Since the establishment of the project in 2016, Wong Kar-wai's first TV series "Flowers" has received widespread attention. As a great director in the Chinese film industry, Wong Kar-wai's works have always been known for their unique aesthetic style, and both inside and outside the industry are full of expectations for his first attempt at TV drama creation.
However,With the official launch of "Flowers" in January 2023, the word-of-mouth of the series has been significantly polarized. On the one hand, the ratings data on the platform and satellite TV performed well, the premiere opened 2The high ratings of 2 show that the audience highly recognizes the combination of "Wong Kar-wai + celebrities".
On the other hand, many viewers have raised objections to its screenwriting, rhythm, style, etc., believing that Wong Kar-wai's film aesthetics are difficult to successfully transplant into TV dramas. So, let's take a look at the highlights and pain points since the launch of "Flowers", and try to analyze the challenges faced by Wong Kar-wai in the creation of this TV series.
There are many celebrities and celebrities, and the production team is strong. From casting to shooting, "Flowers" can be said to have gathered a group of top talents in the Chinese film and television industry. In addition to the aforementioned Wong Kar-wai as the director, Ma Yili is the executive producer, and the two can be described as the "gold medal combination" in the film industry. In terms of actors, the actor Hu Ge can be said to be the first person to be born at the moment, and is known as the "savior of TV dramas";In addition, there are first-line actresses such as Tang Yan and Xin Zhilei to join.
The picture atmosphere is strong and full of visual impact. "Flowers" follows the visual style of Wong Kar-wai's films, with each frame resembling a carefully arranged painting, with a somber and beautiful tone. The color design of the cooperation with the well-known painter Ding Yanyong adds a layer of artistic sense to the picture effect of "Flowers".
The heated discussion is high, and the premiere ratings are eye-catching. On the Internet, "Flowers" has been on the hot search list since its inception, reaching a high level of attention. On the satellite TV platform, its ratings performance is also strong, and the first broadcast opened 2The high ratings of 2 show the comprehensive strength of "traffic + quality".
The pace drags on, and the plot progresses slowly. Many viewers reported that the pace of "Flowers" was too slow, the progress of the main line was not obvious, and too much atmosphere foreshadowing led to a lack of progress in the plot. The "vertical screenwriter" common in Wong Kar-wai's films may not be suitable in TV dramas, and the audience prefers to see a coherent storyline.
* The breath is too heavy, and the background of the era is blurred. The character modeling, props and scenery in the play are biased towards the first-class atmosphere, which is not very consistent with Shanghai in the nineties as the background, which is easy to make the audience feel a sense of time confusion.
The picture is too dark, not enough to be pro-screen. Some viewers reported that the tone of "Flowers" was too dark and not comfortable enough on mobile devices. Avoiding the "sense of separation" of the picture is a problem that TV dramas need to pay attention to.
The story logic is not coherent enough, and the relationship between the characters is ambiguous. The relationship and appearance of many core characters are relatively abrupt, and the story of the first episode is not clear enough, which also affects the audience's expectations for the follow-up plot.
To sum up, we can see thatSince the launch of "Flowers", the word-of-mouth has shown obvious polarization. On the one hand, it has a strong production lineup and visual impact, and has initially achieved ratings data；But on the other hand, there are certain problems in the screenwriting and narrative logic, and there is a bit of a disconnect with the audience's expectations.
In the larger context, this also reflects the challenges faced by film masters like Wong Kar-wai in terms of creative techniques and language transformation when entering the television industry.
We know that movies and TV series have their own characteristics and have different requirements for rhythm control and narrative logic. Cinematic texture and celebrity faces alone don't make a TV series a success, you also need to work the characters and plot.
Therefore, the word-of-mouth twists and turns of "Flowers" are also expected to a certain extent. For Wong Kar-wai, this is more like an attempt and transformation, and he needs to slowly adjust in practice to find the know-how of TV drama creation. We look forward to the follow-up improvement of "Flowers", and we also hope that director Wong Kar-wai can accumulate experience from this attempt and gradually grasp the creative rules of TV dramas.
As long as Director Wang maintains an open and positive attitude towards learning and continues to learn from all parties, I believe he will be able to create a unique style of work in the TV industry.
After all, the transfer of excellent filmmakers to the creation of TV dramas will be a great benefit to promote the improvement of the quality of domestic TV dramas. We will also continue to pay attention to Wong Kar-wai's creative path, and look forward to more exciting attempts in the field of TV dramas!