"The Wind Chaser" starring Wang Yibo, Li Qin, and Wang Yang has set off a continuous upsurge of chasing dramas, and the ratings of the show continued to break 2% before the end of CCTV, and at the same time became the first work of iQiyi to exceed 10,000 popularity this year.
This drama about the growth of a red financier has a story pattern rarely seen in ordinary spy war dramas: with an unprecedented financial perspective, the protagonist's faith selection process reveals the grand proposition of historical choice.
Uncover history with little-known financial warfare
In the finale of "The Wind Chaser", at the end of 1936, Wei Ruolai returned from the Long March, returned to Shanghai Tang, and met Shen Tunan again at the exchange. This time, they will join hands and fight for the future of finance, and the two look at each other and smile, which also leaves fans with the suspense of the second season.
"Wind Chaser" is the first spy war drama broadcast on the screen this year, and it is also iQiyi's first spy war drama with a popularity of more than 10,000, but the whole story is not driven by spy war, spy war is used as a plot subline in the play, but it is just a genre for the whole drama to put on the coat of the theme. "The Wind Chaser" is more like a financial historical drama of the Republic of China, the plot line is a financial war story of the Republic of China that is rarely put on the screen and has a certain historical truth, and the core main line of the whole drama is the road of faith.
The beginning of the story starts with a small incision such as "Wei Ruolai's part-time job", telling the story of Wei Ruolai, who was born poor and had the dream of serving the country financially, and successfully joined the central bank by "carp jumping over the dragon gate". In the opening stage, the plot focuses on Wei Ruolai's various experiences and continuous advancement in the workplace, and this story of a migrant worker who joined the "big factory" from a young perspective breaks the boundaries with a young perspective, narrows the distance between the protagonist and the audience, and makes people feel the resonance across time and space.
In the play, the concession and the Chinese world are clearly distinguished, on the one hand, there is the high-end wit fight of the gods and tycoons of all walks of life in Shanghai, and on the other hand, the simple and warm people in the old houses in the alleys of Qibao Street. Every day at work, Wei Ruolai holds his identity certificate and shuttles between the two worlds. At first glance at Qibao Street, you will think that the plot depicts this slum area inhabited by the low-level people in detail, just to unfold the story from a civilian perspective and outline the fireworks and people in Shanghai in the 1930s.
When the story progresses to the climax, the plot uses finance as the line to open up two worlds that originally did not intersect with each other, and all the clues erupt in the event of the construction of treasury bills. A treasury bond explosion, countless people went bankrupt, Ah Wen jumped off the building, Aunt Zhou went crazy, and the corresponding bureaucratic compradors such as Yu Lao, Kang Ye and the "eldest sister" of the bookmaker behind the scenes, used the ill-gotten wealth obtained by "sucking blood" to get drunk on money. "The Wind Chaser" uses the stock exchange and Qibao Street as the frame, showing the people wailing all over the wilderness, and the thrilling story truly presents the relationship between finance and people's livelihood, allowing the audience to re-recognize the other side of history that few people know.
The Kuomintang rulers in high positions plundered the wealth of the people from all walks of life through financial means, and the national credit that was regarded as their life by the financial elite was gone, and Wei Ruolai had doubts about his ideal of serving the country through financial means.
The long personal growth confirms the inevitability of historical choices
In the past, the protagonists of spy war dramas on the screen were all revolutionaries who leaned on the side of the Communist Party at the beginning, or progressive young people who resolutely embarked on the road of revolution in the middle of the story, and Wei Ruolai is completely different from the conventional spy war hero setting, the growth trajectory of this protagonist has a certain passivity, and even does not match the high-spirited title of "Wind Chaser".
Wei Ruolai in the play is a financial genius, but he is a little at a loss about the country's political future. It wasn't until his brother, who was an underground party member, entrusted the task on his deathbed that Wei Ruolai had to get involved in the confrontation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party under family affection. On the one hand, out of good intentions, he kept the secrets of the underground party, and on the other hand, he carefully avoided the political whirlpool of the ideological controversy and tried to stay out of it. In the process of contact with Shen Jinzhen, an underground member of the Communist Party of China, Wei Ruolai showed vigilance, evasion, and hesitation.
Under the joint pull of complex emotional positions such as family affection and master-apprentice relationship, Wei Ruolai's faith choice is uncertain, like an erected coin, which cannot be easily poured to either side. After the torture in the torture room of the detective team and the critical moment when his life was hanging by a thread on the execution ground, Wei Ruolai withstood trials again and again, but he still kept his distance from the red faith for most of the series, and even though he was forced to flee to the Soviet area at the risk of dying to reveal the truth of the treasury bill case, he still decided to stop engaging in finance and return to his hometown due to disillusionment.
Hardly a spy war drama will so foreshadowing the protagonist's long process of changing beliefs, and the brilliance of the work lies in this: bringing in the objective perspective of Wei Ruolai, a witness, leading the audience to return to the historical scene and explain why history chose the Communist Party of China, so as to make the whole story more convincing in terms of theme expression.
In the play, from the acquisition of Xingxia Bank, the takeback of the main control of commerce, the tariff reform incident, the tungsten sand business case, to the rickshaw driver strike and parade incident, the Songhu War of Resistance, and the counterfeit money case and treasury bill turmoil that caused Wei Ruolai and Shen Tunan to break up and break up...... In fact, all dramatic events have an ultimate direction: let Wei Ruolai, who is determined to serve the country and is coerced by the times, see the truth of the whole country clearly.
Without any preaching, "The Wind Chaser" restores the words in history textbooks into vivid film and television stories by starting a financial war together, and the general public is no longer a vague concept, but the people who yearn for a better life, such as Ah Wen and Aunt Zhou, it is this face that was once full of hope and despair that broke Wei Ruolai's last line of defense and prompted him to self-awakening.
At the end of the series, Wei Ruolai, who returned to his hometown in Jiangxi, personally felt that "the Communist Party and the people are one heart". After thinking about it carefully, Wei Ruolai finally figured out that "finance is just a tool, in the hands of bad people is a knife to kill, and in the hands of good people is a plow for ploughing the fields", he rekindled the dream of serving the country with finance, and decided to go to Ruijin to realize his ideals and ambitions, and at this time Wei Ruolai's eyes had light again.
In the story of "The Wind Chaser", Wei Ruolai's faith reconstruction is not achieved overnight, the more detailed the protagonist crawls out of the ruins of the original faith and recognizes the long process of historical trends, the more in line with the character's prudent and truth-seeking deep character, and the more it can confirm the inevitability of historical development.
The "Narrative of Two Heroes" is full of tension in the collision of beliefs
In this story about the choice of faith, Shen Tunan and Wei Ruolai are the most touching group of character relationships, from the spiritual resonance of faith at the beginning of the story, to the irreversible feelings of life and death in the middle of the plot, and then to the rekindling of ideals in the ending and finally becoming red comrades-in-arms, the establishment, rupture, and reunion of the master-apprentice relationship are the core character lines of the whole play, and the collision of beliefs between the two is also the most shocking.
In the play, the construction treasury collapsed, and Wei Ruolai saw the people's livelihood under the financial turmoil, and advocated that the strong man break his wrist and investigate it strictly to the end. Shen Tunan, who has illusions about the Kuomintang, believes that telling the truth will arouse public anger, and this "involuntary self-help" is in huge contrast to the iron-blooded image of the character when he first appeared. In the fierce conflict between master and apprentice, Wei Ruolai couldn't bear to resign on the spot, he described "if you have abscesses on your body and don't remove them, you will get sepsis", and then asked Shen Tunan, whom he once admired: "Do you abide by your heart?" and "Do you defend your credibility with lies?" When Shen Tunan said, "Stay in the green mountains", Wei Ruolai shot back: "There are tigers and wolves in this green mountain, which will devour the flesh and blood of the people, what is the use of keeping it?" I am really ashamed to stay in this mountain!" At this moment, the battle of faith between master and apprentice is full of tension, and the lines of the whole scene are precise and profound.
In the ending plot, Shen Tunan has the heart to serve the country and is unable to return to the sky, and becomes the "bearer" of the failure of financial reform. After being captured by the Red Army, Shen Tunan, who entered the Soviet area, met Wei Ruolai again, and he soon realized that the most ideal "credit" of financial practitioners was truly realized here. If in the first half of "The Wind Chaser", Shen Tunan took Wei Ruolai into the financial gate, then in the later story, Wei Ruolai became the guide, prompting Shen Tunan to finally transform into an underground worker of our party.
This is a rare "two-man narrative" in the story of faith, reflecting the creative innovation and profound skills of the screenwriter and director. The powerful actor Wang Yang played the role of "boss" again, but this time under the character shell of Shen Tu Nanbanzheng, Wang Yang mobilized skills and emotions in a limited space of expression to show the deep love between master and apprentice. The progress of young actor Wang Yibo in performance is impressive. The master-apprentice combination of "Shuquan Tiancai" and "Doll Cai" is also very popular among drama fans.
In the past two years, many spy war dramas have a poor reputation, mostly because of the homogeneity of content and the simple emphasis on narrative skills, while "The Wind Chaser" has a story pattern that is rare in general spy war dramas, and it has also brought a lot of inspiration to the creation of spy war dramas.
First of all, genre fusion is an innovative way for spy war dramas, such as the modern spy war drama "Opponent" was a great success because of the addition of elements of mid-life crisis, the period spy war drama "Hidden and Great" is refreshing because it integrates the story of "workplace white", and "Wind Chaser" takes the financial spy war route is unprecedented. Secondly, spy war dramas have high requirements for stories, but character creation is also the key, as long as the characters make the audience believe, no matter how legendary the story is, the audience can also substitute it, and the civilian perspective and life expression can become an effective means to shape spy war characters.
Nowadays, many spy war works are increasingly lacking in the power to move people's hearts at the level of "Tao", and the growth story of "Wind Chaser", a small character who enters the Tao from art to pursue faith, ignited the audience's enthusiasm for chasing dramas. It just shows that the blood and emotion of the battle of faith are always the soul of spy war dramas.