The year 2023 marked a hot start and diversified development for Chinese television dramas. As an important art form that restores collective emotions and soothes the public's spirits, this year's drama content ecosystem has become more tolerant.
While maintaining stability in thematic creation, breakthrough works have emerged in the fields of suspense, science fiction, micro-history, social issues, female-oriented dramas, and male-oriented adaptations of comics. In the trend of diversified development, 2023 also witnessed a surging wave of authorship cdramas that cannot be ignored.
Represented by dramas such as "The Long Season," "Why Try to Change Me Now," "Fearless Blood," "Fake It Till You Make It," and "Stand by Me," this batch of dramas distinguishes itself from others of the same genre in terms of visual and auditory style, narrative aesthetics, and value expression. They possess distinct personal styles of the main creators, primarily the directors, and some have achieved the integration of writing and directing.
As an important innovation in the drama ecosystem, these dramas, represented by the authorship trend, not only raise the audience's aesthetic threshold but also broaden the boundaries of expression. They have also achieved satisfactory market performance this year. While authorship dramas have appeared every year, the formation of such a creative wave like in 2023 is unprecedented. Specifically, what aspects demonstrate the uniqueness of this batch of authorship dramas? And what profound impact have they had on the drama content ecosystem? Let's explore them one by one.
The Long Season
"The Long Season" delves into the wounds of the era and presents the collective loss of a generation of workers in Northeast China through the lens of suspense. This provides the basis for the outstanding storytelling that captivates so many cdrama enthusiasts.
However, the reason why this drama has become a topic of such fascination can also be attributed to the bold imagination of director Xin Shuang and his matching directorial skills. He dares to film scenes of Northeast China in Yunnan and captures the ruggedness of the northern region amidst a warm tone. As a musician, he always brings unique creativity to the soundtrack.
Xin Shuang also possesses the ability to unearth the actors' utmost potential. Under his direction, Qin Hao portrays the downfall from a young talent to a middle-aged man with a protruding belly, while Fan Wei embodies both the proud older brother of the workers and the madman seeking revenge for his son. The dual identities of crazy police officer and dance king of the birch forest have also ignited Chen Minghao's inner energy.
Without Xin Shuang's outstanding contributions in these aspects, "The Long Season" would likely have become just another ordinary drama in the already crowded Northeast suspense genre.
Why Try to Change Me Now
The original work of "Why Try to Change Me Now" is "Ping Yuan Shang De Mo Xi", but both the sense of time and the sense of space in the drama are very different from the novel. Of course, the coincidences and the sadness of human fate related to the case are still evident in both the drama and the novel.
Zhang Da Lei moved the story that originally took place in the northeast in the original work to the space that repeatedly appears in his film - Hohhot, which is his hometown. This is a space he is familiar with, where he can create a city for the characters in the play and open up details of daily life such as buying green onions, and taking the bus. The complex story told from multiple perspectives in the novel, he needs to follow his life experience and restore the flow of life of two generations according to the logical order of time.
Long shots are important to him, as they provide him with a perspective to observe life - as an onlooker. He uses long shots to present the trajectories of people in a space and the trajectories of time. Although it also contains elements of a crime story, "Why Try to Change Me Now" is more like a collection of fragments taken from the lives of a group of northern city residents. In order to maintain the integrity of this life, Zhang Da Lei only edited out 6 episodes from the 400-minute story, with each episode lasting over 70 minutes. The exploration of literary style in this drama fully reflects the enormous space for the tailoring of short dramas.
Fake It Till You Make It
"Fake It Till You Make It," directed by Li Mo, is the least idol-like yet most romantic urban love drama of this year. Li Mo, who became known to the audience through "Remembrance of Things Past," is very good at capturing the spiritual crisis of urban dwellers, portrayed how urban women continue to navigate fast-paced work and life after the certainty of friendship collapses. In "Fake It Till You Make It," it is about two adults and how they slowly explore and immerse themselves in love while their self-protective armor is deeply embedded in their bodies.
However, Li Mo successfully transforms the male and female protagonists, who are investment banking elites and lawyers in the entertainment industry, into ordinary people, making their self-preservation and worldliness reasonable. And then, he dissects and crushes the love struggle between them, sprinkling it into the nights and mornings of Beijing, and into the crevices of the office buildings.
Fearless Blood
The drama "Fearless Blood" written and directed by Xu Bing, is quite peculiar.
Its characters are peculiar. All character have different backgrounds. There are determined communist soldiers, local gentry who govern a region, a lucky gambler in chaotic times, and a hidden king who went from being a soldier to practicing medicine and doing business to live a modest life... But no matter who they are, they all make unexpected appearances, serving as unconventional guides.
Its story is also peculiar. If Xu Tian's journey to the north to fulfill his father's request, establish a company, marry his fiancée, and join the revolutionary cause can be considered a realistic story, then the events he encounters along the way are absurd and fantastical, deviating from historical facts. Bombing pawnshops, gambling, brawling, and clashing with motorcycle gangs. It can be seen as poetry, a play, or a fable, but it cannot be forced onto a realistic track.
Its storytelling style is also peculiar, it is episodic and discontinuous, yet each character is vividly portrayed. Even within Xu Bīng's signature absurd universe of the Republican era, "Fearless Blood" stands out as highly stylized. With so many peculiar elements combined, it becomes a unique style, both idealistic and romantic, bold and dazzling. Before "Fearless Blood," we may never thought that a revolutionary story could be told in such a way. But it was filmed and successfully aired, which can be considered a small miracle in the world of television series in 2023.
Stand by Me
Adapted from Tonghua's novel of the same name, directed by Wang Zhiyong, and with Wu Tong as the head screenwriter, "Stand by Me" is the most successful youth drama adaptation of the year. Tonghua's original novel was published in 2010. Looking at the life trajectory of the female protagonist, Luo Qiqi, from a small town in northwest China to settling in the United States, "Stand by Me" carries a certain autobiographical color.
In the current broadcasting environment, adapting such a novel poses at least two major challenges. Firstly, the protagonist's growth is concentrated in high school, and while the romance cannot be overly explicit, it also cannot be ignored. This is a major obstacle. Secondly, at every step of the protagonist's growth, there is a male lead accompanying her. If the adaptation is not handled carefully, it may be accused of glorifying men and belittling women. The challenge lies in portraying each accompanying relationship appropriately without crossing any boundaries.
The reason why the TV series "Stand by Me" is successful is because the creators downplayed the intense dramatic elements with small subplots, and filled the narrative gaps with poetic visual and auditory elements. This allowed the audience's attention to shift away from the couple choices and delve into the identification and reflection of youth emotions and the pain of growth.
Some fans have labeled this approach as emotional storytelling - it is the opposite of intense plot-driven narratives, focusing on creating atmosphere, inner exploration, and a flow of emotions. In this wave of authorship cdrama this year, not only did "Stand by Me" adopt this approach, but "Fearless Blood" and "Fake It Till You Make It" also showed similar tendencies, and have been widely acclaimed within their respective circles. In an era where emotional value is valued, it is not impossible for this approach to be more widely used in TV series creation in the future.
I Am Nobody
"I Am Nobody" is to urban fantasy dramas what "Three-Body" is to science fiction dramas. Director Xu Hongyu has a great talent for combining reality and imagination.Coming from a background in editing, he possesses a strong visual presentation ability and can effectively materialize imaginative spaces using the most appropriate techniques.
Just like the game world in "Cross Fire," the "underworld of extraordinary beings" in "I Am Nobody" is presented in the same way. Its world is built upon the foundation of Taoist culture, with distinct elements of Chinese traditional culture, as well as humorous and absurd elements of light comedy. It is rich in the spirit of the two-dimensional world and is full of interesting points.
It creates a convincing "underworld of extraordinary beings," where the organization "Nadoutong" is present everywhere and the extraordinary beings possess their own special abilities. The main characters, Feng Baobao, Zhang Chulan, Wang Ye, and Zhang Lingyu, are like martial arts masters in a world of martial arts, but they also integrate into the lives of modern young people. They play games, drink milk tea, visit convenience stores, and take the subway, keeping up with the times.
In order to create a sense of urban fantasy, Xu Hongyu used real-life filming combined with extensive special effects. For example, in the action design, CG characters are combined with real people; and when presenting the "Eight Supernatural Techniques," special effects are used to show the effects of these techniques on people, matter, and time and space. It can be said that for the first time, fantasy has seamlessly merged with Chinese traditional culture and the current urban reality in such a way that martial arts dramas have not been able to achieve.
There Will Be Ample Time
"There Will Be Ample Time" is directed by Peng Chen and Wang Guang. Director Peng Chen's most familiar work to the audience is the wildly imaginative comedy "Get Old Recently." He is skilled at grasping the rhythm of comedy and capturing the relaxed state of the actors.
The biggest characteristic of the casting in "There Will Be Ample Time" is that there are many actors skilled in comedy performance. Ren Suxi excels at deadpan and satirical comedy, Li Xueqin has honed her skills as a stand-up comedian, Shi Ce has deeply touched people's hearts through sketches, and Zhang Chi emerged from the annual comedy competition. When these people come together, along with experienced actors, one can clearly feel that the rhythm of the play becomes more relaxed.
However, a relaxed performance and improvisation in the moment does not necessarily mean that the director can handle it. For example, whether they can achieve a scene where only the situation is given for a group performance, with no pre-written lines, allowing the actors to improvise and the camera to flexibly capture the details; or whether they can employ the technique of the camera never stops, where the designated lines for the actors' scenes may have already been performed, but the director intentionally does not call cut and the camera keeps rolling. At this point, the actors can freely express themselves, continue with the previous emotions, or find a reason for the end of the scene. Even though the dialogue may no longer advance the conflict, it remains fresh and can easily shine.
In "There Will Be Ample Time", it is evident that the two directors have achieved this. This drama appears to be infused with the actors' improvisation, but this also a director's style.
