The emotional group portrait drama "South to North" is being broadcast on iQiyi, and the passengers on the train with the marks of different eras go up and down, interpreting a warm and joyful story. "South to North" is the first time that screenwriter Gao Mantang created a period drama with the theme of railway public security, and it is also the first collaboration between director Zheng Xiaolong and Gao Mantang. The drama takes two generations of railway policemen played by Ding Yongdai and Bai Jingting as the protagonists, showing the rapid changes in people's lives in the eighties of the twentieth century and the passing of the torch between front-line police, and the time span of 40 years has witnessed the great changes in the career and life of railway people. A few days ago, Gao Mantang, the screenwriter of the play, said in an interview that reflecting the great changes in our country in the past few decades through a train, it will be a story that will never end.
Bai Jingting plays the role of Wang Xin, a young policeman.
What screenwriters need to create is "passion burning" Gao Mantang said frankly that a playwright needs to make two preparations when creating a work: one is for the current situation of TV drama creation, the creator's own thinking and perspective; The second preparation is the accumulation of life, which is a more important preparation than the former, "Why everyone feels familiar and homogeneous about a work now, is because it is not enough preparation in the early stage and insufficient reserves." Gao Mantang's previous creations have been fully prepared, such as "The Old Tavern", which has been accumulated for many years in Gao Mantang's life resume, he found a perspective, a time, and this story burst out; The same is true of "Breaking through the Kanto", Gao Mantang has listened to his parents tell the story of how they broke into the Kanto since he was a child, and this story has been hidden in his blood and thoughts, waiting for a detonation. Gao Mantang said frankly that this kind of detonation does not need to be deliberately found, but it will suddenly come to you, review your life, and which can trigger the passion of creation. In Gao Mantang's view, what screenwriters need to create is "passion burning", without passion, forced or passive creation, it will not bring good works, and the creation of "South to North" is the same. "The image of 'going from south to north' has always been in my mind, and it lurks in my creative reserve, and when I have enough of it, I can start creating. In the past, the protagonists of Gao Mantang's works were Chen Baoguo, Li Youbin, He Bing and other men with a sense of age, and "South to North" is the first time he has written a play with a young man as the protagonist. In this regard, Gao Mantang frankly admits that he does not want to become a "lonely self-appreciator" and a writer who is considered by the market to be an elderly state. "I've been adjusting over the years, and I'm still trying to write suspense dramas, 12 episodes, short dramas. Before creating "South to North", Gao Mantang had already written "The Iron Age", "Wenzhou Family", "Old Farmer" and other "worker, peasant and business" themes, and the theme of public security was his first contact. Referring to his earliest "relationship" with the railway, Gao Mantang said that when he was a child, because his home was very close to the railway track, he often ran to see the train, and when he watched the train coming, he would think, why are there so many people on this train, they are going to **, where is their home? Gao Mantang took the train for the first time when he was twenty years old, and saw the bustling people on the train, and he came standing up in sixteen hours from Beijing to Dalian, and there was nowhere to sit. "When I look at the people on the train, I feel like a big family. Sometimes I wonder, where are they going next? There will be a lot of similar weird thoughts. It was also after taking the train for the first time that Gao Mantang realized that life has its own end, and everyone has a different purpose to go after getting off the train, some people get off the train to go home, some people want to go to work, and some people change their fate. "Coming down to one line is that the train does not stop, and life does not stop. ”
Ding Yongdai plays the role of Ma Kui, a veteran criminal policeman.
did not regard "South to North" as a "police drama", "South to North" mainly tells the story of the young and vigorous young policeman Wang Xin (played by Bai Jingting) and the old criminal policeman Ma Kui (played by Ding Yongdai) who unexpectedly became masters and apprentices. Gao Mantang believes that now the "public security drama" has reached a stage that needs to be expanded, developed, and improved, and when creating "South to North", he wrote not many big cases, but more small cases, such as theft, criminal cases, etc., and also portrayed a lot of warm stories with the characteristics of the times. The police officers on the train have to deal with all kinds of people and cases every day, and their work is very busy, and they have their own stories on this main line for decades, and these stories are also legendary, conflicting, and suspenseful. But Gao Mantang did not create "South to North" as a single "police drama", he decided to use the story of "Train Detective" as the entry point of "South to North", and added more people who got on and off the train. Gao Mantang designed two main lines for the structure of "South to North", the passengers who get on and off the train are one line, and the other is the story of railway workers and railway officers on the train. "On the journey of life, they get on and off the bus, and experience a turning point on the journey of fate. Just like in this era, high-speed trains keep moving forward, leaving behind some people, but also leaving behind and unsatisfactory, and constantly running forward. Reflecting the great changes in our country over the past few decades through a train, I think it's another story that never ends. ”
A different story happens every day on the train.
In order to more truly and completely reflect the style of the train "coming and going from the south" in the past few decades, Gao Mantang went to Jinan twice to collect wind before starting shooting. Gao Mantang went to the Railway Public Security Bureau, and then went to the local Railway Public Security Museum, and saw a lot of old objects and old ** at that time. The veteran criminal policeman of the Jinan Railway Public Security Bureau, whom Gao Mantang interviewed, has been "running" with the train all his life, from a police officer to a plainclothes policeman, and has encountered many cases, large and small. Gao Mantang talked to them about work and life, how the cases of packet loss and child loss on the train were solved, and the stories of passengers who got on and off the train over the years. Through the collection, Gao Mantang saw a different kind of "fireworks in the world" on the railway, and finally determined the core of the story of "case handling + life". In Gao Mantang's view, the current TV audience is very smart, and the creator's narration and expression are often expected by the audience. Gao Mantang said that sometimes when he watches the barrage by himself, he will find that some ruthless barrages are justified and even particularly accurate, "The most angry thing for the audience is that this drama is similar to other dramas, this one is 'almost' over, a drama doesn't even have its own personality, everyone can't tell it, this is the biggest failure of the creator." Therefore, Gao Mantang hopes to first let the audience see a fresh story and several fresh characters in "South to North".
Revealing the behind-the-scenes of "South to North".
About shooting. The train is an enclosed space, which requires narrative skillsThe challenge in the creation of "South to North" is that as the main scene where the story takes place, the "train" is a closed space, and the characters cannot get out, which requires a high degree of dramatization and narrative skills. Gao Mantang said frankly that there are more than 30 passengers with names and surnames in the whole play, which is a group portrait story, including people who come to see a doctor on the train, drug traffickers, child abductors, people who lose things, and all kinds of characters who are being taken out of their bags. In terms of specific shooting, several carriages in the train can be filmed in real life, and the dynamic scenery outside the window needs to be filmed in another way, the crew filmed the "two sides of the train" moving scenes on highways across the country, including different scenes in spring, summer, autumn and winter, and north and south, and collected a large number of materials for the train to be fast, slow, and start. Among them, the main scene of the train is shot on the real train, which looks like a green train, but it is actually divided into different series according to different generations, the model of the train should be accurate, and the windows and green leather are matched according to the train model. The dining car in the play is also an important scene, which is restored according to the old **, because once a case occurs, it is necessary to investigate in the dining car, and the dining car is also a work area. Gao Mantang said that a very important significance of creating a TV series is to leave some traces of time and history, retain historical materials, and let future generations see that the original appearance of life was like this. "If you don't shoot again, the internal combustion engine and steam engine will become cultural relics, and there will be no video recording. We watched very rough expansion films, in a flash, and the documentaries in the Film Archive were also in a few tens of seconds, but how many episodes (capacity) is our drama. If our generation does not leave behind video materials, future generations will not know about it. If everyone avoids the important and takes pictures of things that are more comfortable, all these materials will be gone. "About the characters.
I have always had nostalgia for the master-apprentice relationship, Gao Mantang is very good at writing scenes between two men, such as "The Iron Age", "Old Farmer" and "Great Craftsman" have similar settings. The master-apprentice drama of "South to North" also has such a highlight, and the whole play is structured with the master-apprentice relationship. Gao Mantang said frankly that it is rare to see the master-apprentice relationship now, the society is highly mechanized, and the communication between people at the workplace is becoming less and less, "At that time, whether we went to study engineering, agriculture or then went to work, there was a master-apprentice relationship, and I always had nostalgia for it (the master-apprentice relationship)." In Gao Mantang's view, a good ** is like a father, who cares for his apprentices meticulously and is very strict, Ma Kui and Wang Xin are like this in the play, they are interacting from beginning to end, there are misunderstandings and inheritances. The appearance of Ma Kui played by Ding Yongdai is with the atmosphere of the times, he is not so majestic, and he will not do everything right. Gao Mantang's creative idea is not to magnify his strengths, but to find his shortcomings and write how he overcomes them. He is stubborn, resistant to new things in the new era, and does not accept his daughter's business and his apprentice's desire to start a business. But in the course of the development of the story, he gradually gives up his fixed thoughts, and can overcome these things and integrate into society. Correspondingly, Wang Xin, the apprentice played by Bai Jingting, inherited the better traditions of Ma Kui and abandoned the inherent things in him. Finally, when Wang Xin also retired, although he had the shadow of Ma Kui, he was more of a policeman who adapted to the new era. About the director.
He said that we can't make such a mistake at our age, "South to North" is also the first collaboration between Gao Mantang as a screenwriter and director Zheng Xiaolong in 40 years since they met. Gao Mantang said with a smile that the two of them are now seventy years old, and it is time to cooperate once. In Gao Mantang's opinion, the story of "South to North" is also very suitable for Zheng Xiaolong to direct. "South to North" is a civilian drama, in which the railway workers, broadcasters, criminal police, and police officers depicted are ordinary people, Zheng Xiaolong is very good at shooting ordinary people's ordinary stories, "Just like his previous work "Golden Wedding", his (Zheng Xiaolong) temperament is here. In the first cooperation between the two, Zheng Xiaolong left the deepest impression on Gao Mantang is "rigorous", Zheng Xiaolong always emphasizes logic, no matter how fancy the script is written, no matter how exciting, the landing point is not in the logic, and it will be deleted. When the two discussed the script, Zheng Xiaolong always emphasized the logical issue. Gao Mantang said frankly that the scenes that were deleted from the script in the end were basically not logical enough, or the logic was off-topic. For example, Gao Mantang originally wrote about a young couple in the story, they were separated from each other, the wife went to see her husband, and the husband happened to come back to visit relatives, and they met by chance in the car, this plot made Zheng Xiaolong feel that the logic was not rigorous, "At that time, Zheng Xiaolong said that it was not right, how could the husband and wife be like this?" Full of you are to emphasize the dramatic effect, unexpectedly. In that era, if two people went to each other's cities, they had to call ** in advance, and say I went. Regarding this "not rigorous", Gao Mantang admitted frankly that it was indeed his own negligence, and he was caught by Zheng Xiaolong. "He did a lot of homework. Including the things that have been filmed, he said to take them away, no matter how good the play is, don't let this one detail make a mistake and ruin the style of the whole show. In addition to requiring the logic of the storyline to be true, in Gao Mantang's view, Zheng Xiaolong's requirements for service to Huadao have also reached a harsh level, very strict, and if a prop is not placed correctly, it must be re-filmed. During the filming, Zheng Xiaolong changed a lot of scenes, such as the scene of the Railway Public Security Bureau, Zheng Xiaolong proposed that the conditions at that time could not be laid with such a high-grade wool carpet, as well as the gold velvet on the desk, the whole thing needed to be "lowered", and the scene should be made more simple and more in line with that era; There are also the furnishings and spaciousness of Ma Kui's house, which is not a civilian home, and there are a lot of beautiful peony flowers planted in front of his house, which looks like a very happy home, but in fact, Ma Kui has been imprisoned for ten years because of unjust, false and wrongful convictions, and his wife and daughter are waiting hard, so it is impossible to have this mind to plant flowers. "He (Zheng Xiaolong) is very thin. He just said in one sentence, we are all people who have experienced this era, and we can't make such mistakes at this age. ”
The set of "South to North" pays attention to reality.
About the actors. The younger generation, the actors in "South to North", only Ding Yongdai and Gao Mantang have cooperated, and the other actors are very unfamiliar to Gao Mantang. Regarding the performance of the actors, Gao Mantang admitted frankly that he didn't expect them to act so well. "These young actors are terrifying, it's not that they are used just for traffic, they still have to have real skills, which are better than I imagined. ”
Liu Wei, chief reporter of the Beijing News.
Edited by Tong Na.
Proofread by Zhao Lin.