"Sweeping The Black Storm": When light and darkness are in the battle

Author: Ye Zi

The crime-related crime drama "Sweeping The Black Storm" has been widely praised since its launch. The biggest attraction of the drama is the integration of a number of major criminal cases involving organized crime that shocked the whole country, such as the Sun Xiaoguo case in Yunnan, the burial of corpses in hunan playgrounds, and the Huang Hongfa case in Hainan, and involves many social issues that have attracted widespread attention in recent years, such as naked loans, campus loans, and vegetable bullying. Whether it is from the authenticity of the content or the strength of the presentation, this drama can be called "hardcore".

As the plot unfolds layer by layer, the core of the evil forces gradually emerges. With a realistic narrative, the play allows the audience to have a documentary-like feeling about the existing social chronic diseases, and at the same time, it also inspires the public to stand on the position of a member of society and reflect on the significance of the government's vigorous anti-gang crime and anti-evil work.

"Why sweep away the evil forces? Gotta get this straight! ”

In the play, Li Chengyang, who was framed, has been carrying the shackles of his soul for ten years. Psychologically, he could not accept that he and his master had been framed for booty; in action, he wandered into the gray area of the law. This long-term physical and mental dilemma allows him to look at evil from the side of justice compared with other righteous people involved in eliminating the black forces, but to be familiar with the real way evil works and have a deeper understanding of the underlying logic of social justice.

Therefore, people who always have justice in their hearts will still ask themselves in the process of struggle: Why do they want to sweep away criminal syndicates and eliminate evil? On the one hand, behind the criminal and evil forces is often the collusion between officials and businessmen, and when the judiciary uproots the poisonous weeds with force, the local political and economic ecology can regain clarity. On the other hand, is the anti-gang crime eradication just a matter of arresting the evildoers and bringing corrupt officials to justice? Unless justice has unlimited power, the bad things in this world are inexhaustible. The underlying logic of social justice is that when limited social resources are in an obvious unfair distribution, how much possibility can the government or the state provide for fairness and justice from the policy level, and whether the public's legal consciousness and moral sense can reach the level of understanding that matches the just society they expect.

From this point of view, the far-reaching significance of sweeping away organized crime and eliminating evil is that in addition to catching bad people, it is even more that through the arrest and crackdown behavior of the public, the social instruments are urged to carry out self-criticism, self-purification, and self-repair; at the same time, it also arouses the public's discussion and thinking on what is good, what is law, and what is justice. In this process, people who yearn for a better life can truly understand, identify with and actively participate in it.

Sweeping away the evil, removing the darkness, bringing clarity, and the desire for light.

"Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, do you dare to say?"

People who have stared into the abyss for too long will even wonder if they have fallen into the shadows. In the play, a conversation between Li Chengyang and his former friend, police officer He Yong, can be described as thought-provoking.

When Li Chengyang questioned: "This system, who is a good person and who is a bad person, do you dare to say?" Including you, are you a good guy or a bad guy? ”

He Yong, a member of the anti-gang crime team, replied: "You have been away from this system for too long. In my heart, I firmly believe that there are still many good people in this world. ”

Discussing whether there are more good people or more bad people, more shrewd people or more simple people, similar questions do not have much practical significance. What matters is the question of faith: whether there is faith, what to believe, and how much you are willing to give for what you believe in your heart. When Li Chengyang "fell into the grass and became a coward", from the beginning of joining Ma Shuai's interest group with resentment and wavering, to the murder of Ma Shuai, whenever he reminded himself that he was always a policeman, the brotherhood that was both real and touching in the past years was equally powerful to question his soul. Those public security policemen who resolutely stand on the side of justice certainly have faith, and for Li Chengyang, his faith has always been criticized.

This critique is not about the question of whether there is faith or what to believe, but rather how to weigh reason and emotion, ideal and human nature when the realization of personal beliefs affects others. The starting point of the belief in social justice is universal, and in real life, it is faced with individual problems. In the process of practicing faith, the human self will constantly clash with universality. Therefore, Li Chengyang, who also believes in social justice, will ask the police officer He Yong who is a good person and who is a bad person. This is not a wavering of faith, but a continuous reflection on their original intentions by those who have strengthened their faith after experiencing intense soul purification.

In the movie "Infernal Affairs" more than a decade ago, the undercover and policemen who are deeply involved in the black forces fall into an endless hell, and the light of justice is swallowed up by the darkness, leaving only the bleak light and shadow. In this summer's "Sweeping The Black Storm", as the plot continues, we look forward to seeing more contests between light and darkness, not just a vivid analysis of the essence of the two, and look forward to the drama can provide useful discussions for the public to widely participate in and think about the anti-gang crime and anti-evil actions. After all, the power of literary and artistic works is not only to present reality and interpret topics, but also to provide people with a positive direction for thinking about social issues. (The author is a doctor of foreign philosophy from Fudan University)

Source: Guangming Network - Literary And Art Review Channel