JC-T Jin Shijia’s Picture Book of Hunting Crime is on fire. What did it do right？

Special feature of 1905 film network "I can do much more than just painting." The crime suspense drama "Hunting Crime Picture Book" is undoubtedly one of the most popular dramas in March.

　

Shen Yi, the simulated portraitist, showed various stunts, such as "painting an old man at the age of three", "painting a skull" and "painting a father according to a woman", which kept the audience on top and brought this special police job into public view.

　

Not only does it vividly depict the unpopular profession, but "Hunting Crime Picture Book" also triggered a hot discussion among netizens with the setting of double men, the adaptation of real cases and the discussion of social issues.

　

Admittedly, many viewers have pointed out that there are many shortcomings in the drama series, but in terms of topics and attention, it is still a leader in recent crime suspense dramas.

Without top-notch actors and IP endorsements, why did "Hunting Crime Picture Book" break through the tight encirclement? Judging from the recent explosions, what are the new trends in suspense type creation?

　

01

What did the Book of Hunting Crime do right?

　

"Is this genius real?" This is the first feeling of many people after reading "Hunting Crime Picture Book".Restoring the face from the skull, inferring the father’s face according to the daughter’s appearance, and distinguishing the deity from more than 10 fake faces after AI’s face change, Shen Yi’s various divine operations seem to be beyond the audience’s daily cognition.

There is no doubt that there is an element of artistic processing, but such a "wonderful pen detective" does exist in the police force.

　

Lin Yuhui and Zhang Xin, well-known simulators in the industry, have played an important role in the detection of major cases such as YINGYING ZHANG case, Lanzhou serial murder case, South Medical University murder case and so on.

Lin Yuhui painted a portrait of the suspect in the YINGYING ZHANG case.

　

When the screenwriter team created the character "Shen Yi", they also referred to Luo Dong, a simulated portrait artist of Xi ‘an Public Security Bureau. Similar to Shen Yi, Luo Dong also graduated from fine arts, with a superb painter and a sunny and handsome appearance.

　

This also made the screenwriter decide to change the stereotyped portrait of the police group in the public security drama and create a "crime-hunting group" composed of the portraitist Shen Yi, the captain Du Cheng and the forensic doctor He Rongyue, showing the new look of young and middle-aged police officers.

　

Shen Yi and Du Cheng, two brothers with different painting styles but tacit understanding, have also become the "flow password" of the series.

Focusing on the portrait painter, an unpopular police job, not only brings freshness and curiosity to the audience, but also makes the whole drama more possible in audio-visual style.

　

It is the first step for the success of "Hunting Crime Picture Book" to make the process of "painting a brush to catch a murderer" play with martial arts and make criminal investigation and art cross-border linkage.

　

The Book of Hunting Crime is full of intertextuality between the case and the world famous paintings.

Not only does the identity of a portrait artist have many prototypes in reality, but ten major cases in the drama series also have real cases, such as "Dong Shanshan’s death from domestic violence", "Lao Rongzhi’s case" and "the case of burying a corpse in the playground", which provides a certain guarantee for authenticity.

　

Strange cases and major cases appear in high frequency in the form of units, which also caters to the audience’s demand for fast-paced and exciting suspense detective dramas.

However, different from the previous unit detective drama, Hunting Crime Picture Book conveys a strong social concern in addition to the original reasoning.

　

Behind the ten cases in the film are social focus issues such as domestic violence, female appearance anxiety, campus violence, empty nesters, human trafficking, etc.

　

　

The screenwriter team has revealed that in the selection and adaptation of cases, on the one hand, it should be forward-looking, that is, it should predict the social topics and hot spots when the series is broadcast in a few years.

　

On the other hand, consciously "tilt" to the female audience, win the favor of the female audience and broaden the target audience of the traditional suspense detective drama through the shaping of female images and the discussion of female issues.

The so-called "painting meets people’s heart", "Hunting Crime Picture Book" not only shows the process of solving crimes by reasoning, but also tries to arouse the psychological and emotional resonance of the audience and achieve the balance of spectacle, reality and sociality.

　

Admittedly, The Picture Book of Hunting Crime is not perfect. Some viewers pointed out that the drama exaggerated the role played by the portraitist in criminal investigation, the painting style fluctuated between realism and suspension, and some cases were anticlimactic, vague and the details could not stand scrutiny.

However, it is undeniable that such a small and medium-sized drama series with no IP and no traffic stars can be deus ex, which has certain reference significance for the creation of domestic suspense dramas.

　

02

After "Hunting Crime Picture Book", how to shoot suspense?

　

From the emergence of Crime Without a License and Pursuit of Murder in a White Night to the explosion of Hidden Corner and Silent Truth, all major platforms and producers have increased the layout of suspense tracks. In recent years, suspense dramas have become a blowout on small screens.

　

Although the number has increased significantly, the number of explosions is still rare. The "Fog Theater", which just started the banner, was weak, and the four dramas launched in 2021 were tepid and ended in a dull way. The highly anticipated suspense dramas such as Double Detective, Rebirth and Wolf Hunters also failed to reach the expected popularity.

　

On the contrary, at the beginning of this year, suspense dramas such as "The Beginning", "Dawn of a River Photo" and "Hunting Crime Picture Book" have been realized one after another, which has triggered market thinking.

　

It is not difficult to see from the above parts that under the background of the increasingly crowded suspense track, the innovation of types and themes has become the only way to break through.

Picture Book of Hunting Crime selects a group of simulated portrait artists that have not been featured in previous suspense detective dramas, and uses "portraits" to "picture" the criminal investigation process, forming a unique audio-visual style.

　

Similar attempts include the early series of Forensic Medicine Qin Ming, which opened criminal cases from the perspective of forensic medicine; Fox Hunt and Trident focus on the police investigating, Opponent shows the national security police, and Action to Break the Ice depicts the anti-drug police, etc., all of which are subdivided in the big type of criminal suspense, realizing the theme expansion of traditional drama involving cases and criminal investigation.

"The Beginning" is even more special, combining suspense, science fiction, love and other types of elements in one furnace skillfully, bringing fire to the high concept of "infinite flow" and opening the mode of nationwide hot search for dramas.

　

In recent years, such diverse types of "suspense+"works are not uncommon, but it is not easy to grasp the balance between suspense and other elements.

Sisyphus and Fatal Desire, who also tried sci-fi suspense, had a mediocre reputation, while The Gold Rusher and Wolf Hunters, which mixed suspense and adventure action elements, failed to get out of the circle. In the final analysis, something is wrong with the story itself.

On the other hand, social issues and realistic care have also become the standard for suspense dramas. In the almost empty "infinite flow" setting, "The Beginning" still involves social topics such as cyber violence and intergenerational conflicts, and it is combined with news hotspots to trigger a hot discussion in society.

　

The Truth of Silence, A Picture Book of Hunting Crime and Dawn in the River all try to find the intersection between suspense narrative and realistic theme, and realize the circle breaking through the exhibition and discussion of social topics.

Once upon a time, the suspense dramas that focused on brain-burning and reasoning were mainly "male-oriented", but in recent years, with the increasing proportion of female audiences of suspense types, the suspense works of "She" featuring women, involving female topics and paying attention to women’s plight have also risen.

Jiang Zhao Dawn is a typical representative. Starting from an ordinary woman, how to save herself in the face of her husband’s betrayal and malice, and paying attention to the practical difficulties such as son preference and domestic violence, it tells a female suspense story with a realistic background.

　

Not only the small screen, but also the number of suspense works on the big screen has been on the rise in recent years. Both box offices in the series have exceeded 1 billion yuan, pushing up the genre ceiling.

The combination of suspense types, script killing elements and female topics will make the audience feel refreshed and successfully achieve counterattack, which will provide new ideas for suspense type creation.

From these high-scoring works, it is not difficult to see that peeling off the superposition of many elements, they first tell a suspense and fascinating good story.

If the complex elements such as science fiction, adventure and love are "flowers", there must be suspense as a "brocade" to achieve "icing on the cake" and not put the cart before the horse.

In the future, there will be a number of suspense movies, and suspense dramas such as Night Walker, Gate of Rebirth, Zhanggong Case and Cloister Pavilion are waiting to be released. Who will be the next suspense explosion?