9.5 points!
This is the Douban score after the end of Tencent Video's "X Theater" first work "Long Season", performed by Fan Wei and Qin Hao, Chen Minghao and others, presenting a Northeast sad song-style "cold and warm life".
Broadcast on April 22, the membership ended on May 1, and Douban scored 9.0, becoming the first domestic drama in 2023.
What is even rarer is that the score is actually gradually climbing, and the middle section is stable at 9.2 points; as a well-known suspense drama, the score rose to 9.3 when the penultimate episode was broadcast, and in the finale, instead of being questioned "rotten", it rose to 9.5 overnight, which is amazing.
It is really "high and crazy", and it is a god in one fell swoop.
So, what's so magical about it?
Suspense is skin, life is meat
"The Long Season" was directed by Xin Shuang, whose last drama was "Hidden Corner", which became famous in World War I.
"The Long Season" has a three-year "long" polishing period from the start of filming to the completion and then to the release, just like the title of the show - of course, the quality is destined to be different.
Because it is directed by Xin Shuang, it is natural that this drama has also been branded as "suspense", so that the audience's expectations of "good mouthful" have long been full.
At present, expectations have not been disappointed, and Douban's high reputation of 9.5 points confirms this.
The outside world believes that "The Long Season" is a suspense drama, in fact, it is not a simple "suspense", under this skin, it is an extremely warm and calm "double" brushstroke, depicting the "flesh and bones" of life.
It is said to be enthusiastic because of the northeastern humor that can be seen everywhere in the play; To say that it is calm is a portrayal of human nature and the "unknowability" of fate. Suspense has suspense, and life has a variety of life.
The life presented in it is northeast flavor - this time, Xin Shuang focuses the camera on the heavy industrial old town of the northeast.
Jilin-born Xinshuang, immersed in it since childhood, naturally knows the Northeast narrative language, not to mention, in his official encyclopedia introduction page, the personal hobby shown is - "lying down and watching the TV series "Ma Dashuai". He was also interested in the Northeast classic, and once wore a T-shirt with the face of "Van Debiao", which became widely circulated after the broadcast of "The Long Season".
Perhaps, it was this "feeling" that prompted Fan Wei's joining - with Xin's wish. Of course, Fan Wei did not translate from "Ma Dashuai" to "Long Season", but carried out a considerable degree of iterative upgrading, coupled with the collision of times, making the characters more three-dimensional.
In "The Long Season", he plays Wang Xiang, a former train driver and now a taxi driver, telling the story of an unsolved case that spans 18 years - perseverance to track down the killer of his 20-year-old son.
It is precisely because of the joining of Fan Wei that he can "faithfully" interpret the living conditions of Northeasterners. Coupled with the paradigm humor, as well as many bridges and characters in the play, they all pay tribute to "Ma Dashuai", which is particularly addictive.
The dwarf security guard in the play corresponds to the dwarf doorman of "Ma Dashuai".
Another Northeast actor - Qin Hao, who is from Shenyang with Fan Wei, once starred in "Hidden Corner". It is logical to cooperate with Xin Shuang again, but this time the role no longer has Zhang Dongsheng's ruthlessness, but a "greasy man" who is quite a breakthrough for Qin Hao.
Interestingly, Qin Hao played Gong Biao in "The Long Season", and Fan Wei in "Ma Dashuai" Fan Debiao has a nickname called "Brother Biao", in fact, the temperament of the two characters also has something in common - they are both funny and responsible. And another thing they have in common: they both call the first protagonist "brother-in-law".
Therefore, it is not surprising that "The Long Season" begins with a Northeastern-style comedy-style slice of life.
However, the core of comedy is tragedy after all. In the last three episodes, the sad atmosphere became the main color, and the "providence of fate" was like a flat thunder, pushing the plot to a climax.
It is this extremely strong "sense of atmosphere" that has become the catchiness of the drama, and has also become the motivation for the audience to stop chasing the drama. Once entered, the authentic luster of life in the play can be easily replaced by the audience.
At this point, this is not just a suspense drama, but an "elegy of fate"
Fan Wei Qin Hao's acting skills have nothing to say, relaxed and natural, is the undoubted "backbone" of the series. Another actor worth mentioning is Chen Minghao, who played the "horse team" Ma Desheng, which was deeply liked by the audience.
Chen Minghao once majored in drama, honed his acting skills, starred in the classic drama "Secret Love Peach Blossom Yuan", "Tea House", etc., and is also Qin Hao's classmate of the 96th class of Chinese opera, and their classmates also include Zhang Ziyi, Liu Ye and others.
In "The Long Season", Fan Wei, Qin Hao and Chen Minghao formed a "chasing the murderer trio", which is the essence of the entire drama, and many viewers said that just watching them nag can "worth the VIP fee".
Chen Minghao's acting skills are excellent and have been generally praised.
A very new genre of episodes
Coincidentally, on the eve of May Day, Tencent Video officially announced the launch of "X Theater" - "X" represents infinite possibilities, exploration of the unknown, and avant-garde expression. Naturally, "The Long Season", which was broadcast exclusively on the platform, became the first work of the first season.
"X Theater" fully demonstrates its label attitude - respect for creation, innovative expression.
The first innovation of "The Long Season" is that it is not limited to suspense - "life expression" is the real core.
The placement of comedy elements also dilutes the sense of depression of the overall tone and becomes a good lubricant. This point, mentioned in the previous paragraph, will not be repeated.
Secondly, there is the use of multi-line narratives.
This form of artistic expression is common in movies, but it is quite rare in dramas, and even in American dramas - because it is a test of audience acceptance, or a challenge to watch the drama.
Of course, multi-line narrative also has challenges for post-production and choreography, and from the perspective of the finished product, the switching of the three time and space is relatively smooth, which to a certain extent lowers the threshold for watching the drama.
The famous Northeastern writer Ban Yu is the literary curator of this play, and the title borrows from his novel of the same name, "The Long Season", which also happens to be a multi-line narrative structure.
There is nothing to do with the story between the two. However, there is a poem in the play that comes from the novel.
This highlights the third feature of the play - the whole play is highly literary. It is not that the series is "obscure", but it has a strong "poetry" and a "sense of the times" spanning 18 years.
The sense of age in the play is very strong.
The literary nature also pushes the sense of atmosphere of the series to the extreme, which is also one of the catches of this show. Creating a sense of atmosphere is actually what writer Ban Yu is good at.
However, in terms of lens language, it is a subtle and silent thing that subtly puts Northeast life in the play. As Xin Shuang said:
"Imagine having Lars von Trier make 'Marshal Ma'."
Lars von Trier from Denmark is famous for his personal works such as the films "Dogtown" and "Dancer in the Dark".
This can also be seen that the refreshing "ambition" definitely does not conform to the common "routine" of domestic dramas, or the way of "spilling dog blood", but hopes that this drama has a temperament of personal expression.
Another "novelty" lies in the traces left by the sense of the times on the characters in the play. From 1997 to 2016, a time span of nearly 20 years, makes the character "unrecognizable".
Gong Biao, played by Qin Hao in the first episode, as soon as he appeared, many viewers exclaimed - is this him? Including Fan Wei's image of old age, it is also extremely realistic, and it can be seen that it is not just casual.
This uses a technique called "physical makeup special effects", so that actors can achieve the "transformation effect" without changing people, which is rare in domestic dramas.
This year's Oscar for Best Actor winner Brandon Fisher, who transformed into a big fat man of hundreds of pounds in the starring "Whale", using the same technology.
Xin Shuang did not repeat his old path, as he said at the preview screening:
"We wanted to use a living audiovisual language to deal with the criminal material in the story, so as to form a new feeling."
The "chasing the murderous trio" scene is the most outstanding.
How "God's work" was born
"What is the long season? It was the autumn when my son left. Since then, Wang Xiang has been trapped in this long season, regardless of spring and winter. ”
This poetic speech is a short comment by a Douban netizen (ID: jdxjufhfjej), which breaks the essence of "The Long Season".
Indeed, "The Long Season" is both poetic and gossipy, telling it in a telltale way, but full of power.
This is not the impression that a suspense drama should have.
From a realistic point of view, suspense dramas are very easy to fall into the "rotten" vortex, so that the audience often needs to "wait and see" before daring to enter the pit.
However, the human core of "The Long Season" runs throughout, and it can be said that it breaks the "rotten curse" of suspense dramas.
The reason lies in two words: expression.
"The Long Season" is completely different, and its suspenseful color serves the "expression" of the overall plot.
In other words, the show is not "suspense for suspense", the opening suspense, just the introduction, is an integral part of life - and organic.
In the play, "Titanic" has become a metaphor.
As a result, many viewers fall into the empathy of the individual characters, rather than the pursuit of the real murderer of the suspense case. Of course, the latter is also important, but in contrast, it is a second retreat.
For example, the 11 episodes before the finale, with the plot tension of opening and closing, subverting cognition, makes why the mystery is no longer important, just the experience of the protagonists is enough for the audience to "sigh", on social media platforms, before the 12-episode finale, it is already a "god" applause.
This narrative logic and plot setting cleverly raise the epilogue to the height of "fate", rather than the mechanical and rigid "solving an equation".
Suspense is the shell, fate is the core, what it really wants to talk about is the fate of the protagonist in the play, but also the "sorrow and joy" that can empathize with the audience.
In addition, "The Long Season" not only breaks away from the usual framework of suspense dramas, but even "frees itself" in many aspects.
Taking the duration of each episode as an example, it is "willful" in the eyes of the audience, the 10th episode is 40 minutes, and the 11th episode actually has 107 minutes, not fixing the duration of each episode but dividing the number of episodes by the promotion and development of the plot.
As the first work of Tencent Video's "X Theater", "The Long Season" has indeed achieved the theme of "avant-garde expression", setting the tone and stabilizing the future direction of this theatrical brand with strong word-of-mouth works.
"The Long Season" can be regarded as the first hit of "X Theater".
Of course, behind the success, not only the creator's strong control and creativity over the rhythm of the work, but also the inclusiveness and strong support given by the platform.
It has to be said that creators from the main creator to the actor give life to the work, and the long video platform provides the soil for growth.