Author: Dai Qing
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The greatest success in creating a villain should be based on the work effectively leading the audience’s value recognition as the standard and purpose, rather than maximizing the charm of the villain. This is a test of the director’s artistic control skills, and it hides the creator’s level of understanding, Value stances and emotional attitudes.
The hot broadcast of the anti-crime drama “Hurricane” has sparked people’s evaluation and analysis from multiple angles. Performance is the foundation of the success of the work. The strong acting lineup of the show and the fiery drama make the audience’s enthusiasm for the show even higher. The actor Zhang Yi’s interpretation of the policeman An Xin in the play is very good and touching. Actor Zhang Songwen’s precise grasp of the villain Gao Qiqiang made the audience shine. Others such as Xu Zhong played by Wu Gang, Zhao Lidong played by Bao Dazhi, Chen Shuting played by Gao Ye, Li Xiang played by Li Jian, Meng Yu played by Li Yitong, and Meng Dehai, Xu Jiang, Gao Qisheng, Tang Xiaolong, Lao Mo… many characters are vivid and three-dimensional, which are remarkable.
Measuring the performance level of the villain’s role requires a comprehensive judgment, rather than simply looking at the actor’s acting skills and the charm of the character.The picture shows the stills of the TV series “Hurricane”
Rich Construction of Positive Police Images
In traditional dramas involved in crimes, including anti-crime dramas, the positive police image is limited by the role positioning, and the space for expression is limited. They are upright and jealous, but their personalities sometimes appear relatively single. In this regard, “Hurricane” obviously made a conscious breakthrough. For example, it opened with An Xin’s undercover scene, which gave the work a strong dramatic tension, strongly highlighted the wisdom and bravery of this young policeman, and enhanced the richness of the positive policeman. . Undercover police officers have to face identity screening and the test of life and death, which is more dramatic, and has multi-faceted performances of good and evil and adaptability. This is similar to the situation of our agents who penetrated into the enemy’s interior in spy war dramas, and it also makes the positive police image The shape is more plump and three-dimensional.
But at the same time, “Hurricane” follows the creative principle of realism, rather than blindly creating drama and legend. In the play, because of the intervention of the protective umbrella, An Xin quickly exposed his undercover identity and was almost wiped out. Although the drama of this passage is strong, its sense of reality and the fact that An Xin was almost abandoned and destroyed are even more shocking. It is chilling to see the evil forces covering the sky with one hand. Since then, An Xin’s situation has gone from bad to worse, but in order to pursue the truth, he has almost died without regret, which arouses the audience’s love and respect; With deep sympathy and love, Zhang Yi’s expression and eyes are naturally peaceful, but it shows his sincerity and beauty. His kindness is also reflected in his caring and reforming of prisoners, his life-saving protection of witnesses, and his humanitarian attitude towards criminals. His kindness and compassion present the light of the soul of a Dharma protector, moving toward the light and dispelling the darkness.
It is precisely the above-mentioned multi-angle, multi-level and multi-dimensional in-depth excavation that “Hurricane” has completed the rich construction of the positive police image.
The villain is “deeply rooted in the hearts of the people” and needs to be measured
Zhang Songwen is a good late blooming actor. In recent years, he has become increasingly popular with the audience for his wonderful acting skills in popular film and television works such as the online drama “The Hidden Corner”, the movie “Revolutionary”, “1921”, and the TV series “Heart Home”. As we all know, the hit drama “Hurricane” helped him reach the top of the fire. The work digs deep into Gao Qiqiang’s grassroots start from the grassroots, his choice in accidental changes, his step by step blackening and degeneration, and finally his destruction. powerful interpretation.
Hot discussions on the Internet followed, and the voices among them were mixed: there was no lack of praise for Zhang Songwen’s superb acting skills, and they also expressed sympathy for Gao Qiqiang’s bullying in the early stage. Sin, only cheered for his grassroots counterattack, and even fell into the charm of the characters who made a fortune quickly, strong wrists and full of “human touch”. There are also netizens who excessively express their indifference and even contempt for the heroic police officer An Xin. Such a cognitive and emotional attitude is not only disturbing and unpleasant, but also thought-provoking.
In the drama involved, why many audiences always prefer the villain is a very interesting phenomenon. This may be related to the long-term influence of gangster movies in Europe, America and Hong Kong. People are familiar with the charismatic gangster roles in film and television dramas such as “The Godfather”, “Shanghai Beach”, “God of Gamblers” and “Breaking Bad”. It also formed the image pedigree of gangster characters in film and television dramas. However, the narrative ethics carefully constructed by the creators in these works are sometimes forgotten or ignored by the audience. or the protagonist is born in a gangster family and has no choice, or his relatives are killed and revenge for them, or poor and ill, on the verge of extinction, or because of good fortune, they are always drawn. They slipped into the abyss of crime and couldn’t turn back when they had nowhere to go, but these gangsters all had their conscience, righteousness and blood. Therefore, although the identities of these characters are still gangsters and underworlds, they are representatives of the good in evil and the good in evil in such works. At the same time, no matter how decisive they are, how powerful they are, how extraordinary their courage and strategy are, they cannot escape the fate of destruction in the end, which arouses the audience’s sympathy and understanding of their tragic and desolate fate, as well as their fascination with the personal charm of these characters. The social foundation of the underworld in Europe, America and Hong Kong before 1997, especially the narrative ethics cleverly set by the creators, all endow this kind of creation with its strong artistic vitality and the rationality of the audience’s love.
In mainland dramas involving crimes and anti-crime dramas, the confrontation between good and evil takes place between criminals/underworld forces and the people’s police/national law enforcement agencies. When mainland dramas involved in crimes and anti-crime dramas draw on previous creative experience, they should not follow suit, and it is impossible to blindly copy them. In this regard, we learn from the creative experience of American and Japanese medical dramas and carry out localization transformation. There is a big difference, let alone the narrative ethics of the text to highlight the aesthetic value of the so-called villains.
In the history of the creation of dramas involving the theme of the case in the mainland, “the villain’s aesthetic value is too high” was once created improperly, which is still fresh in people’s memory. Representative examples include Guo Xiaopeng in “Black Ice”, Nie Mingyu in “Black Hole”, “Conquer” Liu Huaqiang, etc., these villains are all played by famous actors, and the characters are vividly portrayed. However, these works have more or less creative flaws or deficiencies, precisely because the aesthetic value of the villain overwhelms the positive police image, causing the audience to have too much sympathy or even fascination with the villain, and mislead the audience about the value. . Of course, although not all audiences lack this kind of discrimination, in the context of national conditions, creators do need to grasp the measure of artistic expression, so as to avoid adverse social effects and violate the original intention of creators, and prefer works of higher quality. It is a pity that the loss is huge.
Measuring the performance level of the villain’s role requires a comprehensive judgment, rather than simply looking at the actor’s acting skills and the charm of the character. After all, the dramas involved in the case and anti-crime dramas are not ordinary fast-moving consumer goods, and their social and cultural functions are crucial. The greatest success in creating a villain should be based on the work effectively leading the audience’s value recognition as the standard and purpose, rather than maximizing the charm of the villain. This is a test of the director’s artistic control skills, and it hides the creator’s level of understanding, Value stances and emotional attitudes.
(The author is the deputy director and professor of the “Communication University of China” base of China Literary Criticism)
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责编：崔益明 ]