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the ancient costume detective comedy "sifangguan" is about to come to an end. according to yunhe data, as of the time of publication on september 13, 2024, "sifangguan" ranked fourth on the tv series hot search list, and the effective broadcast time of the feature film accounted for 7.3%.

on february 29 of the same year, the drama won the "2024 most anticipated drama" at the cool cloud digital entertainment annual influence ceremony.

in addition, the director of the drama is zhao qichen, who has created such hit dramas as "the son-in-law" and "daily life of lady lady". it is very exciting to see him return as an experienced director.

however, after watching the drama, i felt a little disappointed, especially compared with iqiyi's similar costume detective drama "the strange stories of the tang dynasty: journey to the west" (hereinafter referred to as "tang gui 2"), which showed a huge gap.

in fact, in recent years, domestic costume detective dramas have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, from "the longest day in chang'an" to "youngsters of the song dynasty", from "the story of yan xin" to "changle qu", which are overwhelming.

it is certainly right for creators to follow the trend of the times and create works based on popular themes; it is also certainly right for excellent creators to want to innovate on this basis.

but the problem is that if innovation is not done in moderation, it will backfire and end up in a state of being neither here nor there.

author: mao haoyu

editor｜xiaobai

typesetting | die

the pictures in this article are from the internet

"sifangguan" is adapted from chen jian's novel "records of kings of the western regions". it revolves around sifangguan, a special institution established in changle, the capital of dayong. it tells the joyful story of yuan mo, ashu, wang kunwu, yuchi hua, yu deshui, an xiuyi and others who display their strengths and bravely venture into the world in this small world of sifangguan.

in terms of genre, "sifangguan" intends to make new explorations. in addition to ancient costume detective stories and common love lines, there are also comedy and even workplace elements.

in comparison, "tang gui 2" mainly focuses on the ancient suspense detective drama, and at most it is a patchwork of unit dramas in form. it is indeed not as rich in genres as "sifangguan".

but what is the actual effect?

"si fang guan" has great ambitions, but its strength is still relatively weak. it wants to integrate so many genre elements, but in the end it still presents an embarrassing situation of biting off more than it can chew.

01

the drama begins with comedy elements, but most of the scenes are jokes and bickering. for example, the scene in the first episode describing the encounter between yuan mo and ashu is so awkward that it is hard to watch.

yuan mo was just an outsider in sifang hall at first, and was usually a vagrant, commonly known as a street vagrant. and ah shu was also a beggar from a foreign country who made a living by stealing.

screenshots from the series sifangguan

as soon as they met, they started bickering. yuan mo detained the stolen property of ah shu, and ah shu felt guilty, so she had to live under someone else's roof as a maid.

after ah shu changed back into women's clothes, yuan mo started teasing her again. when ah shu asked for his return, yuan mo asked knowingly, playing hard to get.

screenshots from the series sifangguan

ah shu was enraged by this and smashed yuan mo's wine bottle in a rage. yuan mo was angry, but not too much. the two were then involved in a shocking conspiracy of smuggling arms - they hid in a dilapidated temple. facing yuan mo who was still sneaking around, ah shu used itching powder, and yuan mo immediately scratched his ears and cheeks, in great pain, and was actually forced to confess and was tamed by ah shu.

the screenwriter had laid so much groundwork before this, and we thought it would be an exciting game between the two sides, or a battle between master and servant, but the result was just a painless and easy taming.

screenshots from the series sifangguan

the contrast setting of the maid taming her master is of course an innovation, as it satisfies people's psychological expectations of deconstruction and anti-authority. however, such a childish and blunt taming process is really surprising.

there are many similar comedy elements in the play. not only do they fail to add lighthearted jokes to the whole play, but they make people feel embarrassed and lower their intelligence, rubbing the audience's iq and aesthetics to the ground.

how was tang gui 2 made?

it is also the opening that introduces the male protagonist and the beginning of their love line. pei xijun appears when he is helping lu lingfeng solve a case.

screenshot of the episode "the strange stories of the tang dynasty: journey to the west"

lu lingfeng found a suspicious ointment on the dead body, and pei xijun, the intellectual, explained it to him and found the clue, the black ointment, so that lu lingfeng could continue to investigate. however, pei xijun excitedly asked lu if he wanted to give the black ointment to her.

as a result, lu lingfeng got the clue and turned around and left without any reluctance.

in this way, lu lingfeng's seriousness and uprightness and pei xijun's simplicity and intelligence come to the fore, and also happen to point out the unusual ambiguous relationship between the two.

every scene has its value and function. in contrast, in the scene where the hero and heroine of sifang pavilion meet, the heroine ah shu steals other people's belongings and is caught and teased by the hero yuan mo on the street. as an audience, can we see the heroine's cleverness and cuteness from the "stealing", or can we see yuan mo's cleverness and wit from his "quiet cricket"?

obviously, we can only see yuan mo as a crazy and mad villain.

he has such a good personality that when faced with the little maid's troubles and troubles, he is not angry at all. instead, he plays hard to get and obeys her. the only explanation is that yuan mo is a love-brained person.

02

let’s talk about the detective case.

just like in "tang gui 2", all the protagonists have supernatural powers, as if they have opened their third eye, and they can solve all kinds of mysterious and bizarre cases.

but the difference is that in "tang gui 2", when lu lingfeng and su wuming are looking for suspicious situations, they will at least be deceived or teased by their opponents. at least there is a trace of reasoning process, allowing the audience to be immersed in the brain-burning adventure with the protagonists.

"sifangguan" is different.

for example, in the third episode, it tells the story of the grand commander dou chun returning to beijing to report on his work, and sifang pavilion specially hosted a banquet for him. at the banquet, his subordinate cao huo presented the soul-returning incense, which is said to relieve the pain of lovesickness.

screenshots from the series sifangguan

just as everyone was enjoying the banquet, suddenly, there was a loud thunder, a strong wind blew, and all the candles were blown out. cao huo entered the hunting moment. with red eyes, he shouted "give me back my head" and wanted to kill dou chun. the scene was so big and terrible that it seemed that a fierce battle was about to break out.

screenshots from the series sifangguan

as a result, dou chun killed cao huo with one sword in a matter of seconds.

that would have been fine, but after cao huo's death, yuchi hua, a military officer of the jingzhao prefecture, and wang kunwu, a clerk in the west courtyard of the sifang pavilion, interrogated the suspects together. they all said they were absolutely certain of "ghost possession" and their statements sounded very convincing.

screenshots from the series sifangguan

however, yuan mo, based on the clues about the dragon scale grass provided by ah shu during the investigation, concluded that there was something wrong with the soul-returning incense.

under his guidance, everyone came up with a plan to lure the murderer out of his hole. they arranged for dou chun to live on an island in the middle of the lake and set up layers of soldiers to protect him, but the murderer still succeeded.

the dancer and the attendant were major suspects. the attendant tried to cover up the truth, but yuan mo and others reasoned and described the motives and process of the two people's crimes in great detail, combining various flashbacks and voiceovers. in the end, the murderer, the dancer, "broke down her defense" and revealed the truth. she even knelt down with the attendant and begged yuan mo to "clear the name of the wei family."

screenshots from the series sifangguan

we don’t see the logical basis of yuan mo’s reasoning, we can only see the results he gives directly like a “deus ex machina”, and then give some forced explanations in flashbacks, which is tantamount to announcing in public: how about it, am i awesome? let me tell you, i am a god at solving cases!

in the last episode, when the rebellious qing'er was about to arrange for someone to assassinate ashu, there was a sudden reversal. yuan mo and others appeared and killed qing'er, helping princess ashu to ascend the throne smoothly. everyone stood together, and the envoys who secretly helped appeared one by one. through flashbacks and voiceovers, the audience was explained how the witty and resourceful protagonists played a big game. this direct presentation completely rubbed the audience's iq on the ground.

screenshots from the series sifangguan

when the detective drama cannot enjoy the reasoning process of the investigation, and when the protagonist becomes a genius with ingenuity, the suspense is completely unnecessary. the audience loses the process of participating in the truth-solving process, and when they find that the creators underestimate their own aesthetics, they will lose interest in the drama and abandon it hastily.

of course, wanting to make innovations in case reasoning is indeed a global problem. after all, the methods of committing crimes in ancient times were limited and it was impossible to be perfect in every aspect. in addition, past masterpieces have already pushed the detective methods to the extreme, and there is limited room for exploration.

therefore, instead of having poor reasoning logic, "tang gui 2" focused on sorting out complex and three-dimensional characters, making each of the protagonists good at something and having a distinct personality. to this day, the words created by the show, such as "where is lu lingfeng?", "it's the abbot's doing", and "master fei ji", are still widely circulated in the comment section.

in contrast, the characters in "si fang guan" are relatively flat. yuan mo pretends to be crazy and stupid, but he is very smart when solving cases; ah shu has a bad temper and always gets into trouble; wang kunwu and yuchi hua are completely reckless, especially yuchi hua, who frequently takes action in the first few episodes and ruins the plans of the protagonists. until the end, the transformation of these people is relatively limited, and the character arcs are not complete.

03

screenwriter chen yu said at the 2024 sohu qingmu project master class that "accuracy" is the highest evaluation for industrial film authors.

"sifangguan" wanted to innovate in genre, and the original intention was good, but it was because of "inaccuracy" that caused various parts to fail, eventually leading to the collapse of the whole.

at the end, we know that ah shu is not a maid, but a princess of yanle. the plot setting of a maid of humble origin being constantly suppressed and finally returning to the throne of queen is really very refreshing.

screenshots from the series sifangguan

but what is puzzling is that the roles of the male and female protagonists are evenly matched, creating a feeling of lack of distinction between the main and the secondary.

the original work "records of kings of the western regions" tells the story of xuanzang embarking on a journey to the west in the autumn of the third year of zhenguan, sneaking across the desert border, entering the western regions, and the ultimate showdown with david's magic bottle in "one thousand and one nights", recreating the great game in central asia between the tang dynasty, persia, and turks in the seventh century ad.

it was such a long journey and struggle that "sifangguan" only selected a small part and gave it a new look during the adaptation process.

but it is obvious that the adaptation process presents an awkward situation of "having both". the imbalance of the roles of the male and female protagonists, the mismatch between the length of the narrative time and space and the length of the film, make the rhythm of the play a bit disordered.

of course, the drama is not entirely without merit. the core of the drama can be summarized in one sentence:

once upon a time, there was a princess whose father was murdered. since then, she has been living in a neighboring country, living a hard life. one day, she met a prince. under the prince's escort, she returned to her own country, and with courage and wisdom, she eradicated the evildoer and regained her throne. from then on, the princess and the prince lived happily together.

screenshots from the series sifangguan

the ancient fairy tale engraved in human genes has returned to the screen in the form of ancient chinese stories and some modern workplace decorations. this can be considered a small cultural innovation.

although sifangguan is becoming more and more popular on the site, its reputation has completely collapsed. it can be regarded as a standard industrial assembly line operation, and there is still a long way to go before it can be considered a true artistic innovation. this blank is left for the creative team to continue exploring.

producer | editor-in-chief:tan fei

executive editor:luo xinzhu