Author: Hu Jianli
The online drama "Wild Flowers of Rock and Roll" tells a novel story in terms of design and theme from a female perspective, and creates a rebellious and colorful image of contemporary middle-aged women like Peng Lai, which can be regarded as subverting the life values of traditional women in China, which is refreshing.
However, being rebellious does not mean being selfish. Peng Lai has a novel set of people, but it is regrettable that many seemingly cool but unreasonable and illogical plots failed to present the audience with full and credible characters.
"Wild Flowers of Rock" is directed by Li Jun and directed by Jing Lipeng, starring Yao Chen, Chang Yuan and Zhuang Duffy, and starring Li Yinan, Zhao Ziqi and Lele Dai. It tells the story of an atypical mother and daughter who like rock and roll meeting again after 12 years, and in the process of pursuing their dreams, from fighting and hurting each other, to finally forgiving and healing each other.
Peng Lai (played by Yao Chen) is the lead singer of the once-popular female rock band "Crazy Flower" in China. In that year, she divorced because of her disagreement with her husband. In the morning, she found that her ex-husband and bassist Chen Yue (played by Zhao Ziqi) got a marriage certificate. In a rage, she broke up the band and went to the United States to travel, leaving her 6-year-old daughter (played by Zhuang Duffy) to be taken care of by her ex-husband and Chen Yue during the day.
After 12 years in the United States, Peng Lai not only failed to realize her dream of rock and roll, but also became addicted to alcohol. She didn’t return to China to deal with related matters until she received a phone call from her good friend and former manager of Crazy Flower Band, Da Cui (played by Chang Yuan), who was told that her ex-husband had died and her daughter needed care during the day. Unexpectedly, the mother and daughter, who have been separated for 12 years, became "enemies" as soon as they met, and they fought fiercely for the house, the band and their dreams …
The biggest highlight of this drama is that it breaks away from the stereotype of domestic TV series in the creation of female characters, portrays the image of a rebellious middle-aged urban woman like Peng Lai, and shows the self-seeking and maverick spirit of some middle-aged women in contemporary China through the anti-traditional mother-daughter relationship between Peng Lai and daytime.
Over the years, there have been many domestic film and television works that show young women’s youthful rebellion, such as July and An Sheng and Dog Thirteen, but domestic film and television dramas featuring rebellious middle-aged women of all colors are rare, if not unique.
From this point of view, "Wild Flowers of Rock" can be said to have expanded the new space for the heroine of domestic film and television works, which is worthy of recognition. From the performance point of view, Yao Chen’s portrayal of Peng Lai is vivid, natural and remarkable, and she has given the audience a role very different from her previous screen image. The young actress Zhuang Duffy played during the day, and her performance was also quite satisfactory.
It is a pity that "Wild Flowers in Rock" failed to portray the characters and tell the story well because of its symbolic and functional characters and many unreasonable and illogical storylines.
The main male characters in the play, such as Da Cui, Luo Jun, Bin Bin and An Zhe, are not like men with independent personality, self-esteem and self-love, but tools who completely obey the plot arrangement and the heroine’s needs.
Da Cui, played by Chang Yuan, has not only been helping Peng Lai to take care of her daughter unconditionally for more than ten years, but Peng Lai has been running back and forth for her affairs after returning to China, and he is also affectionate and righteous to many ex-wives (played by Lele Dai). Such a good man does not understand why many of them had the heart to divorce him in those years.
In front of several heroines, they work hard and complain with good, but this is obviously distorted, and it is the obscenity and instrumental treatment of male images from the perspective of women.
Talk about the female characters in the play again. As the soul of the whole drama, Peng Lai should have been a rebellious and unruly contemporary woman with independent personality and rock spirit according to the creator’s intention.
However, perhaps it is too much emphasis on drama conflict and the pursuit of cool drama effect. Although Peng Lai, played by Yao Chen, has a pair of smoky makeup, cigarettes and alcohol, and tries his best to portray the image of a down-and-out but cool middle-aged rock singer, there is nothing independent and strong in her actions, and she lacks the rock spirit of free struggle.
When Peng Laigang came back to China, she and her daughter did not give in to each other during the day and fought with each other, which can still be regarded as her forced self-protection. After all, her attitude towards her mother during the day was really bad and her behavior was really excessive.
However, after Peng Lai took her old mother to live at home for a period of time, her daughter got along well with her grandmother during the day, and her relationship with Peng Lai eased a lot. Just as the family of three was happy, Peng Lai actually got drunk and stole her handprint to sell the house, which made her daughter commit suicide by jumping off a building. Whatever the reason, it seems too selfish.
In order to realize his dream, Peng Lai pretended to have amnesia after his illness and tricked Chen Yue and many others into coming back to reunite with her, which is understandable.
The most incredible thing is that Peng Lai actually chose her daughter’s daytime band when she chose her opponent in the promotion competition, and she said shamelessly, "I want to guarantee a 100% win." This is only carefully calculated, where is there any mother-daughter relationship and rock spirit?
To tell the truth, when I saw the end, I chose Chen Yue as my band’s assistant during the day, regardless of Peng Lai’s prior request. The author blurted out "What a suck".
These unreasonable and illogical storylines destroyed Peng Lai’s character image to a great extent, and accidentally portrayed Peng Lai, who originally wanted to be rebellious and unruly, as a selfish bastard.
No wonder in the play, I angrily said to Peng Lai during the day, "I know too much about your character of doing whatever it takes to get what you want" and "She was as selfish twelve years ago as she was twelve years later". Chen Yue also said, "She thought the earth revolved around her alone."
Even in the last episode, the screenwriter forced Peng Lai to whitewash and stir up feelings, revealing her real intention of caring about her daughter and wanting to help her daughter’s band when she was in the United States, and trying to save her selfish image as an asshole, it was hard to justify herself.
Secondly, Peng Lai chose the daytime band PK, which she thought was the weakest in the promotion, with a very cold-blooded and selfish starting point. Even if she finally wanted to clarify that the Wild Flower Band didn’t mean to release water, it was difficult to make up for it, and it was unreasonable. Because she really doesn’t want to lose.
Finally, as a music lover, after watching the complete drama, the author can’t help but vomit: the original songs in "Rock and Roll Flowers" are really not beautiful!
