Editor | Li
Xiaogang Feng's first online drama "North Road South" fell into an embarrassing situation.
He grasped the hot topic of women on one hand and the cast of the film production team and the New Year film on the other, making "North Road South" the "ceiling of entertainment online drama", which once caused discussion.
For example, Bo Huang, a guest actor, played "Mr. Numbers" in it. He didn't recite his lines when filming, but only said the number "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7" throughout, alluding to the chaos that the actors in the entertainment circle were not dedicated to filming. Song Dandan's Xiaohua's "fan standpoint theory" in the wine industry has exploded Weibo, Tik Tok and other social platforms.
All these make the play highly anticipated, but once it was broadcast, comments such as "Gone with the Wind" and "Don't understand women" on social media never stopped. At present, the Douban score is fixed at 4.7, which has become the bottom of Xiaogang Feng's career as a director.
First of all, Xiaogang Feng and "women" really don't get along. In his early years, he said that "women's IQ is limited" and "women should not compete with men, 100% was cheated", which consumed almost all female audiences.
Furthermore, since a series of women's dramas, such as Ode to Joy, Beijing Women's Picture Book, My First Half Life, Nothing But Thirty, which were produced by Sunshine at noon on 20 16, became popular, the discussion boundary of domestic women's issues is gradually widening. Even if a film director can't pay enough attention to the topic of women, the audience may not pay the bill.
Feng Dao, who once publicly laughed at "women's IQ is limited", now makes fun of women's hottest topic, but without understanding that women insist on taking pictures of women, I'm afraid I have to add a "sin" of not understanding young people.
I used to be a movie fan in Xiaogang Feng. He said that he likes Youth and Mr. Six, which shows the sense of destiny that little people can't control in the big era. "I watched North Road South with great expectation and found that he was no longer standing with the general public."
"Ungrounded" is the first feeling of most viewers.
"Go North and Go South" tells the story of five women who founded the restaurant "Go North and Go South" together and gained growth and love. The women in the play, except Feng who came to Beijing with her postdoctoral boyfriend and lived outside the big painting room of her relatives' house, have good family backgrounds: Youshan, played by Wang, became a female boss from scratch; Bao Xue, an eighteen-line actor played by Lyric, and Dai Xiaoyu, played by Gina who studied in Norway, both live in villas in Beijing. Meng Si comes from a typical middle-class family.
The audience path feels that the characters are a bit "floating". The role of You Shanshan has been discussed most on the Internet, such as "sending a high-end refrigerator to a stranger who has only met twice", "When a friend dies, he will not only pay off his debts, but also buy his shop heroically" and "gathering people together to do business and give money to others". While the young audience excitedly sent a barrage "Give me a dozen such friends", they secretly wondered how such a good thing could happen in the world.
As an urban emotional drama that shows the life of young people, there are few workplace dramas, showing the side of "social animals". Even if there is, it is also a workplace where it is difficult for ordinary audiences to feel * * *. For example, Dai Xiaoyu, as a public relations officer, solved the problem of star grabbing, Bao Xue understood the rules of the crew's survival, and most of others' experiences revolved around the shop "going north and south", which also made the play lose an important audience entry point.
But without the characters and stories that really make the audience feel substituted, the attracted audience will still be lost quickly. Behind this, the most distinctive "Feng's comedy" is no longer chewy.
North Road South also tries to discuss social topics. However, in the setting of characters and the trend of plot, such routine settings as "mother protects men", "widowed child-rearing", "housewife strives for a third party", "boyfriend who has been in contact for five years is married" and "boyfriend with high education abandons unemployed girlfriend" make the audience sigh that they are right.
In the interview, screenwriter Chen You denied the idea of "suspense" and explained that the plot in the play was based on the stories around him, and several characters also had prototypes. However, the existence of a character prototype does not mean that it is a typical character with universal social significance.
I sighed hurriedly. "Class differences have closed the door to most ordinary audiences." In her view, "everyone lives in the big bungalow of the villa and everyone runs a company. Xiaogang Feng filmed the Beijing version of Tiny Times, which is absolutely true. "
Producer Axi believes that as long as the real social collision can be completely presented and the characters' predicament and charm can be displayed, no matter whether the characters are rich or poor, they will get the audience's favor.
But according to the audience's feedback, I'm afraid "North Road South" didn't do it.
Xiaogang Feng is not in contradiction with the present audience. His women's group drama is the most popular and anticipated theme at present.
This is not the first time he has made a film about women, but in I am not Pan Jinlian and Fanghua, the former's female predicament is related to men, while the latter is not stingy with women's long hair and snow-white straight legs, and also has an obvious male perspective. This phenomenon is even more obvious when he puts his works on online dramas with female audience as the main audience.
More than one interviewee mentioned that the most fatal point of The Road to the North was that Xiaogang Feng insisted on telling female stories without understanding women.
"Xiaogang Feng can't shoot a female drama well, which can be seen from the poster." The audience Xiaoxing said that the real female theme is a strong sense of anti-gaze and strength. She thinks that the five women on the poster of North Road South are all wearing boyfriends' windbreakers and fiddling with various postures, like shooting Men's Wear.
In the first episode of "North Road South", there are some settings that are not in line with the actual situation of the hospital, such as "having a baby to protect the big and the small", but especially Shanshan is grateful to her ex-husband because of her mother-in-law's decision to "protect the big", and her family feud is forgotten, which brings a lot of controversy.
From time to time, the remarks such as "negotiating with women is trouble" and "women can't get things done" in the whole play are not only from various male roles, but also quite masculine when housewife Meng Si expresses her desire to have her own career to Youshan, who is also a woman. You are so talkative, no wonder your husband doesn't want to go home.
The stereotype of women under the gaze of men is also a manifestation of not really understanding women's problems.
Of course, Chen Ping's observation of women's consciousness also has popular views such as "women should have their own careers" and "I just tell you (boyfriend) and don't discuss with you".
But thinking in a hurry is not enough. The awakening of five women in "North Road South" is all because of men's betrayal, and they are finally redeemed by men. Female bullies, especially Shanshan, can make a fortune because an expert named Haig points out the maze. Feng started his "career" after being abandoned by his postdoctoral boyfriend. Dai Xiaoyu has a high academic background and a good family. When she returned to China, she got a public relations job. Good drinking and smart mind were just the beginning, and beauty was the weapon. As a full-time housewife, Meng Si discovered that it was an own goal after a "mistress fight", and her husband got away safely in the marriage.
"I also participated in the creation of some TV dramas with female themes, and I found that what female themes lack now is thinking about life and a new perspective," she said.
It can be seen that Xiaogang Feng tried to show different types of women and the face of Beijing in his mind. The central figure, especially Shanshan, is a typical Beijing girl in his heart. But all the stars except SiNi are not from Beijing, but they have to speak blunt Beijing dialect.
Xiaoxue, a Beijing girl, said that to say "Beijing flavor", grandma went to the park to do morning exercises and sing, which was a bit Beijing flavor. Times are changing, and so are Beijing girls. She thinks that Xiaogang Feng is still depicting the Beijing girls of the last era.
Axi told Shen Ran that the real female theme works "will not be too limited to the presentation of women's inner struggles, but will be richer and deeper, similar to the appearance of more' girls helping girls' in women's' help and appreciation'". The female theme works that Ashi expects are to present the real desires, efforts and difficulties of female characters, as well as the charm of different women of all ages, occupations and classes.
It seems that "going to the south" is because the class setting "persuaded" the audience. In fact, the fundamental reason is that young people, especially young women, can't be paid attention to.
"Not at all, not at all." Xiaogang Feng sent a Weibo after the movie "North Road South". In a hurry, this sentence should be translated as: we will wait and see.
Xiaogang Feng admits that he has shortcomings in understanding young people and women.
In an interview with the media, he mentioned that he was invited by iQiyi to shoot the online drama "North Road South". His first reaction was that he had no idea. The TV series "Chicken Feathers in One Place" directed by him was shot on 1995. "I don't know how different the industry environment was 25 years ago. What do young people like now?"
But at the same time, he also has his own insistence. He said that iQiyi gave him some suggestions based on big data statistics, which was his first contact with the concept of data. He thinks that if there is a conflict, the data must have given way to his own preferences, saying, "When I was young, I followed the trend. Now I am old, I just want to do what I want to do."
This also happens where only the cloud knows. In an interview with the media, Xiaogang Feng mentioned that publishers wanted the trailer to be more compact and richer in content, and he didn't care. "You can't give anything to this film, so don't be so nervous."
According to his understanding of the work, he really enjoyed it for many years.
1997, Xiaogang Feng introduced the concept of "New Year's film" with a film "Party A and Party B". Later, his films were Big Man, Mobile Phone, world without thieves, Banquet, Assembly, If You Are the One and so on. That year was a hit, and even the main theme movies such as the Tangshan earthquake earned more than 600 million box office at 20 10.
20 12 years tried to transform, 1942 years suffered a big loss. Since then, his box office road has not been smooth. Times have changed. The box office of the follow-up work "Fanghua" was 654.38 billion+0.42 billion, and only the word-of-mouth and box office known by Yun were on the street. On the creative level, this kind of "fatherly love" with time filter has been out of touch with the young people now.
"My mother and I went to see Fanghua. Only Yunzhi didn't go to the cinema." When talking about his memory of Xiaogang Feng's films, Haraoka said. The latter has been published on 20 19.
Xiaogang Feng himself felt this change. When Only Clouds Know was released, the box office exceeded 100 million in just four days. The team made a poster to boost morale. He recalled world without thieves, the first movie with a box office of over 100 million yuan in 2004, and made Weibo sigh. "Since then, it has been triumphant and invincible. In today's changing world, a group of cutting-edge directors are full of energy ..... but 3 billion people are embarrassed to celebrate. Looking at this 100 million red poster made by the team, I can't help but feel that the hero is old. "
When Nobody directed by Rao Xiaozhi and Want to Die directed by Muyewen were released, he made a special exclamation of Weibo that "the afterlife is awesome". In addition, there are Zhao Wei, Xu Zhiyong, Jason Wu and Jia Ling. Come out with your own films and raise the box office ceiling again and again. In a blink of an eye, the era of Xiaogang Feng's New Year films has long passed.
However, as the accumulation of the film Old Six, Xiaogang Feng's aesthetic skill as an old director still exists. In a hurry, from the production, art and photography, it is no exaggeration to say that it is "the ceiling of domestic online drama".
"North Road South" has face, but the lining is not enough. I stick to my own ideas and shoot a subject I don't know but am good at, showing Xiaogang Feng's fatigue.
In this online drama, Xiaogang Feng laughed at himself. Because of the epidemic, he lost his job and began to eat for a living. With the stunt of Xiaogang Feng's "first online drama", the previous advertising sponsorship and the attention of Aiqiyi, the revenue and market performance of the drama series will certainly not be bad.
However, in a hurry, applying the classic lines of Party A and Party B, Xiaogang Feng's era has passed, and young people no longer miss him.
* The picture is from Mr. Liu. At the request of the interviewee, Lu Xiao, Axi, Kuai, Dandan, Yuan and Xiaoxue are pseudonyms.