国产剧为何比不过美剧韩剧?原来是这些原因降逼格!
英语课
China’s first anti-corruption TV show In the Name of the People has been viewed over 350 million times.
Am I going to watch it?
Thanks, but no.
Actually, I have never watched a Chinese TV drama that was produced on the Chinese mainland 1. Correction, I have never finished watching a Chinese TV drama series because they are too long, and I have too little time and patience.
How long is too long? Compared to Korean and Japanese TV dramas, which usually have 10 to 20 episodes 2, Chinese dramas are famous for telling long stories. In the Name of the People has 52 45-minute episodes. The longest TV drama, Daughter-in-law, tells the story of an old Chinese couple’s culture clash 3 with their foreign daughter-in-law. It has aired 3,100 episodes in the past 16 years, and the director said it will continue.
How do the directors make the stories last so long? Here is an example: Person A is killed by a Japanese soldier. Even though the audience might have seen how A was killed, character B would come and hold A’s body and repeat the story of how A was killed by a Japanese soldier. B then would tell C that A is dead and ask C to take revenge 4. In this way, the message that "A was killed by a Japanese soldier" is repeated three times.
What is the point of making such a long dialogue? A friend of mine who used to be a TV drama writer told me that the longer the story lasts, the more money he would get.
So I was not surprised when The Legend of Zhenhuan, a hot TV drama that swept China off its feet in 2011, was aired in the US and its original 76 45-minute episodes were shortened 5 to only six 90-minute episodes.
Another possible reason for the length is the target audience. Some of the shows target senior citizens like my mother. A 58-year-old housewife, she is a fan of Chinese historical TV dramas, and since many Chinese TV stations run two or three episodes every day, she could finish a drama within a month. When I asked whether she prefers the American TV drama format 6 with less episodes, she said long TV dramas remind her of chapters in a novel, similar to those from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) that began each chapter with a summary couplet.
"The story is long, but it has many layers," she said.
Over the years, the Chinese TV drama industry has been trying to win young viewers. They produced a lot of fantasy dramas with pretty and handsome actors. But the most popular ones are those that have characters people can relate to. For example, the 2016 50-episode drama Ode to Joy has become one of the most popular dramas because it reflects China’s current economic and social realities.
Will I watch it? Probably not. It would waste 2,250 hours of my time.
n.大陆,本土
- The new bridge will link the island to the mainland.新的桥梁将把该岛与大陆连接在一起。
- Hong Kong's prosperity relies heavily on mainland.香港的繁荣在很大程度上依赖于大陆。
插曲,片断( episode的名词复数 ); 一集
- The novel deals with the romantic episodes of her early life. 小说叙述了她早期生活的浪漫插曲。
- Three episodes have been telescoped into a single programme. 把叁集的内容压缩成了一个节目。
vi.冲突,不协调,砰地相撞;n.冲突,不协调
- There is a clash between two classes at 2 p.m. on Thursday.星期四下午两点有两堂课是冲突的。
- The pot came down on the stone floor with a clash.锅“当”地一声掉到石地上。
v.报...之仇,为...报仇 ;n.报仇,复仇
- She poisoned his mind with ideas of hate and revenge.她用复仇的思想来毒害他的心灵。
- There was anger in his eyes and revenge in his heart.他两眼闪现怒火,一心只想复仇。
v.弄短,缩短( shorten的过去式和过去分词 )
- She shortened the skirt by an inch. 她把裙子缩短了一英寸。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Vacations have lengthened and the work week has shortened. 假期延长,工作周就缩短了。 来自辞典例句
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国产剧