A patriarchal drama dressed in a feminist cloak.
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “deep burning” (ID: shenrancaijing), Author: Li Qiuhan, Editor: Wei Jia.
At 8 o’clock in the evening on March 3, the hit drama “Zuo Son” will be broadcasted ahead of schedule.
In the penultimate episode, the actor Ning Yi held another Chinese-Western wedding for the heroine Su Tan’er. He told Su Tan’er affectionately, “Miss Su, the man in front of you, loves you, Respect you, I want to spend a lifetime to protect you”, according to the audience, the words used in such passages and lines are mostly what women want in their emotions. From the male ethics academy at the beginning to the second big wedding at the end, the cater to female audiences in “Zuo Son-in-law” is forcibly carried through to the end.
That night, keywords related to the plot, such as #刘瓜#, #宁毅苏瀚儿二次大婚#, #被吉吉王笑死# rushed to the hot search on Weibo. At the same time, in the data of Maoyan, “Zui Son” hit a new high recently, surpassing the hits of the same period “Shanhe Ling” and “Brilliant Heart Like Jade”, ranking first. In addition, its historically highest popularity on Maoyan surpassed “Qing Yu Nian”. On the broadcasting platform iqiyi, it is the second work with a popularity value of more than 10,000 after “The Story of Yanxi Palace”. It can be regarded as the end of the safety fire.
You must know that at the beginning of the broadcast, public opinion on “Zui Son” fell into two polarities.
One month before the show aired, when “Angry Banana”, the original author of the same name, was involved in a feminist dispute, he said, “When I wrote “Zuo Son” seven years ago, I did not consider female readers at all. The remarks made the series be boycotted by some women before it aired. After its airing, “Zuo Son”, which was originally a male-frequency novel, was adapted into the plot of the Academy of Male Virtues, and was criticized by fans of the original novel, believing that it blindly caters to female audiences.
“The drama “Zuo Son” is a work suitable for all ages and does not belong to a specific group.” The producer of the show specifically clarified in an interview with the media.
A drama series under the film and television industry was simply and rudely labeled with gender, which indeed bears an unbearable burden. But an objective fact is that the main audience of male frequency novels is males, while film and television series are mainly female audiences. To achieve “appropriate for young and old”, the drama version has to work hard to attract female audiences.
What’s more, the director Deng Ke, who has a lot of experience in shooting romantic fantasy dramas, is directed by Qin Wen, the screenwriter of “My First Half Life” and “The Golden Years”, who is good at urban emotional drama. Show offStarring Guo Qilin, who has a good reputation for female audiences, the mind of the drama version of “Zuo Son” rushing to female audiences is very obvious.
Only to please female audiences, the posture of “Zuo Son-in-law” is indeed not good-looking.
To please the three major killers of women
The Academy of Men’s Virtue is the most out-of-the-box stalk of “Zuo Son”.
Here, the sons-in-law have to recite “The Sutra of Suffering” every day, “The wife is far away from the kitchen, the husband sweeps the hall, the wife takes three poles, and the husband cooks good soup”. At the same time, they learn to nurse and breastfeed, and they will be punished to stand. , Kneeling, the man feels at ease to learn to be a son-in-law to serve his wife. In Su Tan’er’s shop, the wife reprimanded her husband and said, “I will also send you to the School of Men’s Virtue.” It makes people think that this is a female social status. The world of female respect higher than male.
In 2020, the popular female superhero sweet pet drama “The Rumored Chen Qianqian” has similar stalks. The way “Zuo Son” caters to female audiences is similar to the prevailing sweet pet dramas: calling out women’s independent slogans and creating a sweet pet and sugar plot.
In terms of female independence, “Zuo Son” contributed a lot of “beautiful” lines. When Su Tan’er tried to take charge of the business and was targeted by the second house of the Su family as a woman everywhere, Ning Yi retorted three times: “You have a husband and a child, this rule is yours? All women have to listen to you? They can’t do it themselves. Going out to create a career?” I really don’t know how many creators are behind this sentence, but it does help female audiences “relieved”.
On the emotional line, in order to cater to female audiences, Ning Yi and Su Taner’s feelings have been added to the sweet pet plot. In the original work, Ning Yi has six wives: Su Tan’er, Liu Xuan’er, Yuan Jin’er, Xiaochan, Nie Yunzhu, and Lu Hongti. They are adapted as monogamous in the play, and his concubine Nie Yunzhu is changed to Ning Yi’s friend and partner, Lu Hong Ti and Ning Yi indirectly form a subordinate relationship, and Su Tan’er is the only heroine.
In the play, from the simple physical contact of the male and female protagonists, such as holding hands and kissing, to knowing each other’s feelings, “The Son-in-Law” spends a lot of time to portray every level of emotional progression. Guo Qilin, who appeared in the youth romance drama “Give Me an Eighteen Year Old”, once again staged the feeling that the boy blushed and his heartbeat speeded up in front of the girl he liked, and ran away with joy after a kiss.
Ning Yi’s relationship with the other women in the original book is adapted from love to courtesy. Even if there are entangled scenes, it is also a booster of the emotional line of the hero and heroine. His love for the heroine Su Taner and his unswerving loyalty to death have no reason. These are all innocent sweet pet dramas, the maleThe standard performance of sex roles.
The crude and mad Geng Nursing Institute likes to read the Romance Storybook, and the fierce thief Liu Fan has a cute and cute character, and these supporting characters with contrasting cuteness are bonus points for attracting female audiences in “Zuo Son-in-law”. .
“Zuo Son” also has a big killer feature that pleases female audiences-Guo Qilin.
Guo Qilin is backed by the Deyun Club and has a “Deyun Girl” fan base, which has a good female audience. In the original work, the male protagonist is a character with a deep and fierce approach. Even if Zhang Ruoyun is cast, it is easy to give people a sense of distance. Guo Qilin’s appearance is not handsome, but he has a cute personality and a sense of joy. It can dispel the harshness of the character, add comedy color, and it can also narrow the distance between the female audience.
In this type of male-frequency IP drama, how the male protagonist can get close to the female audience is a matter of knowledge. In the character talk show “Thirteen Invitations”, Xu Zhiyuan referred to women as “women”, and Li Dan said that he would never use this term, only “girls.” In order to please female audiences, the male-based screenwriter has been trying to use the handsome and handsome as a niche, but the handsome face is used for gagging, and it attracts “greasy” and “poor acting” complaints. Guo Qilin’s advantage is that even from his mouth The word “woman” also has the comedic effect of being young and old.
Most female audiences who communicated with Shenran said that Guo Qilin was the reason for them to follow the drama.
Torba’s male sweet pet drama
Because the base of the original male frequency always exists, and the drama party pays more attention to the coolness of the plot and comedy elements, the “Zuo Son” is not completely flattering to women. As the plot deepens, the problems are exposed more obviously .
For example, Ning Yi’s exchanges with Su Tan’er, Nie Yunzhu, Lou Shuwan and other women emphasized women’s independent thinking, but the frequency of lines such as “women can also go out and make a career by themselves” It is as high as the show party saying to the female audience, “Look, we respect women.” The task-based embedding of the lines is not completely integrated with the plot.
Even in order to be short and pleasant, “Zuo Son” also forcibly weakens the female characters to set off Ning Yi’s highlights, exposing the essence of the patriarchal drama wearing a feminist cloak.
The drama fan Wang Hong only read the original after chasing the drama. He told Shen Ran, “The original depiction of women is quite three-dimensional. Every woman is outstanding. It is only in the background of the author’s era that women want With more effort, Ning Yi is more to help at the critical moment.”
In the drama version, Ning Yi easily becomes their benefactor, saving or instructing their lives, and the nature of women’s instrumentalists is more prominent. “For example, Nie Yunzhu sells preserved eggs. In the original book, it is true that Ning Yi gave her the recipe, but that was a bet with the husband that he could sell 30 preserved eggs a day, so she only sold 30 preserved eggs for her. In the later stage, she will find sales by herself. Make a big business. But in the play, Nie Yunzhu’s personal efforts have been weakened and become Ning Yi’s franchisee-style one-stop service.”
Good women get traffic, “Zuo Son-in-law” succeeded.
Such stories are repeated in the film and television industry. “Women who win female audiences win the world”, both male and female works, cater to female audiences to varying degrees, and iterate repeatedly.
For example, the male-frequency IP adaptations represented by “Zuo Son” initially catered to female audiences in a simple and straightforward way, inviting niches with female fans to ensure viewership. The previous “Martial Universe” was starred by Yang Yang, and “Fighter of the Destiny” invited Lu Han to star, but this approach did not bring traffic blessings to the male IP adaptation of the drama. The success of “Celebrating More Than Years” provides a solution for the male IP adaptation. While maintaining a sense of coolness, it also strengthens comedy elements and sprouting supporting characters. This adaptation template is applied to “Zuo Son”, but it is only catering to women. In terms of technique, it went one step further.
The recently hit “Brilliant Heart Like Jade” is a typical female adaptation of a drama to IP. The iterative path of this type of drama is sadomasochism, heroine drama, then sweet pet drama, from silly white sweet to beautiful and tragic heroine, the female personality has undergone a significant evolution.
No matter what kind of film and television works, no matter which video platform, it seems that they are trying their best to discover the elements and topics that modern women are really interested in. But in fact, to please female audiences is still a long way from true feminism. Regardless of the above types, there are only a handful of works that can truly satisfy female audiences.
“The heroine’s role is in the space hole. An ancient independent woman who is determined to achieve a great cause, but every time she solves a problem, she relies on men to turn the tide. It is another trick of selling dog meat. I really get bored.” The audience of “Zui Son-in-law” complained. In fact, it took only one year from the start of the project to the broadcast of “Zuo Son”, which is a standard streamlined web drama. It pleases women’s twisting attitude, but it has made mistakes that many film and television dramas are making. On the surface, it caters to the independent thinking of female audiences, and does not change the essence of relying on men to open up.
The so-called female consciousness is not feminism. It describes women who can consciously recognize their social responsibilities and life tasks, and clearly know their own outstanding points, and join social life in their own comfortable way. Affirm and fulfill one’s social value and life needs. Being simply labeled as independent thinking and female ability in the play is also a one-sided understanding from the perspective of male power.
“In fact, regardless of patriarchal and feminist rights, the foundation of modern consciousness is self, who I am, what I pursue, and what I want to do.” Screenwriter Liu Qing told Shen Ran,But at present, the reason why many film and television works are so awkward in the plot to please women is “because many creators have not solved this problem themselves, perhaps because of their educational background and life experience, many people are actually patriarchal in their bones.” They lack imagination of independent women and how a woman can realize herself in a patriarchal society.”
More film and television works are floating on the surface, shouting slogans empty, just harvesting female audiences in a way that caters to female audiences.
More and more film and television works appeared under the slogan of feminism, which to a certain extent reflects the improvement of women’s status and the openness of ideas. However, film and television dramas such as “Zuo Son” are the real awakening of female consciousness, or are they catering and harvesting in the name of women; are they a reflection of the advancement of women’s status in the real society, or a construction of an illusory victory , Hypothetical comfort, the answer may not be optimistic.
In the zeroth episode of “Celebrating More Than Years”, Guo Qilin, who is also the actor of Fan Sizhe, said in the plot of Amway, “(“Celebrating More Than Years”) will definitely be interesting, and it will definitely be fun. I dare not say the others, but now For the audience, isn’t fun and fun the most important thing?”
It is the same in “Zui Son-in-law”.
*The picture of the title comes from “Zui Son-in-law”. At the request of the interviewee, Wang Hong and Xiaoxue are pseudonyms in the article.