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Chen Sicheng's new film "Decryption" has caused huge controversy.

The film will be released on August 3, but it has already started large-scale previews across the country as early as July 25.

The cast lineup is fully completed.

The leading actor is Liu Haoran, with guest appearances by Wang Baoqiang and Xiao Yang, and the participation of big names from home and abroad such as Christopher McBride, Daniel Wu, and Chen Daoming.

Even Chen Sicheng himself showed up.

Chen Sicheng is determined to create a huge wave in the summer movie season.

But after the preview ended, two completely different voices were heard.

Some people excitedly said that China finally produced a commercial blockbuster comparable to Hollywood, Chen Sicheng yyds.

Some people said disdainfully that Chen Sicheng has not changed at all, and this is another patchwork work that is a combination of fusion, plagiarism and reference.

Who is right?

Brother Pi watched this movie as soon as it was released. Combining it with the original novel, let’s talk about this movie today.

01、

Among the many movies Chen Sicheng has made, "The Decryption" is almost the one that has received the least attention.

As far as I can remember, there was almost no news from the start of filming to the release, and the trailer released in March this year did not make any splash.

Because it's a spy film.

"The Decoded" is adapted from the novel of the same name by Mai Jia, the father of Chinese spy novels. Many people are not optimistic about this work.

Spy war themes are popular among everyone.

But in the past 20 years, there have been many excellent spy dramas, but few excellent spy films.

The reason is that the spy war theme can be broken down into cat-and-mouse games + office politics, which are difficult to fully present in a 2-hour movie.

So after counting, there is only one classic spy film, "The Message", and Zhang Yimou's "On the Cliff" can barely be considered half a classic, and the others are not worth mentioning.

Mai Jiagui is known as the father of spy warfare, and many spy warfare film and television works have been adapted from his novels.

The 2005 film "The Counterfeiter" was the pioneering work of spy war dramas, and the 2009 film "The Message" was the pinnacle of spy war films.

In the nearly 15 years since then, he has not produced any classic spy works.

Chen Sicheng's choice of "Decryption" is also full of risks.

Although it is Mai Jia's representative work, it has been translated into 33 languages ​​and was rated as one of the "Top Ten Novels in the World in 2014" by The Economist.

But it is more literary than narrative.

This novel has a Douban score of only 7.4 points, and is not suitable for adaptation into film and television dramas, which can be seen from the comments of netizens.

In 2016, someone made "The Decryption" into a TV series.

Mai Jia personally participated in the scriptwriting, but in the end the reputation of the film was a flop, with a Douban score of only 5.2 points.

Unexpectedly, 8 years later, Chen Sicheng, for some unknown reason, insisted on making it into a movie.

Another work of Mai Jia, "The Knife's Edge", was made into a TV series in 2017. It received so much viewership that it has not been rated on Douban to date.

It was made into a movie by Gao Qunshu in 2018, and was released last year after being shelved for 5 years. It only scored 5.2 on Douban.

A real-life failure example is right in front of us, can’t Chen Sicheng see it?

Turning a 40-episode spy drama into a 2-hour spy film is like stuffing an elephant into a refrigerator, which is an almost impossible task.

02、

If you watch "The Decryption" with the above background, you will be impressed by its high degree of completion, ups and downs in the plot, and grand scale, which can be called a masterpiece.

Brother Pi read the original novel before going to see the movie, and he really likes Chen Sicheng's adaptation from the bottom of his heart.

He was able to transform such a heavy and boring novel into one with a light narrative and rich emotions, and he deserves to be the most successful commercial film director today.

First of all, in terms of subject matter, Chen Sicheng made bold changes.

He knew that countless examples had proven that it was impossible to produce a good spy war film by just daring to do it.

Just give up the spy war and focus on the character of the mathematical genius Rong Zaizhen.

"Decryption" is not a spy film, but a biographical film disguised as a spy film.

The plot is very similar to the Oscar classic "A Beautiful Mind".

The protagonists are all math geniuses, neither of them knows anything about matters between men and women, both of them met good teachers and helpful friends in school, both of them serve in special agencies, both of them have close lovers by their side, and in the end, both of them become crazy.

The difference is that "A Beautiful Mind" is based on a real character - John Nash, the Nobel Prize winner in economics.

The film is based on a true story, which makes the result very touching.

But Rong Jinzhen in "The Decryption" is a fictional character. A biographical film about a fictional character, no matter how touching the story is, is still fake.

Chen Sicheng's method is to graft fiction and reality.

When cracking the Purple Code, he linked the decryption to the assassination of the central leader in Hong Kong.

When Rong Jinzhen attended a secret national conference, he met Premier Zhou and Qian Xuesen.

In this way, the audience has reason to believe that Rong Jinzhen is a real person.

Or he is a collection of unsung heroes who have silently dedicated their lives to the country.

In the easter egg at the end of the film, Chen Sicheng appeared with tears in his eyes.

With the attitude of an interviewer, he uses the details of turning on and off the lights to tell the audience that although this movie is a dream, the spirit of the unsung heroes who dedicated their lives is real.

Once the fictional characters found a real basis, the structure of the entire film came into focus.

03、

Then, Chen Sicheng completely subverted the ending of the novel.

The novel "Decryption" tells the story of a genius being destroyed.

The atmosphere of the whole novel is depressing and heavy.

At the end of the novel, Rong Jinzhen lost his diary and became a crazy and pitiful man.

At the end, the author excerpted the contents of his notebook, recording in detail his process from genius to madman, which is really heartbreaking to read.

But Chen Sicheng wanted to make a commercial film, and such a story would not be a hit.

So he changed it into a story about "a genius who was destroyed and reborn from the ashes."

The ending changed, the temperament of the whole character and story became uplifting, and a critical work became a mainstream movie.

In terms of story details, Chen Sicheng simplified the process.

For example, at the beginning, the novel uses a long space to introduce Rong Jinzhen's life experience, and the complex relationships between the characters make people feel confused.

But in the movie, the director revealed the mystery of Rong Jinzhen's life in just a few words through the interviewer's oral narration. Rong Jinzhen was a down-and-out genius with aristocratic blood.

For example, how strong is the protagonist’s mathematical talent?

The novel uses a complicated formula for the earth's rotation to demonstrate his genius, which is somewhat obscure and difficult to understand.

But in the movie, the director simplified it.

As soon as Xiao Li Li mentioned his date of birth, Rong Jinzhen immediately calculated how many days he had been in the world. The audience immediately understood that the protagonist was indeed a mathematical genius.

The two important codes in the film are Purple Code and Black Code.

"Decoding" is Mai Jia's debut novel, and in the novel he is vague when describing the process of cracking the two codes.

As for the Purple Code, it was cracked in just two or three lines of description in the novel.

There is no direct description of the Black Secret in the novel, but many abstract analogies are used, which most readers still cannot understand.

This creates obstacles for film and television adaptations.

Without text support, you can only rely on your own imagination.

Chen Sicheng’s approach is to add a concept – dream.

Rong Jinzhen got inspiration for cracking the code through dreaming.

This may seem incredible, but it actually happened in history.

Ramanujan, the Indian god of mathematics, only lived to be 32 years old, but left behind 3,900 formulas. He claimed that these formulas were given to him in his dreams by a goddess when he was sleeping.

In the film, Rong Jinzhen is hailed as the Ramanujan of China, so it makes sense that he used dreams to crack the code.

Therefore, the originally boring passage of cracking the code was replaced by a series of gorgeous dreams.

Ferris wheel, deep sea, steep cliffs, red sand beach, giant chess...

Chen Sicheng fills the gaps in the text with magnificent pictures, which are freehand and romantic, giving the audience unlimited space for imagination.

Unlike the numerous scenes depicting dreams, in the sections involving spy warfare, Chen Sicheng used parallel editing to explain the spy warfare scenes of catching spies in just a few seconds.

This is a brand new experience for the audience who have formed the "spy war inertia".

04、

Finally, Chen Sicheng injected enough entertainment elements into the film.

For example, the duel between master and apprentice.

It is only briefly mentioned in the novel, but it is an important part in the movie.

At the beginning, the master and his apprentice were playing chess, and the teacher stole a chess piece, which laid the groundwork for the following story.

In the middle, the master and the apprentice fought each other, Rong Jinzhen cracked the master's purple secret, and the master was thrown into prison;

Then, the teacher stole Rong Jinzhen's notebook, which echoed the chess piece at the beginning and almost drove Rong Jinzhen crazy.

Finally, Jin Zhen bypassed the fog and cracked the teacher's secret. At the same time, he kept his merits and fame hidden and saved his teacher from prison.

The entire process of the competition, like a chess game on a chessboard, forms a perfect closed loop.

For example, the classic last-minute rescue in the final film narrative was also used in the film.

Rong Jinzhen cracked the code, and our agents killed the enemy spies at the last minute, shattering the enemy's plan to assassinate the leader.

Chen Sicheng makes this scene full of tension through sharp editing.

In terms of love, the novel simply mentions that the organization arranged a wife for him, and their relationship was average after marriage.

In the movie, Chen Sicheng makes a big fuss about the protagonist's emotional scenes.

He boldly showed Rong Jinzhen's sexual repression.

A blonde beauty in a bikini, female soldiers running through the wheat field, and a red gate symbolizing desire.

These images are highly symbolic. To be a genius, one must not only overcome difficult numbers, but also overcome one's inner desires.

Chen Sicheng probably felt sorry for this genius, so he arranged a love triangle for him.

His cousin Bi Yu asked his secretary to confess her love to him, and Xiao Mei from 701 flirted with him at the instruction of Director Zheng.

The scenes including the love confession from a distance, the genius' first night, the proposal and the jealousy scene all made the audience burst into laughter.

Chen Sicheng also paid tribute to "The Counterfeiter" in this film.

The campus scenes in the film were shot at Zhejiang University's Zhijiang Campus, which was also hinted at by the Zhijing University where Rong Jinzhen studied.

The father of the protagonist An Zaitian in "The Counterfeiter" is called Qian Zhijiang, and there is a subtle connection between the two.

This film tells the story of a mathematical genius. The chapter "Watching the Wind" in "The Counterfeiter" also tells the story of a female mathematical genius.

Chen Sicheng also invited Wang Baoqiang to play the blind A Bing in "The Counterfeiter", and the two works had a dream connection.

With a structure, a story, emotions, reversals, and tributes, "The Decryption" seems to be a masterpiece.

05、

This is not the case, because most viewers have not read the original work and cannot use the original novel as a reference.

Fans of the original novel will be amazed by the director's adaptation when watching this film, with the original novel as a guide.

Ordinary audiences watch this film without this crutch, they just want to see a wonderful story.

This is where the problem with this movie comes in.

The biggest problem is that many parts of the movie seem familiar, and there is suspicion of "borrowing".

For example, the film pieces together Rong Jinzhen’s legendary life through interviews with three people.

This is the "jigsaw narrative" used in the film classic "Citizen Kane".

For example, there are two important symbols in the film: "dream" and "light switch".

Rong Jinzhen cracked the code through dreams and relieved anxiety by turning on and off the lights.

This is exactly the same as the function of the spinning top in "Inception".

Even the light switch at the end of the film and the spinning top that couldn't stop at the end of "Inception" can be matched one by one.

There is also the duel between the master and the apprentice, which reminds people of Nolan's "The Prestige".

The process of Rong Jinzhen solving puzzles on the cliff is a bit like "Shutter Island".

Some netizens mocked that Nolan has recovered so well that he could be imitated by Chen Sicheng.

The above similarities can be attributed to coincidences in artistic creation.

The comparison between it and "A Beautiful Mind" is really a bit frowned upon.

In "A Beautiful Mind", the protagonist Nash lost control while playing Go with his classmates;

In "Decryption", Rong Jinzhen lost control while playing chess with his teacher.

In "A Beautiful Mind", Nash discovered the Nash equilibrium by chatting up a female companion in a bar, and ran excitedly to the dormitory;

In “Decryption”, Rong Jinzhen had a “genius moment” through his dream and excitedly ran to report to Director Zheng.

In "A Beautiful Mind", Nash confessed his love with vulgar words, but the heroine accepted him and they kissed passionately.

In "The Decryption", Rong Jinzhen's confession was almost in a similar way, and the two of them went straight to bed.

In "A Beautiful Mind", the protagonist Nash suffers from schizophrenia, has hallucinations, and refuses to take medicine.

A similar scene can also be seen in "The Decryptor".

So don’t blame netizens for being picky.

In addition to the controversy over the "sense of stitching", the film's drastic adaptation of the novel inevitably brought about plot loopholes.

For example, the film depicts the decryption contest between China and the United States in a miraculous way, and Rong Jinzhen is omnipotent.

But in the end, he was choked by a record played by his teacher and almost died. How can the game between major powers be treated so lightly?

For example, in the novel, Mai Jia tries his best to describe Rong Jinzhen as an ordinary person.

When the notebook was lost, his heart collapsed. This collapse was understandably the last straw that broke the camel's back.

But in the movie, in order to increase the drama, Rong Jinzhen was exaggerated, and his collapse after losing his notebook was a bit difficult to understand.

It's just a thin notebook with limited content. A genius like Rong Jinzhen could easily write it down from memory. So has he gone crazy?

A record and a notebook can actually have a significant impact.

But if the leverage is too great, it gives people a distorted feeling.

06、

In short, watching "Decoded" is like Pony Crossing the River.

For fans of the original novel, it is already amazing that such a depressing and dull story could be changed into what it is now.

For ordinary audiences, this movie has no threshold to enter, and they will feel a sense of exhilaration while watching it.

Although some details do not stand up to scrutiny, once you do, you will find familiar traces of creation and plot bugs.

So objectively speaking, "The Decryption" is a commercial film of good standard. It should not be over-exaggerated, nor should it be deliberately belittled.

Douban has not yet released a score for this film, so it is still unclear whether it is good or bad.

But one thing is certain, Liu Haoran fought a beautiful comeback.

Chen Sicheng was really good to him. He made this movie tailor-made for him when he hit a bottleneck in his career.

The role of Rong Jinzhen includes both the genius scenes that he is good at, as well as the extremely challenging period dramas with a long span.

Before watching the film, I was still doubting whether Liu Haoran could take on the leading role, but as soon as he appeared on the screen, our concerns were immediately dispelled.

The face full of acne, the weird crew cut, and the dull and distracted eyes immediately draw people into the play.

The bald look in the later period is also eye-catching.

Chen Sicheng gathered a group of big names and some older brothers from the Tang Detective universe, and provided nanny-level service to help Liu Haoran give the most convincing performance since his debut.

Pige finally made three predictions.

The Douban score of "Decrypted" is around 7.5 points;

Considering its subject matter and length, the box office won't be a big hit, but it should have no problem breaking 1 billion.

Liu Haoran successfully transformed himself with this film and was even nominated for several awards.

Let’s wait and see!

Text/PiPi Movie Editorial Department: YiLiJi

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