In recent years, a genre that was once loved by the audience in the field of domestic dramas seems to be quietly fading, and that is costume comedy. Thinking about the last popular work "Wulin Gaiden", which has both word-of-mouth and ratings, it has been 18 years ago, and the Douban score is as high as 96 points, its brilliant achievements are beyond the reach of latecomers. After that, although "Dragon Gate Boomerang" also briefly continued to write a chapter of costume comedy 11 years ago, on the whole, such works gradually thinned out and faded out of the public eye.
Until last year, costume comedies were like the warm sun of spring, rejuvenating themselves. Among them, Benshan Media reinvigorated the launch of "The Legend of Magpie Knife Gate" with Douban 8The score of 2 points has once again attracted attention; And Ms. Liu Lin's affectionate interpretation of the image of the eldest lady was full of firepower in "The Happy Affair of the Lan Boudoir", and also won Douban 77 points of recognition. These two masterpieces are both launched by the newly created "bench unit" of the goose factory, which nourishes the hearts of many audiences who are looking forward to the return of costume comedy like a rain after a long drought.
However, the good times did not last long, and after these two masterpieces, costume comedies fell silent again. Even TVB, which is known for producing costume comedies, recently launched the Chinese New Year drama "The King of Kings", which gathered powerful actors such as Wang Haoxin and Chen Haomin, but failed to win the ideal word-of-mouth response.
Just when people are worried about whether costume comedy is just a flash in the pan, the "Bench Unit" has once again made a strong return with the new work "Happy Scroll Changle City", looking forward to continuing and revitalizing the vitality of this unique drama.
Although there are two word-of-mouth masterpieces as the basis, I didn't have high expectations for this new drama "Happy Scroll Changle City" at the beginning. Although there are many familiar faces from the "Love Apartment" series such as Zhuge Dali and Zhao Haitang in the cast, as well as comedy stars such as Da Pan, Gao Xiaopan, Shang Jiuxi, and Hammer Na Lisa, the leading actors are Ma Tianyu and Xiaohua Bu Guanjin, who have rarely set foot in the field of comedy in the past. In addition, the heroine is interpreted in Hubei dialect at the beginning, which inevitably makes people worry about whether this drama can maintain its standard and continue the good reputation of the "bench unit".
However, it turned out that I was once again amazed by the quality of the series. After the first four episodes, the platform scored as high as 91, although it has since dropped slightly to 89, but it is still the same as "The Happy Affair of the Lan Boudoir", showing that the show is not only not a bad drama, but is even expected to become a new dark horse that can compete with "The Happy Affair of the Lan Boudoir" and "The Legend of the Magpie Knife Gate". A group of viewers gave four-star and five-star praise on the rating**, and regarded it as a new "rice drama".
After following the drama to the fourth episode, I found that the success of "Happy Scroll Changle City" mainly lies in three points: rich original jokes, acting skills** and resonant story. How did this seemingly inconspicuous little web drama achieve a counterattack?
First of all, the protagonist is set in a novel setting, abandoning the accumulation of Internet jokes, and winning with original jokes. At present, many comedies are outdated and boring due to their over-reliance on online jokes, but "Happy Scroll Changle City" has taken a different path, following the narrative style of "The Happy Affair of the Lan Boudoir", using the framework of the old story, injecting new humorous elements, and ensuring the freshness of the content.
The plot starts with Xie Quanjia, a peasant girl, mistakenly thinking that she has become the only daughter of the richest man in Chang'an, and as the plot reverses, she is burdened with huge debts overnight. This led to a group of "Chang Piao" characters with different purposes gathered in Li's house, including the male protagonist Shangguan Guchuan who failed to ask for debts but fell into trouble, Fan Zhongju who entered Beijing to take the exam, Liu Lang who repaid the favor of the Tang Gate, the princess and maid of the Western Regions who escaped from marriage, and Guo Dongli, the shopkeeper of the chain inn. The play skillfully uses various plot settings and character interactions to create jokes, such as Li Tiandi pretending to faint to escape debt, and the battle of wits and courage between Fan Zhongju and Li Tiandi, which is hilarious.
In addition, the play is also funny through satire, just like "The Happy Affair of the Lan Boudoir", using the past as a metaphor for the present, and acupuncture the disadvantages of the times. For example, the sharp satire on the phenomenon of school district housing in the play made the audience resonate in laughter. Shangguan Furukawa and Guo Dongli used all kinds of strange tricks to obtain the school district deed are even more unbearable, which is very realistic and ironic.
To sum up, "Happy Scroll Changle City" successfully attracted and captured the audience's attention with its original laughter, vivid acting skills and realistic story background, and vividly interpreted a ridiculous story of Chang Piao making money, thus completing a gorgeous counterattack and becoming a resounding blow in the field of domestic costume comedy at the beginning of 2024.
Among the many costume comedies, once the common "pretending to be a ghost" scene is exposed, it often leads to a new wave of comedy climaxes. "Happy Scroll Changle City" is no exception, it cleverly uses the third funny technique - humor of lines. When the male protagonist Shangguan Furukawa complained to him after being exposed by the heroine, saying that although he had lived a good life since he was a child, he was more like a restrained canary, but he was wittily replied by the heroine with a sentence of "Wang Ba doesn't want to be Wang Ba", which made the audience resonate with him in a sudden way.
The dialogue between Liu Lang and the heroine of Tangmen in the play is a model of nonsense literature, which makes people laugh. For example, when Master Li pretended to be unconscious, everyone asked Liu Lang if he could save people such as acupuncture and cupping, but he replied that he was good at poisonous needles and poisons, a pun on the word, which was full of fun. These unique jokes do not rely on popular online memes, but closely fit the plot to form a coherent laugh line that makes the audience laugh constantly.
Director Wu Yuze directed the play with his idol drama male protagonist-like face, in fact, he has created the role of Lu Qiaochuan in the "Together Through the Window" series, and won a good reputation for directing "He Jiajia's Peach Blossom Spring", this time he switched to the field of costume comedy. An excellent comedy performance should allow actors to engage without knowing it, just like the wonderful performance in "Wulin Gaiden" that year, and the male and female protagonists of "Happy Scroll Changle City" Ma Tianyu and Bu Guanjin successfully did this.
The Shangguan Gongzi played by Ma Tianyu is handsome in appearance but has his own cute characteristics, which subverts the phenomenon that big-name stars are difficult to put down their bodies to act in comedy in the past. He interprets the image of a failed rich second generation with natural and vivid acting skills, and every expression, action and line perfectly fits the character setting, maximizing the comedic effect. Bu Guanjin relied on a Hubei dialect to portray the foreign girl Xie Quanjia as real and unpretentious, sharp and full of complaints, showing a strong sense of character control.
Other supporting roles in the play also performed brilliantly, such as Liu Lang played by Zhang Yiduo who caused laughter with his unique nonsense literature; The sweet image of Jia Yuhuan brought surprises to the audience; Fan Zhongju played by Li Yinwei (Weiwei) is rational and introverted, which is impressive; Fan Ming's reappearance of the "Pit Dad" episode as Xing Zhutou, and Da Pan's interpretation of the head of the Tang Sect defending male dignity, etc., all brought laughter to the audience.
In particular, it is worth mentioning that Guo Dongli played by Zong Juntao, many viewers may not recognize this drama actor directed by Lai Shengchuan, but his superb acting skills in this drama undoubtedly show his profound acting skills, and he vividly interprets a chain inn manager who is bent on seeking wealth, which makes the audience want to laugh and have a strong empathy at the same time.
The third highlight of "Happy Scroll Changle City" is that the plot is down-to-earth and resonant. The story revolves around a group of young people wandering in Changle City, telling about their daily life trivia, which is both interesting and not overly exaggerated. All characters, regardless of their IQ, have their own distinct personality characteristics, and the plot and character settings are full of wisdom, which is by no means brainless.
Good comedy should not only amuse the audience, but also contain deep connotations. Like Zhao Benshan and Zhao Lirong's classic sketches, "Happy Scroll Changle City" is not only relaxed and humorous, but also imperceptibly conveys values. For example, through the story of the heroine Xie Quanjia and her mother, the modern concept of women's independence is conveyed, giving the characters a chivalrous atmosphere, and also reflecting the laughter and tears of modern young people in the process of growing up.
Although there is still room for improvement in the drama concentration, the brightness of some jokes, and the use of dialects, this is a low-cost costume comedy created with heart, which can comforting the audience with tired life just right, like a hot pot in the cold winter, which makes people's spirits relax and massage. As the saying goes, whether the comedy is attentive or not, the audience knows at a glance, and being able to sincerely bring joy to the audience is the right way to open the comedy.