The movie " decrypted " directed by Chen Sicheng has had high hopes in the media industry. The original author is Mai Jia, and the cast is very strong. It is very promising to achieve both box office and word-of-mouth explosion.
What I never expected was that the box office of "Decryption" did not have a blowout. Both the attendance rate and the average number of people per game were crushed by " Catch a Baby " which had been released for more than half a month. What was even more unexpected was that " "Decryption" scored 6.9 on Douban, and was also firmly suppressed by "Catch a Baby".
It cannot be said that "Decryption" is not an excellent movie, but this movie with a high artistic content still has problems in at least five aspects.
1. Innate deficiencies
"Decryption" is an old work by the famous writer Mai Jia. It was published in 2002 and was adapted into a TV series of the same name in 2016.
After the Mai family became famous, "Decryption" has also attracted the attention of the majority of readers. It can be said that there are not many "originalists". In addition, the TV series is broadcast first, so no matter how the movie is adapted, the plot will not be too fresh.
In addition, although the original novel "Decryption" has been published by many publishers, its ratings are all over seven points. This word-of-mouth effect is not obvious or even mediocre, while the rating of the TV series "Decryption" is only a few five points.
The staleness of the plot and the mediocrity of the original work directly caused the inherent shortcomings of the movie "Decryption".
2. Liu Haoran 's immature
The cast of "Decryption" is very strong. Chen Daoming plays Lao Zheng, Daniel Wu plays Principal Rong, Yu Feihong plays the principal's wife, and Cusack plays Professor Heath. It's remarkable, and the acting is very high-quality.
As for the two female characters, Rong Jinzhen’s wife and cousin, although their performance is a little immature, they are not the main characters, and their acting skills are still acceptable.
The problem with actors in this regard mainly lies with Liu Haoran. His performance as the teenage Rong Jinzhen is very convincing, and his performance of being confused and ignorant as well as wise and foolish is excellent.
When Rong Jinzhen became an adult, Liu Haoran's performance became a bit stretched. He could perform some neurotic appearances, but he could not show the temperament of a genius mathematician at all, let alone create the image of a meritorious figure. and God.
Liu Haoran's acting skills are relatively outstanding among young actors, but the role of middle-aged Rong Jinzhen is too challenging for him, and he has not yet been able to achieve a breakthrough in acting.
3. Inconsistent themes and styles
To be honest, there are several parts of "Decryption" that are quite well shot.
On the concept of "country"
As Rong Jinzhen's distant relative, adoptive father and principal, Rong Xiaolai gave him an answer full of family and country feelings. This answer affected Rong Jinzhen's life.
As Rong Jinzhen’s teacher, Polish Jew Siis used his personal experience to answer what the country means, which also had a great impact on Rong Jinzhen’s future.
The tragedy of "decryption"
Hiyes devoted half his life to creating secrets, and Rong Jinzhen devoted half his life to decryption. As top mathematicians, the master and apprentice gave up their great future in studying computers, and became rivals for half their lives in a zero-sum game. Game, this is undoubtedly a tragedy, not only for them, but also for the mathematical community. What is the final decryption of
? Rong Jinzhen and Chess Madman jointly explained that the future of decryption work is also a tragedy.
About the times and destiny
Rong Jinzhen was born in the 1930s. He has experienced many historical periods in his decades of life. In the magnificent tide of the times, he, Principal Rong, Teacher Heise, and his adoptive mother My cousin and others have all experienced several huge changes in their lives.
No one can completely control their own destiny. Everyone can only seek their own position in the times to realize their own value. At the same time, everyone is also enveloped by the times. This kind of thinking about the times and personal destiny makes "Decryption" ” has the temperament of a great movie.
About the process of "decryption"
The process of decryption can be concrete, but the process of thinking is extremely abstract. "Decryption" uses a large number of dreams to concretely describe the decryption process. This in itself is a bold attempt and it also seems very abstract. advanced.
It seems that every component of "Decryption" seems to be excellent and perfect, but I don't know why, once so many excellent themes and designs are combined into a movie, they seem a bit disorganized and even incomprehensible. , this is probably the most terrible thing about "Decryption".
This design reminds people of another work by Chen Sicheng, " Chinatown Detective 3". If this movie still combines detective work with comedy, there probably won't be too many bad reviews. But "Tang Detective 3" suddenly began to exaggerate ethics and nostalgia at the end, and combined with the Japanese classic movie " Witness ", it seemed a bit nondescript.
Therefore, it feels like "Decryption" seems to have made the mistake of "Tang Detective 3" again. There is a lot to say. Each sentence is interesting when taken individually, but when combined together it becomes a bit awkward.
4. Repetition of scenes
What director Yang Jie of " Journey to the West " hates most is repetition. Wuzhuangguan filmed Sun Wukong getting into the frying pan, but stopped filming when Che Chiguo arrived. This is a movie with more than 20 episodes. TV series.
"Decryption" is a movie, but there are unnecessary repetitions. This repetition does not refer to the same plot, but to the same plot.
Every time Rong Jinzhen solves a problem, he cannot do without dreaming. This kind of thing is indeed in line with his character, but if there is no exception, there will be problems with this plot design. Not only does Rong Jinzhen’s identity as a mathematician be given to submerged, and at the same time, it also led the plot into the trap of "strange power and chaos".
If a scientist gets an inspiration in a dream, it will undoubtedly be a good story in the scientific world. But if a scientist has to go to a dream to find the answer every time he encounters a problem, is he still a scientist? What's the difference between this and dancing like a master?
Especially Rong Jinzhen has fallen into a state of madness. Almost every dream must be recorded in detail. A large number of troops have even been mobilized for this book to record dreams.
This repetitive dreaming and recording of dreams is definitely a failure, making the audience feel anxious and even more doubtful whether Rong Jinzhen is a mathematician or a great dancer.
5. Reality and fantasy
The plot of "Decryption" is very confusing. Many scenes seem to remember history, but in fact all the historical details in "Decryption" are fictional or have been greatly modified from history. , such as the "Kashmir Princess Incident" that was magically modified.
This kind of picture that looks like real history combined with Rong Jinzhen's various dreams makes the whole movie look a bit funny. Which one is true and which one is false?
Rong Jinzhen repeatedly switches the lights on and off in the film, seemingly conveying true and false information to the audience, while Chen Sicheng himself simply uses a light that cannot be turned off in the Easter egg to prove that the entire film is an illusion. . The true and false design of
looks smart, but it is not friendly to ordinary viewers.
It should be said that Chen Sicheng was very sincere in filming "Decryption". This is not a movie that only focuses on making money. The director is very thoughtful and ambitious, but maybe it lacks some firepower. He got a movie that does not stretch his hips. But it’s not a great one either in terms of reputation or box office.
