Eagle Eye

Big Brother is Watching You. But this is not 1984, it is 2009 and Big Brother has become big sister, namely Aria, a super computer in control of every public connection, including traffic lights, cameras, mobile phones, gates – even the slightest vibrations that can be translated into sounds. She has been created by the US government to gather information on and stop terrorists but she soon warps that intention into an alternative goal. She actually turns people into terrorists – like Jerry (LaBeouf) and Rachel (Monaghan) among many others. Although a super computer, Aria still needs humans to execute and carry out tasks for her and so the story develops with Jerry and Rachel being pressed to steal, kill and flee.

While most audiences may think this computer is too advanced for our century, I was quite impressed with the power of Aria. The computer is not really unrealistic, for as citizens we never know quite how far governments (and especially the US government) have gone. And I must admit to believing in Men-In-Black, so why not Aria? The most fascinating part lies not just in her manipulation of technology but in her control of humans. For instance, in once scene she calls the cell phones of all the passengers on a train, informing them Jerry is a terrorist, so mobilizing the whole train against him. Later, she activates even more people for her own ends. And in showing how easily people can be manipulated, the filmmakers are hardly being satirical about technology – one by one, spontaneously or unwillingly, people carry out her tasks – no one can really go against her in a situation similar to but more realistic than that in The Matrix.



When the humans find out how Aria has strayed, they try every means to stop her but it seems impossible to quell a computer that controls every movement in the environment – until Rosario Dawson does it simply with a rod. Easy as that, and given the exquisite storyline, it comes as a flawed ending. Executive Producer Steven Spielberg wanted the audience to be so afraid of technology that they would turn off their cell phones immediately after watching the film. That will hardly happen but, as an action film with a sincere plot, Eagle Eye is worth a watch.

True Tin Shui Wai

天水圍日與夜 The Way We Are (2008)

We know every film to a certain extent reflects reality but how much do they really? It has been long till I see one. Ann Hui’s The Way We Are brings us to Tin Shui Wai, after the town frequently appearing on newspaper headlines, earning a name of ‘City of Sadness’.

Ann Hui has been perhaps the most caring director in Hong Kong. Since Woman Forty (1995), and the recent The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (2006), fans appreciate the great compassion she has for her characters. Nevertheless, filming The Way We Are is in itself a caring act for Hong Kong. The story sets in Tin Shui Wai, a district widely known for its domestic violence, poverty, suicides, and the dense population of mainly mainlanders. The film opens with a single parent mother. As in her previous films, Hui portrays the female in an understanding yet delicate manner. The mother is diligent, content and easygoing. We do not know her sacrifices until her mother told her grandson, how she dropped school and saved money for her brothers’ education. Even after marriage, she continuously gave financial support to her brothers, while her husband never complained. The son inherited this, and asked the grandma to stop.

The greatness of this ordinary family is not exaggerated or over-amplified, as in most TVB dramas which Hong Kong people grew up with. The subtleness and frankness touched me greatly. This is not just a Tin Shui Wai story, but a Hong Kong story. It is certainly the director’s intention to remind us of the common life that we share with people of Tin Shui Wai. But to us audience, it is more—it prompts us to realize what real life is like. For any film, we must expect the brothers to be ungrateful brats as we see them leading a more luxurious life. They live in mid-levels, when the mother and son are stuck in the public estate after the father passed away. But soon, we found out how they offered to send the son to study abroad. Thankfulness can hardly be shown in everyday life. They all have their own family and lives. It is hard for them to take up the entire duty for taking care of the mother and son. They can only offer little help in critical moments. No one expects them to pay back really, only audience of the theatre, because we are so used to ‘drama’ and its formula. Indeed, in real life, there is no such thing. That’s why I find this film such an honest account. In the only big family gathering in the film, some are silent, some are dissatisfied. No over-joy meetings. Actually this is a genuine Hong Kong family which I haven’t encountered on screen for long, yet it is exactly what I do every weekend. But beneath that normal get-along, love is still there. When most directors try to romanticize or embellish everyday life for drama effect, Hui did the opposite.

And life is actually like that, nothing too bad nothing too good, it just goes on.

小丑的Funny Games

Batman: The Dark Knight

友人說，小丑萬能，最好寫。班馬容易，殺人容易，脅持人質容易，偷DNA都無問題。但對我而言，最超於凡人還是他那套另類及獨道的價值觀，雖然帶著瘋狂，但也非沒有道理。「Outcasts」從來都附屬著救世的希望 (像Wall E.裡也是一堆壞了的機器中協助主角們達成回到地球的目標)。小丑看不起的「秩序」、「計劃」，的而且確是是人類文明的致命傷。而他所言的偽善及性本惡，也是準確的觀察，他不為金錢所動，更是大部份人做不到的。

所以縱使你不認同他的無定向殺人，他始終也是有「class」有「brain」的壞人--有一套完整價值觀的人。他遊戲的範圍大至整個Gotham市，小至面上的笑容。第一次他說笑容疤痕是由爸爸殺完母親後，在他面上畫成; 第二次他說是由自己向毁容的太太證明不介意她醜而弄成。對不同人有不同的說法，自己的經歷也是他無根無據的一部份。你可以說他也是虛偽，但他認為這種不為利不為錢的虛偽，乃一份高尚及有意思的顛覆，離經叛道就是對沉悶的悔過。

最後，小丑嬴了一半，炸不掉郵輪，但改造了英雄。蝙蝠俠和警局只能說謊遮醜，但小丑看到你們掩蓋事實，還是會沾沾自喜吧 (雖然可能正在為郵輪人性本善而沮喪中)。他的遊戲，輪了賭注，嬴了牌面。

The 'Adult' Fairytale

One of the sets in The Anderson Project is a peep show apartment. Stick in a token, and get a private room of adult videos. Somehow we all need this kind of sensation, just as we need fairytale for adults, somwhere away from life, and into it.

If you still see adult video to be nothing by dirt and lust, it's either you haven't faced a mid-life crisis, or you are not a man. The Anderson Project protrays mainly two men, one a songwriter from Montreal to Paris, the other his commissioner—a theatre manager. They are brought together by an Anderson play, namely 'The Dryad'. The manager invited the writer to travel all the way to Paris, to adapt this story into a play for children.

The songwriter is a stranger to the city. His 16-year relationship just came to a stop. He is nervous about people's response on his work. This is enough chaos. Meanwhile, the manager is facing similar slumps. His wife goes out with his friend. He is nervous about dealing with the Danish—the ultimate financial source for his theatre. The two men serve as mirror images of one another, echoing the uncertainty and insecurity of life. As the story comes to an end, the songwriter is abandoned from the entire production. As he decides to go back to Montreal, his girlfriend announces she has got together with his friend. Sarcastically, the manager's wife at the same time ran away with the manager's best friend too.

I couldn't help relating the story with the film The Lost Translation, especially for that of the songwriter. A man out of place both physically and in life, except the songwriter doesn't meet a beautiful and sexy girl in Paris. I guess we all need to be immersed in a totally different world for new self-realization. And that is more or less analogous to being in a theatre. The closing quote was “Is life like Anderson's fairy tale, where endings are always full of sarcasm, only animals can live happily ever after?” This touches and catches everyone of us.



The show is fascinating not only by its plot. Director, Robert Lepage, is well known for his multimedia theatre elements. With Ex Machina, the visual effect this time is a stunning 3D screen—audience not only see projected images, but also digital images that merge with the shadow and even the subject of the actor, as he jumps INTO the screen or draws graffitti on it. Every scene is run on a 'one man show' mode, adding to the loneliness of each character. Every time we only hear one man's voice, or maybe some from the adult videos.

The adult videos are a refugee for lost adults. But it is also solitude and loneliess at the same time. The songwriter says, he never likes childhood, it is just a dress rehearsal of everything bad that will happen afterwards. Perhaps Anderson's stories aim to serve this function, tell us how bad the world is going to be. And when we are here at the middle of our life, we choose either to escape to the adult videos, or face it in art like The Anderson Project.

《深海尋人》該在太空館放映

不知道票房如何，但若照一般人的反應來說(亦不是死硬派徐克狂熱份子)，沒有可能大收。我提議它可以在太空館re-run，畢竟這套電影的最大功能，莫過於教人珍惜地球資源，以及欣賞海底美景。

除了是一套保育電影，小朋友在太空館看，更能教育下一代保護地球。電影中的愛情部份，亦適合幼稚園的程度，簡直如童話故事。片末二人在水底游泳，寓意永恆美滿的愛情，我卻只看到兩條扁魷魚，恕難代入。

《深海尋人》最有創意的地方，是希望做到大家和李心潔一同走進自己的腦袋。最後才發現事實。片中最大的編幅，都是李心潔潛意識的創作，就像我們發夢一樣，往往將自己的渴望，以其他方法逞現在腦中，一方面是反映，另一方面也有治療的作用。例如發夢和暗戀的人纏綿，現實中不能成事，夢裡成就了，現實也會減免點失落。 回想李心潔的「夢境」，就是向這個治療目的出發，自己沒有出席男友的葬禮、不知道男友的死因、對男友妹妹的倚賴，都在「夢裡故事」中得到解脫。

這種易假易真的敘述法，最重要是能把潛意識創作的故事，和戲裡真實故事掛勾。編導可是完全做不到--難道提一提現實裡院長的相片，夢裡又出現向院長求助，或者現實裡李心潔用的杯子，跟夢裡鬧鬼的杯子吻合，就算一幅完整的拼圖嗎? 觀眾只會感覺被玩，你要我看一場沒有發生的畸夢，又再花一半篇幅去解釋及描述真實的情況，是什麼意思? 就像兜了一個毫無意義的圈子。

所以，到最後，要讚的只有那很美的海底世界，還要是沒有特技添加的，唔該。


(倒不如看看香港電台製作《深海歷奇》)

一奏傾情《Once》and for all

音樂電影一向「先聲奪人」，電影未上，原聲大碟已成行成市，加上現在youtube發達，以電影片段輯成的音樂錄像，總能讓人先睹為快。

相信《一奏傾情》也是這樣被香港人接觸，尤其當它於Sundance及奧斯卡早已光芒四射。其實，男主角Glen Hansard在此片嬴得奧斯卡最佳原創歌曲前，已成功得到女主角Marketa Irglova的芳心 (在戲裡反而失敗了，無法跟愛人走在一起），並與她推出《The Swell Season》大碟（他也沒想到歌曲會大紅，現在反被人質疑「原創」的資格）。令這套電影本身出現很多「來得太早」的錯位意味。



我們對音樂電影的劇情一向要求甚低，故事穩穩當當就是，不期待會有什麼奇情轉折。《一奏傾情》一直保持著沒驚沒喜，但總算有些小情趣。The Guy The Girl （男女主角都沒有名字）互生情愫，又各有抑壓，唯有投射到音樂上，擦出火花。電影的英文名《Once》解「曾經」，亦解「一次」，比中文譯名傳神。套到反高潮的電影結尾上，更顯其獨特的形容﹣﹣結局兩人沒有走在一起，女的依然想等待女兒的爸爸，男的也唯有啟程去找前女友。這個不平凡的結局，為預計之內的音樂電影加了不少分數。即使在音樂世界裡，愛情一向都被塑造得過份完美，這是流行音樂及電影世界裡無可避免的。《一奏傾情》安排這個反傳統的結局，立刻能引起空間聯想﹣﹣一生人一次，究竟是指那曾經相遇但一拍即合的，還是命中註定白頭到老的？女主角最後彈著男主角送的鋼琴，望向遠空，寄予那沒結果的思念，亦是令觀眾為延續這份愛念，而去買一張原聲大碟的動力。

《電光滾石》兩面不討好

進場看《電光滾石》的，不外乎兩種粉絲：一是Martin Scorsese的影迷，二是The Rolling Stones的樂迷，但相信兩者均會對電影失望。前者會覺得大師淪為演唱會紀錄者，後者會覺得和我家的演唱會DVD差不多，我為何要到電影院看。

音樂揚起，當The Rolling Stones唱出心水歌曲時，觀眾必然會陶醉，像筆者一聽到As tears go by，聽得人神魂顛倒，但也只是顛倒了三秒，便會問自己為什麼要坐在戲院看。難道對這套電影的期望，就僅限於在一個電影院內重現一個live? As tears go by前後還有不知多少首「完整版」的歌曲——有些甚至連續幾首，間中才插些從前的片段。從前的片段，其實很精彩，無論是他們率真自我的回答，還是滿不在乎的訪問坐姿，都讓人看得過癮。只是對於本身Rolling Stones的fans，這些都不是新事，這樣的零碎片段，實在沒有什麼意思。

於是，大家反而對Martine Scorsese有寄望，焦點所在應是他和Rolling Stones 的火花，而非樂隊本身。大家期待的除了是他們之間的相處，還有這位大導可以挖到什麼off-scene東西，讓人更了解The Rolling Stones。這些最令人期待的片段，結果只是播了頭二十分鐘，讓觀眾草草看到他們合作的笑料，甚至可說是Martine Scorsese自己做錄影的花絮──而結果只是盡顯這位老人家的尖酸執著而已。

外國分Rock Movies做三類，一是Documentary，二是Concert Film，三是Fictitious (虛構的)。此片明明是第一類，跌到第二類，唯有怪導演沒有想過要帶給觀眾什麼滾石形象。

《迷失愛與罪》Killed by Conscience

Woody Allen的《倫敦三步曲》或《迷失三步曲》來到最後一部。他也說過，這個系列是關於命運。若說《迷失決勝分》是講運氣、《遇上塔羅牌殺手》是講贖罪，那《迷失愛與罪》就是講良心。

在命運擺佈裡，我們存在多少選擇? 最後一部指出最諷刺的是，良心所影響到的選擇或決定，只會帶人趨向死亡。這和上次的良心令人作出補償，繼而尋求救贖和安寧不一樣。良心反而是安逸生活的羈絆。表面上，《迷失愛與罪》的結局是惡人有惡報，殺人要填命。即使沒有法律制裁，我們也逃不過心良心的譴責。這個結局像典型的「罪與罰」因果。但回想戲中兩兄弟由為滿足自己的野心，而不斷退下自己的底線，為財為利犯罪殺人，最後終過不了自己良心，分別喪失生命。其實是「only evil lives on」的表達。

戲中母親一句「at least your brother has a conscience」，來責怪弟弟只懂以喝酒賭博來解決問題，沒有真正扶持過父親。這一句在戲的後半成疑，因為哥哥一直為殺人的事亳無遲疑。弟弟由一開始的猶疑，到殺人後因為過不了自己良心的問口，而精神錯亂，是任何殺人所帶來的物質回報，或家人的扶持 (他哥哥曾多次開解過他)都補償不了的。

最後，因為抵不過良心，決定去自首。卻遭殺身之禍──哥哥為了阻止他，和舅父協定殺他滅口，以防後患。臨謀殺親弟之時，哥哥也良心發現，不願下手落藥，不過取而代之是為宣洩不了心中的不快，而動手打人。兩兄弟打起架來，弟弟誤殺哥哥，然後畏罪自殺。其實兩兄弟若不是良心發現，也不會這樣悲劇收場。首先是弟弟過意不去，才引起一連串的事件，令兩人步向死門關。其實，就算是舅父的敵人，若不是良心發現要指證舅父，也不會引致殺身之禍。綜合整套戲，可說是一個決定能毁人一生，但最終令人招致死亡的，還是良心。這樣的看法，可算令人更不安。