On the evening of January 9, Wong Kar-wai's first TV series "Flowers" came to an end. The high-profile "Bao Ying War" finally ended with Ah Bao played by Hu Ge fulfilling his promise and retiring.
The audience rushed to tell each other to celebrate that "Mr. Bao is not bankrupt". The two leading actors also spoke out on Weibo. Hu Ge quoted A Bao's classic line: "While withering, while blooming." After the excitement, I am still me. Ma Yili said: "In Reiko's world, it doesn't matter if people go to tea and cool, only business as usual." I believe that more work and more reward, will always be vigorous. See you soon! ”
On January 9, the TV series "Flowers" ended. On the day of the broadcast on December 27, 2023, CCTV's eight sets of ratings broke 2, and they continued to dominate the hot search during the broadcast. All are official stills.
As the first hit in 2024, why is "Flowers" successful? What is the significance of its success for the domestic film and television industry? Come and follow Orange Island Junyi.
One. It's horrible! Writers and screenwriters also need to understand ** and capital markets! ”
As soon as "Flowers" ended, there were bursts of exclamations from film and television practitioners in Juzhoujun's circle of friends.
Indeed, in recent years, many domestic TV dramas have suffered from "love syndrome". No matter what costume the hero and heroine are wearing, no matter what industry they are engaged in, they have to fall in love. The content of the workplace is not good, and the love part also uses the modeled "industrial saccharin", which is more and more uninnovative. It's no wonder that "Flowers", which seriously talks about business warfare and the protagonist grasps ** with one hand and foreign trade with the other, will become an instant hit.
In addition to the emotional line, the career line of "Flowers" is even more remarkable, showing the fighting spirit of the Chinese nation through the simple and sincere struggle of ordinary Chinese people represented by A Bao.
"Flowers" has the original work of the same name**, and it has a lot of origin. At the beginning of the first episode of the TV series, Po walked into the "Shanghai Literature" magazine and talked to an old man who wrote a book. This old man is the writer Jin Yucheng himself.
Jin Yucheng's ** won the Mao Dun Literature Award in 2015, and in 2019, it was selected into the "70 Novels of New China 70 Years".
Seeing this, uninformed readers may simply think that the success of the original ** has laid a good foundation for the TV series. In fact, at the beginning of the broadcast, there was a lot of controversy around the adaptation.
* Originally, there were three main men, Ah Bao, Hu Sheng, and Xiao Mao, and the latter two were almost completely abandoned by the TV series, and Ah Bao's climactic business war scenes were also newly written. To put it mildly, it is called "drastic adaptation"; To put it in layman's terms, it's called "fanwork"; To put it more intensely, it is "I would rather take material from the chicken soup text and the third-rate **, the more gorgeous the TV series "Flowers" blooms, the more it highlights the loneliness and embarrassment of the original **".
The so-called "third-rate ** material" by fans of the original book is not necessary. The end of the play is clearly marked: "Part of the content of this play comes from "Shanghai Fu", "Savage Growth", "Red Men and Green Women in *", "Joys and Sorrows in *", and is approved by the author or the publishing house. "These four books are of high quality and enrich the content of the TV series in different ways.
Mu Xin's collection of essays, "Shanghai Fu", provides a variety of anecdotes and customs of Shanghai life. Feng Lun's "Savage Growth" is an important source of his uncle's thoughts, and it is also the theoretical basis for guiding Ah Bao to make money. Ying Jianzhong's "Red Men and Green Women in **" and "Joys and Sorrows in *" provide the foundation for the plot setting of the first three episodes, and they are also the key for Ah Bao to earn the first pot of gold by **.
Taking ** content as an example, Ying Jianzhong has participated in over-the-counter trading since 1986, has written ** chapters since 1991, and published two ** books in 1999 and 2000 in succession6 of the masterpieces. Ying Jianzhong is not only a consultant for the TV series, but also plays a stock critic himself.
Ying Jianzhong, the author of "Red Men and Green Women" and "Joys and Sorrows in *", starred as a stock critic as a witness, reproducing the heat of the 90s of the last century.
Many doubts at the beginning of the broadcast later turned into "real fragrance". Looking back, it is the addition of these adaptations that makes "Flowers" not a simple "Bao falling in love" but a real "Bao always fighting a business war". The adaptation can be successful, in addition to the profound skills of the screenwriter, the understanding and support of the writer himself is also very important - after all, it is Wong Kar-wai who has a "magic reform record" who wants to shoot his own work!
Two. Wong Kar-wai is a famous director in the Hong Kong film industry. A magical man who paid royalties to Jin Yong to shoot "East Evil and West Poison", in addition to the name of the character, made people dream back to Gulong after watching it, of course, this does not hinder the excellent reputation of this film.
The film and television industry believes that movies are bigger than TV dramas, and movie coffee makes TV series called "going down to earth". Wong Kar-wai, a top literary film director, is even more incredible, not to mention that he took the initiative to "move his heart".
In November 2013, only half a year after the publication of "Flowers**", Wong Kar-wai took the initiative to find Jin Yucheng before it was well known in the literary circle of the city. There are many people who ask him for film and television adaptations, but Wong Kar-wai's words hit the nail on the head: "What you wrote is about my brothers and sisters." ”
"Wong Kar-wai spent his childhood on the banks of the Huangpu River before he was 5 years old. The "mortal heart" moved by the great director may be "unforgettable nostalgia".
In this sense, the adaptation of "Flowers" did not abandon the essence of the original work - strong Shanghai style and mellow Shanghai texture. As the Mao Dun Literature Award citation praised: "Seeing the big history in the small history, seeing the big picture of the world in the livelihood and scenery, the urgent pipes and strings, the undercurrent surging, showing the gentle and colorful Jiangnan charm with endless aftersounds, opening up a new path for Chinese literature to express the urban experience." The TV series also presents Shanghai elements from many aspects, not only filming in Shencheng and using a large number of Shanghai actors, but also two versions of Mandarin and Shanghai dialect, driving the fire of a city with the fire of a drama.
Flowers uses a large number of Shanghai actors and celebrities from all walks of life to participate. The picture shows Tang Yan and former international player Fan Zhiyi, the latter's appearance has its own comedic effect, which is particularly intimate.
In this regard, Jin Yucheng understands the director, not only because of the emotional resonance of his hometown, but also because of his respect and trust in professionals, which is the sympathy of two middle-aged men. "Wong Kar-wai is a native of Shanghai and has his own ideas about "Flowers". As the author of "Flowers", I don't want to know too much about the story direction of the TV series. Any director, whether he turns your ** into a movie or a TV series, must have his own opinions. In the creative process, in addition to authorizing the adaptation, Jin Yucheng chatted with the director and screenwriter for tea, chatted about Shanghai in the first ten years of the last century, and provided some inspiration and information.
With the author's trust, Wong Kar-wai's creation is still tricky. He explained to book fans: "There are 31 chapters in the book "Flowers", there is no coherent story, on the surface it is about eating men and women, but inside it is the mountains and rivers and the changes of the times. In the face of such a structure, how to start is simply a myriad of clues. ”
In the end, Wong Kar-wai extracted the title "No Ring" from the original work. * appears more than a thousand times.
In the fifth episode, Ah Bao explained the meaning of "no sound": "To do business, you must learn two words first, don't make a sound, don't say what you shouldn't say, don't say it clearly, don't think about it, don't plan it, embarrass yourself and others, don't make a sound." Wong Kar-wai also gave the word a rich connotation: "'No sound' is 'only say what I can say, what I want to say, and what I can say well'." Text has the advantage of words, and images have the advantage of images. The original work is not sound, we can fill in the blanks and complement each other. ”
"Don't make a sound" is not only the protagonist's trick to deal with people, but also Wong Kar-wai's adaptation code and creative attitude. He said: "As a drama, the most ups and downs and the most representative character should be Po. In the original book, Ah Bao has two, one is Ah Bao, a worker in the sixties, and the other is Mr. Bao in the nineties, who 'has been in the midst of a hundred flowers and does not stick to the leaves'. What makes Bao become the president of Bao is not mentioned in the book. The original work 'doesn't sound', we can fill in the blanks. We don't have the ability to restore the full version of "Flowers", but we can definitely give a Shanghai Po that you can't see in the original book. ”
In the end, the TV series only selected 1993 to 1994 from the timeline of the original book for decades, and recalled 1978, 1987, 1992 and other time nodes in the form of flashbacks.
Three. The direction of adaptation has been set, and the truthfulness inside and outside the set has followed.
Wong Kar-wai has always been nicknamed the "devil director". The "Alliance of Teachables" includes Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Leslie Cheung, Carina Lau, Maggie Cheung, Faye Wong and other star artists. The actor of "Flowers" also has something to say.
The male number one Hu Ge regards Wong Kar-wai as an idol, and the first time the two met in 2017 was to talk about "Flowers". The moment he saw the director's iconic sunglasses, Hu Ge was very nervous. Wong Kar-wai started from Hu Ge's personal experience, and his first consideration was to let him play Bao. He asked to play Ah Bao to perform "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" Li Xiaoyao, which is Hu Ge's famous work. Wong Kar-wai believes that there are many young people like Po, they want to seize the opportunity in the tide of the times and change their fate and life through their own efforts, but after experiencing ups and downs, they will find that the most important thing is love and righteousness. Hearing the director's thoughts, Hu Ge was under a lot of pressure, and he didn't sleep well for two days after he went back.
Before officially joining the group, Hu Ge went through a long period of preparation, and had to learn all kinds of materials, many of which were precious from the Shanghai Audio-visual Archive. After joining the group, you must arrive in advance to brew the atmosphere before each shooting. In short, it focuses on an "immersive" acting. Wong Kar-wai's training of actors has benefited Hu Ge a lot, and he quipped: "This is not a crew, this is Fanhua Film Academy." "By the end of the shoot, people were under a lot of pressure and were often in a state of collapse. Every time Hu Ge saw the energetic and meticulous Wong Kar-wai, he was full of strength.
How big and small is everything? Wong Kar-wai has always worked slowly and meticulously in filming, "Flowers" only has 30 episodes, but Hu Ge has spent 3 years of his birthday in the crew, and he will find actors to make up the filming after the finale.
The experience of the old drama bone Dong Yong is more interesting. The first news he received was that he played the small role of Fan Zong, the knitting factory, and signed a 4-month contract. At that time, he still muttered that this scene could be filmed in 4 days no matter how slow it was, and it took 19 months to shoot in the end.
Why is it so slow? In the past, Dong Yong adhered to the self-confidence of the old artist "one pass", but he was beaten to pieces here by Wong Kar-wai. For example, in one of the rivalry scenes with Hu Ge, Dong Yong temporarily added: "Now my heart is like Huang Meitian in Shanghai, wet." Not only did Wong Kar-wai agree, but he also spent three or four hours adjusting the lighting to create a wet feeling. Although it failed in the end, it also illustrates Wong Kar-wai's characteristics - the delicate expression of emotions under the interplay of light and shadow.
Dong Yong, a veteran actor, experienced a long shooting in the crew of "Flowers", which was a rare experience in his career and gained a lot.
In addition to light and shadow, Wong Kar-wai is also a master of playing **. On the evening of the 9th, "How much did Wong Kar-wai spend on songs" occupied a high position in the hot search, and according to industry estimates, the copyright cost of the soundtrack of "Flowers" was as high as 10 million yuan. Wong Kar-wai is good at filling the gaps in emotion, behavior, and atmosphere with **, and there are nearly 60 soundtracks in the play, such as Wang Jie's "Annie", Fei Xiang's "A Fire in Winter", Faye Wong's "Obsessed and Unrepentant", Jacky Cheung's "Stealing the Heart", Zhang Yusheng's "My Future Is Not a Dream", beyond's "Like You", Jiang Yuheng's "Looking Back Again", Chen Baiqiang's "What to Ask for in Life", etc., all of which are popular golden songs in the decade of the last century.
As for the effect, how is it? Writers Chen Minhua and Zhao Yu praised it in unison.
Chen Minhua told Ju Zhoujun: "I like Wong Kar-wai because of "Chongqing Forest" and because of "In the Mood for Love". People who write ** occasionally write an essay, and the difficulty coefficient is significantly reduced, which is called 'dimensionality reduction writing', Wong Kar-wai filming dramas, which has the same effect. Disrupts the structure of time, close-ups of characters with blurred shots and nostalgic colors, and non-essential characters only speak out ...... when they don't appear on cameraIt's hard to have such a narrative in a movie, let alone a TV series? ”
Wong Kar-wai made the TV series out of a cinematic texture.
Chen Minhua's deepest impression was that after Lingzi quarreled with Po, she walked in the rain with an umbrella. The first shot is amorous and bewitching, no different from usual; Screen black 01 second, the second shot gradually saw the inner waves, and the charm disappeared; Re-black 0In 1 second, Reiko under the umbrella was already in tears like rain outside the umbrella - she was determined to throw away "Bao's boss lady" and be herself. Three shots, how much inner storm! When watching the first two episodes, Chen Minhua was afraid, afraid that he would be tired of filming, and that the audience would be tired of watching it, but he didn't expect to become addicted later.
Zhao Yu also praised this breakup scene. "I thought of the feeling when Tang Xiaofu and Fang Hong gradually broke up in the TV series "Siege". The worst part of a relationship is not the happiness of revenge and the slashing of the sword, but the melancholy that can never be explained clearly. "The Siege" filmed this melancholy, and Wong Kar-wai also filmed this feeling. ”
In the era of wind and clouds, the children are more delicate, and the flowers are in full bloom**; It is not easy for all living beings in the years of water, and the truth of the world is fulfilled.
From "not loud" to "enthusiastic response", the success of "Flowers" has the solid foundation laid by the original work and the blank play for the film and television adaptation, the heartfelt love of the main creators, the trust and respect for professionals, and the meticulous craftsmanship of "ten years of sharpening a sword".
Although "Flowers" has come to an end, the audience has new expectations. Zhao Yu said: "For a long time before, I was looking forward to someone remaking "Siege", because the first version only had ten episodes, which was too enjoyable. Now that I've finally found the right director, I feel like Wong Kar-wai is the right one. And Hu Ge can also play Fang Hongjian at this age. ”
It's hard to say whether Zhao Yu's expectations can come true. But "Flowers" should be a good example, putting aside the word-of-mouth controversy of the adaptation, this drama is at least quite serious in terms of production level, so as not to insult the audience's IQ. As long as film and television practitioners have this kind of effort, there will be more and more excellent domestic TV series. (Changsha Evening News reporter Yin Wei, Liu Dan, Li Ying) (Changsha Evening News reporter Peng Peicheng, Liu Dan proofreading: Fu Zhuodi),