On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, when everyone was still immersed in the lingering warmth of the Spring Festival, CCTV 8 quietly released a "king bomb". The 30-episode period drama "The Love of Time" starring Huang Jingyu and Guan Xiaotong ranked first in the ratings when it premiered on CCTV's eight evening shows. The popularity of Taochang went straight to 5,000 in 2 hours and 6,000 in 4 hours. This is a brilliant start for a period-themed drama.
What is even more surprising is that this period drama about the growth of children from factories and mines in Northeast China in the 1990s actually started with a bare-chested boxing match involving Huang Jingyu, which directly took the audience from the "period theater" to the "sports channel". After watching the first 4 episodes, I have to say: CCTV has made the right bet again this time.
The opening chapter is high-energy, jumping from the boxing ring to the factory area in time and space. If you watch this drama for the sake of peace and quiet, the first 5 minutes of the first episode may make you suspect that you are on the wrong set. The opening scene was Huang Jingyu's shirtless boxing match, with abdominal muscles, sweat, and a sense of strength from fist to flesh – before the audience could react, they were already firmly locked in this "hormonal attack."
But the next second, the camera turned and returned to the Donghua Factory in Tiexicheng, Northeast China in the 1990s. The young man Zhang Xiaoman (played by Huang Jingyu) was being blackmailed by the school bully.
This sense of contrast between "working from CCTV8 to CCTV5" is precisely the biggest hook planted by the director: What did this kid from a factory and mine who grew up with a lot of food go through before he left his hometown and became a boxer?
The pace is fast. The first four episodes quickly establish the emotional foundation of the characters through three clues: missing people, disturbances, and separation.
Zhang Xiaoman was a child who had a hard life. His biological mother left and his father became a drunkard and often beat Xiaoman. His unreliable father even found a stepmother for him, and within a few days he took his new love to the south to work, leaving him with only a harmonica and throwing him to his elderly grandmother.
Young Xiao Man took his two friends – Yan Xiaodan, the daughter of the factory director, and Xia Lei, who had a strict upbringing – out of the city to look for his father. As a result, they stayed overnight in a cave and triggered a massive search throughout the factory.
Xiaoman fell into the water unexpectedly. Ding Guoqiang, the "factory tyrant" played by Jia Bing, fished Xiaoman out of the water and carried him to the hospital. The fate of two unrelated people was thus forged.
Soon Xiaoman and several friends grew up. The adolescent Xiaoman secretly liked Xiaodan, but the teacher gave Xia Lei and Xiaodan the task of reciting poems, and they recited "To the Oak Tree". Good brother Xia Leileng hoarse his voice and gave the opportunity to Xiao Man.
When Xiaoman and Xiaodan stood on the stage, the heartbeat of youth was frozen in the recitation of "If I love you – I will never be like a climbing flower in the sky".
The separation between Xiaoman and grandma was the biggest tear point in the first four episodes. Xiaoman attended the factory celebration performance and looked for her grandma everywhere on the stage but could not find her. After returning home successfully from the performance, grandma was still not there. Finally, what he found in the crowd was his grandma who had passed away peacefully.
Veteran actress Zhao Shuzhen played this kind of restrained love to the core – she went to see her grandson perform, hid in a corner and laughed through it, and then left quietly, not wanting to distract her child.
After his grandma left, Ding Guoqiang adopted Xiaoman. But at the same time, the tide of the times is approaching: the factory is facing transformation, Xiaodan wants to go abroad, Xia Lei is going to the south to work in the sea, and only Xiaoman, who has the deepest affection for this land, chooses to stay and be a worker. The three inseparable friends have reached different crossroads in life.
The word-of-mouth of the premiere has also come out. Judging from the current feedback, the word-of-mouth of "When Time Has Love" shows an obvious but positive trend. Huang Jingyu performed Zhang Xiaoman's sense of fragmentation and tenacity, and the comment section was full of people who felt sorry for Zhang Xiaoman and commented that Zhang Xiaoman's life was too miserable.
In addition, it is the restoration of the texture of the times, from the 28 big-bar bicycles and grilled chicken racks, to the popsicles stored in the canteen, the factory cultural performance, to the hot air in the bathhouse and the background sound of "Huan Zhuge Ge", the precise reproduction of details awakened the collective memory of the audience. Some netizens from Northeast China lamented: "It instantly took me back to my childhood."
After watching the first 4 episodes, my biggest feeling is that the pain and tears are very real, and it is a eloquent life drama. The family relationship between Xiaoman and grandma makes people cry, and the friendship between the Iron Triangle is heartwarming. Tears and laughter intertwined, deeply resonating with the audience. I have to say that CCTV made the right bet this time and has the potential to be a dark horse.
