This year's film and television theater, "The Long Season" is the biggest surprise.
Douban opened with a score of 9.0 points, stood at a high place when he appeared, did not expect to climb steadily, and by the time the 12-episode finale came out, it had risen to 9.5 points.
Following "Hidden Corner", director Xin Shuang shot the suspense film to a new height.
He is trying to make suspense films in a new way, crime, suspense, family, are all as elements of it, the director is still devoted to the emotional expression of the characters, the ordinary life and fate of the little people under the changes of the times.
The play highly restores the scene of the late 90s, the sense of age is overwhelming, and the meticulous prop sets create a simple and intimate sense of reality, bringing the audience into the autumn of 1998.
1. The jumping narrative of time and space transformation, 3 timelines converge in one place, and the shredded corpse case is the focus
The play opens a total of three narrative lines, and the three lines are interspersed in parallel.
A timeline is that in 1997, Wang Xiang's son Wang Yang failed the college entrance examination and met a beautiful girl named Shen Mo.
Shen Mo plays the piano in the entertainment place Victoria, and Wang Yang works as a waiter in Victoria for this reason, and has more contact with Shen Mo.
They walked along the long railway tracks, and Wang Yang read his poems for silence. A good feeling quietly grew between the two young people.
Another timeline is in 1998, when Wang Xiang worked as a train driver at Huagang Steel, and large factories such as Huagang also ushered in a wave of layoffs.
This year, a case of shredding of corpses broke the peace of the birch forest.
And Wang Xiang learned in advance that he was in the list of the first batch of laid-off employees.
In order to avoid being laid off, Wang Xiang decided to help Captain Ma Desheng investigate the shredded corpse case and save the fate of being laid off with a major meritorious performance.
The third timeline is 18 years later, in 2016, Wang Xiang became a taxi driver. On the wall of the home hangs a posthumous photo of his son Wang Yang. Brother-in-law Gong Biao encountered a deck car incident, and Wang Xiang found that the back of the person who was hit was the person who had been deeply imprinted in his mind for 18 years.
Wang Xiang and Gong Biao found the former criminal police captain Ma Desheng, and the three began a journey to chase the murderer.
The convergence of the three timelines is the case of shredding corpses.
1997 was the starting point, the year Wang Yang met Shen Mo, which was involved in the 1998 corpse crushing case and eventually died.
In the autumn of 1998, when tragedy occurred, Wang Xiang assisted in the investigation of the shredded corpse case, and found that his son had a problem.
Wang Xiang could no longer walk out of that autumn, until 2016, when the deck car incident led him to stumble upon the man who was related to Wang Yang's death back in Birch Forest.
The jumping narrative in the play increases the sense of suspense and movie texture, leaving enough suspense, and also increases the difficulty for the audience to recognize the whole picture.
In the process of watching the play, the audience will instinctively speculate about the unknown plot based on the known fragmented information, and the fun and participation of watching the drama will be deepened
In recent years, suspense crime dramas have emerged one after another, and the flat and straightforward storytelling has nothing new, not only the audience is tired, but the director is no longer willing to tell the story according to the rules.
Director Xin Shuang tried to disrupt the timeline, and at the same time spread out three lines for narrative, Wang Yang and the silent youth love line, Wang Xiang to avoid being laid off to help investigate the shredded corpse case, and Wang Xiang into his later life and track down the deck car incident.
The three lines are actually closely related, occurring in different time periods between the past and the present, the past is the cause, today is the effect, and today's people are still pursuing the cause of the tragedy of that year, deeply trapped in that long autumn, unable to come out for a long time.
2. The sad song of the years of the middle-aged and elderly trio
18 years ago, Gong Biao was still a spirited young man, graduated from college and entered the factory office, boasting a bright future, and was keen to get involved with the beautiful nurse Liru.
18 years later, Gong Biao has become blessed, with a beer belly, a pothole in his face, a college student who has become a taxi driver, his mouth is broken and he loves to nag, and he can have a few words with anyone.
Wang Xiang was the train driver in the factory, and Master Wang in the crowd was proud of his status as a second-generation worker and a model worker, and had his own family of three.
The years have taken away everything he once had, and now he is a little old man, who has long lost his wife and son, and now he drives a taxi, which is quite overkill.
Ma Desheng was an honest and talented criminal police captain, but now he is an old man dancing in Latin dance, still loves to show off, fiercely competing for the competition spot, single with a pet dog named Xiao Li.
The years have left an indelible mark on these people.
They still retain some of the essential characteristics of their youth, but they have been changed too much by the years.
Wang Xiang, still so "axis", confessed death, trapped in the autumn of 18 years that broke his family and could not come out, facing his adopted son Wang Bei, he is an amiable father, no longer has the same harshness as Wang Yang back then.
Gong Biao, still so "stupid" and "biao", from a young man with clear eyebrows to a middle-aged greasy uncle with tiger spirit, he still harbors a sense of sincerity.
Although Ma Desheng has long been out of the police post and loves to be in the limelight and self-righteous, he still has the sensitive sense of an old criminal policeman. He refused to accept old age, but finally had to admit: I am old.
Xing Jianchun was fighting to be a security captain, and he was in cahoots with the director of Song Factory, and he did not do bad things.
But in 2016, he was reduced to selling decks for a living, and after being caught by Gong Biao, he lifted his tweed coat, took out the deck from it, and also took out his urine bag, Xing Jianchun covered it tightly, and the moment he was searched by Gong Biao, he cried very brokenly.
Wang Xiang couldn't see it, and before leaving, he stuffed some money for Xing Jianchun and told him not to do illegal things anymore.
The span of 18 years is enough to change a lot of things, the building has fallen, and things are different. When we get together again, people, still those people, but everyone, carrying their own past, has struggled to get to the current situation, and still lives tenaciously.
Wang Xiang is still a board, there is a look, he has an old-school integrity quality, and he is a good person who works openly and principledly.
Gong Biao lived a confused life, always holding a blind optimistic spirit, living happily, not pretending in his heart, until he lost Liru, but he could also let go dashingly and give the other party freedom.
They are ordinary people, most of the people in this land, who have experienced the great changes of the times, have experienced the play of fate, they have long been accustomed to bearing all this, and then living tenaciously on this land until the hand of fate gives them an end.
3. No matter how long the season is, there will be an end to the day, look forward, don't look back
At the end of this play, Wang Xiang finally figured out the cause of his son Wang Yang's death.
In the taxi, under the only violent threat in Wang Xiang's life, he silently told the truth, and Wang Yang died because of him.
After so many years of searching for the truth, Wang Xiang finally got this answer, his son Wang Yang neither killed anyone, nor committed suicide or homicide, but died to save his beloved girl.
For Wang Xiang, at this point, this is probably the most gratifying answer.
Fate played a cruel joke on Wang Xiang, and in the end, on the basis of this cruelty, there seemed to be a little mercy.
Wang Xiang struggled to rescue Silence from the burning taxi. He was always a kind and good person, and he could not be indifferent to life, and would not stand idly by, even if his son died because of her.
Wang Xiang is the closest person to a reunion ending in the trio, accompanied by his lover Qiaoyun, and his son Wang Bei, a family of three is happy, what was lost has been lost, and now what has been gained seems to be lost and regained.
However, the finale given by the director is so sad and unpredictable. Wang Xiang walked out of the cornfield, and in the camera, there was a picture of Wang Xiang lying in the cornfield.
Wang Xiang finally fell, and then the director used surreal techniques, continued to shoot and looked out of the cornfield, came to the side of the railroad tracks, and saw his young self whizzing past in a train.
The old man Wang Xiang shouted to the young Wang Xiang: Look forward, don't look back!
No matter how long the season is, there is always an end to the day.
Wang Xiang finally got out of that long season completely.
Everyone's life will come to an end.
But live, as Wang Xiang shouted: look forward, don't look back!