Entrepreneurship, as exciting as it was ten years ago, will be breathtaking ten years later. In the current general environment, it is recognized that it is safe to take the public and postgraduate entrance examinations for teaching qualifications; when starting a business, some people know that there are tigers in the mountains and prefer to go to the tiger mountains. But at the moment when "going ashore" has become a common wish, starting a business by riding the wind and waves can still bring a strong sense of satisfaction to people. If you dare not do it in reality, it is always happy to watch entrepreneurship in movies and TV series. "Entrepreneurship" in film and television dramas also has its development stages in China's decades of TV drama history. A brief inventory may give the audience and practitioners something to think about.

Entrepreneurship and business in period legendary dramas

Twenty years ago, period romance dramas with the theme of entrepreneurship and business were a popular genre of domestic dramas. "The Gate" in 2001, "The Dyeing Shop" in 2003, and "Qiao's Courtyard" in 2006 were all top performers. Not only did they have high ratings when they were broadcast, but they also won various awards in domestic professional festivals. Awards. After that, this type of works is not uncommon in domestic dramas, and certain creation and market rules can be summarized.

First, most of its stories are adapted from real people's history. "The Great Dyeing House" tells the story of a young beggar named Chen Shouting in Zhoucun, Shandong Province at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China. He was adopted as the adopted son by Zhou Cuntong and the owner of the dyeing house Zhou, and then he learned the craft of dyeing cloth hard. After ten years of hard work, he co-founded Dahua Dyeing Factory and embarked on the road of industrial printing and dyeing. Dahua Dyeing Factory eventually developed into the second largest printing and dyeing factory in Qingdao. The story is adapted from a real person. "Qiao Family Courtyard" takes the Qiao Family Courtyard as the background and tells the story of a generation of legendary Shanxi businessman Qiao Zhiyong who gave up writing and went into business. After going through many difficulties and dangers, he finally realized how to sell goods and connect the world. The same goes for dramas such as "Mansion Gate" and "Hu Xueyan".

"Mansion Gate" poster

Second, most of these dramas were broadcast during prime time on the CCTV platform at that time, and most of them were produced by top domestic writers, directors, acting, creative and production teams. "The Manor" features actors such as Chen Baoguo, Siqin Gaowa, Liu Peiqi, and He Saifei, as well as guest appearances by famous directors such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, which shows the grandeur of the cast; the same is true for "Qiao's Courtyard" and "The Great Dyestuff".

"Qiao Family Courtyard" poster

Third, these dramas are mostly period dramas and costume dramas. The blessings brought by time and history make these works rich and legendary, and avoid the creative logic restrictions of many realistic themes. Therefore, this batch of entrepreneurial and business dramas have left a mark in the history of Chinese dramas and are still talked about by audiences.

But over the years, the production of such works gradually decreased. On the one hand, the market was once saturated, and the exploration of genres and materials gradually dried up. On the other hand, such works have purely literary characteristics and are quite difficult to create, often requiring senior screenwriters to spend many years of concentration. Creation, for the TV drama industry, is quite risky in terms of commercial returns. Therefore, in recent years, such works have gradually disappeared from the market.

Female videos’ refreshing articles have become a new outlet for entrepreneurial dramas

Then, as the market economy took off and people started to start their own businesses, some producers also focused on the theme of "entrepreneurship" and made many new attempts, such as "There Are Arbors in the South" and "Entrepreneurship Era" in previous years. However, these works have not achieved satisfactory results and reputation in the market. Instead, they have been questioned by some viewers as "falling in love under the guise of entrepreneurship" due to insufficient rigor in creation or too many love scenes. Among the many entrepreneurial dramas, the one that broke through and gained high ratings and reputation was "That Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Full" starring Sun Li.

Stills from "That Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Full"

"That Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Full" catches up with an era when the Chinese drama industry and audiences favor "heroines in ancient costumes". Women who should have been locked up in a house due to the confinement of feudal ethics can actually be like that. In this era, fighting through the siege with wisdom and courage and achieving a career is really full of "counterattack cool writing" elements. Finally, industry creators have realized: the era of literary and heavy entrepreneurial dramas has passed, and now, the new trend of entrepreneurial dramas is the female-driven drama.

But at that time, a large number of female pornographic novels focused on palace battles, fantasy, and fairy tales. In the wave of IP adaptation, such works were the first to ride on the express train of online video broadcasting platforms and capital, and were adapted into films and television in large numbers. The drama was a commercial success, and almost no one tried to start a business. Until recent years, when audiences have grown tired of aesthetics from works such as palace battles and fantasy, the development of new genres has become imperative.

Ms. Wang (anonymous), who has worked on a well-established online female channel platform for many years and switched to platform IP procurement in recent years, recalled: “Around 2013, the main types of online stories favored by film and television companies were fantasy and palace fighting. But in recent years, I When the platform is doing IP selection work, you will feel that the market now favors house fighting, farming and business." She added, "The fantasy and palace fighting genres in the early years sold well, and the broadcast results after the adaptation were also good. But to be honest , the audience feels that they are all the same after watching too much. In addition, these two types of genres mostly require large production and investment. Now is no longer the era of 'capital boom'. All platform companies are 'reducing costs and increasing efficiency', such as house fighting and farming, production It can be much cheaper than the first two.”

It can be observed from the aired dramas on the market that what Ms. Wang said is true. In the fantasy genre, after "A Thousand Bones" and "Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms" exploded in the early years, many people followed the trend. However, in recent years, the market response has been obviously not as good as before; as for the palace battle genre, although "The Legend of Zhen Huan" is still in Chinese The "Eternal God" of the Internet, "Story of Yanxi Palace" was also a hit. However, the huge investment in "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace" was not proportional to the response and income when it was broadcast. Coupled with the contraction of policies, it was obvious that the palace would not be popular after that. Fighting type works are also rare on the market.

In 2018, the hit movie "Know, Do You Know?" "It should be green, fat, red and thin" proved that the house fighting genre has unlimited potential in costume dramas. Subsequently, the industry also began a new round of screening and creation of house fighting farming and business IPs.

In 2019, "Celebrating More Than Years" became a hit. Although the golden finger business line in it did not have many roles, it brought a lot of joy to everyone, and the discussion on the Internet was not low. So far, it has proved that this kind of subject matter is commercially useful. feasibility.

In 2021, "The Son-in-law" turned out to be a real business drama. The male protagonist played by Guo Qilin manages ancient industries with modern business warfare ideas. The contrast and sense of satisfaction produced made the audience unable to stop. The drama set a ratings record at the time, and it is still on iQiyi's top broadcast list. .

"Sister-in-law" poster

The film and television industry has always been cautious about the creation of new genres. From putting down fantasy palace fighting heroines to picking up house fighting and farming business, it has gone through many verifications in many works in the past ten years. By 2022, the hit works "Meng Hua Lu" and "Qing Qing Daily" have business lines. The heroine's tea house management line in "Meng Hua Lu" has been unanimously praised by the audience, "I love watching it, but I can't get enough of it."

"Meng Hua Lu" poster

"Everyday Life" Poster

As of this year, the heroine in "Chang Feng Du" and "Chun Gui Meng Li Ren" runs a cosmetics store, and the heroine in "Tian Geng Ji" is in the food and restaurant business. In ancient puppet dramas, the heroine doesn't have some decent entrepreneurship. The project seems to be unworthy of falling in love.

Poster of "Tian Geng Ji"

Subsequently, not long ago, the Mango Investment Promotion Conference officially announced the duo of Yang Zi and Li Xian's "National Color Youth". It is a legendary and inspirational story about the heroine who started her business by cultivating peonies, and finally managed the world, benefited the people, and helped the world. . There is also news that Zhao Lusi and Liu Yuning will star in "Pearl Curtain and Jade Curtain", which tells the story of the heroine's jewelry business. There are also works with female entrepreneurship as the selling point, such as "Xi Huazhi", "Sichuan Brocade Family", and "Female Businessman", which are already on the road of creation. It can be predicted that the type of female entrepreneurship and business operations may explode in the next few years. At this time, we will make a vertical comparison of dramas about entrepreneurship and business, and we will have new observations and thoughts.

"National Beauty" Poster

Compared with the early dramas such as "The Mansion", the current entrepreneurship and business type has a newly emerging feature of "female + costume + love". Entrepreneurship and business serve the heroine design, the expression of love, and the new expansion of the genre of costume dramas. . From the perspective of ancient puppet drama, compared with the fantasy palace battle theme in previous years, the addition of entrepreneurial and business elements can also prove the changes in the audience's aesthetics and social trends.

Compared with palace fighting dramas that revolve around a male competing for sex, and fantasy dramas that live and die for love for three lives and three lives, the audience now clearly wants to see the heroine "carry out a career", "make a lot of money" and "sisters stick together" ", instead of hanging on the male protagonist's love tree. "Being cool" is no longer just about "being loved", but the proof of self-worth that comes from women developing their talents, getting lucky, and starting businesses.

To a certain extent, this is a response by creators and the market to "voting with their feet" to the expectations of female audiences, but it should also be noted that the current type of entrepreneurship and business in costume dramas, especially ancient puppet dramas, is just As exciting elements for counterattack, making money, and establishing characters, there is a lack of careful consideration in the story logic and content of the entrepreneurship and business line, so the visibility is limited. It is far inferior to those in "The Mansion Gate" of the year, who only relied on business to start a business. It can make the audience unable to stop watching and excited.

Whether starting a business in a costume drama is a temporary popular element or whether it can lead to the opening and development of new genres remains to be verified by more film and television dramas.