Original title: "workplace metamorphosis" in modern spy war dramas
The foggy Qiu Chan, as a well-made spy war drama this year, has been greatly anticipated by the audience due to the pre-publicity’s rendering of suspense and the addition of many old drama bones. In fact, the beginning of the plot is desperate. The intense and exciting rhythm of the previous episodes really fits the artistic expression level of the spy war drama. However, with the end of the whole drama, most of the audience’s complaints about the straightforward and simple plot, the rigid emotional line of the heroine, and the unfocused modeling of the male protagonist constantly surfaced. The typological exploration of domestic spy war dramas still faces bottlenecks.
The "Death Game" in the Fierce Workplace Competition
Compared with the successful representative works of spy war dramas in previous years, such as plot against, lurk and pretender, Qiu Chan’s handling of "the struggle between the enemy and ourselves" does have obvious narrative confusion. On the whole, the plot still follows the strong plot narrative of the spy war story, full of danger and suspense, and weaves various tests for the protagonist. Compared with the portrayal of domestic heroes and the description of human nature, the workplace confrontation between Ye Chong and Miyamoto in the play is relatively more exciting.
In the fierce competition in the workplace, two young and energetic colleagues have different positions and beliefs. They use the superficial personal grievances and even the competition for the same position in the office as a seesaw, but in fact they have just completed the hiding of the hidden personnel. In the pursuit, catching the mole and suspecting his colleagues almost never stopped, from the office of the Military and Political Department to the scene of the arrest and interrogation, and even setting up sentry surveillance near the colleague’s residence. From the point of view of the workplace, the two are really devoted to their work. Dai Sato Zang, the Major General of the Military and Political Affairs Department of Xiangdao, is more like a leader who is embarrassed everywhere. The most repeated lines seem to be exhorting two subordinates to "I hope you will stop here". As a superior, while mediating the contradictions between subordinates, I hope they will be used for their own purposes; On the one hand, I hope that they will form a compelling relationship with each other and even deal with powerful subordinates. Here, the humanized contest between the enemy and ourselves, which is common in spy war dramas, has been clearly transformed into a workplace contest.
Generally speaking, in this seemingly infighting in the workplace, in fact, the righteous man will be portrayed as a superhero with superior wisdom and vigorous skills. In the play, Ye Chong did keep his disguise in every crisis, but it was always slower than Miyamoto’s, which led to the continuous failure of the joint, and comrades were constantly exposed and arrested, constantly sacrificed and transferred, and then entered the next cycle. In the play, the role of Xiaozhuang almost swept all the affairs of Ye Chong, and the point of fierce confrontation between the male and the female was also diluted. If it is intended for the suspense mechanism of plot narration, it can only be regarded as a strong spiritual stimulus of "death game", which is useless for shaping the protagonist.
In addition, in the spy war drama, it is also a common skill to sublimate the sense of tragedy in the form of the hero’s sacrifice in the face of potential crisis and the viciousness of hostile forces. Before the arrival of this established sad moment, the complicated story is not the standard to judge whether a play is good or not, otherwise it will fall into the formal game of suspense reasoning and hinder the expression of the theme.
Youth idols and the infinite land of "pan-spy war"
The high confidentiality of hidden front work makes underground workers more like a contradiction. Qiu Chan is the male actor Ye Chong — — Code-named "Qiu Chan", an underground worker, chose a youth idol. Allen’s face is chiseled, with all kinds of uniform suits, suits and white shirts, and he can play the piano. As a hidden and forbearing person, The Infiltrator invariably highlights the modern aesthetics of the characters, which seems to usurp the host’s role. Stereotyped facial stereotypes can’t match the development of characters’ personalities.
From Sparrow, which started with the appearance of "youth" spy war in 2016, to Qiu Chan, which is cold and lonely today and needs to be reborn, it is of certain significance for the younger generation to pay attention to and inspire their growth, and its influence and communication effect are also obvious to all. In the consumption context of youth idols, there are often designs that pretend to be lovers or couples, and Qiu Chan has not jumped out of this pattern, setting up scenes where female characters are jealous or have misunderstandings. In the past spy war dramas, this usually existed as an auxiliary line of family ethics narration. However, if emotional entanglements can’t really play a role in narration, they are just coquetry of female characters, which will lead the plot to a boundless land of "pan-spy war".
The revolutionary cause of spy war is not a child’s play. Female roles can be weak, but they must be honed and grown. The female images in Qiu Chan also lack the smart and capable side of women in traditional spy war dramas. In addition to Junko Qingquan’s excellent business ability, Jin Xiang was portrayed as a "gangster female leader", while He Ying, the female host, focused too much on the emotional relationship with the male host. The embarrassment of identity and emotional displacement make the audience only rely on the existing experience, and they are constantly frustrated in the heavy decryption of the plot. This gamification experience, which is not equal to the real feeling, further dispels the seriousness of spy war.
In addition, it is a skill for spy war dramas to create a sense of urgency in time and space to construct unique urban images and complete dramatic conflicts in a certain time and space structure. For example, the New World, with the main battlefield in Beiping, the Peace Hotel, with the closed space in Manchuria in the northeast, and the Kite, with a spy war narrative around the mountain city of Chongqing, etc. Qiu Chan also takes wartime Hong Kong as the main activity scope of the characters, and inserts some actions of Myanmar and Shanghai. From the blockade of virtual space to the breakthrough of external information transmission and exchange, the regulation of time and space provides an enchantment for this clever narrative. But it is a pity that the drama’s creation of Hong Kong’s urban features in a specific period is mediocre in regional characteristics and has not left a clear and profound impression on people.
Since 1958, when the film showed the outstanding underground workers of the Party dedicated themselves to the revolution, the image of hidden front workers in these years has been stereotyped as "dancers at the tip of a knife", and everything except faith and mission has been left behind by individuals. The TV series "Eighteen Years of Enemy Camp", which premiered in 1981, was recognized by the academic circles as a new beginning of domestic spy war drama because it showed the image of a Communist party member who went deep into the tiger’s den regardless of personal safety. It can be seen that the enduring foundation of domestic spy war dramas still lies in the performance of revolutionaries on the hidden front and their indomitable underground work. Qiu Chan’s expression of workplace squeeze in the hidden front, the borrowing of youth idol elements and the expression of special regions in special times are also an exploration of new types of elements in domestic spy war dramas to some extent. Although it is not satisfactory in handling, it is still instructive.(Author: Peng Liuying, Associate Research Fellow, Film Art Center of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Editor in Charge of Film Art)
