Dark Matter

Plot synopsis:
The film is inspired by the true story of Gang Lu, a former graduate student who killed four faculty members and one student at the University of Iowa. However, the story has substantial differences in plot and character motivation.
Liu Xing (Liu Ye) is a humble but brilliant Chinese student who arrives at Valley State University and makes a bumpy transition into American life with the help of Joanna Silver (Meryl Streep). Silver is a wealthy university patron who has a fascination with Chinese culture and takes a liking to Liu Xing. Xing joins a select cosmology group under the direction of his hero, the famous cosmologist Professor Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn). The group is working to create a model of the origins of the universe, based on Reiser's theory. Xing's enormous talent leads him quickly to become Reiser's protégé, and it seems that only hard work stands between him and a bright future in science.
Xing is obsessed with the study of dark matter, an unseen substance that he believes shapes the universe, and a theory that conflicts with the Reiser model. Xing makes scientific breakthroughs of his own which improve the Reiser model. Without Professor Reiser's approval, Liu Xing proposes to research dark matter for his doctoral dissertation. Reiser explains to Xing that this type of research is too complicated and suggests that he should pick a simpler dissertation topic.
Refusing to work with Xing, Reiser finds a new protégé in Feng Gang (Lloyd Suh), another Chinese student who was Xing's rival in undergraduate school in Beijing. Professor Reiser approves of Feng's dissertation proposal as it sticks to the Reiser model. Feng's English skills are far superior to his fellow Chinese students', and he refuses to speak in Mandarin with them. Feng changes his name to Laurence so that Americans would be more comfortable pronouncing his name.
Without the permission of Professor Reiser, Xing publishes an article in an astronomy journal. Reiser is enraged by this and refuses to accept Xing's doctoral dissertation.
At a graduation party for the Chinese students it is announced that Laurence Feng has won the university's science dissertation prize for that year. Joanna Silver urges Professor Reiser to do something to help Liu Xing. Reiser informs her that he has written a "very fine" recommendation for him.
Xing does not graduate and finds his dream of winning the Nobel Prize shattered. He goes on to sell beauty products to try to make money. His roommate offers to find him a job in China, but Xing refuses to leave. A few months pass and Xing mails all of his money to his parents in China.
One day, Xing returns to campus. He heads into an auditorium where Laurence Feng is giving a presentation to the cosmology department. Unable to cope with his emotions, Xing pulls a revolver out of his coat and begins firing, shooting Laurence and Reiser before making his way to Reiser's office and shooting himself in the head.

Tags: revenge, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
Loosely based on the 1991 University of Iowa shooting incident, Dark Matter tells a heart-wrenching story of a brilliant mind lost in translation.
Liu Xing (also means Falling Star in Chinese), a young student with humble background, became the elite a few selected to pursue his dreams in America.
When his bright future is blocked by the jealous professor, his rosy dreams crushed by cultural clash, and most damaging of all - his pride and dignity eradicated under harsh reality, our protagonist turned into a cruel monster.The film is skillfully shot, well acted, and thoroughly entertaining with many bitter-sweet humors depicting the tough living conditions of poor Chinese studying in America during late 80's.
Liu Ye, one of the best young actors in China today, played the protagonist with powerful emotions that will bring the gentle hearted viewers to tears.If you are looking for authoritative explanations to the Lu Gang incident or any of the recent school shootings, you will likely be disappointed.
According to the director, this is a story based on his own personal experience, aimed to bring awareness to the dark side of the academics circle as well as the overlooked lives of foreign students in America.
Liu Xing (Ye Liu) comes from a poor family in Beijing, but rises to hopeful heights due to his exceptional scientific intelligence and is invited to a prestigious university to study with Cosmology professor Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn), the author of the Reiser String Theory - the entire universe is tied into a compact single ball of cosmic wax.
Liu Xing encounters initial success not only academically but also as a fresh young student, barely able to speak English, who is taken under the wing of the kind matron of Chinese culture, Johanna Silver (Meryl Streep).
When the student's theory conflicts with Reiser's theory, the negative results begin to affect each of the characters: Liu Xing sees his dream of earning a PhD in Cosmology and winning the Nobel Prize for his theory destroyed by the powers of academia and as he watches his fellow Chinese students succeed, he is plagued with low self esteem as he attempts to support his family in Beijing with money earned selling cosmetics door to door.
Billy Shebar's screenplay tinkers with the story's credibility with a heavy dose of sentimentality at times, but director Shi-Zheng Chen keeps the story moving by allowing the audience to witness frequent glimpses of Liu Xing's humble Beijing home life.
For those frustrated with academic politics or anybody who enjoys a simple movie told well, shot well and acted brilliantly, should see Dark Matter.The writer/director got it right.
(Not necessarily details surrounding previous incidents that this may be based on), but the overall attitude of the students, and professors at the university are portrayed perfectly.The story follows a brilliant Chinese student at an American University trying to get his Ph.D. under a successful and respected professor (played by Aidan Quinn).
They showed us everything we needed to know about the main character, including contrasts to his fellow Chinese students with very effective, subtle scenes.For the subtlety, effectiveness, simplicity, and brilliance of everything in this movie, "Dark Matter" is one of the best recent films made..
Liu Ying, masterfully played by Ye Liu, is a Chinese graduate student who has come to the US to study Cosmology with a professor that he has idolized his entire life.
Forget that its based on a true story because its not - that's just marketing and fodder for pointless forum discussions.What really hurt this movie were the pointless special effects and overly exaggerated sentimental shots, mostly featuring Meryl Streep, interspersed throughout the movie - typically after a scene where the protagonist experiences success or failure.
The screenplay should have stuck much more to the truth, to actual events, they should have tried to portrait the characters faithfully, without trying to 'simplify' things for the viewer, to make the film more 'stylistically viable'.Oh yes, and this is one of the few movies (if not the only one) where Merryl Streeps presence was totally unnoticeable, if not unnecessary..
The main issue beyond the plot - dark matter, cosmology etc - are not interesting to me, but the scenes have smoothly combined and related human issues have been pleasantly highlighted (perhaps the ending comes too suddenly).
Liu Xing is recruited from China to work as a graduate student under his hero Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn).
Liu Xing joins a group of Chinese students who work for Reiser with little pay.
And what did occur in the end is not far-fetched at all but is disturbing and ultimately quite sad.Ye Liu and Meryl Streep are very strong and complex characters and it is amazing to watch the dynamic between the two, as well as the more complicated and difficult dynamic with other students and Professors.
An important film which must be seen to see Ye Liu's character unravel in a common fashion, although most similar stories/true accounts do not end so violently.
There just isn't enough Space for both to Co-Exist in this Little Film and its a Short Changed Display that Results are Unfulfilled.The Ending Suffers greatly, Betraying its Cerebral Dark Subject Matter..
What makes the movie memorable is it does a great job with creating a subjective story: time stops, digresses and starts again, reality alternates with symbolic images in a very compelling rhythm that drags you in and takes you apart.
In my opinion, the film should certainly change their claim so that the audience know it is NOT (actually far from) a narrative of the true event.In the true event, the student, Gang Lu, was far from a naive victim whose dream was shattered by academic politics and cultural difference as portrayed by the film, but rather a self-promoting and selfish psycho who couldn't tolerate the fact that another fellow student was better than him.
Dark Matter is a neat little film about the promise and peril of being a Chinese graduate student at an American university.
It gives you a peek inside the subculture of young Asians imported into the country in virtual indentured servitude to the careers and egos of middle-aged academics.Liu Xing (Liu Ye) is a brilliant math student who's come to the U.S. to study with renowned cosmology professor Jake Reiser (Aidan Quinn).
Xing winds up living with two other Chinese graduate students, Little Square (Li Bo) and Old Wu (He Yu), and becomes friends with Joanna Silver (Meryl Streep), a rich man's wife who's fascinated with China and has become a patron of the constant stream of Chinese graduate students flowing into Professor Reiser's lab.
Xing's academic career is stalled when his theories on so-called "dark matter" conflict with Professor Reiser's ideas and a much more Americanized student with the Americanized name of Laurence Feng replaces him on the fast track for a PhD.
But Xing's letters home remain and bright and cheerful as ever, covering up a black depression that explodes in a moment of violent insanity.Sadly reminiscent of a tragedy at the University of Iowa nearly 20 years ago, Dark Matter gently engages you in considering a cultural and economic phenomenon that's been around for so long, it's become a cliché.
It helps you to imagine what it's like to be stranded in a strange land, surrounded by your countrymen but still very much alone.The acting is also pretty good, though it's odd to see a Meryl Streep movie where she doesn't give the best performance.
Liu Ye and Lloyd Suh also draw such a wonderful contrast between the frustrated integrity of Liu Xing that eventually turns in on itself and the vacuous ambition of Laurence Feng that leads to reward, as it so often does in this unfortunate world.There are a lot of little things to enjoy in Dark Matter.
The only quibble I could have with it is that the movie does move very quickly from the beginning to the end of Xing's emotional implosion and it feels like there's about 10 or so minutes of the film that have been left out.
Kind of a matter-of-fact, naturally progressing story of a nice brilliant kid who comes from China to a U.S. college to stake his claim to scientific fortune and glory, but instead finds only a politicized academic world he can not penetrate.A pretty extreme character to start with, but also extremely likable, he turns into a poster- boy for a certain type of desperation with no outlet.
Maybe even all the more so for its nauseous inevitability.The movie really puts you in the head-space of a person who most of us insular Americans don't consider too often: the Grad student from a foreign country (like China) who's here against all odds to pursue a prestigious P.H.D., and who's under enormous academic, financial, and familial pressures we can hardly match.And the way that it's all conveyed to us is beautifully done.There's a Whole Lotta Feeling in the colors and shapes and sounds and music that are poured over us, like a bath.
Meryl Streep is under-stated as a supporting player who has some great moments with the main guy, especially in a quiet scene at her place toward the end that's an All-Timer.Aidan Quinn is great as a professor and potential mentor, and potential player-hater.
(There are Spoilers) Getting the highest entrance scores in the collages history young but very naive Beijing physics grad Liu Xing, Ye Ling, was given the honor to work with the great American cosmologist professor Jacob Reiser, Aidan Quinn, as his #1 assistant.
Reiser and all those-the collage faculty-who conspired to destroyed his future in the world of science pay for what they did to him and pay big time!The movie "Dark Matter", which is based on a true story, was to be released around the time of the April 16, 2007 "Virginia Tech Massacre".
It was then that a 23 year-old South Korean exchange student Seung-Hui Cho, much like Liu Xing in the movie, went nuts and gunned down some 30 people.
Although the film overall speaks for the universal and inherent desire for power and fame, the literal and obvious message still remains, 'we drive today's kids to insanity and therefore we are the evil force behind the shootings.' Liu Xing, (played by Chinese superstar Ye Liu), is an Asian cosmology genius awarded a student visa to study in a prestigious US university.
Xing's theory on dark matter (sadly, a too obvious connection to the film's title) challenges Reiser's and with credibility at that- and therefore challenges his political stature.
The story tragically ends as Xing interrupts a school function and shoots his adviser, professor, fellow students and then himself.Xing creates sympathy for himself throughout the film as we witness his decay and Ye's performance all the more enhances the effect.
At the final scene we feel the pain for Xing- not those slaughtered carelessly.Dark Matter is a great movie to inspire people to think and start to want to understand each other better!
"The universe is made mostly of dark matter and dark energy, and we don't know what either of them is" - Saul Perlmutter Inspired by actual events, director Chen Shi-Zheng's socially conscious psychological drama follows the journey of an ambitious Chinese scientist working towards his Ph.D. in America, only to be marginalized to the extent that he ultimately loses his way.
Things continue to look up as Liu becomes close with wealthy university patron Johanna Silver (Meryl Streep) after the two become acquainted at an orientation for foreigners sponsored by a local church.Eventually, Liu becomes Reiser's protégé, and makes a sizable impression at a prestigious conference attended by the pair.
Now, as he coasts on the fumes of his unrealized dreams, the dishonored student prepares to lash out with one final act of devastating annihilation.A fairly good film with a promising plot and class A actors but what really brought this film down I think is the way the director handled his cluttered vision of the premise and it came out to messy for me.
And the repetitive use of overly sentimental shots of lead character Liu Xing was a bit annoying, I mean I already get the scene was emotional, I don't need to stare in the face of a mopey Chinese guy contemplating his streaks of bad luck.On the other hand though, the actors in the film were really exceptional.
One is the Chinese student of modest means, Liu Xing, who comes to the US to study under Reiser, the brilliant American professor, who expects Xing to support his theory as a graduate student.
The scenic shots are good, and while the characters tend to exude excessive sentimentality at times, especially Streep, the often vicious nature of competition in academia is captured superbly.The simplistic viewpoint is that Liu Xing publishes an article attacking Reiser's theory through naiveté.
The casualness of Jacob Reiser's approach to science clashes with his protégé Liu Xing in ways that will end in tragic results.
Liu Xing dreams about a possibility of winning a Nobel prize as he begins to question his mentor in aspects concerning the cosmology matters.The film, directed by Chen Shi-Zeng, who is well known for his direction of operas that have played in America, is a beautiful piece of film making.
This is a confusing muddled drama of the sad plight of a brilliant Chinese student at an American university.This is the first effort of both the director; Shi=Zheng Che & writer Billy Shebar.If more experienced hands did this movie it very likely would have been handled better.The student(going for his PHD) is played by LUI YE-- from mainland China, His performance is first rate,He is a major actor in China & its easy to see why.Aiden Quinn is his mentor & professor & does his usual fine performance.
Meryl Streep as a small ,but pivotal role and to me she seems not up to her usual par.The movie was filmed in Utah, & played in some festivals in 2007, released to very few theatres in 2008 & the box-office was pitiful.This is one of those films where they expect the audience to know what the story is supposed to be about.
It had its moments, but overall, this story about a Chinese student in America whose brilliant theory about dark matter never sees the light of day because of university politics is not the least bit compelling.
One minute, he's being asked to test his ground-breaking theory in three different ways rather than one (something he should be able to do), and the next he's going on an insane shooting rampage to avenge his overlooked genius.What got me thinking about "Dark Matter" again was Virginia Tech.
In the Q&A, director Shi-Zheng Chen claimed his film was based on a real case where a disgruntled Chinese student at an American university shot a number of people for a similar reason.
Dark Matter (2006)Dark Matter Doesn'tIt's great to see a movie the focuses on Chinese students in an American college setting, with the pressures and cross-cultural humor.
In this case, Streep is an American who likes Chinese culture, so she is a likable ambassador to show our main character around.
Director Shi- Zheng Chen's first film might not be his last, so cross your fingers that he keeps the good stuff and develops his art, and gets good scriptwriters.The only thing I can think of that motivated this movie is that it was aimed at a cross- over between Chinese and Chinese-American audiences.
Just appalling.After watching Dark Matter, the first thought that entered my head was "fail".This film, perhaps the worst ever seen, had all the right ingredients to produce a great film: a good story, a positive message and great cast.
Inspired by actual events, director Chen Shi-Zheng's socially conscious psychological drama entitled,Dark Matter follows the journey of an ambitious Chinese scientist working towards his doctorate degree in the United States, only to be marginalized to the extent that he ultimately loses his way.It stars Liu Ye,Aidan Quinn and Meryl Streep.The screenplay was written by Billy Shebar.All Liu Xing ever wanted was to study the origins of the universe at a Western university.
The movie is a thrilling examination of the origins of the universe, the dark side of cutthroat academics, and the pursuit of the American dream.Director Chen Shi-Zheng's film has a graceful energy, and three strong performances help make this serene drama and its shocking conclusion a quietly moving film.What makes it not great is the fact that the creaky plotting, inscrutable characters, and unconvincing ending make it difficult for audiences to connect with it.But despite of being imperfect, the high caliber of acting as well as these lucid moments in the earlier part of the film are strong and memorable highlights with which to leave the theater..
I understand that it is based on an actual event, but I was really hoping for a better constructed ending, with some kind of important message to take away.Please let the film's message be about a brilliant foreign student who overcomes a language barrier and the academic / scientific roadblocks to getting the recognition that he deserves...
They do disguise the sentiments of the movie well, because the main character is at first thrilled to be in America; and is very polite.For starters, all the students that seem to be studying Cosmology at the College seem to be Chinese.
All the white people in this movie seem to be jerks or stupid, except the woman played by Meryl Streep; who happens to be heavily into Chinese culture.
Having personally been told by an Asian that Americans all put their parents into nursing homes, I didn't enjoy it being repeated in the movie.In the end, the main character of the film shoots the Chinese guy who converted to Christianity; then three white people who held him back in his academic pursuits; then himself.