The author | Horn tip
Everyone is waiting for the first suspense explosion of 2021, and everyone is waiting for the Mist Theater to "explode" the market; however, when the Mist Theater comes to report with its first work, "The Mystery fog of the Octagonal Pavilion", the market feedback is obviously unsatisfactory:
Relevant data show that since the broadcast of "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog", the highest popularity of the whole network has only reached 68 (bone), and the heat value of iQiyi station has exceeded 7,000, although it exceeds other dramas broadcast in the same period, but there is still a big gap from the explosion. What is surprising is that the Douban score of this drama is currently only 6.0, and in addition to the three-star evaluation given by 38% of netizens on Douban, the phenomenon of one-two-star and four-five-star scoring is five or five, which also highlights the serious polarization of the reputation of this drama.
Taking a suspense case 19 years ago as the background of the story, 19 years later, when the adult Xuan Nianmei looked exactly like his dead aunt, an old case hidden in the Xuan family for many years that could not be solved surfaced. Contrary to the traditional suspense drama, although "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" is cloaked in the shell of a suspense drama, it tells the tragedy of a huge and complicated family. Therefore, the drama was evaluated by netizens as "imaginary" and "neither end was well grasped".
Produced by Han Sanping and directed by Wang Xiaoshuai, and starring Duan Yihong, Hao Lei, Zu Feng, Wu Yue, Xing Minshan and other actors, the starting point of "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" can be called the top match of Chinese opera. It is precisely for this reason that the drama was given high hopes by netizens before it was broadcast.
Of course, another factor of this "high hope" mainly comes from the platform party iQiyi. From the creation of Douban's two nine-quarter works "The Hidden Corner" and "The Silent Truth", "Mist Theater" is not as good as Netflix production in the public's mind, but it is also an important label in the hearts of many Chinese people who really brand suspense dramas and successfully promote them to the international stage.
This year, under the impetus of iQiyi's "Mist Theater", Mango TV also launched the short theater "Monsoon Action" for the first time, although it is not clearly stated that this is a suspense short theater, but each work is mixed with the creation of "suspense" elements, which is undoubtedly also the creation of suspense works in the National Opera market. However, if you carefully observe, it is not difficult to see the clues - in fact, as early as 2017, with the reputation of the three works of "White Night Pursuit", "Undocumented Crime" and "River God" reaching the top, the probability of domestic suspense themes producing explosive models has gone downhill again.
"Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" is the first anti-Ding work of the upgraded "Mist Theater", and it is also the biggest "Yi Difficult Ping" in this year's domestic suspense drama.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > high expectations, top-stream configuration, the "golden" beginning of "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog"</h1>
Duan Yihong, Hao Lei, Zu Feng, Wu Yue... These actors single out any one, are good actors with close-up movies and great performance tension. It is precisely for this reason that there are many extreme evaluations given by netizens in "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog", "wasted this group of good actors in vain" and "the top configuration was blind". Of course, behind such sharp words and harsh accusations, the high expectations of the public for this work are pinned on:
Relevant data show that before the "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" was officially launched on the platform, seven topics such as #Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog Lineup# and #Duan Yihong's 8th PoliceMandom have been on Weibo hot search. On the day of the opening of the series, the peak heat of the iQiyi station of "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" broke through 6,000, surpassing the first work of "Mist Theater" last year, "Ten Days Game", and the popularity of "Hidden Corners" and "Silent Truth" on the first day of the station. According to Yunhe data, the attention of "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" on the first day of its launch has far exceeded that of "The Hidden Corner" and "The Silent Truth", and the effective playback volume of the former on the first day has reached 2.7, which is twice that of "The Hidden Corner".
It is not difficult to see that a large part of the reason for the low score of "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" comes from the high expectations, so that once the plot performance is not good, the bad reviews of Douban one or two stars will follow. However, the content output of this work is not all without problems, at least from the perspective of more than half of the plot, the characters are too much, the rhythm is delayed, and the details are full of omissions, which reduces the texture of a quality drama.
Taking an old case in 19 years as the background of the story, 19 years later, when the young daughter of the Xuan family, Xuan Nian, grew up, the rumor circulating in the town that "Nian Ming looks like a dead aunt" has become a key clue involving the Xuan family.
Xuan Zhen,The Little Aunt of Xuan NianMei, died in a suspenseful case in 19 years, a case that caused a sensation in the town that year, but has not yet been solved. Therefore, As the eldest brother, Xuan Liang placed the guilt of his sister on his daughter Nian Ming, which caused a tense father-daughter relationship between the two.
The Mystery fog of the Octagonal Pavilion can be said to portray a very large network of relationships: Zhu Shenghui, a small who harassed Nian Ming, accidentally died by the river, and the suspect Xuan Liang and Zhu Shenghui were old and had past grudges. Among them, Ding Huanlie, the head of the Kunqu Opera Troupe, and his wife Zhou Yamei, who were involved in the case, also appeared on the surface as key figures in the case. The town's policeman, Yuan Fei, is Xuan Liang's brother-in-law; Xuan Nianming's other aunt, Xuan Zhu, seems to have a bad relationship with the dead Xuan Zhen, and their kun opera troupe teacher at that time was Ding Huanlie...
The relationship between the characters is too complicated, which is the biggest attraction of the plot so far since the broadcast of "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog", but it is slightly regrettable that the creative method of "insufficient suspense and the core of the family drama" has disappointed a large part of the audience. Some netizens on the social platform complained, "Only the characters keep saying that there are things in the past eighteen years, but I don't say it if I don't say it." ”
The lack of suspense also makes the handheld photography that the script should have a compliment factor, becoming the object of netizens' complaints, "the story is not told well, and it is also showy", "shaking around, and the people who watch it are dizzy." Suspense dramas do not rely on the camera to create an atmosphere, but rely on the plot and logic to pave the way. ”
Obviously, the public's dissatisfaction with "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" has exceeded the standards of other works of the same type. But to be fair, the ink texture of this drama, the creation of a sense of atmosphere, and the wonderful interpretation of the actors can still see a lot of intentions from the creators. Unfortunately, the intention is not enough to make up for the shortcomings.
The poor start of "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" may also reveal some potential problems with the "Mist Theater".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" > foster new screenwriters, without the "Zijin Chen" fog theater expectations halved? </h1>
After creating two high-scoring dramas of "The Hidden Corner" and "The Silent Truth", "Mist Theater" has become the strongest label of domestic suspense dramas. The soaring popularity of the premiere of "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" also proves this. But unfortunately, perhaps from the beginning of "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog", the market's expectations for "Mist Theater" will be temporarily discounted.
Before the "Mist Theater", a number of high-quality suspense dramas were born in the market, namely "White Night Pursuit", "Undocumented Crime" and "River God" with "Crime" elements created by Youku and iQiyi respectively, and the three works also reached the top of the national drama that year, becoming the earliest batch of suspense works with the best reputation and going to the sea to the Netflix platform.
After the three suspense dramas reached the top of the market, iQiyi, Youku, and Mango TV have successively launched the "theater" model, and Tencent will have several new suspense themes every quarter based on the big IP. However, according to relevant data, the year with the largest output of word-of-mouth suspense dramas is still 2017 - there are 6 Douban works with 8 points, followed by 5 in 2020, and only 2 in 2019 and 2021.
Returning to iQIYI's "Mist Theater", it is not difficult to find that the theater's circle works "The Hidden Corner" and "The Silent Truth" in the 1.0 period are all from the hands of "suspense drama god" Zijin Chen, and even the high-scoring suspense drama "Undocumented Crime" created by iQIYI in 2017 is also from Zijin Chen, which ensures the quality of the creation of the work to a certain extent. This also created the joke of the early rumors, "The audience loves not to see the Mist Theater, but zijin Chen." ”
It is undeniable that the creation of a film and television work wins, which must come from the all-round control of the creators, but for suspense dramas, "the book is not enough, the scene is not enough" is obviously not reasonable enough. "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" is obviously the best example. This work can be said to have gathered a group of actors and well-known directors with the most acting skills in China, but the lack of suspense and the creative mode of the core of the family drama are still prohibitive for the market.
It was a "bold" experiment with the original script. What is worrying is that the other six works to be broadcast in the next Mist Theater have basically gathered a group of screenwriters who are relatively new in the domestic market. For example, Kong Youyou and Chen Weihan, who wrote "Who is the Murderer", the former's representative works are only "The Godfather of Love", "Romantic Full Kitchen", "Demon Out of Chang'an" and other non-genre drama creations (the highest score of Douban is only 4.9), the latter is an actor transformation screenwriter; Xu Yue, who wrote "Gold Rush", is the screenwriter of "The Legend of Wu Meiniang", and the team chose him to create genre dramas that also made the market pinch cold sweat for it...
Among these to-air dramas, the only one with more experience and experience in the creation of suspense dramas is "Fatal Wish", and Yang Miao, the screenwriter and director, is born from the "Arc Alliance" of five-yuan culture, and the representative works include "'Big' Characters", "River God" and other genre creations; the other screenwriter Naduo, is the author of the original novel "Feeder Association", which ensures the creation of the work to a certain extent. Perhaps, "Fatal Wish" will be a new point of view in the market.
It is worth mentioning that although the Mist Theater has adopted more support for new talents or original scripts in the script creation link this year, the matching lineup of this batch of works has been upgraded. Just like "Who is the murderer", the starring is Zhao Liying, Xiao Yang, Dong Zijian, the director is Sun Hao, who has directed "Qing Yu Nian", which is expected; the cast of "Gold Rush" is Liao Fan, Chen Feiyu, Chunxia, Lu Xiaolin, and the lineup is quite interesting; Wen Qi, Feng Shaofeng and Fan Chengcheng in "Fatal Wish" are also a fresh combination...
From the perspective of theme type, "Who is the Murderer" is adapted from the real case "Silver Case", which increases the watchability of the work to a certain extent; "Fatal Wish" is the main "suspense + science fiction", somewhat similar to the theme creation of "science and technology chips" in the British drama "Black Mirror"; the theme of "Gold Rush" is extremely special, focusing on the "gold digger", with the story of a pair of brothers rushing to the Altai Mountains on the way to the background, the original novel of the play can be described as suspenseful, dangerous, and is a changeable suspense theme "good seedling", However, it is said that the drama has been greatly changed, and it remains to be seen whether it can restore the style of the original novel.
It is not difficult to see that The Mist Theater 2.0 has slightly adjusted in terms of lineup and theme, but it remains to be seen whether the key "script" of suspense drama creation can bear the heavy responsibility. After all, at a time when many screenwriters are "smashing their feet" in the field of suspense creation, starting a new screenwriter is a bold and challenging choice.
What's more, this year's Q4 quarter is a year of crazy competition for platform suspense dramas. "Misty Theater" chose to return at this time, what is the future? Maybe it will be some time before the answer will come out.