The anti-drug reality drama " Ice Rain Fire " has been broadcast for more than half the time. The complex plot lines are intricately intertwined, suspenseful and climaxed one after another. The grand layout and excellent intentions strongly highlight the extraordinary performance of this theme.
It is actually very difficult to express gang-related and drug-related themes. Because it is easy to neglect the details of gangs and drugs when expressing such themes, it seems that those who are interested in cruelty or darkness will be curious and interesting. In particular, the hysterical drug cartel's crazy resistance and the confrontation between police and gangsters are natural in TV dramas. An irritant. Revealing the real situation is inevitably shocking but may satisfy the voyeuristic psychology. Punishing evil and promoting good from a positive perspective will inevitably touch the thrilling side of cracking down on gangs and drugs, but it will inevitably cross the line. Therefore, how to properly expose the dangers of drugs and the difficulty of combating drugs is the basic point that must be controlled for this type of subject matter.
As far as the subject matter is concerned, "Ice Rain and Fire" naturally deals with drugs and gangs, but the angle of entry and the limits of the drama are unique. That is to say, the entangled and complicated relationship between the police and drug-related confrontations is presented in a positive image, and it is placed in a unique background of Yunhe County, a border with increasing crackdowns, but it does not focus too much on the darkness and horror between gambling and drugs. It touches on it to a limited extent, focusing on the complicated process of solving the case and the entanglements of human relationships. From the strands of ice to sweeping away drugs and criminals, you can explore the mystery under the ice. In other words, from the perspective of the case within the case and the suspense hidden in the case records many years ago, it guides people to perceive the harm caused by drug-related crimes to society, and peels off the cocoons to reveal the whole story. Therefore, "Ice Rain and Fire" is dominated by suspense and solving crimes, constantly revealing the thrills of drug-related and the social harm caused by drugs. From this point of view, the appeal of the play has always been to highlight people's hatred of drugs in today's society, to reveal the intricate and complex relationships caused by drug trafficking organizations in a certain border area for many years, and to reveal the mystery that may involve the collusion of secret forces. We see the dangers of drugs and the urgency and difficulty of eradicating them. This is what makes the TV series unique.
With the complexity of the human world, we analyze the difficulties of drug control
Naturally, the drug world always stands in darkness, and anti-drug cases must be solved. The crime-solving focus of "Icy Rain and Fire" is between Chen Yu and his childhood neighbor Wu Zhenfeng, a policeman and a "gangster". The main line of friends and enemies that both fight and understand each other unfolds. Chen Yu is a top student in the anti-drug major of the police academy. Because of his agility and his relationship with Wu Zhenfeng, which caused an accident three years ago, he was transferred from the anti-drug brigade to the police station. After returning to the anti-drug brigade, Chen Yu clung to clues and tried to figure out whether Wu Zhenfeng was involved in drugs and whether there must be internal causes. Sure enough, in order to find out the cause of his father's unjust death, Wu Zhenfeng went abroad at all costs and returned to Yunhe to continue seeking the truth. The wonderful thing is that the two protagonists have strong willpower and they fight endlessly in "oppositions" with different approaches and similar results. The outcome is unknown, but it is speculated that both of them secretly have the purpose of seeking the truth and eradicating the evil cancer. Perhaps the opposites are parallel lines. Whether it is to rectify the name of their father or to eliminate harm to the country, they are uniquely intertwined to form an interplay between good and evil. certificate. Therefore, "Icy Rain and Fire" depicts the complexity of the human world in a unique way because of the cruelty of drug prohibition.
The reason why Wu Zhenfeng does not trust the police is related to his behavior of breaking into a drug gang single-handedly. The relationship between Liu Kaihua, the captain of the anti-drug brigade, and Jiang Lei, the nephew of the drug dealer, is either a stranger or an accomplice. Lin Dezan, director of the County Public Security Bureau, Zhu There are so many unpredictable secrets, the emotional entanglement that policewoman Lan Anran got into after discovering something strange during surveillance, the initial motive of drug dealer He Jiashu taking over the underground boxing ring and framing Wu Gang... All of these are the suspense of the truth and human nature. puzzle. The focus of the narrative is on people. In addition to catching the audience's attention, it also diverts the inevitable darkness of drug-related anti-drugs to avoid deviating from the purpose of positive revelation.
At this point in the plot, it can be seen that the performance motivation of "Ice Rain and Fire" is naturally aimed at the center of fighting crime and drug trafficking, but it is more concerned about the "people" behind the production, production and dissemination of the "things" of drugs; deciphering the origin of drugs The case, in the final analysis, is a complex case of interpersonal relationships.From a positive perspective, whether it is Wu Zhenfeng, Chen Yu, Yang Yi, Yang Ling or Lin Dezan, there is an intricate relationship between themselves and others. As far as the villains are concerned, the multi-layered characters involved in drug trafficking are deeply hidden, including Dong Ge, a "Mr. Yu" who only hears his voice but never sees him, and a group of characters involved such as Wong Tai Sin. The interdependence of drug-related areas and the "black and black" gangs who are at odds with each other are inherently dangerous. In order to defend drug-related interests, they harm others, engage in internal strife, suppress and deceive, making it difficult to clarify.
Let the richness of the narrative focus on people's emotional dilemmas
The focus on interpersonal relationships must be an important direction for the richness of the narrative and the responsiveness to reality. It is full of stories surrounding different characters, the correspondence between good and evil, the conflicts between positive characters, and the internal disputes among drug trafficking groups. The characters' behaviors, inner emotions, and the inconvenient "overtones" have all become what attracts the audience to explore and get answers. Take two opposing protagonists as an example. They are full of contradictions but have a subtle relationship. This leads to a three-dimensional aspect of dealing with the contradiction between professional codes and emotional understanding, changing the simplification of a single clear distinction between friend and foe. .
Wu Zhenfeng and Chen Yu grew up together and know each other well. Therefore, there is a slight amount of understandable trust and emotion in Chen Yu, but he has never given up his ruthless determination to deal with every drug dealer. There has always been hesitation and suspicion between the police's duties and the suspicion of minor drug dealers. Determined to obtain evidence without hesitation. The complexity of solving the case is formed between his perseverance to use his own judgment to seek the truth and his belief that Wu Zhenfeng is not a drug addict, and Wu Zhenfeng who resists him but pretends to be a drug addict. Wu Zhenfeng, with a firm goal to clear his father Wu Gang's drug-related convictions, resorted to throwing himself into a drug den and disregarding safety to seek the truth. This in itself has the determination to fly into the flames beyond the normal. But obviously, for Chen Yu, Wu Zhenfeng's attitude of resisting cover-up and disguise made it more difficult to solve the case. It is in the fog of their "back-to-back" pursuit of the truth in "Icy Rain and Fire" that the protagonist group shows their different perseverance, forming a kind of relationship that can only be entangled and unexpected in the fork-in-the-road exploration. It guides the plot's twists and turns and in-depth structure. But precisely because each of them is fearless for life and death with their own goals, one does not hesitate to offend his girlfriend and allows the "drug dealer" to live in his home, while the other does not hesitate to surrender and resolutely detoxifies and seeks the truth. When Wu Zhenfeng stepped on the car bound for drug rehabilitation center , his easy jump on the road cleverly showed the mood of a person with a single-minded goal. And Chen Yu's heart-to-heart talk with him in the car also strictly adhered to the police's justice and sincerity in hoping to save his childhood friend.
In the life process in which positive and negative characters are entangled, the play gives a description of the characters' situations, diverse identities and personalities. For example, as a captain, he seems brave and selfless, but as an uncle, he doesn't know that his nephew is actually a thug of a drug lord. Director Lin is in control of the overall situation, but not only does Chen Yu suspect that he is involved with drug dealers, policewoman Lan Anran also discovers that there are suspected images of leaks to the Lin Bureau under surveillance. These contradictions have added intergenerational projections to interpersonal relationships that reflect the relationship between elders and younger generations in reality - Chen Yu's girlfriend Yang Ling was raised by the Forestry Bureau, just like a father-daughter relationship; An Ran was guided by the Forestry Bureau and became an anti-drug police officer; Yu was also under the protection of the Forestry Bureau, so he made a mistake three years ago and was not stripped of his police uniform. And the three of them all have a deep hatred for drug dealers, so her girlfriend Yang Ling never believes that there is something wrong with the Lin Bureau who raised her since she was a child. An Ran suffers from who the Lin Bureau is who is kind to her. In terms of emotions and professional ethics, they all have firm concepts of right and wrong, but they unexpectedly encounter the confusion of interpersonal conflicts. It is precisely this that brings out the focus on Chen Yu and Wu Zhenfeng's "love and killing each other", and the possibility that the plot will be cracked or expanded in the future.
Break through the coercion of ice, rain and fire, and express determination in the fog
The dramatist has dissected the title of "Icy Rain and Fire": it points directly to the situation on the anti-drug frontline - like facing a heavy rain, walking on thin ice, but no matter the cold or adversity, the feeling in the chest An everlasting fire of justice always supports them to move forward and overcome all difficulties.
But in fact, looking at it from another angle also creates a sense of exploration. How can ice, rain, and fire be compatible? It is precisely these things that may not necessarily blend together, but are entangled in reality, creating a complexity that requires exploration and resolution. Perhaps we can also say that in border cities where drug trafficking is rampant, they are as cold as ice or that the anti-drug police must be as cruel as ice. However, in reality, the rain makes the situation blurred, and the fight between the enemy and ourselves is as incompatible as fire. But The determined ones still burn themselves like fire to search for the truth.
No matter in the characters or in the process of fighting drugs and gangs in the confrontation between good and evil, the question naturally has to focus on what the character’s trump card and final outcome are, and what kind of unpredictable historical shadow is hidden behind it? There are also all kinds of doubts and confusions, including the secret of Director Lin, the mystery of the position of Captain Liu and others, and the true direction of Old K. Perhaps as the plot grows, complex things will become more entangled and will definitely influence the characters' behavior, which will bring the complex situation of drug control in Yunhe County to the surface. Therefore, we look forward to seeing the interpersonal relationships in the subsequent plots unraveled one by one; we look forward to seeing the younger generation of anti-drug police represented by Chen Yu uphold the spirit of justice, resolve interpersonal confusion, and completely eliminate the situation where drug dealers are entrenched. But we also believe that such a process has great summoning power and will also make the plot more complicated.
Author: Zhou Xing (Professor and doctoral supervisor of Beijing Normal University, Vice President of China Film Critics Association)
Planning: Wang Yan
Editor: Guo Chaohao
