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A Korean wave is sweeping across China, with many Chinese women worshipping South Korean actors Kim Soo-hyun and Lee Min-ho as demigods. Chinese netizens have always been divided over South Korean TV dramas, but there is no doubt that programs from the neighboring country are now enjoying a new round of popularity in China. And a big part of the credit for that goes to You Who Came From The Star, the South Korean TV series which is on the air now。
Top South Korean actors Jun Ji-hyun and Kim Soo-hyun recently earned a popularity rating of 24.8 percent in their country, considered strong by Nielsen Korea. You Who Came From The Star and The Heirs have been subjects of hot online discussions throughout Asia. Besides, the book, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, read by the hero in You Who Came From The Star was a hard-to-get item on Amazon for a while。
The two TV programs have several common elements: a tall, handsome, and rich hero who loves the heroine blindly and always protects her, and an equally handsome man madly in love with the same woman. Both programs portray the purity of love, which is expressed through a kiss or a warm hug. Perhaps that's the secret of their success; perhaps people are still fascinated by Cinderella-type stories。
The widening wealth gap is a matter of social concern both in South Korea and China, and the challenges that young people face in their quest for a better life might have prompted many ordinary girls to dream of marrying rich, caring men. This is precisely what the popular South Korean TV dramas portray. In fact, South Korean TV dramas are tailored to meet the market's demands。
In contrast, Chinese TV screens are flooded by knock-off and/or poorly made soap operas. Most of the Chinese TV dramas either distort the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, which is a distortion of history, or blindly copy foreign programs. The lack of good stories has of late resulted in loads of TV series on time travel or fights in the harems of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) emperors. These, in short, are the bane of Chinese TV productions。
In contrast, South Korean TV dramas have re-invented themselves. In fact, 2013 could be said to be the year of rebirth of South Korean TV dramas. Shortly after the enormous craze generated by Great Jang-Geum in 2003, South Korean dramas lost much of their popularity in other Asian countries thanks partly to better produced works from the United States and the United Kingdom。
Many netizens even said at the time that South Korean TV dramas had become pass because of their stereotyped themes: traffic accidents, and cancer and other incurable diseases. But all that has changed with the success of You Who Came From The Star and The Heirs, which Chinese directors can use as examples, as well as inspiration, to improve their productions。
The resurgence of South Korean TV dramas can be attributed to the joint efforts of the country's government and TV series makers. The South Korean government implemented a policy to help TV productions back in the late 1990s, when the first wave of popular dramas emerged from the country to capture the imagination of the people in the rest of Asia. Just before the turn of the millennium, the South Korean government issued regulations saying at least 80 percent of the TV programs had to be domestically produced. It also fixed the minimum number of homemade TV series to be broadcast in the country. That not only helped South Korean TV productions gain a firm foothold in the domestic market, but also laid the foundation for their successful foray into overseas markets。
Recent years have seen great innovations in South Korean TV productions in terms of themes and narrative patterns. Take You Who Came From The Star as an example. Although aliens visiting Earth is an oft-used theme, You Who Came From The Star's script remains logical and fast-paced. It mixes the plot with romance and murder and keeps the audience guessing about how the story will unfold. When it comes to love stories, the new South Korean teleplays no longer use the distress card; instead, they intersperse them with whimsy and romantic punch lines。
The three TV stations, SBS, KBS and MBC, control the majority of South Korean TV market, each specializing in a different area and catering to people of different ages. The productions are sleek and use advanced technologies such as high-speed photography and computer-generated effects, creating a real-life visual impact。
Moreover, the shooting for South Korean productions generally starts when the scripts are just one-third ready. Many popular productions have their own websites, where scriptwriters post part of the finished scripts, inviting viewers to leave messages, discuss the plot and come up with suggestions for future episodes. This not only keeps viewers' interest in the TV dramas alive, but also helps scriptwriters and directors make changes to the storylines to suit the audience's demand。
Hopefully, the innovation-induced success of South Korean TV programs will prompt Chinese TV drama makers to think up new ideas and abandon their bad practice of copying foreign productions in order to attract more viewers at home, and possibly abroad。
By Xiao Lixin ( China Daily)
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一股韓流正席卷中國(guó)，很多中國(guó)女人迷戀金秀賢(Kim Soo-hyun)和李敏鎬(Lee Min-ho)那樣的韓國(guó)明星，把他們尊為男神。在韓國(guó)電視劇的看法上，中國(guó)網(wǎng)民歷來(lái)意見(jiàn)不一，但毋庸置疑的是，如今這個(gè)鄰國(guó)的節(jié)目在中國(guó)越來(lái)越火。這很大一部分功勞要?dú)w給正熱播的韓劇《來(lái)自星星的你》。
韓國(guó)一線演員全智賢(Jun Ji-hyun)和金秀賢近來(lái)在韓國(guó)贏得了24.8%的收視率，這在韓國(guó)尼爾森市場(chǎng)調(diào)查公司看來(lái)是頗高的�！秮�(lái)自星星的你》和《繼承者們》在整個(gè)亞洲都是網(wǎng)上熱議的話題。另外，《來(lái)自星星的你》主人公讀的《愛(ài)德華的奇妙之旅》一度在亞馬遜上一書(shū)難求。
這兩部韓劇都具備幾個(gè)相同的元素：矢志不渝愛(ài)護(hù)、保護(hù)女主角的高富帥男主角，同樣深?lèi)?ài)這個(gè)女人的帥氣男二號(hào)。兩部劇都以一個(gè)吻或一個(gè)溫暖的擁抱傳達(dá)愛(ài)情的純凈。或許這就是它們成功的奧秘;或許人們還渴望著灰姑娘式愛(ài)情故事。
無(wú)論在韓國(guó)還是中國(guó)，貧富差距都已是一個(gè)社會(huì)問(wèn)題，年輕人在尋求更為美好生活的途中遭遇了一定的挫折，于是很多平庸的女孩開(kāi)始幻想嫁入豪門(mén)，投入溫柔男人的懷抱。這恰恰是大熱的韓劇所描繪的場(chǎng)面。其實(shí)，韓劇就是順應(yīng)市場(chǎng)需求而生的。
與之相反，中國(guó)的電視熒屏充斥著抄襲作品以及(或者)粗工濫造的肥皂劇。大多數(shù)中國(guó)電視劇要么歪曲抗日戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)那段歷史，要么就是盲目抄襲外國(guó)節(jié)目。因?yàn)槿狈玫墓适骂}材，近來(lái)也就出現(xiàn)了大量的穿越劇和清廷(1644-1911)爭(zhēng)斗劇。這些簡(jiǎn)而言之就是中國(guó)電視制造業(yè)的禍害。
而韓國(guó)的電視劇卻不斷在推陳出新。2013年其實(shí)算是韓劇的重生之年。自2003年《大長(zhǎng)今》創(chuàng)下收視狂潮后，韓劇在其他亞洲國(guó)家失去了很大市場(chǎng)，這部分要?dú)w因于英美國(guó)家的好作品。
很多網(wǎng)民那時(shí)甚至揚(yáng)言韓劇已成為過(guò)去，因?yàn)樗麄兊闹黝}總是圍繞交通事故、癌癥或是其他不治之癥，缺乏新意。但是《來(lái)自星星的你》和《繼承者們》改變了這一切，中國(guó)導(dǎo)演們應(yīng)當(dāng)以此為鑒，以此激勵(lì)自己提高電視作品的質(zhì)量。
韓劇的重生要?dú)w功于韓國(guó)政府及韓國(guó)電視劇制作者的共同努力。早在20世紀(jì)90年代末期，韓國(guó)掀起的第一股收視熱潮激發(fā)其他亞洲人想象力時(shí)，韓國(guó)政府就出臺(tái)了一項(xiàng)政策，用來(lái)扶持電視制造業(yè)。本世紀(jì)初，韓國(guó)政府頒布法規(guī)，明確規(guī)定80%以上電視節(jié)目須為本國(guó)制作。同時(shí)也明確了導(dǎo)出國(guó)外的自制劇的最低下限。那一舉措不僅為韓國(guó)電視業(yè)在本國(guó)市場(chǎng)贏得了強(qiáng)勁份額，也為其成功進(jìn)軍外國(guó)市場(chǎng)打下了基礎(chǔ)。
近年來(lái)，無(wú)論是在主題還是記敘方法上，韓劇都有了極大的創(chuàng)新。就以《來(lái)自星星的你》為例。盡管外星人訪問(wèn)地球這一主題早已用得泛濫，但《來(lái)自星星的你》的劇本還是很有邏輯，劇情還是很緊湊的。故事情節(jié)雜糅了浪漫、兇殺的元素，觀眾們也一直關(guān)注著劇情的走向。至于愛(ài)情故事，新的韓劇不再走悲情路線，而是融入了奇妙與浪漫。
株式會(huì)社(SBS)、韓國(guó)放送公社(KBS)、文化廣播公司(MBC)這三家電視臺(tái)掌控了韓國(guó)絕大部分電視市場(chǎng)，每一個(gè)都在各自的領(lǐng)域上有專(zhuān)攻，滿足不同年齡人們的需求。電視制作過(guò)程相當(dāng)流暢，采用了高速攝影、電腦特技等先進(jìn)技術(shù)，制造出一個(gè)近乎真實(shí)的視覺(jué)體驗(yàn)。
而且，韓劇往往在劇本剛創(chuàng)作三分之一時(shí)就開(kāi)拍。很多熱播劇都有自己的網(wǎng)站，編劇會(huì)把部分成稿貼上去，供網(wǎng)友查看留言，討論故事情節(jié)，提出劇情走向的相關(guān)建議。這樣一來(lái)，既留住了觀眾對(duì)該劇的熱情，又可讓編劇以及導(dǎo)演對(duì)情節(jié)作出改動(dòng)以滿足觀眾的口味。
所幸的是，韓劇這種創(chuàng)新造就的成功會(huì)激勵(lì)中國(guó)電視劇制作者摒棄以往抄襲外國(guó)作品的習(xí)性，做出新的思索，借此吸引國(guó)內(nèi)甚至國(guó)外更多觀眾。
