Wednesday, October 31, 2007

《Fetish》 攝影展

這個由法國著名高跟鞋設計師Christian Louboutin和大導David Lynch合作的攝影展聽說會於明年四月到港,在剛過去的米蘭時裝展期間展出,引來不少的話題,有說高跟鞋是女性最得天獨厚的性感武器,單看這輯相片,我想起了我國千年的紮腳文化,女人是更有權力,還是再度被挾制、物化,甚至淪為性幻想的對象?享負盛名的法國時裝攝影師Guy Bourdin的作品集《A MESSAGE FOR YOU》最近出版了,他為Vogue拍的廣告照到今天仍叫人咋舌,法國人看女人,似乎都有他們的一套。

女‧人?

看每季的時裝特刊,都覺得女人好可憐,一個個模特兒像塑膠玩偶一般,盡是把毫無生命的物質往身上掛,眼神空洞洞的,靈魂哪兒去了?以Barbie做模特兒的廣告,不是新意念,但這張也夠誇張的了,想到女人從小已被灌輸無窮的物慾,還一臉不自覺,不可憐乎?

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Jackie Chan vs Naruto


It's interesting to find the above clips from an artist's blog (http://tamshui.blogspot.com/), juxtaposing the action of "Jackie Chan" with that of "Naruto", a prominent Japanese animation. One simply can't tell their difference!

Though not many people from my generation admire Jackie Chan but simply no one could argue about his popularity worldwide. At least those Japanese animators, when visualizing the fighting scenes, learnt that they could make reference from Jackie's movies. Someone doubted if it's a pastiche, but I think it's just a kind of intertextuality that happens in our day-to-day creation. After all, designer's database is not infinite and that's why research is playing an increasingly essential role in a design process. In a sense, we could never claim our work as original.

One of my MA classmates tried to allegorize Jackie with McDonald's in last lecture. What a great metaphor! You see him everywhere but you know you'll never love him! I remember when McDonald's first launched its "i'm lovin' it!" campaign, one of my design tutors who specialized in branding strategy was so much annoyed by the slogan. It's such a fake emotion imposed upon the public. That is how advertising works! They are inoculating you with concepts that you didn't buy. After persistent bombarding, you'll soon be anaesthetized and kind of accept what they sell no matter how hypocritical their concept sounds.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Ang Lee on "Lust, Caution"

Well, didn't expect this film to have aroused so many controversies, though almost everyone is talking ONLY about its sex scenes and from the following phone interview by Newsweek, it's perfectly sure that Ang had calculated that result. Right, "they usually are functional"...

What appealed to you about Chang's story?
Very little Chinese literature describes sex. It is one of the few daring ones. It tells us what women get from sex. It scared me for quite a few years, but I decided to do it.

How was making "Brokeback Mountain" different from "Lust, Caution"?
The material if "Brokeback Mountain" is very far away from me. I mean, American gay cowboy, that's as far as you get from my personal experience. I was able to make art out of it. Physically I was very relaxed making it. But with "Lust, Caution", the materials, the characters and the textures are very close to me. It's very intense physically. It reminds me where my culture comes from.

What was the hardest part?
Well, obviously, the sex scenes. You can't just take it easy because people make pornographic films. It's very difficult physically and psychologically. People think you have the framework, and then you decide how deep you want to go with the sex scenes because they usually are functional. But to me how they landed decided how the movie would unfold. So I actually shot them relatively early. Then they served as the anchors to decide how to craft the second half of the story.

Philosophically, what is filmmaking to you?
It's the way I discover myself and understand the world.


(adapted from Newsweek Oct 15, 2007)

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

《等候董建華發落》


找來一套還沒看過的電影作為第二份論文的分析文本,似乎有點冒險,告訴教授的時候連片子的英文名也想不起來,幸好身旁一位好心的同學給我道出了導演的名字,選材方能過關,可見邱禮濤(Herman Yau)的電影有質素上的保證。

許久沒看過這樣勇敢的電影,幾幕直接控訴政府官僚及社會體制的場面真是爽極了!不難想像當年此片要經過多少障礙才得以成功發行。基本上它可被界定為一套Docudrama,因大部份內容均由實際發生之事件改編而成,驟看有點《警訊》或《鏗鏘集》的影子。全片剛好一百分鐘,是帶動觀眾進入情緒的標準長度,程度深淺,因人而異,就此片而言,我想我是屬於較深的一類,那不是一般荷里活電影以特技或音效堆砌出來的感傷情緒,明顯地導演也儘量避開了這樣的處理手法,使影片更富真實性,特別是一些解釋現行法例的場面,演員都特意放慢了說話的速度,讓觀眾有充足的時間咀嚼內容,雖然某些對白顯得冗長,含有數據的尤甚,但可見導演冀盼觀眾了解事件的心何其迫切,他也在片中自嘲像拍教育電視一樣,要說教,只好犧牲一點劇情片應有的戲劇性。

青少年罪犯以及內地來港定居人士,都是普遍被社會忽略甚至鄙視的一群,導演嘗試從這些小眾的角度出發,引申多個香港在經濟起飛背後潛藏的社會問題。廿三個頑童的年幼無知,卻反映了成人世界的自相矛盾和腐敗無能──我們一邊歸咎青年人自甘墮落,沒好好潔身自愛,另一邊箱卻在不斷製造各式各樣的試探來誘惑心智未成熟的一群犯罪,讓他們成了資本主義社會下的犧牲品,今天報章的頭條全是天水圍一家三口自殺的新聞,看來七年前的片子映照的是個劃時代的問題。

要是梁議員是本片的Hero的話,那麼Villain一定是政府甚或整個社會。本片的高潮所在,是立會內議員辯論有關條例草案內「酌情終身」的含意一幕,導演巧妙地運用各種鏡頭運動來表達這種小眾與社會的抗衡狀態,傳媒報導臨時立法會成立以及爭取確定刑期的人士靜坐抗議,兩者並置於螢幕上的對角位置,前者以低角度拍攝,後者則全以高角度攝之,壁壘分明;及至後來囚犯打算自殺的一幕,鏡頭由高角度府瞰,隱含了強烈的監測意味,令角色更見弱勢。

另外值得一提的是本片對媒體的批判,導演不斷以傳媒的角度(電視的螢幕效果)看罪案、遊行示威、甚至九七回歸,使事件本身變得異常虛假,亦強化了事件與觀眾之間的距離,我們平日接收的資訊,可會是這麼一回事?選擇性的報導和商業上的考慮窒礙着我們看見事實的全部,一遍喜慶的光與影背後,是真正的繁榮昌盛,還是更可怕的無形的牢獄之苦?那可會比死(死刑)更難受?

全片彌漫着港人對回歸後特區管治的不安,正如主角銘害怕監獄窗外的那座山一樣,因為他永遠不會知道山後是個怎樣的世界,導演試圖安撫我們這種不安的情緒。譽玲替銘去看山後的美景固然是一個「明天會更好」的隱喻,而譽玲與分隔多年的母親和解更意味着香港與中國的復和關係,最後譽玲繼續四出為銘尋找失散的家人,銘亦繼續努力面對那三十年的牢獄生涯。

環境由始至終沒有改變過,變的只是心態,而賴以生存的,是與親人再見的一絲盼望。