It wasn't until the mournful music spilled from the screen that Huang Min realized that "Half the Sky" had finally started playing its opening theme.
This technique of showing a short scene before the opening theme is generally more common in animated films or American TV series. In China in 2018, this technique had already become widespread in online dramas and was not uncommon. However, bringing it to television—especially in the realm of serious dramas—is a first for Ruguan TV.
There is no unified name for this technique in China yet. Some call it the "preliminary stage," others the "preliminary stage," and still others, following the film industry's terminology, call it the "opening."
The opening sequence is further divided into "hot opening" and "cold opening." A hot opening begins with intense action scenes, gunfights, or confrontations, using strong emotions, a fast pace, and dynamic visuals to instantly draw the audience into the world of the work. A cold opening, on the other hand, is relatively restrained, subtle, and slow to warm up, with less dramatic emotional fluctuations and a more "cool" feel.
Of course, a cold start doesn't mean a dull one. A cold start may seem calm on the surface, but undercurrents are surging beneath. The calm of a cold start is a false calm, often concealing a huge mystery or a crucial point in the overall game. In ancient Chinese terms, it's like "a storm is brewing."
In short, a hot opening relies on emotion to keep the audience engaged, while a cold opening relies on hooks to keep the audience engaged.
Whether it was lucky or unlucky, Huang Min was one of the audience members who got caught by this hateful hook.
When it comes to working diligently and without slacking off, Xu Hanwen is indeed a natural genius. Generally, execution scenes in film and television should prioritize intensity. Through poignant and turbulent music, close-ups of the actors' expressions, the reactions of the executioner and the condemned, righteous slogans, shots of blood staining the sky, and the lingering sound of gunfire… a series of images intertwine and layer upon layer, creating an atmosphere of extreme heat, intensity, sorrow, and grandeur. This evokes the audience's fervor and indignation, captivating them emotionally.
"Half a Day" takes the opposite approach, handling the entire plot with complete "coldness." Instead of focusing on the tragic sacrifice of the soldiers, it emphasizes the contrast of black, white, and red, achieving an extremely calm, solemn, and desolate effect. After pushing the audience's doubts and shock to the extreme with absolute coldness and stillness, all is silent until a gunshot shatters the sky—
Hear thunder in the silence.
Thrilling and shrouded in mystery.
Huang Min didn't understand any film and television techniques, so she couldn't see anything new or sophisticated about this technique. She was now in a dilemma: should she take advantage of the opening theme to coax her parents into watching "Flying Flowers Chasing the Moon, Ordering a Lifetime"?
The visuals in the opening theme song also feature extremely cool colors, perfectly complementing the rhythm of the melody. When the music is fast, the figures in the visuals are holding guns, running, and firing; when the music is slow, the figures are placing stones, listening to the wind, and watching the snow. The tension and relaxation are well-balanced, and the scenes are both dynamic and static.
The opening theme has a very unique melody. It's purely instrumental, without lyrics. It's tragic and melancholic, hoarse and rugged. It doesn't sound like an instrument being played; rather, it sounds like—like the bones of a dead person gently rubbing against a coffin, like a rusty long knife slowly sawing through dark railway tracks.
After listening for a while, Huang Min got goosebumps: "What is this? It sounds like a mix of accents from all over the country."
Mr. Huang snorted, not without pride, and said, "That's an erhu. And there's a local instrument from Ruguan called a zhutong. Didn't you even take music as an elective in college? How come you're not even as good as me?"
She learned music to write a birthday song for Luan Qing, who said she was going to use it to distinguish this thing!
It's rare for TV dramas to use the erhu as their opening theme, and even rarer to combine the erhu with local musical instruments. Huang Min felt that Ruguan TV's behavior was like a dog marking its territory, trying to leave its mark on the show everywhere.
During Huang Min and her father's bickering, the opening theme song reached its climax, with the melody becoming increasingly intense and tragic, even faintly accompanied by sounds of gunfire and weapons, and the characters flashing and changing faster and faster—
Thump!
A sound like a cannon rang out.
Standing outside the crowd, Li Yiming looked at the people cheering for the new nation in the distance and smiled.
Thump!
Two cannon salutes were fired.
Li Yiming threw his hat into the air, and many hats swung in the air, while red flags fluttered in the distance.
Thump!
A sound came from something unknown.
Li Yiming shook his head and turned to walk away into the distance.
Only one person's back was visible on the screen.
On Li Yiming's back, two powerful and elegant characters emerged stroke by stroke:
Halfway through the sky.
The image of "Half of the Sky" flickered and vanished without a trace. Two lines of regular script characters appeared on the screen:
Episode 1
Silent, nameless, nowhere to be found
Huang Min swallowed hard, instinctively sensing that something was amiss.
Although she hadn't had time to watch Luan Qing's "The White-Haired Xiangjun" yet, Huang Min still had eyes and a brain. Just judging from the quality and feel of the opening scene and theme song, "Half a Day" could easily surpass all of Luan Qing's representative works. Not to mention a time-travel drama from five years ago.
Huang Min stiffly turned her head, and saw her parents leaning forward, staring intently at the screen. Her father, in particular, who was nearsighted, practically seemed to be engrossed in the television.
With her parents already in this state, if Huang Min were to snatch the remote back to watch something like "Flying Flowers Chasing the Moon," it would clearly be seen as rebellious behavior. It could very well trigger a family war.
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