"The Storm Chaser" starring Wang Yibo , Li Qin , Wang Yang is approaching its finale. The drama has attracted continuous ratings with its high-energy plot, passionate characters, and unprecedented financial perspective. heat. This drama about the growth of a red financier has a story pattern rarely seen in general spy dramas: the fate of a small character is used to express the changes of the great era, and the protagonist's belief selection process is used to reveal the grand proposition of historical choices. This work It also brings creative inspiration to spy war dramas that are in a bottleneck period.
Unveil history with a little-known financial battle
"Storm Chaser" is the first spy war drama broadcast on the screen this year, but the whole story is not driven by spy wars. There is no strong suspense or ultimate mission in the spy battle line. , everyone’s identities are known at the beginning of the story, and the spy war as a sub-line of the plot is more like a theme coat for the entire drama. The plot of "Storm Chaser" is actually a story about the financial war of the Republic of China that is rarely shown on the screen and has a certain historical basis. The real main line of the entire drama is the road of faith.
The TV series begins with a small cut like "Wei Ruolai's Working Diary". It tells the story of Wei Ruolai, who was appreciated by Shen Tunan, a senior adviser to the central bank, and came from a poor family with great ideals and ambitions and successfully joined the central bank. In the play, there is a clear distinction between the concession and the Chinese world. On one side is the high-end battle of wits among the immortal bosses in Shanghai, and on the other side is the simple warmth between people in the old houses in the alley. Going to work every day, Wei Ruolai holds his identity card and travels between the two worlds.
When you first watch Qibao Street, you will think that the plot is a detailed description of this slum where the lower class people live, just to unfold the story from a civilian perspective and outline the fireworks and human feelings of Shanghai in the 1930s. But after watching the series, I realized that this is the whole story. The biggest foreshadowing of this work. When the story reaches its climax, the plot uses finance as a thread to connect two worlds that originally had no intersection, and all the clues broke out in the event of the construction of treasury bonds.
A treasury bond explosion caused countless people to lose their fortunes. Awen jumped off the building and Aunt Zhou went crazy. Correspondingly, Yu Shiqing, Zhang Mingquan, Kang Shaojie and the "eldest sister" of the banker behind the scenes, these bureaucratic compradors, used "blood-sucking" to obtain unjust benefits. Indulge in wealth and wealth. "Storm Chaser" uses the Financial Exchange and Qibao Street as the viewing frame to show people wailing everywhere, truly showing the relationship between finance and people's livelihood, allowing the audience to see how the high-ranking Kuomintang ruling class uses financial means to rob and rob everyone from above and below. class of people’s wealth.
Wei Ruolai saw that the construction bonds originally issued because they were "available to the people" were turned into tools to satisfy selfish desires by the power that controlled the economic lifeline, and the national credibility that was regarded as life by the financial elite was gone. Witnessing the fierce cruelty of the financial war and the corruption and incompetence within the Kuomintang made Wei Ruolai doubt his ideal of financial service to the country.
Long personal growth confirms the inevitability of historical choices
In the past, the protagonists of growth-oriented spy war dramas on the screen were revolutionaries who clearly sided with the Communist Party at the beginning, or progressive young people who resolutely embarked on the road of revolution in the middle of the story. , and Wei Ruolai is completely different from the conventional spy hero character setting. The growth trajectory of this protagonist has a certain passiveness, and it even does not match the high-spirited title of "Storm Chaser".
Wei Ruolai in the play is a financial genius, but he is a little confused about the country's political future. It wasn't until his brother, an underground party member, entrusted him with a mission before his death that Wei Ruolai was forced to get involved in the confrontation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party due to family affection. On the one hand, he kept the secrets for the underground party out of his good heart. On the other hand, he carefully avoided the political whirlpool of the ideological dispute and tried to stay out of it. During repeated contacts with Shen Jinzhen, an underground member of the Communist Party of China, Wei Ruolai showed vigilance, evasion, and hesitation.
Under the pull of complex emotional positions such as family affection, mentoring and apprenticeship, Wei Ruolai's faith choice is unsettled, like an upright coin that cannot easily fall to either side.After being tortured in the prison of the detective team and the critical moment when his life hung on the execution ground, Wei Ruolai withstood the trials again and again, but for most of the series, he still kept a distance from the red faith, even if he risked his life to announce After being forced to flee to the Soviet area after discovering the truth about the Treasury Bonds case, he still did not immediately embark on the revolutionary road.
There is almost no spy war drama that can pave the way for the protagonist's long process of belief transformation, and this is the brilliance of the work: using the objective perspective of Wei Ruolai, a witness, to lead the audience back to the historical scene to clarify the story. Why history chose the Communist Party of China makes the whole story more convincing in terms of theme expression.
In the play, from the acquisition of Xingxia Bank, the resumption of trade control, the tariff reform incident, the tungsten sand business case, to the rickshaw pullers’ strike and demonstration, the Songhu Anti-Japanese War, and the dispute between Wei Ruolai and Shen Tunan that led to a breakup The counterfeit currency case, the treasury bond crisis... all dramatic events actually have one ultimate goal: to allow Wei Ruolai, who is determined to serve the country but is coerced by the times, to see the truth about the entire country.
There is no preaching. "Storm Chaser" restores the text in the history textbook into a vivid film and television story by starting a financial battle together. The general public is no longer a vague concept, but Awen and Aunt Zhou who yearn for beauty. It was the faces of the common people who were once full of hope and then turned to despair that broke down Wei Ruolai's last line of defense, prompting him to awaken and fight back.
At the end of the series, Wei Ruolai, who was in his hometown in Jiangxi, personally felt that "the Communist Party and the people are of the same heart." After thinking carefully, Wei Ruolai finally figured out that "finance is just a tool. In the hands of bad people, it is a killing knife, and in the hands of good people, it is a plow for plowing the fields." He rekindled his dream of serving the country through finance and decided to go to Ruijin to realize his dream. Ideals and aspirations, at this time, Wei Ruolai's eyes became bright again.
In the story of "The Storm Chaser", Wei Ruolai's reconstruction of faith is not accomplished overnight. The more detailed the depiction of the protagonist's long process of climbing out of the ruins of his original faith and recognizing the historical trend, the more in line with the character's prudent pursuit of truth. Personality characteristics can more closely confirm the inevitable development of history.
"Two Heroes Narrative" The collision of beliefs is full of tension
In this questioning story about the choice of faith, Wei Ruolai also has two contrasting characters: Shen Tunan and Lin Qiaosong. There is a scene in the play: Wei Ruolai met Lin Qiaosong, the captain of the detective team who was imprisoned as a "scapegoat" at the gate of Songhu Security Headquarters. Lin Qiaosong told him that he used to be just as hot-blooded and have a sense of justice, and he thought that Wei Ruolai would become a criminal sooner or later. Same as myself. These two young people both had ambitions to serve their country. In the end, one chose to perish, while the other went to the light and grew into a true revolutionary, taking completely different paths.
The affectionate master-disciple relationship between Shen Tunan and Wei Ruolai is the most touching character relationship in "The Storm Chaser", and the collision of beliefs in the "two heroes narrative" in the play is also the most shocking. When the construction treasury bonds collapsed, Wei Ruolai saw the suffering of people's livelihood under the financial crisis and advocated that the strong men should cut off their hands and investigate to the end. Shen Tunan, who has illusions about the Kuomintang, believes that telling the truth will arouse public anger. This "involuntary" attitude is in huge contrast with the aloof and iron-blooded image of the character when he first appeared. Shen Tunan is determined to serve the country but is unable to save the day. Financial reform The failure made him a "scapegoat" himself.
During the fierce master-disciple conflict, Wei Ruolai couldn't bear it and resigned on the spot. He described that "if you have abscesses on your body if you don't remove them, you will get septicemia." He then asked Shen Tunan, whom he once admired: "Have you abided by your heart?" Use lies to defend credibility?" When Shen Tunan said, "Keep the green hills here," Wei Ruolai responded loudly: "There are tigers and wolves in the green hills that will devour the flesh and blood of the people. What's the use of keeping them?" I am ashamed of myself in this mountain!" At this moment, the battle between master and disciple is full of tension, and the whole scene has precise lines and profound meanings.
"Storm Chaser" has a story pattern that is rare in general spy war dramas. This work also brings a lot of inspiration to the creation of spy war dramas that are in a bottleneck period.First of all, genre fusion is an innovative way for spy war dramas. For example, the modern spy war drama " rivals " was a great success because it added the element of mid-life crisis, and the era spy war drama " Secret and Great " was successful because it integrated " rival " The story of "Workplace Newbie" is refreshing. "Storm Chaser" takes the route of financial espionage, which is unprecedented in its own way. Secondly, spy war dramas have high requirements for stories, but characterization is also fundamental. As long as the characters make the audience believe it, the audience can take on the story no matter how legendary it is. Civilian perspectives and life-oriented expressions can be effective ways to shape spy war characters. means. In the past two years, many spy war dramas have had a bad reputation, mostly because they only focus on story weaving and narrative skills, but have lost the power to move people's hearts at the "Tao" level. The blood and emotion of the battle of faith have always been the spy war. The soul of the play.
