It’s time for a suspense drama.
Pan Yueming's "White Night", Qin Hao 's "The Hidden Corner", and Bai Yu's "The Silent Truth" are all suspense dramas that have been well received and sold well in recent years.
By last year, , Fan Wei, , and Qin Hao's " The Long Season " became another ceiling-level masterpiece.
There are two main reasons why suspense dramas have become a craze.
First, it has inherent advantages.
Suspense dramas not only mean brain-burning plots, thrilling suspense battles and intriguing foreshadowings, but can also be combined with elements such as criminal investigation, period and even love. No matter how you shoot it, it will work.
Secondly, it actively broadens the scope of creation.
Compared with traditional genres, suspense dramas can explore the boundaries of scale more boldly, and can go deeper into cases, human nature, and even human society.
Although, this year's suspense dramas were a bit "calm" for a time. Spy drama, served collectively.
However, he is actually silently holding back his ultimate move.
This 28-episode suspense drama, which will be broadcast tonight on CCTV 8, combines the advantages of various suspense dramas mentioned above. It is very likely to rewrite the current situation of weak domestic suspense dramas this year -
" Gloomy Fire ".
The director is Yao Xiaofeng who started the counterattack of spy war dramas with "Storm Chaser".
stars, Tong Yao , Zhang Xincheng , plus Ye Zuxin , Wang Zixuan, Tian Xiaojie, Huang Lu, etc.
had a full line-up and became the first hit of Kubai Night Theater. As soon as
started airing, it ranked first in prime-time ratings nationwide, with a premiere rating of 1.8, which is really good.
Why?
After watching 3 episodes in one go, I found that the best thing about the suspenseful story caused by the murder in this millennium town is its strong interaction with the audience.
The source of pleasure for the audience is not the so-called truth coming out, but the personal participation in reasoning and judgment and the experience of the characters' choices during the viewing process.
The atmosphere in the small town in Jiangnan is becoming more clammy and sticky.
This story of two-way redemption is even warmer.
peels away the shell of suspense, and human nature is the dim fire.
01. Story: The angle of solving the theme of Rashomon in the small town is eye-catching. The three-layer "setup" makes it more interesting the more you watch
Many viewers watch "Dark Fire" because of the wonderful suspense setting of the original work. Coming: In a millennium town, a murder case in the closed town led to the story of a beautiful woman and an infatuated boy.
And Yao Xiaofeng, who has demonstrated his storytelling ability in "The Storm Chaser", did not waste this setting. Less than half a minute into the story, the murder has already occurred.
And the story’s layer-by-layer deconstruction and layer-by-layer encryption of suspense has just begun.
The first level of the plot is called "secret", which is a small town mystery.
buckle is a trap to lure the audience into the game.
On the night of the millennium, when everyone was celebrating the handover of the century,
Xu Yi, a businessman in a small town in the south of the Yangtze River, was tragically killed by a knife.
The reporter, Xu Yi’s wife Nanya (played by Tong Yao), believed that she was being chased by her husband and was forced to kill her husband by mistake.
But the criminal investigation team leader played by Tian Xiaojie raised a question: Do you believe that my tall husband chased and chopped him all over the house with an ax, but he was stabbed to death with one knife?
Why Xu Yi died and who killed him are what the audience is most concerned about at the beginning, and it is also the main thread that the creator buried in the entire drama.
Next, the audience will follow the protagonist's perspective and peel off the cocoons to find the truth about the murder.
gives the result first, and then works backward to deduce the reason. This is a common method used in all suspense dramas.
But this is only the first set of "Dark Fire".
The second set, witnesses.
Lin Fanglu, the newly arrived deputy captain of the reconnaissance team, soon discovered that things were not that simple.
The case happened at one o'clock in the night. Zhou Luo (played by Zhang Xincheng), the only witness at the crime scene, reported the case at six o'clock. What was he waiting for?
He insisted, "I saw Xu Yi chasing Nanya, and Nanya accidentally killed Xu Yi." It seemed to be exactly what Nanya said, but was it too consistent?
On the other hand, as Lin tried to collect more evidence, the prejudice of the town residents against Nanya gradually became apparent.
Logically speaking, Nanya has been insulted and abused by her husband for many years. As she said, the entire Qingshui Town knows about it.
But people were not sympathetic at all, and instead talked a lot about Nanya.
Because Nanya is the most beautiful woman in the town, man, take a look at her beauty.
Because of jealousy, women often spread rumors about Nanya, saying that she was immoral and had a bad reputation.
The rumors in the village, in turn, became the so-called evidence in Nanya's husband's mouth: "Can't you sleep with anyone?"
A beautiful young woman with good looks, but unlucky rumors were spread and she had to experience a violent beating from her husband.
As she said, life was like hell. A woman who couldn't bear it ended up killing her husband. Was it a counter-kill in self-defense or a well-planned murder?
In her conversation with the criminal police, there are clues hidden in every sentence, which makes people unpredictable. It seems to be a simple small town murder case, but it involves the fate of a small town beauty and the hidden evils of human society, which is still firmly involved. caught the audience's nerves.
Suspects, witnesses, investigators... A murder on Millennium Night gradually brought to light the hidden relationships among everyone.
The two well-laid sets are like two grabbers. They set the tone of "Dark Fire" from the very beginning and gave the audience a reason to continue to follow the show.
The second level of the set is called a puzzle.
If you want to kill someone, you have to have good guys and bad guys, but "Dark Fire" just doesn't follow common sense. After
presented the character traits and relationships related to the small town mystery, the creators hurriedly created multiple puzzles and the influx of characters with different positions made the whole mystery even more confusing.
One, the mystery of the witnesses;
The male protagonist Zhou Luo (played by Zhang Xincheng) is the most important witness in this case.
He is a famous academic in a small town. He easily passed the university, but was dropped out of the prestigious university and returned home. Therefore, he became the laughing stock of the villagers in the town.
The criminal police captain put it in one sentence: He scolded him fiercely, just because he was jealous.
But the strange thing is that Zhou Luo said that he saw Nanya killing someone in self-defense, but he did not choose to call the police immediately, and even disappeared for a while.
Regarding the deceased, he said that death was not a pity. He also said that he saw the deceased beating Nanya many times and beat her very hard. That tone was no longer sympathetic, but filled with hatred for the deceased's mistreatment of Nanya.
Then what is his feeling for Nanya?
What did Zhou Luo do during the hour and a half he disappeared?
"Are you giving Nanya time to surrender?"
Or are you trying to clean up the aftermath for Nanya? What's more, he was the mastermind of the case, and Nanya was just taking the blame for him?
Second, the burned car;
At the beginning of the play, the deceased's car was burned that night. Who burned it? Why is the car burning?
Why is Zhou Luo running so fast with his child in his arms?
What shady evidence is there in the car?
Third, the hidden relationship between Zhou Luonan, Ya Lin Fanglu;
In the story, Lin Fanglu initially refused to be transferred to Qingshui Town on the grounds that he came from Qingshui Town and it was difficult to handle cases in the acquaintance society.
But he was exposed by the words of his future father-in-law: Which town is not a society of acquaintances? Do you have other reasons?
The reason is that he is actually Nanya's classmate, and he even had the opportunity to take Nanya away.
So Zhou Luo asked him politely later: Don’t you need to avoid suspicion?
And that sentence: What happened to you, Nanya, why did you have to let her die?
It seems that the relationship between these three people will also be one of the factors that determine the progress of the case.
Fourth, Timeline;
The further the plot develops, the easier it is to find that the key to solving this puzzle lies in time.
Why did Nanya come to the police immediately after her husband died? But the witness Zhou Luo came to report the crime five hours late?
The key to solving the doubts about time lies in the relationship between the two.
Is it really Nanya who committed the murder? Or Zhou Luo? Or are the two colluding?
Is there even a fourth possibility: that neither of them actually killed anyone?
Fifth, the Bridge Case;
In the story, in addition to the Millennium Night murder case, there is also the previous Bridge Case, which is also the real focus of Lin Fanglu's investigation.
The bridge is a shoddy project, and the person who constructed it illegally was Xu Yi, the domestic violence man who was killed.
The two cases are involved in various ways and are intricately linked. What is the causal connection between the
cases?
The stories are nested layer by layer, and the creator's "misleading" to the audience also creates a maze of stories. It is not that easy to break through. The third layer of
is the inversion.
The main creators worked very hard to investigate the truth of the case. In just two episodes, they gave the audience two "big twists" that almost made me cringe.
First, this may not be a murderer-finding game.
The answer is more complicated than you think, or simpler.
That is, when forbidden love encounters a murder case, will it be a deep love or a twisted love?
Nanya fought back, and the busiest person was Zhou Luo. The reason why he did all this was to protect her and deal with the consequences.
There is only one reason for a top student to give up his future and join the game: he loves her.
But, this is only the first reversal.
But the second layer is reversed and here it comes again.
During this process, in order to be with Zhou Luo, Nanya took desperate risks and designed to kill her domestically violent husband.
And used Zhou Luo to create a self-defense witness for himself?
So, the real Rashomon is: no one knows the truth about Millennium Night, including the "eyewitness" Zhou Luo.
These two reversals are both a trick and a misleading, and they also emphasize the main line and theme of the whole play.
The love between the male and female protagonists is the "bottom" of the entire drama. The creator did not hesitate to overturn this bottom line and told the audience, "Lying to the police will not hinder the facts I saw with my own eyes that night."
"There are some things in this world that will never change." There is no so-called true answer. "
" Because the truth only exists in the hearts of the people involved. "
From this, using suspense as the genre element and the death of the domestic violence man as the starting point, "Dark Fire" has found that so far this year. The most novel angle to solve the problem.
The suspense is increased layer by layer, people's hearts are intertwined, and the clues are intertwined and moving slowly like vines. The suspenseful style of the story is now revealed.
In the small town of Jiangnan, the most cold-blooded thing is the human heart, killing people without blood.
What happened that night?
An extreme environment. It can often force answers that you didn't expect.
02. Acting skills: Zhang Xincheng, Tong Yao plays the leading role, the old drama is wonderful, but the most amazing one is the "long-tongued woman"?
"Dark Fire", the biggest key is definitely the male and female protagonists.
Because the focus of the entire story is on the male and female protagonists, if one of them cannot hold up the play, the play will collapse.
First of all, it is Zhang Xincheng.
In many dramas, he plays a sunny boy.
That’s why Yao Xiaofeng wanted him to play the enigmatic male protagonist Zhou Luo.
I think Zhang Xincheng acted very well.
It’s hard to endure being criticized when you return to a small town.
Faced with the police's repeated questioning, it was hidden.
Faced with the woman he loves, he panics.
But his best performance is pure.
A young man with a high IQ puts himself in danger for the woman he loves. Every look and every movement he makes is actually panic.
But he is so clean, so clear, with the heat of a young man.
Facing Nanya, the audience can already feel the flow of love with just one look, that secret urge to express love.
The tenacity hidden in his eyes can make the audience believe that a young man who has never experienced anything can survive in a confusing situation until the end.
Let’s talk about Tong Yao.
The biggest difficulty with the role of Nanya is that she must be both pure and powerful.
The scene in the drama of Nanya walking through the town after buying groceries should remind many people of "The Beautiful Legend of Sicily".
This is the key to the character creation of Nanya. She did nothing wrong. Her fault is beauty.
is jealous of her beauty, so she has to endure the verbal violence from the small town.
Tong Yao naturally displayed the charm of a mature woman, making the audience believe that a young man would be willing to go through fire and water for her.
's several interrogation scenes are also very good. There is no mystery, but the expressions and movements can be used to show that the heroine is hiding secrets.
If Tong Yao and Zhang Xincheng can perform the extreme pulling in the original work, this role will be perfect.
Let’s talk about the supporting roles.
The criminal police captain played by Tian Xiaojie, on the surface, is always cracking melon seeds and strictly abiding by the duties of a policeman, but in fact, he has the humanity and sophistication of a small town person.
is suspicious of Nanya.
is protecting Zhou Luo.
casually said, "This is a good boy, this matter has nothing to do with him." The change of attitude of the characters of
also shows the complexity of human nature.
As for the young detective Lin Fanglu played by Ye Zuxin.
From the seriousness of repeated investigations and evidence collection at the beginning, to the wisdom of Zhou Luo's repeated questioning, to the confusion after the past with Nanya was revealed, it extremely accurately reflects the psychological state of the character: he wants to find out the truth, but he can't help it. Suspect.
did a good job.
It is precisely because of the superb performances of the actors that "Dark Fire" is full of tension in the suspense scenes, full of emotions, and the characters' motivations are also well-founded.
But the biggest surprise is the extras playing the townspeople, especially the aunts.
perfectly interpreted the appearance of a "long-tongued woman" who chews her tongue. Whether it was vivid nonsense about Nanya's personal life style or completely unfounded speculation about the reason why Zhou Luo dropped out of school, the performance made me feel angry.
But then I thought about it, isn’t this how I love gossiping about other people’s privacy?
When such acting skills are integrated into the story and into the characters, "Dark Fire" seems to have a real foundation and a different kind of human tension.
03. Perception: Breaking through the scale, suspenseful texture, and image aesthetics, absolutely stunning
After watching the first three episodes, you have to ask me what is my most direct impression?
I would use two words to describe it, that is "texture"!
The suspenseful atmosphere is quality!
scale breakthrough and texture!
image aesthetics are textured!
First, the suspenseful atmosphere
As mentioned above, the suspenseful case of Rashomon is thrown out at the beginning of this drama, and the audience is led into a puzzle at the beginning.
also uses plot foreshadowing to lead everyone into reasoning, and then reverses the details through the police investigation, showing a tense and exciting suspense atmosphere.
Especially the Rashomon-like truth keeps the audience's hearts hanging throughout the whole process, with many twists and turns.
This kind of strong suspense will make the audience feel reluctant to leave, and they will want to read on, pushing the audience to follow the plot step by step.
Second, the scale breaks through the scale of
. It is not about the forbidden love between a beautiful young woman who was domestically abused and a college dropout who was regarded as a freak.
refers to the scale of the human heart.
In the past, there were few domestic suspense dramas that used a small town as the basis to make such a thorough reflection on China's human society.
Beauty is not guilty, but carrying a jade is a crime. What kind of worldly and human thoughts are behind
? This show is so cruel.
Third, small town era aesthetics
The director of photography for this drama is Zhang Wenjie, who has filmed "The Awakening Age", "The Alliance of Military Advisors" and "人世".
director Yao Xiaofeng is a photographer and has filmed "Jasmine Blossoms".
, these top video experts in Chinese dramas, have jointly created a poetic and nostalgic millennium style, which constitutes the ultimate lens aesthetic of "Dark Fire" and brings the audience back to that era in their memories in one second.
One is time. The detective in the play also wears a green police uniform, comes with an enamel basin and a hero pen as souvenirs, the students ride on the 28 bars, and the computer is an old-fashioned cube computer.
prop scenes are full of details, restoring a millennium.
The second is space. Clearwater Town.
The rapeseed fields, the small town of Wuyuan decorated with green bricks and green tiles, and the dreamlike water town in the south of the Yangtze River, every scene is poetic and picturesque.
The humid town, the dim light and shadow, the gloomy sky, the darkness is full of colors, the elements of suspense and romance are intertwined, forming a textured and unique aesthetics, as beautiful as a cage.
All these outline the dark fire of people's hearts in this mysterious town.
04. Breaking the situation: Domestic suspense dramas have embarked on a new road
After watching 3 episodes, you can easily find that "Dark Fire" is different from other domestic suspense dramas.
Compared with the truth itself, it is more like an experiment on human nature in the context of an extreme story.
Human nature and love form an intertext.
"Dark Fire" uses a strange murder case to try to dig out the part of human nature exposed below the surface, the deepest hidden glacier.
also attempts to explore the plight of women, acquaintance society, domestic violence, violence of public opinion, and the right and wrong of human nature reflected in the small town under the shell of suspense and investigation -
Rumors always spread faster than the truth.
Human nature is always more complex than we imagine. It is not only black, nor is it only white.
Human feelings Society not only has human feelings, but also secular prejudices.
What Nanya cannot escape is not only the clutches of domestically violent men, but also the siege of invisible and intangible human hearts.
And what Zhou Luo brought to her was the dim fire called hope.
In terms of subject matter and type, this is the most "special" suspense drama I have watched this year.
The small town in Jiangnan also gives the suspense story a real background, making it easier to bring the audience into it.
The combination of love and suspense, although this is not the first time I have seen it, still created sparks. The best thing about
is that the story does not give up the exploration of suspense because of the love element.
The story and characters are not "intelligent", nor are they cloaked in suspense. Experts are short-sighted...
On the contrary, through the face of suspense and the face of love, this drama has a human warmth and reality. the power of.
Of course, as a suspense drama, "Dark Fire" is not perfect, and there are still problems of one kind or another.
But in this drama, people can see new attempts and breakthroughs in suspense dramas, and they also seem to see the possibility of rewriting the ceiling of suspense dramas this year.
Nietzsche said, stare into the abyss, and the abyss will stare into you.
The young woman who was domestically abused and the boy who loved him were all staring into the abyss.
Love becomes the dim fire that illuminates the abyss.
hopes that this slight fire will illuminate the way forward for domestic suspense dramas in 2024.
