Will you give up your parents who love you but are poor for money and status?
The popular Korean drama "Golden Spoon", at the beginning, threw this problem to the audience through the protagonist Lee Seung-Ten (Hotel Lu) decoration. When you are bullied in your life and cannot see the hope of the future, will you still sing to such a world? If you were the one who got the "golden spoon", would you be moved by the opportunity to change your fate?
Take the golden spoon and just go to the target family for three meals, and you can exchange your parents, family background and background with the children of this family. This is the case.
It is difficult for viewers to position "Golden Spoon". You can say that it is a comic-based drama, which is adapted from the comic of the same name serialized on Webtoon; you can say that it is a realistic drama, and it is difficult not to indignate the revelation of Korean social reality in the drama; you can also say that it is a fantasy drama, and most of the drama conflicts in the drama are from the fantasy setting of "Golden Spoon".
"Golden Spoon" follows the usual narrative routine of Korean dramas. In the first episode, it explains the story background and the relationship between the characters directly.
Li Chengtian, who has excellent grades since childhood but has a poor family, relies on poverty to attend the No. 1 High School in Seoul, where the second generation of rich people gathers. Although he has outstanding abilities, he was bullied by Park Jongjun (played by Kim Jiangmin), a classmate who was a general of the army because of his poor family. He usually had to help him do his homework, borrow him to copy answers in the exam, and even gave him the quota for the "Eagle Class" that he worked hard for a long time before he was admitted.
Not only classmates, but also teachers in the school are all snobbish. Faced with the act of Huang Taiyong (played by Lee Jong-yuan), the son of the richest man, who falsely accused Li Chengtian of extorting money, they decided to fire Li Chengtian without any investigation. In addition, Li Chengtian's close friend chose to commit suicide because he could not bear the pressure of debt. Everything that followed made him give up on his future.
At this moment, he met an old lady selling a "golden spoon". "As long as you want, you can use this 'golden spoon' to exchange for your parents at any time. Don't you want to become a rich man?" Although the old lady's words made Lee Seung-ten incredible, he still spent 30,000 won to buy the golden spoon.
Li Chengtian also wavered, but the real blow made his desire to go against the will of heaven and change his fate more and more. He watched Park Zhangjun and others bow to Huang Taiyong, the son of Daoxin Group, and chose Huang Taiyong's family as his goal. After three meals at the Huang family with shamelessness, Li Chengtian and Huang Taiyong exchanged identities. Except for him, everyone's memories also changed. Li Chengtian really changed his life with a golden spoon.
tablespoon of life exchange makes "Golden Spoon" look quite novel at first glance, but if you think about it carefully, this plot of life exchange is not new. Not to mention the distance, there are many similar works to TVB Hong Kong dramas, such as " Headless East Palace " and " Quaoshi ". The story of "Golden Spoon" is just a new bottle of old wine.
Individual details of "Golden Spoon" cannot stand scrutiny. In the play, the audience can see the true appearance of the lives of many Korean people. Although they live in the basement and wear coarse linen shirts, they can still maintain exquisite hairstyles every day and be meticulous.
not only has the shape, but some plot arrangements are also difficult to make people feel immersive. Even though his family was so poor that he was forced to pay his debts by his landlord, Li Chengtian's father still dreamed of a cartoonist, and he didn't make money and even paid for the publication of comics out of his own pocket. Even so, Li Chengtian's mother could still say to her husband with deep affection: "I hope you can persist in drawing your own comics."
In the play, Li Chengtian's appearance tells the audience the cruelty of reality, while using Li Chengtian's father to sing the opposite tune, trying to lead the audience to sing the song "Money in front of dreams is not worth mentioning." The viewpoints of "Golden Spoon" are "schizophrenia" that make people "schizophrenia" the more they look at.
Not only that, the story of "Golden Spoon" emphasizes the class differences between South Korea and the audience everywhere, but breaks class barriers from time to time. It seems that this difference is specially set for the protagonist. When needed, it is a matter of what it means, and when it is not needed, it can be regarded as non-existent.
The reason why Li Chengtian, who is in the poor class, is humiliated everywhere is because of his humble status. But when he helped Huang Taiyong solve the tasks assigned by his father, President Huang (played by Cui Yuanying), he could easily overcome obstacles and make a business report that Huang Taiyong, who has been dealing with his own business all day long, cannot make a business report. This is hard not to make people question it.
How did Li Chengtian cultivate superb business insight? How did he get confidential business data? These information points were taken by the screenwriter, leaving the audience alone in confusion.
After the first four episodes, the story of "Golden Spoon" has a sense of déjà vu, which is called exchanging parents and changing fate against heaven, and only experience life in a short time. But why does "Golden Spoon" have various problems that still make many viewers chase after it? In fact, it is because of the high production level of Korean dramas that the audience automatically ignores the shortcomings.
On the one hand, the screenwriter of "Golden Spoon" knows how to leave effective foreshadowing for the story, which can create a perfect suspense atmosphere for the series and make the story's reversal exciting enough.
In the first episode, the audience can see Huang Taiyong's father's disgust towards Li Chengtian. For example, he told his son that he wanted to make friends with someone of the same identity, implying that his son stayed away from Li Chengtian; when Li Chengtian, who wanted to have a meal for the second time, ran back with shameless shame after being driven away, President Huang's despised eyes at him, etc. all illustrate President Huang's attitude and also explain the progress of the identity exchange between Huang and Li.
At the same time, the audience can also see Li Chengtian's anxious desire to eat at the Huang family, and the tit-for-tat situation between the two sides continued to the end of the first episode. When Li Chengtian, who was dressed in rags, rushed to Huang's house and said to President Huang, "I know you don't like me, but I just want to ask you for the last thing, please give me another meal." As soon as he finished speaking, the ending song rang.
A viewers will naturally be curious about the next plot development, wanting to know whether Li Chengtian successfully had the third meal at the Huang family, and will also associate the subsequent plot. If Li Chengtian succeeds in having a free meal, can he really exchange his identities with Huang Taiyong successfully? If the free meal fails, will Li Chengtian change the target family, or will he continue to pester Huang Taiyong until it succeeds?
In this way, the Korean drama screenwriter's ability to attract attention is indeed becoming more and more perfect.
On the other hand, the director is also well aware of the use of colors. The red food and drinks that appear many times in the play are key hints to the character's identity and psychological activities.
For example, President Huang, who always likes to eat strawberry desserts and drink strawberry juice when thinking deeply, Li Chengtian, Wu Ruzhen, etc., who always hold red drinks when having dinner with friends. They are all deep-minded characters, and a touch of red is a hint to their personality.
On the other hand, "Golden Spoon"'s high-pressure life of rich second generation has also made many viewers enjoy it.
In past film and television works, we can always see the sadness of the poor and the suffocation of class oppression, but we can rarely see the pressure of the rich. In the play, the audience can see through characters such as Huang Taiyong and Park Jongjun. It turns out that the rich second generation is not that easy to be.
Park Zhangjun faced the arrogant and domestic violence general's father, and had nowhere to vent his grievances and dissatisfaction on Li Chengtian; Huang Taiyong faced the indifferent and demanding president's father, and he could only swallow all his sufferings by himself, so he was forced to have mental problems. If the troubles of the poor are all due to money, then the joys and sorrows of the rich are strange and never the same.
Overall, the cool feeling and theme of "Golden Spoon" is a benchmark for the previous work " Sky City ", but unfortunately, its plot and team lineup are difficult to be comparable to "Sky City". The base of the story is not strong enough, and no matter how gimmicked the shell is, it just can't make a bamboo basket with water.
【Text/Yichen】
