Everyone must remember that last year, the "Mist Theater" successively released "The Hidden Corner" and "The Silent Truth", which detonated the originally unpopular domestic suspense dramas.
At that time, many people rejoiced and felt that domestic suspense had since risen.
Strangely enough, after the success of the "Mist Theater", it suddenly stopped moving.
It was not until the summer of this year that the "Mist Theater" finally hung up the "upcoming" sign.
But the audience is looking forward to it, from the summer to the National Day, or not waiting for the real broadcast.
Expectation after expectation, disappointment again and again, many viewers hurt their feelings.
And on October 13, the "Mist Theater" that has been delayed and delayed suddenly returned, and the luxurious lineup of "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" was launched.
This new drama, which is very suspenseful just by looking at the name, gathers a large number of good actors such as the famous director Wang Xiaoshuai, the popular tough guy Duan Yihong, the goddess of literary and art films Hao Lei, as well as Zu Feng, Wu Yue and so on, who have a high audience...
Compared with the "Double Detective" carefully created by Duan Yihong's team last month, this "Octagonal Pavilion Mist" is obviously higher in configuration, more ambitious, and more appealing to the audience's appetite.
So, what is the color of "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog"?
Judging from the first two episodes of the premiere, it's really not good...
Many netizens complained, full of expectations to watch the premiere, and the results were confused.
What is this fog? It's just confusing.
01
"Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" presents a complex crime puzzle.
But in a nutshell, it is not so complicated, but it is a typical "old case linked to a new case" model.
19 years ago, the Xuan family's 18-year-old sister Xuan Zhen (Mira) died, and the case has not been solved.
19 years later, the next generation of the Xuan family's girl, Xuan Nianmei (Mira), turns 18 years old, just like her dead aunt.
Two identical faces made the Xuan family panic.
Xuan Nianmei's father, Xuan Liang (Zu Feng), is overly nervous about his daughter's safety, forcibly picking up and dropping off every day, almost becoming a pervert.
And Xuan Nianmei's other aunt, Xuan Min (Wen Zhengrong), not to say that Xuan Zhen's soul is attached to Xuan Nian Mei, causing her to be infertile for many years.
In the calm of the nerves, a new case suddenly arrived - on the night of Xuan Nianmei's 18th birthday, a brother who was pestering her was mysteriously killed.
The strange thing is that many people related to this new case are actually related to the Xuanzhen case 19 years ago.
The linkage of the old and new murders has formed a complex two-line narrative.
On the one hand, criminal police officer Yuan Fei (Duan Yihong) solves new cases and digs out complex character relationships.
On the other hand, the memories of old cases keep flashing out, and the truth is gradually revealed.
This effect, to say mysterious, is indeed quite mysterious, is the taste of high-quality suspense. To say that it is brain-burning, it is indeed enough to burn the brain, and there is a hard-core reasoning style.
But the problem is that the narrative rhythm of the first two episodes is too slow, the two lines of the new case and the old case are like squeezing toothpaste, and there is no substantive progress in half a day.
All the characters' expressions are weird, and the BGM of all the bridges is wrong.
The audience struggled half a day, understanding and understanding, only to see a mysterious atmosphere - as if everyone had a ghost fetus, everyone was like a pervert. Even trainee police officers don't look like good people.
This slow, mysterious approach, while creating a cinematic atmosphere of suspense, forgets that what the audience wants to see is a solid plot advancement.
With such a broken narrative rhythm dragging its legs, no matter how cinematic the whole drama is filmed, the audience can't get the point.
02
In addition to the slow pace, the details can't help but be scrutinized.
For example, after the new case, the Force held an emergency meeting. In order to highlight the importance of the new case, there is a line that says: The area is safe and orderly, and there have been no homicides in many years.
Audiences with a little common sense know that in a place with discotheques, speeding car parties racing all over the streets, small gangsters gathering to play billiards, and big bosses walking sideways, even if the security is good, it is impossible not to have a murder for many years.
Taking a step back, even if there really are no murders for many years, how come the Xuan family is involved in two murders? It's also too coincidental, too unlucky.
In the jiangnan water town filmed in the real scene, he forcibly fictionalized a paradise where the security was so good that there was no murder, and forcibly told the two murders of a family... This setting is a bit insulting to the audience's intelligence.
Another example is the drag racing scene that opens in the first episode.
Two riding expensive motorcycles started at the school gate and chased the two girls deep into the water town.
We can understand that the director wants to use skillful film technology to shoot a different sense of oppression and set a tense and exciting tone for the whole play.
But what we can't accept is that the hooligans harassed the girl in public, and no one came out to stop it, and when the girl's father arrived in time and beat the hooligan violently, there were onlookers who immediately jumped out and accused the girl's father of beating people.
Those who know this is a coincidence, and those who don't know think that someone deliberately set up a situation.
Moreover, the two girls were chased for more than a dozen streets, neither asking for help from adults, nor hiding in a safe place, not even reporting the minimum alarm.
The mobile phone is in the hand, and the sentence "Our family does not like the police" is skipped, which door is this explanation?
There are many far-fetched details like this.
For example, Xuan Min's front foot was in the hospital to take care of the old mother who had a sudden cerebral infarction, and she was worried; on the back foot, she went home to get a large table of delicious food and persuaded her husband to drink home remedies...
For example, just because her father insisted on picking her up and secretly protecting her, Xuan Nianmei rebelled as if her father persecuted her, so she did not hesitate to make friends with bad girls and deliberately provoked all kinds of right and wrong...
If it is just an ordinary modern drama, this level of detail is actually okay.
But "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" is a crime reasoning drama of the Eight Classics of Zheng'er, and "withstanding scrutiny" should be the minimum passing line.
A reasoning drama with a lot of details that can't stand up to scrutiny, what makes the audience believe that its crime is worth reasoning?
03
But then again, "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" was just launched on the market, and it may not be a foregone conclusion.
The whole drama has 12 episodes, and only 2 episodes have been broadcast, although it has caused a lot of complaining, but it cannot be concluded that the whole drama is a bad drama.
At the production level, director Wang Xiaoshuai and his main creative team did give a film-level fine craft.
In order to create a sense of cinema and suspense, and do not hesitate to increase the technical difficulty, a large number of shots use handheld follow-up shooting.
At the level of acting, although Duan Yihong temporarily appears to be "not smart" and somewhat mediocre, after all, the key role has not yet arrived.
Zu Feng's performance is eye-catching, and his meticulous temperament is like the appearance of an unemployed worker, a guilty elder brother, and a sensitive father.
Other old drama bones, such as Wu Yue, who became popular with "The First Half of My Life", Wen Zhengrong, who became popular with the actor's variety show, Hao Lei, who was cold and mysterious and grounded... They have not lived up to the name of the drama bone, and they can fully afford a good drama.
As for the female number one Mira, who plays two roles in one person, the post-00s xiaohua born in 2004 may be an unpleasant casting failure.
But fortunately, Xuan Zhen, a vain girl who died 19 years ago, and Xuan Nianmei, a rebellious girl who was involved in a murder case 19 years later, are also two unpopular characters.
Calmly speaking, whether "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog" will eventually hit the street or counterattack, whether it will be a mess or a gradual improvement - it also needs to let the bullets fly a little longer, and let the series air for a few more days.