January 21, 2023 issue | Issue 3123
"Someone asked me, is it worth it to hurt myself so badly in order to save a suspect? I just thought there was a living life in front of me. Everyone makes mistakes, and this is when we especially need to restart our lives and redo our choices. ”
After the 12th episode of "Crazy" was broadcast, An Xin (played by Zhang Yi) This speech, which was called "Fengsheng" by netizens, was widely spread. It is not only An Xin's exhortation to his comrades, but also his self-summative monologue. This kind of compassion and love rooted in the police's compassion and love for individuals evokes the audience's memories of An Xin's past and has won deep resonance.
He once sent dumplings to Gao Qiqiang (played by Zhang Songwen), who was humble to the dust on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, fought hard in an undercover mission, and was stabbed through the arm by steel bars while saving the life of a criminal. He is worthy of everyone and is worthy of it.
On the other side, Gao Qiqiang, who completed the "triple jump" overnight, was walking towards him proudly, and the two only had a slight eye contact, and there was no cordial contact with each other. Since then, one is different and two wide, like a strange road...
This scene, which is scheduled in advance for the famous scenes of the 2023 TV series, marks the end of the first phase of "Crazy" and further mobilizes the audience's desire to watch.
As an anti-black drama, "Crazy" brings people a steady stream of surprises: the macro context is clear, starting with the provincial education rectification stationed guidance group sinking into Jinghai to carry out education and rectification work, and then asking about the whole process of the breeding and development of criminal and evil forces.
The meso-texture is real, presenting the complex ecology in China's social development in an all-round way.
The amount of microscopic information is extremely large, from the change of clothing of characters, the evolution of criminal methods of underworld forces, and the changes of the times to listen to thunder in silence. It is not so much an anti-gang drama as a history of social change, which shows the country's determination and strength in the stage of normalization of anti-gang crime and evil, and promotes the demeanor and perseverance of political and legal cadres and police.
Black and white are written in the spiral of fate
An Xin and Gao Qiqiang's fate spirals and are depicted extremely ingeniously.
An Xin is a noble man in Gao Qiqiang's life, appearing at his most downtrodden moment and handing over a life-saving straw. Gao Qiqiang took the straw, unexpectedly triggered the hidden attribute, and slid into another abyss.
The image of one positive and one evil has taken shape, but they are not a simple connection of positive and negative stereotypes in the traditional sense, but rely on countless self-consistent details and accurate lines to pile up flesh and bones.
Gao Qiqiang's transformation from a diligent fishmonger to a self-depraved Yiliuke has the influence of his growing environment. In the past, I had no choice, I was used to being bullied without power and power, and even the economic resources on which to survive were caught in the hands of others. After borrowing An Xin's name Fox Fake Tiger Wei, he was feared and cared for like never before, and the pleasure and refreshment of not being at the mercy was addictive.
More importantly, as a calculating businessman, he knows exactly what it would mean for him and his family if everything was torn apart. Thus, the factor of sin beats in the blood, like a closed valley being slammed open, the wind blows in endlessly, and the situation begins to develop in an irreversible direction.
At first, it was just for his livelihood, then for his family, and then before the end of the first stage of the play, he met Chen Shuting (Gao Ye).
In Gao Qiqiang's fishy life, it is almost impossible to enter the world of such a character, let alone get her. Chen Shuting's "nobility" has a fatal attraction to Gao Qiqiang, who is in the mud. Achieving class leaps through commitment to the other side is a social norm.
Gao Qiqiang's experience is a manifestation of social syndrome, and it is also due to human nature, but it is not logical and inevitable.
At the very least, An Xin's way of treating him should make people believe that the way of the world has not changed, that things cannot be reversed, and that a reassuring future can be sought through reasonable and legal means.
Just like Anxin, from beginning to end, people only seek peace of mind. He is an uncompromising arrogant branch, even if he knows that there is a 90-degree vertical cliff ahead, he will run desperately for justice and victory.
His situation is obviously not much better than Gao Qiqiang, obviously he did not rely on relationships to get to the top, but he was named a "relationship household", and he was pointed at all the time; It is clear that there is an opportunity to make meritorious performance, but it cannot be fought for because it wants to "avoid suspicion"; Knowing that the undercover mission was nine deaths, he took the initiative to go into battle and prove that he had never received "preferential treatment"...
For An Xin, the gossip of others is just a sparse raindrop without an umbrella, and the responsibility and mission of the police are the source of his perseverance all the way. He is not the "stunned" police image in similar dramas in the past, nor is he the "chosen son" who clears the customs all the way, others cannot fully understand him, he simmers himself, simmers slowly, and makes himself rich.
At the commendation meeting, his speech was loud and woke up his comrades-in-arms. His tearful eyes are like drills, spiraling into the audience's heart.
Gao Qiqiang's pursuit of profit and avoidance of harm, greed for profit and forgetfulness is a kind of human nature. But what we must never ignore is that Anxin's heart of justice and sacrifice of life and forgetting death is also a kind of human nature.
Draw change in silence
Idle pen in the silent, thunder in the silent. Another great feature of "Crazy" is that it shows the changes in society on multiple levels.
The design and use of props needless to say, from PHS with good and bad signals to a smartphone in everyone's hand, it is less than twenty years; From unresponsive, blurry old CRT displays to liquid crystal displays; From the manual unlocking Santana to the high-end car with technology and comfort, it not only evokes the memories of the audience, but also highlights the intentions of the main creator.
It is worth mentioning that the evolution of criminal methods and methods of underworld forces is also systematically sorted out in the play, and at the same time a relatively complete presentation of the rural underworld forces, a criminal organization with Chinese characteristics.
When Xu Jiang (played by Jia Bing) was rampant in Jinghai, he still pursued the principle of the supremacy of force, and the phrase "it is useless to talk, let others mourn" highlights his principle of dealing with things, and the scene of leading his younger brothers to smash the field with a golf club reflects his arrogance and domineering. And the act of kicking and breaking the so-called traditional rules of the rivers and lakes and not putting "the old man's words and harmony" in his eyes also marks the passing of an era.
Rising quickly and destroying faster were the prominent characteristics of the underworld and evil forces during this period.
By the time Gao Qiqiang rose, the underworld forces had learned to package themselves. Gao Qiqiang is an entrepreneur with a successful career, and when he encounters obstacles, he no longer personally strikes or directly attacks the target, but is accustomed to forcing the other party to comply through twists and turns. Sun Tzu's Art of War, which An Xin recommended to him a few years ago, is already familiar with by heart.
A stark change was reflected in the fact that in 2000, Gao Qiqiang would use the hands of the police to get rid of Xu Jiang. In 2006, his son was kidnapped, and the mastermind behind the scenes directly pointed to his nemesis Li Youtian (played by Han Tongsheng), obviously he could repeat the trick, but he chose to solve it in his own way, not only to spare any enemy, but also to maximize the benefits.
Li Youtian's side will not sit still, and his son even launched a public opinion offensive against Gao Qiqiang through reporters. The two sides went back and forth and fought for several rounds, but the scene of direct bayonets in 2000 never appeared again.
The exterior of this series is reflected in Gao Qiqiang's clothing. In 2000, he was still at the bottom of society, dressed unfettered, and running around in overalls was the norm. In 2006, after Chen Shuting's transformation, the quality of clothing increased significantly, but it was still in a high-profile state. In 2020, the dress tends to return to the basics, and even has the meaning of moving closer to the system trend, giving people a sense of harmlessness.
Director Xu Jizhou said that from 2000 to the new era, with the development of China's economy, the form of criminal and evil forces is also constantly changing, and "Crazy" hopes to outline a change in Chinese society in the past 20 years by telling a story of sweeping away evil forces.
In fact, not only the changes in the criminal and evil forces, but also the changes in the country's anti-gang crime policy and intensity have also been highlighted in some idle writing.
In episode 11, An Xin and his colleagues get ironclad evidence of the murder, but they are helpless about the backers behind it. The colleague said, "Xu Jiang is not satisfied? It would be nice if we could get things done now. This episode reflects the limitations of the "crackdown on gangsters" at that time - only the public security organs as the main body cannot completely eliminate gangsters and evil.
I believe that in the storytelling of 2006 and 2020, the audience will see more clearly how the country's anti-gang crime and evil actions have been transformed and improved step by step, which will also be a major essence of this play.
Weave confidence with introspection
What is "Crazy"?
Xu Jizhou said that Chairman Mao had a poem called "Furious rush for me to fall from the sky", which is a natural phenomenon that indicates a sudden storm and is also a metaphor for a violent tide or a huge change. The meaning of this name is that the nationwide anti-gang crime and evil eradication operation in the new era is like a wild rush, to wash the society clean.
This is actually an accurate summary of the drama "Crazy", and it is also its core expression. From a fish vendor to a "black boss", Gao Qiqiang has gradually explored a set of gray rules outside the law in his two-year career. In his eyes, as long as he does not touch certain boundaries, as long as he adheres to these rules, he can be safe, but what he did not expect was that when the torrent of the new era rolled by, those so-called rules were like crisp paper, and they would break at the touch of a button.
Similar expressions were also involved in the feature film "Always Blowing the Stormtrooper" broadcast by CCTV not long ago, and the two were combined to feel deeper.
In addition, behind the "frenzy" also contains the "self-revolution" type of reflection and introspection of the Chinese communists, which is reflected in the outline-style words of Xu Zhong (played by Wu Gang), head of the provincial education rectification guidance group.
"In fact, the original intention of most comrades is good, but in the long-term work, step by step they have relaxed their vigilance, and they have been corroded and drawn into the umbrella of criminals..."
"Why Gao Qiqiang, who used to be a law-abiding citizen, worked diligently, day and night, will change so much later, is because there are indeed some unfair distributions in our society."
Sincere words resonate with people, and thunderous anti-gang crime and anti-evil actions can further enhance the people's confidence. Xu Kang, founder of Liubai Film and Television and producer of "Crazy", said: ""Crazy" should not only give the audience a sense of substitution, but also reflect the efforts made by the party and the state to protect people's lives and property after the 18th National Congress, and generally achieve the harmony and unity of commercial, artistic and social benefits. ”
Dai Ying, senior vice president of iQIYI and chief producer of "Crazy", said, "How to inject unique genre elements into "Crazy", open up a unique narrative perspective, and make it have both social significance is the direction that the main creative team has been working towards. ”
This positioning is easier said than done, and it is even more difficult to achieve. The project volume of "Crazy" is a huge challenge for any drama production unit. A total of 120 days of shooting, more than 600 cast members on site, more than 10,000 group performances, more than 100 filming locations, more than 80,000 square meters of set area, and a total of more than 6,500 costumes in three eras.
Every link is a hurdle. Fortunately, the producer left blank film and television to bear the pressure and showed the greatest sincerity and efforts, from scene setting, to actor selection, from clothing texture, to age sense restoration, they have insisted on achieving ingenuity and intensive cultivation.
It is not difficult to find that in the development of recent years, white film and television have continued to cultivate on the two roads of costume dramas and realistic themes, and have formed a set of unique playing methods, leaving a distinctive brand imprint.
If the costume dramas such as "Chang'an Twelve Hours" and "Feng Qi Luoyang" previously produced by them have achieved "better understanding of the audience and better understanding of classical Chinese aesthetics", then the successive launches of "Criminal Police's Overseas Action" and "Crazy" represent that the TV series production company has also achieved "close to the audience and attaches importance to social significance" on the track of realistic themes. ”
As Xu Kang said, "What we want to make for the people is both interesting and meaningful." ”
【Text/Xu Xinqiang】