Liu additionally performed a pissed off, however superhumanly gifted wallflower in “Detective Chinatown.” He was extra convincing in these films, partly as a result of he was a part of a successful buddy duo, but in addition as a result of he wasn’t attempting to capital-A act whereas sporting hairpieces, whose artificial hairs skinny at an alarming charge as his character ages. As Jinzhen, Liu brings to thoughts Russell Crowe’s efficiency because the schizophrenic mathematician John Nash in “A Lovely Thoughts.” That affiliation will get more durable and more durable to shake as Jinzhen inevitably loses his grip on actuality whereas attempting to resolve the Black Cipher, a nigh-impossible encryption key that was particularly designed to stump Jinzhen.
Liu’s largely compelling as a number one man every time he can recommend lots about Jinzhen by talking softly and deferring his gaze, as if Jinzhen expects to be reprimanded or inconvenienced at any time. He’s nonetheless usually eclipsed by co-star John Cusack, whose broad and twitchy efficiency usually distracts from his dialogue, in addition to a sequence of campy dream sequences that ostensibly converse for Liu’s introverted protagonist.
Jinzhen retains a dream journal to assist him break complicated ciphers for the reason that Freud-friendly symbols that he encounters in his desires additionally assist him to suppose out of the proverbial field. These desires continuously trace at tensions that by no means will get resolved past portentous indicators and awkwardly rendered pc graphics. Finally, Jinzhen’s desires overtake his waking life, which sinks “Decoded” deeper into a well-recognized and usually watchable situation a couple of solitary genius’s conquer impossible-seeming odds. However for some time, “Decoded” diligently and really slowly follows the assorted steps that lead Jinzhen alongside his defining quest to resolve the Black Cipher.
Jinzhen passively tumbles from one encounter to the subsequent all through this 2.5-hour lengthy dud. He’s first found by a distant relative, college professor Xiaolili (Daniel Wu), who adopts and nurtures Jinzhen. Then Jinzhen involves the eye of Professor Liesiwicz (Cusack), a manic, however philosophically-inclined computational arithmetic professor who refuses to collaborate with the Kuomingtang. “I hate warfare,” Liseiwicz declares on the finish of an awkwardly phrased and negligibly dramatized speech. He’s quickly compelled to work for the American Nationwide Safety Company, for whom he devises more and more tough encryption strategies, together with the Black Cipher.
