Not long ago, the suspenseful criminal investigation drama "Who Is He" starring Zhang Yi ended.
The early performance of the drama exploded, and CCTV sub-prime time was launched, but it took out ratings that exceeded prime time, and the results were gratifying.
In terms of word of mouth, Douban scored 8.3, and only 2 episodes whetted the audience's appetite.
Unfortunately, the follow-up is weak.
At the finale, the Douban score dropped directly from 8.3 to 6.0.
The original excellent drama can only barely keep passing.
The discussion about the "rotten end" of this drama was even more lively, and it also rushed to the hot list on the night of the broadcast.
Just when we sighed, "Domestic suspense dramas still can't escape the fate of high and low?" , there was also a suspense criminal investigation drama online.
It's the latest in the Theater of the Mist:
"Thirteen Years in the Dust"
The look and feel of this drama is quite fragmented.
In terms of word of mouth, almost all of the Douban pages are opened with four stars and five stars, and the praise is full.
There is a saying that "more professional than "Who He Is".
There are also more blunt praise for "one that exceeded expectations".
But the heat is very bleak.
According to the data of Maoyan Professional Edition, the popularity of "Thirteen Years of Dust" is only ranked 25th.
Not only can it not compete with the new dramas in the same period, but even the finished "Who Is He" is 9 positions ahead of it.
Another good drama "paste"?
And it is still a scarce criminal investigation drama in national dramas, why?
With curiosity, Bluestone opened this drama and brushed 12 episodes in one go, and I finally understood why "Thirteen Years of Dust" became a "cold and good drama" state.
01
"Thirteen Years of Dust" has only such results, which is really puzzling.
From the perspective of configuration, this drama can be said to be a high-end lineup in domestic dramas.
Director Liu Haibo has won the Magnolia Best Director Award. For various types of episodes, he has his own experience.
There have been masterpieces with similar themes before, such as "Trident" with Chen Jianbin, and "In the Name of Law" with Li Youbin and Li Xiaoran.
also participated in the filming of the high-scoring national drama "Together".
In the play, he is very particular about light and shadow and composition, and makes the TV series the texture of a movie, so that it is easy for the audience to have a sense of substitution.
The screenwriter Lou Xiaopeng, who is also the author of the original work of this play, has his own style for the narrative method.
In terms of actors, there is nothing to say.
Chen Jianbin, one of the leading actors, has proven his acting skills very early, and if nothing else, let's talk about the two recent works.
In "The Eleventh Episode", he directed and acted by himself, not only interpreting the identity of the actor very well, but also the performance of the "guest director" is even more amazing.
In the TV series "Trident", his performance is loose and natural, very convincing.
Another starring Chen Xiao, the audience's appeal is not casual.
"The Road of Life", which has just finished on CCTV, has exceeded 3% in real-time ratings.
The supporting cast is also a god-level character, and any one casually brought out is an absolute acting school.
Those who have already appeared are Liu Mintao, Zuo Xiaoqing, Wang Xiao, Yu Entai, Tan Kai and so on.
Also who has not yet appeared is Nie Yuan, one of the representatives of the Mesozoic acting school that we are familiar with.
02
Back to the plot.
As you can tell from the title, this is a story that spans 13 years.
In 1997, Lu Xingzhi (played by Chen Xiao), a police officer at the police station who yearned to be a criminal policeman, was transferred to the criminal police team and studied with his master Wei Zhengrong (played by Chen Jianbin).
On the first day I came to the criminal police team, there was a murder, or a bizarre murder.
The crime scene was in the old town of Nandu, many dilapidated empty houses, and the murdered woman was found in an abandoned house.
The scene was elaborately designed, with an undressed woman placed on a sofa with a cloth drapery behind and a dusty vase on the right.
Even on the scene, there is a perspective similar to a picture frame.
The victim was manipulated as a "work of art", with no additional scars on his body and no assault.
But a strange object was left at the scene, a pencil.
This is obviously not an ordinary case of love killing.
After visiting and investigating, the girl's identity was finally confirmed, and she was Liu Meng, who was dancing in a nightclub.
Liu Meng is beautiful, but has a dream of dancing but has fewer opportunities.
On the way home from a drinking party, Liu Meng was killed.
Although there were shoe prints of the murderer at the scene, the bare-soled shoes were difficult to detect.
Coupled with the careful arrangement of the murderer, there are almost no traces left at the scene.
The Liu Meng case here has not yet been sorted out, and another girl was murdered over there, still in the old city.
A girl named Du Mei was killed on her way home from work, and her body was in an abandoned room, in a bizarre pose.
The two homicides are confusing.
The difference is that there is also a child at the scene of the Dumey case who became a witness.
But the child is too young to see anything.
And because of the times, the progress of the case is very slow.
But there was soon a turnaround.
Because of another homicide, a young woman Tao Yufen was killed, which is very similar to the previous Liu Meng case and Du Mei case from the scene.
The same strange pose, there is also a pencil on the spot, the only difference is that the specific model of the pencil is a little different.
Is this the negligence of the murderer, or is it an imitation crime?
From "HB" became ...
Unexpectedly, with the in-depth investigation of the case, Tao Yufen's case has made a major breakthrough.
Tao Yufen's husband was locked up as the murderer in the case, and after a short period of resistance, he also confessed to the Liu Meng case and Du Mei case.
The sensational serial murder case was solved, but is it really so?
Obviously, according to the plot presented in the early stage of the play, the case did not end there.
Since 2010.
The timeline goes back to the present, and Zheng Rong, a former capable old criminal guard in the criminal police team, actually withdrew from the front-line criminal police post and became a librarian of the precinct police station.
What kind of change has happened, making him from a criminal police officer who dares to fight and break into an internal staff who retires in advance and keeps his thermos cup in hand?
Lu Xingzhi grew up from a young criminal police officer to a captain, but there was only one old Zhu left around him.
Everyone who experienced a serial murder case 13 years ago is secretive and silent about this case.
So what really happened back then?
In 2010, another murder occurred in Nandu.
Judging from the scene, it is very similar to the serial murder case in 1997, and even the location is still in the old city.
Lu Xingzhi, who has become the captain of the brigade, is in charge of this case, but now things are different, and he is the only one left in the criminal police team back then.
As the investigation into the new case progresses, more evidence surfaced linking the case from 13 years ago.
For example, the headband with Liu Meng's hair that appeared at the scene;
For example, the suspect in the Liu Meng case, which was investigated back then;
There is also a knife brother who is closely related to the Dumei case that year.
At this point, whether we like to believe it or not, we must admit that the current case is directly related to the serial murder case of 13 years ago.
In order to solve this case, and in order to let the truth of the old case be seen again, Lu Xingzhi found Wei Zhengrong, the master of the year, and launched a new investigation together.
The story line of "Thirteen Years in Dust" adopts a two-line narrative method.
On the one hand, the occurrence of a new case in 2010, and on the other hand, the memories of an old case in 1997, the two clues are intertwined, but they do not seem cluttered at all.
Instead, it becomes an introduction that hangs the audience to look down.
So the question is, the plot, rhythm, actors, and presentation are obviously very good, why can't the heat get up?
03
The answer to this question may be found in the comment area.
When "Thirteen Years of Dust" was broadcast, someone in the comment area asked this question:
"Can you solve an unsolved case in 24 episodes?"
When "Who Is He" was broadcast, there was also such a voice:
"This drama doesn't seem to have a main line, east and west."
"Why are there so many insignificant small cases in the process of solving cases?"
With the efficiency of one episode 2 cases of the early "Six Groups of Serious Cases", coupled with the curiosity and scale of "Chasing the Murderer in the White Night", the audience of criminal investigation dramas has a basic impression of this type of drama.
Either fast or strange.
If you don't have some pictures that make people can't eat, they are embarrassed to say that they are suspense dramas.
Put on "Thirteen Years of Dust", there is strange, not fast.
At the beginning of the series, two murder cases set the tone of the show's "strange", and when the audience thought that there would be great progress soon, the case reached an impasse.
Not to mention the quick capture of the murderer, even the point of joint investigation is entangled in a small half of the episode.
Therefore, "slow" has become the strongest perception of this suspense criminal investigation drama.
So has "slow" become the original sin of the current domestic suspense criminal investigation drama?
The main plot line of "Thirteen Years in the Dust" is a serial murder case that spans 13 years, which falls into the play, not only has a detailed description of the case, but also makes efforts to portray everyone in the play.
Why are there so many noodle eating shots?
Why the interaction between Lu Xingzhi and his wife and even his father-in-law and mother-in-law?
Why does the daily part of the Interpol Unit also have a lot of ink?
Why are there Christmas girls?
Why not solve the case quickly?
There is really only one answer to these questions, in order to portray the character.
In "Thirteen Years of Dust", the criminal police are portrayed as "ordinary people", rather than pure "crime-solving tool people".
The daily life in the criminal police team is not only boring to run clues, but also the family-like concern between the criminal police officers.
This montage shows the daily life of the criminal police, which is rare.
In addition, every time the children of the old guard in the play come to the criminal police team, everyone is coaxing the children.
The child was lost, and the whole team was dispatched to help find the child.
The small conflict between Lao Wei and his wife, the relationship between Lao Wei and Bai Xiaofu, a laboratory department of Nandu University.
These seemingly lighthearted and humorous bridges are all to enrich the existence of the character of Lao Wei.
The interaction between Lu Xingzhi and his wife, why they divorced, and the presentation of their feelings all play a role in shaping this character and plot foreshadowing.
Not only the protagonist, but also the supporting characters, they are also very attentive.
Because there are enough details to lay out and present, we can believe that everyone in the criminal police team is friendly and cares for each other.
When he saw Lao Zhu and Lao Du showing comradeship, he would also cry with him.
All seemingly inconspicuous plots and bridges have the necessity of serving the characters in the play.
For example, eating noodles.
Just a detail of eating noodles and spicy without spicy, which is not only the key to Lu Xingzhi's growth, but also a sign of the recovery of the "criminal police" style in Lao Wei's bones.
There is no need to exist, of course there is.
For example, in the plot of episode 12, a new seemingly unimportant character appears, Christmas Girl.
From the perspective of 2010, this episode is clearly a smoke bomb.
So there are also many people who say that this episode is the existence of water duration, but it is not.
This episode reveals the reason why they have been secretive about serial murder cases for so many years, because of the appearance of copycats, everyone solves the case eagerly.
Plus the prisoner Benshan was a little "sick" and took the initiative to admit all the murders.
Therefore, there was a result of the hasty closure of the case, and there was also what they called "causing a catastrophe" later.
With this incident back then, Lu Xingzhi after becoming the captain, when he first saw the scene of the case in 2010, he did not immediately decide to deal with the case.
Whether it was found or not, the behavior of all characters has logic and is supported by details.
When all the "slow" is justified, it seems unnecessary to discuss whether the plot is too "slow" at this time.
04
It is worth mentioning that after the latest plot update, "Thirteen Years of Dust" ushered in 2 major events.
One is that the Douban of the drama separated, 7.9, and rose to 8.1 in less than a day.
This score, which is not low in the field of Chinese dramas, is still considered "low" by many fans who have followed dramas all the way.
The second is that the popularity of the show has also waited for a big leap.
From the 25th place the day before to the 5th, he rose 20 places in one breath, truly showing the posture that he should have as an "unpopular good drama".
Similar to the technique used in the character setting of "Crazy", "Thirteen Years of Dust" first uses a strong contrast between the two characters, so that this drama firmly grabs the audience at the beginning.
After that, the hook was constantly put to create a sense of realism to pull the audience into the game, and in the end, everyone was already easy to bring into the plot and start a piece of "looking for the murderer".
For a suspense criminal investigation drama, the audience can enter the play is the greatest success.
The audience has watched too many "cool dramas" and watched more "speed dramas", and it is already difficult to calm down and follow the plot.
Earlier, there was also a drama in "Mist Theater" that was also "questioned", saying that its plot was too scattered and had no main line.
This drama is adapted from Shuang Xuetao's novel of the same name "Moses on the Plain", starring Dong Zijian, Qiu Tian, Haiqing and Dong Baobao.
From the quality of the play, "Moses on the Plain" is confident.
It was even shortlisted for the drama unit of this Berlin Film Festival, becoming the first Chinese-language drama in history to be shortlisted for the three major European film festivals.
But from the broadcast effect, it is also the same as "Thirteen Years of Dust", which has encountered the "Waterloo" of the number of broadcasts.
Whether it is the previous "Moses on the Plain" or the current "Thirteen Years of Dust", these suspense dramas that have entered "Theater of the Mist" 3.0 are doing another thing.
In addition to "Chasing the Murderer in the White Night", look for new possibilities for domestic suspense criminal investigation dramas.
Facts have proved that domestic suspense criminal investigation dramas are not fast, the details can withstand pondering, and the life of the drama can last.
This phenomenon of great reversal also shows one thing from another angle: the audience of domestic dramas can still find good dramas and can accept good dramas.
More importantly, being able to take the initiative to slow down is not easy for national dramas.
Therefore, it is not that Chen Jianbin failed to save the "Misty Theater", but now the 3.0 version of the Misty Theater has embarked on another road of suspense dramas.
And it's getting better and better.
After several plays were broadcast at this year's Misty Theater, Bluestone dared to assert:
If domestic dramas and criminal investigation dramas are filmed like this, the next "explosive" should not be far away.
Bluestone Movies | Old Meng
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