By chance, I suddenly saw a video of Japanese actress Nanami Suzuki, who was invited to be the host and narrator of NHK's 2016 documentary "Rishi's Tea Room|The Highest Hospitality of the Tea Ceremony : A Tea That Advances History."
This immediately reminds me of Tokyo Love Story (東ラブストーリー). In the TV series, "Li Xiang's smile" immediately appeared in front of her eyes, and the memory of 30 years ago was opened again.
Tokyo Love Story is a japanese drama series broadcast on Fuji Television on January 7, 1991. Co-directed by Kozo Nagayama and Ouhiko Honma, it stars Honaki Honami and Yuji Oda. The drama is based on a manga of the same name by Shibamon. Depicts realistic love stories of young men and women in the Metropolis.
"Tokyo Love Story" averaged 22.9% in viewership, and the ratings of the last episode broke through the limit at 32.3%, which was the first work in the 1990s to receive more than 30% of the ratings of a single episode, which can be called the godfather of Japanese dramas. At that time, I was studying in Tokyo, Japan, and I also participated in the ranks of chasing dramas. Because I have to work at night, I will miss the premiere at 9 pm, and I will watch it or record it the next day.
The play profoundly depicts the love story of both men and women, realistic and touching. Not only did it cause a sensation in Japan, but it was also popular in Hong Kong and mainland China, especially when played by Nanami Suzuki as Li Xiang, who is cute and charming, which is unforgettable. The male protagonist, Yuji Oda, also became popular in Asia because of this film. The other protagonist, Yosuke E, plays a romantic lover in the play, who fascinates thousands of young girls, and the image of the long-haired shawl is also a trend, and young Asian men are competing to imitate it.
The show's theme song "Sudden Love Story", sung by veteran singer Kazumasa Oda, plays a pivotal role in the show, and can be sung by almost everyone when it is broadcast, and even now it is very popular. The single record of this drama has exceeded 2 million copies in one fell swoop, becoming the first place in the sales volume and the annual singles chart of the year.
"Tokyo Love Story" delicately depicts the love process of Rika and Kenji, as well as the emotional entanglement of modern youth. Praising the bravery of love and understanding the cowardice of love, he is called "the godfather of love" by the Japanese, and Li Xiang's words have become the motto of the trendy youth.
After the broadcast, almost the whole country of Japan was discussing why Kenji would eventually abandon Rika in favor of the traditional female Rimi.
This is the utility of Murphy's Law in love. The "Murphy's Law," proposed by Edward A. Murphy, is a psychological effect. The original sentence of Murphy's Law goes like this: If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of the choices will lead to disaster, someone must make that choice.
The ubiquitous Murphy's Law in feelings is like a spell that makes all feelings that desire to be firm collapse. The Murphy's Laws of Love are almost always "negative": there is never a perfect ending.
The return of all things begins again and again, and the depths of love become empty. Only loneliness, constant as new.
"Tokyo Love Story" once again interprets the importance of "marriage door to door". The original families and family relationships of the two protagonists, Wanzhi and Li Xiang, are very different, and when we analyze and talk about the superficial love story, the things behind these are the fatal factors that affect the fate of the characters.
The young Kenji came to the megacity of Tokyo from Ehime Prefecture in a daze, and the look of a confused call from the airport just after he got down to the airport to ask who the company had sent to pick him up was impressive.
Back when I landed at Narita Airport in Japan on May 12, 1989, I was so dizzy that I forgot to take my luggage and walked straight out of the airport. Only then did I remember that the luggage was still inside, and after some tossing and turning, I returned to retrieve the luggage.
Therefore, everyone who goes from their hometown to a megacity to work and study, the first day of the plane or train must be deeply touched, with a little nervousness, but also with uncertainty and expectations for the future.
The innocence and simplicity of the face when he first arrived in Tokyo, the novelty of Seeing Li Xiang, a plump and three-dimensional city girl, and the diligence and hard work of the company, all of this conveys that he is not deeply involved in the world, and his family is extremely ordinary, and he almost never left his hometown before coming to Tokyo.
Li Xiang is completely different, Li Xiang is extremely foreign, very lively, she is born to belong to the metropolis. She always wore a dress jacket and high-waisted belted pants that accentuated her thin waist, and her eyes were bright and agile, with an unconcealed cleverness but also an inexplicable sadness.
The play briefly explains that Li Xiang grew up abroad and often moves, she does not have a solid social circle, so she lacks a sense of security, so The kind of friends who grew up in a single community and have a group of friends who grew up together are probably Li Xiang who wants to make up for some warmth from him. But there is no doubt that Li Xiang's original family should be very well-off, well-informed from childhood, super capable and never afraid of the stage.
Why didn't He choose Li Xiang in the end, Why didn't He choose Li Xiang in the end, Why did He zhi not be touched by her, anything she did for him was enough to make a man palpitate. However, in his shy and simple and timid heart, he was so afraid of Li Xiang.
Guanzhi, a shy teenager from the countryside, is full of cautious expectations for the vast city of Tokyo, and full of wandering instability.
In a sense, Li Xiang is a metaphor for the city of Tokyo, full of vitality and change and courage, a city that Wanzhi wants to approach, but his heart is cowardly to the point of stagnation.
And Rimi is the same taste of the town he is familiar with, he is familiar with her panic, he is also familiar with her gentleness, he also knows that he may be needed by her, he is active and secure in Rimi's world, Rimi's world is not as big as Li Xiang's unknowable changes, Rimi's world is something he can grasp and can control freely.
If you think about it, the reason why Kenji finally chose the traditional Rimi instead of the passionate and affectionate Li xiang is actually the same as most men, because he can't be sure what kind of future he and Li Xiang will have. Everyone who wants to be in love wants to be vigorous, and when they live a life, they still hope to be more plain.
Like you and me in real life, many, many of us are in this choice between realistic security and ideal love, and most of us have chosen the former.
We like Li Xiang and we appreciate Li Xiang. However, many of us still chose to do the completion of the treatment and chose to combine with Rimei.
Zhang Ailing's 1944 novel Red Rose and White Rose: Every man in his life will have two women, at least two. One is a red rose and one is a white rose. When he marries a red rose, after a long time, the red rose will become a trace of mosquito blood on the wall, and the white rose is the bright moonlight in front of the window. When he marries a white rose, over time, the white rose will become a grain of rice on the collar of his shirt, and the red rose is a cinnabar mole on the chest. ——Zhang Ailing said a good classic.
The Chinese version of "Tokyo Love Story" premiered on the Chinese New Year's Eve night of the Spring Festival in 1992, and Hong Kong's Phoenix Satellite TV Chinese and broadcast all 11 episodes in a row. That year Chinese New Year's Eve Night and Valentine's Day were the same day, and I think there were thousands of young couples that night, impressed by the ups and downs of love between Li Xiang and Kenji.
In 1995, Shanghai Television introduced "Tokyo Love Story", which was translated and broadcast, and immediately impressed Chinese audiences.
However, the amazing thing is that after ten, twenty years and even twenty-five years after the show was broadcast, it is not the post-60s and post-70s who celebrate and miss it, but the post-80s.
I think the main force watching this drama at that time was the parents of the post-80s generation, when most of them embraced their own only seedlings, and in the era when they had just upgraded from black-and-white televisions to color televisions, they watched the romance of love in the oriental metropolises on the other side of the sea through Panasonic, Sony, Panda, and Peony. Most of the marriages of the parents of the post-80s are derived from blind dates or introductions, and they are moved by the romanticism that is particularly legendary and fresh in the play, and also plant the seeds of free love in the hearts of the post-80s.
Li Yuchun, a post-80s post-80s who appeared in Time magazine for the second time in 2005 and 2007
The growth process of the post-80s generation is synchronized with the process of China's reform and opening up. Chinese, especially the rapid movement of young and highly educated people into megacities, probably between these decades. More and more "completed governance" from the countryside to the city, encountered "Li Xiang".
Tokyo 30 years ago is almost the same as Beijing and Shanghai 20 years ago. And the love of the Men and Women in Tokyo City in "Tokyo Love Story" is not the love of this group of post-80s who burn their fiery youth in the rapidly developing Chinese metropolis.
In 2009, the Asian edition of Time magazine focused on Han Han, a post-80s generation in Chinese literature
However, China's post-80s generation, regardless of the Murphy's law of love and the traditional concept of love, they appreciate Li Xiang's bravery, and they have the courage to pursue love. More Tsuji began to accept Li Xiang and no longer pursued the so-called secure love.
This is the rebellious spirit of the post-80s generation, which has a great relationship with the changes of this era.
The person who prompted me to write this article was my little aunt's daughter, who is the post-80s generation, and she encouraged me to write this article.
Thank you for her encouragement and let my youth ignite again in the memory.