European Festival Premiere | In Competition
Chen Sicheng’s first film to be adapted from a work of fiction, Decoded is an ambitious film in terms of both production and concept: monumental sets and dazzling special effects frame a story about the codes used in espionage between warring countries but, as the director explained, also about the mysterious code that is human life that each of us does our best to decipher. The film, scripted by Chen and the Canadian Christopher MacBride, is based on the novel of the same name by Mai Jia, published in 2002 and already adapted in 2016 into a long-running television series. The story, set in China in the 1940s and 1960s, is presented as the biography of a historical figure, but actually revolves around the fictional character of Rong Jingzhen, the young scion of a family of affluent intellectuals in Nanjing, who today we would call “neurodiverse” and who in the film swings the pendulum between genius and madness.
Educated by an extravagant Austrian tutor after the death of his parents, Jingzhen has learned to interpret dreams, but he also has an innate talent for solving complex mathematical calculations. Despite his lack of ability to relate to others in a conventional way, his genius is noticed first by a distant relative who decides to adopt him, and then by a brilliant and extravagant character, an American professor of mathematics at Nanjing University who takes Jingzhen on as his assistant, becoming a close friend and chess rival. When the communist army arrives in Nanjing at the end of the 1940s and Professor Lisiewicz is forced to return to the United States, the destinies of the two characters take opposing courses: one ends up working for the American government that supports Taiwan and the other is enlisted in the CCP’s elite department called “701” that deciphers the enigmas used by the enemy to transmit information. From that moment on, the story becomes not only one of two countries in conflict - even if the historical-chronological references are intentionally vague to avoid the film being interpreted as a historical drama - but also one that depicts the incessant duel between two brilliant, resolute minds, who, despite the thousands of miles that separate them, continue to put each other to the test, one creating increasingly complex codes and the other deciphering them.
The genius of the two main characters, however, gradually transforms into an obsession that risks bringing both of them to the brink of ruin...
Decoded has been compared to Western films like Oppenheimer, A Beautiful Mind or The Imitation Game, but the importance of Jingzhen’s visionary dreams – he believes that the solution to the secret codes is in equal measure thanks to his mathematical calculations and the intuitions that come to him at night through these dreams – places the film in the psychological genre. Jingzhen’s intuitive and calculating abilities echo a theme that Chen Sicheng previously developed in his Chinatown Detective film franchise in which the protagonist – also played by Liu Haoran – is a young, seemingly nerdy detective who solves incredibly complex cases. But while the Chinatown films are action comedies with characters firmly rooted in genre cinema, in Decoded Liu Haoran plays a tragic and complex character. The choice of casting the veteran actor John Cusack in the role of the mentor and later the rival was a winning one, because the performances of the two leads develops into a perfect symbiosis. Although the film is somewhat protracted and requires the audience to keep on their toes to keep pace with the protagonists’ psychological journey, Decoded was hailed a success by both critics and the box office, grossing ¥335 million.
Chen Sicheng
Chen Sicheng (b. 1978). A graduate of the Central Academy of Drama, he is a popular television and film actor, director, and screenwriter. His films include Lou Ye’s Spring Fever, Stephen Fung’s Tai Chi Zero, and Fei Xing’s Silent Witness (FEFF 2014). He made his directorial debut in 2012 with the TV series Beijing Love Story for which he was also the scriptwriter and one of the leads, followed by the film of the same name. His film series Detective Chinatown is one of the most successful franchises in China.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2014 – Beijing Love Story
2015 – Detective Chinatown
2018 – Detective Chinatown 2
2020 – A Mistery of UFO (segment in omnibus My People, My Homeland)
2021 – Detective Chinatown 3
2022 – Mozart from Space
2024 – Decoded
2025 – Detective Chinatown 1900