Recently, the 38-episode TV series "Police Honor" is being broadcast simultaneously on CCTV 8 and iQiyi. As a police drama that tells the trivial stories of grassroots police, "Police Honor" not only accidentally "takes all" audiences of different age groups, old, middle and young, but also brings back many people who "haven't watched dramas for many years". During the broadcast, the drama occupied the top spot in the TV series of all channels in the post-prime time period, and won the championship in many TV series such as iQIYI.
As the plot unfolds, the discussion around "Police Honor" has gone beyond the usual category of literary and artistic works, involving all aspects of social governance. How to use Chinese principles to manage China's affairs well? How to tell Chinese stories well in Chinese style? The reporter interviewed the screenwriter Zhao Dongling and director Ding Hei of "Police Honor".
"Police Honor" comes from the steamy life around us
Reporter: What factors prompted you to create such a work as "Police Honor"?
Zhao Dongling: Most of the works on the subject of public security are about how the police solve major cases and eliminate major evils. I have come into contact with many grassroots police officers in the creation. They are like Zhao Jiwei in the play, they do a lot of things silently, but they are not necessarily seen by everyone. But for the police profession, their most routine work is actually the trivial and chaotic work of the grassroots police station, resolving conflicts and ensuring the safety of one party. The safe operation of society and the people's well-being and contentment also benefit from these unknown police officers working on the front line. This is how the idea of creating a film and television drama reflecting the work and life of ordinary police officers in grassroots police stations became clear.
In order to write this work, I took a few young people to interview five police stations and a criminal police team in Jinan, and interviewed dozens of front-line police officers. Several young people also followed the police on several night shifts. There are dozens of cases, large and small, written in the play, and almost every one of them is "picked" from our lives. For example, the story shared by an old policeman from the Shiliulihe Police Station in Jinan, where the reporter left blood samples to cause conflict, is the story of police officer Xia Jie apologizing to Dr. Wu. We also saw a case-solving "crazy demon" at the Jinan Longdong Police Station, an auxiliary police officer in his 50s who earns two or three thousand yuan a month and lives in a collective dormitory. He is devoted to solving the case all day. Once, he encountered a person with a strange wound on his body, and he broke down a criminal gang specializing in theft of construction site objects. This is the prototype of Zhang Zhijie's meticulous solution to the case in the play.
If there's a prototype or source for Police Honor, it's the steamy life around us. Putting this kind of real life full of fireworks on the screen, I believe the audience will like it. This is a belief we have never shaken. This can be seen in our literary traditions and the history of television broadcasts.
Ding Hei: "Police Honor" is different from the common police and bandit dramas in the past. There is no clear confrontation between the police and bandits and the investigation and handling of major and important cases. This drama can be said to be an "atypical" police drama. In the drama, although the characters all have police identities, the contradictions and relationships they pay attention to are different from hard-core police and bandit dramas. They appear in the form of daily life, showing the daily life of their work and life. trivial. Now the viewing space can have a place for such a play, I feel very happy.
Many people think that "Police Honor" produced "fireworks", and the "fireworks" still comes from real life. The grass-roots police group that the script focuses on exists in the daily life of each of us. They are the living people around us, and the content of their work also exists in the daily life of each of us, so the audience will feel full of "fireworks" . In addition, we built a police station in the play, including the main building, annex, playground and other facilities, as well as restaurants, barber shops, photo studios, residential houses, etc. on the street. "Fireworks gas" played a very big role.
The same is to interview and collect style, some people can find treasures, and some people can't find them. Why? This is related to the creator's attitude, vision, life experience and attitude towards life
Reporter: "Police Honor" begins with the induction of four young police officers, each representing a type. What are the considerations for character design?
Zhao Dongling : How to string together a lot of trivial stories, we thought about the growth of the police, so we designed four young police officers. Li Dawei was the first to settle down. He was cheerful, smart and mischievous, much like young people today. Zhao Jiwei is showing the story of a rural child who went to the city to become a police officer. Many of the police force are of this type. There is a special group in the police force, the children of martyrs. They even directly inherited the warning signs of their parents. For various reasons, their pressure will be even greater, so they have the image of Xia Jie. We thought about the image of Poplar for a long time, and finally decided on such a character who has been trained and trained for a year.
Ding Hei: The four newcomers portrayed in the play have their own characteristics. Each of them is a living person, with their own character characteristics, and their own ambitions and aspirations. In essence, they all have a common feature, which is their dedication to the police profession and their recognition of the police's honor.
In terms of character building, it is better to call it a "return" than a "breakthrough", a "return" to reality and a "return" to human nature. The ontology of creation is to pursue characters that are not flattened, conceptualized, or simplified. The character creation in this play is extremely real, because the real must be rich, and the rich must be complex, with advantages and disadvantages, not simple good or bad. This characterization is actually a return to life. Because each of the police around us is an ordinary individual with the emotions and desires of ordinary people, but they all know their responsibilities and missions as a whole, and they are all working hard to promote the development of grassroots governance in a better direction.
Reporter: As a creator, it is a great gain for the audience to leave behind a few memorable characters after chasing the drama. "Police Honor" does this very well. Can you talk about your experience in character building?
Zhao Dongling: I also went to interview and collect Fengfeng. Some people can find treasures, but some people can't find them. Why? This is related to the creator's attitude, vision, life experience and attitude towards life. For example, one of my favorite characters in the play, Cao Jianjun, was a police hero at the beginning, and went out to handle cases very beautifully. Then he wrote about his shortcomings: he not only robbed his colleagues, but also his apprentices, and blamed others for any mistakes. It would be very annoying to meet such people in life. If we don't look at some things from a more accessible perspective, then Cao Jianjun will be regarded as a villain. But we started from grabbing the credit, explored the reasons behind it, looked at him with compassion, and finally wrote such a vivid character image. He will encounter very bumpy things in the future, and in the end everyone will feel very complicated after reading it.
How do you view the weakness of human nature, this is testing the vision and level of the creator. If we do not have such a vision, such a compassionate feeling, and such a vision to examine human nature with a more transparent and sympathetic understanding, then the aesthetic value of the characters is likely to be greatly reduced.
Chinese culture is a culture of responsibility. "Government" has always been in a broad sense and bears unlimited responsibility. China's social governance pays great attention to the voice of the people.
Reporter: There are comments that "Police Honor" should be called "Something about the police station". It reveals the real situation faced by grass-roots social governance. Can you share your understanding.
Zhao Dongling: The grassroots police are mainly faced with three major problems: first, the police force is small and the task is heavy; second, there are a large number of invalid police information, and the requirement for the police station is "the police must answer", and many things that are not under your control must also be managed; The third is the petition pressure. If I am not satisfied with your handling, I will call 12345 to complain to you. These are fully expressed and reflected in the play.
Why does this phenomenon occur? On the one hand, our country is in a historical transition period, and a large number of farmers have been transformed into urban residents. The new residents who have just entered the city also have the habit of dealing with problems in the acquaintance society, and conflicts will inevitably arise in the process of their transformation into new residents of the city. On the other hand, Chinese culture is a culture of responsibility. "Government" has always been in a broad sense and bears unlimited responsibilities. China's social governance pays great attention to the voices of the common people. Therefore, the common people have to go to the government for big and small matters. In this drama, it is "If you have difficulties, ask the police."
Ding Hei: In the play, the environment of the Balihe police station is complex. In fact, this environment is a microcosm. Our country is developing too fast, and various factors are growing interactively. Due to this complexity, various problems have arisen.
The police station is a grass-roots department that can see everything in the world. More often they encounter trivial matters and various civil disputes, which, in the old saying, are conflicts among the people. When it comes to things that are easy to define in nature, such as crimes, the police are also very resolute in handling them. But in daily life, the nature of the vast majority of things is not so easy to define, it is very complicated to handle, and it also tests the wisdom of grassroots governance. Neither can he want to be detained at every turn like Li Dawei in the play, nor can he shirk it when things are too small like Zhao Jiwei at the beginning. Our civilian police and other grassroots workers have explored and used a method in line with China's national conditions in their actual work, that is, mediation.
As Wang Shouyi, the director of the play, often said, we grow up with the environment. Due to the unbalanced social development, there are many such contradictions at the grassroots level. We also learn how to carry out grassroots governance in the process of social development. To resolve conflicts among the people, we must be patient, policy-oriented, and compassionate. The best way is to mediate. Mediation may seem easy, but there is a lot of work and hard work behind it. We hope that through the presentation of this drama, everyone can see how difficult the mediation work is. We also hope that everyone will always have goodwill and understanding in their daily life, so that we may need to mediate less and less things. Everyone The relationship may become more and more harmonious.
Reporter: You once said that "Police Honor" "does not pretend to be false, does not dwarf, does not exaggerate, asks real questions, and faces real reality." In your opinion, what real questions does "Police Honor" ask?
Zhao Dongling: I have been paying attention to the discussion triggered by the progress of the plot: Are the police messing with the unreasonable people? Why does the law sometimes have no way to take those ruffians? Obviously the police are not wrong, why do they have to apologize?
The Balihe police station we designed is located in the urban-rural junction, and there are a large number of urban residents transformed from rural areas in the jurisdiction. The composition of this kind of residents has a certain metaphorical meaning: rural life and urban life in the past represented two different ways of life, and the logic of dealing with problems in these two situations was different. For example, in the case caused by Uncle Sun walking the dog without a leash, why did so many people help the Uncle Sun's family when they were in trouble? Because they used to be from a village, this is the way an acquaintance society handles problems.
In real life, the police are on the front line of dealing with social conflicts, and many of the problems they encounter are in the blurred area between love and law.
"Fengqiao Experience" is an important part of the work and study of grassroots police. All the police officers of Balihe Police Station are practicing this experience, trying to catch young people as early as possible.
Reporter: The "Fengqiao Experience" is always mentioned in the play, that is, "mobilizing and relying on the masses, insisting that conflicts are not handed over, and resolving them on the spot, so as to achieve fewer arrests and better security". Can you talk about your understanding of using Chinese principles to manage China's affairs in conjunction with the play?
Ding Hei: Emphasizing authenticity is an important feature of this drama, and in reality, "Fengqiao Experience" is an important part of the work and learning of grassroots police. All the police officers of Balihe Police Station are practicing this experience, trying to catch small problems early, and before small problems have developed into major conflicts, they will try to solve problems. In addition, when resolving disputes, when the law cannot be clearly defined, or when the process of legal definition is too complicated, it is necessary to constantly let everyone know what the legal requirements are.
Zhao Dongling: We often talk about "Chinese characteristics", and sometimes it seems difficult to understand, but if we study China's issues more deeply and understand Chinese society and Chinese traditions more thoroughly, we will understand that this is not an empty talk. When dealing with issues, compromises may often have to be made. It is in this repeated pulling and pulling that society continues to progress.
Chinese traditional culture pays attention to harmony, which includes communication, compromise, giving each other a step, and all kinds of wisdom to resolve conflicts as little as possible. If you only see compromise and tolerance, but not the progress of society in this process, it will be a blindfold. But it is unrealistic to only hope to see the realization of justice without any compromise and comprehensive consideration.
Any progress is difficult, and Wang Shouyi and others are doing their own exploration in it. No matter how well they are measured, they are worthy of our respect. For the police officers at the grass-roots police station, their sense of honor may not be to solve major cases and eliminate major evils, but to maintain the peace of one party and protect the safety of one party through their work day after day, year after year, so that the people's peace index and The happiness index has improved. That's the title of the show: Police Honor.