On April 22, Youku Suspense Theater was upgraded to "White Night Theater".
In the history of Youku, "Chasing the Murderer in the White Night" is a drama that cannot be bypassed. It has consolidated the tone of the overseas distribution of domestic online dramas, and also opened up the second pulse of Youku suspense dramas.
Since the debut of the suspense theater in 2020, Youku has launched masterpieces such as "The Gate of Rebirth", "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", "Out of Court" and "Coward".
The newly debuted "White Night Theater" has released a list of eight plays, namely "Faint Fire", "Once Upon a Time by the Water", "Sandstorm", "Black and White Jue", "Wilderness", "Cocoon Breaking 2", "Snow Labyrinth" and "New Life".
"Faint Fire" has been scheduled for April 27, and it is the first work of "White Night Theater" to meet the audience.
Among the 8 works, I am eager to watch three: "Faint Fire", "Once Upon a Time by the Water" and "New Life".
"Faint Fire" is another masterpiece directed by Yao Xiaofeng, starring Tong Yao and Zhang Xincheng. I watched a few episodes in advance and the texture was good.
The drama begins with a homicide case, vividly presenting the ecology of the town around the turn of the millennium, and portraying the interweaving of good and evil and complex human nature in the society of acquaintances.
A woman who has suffered from violence and a genius boy break through the resistance of the times and finally complete the redemption of each other.
In "Faint Fire", there are women who resist, teenagers who grow up, who flee and betray, and who tear apart and compete with human nature.
Chief producer Zhang Shuwei said that "Faint Fire" is a more adequate personal expression of director Yao Xiaofeng in recent years.
"Once Upon a Time on the Border" is produced and directed by Cao Baoping, starring Guo Qilin and Wu Zhenyu, which tells the adventure story of Shen Xing, a young man who accidentally wandered in the "three regardless" zone in Southeast Asia, and wandered between multiple forces.
"Once Upon a Time by the Water" is adapted from the non-fiction story "Escape from the Golden Triangle Series", which is a story full of legend and strong reading drive, whether it is the narration perspective of the witnesses or the realistic narrative style of dangerous and out of control, it makes the audience feel "excited".
This type of suspense drama is scarce in the market today.
The director of "New Life" is the Olympic bid, and the biggest dark horse "All or Nothing" in last summer's file came from him, starring Jing Boran and Zhou Yi.
"New Life" revolves around a funeral trapped on an isolated island, and a group of people who attend the funeral are forced to tell their stories about themselves and the deceased. The stories constitute the life of the deceased, and also realize the closed loop of the conspiracy.
"New Life" follows the classic Blizzard Villa model, and nests Rashomon-style narrative tricks, showing human deception and conspiracy to the fullest.
The name of "White Night Theater" not only comes from "Chasing the Murderer in the White Night", nor does it mean that Youku is obsessed with past achievements and cannot extricate itself. "White Night" means "the long night will end, the truth will be revealed", and the audience will solve the mystery in the cocoon.
It is reported that "White Night Theater" mainly focuses on two key words: social issues and human nature.
Social issues and human thinking are precisely the main demands of today's audiences for suspense dramas. Since the rise of video websites, domestic suspense dramas have experienced a "three-step" from hard-core brain-burning to psychological suspense to social resonance.
"Chasing the Murderer in the White Night" is the most typical hardcore brain-burning drama. However, with the tightening of control and aesthetic changes, suspense dramas around 2021 will enter the era of life flow and slow pace. The results were obvious, and the audience didn't buy it. Suspense dramas are only good to be "hard".
In this era when the human brain is exhausted and AI is not enough, ontological reasoning has an inherent disadvantage. No matter how subtle the narrative trick is, it has been written before.
Writer Xu Zechen said that good novelists are always reinventing themselves. Introducing more resonant social issues and thinking about human nature throughout, is the basic threshold for suspense dramas to impress the audience.
"White Nights Theater" aims at the right track.
The upgrade from suspense theater to "White Night Theater" means that Youku's continuous investment in high-quality dramas has not changed, and its belief in genre drama innovation and multi-dimensional exploration has not changed. As long as the "White Night Theater" can produce excellent works, the exploration of high-quality Chinese dramas will be another important town.