Author / Qiao Miao'er
Contemporary espionage warfare is rare, and "Opponent" is refined and new.
In this story, the filter of the national security police and spies is broken, they are ordinary people, do not show the dew, thrown into the pile of people is difficult to distinguish; the equipment configuration is ordinary, there is no lighter that can change the pistol, there is no black umbrella that can fire anesthesia needles, to find clues, you have to pick up several pairs of eyes to monitor, and you will pick bricks to resist; even the personal quality is ordinary - compared to the ability of 007 per capita in similar works, you can drive all models of cars, have a memorable memory and proficiency in a few Chinese words are at most ordinary people.
"Infiltration" or "anti-intervening" also occurs in the most common of life. Humble street stalls, commissaries and high-end shopping malls and office buildings may become places for spy joints; viaducts and alleys hide crises; unconscious words, discarded takeaway orders and even domestic garbage, will expose private information when they are targeted by people with hearts.
The look and feel of "Opponent" is particularly unusual, as if watching an open-air movie, which used to be seen in front of the screen, but this time it went around to the back, and in the anti-genre narrative, it was found that the image of national security officers and foreign spies was different from the past, making the alarm bell of national security sound in the trivial daily life of the peacetime.
The character is set as the anti-type: "spy" as the main body
At the beginning of the whole play, when Li Tang (Guo Jingfei) shows a series of scare skills such as tracking, interrogation, and disguise, the audience almost regards him as a national security policeman in disguise, and then look at it to learn that he and Ding Meixi (Tan Zhuo), who pretends to be a teacher, is a foreign spy who came to the mainland eighteen years ago, the two code names are "Taoyuan" and "Huali", and there is another person who came with him that year, Lin Yu (Ning Li), code-named "Hsinchu".
Li Tang and Ding Meixi after eighteen years of life and heart torment, long gone back to the spirit of the year, than to complete the task given by the "superior", more concerned about when they can get a large amount of pension, whether the activity funds can be recovered in the end, after all, the taxi car share to pay, see the tooth price is not cheap, the family has a daughter to raise, the two children are still planning to have a second child, everywhere need money!
The title of the "Rival" play, as the name suggests, is a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn in the characters of contemporary spy tales, setting their sights on peacetime spies waiting for an opportunity to steal or sabotage intelligence. In the portrayal of Li Tang, Ding Meixi, and Lin Yu, the creators break the creative inertia of facebook, shape them into the "big stupid thieves" image that is common in genre movies and rare in domestic dramas, and place them in an incomparably grounded life context, constantly shaking their "faith" that is not firm in the process of facing life in middle age.
In the play, the spy couple faces a blow that is very realistic and appeals to the way of comedy. Ding Meixi was found by the school to make up classes outside, the bonus was deducted, the economy was stretched thin, and he mistakenly fell into the trap of illegal fund-raising, saving money and using his savings for many years to see that he was going to drift, and the geese were pecked by the geese, and for a time they did not know who the spies and fraudsters were "on a high chess game." In order to help Ding Meixi recover the principal, Li Tang went to the door to block people but was controlled, and the movement was so big that he recruited public security officers, and had to admit that the inexplicable special preference could not be escaped. This completely unreasonable character setting shows the audience a different image of spies than before, one to strengthen the "spy may be around you" warning, and the other is to use black humor to present the reality that spies are "smart and mistaken by smart".
It is gratifying that "The Opponent" also makes more people see the different side of the national security cadres and police on the hidden front in the peacetime, which can be summarized as: simple and level-eyed, not selling misery and not losing warmth, and solemn respect is spontaneous, not slogans. Duan Yingjiu (Yan Bingyan) is completely two people when she disguises herself as a reconnaissance with the image of a leopard print high heels exploding head flower tattoo and her appearance of wearing a cartoon T-shirt hiking boots and a small tugging, which is really a sample of "effective camouflage". This female national security policeman who rushed to the front line will also be puzzled by her husband and children, nagged and worried by her mother and brother, the marriage is on the verge of rupture, and her health is also lit up with red lights.
It is also to convey that the national security cadres and police officers are selfless, sacrificing the small self to achieve the big self, and "Opponent" does not choose the narrative of suffering. It is not easy to be true, the attitude of Daguan is not false, Duan Yingjiu's difficult choice between work and life, was soon cured by the note given to her by her husband on her mobile phone is "Xiao Jiu", waiting for her to go home and sit in a chair until three o'clock in the morning. A thousand words are better than put into action is the way for old husbands and wives to get along, and being hard and soft is also the wisdom of life that the Chinese people have opened up.
Moreover, in episode 10, after learning of the special case team's expertise through Zhu Hui (Sun Jiayu), the creators do not hesitate to use a set of quick cuts to outline the ordinary life of the police officers who go abroad: they can also be husbands with cartoon hats to accompany their families to the vegetable market, fathers who lecture their daughters, sons who carry their mothers to see doctors, and ordinary boys who eat roadside stalls with their girlfriends.
Story Structure Anti-Genre: From "Hoe Rape" to "Anti-Ma"
Spy war dramas have a rich and broad performance space, from the war period to the peace years, the habit before and after the founding of the country is called "anti-special drama", and the peaceful construction period is called "national security drama", which is divided according to the timeline, and it is also the most conventional name in general. In fact, there are two modes for in-depth investigation of the story structure: one is that the enemy is bright and I am dark, our agents go deep behind the enemy' back, and the rape is justice; the other is that the enemy is dark and the enemy is clear, and the infiltrating spies are waiting for the opportunity to sabotage, and our side follows the vine to destroy it in the bud.
"Rivals" belongs to the latter.
After the drama was broadcast, many bullet screens called Li Tang and Ding Meixi as a "poor version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith", and even posters were there.
Li Tang and Ding Meixi had to stay from the mainland to carry out missions until something happened, and they stayed for eighteen years. During this period, they have to carry out the tasks assigned by the so-called upper peak, and they also have to find ways to hide their identities and live. No one can survive on a social spectrum, and spies are no exception. In the long-term "lurking", Li Tang and Ding Meixi will inevitably face the loss of self and the blurring of identity, and their initial choice to embark on the road of becoming spies is not to pursue the realization of the value and ideal of life, in the face of trivial and peaceful small days and knife tip licking blood at any time there is a fear of life in the face of the task choice, it is certain that they are experiencing wavering and tearing every moment.
What's more, the "special training class" presented in the play is not only as simple as training skills, but also the selected people must abandon their seven passions and six desires and become tool people. Li Tang and Ding Meixi are fake couples, the complex feelings between Ding Meixi and Lin Yu, and the subtle emotions cultivated by long-term life, I have to admit that these three people are a tragedy of love. Different spy organizations exchange and buy and sell each other's intelligence, and when there is a conflict of interest, they slaughter each other.
National security matters are no big or small, but in the play, these seemingly well-organized and prudent spy organizations have made great efforts and frequent difficulties, and they have not achieved the purpose of their mission as they wish. The audience from The perspective of God looks at the spy like a clown jumping beam, but the spy itself is tantamount to a curse - taking youth and even life, thinking that he is the "chosen son" of the mission, and finally ending up with no one to use it and abandon it.
In addition, in the balance of forces between the enemy and us, "The Opponent" is not distributed according to the inevitability of "justice must triumph over evil", and the audience certainly understands that the process of national security cadres and police officers being able to finally crack this organized and premeditated spy case spanning up to eighteen years is still full of twists and turns. New recruits from the National Security Operations Department were selected, and Ding Xiaohe, Zhu Hui, and Huang Hai, three fledgling novices, were on li tang, Ding Meixi, and Lin Yu, three old spies, and it was normal to be helpless for a while. The comparison between the two compartments can also find more sinister things: there are people who have followed the national security cadres and policemen, and there are many people on the other side of the strait, and in the past more than ten years, they have relied on a few people to middle-aged people to support themselves, which is really more heartfelt.
To mention an Easter egg discovery, perhaps the characters of screenwriter Wang Xiaogun will set up a spy universe: Li Tang and Ding Meixi, the names of which look familiar, that is, the sons and daughters of the protagonists Li Chunqiu and Ding Zhanguo in "The Mask". Here is a soul torture question: why don't children learn well when they grow up in peacetime?
The theme expresses the anti-genre: the deterrent power of occupational "persuasion"
In times of peace, national security issues follow. But for most ordinary people, they always feel that leaking secrets and stealing intelligence is far from their lives. In fact, the activities of espionage have penetrated into every link of ordinary people's clothing, food, housing, and transportation, and it is not only confidential information such as high-end weapons and equipment that is regarded as a confidentiality related to national security, a design drawing, a bank deposit certificate, may involve the leakage of personal information, endangering the security of personal information, if personal information does not include shipping, the national information security is also in jeopardy.
That's why the "Spy May Be Around You" poster is particularly conspicuous.
"Opponent" does not shout slogans, but directly puts the most authentic actions and psychological activities of the spy on the screen, revealing the tragic end of the spy who is controlled. When Li Tang and Ding Meixi were exhausted, they were eager to report themselves for a bonus, and Lin Yu was faced with the pursuit of the hasty emperor and almost died before the car, the spy was not good. Also blinded by feelings, the drone engineer fell into the danger of his daughter being threatened, the convenience store clerk fell off the bridge and died, the bank secretary lost the key, resulting in the loss of important information and the shame of choosing suicide... The consequences of being entangled with spies are even more serious, and since then there will never be a peaceful day, reminding each of us that "flies do not sting seamless eggs" and "there will be no pie in the sky".
Praise for the great sublime of the national security police without seeing the praise, showing the spy's squalor and no preaching intentions, the meaning of this play is in the play. If with the development of the plot, Li Tang's second "black cut white" seems not so unexpected, after all, it has only opened, and the surprises brought by "Opponent" have been more than one.