"dark night and dawn" screenwriter weng liangping: showing the passion of the first generation of police officers in new china
2024-09-26
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the tv series "dark night and dawn" is currently being broadcast on cctv channel 8 and iqiyi. the series tells the story of the first generation of public security personnel in new china fighting wits and courage with enemy spies to protect the city and the people.
in the play, lu zhengyang (played by nie yuan), a backbone of the anti-espionage front of the shanghai public security bureau, faced a severe anti-espionage struggle situation. after strict screening, he boldly recruited the old policeman lin shaobai (played by chen zheyuan). the two became partners and successively cracked cases such as "vault robbery", "counterfeiting case" and "lurking radio station case", and completely thwarted the conspiracy of enemy spies. in the process of handling the case, lu zhengyang and lin shaobai went from constant friction to gradually building trust, until they became comrades-in-arms who shared life and death.
the play is written by weng liangping, who has previously written revolutionary historical dramas such as "the wind chaser", "asking the vastness" and "the decisive battle". recently, weng liangping said in an exclusive interview with yangcheng evening news: "the first generation of people's police in new china played a very important role in maintaining urban stability and protecting people's lives and property. i hope to show their passion, loyalty and dedication through this work."
the story is told by two heroes, which enhances the dramatic tension.
after choosing the theme of police counter-espionage, weng liangping believed that if he only wrote about police criminal investigations from beginning to end, the story would lack the ups and downs of the characters' fate and growth and changes, so he decided to narrate from the perspective of the old policeman lin shaobai. "i like to create characters with growth potential. when lin shaobai was a former policeman, he inevitably had bad habits, but later he gradually matured under the influence of lu zhengyang. after the core relationship between these two people was established, the story was basically established, and the rest was nothing more than writing about their interaction."
"this is a story about old police and new police working together to solve a case, and also a story about an old police growing into a new police. this is the root of the story." in weng liangping's view, lin shaobai is a microcosm of ordinary people. "he wants to be the iron wall of this city, and the kindness and passion in his heart are always there. when faced with the changing times, he doesn't know what this new world will be like. therefore, i want to witness the changes in shanghai this year and the process of his own transformation of beliefs through his perspective."
lin shaobai's growth is inseparable from lu zhengyang's guidance. the relationship between the two has changed from mutual suspicion to tacit cooperation because there are contradictions between them, but there are also places where they have the same goal. on the dramatic level, weng liangping treated the two differently: "their initial positions are different, but their personalities are complementary. lin shaobai is playful and clever, while lu zhengyang is cold and upright. in terms of the way of thinking about handling cases, lin shaobai only cares about results, while lu zhengyang adheres to the rule that the red line must not be crossed during the handling of cases. these differences will bring sparks and create dramatic tension."
the dual-hero narrative has also been used in weng liangping's previous work "the wind chaser". he said that this is richer than portraying the growth of a single character, and can also generate more dramatic conflicts and increase the depth of the characters.
various characters reflect various aspects of life
in the play, zheng lanting (played by wang zhiwen), a reactionary agent of the kuomintang lurking in the shadows, launches a series of conspiracies to subvert the city, and "the treasury robbery" and "the counterfeit currency storm"... follow one after another. the remaining forces of the old world are also waiting for an opportunity to move, and characters such as the big businessman jin maochang (played by ni dahong) have joined the game, stirring up the situation in shanghai.
as the captain of the action team under zheng lanting, wang liqun (played by feng bing) is greedy, lustful, arrogant and conceited. when he learned that the murderer of his brother was zheng lanting, to whom he was loyal, his faith collapsed. what weng liangping wanted to do was a kind of irony: "wang liqun's loyal superior is actually the one who hurt him the most, so sometimes the things you work for are not worth it."
due to the livelihood of his family and the safety of his wife and children, xu wei (played by sun yan) had to work for zheng lanting and was often bullied by wang liqun. weng liangping said: "xu wei is a mirror image of lin shaobai. they met different people and took different paths. this seems to be the influence of the environment on them, but the root cause is their personal choice. if it was lin shaobai who met zheng lanting and wang liqun, he would one day turn against tiangang because the goodness in his heart would not allow him to do so; but xu wei is greedy. he admires the wealth and glory enjoyed by wang liqun, and he longs to live that kind of life."
in the play, dancer lin li's childhood dream was to be a reporter, but when she received the acceptance letter from the newspaper, she had already been killed by wang liqun. "in addition to showing the cruelty of the spies, this also shows lin li's helpless life experience. our starting point is that each character cannot be made into a simple functional character, but to tell their past and present, and create a living person."
in addition to the black and white factions, weng liangping also portrayed a character named jin maochang who was between light and darkness. on the one hand, he supported lin shaobai and lu zhengyang, but on the other hand, he was restrained by zheng lanting. he secretly hired killers in order to establish his own sphere of influence.
break away from the times and tell current stories
"whether it is a period drama or a costume drama, it is very important to shape the characters from the current perspective. what you want to express must be of the present." weng liangping said, "for example, the story of lin shaobai regaining his faith, what we want to express is that we should never forget our original wishes. we hope that everyone can find what their hearts desire. only in this way can people be fearless, because their hearts are rooted and happy." in the presentation of specific plots, weng liangping also incorporated the status of many young people today: "for example, spies need to meet performance indicators, otherwise they will be despised by their superiors; there are also interest games and intrigues among spies."
in addition to telling the story from a contemporary perspective, weng liangping also made many attempts at other levels: "we added more typological elements to attract the audience with strong plots and fast paces of anti-espionage and criminal involvement; we also incorporated a lot of contrasts, such as the contrast between the police who guard the light and the spies hiding in the dark, and the contrast between the fates of lin shaobai and xu wei, etc."
at the end of the interview, weng liangping shared his experience in the screenwriting industry with young screenwriters: "first, calm down and ask yourself if you really love the screenwriting industry. if you don't, you may not be able to carry it, because it may take two or three years or even longer for the screenwriting work to be presented, and you will definitely be unknown while waiting; the second is to persist in writing. it is better to start writing than to have 10,000 ideas, and a bad start is better than no start."
text | reporter zhan xiweiphoto | stills
