow, and blue" brothers encountered divorce, unemployment, and wearing "green hats", and left other countries together to stage a belated middle-aged rebellion.

However, it is difficult for the audience to feel the cuteness of these yuppie old boys. The men in their forties let themselves fly, but they just seem childish and arrogant.

Bai Zhiyong, played by Jin Dong, seems to be a frustrated man whose marriage is injured. He also asks his wife aggrievedly, "Divorce me because I'm just having fun."

　　In "Lin Shen Sees the Deer", Lin Shaotao, played by Jin Dong, is a professional elite with a successful career, and an affectionate husband who can accurately tell the number of days he has known his wife, but his wife still insists on writing ten divorce agreements and resolutely separate.

Lin Shaotao didn't understand why such a "perfect husband" was "divorced", and maybe the screenwriter didn't understand either. He just felt that his wife's bitterness and hatred were inexplicable and even unreasonable.

The other protagonist, Jia Kuan, is a good family man. After the pregnancy, his wife with a strong professional spirit wanted to keep her position and gave up the child. In his view, it is right that women's reproductive value is placed before career development.

And Zhou Ming, who is also an elite person, spends money on the ignorant female employee who is just entering the workplace to pursue love, but never mentions marriage, and then entangles his ex-wife who helped him to the top, which is really bloody and vulgar.

　　When people reach middle age, they are chaotic in their career and family. This kind of mid-life crisis makes men at a loss, but they don't know where they are and can't find the core of the problem.

The female characters on the screen are growing rapidly, while the male characters are staying put, just waiting for the doomed happy ending through self-release and gags.

They think that women will still be captured by their own masculine charm, but the greasy lines of "because you are a woman" and "this is what a man should do" will only persuade the audience.

They are looking forward to good wives and mothers who wash their hands and make soup, and perfect partners who save trouble and do their best to assist and support their careers. This is also completely different from the expectations of female audiences.

When women have begun to earn their own "bread", what they need more is a male partner who can provide emotional value, rather than a professional elite to look up to.

This arrogant and arrogant creative attitude makes the values ​​of male group dramas lag behind women's group dramas by a decade or two.

　　Looking around the world, there are classic American dramas such as "Sex and the City", "Desperate Housewives", and "Deadly Woman". The theme of female group portraits will have excellent masterpieces in different eras.

And high-quality male group portrait works are often limited to specific fields, such as "Prison Break" about crime and "The Big Bang Theory" about a scientific nerd.

The same is true for domestic film and television works, such as the military drama "Soldier Assault", the youth campus drama "The Brother Sleeping in My Upper Bunk", "The Sky of the Wind Dog Boy", the sports-themed "Crossing the Line of Fire" and "Chess Soul", and the "Spirit of Chess" depicting the police industry. Trident", "Police Honor" and so on.

With occupation as the foundation, male characters will be fuller and find a foothold for creation.

If you purely take male group portraits as the starting point and place them in the larger environment of life dramas, it will often be aimless, and it will be easy to suspend and go astray.

Men are rarely caught in the dilemma of "how to balance family and career", and there is almost no ultimate proposition such as finding a "true woman", so the story template of women's group portrait dramas is difficult to apply to men.

　　The bigger problem and crisis is that in modern urban dramas, it is almost difficult to find a likable male character.

There are "Xu Fangpao", "Chen Yangyu" and "Liang Haiwang" in "Thirty Only", Shi Yuan played by Feng Shaofeng in "Home of the Heart" is proud and inferior, and Sheng Jiangchuan played by Tong Dawei in "Our Marriage" is seriously "double" "Beauty", Yang Zheng played by Peng Guanying in "Two Conjectures of Marriage" is even more angry with "cold violence".

The audience commented on the actor, "Well acted, don't act next time."

　　How should the problem of male group portrait formation be solved?

It doesn't seem optimistic.

Maybe it's already a blessing for the audience to stop making works like "Gentlemen in the East Eighth District" to provoke people and anger.

　　Reporter Liu Yuhan