Recently, the 39 episodes of anti-black criminal investigation drama produced by CCTV and iQIYI, directed and starring by the Central Political and Legal Committee, was widely praised by the audience and aroused widespread and enthusiastic discussion. "Hurricane" is based on real characters and cases in reality for artistic processing, and it truly and vividly shows the great efforts and remarkable results received in recent years by our country’s political and legal system to educate and rectify the law enforcement team and promote the normalization of anti-crime and evil. The drama has intense contradictions and thrilling, with ups and downs and fascinating plot. The characters are three-dimensional and full of images. The theme is bright and thought-provoking. It not only makes important breakthroughs in art, but also gives us profound practical inspiration.
The way "Hurricane" is structured is quite ingenious. The play shows a protracted life-and-death battle between justice and evil. An Xin, a grass-roots police detective, met Gao Qiqiang after a fight with Gao Qiqiang, a fish seller. He sympathized with Gao Qiqiang’s poor background and misfortune, and gave him warm care and enthusiastic help. The two forged an inseparable bond. Unexpectedly, Gao Qiqiang was transformed from a bullied fishmonger into the boss of Qiangsheng Group, the largest enterprise in Jinghai City. In fact, he was the leader of a local evil organization. In order to eradicate this evil organization, the political and legal police represented by An Xin paid 21 years of hard work, and finally wiped out the Gao Qiqiang criminal gang and its "umbrella company", ensuring the safety of one side of the people and a clean wind. The whole play uses one main line (sweeping away the black and evil), two parallel narrative lines (the growth and development history of the two protagonists), and three relatively independent and interspersed time passages and plot units (2000, 2006, 2021) to present the complicated social patterns, personnel changes, grudges and disputes between good and evil in front of the audience in a compact and layered manner. This kind of TV drama structure, which is borrowed from drama and film, not only avoids the dull and lengthy plot, but also is very inclusive and expressive, which is a useful exploration of the art of TV drama structure.
"Hurricane" focuses on people and human nature. Unlike the common narrative mode of TV dramas of the same type, the drama does not use a lot of pen and ink to describe the investigation process of the case, nor does it deliberately pursue and create suspense. Instead, it focuses more on the attention to the fate of the characters and the excavation of complex human nature. It is under this premise that the successful shaping of the group portraits of political and legal police officers in the drama can be realized. The number of political and legal police officers in the play is large, but the characters and fates are different, and there is little similarity. The protagonist, An Xin, is a near-perfect image of a criminal police officer. He adheres to his beliefs, sacrifices himself for the sake of the public, values the police uniform on his body and the police badge on his head above everything else, and moves forward bravely, perseveringly, and opposes death for the sake of his responsibilities and missions. He is not only an unselfish law enforcer, but also a warm and honest man. He is both "silly" and "shaft", but he is so cute and respectable. Some people say that An Xin’s image is too idealistic, and there can be no such criminal police in reality, so it seems unreal. It is necessary to know that art comes from life and is higher than life. Art is to a large extent an idealized expression of life, so we cannot simply measure the truth of art by the truth of life. Imagine if we have ever met an official who is exactly the same as Bao Gong in real life. Can we deny the existence of a clean official because of this? In addition to the core figure An Xin, most of the other political and legal police officers do not run through the whole drama or do not have much ink, but they have a distinct personality and leave a deep impression on people. For example, An Changlin, who seems to be doing nothing, has always been silently protecting and supporting An Xin’s anti-crime work. Li Xiang, who accepts bribes and struggles under multiple pressures and eventually redeems his crimes and perishes with the criminals, is as stubborn and more heroic as Master An Xin, but is brutally killed by the evil gangs. In addition, there are Cao Chuang, Zhang Biao, and Yang Jian, who have made outstanding contributions to the political and legal police for a long time but failed to hold the bottom line and were pulled into the water by the evil forces, as well as Gong Kaijiang, who is the leader of the political and legal departments but loses the party spirit and is greedy for money. He enjoys being attracted and corrupted by the evil groups and acts as an "umbrella company" for him Zhao Lidong, He Liming, etc. It can be said that in film and television works, "Hurricane" has for the first time created a group portrait of political and legal police officers in an all-round, three-dimensional, multi-level and multi-faceted manner.It also allows us to see the complexity and diversity of human nature in the face of various temptations, which is a major breakthrough in the creation of criminal investigation films and television dramas.
The in-depth excavation and true expression of the character and inner world of the villain is the most significant breakthrough and the most outstanding contribution of "Hurricane" to the creation of anti-black criminal investigation dramas. Gao Qiqiang has gone through a complex transformation process from an honest and bullied market fishmonger to a murderous and evil organization leader. His family was poor, and his parents died since childhood. In order to take care of his younger siblings, he was willing to endure hardships and hardships, thus forming his self-esteem and strong character. After suffering all kinds of difficulties and abuse from the "city bully" Tang brothers, he could not bear to resist and went to the detention center for fighting, so he met An Xin. He used the brand of An Xin and his adoptive father, Director An, to successfully raise his position in the market, and even the Tang brothers came to curry favor with him, which made him realize the power of power for the first time. He accidentally injured people’s lives while collecting debts for others. He could have exonerated himself through legal channels, but he slipped step by step into the abyss of evil due to a single thought. By borrowing all kinds of illegal means and eating both black and white, he became the leader of a black and white organization that dominated one side, killed innocent people indiscriminately, was vicious, arrogant, and seriously endangered the economic and social development of Beijing and the safety of people’s lives and property. In the end, he could not escape the fate of complete destruction. As the saying goes, "at the beginning of man, nature is good", and Gao Qiqiang is not born with a bad seed. His transformation from a kind and dutiful good person to a criminal full of evil is of course the result of his own expanding greed for money and power on the one hand, but on the other hand, it is also inseparable from the environment and soil that breed this greed. " The description of Gao Qiqiang, a villain in "Hurricane", does not stay on the surface or a shallow level like most of the previous works of similar themes, but tries to show the multi-faceted nature of his character as much as possible and dig deeply into the internal and external causes of changes in his inner world, so as to create "this" extremely complex villain image, which can provoke more thinking and reflection from the audience, reflecting the true spirit of realism. This kind of attempt and effort is very valuable.
The reason why "Hurricane" has been able to set off a ratings boom and achieved great success can also be summarized from the artistic point of view. For example, the screenwriter, director, cinematography, editing, soundtrack, clothing and other aspects are remarkable. I will not repeat them here, but only emphasize one point here, that is, the performance of the actors. The wonderful performances of Zhang Yi and Zhang Songwen are the key to the success of this drama, especially the villain Gao Qiqiang played by Zhang Songwen has added a unique classic image to the Chinese film and television figure gallery. At the same time, Chen Shuting, Lao Mo played by Feng Bing, Mad Donkey played by Wang Peilu, Li Youtian played by Li Jian, Li Xiang played by Li Jian, Tang Xiaolong played by Li Hongwei, and Gao Qisheng played by Gao Qisheng can all be regarded as full of flesh and blood, both body and spirit, which is an important guarantee for the success of the play. Overall, the cast of the play is neat, and most of the actors are acting online. The overall artistic achievements of the play are worthy of recognition.
Finally, let’s talk about the practical enlightenment brought to us by the drama "Hurricane". The drama focuses on the anti-crime and anti-evil struggle carried out by the political and legal front in our country, revealing the serious harm and huge threat caused by the evil forces to the people and the social organism. It shows the hard work and great sacrifice made by the political and legal police to eliminate the evil forces. The scenes of evil rampant and power corruption in the drama are outrageous and thought-provoking. In recent years, our country’s economy has developed rapidly, and from an objective law, the development of the superstructure is always lagging behind the economic foundation, which gives power corruption and the breeding of evil forces an opportunity. How to eliminate power corruption and evil forces from the source is a major and arduous task facing our party and country. In recent years, the Party Central Committee has started with system construction and made a knife-edge inward determination. On the one hand, it has carried out education and rectification of the political and legal system, and on the other hand, it has promoted the normalization of anti-crime and evil, and has eradicated corruption and evil with the power of thunder. It has achieved gratifying results, and the social outlook is one of the new ones. "The legal network is restored, but it is not leaked." Whether it is corrupt elements or evil gangs, whether they are in office or retired, whether it is happening now or in the past, as long as they violate party discipline and state laws, they must be punished properly, so that the sanctity of law and discipline can be maintained, and the power of fairness and justice can be demonstrated. Education rectification is not a temporary measure, and the eradication of evil is always on the way. This should be the greatest revelation given to us by "Hurricane". (Author: Tian Guang)