Interface News Reporter | Huang Wenbin
This year's drama market has been in a state of silence since the beginning of the year. It is not the same as the prosperity of "Hurious" and "三级" in the same period last year. In the past year, there have been frequent outings. Suspense themes are also trying to break through, but the Douban score of the suspense drama series broadcast in the first quarter of 2024 did not exceed 7 points. Among them, it also includes the web drama "Detective Chinatown 2" which ended this week, with a current Douban score of 6.6.
Qiu Ze plays Lin Mo. Image source: Stills from the web drama ""
Detective Chinatown 2
" Detective Chinatown " is one of the domestic suspense IPs that has attracted much attention in recent years. Since the first film was released in 2015, the three films in the series have received a total of more than 87 100 million yuan in box office.
Although true reasoning is a label shared by the "Tang Tan Universe" movie and the online drama, from the "suspense + comedy" style of the movie to the bizarre and thrilling plot of the first season of the online drama, the change of the protagonist has also brought about changes in the content style. Variety. The second season changes the hard-core reasoning texture of the previous work and uses more space to discuss the motive of the crime, trying to create a new style of "suspense + realism". The continuous attempts of the "suspense+" mode also brought controversy and discussion during the broadcast of the series.
Is there a trade-off between "suspense" and "realism"?
Since "The Hidden Corner", suspense themes have gradually entered the public eye, and the "suspense+" model has become a means for suspense dramas to break through the interesting circle and enter the mass market.
"Suspense + Fantasy" "The Strange Stories of the Tang Dynasty" introduces illusions and monsters from Eastern legends, adding a Chinese weird atmosphere to the suspense story; "Suspense + History" "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" and " Under the Fancheng" "" and other drama series restore the ancient cultural landscape and geographical climate, and complete the popularization of traditional culture in the suspense plot; " Crime Hunting Illustrated Book ", "Thirteen Years of Ashes" and "The Three Brigades" are "suspense + criminal investigation" The representative work presents the bitterness and difficulty of the police team investigating cases; "The Long Season", which is "suspense + realism", uses personal destiny to glimpse the grand theme and tells the story of personal destiny that cannot be controlled by the changes of the times. In the multi-line narrative Hidden metaphors of human nature... The "suspense+" mode allows suspense stories to be integrated into the characteristics of different types of dramas, placing the plot of the investigation in a broader background of the times, and combining local aesthetic styles to shorten the distance with the audience. I hope the audience can relate to the bizarre story.
web drama "Detective Chinatown 2" chooses the creative mode of "suspense + realism". In the "Angel's Melody" unit, in addition to uncovering the psychiatrist's criminal motives, it also presents the grief of a girl who was abused by her stepfather, a boxer who was excluded by the powerful, and a mother who lost her only child; in "The Devil's Breath", Using the mysterious cult organization "Jing Xin Hui" as a clue, it tells the story of ordinary and hopeless migrant workers in a fast-moving society who are addicted to online live broadcasts and fall into paranoia; the story of the "Amusement Park" unit is reminiscent of the "Room N Incident" .
director Yao Wenyi told Jiemian Entertainment: "The background of the story in the first season involves rich businessmen, property competition and other strong setting content. In the second season, the focus will be on more social issues and explore more. The evil that may exist around us ordinary people."
In the "suspense + realism" model, domestic suspense dramas have shifted from simply reasoning about the truth to describing social reality and exploring the depth of human nature; they no longer just focus on the protagonist, but outline diverse characters The group portrait explores the crux of the times and society; it does not stop at writing about the good and evil of human nature, but reflects on the roots of good and evil.
Picture source: stills from the web drama "Detective Chinatown 2"
From this perspective, the web drama "Detective Chinatown 2" indeed presents both suspense and social issues in the text content. However, the "suspense + realism" model also brought negative reviews to this drama.
One of its controversies stems from the balance of suspense and social issues in the plot.The difference between this drama and other "suspense + realism" dramas is that the protagonist of "Detective Chinatown 2" watches the victims or perpetrators in the quagmire as a bystander, and the supporting characters are responsible for presenting "social issues" "function, the protagonists of other dramas are those who have experienced it. The protagonist of the story must have an independent investigation process, and the discussion of "social issues" also needs sufficient space. Therefore, in other dramas, discovering the mystery of the suspense story through the eyes of the protagonist and presenting "social issues" through the protagonist's experience go hand in hand, but in "Detective Chinatown 2", the weight of the suspense story and the weight of "social issues" Independent of each other, the increase in the weight of the supporting characters will inevitably be accompanied by the decrease in the reversal of the detective story.
In fact, the core of "Suspense+" is still suspense. Meticulous reasoning and strong reversal of the plot are the basis of the suspense story. The profound social significance and humanistic care are just the icing on the cake.
"Suspense+" and "Tang Detective Universe" developed
The "Detective Chinatown" series updates movies at a rate of one every three years. As the story extends from Thailand to the United States and Japan, the world's famous detective rankings "crimaster" "The sense of presence is also gradually strengthening. The first season of the web drama "Detective Chinatown" aired in 2020 turned its attention from the movie protagonists Qin Feng and Tang Ren to the detective Lin Mo in "crimaster". The second season of the web drama made kiko on the list also become main character. The introduction of new protagonists in web dramas is an expansion of "Tang Tan Universe", and the exploration of the new style of "Suspense+" is also an attempt to develop IP around the "crimaster" list.
In the view of Wang Tianwei, one of the directors of the show, "Detective Chinatown" already has the conditions to try "suspense+": "Since the beginning of the movie, "Detective Chinatown" has always had elements of comedy. The element of horror has been added. When we are creating, we also hope to retain the elements that the audience likes, such as reasoning and comedy, while also exploring richer expressions on this basis."
uses "crimaster" to "Tang Detective" The IP development method in which the protagonists of "Tangtan Universe" are connected and each generates independent stories has once made "Tangtan Universe" considered to have the possibility of developing a Chinese version of "Marvel Universe". In the development of the IP universe, Marvel is a pioneer and a lesson learned from the past. The decline in the reputation of the works will inevitably backfire on the entire IP. The failure of Marvel movies such as "Captain Marvel 2" and "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum of Madness" in reputation and box office has caused Marvel to frequently question the twilight of its heroes.
Marvel’s precedent proves that creating high-quality content is the core of IP development. While the IP of the web drama "Detective Chinatown 2" is seeking novelty, it may also need to rethink the degree of compatibility between the new style and the IP's tonality.
