The decline of spy drama is already an indisputable fact.
Speaking of spy dramas, what is everyone's first thought? "Lurking", "Kite", "Cliff" or "Dark Calculation"?
You know, "Latent" is a 2009 drama, "Dark Calculation" is 2006, "Cliff" is 2012, and "Kite" is 2013 when it is broadcast.
Most of the spy dramas that we are familiar with are old dramas from 10 years ago.
In addition to the quality of "Rebel" broadcast this year, there have been almost no spy dramas with national popularity in recent years.
A question that must be pondered: what happened to domestic spy dramas?
In Pigo's view, the "decay" of spy dramas is inseparable from these three reasons.
First of all, domestic spy dramas rely on good books, but excellent spy war stories are basically filmed, which leads to the fact that every step forward of spy war dramas is very difficult.
Secondly, there is the problem with the actor.
In the past decade, after a large number of Chinese actors have been "flowed" and "variety", it is difficult for spy dramas to find actors who are both familiar faces and do not let people play. "Aiming" starring Chen He and Huang Xuan encountered word-of-mouth Waterloo, which stemmed from this.
In the end, part of the audience is partly responsible.
In the past 10 years, idol dramas, urban workplace dramas and light comedies have occupied half of the domestic dramas, compared to spy dramas, these dramas are relatively easy to create and shoot, and regardless of the quality of the series, many viewers will chase after it.
In this way, the space belonging to spy dramas has been further compressed.
However, even in the face of unprecedented pressure from the "three mountains", domestic creators are still trying.
The recent hit spy drama "The Forerunner" is such a "courageous and commendable" work.
The original author is Ryuichi, with its own heat, high-scoring spy drama "Borrowing a Gun" and "Latent", all adapted from his novels.
This "ForwardEr" is adapted from another spy novel by Ryuichi, "Party Group".
Pigo has also watched the show recently and has watched twelve episodes so far.
What kind of work is this? What kind of story is told? Is it worth a look?
Is it possible that "Latent" will become another benchmark for China's spy drama?
Don't worry, Pigo will break it with everyone.
01, the beginning is the climax, a rescue is very "latent" flavor
In general spy dramas, the opening chapter always has to do some laying out, but "The ForwardEr" is different.
As soon as it comes up, it gives the audience the most exciting scene, and the opening can feel that the funds are burning.
In 1931, in Shanghai, a large number of underground party members were killed because of traitors betraying.
Pan Mingyue, a former Kuomintang elder who held many secret documents of the party organization and was also a secret member of our party, was also exposed.
Coming after him is his own nephew, Tang Xianping (Nie Yuan), director of the Investigation Department of the Shanghai Bureau of the Kuomintang.
Tang Xianping was a ruthless man who was loyal to the Kuomintang, and as long as he was a person related to my party, he was eager to get rid of it quickly.
After a tense conversation, our personnel started first.
Two guards rushed out from the front and back doors, but Tang Xianping just pulled out his gun and "snapped" twice, and the two fell to the ground in response.
Seeing that two comrades had already been sacrificed, Pan Mingyue could only think of other ways.
He lured Tang Xianping to the second floor and into the bomb trap he had already laid, as long as Tang Xianping pushed the door in, the booby trap would detonate, not only the documents would be burned, but Tang Xianping would also be killed.
But Tang Xianping, who was born in the military, was agile, and the moment the bomb exploded, he turned over and dodged.
However, the bomb ignited the gasoline in the house, and the two were immediately caught in the fire.
Pan Mingyue was determined to die, he handcuffed himself in the attic, Tang Xianping had no choice but to jump out of the window to escape, and Pan Mingyue was burned alive.
This opening scene, which is both a gunfight and an explosion, not only establishes Tang Xianping, a fierce Kuomintang agent, but also grabs the attention of the audience, which is very clever.
Of course, when we watch spy dramas, we don't just watch explosions and gunfights, which are commonplace genre film elements.
Wisdom fighting is a very important aspect.
And "The Forerunner" feels very similar to "Latent" in terms of wisdom fighting, and the tense atmosphere created by the dialogue eyes and the reasoning space built by various details are also quite fascinating.
This explosion was seen by a person, Chen Lie, the section chief of our Shanghai underground transportation station.
At that time, Chen Liegang wanted to sneak into the Pan mansion to discuss work, but he did not expect to witness this scene first.
After that, Tang Xianping began to hunt down the Communists, and Chen Lie was arrested.
Tang Xianping only knew that among the large number of people arrested there must be members of our party, but he did not know who it was, and Chen Lie's disguised identity was that of a businessman from Hong Kong.
What if someone is caught?
Of course, it is rescue, and this rescue process properly presents the thrill of the "Forerunner" wisdom fight.
And that's where the drama begins.
The rescue plan is divided into four steps.
The first step is to touch the fish in the muddy water.
Ma Tianmu (Zhang Luyi), an underground party member, is the manager of a foreign firm in the French Concession. Taking advantage of the contradiction with the foreign firm, he mixed into the patrol room and found Chen Lie.
The two used wheat straw to face the secret code and obtained each other's intelligence.
The second step is to make something out of nothing.
The intelligence has been obtained, and the next step is to rescue people.
At that time, there were many factions in Shanghai, just in time for Wang Jingwei to establish another government, and there were also many Wang agents active in Shanghai, and Tang Xianping's superior was the hardcore Wang faction.
Therefore, we wanted to arrange a "false identity" for Chen Lie as a wang jingwei agent.
We not only created fake Wang Jingwei's letters, but also stamped them with fake postmarks.
Sure enough, the letter was intercepted by Tang Xianping at the first time.
Chen Lie's false identity began to be gradually believed by Tang Xianping.
The third step is to cross the sea without concealment.
At that time, the entire Kuomintang did not know whether it was Chiang Kai-shek or Wang Jingwei who would hold power in the future, so there was a lot of grass on the wall.
At this time, some people began to persuade Tang Xianping to be a shunshui person and let Chen Lie go.
But Tang Xianping refused.
However, this fake identity has an advantage, that is, Chen Lie in prison, whether he knows whether the fake identity is used to save himself, he will deny it.
In this way, it has also achieved the effect of confusing the public and concealing the sky and crossing the sea, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
If Chen Lie was smart enough, he could tell from this layer of false identities that the organization was rescuing him.
The fourth step is to take advantage of the fire and loot.
This false identity has stirred up several power games.
The police department wanted to release Chen Lie, but could not pass Tang Xianping's pass.
The French Concession Patrol House also wanted to release people, but without the signature of the police station, people could not be released. The Kuomintang became a pot of porridge because of Chen Lie's problem.
At this time, Ma Tianmu inserted a bar horizontally.
The patrol room twisted his mind and wanted Ma Tianmu to use as a guarantee to release Chen Lie, so he gave Ma Tianmu a sum of money and asked him to take Chen Lie away.
In the end, not only did he take Chen Lie, Ma Tianmu did not reveal his identity, but also won the trust of the Kuomintang, which can be described as killing three birds with one stone.
I found that no, each step of this plan used the strategy in the "Thirty-Six Plans", one step at a time, steady and steady, and used in a pure fire.
The wisdom fight drama is wonderful, and the taste of spy warfare will naturally come out.
02, the "three prototypes" in the play, mysterious and thrilling
In fact, China has a large number of real histories of spy dramas that can be filmed, and once these historical stories are rationally created and adapted, countless divine dramas can really be born.
From this "Forerunner", we can feel the context of real history.
Shanghai in 1931 was the most prosperous international city in the Far East, but at the bottom there was also an undercurrent, and various forces were fighting here.
Our Party, the Kuomintang, the French Concession, the Japanese, the Qinghong Gang, the Wang puppet agents, the Japanese puppet agents...
In the 12 episodes released so far, almost all of these forces are involved, intricate and complex, and the situation of the struggle is extremely grim.
The real history of 1931, in fact, is also the same.
Looking at the character settings in the play, you can also find prototypes in history.
Ma Tianmu, an agent of our party played by Zhang Luyi, is not only proficient in French, but also very talented and knowledgeable, not only familiar with various weapons of length and length, but also able to carry out assassinations, much like the characters in the anti-Japanese drama.
In fact, ma Tianmu really has a prototype, Pi Ge thought about it, in line with others, only our party agent Yuan Shu.
Yuan Shu is known as the "Oriental Sorge", studied at the University of Tokyo in Japan in his early years, and is the only "five-fold identity agent" in the history of our party.
In the 1930s and 1940s, he was active in the literary and political circles of Shanghai, and as a five-fold identity of the Communist Party of China, the Central Committee, the Military Command, the Japanese puppet, and the Qinghong Gang, he made great contributions to the early underground work of our party.
In the play, Ma Tianmu carried out activities such as protecting documents, rescuing comrades, transferring important figures, and raising funds for party organizations were all daily routines of Yuan Shu at that time.
I didn't expect our party to have this legend.
In addition, whether it is the exposure or rescue in the story, mainly because there are major traitors in the party, and this subsequent appearance, pei Ruhai, a traitor played by Huo Qing, also has a real historical prototype.
People who know history know at a glance that his prototype is Gu Shunzhang.
Gu Shunzhang was one of the early leaders of our party, and even held senior positions such as a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, an alternate member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, and the head of the Special Branch of the CPC Central Committee.
In 1931, Gu Shunzhang was arrested and defected because Gu Shunzhang was too high-ranking and knew too many secrets, causing devastating damage to the Shanghai underground party organization.
At that time, because of Gu Shunzhang's defection, the entire Party Central Committee was in crisis.
Fortunately, the Party Central Committee eventually secretly transferred, and Gu Shunzhang did not live for a few more years in the end, and was finally secretly executed by the Kuomintang due to his wavering political stance.
Finally, let's look at the extremely important "zero file".
The "Document Zero" in "The Forerunner" is not a document, but a child, or more precisely, a martyr's orphan.
What an important child could shake the entire Shanghai Bureau of the Kuomintang and make the Central Command of the Military Command send people to look for it?
Although it is said in the play that ordinary martyrs are orphans, if you are familiar with modern history, you can actually find clues.
When watching "Changjin Lake", Peng Dehuai once said that the two children of Shore Ying and Shore Youth suffered a lot in Shanghai. The fact is also that after Yang Kaihui was killed in 1930, the two brothers, Shore Ying and Shore Youth, came to Shanghai.
When Gu Shunzhang rebelled, the two brothers happened to be in Shanghai.
The party organization was destroyed, and the two brothers, Dong Jianwu, known as the "Red Priest", were taken home and experienced a dangerous and difficult life.
The plot of "File Zero" in the play may be adapted from this history. And the thrilling spy drama may not be as cruel as the struggle at that time.
It is precisely because there are so many historical details as a background that "The Forerunner" has an unprecedented sense of immersion.
Watching this drama, it seems to be looking at the story that happened that year, and the real history is obviously more attractive than those fabricated "myths" of espionage.
03, Nie Yuan caught the villain's fierceness
Since the beginning of the new century, Chinese spy dramas have had a set of fixed routines.
First of all, in terms of role setting, everyone must have a dual identity or dual characteristics.
Take "The Forerunner", although Tang Xianping, played by Nie Yuan, is the head of the Kuomintang Shanghai Bureau, he is not an evil person, but very decent.
Bread is also given to the poor on missions.
Not to mention Ma Tianmu, played by Zhang Luyi, on the surface he is the manager of a foreign firm, only for profit, but behind the scenes, he is an agent of our party who is worried about the country and the people.
Finally, he also joined the Kuomintang Revival Association, which is a real multiple identity.
Secondly, the narrative rules of spy dramas generally do not change, they are all binary opposites.
The same is true in "The Forerunner", Ma Tianmu and Tang Xianping, are the two people who have been fighting in the whole play.
The propaganda poster of the play also emphasizes this antagonistic relationship.
And the representatives of the duality in the play are often good comrades or good friends. This has been proven by many spy dramas, such as Su Wenqian and Chi Tiecheng in "Aiming".
In "The Forerunner", Ma Tianmu and Tang Xianping are good brothers who have passed away.
Finally, nature is a suspense generation rule that is a matter of life and death.
Such a scene can be seen in many spy dramas, and it is no longer a waste of time to explain them one by one.
In "The Forerunner", these routines are almost all recruited, so the "routine" must be bad?
Not necessarily.
Screenwriter Lang Xuefeng frankly said that the play can not be different for the sake of "anti-routine", and sometimes it is counterproductive to force new character relationships out of reality.
Spy war drama, the most critical thing is how to tell the story well, write the characters alive, the core of nature is a scene.
In terms of drama, "The ForwardEr" has many highlights, thanks to the two leading actors Nie Yuan and Zhang Luyi, as well as many old drama bones that are matched.
Watch an interrogation scene.
The underground party Chen Lie (Zhao Yang) is a Hong Kong businessman. But in his explanation, the crucian carp is crucian carp. But Tang Xianping found a native of Hong Kong to explain that the quarry is a squid.
In this way, Chen Lie's identity was doubted.
Looking at Zhao Yang's eyes, you can appreciate how tense the atmosphere was at that time.
But when it came to Nie Yuan's side, the light sprinkled on his face was very relaxed.
This gloomy and triumphant smile gave Nie Yuan the upper hand in this duel.
Because he grabbed Zhao Yang's handle.
After this second of changing faces, it also made the audience feel frightened and confused.
The big close-up hits his face, and the camera is full of Nie Yuan's murderous spirit.
Originally, Nie Yuan's image was not suitable for playing a villain, after all, his famous role was either the Qianlong Emperor or Changshan Zhao Zilong.
But Nie Yuansheng changed this inherent impression with his acting skills, so that the atmosphere of the play "The Forerunner" was upgraded to a grade and it was cool to watch.
In fact, the core of spy dramas is common, that is, to carry forward the main theme and spread the national ideological discourse.
But under this common core, how to do it, how to shoot, there are many rules, and "The Forerunner" has found a very avant-garde and excellent one.
The prologue to the beginning of the play actually emphasizes this core.
Against the background of black and white, one after another party pioneers braved the gunfire and marched forward without hesitation, leaving us with only the shadows behind.
If you haven't seen the show, you'll be amazed by the black and white backs.
Isn't this dedication, isn't this sacrifice and fearlessness, isn't this the "marching forward against enemy fire" in the national anthem?
Today, when we look at the spy war, in addition to the stimulation of the senses and the thrilling story, we also experience the danger and hardship of our party's struggle in that situation at that time.
It's a spirit and a faith. For us, it is an inspiration and an example.
You know, we see the gunfire and death of film and television dramas, which used to be their daily routine.
Only by closely interdepending your destiny with the spirit of your ancestors can you truly belong to China's future.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Ephemera
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