If you still remember the " Tokyo Women's Picture Book " aired on Amazon two years ago, you will most likely go and see its two sister episodes in China, " Beijing Women's Picture Book " and " Shanghai Women's Picture Book " (hereinafter referred to as "Beijing" and "Shanghai").
Unlike the original work that condenses the core of the entire Japanese society, "Beijing" and "Shanghai" add more to the temperament of the city itself: the former is a steaming city, while the latter is an exquisite Oriental Paris. Therefore, in the production of the series, "Women's Picture Book" also adopts a dual-team model. The production team of "Beijing" is Xiong Child Media, which has produced "Soul Town Street" and "Heirs Plan". The team of "Shanghai" is Xingge Media, which produces "General in the Top". The two groups of people are stationed in Beijing and Shanghai respectively, with their own characteristics. The advantage of this style of playing
is that its style is clear and audiences from different regions are likely to find a sense of substitution, but what follows is a more direct comparison: is it "Beijing" or "Shanghai" more heartbreaking? Is it the urban heroine played by Wang Zhener or . Is it more about our lives? Which version is closest to the real anxiety of women?
"Shanghai" has been aired for two weeks. Judging from the Douban score alone, it has gained a better reputation than "Beijing", but the latter ended with 1.2 billion traffic, which seems to have a higher topic than the former.
Indeed, Chen Ke, played by Qi Wei in "Beijing", was questioned by some viewers shortly after the broadcast: How can the heroine who promised to rely on men to get to the top? It is obvious that everyone is the same as Beijing, why does she always have noble people from the opposite sex to help her? In comparison, the diligent Luo Haiyan seems to be closer to the reality of the Beijing and Shanghai drifting. In addition, the Japanese side has a higher degree of participation in the production of "Shanghai", which inevitably leads to associations between urban temperament.
interface talked with Ma Xiaonan, the producer of the "Women's Illustrated Book" series and general manager of Alibaba Entertainment Youku Drama Center. Maybe after watching it, you will have a different understanding of China's "Women's Illustrated Book".
The following is a dialogue with Ma Xiaonan on the interface, and there are edits:
Interface : Judging from the current audience's reaction, the reputation of "Shanghai" seems to be a little better than "Beijing". Did you do "Beijing" first and then "Shanghai"?
Ma Xiaonan : Actually, the two projects were started at the same time, so the creation and shooting cycles are basically the same. I think the more complicated part of this project is like our slogan, and I see myself here. Whether it is professional media or ordinary audiences, they will have different opinions based on this project, so the complexity of this project is here and the interesting ones are here.
In the past, many scripts were prohibited from playing mobile phones, playing games, or eating chickens, but now all scripts were prohibited from discussing "Women's Illustrated Book". The topic of "Women's Picture Book" was completely distorted. Everyone here put forward a point of view, and then the main script could not continue. Everyone will discuss the plot from their own personal point of view, which is also a relatively interesting phenomenon.
interface : So "Women's Illustrated Book" is now of rich meaning, is it considered a cultural phenomenon?
Ma Xiaonan : Not that high. I think positioning is actually an urban topic drama. It is indeed full of topics in the city, such as women, men, emotions, life, and workplace, but everything is about how to choose.
interface : You also talked about making the Japanese drama IP have a Chinese flavor before. Now both of them are released, but "Beijing" is not as highly accepted as "Shanghai". Why is this?
Ma Xiaonan : "Beijing" is too local, so everyone thinks it is different from "Tokyo Women's Picture Book". Everyone thinks that "Shanghai" is indeed the exquisiteness of Shanghai, and self-reflection is somewhat similar to "Tokyo Women's Picture Book".
"Beijing" especially at the beginning, Chen Ke caused a lot of controversy. Whether it was living in an old classmate's home, attending dinners, etc., these were all primitive and fully local, which was telling the story of a girl who drifted from Beijing to North.
interface : As a person who controls the field in full, do you still think Chen Ke’s setting is OK now? Or was there a review later and I thought there were some flaws in it?
Ma Xiaonan : At the earliest, not everyone liked Chen Ke's character. She was actually a complex heroine. During the 10 years of struggle, she always has imperfect aspects, but she is working hard to become a better self. Everyone will have aspects that you appreciate, aspects that you don’t like or even hate, and you will choose to be at a distance from him.
If we review it, we might consciously prevent male characters from playing such a big role at the beginning. This is also the one that netizens talked about the most and couldn't understand or felt that they didn't accept it in the early stage.
interface : There are many viewers, but in fact he cares more about Chen Ke's values, because there are some female images in Japanese dramas who can use men and have ambitions.
Ma Xiaonan : We don’t think Chen Ke’s values have ever been shaken, because she has never betrayed herself, and she has never framed others, and she will say NO to those who feel unacceptable in time, whether it is feelings or work.
interface : You also mentioned that at the beginning, the male-dominated function should be weakened. Is this the first time I did not have any experience when performing, or is it set to be stronger from the script stage?
Ma Xiaonan : I don’t think everyone still minds it. Although the performance ability is not good, we all want to emphasize her choice when these things happen to Chen Ke, but more voices are about why men lend a helping hand to Chen Ke.
In fact, not everyone is like this. There are some opportunities that Chen Ke takes the initiative to come. For example, Wang Tao, she thought the other party was a high school classmate and looked down on Wang Jiajia at that time, so she went to live.
Some girls feel that they will not live in Wang Tao’s house first, and secondly, after an unpleasant conflict with Wang Tao, they will not take back the job. But for Chen Ke at that time, staying in Beijing is more important.
interface : The ending in Chen Ke’s drama is to be a new media. Why did she give her such an ending at that time?
Ma Xiaonan : Actually, every work experience in Chen Ke is actually related to the development of the entire Beijing or the development of popular careers. From the beginning, it was similar to the foreign store, from ordinary sales to online companies, and from online companies' market sales to marketing related to film and television. Later, he chose to start his own business and joined the tide of self-media. In fact, Chen is a relatively innovative person, and she is more daring to fight and think.
interface : The heroine of "Tokyo" still has a clear ending. She got married and entered another life trajectory. What should the clear ending of Chen Ke who was not filmed?
Ma Xiaonan : A beautiful life is never too late, and getting married is of course a perfect ending. I hope Chen Ke can always encounter love. Whether there is a form of marriage depends on the opportunity. We have not compiled it down, just be happy.
interface : As a professional woman, which character do you think is most resonant among the three "Women's Picture Book"?
Ma Xiaonan : I think everyone has their own shadow. If it weren't for this creation, there might be many main creators, including me. The past and old friends of the past have really become popular, and now they have been written into the story.
interface : What would you say about female characters like Yao Mei, Wang Jiajia, and Kate?
Ma Xiaonan : Some people don’t agree with Wang Jiajia, and some like her very much. I personally do not agree with many of Wang Jiajia’s statements, so in fact, Wang Jiajia has a very clear ending. Chen Ke works harder and will see her ending be clearer.
Wang Jiajia has her own way of survival. Chen Ke disagreed and left her. However, when Chen Ke came to Beijing, he was willing to spread the basement behind the gorgeous appearance to you and distributed the bed less than one meter to you. I think this kind of friendship is very rare and precious.
Yao Mei is actually a kind of woman. Her dream is to take care of her husband and children, but she does not care about her very much in life. There are indeed many different women around us, because of life, family, growth experience, personal personality, etc., they will take different paths. Sometimes, many people may not continue to follow you, but they have indeed helped you sincerely in the past years, and these are all worthy of gratitude.
interface : Like Kate, was it designed by Chen Liang (director of "Shanghai Women's Illustrated Book") or did you discuss it together?
Ma Xiaonan : This is well written by our screenwriter. We wanted to find a harmless Shanghai girl at that time. She is actually quite wise woman. Looking back, she has her crisis. Kate knows very clearly what she wants, she is different from Haiyan. We were lucky in both projects, and we happened to find the person who was most suitable to play the role. Whether it was our first love Wei Daxun and Li Xian, or some other roles, we all felt that it was very suitable. The outside world says that every boy and every girl in your project are the male lead or female lead in other dramas.
interface : When establishing the image of contemporary women in China, do you think there is anything different between them and the women in Tokyo?
Ma Xiaonan : We communicated with Japanese teachers. They envied the current development of China. So when we were doing design, we did not make our heroine become like the one in the Japanese version who tried all her efforts, but became the one whom others envied. We made the heroine like herself more and become a better self.
interface : Why do Japanese teachers envy China’s current situation?
Ma Xiaonan : They think that all Chinese women they come into contact with are more daring to ask for. They think that Chinese women are very active, and everyone has their own ideas, dreams and action, and is envious.
interface : Because "Tokyo Women" still shows a kind of female anxiety, do you think Chinese female anxiety is the same as Japan?
Ma Xiaonan : We want to cure our anxiety even more. Actually, I think a truly good project is emotional communication between the drama and the audience. We have raised many questions in this, but the more important thing is not to tell you what is right or wrong, but to use this medium to allow everyone to occasionally look up at the stars when they are down-to-earth.
Sometimes life needs to look back and find peers, because even the closest relationship will be lonely. Maybe through one or two dramas, you will see people working alone in the city. Some of them are not satisfied with their lives, but everyone is running forward. We hope that through this drama, the audience will think about the past days, the present and the future.
interface : Like this series, there is a typical characteristic, that is, the heroine meets many men, which is rare in the original domestic dramas, and basically only arranges a target for the heroine. Will settings like this be subject to controversy from the outside world?
Ma Xiaonan : First of all, some of the male characters we arranged here have emotional relationships, some of them have only confirmed their eyes, some are friends or colleagues around them, not all of them are boyfriends or fiancés.Secondly, everyone has their own individual experience. If you have more experience, you will feel less, and if you have less experience, you will feel more.
interface : If there is no censorship mechanism and the cold style of "Tokyo Women's Picture Book" is really shot, can the Chinese market accept such a drama now?
Ma Xiaonan : The style that Japanese filmed is actually related to the development of the entire society and everyone’s anxiety, but when we return to China, we hope that there are both real and powerful parts and parts that make everyone feel promising. When you see the truth through, you can still go into battle lightly, which is actually the mainstream praise.
In fact, personally, we still want to show beauty. The word positive energy may make everyone feel that the relative slogan is actually the warmth between people and the warmth between people and cities. We still hope to praise this kind of content.
