In this era of drama chasing in Weibo, "Dear, Where Are You" (hereinafter referred to as "Where Are You") starring powerful actors Chloe Wang and Amanda is not explosive, and even somewhat unpopular. It doesn't have the elements of handsome boys and pretty girls that young people like, and there are not many topics suitable for young people to discuss in Weibo. Even the shooting technique of this drama is very simple: there are no filters at all, and almost all of them are big white light. The target audience of Where Are You is really a little older. Young people may not feel anything after reading it. Middle-aged people who are married and have a family are likely to get a lot of songs.

"Honey, where are you" poster

Families with children know what children mean to a family. "Where are you?" Focus on a middle-aged family. Ding Yu (Chloe Wang) and He (Amanda) are a middle-aged couple with a daughter Yuan Yuan who has just entered the first grade of primary school. But on the first day of school, round grandma accidentally lost her child. So the title of this play is a story of "losing children" and "finding children".

However, the audience can rest assured that the direction of "Where Are You" is not the cruel way of the movie "Dear", and there are no suspense plots such as kidnapping and killing tickets. Spoiler, Yuanyuan was not abducted. Because her parents were getting divorced, she took the initiative to "disappear". Of course, she wasn't discovered so soon. "Where are you?" In fact, taking The Lost Child as the breakthrough point, it exploded many groups of contradictions and crises in this family, reflected the life of a middle-aged family, and tried to find a way of redemption.

There are contradictions between husband and wife. The relationship between Ding Yu and He is on the verge of division. Ding is a good man, father, husband and son. He originally wanted to be a painter, but for the sake of family livelihood, he gave up his dream and became a designer of a decoration company, and his career was not smooth.

Ding Yu (Chloe Wang)

The burden of supporting the family mainly falls on his wife He. He Lin Xue is a strong woman. For the sake of her family, she gave up her busy doctor job and chose a medicine sales job that made more money. Before becoming the director, she worked like hell. Running around at both ends of the family and workplace, exhausted physically and mentally. She doesn't like her husband's gentle swallowing, and she feels that her efforts have not been forgiven by her family. Two people out of sync made her file for divorce.

He Lin Xue (Amanda)

There are contradictions between aunts. Sister-in-law Stefanie Ding (Wang Yanzhi) is young, impulsive, irritable and outspoken. She always secretly complains that her sister-in-law told her brother to give up his dream of painting and doesn't like her style of reasoning and tide wait for no man. In addition, Ding Yanzi found that He was closely associated with () and suspected that they had an affair, so he didn't have a good face.

Sister-in-law Stefanie Ding (Wang Yanzhi) never liked her.

There are also bumps between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Although the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law did not live together, her mother-in-law was kind and gentle, but her daughter Yuanyuan was lost by her mother-in-law, who was sent to the hospital with grief and regret. He Lin Xue didn't say anything, but she still had some resentment in her heart.

Contradiction between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law

And mother and daughter hide it. He's mother heard her daughter's strangeness on the phone and came to her daughter's city. Although Xue tried to conceal the news of her daughter's loss, the paper couldn't cover the fire, and her mother fainted when she knew the truth. ...

Losing a daughter is a biting pain, but things still come one after another, and it's all on He. It's not that there are no adult men at home, but her husband is a good man. My father-in-law Ding Zhongyi (Han Tongsheng), who retired from the police station, is also very reasonable, but we can see from many details that she-he Lin Xue is the de facto "head of the family".

For example, my father-in-law found a monitoring probe in the street, but he didn't open the door until the leader came to the security guard. My father-in-law waited for a long time. He rushed over without saying anything, and smashed the window with a brick to unlock it, which startled her husband and father-in-law. There was indeed a daughter in the surveillance, and they found that her daughter finally talked to a strange man.

He Lin Xue is a decisive man.

For example, my mother-in-law had a heart attack because of remorse, and she had to transfer from a small hospital to a large hospital, but the hospital said there was no bed. Despite her sister-in-law's sarcastic remarks, He Lin Xue silently contacted her acquaintances, and soon the ambulance came to the hospital. Ding's family didn't know it was her help at first. The ambulance came, and Ding's family got into the ambulance, leaving her alone. Watching the ambulance go away, she also shed tears. You helped, but your family still treats you like an outsider.

Work hard but not be recognized by your family.

On him, the audience can see the difficulty of a middle-aged strong woman: running at both ends of family life, stop talking. Major issues mainly require her to make decisions and decisions, and the key moments have to be decided by her; But she failed to get the understanding, care and support of her family.

"Where are you?" Spread out the plight of ordinary middle-aged people in real life. No filters, no aesthetic curiosity, no golden fingers. How tired Lin Xue is, the audience will be full of anxiety. It is understandable that young audiences are not interested in this kind of drama. Young people still have to look forward to their future family life. The plight of traditional middle-aged women had better stop at this generation.

Of course, we also know that Where Are You is not a drama that conveys pessimism. The process of finding children is also a process of "finding love". The couple will gradually reach an understanding, the aunt will reconcile, and the mother-in-law will forgive. After all, it will fall on a warm theme. Just watching how miserable he was, the audience was also very upset: why do middle-aged women always have to endure hardships to achieve perfection?

"Where are you?" It has some shortcomings of China traditional family drama, such as pursuing strong plots, exaggerating conflicts, and obvious flaws in logic and details. But the acting of this play deserves special praise. Even compared with the big-screen movies like Dear, the emotional treatment of several leading actors has not fallen into a disadvantage, which can strongly stimulate the emotions of the audience. It is not impossible for Amanda to win a prize with this play in the future. Many crying scenes are handled with clear emotions and care. The only "disadvantage" of acting too well is that the audience can substitute her feelings and feel wronged when watching it, so it is not recommended for viewers in a bad mood.

Editor of this issue Xing Tan