The 42-episode spy war drama "Hive" will land on CCTV, led by Song Yi, and finally there is a spy war drama to watch

Which type of Chinese drama makes the audience love and hate?

It must be a spy war drama.

The spy war drama was not only the main rating force in the national drama, but also an invisible trump card of the national drama.

It's not interesting to compare with yourself, put it in the global TV drama market, there are probably only two types of Chinese dramas that are not as simple as leading the world, but riding the dust, and the dramas of other countries can't even catch up with our taillights.

The first is a historical drama, and the other is a spy war drama.

Whether it is Liu Yunlong's "Dark Calculation" and "Kite", or "Lurking", "Red" and "Before Dawn", the subtlety of its plot, superb acting skills, and profound themes have absolutely crushed the same type of American dramas and Korean dramas, in a word, other countries are not opponents.

However, "Kite" has become a turning point in domestic spy warfare, and Liu Yunlong sent domestic spy warfare to the peak, but it also marks that the peak moment belonging to spy war dramas has passed, and after going uphill, it is downhill.

This year can be said to be a big year for domestic spy warfare in recent years, "Infernal" starring Jin Dong, "Thin Ice" assisted by Wuyue Wang Jinsong, and "Lurkers" jointly performed by Huang Xiaoming and Wan Qian and Jiang Xin, the popularity is not low, but all of them are not as expected by the audience.

Is this the spy war drama of 2023?

Domestic spy war, can only wait for Zhang Songwen's "Lonely Boat" that will not be scheduled in the near future, the great director Zhang Li + Qin Hao's "Harbin 1944", and Liu Yunlong's legendary "The City of Might" to be saved?

Don't worry, there is also CCTV.

A number of bloggers broke the news that the 42-episode spy war drama "Hive" is finally about to land on the central eight prime time from August 27, and it will be broadcast simultaneously in Taofactory.

This news is like "a thunder on the ground", which once again ignited the hopes of spy war fans.

Behind the word "finally" is a 3-year wait.

And spy war drama fans, after "Rebel", have been waiting for a spy war drama that is really worthy of expectations, it has been too long.

After the trailer of "The Hive" was released, I watched it at least 5 times, and I watched a lot, whether I can revive the domestic spy war, I dare not say, but at least I can say: Liu Yunlong, this time there is an opponent.

01, domestic spy war filmed the taste of American dramas, this domestic version of "Nikita", more than the audience's imagination of domestic spy war

Simply put, "The Hive" is a Chinese drama version of "Nikita".

It's just that this spy war story was put into the context of the War of Resistance.

It can be felt that the director is trying to complete the innovation and breakthrough of a domestic spy war through this spy war drama.

Looking at the trailer, the most worthy thing is "spy" and "war".

"Spy" refers to the spy sea infernal road experienced by Song Yi's character in the play.

The story takes place in the 30s, Shanhaiguan fell, Chengde was also occupied, and many national forces in Shanghai were ready to move.

Aoyama Military Academy agent Gu Pan (played by Song Yi) accepted the task of assassinating Koji Kamiya, the director of the Japanese Department of Economic Affairs, but after completing the task with difficulty, he was framed by his mentor.

When her life was in danger, the male protagonist Luo Xingming (played by Han Dong) appeared in time and saved her. In order to find out the real culprit who framed him, Gu Pan went through many tests and entered the secret organization "Hive".

This plot will definitely remind fans of spy war dramas of the plot in "Infernal", and the heroine's experience seems to be the experience of Jin Dong's character in "Infernal": sniping important figures of the Japanese army, betraying the mentor, and our side helping.

Don't worry, there is also "war".

The heroine went deep into the Hive Organization step by step, and finally found the real culprit who framed her, and also saw the darkness of the organization.

Under the influence of Luo Xingming, Gu Pan threw himself into our camp, destroyed the enemy's secret service organization "Hive", and also stopped the "Dark Sun Plan" of the Japanese invaders, making an important contribution to the War of Resistance.

Three plot features:

First, I am accustomed to watching spy war dramas that unfold the plot from a male perspective, and finally a female agent growth drama has appeared, and this role is Gu Pan played by Song Yi.

In the play, this character has experienced assassination missions, betrayal of his mentor, and the collapse of faith, and has a firm goal in the context of danger, and joins forces with the male protagonist to fight the enemy.

In a sense, you can think of the series as a parallel universe of "The Pretender" to Manly.

Second, the drama has obvious characteristics of the domestic version of "Nikita", compared with ordinary spy war dramas, the story is obviously deliberately creating a spy war universe.

Various secret service organizations are constantly emerging: Aoyama agents on the Nationalist side, beehives on the Japanese side, and our forces.

Compared with the 76th, Mei Organ and the Military Command Fighting Method, which the audience is already a little tired of, the freshness of the story is there.

The third is the relationship between the male and female protagonists, which will definitely remind the audience of the "Smiths and his wife".

Han Dong's character codename "Chameleon", assigned by his superiors to secretly infiltrate the "Hive" organization, waiting for the opportunity to steal top-secret intelligence, he and the heroine, at first, belonged to different camps, even opposing camps.

The male protagonist must not only save the female protagonist, but also guard against the female protagonist's backstab.

What kind of chemical effect the two will produce is undoubtedly worth looking forward to.

With this high-end spy war game, the lines of the various characters in the play are also raw in scale and surging undercurrents.

"That assassination operation, the disappearing agent, Gu Pan."

"Now the only person who can figure out the whole thing is Gu Pan, an agent of Qingshan."

"I'm doubting him too."

"The person who entrusted me with the task is also the one who wants to kill me."

These lines and pictures come together to make this spy war drama have the most "spy war flavor".

Of course, this raw is not only reflected in the characters and lines.

A series of action scenes in the episode are also jaw-dropping.

The gunfight during the capture is terrifying.

Sniper confrontation, the adrenaline of the audience is also raised.

Hand-to-hand combat, fist to flesh gives enough sensory impact.

The explosion scene of the big scene heralds the fierce confrontation between the positive and negative sides.

It is clear that the "double A" combination has filled the plot tension.

It's no exaggeration to say that it's really a bit of a B-grade film.

From these aspects, the scale of "The Hive" is indeed far beyond expectations.

02, Yao Gang's "bad", a needle pierced my heart, Han Dong has 3 faces, Song Yi makes people dream back to Manli

Spy war drama, pick actors, but also become actors.

It's hard to imagine that if there was no Liu Yunlong in "Kite", "The Pretender" was not Wang Kai, Hu Ge, Jin Dong teamed up, and "Rebel" was not Zhu Yilong and Wang Zhiwen, these dramas would still be able to achieve their current success.

But on the other hand, good actors can also achieve breakthroughs through the acting test of spy war dramas.

Just looking at the trailer, "The Hive" has already attracted my attention from four actors, and maybe, it is they who are on fire this time.

The first one, Yao Gang, who plays the villain Pu Cong of this play.

As the actor of Dai Li in the classic spy war drama "Lurking", Yao Gang's acting skills need not be questioned.

In big dramas such as "The Right One is Invincible" and "Mountains and Rivers", as soon as his face appears, it is full of spy war flavor. In "Across the Yalu River", his role as Hong Xuezhi is also remarkable.

In this play, he was the heroine's most trusted mentor at the beginning, but he changed his face without turning around, which was frightening.

He has a fierce outward side.

The sentence "When you see Gu Pan, don't kill it", there is an inexplicable sinister and cunning in the eyes, which makes people creepy.

In private, he will also use some dirty tricks that cannot be put on the table, which can be said to be a combination of despicable and shameless.

The villain is the villain, but you have to admire Yao Gang's acting skills.

Evil, evil, and crazy were played by him to the bone.

Compared with the directness of the villain's characteristics, the "chameleon" male protagonist played by Han Dong hides deeply.

As a first-class agent, his eyes are sharp, his aura is steady, and the moment he raises a gun and shoots is handsome.

As a member of our team who infiltrated the hive, he was not afraid in the face of the pistol finger, but turned against the customer.

As the guide who led the heroine to join our camp, he must also guard against the heroine's anti-water.

Under Han Dong's delicate and natural performance, this character's prudence and vigilance internally, and the eight sides of the outside are exquisite, which is reflected in the slightest.

Over the years, from Brother Jiu, who is also right and evil in "Step by Step", Yan Shifan, who is known as "Jiajing's first ghost talent" in "Under the Brocade", to the obsessive Dasimei in "Jade Bone Yao", and the most handsome Wang Chongyang who makes the audience's eyes shine, Han Dong is the kind of actor whose acting skills and appearance are impeccable, but he has never become popular.

Hopefully, this time, it will be his real chance.

The third place, Song Yi.

Although from the glimpse of "The Pretender" when it was a hit, to leaving her name in the national drama with "Qing Yu Nian", "Zhao Son-in-law" and "Changfeng Du", Song Yi really became a first-line actress by virtue of costume dramas.

But the role she impressed the audience the most should be Yu Manli, who surprised the audience in "The Pretender".

As soon as he returned to the spy war drama, Song Yi was instantly full of firepower.

When acting in action scenes, sharp eyes and capable body language are very substitutionary.

Acting the psychological drama of betrayal, and interpreting the complex and tangled hearts of the characters very well.

Song Yi and Wang Ou are probably the best and most beautiful actresses who play female agents in Chinese dramas, but Song Yi has the blessing of tragic and changeable roles in "The Pretender", and whether he can play a positive role this time is the real test.

The fourth place, Zhao Yaoke.

Remember the heroic woman in red in "The Imperial Gift"?

Although she is from a girl group, Zhao Yaoke is a rare actress with her own heroic spirit among the new generation of actresses, and the female agent who plays a spy war drama plays a quasi, hoping that this role can make her play freely.

03, domestic spy war, how to surpass Liu Yunlong?

The reason why the domestic spy war has fallen into a bottleneck is that Liu Yunlong has to be "blamed".

Why how to say? Because Liu Yunlong raised the tone of the spy war drama too high.

Look back at the three stages of domestic spy war dramas.

In the first stage, "Dark Calculation" began.

In 2006, Liu Yunlong's "Dark Calculation" opened the door to the spy war market and truly let the audience experience the charm of this genre.

Generally speaking, starting means immaturity, but also leaves room for progress in subsequent works, and the audience's expectations can be gradually satisfied.

Liu Yunlong can be poured well, and immediately made "Dark Calculation" the top level of domestic spy warfare.

After more than ten years of spy war dramas, at the level of intellectual fighting, they have never surpassed "Listen to the Wind" in "Dark Calculation", never surpassed the role of Wang Kuirong in the creation of villain intelligence, and never surpassed Huang Yiyi played by Chen Shu and A Bing played by Wang Baoqiang in the creation of tragic characters in spy war dramas.

What is even more difficult to imagine is that such a spy war drama consisting of three chapters has only 34 episodes in total, which makes the subsequent domestic spy war with dozens of episodes but the story is unclear.

Liu Yunlong alone completed the beginning of domestic spy warfare. Next, Jiang Wei and Liu Jin pushed the domestic spy war to a new peak.

The second phase was announced by the popular "Lurking" in 2009.

The premiere rating of this drama exceeded 8, and it is also the highest-rated TV series in history since the launch of Beijing TV.

"Lurking" has created a set of classic templates for domestic spy war dramas, dividing spy war dramas into two parts.

One is the "werewolf killing" and "ghost catching" part, and the other is the office politics part.

And Yu Zecheng, who has both wisdom and courage, Cuiping, who is humble and funny, Ma Kui, who has a brave and unscrupulous Ma Kui, Li Ya, who has a sad fate, Lu Qiaoshan, who is old and cunning, and Wu who is sophisticated and calculating, provide a template for the shaping of domestic spy war characters. The 9.4 score of "Lurking" is also the highest score for domestic spy warfare.

The next "Cliff", by shaping the role of Zhou Yi, pushed the depth of domestic spy war characters to the top, Quan Xianyong's script, coupled with Zhang Jiayi's performance, Zhou Yi has been difficult to surpass.

Coupled with the excellent cinematography of the series, it directly makes the series present a cold and awe-inspiring sense of pathos, and the artistic standard has reached a new height.

The standard of these classic spy dramas is so high, but it also creates a problem: it is difficult to surpass.

Fortunately, there is also Liu Yunlong.

The third stage begins with Liu Yunlong's "Kite".

It can be said that in this decade, the only work that can really surpass that wave of spy war classics is Liu Yunlong's "Kite".

Not to mention how high the level of the full version is, even the version that the audience sees last has reached the top level of domestic spy warfare in the description of faith in spy war dramas.

However, after "Kite", the performance of domestic spy war dramas has become increasingly weak.

Quantitatively, it fell off a cliff. In terms of quality, there are very few that can reach the classic level of the past.

The new domestic spy war is not only a question of duplication, but a step backwards.

If there is now a spy war drama that completely replicates "Kite" and "Lurking" in style and quality, will the audience dislike it?

Only ecstasy.

The real problem with domestic spy war dramas is that spy war dramas have lost the taste of spy war, and the story is not good. Spy war, do not attract.

How to break the game? The answer: beyond Liu Yunlong.

If you shoot on Liu Yunlong's spy war road, it will only expose itself even more, and the fact is that the national drama may no longer be able to make such exquisite spy war stories as "Kite" and "Dark Calculation".

So the best way is to find a different way.

For example, "The Hive" takes the road of a new spy war drama.

It is very different from traditional spy war dramas in terms of narrative method and plot structure - "non-linear narrative", American drama style.

Focusing on strong suspense settings, dense dramatic conflicts and fast-paced narratives that benchmark American dramas, it is reminiscent of another American drama-style spy masterpiece, "Before Dawn".

Regardless of success or failure, at least let me see the hope of breaking the domestic spy war theme.

Director Zhou Jingtao has filmed the spy war hit "Sparrow", and "Soul Town" that helped Zhu Yilong soar, not very famous, not low level, good at suspense, strong rhythm, strong plot.

"The Hive" represents the abandonment of grand narratives and a step towards the typology of spy warfare.

I hope that this time, he can play the style to the extreme, follow the creative laws of genre dramas, and every element is tightly rammed.

Good food is not afraid of being late, after waiting for 6 years, CCTV finally released this big drama.

Some TV series lose their original flavor due to the passage of time.

But a good drama like "Kite", which has also been played for six years, is like a bottle of old wine, and the years are mellow.

Does "The Hive" have this smell? A few days later, it was time to open the altar.

At the very least, before the arrival of Liu Yunlong and Zhang Songwen's spy war dramas, it can make this breath of domestic spy war dramas not break.