Author | Xiao Yao
After looking forward to the first bullet of the "Mist Theater" for a year, "Octagonal Pavilion Mist" made everyone shout "disappointment".
The sixth generation of leading director Wang Xiaoshuai, the literary and art hall-level drama bone Duan Yihong and Hao Lei have cooperated again after 15 years, zu Feng, Wu Yue, Wen Zhengrong and other recognized old acting schools... The lineup that can be called the "Immortal Fight" level did not expect to end up with a low score of 5.7 Douban.
▲ "Octagonal Pavilion Mist" Douban score
You should know that last year, the Mist Theater took the lead in "The Hidden Corner", this online drama has so far had 940,000 people rating on Douban, with an average score of 8.8 points, which brought fire to the small city of Zhanjiang in Guangdong, climbed the mountain, and sent actor Qin Hao to the clouds. Last year' other part of the Mist Theater, "The Silent Truth", had a Douban score of 9.1 points.
Dwarfed by. "Octagonal Pavilion Mist" opens high and goes low, good actors, good directors, but the work has fallen into a bad reputation.
A large part of the reason for this comes from the protracted narrative rhythm.
"The Mist of the Octagonal Pavilion" does not have much fog, and its story is actually very simple - two victims, a murderer, three suspects. Clues and evidence that are visible to the naked eye, investigated, and the truth that is about to come out several times.
▲ Criminal police officers Yuan Fei (duan yihong) and Liu Xinli (bai yufan)
However, the plot is not willing to solve the puzzle in a flat and straightforward way, but it takes a lot of pen and ink, repeatedly rotating and circling in various side branches, so that the main line logic gradually disperses into a mess of sand.
The endless rain in the play gradually blurs the content that is really worth seeing.
Some suspense dramas are like a fire, violent and open, just look at the outline can feel its fierce strength; but some suspense dramas are like water, the surface is calm, but there are dark surges underneath.
But "The Mist of the Octagonal Pavilion", fierce as fire on the outside, two murders torment everyone, but the narrative on the inside is plain as water, although it raises several social issues worth playing, it is dissolved by too fine editing.
It's a pity to abandon it, but after reading it sleepily, I feel hateful——
The suspense part is not wonderful, the realistic thinking is not prominent, and the simple "Octagonal Pavilion Mist" is a waste of the audience's time by filming 12 episodes.
A long fog that can't get out
The story takes place in the water town of Jiangnan, and in the hearts of Chinese naturally has the texture of literature and melancholy.
19 years ago, Xuan Zhen, the 18-year-old little sister of the Xuan family, died unexpectedly on the river beach, and after many years the murderer has not been arrested, the police named the case "Octagonal Pavilion Unsolved Case".
19 years later, Xuan Nianmei (Mira), the daughter of Xuan Liang (Zu Feng), the eldest brother of the Xuan family, is in an increasingly imminent crisis: as Nian Mei grows up and is about to turn 18, she looks more and more like her deceased aunt, Xuan Zhen.
▲ Xuan Nianmei (played by Mira)
Will Nian Mei also die at the age of 18 like Xuan Zhen?
A huge panic hung over the eldest brother Xuan Liang, and the more guilt he felt about his sister, the more he cared for his daughter. Excessive fatherly love made the Xuan family panic and high pressure pervaded.
Soon, the murder came.
But it is not Nian Mei who died, but another rich second generation who once tracked and harassed Nian Mei, Zhu Shenghui (Zhai Zilu).
▲ Rich second generation Zhu Shenghui (Zhai Zilu)
Through the intertwining and contrast of two cases separated by 19 years, "The Mist of octagonal pavilions" constantly flashes back and echoes, leading the audience to pursue clues little by little, and step by step to dissect the truth mixed in the fog.
Unlike last year's "The Hidden Corner", which explained the prisoners and the crime process in the first episode, putting the audience in the perspective of God, the entire first half of the plot of "Octagonal Pavilion Mist" almost did not reveal any clear clues to the murderer.
▲ The first episode of "The Hidden Corner" explains the murderer Zhang Dongsheng (Played by Qin Hao) and his crime process
Rare traces, like the legs under the hem of the girl's skirt, suddenly appeared, and then shyly avoided.
The dark shadows in the cemetery, the women on the fishing boat, the mysterious stalkers, many clues have arrived, and then turned into an endless immersive suspense atmosphere, and the gloomy and eerie background sounded, as if a shot of hallucinogens, making people fall into a long, confused exhaustion.
In fact, there are not few characters in the play, but there are not many who are really "important".
After the first two episodes were broadcast, there were already at least four couples who had appeared, and there seemed to be some gap between the Zhu family and Xuan Liang, but there was no explanation in the follow-up;
The drama between Xuanzhu's derailment and her husband is no longer touched later;
The girl Muge disappeared, a missing case, and then there were four or five episodes without a message;
The god-like Teacher Tian finally revealed the secret, but combined with the plot behind, the existence of this character cannot be said to have any splash and necessity.
▲ Xuan Zhu (hao lei)
Before the end of the broadcast, the plot laid at least five lines.
If this is a decade-long period drama with multiple branches going into the narrative, there is no problem. However, "Octagonal Pavilion" tells the audience with a long but simple narrative: what wooden grid, what Tian Teacher, is actually just a smoke bomb of the main line, and there is no direct connection with the solution of the core case.
12 episodes can actually tell a good story, but the use of time and plot in "Octagonal Pavilion" is simply a big throw, luxury, spending a lot of pen and ink on dispensable supporting characters, and the tight rhythm that the audience expects is not only not there, but more and more collapsed, gradually falling apart.
Therefore, some viewers will complain in the bullet screen: watching four/five/six episodes, as if watching a lonely.
Halfway through the plot, the audience only remembers a hysterical father, a daughter who is bitter and vengeful, a sister-in-law who is sometimes gentle and peaceful and sometimes nervous, a half-permanent frown, a big uncle who does not talk much, and a cold-faced, hard-hearted little sister-in-law Xuanzhu.
▲ Three generations of the Xuan family
The protagonists also seem to be caught in an endless fog, trance-like, halfway through the conversation, and then cut off.
Even with the blessing of excellent acting skills, the three-dimensionality and emotional tension are also discounted.
There is a common saying in the TV drama circle, "Seven minutes of life and death, the first three episodes of gold." "Especially for suspenseful short dramas with compact plots and limited volume, whether the first two episodes can simply and neatly explain the puzzles and clues almost determines whether the audience is willing to watch it."
But Wang Xiaoshuai didn't seem to think so.
He said in an interview with the media: "You come up and give a lot of things, in fact, what you throw away may be the last guarantee, because the movie is like this." ”
▲ Director Wang Xiaoshuai believes that it is not that the drama is too slow but that the audience is too anxious
He clearly told the audience that he was going to use the film method to make a TV series, and in his eyes, the movie things were absolutely good and could be flexibly used.
In terms of style and aesthetics, this may indeed be the case, but in terms of narrative processing, it may be reversed.
(Warning – spoilers below)
The real culprit of the mismatch
In the end, we all know that there is only one truth, only one direct murderer, and only one victim.
But is that really the case?
As Xuan Zhen and Xuan Zhu's childhood memories gradually reappeared clearly, and as the real murderer emerged as a "transvestite who had been traumatized by psychological trauma", my attention has gradually shifted from "who killed whom" to the education of adolescent psychology and growth and multi-child families in the play.
In fact, there are many moments in the play that are hinted at and pointed at these things.
For example, the dialogue between the son-in-law Yuan Fei in the ward and the demented old mother leads to the love of the elderly for their children who are lonely and difficult to give up; for example, in the sixth episode, Teacher Tian's exposition of the police touches the delicate and sensitive mind of adolescence and the influence of controlling parents on their children.
▲ The warm moment between Yuan Fei (Duan Yihong) and his demented old mother (Arya).
These subtle details allow the audience to briefly get out of the endless fog and begin to think about the emotional transmission between more characters, as well as the mapping and extension of reality.
Unfortunately, the plot does not satisfy this emotional extension, but chooses to cut it.
The lengthy, protracted and useless side narrative compresses the puzzle-solving space of the core main line, and the first half endlessly lays out and renders around the fog, but the second half immediately turns into the memoir of the Xuanjia sisters, trying to summarize the tragedy of human nature with the tragedy of the family.
And that's not the last straw.
"The Octagonal Pavilion Mist" brings more deadly helplessness and disappointment to the audience, which is a misplaced characterization of "sexual minorities".
The real murderer Ding Julie is an "unconventional" figure who seems to have a good body temperature, but in fact hides the shadow of childhood that outsiders do not know.
▲ Ding Huanlie, head of the Kun opera troupe
When he was a child, as the only and youngest boy who was favored in the family, Ding Tuanchang received the fullest material favoritism, but he failed to get spiritual love and tolerance. Because he liked to wear women's clothes and was abused by his father, he suppressed his heart until he was insane and grew into a tragic character.
From the childhood level, the plot reveals Ding Julie's pity and loneliness, which must be the situation that many "minorities" in a broad sense in reality may experience.
But in any case, choosing to kill people just because of "depression" and vaguely defined "insanity" is untenable.
Moreover, depression, transvestites, and serial killings are tied to a Ding regimental commander, so is it appropriate to portray the "minority of society" so unthinkingly?
The leader of the Ding regiment in the play, as the most important role in a murder case, did not get the director's "real focus on the shot".
In the play, Captain Ding seems to have only two postures - normal and abnormal, gentle and decent in normal times, and amnesia and disguise when abnormal. It can be said that he is not a plump character from beginning to end, and the hatefulness of this role is far greater than the sadness, so many viewers feel uncomfortable when it is revealed at the end that Captain Ding is both a transvestite and a real murderer.
▲ Ding Julie's life is certainly bumpy, but poor people must have something to hate
A 12-episode detective drama hastily uses the name of "mental illness" to launch a murderer and solve the motive of a "serial murder case".
And this murderer, also labeled sloppily "perverted" title, the so-called most important negative role, but only a parent's childhood memories as its growth process.
From transgender and domestic violence to growing up with mental disorders, from mental disorders to murderers, this layer of identity comes too easily, and it is extremely easy to wrap up social prejudices.
Can a transgender child who was raised by domestic violence have depression, and a person with a mental disorder must be a murderer?
In reality, not necessarily.
But that's how the plot unfolds.
Of course, it can also be performed in this way, but unfortunately, there is no trace of the director's thinking too much in the meantime, and it is more of a stigmatized bundle.
Therefore, the audience's resentment and frustration to the end can be understood, and some people shout "pity" directly, and even some people shout "hateful".
"All The Wicked"
The TV series is made with the idea of detective, like a puzzle, restoring the truth of the murder case piece by piece.
In the play, the flashbacks of constant memories, many topics of practical significance are cut into small shots, and some thinking is broken. Our film review may wish to complete this reflection on the family.
In fact, the families of the perpetrators and victims have some similarities, and even families that can be extended to reality and that countless ordinary people will not feel strange.
Ding Julie's "obsessiveness" is inseparable from the "strangling" education he received as a child, and the psychology of being a "minority" who is not understood or even suppressed.
Xuanzhen's "hegemony" comes from being pampered and favored since childhood. She seems to have grown up, but she is still a giant baby, thinking that the world is centered on herself, so she constantly encroaches on people, things and things that do not belong to her, and this arrogance not only does not get the attention of adults, but is given more favoritism by her brothers and sisters, which makes Xuanzhen's originally proud and self-interested personality become more intense.
Xuanzhu is a more distressing character.
Almost every multi-child family may have a transparent character like Xuanzhu, who is separated from love, but still can't help but give love. Seemingly happy big family, she lives in torment.
On the day of the finale, "everyone owes Xuanzhu an apology" rushed to the hot search, showing the audience's voice.
▲ When she was young, Xuanzhen was not as well-behaved as she appeared, and often mocked Xuanzhu behind her back
The death of Xuanzhen, a child who grew up in the same family, is undoubtedly a tragedy, but if she continues to live and grow up to be a beautiful adult with no one in sight and hypocrisy and selfishness, it is not a tragedy.
Whether it was Ding Julie or Xuanzhu, if they had received more appropriate and more spiritual care in their childhood, rather than blindly suppressing or conniving, perhaps, tragedy would not have happened.
Of course, it is not to excuse the murderer, let alone advocate the "victim guilt theory", but it is certain that "Octagonal Pavilion" is not only about two homicides, but about two tragic collisions brought about by family and growing pain.
The "Mysterious Family with Each Heart" is actually not mysterious, it may be an ordinary family that each of us has met and experienced in our own lives.
Every man's tragedy is caused by a combination of his past and his environment.
▲ Xuanzhen's tragedy is caused by her own hands
From this perspective, compared with the genre of "suspense drama", the tragic temperament of "Octagonal Pavilion Mist" is more intense.
The real "murder" of the whole drama is not the murder of life, but also the strangulation of a misplaced family relationship and the psychology of adolescence that has not been cared for.
Speaking of which, I actually forgave "The Octagonal Pavilion Mist", its thinking is not thorough, but it gives a lead.
Combined, the feelings, or "feelings" brought by this drama, are finally a bit torn -
Scolding, you can scold fiercely, scold it for dragging out the redundant plot, scold it for finally pulling out the real murderer's bridge section, stepping on a value landing point that makes people feel offensive.
But as long as you think of the second half of Xuanzhen and Nian Mei's reincarnation echo, and think of the girls seeking a way out in the stinging youth, you can't help but pinch your heart.
▲ Stills of "Octagonal Pavilion Mist"
Therefore, it will still make people sigh "pity".
Unfortunately, the most "unique" part is wrong for the secondary plot, and perhaps not so important style, tone.
It is also a pity that from the beginning it was placed under the narrative expectations of a "high density" and "tight rhythm" similar to last year's suspense masterpieces, so that those things that are really sharp and resilient have just started to the end, and in the end, they have not reached the audience very completely.
If we must say something less depressing, then maybe we can still give an encouraging attitude to "The Octagonal Pavilion Mist" and all those who try to do "unconventional" suspense dramas.
Audiences don't have to use the aura of "theater of mist" to be demanding, nor do they have to focus too much on solving crimes and solving puzzles. Suspense can be a genre or an element. I still look forward to the shell of the suspense drama, which can be put into something better.
Edit | Ji Jie
Typography | Benin