Han Siqi
From the popularity of the Korean drama “Pretty Sister Who Always Treats Me to Dinner” to China, to the popularity of the domestic drama “The Next Stop Is Happiness”, “sibling relationship” as a CP grammar of urban dramas continues to “monopolize” It is about the emotional imagination of women in the workplace. When the “sister aesthetic” encounters the sweet pet drama genre, domestic dramas seem to have “suddenly discovered” the new demands of female audiences in the new era.
However, the lazy “copy and paste” trend that catches up with the trend has resulted in the mass production of domestic dramas: “The Twenty-eighth Law of Love”, “The Blazing Road”, “The Intellectual Life”, “The Mature Year” and “What Love Should Look Like” “”It’s Just Love”… has almost reached the density of “ten domestic dramas, eight sister-brother romances”.
Routines of sister-brother love: the two sides of sameness and kitsch
The sibling love routines of this wave of domestic dramas have been brilliantly summarized by netizens as follows: an elegant, sexy, intellectual, and mature strong woman in the workplace is captured by her younger brother and starts a sweet love; a full-time housewife is betrayed by her husband and starts a new life, returns to the workplace and becomes a A strong woman, and then she was captured by her younger brother, and she started a sweet love; the sister, a strong woman in the workplace who didn’t believe in love, suddenly became enlightened at a certain age, and then she was captured by her younger brother, and she started a sweet love… The younger brother is always considerate, warm-hearted, A perfect man who is careful, not fussy and has great potential to start a business or make money.
The more repetitive the core setting of a sister-brother relationship is, the more domestic dramas end up in useless situations – under the guise of “justifying” girls, the sisters are often portrayed in bizarre ways as those who exert too much force. It is a novel that combines independence, inhuman strength, and female dilemma into a novel. On this basis, it is blended with the industrial saccharine of the domestic drama’s assembly line style: wolf dog, milk dog or “wolf milk” are combined, the domineering sister has red lips, a suit with stiletto heels, and the abdominal muscles are so good. “Sister-brother love” has become more and more “canned”, and the corresponding characters have become only one layer of “personality”.
The sameness of the routines and the quirkiness of the characters are two sides of the same coin, suspended, greasy, and distorted. At this point, the “homomorphic revenge” of the “sisters” who use objectification to fight objectification and objectification to fight objectification has become more and more shriveled and reduced in dimensionality in the process of being evacuated.
In particular, the current relationship between siblings is not only a pale imagination that exists in cultural products, but also a practice in daily life. According to an interview published in “ONE Literary Life” “The first group of sisters who fell in love with siblings regretted it”: While the sisters are experiencing the emotional value brought by the “next year”, “Being with them is like opening a blind eye. Box, you never know how many surprises they can give you.” Feeling the respect and freedom of not being suppressed; at the same time, he is also constantly disenchanting: “My younger brothers will make the same mistakes that other men make. Fortunately, their acting skills are not that bad. Exquisite and easier to find.” The younger brother is more like a fleeting state: “The first two breakups were because the younger brothers grew up and no longer looked like younger brothers. They became as smooth as the peers around me, Don’t pay attention to body management.” Even with the status of “sister” may come another kind of unfreedom: “When I am with my younger brother, I am often bound by the status of ‘sister’, but who doesn’t want to be pampered? Being taken care of.”
When the reality of practice has moved forward a lot, the sisters are more sober. They know that marriage is about weighing the pros and cons, and love is about each getting what he needs. Therefore, domestic dramas that are still standing still or even regressing in terms of character imagination will first face the “disbelief” of the audience.
Deconstruction of routines: The best love is the same frequency and pace
If you look at the TV series “The Sun with Me” (hereinafter referred to as “The Sun”) in this context, you will find that it breaks the conventional “sister-brother relationship” routine of domestic dramas and deconstructs the concept of “sister-brother relationship”. Just as Jian Bing said to her ex-husband: “All love in this world is love between brother and sister. When did you men grow up?”
The story of “Hot Sun” is: Sheng Yang, a hardworking new designer played by Xiao Zhan, and Jian Bing, a well-known advertising director in the industry played by Bai Baihe, first met when she was 26 years old and reunited when he was 26 years old. The beam of light illuminated each other’s lives across ten years – Ten years ago, young Sheng Yang developed an admiration for director Jian Bing because of an encounter. Because of this admiration, he chose to enter the advertising industry and choose his own life. and career ideals. Ten years later, they met again. One moved forward with admiration, and the other set off again with confusion.
One concept that screenwriter Li Xiao constantly emphasizes through Jian Bing’s mouth is “pacing”.
The essence of Jian Bing’s separation from her ex-husband was that they were no longer in sync with each other. In the beginning, the relationship between the two was that the woman looked up to the man. Her ex-husband was the one who single-handedly brought her into the advertising industry. He trained Jian Bing to become a star director who shines on the stage step by step. Being favored by him is also an honor in life. The ex-husband has the capital to “dote on his wife”, and he is fully compatible with Jian Bing from career to love. However, the two eventually parted ways. The trigger was that Jian Bing no longer wanted to tolerate her ex-husband’s frequent “slippage” in the marriage. The root cause was that the pace of the two no longer matched: when Jian Bing was on her own, she grew up much faster than her husband. Her ex-husband, who has begun to slow down and is deeply trapped in an existential crisis, has reached middle age and “seems like he has nothing to pursue now, just like a living dead person”, and Jian Bing can no longer continue to play the role of adoration and admiration from the position of looking up. I can no longer accept my ex-husband’s comments about my professional aspects of my work.
Jian Bing was emotionally betrayed many times by her ex-husband. In the end, her victory against her ex-husband was not a resounding victory like Shuangwen’s, but a tragic victory. The affectionate performance performed by her ex-husband was very “affordable” – although I was flirting with women, we were the most stable interest group. In comparison, Jian Bing’s insistence on breaking up was sincere and “unsparing”.
This is what makes Jian Bing different from other “sister situations”: this sister has always been a teenager. In the early stages of “Hot Sun”, several scenes cleverly demonstrated Jian Bing’s expertise as a famous director in the Vanity Fair – her expertise does not rely on red lips, stilettos, or hysterical harsh words, but only a few sentences Convenience and convenience resolve pitfalls in the workplace. But Jian Bing did not “teach” Sheng Yang because of her lack of experience. On the contrary, in her opinion, the advantage of rich experience is just “something that comes naturally with age”, which in her opinion is more valuable. It is the preservation of original intention and love, “I hope you will not enter the complicated and boring adult world so quickly.”
Correspondingly, the younger brother Sheng Yang can be the “elder brother”. It is different from the problems that ordinary siblings encounter – when the passion fades and the hidden reef of reality emerges, the brothers have all kinds of inferiority, arrogance, awkwardness and immaturity in order to prove themselves, and the quarrels that arise between lovers… Sheng Yang can look at the gap between the two more calmly and objectively, and will work hard to solve the problem. Every step counts, and he has firm choices and enthusiastic efforts. The career of his parents and the burden on the family require him to pay a greater price in order to stand beside his successful sister. He has to use his own judgment to break free from the weight of this invisible “shackle”. He was “enlightened” by his sister, but at the same time he also had his own rhythm to become a better version of himself.
Screenwriter Li Xiao said frankly that the earliest version of “Hot Sun” also had a traditional sister-brother relationship configuration. But after she personally experienced a sister-brother relationship, she overturned the scripts she had written for the first twenty episodes and rewrote the current version. In the interview, she said, “In a sister-brother relationship, the younger brother’s The psychological age is usually more mature than that of her peers, but my sister often behaves like a childish, little girl. But in essence, the relationship between the two of them is to treat each other equally.”
Look at each other equally, take care of each other’s strength, and also take care of each other’s vulnerability. The best love is at the same frequency. In particular, the concept of “pace” originates from marathon sports, and it also metaphors that life is a long-distance race. In order to give full play to your best strength, you must adopt a pace that balances career and love. In the long-distance race of life, people are constantly joining you. They may run with you for a while, or for a lifetime. The ending of “Hot Sun” opens up an open possibility for Sheng Yang and Jian Bing: they stand side by side, instead of happily Living together is the end.
Down-to-earth narration: restoring the true logic of life
“Hot Sun” is able to complete a down-to-earth narration of sister-brother love, also thanks to the fact that it does not use industrial saccharin to blend a sweet water drama, but uses very real details to build a highly credible “interface”. First of all, the characters are not pieces of paper, but three-dimensional, and the characters are not tools used to promote the development of conflicts and conflicts in the plot. My ex-husband is not a stereotypical scumbag, he has his own charm. Jian Bing is not a “devil” who cuts off love and turns into a black man after being hurt, nor is she a silly Baitian who suddenly shouts slogans after being melted by her brother’s love. The changes in the characters in the play are reasonable and logical, rather than a fragmentary collage. “Hot Sun” can resonate with the audience almost every time it touches the heartstrings. This not only requires understanding and respecting the needs of the audience, but also giving the characters a flesh-and-blood three-dimensional personality instead of an empty personality.
The issues in the plot are very sharp, but they are not bloody, kitsch or heavy. For example, Sheng Yang’s parents argued about a dress priced at 3,000 yuan. For an ordinary family, the mother’s invisible and heavy housework for many years has not been seen. Is she qualified to reward herself with a 3,000 yuan dress? This plot made netizens “fight”. From different perspectives, 300 reasons can be listed, but the cleverness or truth of “Scorching Sun” is 3,000 yuan – adding an extra zero becomes 30,000 yuan, or The price dropped to 300 yuan after all the zeros have been removed is a price that makes it difficult for people to “fight on their own”. However, 3,000 yuan, a price that an ordinary family can consume if they work hard, but is slightly luxurious, can make the plot come true.
This real life logic comes from but is higher than dog blood.
The sibling relationship between Sheng Yang and Jian Bing also has to go through the parental relationship – however, Sheng Yang’s mother did not read the evil mother-in-law script. On the contrary, she understood Jian Bing’s choice to find a young boyfriend. She opposed Sheng Yang and Jian Bing. Bing is together not because of their age gap, but because Jian Bing is so good:
“You two are not suitable because she is too good and you will have a hard time. How much does she earn in a year and how much do you earn? You go out together. She flies first class, a five-star hotel, eats Michelin, and you fly economy class. Express hotel? It’s not because you’re bad, it’s because of the age and experience gap between you.”
Although the entry point is sharp, the plot does not grasp the bloody points to amplify and attract attention, but restores the true logic of life. The gentle tone is supplemented by the details of the flow of life, and it is eloquently told. “Hot Sun” is a literary and artistic attempt to inherit the innovative expression of sister-brother love, and stage a warm redemption with fairy tale color in a life-oriented way.
(The author is a doctor of arts and a young drama critic)
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责编：张晓荣 ]
