Xu Kai: The sand sculpture is no more than three, it’s time to change the character of the play

Text | Meat Floss

Since July, many new dramas such as "Splendid Nange" and "River God 2" have been launched. But after observation, there are few works that can lift the spirit of drama fans. Among them, it also includes the costume drama "Tian Wu Ji" with Xu Kai as the leading actor.

At present, the overall quality of the series and Xu Kai's personal performance are not satisfactory.

They just correspond to three tangled psychology of chasing dramas. It can also be seen that Xu Kai left a lasting impression on the audience. Impressions are beautiful and can support works, and this perception is changing.

Looking back, Xu Kai’s first large-scale fan base was the 2018 “Story of Yanxi Palace”, in which he relied on Fucha·Fu Heng Yijiao became popular. After a short bonus period, it enters a period of ups and downs. On the one hand, the controversy brought about by the domestic violence incident had a certain impact on passers-by; on the other hand, there was no greater breakthrough in subsequent works, and there was an increasingly obvious convergence.

So, does he have a chance to redeem the audience's filter on himself in this kind of repetition? What are the possibilities that can help him achieve a breakthrough?

01

"Tian Wu Ji" and Xu Kai who can't carry each other

say "Tian Wu Ji" is a drama that "Xu Kai can't be saved". It's not that the audience is harsh from the perspective of fans. It is reasonable to sigh "You only have a face" to him.

This drama is adapted from the online novel of the same name, laying out the time and space structure of the coexistence of humans and monsters in the context of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Until the hybrid of the two, the male protagonist Li Xuan played by Xu Kai, was born, breaking the balance of the world. But this setting is more like a decoration, to nest the love between the male and female protagonists from happy enemies to sadistic and physically sadistic love, as well as the "little fights" among the students in Moyun Academy to which they belong.

Therefore, it is positioned as a costumed campus youth drama, and the overall style of the work tends to be light and sandy. However, judging from audience feedback, not only the plot is cliché, but also there are many flaws in details such as filters, costumes, and special effects.

Specifically speaking of Li Xuan, the "Little Overlord of Qingtian City", his character design is far from likable. Despite shouldering a blood feud, his daily life is filled with all kinds of confusing behaviors, which look a bit childish against the background of illogical plots: dressing up as a woman, teasing the heroine, going against the master... Such a role does not leave much room for actors to perform. .

On the other hand, good looks have always been Xu Kai’s advantage, and his costumes in ancient costumes especially attract fans. But it suffers from the show's lack of sophisticated styling, which is not taken advantage of.

Such quality is reflected in popularity and reputation. According to Guduo data, during the 9 days that "Tian Wu Ji" was broadcast, it only ranked in the top 5 of the online drama rankings for the first 3 days, and then showed a relatively obvious downward trend. Although Douban has not released scores yet, it can be seen from the scores of popular short comments that the situation is not optimistic.

The gap between the front and back is related to Xu Kai. As the comments said, "Come for Xu Kai", it is not ruled out that we have expectations but it will be soon. The situation of being persuaded to leave.

Looking at his own data, we can also see the echo with the popularity of the series. According to Guduo data, at the beginning of the launch of "Tian Wu Ji", his ranking on the list rose rapidly.

On the second day after it was aired, it entered the top 5 of the online drama starring list, but it only lasted for 3 days.

Comparing "Once Upon a Time on Lingjian Mountain" at the end of last year, it is also a costumed youth drama, and its Douban score of 7.1 is not considered a masterpiece. of ranks. According to Guduo data, starting from the second day after the drama aired, it topped the list of online dramas for 13 consecutive days, surpassing "Crane Huating" which was aired at the same time and had a better reputation, until "Celebrating More Than Years" was released and replaced it. position, but can occasionally come back.

Xu Kai’s own data performance is almost in sync with the work. In the Guduo artist ranking list, it ranked first in the list of leading actors in online dramas in the first 13 days of the drama's broadcast period, and has remained stable in the top 3 since then.

02

How did the audience’s Fu Heng filter fail?

It is obvious that Xu Kai is on a downhill road today.

Reviewing his career experience since his debut in 2016, taking 2018 as the node, it shows an upward trend in the first half and a downward trend in the second half. . It was his works and roles during these four years that led to this change.

The rise in the first half was almost solely due to the hit drama "Story of Yanxi Palace". Fucha Fu Heng, played by Xu Kai, is affectionate, gentle and has handsome features. He has become a classic screen character and also gave actor Xu Kai a clearer positioning.

With the help of character design, this young boy shines brightly, and at the same time he is labeled as a handsome man in ancient costume. But unfortunately, he continued to stray in the same direction in his subsequent works.

In 2019, he released two works. One is the passionate youth inspirational drama "Fire Military Academy", in which he plays the unruly wealthy son Gu Yan frame; the other is the costume youth drama "Once Upon a Time in Lingjian Mountain", in which he plays the extremely talented Wang Lu.

Coupled with the recent "Tian Wu Ji", it is not difficult to see the similarities between these works and characters.

Although they are different from ancient costumes and period dramas, the elements of the dramas all contain youthful, inspirational and passionate elements, and they all gather characters in a school-like space against a grand background. Here, sparks collide with each other, and the style of painting is always inseparable from the attributes of sand sculptures. From Gu Yan frame, Wang Lu to Li Xuan, they are all cynical and unconventional types.

In other words, Xu Kai has repeated himself three times in a row, which can easily deplete his own popularity.

Based on the data, corresponding conclusions can also be drawn. After "Strategy of Yanxi Palace", his successive online works are the TV series "Swagger", the movie "Blue Life and Death", the web drama "Fire Military Academy" and "Once Upon a Time in the Spirit Sword Mountain".

According to Baidu Index, his data will increase when each work is broadcast. But looking at each increase and peak, it is obvious that the trend is getting lower and lower. The peak search index during the "Story of Yanxi Palace" period was almost twice as high as the next peak.

However, it is unreasonable to blame this phenomenon solely on the characters. The audience is not blindly opposed to this kind of character that echoes Xu Kai's off-screen attributes.

Comparing the audience feedback of "Story of Yanxi Palace" and "Once Upon a Time in Lingjian Mountain", the gap in the favorable ratings of Fu Heng and Wang Lu is not very big. . Fu Heng received a positive evaluation of 23.2, a neutral evaluation of 63.6, and a negative evaluation of 13.1; Wang Lu received a positive evaluation of 18.0, a neutral evaluation of 64.8, and a negative evaluation of 17.2.

On the contrary, Xu Kai himself always received higher praise than the character, and the difference between the two times was more obvious than the character. Judging from the evaluation of both acting skills and appearance, Fucha Fu Heng can be regarded as Xu Kai's highlight moment.

For this reason, the audience has always had a filter on him, until a series of poorly received works and repeated character performances made this actor The layer filter is almost to the point of failure.

03

Xu Kai, who has only a face left, should feel a sense of crisis?

It can be said that when an actor makes the audience think that "only his face is left", he must have reached a situation that should have a sense of crisis.

Putting aside Xu Kai’s uncontrollable career plans and personal ambition, and simply analyzing his possibilities as an actor, in order to achieve success in the short term It’s not easy to create the next highlight moment within the company.

On the one hand, his subsequent works seem a bit weak.

There are two dramas to be aired, one is "You Are Beautiful When You Smile" with partners Cheng Xiao and Zhai Xiaowen, because the original novel has its own unstable factors due to the controversy.

In recent years, many young actors such as Wang Yibo, Li Xian, Yang Yang, Lu Han, and Wu Lei have tried e-sports-themed works. , such as "Accompany You to the Top of the World", "Full-time Master", "Dear, Beloved" and "Cross Fire". But judging from the effects of the dramas that have been aired, if the quality is not much different, only a few can get out of the circle or provide blessings to the actors.

The other one is "The Journey of the Tang Dynasty" with partner Li Yitong, which is positioned as a light comedy of period romance. Judging from the plot description and character introduction, Cheng Chumo, played by Xu Kai, will embark on a hilarious pursuit of his wife. As far as the work is concerned, it is a type worth looking forward to, but for Xu Kai, it is almost foreseeable that it will repeat itself in the general direction.

In addition, there is the recently launched ancient costume romance fairy tale "Eternal Jue Chen". According to reports, he will stage a love story with the heroine played by Zhou Dongyu, who has experienced life and death but remains affectionate and unyielding. What is doubtful is that the romantic setting tests the acting skills more, and the sadomasochism scenes also require a higher sense of CP.

Therefore, although these works have not yet been broadcast and are even being filmed, it can be judged that at least there is no "good cake" that can allow him to achieve transformation or breakthrough.

As mentioned earlier, the most prominent aspect of Xu Kai’s image label is the handsome man in ancient costume.

Looking at his works after "Story of Yanxi Palace", we can see the tendency to intentionally strengthen labels. This is a feasible way for young male actors. But the problem is that this goes beyond consolidation for him. While lingering in costume dramas, he worked harder to amplify his sunny and handsome features, even going as far as to make a fool of himself. Instead, he lost the most important word "beauty" in the label.

In fact, Xu Kai is not the type who needs to rely heavily on ancient costumes.

Compared with Luo Yunxi or Ren Jialun, who also look good in ancient costumes, he is younger and has a youthful and free and easy feeling about him, giving him People also feel more sunny and refreshing. His modern appearance is also eye-catching. Combined with his personal temperament, the audience can imagine various characters that they can control.

Since his debut, he has mostly appeared in the online drama market, which is the soil with relatively rich themes and characters. Therefore, on the basis that his acting skills are flawless, Xu Kai's acting career should be broader than it is now.

Now Xu Kai urgently needs the audience to see a character with contrast, breakthrough or even direct subversion. It may be a bit risky, but it won't be worse than losing audience popularity by repeating it again and again. At the same time, he can also take the opportunity to expand his audience. Otherwise, he will lose what he already has while failing to gain more.

According to Baidu and Weibo data, his audience characteristics are relatively consistent. There are only about 20 male viewers and as many as 80 female viewers, and they are mainly women under the age of 24. . This is almost 100% consistent with the audience of his previous works.

The reason why Xu Kai should feel a sense of crisis is also because of the rapid changes in the niche. In the first half of 2020 alone, they appeared almost at a rate of one per month. For example, Ren Jialun, Song Weilong, Zhang Xincheng and Ding Yuxi, among them, some have already experienced explosive popularity, while others have been waiting for a long time and have good luck to get off to a good start.

In comparison, it seems more and more that Xu Kai is in a stage of internal and external troubles. It's a pity that judging from his subsequent works, it will still take some time to get rid of the current situation.