Editor's note: The 30th Shanghai TV Festival started soliciting films in early December last year and ended on March 31 this year, collecting nearly a thousand works. The Magnolia Award selection of each Shanghai TV Festival brings together the best works of radio, television and online audio-visual from April of the previous year to the first quarter of the current year, reflecting the industry's outlook. Recently, we invited industry insiders to sort out the creative styles of the four major categories of TV series (Chinese dramas, overseas dramas), documentaries, cartoons, and variety shows during this cycle, and look forward to the announcement of the shortlist in May.
The author of this article is Gao Xiongjie, director, professor and doctoral supervisor of the Film and Television Department of the Central Academy of Drama
(This article only represents the author's industry observations)
The call for films at the 30th Shanghai TV Festival has ended. Although the overseas dramas registered for this year's Magnolia Awards cannot cover the entire development of the TV drama industry from a global perspective this year, the quality of the registered works is high. Using these as samples for inspection, we can still identify new creative trends in TV dramas from different countries and regions in terms of subject selection, form innovation, and technological evolution.
Compared with previous years, the countries that have registered for the dramas have expanded, with works from Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Western Asia appearing. For example, South Africa, Mexico, Serbia, Iran and other countries have submitted high-quality dramas.
From the perspective of creative forms, the overseas dramas registered this year show a diversified development trend in terms of subject discovery, genre integration and exploration of social issues. From this, we can feel that under the influence of the continuous development of the film and television industry, the continuous updating of the media environment and the application of new technologies, overseas dramas, like domestic dramas, continue to update and explore in subject matter and form. Especially in narrative structure, bold and innovative works are often seen, incorporating fresh elements and breaking the routine to innovate narratives.
The characteristics of the works submitted for this year's overseas drama unit show three major trends: "deepening of social issues, integration of genre boundaries, and modernization of classic IP."
Social issues deepen
There are works that focus on real-life issues, drawing on real stories to explore the plight of people in reality. The choices made in dilemmas and thinking about the future complement each other and always have realistic narrative value and power.
In the French series "Enjoy it!", the living environment of young people is very different from the past. Everything in life revolves around high efficiency and high output. Once they slack off, they will be eliminated. They face many difficulties in the competition and also think about their future.
The British drama series "Bonnie and Jake" tells the story of two families whose children were taken away by mistake at birth due to a hospital mistake. They are now faced with the dilemma of whether to raise a child that is not their biological child but to which they already have feelings, or to reclaim their biological children. It shows the multifaceted and complex nature of human nature, and explores the family ethics and social class differences behind the battle for custody.
Our Family
People share the same feelings about separation and reunion regardless of nationality or culture. In the Danish drama Our Family, the sea level rises in the future, and residents have to say goodbye to their familiar lives. As the evacuation time approaches, the stable order seems to be gradually dissipating. The good and evil of people's hearts are vividly displayed at this point in time, expressing the complexity of human morality under disasters.
The French series "Chess Rivals" has a unique theme. It is set against the backdrop of a chess game between an international chess player and the computer "Deep Blue", and tells the story of the confrontation and competition between man and machine. The protagonist breaks the myth of computer rationality through sophisticated technical analysis and rule application. In the tense confrontation, it not only demonstrates human resilience, wisdom and value, but also triggers deep thinking about the development of computers.
Type Boundary Fusion
The spy-themed works among the entries submitted this year mostly focus on international political games, assassinations, and intelligence confrontations in terms of narrative, while also incorporating individual human struggles, survival dilemmas, or emotional conflicts.
The Days of the Jackal
The British series "The Day of the Jackal" is adapted from a classic spy novel. It modernizes the Cold War background, highlights the professional killer's precision assassination and anti-reconnaissance capabilities, and explores the social metaphor of class solidification. It is one of the series with relatively outstanding overall quality. The work tells the story of a senior killer being hunted by an intelligence agent. He has to avoid being hunted and keep his identity secret from being discovered by his wife. The construction of suspense firmly grasps the audience's attention. The ingenious narrative structure ensures the emotional stimulation and logical integrity of the cat-and-mouse chase. This is a well-made work with an intriguing plot, a sophisticated plot structure, and a well-paced narrative. It is a masterpiece among series of similar themes and styles.
The main plot of the Canadian drama "IXE-13 and the Uranium Race" revolves around the competition for "uranium" resources. As a retired agent, the protagonist has to face post-war survival. After being involved in the incident, he is also responsible for the game between major powers. The subtleties of the competition even involve the global situation and international influence, affecting the destiny of mankind.
The protagonists in these spy war dramas are no longer flat conceptual characters, but flesh-and-blood characters with rich emotions. In "The Days of the Jackal", the killer protagonist is no longer a cold-blooded killing machine. He is distracted while driving and has an ordinary emotional life. Killing is just a job requirement. After killing helplessly, the calm and steady killer will also show grief, which is sad. "IXE-13 and the Uranium Race" focuses on the competition for "uranium" resources, and also shows the survival dilemma of retired agents, depicting the human struggle of ordinary individuals in the context of complex great power games.
Operation Sabre
The Serbian drama "Saber Operation" is based on the assassination of the Serbian Prime Minister in 2003. It reproduces the game between corruption and justice during the country's transition period from the perspectives of journalists, police and criminals. It combines traditional spy warfare with historical politics, reproduces historical events from multiple perspectives, combines political corruption with individual trauma, maps the collective memory of the social transition period, and explores the continued impact of violent incidents on contemporary society.
Another Serbian series, "The Legacy of Constantine", incorporates supernatural elements such as mythical swords, werewolves and mysterious vampires into realistic logical narratives. Against the backdrop of war, the film seeks the legendary sword and embarks on a treasure hunt, exploring the darkness or resurrection of human nature. The genre fusion breaks the framework of traditional war films, adds treasure hunt adventure elements, and uses the supernatural as a metaphor for historical trauma.
Hot Spots
Another Japanese drama series, "Hotspot", which involves supernatural content, uses a more realistic expression method to make people believe that aliens are around us. This expression can indirectly show that different countries have different attitudes and ways of dealing with the possible occurrence of supernatural phenomena.
Crime themes are still a hot topic for overseas dramas, with strong rhythm and multi-line narratives accounting for a large proportion, and many innovative types of models. For example, the American drama "Penguin" has a dark Gotham aesthetic with a strong visual impact; the British drama "The Owl Murders" is about confined space reasoning and manor puzzles; and the German drama "I am Scrooge" is adapted from real events about a bomb ransomware offender.
Modernization of classic IP
Compared with previous years, this year there have been many modern dramas based on classic IPs.
"Expert Lawyer Season 1"
"Sophisticated Lawyer Season 1" is adapted from a classic TV series, successfully giving the classic IP contemporary significance. It uses legal suspense as a shell, but is actually a projection of the sharp issues in today's society. It is a profound dialogue about age, gender and power. Through the main line of revenge of a 70-year-old woman, it exposes the dark side of pharmaceutical companies and criticizes age discrimination and gender bias in the workplace. The setting of the elderly female protagonist breaks the stereotype of elite lawyers, uses "aging" to promote the narrative, and creates contrast tension.
Each episode of "Different Paths to the Same Destination Season 2" begins with a courtroom drama. The courtroom drama plus flashbacks form a dual narrative. Through the flashback structure, it focuses on the fate and stories of different defendants from a unique perspective, experiencing the fierce collision between justice and reality, forming a mirror that reflects social problems, revealing structural injustice, and combining suspense and social criticism.
1923 Season 2
Adaptations of history and literature include the American series 1923 Season 2, the Italian series The Count of Monte Cristo, and Leopardi: The Endless Poetry. The second season of 1923 Season 2 continues the epic family narrative of the Western, with a metaphor for "land"; The Count of Monte Cristo respects the original work and has made a perfect remake; Leopardi: The Endless Poetry combines the poet's biography with the Enlightenment thought confrontation. For those who are interested in understanding Leopardi's poetic spirit and the ideological changes in Italy, this series presents an irreplaceable and unique narrative value.
From the overseas dramas registered this year, it can be observed that their artistic characteristics are influenced by the history, culture and major events of various countries, showing completely different focuses and topics from those in China. As mirror carriers of popular culture, the artistic characteristics of TV dramas and movies have always been closely coexisting with the local cultural ecology. Under the joint influence of regional cultural genes, historical memory accumulation and social structure, the drama creation of different countries presents a distinct differentiated aesthetic system. The continuity of this cultural root has enabled the global drama market to form a creative feature of multiple symbiosis and harmony, forming a comparative dimension with reference value with domestic dramas.
Friend and Foe
In addition to the above trends, the visual reinforcement of regional culture is also evident, for example, the Thai boxing fighting elements in the Thai action series "Frenemies", the European court intrigues in the German series "Sissi Season 4", the class confrontation in the Spanish rural landscape "In the Shadow of the Earth", and the undercurrents beneath the gorgeous appearance of the Italian series "Bel Canto".
In the future, the combination of cross-cultural narrative and technological narrative, such as the exploration of AI themes in "The Rival in Card Game" and the deepening of the perspective of non-mainstream groups in "The Lawyer Season 1", may become new breakthrough directions.
