Decoding "Hurricane"
Director Xu Jizhou: It is not a simple story of police and robbers, but an outline of the era from it
On February 1, the anti-crime drama "Hurricane" came to an end.
As the first film and television work based on the normalization of anti-crime and evil and the education and rectification of political and legal teams, "Hurricane" has achieved good results in both ratings and word-of-mouth since its broadcast.
Different from previous anti-crime dramas, this drama selects three time nodes in 2000, 2006, and 2021. In a huge narrative interspersed with forward narration and flashback, it tells about the forces of justice represented by An Xin, and the forces of justice and evil forces. "Umbrella" has spanned two decades of fierce competition.
"The normalization of anti-crime and evil reflects our country and our party's determination to cure the poison and self-innovation." On January 31, "Hurricane" director and screenwriter Xu Jizhou said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from the Beijing News, ""Hurricane" "In fact, it depicts the era of rapid economic and social development in China in the past 20 years. The huge changes in Jinghai, a virtual second-tier city in the past 20 years, are the biggest protagonist hidden behind this drama."
Xu Jizhou graduated from the Directing Department of the Central Academy of Drama. He has been engaged in the creation of TV dramas since 2000. He has created many classic works such as "Chinese Criminal Police", "Black Storm", "Sniper" and "The Indelible Number".
original intention
"It's not a superficially simple story of police and gangsters, but I hope it can outline the times"
Beijing News: In an interview a few days ago, you said, "Hurricane" is a play that can be engraved on my urn. It has fulfilled my long-cherished wish for many years." Why is this play important in your creative career? so heavy?
Xu Jizhou: I have always had an "ambition", which is to tell a story about police and robbers with a relatively long time dimension.
It is not a simple police story on the surface, but I hope to outline the era from it, and incorporate the changes of the times I have experienced in the 20 years since I graduated from college, and my perception of human nature. The most touching area.
When the 2019 special campaign against gangsters and evil was coming to an end, I received an invitation and quickly agreed.
This is the first film and television work with the background of the normalization of anti-crime and evil and the education and rectification of political and legal teams.
Why is it called "Hurricane"?
In fact, it describes the era of rapid economic and social development and rapid development in China in the past 20 years.
There are two protagonists in this play, An Xin and Gao Qiqiang, and behind them are all kinds of characters from officials to grassroots people, forming a lively society, which is a line.
But the huge changes in Jinghai, a virtual second-tier city in the past 20 years, are the biggest protagonist hidden behind this drama.
Jinghai is a microcosm of the development of China's inland cities in the past 20 years, and it contains a lot of content.
I tried to include the social ecology, power structure, grassroots political ecology, etc. we know as much as possible. Everyone thinks it is relatively fresh.
The screenwriter Zhu Junyi and I are both from the north. In the original story, Jinghai is more like a second- and third-tier northern city.
But in the process of framing the scene, in order to show the characteristics of the three eras and visually distinguish it from previous works, we went all the way to Guangdong.
The customs and folk customs of Guangdong are interspersed in the works, adding some highlights to the play.
The rice rolls, dumplings, and pig’s feet noodles that are now out of the circle are all Guangdong’s regional characteristics, and the audience has also grasped these points.
Beijing News: The content of this play spans 20 years.
Why was this time span chosen?
Xu Jizhou: If the time span of 20 years is completely extended, the drama will be easily broken.
I took one drama as three dramas, and chose 2000, 2006, and 2021 as the time nodes. These three stages are representative, allowing me to have a very sufficient space to show the growth of characters and human nature. complex.
In the first stage, two major events took place in China at the turn of the century. China's accession to the WTO and the successful bid for the Olympic Games. During this period, my country's public security environment was relatively complicated.
I was filming a police documentary at the time, and the cases were shocking, but they were mainly aggressive and violent crimes.
The representative of this unit is Xu Jiang, who is more flamboyant and aggressive, like the young and Dangerous boy in Hong Kong movies.
The same is true in the whole world. Rapid economic development is bound to be accompanied by social security problems. When encountering problems, reckless and reckless will be used to solve problems.
The second stage was the introduction of a series of land control policies in 2006. One of the characteristics of frequent cases during this period was to take advantage of the loopholes in the land control policies, find gaps in them, and grab huge benefits.
Most of the extreme crimes at that time were related to demolition.
The demolition incident of Mang Village, which is set up in this unit, is the epitome of urbanization in many cities. From the village committee to the demolition company to the grassroots law enforcement team, the interests of all parties are intertwined.
Through the demolition of Mang Village, we will tell everyone why the evil forces can form and why it is so difficult to eliminate the evil forces.
The third stage is the beginning of the normalization of anti-crime and evil and the education and rectification of political and legal teams in 2021.
These three time points not only have publicity considerations, but also can reflect the particularity of social and environmental security work in different periods.
Normalization of anti-crime and evil
"It reflects the determination of our country and our party to cure the poison and self-reform"
Beijing News: What do you think is the greatest social significance of this drama?
How does the political and legal department support it?
Xu Jizhou: As a political and legal drama about eradicating evil and turning the blade inward, we may show a greater proportion of gray and negative things in society than other dramas, because we want everyone to understand where the evil forces come from and why they end it.
This may be the social significance of this work, beyond its commercial value.
The Central Political and Legal Committee gave us a lot of files and took us to do a lot of interviews.
In the early stage, there have been anti-crime and evil dramas broadcast. In order to avoid repetition, the final tone was created with the background of the normalization of anti-crime and evil and the education and rectification of political and legal teams.
The script of this drama has been polished for a long time. It will be launched on September 26, 2021, and will be completed on January 18, 2022. In fact, the script has been written until January 5, 2022. It is written while shooting, and revised while writing, just to make it clear Why is it impossible to wipe out the evil forces by just one round of sweeping the black and evil? Why should the sweeping of the black and evil be normalized.
From a global perspective, the black and evil forces are taking advantage of the gaps in the social system to grow upward.
If the first wave is cut down, the next wave of "grass" will come back to life as long as there is room.
It can only be the normalization of the eradication of evil.
The initial setting for Gao Qiqiang was to destroy him at the very beginning of the special campaign against crime.
Now that we are talking about the normalization of anti-crime and evil, the setting of his crime in the third stage is more concealed.
The criminal methods of the underworld forces that we have learned are all reflected in him.
For example, by building kindergartens and nursing homes, he wooed and corrupted grassroots civil servants and retired cadres; he helped neighbors in Jiuchang Street solve problems such as children going to school and elderly people getting sick and hospitalized. If something goes wrong, cut off with them and clear yourself up.
This makes sense to the audience.
Qiangsheng Group has such a powerful underworld force, why is it that the special campaign against crime and evil has not been eliminated, and it has to be eliminated after the normalization of anti-crime and evil?
This brings out the "umbrella" behind it.
To eradicate crime and evil, the "protective umbrella" cannot be destroyed just by destroying it.
There is a shot in the opening, the roots of the tree under an umbrella are intertwined, and the teeth are intertwined. It is not easy to uproot, and it is necessary to dig deep to dig out the entire system.
Therefore, the normalization of the eradication of crime and evil reflects the determination of our country and our party to cure the poison and reform ourselves.
Grasp the scale
"We must empathize and let everyone believe that this is what is happening around us"
The Beijing News: In the past two years, there have been frequent themes of anti-crime and evil. How did this film come up with new ideas?
Xu Jizhou: On the one hand, thanks to the strong support of the Central Political and Legal Committee, many cases are open to us; This is creative consciousness.
Personally, I have always wanted to tell a police and gangster story with the fate of two characters as the main line and a time span of 20 years, and to write out my 20 years of precipitation, which will not be affected by the subject matter or outside influence.
Beijing News: Empathy is a major feature of this drama.
How do you see the relationship between drama creation and reality?
How is this scale balanced?
Xu Jizhou: We strictly follow the traditional principles of classic realism. The core is that the characters are social and let everyone empathize.
The police and gangster stories themselves are dramatic, legendary, and spectacle. If I blindly emphasize the sense of form and stylization when shooting, everyone will think that I am watching a spectacle drama and watch it lively. He doesn't think it has anything to do with him.
"Hurricane" can have such a big social response, because everyone believes that these things and these characters can happen and appear around him.
In terms of genre, shooting anti-crime and anti-evil subjects is different from other subjects such as anti-narcotics, because crime and evil are closely related to people's livelihood, and the damage to people's livelihood is also the greatest.
If people have nowhere to complain, it will directly affect the image of public authorities.
Since we want to shoot the evil forces closest to the common people, all character creation, from text to shooting must be empathetic.
Actors such as Zhang Yi and Zhang Songwen have life experience and have this kind of self-consciousness. They did it.
Once I heard them chatting, Zhang Songwen said that Lao Xu’s script was quite good, he wrote it in a wide open way, with peaks and valleys and waves, but there must be flesh and blood in the middle to make people feel that this is true. What needs to be done in the play is to fill the parts with particularly large conflicts in the play with flesh and blood.
The two of them did a great job, and many scenes were shot back and forth several times.
Beijing News: What is your favorite part in the play?
Xu Jizhou: Of all the eating scenes between An Xin and Gao Qiqiang in the play, I think they are the most exciting.
From the first time the two met to eat dumplings, to the end when An Xin gave Gao Qiqiang a beheaded meal.
In reality, it is rare for the black boss to point a gun to his head and pin people to the ground.
The normal state of life in the Chinese humane society is to sit down and talk about something, and solve the problem at the dinner table.
Eating is never for eating, there is always another purpose for eating.
The purpose is different, the way of eating is different, and the superficial and superficial meanings are also different.
In this drama, An Xin and Gao Qiqiang's confrontation between police and robbers does not have a simple and crude gun to the head. It is all a meal, but every meal is thrilling.
This is the way of communication in the Chinese humane society, but what everyone sees is the mystery beyond eating.
character setting
"With the background of Gao Qiqiang, we can know how difficult it is for An Xin to stick to his original intention"
Beijing News: An Xin and Gao Qiqiang, one policeman and one bandit, what do you think of their choices?
Xu Jizhou: Some film critics said, "An Xin is a representative of a society ruled by law, and Gao Qiqiang is a representative of a traditional society that uses human affection. The collision between the two is also a collision between a society ruled by law and a society of human affection." I think it is well written.
An Xin means "peace of mind" and is a pure idealist.
Gao Qiqiang is an opportunist. He will seize all the resources and contacts he can get in touch with, magnify them infinitely, and constantly find opportunities for himself.
In a humane society, a person like him is like a fish in water.
However, as the process of urbanization accelerates, it is not feasible to put the humane society in cities. Cities must follow the principles of order, system, rule of law, and fairness to function organically.
They are the portrayal of the spirit of classic ancient Greek drama. Their lives are full of fate and dramatic reversal.
The fate of the two mirrored each other, and the dragon-slaying boy did not become a dragon in the end, which is what a dragon is like.
Destiny is the core of the spirit of ancient Greek drama when self-realization at a certain age is unknowable and contingency.
In the end, An Xin is still An Xin, Gao Qiqiang is still Gao Qiqiang, and the root cause is their personalities.
Compared with Gao Qiqiang, An Xin has more resources, can do whatever he wants, and has other choices, but why does he still stick to his original intention?
I think it is still the kindness and sense of justice in his blood and blood genes, which have not changed from beginning to end.
Beijing News: Does Anxin have a prototype in reality?
Xu Jizhou: There is no original prototype, but there are still many such idealists. An Xin has gathered all the qualities of an excellent police officer, such as loyalty, responsibility, and kindness.
Compared with An Xin, some idealists in reality have a more unsatisfactory life.
We came into contact with a political and legal cadre in Guangdong, who was 34 years old with white hair and was as "shaft" as An Xin.
Cracking down on criminals is just like anti-drugs, it is very cruel, and the other party will use all your weaknesses to restrain you.
So we design that An Xin is an orphan, unmarried, and has no family, and we shield all his weaknesses.
If you don't, with the power of Gao Qiqiang's gang, you will definitely wipe out all your weaknesses and break through all your defenses.
We learned about a real case. This political and legal officer never accepted gifts and worked very hard, but his mother was ill and needed to be sent to the ICU for surgery. The hospital told him that there were no beds, so let’s line up!
This group of people found out, so they made a phone call, and the dean came directly and said that he should go to the ICU ward immediately and arrange the operation next week.
If you don't have an operation, your mother will be gone. How do normal people choose?
How to choose as a legal defender?
How do we do this multiple choice question?
Once the relationship is established and the communication is getting deeper and deeper, at the critical moment, they say you can help me with this matter. As a political and legal police officer, can you help?
This is a cruel social reality that tortures each of us.
Therefore, An Xin is the naked An Xin, the pure and lonely An Xin, and the An Xin who has a martyr spirit. We cut off all his weaknesses, otherwise An Xin will not last 20 years!
His apprentice, Lu Han, practiced in An Xin's way, but was silenced by the evil forces.
There must be a character like An Xin to make this play stand.
But I put all the methods we learned about the black and evil forces to win over and corrupt political and legal cadres, and put them on the people around An Xin, including Cao Chuang, Li Xiang, Zhang Biao, and Meng Dehai, so that everyone can learn from them.
Beijing News: What do you think of the role of Gao Qiqiang?
Xu Jizhou: Many audiences like this character, because he is a strong utilitarian and opportunist, and also represents the desires of many people. Everyone looks at it with a strong mentality.
Gao Qiqiang is well versed in all the ways of the humane society, the grassroots ecology of China, and all the weaknesses of human nature. With Gao Qiqiang's background, we can understand how difficult it is for An Xin to stick to his original intention.
Beijing News: People in different positions in the play have their own characteristics in speaking.
Are there any special considerations for official language?
Xu Jizhou: You can never speak directly, just point to the end.
For example, Zhao Lidong's secretary told Gao Qiqiang that there are many people making trouble for the leader, if you can solve the leader's trouble, the leader can also solve your problem.
Gao Qiqiang made this point clear, and the secretary said, "I didn't say anything, I was just kidding you!" It felt like everything was said, but nothing was said, you can guess for yourself.
They have their own discourse system. In the play, we try to be as simple as possible, but I hope that each class and different characters have their own characteristics, and each ecology can be displayed.
This group of old actors has had a lot of contact and observation in real life, so it is natural to shape the image of officials.
good work standard
"A good work must describe the social life of the current era"
Beijing News: 20 years ago you filmed "Strike the Black Storm", and it was the first time in 20 years that you filmed the same theme "Hurricane".
What's the difference?
Xu Jizhou: From my personal state of mind, looking back now, I am like the white-haired An Xin looking at the swimming pool at the beginning of the play, recalling that 20 years ago he was a young criminal policeman picking up corpses; When I went to a neighbor to buy fish and cook for my son at home, a small fishmonger dressed like him was hawking loudly. He walked over to look at the deck chair he used to have.
On a larger scale, there is a big difference between the words "fighting gangsters" and "sweeping gangsters".
At that time, the fight against gangsters was basically to fight against street hooligans, like Liu Huaqiang who is arrogant and domineering in "Conquer".
If Liu Huaqiang hadn't been knocked out, he might be Gao Qiqiang today.
The closer Gao Qiqiang gets to power, the higher he goes, the more concealed he is.
This may be the change in 20 years.
Beijing News: "Hurricane" hit the air, "Sun Tzu's Art of War" sold out.
How do you see this phenomenon?
Xu Jizhou: I first arranged for Gao Qiqiang to read "Poor Dad, Rich Dad".
What impressed me most was that in 2000, many people in our dormitory were reading "Poor Dad, Rich Dad", and they talked about how to get rich. It was a bestseller at that time, and Zhang Yi also recommended this book.
Later, the props were not found, so I said that Gao Qiqiang mainly read "The Art of War".
Now that the book is out of stock, it is good. It is a classic of Chinese traditional culture.
The Beijing News: "Hurricane" ended, do you think it achieved the desired effect?
Xu Jizhou: Far exceeded expectations.
It is rare to have such an opportunity to shoot such a subject. I hope that in addition to leaving a wonderful story for everyone, it will also stand the test of time.
Observed in a longer time dimension, good works must describe the social life of the current era.
I also want to inspire other creators to tell the story deeper and wider, so that future people can see the characteristics of the times, social soil and life in this special stage of China.
Beijing News: What will be the next drama?
Xu Jizhou: Let’s expand the time dimension and talk about a trilogy about the era of spy warfare.
Beijing News reporter He Qiang