When you are staring into the abyss, the abyss is also staring into you.

——Nietzsche

Yesterday I watched "Psychological Crime" with my mother (fortunately, we are all fans of suspense reasoning). Overall, I was surprised and regretful, but as a suspense film, Psychological guilt at least qualifies.

Putting aside its shortcomings in professional theory and character setting, I would like to simply compare it with the original work and the same-named adaptation from the perspective of an adapted work. Let’s make a small comparison between web dramas. In other words, instead of making a blunt comparison between the three (the three are inherently different types of works), I just want to talk about my different feelings about these three works with equal respect.

I don’t want to be academic, I just want to speak from my heart.

Let’s start with the original work.

It is quite fateful that three years ago, also in the summer, I found a book "Psychological Crime?" portrait". I feel ashamed when I think about it. What initially attracted me to open this book was not its name, nor its author (unfortunately, Mr. Remy was not very famous at that time), but my personal indiscriminate exploration of this type of novel. Now that I think about it, I should be grateful for this habit, which prevented me from missing this wonderful work.

I still remember those details. The night I found it, I took "Ma Zhengjing" to review. But for a few hours from the time I opened the first page of "Portrait" until I closed the last page, I completely forgot about everything in reality. I became Fang Mu, a young man with a mysterious past, a genius with trauma in his heart.

There is a knife under his pillow.

A sword is a weapon; a soldier is a weapon. The so-called murder weapon can hurt others as well as yourself.

The plot unfolds one by one in such a mysterious and strange atmosphere, beating with a clear rhythm like a drumbeat. Mr. Remy's writing has a strong sense of reality, which makes it easy for people to fall deeply into it and leave no room for doubt. I think this should be attributed to his professionalism and personal experience. The details in his paintings are true and rigorous, and the characters in his paintings all have three-dimensional and full psychological portrayals. Of course, as a criminal psychology teacher, his writing is inevitably somewhat document-like and plain, but this in no way prevents his rigorous logic and wonderful suspense settings from shining through.

Later, I read the entire series of five books one after another, and participated in Fang Mu’s changes and growth. This process is gratifying and painful, just like our own growth. Each of us grows up, learns something, and loses something. For Fang Mu, he learned to face darkness and human nature, but he also lost the right to live in the sun.

For Amway purposes, I won’t go into details about the ending, leaving it to everyone to feel the pleasure of peeling off the cocoon.

Then let’s talk about web dramas.

Initially, I watched the online drama with the mentality of supporting the original work, but I have to admit that the online drama "Psychological Crime" can no longer be simply said to be a film and television version of the original work, but it really has its own version. The soul has something unique that transcends the original work.

If Mr. Remi’s writing focuses more on exploring rational issues, the process of reasoning and the case itself, then the interpretation of the online drama focuses more on exploring human nature and starting from a more emotional side. I think this kind of adaptation is reasonable. After all, the medium of the work is different. Expression using light and shadow as a medium is more likely to touch the right hemisphere of people's brains and stimulate emotional resonance.

The web drama combines and adapts the first two parts of the original work. Both Fang Mu and Tai Wei add new interpretations, and the character Chen Xi is treated with both reality and fantasy, with a unique style. The actor who played Fang Mu in the play, Chen Ruoxuan, was still a very unfamiliar actor at the time, but his performance surprised me. Although it did not completely match the characters in the original work, it still had a somewhat special flavor. Fang Mu is high-spirited and ignorant of the world, and he also has an anxious struggle falling into darkness. He has performed all of these. For Fang Mu in the play, he has his own soul.

In the drama, the interaction between Fang Mu and Tai Wei is also a highlight. You can feel the intention of the creative team. After all, the entire online drama is playing the emotional card, and the line of brotherhood is also necessary. I didn't notice these sparks when I watched the original work, but it is precisely because of this that the web drama has its own charm.

Finally, let’s talk about movies.

To be honest, I was nervous before watching the movie. Firstly, because judging from the various trailers, the plot adaptation is very drastic, and secondly, because the casting is controversial, which makes the leading actors worried.

Let’s talk about the first aspect first. In fact, my tolerance for adapted works is not low. As long as the changes are good and reasonable, the derivative works can have their own new souls, and the subtleties are no less than being completely faithful to the original work. What's more, words and pictures are not completely comparable. It is almost an impossible task to completely transfer what words can express to the screen. Sometimes some adjustments are indeed needed. .

Unfortunately, fans of the original novel are often very picky, but persistence and paranoia are sometimes just a matter of thought. Some friends who claim to be party to the original work cannot tolerate even a slight change in the derivative works, and will often shout and kill the adapted works. However, the term (or verb) "IP adaptation" itself has revealed everything. What is bought is the adaptation right, and what is sold is the adaptation. There is nothing wrong with adapting the original work. Of course, the premise is that the core humanistic connotation and value stance of the original work are retained after the adaptation, and the ideological essence of the work is expressed. Only then can it be said that it truly respects the original work and is a truly good adaptation.

So I watched the movie with a nervous but tolerant mood. My evaluation of the plot adaptation was that it had both bright spots and flaws, but overall it was passable. The highlight is that the movie twists several complex stories in the original work into one main line, and tells the story from beginning to end in just over an hour. The plot is very fulfilling, which is not easy. But it is precisely because there is so much to talk about that it seems rushed and unclear in many places. There are also shortcomings in the character design and psychological portrayal. It would be too long to discuss this point, and I guess you won’t have the patience to read it, so I won’t say more.

As for the second aspect, regardless of whether I am a fan or not, even if I am a mere stranger, I will never comment without reading the work. The reason why I am worried about the lead actor is because too many people look at the so-called "little fresh meat" with labels and colored glasses. Regardless of whether they can still be said to be young talents at the age of thirty, even if their acting skills are indeed immature now, there is one actor who did not come from youth. I think it is irrational and ridiculous to make malicious comments out of some unknown state of mind without having read the work carefully.

We can evaluate a person, but we must also give him time and space to grow. If we don’t even have this tolerance, then there will be too many people in the world who need to complain, and I’m afraid they will die. Endless spray. When we calm down and evaluate people and things with an adult mentality, we will find that great achievements are worthy of praise, and moving forward step by step is worthy of encouragement. What we should condemn is not advancing under pressure, but getting something for nothing and in vain.

Of course, after watching the movie, I no longer worry about this problem. Not to mention the acting skills of actor Liao, Mr. Li also has no stage fright. When it’s time to cry, it’s time to laugh. When it’s time to be proud, your eyebrows are bright. What I saw was the square wood, not the actors themselves, and that was enough.

Compared with the original work, the logic of the movie pales in comparison, and compared with the online drama, the narrative of the movie seems rushed. But these do not prevent the movie itself from having its own bright colors, telling its own stories and expressing its own thoughts. Every well-written work deserves respect, and no one can decide whether it is good or bad. No matter which character, everyone has a different understanding in their hearts, so whether the original work or the adapted work, they just show the appearance of the characters in their hearts, nothing more.

Finally, I would like to borrow a famous saying mentioned in the online drama to express my understanding and love for the entire "Psychological Crime" series.

Nietzsche said, "When you are staring into the abyss, the abyss is also staring at you." This is true for every character in "Psychological Crime", whether Fang Mu or Tai Wei, they are all staring at you. Confronting the darkest side of human nature is also a confrontation with their own hearts; they fight against the haze of the outside world, and they are also getting rid of the haze in their hearts; they fight against evil, but they must also be careful of falling into evil themselves.

And why aren’t we like this? Everyone has their own psychological sins. We cannot avoid contact with darkness, but we can arm our hearts to get out of the darkness.

I hope that people who are as trapped and miserable as square logs will always exist only in literary works. I hope that people who are persistent and fearless like square logs will always stand in the sun and smile.

I hope that we are all the latter.