Note: There are no spoilers for the core plot in this article
"She Who Disappeared" is a movie that will reduce the fun of watching the movie if it spoils. The movie is based on the drama "Trap for A Lonely Man", which is a classic story with the ending of O. Henry, so there have been many adaptations throughout the history. For example, the American TV movie "Mystery of Disappearance" (1986) and the unpopular Soviet film "A Trap for Bachelors" (1990). "The Mystery of Disappearance" has also been broadcast in CCTV's Zhengda Theater, and some viewers may have the impression of this. If you have watched "The Mystery of the Disappearance", you actually have a basic understanding of the plot of "The Missing Her".
"The Missing Her" poster
In the official propaganda, there is no shyness that the movie is adapted from "The Trap for the Bachelor". If the audience really went to watch the Soviet movie version and then the domestic version, they would exclaim: The screenwriter of "The Missing Her" is too good, and the modification is too good. But if you have watched "The Mystery of the Missing", you will find: "The Missing Her" has several exquisite settings, and "The Mystery of the Missing" has already been acted (at least 70%). The production is also pretty good. "Mystery of the Missing" was aired before "The Trap for the Bachelor", and "Mystery of the Missing" is more similar to "Mystery of the Missing", but the movie claims to be adapted from an unpopular, hard-to-find source Is this kind of "avoiding the important and paying attention to the minor" unintentional, or is it too "smart"?
But in any case, the conclusion can still be said first, even if it is based on "The Mystery of the Disappearance", the adaptation of "The Missing She" is not bad, you can watch the movie.
Back to the story itself, it is about the mystery of the disappearance of a wife.
On an island town in Southeast Asia, He Fei (Zhu Yilong), a tourist from China, reported to the police: During his wedding anniversary trip with his wife Li Muzi, his wife disappeared mysteriously and had been gone for half a month. He Fei, who has been searching for his wife to no avail, is on the verge of a nervous breakdown because his visa is about to expire, but the police have yet to file a case and search for someone.
He Fei (Zhu Yilong)
When he woke up suddenly, Li Muzi (played by Wen Yongshan), who claimed to be his wife, was lying beside him, and affectionately called him "husband".
Li Muzi (played by Wen Yongshan)
He Fei categorically denied that this was not my wife at all. Strangely, the hotel staff all claimed that "Muzi Li" (referring to the wife played by Janice Man) was He Fei's wife, and the document information provided by "Muzi Li" also proved that she was Muzi Li. The intimate group photos of her have also become "Muzi Li".
He Fei insists that "Li Muzi" is a fake
At the same time, "Li Muzi" also provided some private information about He Fei. For example, because He Fei is a diving instructor, he has been diving for too long and suffers from brain diseases. In order to treat the abuse of secondary controlled drugs, He Fei sometimes becomes mentally unstable.
Why Fei is mentally unstable?
This is a strategy also used in "The Mystery of the Missing", trying to make He Fei an "unreliable" narrator, so that everyone other than He Fei thinks that "Muzi Li" is the real Muzi Li.
At the beginning of the movie, several core suspense points of the plot were thrown out: Did Muzi Li disappear? If "Li Muzi" is the real wife, then why can't He Fei recognize her? If "Li Muzi" is a fake wife, where is the real Li Muzi? What is the purpose of "Li Muzi"? He Fei, who is looking for his wife hard, does he know his wife's whereabouts? Is this a shocking deception by a "femme fatale", a schizophrenia of a psychopath, or a big lie by a vicious man?
Like "The Mystery of Missing", after the wife disappears, the desperate husband will find external forces to intervene in the investigation. In "The Missing Her", this function is undertaken by the elite lawyer Chen Mai (played by Ni Ni).
Chen Mai (played by Ni Ni)
Chen Mai is an invincible barrister on a small island in Southeast Asia. She is beautiful, capable, and valiant, and can bring a great sense of security to the parties. He Fei soon pinned his hopes on Chen Mai body. Of course, Chen Mai itself is also mysterious, why did she take He Fei's case? When he heard about He Fei's case of his wife's disappearance, Chen Mai told He Fei a story about "the secret door in the fitting room"-the newlyweds traveled to Southeast Asia, and the wife disappeared because of the secret door in the fitting room. Years later, the husband went on a business trip to another city in Southeast Asia, only to find that his wife had become a performer in a "freak show". Does this scary story imply something?
So far, although the audience still has no way of knowing the direction of the follow-up plot of "The Missing Her", but with these questions, they can also feel the attractive structure of the "Trap for A Lonely Man" script. Not bad. In order to ensure the audience's interest in watching the movie, the author is inconvenient to spoil the core plot, but what can be discussed is, compared with the Soviet version and the American version more than 30 years ago, what changes and upgrades have been made in "She Who Disappeared"?
What matters is the script level. Many exquisite settings have appeared in "The Mystery of Disappearance", but "The Vanishing She" has indeed improved.
First, He Fei's real face continues the setting of "The Mystery of Disappearance", but "The Disappearing She" also gives He Fei a fuller extension of the character. The movie repeatedly mentions the "Mandela effect". Because people's memory is easily affected by external factors, they mistakenly remember the details of certain events or there are some events that do not exist, thus treating "false memory" as Make a real memory. During the investigation, Chen Mai revealed that "Muzi Li" may have used the Mandela effect to deceive others. It is not only "Muzi Li" who can use this effect, but He Fei is also included. This is the "5% innovation" of "The Missing Her".
Second, different versions will introduce external forces to intervene in the investigation, but in other versions, the setting of this external force is very conventional, and the police have carefully arranged for the investigation of the murderer, and so on. But "The Missing She" hides a huge secret in Chen Mai, and further sublimates the theme of the movie to "girls help girls". Although this theme has become clichéd under the exaggeration of many film and television dramas, when the suspense of "The Missing She" is revealed, the audience can still empathize with the two girls.
Moreover, if the police are "acting" to solve the case, the credibility may not be so strong; but if a theater director rehearses such a big play for the love in his heart, it will be more justified.
Third, compared with different versions of the story, "The Missing Her" has added multiple reversals, trying to make this commercial film more watchable. Was it a Southeast Asian criminal group that kidnapped Muzi Li? Why is there another secret? Or is Chen Mai's identity also questionable? Reversed one after another, the emotional concentration is not stacked, and the final emotional impact is also stronger.
Reverse constantly
It's just that there is an Achilles' heel in this kind of movie that focuses on reversal, that is, there are bugs in the logic, and many details cannot be delved into. "She Who Disappeared" sets the background of the story in Southeast Asia. The exotic style can weaken the discomfort caused by bugs to a certain extent, and the logical loopholes in the movie are also within an acceptable range.
Also because "She Who Disappeared" is a commercial blockbuster, the production is a lot more luxurious, and the script adds more commercial elements, such as drag racing, escape from the tiger's mouth when fighting with gangsters, etc. Some viewers will find it cumbersome, and some viewers will find it quite exciting. This is a matter of opinion.
In a word, as a commercial genre film, the script of "The Missing Her" has a relatively high degree of completion.
As for the director part, "The Missing She" is a strategy that Chen Sicheng often adopts as his own producer + new director directing. The rookie director is able to tell the story so smoothly, which is worthy of recognition; the flood of gods and gods in the mixed soundtrack of the movie, I am afraid that the audience will not know that the suspense is coming, and the audience will be bored. The feeling of an escape room. This kind of audio-visual aesthetics is not advanced, especially compared with the aesthetics of "The Lost Lover", it is indeed not a bit worse. Chen Sicheng's series of suspenseful Southeast Asian films have gradually formed an "aesthetic template", which should be adjusted properly, otherwise you will get tired after watching too much.
In terms of acting skills, "The Missing She" has greatly enriched Zhu Yilong's performance space. The role of He Fei is very critical. He has many aspects and layers, and each layer needs to "convince" the audience. Zhu Yilong has done it very well. Of course, because there are too many reversals in the script, the personalities of the characters are also "reversed", and the sudden intense emotions of the characters sometimes seem "too much". The performance that reveals his true nature when the final suspense is revealed should be the best moment of Zhu Yilong's acting performance in this film.
This role should make Zhu Yilong too addicted to acting
The role of Ni Ni is also more three-dimensional than the external investigators in previous versions. This character seems to have little room to play (the image design of the motorcycle girl at the beginning is a bit of a failure), but it is not the case. She is the one with the most unified emotions before and after in the movie. At certain moments, the emotions in her eyes are already impressive. Doubt her identity. In the film's final moments, her performance is soulful and moving.
Ni Ni's performance seems to have little space, but she handles it well
Wen Yongshan's performance is also very eye-catching, completely concreting the image of "femme fatale".
Janice Man is beautiful and "ruthless"
"She Who Disappeared" also unexpectedly echoes the rumors of traveling in Southeast Asia in reality. However, in the context of public opinion where the confrontation between men and women is somewhat intensified, it is indeed unpredictable whether the shaping of the images of men and women in "The Lost She" will invisibly intensify the "prejudice" between men and women. No matter what, "love yourself first" is always right.
In general, "The Missing Her" is a movie you can watch during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday. Whether you like Chen Sicheng or not, you should admit that Chen Sicheng's team has made experience in suspenseful stories with exotic backgrounds. Spend this "shrewdness" on the polishing of the script, and slowly transform the ability of adaptation into the ability of originality, and this track will go wider.
