The most popular Chinese drama recently is undoubtedly "Aiming", directed by Wubai and Buick and starring Huang Xuan and Chen He.
In fact, as early as the beginning of the launch, we began to pay attention to this drama, from the beginning of the chase to the present, it is really more and more catching up.
The story of the episode is set on the eve of liberation in 1949.
The civil war was nearing its end, and although Songjiang, the largest city in the country, had been liberated, it was still full of dangers and conspiracies.
Kuomintang agents lurked in the city, and a secret mission they carried out in secret could have a huge impact on the situation on the front line of the civil war.
After the Songjiang Public Security Bureau broke the enemy's intelligence in time, it launched a war with the enemy in the city without gun smoke.
When it comes to Republic of China dramas set in the context of civil war, many people may immediately adjust the stage or close the web page, after all, this kind of theme really does not have much appeal to young audiences.
Director Wubai also mentioned this in the interview, and his choice of "Aiming", in addition to recognizing the standard of the play itself, is also partly because he wants to make a period drama that can be recognized and paid attention by young people.
Leaving aside the background of the story, "Aiming" itself has very prominent commercial and dramatic elements, which can be seen as a wonderful action drama.
The first is the protagonist configuration of the series, which adopts the classic double male mode.
Su Wenqian, played by Huang Xuan, and Chi Tiecheng, portrayed by Chen He, are also enemies and friends, and the two fought side by side during the anti-Japanese period and experienced a cruel test of life and death.
When the civil war broke out, Su Wenqian and Chi Tiecheng chose different camps, and the two experienced brotherly opposition, from comrades who knew the roots to intolerable opponents.
The love and killing between them is also one of the major motivations that arouse everyone to continue to watch.
The second killer of "Aiming" is the sniper theme chosen by the story.
Of course, snipers on the big screen and small screens are not uncommon, and Hollywood has also made many movies focusing on snipers.
However, there is rarely a single work in China that chooses to dominate the story with snipers and episodic themes.
This is also the innovation of "Aiming", which focuses on Su Wenqian and Chi Tiecheng, two talented, skilled and experienced snipers, and the contest between the two is also a sniper duel that makes people hold their breath again and again.
The greatest charm of the sniper plot in film and television works is that it condenses the most dramatic tension in the brief moment of pulling the trigger.
And what is accommodated in milliseconds is not only a life and death direction, but also the deepest choice of the sniper's heart.
In the past, what we knew about sniping was nothing more than lurking and assassination— waiting for the target and killing the target, the mission was completed.
The sniping in Aim doesn't stop at the moment of pulling the trigger, it's more complicated.
Every sniper attack means an assassination operation that requires a comprehensive investigation and careful planning.
Take the most exciting and thrilling assassination of the series so far, as an example.
The jellyfish assassination team led by Chi Tiecheng wanted to assassinate Yin Qiansu, the director of the Songjiang Grain Bureau, and the entire assassination operation occurred in just half a day, but it was full of unexpected reversals and meticulous strategies.
The first move of the jellyfish assassination team is to attack the west with sound.
Yin Qiansu was protected by the Public Security Bureau in layers, and there was no way to assassinate him, so the jellyfish group shifted their attention to Director Yin's old friend, Vinke Di, who was the mayor of Songjiang at the time.
They started by creating a car accident that made the police officers realize that Mayor Moon was facing the threat of assassination.
The security force of the public security was also transferred to Mayor Wen, and Yin Qiansu only had two or three police officers who provided protection by his side.
The second move that followed was Zhang Ji's trap.
Yin Qiansu rushed to contact his teacher, Qin Henian, a prominent Democrat in Matsue, who was recuperating from food poisoning in the hospital.
Qin Henian recovered and was discharged from the hospital, but the jellyfish group coerced the doctor to convey to Yin Qiansu the false news that Qin Lao was critically ill.
This ruse made Director Yin take the initiative to leave the heavily guarded mansion and go to the hospital with mixed personnel, visit the "last side" of Qin Lao, and also walk into the traps set by the jellyfish group.
And because of the effectiveness of the previous sound of the east and the west, Yin Qiansu was accompanied by only a few police officers, which greatly reduced the difficulty of the jellyfish group's assassination.
The third trick is to combine inside and outside.
The Jellyfish Assassination Team set up a number of snipers in a high-rise building near the hospital, and gunmen were also arranged inside the hospital.
Specifically, Yin Qiansu will face three ambush sites in the hospital:
One is from the moment of getting out of the car to entering the hospital, the gunman crouched near the hospital gate to assassinate;
Second, from entering the hospital building to the road to qin lao's ward, the killers who were ambushed in the hospital were waiting in a strict line;
Finally, after Yin Qiansu entered Qin Lao's hospital room, the sniper waited on the big building outside the window of the room, and as soon as the target showed his head, he immediately shot and killed.
The setting of three assassination points, the ring is tightly linked-
The failure of the former and the timely top of the latter are equivalent to double insurance for the assassination mission.
Regardless of whether the operation succeeds or fails, the assassination is inseparable from the fourth move - the golden cicada out of the shell.
The jellyfish group planned the evacuation route in advance and evacuated immediately after the sniper, leaving no footprints.
When the public security police rushed to the sniper point where the jellyfish group had placed around the hospital, they found that the scene had long been empty, leaving only shell casings and broken sights on the ground.
Of course, at the same time that the jellyfish group carried out the assassination, there was also a public security bureau that resisted the assassination.
As an instructor, Su Wenqian taught police snipers the knowledge and experience of urban anti-assassination, and also provided a full range of dry goods.
The most important and difficult part of the urban anti-assassination campaign is to identify potential killers in the vast crowds of the city:
On the one hand, snipers and observers should avoid exposing themselves while looking for killers;
On the other hand, they must accurately distinguish, because if they lose their hands and kill them by mistake, it will not only fail the task of striking grass snakes, but also harm innocent lives.
Su Wenqian also pointed out that the protection of assassination targets is not the more people the better, but the more refined and stronger.
No matter how much security is in place, killers will always find hidden flaws.
In contrast, the smaller number of police officers, but who know each other's roots, greatly reduces the opportunities available to the enemy to take advantage of them.
In addition, a set of hidden and unique communication gestures in the sniper team can also play a key role in the execution of the mission.
Interestingly, the episode splits the act of sniping into two actions: "aiming" and "shooting".
Judging from the title, in the sniper process, aiming is obviously much more important than shooting.
The so-called aiming is not only aiming the muzzle of the gun at the target, but also hides another meaning behind it -
The gunner has to decide who the sniper rifle in his hand is aiming at.
This can actually be boiled down to a question of "choice".
Su Wenqian in the play is always facing the pressure of choice.
During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he partnered with Chi Tiecheng and completed many assassination missions, successfully assassinating a number of Japanese officers and pseudo-government officials.
However, at the end of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the outbreak of civil war, the two comrades ushered in a watershed in their lives.
Chi Tiecheng continued to work for the Central Bureau of Statistics, while Su Wenqian, unwilling to turn his gun on his compatriots, chose to live in seclusion in Songjiang as a carpenter.
After helping Chi Tiecheng carry out an assassination plan, Su Wenqian accidentally killed Yang Zhiliang, who had saved his life, and thus always lived in guilt.
In fact, sniping is a lonely task, requiring the gunner's boring training day after day, practicing the most accurate marksmanship, the ability to quickly deal with complex environments, and the psychological quality of being superior to ordinary people and calm and composed.
Many times, sniper masters are god-like beings, like cunning and sophisticated predators, quietly hunting prey that is coldly targeted by the sight.
The moment they pulled the trigger, they pronounced the judgment of the life and death of their prey, both God and death;
Is the best trump card for the organization and probably the biggest threat.
And the sense of guilt, for the gunner, may be an eternal proposition.
Like butchers and executioners, snipers must face or even kill with their own hands.
What's even more tragic is that killing people is also the few things they do best.
It was the irreconcilable contradiction between the continuous killing and the conscience of goodness in his heart, and Su Wenqian began to doubt whether his mission and mission as a sniper really meant.
The death of his friend Yang Zhiliang under his own gun became the last stone to crush Su Wenqian.
Just like Liu Jianming said in "Infernal Affairs", "I didn't have a choice before, now I want to be a good person", Su Wenqian chose not to touch the gun again after his hands were stained with blood.
It was the first choice he made for himself.
When the Nationalists and Communists in Songjiang City launched a war of assassination and anti-assassination, Su Wenqian, who was involved in it, faced a second choice: to join one of them.
At first, Su Wenqian has been evading the choice, trying to remain neutral and not participate in either side's plan.
However, in the turbulent years, individuals can not always exist independently of the environment, Su Wenqian's inner sense of guilt and justice also makes him unable to stand by and watch, and finally choose the side of the Communist Party and stand against his former partner.
In the drama of the civil war, a protagonist like Su Wenqian is rare and rare.
He is not an image of absolute justice, but a stain on his back.
He is bound by the times and wars to make choices, in which the individual struggles, hesitations, confusions, and weaknesses build the charm and credibility of the characters.
He is not a great, perfect hero, but a complex, fragile but real person.
Su Wenqian once again mentioned the question of choice in the first class of volunteering to teach the snipers of the Public Security Bureau, and he led the students to review the final assassination cooperation with Chi Tiecheng.
In this operation, they carried out an unprecedented set of assassination plans -
Separate aiming from shooting:
Chi Tiecheng was responsible for aiming, while Su Wenqian chose to shoot.
But it was precisely because Su Wenqian gave up the choice of aiming to his partner that he made a big mistake at the moment of pulling the trigger.
"Aiming" uses the mouth of the character in the story to show that the shooting is not good or bad, and the real decision to be right or wrong is the choice of who to aim the muzzle of the gun at.
And this is also the important meaning behind the seemingly simple action of "aiming".
Although "Aiming" has carried out in-depth excavation, extension and discussion of the theme of sniper, the series itself is still a high-energy cool drama with strong ornamentation.
Especially for the assassination scene, the creators also put enough thought into it.
Director Five Hundred mentioned that the most difficult thing to shoot in the play is the sniper plot - because the sniper in reality itself is simple and unpretentious, and what the gunman does is to reduce the movement as much as possible, as if nothing has happened.
But the filming of the episode apparently amplifies the atmospheric tension of the assassination in just a few minutes.
In the several assassination attempts in "Aiming", the director used different presentation methods.
A scene in the hospital uses a long lens to explain the complex environment:
The first showdown of the Nationalist snipers at the railway station was superimposed on the atmosphere of anxiety and danger to the maximum with a sharp and crisp edit.
So far, "Aiming" has been performed to 22 episodes, has maintained a clean and neat fast pace, almost every two to three episodes will appear a plot climax, but also buried a lot of things worth looking forward to:
Can Su Wenqian break free from the demons that imprisoned him?
Will Chi Tiecheng recognize his wife and daughter?
What is the direction of the head-on battle between the two?
The answers to these questions can only be revealed in the next story.