Looking back at the past 10 years of domestic suspense dramas, if you use one sentence to describe it, it is "open high and go low, a sigh".
Why do you say that?
In just 3 years, the suspense drama directly entered the prosperous era.
First, in 2017, there was a thunder on the ground, and "White Night Chase" and "Undocumented Crime" were born.
Suspense clash of wisdom, human nature pulls bamboo shoots, people can't stop, and the suspense type has entered a new era.
Just three years later, one "Hidden Corner" and another "Silent Truth" directly raised the level of domestic suspense dramas to an unprecedented stage.
Sususpense dramas were once placed on high hopes by the audience.
But it was also from this that the suspense drama tried many formulas: sugar CP + suspense, science fiction + suspense, timeline + suspense, which basically ended in failure.
It can be said that after "Hidden Corner", the trend of suspense dramas also presents a "suspenseful" situation.
In particular, new works are still being launched, but in terms of look and feel, they are not bad.
Or, continue the routine of crime and criminal investigation suspense drama creation;
Either wearing the skin of "suspense", it is still a domestic love idol drama in the bones.
There are very few suspense dramas that can be called excellent.
Discerning people can see that domestic suspense dramas need a break, the question is, who will break the game?
The person who created the peak of the suspense drama at the beginning made a move: Xin Shuang + Qin Hao, the original cast of "Hidden Corner".
The story told this time is in the northeast, and there is one more trump card in the northeast: Fan Wei.
This time's new drama, "The Long Season".
The trump card combination shot, Chen Minghao, Liu Lin, Hou Yansong, Tang Zeng, Zhang Fankun... More than 10 powerful actors joined.
Can it bring "suspense" back to the highlight and a "Jedi Strikes Back"?
Looking at the comments of netizens, it exploded.
Quaxin refreshing, praising Qin Hao Fan Wei, praising the northeast taste is positive, a little directly opened above 8.5 points, not afraid of its pride.
Out of curiosity, I finished three episodes overnight, patting my chest and saying that the current praise is by no means embarrassing, and I dare to say that if I maintain this level, it is a good drama that changes its life against the sky.
Of course, there is also controversy, and the doubt is that this drama is different from the domestic suspense dramas that the audience has watched in the past, and even different from Xin Shuang's own "Hidden Corner".
But it's different, that's right.
Domestic suspense dramas have been cowering in the "error-free" safe zone for too long.
And Xin Shuang, whether it is the overall suspense + humorous style of the series, dare to turn Qin Hao into such an actor's choice, character portrayal, in a word, unusual.
In the end, the core of a sad story is wrapped in a suspense light comedy - hidden in a hidden corner, a long season is hidden.
Three keywords summarize the first three episodes: suspense, true, and new.
Come, walk together.
01. "Suspension"
Since it is a life suspense drama, it is inevitable to have suspense elements.
But this time the spicy and "Insidious gameplay" are different.
In "Secret", he used a few strokes to outline an extremely high-energy and extremely attractive suspense situation for us.
And "The Long Season" just began, which severely provoked the audience's viewing habits.
The suspense dramas of the past seem to open on the night of the rainstorm without reaching out of the fingers, opening with a thrilling unsolved case, and it is best to fill the scale as soon as the opening scene.
The show starts with a large cornfield and a good autumn harvest.
The galloping of the train and Fan Wei's calm whistle make people feel refreshed, you don't say this is a suspense drama, I never thought that this is a suspense type.
Next, a car chase scene full of joyful music atmosphere in time and space, it is still difficult to say how much suspense atmosphere there is.
Until the 1998 timeline, Fan Wei's character, as a factory safety activist, was involved in a shredded corpse case, giving the audience the feeling of black humor.
Because of Fan Wei's performance, it's too coke.
The police captain played by Chen Minghao led the team to investigate the case in the factory, and the people of the security section needed to come out to cooperate, and the chief of the security section, who was still bragging just now, immediately prodded, saying that he was fainted!
It just so happened that Wang Xiang, the train driver played by Fan Wei, volunteered and asked him to take the police into the factory to check.
As soon as Fan Wei came up, he expressed his attitude to the police officer played by Chen Minghao, and he had seen the whole scene, and took the initiative to shake hands with the police officer wearing gloves.
Until the officer told him it was a shredded corpse case.
In an instant, he couldn't hold back, and he started yue all the way, and he went to the hospital all the way, and the factory leader also pretended to come to offer condolences.
The environment, the story background, the characters, stood in the first 15 minutes.
Qin Hao bought a car and was pitted, Fan Wei tracked down the deck, the shredded corpse case began, a bunch of foreshadowing, buried.
But the audience still doesn't feel too strong a suspenseful atmosphere.
Until the end of the first episode, Fan Wei had a creepy one-man show.
Mind you, it's a one-man show.
In this scene, he held the hand of his wet son Wang Yang,
Saying that he made his son's favorite dish, he chattered, and finally his face changed and said: That person is back, this time, he will not be let go.
Talking and falling asleep.
The audience vaguely felt that something was wrong, but they couldn't say it.
Until the next morning, the camera turned and cut to the posthumous photo of his son Wang Yang behind Fan Wei.
In this way, the shredded corpse case is linked to the death of Wang Xiang's son Wang Yang,
It was also from here that the corpse crushing case really connected the roles of Fan Wei, Qin Hao and Chen Minghao.
The suspense story of the three timelines is also fully unfolded -
First timeline: 1997.
Wang Xiang is also an excellent employee who drives trains, and has a son named Wang Yang.
Wang Yang failed the college entrance examination and met a beautiful girl named Shen Mo.
Shen Mo needed money for some reason, went to the entertainment city Victoria to play the piano, and was humiliated by Hai Ge,
But Brother Hai was repaired by the speeding party as soon as he went out, and was made up by Wang Yang, and at the same time, there was a deaf and dumb man who was familiar with Shen Mo and was ruthless.
This year is very important, because from the subsequent plot, it was this year that Shen Mo was killed and shredded, and Wang Yang also died in this year, so what happened in this year?
What is the secret connection between silence, Wang Yang, and the deaf and dumb?
Look at the second timeline: 1998.
This year, Wang Xiang lost his son.
His Hualin Steel Mill is about to go bankrupt because of Hong Kong businessmen's money, and the wave of layoffs is coming. Gong Biao, played by Qin Hao, in order to pursue Wang Xiang's lover's cousin, tells Wang Xiang that his old locomotive may also face layoffs.
The shredding also occurred in this year, and fragments of the body were found near the factory. The police captain played by Chen Minghao led the investigation team.
In order to make meritorious contributions and not be laid off, Wang Xiang worked hard to participate in the shredding case. But the later story tells us that the case eventually became an unsolved case, and the police captain played by Chen Minghao left his job because of this.
Finally, there's the third timeline: the now.
Twenty years later, Wang Xiang went from being a train driver to driving a taxi. Gong Biao, who reminded him back then, now runs a rental with him and has become his brother-in-law.
At this time, a deck case made the real murderer of the year reappear, because the real murderer and Wang Xiang were injured in the car chase, Wang Xiang learned the clues of the murderer from Biaozi's little lover Xiaolu and worked together to chase the murderer.
But Xiao Lu was seriously injured and entered the ICU, and Wang Xiang also found the scissors that Xiao Lu used to defend herself.
The real murderer is getting closer and closer.
At this time, the two accidentally met Captain Ma, who was investigating the shredded corpse case, and the three old men who were forgotten by everyone began to search for the secret truth.
After watching three episodes, I found that this is not a pure suspense story, the story is full of changes in the times, parents are short, because of the use of multi-line narrative techniques, the director did not even deliberately mark the timeline, but used the corpse case and Wang Yang's death to implicate three time and space,
Therefore, audiences who are accustomed to chasing dramas at double speed may look embarrassed and confused, and only the next layer can smack the taste.
After the conflict, four suspense was also buried:
What exactly did Wang Yang, who was silent and pursuing her back then, and why was Wang Yang wet several times when he appeared, suggesting that it was a rainy day when he was victimized, or was the body in the water?
Wang Xiang heard that when the suspect who sold the medicine showed Xiao Lu the medicine he needed, he directly gave the mobile phone without saying a word. So is this suspect chased by Wang Xiangchase the deaf and dumb boy back then?
Judging from Wang Yang's several transitions, the probability of being divided is Shen Mo, and it is likely to be Wang Yang who throws the corpse. But Wang Yang, who loves silence, why did he do this, and how was he killed?
Also, Wang Xiang has another son in contemporary time and space, that is, the role of Shi Pengyuan, but his wife died, what happened in the middle?
The three-line intertwined layout, a seemingly not very anxious beginning, but slowly burying all kinds of clues, if the murder case seems to be nothing, life will always be hot.
If according to the inherent cognition and habits, it is estimated that most audiences will exclaim: Why is this play suspenseful?
But this is the spicy and subtle, what he wants to break is the suspense drama routine.
02, "True"
In the past, when we said that a suspense drama was not good, we usually said "too fake".
Then, "realism" has become an important dimension to evaluate whether a suspense drama is good enough.
If the audience can't believe the story, this suspense drama will definitely fail.
The truth of The Long Season is multidimensional.
For example, the details that are familiar to Northeasterners: on the bicycle seat, a bicycle cover wrapped in thick wool; In the bathhouse in the factory, a pipe brushes straight down the water column.
There are also the daily lines of Northeasterners, "I'm too lazy to come out, take a plate and pack it!" "Grab a plate and put it on you, can you eat the flowers?"
The director's "life-oriented lens" tries to present a real suspense story to the audience.
But the most important thing is to shape the characters more fully.
This high-end acting game of the Xin Shuang group is too exciting, and the actors do not have the feeling that they are acting, and the tone and expression of the speech are natural. None of the characters will make you feel embarrassed.
The three leading actors are especially wonderful.
Let's talk about Qin Hao first.
Many viewers did not see for half an hour that the bald man Zhang Dongsheng last time turned out to be a middle-aged blessed, a little greasy and a little broken mouth.
Qin Hao's interpretation is even more surprising, he himself is from Shandong, but there is no sense of violation in playing Northeast dialect, how to be comfortable.
Especially in front of the little lover, the whole hanger lang middle-aged man, just like Fan Wei commented, Biaozi, just rely on a mouth.
His wife works from home to subsidize the family, and he watches the ball game with his legs up, and he still feels wronged; I didn't feel ashamed to use my wife's small vault to buy a new car without authorization, and I was detained by someone, these interpretations are simply too life-like, and the characters presented "can't be more like."
Let's talk about Fan Wei.
From the security activist of the state-owned factory, the glorious train driver, to the taxi teacher with a face full of vicissitudes and hardships of life, the characters are played by him again.
Especially when I was young, I couldn't wait to control the heavens and the earth, which completely performed the feeling of the old employees.
At the same time, it is very funny, and the hardest thing for actors to play has always been comedy, let alone absurd, black comedy. But Fan Wei's comedy performance is so full of life that it makes everyone laugh without contradiction.
Just such two people with completely different personalities, finally investigated the case together, supported each other to find out the real murderer, Fan Wei and Qin Hao's first cooperation, the performance turned out to be such a chord, in fact, this play, it is already wrong.
But Chen Minghao's performance is not a joke.
The coarse and thin criminal police captain became the old college Latin dance king with thinning hair.
Chen Minghao is not timid at all in front of the two first-class acting schools.
These three powerful actors also performed a very new kind of old age chasing group in Chinese dramas.
Some of the other characters are also wonderful, and the feeling presented by these characters is very similar to those familiar neighbors around us, without any sense of distance, and even feel a touch of closeness, making you believe that they are the real people in the story, this sense of realism is really barbaric.
What's even more amazing is that authentic Northeastern sense of humor.
Known as one of the "Three Masters of the Northeast Renaissance", Ban Yu, as the planning of this play, naturally integrates a large number of Northeast daily slang and dialects into the dialogue.
Therefore, the northeast taste dialogue between Fan Wei and Qin Hao is particularly interesting, and the people who look at "deflated calves", "silly roe deer" and "what do you see" are too coke.
Of course, the funniest thing is - "Is there a new technology, called DAN"? "DAN is the egg" and "new technology is DNA".
The plot is also funny.
Brother Biao, played by Qin Hao, just bought a new car and was talking to Fan Wei.
But as soon as Fan Wei looked at the engine, he told Qin Hao a terrible fact, this car was a water truck.
This is not the end, Qin Hao went to the game hall to gamble in order to collect Lulu's medical expenses, and finally fought all night, and was about to collect money, as soon as Fan Wei came to see the excitement, the police arrested them.
When the two squatted in the police station, Qin Hao finally couldn't help but say to Fan Wei: "Are you a dragon, I want to go out and calculate, are you restraining me?" ”
Fan Wei immediately replied: Why don't you say that you restrain me?
There are many more such jokes about life.
For example, the lady of the noodle shop played by Ren Suxi, who made a cameo appearance, was standing at the door, asking her to take out the sewers, and kept cursing and scolding and suspecting that a competitor was making her.
As a result, when I saw that the bag I caught was filled with human legs, I was instantly confused.
When the policeman played by Chen Minghao came to ask her, she was not right in the horse's mouth.
Ask them if they are okay? She said: "The two of you are fine, they are ordinary friends."
Using comedy to resolve the tense rhythm and using life-like lenses to show suspense stories is the beauty of this TV series.
03. "New"
"The Long Season" deconstructs the "suspense" genre and is not single.
In traditional suspense dramas, directors tend to pour their energy into "suspense" and intentionally or unintentionally weaken other genres.
If the audience's thinking can't keep up with the plot clues, the food is tasteless.
But "The Long Season" is different, it creates a very "new" suspense drama.
First of all, the entire suspense story is highly life-oriented.
When the audience feels the truth of the story, they gradually follow the rhythm of the director and enter the story situation, because the play "Long" focuses on "people", it is the gag of the three old men "The thief's heart does not die", it is they who nag each other but help each other, and they are living people.
The audience watched them grow old from the glory days to the seriousness, no matter how much suspense they encountered in life, they were trying to face, live, think so much to do, all live like this.
That's a good show.
Secondly, there is an audiovisual breakthrough.
Xin Shuang is not from a professional background, but his lens language, soundtrack and transitions are full of cinematic whimsy.
The scheduling of a scene was praised by many audiences - from the soundtrack editing of Debussy's "Moonlight", to Wang Yang carrying beer upstairs, and then to Wang Yang riding with Shen Mo outside the window, the whole scheduling is comparable to a literary movie.
There are many such literary and artistic shots, wheat fields and birch trees, the breeze blows, the lightness pulls different time and space, and the elegy of the times is lightly narrated, with a delicate sense of beauty, but it is not a showmanship, but serves the atmosphere of the story.
Some obviously fierce chase scenes, but accompanied by a relaxed and cheerful soundtrack.
This kind of image technique is contrary to ordinary suspense dramas, but who said that the dark tone is a suspense drama?
Xin Shuang wants to talk about the sentient beings and the various situations in the lens in a bright, warm and comfortable situation, and tell the wheel of the times wrapped in the fate of the small crowd.
Finally, there is the sublimation of the kernel.
The core of "The Long", from the fate of the individual to the wheel of the times, step by step, has the feeling of peeling an onion.
In addition to the suspense murder case, the changes of time and the life trajectory of the main characters are also heavy and direct parts. Fan Wei Qin Hao's characters' circumstances have changed in their lives for more than 20 years, and the cross-narrative structure of flashback interpolation is not a showmanship, but a kind of impermanence in life and the passage of time.
The director is slow and reasonable, and spreads out the background and scenes of the three old men's lives one by one, and the thorn of the unsolved case has a foundation.
For example, Wang Xiang, a technical backbone, a respected "locomotive", was unexpectedly laid off.
His wife Romesu's heart stent money has not been reimbursed for several years.
He has been moving closer to the police, in fact, he wants to keep his job and prevent himself from being laid off. Behind the chase, there is more of a taste of life.
And Brother Biao, played by Qin Hao, was originally a promising college student and a secretary of the factory office, but his fate changed with the times.
In a word, the factories are gone, the workers are laid off, and the fate is broken or smashed.
All this is obviously too much for a suspense drama, and Xin Shuang can completely copy the success of "The Secret" instead of starting from scratch.
But that's what makes this show precious.
At present, many suspense dramas seem to be constantly reversed and the story is wonderful, but in essence, they are actually rigid formulas.
How to open the scene, how to foreshadow the pen, how to get up, every key drama point and even the actors' lines and expressions can find a large number of samples in the same batch.
Is it suspense, in fact, it is rotten.
Anyway, everyone shoots like this, and if there is traffic, it means that it is right.
But never underestimate the audience, whether it is good or bad, the audience will watch.
Fortunately, "The Long" was "connived" because of the success of the main creator's last drama, and it was created in a state of anti-bone, and there are not few resonators to see.
When everyone is relying on the gourd to draw scoops, they open another road for suspense dramas, a road full of life and northeast humor.
Being able to make such a series is valuable in itself, not to mention the quality of the first three episodes, which is so brilliant.
The question is, what is after the long season? Can the series become the second "Hidden Corner" based on word of mouth?
Don't worry, look down, the old driver played by Fan Wei and the biao played by Qin Hao will soon give an answer.