Recently, a number of suspense dramas have been broadcast intensively: "The Chessman", "Sandstorm", "Born by Life"... The suspense track that is recognized as already very "scroll". This batch of dramas "new" has not made the audience tired of it, and has received high praise, setting off a wave of watching dramas.

  Why can suspense dramas win the favor of young audiences? Through these high-reputation dramas, we can see one thing in common: good suspense dramas are no longer just puzzle-solving games, but can deeply analyze people's hearts and reflect the times.

  Reasoning and solving cases is just a shallow level creation of suspense dramas. Nowadays, audiences hope to see an ordinary person’s game with destiny and interaction with the times through a drama, so as to achieve the exploration and questioning of the fundamental value of being born.

  Some suspense dramas show how ordinary people go out of control under the squeeze of reality and human desire. For example, "The Chessman" is set in the southern city in the early 21st century. It tells the story of the down-and-out Go teacher Cui Ye who was involved in a crime due to an accident and gradually became a crime. He was pursued by his brother Cui Wei, a policeman, and the two brothers had different paths.

  "The Chess" abandons the binary opposition of either black or white in character portrayal, and uses nonlinear narratives to shape complex individuals under the torrent of fate. Whether it is Cui Ye who "goes astray" or Cui Wei, a brother who is a policeman, they are not stereotyped images in the traditional sense. The play reflects the real dilemma through the human struggles of ordinary little characters, and connects with the audience from a delicate perspective of life.

  In the view of Wang Baoqiang, the actor who plays Cui Ye, Cui Ye's character background is very complicated, not simply white or black. "He is inferior and arrogant, paranoid and distorted, but his life is like a chess, and every step is variable. In the end, Cui Ye was swallowed by the evil in his heart and walked into the abyss."

  "The Chess Master" explores how life experiences change people, and how people should keep their hearts when experiencing difficulties and temptations. "Good and evil are like two sides of a mirror, reflecting the light and shadow of human nature under the refraction of different lights." Wang Baoqiang believes that everyone has a dark side in their hearts, and how to make the right choice is particularly important.

  "Born by Life" discusses how a person should choose his own path when facing the unexpected arrangements of fate and the various temptations in the wave of social change.

  The story of this drama began in the early 1990s. Du Xiangdong, a high-ranking student at the police academy, was assigned to the detention center and was escaped while escorting two suspects, Xu Wenguo and Yao Binbin. Xu Wenguo escaped while the chaos was taking advantage of the chaos, and Du Xiangdong began a 20-year hunting career since then. Du Xiangdong, who once wanted to leave the detention center, insisted on doing this because of his professional beliefs and obsession with the truth.

  The suspense drama "Sandstorm" that scored a score on Douban has exceeded 8 points, triggering widespread discussion among young audiences on social networks about the fate of women in the play.

  "Sandstorm" is led to the reboot of eight years of unsolved cases, leading to a story of chasing murder that has been buried for many years and undercurrents. From the perspective of suspense drama skills, the technique of "Sandstorm" is very mature. All the foreshadowings and "leads" buried in the first half are "exploded" one by one at the back, making the audience's scalp numb. But what this drama hits the audience even more is the core of the series, the exploration and display of the plight of women at the bottom.

  At the end of "Sandstorm", Liu Yingying and Wang Liang drove away and stopped at the boundary marker of "Kulu". Liu Yingying wanted to "go out", which was her lifelong obsession, and it was also a pity that she had to "stay" under the huge wheel of fate. The "Kulu" shrouded in wind and sand is a "blind mountain" that all the women at the bottom of this place cannot get out of.

  At the "Sandstorm" seminar, Zhang Jianing, who plays Liu Yingying, mentioned that most of the characters she portrayed in the past were "well-behaved and sensible characters", so when she got the script, she was deeply attracted by Liu Yingying's complex psychology and character levels.

  Zhang Jianing described Liu Yingying as a "tough thorn flower", struggling hard in adversity and striving to take root. Although her attitude towards life seems to be curled up, there are delicate thorns hidden in the silence sharpened by the wind and sand. Those thorns are scabs from unhealed wounds. "She doesn't use tears to fight against human life, but uses the scabbed wounds as a shield."

  In the drama "Sandstorm", the police played by Duan Yihong and Zhang Yao are clueful characters, but when looking back at the master's past, the group of police has become the bright color of "Kulu" in the wind and sand. This drama not only writes a distinct local suspense model, but also inherits it through the core characters of three generations of police officers, reflecting the development and progress of China's rule of law and the persistence of the "red line" of judicial justice.

  The attention, analysis and criticism of reality constitutes an important part of the narrative of suspense drama. "Sandstorm" focuses on the forgotten little people by the times and their painful and uneasy souls. When sharing the creative experience, the director of the drama, Tan Jiayan, also said that we should think about a question now: How can suspense themes practice mainstream value orientation?

  "Don't avoid real criticism, but in criticism we should be full of kindness and warmth - because criticism is not the purpose, but to make the world a better place. The mission of literature and art is to pay equal attention to the souls of all people. Literature and art cannot only focus on those who stand at the forefront, but also on those who have been fallen by the tide of the times, those who have been forgotten, and those who are marginalized." Tan Jiayan said.

  The key to the high-reputation suspense dramas such as "Chess", "Born by Life" and "Sandstorm" touching the audience is that the audience accompanied the people in the story step by step to the final intersection of fate, and found that brain-burning reasoning and puzzle solving are not the driving force and value of our approach to this story. In the witness of this journey, we finally understand their way of coming and the pain in our hearts.

  Those highly acclaimed suspense dramas portraying small characters at the bottom are always full of deep thoughts on fate and questioning the causes of tragedy, and carry the heavy weight of reality. How much impact does a choice have on life? What will people who are "fallen" in the fast pace of social development experience? All of these resonate with many people.

  Excellent suspense dramas can become a mirror, allowing everyone to clearly see the little people who are entangled by the times after the truth of the incident is revealed. (Shen Jiequn)

[Editor in charge: Susan]