Qin Hao, as a representative of domestic suspense dramas, has starred in many high-scoring suspense masterpieces in recent years, which has given him a strong appeal for this track.

Recently, his new drama has been broadcast, let's talk about it together-

"Born by Life"

"Born by Life" has been lying in Xiaomei's 2025 expectation list for a long time.

Not only because of Qin Hao, but also because of the director of this drama, Lu Chuan.

Of course, Lu Chuan before the National Day in 749 was still a quality assurance in the hearts of many fans, but everything changed because of the fierce slamming of "0 Bureau".

Lu Chuan has become poison, and even this drama has been criticized a lot.

So you can clearly see that after the start of this drama, Lu Chuan is not visible in various marketing, as if he is hidden.

Lu Chuan hit the street again, or did Qin Hao smash the performance again, or did the Misty Theater really fail?

Everything was officially pushed to a climax with the start of this show.

Directed by Lu Chuan and starring Qin Hao and Han Geng, this new work of Misty Theater is adapted from Shi Yifeng's novel of the same name, telling the story of a prison guard who pursues a fugitive for two decades.

故事始於上世紀八十年代，年輕的獄警杜湘東被分配到偏遠看守所工作。

This aspiring police academy top student thought he could show his strength, but he was trapped within the high wall of the iron mesh because of a paper order.

In the cold-toned opening scene, barbed wire and iron fences appear repeatedly, cutting the characters into fragmented silhouettes.

杜湘東騎著自行車穿過層層鐵門的場景，宛如一隻困在牢籠中的鳥，既暗喻了他被體制規則束縛的處境，又為後續二十年追捕埋下伏筆——

That old bicycle will be his only means of transportation to navigate the changing times.

When the suspects in the theft case, Yao Binbin and Xu Wenguo, were escorted to the detention center, Du Xiangdong's fate gears began to turn.

One of the two young men, labelled as "thieves," was arrested for stealing imported crown cars, and the other was charged with intentional injury for a conflict with the factory director's son.

The murder of the Sixth Machine Factory involved behind the case makes the whole drama a layer of suspense.

But soon the audience will find out that suspense is not the core of the show.

The director pours more pen and ink into showing the survival rules of a specific era - in the detention center, the "head board privilege" of the cell boss Zheng Sanchuang and the "white line rules" that must be strictly observed in discipline form a strict hierarchical order;

In the factory compound, the security department pursued and intercepted the intruders, reflecting the closed nature of the unit system in the era of planned economy;

Even at the dinner table of the class reunion, the seating arrangement and toasting order are silently announcing the solidification of the power structure.

These details are woven together into an airtight "net of rules", and Du Xiangdong is the most unwilling struggler in this net.

There is a very symbolic scene in the play: Du Xiangdong infiltrated the machine tool factory to investigate the case, and was surrounded by the people of the security department holding flashlights.

Blinding beams of light weaved into a cage, trapping him in a mix of light and dark shadows. This scene not only reproduces the oppressive feeling of the searchlight in the detention center, but also metaphorizes the whole society as a giant prison.

When Du Xiangdong asked Yao Binbin, "Should you be here", the other party asked "Should you be here", which instantly shattered the psychological defense line of the characters and the audience.

As the investigation deepened, Du Xiangdong gradually discovered that the case was full of suspicions.

The victim Li Chao did not die from the shooting, the relationship between the son of the factory director and the security department was ambiguous, and the so-called "murder weapon" was actually a scrapped gun that could not be fired.

But these truths are so powerless in the face of powerful institutional inertia. Zhang Xiangyang, the head of the criminal police, reprimanded Du Xiangdong for "abiding by the rules", and the director of the detention center warned the cross-border investigation "don't embarrass the office".

All voices are reminding this idealist:

Individual persistence is insignificant in the face of collective rules. However, Du Xiangdong chose a "rule-breaking" path.

When he secretly observed the interrogation, he stuffed two oranges into his colleagues, and used the most simple human touch to pry open the cracks in the system;

He broke into the witness's house at night and was treated as a thief, but he was still obsessed with restoring the truth of the case;

This confrontation is not a vigorous revolution, but a gentle resistance that permeates the trivialities of everyday life.

Lao Wu's embarrassment when he took out the wrong cigarette, Yao Binbin's mother Cui Lizhen's despair when she trembled and said "the gun is fake", and Liu Fenfang's pungency when she caught a mouse with her bare hands, these details full of fireworks made the cold and hard rule cage crack small cracks.

Especially at the end of the third episode, when Yao Binbin told the truth about "guns can't kill people", and Xu Wenguo confessed to hiding the secret of the firing pin, the audience suddenly realized:

Behind the so-called unsolved case, it is just the helpless self-protection of two low-level young people under the pressure of the times.

And Du Xiangdong's pursuit has long gone beyond the case itself and has become a declaration of resistance to the established fate.

Unfortunately, the series is overwhelmed in presenting these profound propositions.

The first three episodes devote a lot of space to the daily trivialities of the detention center, but they hesitate to advance the key plot.

The prison break doesn't occur until the end of the third episode, which is a disaster for a thirteen-episode series.

The hard-inserted love line is even more abrupt, the blind date scene between Du Xiangdong and Liu Fenfang is full of embarrassment, and Zhong Chuxi's forcible addition of bathing shots is more like a commercial calculation for hot searches.

When the main line of suspense has not yet been unfolded, and the emotional subline lacks foreshadowing, it is naturally difficult for the audience to empathize.

In addition, although Du Xiangdong played by Qin Hao performed the axis of the role, his overly restrained performance made the motive of "Twenty Years of Pursuit" seem thin.

However, if you zoom out from the perspective, you can still see the sincerity of the crew.

陸川對時代氛圍的還原可圈可點：灰藍工裝、老式自行車、貼著明星海報的單身宿舍，這些佈景細節精準複刻了八十年代的生活圖景。

The visual language of the iron mesh composition runs throughout, from the detention center to the factory to the street, and the ubiquitous sense of confinement forms a strong ideographic system.

What's even more rare is that the series does not fall into a black and white moral trial, but tries to show the complex entanglement of rules and human nature.

When Du Xiangdong finally embarked on the road of pursuit, the camera swept over the city street scenes in the early days of reform and opening up, and what we saw was not only a turning point in personal fate, but also the collective pain of a country in the fission of the times.

As an adaptation, the original novel of "Born by Life" uses a span of twenty years to write the shock of "unchanged" -

When the world around us is turned upside down, the pursuer and the pursued remain trapped in the initial moment.

This kind of highly literary proposition has been simplified into a conventional crime drama routine in the process of film and television, which is inevitably regrettable.

But it must be admitted that in the current market environment full of suspended workplace dramas and bloody romantic dramas, this drama at least retains the background of realism.

It may not be stunning enough, but like the creaking bicycle in the play, it carries the audience through the time tunnel and glimpses the figure of a generation of people who trudge between ideals and reality.