· This is the 4316th original debut article with a word count of 4k+ ·
· Lu Shutian | Wen Follow Qin Shuo Circle of Friends ID: qspyq2015·
For viewers who opened iQiyi VIP, "Wind Rises Luoyang", adapted from Ma Boyong's novel, was updated on December 29, 2021, and even for the unopened member chasing party, this popular drama has been launched. In other words, if a little critical opinion is made about it, it belongs to an "appropriate" period that is not enough to influence its wind evaluation.
The reason why I am so cautious is that "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" is worth watching in terms of quality and has been excessively criticized; second, as an observer who has been engaged in literary and art criticism for many years, I feel more and more that under the atmosphere that some audiences cannot look at things in two, it is necessary to use criticism cautiously.
As iQiyi's most blockbuster self-made drama at the end of last year, "Wind Rises in Luoyang" benchmarks the "Chang'an Twelve Hours" that also belongs to Ma Boyong's IP, and this Youku solo drama has received extraordinary responses after it was launched in 2019, and the industry performance is called a phenomenon.
Compared with "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", the Douban score of 6.4 in "Wind Rises in Luoyang" is far lower than the former's 8.2. Under the existing scoring system of Douban, I think that "Wind Rises Luoyang" should get a score of no less than 7.5. In fact, not only is the score of "Wind Rise Luoyang" too low, but "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" has not received a deserved score, but 8.2 is in an increasingly generalized Douban, which is not particularly worthy of defense.
In one sentence, "The Wind Rises luoyang", that is, it can be regarded as a low-grade version of "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an". On the surface, this sentence is a criticism of it, but in fact it is not necessarily, because the problem of the former is only dwarfed by the standard of "the best national drama in the past five years", not equal to how inferior it is.
Before the launch of "Wind Rise Luoyang", I had two expectations for it, one was that it inherited "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" and became a new benchmark for costume dramas; the other was that it could only be used as a low-grade version of "Twelve Hours of Chang'an", which would still ride the dust in the same genre and shake off the second place.
In other words, if you don't think that "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" is the peak of the national drama in these years, or simply think that "The Wind Rises Luoyang" or any other drama is better than "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", then the basis of the discussion has not yet been agreed, and all my praise and criticism of "Wind Rise Luoyang" will not have reference value for you.
In fact, in 2019, when "Chang'an Twelve Hours" was popular, there was a round of criticism of its "rhythm procrastination", at least in my opinion, the length of the 48 episodes of "Chang'an Twelve Hours" did not drag. The so-called debate between long and short dramas is caused by the water injection vices of previous domestic dramas, which has triggered market resentment and industry rebound.
But what I want to say is that to evaluate whether a series is procrastinating, it depends on the strength of the lines it carries and the density of information, and it cannot be simply treated in terms of episode numbers - the 94 version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has 84 episodes, but there can be a frame of delay? "The Great Song Ti Criminal Officer" has 52 episodes, can it be lengthy? Blindly pursuing short dramas and ignoring the tone of different contents is just another kind of blindness.
As for the quality of content, it is not without standards, many people are accustomed to measuring everything by quantitative standards, and they think that whether the content is well-made or not is an unspeakable thing. In fact, of course, there are standards for the quality of content, but it cannot be reduced to numbers. This is true of many things in the world, and it is not that it is difficult to quantify, it is equivalent to inability to judge; it is not that the standard is not fixed, it is equivalent to no standard.
In my observation, compared with the previous Pearl Jade, "The Wind Rises luoyang" has at least five regrets.
First, the armour.
"The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" is the first TV series in China to make extensive use of metal armor, which is of landmark significance from the perspective of costume examination and restoration. Many people first noticed "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", which is the opening fragment of Cui Qi leading the Brigade Army to search for wolf guards, in front of the brigade army that was strong and strong, attacking and defending, the Turks dressed in cloth were almost completely wiped out, while the brigade army only killed one person.
This finishing battle makes the armor used in actual combat in ancient times almost reveal its true body for the first time in a domestic drama, and also makes the audience experience the crushing advantage of fully armed professional soldiers when they are in battle. Armor is the ancient body armor, usually there are special people to manage, the people secretly hide armor, will be judged to be rebellious, the reason is very simple: wear armor and do not wear armor, defense value is very different.
| Brigade Ben Army, Right Xiao Wei, And Beiting Army
In the previous domestic costume dramas, the armor is plastic, so it seems to be only playing a decorative role, unable to integrate into the plot, and it is more difficult to promote the plot.
In "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", there are many plots related to the armor, such as Cui Qi, who returned to Jing'an Division, foresaw that something was wrong, wanted to borrow a set of armor, encountered Yao Runeng's refusal, and put on a protective suit after some intercession; for example, Zhang Xiaojing's original subordinates were killed by the armor-clad Right Guard in order to cover his escape, and the latter had no battle damage, which could reflect the loyalty of the victims.
Of course, there are weapons associated with the armor, and because the armor is extremely defensive, it is not easy to break the armor, so blunt weapons have evolved. In the play, the golden melon hammer held by Cui Qi, the hammer of Qin Qiong in the "Sui and Tang Dynasties", and the whip of Hu Yanzhao in "Water Margin" all belong to blunt instruments, and blunt instruments seem to have no blades, but effectively hitting the armor will form internal injuries, and the effect is not worse than that of sharp weapons. If you understand the use of the hammer by Cui In the "Twelve Hours of Chang'an", you will understand that the "Fuhua Dao" was originally inseparable.
"The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" not only restored 197 sets of armor, but also the armor of different branches of the brigade army, the right Xiao wei, the Longwu army, the Anxi army, the Beiting army and other different types of armor, and the officers and soldiers were even more differently made. The "Tang Six Classics" recorded thirteen kinds of armor of "bright light, light, fine scales, mountain text, black hammer, white cloth, soap silk, cloth back, infantry, leather armor, wooden armor, locks, and vests", although the "Twelve Hours of Chang'an" could not fully present it, some details also organically referred to the style of the neighboring late Tang Dynasty, but in the part it presented, different types of soldiers and weapons, dazzling, has seen the level and background of the play.
In my impression, the last time I saw such an elaborate costume in domestic film and television was Lu Chuan's "The King's Feast". Unfortunately, similar configurations to "Wind Rise Luoyang" discounted, after all, in addition to the time-consuming restoration of armor, it is more expensive, like China UnionPay filming "Explosive" advertising film "The Last Transfer of Datang Mobei", in addition to customization, still have to borrow armor from the crew of "Chang'an Twelve Hours".
Second, the design of the action.
"The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" has no aerial skills, no light skills to go straight up and down, no kicking a person eight feet away, although there is a chase scene in the room beam, but it is more like ancient parkour, all of which make sense. In terms of movies, it is similar to the "hardcore martial arts" opened by Xu Haofeng, or the martial arts action designed on the basis of realism in "Embroidery Spring Knife".
The seemingly insignificant action design involves the world view behind the content, and whether the characters in the play are flashing and moving, flying over the wall or riding the fog, have a very different impact on the development of the plot. Unfortunately, the action design of "Wind Rises Luoyang" is not completely realistic, and it is difficult to achieve unity before and after occasional exaggeration, some characters sometimes show light skills, and some characters die because they are hit by an arrow.
Do the audience really like the martial arts of Hanging Wea? The flying pattern is left to a more vertical martial arts drama, and the trend of costume drama should be closer to "realistic with a sense of design".
Third, conceptual coherence.
"The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" and "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" both appear as "bad people", but unfortunately, the same name of the two plays corresponds to different concepts. The bad people in the former refer to the film policemen who catch thieves and thieves, and the grass-roots law enforcers in Chang'an; the bad people in the latter are the villagers in the urban villages and the bottom of the society in Shendu.
| bad well in "The Wind Rises in Luoyang"
Even if the word is attractive in the play, in the two film and television dramas adapted from Ma Boyong's novel, it is incomprehensible that there is no coherence based on the same term. Because the bad guy is not a concept familiar to the audience, just experienced the popular science of "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", and now it has another meaning to be overturned, the "Sheng Tang Universe" that could have been seamlessly connected between The Western Capital Chang'an and the Eastern Capital Luoyang suddenly has a dislocation due to this inconsistent detail.
Fourth, the American drama style opening.
"The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" has an American drama-style title at the beginning of each episode, and "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" abandons imitation. The title is short, but it's interesting. The opening is sometimes like a lead-in, sometimes like an inscription, sometimes like an explanation of the association of a certain plot content, sometimes jumping out and sometimes refined, flexible and all-encompassing, not just intercepting the first two minutes of each episode, often needing to be designed separately.
For example, Netflix filmed the second season of "Kingdom", there is an episode of the opening of the zombie vs. Wokou, and in the entire season of the main drama screen, there is no Japanese figure, this title is to restore the plot mentioned in the "Nongchen Wozaku" period, the resistance has used herbs to activate the zombies to make their enemies of the old picture, all of a sudden the depth of history to pull out.
Fifth, idol close-ups.
In "Wind Rises Luoyang", there are some multi-angle freeze-frame close-ups for the protagonist, which is a common shooting method for idol dramas and is not found in previous costume dramas. Douban has a function called "people who like this drama also like", you can hardly see the "serious" costume or historical theme under the corresponding page of "Wind Rises Luoyang".
| Wind Rises Luoyang" under the Douban page
The rest, such as some group scenes, especially the overhead shots, it seems that "Wind Rises Luoyang" is not magnificent; for example, when shooting night markets, the art of "Wind Rises Luoyang" is more than exquisite, and the fireworks are insufficient, which is not as fascinating as the first encounter with Xue Shao in "Daming Palace Words". If most of the above problems are caused by insufficient budget, then the grass planting of Shaanxi cuisine "water basin mutton" in "Chang'an Twelve Hours" is far better than the "Wind Rises Luoyang" on Henan cuisine "Hu Spicy Soup", which can only be explained by insufficient intentions.
Of course, "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" also has many advantages, talking about an inheritance of "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", that is, Pei Ting's long prayer to Dali Temple Gao Gong section, saying that since the real culprit has been arrested, the urban village that was previously sealed because of the case should also be unsealed, and the reaction of the professional bureaucrat Gao Gong is "If you don't say it, I forgot about this matter", this portrayal of the main person's mistaken Life can be described as three points.
In fact, compared with the low rating, the greater regret of "Wind Rising Luoyang" may be "no fire" - as of now, it has only nearly 156,000 people on Douban, less than half of the 405,000 of "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an".
However, the number of broadcasts of "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" is not as high as everyone thinks, and in the first 20 miles of the effective broadcast of the new episodes that year, there is no "Twelve Hours of Chang'an"; and in the first 20 miles of the effective broadcast of the new network dramas that year, "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" ranks 20th. The most popular drama in 2019 is the network station synchronization of "All Is Good"; and the most popular online drama is iQiyi's unique "Icebreaker Action". Removing the help of TV broadcasting to statistics, the traffic of "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" is not very good.
So why is it that in the impression of many people, "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" seems to be all over the Internet? Because compared with the absolute value of various statistical standards, there is a relative value that is difficult to be measured, that is, the proportion of film and television content to the penetration of the whole cultural layer and horizontal radiation.
Although some dramas have good data, they may all come from fans of one or two idols, and the internal traffic pool is quite homogeneous. But the real quality content can be appreciated by both elegant and popular, and people with different cultural interests can see what he is interested in, some people look at suspense, some people look at action, some people look at history, some people look at power plots. The Twelve Hours of Chang'an is certainly not as much as Chen Qingling, but it is hard to imagine a cultural, historical, or military media that analyzes the latter as much as the former; it is also difficult to imagine a scholar or intellectual who would be keen to discuss the latter in one way or another.
In an interview with the producers of "Wind Rises in Luoyang", I saw the reason why it "has no wind and waves", such as the budget is only 60% of "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", and the platform also hopes to achieve the favor of the "greatest common divisor", so it not only simplifies the genre narrative, but also abandons the creation that "has the nature of the director's personal experiment".
However, "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" has at least achieved achievements in word of mouth and influence, and the reason why it is successful is not all in Cao Dun's personal style, but in the fact that both the producer and the platform side are willing to set up a domestic drama genre benchmark, and they can contribute money and strength to this benchmark, plus the craftsman mentality of the main creator.
Of course, the art judgment is not completely equal to the commercial value, the popularity of "Wind Rises Luoyang" during the network broadcast is good, the market prospect of going to South Korea and Southeast Asia is very good, and it is only the first echelon of iQiyi's "Huaxia Ancient City Universe". But since this is said, I really want to do some review of the achievements of "Wind Rise Luoyang", perhaps from the following angle:
First, everyone criticizes how many bad dramas were produced in the past few years of long videos, but ignores that divine works like "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" also come from the period of hot money influx. Today's problem is that the platform knows how to make high-quality content, but it encounters various factors, and it is difficult for smart women to cook without rice. Let the industry get rich again, loosen its shackles, and then it has a chance to prove the upper limit that can be reached.
Second, the "national orientation" may not exist. Excessive pursuit of commercial certainty will dissolve the possibilities of art. In the field of costume dramas, it is strange that "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" has raised the threshold of some audiences for the genre, and if there is any cruelty in the artistic standard, it is precisely the principle of comparison that it follows, "Once the sea was shipwrecked as water, except for Wushan mountain is not a cloud."
Finally, I would like to say that the content industry has some less valued laws: that is, don't try to understand the audience's level of understanding, don't study the audience's acceptance too much, don't give the audience what they like, but give them good things. Because what's really good will continue to be good, and what they like, they like today, they may not like tomorrow.
- Author: columnist, commentator, public number: Lu Shutian small station.
" Picture | Visual China"
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