"In the Distance" is being broadcasted by Oriental TV and Zhejiang TV. The screenwriter Shen Jie is used to brushing social media every morning to check all kinds of comments about the play. Every day, many friends who follow the drama send him WeChat to ask about the plot and express their feelings.
In recent years, the works handed in by Shen Jie are qualified to write down a strong sum in the history of China TV series. In 2017, the TV series "White Deer Plain" and the TV series "Chicken Feathers Fly to the Sky" were broadcast, and the scores of the two douban films broke 8, winning many weighty awards in the industry such as "Flying Award", "Golden Eagle Award" and "Magnolia Award". When "Chicken Feathers Fly to the Sky" was broadcast, it was very popular and highly discussed, which helped Zhang Yi and Yin Tao both stand on the podium of the Magnolia Award in the 23rd Shanghai TV Festival.
Why did you write "In the Distance"
Today, the original intention of this film "In the Distance" comes from a trip to Tonglu by Shen Jie and producer Wu Jiaping.
Tonglu County, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, is a rich and beautiful town on the Fuchun River. On the other side of the river is a deep mountain. There is a Zhongshan township in the mountains. An open road in front of Zhongshan township government is called "Shentong Avenue", and there is a big stone tablet in Zhongshan township, which reads "The birthplace of private express delivery in China".
The famous "Three Links and One Reach" in China Express Industry all originated in Zhongshan Township: Xiatang Village in Zhongshan Township is the hometown of Nie Tengfei, founder of Shentong, and Tengyun Nie, founder of Yunda; Yujia Village in Hengcun Town has Yu Weijiao, chairman of Yuantong, and Tianjingling is the hometown of Lai Meisong, chairman of Zhongtong.
In Shen Jie’s view, the greatness of China’s express delivery industry lies in the fact that these entrepreneurs, who started from the humble beginnings, initially took their relatives and family members to travel together. Their entrepreneurial history is a microcosm of the soaring history of private enterprises in China in recent twenty years. "I want to catch the pulse of the times", Shen Jiemeng gave birth to the idea of using a drama about logistics and express delivery industry to string together the lives of all walks of life and people and tell the history of the times.
From thought to practice, there are too many hardships. Shen Jie interviewed many practitioners in the logistics and e-commerce industries, from corporate bosses to grassroots employees. "I don’t have an assistant. I have to organize the recording myself. The process of organizing is to let these stories be repeated in my heart." In the script stage, Shen Jie rewrote it three times and five times. By the time of filming, he was still readjusting the script according to the actor’s personality and state. His "adjustment" was not the fine-tuning of lines and paragraphs. He changed "Liu Ailian", who was "a box lunch" in the early stage of the plot, to "live" and overthrew the whole character of "Homey". When producer Wu Jiaping collaborated with him on "Chicken Feathers Fly to the Sky", he was used to it. "I read the script and thought it was quite good, but he just wanted to rewrite it."
"Facing the contradiction directly can explain the greatness of this country." Shen Jie carried out this point in his creation. In the first few episodes of the series, the main doubts focused on the drama showing the contradiction between China Post and private express delivery in the early years.
In the 1990s, the nascent private express delivery was in a gray area, which had many conflicts with the postal industry. However, it is these conflicts that show the pain of the rapid change and development of the times, which brings reflection from all walks of life after the pain, and finds the most suitable road after reflection. The rapid development of express delivery industry in China is hard-won. "I want to use this line to show how much pain, struggle and rebirth China has come to today."
It is not easy to weigh the handling methods and manifestations of this group of contradictions. It was not until the day before the broadcast of Far Away that the drama got the broadcast license, and it was once faced with the possibility of stopping broadcasting during the broadcast. Shen Jie also wrote a long letter to save a certain plot. After the series started, Shen Jie was still revising the plot with the editor, rewriting the lines one by one, and letting the actors dub.
After filming this drama, Wu Jiaping said to Shen Jie, "Brother, we are really tired. Next time, let’s simply make a ‘ Explosions ’ Ok. "
For Shen Jie, "In the Distance" is a concentrated reflection on life, society, life and emotion in recent years. He twisted these thoughts together and put them all into this contemporary realistic play. As he said, "realism to me is not a simple eulogy, nor is it a simple selling evil, which can’t conquer the audience." Realism for me is to face up to contradictions, spread hope and brew feelings. "
"In the Distance" stills, Liu Ye plays Yao Yuan.
"I always have a worship for women."
"I believe it will be a very strange thing." Indeed, as Shen Jie judged, the actors were "startled" when they saw the script. Ma Yili read the script and bluntly said, "I can’t do Lu Xiaoou"; Mei Ting said: "How can a person like Liu Ailian exist?" But after the performance, they all understood the characters. Ma Yili told Shen Jie, "I have been through so much, and I found that Lu Xiaoou is much stronger than me. Maybe I can do what she did in the future. You wrote something that makes women who have experienced it feel powerful. "
The relationship between characters in Far Away was written wonderfully by Shen Jie. The emotional entanglements among the three characters played by Liu Ye, Ma Yili and Mei Ting have broken the usual labels of domestic dramas, and it is impossible to define the right and wrong in their emotions. In the current social context of China, the audience is used to making moral criticisms on the characters in film and television dramas, such as "love rat" and "mistress". However, in Far Away, this moral criticism is out of focus. In the barrage of video websites, the audience’s position repeatedly lingers among three characters, "Today ‘ Yao Yuan ’ Be scolded, tomorrow ‘ Lu Xiaoou ’ Be scolded, the day after tomorrow ‘ Liu Ailian ’ Being scolded, in the end, everyone will find that everyone can understand. " Shen Jie said with a smile, "One word can’t sum up a lively life. I want to challenge the simplified and conceptual thinking in the network age."
"In the Distance" stills, Ma Yili plays Lu Xiaoou and Mei Ting plays Liu Ailian.
"The first time I met a screenwriter in a Chinese drama, I was stunned." This comment from Weibo is Shen Jie’s favorite sentence. "Than everyone said ‘ The screenwriter writes well ’ Makes me happier. You think you can guess the plot direction of the characters, but you will never guess. " Shen Jie said, "This is my greatest motivation for this creation." In his view, many domestic audiences have developed a very "lazy" habit of watching dramas in recent years. "They don’t have much hope, and they think that the screenwriter must write like this. Forget it, just let people enjoy it. But this time I just want to make everyone turn around. " He said that he hopes to make everyone realize that there are few things that are right or wrong in life and emotion: "Everyone’s selfishness is understandable, and everyone’s love and separation are worthy of respect."
"There are many subtle and complicated relationships in life, and we should respect the deep and secret emotional experience." In Far Away, "Lu Xiaoou" and "Liu Ailian", two rivals in love, later became good friends. "When writing this transformation, I gave myself a particularly big problem. They don’t tear it. Everyone may think that these two people are Virgin." But in the end, the communication between them is always rational and mature. Every detail of the relationship between this group of characters and every mood change put forward extremely high requirements for the screenwriter. "But I just want to write backwards. Now there are too many dramas that follow the audience’s thinking."
"Between women and women, there is more integration and empathy. It is actually easier to reach an understanding between the same sex. " Shen Jie recalled that when he was a child, most of the children in the apartment next door were girls. He played with them since childhood and formed his habit of observing women. To some extent, Shen Jie pinned her thoughts on the beauty of women on Lu Xiaoou and Liu Ailian. "Skin deep beauty is fleeting, ‘ Beauty lies in the bone, not the skin ’ , I have seen ‘ Beauty lies in bone ’ The woman. But what is more real? I tried to use these two roles to explore the ultimate beauty of women. " In the story, two women jumped out of this emotion, found their own career and value, and pursued a higher life experience. "I have always admired women."
"In this land, capital can’t do whatever it wants"
In Far Away, Shen Jie wrote a paragraph in which Lu Xiaoou was prone to depression, and the person who helped her out was Liu Ailian. She told Lu Xiaoou with her simple life experience and mental journey: I died, and I can understand your suffering. Under her advice, Lu Xiaoou walked out of the broken shadow of family of origin and realized self-healing. "A rural woman without higher education helped a master of psychology out of the psychological dilemma." According to Shen Jie, this is not an unrealistic scene.
Starting from "Chicken Feathers Fly to Heaven", Shen Jie wrote about Qiu Yingjie, an intellectual official, which played a vital role in expanding the pattern and vision of Chen Jianghe, a grassroots businessman. In "In the Distance", the understanding and resonance reached between different classes in the collision of cognition and wisdom is written more clearly.
Some people are puzzled by the feelings of "Lu Xiaoou" and "Yao Yuan". "How can a master of psychology and a courier be together?" However, Shen Jie believes that "the greatness of China in these decades lies in breaking all class differences. Many great entrepreneurs have their dreams from humble times, and the times tell them, don’t be afraid, you have a chance to realize your dreams. " The greatness of this era lies in its mobility, which can break the class solidification. People can choose to believe in idealism and believe in the inevitable relationship between personal ability and self-realization.
In Shen Jie’s view, "Chicken Feathers Fly to Heaven" was a "failure" in the second half, and "I didn’t write the contemporary commercial war drama well". It is Shen Jie’s request to write "reality" in "In the Distance". In the second half of the story, Shen Jie put his own thoughts on capital, and Yao Yuan was made and defeated by capital, and began a long reflection. "In recent years, a large part of our history is the history of capital and people." Capital intervenes in everyone in all directions, from economic life to moral standards. "Are we going to be swallowed up by capital and become a heartless person, or are we going to use capital as a tool to realize our dreams? This is what I want to discuss. "
Shen Jie said that he wrote a dialogue between "Xiang in the Road" and a capital crocodile in "In the Distance". The other party said that "capital can devour everything, and you must respect people’s desires"; Lu Zhongxiang said that we have an old saying in China that has given the answer — — Sincerity, integrity, self-cultivation, self-cultivation and rule the country. "We China people don’t believe in this evil. At least in this land, capital can’t do whatever it wants."
Stills of Far Away, Lu Xiaoou and Yao Yuan.
"Fear is the greatest motivation in life"
In Far Away, Yao Yuan and Lu Xiaoou experienced three separations. "Three separations are my summary of all separations between men and women," Shen Jie said. "The first time was because of Yao Yuan’s inferiority complex; The second time was because of differences in ideas, because two noble souls demanded emotional purity. " For the third time, Yao Yuan wanted to give way to Xiao Ou to put down his career and be a good wife and mother at home. Lu Xiaoou was washing dishes in the kitchen, humming a song. "Humming tears came down. She didn’t want to be such a role. She left to pursue her ideal."
When it comes to love in domestic dramas, it is often about "being together", but what attitude should we take to separate? There are few successful descriptions of this situation. "When you decide to say goodbye, you grow up." Shen Jie said.
"Every time I say goodbye to something I cherish, it is to welcome the wider world. But this farewell is often particularly cruel. This has my own life experience, and separation is ‘ Molting ’ The catalyst is to break away from the past. "
"Do you know what is the biggest motivation for people? Fear. Human beings are always in fear. If they are unsuccessful, they will have the fear of being unsuccessful. If they succeed, they will have greater fear, but this is the driving force for us to keep moving forward. "
In Far Away, Yao Yuan has been living in fear and anxiety in the middle and late stages of the story. He finds his limitations every day and faces new crises every day. In his writing, Shen Jie chose several major events in China in recent 20 years as the background of the story, among which the most impressive events have memories of "fear" of the whole people: SARS, Wenchuan earthquake and economic crisis. It is more convincing that people’s emotions are integrated into the "fear" emotions of the great era. The little people are in the great "sad" moment in the torrent of history, and the light of hope and the beauty of human nature they are struggling for are more powerful. "Every fear and pain makes you realize that it’s time to say goodbye. Farewell should be beautiful. Looking at it for a lifetime, it is often an opportunity for growth. "
"I have already thought about it, what I will lose and what I will gain."
When Far Away was first broadcast, all kinds of sweet moments of the hero and heroine, such as "rooftop kiss", "eyelash killing" and "noodle kiss", rushed to Weibo for hot search. "They just told me, look, you should still write this kind, it’s as easy as blowing off dust, and the audience likes it." But Shen Jie didn’t like it. "This is what I used to write best. How many years have I been writing?"
Shen Jie played a drama written in the past with the reporter. At the beginning of Live with a Smile, a five-year-old girl stood at the gate and was thrown away by her mother. In You Are My Life, the child saw his father’s foot stuck on the railway and run over by the train … … Strong emotional stimulation in the drama bridge directly hit the audience’s tears, "the most effective, but the most lazy." I used to start like this, so the ratings were the first. But I don’t have any sense of accomplishment. I want to do something rational and speculative now, but the audience will certainly narrow. Take your time. When I wrote this play, it was the same as when I wrote White Deer Plain. I had already thought about what I would lose and what I would gain. "
He wrote down his reflection on his creation on his mobile phone: "In the past, thinking about emotions was how deep feelings turned into contradictions, how to tear up lively and beautiful. But at this age, I suddenly want to do something real and exciting, because I find that the more bizarre things are, the less rich they are. And that level that is more real than life is about our deep memories, memories that we don’t want to be known. "
"I want to find the truth in real life and the truth in people’s hearts now." Shen Jie continued: "Things that are more real than life will scare people." He said that many famous dramas and literature have written "something more real than life, even touching the other side, a bit like faith".
After several works received attention and recognition in the past two years, praise and temptation came to Shen Jie. It is not easy to hold that truth firmly. "Don’t face the world of flowers and flowers, those applause are too destructive." He felt he had to stay awake.
How to stay awake?
"Just masochistic bai. In other words, it is not enough for you to know where the farther goal is and let you know what it is now. " (The Paper reporter Yang Yuting)
