"Joy of Life 2" has concluded with remarkable results. During the broadcast period, it set an astonishing market share of about 50% and the highest record in the history of Tencent Video's popularity value. It was the leader in the trend and undoubtedly became the hit drama of 2024.
One afternoon, the play's director Sun Hao and screenwriter Wang Juan were interviewed by reporters in the office of New Classics Media, a subsidiary of the producer Yuewen Group, where they talked about the creative process of the play and responded to the audience's various heated discussions about the play.
In 2019, a drama called "Joy of Life" was released. At that time, many male-oriented IP adaptations did not perform well, but "Joy of Life" broke this "male-oriented adaptation curse" and became the drama king of the year. "Counterattack", "cool drama", "high-energy" and "comedy" became the high-frequency discussion words of the drama.
Five years later, when "Joy of Life 2" returned, the audience found that the narrative of the show had undergone subtle changes: the theme became heavier and more serious, and the protagonist Fan Xian lost the halo of a protagonist with countless backers and invincibility, and began to have more constraints, struggles, and helplessness.
"He started out as a chess piece and became the chess player," this is Wang Juan's evaluation of Fan Xian in the second season.
Zhang Ruoyun as Fan Xian
"Fan Xian"'s decision and choice
"From the first season to the second season, the water is slowly boiling. When he first came to this world, he was a chess piece with only two questions in mind: who wants to kill me and who killed my mother." In the second season, Fan Xian faced more problems, the group portraits became more complex, and the difficulty of creation naturally increased. There are countless chess players in the story, and countless chessboards are spread out. Fan Xian shuttles among them, sometimes on the chessboard, and sometimes playing chess after planning. His relationship with many characters is also changing. It is these characters around him that allow Fan Xian to complete the establishment of his inner theme in the second season: to resist injustice and take the path he wants to take.
"And during this process, why couldn't he accept the current state of the world? He kept saying, I can't be my mother, I can't burn myself like Ye Qingmei. So for him to break this 'shell' and walk a similar path to his mother, it takes a process and a shock. We need to let everyone see the injustice he faces. He decided to walk his own path. This decision must have been made by a series of events and blows."
Stills from Joy of Life 2
The opening scene of the second season, "The Death of Old Golden Head," left a deep impression on the audience. In Sun Hao's opinion, the death of Old Golden Head played a similar role to that of Teng Zijing in the first season: making Fan Xian angry. But the difference is that in the first season, Wang Juan spent a lot of time on the establishment of the friendship between Teng Zijing and Fan Xian, and the audience also liked this character. In this season, Old Golden Head had a limited role and did not establish a deep emotional connection with Fan Xian. The same was true for the censor Lai Mingcheng who appeared later.
The death of Old Golden Head (played by Wang Jianguo) has a small but effective role.
Wang Juan said frankly: "We did it on purpose, and only gave them this little bit of screen time." Because of the unfamiliarity and distance with these characters, Fan Xian stripped away his personal emotions, and his anger and shock came more purely from his discovery that people from all walks of life in this world are suffering from injustice and oppression. "This is more in line with the theme of this season. His anger and dissatisfaction are not only because his relatives and friends are hurt, but also because he himself is incompatible with the values of this world." Fan Xian was lonely in the first season. In the second season, although he has many friends and relatives, the path he chose is even more lonely.
Although he had help from others, Fan Xian still seemed lonely.
Fortunately, Fan Xian met Lai Mingcheng. After the death of Lao Jintou, one of the most exciting parts of "Joy of Life 2" is the two heated debates in the court. Among them, Lai Mingcheng directly advised Emperor Qing at the cost of his death, which shocked Fan Xian. "In the process of moving forward alone, he met fellow travelers one by one. Some of these people were changed by him and accompanied him all the way; some of them, after reaching the end, entrusted their wishes to Fan Xian to some extent." Wang Juan said, "When a person finds that the road he is walking is not lonely, he will have more courage to keep going."
Bi Yanjun as Lai Mingcheng
In Sun Hao's opinion, the charm of the group portrait of "Joy of Life 2" lies in its versatility. Not only are the positive characters portrayed lovable, but the villains also make the audience feel sorry for them. For example, the character Fan Wujiu, countless viewers feel sorry for his ending, "He did a lot of bad things, but his desire for a better life is real."
Feng Bing as Fan Wujiu
In the play, there is no distinction between enemies and friends, and everyone's most simple wish is to live a happier and better life. "To make more people happy and beautiful, at least in the current situation of Qing Kingdom, Fan Xian can't do it based on the experiences of many people, and he can't do it by just keeping himself out of it." This puts Fan Xian in a situation where he must make a choice: when the whole era is completely contrary to his own values, he must either give in or change.
Heavy themes, comedic style
Since there are "changes", there are also "unchanges". "Celebrating More Than Years 2" continues the comedy style of the first season, telling the heavy story with tears in laughter. Wang Juan frankly said that the so-called comedy form and court games just fit the story and theme of "Celebrating More Than Years", "This style and form will continue in the third season."
Wang Juan, who has always been good at writing comedies, has comedic touches in "Joy of Life 2". For example, Cheng Jialin, one of the "Fan Family Four", only lives in the jokes of the other three throughout the season and never appears. Wang Juan said with a smile that when four people appear at the same time, they have to consider "how to make all four people remembered by everyone at the same time". Later, he simply had an idea to let this character live forever in the lines, "In fact, if he doesn't appear, the audience will remember him more." After filming, Wang Juan had a new feeling, "A person who doesn't appear may be the person in front of the screen in a certain way."
The most popular comedy scenes in "Joy of Life 2" are the interactions between the Princess of Northern Qi and the Prince of Qing. Several of these interactions were concentrated at a banquet. Three pairs of young men and women who were granted marriages gathered together, each in a different state, presenting three different forms of political marriage.
Three pairs of Xipi who were married by Emperor Qing were having dinner at the same table, and there was drama everywhere.
Sun Hao recalled that the plays for these three couples were written separately at the beginning. "I originally wanted to defeat them one by one, but Wang Juan suddenly told me one day that he wanted to write a big play and put these six people together." One play, six people, three pairs of lovers, involving intricate character relationships and political positions, power struggles, emotions, actions, comedy, and various elements of a big play, which repeatedly pulled the audience's emotions, can be regarded as a "showy" drama by Wang Juan.
In this drama, the cute princess and the tough prince are the most likable couple. "The prince and princess are in the early stages of a political marriage, and they don't know who they are facing. One is a little submissive, accepting the mission and shackles of the princess's identity, but she also has expectations for this relationship. The other is a straightforward action-oriented person. If I don't like her, I will disobey her order and run away. At worst, I will not lead the army in the future." Wang Juan talked about this couple in detail, and he obviously has a preference for this group of characters. "Fortunately, the prince and princess appreciate each other in the context of a political marriage. When I wrote it myself, I thought they were a good match, and we are very happy that the audience can accept it."
"Big Bubble Gum" Xipi who can't tell the difference between running away from marriage and eloping.
Wang Juan talked about why he wrote such a group of "sweet" character relationships. He also hoped that this season, under the relatively depressing circumstances, the audience could feel a little comforted. "This sweetness is compensation for the audience," Wang Juan's smile had a hint of "guilty." "I hope that the comedy style in "Celebrating Yu Nian 2" can make the audience breathe a sigh of relief and compensate for the pressure brought to the audience by the heavy theme." Since he talked about "compensation," it seems that Wang Juan is well aware of his nickname "cute to death" (Note: when you think a character is cute, it means Wang Juan is going to write him to death), but he still said very sincerely that it would scare fans of the show: "I will try my best to make everyone cute."
The best cooperation is "disagreement"
"Celebrating More Than Years" spanned a long time from the creation of the first part to the broadcast of the second part. The cooperation between Sun Hao and Wang Juan is very tacit. Wang Juan also laughed and said that he was lucky to meet directors who were responsible for their works. In "Celebrating More Than Years 2", Sun Hao played a decisive role in adjusting and unifying the performances of many actors. "In terms of performance, where is everyone's highlight, which performances should be restrained and which performances should be released, the screenwriter cannot consider it, and the actors themselves may not be able to consider it. The director must look at the overall situation and make overall control on the spot to make the overall performance The rhythm, emotion, and state are balanced and not abrupt." Wang Juan said.
Sun Hao and Wang Juan agree that it is a good thing for screenwriters and directors to have creative differences. "As a screenwriter, I am afraid that everything will go smoothly, and 'no problem, just follow the script.' There are creative differences between me and the director, and we discuss and argue, which is very good." Wang Juan believes that only when screenwriters and directors contribute the best parts of their ideas, collide with each other, and inspire each other, can the content be improved. "There will be times when we argue until we are red in the face, but all the arguments are about the content, how to express the characters, and how to make the play better. We have a good relationship between the two of us, and personal relationship and work status must not be confused."
Sun Hao nodded on the side, and suggested that a good collaboration between a screenwriter and a director is like "playing table tennis". "I throw my point of view over, and you hit the ball back from another angle. It's a kind of mutual giving and confrontation." He laughed and said that he felt working with Wang Juan was particularly "thirst-quenching."
He mentioned that the second court debate in the play was originally filmed in the main hall, but Sun Hao wanted to change it to the imperial study, which was not as formal and solemn as the main hall. Sun Hao asked Wang Juan if he could make this scene more complex and diverse, "sad, tense, and perhaps absurd farce, like a "Current Records of Officialdom", where everyone wants to fight each other." With just these few words, Wang Juan understood, and handed in the revised play the next day, which was fast and accurate, and the lines were wonderful. "So that's why I said 'quench thirst', 'thirst', and threw the request to him, and gave it to me the next day, which is what I want."
When Emperor Qing said, "That's it for now," everyone's reactions were fantastic.
He also laughed and said that he particularly liked to call Wang Juan for "off-site help" when persuading actors to participate. For example, in the first season, Li Xiaoran originally rejected the invitation because she felt that the character of the eldest princess was "very good and extreme, but she didn't want to be 'crazy for the sake of being crazy'". Sun Hao immediately contacted Wang Juan. After listening to the situation, Wang Juan told Sun Hao on the phone that he could let the actors feel "why the eldest princess is crazy" in the play. "I quickly called Li Xiaoran and said that Teacher Wang Juan had prepared several scenes and you can take a look at the script." Three days later, after reading the hot script, Li Xiaoran said, "It's very well written, I'll do it."
Li Xiaoran as the eldest princess
From the beginning to the end of the show, Sun Hao and Wang Juan have been observing the audience's comments and reactions to "Joy of Life 2" on the Internet. "Some audiences share our emotions, while others raise questions, which is a good thing. Emotional connection means that the audience feels what we want to express; questions can also give us something to think about, and reflect on where the problem lies, why we didn't give the audience the experience they wanted, and avoid similar problems in the next creation." Wang Juan said frankly, "'Writing in silence' is a very bad state. We must see the audience's feedback, whether it is criticism or approval, which is very important for our creation."
Sun Hao put it simply, "The audience is a very good mirror."
At the end of the second season, the two were asked which character they liked the most. Wang Juan believed that for a screenwriter, every character he wrote must be liked. "If you don't like it, you can't write about it. You can't write about the brilliance of this character, and you can't make the audience remember him."
If asked who he wanted to be in the world of Joy of Life, Wang Juan chose Wang Qinian, "One is transparent, the other is happy. He is not so tired, not so miserable. I thought that if I were Fan Xian, I would definitely not be able to bear such great pressure. It is too bitter and too difficult."
Tian Yu as Wang Qinian
Sun Hao's first choice is little Fan Xian, "someone who never grows up, has a modern mind, is particularly favored, lives a slow life with the sea breeze, and tells stories to everyone on the dock."
Han Haolin as Young Fan Xian
Finally, the two expressed their vision, "I hope everyone is willing to follow this story and hope everyone is looking forward to the third season."
“See you in Season 3.”
