紐約亞洲電影節(jié)授予林嶺東終身成就獎
紐約亞洲電影節(jié)授予林嶺東終身成就獎
It’s been not quite 30 years since a group of young Hong Kong-based moviemakers, now in or near their 60s, reinvented the gangster film, infusing the motifs of the American crime drama with the balletic action, nimble style and thematic preoccupations of their hometown industry. John Woo began the process with “A Better Tomorrow” in 1986 and became the movement’s standard-bearer in the United States, eventually directing a string of big-budget Hollywood films. The prolific Johnnie To emerged later, with “Breaking News” and his “Election” films, and is now a major presence on the international festival circuit.
不到30年前，一群年輕的香港電影人以美式犯罪劇為基調(diào)，為其注入芭蕾舞般的優(yōu)美武打、機敏的風(fēng)格以及本土電影工業(yè)最受關(guān)注的主題，重新塑造了黑幫片這個類型;現(xiàn)在，這些電影人已經(jīng)到了60歲左右的年齡。吳宇森(John Woo)于1986年開始拍攝《英雄本色》(A Better Tomorrow) ，并因此成為了這一改造運動在美國的旗手，其后更是執(zhí)導(dǎo)了一系列的好萊塢大片。隨后，多產(chǎn)的導(dǎo)演杜琪峰(Johnnie To)憑借他的《突發(fā)新聞》(Breaking News)和“黑社會”(Election)系列電影出現(xiàn)在人們的視野中，現(xiàn)在已是國際電影節(jié)中的一個重要角色。
Lost in their shadows, at least in the United States, was Ringo Lam, whose “City on Fire” in 1987 was another landmark of the Hong Kong cops-and-crooks genre. After a career marked by hits and misses in Asia and a handful of American productions (several of which went straight to video), he took a hiatus from directing. “Wild City,” set for release next month in China, will be his first feature in 12 years.
林嶺東(Ringo Lam)1987年的作品《龍虎風(fēng)云》(City on Fire)是香港警匪片的另一個里程碑。但至少是在美國，他的名字在吳宇森和杜琪峰的光環(huán)之下總是顯得十分黯淡。經(jīng)過了事業(yè)在亞洲的起起落落、拍攝了幾部美國電影之后(其中有幾部直接發(fā)行影碟)，他的導(dǎo)演生涯中斷了。下個月于中國上映的《暴走迷城》(Wild City)是他12年來的第一部長片。
So it’s fair to say that among the more than 50 movies in the New York Asian Film Festival, which begins on Friday at the Walter Reade Theater, the most exciting discoveries may be a pair of tremendously entertaining Lam classics from two and three decades ago. “City on Fire” and “Full Alert” (1997) are being shown this weekend as the festival presents its lifetime achievement award to Mr. Lam, 59, who will attend Saturday night’s screening of “City on Fire.” Amazingly, neither film appears to have received a mainstream commercial release in the United States, showing up only at festivals, art houses and Chinatown theaters, and neither is available from any of the major streaming services.
因此，如果說在紐約亞洲電影節(jié)(上星期五在瓦爾特·里德劇院[Walter Reade Theater]開幕)上放映的50多部電影之中，最激動人心的新發(fā)現(xiàn)就是林嶺東導(dǎo)演在二三十年前拍攝的兩部超水平的娛樂經(jīng)典電影，也毫不為過?！洱埢L(fēng)云》和《高度戒備》(1997)在周末作為電影節(jié)展映影片。59歲的林嶺東也被授予了終身成就獎，并將出席星期六晚上《龍虎風(fēng)云》的放映。令人驚訝的是，他的影片并沒有在美國進(jìn)行商業(yè)性的放映，只出現(xiàn)在電影節(jié)、藝術(shù)片影院和唐人街的戲院里，而且在主要的流媒體上也不見蹤影。
The funny thing is that Mr. Lam’s work from the 1980s and ’90s remains relatively obscure here, even though it was more American in mood and style than that of his Hong Kong peers. (Or maybe that makes perfect sense.) He didn’t demonstrate Mr. Woo’s ability to poeticize gunplay and violence, or Mr. To’s icy precision. He stood out by combining his own considerable gifts for staging action with a human touch and careful observation: His tales of weary policemen and jumpy criminals have a depth, and a romanticism, that come from characterization and attention to quotidian detail rather than sheer visual polish.
有趣的是，林嶺東從上世紀(jì)八九十年代的作品在美國仍然不怎么出名，但與香港同行們相比，他的作品在氣質(zhì)和風(fēng)格上其實更接近美國片(也或者正是因此才合情合理)。他并沒有吳宇森將槍戰(zhàn)和暴力詩意化的能力，也沒有杜琪峰冷峻的精準(zhǔn)表現(xiàn)能力。 但他具有呈現(xiàn)動作戲的天賦，并為之賦予人性化色彩和細(xì)心的觀察，這一點令他脫穎而出：他故事中疲憊厭倦的警察和膽戰(zhàn)心驚的罪犯顯得既深刻又浪漫，而這一點不是單純靠著視覺效果上精細(xì)打磨，而是來源于對人物特點的設(shè)計以及對平凡日常的細(xì)節(jié)的關(guān)注。
Not that “City on Fire” and “Full Alert” don’t look great. Mr. Lam takes full advantage of the Hong Kong image bank: the neon nighttime skyline, the Star Ferry plying the harbor, the arrival halls and frighteningly intimate runway of Kai Tak (still the city’s airport at the time). His camera glides through Kowloon’s serpentine shopping streets and finds the pulse of the crowd, making everything in the frame part of the action.
這并不是說《龍虎風(fēng)云》和《高度戒備》在視覺效果上不好看。林嶺東充分利用香港的圖像資源：夜晚布滿霓虹燈的天際線，天星小輪來往于各個港口，啟德機場(當(dāng)時的香港機場)中的到達(dá)大廳和狹窄得嚇人的跑道。他的鏡頭從九龍長蛇般蜿蜒的購物街上滑過，從中尋找人群的脈搏，讓畫框中的一切都成為影片的一部分。
Some viewers may have trouble with the ’80s surface of “City on Fire” — the acting can be histrionic, the sentimentality pervasive, the action slightly cartoonish, the shoulders awfully padded. But look past it, and Mr. Lam’s inventiveness and sure narrative sense are apparent. (Credit should go, too, to his rookie cinematographer, Andrew Lau, who would become a celebrated director of crime dramas himself with the “Infernal Affairs” films.) The opening sequence, a chaotic stabbing in a night market, crisply sets the tone and is punctuated with a haunting image of a bloody face pressed against a sheet of sheer white fabric.
一些觀眾可能對《龍虎風(fēng)云》的80年代風(fēng)格感到很不適應(yīng)。演員的表演可能有些過度戲劇性、彌漫著傷感情緒，略顯卡通化的動作戲，奇怪的墊肩……但是撇開這些不談，林嶺東的創(chuàng)造性和敘事上的掌控力是顯而易見的(這也應(yīng)該感謝他當(dāng)時初出茅廬的攝影師劉偉強[Andrew Lau]，他后來憑借《無間道》系列電影成為犯罪片著名導(dǎo)演)。影片的系列鏡頭是夜市上一場混亂的刀刺事件，干脆地為影片定下基調(diào)，同時強調(diào)出一個在人們心中揮之不去的畫面：一張血淋淋的面孔被狠狠壓在一塊薄薄的白布上。
“City on Fire” also offers the immeasurable bonus of Chow Yun-fat’s virtuosic performance — part Cary Grant, part Jimmy Cagney, part young Christopher Walken — as the hero, Chow, a petty criminal turned reluctant undercover policeman. Forced to take part in a dangerous jewel heist, he gradually befriends a fellow gang member (ably played by Danny Lee). Moving adroitly among Chow’s squabbles with his mostly indifferent bosses, his risky dance with the gang and his comic-relief efforts to hold onto his girlfriend (Carrie Ng), the film explores the standard Hong Kong themes of trust, brotherhood and the gravity of violence with sufficient style that Quentin Tarantino famously incorporated elements of its plot in “Reservoir Dogs.”
在《龍虎風(fēng)云》中，周潤發(fā)大師級的表演是另一個無可估量的加分項。他的表演分別汲取了加里·格蘭特[Cary Grant]，吉米·卡格尼[Jimmy Cagney]，以及年輕時的克里斯托弗·沃肯[Christopher Walken]的風(fēng)格。他飾演的影片主人公是一名罪行并不重的罪犯，卻不情不愿地成為了一名臥底警察。他被迫參加了一起危險的珠寶搶劫案，并漸漸成為了一個黑幫成員(由風(fēng)格干練的李修賢[Danny Lee]飾演)的朋友。劇情巧妙地轉(zhuǎn)換，既有周潤發(fā)和他的老板們(大多很無情)之間的爭執(zhí)，也有他在黑幫內(nèi)危險的舞蹈，還有他為了留住女朋友(吳家麗 [Carrie Ng]飾)而做出的富于喜劇性的努力，令影片最終觸及了香港電影中典型的主題：信任、兄弟情和暴力的嚴(yán)重性，帶有鮮明的風(fēng)格，無怪乎昆汀·塔倫蒂諾 (Quentin Tarantino)在《落水狗》(Reservoir Dogs) 中也引入了該片情節(jié)中的若干元素，這件事已經(jīng)廣為人知。
Released 10 years later, within weeks of the handover of Hong Kong to China, “Full Alert” tells a similar story in a radically different key — deeply melancholic, bordering on nihilistic. Now the hero is a single-minded, haunted cop, played by the veteran actor Lau Ching-wan with expressive stoicism and a thousand-yard stare, and his adversary an embittered civil engineer (really) planning a revenge robbery, played by another Hong Kong stalwart, Francis Ng. Once again, there’s common ground for the foes, both doomed to disappointment in a shallow and corrupt system, but this time there’s nothing sentimental about the inevitable guns-blazing showdown.
《龍虎風(fēng)云》放映10年，香港回歸中國幾個星期之后上映的《高度戒備》講述了一個類似的故事，但卻帶有一種全然不同的基調(diào)——深深的憂郁，近乎虛無。這部影片的主人公是一個單純又焦慮的警察，由經(jīng)驗豐富的演員劉青云飾演。他演出了一種極富表現(xiàn)力的堅韌氣質(zhì)，總是帶著茫然的神情。他的對手是一個心懷怨恨的土木工程師(這是真的)，計劃著一次報復(fù)性的搶劫。這一角色由另一位香港演技派演員吳鎮(zhèn)宇(Francis Ng)出演。和上一部一樣，敵對雙方有很多共性：他們都對虛偽腐敗的系統(tǒng)注定充滿失望。但這一次，無可避免的激烈槍戰(zhàn)中不再有任何傷感氣息。
And once again, there are beauty and emotional texture in the details, in scenes loud (a nine-minute car chase that momentarily dodges in and out among Hong Kong’s antiquated trams) and quiet (the clandestine burial of a gang member, the only sound the labored breathing of his colleagues).
這部電影同樣長于細(xì)節(jié)中的美感和情緒質(zhì)感，無論是在激烈吵鬧的場景中(一場九分鐘的追車戲，車子在香港古舊的電車之間來回躲閃)，還是在安靜細(xì)膩的情節(jié)里(一場為黑社會成員暗地里舉辦的葬禮中，唯一的聲音就是死者同伙們困難的喘息聲)。
“Wild City,” like “Full Alert,” is about a Hong Kong cop (Louis Koo) battling a Taiwanese gang, and an early line — “This money is on fire!” — pays tribute to Mr. Lam’s breakout film. It’s not part of the Asian Film Festival, which is produced by Subway Cinema and the Film Society of Lincoln Center and is in its 14th year. But the festival offers several current examples of the Hong Kong crime film, including Fire Lee’s dark farce “Robbery” and Philip Yung’s bleak “Port of Call,” in which the disappearance of a teenage girl is the start of a story about the alienation and desperation of immigrants from the mainland seeking a better life in Hong Kong. Starring Aaron Kwok, the one-time Cantopop superstar, and shot by Christopher Doyle (Wong Kar-wai’s preferred cinematographer), it’s also laced with an aching nostalgia for a not too distant past when Hong Kong was Asia’s undisputed dream factory.
與《高度戒備》一樣，《暴走迷城》也是關(guān)于香港警察(古天樂[Louis Koo]飾演)與臺灣黑幫之間的爭斗故事。開場時的一句臺詞——“這錢太迷人了!”——是致敬林嶺東的突破之作。亞洲電影節(jié)是由地鐵電影公司 (Subway Cinema)和林肯中心電影協(xié)會(Film society of Lincoln Center)共同制作的，今年已經(jīng)是第14年舉辦，《暴走迷城》不是此次電影節(jié)的片目，不過電影節(jié)亦提供了幾個近期的香港犯罪片范例，其中包括李家榮 (Fire Lee)的黑暗喜劇片《搶劫》以及翁子光(Philip Yung)風(fēng)格荒涼的《踏雪尋梅》(Port of Call)?！短ぱっ贰分幸粋€少女的消失引出了內(nèi)地移民的故事，他們?yōu)榱藢ふ腋玫纳顏淼较愀?，卻過著疏離而絕望的生活。影片主演郭富城(Aaron Kwok)曾經(jīng)是粵語流行音樂巨星。杜可風(fēng)(Christopher Doyle)(王家衛(wèi)的御用攝影)擔(dān)任攝影師。影片裝點著傷感的懷舊風(fēng)格，紀(jì)念著不久之前香港仍是亞洲無可爭議的夢工廠的那段歲月。
A few other offerings among the festival’s abundance this year: The first-time director Boo Ji-young’s “Cart,” part of a small section devoted to female South Korean filmmakers, is an empowerment story reminiscent of “Norma Rae” (in peppy Korean style, complete with dance numbers), based on an actual 510-day strike by cashiers and cleaners at a Seoul supermarket. At the other end of the experience scale, “Revivre,” about the complex life of an aging businessman, is the 102nd film by the 78-year-old Im Kwon-taek. And the festival closes on July 11 at the SVA Theater with Han Jun-hee’s “Coin Locker Girl,” in which the major South Korean star Kim Hye-soo — a sex symbol in the Diane Lane mold — cuts her hair, wears shapeless clothes and goes for even more acting awards as the vicious, Fagin-like leader of a gang of young criminals.
除此之外，今年電影節(jié)還展出了大量影片，包括導(dǎo)演富智瑛(Boo Ji-young)的處女作《購物車》(Cart)，帶有活潑的韓式風(fēng)格，有舞蹈表演片段， 其中一小部分向韓國的女性電影人致敬，是類似《諾瑪·蕾》(Norma Rae)的女性賦權(quán)故事，改編自首爾某超市一次長達(dá)510天的收銀員和清潔工罷工的真實故事。情感天平的另一端，《花葬》(Revivre)，是一位年邁商人復(fù)雜的人生故事。這部影片是78歲高齡的導(dǎo)演林權(quán)澤(Im Kwon-taek)的第102部電影。電影節(jié)將在七月11日于SVA劇院(SVA Theater)閉幕。閉幕電影是韓俊熙(Han Jun-hee)導(dǎo)演的作品《唐人街》(Coin Locker Girl)，其中韓國明星金惠秀(Kim Hye-soo)——跟黛安·琳恩(Diane Lane)一個模子里刻出來的性感符號——剪一頭短發(fā)，穿著看不出身材的衣服。她扮演費金(Fagin)式的年輕犯罪團(tuán)伙頭目，風(fēng)格殘酷狠毒，這樣的演出可能為她帶來更多的獎項。
