Wen | Zero One
In recent years, suspense drama is a force that can not be ignored in the refinement of Chinese drama. In 2017, after "White Night Chasing Murder" started the creative upsurge of fine suspense drama, the production level of domestic suspense drama continued to improve, and it also strived for innovation in the storyline. With the continuous improvement of the audience’s aesthetic level, suspense drama has become synonymous with texture and word of mouth, and as the most promising type of Chinese drama, it has been paid more and more attention by the industry.
By April 2024, Youku announced that it would upgrade the suspense theater to the "White Night Theater", and at the beginning, it threw out two "Wang Fried" in succession.
At present, The Twilight Fire is coming to an end. The story focuses on the black and white human nature and the plight of women in the acquaintance society, and sets the tone of the works with high-quality audio-visual language and poetic details.Since its launch, "The Twilight Fire" has not only caused a hot discussion on social platforms, but also promoted the cultural tourism fever of Wuyuan, Jiangxi Province during May Day. A large number of tourists named to punch in "Steven Zhang’s home and Tanya’s home in the play" …
The craze triggered by "The Twilight Fire" is still at its peak. On May 6, the second work "New Life" of Youku White Night Theater came again.Sina overlapping old waves”。 Directed by "Put All Your Eggs" director Shen Ao, Freshman is a novel with distinctive features: an unconventional development of "the first man is dead", a gripping plot, a thorough dismantling of the panorama of the multi-faceted fraud bureau, and an interpretation of social humanity … Freshman is only 10 episodes long, but the suspense of the story is still rising, which has been heatedly discussed by the audience on social networks.
As the vanguard of Youku White Night Theater, Twilight Fire and New Life not only successfully widened the boundary in the exploration of suspense+,but also wrote a stunning opening for a new chapter in the quality of Chinese opera.
Judging from the audience’s feedback, the most direct reason why "New Life" was full of topics once it was broadcast may be that it closely followed the key spectacle element of "deception", and it was unconventional in personnel design, narrative and structure, forming a highly novel overall look and feel.
As the director’s bid for the Olympic Games said, "Different from filming in the past, filming can communicate with the audience in an eloquent and subtle way, providing sufficient expression space for the creators". "Freshman" gives full play to the advantages of drama form to focus on the social issues of "anti-fraud", presents the protagonist’s "crime of information difference" in a jigsaw puzzle narrative, and renders the drama-chasing experience with great suspense.
In the play, Fei Ke, played by Jing Bo Ran, has five different identities in front of five people, which amazes the audience.He was able to fool people not because of IQ crush, but more because he grasped the weaknesses and desires in the depths of human nature:
Facing the greedy boss Chen Shufa and his lovely daughter, Fei is a mature and decent invisible "official second generation"; Facing the financial elite Cheng Haoshi, Fei Ke has become a self-motivated younger generation, taking care of the family and bringing strong psychological satisfaction to Hao Cheng in the carefully created relationship; In front of Su Qian, a white-collar worker, Fei Ke became a youthful and sincere infatuated little suckling dog, which made Su Qian seem to have returned to the time of young love …
The brilliance of "New Life" does not stop at the moment when the scam is revealed, but the close connection with social issues behind the intersection of these multiple scams. Fico’s scam is based on his profound insight into human nature, and the emotional tension in his story not only makes the audience’s back cold, but also arouses the audience’s strong enough emotional resonance-This resonance is not limited to suspense and deception itself, but is related to the deeper thinking behind many issues such as marriage, workplace, wealth and identity.
What makes the audience want to stop is the suspense that "New Life" has always maintained. Although several parties have mostly told their experiences of being deceived since the four episodes, there are many foreshadowing and discrepancies in the details, and the audience will realize that these stories are probably not the original appearance of the story, just like the script killing the game.
The suspense of "New Life" does not come from mystification or suspense, but closely follows the positioning theme of "information gap suspense", which gives the audience a strong motivation to participate in the process of "solving puzzles" with the characters in the play.
As a cinema film crew, the main creator has also given "New Life" excellent image texture, showing good aesthetic quality in the use of light and shadow, color matching, scene layout and so on. This further strengthens the suspense atmosphere of the fast-paced and high-reversal plot, which makes the audience immersed in it.
Up to now, from the typical "Snowstorm Mountain Villa" memorial service at the beginning to the more complicated images of Fei Ke and the "deceived" with the development of the plot, the truth pieced together by fragmented narrative is still incomplete. The unique "game sense" setting and plot promotion ensure that even after revealing some puzzles, there are still new suspense coming one after another, which continues to raise the audience’s expectations for the follow-up plot.
Looking back at the development of domestic suspense dramas, we will find that the audience’s quality evaluation criteria for suspense dramas are more "compound". At one time, the focus of the public was on the scale, visual impact, or the twists and turns of the plot. With the improvement of the overall production level of domestic dramas, suspense dramas have gradually become the pioneer theme for creators to explore the advanced image language and profound theme expression, and at the same time, the audience’s requirements for suspense dramas are much higher than other types. Therefore,The more you upgrade, the more involved you are.
Reading Entertainment believes that there are some commonalities in the direction of the upgrading of different domestic suspense masterpieces in different dimensions-first, the level of the story in the suspense mystery itself, which is not strong enough, and other expressions will often become mysterious; The second is the continuous improvement and innovation in the expression of film and television art, such as the deep integration of lens language, color texture, aesthetic concept and different subdivision themes; The third is to stick to social issues and be closer to the topic of things that the public feels and experiences; The fourth is to pay attention to the darkness and light in the depths of human nature, which is also the inexhaustible source of emotional resonance of suspense dramas.
These elements do not independently determine the level of drama, but complement each other, just as no matter how high the image texture is, it cannot cover up the lack of suspense or values of the work, which has been a lot of cases in the past few years. A suspense masterpiece often needs to have multiple advantages at the same time, and it is particularly prominent in one point.At present, with the overall production level of Chinese drama greatly improved, whether suspense drama can closely follow social issues and tap human care will increasingly become the key point of "competing for the best".
Looking back at the two new works of White Night Theater, the focus of New Life on social issues of fraud has given birth to a high degree of discussion, while the texture root of the just-concluded Twilight Fire lies in the brand-new picture constructed under the fusion of multiple innovative elements, so as to bring the audience an immersive experience with a high degree of integration of senses and emotions.
In the director’s lens, Qingshui Town, which is quiet and gentle in appearance, has its natural and simple side, but the tone and lens of the series also imply the oppression and occlusion of the acquaintance society. In the case of killing her husband at the end of this century, the group figures in the play have the evil of greed and ignorance from the secular and human nature, and also have the light from the poetic world and the juvenile spirit to confront them, and different emotions are mixed, which outlines the deep scars of human nature behind the mystery of the case.
According to media reports, Liu Qiong, deputy director of the Literature and Art Department of People’s Daily, commented on Twilight Fire: "Suspense is the overall shell, and the murder case with clear clues seems to be unexpectedly restored to a series of social problems, such as long-term domestic violence in marriage, exam-oriented education, the way out for young people in small towns, and so on. All the changes are behind resistance to pressure. "The Twilight Fire" wraps everything in the flow of life, and the intertwined world, the foggy women’s issues, the hidden emotions in adolescence, and the truth of the rumor siege … are all slowly developing in the seemingly daily narrative. "
Indeed, multiple social issues are condensed, the highly suspenseful plot is progressive, and it is full of poetic aesthetic texture style. The Twilight Fire is also a brilliant work in domestic suspense dramas with frequent boutiques. As the film title "The Twilight Fire" implies, the power of hope conveyed by the "light" in the story is both small and firm. The Twilight Fire is not only a suspense drama, but also a philosophical dialogue about the in-depth exploration of human nature. It has not lost its temperature in the coldness of suspense and led one of the directions of artistic creation innovation in the suspense track.
Youku once mentioned that White Night Theater will "explore more profound social issues, show more profound human care and provide a more immersive drama experience on the basis of typed lens language". And judging from the first two works,Behind the murder case in a small town, The Twilight Fire presents a variety of human nature, focusing on "showing more profound human care", while the new life presents fraud in a different way by "discussing more profound social issues".
Different from the suspense creation of the game sense in Freshmen, The Twilight Fire is a work that is more inclined to emotional expression and artistic expression to create a sense of atmosphere, but the common feature of the two is to choose a new way. Although the styles and themes are quite different, both works are rare suspense dramas with high suspense, image texture and ideological depth. The opening of White Night Theater is amazing.
In the era of mobile Internet, the discussion on the value of long video content has experienced several ups and downs, with multiple content forms emerging to compete for traffic and increasingly diversified user needs. However, in recent years, the influence of big dramas and variety shows has increased, and the irreplaceability of long video quality content has been repeatedly confirmed.However, in the process of forming this industry consensus, it also puts forward more requirements for video platforms and quality content creators.
So what should be done in the creation of Chinese opera? Combined with the development trend of fine dramas in the past two years, Reading Entertainment believes that at least three important directions can be summarized:
First, creators and platforms should understand users better, and the content should be closer to users’ lives and emotions, so that the audience can realize that it is related to me, instead of pursuing "high and low" on the cornerstone of the topic; Secondly, we should continue to improve the artistic quality, widen the gap with other diversified entertainment forms, and "roll up" the aesthetic and audience experience; Thirdly, it is necessary to further improve the ideological level and reach breadth of the works. On the whole,Need to be closer to the audience, but also closer to the art, breaking up instead of sinking.
According to the film list released by Youku before, White Night Theater also has a number of suspense dramas: Snow Maze was first produced by Zhang Yimou as the producer of online drama, directed by Lv Xing who directed the Crime of Unlicensed, starring Johnny, Zhang Yu and Wang Ziqi, focusing on the story of the anti-drug police in the northeast snow area; "Sandstorm" is directed by the famous film director Gao Qunshu, written by Zhao Dongling, starring Duan Long and Wang Qiang, and tells the story of serial murders in the border town; "The Past by the Waters" was produced by Cao Baoping, starring Guo Qilin and Wu Zhenyu, who fought with many forces in a tropical foreign land …
It is not difficult to find that the common feature of the list of films to be broadcast in White Night Theater is that it has assembled a film-level ingenious cast and powerful actors, and the texture background of the series is guaranteed, but it is constantly innovating in theme and type, which is not limited to the common criminal investigation story context in the past.While maintaining high-quality production, we should closely connect with social reality and explore the depth of human nature, so as to meet the audience’s increasing aesthetic demand for content, and realize the fine and diversified development of Chinese opera through differentiated paths.
In the track of mystery drama, which is constantly involuting, from The Longest Day In Chang’an in "Chasing the Murder in a White Night" to the "White Night Theater" today, the development course led by Youku is just the process from "twilight fire" to "rebirth". Nowadays, the road to the quality of Chinese opera is constantly expanding, and Youku is still the leader.
* Original article, please indicate the source when reprinting.
