It is most appropriate to use "high and low go" to describe the domestic drama market in 2023.
In the first half of the year, domestic dramas were released one after another, such as "Hurricane", "The Long Season", "Three-Body Problem" and so on. Crime-fighting, suspense, science fiction and other themes have their own masterpieces.
But in the second half of the year, the long-awaited plot of "Camp with Love" and "Welcome to McNuggets Village" is either too outrageous or extremely boring. However, dramas with a good reputation like "Chasing the Light" and "Glory of the Fathers" cannot reach the popularity of blockbusters.
In such an environment, CCTV, the "king of word-of-mouth" of domestic dramas, will throw out another blockbuster in the last month of 2023.
"Minglong Boy" debuted as the finale, telling the story of a gold medal teacher leading a group of troubled teenagers to achieve a counterattack in the college entrance examination.
This drama has just been broadcast, and it has already ranked first in the ratings of the same period in the country. Although popular, the comment section is full of negative reviews. What the hell happened to the show?
"Minglong Boy" tells the story of Minglong Middle School, in order to teach students according to their aptitude, let English teacher Lei Ming (played by Zhang Ruoyun) and psychology teacher Sang Xia (played by Huang Yao) lead the students of Class 11 who went astray.
The story finally allowed them to regain their original intentions and dreams and prepare for the college entrance examination.
After watching this plot, do you feel familiar?
Yes, this is a remake of the classic Japanese drama "Dragon Sakura".
Domestic dramas have been suffering for a long time, and there are original scripts!But we also have to consider whether the remake can be adapted to our national conditions.
Within a year, he will be admitted to "Qingbei" with a counterattack. The route here should correspond to Tsinghua University and Peking University.
Director, do you think this setting is ridiculous?
Is Qingbei easy to test, or is Director Ding Hei too confident!
And at first glance, the theme of this drama is "teaching students according to their aptitude", under the banner of teachers not giving up on every lagging student.
But in fact, these so-called "poor students" all have good prospects and talent reserves.
There is a rebellious girl who can get a perfect score for the last question of the math paper, but the front questions are all blank.
There is a tech master who has violated discipline many times in school and has spent his whole life in the mobile phone market.
The audience must be difficult to empathize with this group of misguided geniuses counterattacking.
And the director doesn't know enough about real students, the stereotypes are too serious. They either lack love or they lack money.
The parents of these backward high school seniors are the same, they are irresponsible to their children, do not pay attention to the results of the college entrance examination, and adopt a repressive education.
I've seen too much, and it's been a long time since there's anything new.
What's more, this inexplicable hot-blooded atmosphere does not seem to be out of place in Japanese dramas, but after being adapted into domestic dramas, it always feels like an empty slogan with a strong sense of preaching.
Especially when the actor Lei Ming held a mobilization meeting with a megaphone, the audience in front of the screen had a feeling that they wanted to rebuild Minglong Middle School.
It can be said that "Minglong Boy" failed to achieve localization after the remake of the Japanese drama, and the plot is full of many unresolved outrageous settings.
The portrait is not clear and three-dimensional, but very flat. The short 2 episodes can't arouse the audience's empathy.
Not only that, but when I saw the cast of this show, I was also confused in front of the screen.
When did high school students become so mature?
As a youth campus drama, the focus is naturally on the word "youth".
Since it is a high school student's story, at least some young actors should be invited to join the cast. But look at several student representatives in the play, one is more out of the play than the other.
The first is Wang Qiang.
It's not very popular, and it's not too young.
The 27-year-old plays a 17-year-old boy in the play, will he think the audience is a fool?
Despite his shaved head and cap, the vicissitudes of his face are still hard to ignore. Even his eyes don't have the brilliance of a high school student, it's too unconvincing.
Moreover, his performance was also quite lackluster. When he heard Thunder's passionate speech, his expression was neither moved nor sarcastic, just blankly raised his hands and prepared to go to the toilet, his performance was unremarkable.
Another supporting actress is Xu Ruohan.
She is quite good-looking, and she has also acted in some lukewarm idol dramas.
But she's also 25 years old. It is reasonable for her to play a college student at her age. If she has to challenge a high school student, it's a bit of a feeling of forcibly pretending to be tender.
still remembers a scene in the play, Cheng Yushan, played by her, went to a bar to pretend to be mature and wanted to find a boyfriend to take to Shanghai.
But when she exaggerated her age, the audience almost laughed.
After all, it's true. Saying that you are a high school student is a shameless lie!
Of course, the audience is most concerned about the actor Zhang Ruoyun.
To be honest, when I saw his young white head, I had an indescribable sense of dissonance.
Obviously, this face looks quite young, but he prefers to have such a mature hairstyle. If you want to highlight the overworked nature of Lei Ming's character, isn't it more natural to be bald, except for less whiteheads?
If you have to carry the burden of an idol and pretend to be cool, then you will look nondescript.
And Zhang Ruoyun's acting skills are really underestimated. Since "Celebrating More Than Years", I think every part he plays is "Fan Xian".
When Lei Ming stood on the playground and loudly encouraged the students to Xi study hard and prepare for the college entrance examination, whether it was the action of waving his arms or the tone of solemnly reciting lines, there seemed to be no difference from the famous scene of Fan Xian reciting poems.
And after watching too much of his sophisticated acting skills, I always feel unreliable. In comparison, it is not as natural as the heroine Huang Yao.
At least Huang Yao was dressed simply, and his short hair was neatly cared for. As soon as she got there, she immediately felt like a teacher.
In addition, this drama also has Magnolia Best Supporting Actress Liu Dan joining.
It's a pity that her role as a strong principal has not actually broken through, so it is not so eye-catching.
In short, as the saying goes, art is best in life, and it is difficult for film and television works that are not close to reality to arouse the audience's empathy.
Judging by the episodes that aired. The plot of "Singing Dragon Boy" is a bit suspended. They want to emphasize the connection with ordinary people too much, and try to magnify the points that can make people empathize. Instead, they push too hard, causing the plot to be distorted.
However, there are also many advantages to this drama.
For example, a lot of space is used to depict the image of teenagers, and the main line is the story of the student's counterattack, which is eye-catching. The plot of the first few episodes is not procrastinating, but there is anxiety, growth, and friendship, which is very popular with the audience.
At present, only two episodes of "Minglong Boy" have been broadcast, and the follow-up reputation is unknown. Do you think this show is good?