Director Liu Jiang (center) is on the filming scene.

　　The contemporary Guoan anti-espionage drama "Top Secret Contest" directed by Liu Jiang and starring Zhang Luyi and Gao Yuanyuan is being broadcast on CCTV One and iQiyi.

　　The drama is a key funded project by the Beijing Radio and Television Bureau and a key literary and artistic project by Beijing Audio-Visual. The plot focuses on the conspiracy of overseas spies to steal my country's nuclear power technology, showing the life-and-death battle between the National Security Police and it.

　　Must be extremely true

　　"Top Secret Contest" tells the story of spy war in a peaceful era: Yang Guang (played by Zhang Luyi), deputy director of the Third Division of the National Security Bureau of Yanping, was accidentally involved in a conspiracy involving an international spy organization in an operation. During the investigation, a woman named Zhao Yawei (played by Gao Yuanyuan) caught Yang Guang's attention. Zhao Yawei's identity and behavior are full of mystery and are closely related to the entire incident. As the incident escalates, Yang Guang and Zhao Yawei, who seem to be different camps, are both involved in the complex spy war vortex...

　　"Top Secret Competition" uses many real spy cases at home and abroad disclosed in my country in recent years, as well as the personal experiences and historical materials of many hidden front-line national security police officers, to restore the current "intelligence war" that various overseas spies have secretly launched against China. After the series was broadcast, it achieved excellent ratings, confirming the attractiveness of the screen spy war drama. In the eyes of director Liu Jiang, he also tells a spy war story. The biggest difference between "Top Secret Competition" and "Before Dawn" is the leap of the era background. The spy war dramas in the Republic of China can be full of various assumptions because of the sense of historical distance, and contemporary Guoan dramas need to face the audience's strict scrutiny of authenticity, which has become a scarce product on the screen. "Contemporary spy wars have no smoke, but they test the creators' realistic insights. Any distortion of details will make the audience instantly lose their drama, so we must be extremely realistic in technical means, life logic and emotional expression."

　　Speaking of the original intention of "The Top Secret Contest", Liu Jiang said that Beijing once held a report meeting on advanced deeds of political and legal heroes and models in the new era. The deeds of several heroes and models are touching. One of them is "side-looking" and cannot reveal the true face in order to keep it confidential. "The Guoan hero who appears in the silhouette shocked me. They protect a peaceful life, but their faces cannot be made public. On the one hand, we create "The Top Secret Contest" to popularize national security knowledge and let the public deeply understand the importance of national security work. On the other hand, we are also paying tribute to the Guoan soldiers and unknown heroes on the hidden front."

　　Gao Yuanyuan completely breaks away from her previous image

　　"The Top Secret Competition" adopts a high-intensity genre narrative. The series begins with multiple spy war plots such as poisoning, jumping off a building, falling off a cliff. On average, each episode cracks one spy conspiracy, presenting infiltration and destruction methods of espionage activities such as seduction, assassination, coercion, counter-attack, suicide-style stealing, and remote network invasion.

　　There are a lot of details about modern spy wars in "The Top Secret Competition". Liu Jiang revealed that the crew, under the guidance of the National Security Department, rigorously restores the nuclear power plant security inspection process, technical secret espionage methods, etc., and the high-tech espionage methods such as remote copying and surveillance eavesdropping in the play are all artistically processed based on real cases.

　　In terms of character creation, Yang Guang, played by Zhang Luyi and Zhao Yawei, played by Gao Yuanyuan, both have two or even three layers of identity design. The superficial profession, hidden identity and ultimate truth are progressing layer by layer. The onion-like character's identities are full of mystery. Liu Jiang specifically mentioned Gao Yuanyuan's breakthrough performance, "She interpreted the complex emotional struggles of the character in a very convincing way, completely breaking away from her previous image."

　　Emphasize the principle of "villain does not surrender wisdom"

　　"Top Secret Competition" tries to deeply integrate "strong plot typing" with "realism" in creation. The plot is centered on nuclear power technology, radiating the plot directions of spy infiltration, national security countermeasures, human nature game, etc. At the same time, through the "life flow" narrative, "Top Secret Competition" breaks the mystery of the Guoan theme. In the play, Tian Ziwei worked overtime to ask for fried chicken and milk tea, and Yang Guang was urged by his mother to get married, which restored the National Security Police to an ordinary person who "would be tired and troubled."

　　"It is actually not easy to unfold a life-like narrative in a type of story with strong plots, but we hope to convey a concept through these plots: national security is not only a grand narrative, but also closely related to every citizen," said Liu Jiang. He also particularly emphasized the principle of "villains do not surrender wisdom": "In reality, the struggle on the hidden front is far more cruel than drama. Only by respecting the strength of the opponent can the preciousness of victory be highlighted."

　　Regarding the creation direction of future spy war dramas, Liu Jiang believes that "the dual depth of technology and human nature" is the key. "Modern intelligence war has shifted from physical confrontation to technological game, but what ultimately determines the outcome is still human belief. This collision of technological rationality and belief sentiment will be a new space for the evolution of genre dramas." (Beijing Daily reporter Qiu Wei)

[Editor in charge: Tang Wei]