2023 is coming to an end, and it's time to review the performance of the drama market this whole year.
The word "first suppress and then promote" is enough to accurately describe the market performance of this year's costume dramas. In the first quarter, the theme of realism exploded, and there was a national hit like "Hurricane", which made the costume drama a little overshadowed, but soon the second quarter took "Long Moon Embers" as the starting point, and many S-level costume dramas were released one after another, and the market ushered in the "prosperous era" of ancient costumes.
With magnificent imagination, exquisite costumes and the surreal code of conduct of the protagonist of the story, costume dramas will always be paid for and loved by people. And this year's costume drama market has seen new changes compared with the past. According to incomplete statistics, including short dramas, more than 200 costume dramas have been broadcast this year, including both S-level masterpieces and small and beautiful players, which shows that the current costume drama market has entered the stage where the theme and volume are blooming.
Let's take the genre as the coordinates and sort out the overall development of this year's costume dramas.
The ancient puppet shot, who competed with it
It must be admitted that the theme of costume dramas is blooming this year, but ancient puppets are still the strongest in the market, and several S-level masterpieces are basically ancient puppet dramas. Of course, it is also because the audience will always have a strong demand for ancient puppet dramas.
As mentioned earlier, the market for costume dramas this year was ignited by the fire of "Long Moon Embers", which is an out-and-out ancient puppet drama. In the summer file, many ancient puppets such as "Sauvignon Blanc", "Jade Bone Yao" and "An Le Biography" were released in succession, making the ancient puppet market hot again.
And the most noteworthy is "Sauvignon Blanc", after all, the veteran company Jiaxing knows if there is one, and Yang Zi has once again proved his ability to carry dramas. In fact, if you take a closer look at the script itself, it is not difficult to find that "Sauvignon Blanc" is a typical female frequency Mary Sue setting, and the configuration of 1 female + 4 male can easily cause ** melee and even backlash against the actors.
On the one hand, it is related to Yang Zi's good popularity and excellent acting skills, and on the other hand, it is also inseparable from the platform to preset the audience's reaction in advance, and developed the corresponding gameplay to help the audience release their emotions.
And in this year's ancient puppet drama melee, Deep Entertainment (ID: shenduwenyu) paid special attention to the performance of several companies, such as stellar gravity. Last year, a "Canglan Jue" helped Yu Shuxin and Wang Hedi to become the hottest flowers and students.
This year's "Seven O'clock Auspicious" produced by Stellar Gravity has opened a new map of the Oriental Fantasy World - Caiyun Mythical Paradise. After the broadcast, it was broadcast at home and abroad, successfully realized the cultural going overseas, topped the ** rankings in many countries and regions, and the number of overseas social media-related topics soon exceeded 100 million, and was recommended by the English version of the Global Times. Under this craze, iQIYI held an overseas meeting, and the scene was very hot.
Judging from next year's project reserves, Stellar Gravity holds the TV series "Fox Demon Little Red Lady Moon Red Chapter", "Fox Demon Little Red Lady Bamboo Industry Chapter" and "Fox Demon Little Red Lady Kingship Chapter" adapted from the top Chinese comic IP "Fox Demon Little Red Lady", and the cast is extremely luxurious, inviting Yang Mi and Liu Shishi to join the two 85 flowers, and a large number of fans have already invested in the series before it has even started broadcasting, and the performance of Stellar Gravity next year is very exciting.
In addition to stellar gravity, Deep Entertainment also pays attention to entertainment film and television.
There are not many ancient puppets in Huanyu this year, but Bailu, an artist under Huanyu, can afford the title of "Queen of Ancient Puppets". Looking at this year's ancient puppet drama market, the years go by all year round, and there are dramas starring Bai Lu broadcast every quarter.
Ancient puppet dramas actually rely more on the actor's ability to carry the drama, and one of the actresses with the strongest ability to carry the drama on the market is, of course, 90 flowers Yang Zi. But as Yang Zi intends to broaden her drama path in recent years, she doesn't have many ancient puppet dramas every year, on average, one in 1-2 years, and benefiting from the decision to enter the group uninterruptedly, Bailu has gradually grown into another ancient puppet actress with the ability to carry dramas by relying on the beating of one drama after another.
"Long Moon Embers" in the first half of the year, "Tranquility Like a Dream" in the second half of the year, the best results of these two dramas are very good, and from the perspective of character types, Li Susu and Jiang Xuening are completely different, which also shows that Bailu has indeed formed a set of interpretation methods that can attract the audience in the creation of ancient puppet female roles.
Xixi Films, which has always been good at ancient puppets, has made great efforts to focus on realistic themes this year, but the recent broadcast of "Shen Yin" still made Xixi join this year's ancient puppet melee on the tail. This drama is on the air, and judging from the audience's feedback, the quality is still the same.
Martial arts reappear in the rivers and lakes, and the suspense masterpieces are dazzling
Once in the costume drama market, martial arts dramas were the absolute kings. But with the end of the classical martial arts era, the masters passed away one after another, and the category of martial arts dramas gradually declined, and even disappeared from the market for a time.
Last year's Xinli's "Sword in the Snow" actually made people see the signs of the recovery of the martial arts category, and the broadcast of "Lotus Tower" this year can be regarded as a completely arousing people's martial arts plot.
This drama is based on the writer Teng Ping's "Lotus Building: Auspicious Pattern" series, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is an old IP, because it was originally ** around 2003, a full 20 years ago. But perhaps it is precisely this that makes the audience feel that it has a sense of "martial arts fundamentals".
There is also "Cloud Feather", which completely subverts the image of Yu Shuxin's sweet sister, which is also a martial arts drama that has aroused heated discussions in the market this year. The confrontation between the famous Jianghu family "Gongmen" and the killer organization "Wufeng" is very reminiscent of the "new martial arts" narrative style dominated by post-80s authors. The content of the story is exquisite, the relationship between the characters is complex, and the intrigue of the rivers and lakes and the love of children are integrated into one furnace. And the mysteries are one ring after another, pulling the audience like a hook to deeply participate in this dispute.
"Yi Nian Guan Mountain", which recently ushered in the finale, integrates multiple elements of rivers and lakes, highways, and courts, breaks the constraints of traditional costume dramas from a unique and innovative perspective, and shows a wonderful world of costume legends and group portrait works.
At the same time, "Yi Nian Guan Mountain" also allows us to see a wonderful group portrait work, each of whom is vivid, three-dimensional, and has its own unique charm, connecting with the resonance with the audience. In addition, the service that changes with the development of the plot, character characteristics and growth, and psychological changes also adds points to the play. For example, in the scene of Yu Thirteen's "Peacock Opening Screen", he was dressed in a feather jacket and wore a feather hairpin to show a charming side, and there are many more pictures with such details.
As surprising as the drama is that the producer behind the show is Ningmeng Film and Television, which is known for its reputation for realistic themes. The phenomenal "Yi Nian Guan Mountain" once again released a certain signal to the market, and the ability and confidence behind its full-track quality works.
Maybe that's the case, so compared with other costume dramas that focus on romantic imagination, "Yi Nian Guan Mountain" has more realistic temperament, such as the topic of "the male and female protagonists are really like hard workers" that the audience is hotly discussed.
This year's suspenseful costumes mostly appear in the image of "small but beautiful". Compared with ancient puppets and martial arts, which already have a large market audience, suspense is indeed relatively niche, so suspense costumes mainly focus on the plot, and this approach has indeed received good market feedback.
For example, "Nine Righteous People", this is the first time that Shanwei Film and Television has undertaken a customized drama on the platform, and the final result is indeed surprising to the audience.
This drama tells the story of the girl Lin Rulan who sued Wu Lian, the owner of the embroidery building, to no avail, and finally could only prove her innocence by committing suicide, while her friend Meng Wan tried her courage for seven years, and finally cleared her friend's grievances.
In terms of the structure of the series, "Nine Righteous People" adopts the method of "upper and lower run", two episodes as a group, the upper rung is the experience of the girl Lin Rulan seven years ago, and the lower rung is Meng Wan's revenge seven years later.
This setting forms an intertextual relationship in the play, and the audience is indignant when they see Que Lin Rulan's experience, and then look at the revenge layout of Meng Wan, they will get a stronger sense of coolness.
Another outstanding suspense costume drama is "Under the Prosperous City", which is different from the ingenious structure of "Nine Righteous People", it belongs to a more orthodox suspense costume that connects the relationship between characters in a unit case-solving way. The complexity of the case, the excitement of the process of solving the case, and the relationship between the characters are all the highlights of this drama.
It is worth noting that the producer of this drama is Sanchuan Media, which is their first feature film, and 80% of the main creators are in contact with costume dramas for the first time, but this drama won Douban 8High rating of 6 points. This shows that for this kind of "small but beautiful" genre, the exquisite structure of the drama and the excellent content itself are far more important than the ultra-luxurious actors and production lineup.
The rise of costume light comedy, the next battleground?
Of course, the most concerned industry trend in the long drama market this year is the rise of costume light comedies. What was originally a stopgap measure for some small and medium-sized companies to avoid the edge has now developed into a popular category in the market.
The popularity of costume light comedy is, of course, because it cuts into the audience's demand for "fresh and light-hearted" content, and many new branches can be subdivided into the big basket of costume light comedy.
For example, the highly discussed "Tian Gengji" is the theme of farming + crossing, and "The Legend of Magpie Daomen" is a martial arts + comedy theme, which can undoubtedly expand the audience of costume light comedy, and there are more extensions in the content of the series.
Taking "The Happy Affair of Lan Boudoir", which is produced by Haohan Entertainment and produced by Spring Breeze Pictures, as an example, this drama revolves around a mother who raises four mothers alone and buys a house in Jianglin under huge financial pressure, hoping that her daughters can marry into a "door (non) when (rich) household (i.e., right) (expensive)" The four daughters have different personalities, life pursuits and attitudes towards marriage are also inconsistent, and finally the four daughters and their mothers have made their own choices for the desired life.
Under this big theme, "The Happy Affair of the Lan Boudoir" actually discusses a lot of issues related to the present, such as the problem of gender relations, the problem of older unmarried women, as well as family problems and parent-child issues.
In the absence of the blessing of traffic actors, this drama can become a dark horse in the film and television drama market this year, which is not unrelated to the content topic setting. Although the story takes place in ancient times, the difficulties encountered by the characters in the play are empathetic to the audience, so the audience will empathize with the characters, and are willing to discuss and continue to follow the drama.
And many costume light comedies are based on a family or a big family as the main portrayal object, "Tian Gengji" and "The Happy Affair of the Lan Boudoir" are all like this, in addition to the above, the advantage of this can include more issues related to the present, and it can also put the elements that the audience is interested in, such as food in the play, some viewers said that their favorite is to watch this kind of light comedy, where a large family cooks and eats together.
In view of the excellent performance of costume light comedy this year, Deepin Entertainment believes that more companies will enter this theme next year, and I believe that with the increase in entrants, the content of costume light comedy will become richer and better-looking.
Another subject worth talking about is rebirth.
There are not many rebirth dramas with names in the market this year, and there is a highly discussed "Come for the Dark Fragrance". This drama adopts the classic narrative of the rebirth of the evil girl, although the audience knows that her ending is doomed, but they still want to see how the heroine changes her life in the case of starting again.
The theme of rebirth meets people's needs to take regret medicine and do it again, but it must also be admitted that the theme of rebirth has certain restrictions, so the drama party can only avoid it through "dreaming" and "game experience", which causes the protagonist in the traditional rebirth text to do it again, and everything that happens in the rebirth drama is likely to be a dream, and the final finale of "For the Dark Fragrance" is set, perhaps because the heroine's rebirth is just a dream, so some viewers regret it slightly.
"Tranquility Like a Dream" is also a "rebirth drama" worth talking about, the heroine Jiang Xuening was originally an evil girl, and after being reborn, she is no longer obsessed with power and the queen's position. Jiang Xuening, who looks at the world from a different angle, has gained more warmth with her kindness and redemption, and "Tranquility Like a Dream" has jumped out of the traditional palace dispute, and the pattern is even bigger.
In addition to the love line, the portrayal of the friendship line and family line of "Ning An Like a Dream" is also very moving, and various CP lines in the play are on the hot search in turn, and each CP combination has its highlight moments. This makes the long-tail effect of the series very good, and the audience still remembers it after the broadcast, and even takes out the clips in the play to study it again and again to find sugar.
Judging from the reserves of each family, next year's drama market is still exciting, and although several dramas have not yet been broadcast, just looking at the lineup makes people look forward to it. For example, Xinli's "Walking with the Phoenix", Stellar Gravity's "Fox Demon Little Red Lady Moon Red Chapter", "Fox Demon Little Red Lady Bamboo Industry Chapter", "Fox Demon Little Red Lady Kingship Chapter" and so on. I hope that next year's reserve dramas will be able to meet the audience smoothly, and I also hope that new themes such as costume light comedy will appear in the market next year.
We have reason to believe that the 2024 costume drama market will be exciting.