Halfway through writing the script for "The Sun Is With Me," the script was completely overturned by screenwriter Li Xiao.
The original task was to write a plot about a sister-brother relationship. As Li Xiao was writing, a major change suddenly occurred in her life - after her divorce, she met a boy younger than her and began a sibling relationship. Coincidentally, the book has a similar life trajectory to the heroine she wants to write about. Undoubtedly, for the screenwriter, being able to personally experience the protagonist's life is the best comment on the script.
"The Sun Is With Me" poster
After falling in love for a period of time, Li Xiao made a decision. She and her partner Jiang Wuji discussed rewriting the script. She felt that what she had written before was not quite right, like the imagination and stereotype of a person who had never experienced a sibling relationship: the two The mutual attraction between individuals comes from the novelty brought about by the age difference. The elder sister is attracted by the younger brother's youthfulness and vigor, while the elder sister is mature and can hold the audience. Her life experience will make her younger brother feel that there is something to learn from.
But Li Xiao's actual feelings are very different from this. "The younger brother in love is very mature mentally, much more mature than his peers, and he will have clear plans for his future. But this older sister actually has some thoughts deep in her heart." Some fantasies, and even some unfinished imaginations about love and the opposite sex in her girlhood." She also consulted friends who have sibling relationships and confirmed that this is the commonality.
So all the characters in the script were rewritten, and finally there was the current Sheng Yang and Jian Bing, and their love with a 10-year age gap. But this story is not only about their love, but also about the marriage of parents, the feelings of friends, and the entanglements of family members. From the beginning, Li Xiao did not regard "The Sun with Me" as a simple urban love drama, but as an urban reality-themed creation. "The biggest difference from a pure love drama is that the characters must have a foundation, and the characters must be similar to His growth background is inseparable, so we will also write out all the people and foundations next to and behind these two characters."
The biggest feature of Shengyang is “clean”
During the creation process, Li Xiao met Xiao Zhan once, which had a great influence on the formation of the character Sheng Yang. "He is different from other actors. He has the aura of someone who has come from the old times. He does things that are a bit traditional and old-school. I think he is very unique and rare. Not all actors have this temperament." Therefore, Li Xiao gave Sheng Yang a past relationship that he has never forgotten about his sister for 10 years. "Maybe if it were another actor, I wouldn't dare to write it like this, and the audience would not believe it, but I would believe it if Xiao Zhan said it."
Sheng Yang (played by Xiao Zhan)
Director Song Xiaofei added that Xiao Zhan and Sheng Yang integrate into each other, such as their careers. They both studied painting and design, "We don't have to make an actor act like he is good at painting or designing. He (Xiao Zhan) ) That is, when he opened the props we prepared for him, he was very familiar with them and knew how to use them. He was also very happy. The sketches, design drawings, and three-dimensional production drawings in the Moonlight Box section were all ready-made, and he He can also operate." Xiao Zhan's interest in painting made Song Xiaofei feel that "if he was not an actor, he would also become a good designer." Li Xiao said with a smile that Sheng Yang's career was actually just a coincidence. When she created the film, she didn't know that Xiao Zhan had studied this.
Stills of "The Sun Is With Me"
Sheng Yang also has Li Xiao’s own views on the ideal younger brother, “If a young boy attracts me, his greatest advantage is that he has not been confused by the muddy waters of the adult world. He is very pure. , Everything he does has his original intention." After reading the script for the first time, director Song Xiaofei also believed that Sheng Yang's biggest characteristic is "cleanliness", "the kind of cleanliness that shines through in the soul."
This kind of cleanliness is reflected in the script. Sheng Yang is a generous and sunny person. "He has that kind of innocent heart and is a very sincere person. He is also very sincere about all his situations, including his family background, He was also an honest person by birth, and he openly admitted to Jian Bing when he confessed, without any pretense or pulling." Li Xiao said frankly that so-called love is now very popular in online short videos and social platforms Skills, but she doesn't like it. "People like Sheng Yang have no skills. They do everything clumsily based on their sincerity."
Jian Bing’s “middle girl” situation
If Sheng Yang is the ideal sunny brother, Jian Bing's character creation is a more realistic and authentic display of the situation of "middle-aged women". For example, even if she has the ability to work, she still experiences gender discrimination in the workplace. Even if she works hard to manage her life, Still can't escape the exhaustion and deception of marriage. Li Xiao poured her feelings as a "middle girl" into Jian Bing.
"The other screenwriter and I are both at this age. We are at the age of middle-aged women. We are bound to understand the humanities and sophistication of many adult women. We want to put something real on Jian Bing. To put it very bluntly , when you reach this age, you may be faced with whether to have children in a relationship, as well as the conflict between childbirth and work. Divorce is also a very complicated workload. The original script was that she would get divorced as soon as she came on board, but we think it should still be There are some social issues or some women’s issues that I want to discuss, so I want to present the entire divorce process in a positive light.”
Jian Bing (played by Bai Baihe)
Jian Bing's divorce does not have a strong conflict plot like some marriage-themed dramas. Bai Baihe's valor makes the rational indifference and sorrow of both parties in this marriage more obvious. He does not even deliberately explain the division of property, nor does he include Family affection pulls. This was Li Xiao's original intention. She deliberately avoided strong conflict plots, and it was also a topic she wanted to discuss in her personal marriage.
"I have always believed that we should not talk about fairness in marriage, and we should not talk about fairness in relationships. Only these two people know how well they are in a marriage, so this is why we do not divide the property, nor do we have any disputes over the custody of the children. Because we feel like we can finally have a couple sit down and talk about their relationship and how they went from falling in love to where they are today."
Jian Bing had a completely different attitude from Sheng Yang when it came to the relationship between sister and brother. Even though she was aware of her feelings, she refused when Sheng Yang first confessed. This was also inconsistent with what Li Xiao had felt about women in their thirties. Relevant to the actual situation.
"That kind of situation is that after you come out of a long-term relationship, you don't trust feelings or intimate relationships very much, or it is difficult to establish a passion for intimate relationships. If you fall in love with someone again, think about it. I feel very tired and exhausted. A woman who has been married for 10 years and has just divorced will not be so anxious to get involved in the next relationship. A serious attitude will make people flinch. "
Stills of "The Sun Is With Me"
Li Xiao also admits that designing the heroine as Jian Bing is making it more difficult. “The threshold for her to fall in love with someone will be extremely high. The more clear-minded she is, she may even be disappointed and resistant to intimate relationships. People, if you write about how she fell in love, I think this process will be difficult." Although it is difficult, it is more realistic. "Young people nowadays have a saying: What is the point of falling in love? Make money and earn tens of millions. Don't be obsessed with love and talk about how great your electronic boyfriend is. Your electronic boyfriend can do anything for me. I don't want to be deceived by a man in real life, and I will live a miserable life. Everyone has this argument. You don't Do you think young people in the whole society are resisting love?"
Because of this, Jian Bing made Li Xiao full of creative desire, "It is most interesting to see how she is melted by sincerity little by little and becomes involved in this relationship."
The creation of group portraits makes the series closer to realism
The main plot of "Sunshine With Me" is the love between sister and brother, but several emotional lines of different age groups in the play moved director Song Xiaofei. He said that it was actually after seeing the group portrait scene that he decided to film it. "I really hope to make it." I feel satisfied if the group scene is well shaped. It lets the audience know that he does not live alone in this world. He has many relationships, including people you don't notice, and his life is also very interesting. "
Li Xiao also feels that she and Song Xiaofei have a tacit understanding on this point. The creation of group portraits makes the series closer to realism. "Both of us don't like to talk about the protagonist's feelings alone. The feelings of the green leaves around us are also worthy of blessing." , they are also worthy of being seen by you. Every pair has their own feelings, there is the friendship between women and women, there is the friendship between men and men, there are the emotions between parents and children, all emotions are equal."
Stills of "The Sun Is With Me"
However, Song Xiaofei also admitted that creating urban group dramas will face great challenges. This is different from the audience's current drama-watching habits. Audiences have become more and more accustomed to watching dramas of a single type and main line. Watching group dramas with multiple clues is not good for the audience. His patience has higher requirements, "We try to shorten it or use the shortest way to mention his surroundings to let the audience know that he does not live alone in this world. He has many relationships, including ones that you cannot notice. The person’s life is also very interesting. If it is not detailed, it will be difficult for the audience to believe that person’s feelings.”
Some netizens bluntly said that the emotional and friendship lines between parents account for a large proportion. Song Xiaofei also responded that this is what makes this drama difficult to film. "How to balance the relationship between the protagonist and the auxiliary lines, and how to make them intertwined comfortably, is quite difficult. Because it also needs to have a sense of convergence. We hope to promote a family-friendly feel in the play, and many parallel lines must be paralleled. It has that effect.”
Even though it challenges the audience's drama viewing habits, Li Xiao and Song Xiaofei still attach great importance to the shaping of other emotional lines, such as the relationship between Sheng Yang's parents. Li Xiao believes that life dramas of small characters are exactly the content that has been lacking in domestic TV dramas in recent years.
"We are relatively familiar with the relationship between our parents. I come from an ordinary family. My parents are both workers, and neither of them comes from a scholarly family. Therefore, small characters like Sheng Xiangqian and Luo Meijuan are the ones I am most familiar with. In the dramas of the past two years, this is There are relatively few minor characters, but when I first started writing scripts, there were a lot of TV series starring them, so we also want to take this opportunity to let them be seen."
Different from the implicit romance in Sheng Yang Jian Bing's relationship, the relationship between Sheng Xiangqian and Luo Meijuan is full of quarrels and reality. The main topic is daily necessities, care and concern, and there are many elements of depression. Li Xiao said that they were not set as positive teaching materials when creating, but only a reflection of reality. "They are the common appearance of our Chinese families. Their age and education determine that they will quarrel throughout their lives." A little warmth mixed with the commotion is quite representative at this age." The meaning of the middle-aged and elderly love lines is different from that of young people. "In young relationships, what is more important is that they interact with each other through each other. Love finally finds itself and fulfills itself.”
Director Song Xiaofei said that in order to make the emotional line of middle-aged and elderly people more relaxed, he chose a comedy-oriented expression, and also paid great attention to the furnishings and layout of Shengyang's home, "enhance some sense of humor, and make the home look warm. Home can never be... It is a place where bitterness and hatred are deep." Speaking of furnishings, the setting of "The Sun Is With Me" is a part that director Song Xiaofei cares about very much. He is a photographer and has worked with many directors such as Guan Hu and Xu Zheng. He was filming for Wong Kar-wai When working on "The Grandmaster", he always discussed the plot and characters, and paid more attention to the psychological state of the characters. Wong Kar-wai told him at that time that sooner or later he would become a director. Therefore, Song Xiaofei led his own photography team to scout the entire scene of "The Sun Is With Me".
Stills of "The Sun Is With Me"
"We have gone to see Shanghai and Chengdu. But standing in the environment of Chongqing, I just feel that this story can happen in this city, because it also has the feeling of a CBD with many high-rise buildings and very pyrotechnic roads. Alongside Malatang and ordinary people's lives, the Shengyang family is warm and can hear each other's voices, which brings a sense of reality. Chongqing's subways and bridges are particularly beautiful. Like telephone lines, they are the connection between two people. Xiao Zhan happens to be from Chongqing. He was born and raised there since he was a child and has also done design work, so he is not unfamiliar with the environment."
Song Xiaofei photographed Chongqing to have an urban feel that is different from that of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. “The scattered sense of its high-rise buildings is not in a two-dimensional sense, because it is a mountain city with scattered heights, and its light rail can shuttle through the city. In addition, this city gives me the feeling that we live on both sides of the city, and it seems that we are connected by bridges or light rails or subways. In this symbolic sense, I think it is also relatively advanced." He likes Chongqing very much. The subway, so you can often see the empty scenes of the subway, or subway scenes, but he also said helplessly that subway scenes are very difficult to shoot. "It is very difficult to control. We try our best to seize the opportunity, and we can only shoot three hours a day."
Pleasure brought by youthful breath
In fact, from the perspective of the protagonist's emotional line, one of the highlights of "The Sun Is With Me" is the combination of realism and idealism in the life of a "middle girl". There is passionate love. "Sister-brother romance" has been a hot topic in domestic dramas in the past two years, and it is also a type of foreign film and television dramas that may shine. Li Xiao does not think that the age gap makes this subject interesting. "In this era, everyone has watched and experienced There are also a lot of people, and they are very tolerant of relationships with a large gap between siblings or young and old, and they are no longer as curious as in the past." She focuses more on women, Especially the "middle girl" who has a deeper sense of emotion. When used as the main perspective, the joy brought by the youthful atmosphere also includes her joy in creating this drama.
Stills of "The Sun Is With Me"
"When you fall in love like this, you will feel very happy. You will feel that being young is such a good thing and worth being cherished. It will make you rediscover that young people have so many advantages, and these precious things You already have things on your body, but gradually you lose them or forget them, and he will remind me to pick them up. For middle-aged women, love is not the way or way to solve life issues. Jian Bing has a line, It is said that our life is like running a marathon. After the gun goes off, we run to the finish line alone. During this process, whoever has the same pace as you, you run with him for a while. Once the pace is different, then we will Goodbye. It doesn’t matter who you run the marathon with in this life. What matters is that you insist on finishing it. I think no one is fundamentally comforted by love. In this case, you have to attach yourself to an external force. The reason why brother-sister love is frequently mentioned is because the qualities of a young man are things you once had, but you have forgotten now."
