Original title: Show justice in the contest, make the main theme of the times exciting
The TV series “Sweeping Black Storm” is adapted from real cases screened by the Central Political and Legal Committee. It has a shocking emotional impact and a rough and heavy realistic texture, and promotes the main theme of the era of “sweeping evil and eliminating evil” and “maintaining social fairness and justice”. The drama was broadcast simultaneously on Dragon TV, Beijing Satellite TV and Tencent Video. It had a stunning start. Powerful actors such as Sun Honglei, Liu Yijun, and Wang Zhifei competed on the same stage. Zhang Yixing and Jiang Shuying added to the cold emotional tone of the drama. A beautiful stroke of youth. What is particularly rare is that the drama has cleverly pioneered the art of expression, using the genre and style of a detective film to complete the process of detection in the suspense of the ups and downs of the plot, and outline the complex network of interpersonal relationships. The organization chart of the evil forces. At the same time, the play has the courage to face some dark corners of social reality, and actively demonstrates the belief that justice must prevail. In the struggle with evil forces, it abides by the bottom line of the rule of law and insists on governing the country according to law, rather than “restraining violence with violence.” The audience has gained a great deal in emotion, thought and aesthetics.
In addition to the superposition of suspense in the plot and the deepening of the structure, “Sweeping the Dark Storm”‘s humanized and life-oriented character creation, the integration of metaphors in the scene, and the full-strength actors’ performances, etc., all make the audience refreshing: creation The writer not only pays attention to the plot and the documentary sense of the characters, but also pursues the appeal of film-like images in the audio-visual language, which represents the direction of exploration of Chinese dramas involved in the case.
Humanized and life-oriented character creation
As can be seen from the title, the core drama conflict of “Sweeping Dark Storm” comes from the contest between “justice” and “evil”. However, the play does not simply show that the “just” side is marching toward victory with an indomitable will, reiterating the general understanding of “Skynet is restored, and neglected without omission”, but instead achieves an organic fusion of character creation and plot development. Because of the complexity and sensitivity of the plot involved, Liu Yijun’s restrained performance style allows the audience to feel the majesty and solemnity of Yang Yong, the positive character in the play, and the professional characteristics of non-sexy but amazing insight. Several villains and Li Chengyang, the “gray figure”, have a surprising breakthrough in the handling of the play. Li Chengyang was once a criminal policeman and was slandered as a “black policeman”. He became the No. 2 figure of the New Commander Group after starting business with Ma Shuai. He is not only proficient in law and company management, but also has a strong temperament as a person, cold and strong, calm and unrestrained. , Keen and sharp. However, Li Chengyang did not forget that he used to be a policeman, and he was kind and righteous to Marshal. This is the true face of human nature, and it is also an in-depth inquiry into the psychological depths of the characters in the play.
For Li Chengyang, Da Jiang, Ma Shuai, Haige, etc., the play is not characterized from the duality of black and white, but from different aspects to show the multi-faceted and complex nature of humanity. Da Jiang looked fierce and vicious, with shocking scars on his face, but in front of Xing Fan, he was still a cautious, shy, and considerate emotion. Even the dish tyrant Yang Dong is cruel and wicked in monopolizing the supply of vegetables in Luteng City, but he is filial to his mother. Hu Xiaowei, the director of the police station, was in a fight with the evil forces, but he also had a certain sense of right and wrong in his heart, because the desire for promotion led to the exile of conscience and justice. In these characters, we see a characteristic that is quite grounded, and even a gleam of light occasionally flashes in the mottled human nature.
How to keep the characters away from the conceptual and symbolic labels of good and evil, in addition to actively exploring the complexity and psychological depth of the characters’ experience, the play is also good at using specific props to expose the characters to secular fireworks. For example, it is rare to see characters showing such a unified preference for thermos in a TV series. Some of these characters are positive, some are negative, and some are gray, but they return to the origin of “human” as a flesh and blood person who values health preservation and longs for a normal life. This can be regarded as an effort to portray the characters in the play, so that the words, deeds and details of the characters often trigger a knowing smile and emotional resonance in the audience.
Metaphorical Meaning in the Setting of Positive and Negative Scenes
There are so many characters in “Sweeping the Dark Storm”, the audience is sometimes overwhelmed. The play should not only highlight the personalities of the characters, but also be good at reflecting the characters’ situation, personality, psychology and other information through the setting of the scene.
There is a calm atmosphere between Luo Shanhe’s gestures, his speech is not hurried or slow, he is not shocked in everything else, and there is a mound in his chest. Luo Shanhe loves talking about work with people around him by the artificial lake in the hotel. The choice of this scene is quite consideration. Luo Shanhe’s work requires a broad vision, a lofty perspective, and a general demeanor to lead the overall situation. The play makes him walk out of the office, but also wants him to walk out of certain limitations and confinement, towards a wide open and clear.
Gao Mingyuan, the boss of Nagata Capital, also has the steady and restrained qualities of a middle-aged person, as well as a refined and detached temperament. Gao Mingyuan’s office is decorated in a simple and elegant style with an antique appearance. Gao Mingyuan likes the tea ceremony and likes to let young women play the guqin. The room is full of real and fake cultural relics, and even a rockery is placed in the passenger seat of the car. If you only look at the surface, Gao Mingyuan is a Confucian businessman with considerable connotation and cultivation. However, Gao Mingyuan was extremely cold and treacherous. He could send someone to kill Mai Jia’s mother, and at the same time make fun of Mai Jia. He likes to use the feature phone to call people while recording at the same time. He uses all kinds of despicable means to seek benefits, and he has to pretend to be generous and open-minded in appearance.In this way, the play combines the style of Gao Mingyuan’s office with his
Truth forms a strong contrast for people
There are a few more important scenes in the play, the offices of government departments, and the venues for activities of evil forces. The large meeting room where the supervisory team works is spacious and bright, mainly with warm colors; Dong Yao’s office is gorgeous and style, but the curtains are thick and often closed, and the interior is dark; Yang Yong’s office is mainly white in color, with highlights during the day. The light comes in. Through the setting of these scenes, the emotional tendency of the creator is self-evident.
As for the place where Yang Dong conspired with the younger brothers, it was very dark and gloomy, with an unspoken sense of mystery; Sun Xing spent most of his time in nightclubs or hotel rooms. It was rich and magnificent, but also Full of depravity. In these places, Sun Xing is generally satisfied with food and color, and life has a sense of boredom and evil surrounded by extreme emptiness.
In this contrast, the countryside where Yang Dong’s mother lives has a sense of tranquility in rural life. When Yang Yong went to visit Mother Yang, she was alone in the yard chopping moldy dried vegetables. Her language was simple, her emotions were sincere, and she was sincere. There is a kind of openness and naturalness in this kind of life. There is no need to cover up, no need to pretend, and it will not fall into emptiness due to the simplicity of life, and it will not fall into anxiety due to great pressure. Yang’s mother’s life seems simple, but it is a state of life that everyone in the play can’t reach. They are either constantly running because of their duty and sense of justice, and they are always going forward; or because of their endless thirst for desire, they are intriguing and intriguing. , Fearful; or because of the oppression of evil forces, it is necessary to devote all efforts to make a living. In this way, Mother Yang is not a simple cutscene character, but exudes a rich taste of life: when Yang Dong grabbed money in a cruel way, just to better fulfill his filial piety, but he did not know that it was already at odds with his mother’s wish. It is the paranoia and blindness after going astray in the understanding and choice of life; when the evil forces in the play and the umbrella behind them are pursuing power, wealth, and desire arbitrarily, they seem to be climbing to the peak of their life, but they are away from the truest. , The most peaceful and peaceful life is drifting away.
Complicated characters provide space for performance
The characters in “Sweeping Dark Storm” that provide the actors with the most space for performance are Li Chengyang and Gao Mingyuan. Li Chengyang’s experience is the most complicated. He often feels restless at the center of the torn and torment of multiple identities, and he has to be calm. When dealing with various relationships, Li Chengyang needs to play the roles of gangsters, entrepreneurs, buddies, and loyal servants. This requires actors to interpret the differences in these identities with different temperaments and actions. Li Chengyang is still a severely traumatized figure. He can’t forget the shame of being kicked out of the police circle, and the decay of being beaten up by Zhao Erlong and locked up in a cage. This caused him to feel dizzy and tinnitus easily when he was nervous. Faults, which provided a physiological explanation for his neuroticism, and also provided a psychological basis for some subjective lens shots.
Judging from the appearance, Li Chengyang often wears a black trench coat, which looks chic and calm. At the same time, Li Chengyang also prefers emerald shirts and ties, and occasionally wears dark green suits. In this “unusual way” dressing style, Li Chengyang needs to use black to cover up his inner waves, and dark green to show a mysterious personality. In the performances, Li Chengyang is mostly silent and stern, with an aura of not anger and prestige, and the charm of a mature man. Li Chengyang also likes to laugh very much. This kind of laughter has different meanings on different occasions and for different people. Sometimes it looks simple and honest, sometimes it is more insidious, and occasionally there is a kind of aggressive and offensive. When Li Chengyang is alone, he usually has serious thoughts and sharp eyes, but when he is with Da Jiang, he occasionally has a lighthearted, humorous and slick tone. It can be said that “Sweeping Dark Storm” has almost become a stage for Li Chengyang to show his personal charm, and actor Sun Honglei has also become the acting performer in the play.
Although Gao Mingyuan was “appointed” as the Minister of the Underground Organization Department of Luteng City, his external image was gentle and calm, with a kind of “lupin towel” wise man demeanor. As the plot progressed, Gao Mingyuan’s power map was slightly impacted, and he began to show anxious impatience.
As a TV series, the main force of “Sweeping Dark Storm” is still from the lines, and sometimes narration is used to explain part of the plot. Although this processing method is a normal operation of TV dramas, it will somewhat dilute the image power of the drama. Moreover, the rhythm of some lines in the play is too slow, lacking the emotional strength and plot density of the kind of verbal confrontation, which also causes the rhythm of the plot to be too slow. Of course, the play also strives to contain mystery in some lines to portray characters and express themes.
“Sweeping Dark Storm” is not a melodrama that only pursues complicated plots and exciting scenes. It reveals the sordidness and despicability of corrupt officials in the face of integrity. Some black industry chains are behind the management gaps, and it examines the human nature. How vanity, depravity, and ignorance contributed to the spread of these underworld forces, and even expressed the central government’s determination to “sweep down evil and evil” and its original intention to serve the people. The significance of the times and political weight are obvious to all.
(The author is Gong Jinping, Associate Professor of Fudan University and Deputy Director of the Film Art Research Center)
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