{"title":"Why The Knockout (2023) became a phenomenal hit: A contextual analysis and interview with screenwriter Zhu Junyi1","authors":"Qi Ai, Xiaofeng Yu","doi":"10.1386/josc_00140_1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n The Knockout, a crime television drama, emerged during the Spring Festival holiday of 2023 and quickly sparked a wide discussion both online and offline. Different from previous shows of the same genre, it adopts a three-timeline narrative structure and abandons stereotypical characterization. The heroes are made of flesh and blood and the villains are not born to be evil and cruel. Their choices and the consequences echo the changes in Chinese society over the past twenty years. This article features our interview with the screenwriter Zhu Junyi and, from the perspective of sociocultural contexts, briefly analyses why The Knockout became a phenomenal hit, revealing changes in the screenwriting trend of main melody works. The interview consists of three parts, covering the ecology for screenwriters in China, the birth of The Knockout and Zhu’s characterization of the television drama script.","PeriodicalId":41719,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Screenwriting","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Screenwriting","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1386/josc_00140_1","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"FILM, RADIO, TELEVISION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The Knockout, a crime television drama, emerged during the Spring Festival holiday of 2023 and quickly sparked a wide discussion both online and offline. Different from previous shows of the same genre, it adopts a three-timeline narrative structure and abandons stereotypical characterization. The heroes are made of flesh and blood and the villains are not born to be evil and cruel. Their choices and the consequences echo the changes in Chinese society over the past twenty years. This article features our interview with the screenwriter Zhu Junyi and, from the perspective of sociocultural contexts, briefly analyses why The Knockout became a phenomenal hit, revealing changes in the screenwriting trend of main melody works. The interview consists of three parts, covering the ecology for screenwriters in China, the birth of The Knockout and Zhu’s characterization of the television drama script.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Screenwriting aims to explore the nature of writing for the moving image in the broadest sense, highlighting current academic thinking around scriptwriting whilst also reflecting on this with a truly international perspective and outlook. The journal will encourage the investigation of a broad range of possible methodologies and approaches to studying the scriptwriting form, in particular: the history of the form, contextual analysis, the process of writing for the moving image, the relationship of scriptwriting to the production process and how the form can be considered in terms of culture and society. The journal also aims to encourage research in the field of screenwriting and the linking of scriptwriting practice to academic theory, and to support and promote conferences and networking events on this subject.