The TV series "Who is He" is a hit, and the name of director Bao Chengzhi is unfamiliar to many audiences. But as early as 2000, Bao Chengzhi followed the famous director Ding Hei and became the main creator of classic dramas such as "Jade Guanyin" and "Daqin Empire" series. His last work was "Police Honor", which was highly popular last year, which tells the life and work of community film police officers. And this time, Bao Chengzhi came with "Who Is He" to tell the story of the criminal police in the 90s of the last century.
In 2021, Bao Chengzhi got the script of "Who Is He", and it took three or four years to create and revise the script repeatedly. What attracts Bao Chengzhi the most at the story level is first of all the solid case foundation and clue structure, including the character image and character relationship in it; Secondly, it has a strong documentary temperament as a criminal investigation drama. "This script is relatively rustic, and even has some non-fiction feeling. What particularly touched me was that he described the real work and life of front-line police officers very plainly. ”
"Who is He" poster
Restore the social situation at that time
But part of it is the strong dramatic conflict of solving the murder case, and part is the daily life level of the police officers, so how to combine the two, so that the suspense of the case can continue continuously, and at the same time present the life part well? "The combination and construction between these two parts is our difficulty and our characteristic." Bao Chengzhi said, "We hope to find more life-oriented points for the protagonists in this work in addition to solving cases, and hope to shape the character image in an all-round way and show everyone the real state of this professional group." ”
Therefore, "Who Is He" does not tell the story in the form of a traditional unit case, but advances in the form of a main case + a side case. Because in real life, "the task of the police is rarely a case that ends and then comes to another case, and many times it is necessary to go hand in hand and is full of accidents, so at this point, I also hope to restore the working state of the real police at that time as much as possible." ”
In addition, "Who Is He" tells the story of accumulated cases and unsolved cases, which Bao Chengzhi said is directly related to the environment of the times, technical conditions, and even the ecology of the entire society. In the eighties and nineties of the last century, there was no public safety monitoring system throughout the city and countryside, and there was a lack of mature scientific and technological authentication methods such as DNA identification. ”
Bao Chengzhi also hopes that he can present the social situation at that time through the case and police life. "The late eighties and early nineties of the last century coincided with a period of rapid changes and contradictions in Chinese society. Unlike today, some systems and systems are more complete and clear, with clear boundaries. In the environment at that time, whether it was solving a case or the life of a character, there was a possibility of "special chemical reactions". "And this special chemistry, special life ecology and character relationship, is what we are interested in and want to present."
In order to restore that era, the scenes and props in the play are also extremely realistic. The garbage dump corpse search scene that caused heated discussions among the audience in the first few episodes is extremely realistic, in fact, the scene was built on the spot at an abandoned construction site, and all the garbage was also sixty or seventy cars of real household garbage bought by the crew, and when filming, it caught up with sleet, and the entire garbage dump was soaked, which was a physical and mental test for the filming team and the leading actors. But Bao Chengzhi insisted that the realism of the real scene shooting could not be compared with virtual shooting, which created a famous scene of "Who Is He".
Screenshot of "Who Is He"
Showing "humanity," not "divinity"
The protagonist Wei Guoping (played by Zhang Yi) in "Who Is He" clearly outlined his weaknesses and problems in character shaping, which also caused many audience discussions. "A lot of times, we can't help but add a lot of perfect settings to a positive character, especially a character like a police officer. And when shaping Wei Guoping, we hope to find what makes him different. ”
"If a character is too perfect, it will easily make the audience feel distant." Bao Chengzhi hopes to show more "humanity" in the protagonist than "divinity". "After a lot of thought and exploration, we wanted to create a 'weak' hero." The protagonist Wei Guoping is tough and strong, but he has a self-denial side in his heart. "This self-denial means that he will deny that he 'should have joy and happiness.'" Because of the self-blame of witnessing the sacrifice of his comrades, he always blocked his happiness and did not allow himself to live a normal life. "For Wei Guoping, his entire life experience, including the huge impact he encountered, caused him pain and a knot in his heart, which changed him from a young and ignorant young police officer to the image of Wei 'forever'. His pursuit of the truth, occasional emotional impulses, and even fleeting fragility are all derived from this, and such an image will be vivid and real. ”
Zhang Yi as Wei Guoping
The role of Gu Kaiyan (played by Xu Fangyi) in "Who Is He" has also broken through the trap of many female characters in "tough guy" criminal investigation dramas that are easy to fall into the "vase". She is witty and calm, adheres to principles, can "confront" Wei Guoping head-on, and pours cold water on him who is hot-headed and irrational. In this regard, Bao Chengzhi mentioned, "It is very unobjective to attribute the female characters in the criminal investigation drama to the 'vase', of course, the female character is not a vase, in the play she must have her dramatic action, have her motivation, including the promotion and traction of the entire story." ”
And in the real life criminal police team, there are many outstanding female policemen like Gu Kaiyan. In the role of Gu Kaiyan, on the one hand, the main creators let him have the professional ability and quality that criminal police should have, on the other hand, they also paid attention to adding her unique entry point and way of thinking as a woman, including in some dramatic conflicts, so that she played the role of "coolant" and "stabilizer", "We hope that through the role of Gu Kaiyan, we can show the excellence of female police officers and the shining points that may be ignored by the public." ”
"Who is He" stills, Xu Fangyi as Gu Kaiyan
Confront the case, confront yourself
"When faced with the opposition between good and evil, we usually think that 'evil' itself is something that needs to be eliminated and controlled, but we rarely consider from another perspective, is the scope of this 'evil' as simple as we think?" In "Who Is He", Wei Guoping fell into subjective speculation about the suspect due to his heart knot, and almost lost his rationality on evidence several times and deviated from the investigation of the truth. In the play, when Wu Ke (played by Shi Liang) wrote the word "malicious" in class, asked Wei Guoping "Have you ever had such speculation", and said "There is no justice without truth", Wei Guoping shed tears. This scene raised the intention of the play a lot.
Screenshot of "Who Is He"
"The protagonist is not an omniscient superhero." This is different from many suspenseful masterpieces of foreign detectives, "Sherlock Holmes-style detective stories are another form of creation, and more focused on superhero-style character shaping." We focus more on the story itself, hoping to shorten the distance between the audience and the characters in the play as much as possible, and help the audience empathize with the emotions of the characters through the realization of the human situation. ”
"In the process of solving the case, when you are too persistent or engaged, you are actually caught in another dilemma, which is not only the protagonist's dilemma, but also our legal problem to think about." Bao Chengzhi expressed the hope that "Who Is He" can express the progress of legal construction and judicial ecology in the environment at that time, and also wants to establish a sense for the audience, that is: if the protagonist does not stand on the position of justice, there will be no misunderstandings and no wrong things. "When the protagonist confronts an external case, he is also confronting himself, which is a balance and conclusion of self-contradiction."
Source: The Paper Client
Process Editor: TF022