The Korean drama "Top Floor" gradually climbed to the boiling point in the three seasons, and dog blood became synonymous with it and immediately went out of the circle. Some people call it suspense, others can’t stop. The Top Floor attracts audiences with short-term pleasure consumption, but how can it make people stay for three seasons? And who made it and why? This issue of Cultural Industry Review (ID: WHCYPL) will show you the answer.
author | Guo Xuemei (Cultural Industry Review Author Group)
edit | Feng Jiaxin
source | Cultural Industry Review
The text is 4289 words in total | Estimated reading time is 11 minutes.
The dog’s blood keeps turning. This Korean drama "Top Floor", which combines multiple elements such as infidelity, revenge, rebirth, true and false daughters, school violence and so on, ushered in its third season on June 4.
The Top Floor, which premiered on South Korea’s SBS TV last October, tells the story that the top 1% of South Korea’s upper-class people live in a 100-story top apartment (Hera Palace).
Among them, the different floors of the palace mean different levels, and the chaebol families living in it all aim at the highest "top floor", while the drama revolves around Zhou Dantai, a real estate tycoon living on the top floor, and four members of the Hera Association related to him.
According to public data, the audience rating of this drama was as high as 31% in the first and second seasons, and it is a work in which the audience rating exceeded 30% after five years in the mini series of Korean wireless TV.The third season of "Top Floor", which premiered on the 4th, achieved a good rating of 21.9% in the first episode, ranking first among all channel programs broadcast in South Korea on Friday.
The ratings are explosive, but the word of mouth is bipolar. The series "Top Floor" suffers from the audience’s ridicule of "I think you can reverse it several times", and at the same time encounters such obscure comments as "too bloody". Although the discussion is so divided, there are still countless netizens who lament that they can’t stop.May I ask, where is the charm of dog blood drama?
There are so many types of Korean dramas, why is the dog’s blood on fire?
Korean dramas have always pursued a hundred flowers in genre. The emotional drama represented by Please Answer 1988, the campus idol drama represented by Heirs, and the fantasy drama represented by You from the Stars … all reveal the Korean Style that Korean dramas have contributed to various drama types.
The temporary scenery of "Dog Blood Drama" is almost its contribution.For example, the domestic version of The Temptation to Go Home, a remake of the Korean drama The Temptation of the Wife, such as the battle between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, girlfriends turning against each other, and original revenge, once caused a craze when it was first broadcast in 2011, and this sprouted in the Korean drama series in 2008.
△ Right is South Korea’s "The Temptation of Wife"
From the national popularity of The Temptation to Go Home, it can be seen that the explosion of Top Floor, which follows the dog blood style, is traceable in China. However, we should know that it is no longer the China market in 2011, and we are no longer the audience at that time. The drama elements advertised in "Top Floor" have been used repeatedly in today’s wanton TV drama circle, so that they are "played badly".
In addition, before the release of Top Floor in October last year, many dramas with high attention had been released, such as itaewon class (School Violence+Attacking Bureaucracy) which started in January, Husband and Wife’s World (Family Ethics+Revenge) which started in March, and Flowers of Evil (suspense) which started in the same period. Campus violence, family ethics and other elements have been used once before "Top Floor".
△ itaewon class, Husband and Wife’s World and Flower of Evil
In such a crowded drama track, why did "Top Floor" still achieve such a viewing spectacle in the face of powerful previous opponents and the same dog blood element?
Female theme+"cool" is justice.
In the current situation of female drama series blowout, in fact, it is difficult to have more eye-catching works. The dramas that focus on women and change the plight of women’s survival over and over again have shown fatigue.
In this situation, The Top Floor has achieved one thing, that is, breaking through the shackles of female role-building, and trying to tell a higher-dimensional topic: wealth and power.
The three female characters in The Top Floor, Shen Xiulian, Qian Ruizhen and Wu Yunxi, live in the upper class, some of them are devoted to being a good wife and mother, and some of them harbor evil intentions for selfish ends. Their daughters also show various images. Therefore, telling their stories reveals the unique survival of women under the influence of the chaebol.
△ Characters in the play: Shen Xiulian, Qian Ruizhen, Wu Yunxi
The key point of the top floor is to grasp the "cool" characteristics pursued by many female audiences at present.In addition to the single sweet pet drama in the mainland market, it innovatively uses the technique of repeated inversion to make the audience feel good in the emotional transformation of joy and sorrow. No one knows who will die or come back to life in the next second.
Gold medal "Dog Blood" screenwriter+serial broadcast
The dog’s blood and reversal plot in "Top Floor" can be played so well that it is inseparable from the screenwriter Jin Shunyu.In the early years, "The Temptation of the Wife" came! Zhang Baoli, The Queen’s Character and other dramas once made her a hit, thus winning the title of "godmother of dog blood". The high ratings and high topicality of "Top Floor" can also be said to rely on her own heat.
△ "Top Floor" screenwriter Jin Shunyu
At the same time, her works did not simply inherit the style of dog blood in the past, but made people feel full of reality beyond absurdity.
For example, the suspense story based on Min Xueya’s death not only shows the social problems such as real estate speculation, campus violence, the gap between the rich and the poor, but also uses various metaphors of Greek mythology, such as Hera Palace and the meaningful names of the protagonists (netizens guess that the name of Zhu Dantai is based on Dante and Cupid (Zeus) in Dante’s Divine Comedy).
△ Shen Xiulian’s daughter Min Xueya was lying on the statue of Hera when she died
In addition to the high degree of attention brought by screenwriters to Top Floor, the continued popularity of Top Floor in three seasons is also closely related to its broadcasting mode. After the first season was broadcast on October 26, 2020, the second and third seasons were also scheduled immediately, and the whole three seasons were released in a four-month cycle.
Although it is arranged as a weekly drama (1-2 episodes a week), people feel that once a week is not enough, but because of its compact drama broadcast arrangement, the audience can continue to retain their interest and continue to bring surprises. Especially for the pleasure consumption emphasized by dog blood drama, it avoids the problem of audience’s enthusiasm consumption well.
South Korean SBS behind "Top Floor"
The explosion of "Top Floor" is far more than its content and another shortcut in publicity.As the distribution company of "Top Floor" and Jin Shunyu’s other two explosive dramas "The Temptation of Wife" and "The Queen’s Character", South Korea’s SBS TV station has already clearly understood the audience’s tastes.
history
Because the production mode of Korean dramas in the early years was "production and broadcasting in one", that is, the production and broadcasting of TV dramas were all completed by TV stations, it can be said that TV stations almost had the power of life and death of a drama.Although there have been some changes in the development of the later production mode, the status of TV stations has always been in the upper hand.
Among many TV stations in Korea, KBS (Korea Broadcasting Corporation), MBC (Korea Cultural Broadcasting Corporation) and SBS (Seoul Broadcasting Corporation) are the only three, and they are tied as the three major wireless TV stations in Korea.
KBS is the earliest public television and radio station in Korea, which was founded in 1953. MBC is a joint-stock public cultural broadcasting company, which was established in 1961. SBS is a private wireless TV station, the youngest of the three, established in 1990.
Because of their different nature and overall management strategies, the three Korean TV stations have occupied the position of "the top spot" in the history of Korean TV and variety shows.
KBS, a national TV station, produced many works with high national popularity, such as Romantic Room, Two Days and One Night (imported by China) around 2004, and it was also the "main force" for Korean Wave to enter China that year.
Another TV station, MBC, was called the highest quality distributor of Korean historical dramas by netizens. The famous Dae Jang Geum, The Queen of Virtue and The Moon Embracing the Sun were loved by many viewers once they were broadcast. Its variety show "I am a singer" and "Where is Dad?" has attracted a lot of attention since it was introduced in China.
△ The douban scores of three historical dramas are all above 8 points.
On the whole, the most dynamic time periods of KBS and MBC basically gathered from 2000 to 2013. Although KBS produced such explosive dramas as Descendants of the Sun in 2016, the scenery after that seems to have declined.
As a result, SBS, which was established at the latest, got the opportunity and did not bear the great trust to successfully take over.
In 2013, Korean dramas exploded and became popular in Asia. The well-known You from the Stars, Hearing Your Voice and Heirs are the works SBS contributed to it. Not only that, many Korean actors also became hot stars in that year, such as Kim Soo Hyun, who played Professor Zhongdu in You from the Stars, and Lee MinHo, the first Korean artist to appear in the Spring Festival Evening.
△ Lee MinHo and Yu Chengqing cooperated in CCTV Spring Festival Evening of the Year of the Horse, "Love has to be"
The variety "Running Man", which was launched in 2010, gained a lot of attention from China audience with the help of the popularity of the imported version of Running Man in China.
On the whole, although the brand is still young, SBS has a real insight into young people’s preference for watching dramas, and its achievements are manifested in the "monopoly" of Korean dramas around 2013.In addition, it also carried forward fantasy dramas, such as You from the Stars and Legend of the Blue Sea (Youth Love+Fantasy), which provided a model for many famous Korean dramas later.
△ Lee Jong Suk has appeared in many fantasy dramas. Hear Your Voice in 2013 and W Two Worlds in 2016.
future
Since 2013, SBS has developed rapidly, but it seems that its glory will only stay in 2013.Looking at Korean TV dramas and variety shows with excellent reputation and ratings in recent years, SBS’s original momentum has begun to weaken.
On the one hand, many other TV stations began to enter the track. For example, TVN, JTBC, OCN, and streaming media platforms like Netflix are also trying to enter the Korean TV drama market. Not to mention SBS, the other two TV stations are also facing these challenges.
Among many competitors, TVN is the strongest. In recent years, the explosive Korean drama Lonely and Brilliant Gods and Ghosts, Forced Landing of Love, Life of a Clever Doctor (please answer) and Spy, which was discussed in the cultural industry review (ID: WHCYPL) not long ago, all came from it.
△ In order: Ghosts, Forced Landing of Love, Smart Doctor Life
Backed by CJ EM, the largest entertainment media company in South Korea, TVN has risen rapidly since it was officially launched in 2006, trying to "conquer" Asian audiences with its rich entertainment content, and has also conducted all-weather Korean pronunciation and Chinese subtitles in order to let China audiences feel the charm of Korean Wave simultaneously.
On the other hand, the advantages of KBS’s national TV stations are now beginning to be reflected. 2021 is the year of cultural exchange between China and South Korea. According to CCTV news earlier, in order to implement the consensus of the heads of state of China and South Korea, the Central Radio and Television General Station and korean broadcasting system (KBS) signed a cooperation agreement by video on February 22nd.
China and South Korea are ready to carry out all-round cooperation in program content, media technology and industrial management, promote cultural exchanges between the two countries, enhance friendship and mutual trust, and push China-South Korea strategic cooperative partnership to a new level.As the first Korean TV station to cooperate at the national level, KBS will inevitably occupy many advantages in the development of China market, and when will SNS have such an opportunity?
tag
Behind the Top Floor, which looks like dog blood, SBS has a new insight into the current audience.However, following the model of "The Temptation of Wife" to try to attract today’s young people still seems to have no long-term effect. Because people get only pleasure, not long-term happiness, in the "Top Floor" which is bursting with great feeling.
And we try to ask, after the "Top Floor", can SBS bring new surprises under the opportunity of relaxing the Korean restrictions brought by the China-South Korea exchange year?
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