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In recent years, crime, suspense, and thriller elements, which were originally more common in niche art films, have become more common in cinema films, and have formed a stable and localized commercial creation model. Many precedents of success at the box office have verified the huge commercial value of crime and suspense films.

At the beginning of the summer season when the overall market was slightly bleak, the movie "The Silent Killer" was released earlier, which won it the first opportunity to seize the box office and finally revitalized the overly quiet film market.

Perhaps they have figured out the audience's excitement and curiosity, from "Across the Angry Sea" to "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils", recent crime suspense films have continuously refreshed the standards of cinema movies. And this "Silent Killing" directly put "Minors Watch with Caution" on the public screen, causing the audience to hang their hearts in their throats.

Mentioning director Ke Wenli, one will quickly think of his last work, "The Accidental Murder", which was screened on the mainland. As both are crime suspense films, "The Silence of the Murderers" can easily be mistaken as a sequel to "The Accidental Murderers". In fact, long before "The Accidental Murderers", the original version of "The Silence of the Murderers" had been filmed and was shown in the "Chinese New Style Unit" of the 2023 Shanghai International Film Festival. It is Ke Wenli's real feature film debut.

For special reasons, the original version of "Silent Killing" could no longer be screened, so Ke Wenli simply remade it himself, remaking "Silent Killing" with a brand new cast, and made more innovations in photography, art, performance, etc., to make it more suitable for the model of mainland theaters.

"Silent Killing" hand-painted poster

The new cast includes both mainland actors such as Wang Chuanjun and Xu Jiao as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan actors such as Wu Zhenyu, Zhang Junning, and Jin Shijie, which is quite rich.

In the special thanks at the end of "The Silence", there appeared a name that is closely related to Ke Wenli and is definitely familiar to Chinese moviegoers - Chen Sicheng. Since "The Accidental Murder", Ke Wenli has had a close collaboration with Chen Sicheng's team, and this time, the finished film "The Silence" is filled with a strong "Chen-style suspense" flavor.

Chen Sicheng's style of writing can be seen since "Detective Chinatown". He does not focus on the suspense and the details of the crime, but focuses more on creating tense plots and unexpected reversals. By creating a lot of jump scares, the "shocking" attribute of the movie is highlighted to the greatest extent, thus achieving higher topicality and commerciality. Even though the film effect is comparable to a script-killing movie, and the reviews are polarized from time to time, it is invincible at the box office.

The controversial crime thriller "Her" eventually earned 3.5 billion yuan at the box office, and "The Silence" also earned 900 million yuan within two weeks of its release, approaching 1 billion yuan at the box office. It may not be a critical acclaim, but it is definitely a box office hit. Chen Sicheng has figured out the comfort zone of cinema movies.

A major highlight of the new version of "Silent Killing" is the new mainland actor Wang Chuanjun.

In the film, he plays Lin Zaifu, a desperate and cruel man who takes the road of revenge after losing his daughter. In order to make himself more in line with the identity of a fisherman, Wang Chuanjun deliberately appeared with dark skin and his image was as close to that of a father as possible.

The polishing of details is reflected in the tension of the character. For Wang Chuanjun, in order to adapt to the ups and downs and fast-paced style of "Chen's suspense", how to perform the instantaneous emotional explosiveness will be a huge challenge.

To this end, Wang Chuanjun also collected a large number of cases and observed the possible reactions of parents when their children encountered accidents, so that he could better integrate himself into the role. Because of this, when Lin Zaifu lost his daughter, he could instantly burst into heartbreaking grief.

Looking back at Wang Chuanjun's acting career, we can find that he is now going further and further on the villain track. Captain Wang who did many evil things in "Nameless" and Lu Bingkun, the leader of the fraud group in "All or Nothing", are all deeply evil.

Actors are very easy to be labeled. Once a role becomes too popular and has too much presence, it will overshadow the actor himself. Wang Chuanjun, who became famous for "Love Apartment", could not be separated from the role of "Guan Gu Shenqi" for a long time. When people mention Wang Chuanjun, they always think of him wearing glasses, looking at a loss, and speaking with a humorous "Dazuo" accent.

Since playing Lu Shouyi in "Dying to Survive", Wang Chuanjun finally showed his other side to the audience.

If you want to try more types of roles, the first thing you need to do is to have the courage to step out of your established comfort zone and break the defined self.

From a comedian in people's stereotype to a true "drama-throwing" actor, behind Wang Chuanjun's successful transformation are traces of continuous self-exploration and improvement.

Not only Wang Chuanjun, many actors in "Silent Killing" have shown completely different and self-breaking images in the film.

"Silent Killing" "Turbulent Freeze" version character poster

At the premiere of "Silent Killing", director Ke Wenli said that for each character in "Silent Killing", he tried to flip between victim and perpetrator. People trapped in the situation are being violated, while unconsciously and reluctantly inflicting malice on others.

Different from the simple "all villains" setting, "Silent Killing" attempts to present the complexity of human nature behind major social issues. Under this premise, the contrast of the characters has become the focus of the film. For example, the core character Lin Zaifu has both a cruel and vicious side and a warm and soft side.

Wang Shengdi, who plays the heroine Xiaotong, shows a strong ability to express the role. From an unfortunate victim to an avenger who has joined the game, the boundaries between good and evil have been blurred, and only blood and violence are real.

The mother Li Han, played by Zhang Junning, can be extremely tolerant and also extremely fierce and resolute. In order to hide the secret of her daughter's murder, she can do anything, even domestic violence against her daughter. Her protection of Xiaotong is actually completely disregarding Xiaotong's feelings, which is a pathological wishful thinking.

Wu Zhenyu plays the police officer Dai Guodong in the film. Although he does not have many scenes, he still leaves a deep impression on people. He seems to be an upright police officer, but in fact he is a violent father who has been using violence against his son Wu Wang for a long time, causing him to develop a twisted and dark personality.

Huang Minghao, who was born as an idol, plays the role of Wu Wang in the film, showing a completely different screen image from his usual appearance. The tough guy style with a buzz cut is clear but a little stubborn, just like this character, with an innocent appearance but also a dark side inside.

The tragedy of "all villains" brings a deep sense of despair. "The Silence" is a film full of various keywords and buffs. The whole film is dark in tone, and is filled with elements of sexual assault, candid photography, school violence, and domestic violence. Although it has been criticized for its uncomfortable viewing experience similar to that of an "exploitation film", it also highlights the evil of human nature that is always surging.

Where is the root of evil, and why are they linked together? As the title of the film says, silence is the biggest murderer - in the face of naked evil, keeping silent about the truth is an invisible killing.