Author|Xie Minghong
Editor|Li Chunhui
Although finance has been the most fashionable industry in the last two decades, it is extremely difficult to understand and express it. Is finance a P2P for financial management and stock speculation? Is it an investment, M&A IPO? Or is it the bright lights of Lujiazui and the thick and strict financial street? All of them, and not all.
Therefore, when I saw iQIYI's new drama "City in the City", as soon as it came up, the young teller was looking forward to changing jobs, and Hard Candy Jun thought: The bank professional drama is full of class flavor. But then, the capital did the game, the high-level died violently, the funeral four people with their own thoughts, and the mysterious woman who resembled his ex-wife...... While young people are still eager to enter the market, the older generation is already in the thrilling financial bureau.
Speaking of which, it is very rare to use banks as a financial drama to cut into the perspective. Because it seems to be the least fashionable and relatively hidden part of the fashion industry. A stock god or an investor, like a chivalrous man who comes and goes, their story is a legend. However, "City in the City" tries to tell how a famous and decent person operates, and how it affects the entire pattern of martial arts. And, those gangs who have no adventures and the deputy gang leaders who have worked hard for many years will be pushed by the fate of the times and personal will.
Financial events in the news are always full of breakpoints, and even if we have a big brain, it is difficult to complete the plot that is intertwined with professionalism and human nature. They will forever be lost in the long river of history, known only by one or two parties. This is a bit like the mood of Hard Candy Jun chasing "City in the City" now, but fortunately, the series will definitely give the final explanation. And I can't wait to get two answers: one is the law of financial operation, and the other is the law of human nature. But perhaps even in the play, the latter hovers between black and white forever, full of accidents.
The "city within a city" that Hard Candy Jun understands, the first layer is the city we are familiar with, which is the promotion and salary increase, love and friendship of young people, the derailment of middle-aged people's breadwinners, and the mid-life crisis;
Learn the "language" of finance
The language art of "City within a City" is to use the simplest language to point out the identity and position of the characters. The force penetrates the back of the paper, so that the image of the character is three points. At first glance, I didn't think there was anything, and the details were amazing. The seemingly casual jokes are actually inextricably linked to the follow-up events.
If Hard Candy Jun said that a bank president made a project, but the project violated the regulations of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, you must shake your head. But if I say that this project is an investment in an emerging field, which not only supports domestic enterprises, but also enables the mainland to take a leading position in this industry, and by the way, also makes money for banks, do you feel that there is also some room for interpretation of the regulations? Dai Xing once told Zhao Hui: "Isn't innovation just half a step more than supervision?" All of a sudden, those major financial events and characters in the past ten years flashed through Hard Candy Jun's mind like a marquee. Sure enough, to do finance, the compulsory course is language arts, and the score is the art of speculation.
Compared with the officialdom drama, which is very "hopeful", the financial bureau's rhetoric has a different kind of yin and yang weirdness. It's that the other party is obviously answering your question, but you feel that he is scolding loudly.
The "Four Guys in the City" gathered after the funeral, and Xie Zhiyuan hinted that he could help Zhao Hui "get stuck in this space", which meant that several brothers worked hard, and the luck relationship arched Lao Zhao upward. Su Jianren saw the wind and steered, "I have no opinion, they are all old classmates", in fact, Zhao Hui went up and he benefited the most directly. Miao Che is engaged in auditing, and he equally suspects that every brother's sleeves are not clean, and poured cold water, "In fact, this position may not be easy to do." Of course, Lao Zhao was not happy, and bluntly said, "I rely on my ability to eat", and clearly rejected Xie Zhiyuan's proposal.
Xie Zhiyuan had a plan when he couldn't make a plan, and said that he would introduce him to the woman who looked like Lao Zhao's deceased wife at the funeral that day. Lao Zhao directly "I don't want to, I don't need to". Xie Zhiyuan saw that Lao Zhao Youyan didn't enter, and he didn't go around the bush and directly said that the real purpose was to engage in a few trust products, and Zhao Hui took a sip of yellow mud snails and was not polite, "Don't mind, you always want to cross the line, don't look for me for this kind of thing." ”
Three glasses and two light wines, "City in the City" will explain the identity and position of the characters clearly. Lao Zhao's poems are also very rhyme, "Qingqing Ling on the cypress, Lei Lei Jian in the stone", this is an anonymous poem in the Han Dynasty, the main focus is a whipping of the powerful "Mo Lao Tzu" clean self-care.
Paired with the language arts, is the narrative suspense of "A City within a City". Under the grand narrative of the big frame, there is also a puzzle narrative of unit events. What role did Dai Xing play in the crisis of Jiaxiang Industrial? Who is the mysterious trust?
The mysterious woman who appeared at the funeral, after Xie Zhiyuan's temptation at the dinner, the series revealed his "temptation of his ex-wife". It turned out that in the face of Zhao Hui, who couldn't penetrate the needle, Lao Xie chose the heart attack. When the drunk Zhao Hui mistook Zhou Lin as his dead wife, the sentence "Our child is sick" made many viewers in front of the screen hear the man's heartbreak.
These answers are not given directly, but are hinted at at the right time, which gives the audience full room to think for themselves. It can be said that the series really plays with a sense of suspense in finance, but it is not mysterious. The atmosphere is played with a sense of heaviness, but it is not artificial.
Put "people" into "money" and observe
The human experiment in "City within a City" is to put all kinds of "people" into the colorful "money" to observe. Faced with temptation, someone slipped into the abyss of desire. In the face of a moral code, someone has a sword of Damocles hanging over his head. But more often than not, it is a "gray space" of human nature mixed with black and white. This ambiguous portrayal of good and evil is the high-level "core" that makes the series really break through.
The boundaries between good and evil in the series are wandering, but it is this floating space that brings the interpretation of the ambiguity of the characters. After watching five episodes of "A City in the City," I still don't know who is loyal and who is traitor? That's right! You must know that it's either good or bad, that's a cartoon, and the power game of a financial game can be completely kind-hearted and kill without blood.
Zhao Hui's mentor, President Dai, is a rather tragic figure. At first glance, it is a beacon for many people, including Tao Wuji, and it has placed a lot of expectations and ideals on it. As the plot progresses, viewers will doubt his integrity. Later, after the truth was revealed, it was a kind of amazement and loss that could not be used from time to time. Dai Xing said that doing finance should be "nine good and one evil", which is the bottom line of his profession. Hard Candy Jun couldn't help but wonder, if Jiaxiang's stock price had risen a few minutes earlier, would he have been able to escape fate?
Zhao Hui's problem is that "honesty is humiliating", and sometimes excessive pursuit of honesty will become a weakness to be exploited. In order to "satisfy" his incorruptibility, the friend faked an institution and a so-called medical waiver program. The high cost of his daughter's treatment has contradicted his innocent professional pursuit, how will he deal with himself in the face of his friend's request for help and the beauty plan set up by his former brother? Su Jianren's angry words against Zhao Hui are quite intriguing. "If you really want to be spotless, then you will be Ah Q for the rest of your life, and you will have to stay at the bottom. ”
The reason why the "four men in the city" who came out of the same door embarked on different paths was not only the different pursuit of their own ideals, but also the alienation of human nature by finance. Miao Che has become an iron-faced and selfless auditor, Zhao Hui has been in the position of vice president for many years, Su Jianren is a financial panacea, and Xie Zhiyuan is on the edge of supervision in the trust business. As Zhao Hui said to Xie Zhiyuan: "What we have lost is not only youth, but also innocence." This is the drift and helplessness of the previous generation of financial people after experiencing the ups and downs of the sea of money.
The test of "money" for the new generation of financiers is even more intense, which is the double oppression of future and survival. Tao Wuji and Tian Xiaohui stepped into the workplace with confidence, but found that their principles were tested again and again. Unable to complete the deposit task, Tao Wuji's leader revealed that he could "buy deposits" with large customers. Tian Xiaohui, who was recommended by her cousin to work, was instructed by the other party to check her brother-in-law's itinerary, and even hinted that the company's financial information was exchanged for benefits.
The ancients often said that the prevention of microaggressions may be the trajectory of the transmutation of the characters presented in "City within a City". Zhao Hui's four classmates were also young Tao Wuji in the past, but they were separated at forks in the road. The account opening at the bank counter sends rice, flour, grain and oil, and finally leads to the bloody and mysterious financial jungle on the 43rd floor.
Realism is "they play me"
The key to attracting so many viewers after the broadcast of "City in the City" and even causing strong resonance on a large scale is that the protagonists have both the imprint of the times and the shadows of ordinary people.
For example, Tao Wuji, a little white tea in the workplace full of wisdom, has the loss of having talents, and the hard work after being appreciated. As a blank sheet of paper that has not been written, his career development and personality shaping not only attract the audience to follow the drama, but also allow migrant workers to deeply participate in it. Many financial practitioners said on social media that watching Tao Wuji go to work is like watching himself go to work, and the plot is so real that people break the defense, "The only difference is that I am not as clever as him."
The vast majority of people can't be Tao Wuji, and they don't have Cheng Jiayuan's native system of leading his father, but it doesn't affect the part where they find empathy in "City in the City". The scene where Tian Xiaohui was crying in the heavy rain and was called upstairs by the boss became a famous scene in the circle because of the sadness of not being seen by young people who tried their best to do so, attracting a large number of migrant workers to share the same grievances and "beat" the reality.
Of course, "City within a City" is reflected in all aspects of the balance between artistic creation and truth-seeking. First, it really makes the financial drama separate from the number game and the industry password to complete the "landing". Wuji's holding investment lectures for the elderly in the community, finding corporate economic evidence and being chased into the river, and the abuse of credit by start-up companies are not only closely related to reality, but also have a greater sense of reality in documentary news. The most important thing is that every audience member can say a few words about these plots and topics.
In addition to the workplace, "City in the City" also meets the audience's needs for family, love, interpersonal relationships and other perspectives, allowing people to obtain value resonance and humanistic care to a greater extent. Zhao Hui, Su Jianren, Miao Che and other middle-aged people have their own worries, which together are a middle-aged family record; Tao Wuji and Tian Xiaohui, Su Jianren and Zhou Lin, etc., let people see the "love" of different ages; There are also students who have not yet entered the society, who have learned "part-time work experience" through the play, and boasted that "they are very strong, so they almost find a class".
We want stories to explain the world, and we hope that stories can inspire us. Realism should not only depict reality, but also feed back reality, which requires creators to have a certain forward-looking. That is, on the basis of the reality familiar to the audience, add some futuristic predictions and imaginations, and go on an uncrossed river for everyone. Just like "City within a City", it is not only a tangible reality around us, but also satisfies all the violent imagination of people's financial beasts.
The industry and the audience always say "big drama", what is a "big drama", why do we need big dramas so much? Not only big productions and big casts, but also big patterns and big times. The grand narrative of the present, in particular, will affect the way we see ourselves, the way we filter reality, and even the way we create the future.