Moonlight password
2024-08-27
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Stills from the movie "Decryption"
Li Meng
This year's mainland movie summer season is still full of competition. Among the box office of over 10 billion yuan, there are both funny comedies such as "Catching Dolls" and moving works such as "A Small Shop at the Edge of the Clouds" that focus on warmth and healing. Amid the clamor, "Decryption", directed by Chen Sicheng and starring Liu Haoran, Chen Daoming and famous American movie star John Cusack, seems a bit lonely - the box office has been declining, and the audience reviews are polarized. Although the movie was well promoted before its release with the blessing of many stars, especially Liu Haoran's subversive appearance, this movie adapted from the novel of the same name by the Mao Dun Literature Award winner and well-known writer Mai Jia, has far failed to achieve the sensational effect expected by the producers.
Before its release, "Decoding" has whetted the appetite of the audience. The battle between the enemy and us on the secret front, the legendary life of a mathematical genius, plus the concepts of dream interpretation and subconsciousness, which are very topical and visual, can be said to meet all the conditions for creating an enjoyable and inspiring film. However, everything is ready, only the east wind is missing. Liu Haoran tried his best to play the eccentric, sensitive and fragile mathematical genius Rong Jinzhen, but still could not save the film's weakness in narrative and lyricism. Although it is called a biography, we can hardly see Rong Jinzhen's growth trajectory in different historical periods; although it is called a spy war, we lack the tense and covert negotiations between the enemy and us; and although it is called a suspense, the hero's method of relying on dreams to decipher and shuttle between dreams and reality seems a bit deliberate because it fails to fit in with the plot development... In this film, we see the director's imitation and reference to "Oppenheimer", "Inception", and even "A Beautiful Mind", which are all beneficial, but what we hope to see more is his own unique answer to this Chinese story and the human relationships behind the story.
The background music of the film is very dense, echoing the plot and setting off the atmosphere, which is also a highlight of the whole film. Whether it is the anti-war song "I Am the Walrus" created by the legendary band The Beatles in the 1960s, or the multiple theme music composed and produced by contemporary well-known composers Lorne Balfe and Kevin Ripple, they all appear at the right time at different stages of the film, creating a blurred or lost, or romantic and gorgeous sound and picture effect. What impressed me most was the first movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" that appeared in the opening. To be precise, it is a new version adapted by a contemporary composer based on the melody of this movement. It gently and gradually brings the viewer into a cold, ethereal and fantastic scene, and also foreshadows the subsequent plot development of the film.
Beethoven was just over 30 years old when he wrote the Moonlight Sonata in 1801. However, his increasingly serious ear disease and his unrequited love made him feel disappointed and depressed during those years. When writing the Moonlight Sonata with a complicated mood, Beethoven changed the traditional sonata "fast-slow-fast" program and wrote the first movement in slow tempo, which is slow and misty, and hesitant. In the words of a German poet, this movement is like "a boat rocking on the lake with moonlight", full of loneliness, sadness and mystery.
The creation of the musical genius Beethoven is inseparable from his life experience and his love. Similarly, the discoveries and creations of the mathematical genius Rong Jinzhen in the movie "Decoding" are also subtly related to the family affection and love, passion and cruelty he experienced. Just as composing music is to Beethoven, decoding is to the mathematician Rong Jinzhen, which also requires waiting, patience, and a flash of inspiration that is hard to come by. The worlds of mathematics and music are connected, aren't they?
(Source: Beijing Daily)
