" Empty Mirror "
"The Happy Life of Zhang Damin"
Standing at the juncture of 2020, looking back at the first decade of the new millennium, it was the decade of dramatic changes in the city of Beijing, and it was also a decade of extremely inclusiveness. In the past decade, after experiencing the ecstasy of successful bidding for the Olympic Games and the glory of hosting the Olympic Games for the first time, and successfully fighting the SARS epidemic, Beijing has become more open and diverse.
In the past decade, the creative concept of the golden age of TV series is still shining, the seeds of popular online IP have begun to sprout, and the copyright dispute between the Internet and TV stations is about to begin. In the past decade, the times are changing and the industries are changing, but the attention of Beijing dramas to realist themes has not changed. TV directors with different life experiences such as
Yang Yazhou , Shen Haofang , Ye Jing , etc., all pointed their perspectives at the small people in Beijing in the great era, telling the troubles and joys of their lives, gatherings and separations. As Shen Haofang said, "There were indeed not many TV series at that time, but works that were close to reality and life and were close to ordinary people appeared frequently."
era is a truly great screenwriter and director, and good film and television works are just their mirror and echo. In this era of change and tolerance, some people feel the past, some focus on the present; some find themselves, and some see others. Everyone has a city in their hearts. These "cities" in the play are superimposed together to form the Beijing story of the past ten years - there are memories and imaginations, but ultimately down-to-earth.
Creation and inheritance Golden Age
Nineteen years ago, people had no idea about the adaptation of online literature IP. Qidian Chinese and Jinjiang Literature City, which later made many online writers famous, were not established in 2002 and 2003 respectively. In 2004, the first TV series adapted from the online novel was released, but it has nothing to do with the just-in-the-breaking mainland online literature - this "First Intimate Contact" starring Tong Dawei , Sun Lihua , and Xue Jianing was adapted from the online novel of the same name by Taiwanese writer Pizi Cai.
The Beijing dramas in the past ten years continue the creative methodology of the "Golden Age", forming a screenwriter team to engage in original creation or to focus on traditional literary elements. " Eight Brothers " is a script that Yang Yazhou and the screenwriter have put it in the Asian Games Village for more than half a year; "The Happy Life of the Poor Zhang Damin" is adapted from the novel of Liu Heng ; "Empty Mirror" is adapted from the novel of the same name of Wan Fang ; " Longxugou " is a film and television interpretation of the classic drama of Lao She ; " Days Related to Youth " is adapted from the novel of Wang Shuo 's novel "What Is Playing Is the Heartbeat"... It is worth mentioning that Lao She, Liu Heng, Wan Fang, and Wang Shuo are all Beijing-born writers.
Most of the Beijing dramas in the past ten years have featured small characters as the main characters. "Days related to youth" and "Bloody Romance" focus on the youthful years and life choices of children in the big courtyard; "Empty Mirror", "Happy Life of Zhang Damin in the Poor Mouth", "Don't Move the Love", "Romantic Things", and "Porcelain Whistle" interpret the symphony of the destiny of ordinary families and the times in the big courtyard; "Home with Children" focus on the joys, sorrows and sorrows of reorganized families in the happy community; "Eight Brothers" are the ups and downs of migrant workers who come to Beijing to work.
The major events in reality are also projected in Beijing dramas during this period. "Family with Children" Liu Xing mocked his family for "jumping around with a rope a few times and then we will be called to welcome the Olympics", and announced that he would climb Mount Everest to welcome the Olympics. Ye Jing mentioned "SARS" when explaining the current situation of the characters with subtitles at the end of "Days Related to Youth". "Jin Yan was still an angel in white in the obstetrics and gynecology department of the hospital. She achieved remarkable results in the fight against SARS and was promoted to head nurse."
Looking at Beijing from an external perspective, the camera is aimed at migrant workers
Although they all focus on small people, the different perspectives of the creators bring different appearances to the Beijing dramas of this period. Ye Jing provided youth samples related to Beijing by the children of the big courtyard; Shen Haofang used his life experience in Beijing Hutong to shape the image of Zhang Damin; Yang Yazhou regarded Beijing as another hometown, and described the countless people in Beijing from an immersive and detached perspective.
Harbin native Yang Yazhou graduated from the Central Academy of Drama and worked in the West Film Studio. In 2000, he was transferred to CCTV. Yang Yazhou, who has worked and lived in Beijing for many years, regards Beijing as his second hometown. "I am willing to film in Beijing because Beijing represents China. The living conditions of Beijing can often represent the living conditions of our time." In the past ten years, he has filmed three Beijing dramas - "Empty Mirror", "Romantic Things" and "Eight Brothers", which include both the fireworks of people born and raised in Beijing, as well as the life experiences of the eight brothers who came to Beijing to work in Beijing.
The investors of "Empty Mirror" have looked for several directors before, but they were rejected because of the lack of dramatic conflicts, but this is exactly Yang Yazhou's "dish". "I like "Empty Mirror". Making the plain and not mediocre is something that needs to be done in creation. If you don't pay attention to the details of such a play, you will have nothing."
Yang Yazhou is not an authentic Beijinger, but he believes that shooting Beijing dramas has his own advantages and can jump out to tell the Beijing story from the perspective of outsiders. "It's like I'm not from northern Shaanxi, but I filmed "Beautiful Big Foot". I worked there for 20 years, and I can break out of the perspective of being born and raised in the northwest and have my own interpretation of the western theme." When filming "Eight Brothers", Yang Yazhou jumped out of the perspective of Beijingers and paid attention to the life of migrant workers in Beijing. "They have contributed to the development of Beijing, but few film and television dramas show them, which is unfair. After the drama was broadcast, some viewers told me that he has now begun to pay attention to the security guards and cleaning aunts in the community. I feel very relieved."
Housing difficulties, "poor Zhang Damin" has universality
Shen Haofang once studied in Japan and served as an assistant director for Sato Junya (director of " Chase " and " Dunhuang ". But he was born and raised in Beijing. He lived at the Jiaodaokou area of in Dongcheng District, . In his own words, "I am indeed very familiar with the life in alleys in Beijing."
After Shen Haofang's "The Happy Life of Zhang Damin" became popular, a large number of follow-up works with Beijing slums as the background appeared, but none of them reached the former's height. Shen Haofang believes that the birth of a representative character should be consistent with the background and atmosphere of the times. "House was difficult at that time, and now we live in communities. People's lives are different. The character portrayal must conform to the reality of the era in which they are located, so that this drama can have a sense of the times and vitality." Zhang Damin, the poor man, "is a product of that era. If you put it in the second season today, there is no way to surpass it, because you can't show the current Beijing."
"The proportion of foreign population in our Beijing today is getting bigger and bigger. This is similar to Shenzhen. Everyone can speak Shanghai dialect, Beijing dialect and Sichuan dialect, and there is no difference in language." This change objectively increases the difficulty of creating Beijing dramas. Because in the constant changes, it is even more difficult to capture the representative of an era and find a person with universality in Beijing. "If you don't find this character, don't just say that I'm a Beijing theme, so I'd rather not take photos."
The Beijingers in Shen Hao's eyes can be divided into two types, one is the Beijingers who live in the times, and the other is the Beijingers who are in real life. The first is that many people think of Beijingers who are talking nonsense and are very proud of their faces. Just like Lao She’s novel “ Erma ”, the country is like that. Wherever they go, they still call the pride of the people of the Qing Dynasty all day long. The second type is the Beijingers in real life, which are constantly changing with the times and become difficult to summarize.
The children of the big courtyard are separated by a wall from the old Beijing
In the Beijing drama with small characters as the protagonists, the youth of the children of the big courtyard is undoubtedly the most unique category. Compared with the people of the slums in the hutong, they enjoy more superiority in their lives, but they are also insignificant little people in the changes of the great times. Because of their background, their feelings about the gap between dreams and reality are stronger than ordinary people, and their sense of dramatic conflicts are also more intense.
Ye Jing, who was born in the military compound, has gone from "Where the Dream Begins" and "Days Related to Youth" to the unreleased movie " Remember the Song of the Boy ", each of his works has a strong autobiographical color, and they are the youth stories of the children of the big courtyard he has experienced. The city of Beijing, frozen in the image with his youth, is like a cross-section of the great era.
Ye Jing selects actors to be more important than Beijing, and it is better to have a military background. In both dramas, nearly half of the leading actors were Beijing actors. " Chen Yufan came to me to play at at that time, asking me if I could act, and that's it. Many children who sing in Beijing have looked for me, but I'm useless."
Ye Jing likes to use new actors. "If you use your wrist, the first thing is that you can't afford it, and the second is that you can't afford it." After watching the drama he filmed more than ten years later, all the newcomers of that year became the wrist, time witnessed growth and impermanence - some people became friends because of the drama and finally parted ways, such as Chen Yufan and Bai Baihe ; some people worked hard for many years and finally became famous, such as chanting plum blossoms; some people left early in their lives, such as Fu Biao , class praised .
Every Ye Jing's work is related to his own experience. "It's all related, it doesn't matter. I won't write it at all." Ye Jing said that "Where the Dream Begins" is to miss the atmosphere of his parents' family, and it also brings a sense of show-off; "Days Related to Youth" films the lives of their generation before the reform and opening up, "At that time we have begun to be at a loss and confused"; "Remember the Song of the Youth" has the experience of being sent to Yibin with his parents; and the other unreleased "So we are so strange" is a reflection and summary of his own generation.
. Ye Jing said that he can write topics other than his own experience, but he scored the most important points. "I can't even finish writing about what I do, so how can I have time to write about others? I'm afraid that I can't remember it in a few years." He admitted that his works have a strong autobiographical color. "It can be said to be an autobiography." Ye Jing said that his idea coincided with Wang Shuo: "He (Wang Shuo) has always said that he especially wanted to write a " Dream of Red Mansions " from our era. I used film and television works to complete the "Dream of Red Mansions" from our era."
Since the 1990s, a group of literary and film creators such as Wang Shuo, Ye Jing, and Feng Xiaogang who grew up from the Beijing military compound are considered to be representatives of the "Beijing Circle" (Beijing Literary and Art Circle). But in Ye Jing's view, their big yard children are always separated from the real old Beijing.
In his opinion, the so-called leading culture of the compound is because "enjoy all kinds of superiority. We must be the first to see many Western popular culture. Where can ordinary people see it? Where can they afford Lao Mo and Xinqiao Hotels? Who even dares to eat Western food?" A wall separates the children of the big courtyard from the real old Beijing.
Ye Jing's father was kicked out of Beijing and his whole family was sent to Yibin, Sichuan, and he saw the world outside the wall. "That's Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province! My father took me into the restaurant, and the beggars surrounded him..." On the other side, although his family was in trouble, his father also had Wuliangye special drinks and smokes in Hongta Mountain.
Reform and opening up, Ye Jing also went south to Guangzhou to go through business, and even opened a Sichuan restaurant with Wang Shuo in Beijing. But he felt that this was just a joke, never a serious business. "Don't think that I'm very serious in business. My business process is just 'breathless' in Beijing dialect." Ye Jing said that their children in large courtyards did not live that rigorously and would not plan their lives for themselves. "Wang Shuo and I, our generation is a prodigal son."
We have a weaker sense of our hometown and identity in Beijing. My parents are not from Beijing, they are from foreign countries, and they are gathered from all over the world to Beijing to "sit in the country". We have a kind of barrier between us and old Beijing, which is the cultural barrier between inside and outside the wall. We are inside the wall, and they are outside the wall. "What was the identity that Ye Jing and the others identified in the past? He used a word to describe "big breasts and brainlessness".He is very broad-minded and wants to liberate the whole world and all mankind. He feels that he has the mission of such an era, but he is prone to impulsiveness and his blood is boiling at any time.
"Empty Mirror"
Yang Yazhou's persistence has been recognized by the audience, and "Empty Mirror" has received rave reviews. Later, Yang Yazhou filmed " Loach is also a fish " near the north gate of the Forbidden City. An old Beijing aunt among the onlookers shouted "Yang Yazhou, I like the "Empty Mirror" you filmed, and the crowd immediately "buzzed". "I have won all the best director awards in both Chinese film and television, but the old lady's words are the highest reward for me. I have no reason not to continue filming such things."
"The Happy Life of the Poor Zhang Damin"
Shen Hao was in the guesthouse to read Liu Heng's novel "The Happy Life of the Poor Zhang Damin" and this sense of familiarity came to his face. So he made an appointment with Liu Heng that night and then collaborated on the drama "The Happy Life of the Poor Zhang Damin". The drama was filmed in real scene near Mianhua Hutong, and successfully created a small character in Beijing Hutong. She is poor but kind-hearted, and faces her optimistic attitude no matter how hard or difficult life is.
"Days related to youth"
"Where Dreams begin"
"Where Dreams begin" "Where Dreams begin" "Days related to youth" are all set in Beijing in the 1970s. A group of children from the army met and fell in love in the torrent of the times. The youth full of dreams encountered the hard reality, and the beauty and ugliness were all revealed. Many characters in the play can find correspondence between Ye Jing and his friends; many plots are also their real experiences, fighting, scrambling, and filming... "Didn't Wang Shuo also go to the Dongfeng Market Police Station, and they have all been in. "Days Related to Youth" also has this plot, which is all real." Both dramas of
are filmed in Beijing. Ye Jing said that the two groups of children from the big courtyard at the opening of "The Place of Dreams" were in Shichahai. "The Ding Zhicheng of Song Jingsheng and Zhang Hanyu who played Song Jianjun were originally very good. The slight ice can be filmed directly, but no one dared?" Looking back now, Ye Jing felt that many actors in "The Place of Dreams" did not meet the skating standards, "it was a terrible sight" and did not perform the slight ice in his mind.
version edited/Beijing News reporter Yang Lianjie Zhang He
