"Song Dazhi 2" and "Tang Wei Westward" leaded, 12 new dramas set off a small climax of costume detective cases
July 14, 2023 | Issue 3296 in total
The costume suspense detective drama has finally stood up.
In September last year, when "Tang Dynasty Mystery" was just broadcast, the industry said that "costume suspense detective drama, long gone". Unexpectedly, after only ten months, more than ten costume suspense detective dramas were ready.
In the history of Chinese dramas, costume suspense detective dramas have quite dazzling achievements. From the "Bao Qingtian" series in the 90s of the last century, to the millennial Hong Kong drama "Washing the Wrong" series, to "Young Bao Qingtian", "Detective Di Renjie" and "The Great Song Ti Criminal Officer", this genre can be said to have blazed a smooth path that is not inferior to historical dramas.
It is a pity that in recent years, costume suspense detective dramas have been tepid. The emergence of dramas such as "The Great Song Youth" and "Xia Detective Jane Don't Know" has returned this theme to the forefront of the industry. The results and popularity of "Tang Dynasty Mystery" let people see the thick and thin side of costume suspense detective dramas.
So, everyone came.
At present, costume suspense detective dramas present four subgenres: Chi Wei, Love, Female Orientation and Juvenile Home Country. Among these subgenres, comedy elements are indispensable.
Why are costume suspense detective dramas deeply bound to other elements? Because the traditional reasoning detective mode has entered a "dead end". The audience wants more and more. Just like the story of the Tang monks taking scriptures in "The Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty", it is also mainly based on anecdotes on the way to the west; By the time of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the "Great Tang Sanzang Scriptures and Poems" had already gathered.
This is also in line with the "type +" trend of the platform. At a time when vertical categories and focus are becoming more and more obvious, one more element may bring in a group of audiences. The film and television industry is never too much "explosive". We counted 12 costume suspense dramas to be broadcast, and their performance in the next few years may affect the fate of the entire genre.
A new variant of traditional detectives: walking and staying
Traditional costume detective dramas represented by dramas such as "Detective Di Renjie" are somewhat similar to Western road movies.
The biggest difference is that the former is to solve something somewhere, and the latter is to solve something on the way to a certain place. At present, costume suspense detective dramas are also gradually shifting to road movies.
The most typical representative of this type of work is "Tang Dynasty Mystery Record of Journey to the West". As can be seen from the name, the story of this drama takes place on the road to the west. The previous work "Tang Dynasty Mystery Record" was Dong Chen, starting from Chang'an, to Nanzhou, Ninghu and then to Luoyang. This time, going west, three thousand miles west of Chang'an is the Hexi Corridor.
"Tang Dynasty Mystery Record of Westward Journey" is also written by screenwriter Wei Fenghua. The protagonists are still Lu Lingfeng (played by Yang Xuwen) and Su Wuming (played by Yang Zhigang) of the previous work, with a dangerous road ahead (xī) and set off fearlessly. In the concept poster, yellow sand rolls and people gallop.
"Tang Dynasty Mystery" is not a costume detective drama in the traditional sense. Screenwriter Wei Fenghua once told the film and television monologue that the original script did not even have detective elements. It was originally to be adapted into four online movies, featuring the Chi Wei style. But the strange theory is naturally compatible with suspense and detective, and it is twice as effective when integrated.
The previous work initially set nine cases, and after the script was written, Guo Jingyu and Wei Fenghua discussed removing the "Hell Change" that was "not right". If nothing else, this unit will be the opening chapter of "Tang Dynasty Mystery: Journey to the West".
Su Wuming, the protagonist of "Tang Dynasty Mystery Records of Westward Journey", is Di Renjie's apprentice, and the protagonist of "The Case of Di Gong of the Great Tang Dynasty" is Di Renjie. The play is adapted from the novel of the same name by Dutch writer Gao Luopei, with a total of 24 stories, telling the story of Di Renjie's conviction in the prefecture, county and Kyoto, so many must not be shown at once. In the past, there were many film and television works starring Di Renjie. Whether or not we can innovate is the key to solving the problem.
Wu Gang, the producer of "The Case of the Great Tang Digong", introduced in an interview that there are 15 cases in this drama, and the main characters of each case will be played by well-known actors, and the lineup of the whole play is very strong. I hope to create the effect of "Chinese version of Sherlock Holmes" in terms of story rhythm and image texture.
According to people familiar with the matter, this is also a head project completed with copyright dramas.
In addition to the "grassroots under the green sky" type of investigation, fixed-point office has also become a new feature of costume suspense detective dramas. In a way, this is very similar to Ma Boyong's suspense drama. "Fengqi Luoyang", "Fengqi Longxi" and "Daming under the Microscope" broadcast in the first half of the year are all "stationed" to handle cases. A typical example is "Under the Bustling City".
"Under the Prosperity City" tells the story of a murder case in the county seat of Jiangnan Ying (dù) County in the 37th year of the Wanli Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty. Its protagonist is a catcher of Kuaiqu Sangen (played by Bai Yufan) in a small county town in Jiangnan during the Wanli years, in order to find out the truth of the unsolved case twenty years ago, he decided to split the wind and rain. This drama still takes the path of small people smashing the big system, and solving murder cases is a main task, and then leads to various characters from three religions and nine streams.
"Dali Temple Shaoqing Tour" is "stationed" in Luoyang. This drama is adapted from the high-scoring national comic "Dali Temple Shaoqing", and the original protagonist is a cat. The series tells the story of the white cat plum cake, who was appreciated by the empress, and was named the Shaoqing of Dali Temple, and under the leadership of Li Cake, everyone in Dali Temple lifted the fog of the Shendu and adhered to the story of inner justice in mutual support.
However, judging from the stills and trailers released, the real cat should become Zhanzhao's kind of "royal cat". In the finale special, director Wang Wei said that this drama wants to tell the story of how a group of young boys defeat evil.
Also taking the route of youth growth is "Da Song Youth Chronicle 2", the screenwriter is still Wang Wei. The storybook of this drama continues from the last time, and the protagonists are still the six teenagers of the seventh fasting of the secret pavilion. It's just that this time the location of the office has changed from the former secret pavilion (campus drama) to a more arduous and cruel enemy country (spy war drama).
Pan detective: fantasy love at the same time
Among the 12 costume suspense detective dramas, there are many "strange forces and chaotic gods". "Tiger Crane Demon Master" belongs to the kind that is clear by looking at the name, it is reminiscent of Hong Kong's "dragon and tiger martial artist", but compared to the martial artist, the demon master can really catch ghosts and lower demons. Hidden deeper is "Carefree Crossing". This drama also focuses the camera on the demon catcher.
"Tiger Crane Demon Master" is adapted from the national comic "Tiger X Crane Demon Master", showing the touching story of a group of teenagers who sacrifice themselves for dreams, love and responsibility to fight against the monster army that intends to destroy the world.
Coincidentally, it is a teenager growing up again.
This is not to say that "Da Song Youth" broke the circle after the crowd followed, but a national comic with boys and girls as the main audience group, and the main perspective is the growth of teenagers. The film and television works adapted from this will naturally not be easily changed. This year's martial arts drama "Youth Song Xing", which tells about the growth of teenagers, is also very popular on Youku.
"Carefree Crossing" is adapted from the half-bright and half-sleeping novel "Banxia", telling the story of the demon catcher Xuanye (played by Ren Jialun) and the girl Banxia (played by Song Zuer) in a world where shemales coexist. From the introduction, we know that this is a drama with love as the main line, and suspense detective is only one element of it.
Also based on love, the "+ suspense" drama, there are "Lotus Building" and "Yan Xinji". The former is adapted from Fuji Ping's novel "Auspicious Lotus Building", which tells the story of Li Xiangyi (played by Cheng Yi), the master of the Sigumen Gate, who returned to hiding after being seriously injured and became a Langzhong Li Lianhua who was indifferent to fame and fortune, and re-involved in the rivers and lakes after encountering new friends and old enemies.
The three-person team laughs and scolds and works together to solve the case, which is a kind of "old bottle new wine" game that has emerged in recent years. In the past, Gu Long has also written such works, the most representative of which is the "The Legend of Lu Xiaofeng" series. The setting of martial arts masters returning incognito to the rivers and lakes to come out again is also a bit of the taste of "Langya List" and "Chen Qingling".
"Yan Xinji" tells the story of Jiang Xinbai (played by Luo Yunxi), the king of the imperial court and the chief catcher, who accidentally met Yan Nanxing (played by Song Yi), a jianghu doctor, when investigating the case, and the two experienced the wonderful marriage of "three knots and three separations" together.
There are no ghosts or demons in "Persona of the Apocalypse", but there is a plague that is more terrifying than that. The story revolves around the strange disease of Liaodong during the apocalypse at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Jinyi Wei Chu Sijing (played by Huang Xuan) went north alone to investigate the truth. Judging from the trailer, it smells like a "zombie siege". No wonder some people call it the domestic version of "Kingdom".
This drama is adapted from Ma Boyong's novel of the same name, directed by Lu Yang, the director of "Assassination of a Novelist" and "Feng Qi Longxi". The advantages of Ma Boyong's costume suspense drama are high-density details and a strong sense of picture, and Lu Yang's style has both a strong dark charm and dystopian reference. The combination of the two is quite exciting.
In the costume suspense detective drama to be broadcast, the theme of women's growth is worth mentioning. Although the female perspective has long become the main perspective in urban and costume dramas, it is still relatively fresh to put it in the field of detectives. In the costume detective drama "Imperial Gift" broadcast in 2021, the protagonist Chu Chu (played by Su Xiaotong) is a maid.
"Wind and Moon Tips" tells the story of the female predator Kuai Luo Shu (played by Hu Bingqing), who has a bumpy fate, and Qi Menglin (played by Zhai Zilu), a young man who wants to travel in the rivers and lakes, teamed up to solve strange cases repeatedly, and knew and loved each other and grew up together.
The interesting thing is that most of the cases involved by the two involve women, and every time he sees poor women who are suffering, Luo Shu does his best to get justice for them. This is a projection of modern values that fits the contemporary aesthetic.
"Nine Righteous People" is adapted from the novel of the same name by Douban reading author Li Bocoon. This is an ancient embroidery building version of the "silent truth" story: the embroidered girl Lin Rulan sued the owner of the embroidery building to no avail, had to commit suicide to prove her innocence, and her best friend lay down for seven years, gathered the "Nine Righteous People" to gather a revenge team, and vowed to return her girlfriend's innocence.
Type of prosperity does not necessarily lead to success, but quantity is the key to quality. We look forward to the day when the costume detective drama, the former "top stream", can return to the scene.
【Text/Ma II】