Kingdom of Heaven and Hell: A realistic unfolding of a surreal setting

Author: Wang Yuxuan

The 2021 winter Japanese drama "Heaven and Hell" began broadcasting on January 17, and the ratings temporarily ranked first in the same season of Japanese dramas, with a Douban score of 8.4, which received a lot of praise in both China and Japan. In this crime suspense Japanese drama with a surreal setting with soul swaps, the heroine, Mochizuki Caizi, is the only female agent in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's search class, and in the process of investigating a cruel serial murder case, she takes the lead in locking the suspect, that is, the male protagonist Hidaka Yokodou. Seeing that it was possible to catch the murderer and make meritorious deeds, Wangyue unexpectedly exchanged with Hidaka's soul, so the situation was reversed, and the relationship between the two went through three stages and two reversals.

The first stage of the story is a standard and wonderful criminal investigation story, the murder occurs, Mochizuki locks Hidaka's company according to the special cleaner used by the criminal, and then finds Hidaka's discourse loopholes in the conversation, through monitoring to determine the action route of Rigao on the night of the crime, and the fast-paced detective process is like a layer of layers. However, just as Mochizuki was about to get the key evidence, she and Hidaka accidentally rolled down the stairs together, and when she woke up, Mochizuki's soul was already in Hidaka's body. So the situation changed, the originally strong Mochizuki suddenly became a weak party, in order not to let himself shout so unjustly imprisoned, Mochizuki had to become an accomplice with the perverted murderer Hidaka to help Hidaka transfer the evidence. The audience's perspective also shifted from the police side to the criminal side, and Mochizuki and Hidaka handed over the incriminating evidence without any danger under the police search. But the fragile accomplice relationship is doomed to not last, when it is found that Mochizuki still wants to monitor his whereabouts, Hidaka kills, Mochizuki escapes by rushing to death, the two are completely hostile again, although Mochizuki is still weak, but she does not have the opportunity to fight back, she must find a way to re-exchange her soul before the police, and then arrest Hidaka.

The wonderful performances of haruka Ayase and Takahashi Ichisei add a lot of points to the work, especially after the soul exchange, Mochizuki escaped from death and almost collapsed, Takahashi Ichisei performed the soul of Mochizuki with Hidaka's body in this episode, relying on her demeanor, voice, tone and action, just right to show the mood and charm of a woman who is deeply in despair.

However, the biggest credit for the wonderful "Heaven and Hell" lies in the screenwriter Yoshiko Morishita. The famous screenwriter, who has written classic scripts such as "Doctor Ren" and "Call for Love in the Center of the World", has once again proved his strength in "Heaven and Hell". The biggest highlight of the script of "Heaven and Hell" is the way in which the surreal setting of soul swapping unfolds.

Adding surreal settings to scripts is nothing new, and even the soul swap setting has been used in many film and television works, such as the animated film "Your Name." The Japanese drama "The Nightingale Soaring in the Sky" and others use this setting in different ways. But how to use the setting brilliantly is the place to really see the power. Morishita chose to unfold the surreal setting in an almost realistic way. The whole story does not deviate from people's daily experience because of the existence of soul swapping, and even on the contrary, except for the moment of soul swapping, from the character setting to each specific plot point and its connection, it is particularly reasonable. As the only woman in the search class, the discrimination and exclusion that Mochizuki suffers from in the workplace can always be empathetic. This female character who works in the pile of men is not an absolute hero of the ecumenical selflessness, she is ambitious and eager for promotion, and her enthusiasm for investigating cases comes not so much from the policeman's sense of justice as from the urgent utilitarian desire to oppose merit and self-proof. Such a heroine who is forced to do logistical work every day, still obsessed with turning over, and has a strong ability to act has become the basis of the story, kind and upright, but not overly idealized, and the whole character and her situation have a strong sense of reality. This sense of reality still comes into play after the soul swap takes place, and Wangyue is suddenly thrown into an extreme situation that has not been foreseen. The initial panic coincides with the natural reaction of human beings, and the hidden back hand when temporarily reaching an agreement with Hidaka and exchanging mobile phones reflects the professionalism of the police, the anger and remorse when seeing the evidence, the weakness and fear when transferring the evidence, the wisdom of the emergency under the crisis of near death, the collapse and crying after escaping from death... Every emotion and every action of Wangyue is perfectly suited to her identity and personality. After crossing the surreal setting of soul exchange, she is still the flesh-and-blood moon, and the whole story is still firmly on the track of reality.

If Mochizuki is "real", then Hidaka is "virtual", this perverted murderer is cold-blooded and incomprehensible, full of mysteries and secrets. As the two men's surnames suggest, looking at the moon and the sun are like the sun and the moon, dividing day and night, diametrically opposed. The moment of soul exchange, the virtual and the real are completely intertwined, and it is precisely in a realistic story world that Hidaka's "virtual" highlights its nightmarish horror, which is creepy because it is incompatible with reality.

Judging from the episodes that have been broadcast so far, "Heaven and Hell" maximizes the narrative momentum that can be contained in the setting of the exchange of the souls of the police and criminals, implements the setting through real and credible characters and plots, and creates an excellent suspense atmosphere in the virtual reality of the two characters. Developing a surreal setting in a realistic way is certainly not the only way to use a surreal setting, but for Morishita, who is already good at writing about the world, this is undoubtedly the optimal solution for Heaven and Hell. (Wang Yuxuan)

Source: Guangming Network - Literary And Art Review Channel