As soon as the Spring Festival holiday approaches, two major ** will become popular in the entertainment industry: one is which movie will become the king of the Spring Festival box office, and the other is which drama will become the king of the ratings of the screen and the king of the popularity of the platform.
On the movie side, the competition this year is too fierce, and the suspense will last until the end of the holiday; On the drama side, the competitive situation this year is much clearer. According to the data of Lighthouse Professional Edition, directed by Zheng Xiaolong and Liu Zhangmu, and written by Gao Mantang and Li Zhou, "South to North" was broadcast on CCTV on February 6, and the ratings of Lighthouse Professional Edition broke 3%.
What makes people feel even more that it has the potential to be the king of the year is that the first few episodes of the show are not an operation that throws a breaking point as soon as it comes up, but a steady and steady slow-heating type, growth type, and durable type. The ratings and webcast popularity are likely to be high.
After watching 6 episodes on the iQiyi platform, we will first be shocked by the "big" in "South to North". Zheng Xiaolong and Gao Mantang cooperated, and the shot was a work of big narrative, big era, big group portrait, and big emotion.
Even the original script, in terms of the depth of literature, in the meticulousness of social observation, and in the vivid three-dimensional character creation, it is not inferior to those who won awards. In the process of chasing the drama, there was constant laughter, and the ending song of each episode sounded, and there was a comfortable feeling in my heart that "the light boat has crossed the ten thousand mountains".
At the same time, this play creates an extremely smooth viewing experience through a large number of careful details. Mr. Gao Mantang once shared his creative experience in the master class, and always experienced the plot and lines he wrote from the perspective of the audience while writing, and once he felt that the plot was too smooth or the lines were too flat, he would immediately revise them.
As a result, we see that the small dramas and small dialogues in "South to North" all hide dramatic ups and downs and life improvisation. This winter, many southerners have experienced the charm of Erbin. "South to North" is like "Erbin" on the screen, allowing audiences across the country to quickly integrate into the fireworks of Northeast culture, accompanying the growth of a generation and witnessing the strength of a country.
In China, when people think of the railway system, the first thing that comes to mind is "big".
According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2022, the total number of active railway employees in the country is 204560,000 people, including personnel from different departments and functions such as railway bureaus, railway transport enterprises, train depots, passenger depots, public works depots, locomotive depots, depots, electric depots, and communication depots. If it is radiated to retirees and their families, the total number of "railway people" will be in the tens of millions.
The number of people associated with the railroad as passengers is even greater. According to the data released by the China Railway Group, the railway will send a total of 36 passengers in 2023800 million people. On average, it is equivalent to 26 trains.
Therefore, when Mr. Gao Mantang focused his creation on the railroad people, it took several years to shine brightly. After condensing and condensing a large number of real materials, the super group portrait of the railway depicted in "South to North" is like the sky at night, with stars, planets, meteors, and comets, which together build a grand and brilliant picture.
This play selects Wang Xin (played by Bai Jingting) and Ma Kui (played by Ding Yongdai), the new and old generations of policemen, as the first narrative entry point, and assists the maintenance team Niu Dali (played by Liu Guanlin), the crew Cai Xiaonian (played by Song Jiateng), the train broadcaster Yao Yuling (played by Jiang Yan) and other characters of the same age as Wang Xin, and then they draw out many family members in the compound and weave a group portrait of the small people in the big system.
Although Chinese take the train a lot, they always feel that the railway system is a "closed" system. In addition to the crew that can be seen when riding the train, the work, life, and psychological state of other railway people are still a certain distance from ordinary audiences. This highlights the importance of the entry point.
"South to North" chose the police to cut in, which can be said to bring the whole drama to life at once. Because police officers often have to deal with all kinds of passengers, and they have to face various tricky situations ranging from large cases to small disputes.
Although most of the audience had never dealt with the police, Wang Xin and Ma Kui quickly became the eyes and ears of the audience, leading the audience well, observing those who came and went from north to south, and listening to those who lived with the railway. They open up the space for the audience's reverie, which also opens up the space for the watchability of the series.
Ma Kui and Wang Xin have a master-apprentice relationship, so there is a strong linearity of growth in character building; At the same time, Wang Xin lives in the railway compound, so he shows the effect of bringing points to areas in character building.
In the first few episodes, the family members in the compound often appear in group scenes. For example, the female family members waited for the man to come back while washing clothes, and easily raised their awareness of "family planning". Another example is that the whole hospital gathered together for a meeting and very solemnly discussed the old Wu family's "** of a few chickens" and so on.
This kind of small-scale group drama quickly created a fiery atmosphere. On the one hand, this fiery atmosphere comes from the fireworks in the lives of Northeast people, and on the other hand, it comes from the familiarity that everyone belongs to the railway system.
Many of the idle lines chattering between the characters in the play will look very "idle" if they are taken out alone. However, it is this "leisurely" texture that brings out the rhythm of life in the Northeast region. Zheng Xiaolong and Gao Mantang, the two masters, joined forces to shoot the weightlift, the shooting was easy, and the shooting was silent.
Words like "The newly repaired spring can't pierce the buttocks", "What kind of personal relationship can we have", "That's really a thief's words", which restores the innate humor genes of Northeast people and enhances the intimacy of the characters. It only takes three or four episodes to get the audience used to their unique style of "can't let the snort fall to the ground".
This drama starts from the era of steam locomotives in 1978, and will develop into the era of diesel locomotives and bullet train high-speed rail, which means that the creation of a sense of the times determines the credibility of the series.
It can be seen that the main creator has great respect for the times and history. The depth of art and modeling has restored the aesthetic system of more than 40 years ago and laid the foundation. On top of this, the series does not rely on calendars, slogans, historical events, pop songs and other elements to make special reminders of the times, but integrates the information of the times into the actions and lines of the characters.
The big era is more like a legal constraint in this play, managing the character's thinking, words and deeds. For example, the railway began to promote the new "in all directions" equipment. If the characters are just dressed up in the play, it is a simple reminder of the times.
In this play, after the characters change their costumes, a small story is introduced - Yao Yuling, who loves beauty, privately changed the waist of the new ** to be thinner. In modern parlance, it is to change the loose style to a slim fit. This small act then led to a series of events, and the logic of these things is because of the special rules of the times - cloth stamps are needed to buy cloth, and if the cloth stamps are not enough, they have to borrow or exchange food stamps.
This series of scenes with cloth tickets as the core brought out the relationship between Wang Xin, Yao Yuling, Niu Dali, and Ma Yan (played by Jin Chen) at the counter of the state-run store station. This set of character relationships is a very important part of the long-term narrative that is about to run through several major eras.
This play also has a great feature in the narrative structure, although it can be divided into two physical spaces, "on the car" and "under the car", but there is no sense of separation between the two. The stories on the bus have the color of a unit drama, and the stories of the passengers or the cases encountered by Wang Xin will form a narrative closed loop.
For example, Trump's bag loss man played by Wang Xun, and the old blind man played by Ni Dahong as a fare evasion "habitual offender" are all characters in the story line of the car, and for example, the theft gang played by Wang Xiaoli and others who divide labor and work, and the table loser played by Bao Bell, are related to independent cases that promote the inheritance of the experience of Wang Xin and Ma Kui in the new and old generations of police.
Comparatively speaking, the story under the car usually revolves around the characters in the compound for a longer time. For example, Niu Dali carelessly turned the small mistake of stealing chickens into a close attention of the entire compound
Looking back, we will find that the "Egg King Case" has actually begun to be foreshadowed as early as the second episode. At that time, Wang Xin found that the "egg king" climbed onto the dining table of his house, and he had a-for-tat fight with the old Wu daughter-in-law who loved chickens like his life.
In the third episode, when Niu Dali invited Yao Yuling and Wang Xin to eat pheasants, the audience followed the line that Niu Dali liked Yao Yuling, and it was difficult to realize that this pheasant might be the "egg king". So when it was learned that the "Egg King" was missing, this paved story line staged a "reasonable" reversal.
This is not over, Mr. Gao Mantang used skillful techniques to push the reversed drama conflict to another level. The chickens that Niu Dali and the three of them pooled together to return were plague chickens, and all the chickens in the old Wu family were killed. That's a bit of an "unexpected" thing.
When the compound held a meeting**", everyone's different thoughts, and Wang Xin's embarrassment when he was assigned to investigate the truth, made people laugh.
The main line of "South to North" is the development of the times, and the characters in the play are more experiencing the most representative stories in various eras. The story on the car and the story under the car are interspersed and promoted, organically integrated, forming a relaxed rhythm, and also expanding the space for emotional expression and theme.
"South to North" adopts the framework of classic domestic long dramas, and does not rely on various plot hooks to whet the audience's appetite. As a national drama with a wide audience of realistic themes, this drama will definitely not aim for refreshing experiences such as the real murderer, revenge, and task completion.
After 40 years of accumulation, the various beings on the train and the warmth and warmth of the people in the compound will form a metaphor of the "train of the times", thus reflecting the rapid development of the country and the great changes in the lives of people.
The stability of the overall framework is the basic plate for "South to North" to enter the candidate for the king of drama, and the new treatment method sought by the main creator in terms of narrative rhythm and relevance of the times is an amazing plus.
The protagonists of many dramas are "don't know each other if they don't fight", but Wang Xin and Ma Kui in this play first acted in a play "Don't know each other if you fight". The first time the two met on the train, Wang Xin mistook Ma Kui for a fugitive, and a fierce struggle ended with Ma Kui escaping. The two met for the second time, and Wang Xin decisively attacked him unprepared and successfully handcuffed him.
After two fights, the two initially completed the "acquaintance", but the deep-level "acquaintance" was delayed. Especially in the fourth episode, the conflict between the two intensified. The main creator also took the opportunity to put forward the theme of the storyline of the new and old inheritance of this play: the older generation talks about discipline, and the new generation talks about attitude.
Discipline and attitude, in some situations, collide, but after experiencing the run-in, they can be integrated. When to melt? What is the opportunity to melt? It has become a big motivation for the audience to follow the drama.
At present, the growth arc of many characters in the play is still in its infancy, but it can be seen that the main creator will inject more factors of the times, environment, and human nature.
Although the first 6 episodes that have been updated are all in 1978, after the main creator's processing, the past era can also be related to the present.
For example, the prospective couple who almost broke up because they lost their watch as a wedding gift on the train. The way to lose the watch (the bag is cut open) and the use of the watch as a wedding gift are quite distant past, but the quarrel between the two that caused it is very much in the present tense.
At first, the audience watched the excitement of the past, and when they watched it, they found that it was the pain point of the present. The two of them, who were originally like glue, ignited their anger because of a fuse, and in the process of constantly pouring their bitter water, they inadvertently continued to mend knives to each other, and they were almost about to break up unhappily. The drama behind this is really not unfamiliar to the current audience.
Just after the story of this prospective couple came to an end, another long-distance couple-to-be played by Tu Songyan and Wang Yuanke appeared again. Although this story has not yet fully unfolded, the connection with today's young people is obvious.
At present, the plots of "South to North" are all in the era of steam locomotives in 1978, and the audience has established familiarity with the characters, immersion in the life circle of the characters, and a willingness to accompany the growth of the characters. Gao Mantang went deep into the railway system to draw materials, and Zheng Xiaolong presented them meticulously and smartly, so that the audience was not only shocked by the "big" in the play, but also amazed by the "small" in the play.
The follow-up plot will advance to the era of diesel locomotives and bullet train high-speed rail, and the railway system will usher in great changes, and the quantitative changes in the drama experience will inevitably accumulate and cause qualitative changes at some nodes. "South to North", which drives high and walks high, will become the perfect companion for TV viewers during the Spring Festival holiday.
Wen Manchu hoarding].