Why did Meng Hualu lock in the debut position in advance of this year’s strongest ancient puppet competition?
From “Acquaintance with Jun Chu” led by Di Lieba at the beginning of the new year to “Let’s Try the World” starring Yang Yang, and those who are lining up to be broadcast: from “Knowing or Not” author “Xinghan is Splendid”, Yang Zi leading “Agarwood is like crumbs” “, Xiao Zhan starred in “Yugu Yaoyao”… The industry joked that 2022 will be like an “ancient puppet talent contest”. I didn’t expect that “Menghualu”, which was broadcast on Tencent Video last week, will lock its debut as soon as it debuts: Douban The score rose from 8.3 to 8.8 on the day of the opening, which is the highest score for this year’s national drama; 12 episodes in 3 days, 450 million cumulative broadcasts, major social media are flooded with “recording people” discussing episodes, changing the long-term There has only been traffic and fan popularity, but it lacks the ability to break the circle and is out of touch with the real social attention.
Whether it’s the audience’s excitement or the controversy over the plot and characters, what exactly does “Menghualu” ignite the long-lost popularity of the entire market?
with puppet’s shell
installed the current nucleus
Throughout the various discussions on the first 12 episodes of “Meng Hua Lu”, whether Liu Yifei’s appearance, the sense of CP of “Guess Shenghui” or the joy of supporting roles, it can fully stimulate the audience’s sense of participation from all dimensions at once. In the final analysis, the play uses the shell of the ancient puppet to hold the core of the present – the story can be summarized as “the story of the north drifting around three girls with modern consciousness in an ancient background”, using ancient background and narrative methods to express “modern”. “Spirit”, focusing on the personal growth and transformation of the characters and the friendship of the group’s mutual healing, expressing the values of not admitting defeat in the face of setbacks, and helping each other to achieve ideals.
“Menghualu” is adapted from Guan Hanqing’s Yuan drama “Zhao Paner Fengyue Saves Fengchen”. The original work is about the righteousness and friendship between Fengchen girls. It tells about Song Yinzhang who did not listen to advice and married Zhou She. After marriage, he was domestic violence and wrote a letter for help The story of Zhao Paner, Zhao Paner seduces Zhou She to cheat the divorce book, and finally rescues the sisters. The first six episodes of the TV series “used” the original work. After the adaptation, the main line became Zhao Paner, Song Yinzhang, and Sun Sanniang. The story of opening a restaurant.
Such a result is due to the core contribution of the female creators behind the scenes of “Meng Hualu”. Director Yang Yang’s past female perspective modern dramas have their own style, and “Meng Hualu” is his dream of telling modern life in ancient costumes. The screenwriter Zhang Wei also revealed in an interview that she has long liked the rich human touch in the scripts of Shangyuan Zaju and Song and Yuannan dramas, “Especially the women in Guan Hanqing’s writings are full of chivalrous, kind, brave, and intelligent character traits, which can be seen today. It looks very modern.”
No longer rely on web text + traffic:
The “correct” way to open ancient puppet dramas
In recent years, costume idol dramas have been caught in a vicious circle and cannot extricate themselves: the script is deeply dependent on the big IP of the Internet, and the originality is seriously insufficient; the actors are deeply dependent on the traffic stars, and the most popular male and female idols are forcibly formed into CPs; the plots are similar, the lines are plastic, and they only care about the industrial “saccharin” , the audience “can’t move” at all… In the long run, the ancient puppet has gradually become a closed loop between fans and the platform.
If Ma Boyong’s IP has been pursued in recent years because his novels combine male-oriented narrative and historical textual research, then the success of “Meng Hualu” this time is the ingenious fusion of female-oriented narrative and the prosperous market of the Northern Song Dynasty. Paired realism.
First of all, the script and character design have largely gotten rid of the similarities and routines of Internet IP, and the audience praised “Finally watched an ancient puppet drama with a normal IQ and dual quotients between male and female protagonists.” For example, in the opening chapter, Gu Qianfan’s hero saves Zhao Pan’er. The two were driving a carriage and they were chased by soldiers. Gu Qianfan asked him to leave first. Zhao Pan’er left without pushing him. No matter how smart you have the means, you can only succeed in the folks. If you encounter the government, there is nothing you can do. The development of the incident has repeatedly confirmed his judgment, and the non-female protagonist has opened the golden finger all the way, which can be regarded as respecting the IQ of the audience.
Secondly, the background of the story comes to the ground. Whether it is Gu Qianfan’s life line or the entrepreneurial line of the three sisters, the characters from all walks of life, the market economy, culture, life and other aspects of the Song Dynasty are all in one sweep. The Song Dynasty background drama that came out has more fireworks and stronger audience.
“Debut”
Break the curse of “ancient puppet” in one fell swoop
In addition, as a costume idol drama, “Meng Hualu” has a strong sense of reality in the writing of life dramas, which is also very worth learning. Whether it is Zhao Pan’er’s teahouse or the male protagonist’s boat on the river, the open natural scenery has the texture of the south of the Yangtze River. After entering Bianjing, the prosperity of the streets and restaurants and the people coming and going can be seen with the naked eye. Every time the three sisters pass the level and fight monsters, they are not absent from the world, and they are full of the comfort of life flow.
The beginning is “debut”, and “Menghualu” broke the curse of “ancient puppet” in one fell swoop, which was both unexpected and expected. There are still two-thirds of the show, whether it can meet the expectations of the “recording people” who have successfully entered the pit, and whether it can withstand critical scrutiny is not the most important thing. Instead, I hope to break the game in one fell swoop, and in the future, there will be more ancient puppet dramas that will no longer have the “S-class” lineup, and will really come to the audience’s field of vision.Text / reporter Yang Wenjie