Chef with a Pot in the Flower Room： A seriously underestimated online drama

Text | Wang Zhongyang lp

I will automatically pop up the relevant entry of "Michelle J" when I search for the relevant information of "Chef Fang with a Pot in the Flower Room". I will talk about this actor who plays the female host "Fang Yibiao" later.

Last week, when our editor-in-chief ordered me to talk about Ruan Lingyu, he told me by the way that Chef Fang could also be talked about in the choice space. This online drama was compared with others when I swore last year, which meant "Look at others, look at you, look at the big Lao Li next door". At that time, Chef Fang with a pot in the flower room was defined as "a seriously underestimated online drama". Considering that the Chinese New Year is coming soon, if you want to talk about fighting, killing or ghostly things, at least you have to wait until the end of the New Year.

I read the novel "Chef Fang" first and then watched the online drama. It was many years later. At that time, when it was released in 2012, I monitored the national box office screening one night. I had nothing to do in the morning, and found a post called "Chef Fang with a pot in the flower room". At that time, I thought I would stop watching it if it wasn’t scary. Who knows, I couldn’t stop watching it and watched it directly until dawn.

The novel is not long, the plot is coherent, and the character "Fang Yibao" is also three-dimensional. The image of a charming, lovely, intelligent and upright girl comes to my eyes through the story. At that time, the criticism and praise of the novel were half, some people said it was "Xiao Qingxin" and others said it was "Xiao Bai Wen".

I have a fair evaluation of it, not amazing, but I don’t hate it.

Five years later, when the online drama of the same name was launched, I was indifferent at first, which was similar to my first impression of The Ferry of the Soul:

Looking at no coffee and no flowers, you must be embarrassed to call mom.

In addition, I still have some "fears" before watching this drama, because when Kerui’s Strange Tales of the Urban Demon was changed into an online drama, my "original powder" was greatly hit after watching it, and I vowed never to watch or change the screenwriter again, especially the online drama.

But in the end, just like The Ferry of the Soul, I was very surprised by The Chef with a Pot in the Flower Room. This online drama is not adapted to the original. Except for adding two or three auxiliary characters, it is basically loyal to the original. The most important thing is that the portrayal of the female host "Fang Yibao" and the male host "Shen Yong" in it is also very consistent with my basic impression of the novel characters.

So this drama became a work in my favorites in the following years, and it was often compared with some masterpieces by some great directors and editors. The so-called-

Jianghu has a spoonful of female names,

The food adds fragrance and smiles.

The prodigal son will never change his gold,

I don’t like red makeup, I like braised pork.

one

First words: a spoonful of stories and a spoonful of wine

I’m not very good at talking about the content of TV series, because TV series is not like movies, and a story is divided into dozens of episodes, especially the content like series is often very scattered. Movies are different. The basic framework of 90 minutes is understandable, so people often pay more attention.

Later, I watched more TV dramas, and I had some immature ideas. I wonder if I can assume that if I am a normal person, then my perception ability is relatively normal when I accept a story. Will the content that makes me feel "scattered" not be because of my IQ, but because the writer and director have some "small problems", and the result seems to be "scattered"?

Of course, if it may offend people, then continue to assume that there is something wrong with my IQ.

It’s just that no matter whether it’s "The Ferry of Soul" or "The Chef with a Pot in the Flower Room", this kind of series won’t confuse my thinking. What they have in common is that "there are only a few characters, but the story has been refurbished", and they finally achieve sublimation by constantly breaking through the barriers like monsters.

For example, the appearance of "Fang Yibiao" is a very "ordinary" appearance. She was originally a female cook who traveled the rivers and lakes alone. She opened a wonton stall somewhere and met an old rich man who was fooled by a fortune teller. The old rich man didn’t want his daughter to marry the magistrate, Shenyang, who had a famous dissolute son "Shen Yong" in the city. It can not be said that everyone loved her, but also that God hated ghosts.

So he followed the fortune-teller’s advice and went to the street to look for a substitute. He bumped into Fang Yibao. When the girl saw his haggard face, she made him a bowl of wonton, but he was grateful and knocked him unconscious and stuffed him into a sedan chair … Thus, a story of irony and "liveliness" began.

Say "ironic" because the characters are really funny. Both Shen Yong and Fang Yibao are lovely people, such as "Shen Yong". The whole city says that he is an asshole. In fact, he is in a rebellious period and can’t get his father’s approval, so he changed his tricks. As a result, he met Fang Yibao, who can beat him with a rolling pin. This girl is not an ordinary shrew, and she is illiterate. However, her cultural quality is extremely low.

Not flashy, down-to-earth, know what is good and what is bad.

This is interesting. The ancients said that "the prodigal son will never change his money", and Chef Fang just let Fang spoonful use a rolling pin to show the audience "about how I trained my naughty husband who didn’t rely on four or six". Looking at these two little guys on the screen, you chase after me. There is no kissing scene and sex scene, but it just makes people feel natural and comfortable, much like the modality of boys and girls in the lush years.

It is said that "the color is lively and fragrant" because the author Ya Ya must be a foodie. In Chef Fang, she showed dozens of different cooking methods, which made people’s forefinger move when they read the words. In the play, through various dishes, it made my mouth water.

The best thing is that I have personally practiced the tricks taught to everyone by "Fang Yi Shao", such as how to use stinky tofu and pig’s head to sandwich sesame cakes, and how to put the bottom material in noodles, which is really delicious. In my opinion, this benefits me more than the story itself, and it is much more reliable than the "Twenty-four Bridges and Moonlit Night" by Mr. Jin Yong.

Of course, I don’t want to blow the whistle on "Chef with a Pot in the Flower Room", because it does have some shortcomings, such as the language of the characters is too modern, and the clothes are a little confusing. You can’t tell which dynasty these people lived in, although the story itself is an overhead history. But this is an unavoidable injury in this play.

There’s another problem—

After all, the Cinderella whose ending can’t be avoided is not a mortal, but a royal princess who once lived among the people. As for Shen Yong’s father, Shen Yibo, and the fortune teller mentioned at the beginning, they were also arranged to fall into the whirlpool of palace fighting, and the palace fighting also had no technical content.

However, the flaws do not hide Yu’s flaws. The Chef with a Pot in the Flower Room is not a "palace fight drama" in itself. It is a suspense drama of love and food in a costume drama. This kind of drama can let me take it out from time to time, not by how well-made and well-performed it is, but by "simplicity".

two

Repeat: Three Two Surprises, Three Two Springs

"Chef with a Pot in the Flower Room" gradually perfects their respective understanding of life, responsibility, love, affection and friendship through short stories that men and women have experienced passively or actively. Inspired by Fang Yibao, Shen Yong began to follow the magistrate’s father, Shen Yibo, and Shen Yibo gradually relied on his son from the beginning.

In the process, different people are met in each case, and the degree of good and evil is different, which is inseparable from the "one scoop" food offensive. Not blunt, not "big lady", and even can say that she is "silly and sweet" interpreted by "anti-big lady".

The online drama is faithful to the novel, and the style of the novel is quite "sweet". It just seems that I am not tired, I don’t need to think, I am completely relaxed, and I can continue to watch.

Speaking of which, I’m a little skeptical myself. I think I’ve always liked to watch something with a little depth. I talk about Chef Fang and praise it as a bit like Mozart’s hand-waving. But on second thought, I like it far more than some film and television dramas that are often worth over 100 million yuan, full of stars and of great significance to the times. Perhaps it’s because of its high purity. "Purity" means that it can let me find a kind of "sense of relaxation" and a beautiful yearning for interpersonal relationships and the essence of life.

It outlines a simple happiness through the tolerance and love of the Shenfu family for "Fang Yi Shao" from beginning to end, and the yearning of a bunch of official servants for "wealthy family" to cook every time. It is also the first time I feel:

It is more "a beautiful thing" to outline life and resolve contradictions with delicious food than "chicken soup is coming"

Incidentally, Michelle J, the actor who plays "Fang Yibiao", looks good in costume, which happens to be in my aesthetic sense. It’s perfect for this girl who looks "fleshy and MengMeng" to perform a relaxed and humorous play, but it’s a pity that she is said to have retired.

In this drama, all the leading actors and supporting actors, such as Lei Mu, Chang Cheng, Li Xiaohong, Fang Yao and Ben Hu, the adopted son of Shen Jie, are online. Unfortunately, no better works have been seen since then.

In fact, the investment and production scale of this drama is not large, and it won’t cost much in the later period. Some treasures can be found in it, including young singer Sun Zihan and his full set of theme songs and ending songs, such as Cooking Love, Memories So Hurt, Always Stupid, etc. At first glance, you can know that it is the "Lian Heng" between the music company and the production unit, but there is a saying that the content level of lyrics and composition is good.

It has been almost five years since the drama was launched in 2017. In the past five years, China’s online dramas have gradually matured, and even have the momentum of catching up with "orthodox" TV dramas. I didn’t care before. Later, when I was forced to write articles and look up information, I began to gradually correct my previous prejudice against this kind of online film and television drama.

　

I even began to have some doubts about the "traditional works" that I once thought were orthodox.

three

Last words: half a table is crazy and half a table is drunk.

Someone once commented that the theme of "Chef with a Pot in the Flower Room" is very grounded, so it is popular. I don’t quite agree with this statement. Because film and television dramas, as well as any other forms of artistic expression, should be grounded in itself.

What is "grounding gas"? According to the official language, it is "close to people’s lives, reflecting people’s stories, and showing the beauty of working people through artistic re-creation".

Of course, I’m not calling people names, I’m not a junior four …

Where have you been? Don’t get me wrong. I’m talking about the "little four" who bullied his teacher and destroyed his ancestors in Farewell My Concubine. He insisted on arguing with his master, "Why isn’t Peking Opera beautiful when it comes to the working people?"

I mean, there is no shame in making money, but you should have a clear understanding of your position. You can’t look down on the "working people" while making money. Art itself is to earn other people’s money. In the end, it seems to be a very elegant thing to feel that you are not "grounded", which is "when you stand up again", isn’t it?

In the past twenty years, my feeling is that "grounding gas" should be a subconscious move in the film and television industry. Professionals can certainly evaluate the lens, light and shadow, wide angle and performance of a film and television drama, and money makers can also use data, coffee spots, lineups, money piles and "Do you know how hard they (I intentionally) work?" As a gimmick for marketing and money. However, we must not really take these as the standard for creating works, let alone underestimate the IQ of the audience, nor ignore the needs of the audience.

No matter how famous people are, they should have a clear understanding in their hearts: you know best whether your work is sincere or false, and you know well whether others praise you from the heart or whether the scene is polite. Only sometimes, when some "masterpieces" come out, they are always crowned with various expectations, and only after they come out, they regret to find that "they look like Zhao Dan from a distance and look at Fui-On Shing from a distance".

Therefore, only by modestly lowering your posture and going deep into the audience and looking for what they like to see can you make your artistic creation level "evergreen" forever.

If nothing else, take "The Ferry of the Soul" as an example. tales of mystery, who first appeared in the world, is frank and pure; The same is true of Chef Fang. The main creator may think that the story itself is already very good, and it is too melodramatic to add his own ideas at random to express or criticize anything. Because it is very simple, besides letting you learn some cooking skills, it tells you how to get along with men and women, father and son and family with stories, and there are not so many Shakespeare-style lines and Bollywood-style mirrors.

In this way, Chef Fang is also "perfect". The perfection lies in that it has no sequel, no "third season" and no "thoughts". It is simply like "Chef Fang" himself:

I am just a little girl, and I have no great ambition.

The above can be regarded as a drunken remark by "Chef Fang".

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