"Opponent": How to present the spy war and crisis that is close at hand

Source: International Online

At the end of the year and the beginning of the year when the dramas are frequent, the TV series "Opponent" can break through the siege with a dark horse posture, which stems from its innovative attempts at the type of spy drama.

In the mainland, spy dramas have always had a market, because this type is mostly based on strong plots, suspense and thrilling. The epoch background of the story is mostly set in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the War of Liberation and after the founding of New China - focusing on the War of Resistance Against Japan, the period of the War of Liberation is called "spy war", classic works include "Latent", "Dark Calculation", "Cliff", "Kite", etc.; focusing on the founding of New China is called "Anti-Special", representative works include "Tracking Without Regrets", "Oath Is Silent", "Mask" and so on. These TV series reflect the hidden front struggles of different historical stages, but because the era is far from reality, it is not easy to achieve empathy with the audience in addition to thrills. Therefore, the spy dramas of the era will focus on highlighting the protagonist's homeland feelings and revolutionary beliefs, so as to move the audience. In recent years, in line with the changes in the situation at home and abroad, contemporary national security themes have increasingly appeared in the audience's field of vision, such as "Storm Dance" starring Gulinazha and Chen Weiting, and "Storm Eye" starring Yang Mi and Zhang Binbin, etc. Although the distance between the audience and the audience has been narrowed in time and space, it still has not broken the barrier between the subject matter and the audience, and there is always a sense of watching the fire from the other side of the shore without caring about itself.

The most difficult thing in the creation of spy dramas is how to grasp the far and near. "Opponent" does not use the 007-style showmanship with a sense of suspension and the unpredictable spy mission to show people, but uses the cat and mouse game under the background of the real era and the logic of life to narrow the distance between the audience and the subject matter, so that the audience can sigh and introspect while watching the drama, and then produce a sense of crisis that is close at hand. In this process, the change of narrative perspective is the most brilliant, but it is precisely because of the change of narrative perspective that the positive and negative sides have a sense of imbalance, which has become a major regret of the play.

The shift in narrative perspective has brought the subject matter closer to the audience

Many people watch "Opponent", and the most prominent feeling is the texture of life. Indeed, compared with traditional spy dramas, "Opponent" does present more life scenes and emotional details, but this is not the unique feature of "Opponent", and the 2020 "Hidden and Great" has opened up the attempt of life flow spy dramas on the social world, city street lanes, and fireworks trivial performances of old Shanghai.

The innovation of "Opponent" lies in the transformation of narrative perspective, and the new look and realistic texture presented by this transformation. Screenwriter Wang Xiaogun did not follow the conventional routine to tell the story from the perspective of the national security personnel, but cut from the perspective of the other side's spy personnel lurking on the mainland, intertwining their real and ordinary daily life with thrilling espionage operations, showing us the exhausted and thin ice life of middle-aged spies.

Li Tang and Ding Meixi, spies who have been lurking for many years, have perfectly normal public identities: taxi drivers and middle school teachers. As spies, they often resort to unscrupulous means to achieve their goals, in addition to conventional methods such as camouflage, stalking, and eavesdropping, they often use seduction, torture, assassination and other means to carry out their tasks. When there are no tasks, they, like all middle-aged couples, worry about the house, children and tickets, and make short mouths for parents. They also had ideals and loves, and had the same joys and sorrows, good and evil standards and value judgments as ordinary people. If they do not embark on this road of no return, they may live an ordinary and stable life like all middle-aged couples.

The benefits of a shift in narrative perspective are clear. The audience views the lives of Li Tang and Ding Meixi from a multi-dimensional perspective, they are "bad people", but they are also living individuals with flesh and blood, they have troubles and bitterness, and there are many sides and complexities in human nature. For example, Ding Meixi brushed her teeth after each seduction, Li Tang went to see her teeth several times but was reluctant to spend money, and so on. The goodness in Li Tang's nature has always kept him in trouble, and it has also made him full of disgust and boredom for his spy identity but unable to get out. In order to dispel guoan's suspicions, he and Ding Meixi pretended to go to the Civil Affairs Bureau for divorce, but quarreled at the door of the Civil Affairs Bureau to suppress the anger in their hearts for a long time. In their fake drama and real feelings, in addition to the war friendship, it is more of a husband and wife. Even more dependent on each other than ordinary couples, the two support each other and redeem each other. Real character situations and emotional dilemmas make the audience believe that such people really exist around us.

These trivialities of life, which are no different from ordinary people, close the distance between the audience and the subject matter, allowing the audience to empathize with the characters in the play and sigh for their fate. At the same time, it also narrows the distance between the audience and the "national security", provides the audience with a dangerous demonstration, allows the audience to see the camouflage of the spy while marveling at the scale, and increases the vigilance of the national security awareness; life is not actually calm, and the reason why we turn a blind eye to danger is because there are national security personnel with it.

The shift in narrative perspective brings with it the challenge of positive character development

Using a negative character as the protagonist is an innovative attempt by the screenwriter, but also an adventurous way of writing. The adventure lies in the fact that it is easy for the audience to empathize with the villain as the protagonist, and eventually form a wrong value judgment. Just like "Conquest" many years ago, the underworld big brother played by Sun Honglei has caused confusion in the values of many audiences.

"Opponent" is very cautious in handling this, while using the texture of life to shape the negative characters, from time to time inserting the plot of the two unscrupulously performing tasks, so that the audience has doubts and hatred for the two, and finally stimulates the audience's own value judgment and reaches a consensus on values with the work. At the same time, although the narrative is unfolded from the perspective of the negative characters, the creators have not always focused on the negative characters, but have continuously expanded the main body of performance as the plot unfolds, from the gaze of the spy couple to the attention to the positive and negative groups, and the competition between the national security personnel and the spy group is integrated into the lives of both sides. Corresponding to the spy group's daily fear of being exposed, the repeated failures in carrying out missions, and the situation of tense relations and lack of funds, it is the national security group that is determined in command, resourceful and growing.

Therefore, although it has a similar core design with the American drama "American Spy Dream", "Opponent" presents a very different texture and spiritual outlook of the times, and successfully reflects the lifestyle and values of our times through the lives of positive and negative characters. What determines the victory or defeat of the two sides is actually the duel of faith and belief, and we can see that the lurking of Li Tang and his wife is completely passive, and they pay more attention to how to make money, how to prevent children from falling in love early, how to use medical insurance to see a doctor, and how to give birth to a second child smoothly. They are not fighting for the country and their faith, they persist only to get the funds and pensions promised by the "superior"; in addition, people such as Yi Ji, Wu Zong, Lin Yu and others also have their own selfish desires. On the other hand, although no one of the national security personnel puts their faith on their lips, their attitude towards work and life has reflected their persistence in the cause and their loyalty to the party and the country from the side.

However, the use of negative characters as the protagonist still brings difficulties to the creation, that is, the problem of weakening the positive character modeling. The screenwriter also gives the national security personnel a civilian perspective and secular feelings, Yan Bingyan plays the leader of the task force Duan Yingjiu is like the female criminal police officer played by Kate Winslet in "East Side Nightmare", the life is rough, because the work is too devoted, the life is terrible, the husband wants to divorce, the old mother is defrauded, the son is bullied by the gangsters, and his diabetes is getting worse and worse. However, she is very careful in her work, and can find the hiding place of the spy through the takeaway habit, discover the unusualness of Ding Meixi through the bandaging of her son's wound, and finally dig out the deeply hidden spy organization. The creators hope to express the concept that national security personnel are also ordinary people and also need a stable life, but someone always has to give up the ego for it, and their heavy sacrifices and efforts can be exchanged for our current peaceful and peaceful life. However, compared with the freshness and impact brought by the spy couple of Li Tang and Ding Meixi, roles such as Duan Yingjiu are not uncommon in the sequence of similar dramas, so they are decent, and even give people the feeling of supporting roles.

(The author Wang Yihan is an associate researcher at the Institute of Film and Television Arts, China Academy of Arts)