Almost Buddhist - 戲‧論

(The scariest part of Seven) (1995)  ★★★★★ I should’ve done this long time ago, but it was so hard for me to talk about this almost perfect film in crime thriller genre. It was so mind-blowing and thought-provoking that I was exceedingly stunned and speechless after viewing back then. It still strikes me so after all these years just recalling it. Seven is a great movie due to David Fincher’s ingenious direction; outstanding performances by Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey; Andrew Kevin Walker’s excellent screenplay; and of course Howard Shore’s impressive original music. It has a very emotional opening and a jaw-dropping ending. What happens in between is so called seven deadly sins (gluttony, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and wrath) triggering seven gruesome homicides committed by John Doe. Detective Mills calls him a lunatic, nothing but ‘a fucking T-shirt, at best’. We think he considers himself more like a preacher than a sinner in that decadent society, bu...

(2011)  ★★☆☆☆ Like the previous two, T3 is a mindless, fast-paced film really giving me a headache. The characters speed talk like we’ve already read the script. Everything seems to rush so there’s almost like no room for us to think and breathe. You’d feel pretty nauseous if you take it too seriously. Anyway, relax. We’re to see the robots transform and fight instead of expecting a reasonable story or any characterizations, aren’t we? Indeed, there’re spectacular slo-mo scenes of robots transforming and confronting. That’s why I rate this film 2 stars out of 5. It’s visually amazing even though it’s logically absurd. Why’d the Autobots have to be on our side as we only treat them like machines? Why wouldn’t they simply join the Decepticons and turn the Earth into Cybertron? How could they say they’re to protect us as their actions seem to have caused a lot of lives? Why do the Decepticons always have to fail as they in fact have a whole lot better shit? Why’d that guy want...

看完電影〈 K-PAX 〉，好像整個人入了定，領悟到很多東西，腦袋很充實，有很多感慨想抒發，但因為太多，卻覺得無從說起。作為佛教徒，我們的修行目標，其實正如電影的宣傳標語： change the way you look at the world ，就是要改變對這個世界的看法。一般人以「我」看這個世界，所以有主客之分，有分別則會生好惡，好惡引發衝突，有衝突則不得安寧。覺悟的人以「無我」看這個世界，所以沒有主客之分，人我無別則能相即相入，圓融無礙，世界頓然和平可愛。 電影主角 Prot 自稱是來自距離地球一千光年的天琴座附近的 K-PAX 星。來地球的目的是星際考察，意義相當於某國的領導人出國訪問。他的交通工具是「陽光」。對人類來說，這一切聽來匪夷所思，匪夷所思意味著非正常，所以 Prot 自然被當作精神病人看待。在一般人的眼裡，有常識，言行符合大眾期望的人，就是一個「正常人」。因此在這個人人左手拿 smart phone ，右手拿 tablet 的 e 世代，如果你依然拒絕電腦，你就「不正常」；當然，如果你太過前衛，像 Prot 那樣告訴人家說自己能超光速運行，大眾也會把你當作瘋子對待。其實，正常與否完全視乎你的角度。我們覺得言行異常的人不正常，他們有病，但在佛或者聖人的眼中，我們這些自認「正常」的人，是否真的「正常」，真的「健康」呢？如果真的「正常」，為何我們居住的世界又顯得如此「病態」呢？ 假如你是外星人 ， 你會怎麼看地球，怎麼看地球上的人類，怎麼理解人類的思想、慾望、言行、種種制度、模式……影片充滿 Prot 和主診醫生 Mark 之間的智慧對談，你可以看作是外星人和地球人的一次交心。 Prot 調侃 Mark ，告訴他人類的「以牙還牙」思維，全宇宙都知道是十分荒唐的（ You humans, most of you, subscribe to this policy of an eye for an eye, a life for a life, which is known throughout the universe for its stupidity ），但我們依然樂此不疲。「以牙還牙」的荒唐性在於它根本解決不了問題，而我們則盲目地相信它可以，看看美國在 911 事件之後都做了些甚麼，以及都得到了些甚麼就明白了。當然有少數聖者能衝破這個狹隘...

一個無聊的星期天，無聊的我拿著電影換票證，以無聊解決無聊的無聊心態，進電影院看了一齣由一間無聊的電影公司，聘用一個無聊的導演，及一班無聊的演員，去演繹一個無聊的劇本的無聊電影。當然，以上種種無聊都是相對的，但小心相對無聊帶來的絕對空虛感，因為那是一種欺騙，很具破壞力。認真一想，我真有點怕怕──竟然會無聊到說這種無聊的話！ (2011)  ★☆☆☆☆

(2011)  ★★★☆☆ Lest you don’t know, it’s not a mockumentary that J.J. Abrams is famous for (remember 2008’s Cloverfield gave you hell?). It’s not a child’s play though it centers on a bunch of kids. It seems to be about governmental conspiracy or military secrets or stuff but it’s not quite about that. It reminds you of Steven Spielberg’s ET (1982) naturally, whether you like it or not. As you might’ve guessed, it’s about friendship and humanity. Aliens in films are either friendly or hostile. In Super 8, they’re both. It opens with kids trying to shoot a zombie film but they’re interrupted by a violent railway accident caused by a scientist desperate to want to stop things from getting worse. Things, nonetheless, inevitably go wild afterwards, like people and animals getting killed without a reason or disappearing without a trace. To some extent, it seems like a monster movie, a lousy one since its special effects are by no means good. Only if you can stay seated long enough...

(2011)  ★★★☆☆ I didn’t see the previous four, but I might as well not, since it’s said that ‘Fast Five’ is the best of the lot. I checked it out mainly because I wanted to know how awesome Dwayne The Rock Johnson is as most of the critics say he is. It’s not a letdown though, with daring car chases and stunts there to entertain. It’s set in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a city of God but ironically full of perils since it’s basically run by a thug named Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), and everybody seems to have a gun in their hand. Here we meet Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian (Paul Walker), who’ve been forced to escape all the way down here for reasons unknown to me, but no matter. In a car heist, they accidentally attain a computer chip that contains sensitive info about Hernan’s shadiness. He therefore sends an army to hunt them down. They then team up with some other talents to fight back by taking away all of his money at a police station. Not only are there armed gangsters af...

(2000)  ★☆☆☆☆ 〈大逃殺〉，很多人看了又看，捧為經典。我想：不是吧！ 相比〈告白〉，〈大逃殺〉拍攝技巧平庸，叙事手法沈悶，角色刻畫蒼白，衆角色零演技，包括北野武。過于賣弄血腥，反而讓人覺得很「假」，看到中間，真的令人昏昏欲睡。配樂突兀，突如其來的一段交響樂，好像很文藝，很玩味，但我想：太造作了吧！ 大逃殺的過程中，畫面不斷出現字幕，提醒大家：剛剛誰死了，還有多少人活著，好像我們很關心似的。可當我們到底連誰是誰都未搞清楚的時候，那個人的死活，我們真的關心嗎？對于那所謂的幾個主角，導演不時會加插一些回憶式的片段去交代他們的背景，但還是覺得缺乏深度，難以激發我們對戲中人的情緒，乃至于我們巴不得快點繞到最後去看結局，可結局，同樣毫無驚喜。 游戲中，有人依游戲規則瘋狂殺人，有人選擇自殺，有人選擇對抗主宰游戲的人，有人選擇相信人性本善，但為何他們會如此選擇，就不得而知了。我們看到的只是一個個結果，原因不明，因此很難令人產生共鳴，遑論投入了。看〈大逃殺〉，不知為何，感覺很抽離，好像在看別人玩video game ，是看著別人玩，不是自己玩喔。 〈大逃殺〉擺出那麼大的格局，其實它無非是想讓我們思考，當面對一個「不是你死就是我活」的困境時，我們會如何抉擇。至於大逃殺這種遊戲能否讓年輕人再次學會尊重別人或珍惜生命？我覺得這樣的游戲只會培養殺人狂，讓人變得更沒人性罷了。想出「 BR 法」的人，根本也不值得我們尊重。整個故事簡直荒謬極了。 有人在 〈大逃殺〉中看到人性的掙扎和扭曲，看到日本人對暴力電影的詮釋，看到日本年輕人對社會的控訴，看到「 弱肉强食」社會的縮影，看到政治法制的不公與不足，看到社會主義、自由主義等種種主義，總之看到了很多我看不到的東西，佩服！不過，我也在想：他們是不是想太多了！ 說到「 弱肉強食」，我記得耶穌說過：若一個人征服了全世界，但却失去了靈魂，又有何用呢？而佛陀也提醒我們： it's better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles。其實，能放下屠刀的人，絕對比拿起屠刀的人更強，更有勇氣。如是，在 面對一個「不是你死就是我活」的困境時，你又會如何抉擇呢？ 十年過去了，〈大逃殺〉再次以 3D 形式經典重現大銀幕，我又想：不是吧！