Based on Liang Xiaosheng's novel of the same name, the TV series "The World of Man" has been broadcast for more than one-third, focusing on the epic fate of a family in northeast China under the 50 years of changes in the times, which has been told from 1969 to 1984, from the late stage of the founding of the People's Republic of China to the early stage of reform and opening up, which is a sensitive area in film and television creation, the choreographer of the drama adheres to the people's position, on the basis of the original grand literature, with a solid film and television art language to focus on the shaping of zhou Bingkun and other people's group portraits, through the people's choice, sorrow, joy, and voice, Reflecting the pulse of the times in that sensitive and special era, it gave this Mao Dun Literary Award a new artistic life.
A fusion of tradition and rebirth
Wang Haiyu's screenwriting team firmly grasped the main group of urban workers in the original city workers in the portrait of Zhou Zhigang and Zhou Bingkun father and son, the first episode of "staying in the city to choose" and "the law field to entrust the orphans" these two major dramatic events, the image reproduced the historical reality of the intellectual youth going to the mountains and going to the countryside, eliminating the difference between workers and peasants, the difference between urban and rural areas and the difference between physical and mental labor, through the character shaping of Zhou Bingyi and Zhou Rong's brothers and sisters, the brothers and sisters entrusted a box of forbidden books to the younger brother who stayed in the city to enter the factory, the fire of culture and knowledge. The isolation of the dark humanity in the cold of the legal field pushed Zhou Bingkun to the fateful starting point of the half-life struggle, and also focused the audience on him.
Bingkun's kindness warmed the heart of Zheng Juan's suffering of a family of three who were not related by blood, Zheng Juan's beauty enlightened Bingkun's yearning for love, her tribulations tested Bingkun's love loyalty, and her diligence gave Bingkun's mother a second life. The marriage between Bingkun and Zheng Juan is a challenge to Zhou Zhigang, a adherent of marriage and family traditions after Zhou Rong eloped into Wanshui Qianshan to marry the elderly poet Feng Huacheng, and of course, Bingyi's white lies that blamed infertility on himself and the impact on Zhou Zhigang's concept of fertility of his children and grandchildren. Every time faced with the actual results of his children's "great rebellion", this old worker who has been absent from home for many years is always understood, impressed and accepted by the kindness and sincerity of his children. In the face of the children's desire for love, Zhou Zhigang heard the spring footsteps of human nature breaking the ice.
"The World of Man" respects the aesthetic characteristics of the ethical narrative of the TV series, shapes the characters of Zhou Zhigang's family in the family ethics, and the light of benevolence and righteousness shines in the jungle of the light character piece, and polishes the character highlights of Zhou Zhigang from the perspective of life morality. There is only one scene in the whole play that highlights his professional spirit, that is, at the third-line tunnel construction site, Zhou Zhigang insists on draining and resealing cement, leaving no trouble for the project, and his craftsman conscience has been highly affirmed by the military representatives, and those words of praise ring on Zhou Zhigang's distant back, and he has embarked on a long road to find his daughter. The thirty years of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the founding of the People's Republic of China have laid a solid foundation for the subsequent reform and opening up to create socialism with Chinese characteristics in the rugged trek, and Zhou Zhigang is a member of the construction army of this foundation. This foundation is not only the construction of third-line infrastructure, but also the construction of a new concept of family ethics and a new order.
The fission of knowledge and class
In addition to the impact of children's marriage, the biggest conflict between Zhou Zhigang and Zhou Bingkun is that "knowledge changes destiny" is the first class fission of this working-class family. Bingyi and Zhou Rong were admitted to Peking University, becoming the darling of the times after the resumption of the college entrance examination, Zhou Bingkun, who took care of his comatose mother, was outdated, and the iron rice bowl of the former factory was becoming increasingly unstable, coupled with the embarrassment and even grievances brought by the door prejudice of his sister-in-law Dongmei's parents to the Zhou family, Bingkun and his father had a fierce argument at the railway station, and finally the father drew the sword with the love of the two college students and drew his sword to Bingkun's self-esteem, and the platform that was not happy was echoed by this pair of workers' fathers and sons for their respect for knowledge and dedication to college students. The high hopes of intellectuals to change the fate of the country, this simple pure heart, make people tear up.
In the hundred years since the founding of the party, from the cultivation of soil and sowing seeds in the new cultural movement to the fertilization and grafting of the cultural and technological power whose knowledge has changed its destiny, another generation of intellectuals has been formed in the past forty years of reform and opening up, they come from workers' families like Zhou Zhigang and from the fields of mountain villages where Zhou Rong joined the team, they are the new shoots and green leaves on the hundred-year-old tree, and the TV series "The World of Man" praises the love of green leaves for the roots, and this root is the people's spirit represented by Zhou Zhigang and Zhou Bingkun, just like Liang Xiaosheng's original work. The choreographer insists on placing the artistic image of the working class in the high light of the work, praising their struggle, perseverance, forbearance and sacrifice. In the original work, Feng Huacheng later degenerated, and the lashing of the exquisite egoists in the cultural and intellectual circles should also be the content of the second half of the play.
In addition to the class fission brought about by knowledge construction, there is also the individual fate brought about by the political movement, Cai Xiaoguang and Qiao Chunyan, these two characters are very typical, the choreographer and director from an objective standpoint, wrote about their respective joys and sorrows after 1976, they were not willing to accept the fate of wisdom or open-mindedness, respectively, to resolve the dilemma. These two characters accompanied by the appearance of provincial and ministerial cadres such as Qu Xiuzhen and his wife, Dongmei's parents, etc., another implicit image of "The World of Man" began to show the mountains and dew.
At the beginning of reform and opening up, the self-discipline, self-control and self-examination of power by party and government officials were reflected in the image of Dongmei's parents and Qu Xiuzhen and his wife, seeking truth from facts before public and private, and public rather than private, which is respectable and lovely. In particular, Governor Hao's criticism and handling of Minister Sheng's life style taught Bingyi a lesson and laid the foundation for the correct values that Bingyi adhered to in his later political career. As for the fine revolutionary tradition of Qu Xiuzhen and his wife mingling with their co-workers, as well as Zhou Zhigang's hearing that Dongmei had two older brothers who were separated from their parents in the Liberation War, and lamenting that Dongmei's parents were single-minded in serving the people, he admonished Bingyi to inherit this spirit of public servants, so that it truly reflected the relationship between cadres and masses in that era, and the problem of Minister Sheng's life style was also the tip of the iceberg of the times.
It is worth mentioning that the fierce quarrel between Dongmei and her mother over the prejudice against the door of the Zhou family, the warning that Dongmei, who had exercised at the grassroots level, reminded her mother not to detach herself from the warning of the masses, and touched the scars of her mother that had not healed; and the Zhou Zhigang family reunited to eat Chinese New Year's Eve dinner and the first glass of wine to pay tribute to Chairman Mao's portrait, all of which reflect the choreographer's respect for history.
Taking intellectuals, party and government officials, and urban individual laborers as auxiliary lines for shaping urban workers is the fullness of the group portrait design of the TV series "The World of Man", and it is also the choreographer's pursuit of the profound connotation and grand pattern of the epic. It is worth mentioning the artistic image of Zheng Juan, Luo Shibin, and Shui Ziliu, a group of individual laborers, who were the earliest defectors of the working class. Zheng Juan took on manual work at home, and when she helped Gong Weize to go to the black market to sell tobacco and alcohol, she gave the guide a commission and left profits for herself, and this kind of market economy consciousness, as well as the prison price before the water flow and Luo Shibin had wealth, all vividly illustrate the historical inevitability of China's transformation from a planned economy to a socialist market economy, because this is the people's consciousness and self-awareness, desire and yearning, and the people have promoted the progress of history.
Of course, the dramatic conflict caused by the population and housing pressure on the city caused by a large number of intellectuals and young people returning to the city in the play also vividly explains one of the backgrounds of the introduction of the basic national policy of family planning in that year. Now that this national policy has changed, the family relationship structure of the three brothers and sisters of the Zhou family has returned to the Chinese family, and the drama provides future young people with an age sample of this structure.
The first twenty episodes of "In the World" tell us why reform and opening up were necessary in those years through vivid film and television images and vivid dramatic conflicts, and even more explain why our party still needs to strengthen anti-corruption and clean government today, because the eyes of Zhou Zhigang, Zhou Bingkun, Zheng Juan and other people are always watching us.
Directed by Lee Lu
The brilliance of film, television and literature
In the vast text of one million words, the screenwriter extracts a clearer civilian historical story, and the director must complete the accurate image performance and poetic expression of the whole play. As the chief producer and director of "The World of Man", Li Lu reached a rational creative interaction with Wang Haiyu's screenwriting team with the director's on-site sensibility.
Director Li Lu and the investor boldly used a group of young and middle-aged actors of about 40 years old, such as Lei Jiayin, Yin Tao, Xin Baiqing, song Jia, etc., to complete the character shaping spanning nearly 50 years, which put forward higher standards for the creation of the director team. In the first twenty episodes, the director takes warm colors as the main theme of the picture, and makes a lot of use of medium and close-up scenes to highlight the inner world of the characters. In dealing with Group Plays such as Bingkun, Catching Up, Debao, Chunyan, Lü Chuan, Yu Hong, etc., Li Lu embodies a solid foundation of directing, creating a kind of youthful poetry in scene scheduling, performance regulation and mirror editing, making up for the age gap of actors, so that the audience has a sense of age identification with the actors. In particular, the six gentlemen of the soy sauce factory lined up late at night to buy pork, and collectively recited "Bu Operator Yongmei" at Qu Xiuzhen's home, which was full of clear warmth and heroic passion, which was touching.
In terms of scene design, the narrowness of the civilian area of the light character film contrasts with the spaciousness of the provincial and ministerial leaders, zhou Bingkun's family is simple but not ugly, and Zheng Juan's family is ugly but not cold, all of which pour out the director's position and attitude. In addition to the realistic scenes, props and other realistic, there is also the reproduction of the Northeast folk customs that freeze dumplings in the outdoor vat in the New Year, the director's persistence in the restoration of the image in history, and the realism and proficiency of the performances of Lei Jiayin, Sarina, Xu Songzi, Song Chunli, Ding Yongdai, Han Haolin and other actors, making the play like a flowing cloud, feeling the home country in the smooth and true feelings, and containing deep power in the eternal poetry.
In terms of narrative, the director is simple and complex, for the death of Zheng Juan's mother and Governor Hao, they are all brushed over, and only the part that serves the main narrative is retained in the flashback; for the hard life of The Corps Zhiqing, which Liang Xiaosheng is most familiar with, as well as the mountainous areas of Guizhou and the construction of the third line, the director also insists on taking Bingkun mother and son as listeners, so that the narration of Bingyi, Zhou Rong, and Zhou Zhigang is narrated and recalled, the narrative is orderly, fully retains the essence of the original work, and the audience has a strong sense of entering the play. From literature to imagery, the TV series "The World of Man" is a successful sample of literary film and television adaptation.
In the following thirty-eight episodes, familiar keywords such as urban demolition and transformation, layoffs of workers in state-owned enterprises, anti-corruption and clean government, etc., will be the main background of the second half of the play. In the original work, Bingyi was framed for dying without complaint or regret, the good police officer Gong Wei has become a corrupt element, Guoqing chose to lie on the rail because he did not want to become a burden on the troubled family due to illness, Feng Huacheng's life was corrupt, Zhou Rong divorced and Cai Xiaoguang combined, etc. Whether the fate of these characters set by Liang Xiaosheng has changed due to the particularity of the TV series performance, we will wait and see.
Fortunately, director Li Lu has directed "In the Name of the People", and he will not lose his sense of proportion in grasping the ending of "The World of Man", and I believe that he can use the director's ingenuity and conscience to draw a perfect end to the play and reach the artistic peak of the people's epic.
Author Yang Jinsong
(National first-class screenwriter, director of China Xia Yan Film Society, member of China Dramatists Association, former director of the Literature and Art Department of The Beijing Times, columnist of Hong Kong Ta Kung Pao, whose works won the Xia Yan Cup Film Script Award and the First Literary and Art Criticism Award of Jiangsu Province)
Proofread by Xu Heng
Source: Purple Cow News