Several so-called Happy-New-Year TV drama mini-series, which are scheduled for the upcoming Spring Festival holiday season beginning on February 1, 2003, have been produced.
The festive, comic TV drama series usually contains three episodes, a program pattern that has only become popular in China in recent years.
Among the festive mini-series are Perfect Match, You Are My Best Love, I Love My Car, and Everybody Is Happy.
Perfect Match is directed by Cao Guiqian, and stars prize-winning actresses Ma Ling, Ma Xiaoqing and veteran comic actor Mo Yuanji. It is a co-production of the Beijing Jingcheng Art & Culture Co Ltd and China Great Wall Art & Culture Production Center.
The TV drama series tells the love stories between the members of a big family that is typical to the rural area of Beijing and a large family from urban Beijing. It offers the audience "a new look at the relationship between urban and rural Chinese, who are working closely to seek an all-round well-off life in the new era," said soprano-turned-TV drama director Cao.
Cao's three-part Triple Happiness topped this year's TV comedy ratings for the Spring Festival season.
So far, this TV drama is the first to have been completed. It is being sold to more than 30 provincial TV and cable TV stations across the country, local media reported.
Famous comic actor Ying Da directs You Are My Best Love, in which he also plays the lead role. The TV drama portrays a shrewd TV commercial agent who takes advantage of Beijing's successful bid for 2008 Olympic Games to make money.
I Love My Car, directed by Zhang Huizhong, looks at the trivial, but happy life of an affectionate couple. Female comedian Song Dandan plays the lead role with veteran TV actors Yang Lixin, Liang Tian and Wen Xingyu.
Everybody Is Happy, which is produced by Shanghai Film Group and directed by Liu Zhenwei, stars popular actress Ning Jing, former TV game show hosts Li Xiang, He Jiong, Cheng Qian, veteran TV and stage performers Xiu Zongdi, Liang Guanhua and Fang Qingzhuo, and Zhang Shi from Taiwan.
All these TV drama mini-series are aimed at the Spring Festival season, but it is still too early to predict which one will come out on top with the audience, critics say.
(China Daily December 23, 2002)
