【Audiovisual Observation】

  The TV series "My Second Half of Life" is adapted from the novella of writer Wang Meng, "The Strange and Wonderful" and uses the emotional ups and downs of retired professor Shen Zhuoran in his later years as the main line, and uses humorous and sharp brushstrokes to outline the living conditions of the urban elderly group. After the drama was launched on CCTV's eighth set, it aroused heated discussions on the public, using artistic dialogues across the media to confirm the possibility of filming and television of high-quality literary IP, and also demonstrates the innovative possibility of literary and artistic creation responding to social hot issues.

  The original work has sharp irony and black humorous narratives, which give the work a heavy ideological weight, but to a certain extent builds a barrier to empathy with readers. Therefore, on the basis of respecting the literary background of the original work, the TV series transforms a large number of psychological monologues into vivid and vivid group scenes, allowing the spiritual world of intellectuals to resonate with the family affairs of the people in the city. This "down-to-earth" adaptation did not weaken the depth of thought, but instead made audiences from different generations find resonance points.

  "My Second Half of Life" tells the story of retired professor Shen Zhuoran's four "twilight love" journeys. Through contradictions such as "blind dates for the elderly" and "real estate disputes", it explores the confusion of individual happiness and family ethics in the process of population aging; at the same time, using plots such as "emotional disputes" and "body donation", it creates a stylized narrative strategy that has both realistic background and strong drama. The combination of Shen Zhuoran and the head nurse Lian Yilian reflects the utilitarian dilemma of marriage and love in the elderly. When the woman proposed to transfer real estate in exchange for the life guarantee of her sick son, Shen Zhuoran's idealistic values ​​as a traditional literati encountered a realistic blow; Shen Zhuoran's Plato love with astronomer Nie Juanjuan shows the elderly's desire for spiritual resonance and the helplessness in facing the real difficulties. The auxiliary narratives such as leaving the real estate behind Lao Gou to his young wife and causing identity cognitive impairment by Alzheimer's disease, put the issue of marriage and love in the elderly in multiple social coordinates such as intergenerational ethical reconstruction and cognitive decline anxiety, expanding the discussion dimension of the emotional life of the elderly.

  "My Second Half of Life" also observes the survival status of women, especially elderly women, by shaping group portraits such as Liu Lina, Lian Yilian, and Nie Juanjuan. The play not only presents the constraints of traditional concepts of marriage and love on women, but also depicts the choice between women in the workplace and family, and also reveals the complex reality of coexistence of emotional needs and utilitarian considerations in the elderly marriage and love market. These narrative clues vividly interpret the confusion and choice between material independence and spiritual freedom of modern women, presenting the identity transformation trajectory of the female image from "gender symbol" to "independent subject".

  The TV series vividly portrays the character characteristics of the characters through compact and layered plot design. For example, Lian Yilian's role is more of a material woman than the "calculation-minded" image in the original work, the series shows more her tolerance, generosity and virtuousness, as well as her helplessness and struggle in the face of life difficulties. Such shaping allows the audience to break out of a simple perspective of moral judgment and can better understand her difficulties as a mother. At the same time, the TV series presents special details in daily life situations, making the characters more distinctive and prominent. For example, the role of daughter-in-law Liu Lina, TV series repeatedly reproduces the details of her running between school and vegetable market, holding multiple jobs and having to manage the family, allowing the audience to understand the great efforts of contemporary women to the family and the habitual neglect of family members to pay for them.

  In recent years, the evolution of the narrative of "big heroine" has shown two typical paradigms: one is to accuse gender injustice through narratives of suffering, and the other is to declare the victory of the female subject with a "satisfaction" narrative. Both of these creative tendencies have weakened the authenticity and complexity of female images to varying degrees. And "My Second Half of Life" tries to break the binary opposition and explore the path of women's growth in a more compatible way. Lian Yilian compromised for her sick son, but lost the opportunity to pursue true love in material demands; astronomer Nie Juanjuan pursued spiritual resonance but was trapped in illness, and eventually left the market voluntarily; former trade union cadre Lu Yuan kidnapped family affection with moral perfectionism, but was accused by his daughter. These female characters do not pursue perfect character design, but attract audiences with their respective life confusion and growth trajectories.

  In short, "My Second Half of Life" faces the true face of the old age's late life, which not only shows the reality of physical decay, but also shows their passionate emotional needs, and does not avoid the heavy burden of life and death propositions. The creator uses relaxed and humorous narrative techniques to transform serious topics such as elderly care difficulties and intergenerational relationships into daily fragments full of fireworks, allowing thoughts on issues such as dignity and life value in their late years to flow naturally, conveying positive, open-minded, positive and upward values.

  (Author: Liu Mingyang, a doctoral student at the School of Literature, Nanjing Normal University)

[Editor in charge: Susan]