Xian yi ren X de xian shen (2017) User Reviews

Su's second attempt is an improvement, but leaves more to be desired.

[lightronger · 7/10 · 11 April 2017]

The brilliant story of The Devotion of Suspect X is recaptured for the Chinese audience in director Alec Su's second film. Aided by a much superior story, a better cast, and more fitting cinematography, Alec Su unfortunately is handicapped by his poor control of the film.

The suspense/detective tale with a twist features Zhang Luyi as Shi Hong, a genius and a loner who tries to help his neighbor Chen Jing (Ruby Lin) to cover up her murder of her ex-husband. Unfortunately for the pair, their crime caught the eye of Tang Chuan (Wang Kai), a physicist and Shi Hong's best friend in high school. Tang Chuan is called upon to help detective Luo Miao (Ye Zuxin) to solve the murder, but along the way gets caught in the crime itself.

The story is compelling by itself, and Alec Su managed to make it remain that, but nothing more. You can tell he really tries to delve deeper, but fell mostly flat. In one scene, he shot an American Beauty-styled segment of a lost leaf in an attempt to make some deep metaphor that simply added nothing to the story.

Zhang Luyi was convincing as a loner, but not so much as the other roles his character plays – an ordinary middle school teacher, a math genius, and occasionally a total creep. Wang Kai looked great in all the three-piece suits and shone through in a few scenes, but I think the choice to make Tang Chuan a part of the police academy was unfortunate, as it was perhaps the angle with the most potential – what happens when emotions and justice comes in conflict with the pursuit of the truth?

Overall, the film is a decent second project from Alec Su, but he still has a long way to go.

-cfensi

A faithful, but ultimately unremarkable, adaptation that will do fine for those unfamiliar with the tale, but offer little for those who already know its twists and turns

[moviexclusive · 6/10 · 7 April 2017]

If you've seen the 2008 Japanese adaptation 'Suspect X', then this made-for-China version of the same Keigo Higashino thriller probably holds little surprises. As its synopsis already reads, 'The Devotion of Suspect X' tells of a reunion between two brilliant minds who were once classmates – criminologist Prof Tang Chuan (Wang Kai) and secondary school Mathematics teacher Shi Hong (Zhang Luyi) – when a gruesome murder is committed that ensnares Shi Hong's next-door neighbor Chen Jing (Ruby Lin) and her teenage daughter Xiaoxin. Though the lead detective Luo Mao is suspicious of Chen Jing and her somewhat too-perfect alibi, Prof Tang believes that his former intellectual equal Shi Hong is somehow implicated in the case – and true enough, the latter had not only assisted Chen Jing in covering up the accidental death of her ex-husband, but will also be instrumental in coming up with a Plan B as Detective Luo's investigative noose slowly tightens around Chen Jing.

Whereas Hiroshi Nishitani's film turned that premise into a battle- of-wits, sophomore director Alec Su dials down the tension between the protagonists in favour of a more affecting observation of Shi Hong and the circumstances surrounding his misplaced altruism. Why would someone whom Prof Tang first proclaims to be interested only in Mathematics and not in money or relationships go out of his way in order to help someone who is at best an acquaintance? What drives the middle-aged Shi Hong now, whose shyness has now turned into detachment, disappointment and worse disillusionment? And therefore, how far would Shi Hong go to help Chen Jing, even to the extent of shouldering the murder rap? Bit by bit, Su peels back the layers to reveal an intimate portrait of Shi Hong, a Mathematics prodigy now wasting his time teaching inattentive adolescents in school and left despondent that his life has now become utterly meaningless.

That emphasis on Shi Hong inevitably comes at the expense of Prof Tang, whose purpose in the movie is confined to drawing out Shi Hong's motivations, figuring out Shi Hong's role in the case, and by extension push the plot-driven narrative forward. Aside from his astute criminal mind and familiarity with Shi Hong, there is little else that defines Prof Tang. Unlike Shi Hong therefore, we know not what drives him to engage in the investigation, whether is it because he relishes the challenge itself or whether it is borne of his firm belief in the pursuit of the truth. That in turn constrains how far we believe and empathize with his crisis of conscience that he faces at the end after finally uncovering the facts of the case – what good is the truth if its revelation ultimately causes the parties involved, sans the police, even more pain? That is the conundrum that its viewers were meant to ponder, but which is regrettably glossed over here.

It isn't just Prof Tang's part that is diminished, but also the dynamic between Prof Tang and Shi Hong. A series of flashbacks early on tells of the stimulation of intellectual sparring when they were classmates, with each taking turns to come up with IQ questions that the other must solve. That same simulation is apparently what makes Prof Tang excited about reconnecting with Shi Hong after so many years, who brings the latter a paper disproofing the Riemann hypothesis for him to validate on the occasion of their first reunion. And yet, subsequent scenes between the two male leads fail to reinforce this, their banter heavy on ambiguity but little else. Unlike the novel and the previous Japanese big-screen iteration of it therefore, their relationship feels more of two old friends reconnecting after a long while apart than of two equally clever minds facing off with each other, which in turn makes it seem slightly perplexing why Prof Tang would continue assisting the investigation especially knowing fair well that it would invariably push Shi Hong into a corner.

Compared to Masuharu Fukuyama and Shinichi Tsutsumi, Wang Kai and Zhang Luyi are simply not as compelling. The former cuts a suave, sharp figure as Prof Tang, but is constrained by the limits of his character in relation to the story. The latter, on the other hand, captures the reclusive, introverted nature of Shi Hong, but not his inner brilliance or his profound sense of attachment towards Chen Jing and Xiaoxin, which arguably is crucial to understanding why he would go to such lengths to protect both mother and daughter against their abusive and degenerate father. Indeed, Zhang Luyi's performance consists quite one-dimensionally of hunching his soldiers, looking forlorn and smiling on occasion when his character gets the opportunity to share a tender moment with either Chen Jing or Xiaoxin. The two female actresses playing Chen Jing and Xiaoxin inject sufficient vulnerability and warmth into their respective roles, but the film rests on its two male leads and needed to have a stronger complement than Zhang Luyi.

To be fair, 'The Devotion of Suspect X' is perfectly watchable, and a major step-up from Su's flat-footed first film 'My Left Foot'. Unfortunately, after a superior Japanese adaptation and another well- reviewed Korean one, Su's faithful but unremarkable version somehow comes off underwhelming. For those unfamiliar with the story, this will probably do fine; but for those (and we suspect there will be many) who are already familiar with the twists and turns, there needs to be a more compelling reason to be invested in this version, not just for the fact that it is set in China's Jiangnan and stars a bunch of Chinese actors. Without strong character development (and we mean both Prof Tang and Shi Hong, not just one or the other) as well as equally robust acting, there is not enough to distinguish this from its predecessors – and that is, even with recruiting author Higashino as one of its six screenwriters no less.

SOLVE FOR X

[MadamWarden · 6/10 · 25 February 2021]

A cute little movie with some neat plot twists. Interesting insight into China. Wouldn't be surprised to see a Hollywood knockoff in a few years.

Worth a watch.

"The world needs its cogs, all of them; and even a cog may say how it gets used. In fact, only a cog may determine its eventual meaning in the system."

[themichellemailbox · 5 April 2017]

Adapted from Keigo Higashino's "The Devotion of Suspect X," the Chinese adaptation of the novel retains most of the text's spirit, whilst streamlining and making minor modifications to certain character story lines. Most dominantly, this film makes a slight shift in emphasis to create a dynamic interplay between Tang Chuan (named Yukawa in the novel, played by actor Wang Kai) and Shi Hong (named Ishigami in the novel, played by Luyi Zhang), the one who solves vs. the one who sets the puzzle.

Two moments in the film that are particularly noteworthy, which also happen to be slight deviations from the novel:

(1) The exchange between Tang Chuan and Shi Hong when they go trekking together, Tang Chuan's empathetic response to Shi Hong's excruciating loneliness is one of the film's best moments, as the subtle undercurrents of all that is left unsaid gnaws at the viewers (and the characters).

(2) Tang Chuan's run on the bridge as he wrestles with the truth is played with perfect subtlety and pathos. Without a single word of dialogue, the pain he experiences as he struggles with the truth and with his next step perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the film, best captured by lines from the novel: "The world needs its cogs, all of them; and even a cog may say how it gets used. In fact, only a cog may determine its eventual meaning in the system."

Another dynamic pair in the film are Tang Chuan and Luo Miao (named Kusanagi in the novel, played by actor Ye Zuxin), whose rapport and amusing exchanges lend a delightful lightness to the weighty subject-matter.

The sprint towards the end is too rushed, which cramps the actors' performances. Certain emotions need to unfold in time on screen, especially when the characters realise particular truths, but there's a clockwork precision in which scenes are distilled that creates certain moments that feel out of sync with characters' emotional expressions. The film presents several problems in terms of pacing and especially in its use of extradiegetic sound--which borders on overbearing at times. A lighter touch in its use of sound, especially when disclosures are revealed, allows the story and the characters to unfold the story more gracefully. The direction and post-production could do with more subtlety, particularly given the film's genre.

China needs more movies like this

[qinree · 7/10 · 26 June 2017]

I saw the movie yesterday on TV, and the quality surprised me, because it's just the 2nd movie directed by Youpeng Su, a famous actor in China.

The story has been moved to big screen for several times, at least by Jap and South Korea, While this version may be the worst one.

But, it's still much better than most Chinese dramatic film. I give it 7/10.

Kai Wang didn't perform well. He is popular in China, but not suit for the role. Luyi Zhang has proved himself, but still lost control sometimes. That's where the director to blame.

The Elephant in the Room!

[spookyrat1 · 7/10 · 6 March 2021]

I haven't read The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. But I understand that it's generally considered as being a classic of the mystery genre. I don't know how closely Alec Su's film of the same name follows the novel's storyline, but I suspect it is quite faithful.

This is a film worth seeing. Superficially, it's a kind of a Chinese Conan Doyle tale with physics professor Tang Chuan representing Holmes and police cop Luo Miao, his Watsonian off - sider. And as a police procedural it's not too bad. But the film is deeper than that, delving philosophically into the nature and realities of friendship, loneliness, intellectualism, obsessiveness and what actually does constitute criminal behaviour.

All good and for a film of this type, as best as I could see, it does try to minimise those annoying contrivances that invariably pop up to save on exposition, or exist purely because of lazy script writing.

But two things for me kind of jarringly stand out, to prevent Devotion from attaining a more highly regarded status.

The "murder" upon which the whole storyline hinges, is clearly not a murder. At best, it's a plain old killing in self - defence and at worst a low - grade manslaughter. The advice to the killer should have been, "Don't touch anything and call the police." Yes, it would have probably resulted in a far shorter film. But I suggest even a rookie defence lawyer would have been licking his/her lips to take on this case.

The other thing that just didn't ring true at all, was Tang's force field ray gun type invention, which of course has a part to play late in proceedings. The question has to be posed, as to why you'd want to bring elements of science - fiction into what is nominally presented as a fairly low - key, police procedural with an underlying mystery, to be fully revealed, rather than solved (The audience find out pretty early on who killed who.). I really wonder whether this episode was in the source novel. Somehow I doubt it.

The Devotion of Suspect X is a solid and sometimes affecting detective story that also provides an entertaining challenge for the mind, but lets itself down somewhat, through a couple of fundamental script choices.

Incredibly awkward and stilted

[paul-allaer · 3/10 · 8 April 2017]

"The Devotion of Suspect X" (2017 release from China; 112 min.) brings the story of a murder case set in the Jianbei district of Shijiazhuang, in northern China. As the movie opens, we get to know a math genius who teachers at a junior high school. In a parallel story, a body is found of a 40-ish guy. The Jianbei police gets on the case and quickly narrows down the list of suspects, including the murdered guy's ex-wife. By chance, the neighbor of he ex-wife is an acquaintance of the police officer in charge of the case. At this point we are 15 min, into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience.

Couple of comments: this is a remake of the Japanese movie based on the Japanese book of the same name, this time transposed into a Chinese setting. This is the second movie directed by well-known actor Alec Su. Purposefully I wasn't too aware of the movie's plot details, and I walked in the theater expecting an action movie of some sort. Major miscalculation on my part. It turns out this is a low production movie with incredibly awkward and stilted performances, something one might see in TV movies and even soaps. In fact, on 3 or 4 instances, the music swells as the "drama" rises, only to then fade out to a black screen, as if we were going to a TV commercial. Furthermore, the movie switches from a whodunnit movie to a "will the cops catch the murderer" movie midway in the film, as what happened to the murdered guy is revealed halfway through. In all, I felt incredibly disappointed by this film on so many levels.

"The Devotion of Suspect X" opened two weekends ago on a single screen for all of Greater Cincinnati. The Friday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended quite nicely. I should add that I was the only non-Chinese/American-Chinese in the audience. Not that it matters, as the entire audience was laughing and hollering in disbelief during the most cringe-inducing moments of the movie. I love foreign films of all sorts, but in good consciousness, there is no way I can recommend this film to anyone. Viewer beware!

An fantastic adaption and upright outlooks

[grace_stone · 9/10 · 5 April 2017]

while many people -- especially young females -- consider romance the greatest feeling in the world and devotion the greatest symbol of love, is sacrifice the thing to show that your love is the purest and irreplaceable?

a murder committed by a genius and solved by another genius. The movie has shown us not only a story of "how to get away with murder" and "you can never get away with murder", but also demonstrated that the sacrifice of oneself may be great, the sacrifice of others is definitely unacceptable.

90/100

[anniezhouc · 9/10 · 4 April 2017]

The devotion of Suspect X is one of my favorite books, and Keigo Higashino is my favorite writer. Alec Su did a fair job to localize this Japanese style story. Also, it is his second movie as a director, compared to the first, I see great progress. Yukawa (Tangchuan)is my favorite character in "Galileo Series", I have to say I'm very satisfied with Wangkai's acting. Yukawa is elegant and proud, well, he is a genius and he knows he is a genius. He is extremely intelligent but he's not indifferent. I love Yukawa, and Tangchuan is pretty similar to my Yukawa, which made me really excited.

This is a good movie and it's worth buying a ticket, but I won't say this is an excellent movie. Wnagkai and Zhang Luyi are both TV dramas actors, and they did try their best for movie art. The point is even though the movie isn't perfect, everyone tried their best, and I think it is the most important thing.

It is a high-quality movie.

''What is more difficult: to design a problem that nobody else can solve, or to solve the problem?''

[DimitrisPassas-TapTheLine · 8/10 · 27 November 2018]

'The Devotion of Suspect X'' is a film based on the novel of the same name, written by the Japanese Keigo Higashino. The book was a commercial success and it was warmly received from the European and American readers, as it is about an ingenious cat and mouse game between two old classmates where the first one is Tang Chuan, a university professor and police consultant in serious cases, while the second, Shi Hong, is a recluse young man, reserved and timid who prefers to live alone. The plot begins to unfold with the brutal homicide of a man, husband and father of a teenage girl without obvious suspects to begin with. The detectives put on the case suspect the victim's ex wife who nevertheless seems to have a strong alibi for the night of the murder, an alibi confirmed by her neighbor, Shi Hong. Tang Chuan will seize the opportunity to visit his old friend and antagonist, and soon he will grasp the difficulties of the case because of Shi Hong's help and advices to his female neighbor. The plot moves forward in a steady pace and has many twists and turns while the viewer is allowed to absorb the beautiful cinematography of this Chinese film which, has nothing to envy of the big American and European thriller productions. Furthermore, the acting is impeccable and along with the mystery and suspense concerning the murder, the viewer can devour the wonderful dialogue which is embellished with lots of mathematical references. I haven't read the book but the movie motivated me to search for more novels and movie adaptations of Keigo Higashino's work. Fans of quality crime fiction films will certainly not be disappointed with this little gem from China.

"Ren Suan Bu Ru Tian Suan"

[blinkable · 9/10 · 1 May 2018]

There is this saying in Chinese entitled, Ren Suan Bu Ru Tian Suan (Man proposes but God disposes) that came to my mind as soon as I finished watching this movie. Throughout the movie, we see how a man could calculate all he wants and yet there are things or aspects in life that one could not be able to calculate to the dot and in this case especially a person's heart as well as what a person views as valuable/meaningful. I think the story plot was well laid out from beginning, slowly but surely building up to the few possibilities the audience might be able to grasp and catch if they pay enough attention. To me, it would be one of the reason why this movie would worth a rewatching - i.e., to retrace the steps and clues while putting yourself in their shoes. I really like the conversations and interactions between the two main characters, both as genius trying to calculate each other moves. The metaphorical conversations between them were insightful and beautiful for me. In terms of acting, both WangKai and Edward Zhang shine in their respective roles especially Edward in expressing Shi Hong's nonverbals - for someone who appeared emotionless but yet trapped in seas of emotions when fall in too deep in the maze of mind and end goal. I must say though that it did appear somewhat the truth was told in a rush manner - a sudden pick up contrast from the slow laid out from the beginning, which if would have been made more engaging (to match with the tempo set so far between the two MCs) then would be a more digestible solution out of the many solutions up the mountain.

A good movie in depth

[d-77332 · 9/10 · 21 April 2017]

For those who said this movie is "awkward", maybe you didn't even understand this movie at all. I read this book few years ago but didn't finish it. I personally think this movie is even beyond the book. It needs to point out that this is not an action movie, it's rather a suspenseful or even romantic movie.so if you are expecting some fighting scenes here, you wouldn't be able to find out. The core is about "sacrifice" and "salvation". For those who have poor understandings of Asian cultures and Asian peoples' way of expression may find it hard to agree with the values of the main characters. I totally recommend this as a Chinese, I defined it as one of the best movies in past ten years I've been watching in a movie theater. I gave a 9 because I saw some people are giving really low grade which is unfair. It's not a movie that you think you just spend time on eating some pop corns. This is a movie that make people cry and make us to think about our own lives. Love the main character to death and bravo to the background music.

Chinese Adaptation of a Japanese Classic

[chiumt · 8/10 · 23 April 2020]

Keigo Higashino is the author of several Japanese Detective novels. This possibly the most famous one. It is a 'Galileo' novel. This is a China adaptation of the book. It is a credible adaptation. I have watched the original Japanese version, and this compares well.