Unlike some episodes, the trailers are so powerful that almost all of the large-scale content in the feature film is cut into the trailers. The scale of the crime suspense drama "Punishment" is really big, especially when it comes to underworld forces. The nonsense, the lawless.

Punishment poster

The place where the story takes place is set in the fictional city of Changwu in Binjiang Province. Changwu is a small city with a population of several hundred thousand. Several pillar industries are basically monopolized by a family surnamed Zhao. Changwu people use "four ones" to describe the Zhao family's business: one type of wine - monopolizes all the liquor industry in Changwu, one room - monopolizes Changwu's real estate industry, and one mountain - monopolizes Changwu All ore, one ship - monopolized all the water freight in Changwu. This is not necessarily an exaggeration. In the early years, some smaller cities did have such a situation of monopoly of family power. The place is not large and the power of the rule of law is relatively weak. Development and growth, external forces are difficult to enter.

This is the relatively clever entry point of "Criminal Punishment": on the one hand, such local evil forces are too numerous to describe, which can present many large-scale and explosive plots to the audience and enhance the curiosity of the suspense drama; on the other hand, the level and The scale is not large, and the level of the umbrella behind it can be controlled relatively low, so as not to touch some restricted areas, and the trial will not encounter too many twists and turns.

The Zhao family's power gang held a meeting

The Zhao family in "Punishment" has a large family and a prosperous population. When family member Zhao Xiaosheng (played by Cheng Yu), he gave birth to four sons with four different women. (played by Youning Yang). Among them, Zhao Lao Er is a decent prosecutor and received a lunch early; Zhao Lao Si studied abroad and worked as a lawyer for many years, and now he has come back to take over the family business; Zhao Lao Lao and Zhao Lao San have been hanging around with Zhao’s father. On the other hand, both of them are very ruthless, but their means are far worse than his father and Zhao Laosi.

Zhao Xiaosheng (played by Cheng Yu), a talker of the older generation of the Zhao family

The large scale of "Punishment" comes from the various bottomless acts of the Zhao family. For example, as soon as the episode came out, a young couple recorded a video in the unfinished building developed by the Zhao family to complain about the Zhao family. As a result, the husband was thrown downstairs and the seriously ill wife was beaten to death. The news the next day became this. The husband and wife were unable to repay the loan. The husband beat his wife to death and then jumped off the building to commit suicide; the Zhao family took a fancy to a seafood market run by a company and wanted to take a share. He has been collecting evidence of the Zhao family's wrongdoing. He hoped that his father would turn himself in or hand over the evidence to the police. As a result, Zhao's second child was killed, and it was his brother who killed him...

The murders of "Punishment" happened in 2018, and there are still cities (although fictional) where such blatant and vicious murders have repeatedly occurred, which can still shock the audience. The plot also repeatedly highlights the extreme arrogance of the Zhao family from the side. Cases related to the Zhao family can be piled up in a cabinet; the secret investigation team against the Zhao family organized by the Provincial Public Security Department has to be secretive when they act, and is ready to move positions at any time, for fear of being discovered by the Zhao family’s eyeliner; Zhao Xiaosheng opened the drawer , Rows of old mobile phones used to contact the "protective umbrella" are placed by number, which shows that the Zhao family's influence has penetrated into all aspects of Changwu's political arena...

Cases related to the Zhao family are full of cabinets

Zhao Xiaosheng's "Umbrella"

Such a plot will certainly make people feel exaggerated or bizarre, but it does not necessarily make people feel false, because the Zhao family in the play can easily mobilize the audience's knowledge and experience about local forces, human relations, gang-related organizations, county ecology, etc. . Zhao Xiaosheng is like the "Emperor" of Changwu City. Whether it is Lao Tzu or his son, he has made no secret of his ambition to be a "king" in Changwu.

Under the above background, the first main plot of "Punishment" is the struggle between the police and the evil forces that has been common in the past few years to eliminate gangsters and pranks. Chang Zheng (played by Huang Jingyu), the vice-captain of Chang Zheng (played by Huang Jingyu). This line also has some regular suspenseful settings. For example, Chang Zheng's father (also a criminal police officer) was killed? Who is the umbrella of the Zhao family? How was the closed "kingdom" of the Zhao family broken?

Chang Zheng (played by Huang Jingyu)

Another main line revolves around the infighting of the Zhao family. This is the more interesting part of the first part of "Punishment". This part of the plot has multiple reversals. For example, at first you thought that Zhao Laosan was the most ruthless - wishing that his father died quickly so that he could inherit the family property; then you found out that Zhao Laosan, who was in a wheelchair, was the murderer of Zhao Laoer, and he even thought about connecting Zhao Laozi. Sanyi was killed, but Zhao Laosan was lucky enough to escape. Finally, it was discovered that the handsome and gentle Zhao Laosi was the most insidious and insidious. He buried his eyeliner beside Zhao Laosan and Zhao Laosan early on. His ambition and ruthlessness sometimes even Zhao Xiaosheng sighs to himself... In the follow-up plot, there is still a lot of room for imagination of how the Zhao family can bite a dog.

Zhao Pengchao, the fourth child of the Zhao family (played by Yang Youning)

Not only that, the screenwriter of "Punishment" is familiar with the way of popular literature, and arranges all kinds of cliché and useful bridges into the plot relatively reasonably. For example, Chang Zheng's girlfriend (who slowly became an ex-girlfriend) became the lawyer of the Zhao family. When the couple went against each other, tension came out; Zhao Laosi's mother turned out to be Han Han, the executive vice mayor of Changwu City. Ya (guest appearance by Jiang Shan), Zhao Xiaosheng and Han Ya can have a very legendary and gossip past; even the plot in the preview will involve the mystery of life experience, that is, Chang Zheng may be Zhao Xiaosheng's son, Zhao Lao Si also It may not be Zhao Xiaosheng's own life (limited to the author's brain hole speculation)...

Asiana (guest appearance by Jiang Shan)

It can be said that "weird" and "hunting" are the biggest features of the story of "Punishment". Of course it has realistic genes, but its way of speaking is in the style of popular literature, as if reading articles on "Legend of Modern and Ancient", "Story Club" or "Zhiyin", it is not of great artistic value, but a popular narrative , large-scale plots, and bizarre character relationships make it have a good "dinner" attribute.

In fact, the narrative technique of "Punishment" is very conventional, and the video language is quite satisfactory. Although this "ordinary" is not an advantage for suspense dramas, it is not necessarily a disadvantage. The stylized suspense drama is indeed more refined aesthetically and has higher aesthetic value, but it also means a higher threshold of acceptance, which is sometimes thankless. "Punishment" is another strategy: honestly tell the story in a popular, clear, and fascinating way. Although the artistic value is not high, the sinking market is fully opened.

There are many loopholes in "Punishment". Audiences who are "clean" about the logic of suspense dramas are easily persuaded by the plot bugs in the first few episodes. For example, the Zhao family in Changwu City has covered the sky with one hand, and Zhao Laosan has to "please" Chang Zheng, who is sent to the police station to be a police officer. If you really want to get information from the police, the police don't have the eyes of the Zhao family everywhere, not to mention that Zhao Laosan has the ability to help Chang Zheng return to the Criminal Investigation Detachment. Doesn't this mean that he knows a higher level of the police? Some of Chang Zheng's operations are also "naive". He clearly knew Changwu's political ecology, and clearly knew that the Zhao family's trick was to find a scapegoat. When there were two witnesses in the pier murder case, he never thought that the witnesses would be bribed? He spent so much time getting close to Zhao Laosan, and he fell short like this?

Although the individual plots and character relationships of "Punishment" are old-fashioned and have many bugs, under the cover of the bizarre, another part of the audience may say: It's just a meal drama, don't care so much, just like why it is necessary to use classic standards To evaluate a throwaway popular novel. Therefore, dramas like "Punishment" are destined to be polarized: "likes and dislikes" are up to people, some people despise them, and some people like them. It's hard to say whether such a narrative strategy is good or bad, but some people in the drama market pursue art, while others cater to the public. Diversity is always better than singularity.