Weak development of youth-themed film and television dramas, starting from reality, reverse the trend of mediocrity in works

is the first season of the year, and all kinds of topics about youth education have once again become a hot topic in the context of popular culture.

original title: troubles in the growth of youth-themed movies and TV dramas

is the first season of the year, and various topics about youth education have once again become a hot topic that is easy to resonate in the context of popular culture. Specific to the film and television field, after a period of silence, the creation with the growth and education of young people as the main content began to pick up in recent years, and continue to form a cultural phenomenon that has aroused widespread discussion in public opinion. This is a timely response of film and television producers to the market phenomenon that a new generation of "small audiences" has rapidly emerged as the main consumer group, and this trend has spawned the collective appearance of a number of "small actors" in the field of film and television performance. This kind of phenomenon that actors and audiences are in the same generation, influence each other and grow together with creation, deserves the attention of the industry.

strong > Creative collective efforts continue to create hot topics / strong >

Chinese youth themes in the 20th century have experienced glorious moments. "Oh, fragrant Snow", "drummer from Flame Mountain" and "reply from Heaven" won awards at the Berlin Film Festival in Germany: "the Fifth Generation" directors Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou sent "the King of Children" to the international film festival; the TV series "Flower season at 16", "Little Dragon Man" and "Don't cry at the age of 17" entered the prime stalls of television stations, creating a peak in television ratings at that time. Subsequently, this kind of creation fell into a downturn in the process of market-oriented transition of the film and television industry, such as sporadic flickering, occasionally appeared. For example, the TV series "Internet Age", "Happy Planet" and the movie "Yangtze River No. 7" and "Beautiful Bigfoot" are not as numerous and influential as before. Although there has been a hot talk about the series sitcom "Family with Children", it proves from one side that the lack of youth theme at that time-it is precisely because the demand for viewing of this theme has not been met for a long time, the emergence of a masterpiece, will cause the audience enthusiasm to erupt so intensely and centrally.

since the new century, youth film and television creation has made a comeback for the first time, starting from "where is Dad going?" in 2013. The popularity of the variety show not only quickly uncovered the existence of "small audience", a newly growing consumer group, but also aroused a strong demand for this kind of film and television works starring naive and lovely "little actors". Subsequently, for "small actors" and "small audience" to create and produce and even the broader sense of youth theme works emerge one after another. From the TV series "Little Daddy" and "Little parting" and "Tiger Mom and Cat Dad" back to the prime-time broadcast of satellite TV, to the movies "Young Class", "Youth School", "Foreign Girls come to my Home", "A hundred Birds pay homage to the Phoenix" has attracted public attention because of its good reputation, in addition, series and column dramas such as "Balala Little Devil Fairy", "Dance Girl" and "I am in charge of School", as well as micro films represented by "he Xiaoguang's Summer". Compared with the previous glorious period, the popular youth themes have more mature production ideas, more approachable topics, and pay more attention to educational topics that are closely related to growth and concerned by the whole society.

strong > mainstream value guidance should replace anxiety / strong >

the number of youth-themed movies and TV dramas has increased, and the problems have followed. Some works tend to be hollow in content and light in style. the original in-depth discussion on teenagers' life planning and spiritual growth has been replaced by the description of confusion and anxiety in the face of the current situation of education in different strata of adult society. some even regard children as the background and symbols in the stories of emotional entanglements and interest disputes among adults.

Let's sort it out from the bottom up: for movies and TV dramas purely aimed at "small audiences", in order to attract the attention of the target audience and achieve the purpose of amusing children, they often choose magic and fantasy techniques suspended above reality to pursue lively and cheerful dramatic effects, so as to avoid the cultural consideration of values and the in-depth exploration of the subject of growth and education. While some of the works focusing on left-behind children, problem teenagers and other special groups often take the theme as a gimmick, in order to get more attention, they put on a cloak of topics of interest to the audience, which seems to have a profound connotation, but in fact it is superficial. Although on the surface, some youth works focus on the topic of growth, showing parents' feelings about their children's education when they reach middle age, they are actually "new wine in old bottles." through the clues of teenagers' growth, they continue to write about the types of daughter-in-law dramas, workplace dramas, or emotional dramas. The plot settings of this kind of works all make way for the adult stories to be presented. Although "little actors" take part in the performance, they only play the function of background board, and teachers or elders seldom play the role of enlightenment and guidance in the course of their growth. so that the work lost the heavy background it should have. All these belong to pseudo-realism, because the production is mature and the topic is fashionable, so it is more deceptive and confusing.

the rapidly developing social environment has led to the growth and spread of anxiety, nostalgia and decadence, making youth themes into another narrow lane of creation-excessive consumption of topics such as studying abroad, puppy love, college entrance examination and so on. The creators of youth romance films such as "that year in a hurry", "Why Sheng Yu", "Li Lei and Han Meimei" and "you deskmate" are good at borrowing plot routines of types and styles, although they ensure a certain degree of drama and appreciation, but it is difficult to dig into the depths of society and life, so that the images of young characters are isolated from the development of the times, forming a spiritual isolated island. The works can not touch the essence of the current youth life, so they have to be mediocre and superficial, so it is difficult to arouse a wide range of spiritual resonance in the "small audience" and act as a dirge for the middle-aged audience to mourn the passing of their youth when they are hypocritical. In particular, like "my Heart Sparrow", which appeared in the face of "Girl Movie" last year, trying to show the puberty story of female high school students, but showing the emotional life of the "half-familiar girl" secretly in love with the male teacher as a spectacle, the style is not high. All in all, if the current creators can not find the coordinates of youth themes, it is very difficult to find representative typical stories for this particular era on the way of teenagers' growth. Only through topic hype, emotional rendering and other external packaging to cover up the works in the meaning of life, the value of life and other themes of the inherent deficiencies, "education" and "growth" become a name.

strong > reversing the trend of mediocrity and flashy works from reality / strong >

combing through the classics of youth movies and TV dramas, we find that successful cases always revolve around how to use innovative artistic expressions and authentic story characters to show the reactions and efforts made by young people when they face challenges in different life situations. So as to inspire the general public to re-recognize and think about the law of life growth, the development trend of the times, social reality and so on. The Indian film "Wrestling, Dad" starts with the story of how a former wrestler's father broke through obstacles to train his two daughters and make them both world champions after his dream was shattered. It depicts the low status of Indian women and discusses the topic of how to change their own destiny through efforts. With the true story of low achiever's counterattack, the Japanese film "the bottom Spice Girl" inspires the audience to pay attention to the disadvantages of the Japanese education system that is not good at teaching students in accordance with their aptitude. There are also films such as "Soul Hunter" and "Dead Poets Society", which all extend the creators' examination of education, human nature, society, times and other deep contents from the growth stories of teenagers.

in fact, the recently released film "Flash Girl" borrows the expression of two-dimensional culture to call on the whole society to attach importance to folk music education, which can be regarded as a novel idea of youth theme. This well-known work did not trigger a movie frenzy, even if the poster showing the propaganda team kneeling and begging everyone to watch the movie would not help. The main reason for this situation is that from the beginning of the conception, the creators tried to bypass the serious topics of the long history of traditional folk music and the grim reality of art education, and used the freshness created by the so-called "popular folk music" such as COSPLAY elements and "power over the world" to attract young audiences, but could not arouse social attention from a broader level, but could only achieve a minority carnival of a subculture. In contrast, the experience of describing the learning skills of Tianming teenagers in "A hundred Birds to the Phoenix" is much more profound. The film goes deep into the texture of traditional culture and real life, truly presents the eastern inheritance that integrates the elements of family affection, and puts forward the proposition of "how to inherit excellent traditional skills". It can be seen that only by sinking down, getting close to real life, returning to "growth" itself, and making the theme deeply linked and interacted with the social ideals and national spirit of contemporary China, is the way for the healthy development of domestic youth theme creation.

with the advent of the Internet era, there are a large number and variety of works that can be viewed on the film and television communication platform, including American TV dramas, Korean TV dramas and Hollywood blockbusters. How to get a place in the fierce competition with these competitors, and on the basis of meeting the diversified and differentiated viewing needs of the younger generation, play a positive role in moral improvement, personality improvement and values shaping in their life growth, and then promote the overall improvement of social aesthetic orientation and the cultural quality of the audience, the creators of domestic youth films and TV dramas still have a long way to go. From this point of view, we make a traceable specimen study of "little actors", "small audience" and even teenagers, which is of positive significance to examine the present and guide the future.

(author: Zhang Ziyang is former director of CCTV Development Research Center and Li Yuran is doctor of Communication University Of China Art Research Institute)

Editor: mary