At the scale level, Taiwanese dramas in recent years have never disappointed, and the same is true of the new drama "I Do".
The drama was written and directed by Wu Luoyan, the gold-medal screenwriter of "The White Tower" that year, and the Golden Bell Award Emperor as the male protagonist, who co-created this extremely rare work with the theme of "cult" in the field of Chinese dramas.
At present, the Douban score of the drama is 7.5, which is not high, but the social chronic diseases it explores, as well as the unfolding reflection on human nature, make people shudder.
01
At the beginning of the series, a rather interesting montage is used.
Acting superstar Fei Muqi walked from behind the scenes to the front of the stage, dancing under the support of countless music fans, enjoying the cheers and admiration of the crowd.
At the same time, a teacher named Bunsen also walked from the dressing room to the center of the church, and with a very infectious speech, he was sincerely worshipped by the disciples.
The extensive use of upgraded shots and the echo of the actions under the cross-editing shots have made the star effect of the current entertainment industry and the idol worship in the emerging cult form a certain intertextual relationship.
This clever contrast lays the psychological logic of the whole play in the dark, although it does not put this and the disk out, but has already made a gesture in the form of images.
However, the series did not solve the problem, but cut from the clue of the star Fei Muqi, and first threw out a suspense case of falling from the building.
Nagatsuki Mishima, played by Chie Tanaka, is a senior agent who leads his star Fei Muqi from the trough of his life to the flash. After being scolded in public, Mishima Nagazuki suddenly fell to his death. The police did not find any evidence of his homicide afterwards, so it is likely that the coffin will be concluded by suicide.
After Mishima's death, Fei Muqi fell into deep self-blame, believing that it was his own meanness and widowhood that led to the agent's suicide.
At Mishima's memorial service, he and Bunsen-sensei met for the first time, and from this point on, the former would fall into a trap step by step under the "guidance" of the latter.
And this Bunsen teacher, in the name of the "Happiness And Light Motivation Society", has attracted all kinds of apostles who have encountered misfortune in real life, and gradually brainwashed them into becoming their own tools.
There are three characters with the most focus in the series, one is Li Lianxin, a high school girl who was bullied on campus and had a red birthmark on her left cheek; One is Tan Jiamei, a housewife who is overwhelmed by the burden of the family and can only endure in silence; And Qin Kaili, a middle school teacher who suffered a heavy psychological blow because of her husband's cheating in the early years.
So, in a way, "I Do" is somewhat similar to the 2019 topical work "The Distance Between Us and Evil", through a criminal case, connecting the fates of several people around us, and carrying out a group portrait character depiction.
Although the mentality of these believers around Bunsen's teacher has indeed changed, as the curriculum progresses, some of them feel bad.
Because Bunsen-sensei is instigating believers to behave beyond common sense in the name of "Sigma Buddhism", he himself has begun to sexually assault, ravage, and even kill believers in disguise under the extreme expansion of his desire for power.
In the process, the keen prosecutor played by Ke Shuqin also perceives that mishima Nagazuki's death has a lot to do with Bunsen-sensei.
Who is the divine teacher himself? Will his followers finally be able to escape the clutches of the devil? The episode will answer this question one by one in the subsequent content.
It is worth mentioning that many of the details of "Happy Light Motivation Society" or "Sigma Teaching" in "I Do" are not purely fabricated, but adapted by the creators after a lot of fieldwork and drawing on many real cases. This makes the show more convincing and, of course, more creepy.
02
The insertion of cult elements into film and television works is not uncommon in East Asia.
Kore-eda's "Distance" and Jang Jae-hyun's "Shu Po Ha" have both expressed the internal composition of the cult group and the influence caused by it from different angles.
As for Taiwan, "Double Pupil" directed by Chen Guofu in 2002 and the highly talked about horror film "Spell" some time ago also touched on this issue.
However, most of the above film and television works revolve around the horror atmosphere of the cult, surreal crimes, and social influences, and rarely comprehensively depict how it is generated and how the leader of the cult captures people's hearts.
"I Do" undoubtedly has an eye-catching performance in this area.
In the play, the head teacher of the cult, although he has an elusive purpose, there is no doubt that he and most cult organizations are amassing wealth.
Staying in a luxury hotel rented for him by the disciples, taking a lot of red envelopes offered by the disciples, and even opening various courses from the beginning to the advanced, charging tuition fees at different prices, there is not much special about bunsen's series of means of exchanging "happiness" for wealth.
What is really fascinating is his approach to getting the general public into the trap step by step. Specifically, one is brainwashing and the other is a mystical ritual.
He is not deceived by a false vision of wealth like a pyramid scheme, but goes deep into the psychological plight of contemporary urbanites. On the one hand, it unveils the memory scars of believers and exposes them completely to the members of the church, but on the other hand, it constantly promotes the ideas of mutual love and warmth, trying to create a false utopia.
Only then will believers see the church as the only place of salvation.
In order to strengthen the credibility and deterrence of this statement, Bunsen-sensei adopted a series of mysterious rituals.
Preach that you have experienced the "resurrection of the dead"; Naked upper body, scribbled on paper like a god possessed; Or let everyone drink the sap with hallucinogenic effects and expose all their negative emotions.
In addition to these tricks, Bunsen's teacher is also in the daily dialogue with the believers, suddenly smiling at the corners of his mouth, looking charitable; Suddenly, he behaves strangely, loudly intimidates, and always creates extraordinary magic in a gesture that is elusive to others.
The German sociologist Marx Weber called this form of rule "Karisma-type rule", that is, absolute domination of believers entirely by special charm and extraordinary qualities.
Therefore, we can see in the play that the more we reach the end of the "practice", the higher the obedience of the believers to the teacher of Bunsen, and even completely submit to his authority.
However, the good thing about "I Do" is that it does not fully focus on the brainwashing of cults, but uses this to pinpoint the feelings of loneliness, powerlessness and melancholy that are commonly felt in people's hearts in urban society.
This is mainly reflected in the series's depiction of group portraits of believers.
Because of the natural defects in appearance, even Li Lianxin, who was born in a wealthy family, could not escape the doom of school bullying and committed suicide by cutting her wrists several times. In front of the boy who had been in love for a long time, losing his dignity and being ashamed, Li Lianxin finally threw herself into the arms of the "Happiness And Light Power Society".
Unlike Li Lianxin, a well-off upper class, Tam Ka Mei's troubles mainly come from the economic overload. Due to her husband's car accident in the early years, the loss of language ability, and the paralysis of a boy, so for several years, on the one hand, she was responsible for the life and study of three children, on the other hand, she had to run around every day, do heavy cleaning work, in addition, she had to pay 50,000 yuan a month to the family of the paralyzed boy.
Therefore, Tan Jiamei, who was overwhelmed by the heavy life, also "converted" to bunsen's teacher, and in the later plot, she even took her daughter to participate in cult activities.
This is the reason behind the rise of the cult in "I Do".
It is based on this that the show has a thicker realistic intensity, not just a gimmick that relies on appearance or large-scale pictures to attract people's attention.
It tries to get us into the heart of every believer and taste the unavoidable pain. However, after a thousand sails, when we abandon the cult's brainwashing methods of drinking and quenching thirst, how do we deal with these specific and micro social problems and the inner trauma of individuals who are ignored?
Perhaps, this is the real problem that we have to reflect on.