Summary
China Youth Comments
Whether it is "removing oil" or returning to reality, the key to the problem lies in whether the main creators can let go of their self-centered paranoia and truly touch reality.
Recently, everyone is trying to be the "ceiling". Turning to the film and television field, " Gentlemen of East Eight District " has become the new "floor tiles" of Douban's scoring system. Because the plot is so greasy that "you have to use dishwashing detergent to repeatedly wipe the screen", and the plot is so outrageous that "if you have spent half a year, you will not set it like this." The drama's rating has been lowered until 2.1 points.
"Gentlemen in East Eighth District" poster
Is a TV series really that greasy and so outrageous? Out of curiosity, I followed the trend and finally found out that the answer is yes. To be honest, during the watching drama, my psychological changes were very complicated: I felt greasy when I was being "pulled with underwear belts", I felt speechless about the lines of the earthy boss such as "I don't like others drinking black tea in front of me", and I also felt rejection about the childish brotherhood of "only talking about brothers, not right and wrong" - of course, more often, I felt bored when I wanted to pull the fast forward button wildly.
However, after sorting out the plots that made me feel negatively, I still found a common feature of these points: they all reflect the over-inflated "self" of the main creative team.
The first level is that the male characters represented by the male protagonist feel too good and reach the point of being conceited. For example, when you know that the heroine will become your boss, the hero Tong Yu's first reaction is "Do you like me when you come to our company?" When the other party questioned his project, his response was not to explain the necessity of persistence professionally, but to be biased and think that the other party is slandering himself and targeting himself. Even in the "sweet-spreading" part of the male and female protagonists' eyes, the male protagonist seems to be not looking at the other person, but appreciates the "charming" self in the opposite pupils, which is also the reason why many viewers feel "not sweet and very oily".
Careful audiences will find that in the male protagonist's brain circuit, there is no thinking from others, no discussion on the facts, only self-centeredness. When a person's self-awareness is too inflated, the world in his eyes will be distorted and distorted, and the logic of handling affairs will naturally make people uncomfortable.
In a drama, the characters can of course have their own limitations. Sometimes, imperfect character is more real and deeply rooted in people's hearts. However, how creators analyze and express these limitations is a manifestation of their own values. This is also the more fatal problem of "Gentlemen in East Eight": the creators are too keen to output their own ideas, but do not realize that this is also a kind of self-exposed, which clearly reveals some people's disrespect for women's thoughts and their perceptions that are completely out of reality.
The drama is full of lines that materialize women, and the most popular one is the sentence "Beauty, can you eat spicy food? No wonder your figure is so hot." What is more interesting than many absurd words and deeds is the abnormal manifestation of female characters in the play. For example, after discovering that a strange man entered his room, normal women were to protect themselves and call the police as soon as possible, but many heroines actually "checked" the other party: "He is 1.83 meters tall, weighs 70 kilograms, has a fair face, and is a typical gentle scum." While the male protagonist was following him and suspected of sexually harassing the female protagonist, the TV camera also showed the scene of her missing her on her many times. These characters who obviously violate common sense are probably more of their self-imagination from the male perspective of the main creator. This distortion presentation is itself a kind of arrogance and disrespect.
Moreover, the characters in the play "pretending to live" are difficult to resonate with the public. "Gentlemen of East Eight" claims to show the state of four 30-year-old men working hard in big cities. However, whether it is the illegal scene of eating instant noodles in a taxi, the exquisite and false living environment, or the plot design that begins to be pretentious and self-touched because of a little setback, it makes people feel too suspended and unearthable.
Some people say that this is because the creator has been away from ordinary life for too long, and that is indeed the case.Urban dramas are not achieved through imagination. If you don’t understand real life enough, you should focus on experiencing life, squeeze the subway at 8 o’clock in the morning, experience the feelings brought by sharing, see with your own eyes what the real dilemma is, and patiently listen to the down-to-earth happiness, anxiety and sadness of ordinary people.
Whether it is "removing oil" or returning to reality, the key to the problem lies in whether the creator can let go of his self-centered paranoia, truly touch reality, and see others.
Written by/Ren Guanqing
Edited by/Yang Xinyu
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