Wong Kar-wai, who has directed masterpieces in the Chinese film industry such as "East Evil and West Poison" and "The Grandmaster", enjoys a high reputation at home and abroad and has an excellent market reputation.
This time he stepped into the domestic TV drama circle, although it was his first attempt at domestic dramas, his prestige was there, and people's expectations for him could not be ignored.
However, on the other hand, there are constantly cases of people in the film industry getting involved in the TV drama industry but ending in failure, which also makes people feel a little worried.
In recent years, veterans in the film industry, including Zhang Ziyi and Feng Xiaogang, have tried TV dramas, but they came with full expectations, but they received quite mediocre responses in the market.
Considering the failures of the film industry, and the fact that Wong Kar-wai's film work has always been known for its obscurity, it is obviously unknown whether he will be able to create works that are easy to understand when he moves to the TV drama scene for a wider audience.
However, after the official broadcast, Qingshi watched the 6 episodes of "Flowers" in one go, eliminating all the above concerns.
In addition to the increasingly fascinating plot, Wong Kar-wai's unique film aesthetics are displayed in the domestic TV drama circle, giving people a sensational feeling.
The quality of the show's word-of-mouth is also directly reflected in the ratings.
In the good ratings environment of "breaking 1 on average", "Flowers" has directly raised the standard in the industry.
Since its launch, the real-time ratings of each episode of the show have exceeded 2, and the performance is quite strong.
Undisputedly, Wong Kar-wai's "Flowers" has become one of the most high-profile plays in recent times.
The attraction of this "Flowers" lies in its prestige.
Whether it is the script or the crew, it is full of the names and contributions of various well-known people.
The story script of the play is derived from the ** "Flowers" created by writer Jin Yucheng in 2012. This one, which is based on various life stories in Shanghai over the past few decades, not only won the Mao Dun Literature Award, but was also included in the list of "70 Classics in the 70 Years of the Republic". In the literary and artistic circles, this ** is even more praised. Critic Li Jingze compared "Flowers" to "Dream of the Red Chamber", believing that this work truly captures the essence of "Dream of the Red Chamber" and is a kind of inheritance of "Dream of the Red Chamber". Director Wong Kar-wai is even more fond of this **, praising it as the Shanghai version of "The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival", and becoming the earliest group of book lovers of the **.
The original work focuses on the living conditions of Shanghainese in the sixties and seventies of the last century. From the perspective of three Shanghai children from different backgrounds, Bao, Husheng and Xiaomao, the story revolves around their respective life experiences, outlining a picture of Shanghai society composed of hundreds of characters. Through the twists and turns of the characters' lives and disillusionments across time, the story allows the author to deeply touch on the understanding of the various states of life.
In the selection of the lineup for film and television adaptations, director Wong Kar-wai takes patience as the main theme. He first invited former partners such as Bao Dexi and Chen Xunqi, and tried to reach the level of blockbusters in the behind-the-scenes team. In addition, he also carefully selected the leading actors based on the standard of "being able to speak Shanghainese fluently", which made the entire production team more attentive. Since acquiring the rights to the film and television adaptation of the work in 2014, Wong Kar-wai has maintained extremely high expectations for the show and has devoted a full decade of effort throughout the production process.
After many screenings, Shanghai actors such as Hu Ge and Ma Yili were finally finalized as the leading actors, while senior actors such as You Benchang were not strictly Shanghai actors in terms of geography, but they were also born in the Wu language region.
In other preparations, Wong Kar-wai has invested considerable time. In order to shoot the main scene of the whole drama "Yellow River Road", the crew directly built "a new street" in Songjiang District, Shanghai. In order to make the scene more realistic and more in line with the times, the crew even collected items from the public from old Shanghai, and even Wong Kar-wai, Hu Ge and other main creators personally took out old objects at home to provide support.
The script itself is unique, coupled with ten years of careful polishing, which has also made the outside world place higher expectations on the script.
Having said so much about behind-the-scenes preparations, the next question is, did the first few episodes meet the expectations of Wong Kar-wai?
Qingshi first published the conclusion that judging from the filming of "Flowers", Wong Kar-wai retained the most unique style in it, but at the same time made some concessions.
The first is the most "Wong Kar-wai" aspect - the plot adaptation. That's right, this time he once again made significant revisions and adjustments to the script. Just like he subverted the original book in movies such as "East Evil and West Poison", this time Wong Kar-wai also made a bold rewrite of "Flowers".
The original "Flowers" has three protagonists, revolving around Bao, Husheng and Xiaomao. However, in the drama version, Wong Kar-wai decided to keep only the protagonist Ah Bao played by Hu Ge, and the story lines of the other two male protagonists were directly cut ......
In Bao's story line, Wong Kar-wai also made a lot of adjustments, not only changing the role from a foreign trade businessman to a *** hand, but also "eliminating" Betty, the first love in the original book.
Instead, there are three beautiful women with very different images.
They are Ah Bao's business partner Lingzi (played by Ma Yili), Miss Wang (played by Tang Yan), a white-collar worker in the workplace who is close to Ah Bao, and Li Li (Xin Zhilei), a new strong woman in the workplace on Huanghe Road, and the background of the corresponding characters is also different from the original book.
Under the main structure of the original work of "Flowers", Wong Kar-wai even integrated elements from other works.
According to the official disclosure, the drama version of "Flowers" refers to four works related to Shanghai culture, such as "The Red Man and Green Woman of **" and "Savage Growth".
From this point of view, this is more like a new script recreated on the basis of retaining the core connotation of "Flowers".
I have to praise that Wong Kar-wai has indeed made a clever adaptation in his unique style.
The most different from Wong Kar-wai's previous works is the look and feel of the play;
Those familiar with Wong Kar-wai's past works know that his films are often obscure.
In the case of various jumps and splices of the storyline, it often takes a long time to deeply savor it to understand the main idea.
This method of filming is certainly full of "high-class feeling" in the film industry, but it is indeed easy to feel difficult to understand in TV dramas with a wider audience.
And in this regard, Wong Kar-wai has obviously made some "concessions".
He abandoned the obscure painting style of "point to point" in the past, and this time the plot line is very clear.
After the first four episodes, he only used three scenes to vividly explain the three core issues related to the male protagonist Po.
The first question is,How did the male protagonist start his career?
The story starts with the male protagonist Ah Bao, who has not yet emerged in 1987.
With the dream of starting a business, he visited a famous local senior industry senior in Shanghai, his uncle (played by You Benchang), hoping to get careful guidance from the other party.
At first, he was penniless and received various reproaches from the other party.
However, the clever young man then impressed the old man with an unusually sincere attitude.
In the face of the three major tests proposed by the uncle, "raise 6,000 yuan in a short period of time", "buy ** to cultivate patience", and "stay vigilant after making money", the witty Po gradually moved the uncle and finally won the full support of the other party.
Finding a reliable partner also marked the beginning of his career.
The second question concerns what allies are around Bao?
Although he explained the entrepreneurial process of the male protagonist, director Wong Kar-wai did not depict how he succeeded in getting rich according to the cliché, but pulled the story line back to five years later.
At this time, the male protagonist has become a well-known businessman in Shanghai, and the people on the rivers and lakes are called Mr. Bao.
In the past five years, in addition to forming a deep friendship with his uncle, what other like-minded friends has the male protagonist supported?
In order to solve this mystery, Wong Kar-wai designed a car accident scene as an introduction.
In the plot, Po was hit and injured on the New Year's Day, and ** began to interrogate the people around him.
Around this interrogation, various characters around Po appeared one after another, and their different reactions also revealed their unique personalities and close relationships with Po.
Ah Bao's uncle, who was resourceful behind the scenes, behaved calmly at the moment, and even calmly introduced the identities of other people to the police, completely showing the posture of a **lake who has seen a big scene. Po's business partner, Reiko, showed a confident and calm demeanor. As soon as he came up, he showed a professional smile and a calm and decent style, which was obviously commonplace for all kinds of storms.
In stark contrast to this, Fa Xiao Tao Tao shows an infinitely relaxed attitude. When faced with the police's questioning, he talked endlessly about the mountains as soon as he came up, chatting happily, and almost chatting about all the gossip.
Compared with the above three free and easy images, characters such as Commander Wang and Fat Aunt, who have worked with Po for many years, show a restrained and cautious style. Although they are all partners, it is also clear which people Po chooses as core partners.
As for the third question, does the male protagonist have excellent business means?Similarly, Wong Kar-wai showed Mr. Bao's wrist succinctly and brightly through a scene. In the background of the story, Mr. Bao's business partner Mr. Fan (played by Dong Yong) came to Shanghai to negotiate with a silk weaving order of 800,000 yuan. However, due to the covert interference of many forces, this business is full of uncertainties. Mr. Fan seems to be honest on the surface, but in fact, he tried to raise the bargaining chips of the order by procrastination and pretending to be confused, resulting in no result in the negotiations.
Faced with this situation, in order to show his fame, Mr. Wei (played by Zheng Kai), a Shanghai capitalist, tried to seize Mr. Bao's order business by inviting Mr. Fan to participate in the dinner. Li Li (Xin Zhilei), the female boss of the new restaurant Zhizhenyuan, took over the "trouble" dinner.
In order to open the door of the new store, Li Li deliberately invited the high-profile actor Mr. Bao. Her intention was to raise the profile of her restaurant by associating with Mr. Bao, who was prominent in Shanghai's social circles.
In the face of threats from three directions, Mr. Bao showed superb coping skills. He not only resolutely refused to change the venue of the dinner to Zhizhenyuan, but also deliberately lowered Mr. Fan's order.
This operation successfully guessed Mr. Fan's lack of confidence in handing over the order to the unidentified Mr. Wei, Mr. Fan just wanted to hype it up by mentioning **, but he didn't expect that Mr. Wei would not be able to afford all the orders.
At the same time, Mr. Bao also took the opportunity to take away some customers of Li Li Restaurant, which can be regarded as a means of counterattacking Xiaoxiao. This series of operations has shaped the image of Mr. Bao's resolute and decisive young leader.
Compared with previous film and television works, Wong Kar-wai showed quite clear narrative clues this time, and it seems to be a small compromise for the big names in the film industry to get involved in the field of dramas.
It can be said that Wong Kar-wai has made a new breakthrough and achieved new achievements in this creation.