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Chen Sicheng's new film "Decryption" was recently released. Compared with his previous commercially successful directorial works, this film, which was highly anticipated by the outside world, seems to have been rarely received in the summer season. On the other hand, this film is regarded by many film critics as a "breakthrough" and "sincere work" by Chen Sicheng. Chen Sicheng himself also seems to have high hopes for it, calling it the "highest standard" of "audio-visual" and "feeling". The film is adapted from Mai Jia's novel of the same name "Decryption". The similarities and differences between the film and the novel hide part of the reason for the mixed feelings of the film, and are also a key to understanding Chen Sicheng's self-expression.

New edition of "Decryption", Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House·New Classic Culture, August 2024 edition

The original work mainly records the interviews of "I" with Director Zheng, Mr. Rong and other people, piecing together the life of Rong Jinzhen, a mathematical genius engaged in decryption work. This writing technique based on interviews can be seen in the shadow of Mai Jia's later Rashomon-style novel "The Sound of the Wind". Compared with the original work, the movie focuses on strengthening the portrayal of Rong Jinzhen's personal image, injecting more "human" details into the character of Rong Jinzhen. In the original work, Rong Jinzhen's genius image appears to be stereotyped and rigid. Before he became mentally ill, except for the sparks of mathematics and decryption, he seemed to be dull and drifting with the flow. Rong Jinzhen's several major fluctuations in fate: being taken in by Xiao Lili, being accepted as an apprentice by Xi Yis, entering the decryption industry, getting married, and losing his notebook, etc., almost all of them were as the chosen party, and he calmly accepted the arrangement of fate. Rong Jinzhen in the movie is relatively independent. For example, in the original novel, Rong Jinzhen was unable to study abroad at Stanford due to a serious illness, but in the movie, it was changed to that he was injured in the gunfight between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and before he was injured, Rong Jinzhen witnessed the death of a citizen and took the initiative to decipher the code for Director Zheng, showing a certain degree of initiative. In addition, the movie made a relatively large original change to the emotional line. Although the dialogue between Xiaomei and Director Zheng still hinted at a certain degree of "arrangement" and "arrangement", in general, the film portrayed the relationship between Rong Jinzhen and Xiaomei as a two-way choice of mutual affection; in addition, it is worth noting that the two encounters between Rong Jinzhen and Xiaomei were both due to Rong Jinzhen approaching the wall of 701, implying his resistance to the decryption work itself and his desire for freedom from the outside world. Such human details are also not in the original novel.

It is somewhat funny that Mai Jia tried hard to explain Rong Jinzhen's mathematical talent in the original work, and even spent a lot of space to describe the process of Rong Jinzhen's "invention" of multiplication, arithmetic progression summation and other calculation rules. Even Rong Jinzhen's undergraduate graduation thesis topic was based on the hypothesis of whether π is a constant, "The Clear and Fuzzy Boundary of the Constant π". However, perhaps due to the author's own knowledge, the above examples that only stay within the scope of elementary mathematics seem too pale and far-fetched as an argument for "a mathematical genius that is rare in a century", which makes readers question the rationality of the novel even more. The movie significantly weakened the performance of this part, tending to treat "mathematical genius" as a preset and self-evident setting. This approach is not very clever, but at least it avoids the criticism that the original work may face.

The significant difference between the film and the original novel lies in the ending of Rong Jinzhen and the "Black Code". In the original novel, the genius Rong Jinzhen fell into mental disorder due to the loss of his notebook, and never recovered, spending the rest of his life in a mental hospital, while his colleague Yan Shi easily deciphered the Black Code because he was "not talented enough". Rong Jinzhen successfully deciphered the "Purple Code" because of his innate talent, but also trapped himself in the deciphering of the Black Code because of his innate talent. Here, Mai Jia wrote in an absurd and tragic way: "Rong Jinzhen showed his colleagues the bizarre mystery of the Black Code through his own disaster - this magical and magical way. This is a unique stroke in the history of human deciphering", as if he was shocked by the wonder of this intellectual confrontation, and regretted the alienation of the genius's mind and personality from the deciphering work. Rong Jinzhen in the movie was also on the verge of mental collapse due to the loss of his notebook, but at this time he glimpsed the real key to deciphering the Black Code through a dream, and out of protection for his teacher Shees, he attributed it to Yan Shi. This treatment is certainly in line with the "risk of death" narrative of general commercial films, but it also makes the whole story appear flat and vulgar. The sense of tragedy that the original novel tried to highlight is gone, and it has become a one-man show of Rong Jinzhen's personal heroism. At the same time, because Rong Jinzhen's fate is very different from the original novel, the screenwriter is unable to rewrite a more reasonable destination for Rong Jinzhen, and cannot continue to use the original ending. He had to let Rong Jinzhen die like a lamp after solving the black code. Chen Sicheng explained it as "a genius should die brilliantly." Combined with Rong Jinzhen's understanding of the "country" before his death, and Chen Sicheng's reverence for the "great and ordinary" "unsung heroes" mentioned in the interview, the film may try to present a kind of patriotic sentiment of devotion through adaptation.

Rong Jinzhen and her teacher Xi Yisi in the movie

However, there is a big gap between the emphasis on the value-oriented "family and country feelings" in the interview and the film and the film's image expression. The ten dreams in the film are one of the most extensive adaptations of the novel. Although the original work also mentions the plot of Rong Jinzhen deciphering the code by dream interpretation, it is not directly presented, nor is it the focus of the novel. The presentation of bizarre dream colors is one of the advantages of film expression. "Decryption" presents these dreams in an extreme audio-visual way, and combines dreams with the decryption process more closely. Almost every breakthrough in decryption is combined with the presentation of dreams. At the same time, through the presentation of dreams, the director combines Rong Jinzhen's personal life journey with dreams in a more specific way. His encounter with Teacher Xi Yis and his acquaintance like Boya and Ziqi, his inability to go to the United States to study because of being shot, and his ultimate dedication to the decryption career, and his encounter and love with Xiaomei are almost all presented in dreams in a vague and strange way.

There are two similar passages at the end of the film. One is Rong Jinzhen's two definitions of the country before his death. One is Xi Yis's individualistic and emotional expression: "The so-called country is your relatives, friends, language, small bridges, flowing water, forests, roads, west wind, and cicadas around you." The other is his adoptive father's collectivist and responsible expression: "The so-called country is our territory, sovereignty, nation and culture, everything that is connected to our blood, and if possible, we will even sacrifice our lives to protect it." He chose the latter, and his life seems to be dedicated to the latter. Similar recognition of collectivism is also presented in the first half of the film. Unlike the novel, Rong Jinzhen was unable to go to the United States for further studies because of Xiao Lili's firm opposition. In the film, he stayed in the country and was closer to the inner recognition of the righteousness of the country. The other is the summary statement after the director (interviewer) appeared: "Everyone is a unique code, and this life is the process of decryption." This statement is precisely individualistic, emphasizing the unique personality of everyone in the great era.

The narrative of the entire film also gives people a mixed feeling with the alternation of the two themes of "family and country" and "self-growth". Take the ending clip as an example. After Xiaomei vents her dream, Rong Jinzhen chooses to set up the dream scene for Xiaomei, including flowers and secret love letters before his death. This is extremely individualistic for Rong Jinzhen and Xiaomei, who should only be about their love and commitment to each other. However, Rong Jinzhen immediately begins to express his recognition of his adoptive father's collectivist national connotation. On the other hand, in the film, code-breaking is a cause that is highly related to national interests and is highly ideological. It is not about creativity but a meaningless intellectual competition, so much so that "the most geniuses have been buried". The deciphering of the Black Code and the Purple Code is also linked to historical events that are related to the fate of the country. Rong Jinzhen is portrayed as a national hero. However, compared to the novel, the film rewrites the code war between the two countries into a genius competition between Rong Jinzhen and Schiess, a pair of master and apprentice. This rewriting gives the film a clear commercial element, and also transcribes the grand narrative of nationalism. For a story with more personal heroic color: the budding of genius (Rong Jinzhen's childhood story) - education (encounter with Xi Yisi) - difficulties (Black Code and Purple Code) - successful return (getting rid of obsession after throwing away the notebook and successfully cracking the Black Code). The process of deciphering the code is also closely integrated with Rong Jinzhen's personal growth. Rong Jinzhen's talent for dream interpretation is both his talent for deciphering codes and his Achilles' heel. The growth that the movie ultimately gives him is that he finally transcends his obsession with "dreams" and returns to the reality of family happiness. At the same time, he also solves the biggest difficulty of the film - the Black Code.

Therefore, the opportunity for Rong Jinzhen to participate in code-breaking (which occurred during the Battle of Crossing the Yangtze River) and his summary of the "country" before his death all seem to show that his fundamental motivation for participating in code-breaking is "the great cause of the country and the nation." However, in fact, all the presentations of the code-breaking process in the film emphasize his personal obsession and breaking of obsession. He finally broke through the life barrier set by Schiess for him when he was a young student, and thus realized the reality logic beyond the dream realm of genius. In the film, this reality logic is concentrated in his awakening of love for Xiaomei, which ends in "going home." The actual national interests have never been the driving force of his behavior throughout the process, and sometimes they are the repressive force in his process of going crazy. On the other hand, the film's presentation of the decryption process is precisely anti-collectivism: the code war between the two countries is abstracted as a brain competition between the master and the apprentice, and Rong Jinzhen's final victory also comes from a very dramatic and personal "epiphany." All the roles played by other people involved in the code war are at most to provide a battlefield for the two geniuses to gallop their wisdom.

At the same time, dreams, as the antithesis of reality, also imply the "repressive" essence of "family and country justice" at the subconscious level. Dreams are irrational, perceptual, emotional, and imaginative, while reality is highly instrumental, rational, cold, responsible, and pragmatic. The content of dreams more presents Rong Jinzhen's life growth and experience as an individual. His attachment to Xi Yisi and the complex emotions of encountering love are all presented to the extreme in dreams, while the huge blood-sucking machine implies the conflict between decryption work and personal creativity. For Rong Jinzhen, the work of 701 is a mixture of state machinery and personal space, and every breakthrough in his work comes from his private room full of outlines of the history of codes, from his highly personalized dreams, rather than as a decryption team of a state agency. Looking back at the whole story, it can be found that the emergence of "family and country justice" is not only insufficient to explain Rong Jinzhen's motivation for behavior, but also adds many discords and ambiguities to the story.

The film repeatedly features the Beatles' famous song "I am the walrus", which comes from the Beatles' album "Magical Mystery Tour" released in 1967. There are many theories about the source and connotation of the song's bizarre imagery, such as the lead singer Lennon's anger at the persecution of Mick, Keith and his good friends at the International Times, or the irony of their alma mater requiring students to analyze the deeper meaning of Beatles' songs. But no matter which explanation, this song is a "heretical" song, full of sarcasm towards those in power and authority. This song repeatedly appears in Rong Jinzhen's dreams, causing him great confusion.

Walrus appears many times in the movie

Lennon's later work "God" again mentioned the famous "walrus" image. In this song, Lennon used the same sentence structure (I don't believe in...) to express his disbelief in various authorities: magic, the I Ching, the Bible, Tarot cards, Hitler, Jesus, Kennedy, Buddha, Mantra, Bhagavad Gita, yoga, the King, Elvis, Zimmerman (Bob Dylan), and the Beatles. Then, after a long preparation, he sang softly and firmly: "I just believe in me, Yoko and me." In the following paragraph, Lennon sang: "I was the Walrus, but now I'm John. And so dear friends, you'll just have to carry on. The dream is over." The Walrus was the dreamy and bizarre era of genius, and what emerged from the fantasy was a Lennon who was born in the "love" with Yoko and paid more attention to politics and insisted on self-expression. The ending of "Decoding" is also "the dream is over", but Rong Jinzhen, who walked out of the paranoid dream, was born as a dying person, repeating different versions of the "country" theory from his teacher and adoptive father, paving the way for the "individual" in the whole movie to not be born. It is hard to say whether this is a weak imitation or a poor smokescreen.