After years of development, costume dramas have gone through the stage of taking princely generals, harem beauties and Jianghu chivalrous as the core characters, and now they have turned to the "costume +" narrative of civilian life, light weight and light joy, character legend, and oriental aesthetics, which is the inevitable development of new costume dramas and also meets the needs of contemporary aesthetics. So, how does the "Costume +" mode integrate various elements? How do you create a different flavor?
A few days ago, the drama market ushered in the summer season, and various platforms have launched a new batch of new dramas to seize the young market. Among them, with the launch of "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World", the costume drama market has rebounded significantly.
In fact, since the beginning of this year, costume dramas that have been silent for a period of time have shown a blowout trend, such as "Ink Rain and Clouds", "Celebrating More Than Years 2", "Tianxingjian", "Fox Demon Little Red Lady Moon Red Chapter" and so on. Among them, "Tianxingjian" has a Douban score of 8, which can be called a dark horse.
After years of development, costume dramas have gone through the stage of taking princely generals, harem beauties and chivalrous men as the core characters, and now they are turning to civilian, life-oriented, lightweight, and oriental aesthetic narratives, which is the inevitable development of new costume dramas and meets the needs of contemporary aesthetics.
In addition, the number of costume dramas has always been at the forefront of new drama genres on various platforms, and new plots that have added elements such as Xianxia, martial arts, women, legends, and oriental aesthetics are also more interesting in the "costume +" mode.
Antique clothes + women
The "big heroine" routine has changed to a female independent perspective
Nowadays, female-themed costume dramas are eye-catching. However, compared with the image of the big heroine in previous years, the narrative routine and the construction of the character have undergone some changes. The original single symbolic image has also become fuller and more three-dimensional, and it is also more in line with the expectations of contemporary independent women. The story is no longer indulged in the expression of simple love, but makes the heroine image from the surface independent to a deep maturity.
For example, the inspirational drama "Ink Rain Clouds" tells the story of Xue Fangfei, the daughter of Huaixiang County Order, who suffered a great change in fate, and was entrusted by Jiang Li, the daughter of the Prime Minister's Mansion, to replace Jiang Li's identity and return to the capital, and with the help of Xiao Yu, the Duke of Suguo, and others, she gradually found out the truth of the changes that year, avenged her father's grievances, and supported justice, peace and peace and blessing the people. Although she is in an ancient social environment, Xue Fangfei also has the brilliance of contemporary independent women, and the concept of sober self-improvement conveyed by Xue Fangfei has also inspired many female audiences. Screenwriter and director Ma Shishi also hopes to bring some strength to people in distress through this drama and help everyone get through the difficulties with a firmer mentality.
The story of the costume life drama "Cherish the Flower Zhi" starts with the "decay" of the famous Hua family being raided, and these two main lines unfold: one is that the heroine Hua Zhi has grown from a boudoir woman to the head of the family, leading the Hua family to revive step by step; The second is Gu Yanxi, the son of the male protagonist Ling Wang, who found himself from involuntarily in the power struggle in the court.
The story of "Cherish the Flowers" focuses on family life, and the women of the flower family are the protagonists. However, the narrative of "Cherish the Flowers" is no longer limited to the inner house, but expands from the family, with courts, markets, and streets and alleys. The audience sees a family and a group of female figures in the play, placing themselves in an ancient "Daqing Kingdom" with a realistic texture. The drama has a richer layer, which can be related to the mood of the times and social issues in the current society, providing the audience with more space to think and immerse the audience.
Old Clothes + Manga
Respect the core of the original work, highly film and television adaptation
Although costume dramas are more diversified, whether it is a reserve repertoire or a repertoire to be broadcast, or a broadcast repertoire, compared with the mainstream works in the market before, costume dramas have shown a higher level in terms of theme, content, and concept, and the platform side and the content side pay more attention to the quality of content, and the costume drama track is also rising, and the threshold is increasing day by day, such as costume + Guoman, which is eye-catching.
Guoman's "Fox Demon Little Red Lady" live-action film and television first work "Fox Demon Little Red Lady Moon Red Chapter" tells the story of the world where humans and demons are constantly in conflict, Tushan Honghong (played by Yang Mi), the righteous boss of the Tushan Fox Clan, hopes for equality and peace between the two parties, and joins hands with Dongfang Yueyue (played by Gong Jun), an orphan of the Terran Oriental Family, to start the task of facilitating the relationship between humans and demons, so as to resist the dark power that erodes and shelters the bitter tree that shelters the Tushan Mountain, and dismantles the dark forces that provoke contradictions between humans and demons.
The "Fox Demon Little Red Lady" series of animations has built a magnificent and magnificent fantasy world of oriental monsters, and the film and television "Fox Demon Little Red Lady Moon Red Chapter" has integrated traditional Chinese aesthetics into it. The scenes, special effects, costumes, props, etc. in the play integrate a large number of intangible cultural heritage elements.
For example, the robe painted with red mountains adopts the weaving skills of Wuluo, an intangible cultural heritage of Jiangsu Province, the fox mask adopts the filigree inlay production technique of the national intangible cultural heritage, and the costumes and props adopt the intangible cultural heritage production techniques such as Nanjing velvet flowers, Xianju lanterns, oil paper umbrellas, and Hangzhou fans. In addition, many scenes in the play use traditional Chinese color systems, such as red, green, gray, white, black, etc., to interpret the characteristics of the characters with color connotation, and bring the audience visual impact with unique oriental aesthetics.
Costume + Legendary
Abandon the struggle for power, and focus on the growth of the characters
Costume dramas have always been the "eye-catching" of drama market traffic, and the costume dramas that have been put into the market this year flaunt new costumes and new martial arts, and genres such as characters, inspirational, and legends have become the main ones. Looking at the new costume dramas on the current screen, most of them avoid colors such as "palace fighting", "power scheme" and "joke", and turn to more "lightweight" and easy-to-operate character legends and other styles, away from the "stubborn disease" of joking about history, tampering with history, and alternate history.
The modern legendary drama "Tianxingjian" tells the story of a group of people with different identities in the late Qing Dynasty, but they were involved in a bizarre treasure hunt journey by chance, and gradually strengthened the ideal of saving the country in the magnificent and turbulent historical tide. In terms of concept, "Tianxingjian" uses small metaphors for big. The background is a big era, focusing on the little people, and "breaking the old and removing hypocrisy" runs throughout. "Tian Xingjian" maintains a critique of the inherent limitations of each class, and at the same time strives to allow the audience to put themselves in the shoes of the time and put themselves in their shoes to ponder their inevitable choices by chance.
In addition, as a "treasure hunting road movie", whether it is the local dialect, or the special snacks along the way of "Mu Qing on the tip of the tongue", or the display of folk intangible cultural heritage in various places, it shows the appearance of high-quality products everywhere. In addition to satisfying the non-faceless large and small characters, non-unilinear narrative, and the growth arc of each character, this drama also tests screenwriter Bai Yicong's understanding of the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, his mastery of allusions and poems, his understanding of the spirit of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and his involvement in classics and legends......
The costume legend drama "Celebrating More Than Years Season 2" continues the story and spiritual core of the first season, telling the story of the protagonist Fan Xian, who overcomes the crisis step by step with his wisdom and courage in the face of unprecedented pressure and complex situations, and practices the ideal of his mother Ye Qingmei. It is the industry's first male frequency IP adaptation sequel created by the return of the original team, and the producer and producer behind it, Xinli Media, also controls the details in all aspects of script development and filming and production, and strives to create a series of high-quality works, the plot is not only full of ups and downs of suspense and reversal, but also integrates the elements of modern thinking and family and country feelings, and carries forward the fine tradition of the Chinese nation to help the weak and the traditional Chinese culture with a long history.
From the perspective of story content, costume dramas are one of the most oriental dramas, and it can also best show the grand world of Chinese people's whimsy. With the popularity of "IP dramas" and fantasy dramas in recent years, Xianxia, fantasy, and mythological costume dramas have been flourishing for a long time. But while being keen on IP, traffic stars, visual effects, and sweet love, domestic costume dramas have fewer "routines" and more content, and can only "go to the next level" by working plots, characters, and dramatic art.
Source: WeChat public account "Media Internal Reference"
Artist: Asahi
Edit: Yifan
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