The Korean drama with the most obvious characteristics of dark horses this winter is " Sky City " launched by JTBC. Although compared with Shuimu drama and html January hot drama , the ratings of Golden Earth Drama are inherently disadvantageous, but since its launch, "Sky City" has counterattacked from its popularity, with the latest episode ratings as high as 19.2%, breaking the cable ratings record previously held by " Please Answer 1988".
"City of the Sky" poster. Image source:
First heard of "City of Sky", the audience may think that this is a dream story like the Sun Shadow of the same name. In fact, it is exactly the opposite. It is a typical social theme. "Sky (SKY)" in the title of the play is not only the abbreviation of three top universities in South Korea (Seoul University , Goryeo University, and Yonsei University ), but also the name of the luxurious community where several characters in the play live. If you take a closer look, the name that reflects the real and virtual world also implies that the characters in the play will inevitably fall into the clouds.
The main line of "City of Sky" is the educational story of children of middle-class families: a group of families with a prosperous life and a certain social status use all means to send their children to top schools. Middle-aged powerful actors including Lian Jingya , Li Tae-lan , Jin Rui-hyung interpret this female group scene vividly and realistically.
Stills. Image source network
East Asian culture is a slim line. Even if there are language differences, Chinese audiences who were crazily flooded with the "Haidian Huangzhuang Tutorial Class" and "Elite Family Five-year-old Child Resume" not long ago can also experience the popularity of children's education topics in South Korea. In the existing social context, middle-aged women are the ones who care about the topic of their children's education, and they are also the mainstream viewing group of Korean dramas at present. It has to be said that the audience positioning of the show is extremely accurate and the ratings are no accident.
In the play, such as locking children in a soundproof room to study, using a metronome to calculate the time for children to answer questions to create a tense competitive atmosphere, all give the audience a feeling of rapid and anxious. This feeling of anxiety is consistent with the anxiety mentality of the entire Korean middle class in reality.
The class solidification in South Korea is extremely serious, and there has always been a "spoon class theory" among the people who have a background determine their destiny. The resources owned by the superiors with the "golden spoon" have already paved the way for the next generation, and the lower-class people with the "earth spoon" have many difficulties in advance, and most of them have already lost their thoughts about their children's future. Only the middle class who is trapped in it is because of the fall of fear, and puts all hope on their children. At the same time, "weakness" is also their innate original sin. Because they are afraid of losing, they must strive to maintain everything they already have. The ubiquitous competition directly leads to blind comparison, which is also the source of anxiety for the huge and lingering middle-class group.
Stills. Picture source network
In addition to the sensational main line designed by the screenwriter "using anxiety", "City of Sky" is also actively "creating anxiety": the plot is a mixture of full-time housewives, extramarital affairs, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships, workplace struggles, senior culture and other scenes. Any of these themes can bring a strong wind on the social network, let alone arrange them all into a 20-episode series. Even if the screenwriter quotes a lot, uses the characters' mouth to express the "Drefus case" for implicit satirization, and uses the noble "Zaratustra" as a BGM, it cannot completely conceal the essence of the drama being a "bloody stew" with full seasonings.
Unlimited use of anxiety and creating anxiety is not only the reason why "City of Sky" has become a hit Korean drama, but also the flaw of the drama. It provides the audience with a certain social phenomenon, using a messy and bloody plot to make the audience "please watch it", but avoids mentioning the reasons behind the phenomenon and even ways to solve the problem. After all, there are still differences in social situations inside and outside the screen, and it is difficult for people to predict the variables that appear in life. If the audience is blindly trapped in the plot, being led by anxiety until the emotions are exhausted, it will be difficult to guide the audience to think more deeply. This flaw is a pity for a social drama that should have higher artistic value.
□Shen Chiying (play reviewer)
Beijing News Editor Wu Longzhen Proofreading Wei Zhuo
