"Echo" is not loud at all, Feng Xiaogang can't save the Misty Theater!

"Mist Theater", formerly known as "Odd Suspense Theater", is a suspense type theater launched by iQiyi in 2018.

In 2020, the theater officially ushered in a new upgrade and was renamed "Misty Theater". Of course, it is not only so simple to change the name, but also the improvement of the quality of the entire content, and the target is American dramas, focusing on high-quality content.

Indeed, in the first year of the upgrade, the explosion continued. The most well-known nature is "Hidden Corner" and "The Silent Truth". Let the "Theater of the Mist" brush the screen throughout the summer until autumn.

I have to say that the upgrade of "Misty Theater" is right.

Of course, not every work can be a big hit, just like "Very Witnessed" and "In Calamity", the response is mediocre, and this is still inseparable from the quality of the play itself.

"Misty Theater" opened high and went high, impressing the entire industry and helping the platform stand out in the fierce competition.

Just like every drama cannot be popular, the Misty Theater has not continued to go high, in 2021 and 2022, the "Misty Theater" has maintained a sluggish state, a total of six works in two years, Douban super 8 points of the work has never been born again, natural word-of-mouth explosion no longer exists. Let the public once wonder whether the "Theater of Mists" has degraded.

In addition, it can also be seen that the "Theater of the Mist" has also slowed down, knowing that there were 5 works in just four months in the first year of its launch, and only 6 works in the next two years. Whether it is quantity or quality, the "theater of the fog" has declined, which is not a good phenomenon, especially for quality. After all, "Mist Theater" focuses on high-quality products, but now that high-quality products are no longer available, it is difficult to maintain long-term development.

Under the large genre, "Mist Theater" is also trying a variety of small genre themes, more subdivided and focused, to meet the viewing needs of more audiences, but under the situation that the quality of content cannot keep up, the reputation of "Mist Theater" is declining day by day.

2022 is a special year for "Theater of the Mist", one work at the beginning of the year, and one work at the end of the year, which is even slower.

The team behind "Theater of the Mist" also knows that it is in a bottleneck period and wants to fight a turnaround. Finally, at the end of 2022, "The Daughter Who Came Back" was born, and Douban opened a score of 8.2, which became the hope of turning over the "Misty Theater". But the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment, but I didn't expect to collapse halfway, until the end, the Douban score fell to 6.2 points, a full 2 points.

The Theatre of the Mist missed a great turnaround.

Since then, it has come to the current year 2023, first "Moses on the Plain", when the movie was withdrawn and changed again and again, the TV series was the first to go online. Although the score is good, it almost broke 8 points, but it is still difficult to change the big decline, and there is no splash during the entire broadcast of the show.

Although you have to admit that such a suspense drama with a strong literary style does have its own advantages and meets the needs of some audiences, its ability is limited after all.

Now ushered in the second fog drama "Echo" in the year.

This is the second TV series directed by Feng Xiaogang, his wife Xu Fan is the planner, of course, he also made a cameo appearance, the screenwriter is also the author of the original novel, the director of photography is Zhao Xiaoding, and the art director is Wang Jing, all are big names in the industry.

Maybe they are a little unfamiliar with Zhao Xiaoding and Wang Jing, but when they mention their works, they are all familiar all of a sudden.

Zhao Xiaoding can be said to be Zhang Yimou's royal photographer, from "Hero", "Ambush on Ten Sides", "Golden Armor All Over the City", to "Shadow", "On the Cliff", "Sniper", etc., he is the director of photography.

Wang Jing, on the other hand, has successively served as the art director of excellent plays such as "Little Huanxi", "Do You Know If It Should Be Green Fat Red Thin", "Qingping Le", "I Am Yu Huanshui", "Mountains and Seas" and so on.

Such an excellent and luxurious production team naturally brings us the ultimate movie-level visual effects experience.

From lens design to costume road, "Echo" has proven the ability of its ultra-luxurious production team.

In terms of actors, there is no need to say more, Song Jia, Wang Yang, Bao Bell, Wu You, Zhu Yuchen, Dong Jie, Wei Ni, Hou Wenyuan, Liu Guanlin, Zhang Guoli, Xu Fan, Zhang Jiayi, Huang Xuan, Guan Hu, etc., each supporting role is a top actor in the industry.

Feng Xiaogang's appeal is still one of the best in China, after all, he has been in the industry for nearly 40 years, and the influence of the film and television industry is huge, and the accumulated resources are rich.

The actors who work together today have impeccable acting skills, and the powerful actors have brilliantly interpreted and interpreted their respective characters.

But the problem is that for the suspense drama of the Misty Theater, the most important thing is the plot story. The actor is selected correctly and acted well, but it is only half successful, and the other is whether it will tell a story and tell a good story.

Although the screenwriter is still the original author, it is obviously not better film and television adaptation, but follows the mode and style of the original work.

It is also more interesting to mention the original book of "Echo".

Stuff advances the novel according to the "case line" and "emotional line", writes Ran Dongdong's reasoning and detection in odd-numbered chapters, writes about Ran Dongdong's marriage crisis with literature professor Mudaf in even-numbered chapters, and the last chapter merges the two lines. When the plot of one line rises and falls, the plot of the other line is almost static, but the characters on both lines tumble inside, intertwining with each other to form "echoes".

In fact, things were originally mainly written about family ethics stories, but in order to have new ideas, the case line was added to contrast and echo between the two lines. In order to write reasoning and psychological content, things have made up for a lot of knowledge in this area, so this novel is also very time-consuming and laborious, taking four years.

For a novel, this is no problem.

But for a TV series, it is suspense-based, and the drama broadcast by the Misty Theater is a big problem.

After all, film and television works cannot have greater autonomy for the audience like fiction works, which can be imagined and excavated at will, and for film and television works, they are short dramas, which are watched in a limited time, and even for the audience are watched in their spare time on the way to and from work, and the pursuit of short, fast, more direct stimulating content.

Throughout the past those popular fog theater plays, they also have such characteristics, catering to the needs of the current audience to watch the play.

But back to "Echo", whether it is an "emotional line" or a "case line", it seems that it can be independently composed of dramas without affecting it at all.

"Emotional line" is a relatively standard family ethics drama, while "case line" is a standard suspense crime drama.

However, they are merged into one, integrated into one, forcibly related, and the final result is a relatively divided and trivial state. The audience jumps back and forth between the two, seemingly independent and independent, but this greatly reduces the audience's expectations and affects the perception.

"Emotional Line" can be said to be very Feng Xiaogang's film style, literary and artistic lines, slightly humorous, but with the "Case Line", it seems empty, suspended, and ungrounded.

In the Misty Theater, the audience wants to watch suspense and solve cases, not those short, bloody ethical dramas in parents.

"Case line", that is, the "big pit case" in the play, after Xia Bingqing was killed, Xu Shanchuan, Wu Wenchao, Xu Haitao, Liu Qing, one suspect after another, was interrogated, although it was slightly suspended in the lines, but I have to say that the entire case is moving forward, and the design of all the members lying is commendable. Of course, it is also a constant reversal, a very standard suspense drama style. According to this line, it is definitely a medium-to-high-level suspense drama. And in the last few episodes there is a big reversal, it is really not the last moment, it is difficult to guess who the real murderer is.

However, it is necessary to add the "emotional line", so that the audience, who was originally immersed in the suspenseful atmosphere, suddenly jumped out again, watching the protagonist's bloody ethical drama, which greatly affected the perception.

The two lines can be said to be five or five in the plot division of the entire drama. It is difficult for the viewer to focus on one line because it will always be biased by the other.

Obviously, this is a problem in the two-line adaptation process.

Adapted separately, they are all good dramas, but once put together, it is another effect.

Feng Xiaogang shoots the "emotional line" in the way he is good at, and for the "case line", it is not his strong point. Although the "emotional line" is suspended in literature and art, it is real and profound, but the "case line" is also the same, the style is out of place, and under the influence of the "emotional line", it makes the "case line" rise and fall, persuade many people, and once made people drowsy.

In this regard, in the face of the strong competition of "Who Is He" next door, "Echo" has no heat and the response is mediocre.

Feng Xiaogang did not change the decline of the Misty Theater, nor could he save the "Misty Theater".

There is reason to believe that the "Misty Theater" still has strong strength, but in the transformation stage, the "Misty Theater" still needs to have a deeper understanding of the needs of the public and insight into market changes, rather than building cars behind closed doors, otherwise it is really difficult to make changes.