Speaking of domestic spy dramas, there have always been a large number of audiences, in recent years, although there are many spy war dramas of average production quality, and even have the suspicion of hanging sheep's heads to sell dog meat, but it has not affected the enthusiasm of spy war fans, many spy war fans almost every spy war drama is not willing to miss, even if it is after watching it and then complaining about it.
Spy war dramas have seen more, naturally there will be higher requirements for the quality of TV series, and at the same time, as the audience has accumulated more experience, they can analyze the quality of the show from the cast of actors, the creative team, and the general structure of the plot, and even find their common characteristics and associations in many spy war dramas. And a lively discussion began, which is also the enthusiasm and concentration of being a spy fan.
And today we introduced these spy dramas, they are produced at different times, the actors and creative teams are different, the market performance is also different, but they have a similarity, that is, the plot and characters involved in these spy dramas are the same or similar, just because the creators choose different perspectives and starting points when shooting, so when appreciating these works, we can compare and watch together, it may be more interesting, not much to say, we enter the main topic.
1. "Cheongsam" & "Vanilla Beauty"
Li Youbin, Wang Zhiwen, Zu Feng, Liu Peiqi, Shen Junyi, from the lineup alone, this is a very interesting spy drama, so many old drama bones and stars, for the heroine Ma Su to play, the launch of this "Qipao" tells a "female version of Yu Zecheng" story, and the protagonist of the play is the red female spy Guan Pinglu, a real historical figure. This TV series is to introduce how Guan Pinglu, one of the four talented women of the Republic of China, a female writer with extraordinary style, grew up to be a man who lurked inside the enemy with wit and composure, and staged a gorgeous dance that amazed the world during the spy war during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
This drama focuses on depicting the process of Guan Pinglu's undercover enemies, how to pay a huge price to obtain intelligence in a dangerous environment, and still have no hesitation in the face of the misunderstanding of lovers and the blame of their families, and dedicate everything with their youth and life to the founding of New China and the liberation of the nation.
Another TV series, "Vanilla Beauty", is also based on the same theme, this TV series starring Liu Weiwei, Xie Junhao, Ni Dahong, Yano Koji and others tells the legendary story of a talented female writer Ling Yan who transformed into a Communist agent, lurked in Shanghai and fought wits with various evil forces, and finally made great contributions to the War of Resistance Against Japan. The character Ling Yan in the play also uses Guan Pinglu as a prototype for artistic processing to show the legendary journey of a generation of talented women. Interestingly, the two TV series were produced in 2011 at the same time, and although they depict the same character, they are completely different in terms of storyline and characters, and their stylistic characteristics are also different.
2. Agent Zero & Good Guys
In 2008, directed by Chen Jianfei and starring Shen Hang, Ma Qiang, Liu Xiaoxi, Wu Ma and others, the spy war suspense drama "Agent Zero" was broadcast, and the screenwriter of the drama, Lan Xiaolong, is one of the most famous screenwriters and writers in China. The play tells the story of the underground organization of the Communist Party of Shanghai in 1940, which was completely destroyed due to the betrayal of the traitors. The Yan'an headquarters has used a group of red agents to rebuild the underground organization, and the hero Zero, as an underground agent, is tasked with completing this difficult task.
The play did not have any influence after broadcasting, mainly because the director's ability to control the play was insufficient, resulting in the chaotic rhythm of the play, the actor's performance was too strong, exaggerated, and the action scene was sloppy, false and embarrassing, this kind of insincere production naturally would not be recognized by the audience, and also led to a very good theme being buried and becoming a failed work.
In 2016, Beijing Satellite TV broadcast the spy drama "Good Guys" directed by Jian Chuanzhi, which was broadcast four years after the completion of filming, and like the TV series "Agent Zero", "Good Guys" told the same story, and the screenwriter was Lan Xiaolong. However, unlike Agent Zero, "Good Guys" received a lot of applause after it was broadcast, mainly because the director and actors completely ate the script and knew exactly what kind of scene they wanted to make.
Through rigorous artistic creation, exquisite costume production, wonderful character interpretation, and tense and rhythmic plot, the TV series "Good Guys" perfectly shows the style of Lan Xiaolong's works, highlighting the theme of the play in the ups and downs and dangerous story progress, that is, in the context of war, people are not absolutely good or bad, just for their own beliefs and ideals, for a completely different camp. The Douban score of the drama is 8.2 points, and the overall performance completely crushes the previous game.
III. "Dark Red 1936" & "Micha"
The spy drama "Dark Red 1936", which is set in xi'an, was filmed in 2011 and directed by Li Jun, starring Wang Xuebing, Liu Peiqi and Yu Haolei. The drama tells the story of the ancient city of Xi'an in 1936, when Wu Boying, a new student of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Department, accidentally discovered the top-secret oracle intelligence that triggered the Xi'an Incident, which in turn triggered a secret struggle.
The play truly reproduces the cruel dark battles and intricate environment and character relationships of various forces in Xi'an in the background of that era, and explores the relationship between war and human nature, the conflict between faith and emotion. The organic combination of character dislocation emotions and wonderful spy war stories makes the spy war stories land, more lifelike, humanized, so as to more truly show the outstanding contributions made by these unsung heroes, which impresses the audience.
Seven years later, the era spy drama "Micha", produced by Xu Bing, directed by Wang Bing, starring Zheng Kai and Deng Sha, starring Yu Rongguang, Lian Yiming, Chang Cheng, Qi Hang, Qu Yihong, Zhang Bohan, etc., was broadcast, and careful viewers found that the content presented in this TV series had a close connection and similarity with the previously introduced "Dark Red 1936". Or the storyline described in Crimson 1936 can be considered a prequel to Micha.
"Micha" tells the story of the mysterious disappearance of Xuanxia's father, a senior communist general, during the critical period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and in order to investigate the truth, Wu Zhongming intervened in the investigation. As a TV series that is also the background of the Xi'an incident, the name of the male protagonist is the same. However, compared to the previous work, the overall quality of "Micha" is slightly inferior, which is also reflected in its Douban score, and the 6.4 point rating of the play is lower than that of "Dark Red 1936". Although both in terms of publicity packaging and shooting technology are far ahead of seven years ago, from the perspective of the ideological nature, performance authenticity and spiritual connotation of this play, "Micha" is still willing to bow to the wind.