Text\Special writer Wang Rong
In the first quarter of 2023, China's TV screens will continue to have fun.
After the anti-criminal drama "Hurricane" and the science fiction drama "Three-Body Problem", the TV series "Our Days" is currently being broadcast on CCTV.
The play is co-directed by Wang Lei, Liu Chang, and Fu Zien. The main actors include Li Xiaoran, Li Naiwen, Song Chunli, etc.
The play takes the story of three families in a machinery factory in Northeast China as the main line. Through the narration of family history, a picture scroll of life in the era since the reform and opening up was unfolded.
"Our Days" is a period drama, and it is another drama series of the same type after last year's "Human World" became popular.
The play is known for its sense of the times, allowing the audience to see the changes of the times and the flow of history over the long years.
Through the reproduction and reconstruction of social life, the play has aroused the emotional resonance of audiences of different ages, and has become a phenomenon-level TV series that has attracted much attention.
Contemporary History and Nostalgia
In terms of the type of TV series, "Our Days" is a period drama.
Although there are different opinions on the definition of "chronological drama", this type of TV series mainly tells the history of the protagonist's personal and family life in the historical process.
Period dramas use the ups and downs of the fate of the characters and the rise and fall of the family to show the context of the country's development by going back to history.
Therefore, period dramas have the characteristics of seeing the big from the small and seeing the small from the small, and they have a strong meaning of national fables.
"Our Days" mainly tells the story of three families.
In the early days of reform and opening up, three different families lived in the courtyard of Hongguang Machinery Factory in Northeast China.
Wang Xianping and Liu Shuxia have very different personalities. The male is from a military background, while the female is full of literary and artistic atmosphere.
Dongfang Yushu and Fu Ying, one is gentle and delicate, the other is outspoken.
The love between Yang Dashan and Fang Hui's husband and wife envies others.
The three groups of couples have completely different ways of getting along, and they are contrasted with each other.
Coincidentally, three families gave birth on the same day and in the same delivery room: Wang Xuehua, Dongfanghong and Yang Siyu.
Afterwards, the story slowly unfolds amidst the quarrel and reconciliation of the parents' generation and the growth and emotional entanglement of the children's generation.
What's interesting is that the macro historical narrative in the play is completed from a private perspective.
The narrator in "Our Days" is Wang Xuehua, the daughter of Wang Xianping and Liu Shuxia.
Wang Xuehua's narration is full of nostalgia. Through this "post-80s" narrative perspective, parents' love, family life and family history are displayed.
There is no doubt that the life changes of several families in the play symbolize the development of contemporary society.
This is exactly the narrative mode of a typical period drama.
We can compare "The World" with "Our Days".
Both of these two dramas are period dramas, and they both set the background of the story in the collective factories and local streets in the northeast region, and use the separation and reunion of families as the content of the storytelling.
It's just that "The World" presents a longer historical context, while "Our Days" starts from the early days of reform and opening up.
Family life and human fireworks
In "Our Days", family life and the relationship between parents and children are at the heart of the story.
In this sense, this drama is ultimately a story of "family ethics".
"Our Days" records the daily life of the three families, and it also shows their joys and sorrows, full of the breath of fireworks in the world.
The "fireworks on earth" here come from the play's display of family life details and in-depth portrayal of characters.
At the beginning of the TV series, there are two main events: one is that three families give birth to a child at the same time, and the other is that Wang Xianping and Yang Dashan are competing to be the chief of the security department in the factory.
The main creator of the TV drama dramatized the two events, making the plot more concentrated and revealing the personality characteristics of different characters.
The same is giving birth—when Wang Xianping saw his wife Liu Shuxia’s pain in giving birth to her second child, he offered not to have another child, which showed his respect for his wife.
With Yang Dashan and Fang Hui, it was Yang Dashan who guarded Fang Hui meticulously after giving birth.
What's interesting is that Yang Dashan's gentle behavior made Liu Shuxia and Fu Ying in the same ward envious, and they all blamed their husbands for being inferior to others, which gave the plot a light comedy style in its calmness.
At the same time, the audience can see that although Wang Xianping is somewhat machismo and rough, he also has a tender side.
As for Yang Dashan, he was even more subtle in his roughness, and he was obedient to his wife, which formed a huge contrast with his own hooliganism.
The role played by Song Chunli, an old drama player, is very touching.
She lives with her daughter Liu Shuxia in her son-in-law's house. She advances and retreats on weekdays, and takes good care of her grandson Wang Mingzhong.
When she learned in the hospital that her grandson had a serious illness and was unable to give birth, she lost her mind instantly, showing mixed emotions, showing the blood relationship between the old man and the grandchildren.
Song Chunli's performance is precise and forbearing, combining complex inner activities with external physical performance, reflecting superb acting skills.
In the collective unconscious, the life background of Chinese people is always closely related to the family. Whether it is the love of parents or the relationship between father and son, it all reflects the love of Chinese families and the fetters of each other.
In Our Days, life within the home is a theater, and everyday life forms the backbone of the story.
When the content of the series is implemented at such a micro level of life, the audience will have a strong sense of substitution and empathy for the plot.
Realistic Scene Restoration
The audience's substitution and empathy also come from the authenticity and sense of the times of period dramas.
For TV drama shooting, to restore the texture of life itself, of course, the plot must be placed in a specific geographical space.
Geographical space is the basis of daily life. Only when it is rooted in the specific humanistic context can the fictional plot and the physical space be integrated, allowing the audience to feel "real".
In order to restore the scenes in the play in the 1980s and 1990s, "Our Days" restored the scenes with realistic creations, laying out real life scenes with precise details.
Most of the scenes of the play were shot in real scenes, and the filming location of the crew was Chunman Street, a century-old old street in Chengzitan Street, Dalian City, Liaoning Province.
The sense of the times and the historical atmosphere of this street give soul to the play.
With the popularity of TV dramas, this street where the TV dramas were filmed has also become lively.
In "Our Days", whether it is the factory workshop with the imprint of collectivist life or the interior layout in the family, it is full of spatial texture and creates a strong living atmosphere for the audience.
Various props appearing in the play, such as bicycles, old furniture, old color TVs, etc., are all objects collected by the crew from everywhere, with the authentic taste of life.
These symbolic utensils lay out the material density, highlighting the real sense of place, allowing the long years to flow in the space, thus bringing the audience back to the past.
(Wang Rong, Associate Professor of Drama, Film and Television Literature, School of Humanities, Hainan University, Master Supervisor)
("Hainan Daily", February 27, 2023)