7.8 points! Zhang Ruoyun and Wang Yang’s second set in ＂Celebration of More Than Years＂ was not as good as expected？

1905 movie network feature The drama "The Silk Case of Daming under the Microscope" (hereinafter referred to as "Daming under the Microscope") has been launched, and the platform popularity has reached up to 8800 +, but according to the data of Cat’s Eye Professional Edition, the popularity of the whole network has not yet "killed" into the top five days.Compared with the expectations before going LIVE, the whole still does not match expectations.

On the one hand, the series is adapted from the novel of the same name, and his novels have been a favorite in the film and television market in the past two years. There are already "Changan Twelve Hours", "Fengqi Luoyang" and "Fengqi Longxi" that have gone LIVE, and there are also some official announcements that have not been broadcast.

"Daming Under the Microscope" is Ma Boyong’s first screenplay and a work deeply involved in the creation.

On the other hand, the male protagonist is played, and his recent production and reputation are guaranteed to a certain extent, from "Celebration of More Than a Year" to.

In terms of word-of-mouth, in the first week of its launch, Douban scored 7.8 points. Compared to the drama market with 8 points at the beginning of the year, this result is not good. Looking through the comment area, some people praised the low score, while others felt that the praise was too high, and the praise was mixed.

So, what exactly is "Daming under the Microscope"?

01.

The story is adapted from a story in Ma Boyong’s novel "Daming under the Microscope", "straight-A student must die: the beginning and end of the Huizhou Silk Case".

This article is not so much a story, it should be regarded as an unknown history, which is the history that Ma Boyong dug up in the archives of the Ming Dynasty. "Because the living conditions of these ordinary people can only be speculated from the historical books, but from the beginning to the end of this controversy, all the controversial documents, correspondence, and government documents have been preserved. It shows us not a fragment, but a very comprehensive case."

According to the original novel, the story takes place in Huizhou, which is now Anhui. A person who is very stubborn in arithmetic finds out in the process of calculating that part of the taxes that this county has been paying for a hundred years should actually be borne by the whole state. At this point, he began the process of reporting layer by layer and pursuing the truth.

As a non-fiction historical book, the story itself is very exciting, and Ma Boyong is good at telling stories from the long river of history. But from words to images, more dramatic tension is required. Ma Boyong is also very clear, "Daming under the Microscope is not a novel, it is a historical documentary, without plot or characters, it is to record an event."

Many screenwriters felt that the story could not be changed, especially since there was a lot of debate about mathematics involved. So Ma Boyong decided to go into the battle himself and invited the screenwriters of the film.

The novel is not long, but a novella of dozens of pages. The creative team did not deliberately lengthen it, but chose to open it in the form of 14 short episodes. Even so, the series has been adjusted a lot compared to the novel.

For example, behind the incident, there are also related events related to the mysterious death of Shuaijia Mo (played by Zhang Ruoyun). Therefore, his paranoid personality drives him to find the "Silk Book" left by his father, as well as the string of numbers on the book door that are the same as the silk manual tax.

After adding such suspense clues, it also makes the original seemingly simple and more life-oriented story more tense, in line with the current audience’s viewing preferences for suspense dramas, and can also follow the protagonist’s search for the answer and enter the story.

It can be seen that the whole story has always been based on Shuaijia silence and extends outward.But judging from the current development of the plot, the characters are relatively direct, and there is not even too much explanation of the intention. Some characters are always like tools, appearing only in the special part of the story advancement, with the intention of making up for the story after the fact.

One of the best parts of the novel is the many heated debates in the government office, the charm of words, and the bottom-up accusation. In the series, the accusation is still reserved, but the passion for refutation is almost gone, and the antagonist in front of the hall is only seen, not seen, and lacks visibility.

Ma Boyong admitted that these professional debates are indeed the most difficult part of the entire creation. "Even I can’t tell these things vividly to everyone, so I can only make it as simple and visual as possible." In the series, the director arranged to use a mind map-like form to draw it more intuitively, "Try to deepen everyone’s understanding, but even so, I think from the current effect, I think it can be simpler."

What was supposed to be an exciting game ended up being a single event, and each actor was reduced to a functional tool. Of course, the director was obviously inexperienced in the scheduling of court scenes, and did not provide enough bonus points for this.

The development of the whole drama is good-looking and interesting, but when it comes to the details, or the overall characters, it lacks coherence. The development of many characters is smooth, and once connected, many emotional changes are forcibly reversed.

Mr. Ma said in an interview that Feng Baoyu (played by Fei Qiming) is a functional character who, in place of a voiceover, explains some of the Ming Dynasty-specific words involved in the series, "but I didn’t expect this character to be too jumpy. When he appeared, he jumped everywhere, grabbed a lot of scenes, and finally became a male third. This is how my characters live, and there is no way to control them."

In the series, Feng Baoyu appeared in the state of a playboy, addicted to the gambling house. But as the story progressed, his sense of justice became stronger and stronger, and there was almost no strong emotional turning point, so he naturally transitioned into an important partner of the male protagonist, upholding justice.

Overall, the screenwriter’s portrayal of the characters is profound, but also fragmented, and the group portrait expression is slightly lost.

02.

The reason why there is such a situation in the expression of characters is largely due to the adjustment of the character’s handsome personality.In the novel, he is a straight-A student with a quick mind and a "cautious person" who, although desperate, will explore many things enough to even write his own essays.

But in the episode, Shuai Jiamo’s character seems to be left with only superb arithmetic skills, and the whole person looks more "sluggish" on the outside.

This "stay" was mentioned in Episode 9, "eat more chicken heads, specialize in nerds".The two completely different personality changes made the audience have a lot of "innate impressions" of Shuai Jiamo when they watched it in the early stage.

For the fans of the original novel, it automatically brings in the more excellent side of the novel; for the audience who is familiar with Zhang Ruoyun, it is more natural to put in the setting of "pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger" in "Qingyu Nian" and "Swordplay in the Snow".

Especially in the court, when Shuai Jia silently showed his good arithmetic side, he seemed to have a state of Fan Xian reciting poems in the court. Perhaps this kind of genius character has made actor Zhang Ruoyun fall into a standardized expression.

From the previous interview, perhaps it was more the actor’s lack of control over the character. He had designed a lot of details for the character itself, such as the scars around the corners of the eyes. At the same time, he tried his best to approach the character’s essence in terms of sound and movement.But in fact, judging from Zhang Ruoyun’s current state, he swayed from time to time.

After such a change, if there was no Feng Baoyu, Feng Jasper, and Cheng Renqing who "jumped" behind, it would be hard to believe that a character like Shuai Jiamo was enough to shake the whole incident.

"Daming Under the Microscope" is very interesting as a whole, especially for tax issues, and can directly correspond to the current society. However, in terms of episode arrangement and character setting, even the original screenwriter Ma Boyong lacks a lot of footholds.

In recent years, the film and television adaptations of Ma Boyong’s novels seem to be "thankless", and there are few projects that are praised. Most of them will be criticized in terms of adaptations. This time, "Daming Under the Microscope" was personally done by Ma Boyong, but it still has not been fully recognized.

However, the only constant was that after the drama went LIVE, the careful study of Fu Hua Dao became the unanimous recognition of the outside world. The same is true of "Daming Under the Microscope".

An excellent play is not only dedicated to the production level, but also has a high degree of attention in terms of drama and lens scheduling. It really uses the lens to tell the story, but "Daming under the Microscope" is obviously just a good storyteller. It tells a complete story, but it lacks details.

However, the producer behind the series, Blank Film and Television, after successfully creating "Hurricane", did not really take advantage of the victory to create the next high-quality content.