I haven't looked forward to it in a long time.
In the past 6 months of 2021, there has been no news of the start of filming, and it is too early to call it the "Best Spy Drama of the Year".
As far as the eye can see, there are few opponents. After all, every time the "man who only plays three roles" returns, the entire spy drama will be shocked -
Liu Yunlong, "The City of Chicks".
The main creative lineup of the new drama brings together all kinds of "golden signboards"——
First comes a newly promoted emperor of magnolia, Yu Hewei. There are too many masterpieces to say, spy war masterpieces, "On the Cliff".
Then two domestic spy dramas carry the big male protagonist - the peak of domestic spy dramas in the past decade said that two came out, "Cliff" and "Kite".
Corresponding starring: Zhang Jiayi, Liu Yunlong. The former, just before with "Mountain and Sea Love" and "Loading Stage" at the same time shortlisted for the best actor, the best supporting actor.
Still not gorgeous enough? Originally, in the lineup of online transmission, there was another domestic spy classic "Latent" male protagonist Sun Honglei, but in the newly released lineup, Sun Honglei's name disappeared, disappointed?
Don't worry, miss a trump card, and then add a trump card for you, the latest domestic spy drama "Rebel", there is an old drama bone that has won the eyeballs - Wang Zhiwen.
Domestic drama audiences know what these names mean.
But we also know what Liu Yunlong's work means, don't forget, "Kite" has made the audience wait for five years.
Although the start date of "The City of Chi" on the Douban entry is written in 2022, who is right when it will start broadcasting? Since you can't say for sure, why do you expect Liu Yunlong?
The answer, partly from the death of the spy drama, partly from the audience's long-suppressed release -
Although spy dramas have continued in recent years, there are too few good dramas, classics, and big dramas.
Including the latest hypned "Rebel", a masterpiece? No problem, Classic? There is still distance.
When will the audience be able to see the peak of the real spy war such as "Dark Calculation" and "Kite" on the domestic screen again?
Look at Liu Yunlong's.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" > two "Zhou Yi" joined forces, and the uncle circle king exploded and gathered, and he was going to do something big?</h1>
Expectations, first of course, come from Liu Yunlong.
Zhang Guoli once ridiculed him at the Magnolia Awards ceremony: "The first person in a spy film, the actor's career has attacked three roles, undercover, spy, agent..."
He directed and starred in "Dark Calculation", Douban 9.0, "Kite", Douban 8.8. Every time he almost made a spy attack, it was quality assurance.
Liu Yunlong's spy dramas tend to be "good-looking" for the public: wit fights, duels, gun battles, and a thousand shots... There is not only the excitement of action scenes, but also the tension of suspenseful layout.
Therefore, his works belong to both Liu Yunlong and the public.
But this time, Liu Yunlong's new work has added a weight of expectation to the audience.
One shot, first give the audience two weeks!
A Zhou Yi is a 2012 TV series "Cliff", adapted from Quan Yongxian's original novel and still regarded as a classic of domestic spy dramas, played by Zhang Jiayi.
The other is the 2021 prequel to "Cliff", also written by Quan Yongxian - Zhou Yi, played by Yu Hewei in the movie "On the Cliff".
The two uncles are at the top of the circle, and they all dedicate their classic acting skills with this role.
Among them, Zhang Jiayi has long cooperated with Liu Yunlong many times, and the "Informer" that he cooperated with before is also a masterpiece.
Yu Hewei is also a recognized veteran of spy dramas, and his participation in "Minus Thirty-Eight Degrees", "Youth Blindness" and "Serial Set" has a good reputation.
You think that's the end of it?
Don't forget, there may be another Wang Zhiwen in the main cast.
From Wang Tianxiang, the nephew in "The Sound of the Wind", to Gu Shenyan, the postman in "Rebel", no matter the supporting role of the protagonist, the decent villain, or the spy drama, there is no role that Wang Zhiwen cannot play.
Didn't find it? The main creator can not only put together the 53-year-old Liu Yunlong + 50-year-old Yu Hewei + 51-year-old Zhang Jiayi + 55-year-old Wang Zhiwen's uncle circle top stream, but made up a domestic spy drama top lineup, four Wang Explosion, how to play this card?
To fight, that is "Kite" + "Cliff" + "Above the Cliff" + "The Sound of the Wind".
Think about it, how is this play going to be performed? Four-way moves, not Zhang Jiayi and Yu Hewei fighting drama, or Yu Hewei acting skills against Liu Yunlong, otherwise, simply put together a table of mahjong, four drama bones to play a night of mahjong, and this mahjong, in the innings, is not it, think about it is fun?
Is it possible to book now, domestic dramas rarely see superb group drama scheduling and performance.
For example, the past works of the four acting schools are wonderful, but there are also regrets, because in a drama, there will not be two Zhang Jiayi and two Yu Hewei, just like Liu Yunlong in "Kite", when he sent his colleagues to the execution ground, he gently whispered: The one who sent you on the road is your comrade, please, don't hate him.
Wonderful, but something missing? Opponent pressure. Without the pressure of opponents, good actors can only play one-man shows.
If you change a zhang jiayi, Yu Hewei, Wang Zhiwen to go up, the two people wearing large cotton jackets blowing the wind, the atmosphere is very tragic, but the eyes are clear. Without speaking, just smiling and looking at the invisible but one day will arrive tomorrow, both of their faces reflected in the glimmer of the morning, flickering on and off, not wanting the time to end.
The same scene, with such an acting blessing, how wonderful it will be.
Not to mention, four king fried, how to put it, the average of two or more king fried, this scene to shoot ugly, that really needs a level.
But the next question is: how wonderful can spy war + Liu Yunlong + uncle circle top stream be?
At the level of acting, directly full of grid.
However, whether it is the effect of playing four aces to blow the king, or whether it will live up to such good acting skills, or it depends on one thing - the story.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="123" > whether Liu Yunlong can surpass Liu Yunlong</h1>
Simply put, from the available information -
"The City of The Dragon" is the same as the spy dramas we have seen, but it is very different.
The same is that from the outline of the script, it is not difficult to see the shadow of classic domestic spy battles such as "Dark Calculation" and "Pretender".
The story focuses on Ling Yunzhou, who was born into a family of high-ranking officials in the National Government, who entered the Shanghai financial circle of the isolated island period after studying abroad for many years and worked for the Wang Pseudo-Economic Special Committee, while Ling Yunzhou's brother Ling Yuezhou, ostensibly the procurator general of the puppet regime shanghai, was secretly serving the Chongqing government.
You see, this is not like the big brother Ming Lou in "The Pretender".
On the other hand, Luo Ting, the female manager of the restaurant, as the leader of the anti-Japanese non-governmental organization, and Ling Yunzhou became a life-and-death friend with similar intentions. After struggling to awaken, the protagonist eventually changes his faith, disintegrates the enemy forces, and contributes to winning the final victory.
This is not, and it is reminiscent of the familiar Liu Yunlong spy battle style.
So, it seems that changing the soup does not change the medicine? But if you look closely at this story, you can still see a little difference, and the novelty buried in the story is: financial espionage.
Compared with the previous Liu Yunlong dramas of deciphering codes, obtaining intelligence, and even going undercover in both directions, the enemies of the male protagonist this time are Japanese colonial institutions and traitor banks, and what they have to do is to sabotage Japanese and pseudo-operations from the economic field and assist in the victory of the War of Resistance.
In other words, "The City of The Dragon" is a classic type of spy drama. But the spy experience it brings has the potential to be entirely new.
Its story has no shortage of classic elements, but the entry point is different.
The story is a bit interesting, but how much meaning can be made of the story depends on the creator.
The biggest risk point of the series came - the chief screenwriter, Wang Hailin.
Although he has participated in the creation of classic Chinese dramas such as "Iron Tooth Copper Tooth Ji Xiaolan" and "Divine Doctor Xi Laile", Wang Hailin basically acts as a co-screenwriter for the above works, and in recent years, works such as "Patriot" carried by him have not been satisfactory in word of mouth.
This time, can Wang Hailin, who has become increasingly popular in recent years, regain his peak state?
Another big mystery: the director.
At present, it is still uncertain whether the director is Ju Xingmao, who once directed "Soul Ferry", or Liu Yunlong himself.
Is there a difference? Of course.
It is not difficult to find that Liu Yunlong's most classic spy dramas, except for the director of "Informer" is the chairman of the magnolia jury and the director of "Cliff" Liu Jin, all of which are directed by himself.
Once the guide is handed over to others, the quality of the work is often not guaranteed.
For example, "Odds of Victory", which has experienced the heroine's face change, has a mediocre rating, which can basically be regarded as Liu Yunlong's lost hand.
But if the director is Liu Yunlong, the audience must accept the shortcomings and advantages of his work.
The disadvantage is: the protagonist aura of the whole drama is too strong.
Whether it is the brave and witty An Zaitian in "Dark Calculation", or the ace agent Zheng Yaoxian in "Kite", the protagonist played by Liu Yunlong is always extremely smart and charming, from Li Xiaoran, Luo Haiqiong to Chen Shu, all the heroines will involuntarily fall in love with the male protagonist, if it is not too wonderful, the audience will have changed the stage.
But the advantage of Liu Yunlong's work lies precisely in the high-intensity plot brought by this "narcissism".
Qian Zhijiang in "Dark Calculation" exchanged his life for the delivery of intelligence.
Zheng Yaoxian in "Kite" dared to shoot the leader of the Central Unification Action Team without asking for instructions, and the shock made Mao Renfeng unable to speak.
In these works directed and self-acted by Liu Yunlong, you can often see the scheduling of narrow spaces, the wit of the extreme environment, and the magic. He often takes the small space deathmatch, single-clue narrative to the extreme, stripping away the cocoon, and placing great emphasis on the precise layout and refinement of drama. But it also pays attention to building a "cinematic sense" of the story as a whole.
The spy action scenes in the play, in addition to narrative, can also shape characters. Of course, we can position these works as cool dramas because of its "brain-burning", but what the drama really makes the audience tolerant is the heroic feelings in the bones outside the brain-burning.
Majestic, loud, bold, but resolute, extremely cold.
The question is this time, if Liu Yunlong directs again and holds so many Wang Explosions in his hands, will he dilute the protagonist's aura of big male protagonist? Can liu Yunlong's own single-handed promotion of espionage and burn his brain to a new peak? It all boils down to the same question: Can Liu Yunlong surpass Liu Yunlong?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="124" > this time, don't make the audience wait for five years</h1>
Of course, there is one last question: when will we see this espionage fan carnival?
The answer is: everything is unknown.
One thing is certain, the project is real. In March this year, Wang Hailin personally confirmed the existence of this project in an interview with relevant media, and also confirmed that Liu Yunlong, Yu Hewei and Zhang Jiayi were all in this project.
There is also a promotional poster for "The City of Chicks" on the Internet, which says director Liu Yunlong, Starring Liu Yunlong and Yu Hewei, and co-starring Zhang Jiayi and Wang Zhiwen. However, it does not look like an official poster.
At present, the official news about "The City of The City" is only on the project filing, and the two leading actors Yu Hewei and Zhang Jiayi have not entered the group.
Wang Hailin's statement that the machine may start in March cannot be confirmed at present.
In simple terms, the episodes still have to wait.
So why are you looking forward to "The City of The Bulge"?
The answer is that the audience still expects Liu Yunlong, the king of spy wars, to highlight a new way for spy war dramas today, when spy war dramas are highly assimilated, and also hopes that this relatively old-school creator who is unwilling to move with the industry storms can once again prove that not only spy war dramas starring traffic can become blockbusters.
It is not to say that the traffic actors must not be able to perform spy dramas, but when the traffic has entered the spy war dramas, a large number of spy war works such as "Autumn Cicada" and "People in the Bureau" have appeared on the market, and they have not created a new spy war drama climax, and this trend is worth vigilance.
What is good about Liu Yunlong's spy drama? Is it just a full-staff acting school, slow work out of the fine work?
On the contrary, I think that what Liu Yunlong's spy drama really pierces is the battlefield he set up for personal entanglement. The most valuable thing is the stubbornness that is as hard as iron for the quality of domestic spy dramas.
For this partner, Zhang Jiayi once said something to the effect that Liu Yunlong is very low-key in the circle, he himself does not like to contact people in the entertainment industry, to say that there are indeed not many friends, but it is not nothing, he is my good buddy for many years.
Many people are worried that according to the speed of Liu Yunlong's 5-year drama, the new drama is likely to be unable to keep up with the changes in the audience's aesthetic tastes. But the question is, over the years, have those spy dramas that closely followed the aesthetic changes of the audience won? Is it enough to keep up with the audience?
Even if you win, it's a fake hi.
In the final analysis, the victory of any creation is the victory of the adherence to values. In Liu Yunlong's spy drama, the characters are not materials, not tools, they are "people".
People have emotions, they have pain, they will drag their families and mouths, and they will also collapse.
But people, too, will persist.
Let's talk about the grand finale of "Kite". It was not until 1979 that Zheng Yaoxian finally obtained the status of an ordinary citizen of the republic.
He still has no family. When the daughter and grandson saw him, they turned around and left.
By train, only money for hard seats. In the past, the scenery of the place is unlimited, and now in the bag, there are a few dry steamed buns.
In his old age, he was plagued by diseases, gunshot wounds, and farm fatigue, but as long as he could die in Beijing, he felt happy, because here, he could fulfill his only last wish: to see the national flag raised once.
As an audience, there can be many reasons to watch a spy drama like "Kite".
Precise acting, scheduling, tight action, intellectual duels, suspense, but for the most hardcore spy drama fans, the most exciting part is to rip open the real tears and weaknesses of human nature hidden under the "faith", but to repeatedly test the solidity of the "faith".
It cannot be denied that Liu Yunlong loves to play handsome in his spy drama, but in the behind-the-scenes special of "On the Cliff" starring Hewei, Ni Dahong said a word to the camera:
"They're like stars in the sky, not knowing which star."
Among so many spy drama creators, who can shoot that star the most, besides Liu Yunlong, who else?
At the end of "Kite", Liu Yunlong finally found the best metaphor for the "kites" - poplar.
It can live at forty degrees above zero, and it can also live at minus forty degrees, not afraid of salinity, not afraid of wind and sand.
Even no one knows whether this poplar can persist until the day of victory.
But that's the value. Before victory comes, dare to grow with all your strength to the light.
Once the truth is established, it will not be broken until death.
And those creators who do not move with the trend, are not, like poplars, naïve and tough, even if they are suspected of not keeping up with the times, they are hard as iron.
In essence, the best spy dramas filmed by Liu Yunlong are telling a story of belief, and we also believe that we can wait for the top spy dramas such as "Dark Calculation", "Kite" and "Cliff". As long as you wait, there is always hope.
It is not that Liu Yunlong needs spy dramas, it is spy dramas that need Liu Yunlong. I hope that this time, the audience does not have to wait for another five years, and hopes that Liu Yunlong and his uncle circle top boy group can bring another "Kite" to the audience.