Since the success of the first season of the American drama "True Detective" in 2014, the traditional barrier (also known as the chain of contempt) between the big screen and the small screen in Hollywood has become increasingly blurred. It seems to be a trend for famous film directors to "go overseas" to produce TV series. "Sugar" is another TV series that follows this trend.
Although the main poster of the series is Colin Farrell, who has become more and more popular in recent years, this is not what attracted me to the trap. After all, Farrell is at the forefront when it comes to crossovers. Before joining the ranks of Hollywood movie faces, we have long admired his acting skills in the second season of "True Detective".
"The Mystery of Hugh" poster
The real attraction of "The Mystery of Hugh" that makes people feel "have to follow" comes from its director Fernando Merrills. The name of this Brazilian may be a little hard to remember, but as long as you name "City of God", "The Immortal Gardener", and "The Succession of the Popes" that topped the 2019 awards season, everyone has to admit Fernando's directorial resume Really tough. Therefore, as Director Fei's first attempt in a TV series, we must also pay attention to "Mysterious Detective".
At first glance, you will guess that this is a suspense detective drama. If you are willing to think about it a little more, you will probably think that the word "mystery detective" means that the protagonist of this drama, Detective Sugar, also has a mystery. , or maybe his investigative techniques are unconventional. These are two very reasonable guesses, and they are consistent with the progress of the plot to a certain extent. However, I think most viewers did not expect that this suspense drama with a slow pace, frequent inner monologues, and even a somewhat literary style, Just watching it, it turned into a science fiction drama!
Stills of "Detective Sugar"
To be honest, it was not until Sugar's true identity was confirmed that I belatedly recalled many foreshadowings in the first half of the series. You really can't blame me for being slow. The main reason is that the atmosphere of "Suger" has the tone of a gangster film from the Golden Age of Hollywood. It is melancholy and frustrating, and can often trigger dark emotions that have nothing to do with solving crimes. In addition, the director arranged a large number of flashbacks of classic black and white film clips to match the inner activities of the protagonist Sugar, and the heartache that Sugar mentioned at the beginning - the disappearance of his sister. This looks like a case through solving a crime. It is a detective story template about psychological trauma, rather than a sci-fi cyberspace that can be related to alien planets.
Subject to this "reasonable" imagination created by the early part of the series, I even repeatedly ignored Sugar's emphasis on his own abilities - including his fighting ability to draw blood, superb language skills, and his participation strange gathering. Halfway through watching the show, I guessed that Sugar was a retired spy. After all, being a spy could explain his extraordinary abilities and the gathering of the small group he belonged to. But when the sci-fi trend suddenly hit me, I was shocked and suddenly slapped my thighs and screamed. He said: "Yes, how can any spy use the kind of rhetoric and enthusiasm used by Huge to describe the crossroads of Shinjuku, Tokyo?"
Director Fei's arrangement was really under the nose of everyone. Trapped.
Stills of "The Detective"
I was indeed pleasantly surprised, but at the same time, it is difficult for me to definitely evaluate whether "The Detective" is a good crime drama. Putting aside the slow pace and gloomy style, Fernando used a wide variety of photography methods in this short drama of only eight episodes - close-ups, surveillance angles, looking up, hand-held photography, etc. Even for an ordinary viewer who usually only pays attention to the development of the plot, it is difficult not to notice the frequent changes in camera language in this drama. Not to mention, when Sugar falls into his personal spiritual world, the screen suddenly cuts to black and white old movie scenes. These methods will definitely not work well on the small screen on the big screen, especially in a drama that focuses on suspense and detective work. episode - because the two almost deliberately interrupted the audience's rhythm of following Sugar's detective story.
If the series ends before Sugar's ultimate identity is revealed, then I will say that as a famous director who is famous on the big screen and holds many professional awards, Fernando is suspected of showing off his skills in "Sugar", so that The style of this play is greater than the plot.But when the matter of aliens suddenly surfaced, I could no longer be so sure. The story in the last two episodes has completely moved away from the suspenseful proposition of "looking for the missing girl", and the trial of human beings and humanity rooted in most of Fernando's film works has changed with Sugar's identity. Ready to come out.
When I saw the ending, those old movie scenes were cut in, those emotional tremors and reflections aroused by human behavior in Huge's heart, those conversations about human society between him and his kind, and the words often used to express different POV perspectives. The camera and language switching suddenly became coherent and had a common reason. There is no doubt that Fernando is not making a science fiction film, but in the story of "Hugo", he needs to use an outsider from an alien planet who is responsible for observing human beings to complete the statement and judgment of human nature. .
Sugar does not share the same value system with every human being involved in the case, but through investigating the case, he has gone so deep into the deepest darkness and secrets buried by every human being. He observes human beings with the same caution and calmness, whether they are murderers, victims, accomplices, instigators, those who intend to bury the truth, relatives, lovers, or friends. Therefore, what he examines is not a specific human being. , but their commonality as human beings.
However, does Fernando want to express more than that? It’s hard for me to tell.
Stills of "Mystery Hugh"
The instigator behind the murderer left more motives for giving up. The chaos, confusion, anger and darkness of human nature attracted the man behind the murderer to no longer be satisfied with being just an observer. This also made Sugar finally decide to abandon his home and step into the unknown entanglement with mankind. The human nature in Fernando's heart may be this abyss, which brings the two alien visitors who once had the most in common to the ends of good and evil. When they stare at each other through human nature, they cannot detect the distance between this shore and the other shore. I only see myself in the other person.
I always feel that this is the biggest "mystery" question in "Mysterious Detective Huge".
