Honestly, are you satisfied with tonight's finale?
In my opinion, it is a mixed blessing.
The good thing is that the screenwriter and director quickly cut the mess at the ending, explained the fate of the main characters clearly, the death of the "sister-in-law" was clearly filmed, the black hand behind the scenes was also climaxed, and there was an orgasm that broke out after An Xin sent dumplings to Gao Qiqiang after emotional accumulation.
What's not so good is that this episode continues all the shortcomings of the closing part:
First, the finishing is not enjoyable enough.
As summarized by netizens, the finale is indeed through internal reporting, it can be said that Gao Xiaochen's confession and Huang Yao's anti-water are the key to the supervision group's closing of the net, and the rest only need to follow the vine and touch the melon, and several key villains are almost tied up in the end, but the story is better if there are comings and exchanges.
Second, the "big tiger" behind the scenes is unsatisfactory.
Zhao Lidong did fall with He Liming. Meng Dehai's ending has also been explained, but did Huang Lao, who was "both prosperous and detrimental", deal with it, how it ended, and if he did not explain his ending, he would be almost breathless.
Third, the positive role creation is insufficient.
Realistically speaking, Huang Yao, who should have been an important hero of the finale night, became the focus of controversy among netizens. The key is that Gao Qiqiang and Huang Yao's father-daughter relationship is too contradictory, and Huang Yao said in a letter to An Xin that he has been acting and has always hated Gao Qiqiang, and this logic was originally very valid.
But the problem lies in the plot arrangement: but Fan Anxin came one step later, Gao Qiqiang jumped for Huang Yao, and in less than three minutes Huang Yao came up with evidence to send Gao Qiqiang to the death table.
The audience certainly understands Huang Yao's choice intellectually, but it may not be emotionally acceptable (including me), because the human heart is made of flesh.
In addition, the emotional line between An Xin and Xiao Wu is somewhat redundant, and there is really no need to forcibly arrange an emotional destination for An Xin.
But even with just such a scene, this finale is far from a bad end: a detail comparison.
Eat dumplings.
In the Chinese New Year's Eve 21 years ago, An Xin couldn't bear to face Gao Qiqiang, who was beaten to the head and bloodied, but was arrested and taken to the police station.
Finally, on the basis of not violating the regulations, he thought of a way to let Gao Qiqiang eat dumplings.
Gao Qiqiang had nothing to reward, but raised his crumpled water cup and wished Officer An a happy new year.
One with miserable tears, the other with an innocent smile, spread the friendship of the two at once.
Look at the finale again.
Gao Qiqiang was about to be executed, and before he died, An Xin sent him another box of dumplings. Gao Qiqiang said the truth, "The best dumplings I have eaten in the past twenty years is the dumplings you gave me in 2000."
The appearance of the dumplings does not seem to have changed, and there is still no vinegar, but twenty years later, it is no longer human.
Gao Qiqiang repented, if he hadn't gone to find Xu Lei with Tang Xiaolong and Tang Xiaohu, he wouldn't have ended up where he is now. He finally asked An Xin if he would still be friends with Gao Qiqiang, who sold fish on the old factory street.
An Xin replied, there are so many ifs. Gao Qiqiang's eyes were instantly filled with tears.
Yes, where there are so many ifs in life, if Gao Qiqiang did not choose so much, there would be no story of "Crazy".
From friends to opponents, and then back to the dumplings of the year, Zhang Yi and Zhang Songwen's eating scene runs through the entire play, and also sets the tone for the actors' acting skills to "go crazy".
Since its launch, "Crazy" can be described as crazy all the way, first becoming the most popular TV series on iQiyi Station. and won the first place in the ratings of the whole network in a row.
On the closing night, CCTV ratings broke the highest 3 again and easily won the championship,
The heat of the whole network is overwhelming,
It also dominates the top three of Weibo's hot searches.
The Douban score also fell at the 9-point mark, even if the finale dropped by 0.1, it was still the first echelon of stable reality drama word-of-mouth.
It can be said that whether it is network popularity, platform ratings, or various word of mouth, "Crazy" undisputedly sits on the throne of the first "explosive drama" in the opening year. Even the bedtime book "Sun Tzu's Art of War", which sells fish in the play, became popular overnight.
Now that everything has settled, it is time to solve the 3 questions left by the series.
1. Why did the director say that this ending was a miserable victory?
In fact, many viewers watched the director's tragic victory before and were worried about whether the ending would knife the audience, so they pinched the sweat for An Xin.
Unexpectedly, An Xin was unharmed, and even no one in the entire action group was injured, and the villains who should have been caught were all arrested, so why did they win miserably?
Say one by one.
Let's start with the mystery of Chen Shuting's death.
Gao Qiqiang talked with Gao Qilan and told the truth of that year. At that time, Gao Xiaochen committed the 228 shooting to intimidate Wang Li because of his hot head, which angered Zhao Lidong.
Jiang Tian clashed with Gao Qiqiang, and Gao Xiaochen was impulsive again, and wanted to fight with the other party. As a result, the person was not found, and he killed his mother Chen Shuting.
Later, Guoshan Feng admitted that Chen Shuting's death was not an accident, but caused by his conspiracy with Jiang Tian. This is indeed a relatively reasonable explanation, and many netizens speculated that Huang Yao's hand was too cruel.
But Huang Yao, who ultimately "pretends to be a pig and eats a tiger", is indeed the biggest key to Gao Qiqiang's conviction.
She first sent video evidence of Gao Xiaochen's crime to the investigation team, leaked the address of Gao Qiqiang's money estate to the investigation team, completed the division within the Gao family, and finally reported Gao Qiqiang personally with key account evidence.
This is also roughly in line with the audience's speculation, the audience just didn't expect her to be so ruthless, especially the final fatal blow to Gao Qiqiang, hesitated without hesitation, even more ruthless than Gao, is the real killing decisiveness.
Looking at the ending of the villains, it is also expected.
First, Gao Qiqiang.
In fact, since he lost Chen Shuting, a key think tank, and lost the left and right arms of Tang Xiaolong and Tang Xiaohu's brothers, his defeat was decided.
If Chen Shuting hadn't died, Huang Yao would definitely not have been able to complete a series of plans so easily. It can be said that Chen's unexpected death accelerated Gao Qiqiang's demise.
The second is to cross the mountain.
He lures Gao Qiqiang to the roof and uses Huang Yao to threaten him to jump off the building, and An Xin arrives when he almost succeeds, followed by an elevator battle like the finale of the Infernal Affairs.
But the story is not in suspense, Gao Qiqiang lame with a stick and An Xin, who carries a gun, teamed up to subdue the strongest killer in the whole drama.
The third is Gao Xiaochen.
Among the smart people, Gao Xiaochen really looked too degraded.
It's really an hour, and it's not necessarily good.
In the end, he confessed completely, gave Gao Qiqiang another fatal blow, and also explained his end.
The fourth is Zhao Lidong and He Liming.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Lidong, a ruthless character who not only killed Xu Jiang before, but also killed Tan Siyan and Li Xiang, basically did not struggle much in the end, and as soon as Gao Qiqiang was caught, he also fell.
Before the downfall, he also brought out the truth of Huang Cuicui's case that year, which also led to He Liming.
The recording shows that He Liming was the key patron of Huang Cuicui's murder, and Huang Cuicui also died because of him.
With his capture, the Jinghai umbrella was uprooted!
In the finale, He Liming fell from the horse, Meng Dehai was demoted to a first-class staff member and forced to retire, Gao Qiqiang, Tang Xiaolong, and Zhao Lidong were sentenced to death, Yang Jian was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, and Gao Xiaochen was sentenced to five years in prison.
The only better outcome was Gao Qilan, who was isolated from business by Gao Qiqiang, and was able to go to Africa to help doctors.
It seems that Anxin has finally fulfilled his "ideal", and Jinghai has ushered in a real blue sky.
So the question arises, why is this a crushing victory and not a complete victory? Because justice is too late.
Some netizens mentioned that the finale night was Li Xiang's "first seven".
Although he tried to take down Zhao Lidong with a curved anti-black method, he failed in the end, and Li Xiang's tombstone was even more embarrassing: because the monument was the Criminal Investigation Detachment and the Jinghai Public Security Bureau.
Combined with the original text of the novel, it can be seen that Li Xiang's father was also killed. Therefore, Li's family was extinct, and no one gave him a monument.
Think about Tan Siyan and Lu Han who fell on the anti-black road, these people who gave their lives in the wind and waves, after all, they could not see the day when the Jinghai cleared.
Even An Xin, who saw the victory, went from being brave and cute at the beginning to full of silver hair, and became unable to believe anyone, because he insisted on anti-black and gave up his girlfriend Meng Yu, which indirectly led to the sad end of Meng Yu's family.
At this point, his beloved woman is gone, the master is gone, the best comrade-in-arms is gone, the apprentice is gone, the leader of the supervision group played by Wu Gang accompanies him to get up and go back to his life after the cemetery memorial, and he has completely become a loner in Jinghai.
This is, of course, a crushing victory.
2, the actor of the finale, who is the god?
The success of "Crazy", in my opinion, the first credit lies in the acting.
Some viewers said that if there is an actor in the "Crazy" group who does not want to act well, the play may collapse.
That's true.
Because "Crazy" focuses on the growth of the characters from the beginning - how does black become black, and how does white stick to it day by day?
The character-based rather than suspense-driven story like "Punishment" greatly increases the difficulty of the actors' performances.
And the reason why the series is so successful is also because unlike the thin and face-painted characters in many previous Chinese dramas, most of the characters in "Crazy" are flesh and blood, including lollipop killers like Lao Mo and villains like Secretary Wang, and the characteristics they show are often not only two-sided, or even multi-faceted.
These good actors make acting, which is becoming more and more imaginary in the pursuit of fans in the traffic era, become loud.
So who is the finale acting god?
Next, please watch the finale of "Crazy" "Drama Emperor" shortlisted.
The first one: of course, Gao Qiqiang, played by Zhang Songwen.
It can be said that the "fire" of "Crazy" was burned by Zhang Songwen.
Gao Qiqiang is probably the hottest and most out-of-the-loop villain after Qi Tongwei in "In the Name of the People".
More importantly, the growth and change of the character Gao Qiqiang is the driving force of the entire play, and it is also the conflict point of the entire play.
Gao Qiqiang has come all the way, the process is very clear, and the character arc is bright, which makes countless audiences fascinated. His hands are stained with blood, but at the same time he is a villain with flesh and blood, and he can say that he has feelings and righteousness for his own people, and Lao Mo's daughter wants to take him down every day, but he can jump off the building to save Huang Yao.
Before the finale, Zhang Songwen's performance can get full marks.
But I never expected that Zhang Songwen in the finale, the performance exceeded the full score, that is, the so-called - Shenlai.
Zhang Songwen acted well, but it was good at the level. The two episodes of the story were performed by him on three levels, and they progressed layer by layer.
The first layer: there is love and righteousness.
Chen Shuting died in this scene, Zhang Songwen's performance can be described as "heartache", crying until he collapsed, but he cried behind everyone's back, because the boss could not expose his vulnerability, Zhang Songwen's acting skills were too strong and very moving.
The second layer: the intersection of sorrow and happiness.
As soon as he sacrificed his life to save Huang Yao, he was reported by Huang Yao in public.
Zhang Songwen's acting skills exploded completely, and his emotions instantly changed from his nervous daughter before to unbelievable, and then complicated and inexplicable.
That emotion can't tell whether it's sadness, regret or calmness, maybe with a little helplessness, when he dragged a lame leg that saved Huang Yao's injury and held Huang Yao's face, it was like relief, forgiveness, and a little feeling of wanting to solve Huang Yao.
This collision of emotions and even contradictions is not inaccurate, but precisely too accurate.
The third layer: the original shape is exposed.
From the scene before the execution to the scene when he was called to the execution table, the black boss, who was once arrogant and proud, now has so soft legs that he almost needs to be supported. With the bgm that is as sad as a cold night, there is no violence and blood, but it makes people's scalps numb and shudder.
The audience must have never seen what the person looked like before the execution, but Zhang Songwen will feel that it should be like that, Zhang Songwen unlocks too many emotions in his body, reflecting the many out-of-control reactions of an ordinary person after a psychological collapse.
This silent fear accurately interprets man's survival instinct.
It can be said that after watching the first episode, the audience seemed to witness Gao Qiqiang's half life, watching him grow from a promise-only and oppressed vegetable farm fishmonger to an underworld "godfather" figure, and finally to the death penalty table.
The layers of Zhang Songwen's performance are not broken, but there is a smooth inflection point in emotions. How does a good person become bad? We see the complete process of change.
This is definitely the moment of Zhang Songwen's acting skills, originally everyone thought that in the next two TV awards ceremonies, Lei Jiayin would easily win the emperor like the Golden Eagle Award, and now he will face two strong opponents, one of which is almost invincible.
Second place: An Xin played by Zhang Yi.
It must be admitted that compared to Gao Qiqiang, who has more full and varied character changes, it is more difficult to create a satisfactory Anxin.
Because it is more difficult for the audience to believe that a person will persist for 21 years like An Xin, always maintaining the light of humanity, but Zhang Yi's performance is still reassuring.
It can even be said that if there is no Gao Qiqiang played by Zhang Songwen, if he changes his acting skills to play, he may not be able to seal the god, but it is not bad. But if you change an inexperienced actor to play An Xin, the whole drama will lose a lot of color.
Zhang Yi's good performance lies in the complexity of the simplicity of the characters.
Including the finale, Zhang Yi's performance always has just the right sense of proportion, loose when it should be relaxed, and tense when it should be tense.
With Zhang Songwen's dumpling play, Zhang Songwen's emotions are like a gushing river, and Zhang Yi's performance method is lightweight, seemingly not so enjoyable, more inclined to a feeling of great ingenuity, without much design and play.
So this role seems to be less prominent than Zhang Songwen, but it is like a needle of the sea god. One word to describe, steady!
Zhang Yi is good, but it is good to be accurate.
Is it only the performance of the protagonist that can seal the gods?
I think not.
Some of the flashing passages are also worthy of being canonized, such as Secretary Wang played by Zheng Jiabin, which made the audience hate the whole drama, but when Zhao Lidong let Wang Mi go in the finale, he played Secretary Wang's entanglement and reluctance too well. The front was closed, and at the end, the sadness flashed.
Although the audience knows that these are two scum, the emotions between these two negative characters are interpreted so that for a moment it is moving, and human nature is complex.
3. Why can "Crazy" become the opening drama?
Finally, why "Crazy" can become a blockbuster drama at the beginning of the year.
Since the fire of "In the Name of the People" in 2017, dramas with the theme of anti-corruption and anti-gang crime have begun to be launched on the screen one after another, and they are also constantly incorporating the techniques of various types of dramas.
But from "Tour Inspection Group" in 2020, "Sweeping Black Storm" in 2021 to "Punishment" in 2022, there are many explosive dramas, but there has never been a big drama with a popularity comparable to "In the Name of the People", and the Douban score is mostly around 7 points, and the word of mouth is only acceptable.
Why did "Crazy" soar overnight?
First of all, the series combines the advantages of past anti-black dramas and perfectly integrates the characteristics of anti-black dramas.
Although the previous anti-black dramas have become more and more proficient in shooting and narrative techniques, they have fallen into the strange circle of homogenization, and both creators and audiences urgently need new breakthroughs.
And "Crazy" not only skillfully uses various techniques and mature genre elements of anti-black dramas, but also breaks through the mode introduced by the crime of anti-black dramas in the past, and at the same time implements the logic of cool dramas.
Looking at Gao Qiqiang's counterattack road, it seems to be the male protagonist Shuangwen.
Upgrading to fight monsters, recruit masters, and even remote control command, the audience can see it all comfortably, if not for the fact that he is a villain, he simply "wants to do a career with Brother Qiang".
Second, the character shaping has surpassed any anti-black drama in the past five years.
The series is set against the background of the changes of the times for more than 20 years, and spends a lot of ink to portray a villain protagonist with excellent empathy.
But it's not just Gao Qiqiang who is wonderful, the whole drama is based on character growth, consisting of three units, each about thirteen episodes long, each revolving around a core event, and finally converged into the fate of a generation. It is not an exaggeration to say that in terms of character shaping, "Crazy" is close to perfection, and it can be said that it has reached a small peak of the current domestic anti-black drama.
The biggest advantage of "Crazy" in the cast arrangement is that it completely abandons all traffic stars, the male and the male number two chose Zhang Yi and Zhang Songwen to press the formation, there are still many old drama bones, and it is not unusual to have many old drama bones, it is rare that the less well-known actors behind Lao Mo, Gao Qisheng, Gao Qilan, Secretary Wang, and the Tang brothers play well, and the role of Gao Ye's sister-in-law has exploded.
Under the superb acting skills, the shortcomings of the thin portrayal of the supporting roles often in domestic dramas have been greatly weakened. The audience watched all the good actors from beginning to end, how could it be unhappy.
But the key is the third point, the director shot an epic sense, and the audience also understood.
In an interview with the media, director Xu Jizhou bluntly said that there have been a lot of criminal investigation dramas in the past two years, and they basically took the suspense route, like "Crazy" and people's livelihood are so closely attached.
Xu Jizhou did not hide his ambition: "This play wants to talk about China's 20 years of social change, hoping to bring it out of people. “
That's the key to Rush to take off, it's too different and too bold.
No wonder some young actors ridiculed that the crew shot a hundred episodes, and some viewers believed it, because the episode breakthrough was really big enough.
In Xu Jizhou's words, the creative principle of realism is "to be carefully embellished, so that the audience cannot see it, but can experience it".
Those audiences who scored high for "Crazy" also felt this intention.
So the excitement of "Crazy" is just Gao Qiqiang? It is reflected from him, we have experienced the times we have felt.
Zhang Songwen, who plays Gao Qiqiang, posted: "If you choose the wrong one, go crookedly, every step you take in the future will have to pay the price." ”
In the past twenty years, An Xin and Gao Qiqiang have not been filmed as Wei Guangzheng, but delicately present the corruption and interest chain of underworld forces, as well as the hardships of sweeping away evil forces.
21 years is a blink of a day, and in essence, everyone is bearing the consequences of their choices.
Who would have thought that An Xin would have so many stories after giving away a meal of dumplings back then.
But as Gao Qiqiang said, even if you know the ending, you will still send it.
It is fate and fate, and the story is therefore moving.
The series wants to "outline the fate curve of two opposing little people under the push of the times, so as to lead the audience's attention to analyze the transformation of people's hearts and the sinking of human nature".
After 39 episodes, "Crazy" has completely done it. Although "Crazy" is not perfect and the finale is flawed, it deserves to be the first bomb of the opening year.
The main creator is bold enough, attentive enough, and the drama filmed is good enough.
And such an ending once again confirms the audience's choice of good works and good acting skills. The choice of the audience will always determine the fate of Chinese dramas and good actors in turn.
Although "Crazy" has come to an end, I believe this is just the beginning.
Next, watch the 2023 national drama, how to "go crazy".