Chinese suspense, step by step, "Gentleman League" opens a new style of strange aesthetics

The subtlety of suspense films is to drive the audience to a psychological fear and oppression through mysterious events, and the creation of this horror atmosphere is different from the intimidation of thrillers, and pays more attention to the creation of psychological atmosphere, establishes a sense of substitution, lays out suspense points, and makes the audience fall into the emotional space of sight, hearing and sense. "Gentleman League" was recently launched on Tencent Video, and the mirror style of the entire film and television drama pursues the expression of Chinese aesthetics, showing a unique artistic appeal and romanticism.

Author | Zhang Yu (Author of Cultural Industry Review, Research Fellow, Sanchuanhui Cultural Tourism and Sports Research Institute)

Editorial | time

Edit | peninsula

Source | Cultural Industry Review

In recent years, domestic suspense dramas have frequently appeared, with brain-burning plots, rich details and rich characters to make the audience addicted, and the market is increasingly looking forward to the emergence of high-quality suspense genre films. Through exquisite picture presentation and fine detail shaping, "Gentleman's League" balances the contradiction between the overhead era background and the realistic life texture, and has a very high aesthetic texture.

"Chinese Horror": The treachery and magnificence of the suspense of the ancient oriental style

Scene construction with Chinese aesthetics

From the city streets in "Gentleman's League" to the protagonist's living quarters, everything is outlined by details. On the one hand, only rich and gorgeous scene content can build a Chinese suspense scene atmosphere, show the temperament and style of the times, and present a visual feast condensed with the "beauty of oriental tradition" for the audience, so there is a daifuku city full of goods and shouting one after another, jugglers at night to light up the night fire-breathing show, occasionally steaming meals, exquisite tea sets, each characteristic element shape for the audience to outline a panoramic picture of "human fireworks".

On the other hand, the aesthetic tone of film and television dramas must be "credible", and "Gentleman's League" pays attention to the authenticity of details outside the rich, gorgeous and magnificent scenes, and adheres to the logic of characters and life. The protagonist's noodle stall is a combination of rigorous noodle making and life wisdom, with rolling pins of different lengths and large and small seasoning bottles, and the wisdom of life is reflected through foldable and movable storage skills.

△Noodle stall truck

The picture of "Gentleman League" pursues the expression of Chinese aesthetics, and the picture presents elements that are complex but not complicated, many but not chaotic, not only the bustle and prosperity of "Qingming Shanghe Map", but also the freshness and elegance of landscape pastoral painting, reflecting the harmonious Chinese beauty through symmetrical composition and white space aesthetics.

△Screen lens

Based on the genre tone of suspense dramas, "Gentleman's League" in addition to the pursuit and expression of aesthetics in props and settings, but also has a lot of hints and expressions of time and space, and the inconspicuous bowl and bowl in the play all play the role of plot clues, inadvertently becoming the key to the protagonist's detective and audience puzzle solving, so it needs to withstand repeated scrutiny. In the play, two similar and different room inscriptions are used to remind the audience of the difference in the room, which is exactly the "Easter egg" left for the careful audience to pause and compare repeatedly through scene construction.

Costume design with classical shapes

The costumes of "Gentleman League" are based on the aesthetics of the Tang and Song Dynasties, taking into account the beauty and generosity of the clothing silhouette in a realistic style, and using large color blocks and different fabric details to help the audience strengthen their identification with the character's identity, such as Lan Jue (played by Jing Boran), a waiter of the Ministry of Ceremonies, mainly with a large-sleeved round neck robe, or elegant at home, or formal and dignified, and the overall clothing fabric is smooth, the pattern is delicate, and the gentlemen are neat.

△ Different costume shaping

The clothing of the noodle stall advocate screen (played by Song Weilong) is in line with his simple living habits, even if it is the same white and blue clothing, the clothing fabric is selected from cotton and linen fabric with obvious texture, washed and old, wrinkled and rough, showing the effect of loose fabric after years of washing. Whether it is color or clothing system in the play, it has never departed from the category of Chinese aesthetics, and it also serves the story system and narrative development.

Ethnic style music, dance rendering

In terms of soundtrack, "Gentleman's League" is based on classical national musical instruments as a whole, and the ancient style and ancient rhyme fill in the words to match the melodious melody. In the detective-related plots, abandon a large number of commonly used instrumental means to create tension and oppression, and use a large number of synthetic timbre and percussion alternately fill to maintain a simple and tense musical atmosphere; In terms of narrative or emotional expression, musical instruments that combine the characters' personalities with ethnic tunes give birth to the perception of the plots of the characters in the play, for example, the words of the episode "With a Long Sword and Qin Bow" in the play are taken from Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs, National Death", the singer Liniang, as a descendant of the Southern Expeditionary Army, has agitated feelings for family and country in her heart, and the sadness and indignation of her father's unjust death and the total annihilation of the Southern Expeditionary Army, using this poem and accompanying song as the final song of Liniang is in line with all of Liniang's mood.

In terms of dance, "Gentleman League" reproduces exquisite dance pictures such as puppet dance and smoke dance, puppet dance with ghost masks and red blood clothes to lead to the spontaneous combustion of girls and blood cases, smoke dance with white smoke as a dance to interpret the goddess flying into the sky, in the color and action of the picture there is the feeling of Dunhuang Buddhist stone carved flying dancers, rendering a psychedelic and terrifying aesthetic atmosphere, full of unknown fear in the fog.

Gentleman's Friend: Mirror Flower Water Moon Seeing Characters

Detach from the concept of good and evil from good and evil

As soon as "Gentleman's League" began, Lan Jue laid out a careful plan, strategized, Jedi counterattacked, wittily recaptured the secret letter that his political enemies planted to frame him for collaborating with the enemy and treason, and cleverly cleared his suspicions with the hand of Zhang Ping's detective. The two characters and protagonists pursue different philosophies of life, and the debate between good and evil, good and evil is first seen at the beginning of the play: Lan Jue pursues the principle of "I do my best to drill camp, because I can't afford to lose", sticks to her heart, and works step by step; Zhang Ping is a young man who is heroic, naïve and sincere, insists on the concept of right and wrong that "black is black, white is white, right is right, wrong is wrong", and persistently pursues the truth. The two share a common obsession of idealism and perseverance, which has led to a series of value discussions and role growth.

Suspense genre dramas need to highlight the contradictions between good and evil in character settings, which does not mean that character creation should be rigid. Even two positive characters, based on different lives, personalities and identity roles, have different understandings of good and evil, how to achieve good and evil, and have their own inner struggles and value choices when playing with fate, and the unique charm of the characters is to break the single character mask.

A mirror life in a variety of ways

The supporting characters in "Gentleman's League" are all weighty and grainy. Even if it is as small as a neighbor, "Gentleman's League" has carried out character positioning and character design, emphasizing the aesthetic value of personality. For example, the neighbors in Dafu City are all played by fixed roles, and Yang Bo and his aunt, who open a bathhouse, are typical couples with strict wife management; Uncle Ma, who sells sheep soup, is a big talk king without heart and lungs; Uncle Wang, who sells buns, is honest; The shopkeeper of a ready-to-wear store is an old pedant immersed in the world of tailoring... The diverse character settings add a sense of daily life to the weird and tight story rhythm and create the vividness of the characters.

In addition, in "Gentleman's Alliance", Zhang Ping uses a mysterious water instrument to cast a mirror flower water and moon technique to observe people's hearts and recall back. In the world of mirrors, it can be observed that these clue characters also have a complete story logic, making it a complete and clear story circle. Although the case is confusing and the investigation process is reversed step by step, the discussion of human nature is always the core of suspense dramas, regardless of the identity background, each character has the life story he/she wants to tell, and each character is worth reading carefully, which is also the core of the story that the series tells the audience through the seemingly magical setting of "mirror flowers and water moon".

△ Mirror flowers and water moon

With the development of suspense genre dramas in recent years, the audience's aesthetic taste for watching dramas has improved, and an excellent film and television work not only requires a suspenseful and bizarre reasoning process, but also sees the characters and the times through piles of suspense stories. As a costume suspense detective drama, "Gentleman's League" presents the treachery and gorgeousness of ancient style suspense with rich and delicate brushstrokes, contemplates the real value in the construction of connotation, and jointly depicts images with Chinese classical charm.