Mao Weining, a famous director who has filmed "Vows Silent", "War Flag", "Ordinary World", "Ten Sending the Red Army" and other dramas, is regarded as one of the most storytelling directors in the industry and abroad.

Today, his spy war light comedy "Xia Guang" is being broadcast in CCTV's eight prime theaters.

"Xia Guang" is daily ink, witnessing the big history with small figures, and truly reproduces the glorious past of the heroic city of Dalian in the modern and modern revolutionary history.

Recently, director Mao Weining accepted an interview with Qilu Evening News Qilu One Point reporter.

  Qilu Evening News Qilu One Point

  Reporter Liu Yuhan

Return to the carbine after leaving the spy war drama

  Mao Weining has been in the field of spy warfare for more than ten years in his early years. "The Oath is Silent", "The Hero is Nameless", and "Proof of Identity" are all masterpieces that have made him famous.

"Later on this road, I felt that my creative thinking and passion were gradually exhausted, so I switched to the period drama." Starting from "Ten Sending the Red Army", "War Banner", "Ordinary World" and "Old Chinese Medicine", Then to this year's "Hundreds of Refined Steel" and "Merchants", Mao Weining opened up his own style of period drama track.

"Xia Guang", which was broadcast on CCTV, was exactly the carbine that Mao Weining killed ten years after leaving the spy war drama.

  The reason why "Xiaguang" can attract Mao Weining back to the "battlefield" of the spy war drama is because of its "light comedy" shell.

The play ingeniously uses a humorous light comedy narrative to tell a thrilling spy war story.

"I've never filmed a comedy, so I am very interested. I also like comedy works myself, so I am willing to try such a style." The combination of comedy and spy warfare made Mao Weining very interested.

In the play, Gao Daxia, played by Tong Liya, and Fang Ruoyu, played by Liu Wei, live in the same big house. They both know each other’s identities, and both guess each other’s political attitudes, so various kinds of drama have emerged in this drama space. Interesting stories have also become a feature that distinguishes this play from all types of spy war dramas in the past.

Comedy conforms to the common sense of life

  Excluding spy war plots such as enemy-specialist struggles, "Xia Guang" is essentially a life drama with a strong atmosphere of life.

"Our past spy war scenes will write a lot of how to steal information, how to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy, how to implement a plan, etc., but this scene is not. It starts from life. It writes about the relationship between the characters, the fate of the characters, and the circumstances of the characters. , You can completely watch it as a life drama of the age." Mao Weining emphasized many times in the interview that he should watch "Xiaguang" as a life drama.

  "Some people in this large courtyard, they live together, they have exchanges of stories with each other, there are a lot of pots, pans and spoons among them, you will find that the quality of life in this drama is very strong." He further added, when The prescribed situation is produced in the life drama, and the comedy is produced in the prescribed situation.

"The secret agent and the Communist Party live under one roof, monitor each other, eavesdrop on each other, tentatively collide with each other, and even eat in the same space. This is a prescribed situation that is unlikely to appear in other dramas." In this prescribed situation Here, the characters must conceal each other. The protagonist Gao Daxia is another person with an extremely distinctive personality, who is stunned and straight, with a very strong axis, and many scenes in the play are conspiracy conspiracies, born in a nervous process. With unlimited space for comedy performances, many comedy scenarios are naturally produced.

  In Mao Weining's eyes, this kind of comedy is not an expression of stomping on watermelon peels and tickling the audience, but an expression that conforms to the common sense of life.

As a result, Mao Weining succeeded in shaping a group of vivid characters with his profound director skills and skilled drama scheduling, and let this spy war theme based on a strong plot fly out of the market.

"Able to tell a story" is a necessary homework for directors

  For 30 years in the industry, Mao Weining has directed a number of popular TV dramas, and is known as one of the "most storytelling directors". "Apart from costume dramas, I have not dabbled in it. I have filmed most of the themes." Not picky, Mao Weining only cares about one principle: "Can the script move me." He said that "telling a story" should be an indispensable homework for every director. "The audience watching a TV series is watching a story. You don't tell a story well. Let the audience recognize and immerse in, how can the audience be satisfied?"

  And this first principle is also the insight brought by his decades of working experience and creative experience.

“When I was young, I might have my own so-called artistic pursuit for the picture, the structure, and a certain kind of artistic expression.” As I slowly shot many scenes over the years, and tried various styles and types, Mao Weining gradually Returning to the basics, deleting the complicated and simplifying, and telling a story well has become the top priority in his work.

"You have to tell a story with twists and turns. You have to talk about it, you have to raise the peaks, and you have to go up and down. In the end, you have to attract the audience and let the audience see it." "Xia Guang" is a good story The model of the story, as long as the audience sees it in, they will watch it all at once without stopping.