Police and bandit dramas: only by moving closer to the truth can we jump out of the rut
Hu Xiang
From all aspects, the online drama "Duel" has a quasi-explosive style: in terms of subject matter, it is a popular anti-criminal theme in the past two years; in terms of narrative, it is also innovative. Go to the county public security bureau to uncover the veil of social security in the county from a third perspective. While thoroughly investigating the self-examination of the ghosts, it also describes the process of digging into the "protective umbrella".
In addition, the film-level image quality, the role of the old drama, the strong sense of drama, etc. are all rare highlights of recent online drama creations, but they have not continued the success of works of the same theme last year, and the volume has always been low. what is the problem?
The main reason is the lack of realism.
Police and bandit dramas or criminal investigation dramas are essentially realistic themes. No matter how complicated the case is or how dazzling the storytelling techniques are, the sense of authenticity is always the most solid foundation for the success of the drama, and this is also the advantage that can best mobilize the audience's psychological empathy.
Otherwise, it is a dazzle that is out of touch with reality.
The narrative of "The Showdown" is not very open, focusing on Luoyuan County, and the opening chapter is also very appetizing: a van threw a sack at the entrance of the county public security bureau, and the sanitation workers opened the sack with trembling, and a sack suddenly protruded out of it. Only bloody hands.
This detail is shocking enough and bloody enough, but it is the place that has been criticized the most - it is too hard.
Is this the police station where the axe gang ran rampant in the movie "Kung Fu"?
Shouldn't it be the policemen who are close at hand who opened the sack first?
Later, the deputy mayor personally led the team into the transportation village to negotiate, but was actually shot by the villagers in the dark... The plot with repeated flaws set the tone of the show, and actually reflected the innovative nature of the current police and bandit drama. predicament.
"Police and suspense" is the most popular formula for online dramas, and it is also a creative formula that is prone to explosions, but "involution" is also very serious.
It is understandable that the producers want to innovate in the plot and increase the impact of the drama, but the impact of this kind of drama should be based on the real foundation - that is, the real history, society and emotion.
No matter how explosive the plot is thrown in the early stage, it must be rounded up in the subsequent plot. If it is rounded well, the emotional impact will be doubled.
For example, there is also a terrifying subway corpse throwing case at the beginning of "The Silent Truth", but its overall plot is based on the adaptation of a real social case. The answer it gives at the end is convincing, and it can even be said to be heart-wrenchingly tragic .
However, "Showdown" failed to be very self-consistent in the follow-up: what was the reason for the murderer to do this?
Is it really necessary?
Objectively speaking, the follow-up plot of "The Showdown" is more realistic.
In particular, the process of Wen Luyang and Wu Jian jointly detecting the shooting in the Little Switzerland Clubhouse, whether it is logical reasoning, technical terminology, image tone, etc., is remarkable and above the normal level.
Another example is the demonstration of the real life of the grassroots criminal police - especially the young criminal police who was born and died was stumbled by the marriage of 100,000 yuan, the team leader Yuan Gang was beaten in one eye in the office and still did not change his iron bones, and the county. The ordinary daily life of case handling in a public security bureau at a high level is relatively realistic.
However, because of the tonality in the front of the work, this sense of reality was destroyed, and many audiences gave up the play at the beginning.
If the work can maintain the professionalism and authenticity of this kind of police and bandit drama from the beginning, if the camera can go deep into the moving village, show more the daily life of ordinary people in the moving village, and peel off the historical reasons and status quo of the villagers’ refusal to relocate It shows the complexity and objectivity of social life, and it can highlight the theme of "sweeping gangsterism is essentially maintaining social fairness and justice", and it will be more flamboyant, thus supporting the sense of drama and legend brought by the case handling process. sense.
In terms of character creation, the old drama bones are relatively stable, and some young actors and villains are somewhat face-to-face.
For example, the portrayal of the gang leader Chen Jinhui, whether it is rough appearance or impulsive words and deeds - suddenly brutally stabbed his subordinates during a dinner, used lynching to force competitors to submit, and even planned to rob and kill the criminal police. Sven contrasts.
We have seen such images from countless Hong Kong gangster films in the 1990s. Is it possible that the current gang leaders still behave like this?
Are gangsters still in black clothes and black umbrellas as in the play?
Mang Zhang Fei still has a plan to drag branches and dust - it is only three-dimensional in thickness and fineness.
The flat or even mindless description of the gangster villain in the play - for example, when the bald and the scarred gangs were fighting in Little Switzerland, and the bald head was shot and fell to the ground, his confidant, Tie Tou and others arrived, no He was sent to the hospital for the first time, but all went to chase the murderer-not only did not strengthen the destructive power of the villain, but underestimated the IQ of the audience.
The creation of police and bandit dramas is not easy, especially to be innovative and outstanding on the basis of existing successful works, it is even more difficult.
Realism has always been at the heart of it - it's attitude, it's methodology.
Only by trying to get closer to reality and dig materials from reality can we jump out of the rut and explore new possibilities.