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furthermore, as long as chinese stories cannot develop localized narratives, they cannot complete criticism in a localized context, and such realism will only become curiosity realism and consumer realism.

"the past by the waterside" is of course very good. in the current environment, it is vigorous, three-dimensional, and beautiful enough.

but we hope it can be better and more powerful.

after all, in addition to exploring the human nature that is lost under "edge water", we also want to see what causes the emergence of "edge water" and how we can defeat them.

let such "past events" never happen again in the future.

author: angry little maomao

editor | xiaobai

typesetting | die

"border water past" has finally finished airing.

half a month ago, the launch of "waterside story", the s+-level crime action drama promoted by youku white night theater this year, really became a hit on the internet.

according to yunhe data, "waterside story" firmly occupies the first place in the list of popular tv series, and its market share of effective broadcasts of feature films on the entire network has reached 15.5%.

in terms of the plot, "border water stories" completely fictionalizes a tropical border world in southeast asia called "sanbianpo", and even created a whole set of original language and writing symbol systems - the bomo language.

the main creative team actually wanted to create a barbaric lawless area that is completely different from the cognition of civilized society. here, the law fails, officials and businessmen collude, money and power are supreme, the strong prey on the weak, and human life is worthless.

the original author shen xingxing adapted the novel based on his real experience. in 2009, shen xingxing set foot on the land of jinbianpo by chance and became a truck driver who delivered fake goods to drug dealers. after escaping back to china, he wrote his experience into a novel of the same name and gave it to the talent catcher project for publication.

art comes from life. such a dangerous place, with its extreme realistic grain, can naturally expose the ugly side of human nature more thoroughly and bring more shocking physical and psychological stimulation to the audience.

as a result, a silly college graduate shen xing (played by guo qilin) ​​broke in.

he originally wanted to find his uncle who had been kind to him, but was accidentally involved in the complex and turbulent sanbianpo, and eventually became a truck driver delivering supplies for sanbianpo boss uncle cai (played by francis ng).

the whole play has a single narrative perspective, and the audience follows shen xing into the extremely dangerous sanbianpo.

adventure together——

together, we experience the entanglement of staying and escaping, and the collision and tearing between good and evil.

01

when watching a drama, the most intuitive thing the audience sees is the actors' performances, followed by the plot.

guo qilin, the male lead of the drama, speaks with a strong beijing accent.

of course, a chaotic world needs different languages. in this play, in addition to the exotic bomo language, yunnan dialect, sichuan dialect, hunan dialect, and guangxi dialect pop up from time to time, like a big pot of hodgepodge.

yunnan dialect and sichuan dialect are rooted in the southeast asian background of the story, and are naturally appropriate. hunan dialect depicts the greed and tyranny of sun shan, a gambler on stones, while guangxi dialect highlights wang anquan's shrewdness and cunning.

but what can the beijing accent highlight about shen xing?

shen xing is indeed playing an outsider "intruder" role, which can be out of tune with the surroundings. but we must understand that language is also part of the film's symbol system. when the difference is too great, it will form a negative "alienation effect", and the audience will be distracted.

due to beijing's important political and cultural center status, beijing dialect has a special status in contemporary chinese culture. when guo qilin spoke in the ups and downs of beijing dialect, it was as if people from two different worlds were forcibly pulled together, which was extremely awkward.

speaking of acting, guo qilin's performance as shen xing was okay before he became uncle cai's confidant. he was dull and had never seen the world, but he was also a little smart, likes to show off, and occasionally a little cowardly.

but looking at guo qilin's face, there is no spirit in his eyes. he can't show sadness by lowering his head, and he can't show fear by frowning and shrinking his neck.

this is not a crosstalk or a skit. stylized performances are the least welcome in film and television.

later in the story, when shen xing gained power, he did not show any ruthlessness at all. in such a world where the strong prey on the weak, in order to survive and to maintain uncle cai's trust, he would have to pretend to be ruthless, right?

the most exciting part of a drama is the changes in the relationships between the characters and the twists and turns of their growth arcs. in "kuang biao", where a small fry turns into a big boss, zhang songwen successfully interprets the twists and turns of gao qiqiang's growth arc. before he gained power, he was submissive and fawned on the market tyrant; after gaining power, he was ruthless and killed people without blinking an eye.

guo qilin, however, is still as cowardly and stupid as before, making it difficult to see the character's growth arc.

in addition, the labels such as "crosstalk teller" and "guo degang's son" are too firmly attached to guo qilin. just like shen teng's transformation to play "reverse scale".

moreover, he has a comedic face from the start. how can the audience who are familiar with him suddenly come out of their previous aesthetic experience?

you also have to work hard and truly immerse yourself in the character's life.

let's not talk about the past. let's take zhang zifeng, who is of the same generation, for example. she originally had a sweet appearance and temperament, but she played a rough but tough female image in "my sister", which subverted the audience's previous understanding of her. guo qilin may have to learn from her.

needless to say, there is wu zhenyu who acts with guo qilin.

he vividly displays uncle chai's complexity, sophistication, and ruthlessness, and is also able to show his soft and sensitive side in the details, portraying an image of a gangster who is shrewd, sophisticated, rich, three-dimensional, and vivid.

for example, at the end of episode 21, shen xing secretly ran to uncle cai's house to steal his passport back, but unexpectedly ran into uncle cai who came back drunk.

the two had an important rivalry in a dimly lit house at night. uncle cai hoped that shen xing could take over and continue to manage sanbianpo.

from wu zhenyu's eyes, we can read his eyes full of expectations and his heart full of loneliness and solitude.

but guo qilin just stood there stiffly, passively accepting the massive amount of information given by wu zhenyu, stunned, and just spoke the lines mechanically.

facing a great opportunity to go home on one hand, and uncle cai's affectionate retention on the other, shen xing should be conflicted and complicated at this time.

but at this time, guo qilin was obviously unable to take over. how could he be qualified to take over the throne of uncle cai?

apart from the needs of the screenwriter's plot, it can only be understood as -

in terms of acting, francis ng is guo qilin's father.

02

of course, "border water stories" also created some flesh-and-blood supporting characters.

for example, the tenacious, affectionate and righteous dan tuo, the humiliated guo liming who finally drew his sword to save the weak, the ferocious and brutal mao pan, the cunning and treacherous wang anquan, etc.

not only is the writing good, but the acting is also excellent, making it worthy of the audience's careful appreciation.

some people say this is a suspense drama, but i don’t think so.

after all, apart from the mystery of where shen xing's uncle went at the beginning, the story is more centered around the protagonist shen xing, telling how he fought wits and courage, and ultimately turned his life around and successfully escaped.

to some extent, it is more like an adventure film, or a gangster film, but ultimately it is still about the darkness and complexity of human nature, and the inconspicuous but illuminating glimmer of light deep in human nature.

director lao suan also said in an interview with southern people weekly, "at that time, we didn't want to shoot suspense, we just wanted to shoot adventure, something that explodes hormones, something wild, strong, and unreasonable. in fact, we prefer to use adventure to describe "border water memories". the suspense here is just a narrative technique."

in recent years, the proliferation of domestic southeast asian crime films and tv series has actually made the audience familiar with this land. the wonders of the region have long been lifted.

the addition of cao baoping injects more violent aesthetic spectacles into the drama.

this is effective in the current market.

this is true whether it is "alien: the taking ship" or "the three evils", "the silent killer" or "rebirth", or "the sea of ​​​​wade-giles".

at a time when the economy is weak and pressure is increasing, audiences need high-intensity stimulation of their audiovisual senses and need to vent and release their emotions.

this is actually the origin of the "happy drama".

"past events by the edgewater" accurately grasps this market trend.

in addition, "border water past" also continues the trend of domestic creation of southeast asian crimes. it uses the context of the country to tell the crime story that happened in a foreign country.

this practice is actually rare around the world.

to a certain extent, crime dramas created in this way are all mainstream dramas.

the reason is that the story takes place in southeast asia, which is close to china but still distant, and domestic audiences watch the series at a certain aesthetic safety distance.

the horror of the crimes in the drama will stimulate people and allow them to vent their emotions and satisfy their curiosity. in addition, the contrast with the stable environment in reality will make them feel more grateful for living in a safe environment in their country, thus causing a surge of national pride.

"the accidental murderer", "gone girl" and "all or nothing" actually all follow the same pattern, but "waterside story" is the first to fill the gap in this regard in domestic dramas.

together, they tell the audience: the outside world is too dangerous, and our motherland is the safest and happiest place.

to some extent, the quality of these films and tv series is almost the same, and they cannot reach the level of criticizing reality like korean films.

furthermore, as long as chinese stories cannot develop localized narratives, they cannot complete criticism in a localized context, and such realism will only become curiosity realism and consumer realism.

"the past by the waterside" is of course very good. in the current environment, it is vigorous, three-dimensional, and beautiful enough.

but we hope it can be better and more powerful.

after all, in addition to exploring the human nature that is lost under "edge water", we also want to see what causes the emergence of "edge water" and how we can defeat them.

let such "past events" never happen again in the future.