Original title: “Mist Theater” was again in Waterloo How the suspense drama broke through the creation bottleneck
This year is the year when suspense dramas are in volume. A large number of suspense dramas such as “Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog”, “Twelfth Second”, “Double Detectives”, “Truth”, “Double-faced Detectives” and “Fatal Wishes” have emerged in domestic dramas. The overall standard and reputation are far below expectations. In particular, the “Octagonal Pavilion Mysterious Fog” and “Fatal Wish”, which are under the aura of the “Mist Theater”, have broken down one after another. It can not help but make people wonder: Why did the domestic suspense drama hit by the craze so soon encountered a creative bottleneck?
In the streaming media era, watching TV dramas on small screens has become the mainstream mode. In order to cater to the interest of distracted audiences, while avoiding the disadvantages of small screens in presenting spectacles, creators increasingly prefer to create compact and exciting story spectacles, thus providing fertile ground for the development of suspense dramas. Since suspense elements can be freely grafted with various types of crime, reasoning, action, science fiction, etc., suspense drama reflects a very broad growth space. It is not difficult to understand why there has been a “suspense fever” around the world in recent years. In the author’s opinion, the core of suspense drama lies in suspense, which lies in the presentation of various uncertainties, such as the blurring of the story, the secret of human nature, or the complexity of reality. An excellent suspense drama should have meticulous suspense stories, complicated characters or in-depth social observations. The reason why many recent domestic suspense dramas have fallen short of expectations is precisely that they have not achieved an organic combination of several aspects.
Lack of story strength:
Unintentionally suspenseful or pretending to be suspenseful
Suspense drama creation naturally pursues audio-visual effects, such as eye-catching crime scenes and exciting soundtracks. But the basis for measuring its level lies in the quality of the story. A good suspense drama should have enough story strength, that is, the plot should be logical, reasonable, and innovative. However, the domestic suspense dramas that have swarmed in the recent past have more or less content flaws.
One is unintentional suspense. In some works such as “Octagonal Pavilion Mysterious Fog”, the suspense element only plays a supporting role for other types of elements. Like many suspense dramas, “Octagonal Pavilion Mysterious Fog” also deliberately chooses a small city as the narrative space, trying to weave suspense by using the complicated interpersonal relationships of acquaintances and society. However, the whole work focuses more on the family ethical relationship with the help of the murder of the young girl Xuanzhen, focusing on the influence of the original family on the growth of the individual, while somewhat ignoring the weaving of the suspenseful reasoning level. In other words, the play is dressed in the cloak of a suspense drama, but it has the core of a family drama. This is largely due to the fact that director Wang Xiaoshuai prefers to use family ethics narratives to observe the changes of the times. His previous films such as “Green Red”, “Intruder” and “Forever” are nothing more than this. In all fairness, “The Mysterious Fog of the Octagonal Pavilion” is a relatively in-depth analysis of the complex relationship of the Chinese family. It unearthed the secret emotions and unspeakable wounds between the characters. But the play has the typical aesthetic taste of the “sixth generation” directors: preference for handheld photography, attention to daily details, and emotional rendering. This kind of “slow suspense” of literary style and life flow inevitably makes many viewers who look forward to the concentration of suspense and the excitement of the plot create a gap.
The second is pretending to be suspenseful. Although there are many domestic suspense novel creators, the high-quality works that can be adapted for film and television are very limited. Perhaps it is eager to catch up with this “suspension fever” shuttle bus. Many suspense dramas, especially original dramas, generally lack the patience of intensive cultivation, leading to obvious patterns and homogeneity. For example, some works are not suspense enough and can only be collected by photography and soundtrack; some works suffer from “reversal obsessive-compulsive disorder”, reversing for the sake of reversal, the plot is forced to advance, lacking reasonable logic. The sci-fi mystery drama “Fatal Wishes”, which is followed by “Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog”, provides another negative case: the story clues of the first few episodes are inexplicably confused, the explanation of the relationship between the characters is unclear, and the core suspense is not quickly derived, resulting in the suspense effect basically relying on The audience is also disturbed by all kinds of messy and unnecessary plots.
The lack of character depth:
Paper man and tool man in power
In addition to the plot stimulus brought by the continuous suspense, the charm of the suspense drama is that this genre is very suitable for creating complex and multi-faceted characters. What the suspense points to is often the variability of people’s hearts and the faintness of human nature. “The Hidden Corner” takes the young Zhu Chaoyang step by step into the abyss as the main line, touching the most hidden corners of human nature, and shaping many complex and plump characters such as Zhu Chaoyang and Zhang Dongsheng. However, it is a pity that the recent emergence of domestic suspense dramas generally lacks depth in characterization, and the characters are mostly reduced to paper figures and tool figures.
The so-called “paper man” refers to the character is flat, thin and superficial. Taking “The Twelfth Second” as an example, the characterization of the play appears to be opposed to good and evil, either black or white. The criminal police captain Zhao Yichen and other positive figures are awe-inspiring, while the underworld leaders Zeng Jingyuan, criminal Yang Qian and other negative figures are completely bad. The background and depth of each character can be seen at a glance. Even though Xu Han/Xu Lian twins are set in the play, which brings some suspense and tension to the plot, it still lacks in-depth exploration of the inner world of the characters. In other words, the shortcoming of the play is that it does not depict the gray and wandering of human nature. In addition to the “paper man”, there is also a “tool man” deliberately set up purely to advance the plot. If the “paper man” emphasizes the flatness of the character, then the “tool man” emphasizes the simplification of the character’s function. For example, in “The Mysterious Fog of the Octagonal Pavilion”, Liu Xinli, who always gives ideas for solving the case at the critical moment when the case falls into the fog, is a typical “tool man”. This character seems to be outside the complex relationship between the characters in the play, and the main function of existence is to promote the development of the case. His growth background, emotional state, etc. are left out.
In addition, the actors’ performances may not be blamed for the recent difficulty in producing high-quality domestic suspense dramas. Suspense drama is different from ordinary idol dramas. It needs a face with a story instead of a delicate and glamorous face. The success of “The Hidden Corner” is inseparable from the steady and solid acting skills of many actors such as Qin Hao, Zhang Songwen, Wang Jingchun, Liu Lin, and Li Meng. In this year’s suspense drama, the performances of the actors in “Octagonal Pavilion Mysterious Fog” and “Double Detective” are quite remarkable. Especially whenever Duan Yihong appears, the picture seems to have a texture, it seems that his vicissitudes of life and deep face are born into a suspenseful crime drama. On the other hand, “Fatal Wishes”, Feng Shaofeng, who has passed the years of confusion, is still working hard to practice the exaggerated performance method of blowing beard and staring, while the young Fan Chengcheng seems to be reduced to an expressionless line machine. Even Wen Qi, who has performed well in literary and artistic films, does not have much room for play due to the limitations of the play.
Lack of realistic strength:
Reality is greater than reality
In addition to discovering the subtleties of human nature, excellent suspense dramas can always trace the roots of the social reality behind the complex human nature, thereby promoting the stability of social order and the improvement of the social legal system. In fact, each type of film and television drama essentially reflects some kind of anxiety in real life, and its social function is to satisfy the public’s desire and imagination and to eliminate anxiety. Suspense dramas, especially crime suspense dramas, often show some structural problems in social development. For example, the value of “The Silent Truth” is that it depicts how a group of little people watch and help each other in the cold long night, unremittingly seek dawn and truth, and start thinking about reality through the protagonist Jiang Yang’s cancer and tragic sacrifice.
However, recent domestic suspense dramas generally lack real reality while presenting a sense of superficial reality. The so-called reality here refers to the active involvement in the reality and social issues surrounding the characters. Although “Octagonal Pavilion Mysterious Fog” unremittingly asks about the emotional relationship between individuals, this emotional relationship ends in the family space, and does not show a vision that extends further to society and reality. Although “The Twelfth Second” involves the issue of human trafficking, it is mainly used as the background of the heroine’s growth, and the narrative focuses on the contest between good and evil without much strategy. “Double Quest” seems to use the space and history of the Northeast to create a gloomy, rugged sense of reality, but lacks in-depth inquiry into the realistic soil and social structure of the characters’ growth. The bleak northeast border city, the far away state-owned forest farm, and the scattered brothers are just the backdrop for this story of revenge and murder. In fact, in recent years, some regional spaces that have frequently appeared in suspense film and television dramas in our country could have carried more historical and realistic issues. However, in “Double Exploring”, some are more about the reality created by space and tone, rather than actually sinking into the crowd and experiencing the reality of society.
All in all, due to lack of success in terms of story intensity, character depth, and realistic strength, the domestic suspense drama in 2021 failed to achieve the expected results. This may be an inevitable situation under the genre boom, but it was a little caught off guard. It reflects the entrenched production inertia of domestic dramas that emphasizes quantity expansion and neglects quality development, and provides a mirror for the survival of suspense dramas in the future: content and quality are the way to victory. At the moment, a large number of domestic suspense film and television works such as “Who is the Murderer”, “Gold Rush”, “The Flame on the Plain”, and “The Wind Rises Luoyang” have been or are waiting to appear. Whether these works can get rid of the current creative dilemma faced by suspense dramas, we will wait and see. (The author of Li Ning Li Ning is a post-doctorate in literature and art and a lecturer at the School of Art and Media, Beijing Normal University)
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