If I had to pick the most anticipated Korean drama of the year, it would be "Zhiyi Mountain".
TvN 15th Anniversary Project, Rescue Theme, Goddess Jeon Ji-hyun + Zhu Ji-hoon of "Kingdom";
Director Li Yingfu (representative work "Ghost", "Descendants of the Sun") + gold medal screenwriter Jin Yinji (representative work "Kingdom" + "Signal"). The supporting characters are also familiar faces of the powerful faction such as Cheng Dongyi.
This card division is not looking forward to it, but it is not enough to go. But it just collapsed...
Despite premiering last week, "Zhiyi Mountain" set a record of second-best viewership in TvN's history. But I think this should all be the credit of the whole sister.
When the car window slowly rolls down at the end of the first episode, 40-year-old Jeon Ji-hyun doesn't look much different from when he was 20 years old when he played "My Savage Girlfriend".
Everyone was busy lamenting that the state of the whole goddess could be played, and briefly let go of all the discomfort brought by the first episode.
But seriously, this drama, from the plot, the setting, the rhythm, the camera to the BGM, makes people doubt everywhere - is this really from Li Yingfu's hand?
The Douban score is currently only 7.1.
Many people complained that the CG special effects in the play were too fake.
The two lead actors seem to be filming an advertisement for a mountaineering brand, and this still is suspected of being cut.
This one is even more obvious!
To tell the truth, this picture quality, if it were not for Quan Zhixian, or a domestic drama, would have been sprayed to death long ago.
Most of the rescue footage is still shaking dizzy (director Nim is not engaged in immersive style), and this kind of shaking is different from Lou Ye's personal style, which gives people the feeling of telling you "our rescue is dangerous" with low-cost shooting techniques.
Although multi-line narratives are common now, the director team has handled the time transition very perfunctorily, casually matching the subtitles of 2018 and 2020.
There are also inexplicable BGMs, which are always burning at inappropriate times, annoying, and don't know what they are hilarious.
Many netizens really took a strong filter of Quan Zhixian and insisted on watching it.
Briefly speaking of the plot, the story takes place in the famous mountain range in South Korea - Jiyi Mountain.
The first episode began in 2018, when Jiang Xianzu, a newcomer ranger who had just arrived at Zhiyi Mountain, rushed to the rescue site on the first day of work.
On the first day of work, he was assigned to send a nickname to Jeon Ji-hyun as a partner.
In addition to protecting the forest, the rangers in the play also need to rescue people who are missing on the mountain, or find the bones of people who died on the mountain.
In the first episode, this group of rangers can be seen running to the mountains to save the missing children even on typhoon days.
All the evidence points to the fact that the child went to the mountain to commit suicide and has been missing for 23 hours.
Rangers not only have to race against the clock, but also need to fight against nature, because in the process of search and rescue, there will be all kinds of unexpected contingencies.
As the time passed minute by minute, sudden situations such as landslides and rising water caused by various bad weather factors added a lot of danger to the search and rescue of caregivers. The director then gave the order to retreat.
At this time, the male protagonist suddenly flashed some pictures in front of his eyes and fainted on the ground.
When I woke up, I found myself back in the rangers' lounge.
The superiors originally wanted the rangers to wait for the typhoon to pass before continuing the search and rescue, but the newly obtained clues showed that there was a high probability that the missing people were still alive.
So the male and female protagonists invariably planned to quietly go up the mountain to rescue the missing. (It's awkward here, it's really awkward, are you really professional?) ）
At the critical moment, the male protagonist's mind flashed some pictures, and these pictures were exactly where the missing person was located.
In the end, he successfully rescued the child by relying on the "special function" of the male protagonist.
Then the scene suddenly jumps to 2020, where Jeon Ji-hyun appears in a wheelchair, while Ju Ji-hoon becomes a vegetative person lying in the hospital. (It's only a matter of time before something goes wrong like you do!) ）
To sum up, the first two episodes convey three points to the audience with special effects and out-of-balance atmosphere creation:
1. The male protagonist has special functions and can see some pictures of the dead people on the mountain before they die.
2, the male and female protagonists have had an accident, ah, what is the truth of this accident?
3, the heroine now continues to return to the rescue team to investigate the case (looking for the body of the missing person), and there seems to be a "ghost" on the mountain who has been leaving her a signal that only she and the male protagonist know. So who is this "ghost"?
Since he is the screenwriter of "Kingdom" + "Signal", the script of "Zhiyi Mountain" should be very strong.
however...... Say it is a rescue film, the various rescue teams in the play often have the upper body of the Virgin, the typhoon storm and snow day, despite the danger of losing temperature, defying the order to climb the rock with one hand (the goddess of the whole goddess is armed this time) to save people, so that people can see the heart full of question marks.
You say it's a suspense film, and many of the reversals in the play can't be consistent.
For example, in the homework book of the missing person in the first episode, it is written that "I can't even reach the elementary school level, I am a waste" and other demeaning words. There are still many scars on the body.
When the audience must think that the child can't think of it because of the school violence, it turns out that the missing person just wants to revisit the old place, and after going up the mountain, he happily sent a selfie to his grandmother.
Because the signal on the mountain was not good, several normal messages were not sent, and Grandma only received the message "Sorry to make you sad". And everyone mistakenly believes that this is the last words of the missing person before committing suicide.
Originally, it was okay to reverse it in this way, but what about the injuries on the child's body? Is it possible to explain a little bit. You can't use the scar as a tool person, and throw it away when you're done.
Say that it is a suspense fantasy film (I feel that the screenwriter wants to lead to this road), and the atmosphere suspense is very blunt.
The characterization is also very screwed.
Jeon Ji-hyun plays the heroine whose parents died unexpectedly when she was a child, and is determined to protect the mountains and forests.
But Zhu Zhixun, as a "newcomer" to the rescue team, showed this greasy smile the first time he saw Quan Jixian, which was also puzzling.
As a mysterious figure, his IQ doesn't seem to be stable either.
For example, in the pine tree theft case, Zhu Zhixun bumped into a man on the mountain who came to look for his father's remains.
He claimed that his father, because he was obsessed with watching pine trees, never returned after a trip up the mountain.
But in fact, this man is a fraudster, and he came to Zhiyi Mountain to find the stolen money of the pine tree. The man who disappeared was not his father but someone who had been forced to take part in the logging of pine trees.
But our male protagonist in the case of knowing that the other party is a liar, but also in the face of the mountain to expose, please a little sense of crisis well....
You think he has a trick up his sleeve?
No, he was stabbed and waited on the mountain for Jeon Ji-hyun to come to his rescue.
So what was he pulling in the first place?
In fact, after watching a few episodes, I also understood that the director generally wanted to explore the relationship between man and nature through this story.
Forest rangers guard the mountains and forests, but also guard the ecology. And there are always people who destroy nature for the sake of fame and fortune.
But you always have to come up with a story and texture that matches this grand theme!
We also wrote before that ➡️ even Jeon Ji-hyun overturned?
But "Kingdom: Ashin of the North", although there are many bugs, the overall style is harmonious with the "Kingdom" series. As a novel, it can also play a role in carrying on the upper and lower levels. So we used a question mark for our title at the time.
Now this "Zhiyi Mountain" well... Although the filter for the full goddess is thick, it is estimated that it will not last.