Chinese historical dramas are a familiar "dish" to Asian audiences, including Vietnam, but recently, many audiences have turned their backs on this genre of film.
What is a historical drama?
Costume drama is a general name for a genre of film in which costumes, settings, and props are characteristic of dynasties before the collapse of feudalism in China.
Currently, there are many genres of historical films in China such as: Xianxia films (Chinese Paladin, Ancient Sword and Fairy, Hua Thien Cot,...); Swordplay films, also known as martial arts films, are often adapted from novels by Jin Yong and Gu Long. (The Legend of the Condor Heroes, The Return of the Condor Heroes, The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber,..); Historical Palace Drama (Palace, Beauty's Scheme, Legend of Zhen Huan, Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace, Story of Yanxi Palace,... ); Historical and ancient costume drama (The bravery of Ji Xiaolan, Prime Minister Liu Gu,...),...
In the past two years, a genre of historical drama that has been very popular with young audiences in China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Korea is the ancient drama. Ancient drama is understood as an idol historical drama, in which the main role is often played by actors with a certain level of fame to increase the rating of the drama.
Sheet Mass media According to China, in recent years, the genre of ancient dramas has dominated the screen and become a phenomenon in the entertainment industry. Up to now, on average, 3-4 ancient dramas are broadcast each month.
The Golden Age of Costume Drama
During the 1990s and 2000s, historical dramas seemed to dominate Chinese cinema and television. From 2010 to 2020, many historical dramas took Asia by storm, such as Legend of Zhen Huan, The Legend of Wu Meiniang, Hua Thien Cot, Chu Qiao, The Untamed,...
According to the newspaper The Paper, Based on data released by Yun He in 2023, up to a quarter of the highest-performing TV series since 2017 have been historical fantasy dramas.
Sheet Sina also commented that historical films account for the majority of the film and television market in China. Even if historical films are restricted, the entire film industry will certainly be greatly affected.
According to statistics as of 2018, Story of Yanxi Palace reached 18.1 billion online views, followed by Fragrance of honey like smoke and mist with 16 billion views, Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace reached 15 billion views, many other movies like Empress Fuyao, Night of Xiang, Legend of Yun Xi,... also achieved good results.
Why are Chinese historical dramas getting more and more boring?
Historical films are all the rage in China in particular and Asia in general, however recently the quality of these films has not been proportional to their quantity.
In the first half of 2024, the number of historical dramas broadcast in China is countless, but only a few works are considered good such as In the clouds and rain, Qing Dynasty 2 years later, I walked with the phoenix .
Many historical idol dramas with the participation of famous young stars today continuously become bombs like Flower of the Order (Liu Xueyi, Ju Jingyi), Chinese Paladin 4 (Tran Triet Vien, Cuc Tinh Y), Chinese Paladin 6 (Hua Kai, Yu Shu Xin), Age (Truong Lang Hac, Trieu Kim Mach) , Vu Canh Ky (Ren Jia Lun),...
The new genre of classical dramas released in the past two years is also in a similar situation. The number of classical dramas has "grown like mushrooms after the rain" but the quality of these works is not as expected by the audience. Many young actresses born after 1985 who also acted in classical dramas have "fallen off the horse" like Duong Mich with The Fox Spirit Little Red Lady , Liu Shishi has One thought and one view . Only Trieu Le Dinh is a bit better. Phoenix data when the film received much praise.
According to Sohu, one of the reasons why historical dramas are not rated as highly as before is because even though they are made very carefully with beautiful scenes, costumes and character designs that are impeccable, the content of the films is becoming more and more boring.
Zhang Jie, a film and television planner who has worked on ancient costume dramas, expressed concern about the increasingly poor quality of Chinese historical dramas.
In his experience, the best thing about fantasy dramas is that they allow the audience to live in an imaginary world and satisfy their entertainment needs. But judging by the current trend of public opinion, it can be seen that historical dramas in general have reached saturation point. "I'm also confused about what kind of historical drama the current market needs, " he expressed his hesitation in an interview on Sohu.
Chinese media believes that historical dramas in general and fantasy dramas in particular are currently in a "bottleneck" period (a bottleneck in a system or process).
Sohu newspaper believes that the reason why historical dramas are getting boring is because "ten dramas are the same". A blogger named Xiao Long Bao attracted attention when he left a comment on the social network Xiaohongshu about the above issue: “To be honest, I clearly remember the general developments of some recent ancient fantasy films, the characters are similar, the plot is also similar and there is only one theme. This makes me feel bored when watching the film."
In 2014, the movie Ancient Sword Tales Produced by Huan Rui, the series has become one of the hottest movies of the summer. The series has continuously topped the broadcast list of Hunan, Hubei, Shandong, Shaanxi, etc.
Impressive achievements of Ancient Sword Tales has led to the explosion of ancient fantasy films later on such as Hoa Thien Cot, Tru Tien Thanh Van Chi, Tam sinh tam the thap ly dao hoa, Cham thuong thu, Huong mat nhu hoa frost, Liu ly bei nhan sat, Tram van huong hoa,...
However, as the number of ancient fantasy films increased, the content of the films also followed a similar motif and formula. These films had a level of overlap in terms of character design, content, costumes, settings, etc. This made this genre of film lose its appeal in the eyes of viewers.
Although the genre of ancient films has just been born, it has already shown its monotony. This genre of film often uses a familiar formula. Chinese film critic - Chung Nam believes that because the audience of this genre is mainly young people, producers will focus on commercial factors. These audiences also have relatively similar requirements for ancient films, so to satisfy this group of customers, a common formula is created.
It is a movie script adapted from a famous online novel, the main actors are young stars with traffic (meaning people with a large fan base and a certain level of popularity) to carry the movie's figures, the supporting roles are veteran actors of the previous generation plus a large number of fans of the original novel. "If you do this, the film is 50% successful, the rest depends on the content, acting, costumes,..." Critic Chung Nam added.
When it comes to historical dramas, the key to a film's success is character design and makeup style. This is considered the top factor, almost the soul of a historical drama.
Sheet Sohu said that in the past historical films, although the filming conditions were poor and lacking, the quality of the films was impeccable, especially in terms of costumes and character creation. In ancient historical films, each character was shaped with their own style, and the costumes, although colorful, still enhanced the beauty of the female actors.
As for makeup, actresses prefer natural styles, especially eyebrows. Many ancient beauties never did their eyebrows in a modern style, but preferred willow-leaf, classic eyebrows to suit the setting.
But when watching historical dramas today, audiences feel bored with the overly modern looks of female actors. For example, Duong Yen's makeup in Cam Tu Vi Uong , the 8X actress catches up with the trend of modern horizontal eyebrows.
The same thing happened to Dilraba Dilmurat in the movie. Fire like song . If like in Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms and The beautiful Xinjiang beauty, the pillow lady, makes many viewers flutter with the image of a cute and lovely little fox. Lie huo nhu ca , she was criticized for her unattractive appearance.
Not only that, some female stars like Cuc Tinh Y and Bach Loc act in historical films, making viewers unable to distinguish which role they are playing because their appearance is "the same in ten films".
Another reason why historical films are losing their position today is the use of cheap special effects, overuse of color correction, and even "skinning" the main character to the point of "glowing white".
In the past, many historical film crews had to spend time surveying the actual location to choose a satisfactory filming setting. Later, only a few film crews chose to film at real locations such as Hua Thien Cot, Tran Tinh Lenh, Tam Sinh Tam The Thap Ly Dao Hoa or most recently movies The first series of the god of wind.
Nowadays, most historical films are mainly filmed in studios, with green screens and then AI technology is used to replace scenes and backgrounds. This makes the film look “fake”, not creating any emotions or impressions for viewers. Many historical films have been criticized for their bad special effects such as Sword and Fairy 4 and 6, Wu Canh Ky, Tinh Lac Ngung Thanh Duong...
However, the most important reason why Chinese historical dramas are no longer as popular as before is the actors' acting. Experts say that most young actors today have clumsy acting and terrible expressions. Two Xinjiang beauties, Dilraba Dilmurat and Gulnazar, have been acting for a long time but are still considered "mobile vases" on the screen. The films these two beauties have appeared in have been criticized for their stiff acting.
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