The director who once surprised everyone with the TV series "Hidden Corner" was refreshing, bringing another masterpiece "The Long Season".
Starring Fan Wei, Qin Hao, Chen Minghao, Li Gengxi and others, the play focuses on the homicide case in the small northeastern city of Hualin, and as of the time of publication, it has received a high score of 9.3 on Douban.
To be honest, before watching the show, the biggest doubt in my heart was that "Northeast Story" has frequently gained a high reputation in the film and television field ("Undocumented Crime", "Moses on the Plain"), and crime-themed works have been broadcast one after another ("Who Is He", "Thirteen Years in the Dust"), in this case, what new ideas can "The Long Season" excavate?
But it really made a difference.
Like hue. I thought that the play would follow the common practice of giving a dim, nostalgic, and rigid picture, but it did the opposite, creating a brightly colored town.
Green taxis, small flowers on the windowsill, sparkling rivers... It is in this atmosphere that the crisis is imminent and evil occurs, like "the sun is fierce, and everything is visible", creating a tension that is almost confrontational.
The soundtrack is also outstanding, not only different from similar works, but also different from the director's previous work "Hidden Corner".
In the early stage of laying the story, the soundtrack has a leisurely and playful coolness, paired with the story of a small town, with a unique flavor; The plot is deepened in the later stage, and the soundtrack becomes heavy accordingly, sometimes appearing at important nodes, hitting the heart.
If anything has not changed, it is that the director's refreshing music aesthetic has always been very good, and music fans, especially band lovers, can follow his works to find BGM playlists, and there will definitely be gains.
And, most importantly, the story, like its sound painting form, has many inherent contrasts.
The main characters in the investigation of the case are no longer the leather-clothed sheriffs in the traditional story, but a few unreliable down-and-out uncles.
Wang Xiang (played by Fan Wei) is nosy and always deflated, like that classic comedy character. But when he said that the chiseled factory would not close, when others pointed to his bicycle and complained, "Don't worry about that broken thing", why was the scene so sad? The illusion that his son Wang Yang was still in was one after another, the quieter and more painful.
The other protagonist, Gong Biao, is even more unreliable, pompous and impatient, and discouraged when he does practical things, but when he writes down a hundred thousand IOUs, tells jokes with creditors, and usually makes people laugh, how can it be so bitter at this time? When drowning sorrow, rooted in familiar life, breeds in an untimely breeze, the scene becomes laughing with tears, complicated and difficult to speak.
Wang Xiang found that the scene where his son wrote poetry and had to rhyme with the latter was also very contrasting. The collision of sketches and literature, real humor, and rarely, both contexts are well respected, the vulgar has not been dissolved, and the elegant has not been worn.
In this way, "The Long Season" breaks out of its inherent presentation, cleverly blends elements and harmonizes unique chemical reactions. This is the biggest surprise I felt as a regular viewer watching "The Long Season".
There are many other highlights, such as Qin Hao's style is quite impactful, and many netizens said that they can hardly recognize him personally. When the memories begin, the young version of Gong Biao appears in the picture, the two are compared, and the traces of years and times are more intuitive than language.
The young actors performed well, fresh faces could have helped the audience into the play, middle-aged people's scenes were better, tearful Li Qiaoyun, Xing San'er who gave an unexpected turn, and the director of the factory with strong irony, each performed wonderfully.
And what I'm most curious about is that in the later part of the series, the puzzles carried by young people and the detective path of Wang Xiang and others will be intertwined and how to let emotions flow. As long as this level is done well, the end may not be big. Although there are many works that have regrets at the beginning of the year, considering the wonderful ending of "Hidden Corner" that year, I still want to raise my expectations.