Perhaps what Zhang Han didn’t expect was that the TV series “Gentlemen of the East Eighth District”, which he had polished for many years, became popular in this way: overwhelming negative reviews and criticisms, and the voices of “removing” one after another.
As the screenwriter, producer and producer of “Mr. in the East Eighth District”, Zhang Han has repeatedly revealed the hard work of making this drama in programs and interviews. However, the “miserable” marketing finally made this drama the number one bad drama of the year, and the current Douban score is only 2.2 points.
Where is the problem in “Gentlemen of the East Eighth District”? In an interview with a Red Star News reporter, a number of industry insiders said that “Mr. from the East Eighth District” almost collected the problems and faults of all domestic dramas: separated from ordinary audiences, high-level elite characters; collection of all vulgar plot stalks, plot promotion All by coincidence; lack of a clear main line, too many waste dramas…
The problems exposed by this drama are indeed worthy of the creators’ vigilance, what kind of film and television drama the audience needs.
Deliberately created sense of elite, three feet off the ground
As a rare male group play in recent years, “Gentlemen in the East Eighth District” expressed in its external publicity that it wants to present the work, emotion, friendship and dilemmas faced by contemporary urban older men. Since “Ode to Joy” opened the curtain of “her culture” women’s group dramas, female group dramas such as “Thirty Only” and “Twenty Not Confused” have emerged in recent years, but there are really not many dramas showing male groups.
But judging from the actual broadcast effect, “Gentlemen in the East Eighth District” does not really focus on the so-called male dilemma, let alone dig deep into the inner contradictions and conflicts of the characters. Several protagonists, no matter their occupations, character settings, and the stories surrounding them, are full of a sense of suspension that is “three feet off the ground”.
This kind of “suspension” is presented in an extremely “figurative” way from the very beginning: at the classmate’s wedding scene, Tong Yu, played by Zhang Han, got off the helicopter with his friends, and the bridesmaids at the scene It is a group of foreigners of different skin colors. It’s not to say that such a scene is completely impossible, but after all, the distance from the audience in front of the TV is too far, especially when it is presented in a very dramatic way to highlight the so-called “boss” identity of the male protagonist. It seems extraordinarily exaggerated, grasping horses and pretentious.
And even the shaping of the elite seems very perfunctory.
Tong Yu, played by Zhang Han, is an artificial intelligence engineer who is responsible for the development of intelligent driving technology. How is such a high-level scientific research technology presented in the play? There is no “996”, no countless experiments. Tong Yu’s staying up late and working hard is to make gestures against a wall with colored sticky notes, or eat instant noodles in a taxi. More often, he can discuss office gossip, or drink, play ball, drive a racing car, and follow his boss to play. And with such gestures, he actually won the respect of many (played by Wang Xiaochen) who opposed the project at the beginning.
There is no solid and true representation of the professional characteristics of an artificial intelligence engineer in the play, but his career is scribbled as a background. “Then why show his career?” In the opinion of film critic A Xing, domestic dramas There are too many such elites, whose occupations are nothing more than lawyers, investors, presidents of a certain group, etc. They must appear in suits, big sunglasses and luxury cars. They live in either villas or large flats. If you keep a distance, you can’t reflect the force of the characters, and you can’t create a sense of fantasy.
However, you must know that the Koreans next door, who are known for being good at dreaming, have turned their cameras to ordinary white-collar workers who live on the edge of the metropolitan area who commute to get off work every day, and newcomers to law firms who are patients with autism spectrum disorders…
The drama of the routine is a coincidence, and the audience is tired of watching it
The success of a film and television drama is inseparable from the fullness of the characters, the story of the beginning and the end, and a reasonable rhythm.
“The Gentlemen of East Eighth District” is a clear failure in terms of characterization. More importantly, this drama lacks a clear main line, and there are too many waste dramas. The whole drama, east and west, basically has no plot to push the drama forward, and there is no urge to attract people to watch it. The 30-episode plot, over and over again, is Tongyu and many stalking, quarrels, misunderstandings, apologies after acquaintance… The only effect of these plots is to repeatedly show many love and murder with Tongyu.
In addition to the long-winded plot, the plot of this drama is also very special, and almost all the stalks of the vulgar plot are collected. Many of the acquaintances with Tong Yu are actually Tong Yu who lost his room card after being drunk, went to the wrong room, and slept in the wrong bed. The door can be opened mainly because many times when the door is closed, a badge just falls out of the pocket and just jams the door. Coincidentally, not long after, many airborne became the leaders of Tongyu.
Not to mention, the hug after a fall in a dispute, there is! Lost and almost hit by a car hug, yes! There is a kiss that slips down!
It is true that film and television dramas need dramatic conflicts, but when these routine coincidences appear again and again, does it mean that our creators are too lazy, does it mean that the plots of past film and television dramas are overlaid and finished?
Not to mention, the so-called chicken soup in the play is full of falsehoods: cold iron on rainy nights, I find my success in this madness every night, breaking through the bottleneck at the age of 30 and improving again is to break self-confidence and selfishness… “Really Painful literature that neither Aunt Qiong Yao nor Guo Jingming can write.” said Xiaofeng, an audience member.
Treat greasy as fun, and lower the limit for grandstanding
“Gentlemen from the East Eighth District” now has a score of only 2.2 points on Douban, which is almost the lowest score for a domestic drama in recent years. Judging from the criticism of netizens, many voices believe that there is a great problem with the values of this show. There are many vulgar lines and behaviors in the play, which seem to be suspected of objectifying and degrading women. Some netizens criticized that this drama showed the evil taste of grandstanding to the extreme.
For example, at the wedding at the beginning of the series, the exchange of childish words and bridesmaids makes people see a narcissistic macho man. The two bet to look at each other’s eyes, whoever dodges first will lose. Tong Yu’s slight smile was very charming, and the foreign beauties instantly fell, and took the initiative to send the room card. When he punished himself for a drink, he grabbed the wine glass and said “this is what a man should do”.
Tong Yu’s friend, Xiang Xiaofei, played by Jing Chao, said to the girls that “sailors will conquer the world‘s docks”, which seems to be an excuse for the “Sea King”. The same is Xiang Xiaofei, as the manager of a luxury store, he has to drink with female customers almost every night, and his explanation is “Business Bureau”, the reason is “searching for success”.
Li Jason helped a strange girl catch a thief. The girl thanked him for inviting him to drink coffee. What he thought was that if he invited me to drink coffee, he must have fallen in love with me.
The screenwriting team doesn’t seem to care about the feelings of female audiences for a second. In the workplace, female bosses with strong working ability must be “superior by appearance”; the regular customers of rich women in luxury stores are buying bags and partying; unfamiliar men Appearing on his bed, the first time he didn’t call the police, he was a nympho…
Not long ago, #zhanghan’s hand# was on Weibo’s hot search. The reason is that Zhang Han’s hand is suspected to be on many of Wang Xiaochen’s chests when Tong Yu, played by Zhang Han, hugs a lot. Before that, when Tong Yu held the fall a lot, the camera showed that Zhang Han’s hand grabbed Wang Xiaochen’s underwear very abruptly.
The suspected disrespect for women sparked by these episodes hit a sore point in the audience. A film critic said that some lines and plots in the play vaguely label and materialize urban women, and similar plots are far from the actual group portraits of men, which greatly lowers the lower limit of this film and television work.
The market cannot tolerate the reappearance of works that perfunctory audiences
According to a number of industry insiders, the issues reflected in “Gentlemen of the East Eighth District” have aroused discussions in the industry, and many creators are checking themselves on how to avoid these characters and stories that are three feet off the ground. More importantly, when writing a script, you must go deep into your life and collude with the present. Don’t be “high above” and don’t make up.
“This drama is obviously a kind of vigilance to the creator, and the suspended and untrue story cannot deceive the audience’s eyes.” The film critic A Xing believes that,
“Art comes from life, and we have to learn from life.” A director admitted that a good drama must have a solid observation of life. For example, “The World” describes the lives of ordinary people. It was written by Liang Xiaosheng for decades, which condensed the shadows of many characters he observed and his own experiences. Zhao Dongling, the screenwriter of “Police Glory”, spent several years interviewing the police at the grassroots police station before writing the vivid cases and characters. “Many of our screenwriters seem to start writing after reading news reports and hot searches. They don’t have a basic understanding of life. How can they present vivid, real and resonant stories?”
As People’s Daily Online commented, until now, some film and television works that only rely on stars and stereotypes can no longer hide from the sharp eyes of the audience. If the so-called “sincerity work” does not work hard on quality and connotation, it is no wonder that the audience is “picky eater”. “Gentlemen of the East Eighth District” also sounded the alarm for other creators: hundreds of millions of hot searches are to warn producers that the market cannot tolerate the reappearance of works that perfunctory audiences, and as audiences, we don’t buy them.
Red Star News reporter Qiu Junfeng editor Qiu JunfengReturn to Sohu, see more
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