There are all kinds of strange professions in the world.
For example, the sleep experiencer is responsible for testing the comfort of the hotel's bed, and you can earn money lying down;
For example, dog food tasters specialize in identifying the quality of pet canned food and dog food for high-end brands;
For example, an armpit sniffer, whose job is to test the effects of various types of odor-proof products, is a tasteful profession.
Another example is the fraudster.
As the name suggests, this profession makes a living by cheating, including cheating money and cheating marriages, as well as credit fraud.
Interestingly, the Japanese are particularly fond of this subject, and a casual search of Douban can find a large number of them:
Fraudster Hunter, Marriage Fraudster, FraudSter, Fraud Game, Fraud Plan.
Of course, there is also "Cheating the World" starring Masami Nagasawa and Masadai Higashi.
American dramas are actually involved in this theme,
For example, "Fraudulent Guarantor", which has just announced that it has been cut by Amazon.
But! The American drama that Xiu Xiu wants to recommend today is not the usual way.
It can actually blend the theme of "fraud" with another western theme that Americans like most, "Infinite Grace Inc."
Infinite Grace Inc., also known as "Deception", is a crime Drama produced by Epix in the United States.
As of now, although the number of people who have rated it is very small, Xiu Xiu is very optimistic about this drama.
One of the show's main casts is Ben Kingsley, who has been nominated for "Best Villain in a Movie" countless times in recent years.
He played the villain Manda in "Iron Man 3" and had many rival scenes with Downey.
And another lead actor, Jimmy Simpson, a sharp-eyed friend who must recognize him as the young William in Westworld.
Coincidentally, he participated in a Western-themed American drama this time, which is also quite fateful.
In the play, he plays James, a fledgling young liar.
He used to be a firefighter, but because the fire mask was damaged, the scared James left his brother and fled the smoke-filled scene.
As a result, only he survived, and another firefighter intern died in the fire in his place.
Burdened with a debt of life and a huge sense of guilt, James became increasingly depressed, buying drunks in the bar every day and living in a fog.
Just then, a mysterious man named Paul appeared.
He offered to give James a chance to change his fate.
I have to say that this "pit daddy action" planned by Paul is simply interlocked-
First, James pretends to be an addict and uses the sympathy of his parents to approach them and gain trust.
And then find a way to trick them into a mexican prison for a short period of time,
He then took Paul's identity certificate and took away the ill-gotten gains that his parents had saved.
Finally, after completing this fraud of stealing the day, the two can easily divide the $4 million equally and live a dashing life.
Such a wealth opportunity sounds tempting: short time, lucrative, difficult to implement, and not easy to spot.
After james weighed it again and again, he agreed to the other side.
This scam officially kicked off.
There are only two keywords that run through the beginning and end of the story: "deception."
While Paul deceives his parents, he also turns James's deception around;
James deceived Paul's parents and deceived an innocent boy, Glenn, with a clear conscience in the course of his actions;
The most ingenious point is that Paul's parents deceived not only the faithful, but also the audience.
The image of Paul's parents is like the god of a thousand faces in Game of Thrones, with many changes.
In Paul's account, this is an old couple of false benevolence and false righteousness who embezzle the money of the faithful in the name of opening a church.
From childhood to adulthood, he suppressed his poor son, and finally cut off the relationship between father and son, and drove him out of the house.
All in all, the heinous.
After James and Paul's parents were in contact for some time,
Paul's father, Byron, not only took him on a rehabilitation campaign.
The daily conversation with James is also full of chicken soup for the soul, warming the heart and lungs:
"I think your character is good enough." "Life is short, but I have the right to live meaningfully." "Do you feel like you've got a new look?"
Not only that, but Byron even gave James a check, hoping that he would take the money to reform himself.
As things stand, the old couple doesn't seem as evil as he had expected.
Instead, it was their son, who seemed to be the white-eyed wolf who was full of lies and had bad intentions.
However, since Xiu Xiu dares to boast that "Infinite Grace" has the potential of divine drama, the plot is by no means so simple.
There is such a technical term in the painting and calligraphy restoration industry -
Unframed.
By the hand of a skilled craftsman, a rice paper painting can be uncovered into two or even three layers.
There is a similar plot in last year's fire in the Hong Kong film "Peerless".
From James's point of view, this is only the second layer of the unveiling.
Despite his uneasy conscience, James chose to continue his plan.
He managed to trick the priests into a border prison in Mexico.
Unexpectedly, Byron, who seemed to be kind and kind, actually smashed a prisoner with his shoes on the day of imprisonment.
It turned out that before he became a pastor, he had been a juvenile offender who had not changed his ways: robbery, forgery, beating, burglary.
The pastor was responsible for persuading others to be good, while Byron himself was guilty of the worst.
A god twist full of black humor.
After Byron knew that he had been deceived by himself, the illusion of a good angel was torn apart fiercely,
The true face of the bloody, vicious, cruel demon has finally surfaced.
At this moment, it is the third layer of the unveiling.
In this interlocking scam, the protagonists deceive others mostly from "money" and "profit".
And deception is doomed to pay a fatal price.
Just like when James was still stunned by Byron's "black history", he didn't know that an even bigger surprise was waiting for him.
Another new scam has only just begun.
Who is the king of this "deception game" who has more hole cards?
Poor James stepped onto the thief's boat and was caught up in the hands of the father and son.
Now that he even faces jail time, will he be willing to be a lamb to be slaughtered?
As for Paul and Byron, the evil father and son of the evil father and son,
Will they still have a chance to meet and then continue to "love and kill each other"?
I can't wait to know the follow-up plot!
Infinite Grace Ltd. is quite similar to the Ballad of Buster Scruggers, the one that caught fire last year, with both of them having a dull hue.
Why is it yellow?
In my opinion, only this hue can symbolize the yellow sand rolling west, symbolize the barbaric land full of sin and death.
The movie The Ballad of Buster Scrugers.
Similar dull yellow tones.
The pace of this drama is slightly slower than most American dramas.
And unlike most western-themed film and television dramas, there are no dashing and heroic gunboys in the play, nor are there duels of happiness and revenge and a one-second explosion plot.
But the similarities between the show and the Coen Brothers' Ballad of Buster Scrugers are not just about tone.
Both have their own sense of absurdity and indescribable black humor.
Let me give you an example.
When describing James's psychological shadow, the lines involved in the play are very few, almost a brush stroke.
Only two brilliant interspersed shots were used.
When he walked into the bar, it was not the sexy dancers who stood on the stage, but the firefighters.
A helmet-mounted, vague-looking firefighter was standing on the stage, twisting his body vigorously.
After James saw it, he did not produce any fierce emotions, and his first reaction was to calmly turn his head and walk away.
What does this mean?
It shows that he has become accustomed to his own hallucinations.
When he walked out of the bar and Talk to Paul, there was a firefighter standing by the wall.
The ubiquitous firefighters suggest that James's spirit may well have fallen to the brink of collapse.
In Paul's words, he had "seen through the red dust."
That's why he agreed to do this fraud, and even if it fails, it doesn't matter to him.
In the lower left corner against the wall stood a firefighter.
Meticulously crafted story shots, hidden character dialogues, methodical narrative rhythms, and an impenetrable "hoax."
"Exquisite" and "surprise", this is xiuxiu's biggest feeling after watching this drama.
And at the moment when the divine drama fell hand in hand and the explosive American drama was cut just after it came out,
It is rare to have such a western-themed American drama with such peaks and turns and fog!