Almost Buddhist - 戲‧論

★★★★☆ Funny that when I first saw the poster for ‘Godzilla’, I didn’t see a monster destroying a city. I saw a lonely soul being destroyed in a city of fear and desperation instead. But I was wrong either way. To clear some of your wonders, I think I have to drop you a heads-up here: Godzilla is No dinosaur though it looks like one. Yes, it’s an ancient giant creature, far much older than dinosaurs as said, but while dinosaurs eat veggies or flesh, Godzilla doesn’t. He (could be a she, I don’t’ know, let’s presume it’s a he here) sucks up Earth’s radiation to live and reproduce. So he’s not there to tear apart buildings and stomp on people just for fun. He’s up there for a very serious purpose that’s after all not well explained, and so not convincing enough. I’ve got to give a thumbs-up to Director Gareth Edwards, who first gained fame for his low-budget indie sci-fi ‘ Monsters ’ that looks weird but no trash to me actually, for choosing to take a rather realistic approac...

★★☆☆☆ 〈伊朗式離婚〉跟〈 伊朗式分居 〉沒有關係，完全「抽水」。故事發生在法國，沒有前作的伊朗風情，片中那個伊朗人，我想也是多餘的，沒有他，故事照常可以發展。兩個多小時的片長，其實可以再縮短半個小時。劇情煞有介事，過程中，透過人物對話帶出種種懸疑，是其唯一可觀之處，所以也不得不佩服導演「故弄玄虛」的功力。 一個女人結了婚，生孩子，又離婚，又再結婚；一個男人有妻有子，玩婚外情，搞得妻子變成植物人，自己不知如何是好；喜歡結尾那個定格畫面──手握手，不放手，多麼唏噓無奈！在這部戲裡，我又再看到人的種種「不自由」，從而引發的種種「自作賤」。「不自由」因為業力使然。有些事情，明明不該做，卻做了；明明該做，卻沒做。在「做」與「不做」之間，我們好像有選擇，其實背後都是業力在推波助瀾，所以我尊敬的印光大師勸勉念佛人要「不能專，要他專；不能念，要他念；不能一心，要他一心」。只有當願力超越業力時，我們才能得到真正的自由。在那之前，凡夫只能在六道繼續隨業漂泊，像我這般，明明不想看這戲，最後還是看了！

★★★☆☆ In ‘Her’, you can’t see her throughout. You can only hear her voice, Scarlett Johansson’s, that may sound sexy and attractive to some, but that’s exactly what makes me not able to feel completely involved. But no doubt, it takes no less than a genius to write a beautiful, sentimental script like that. And it’s got a poetic feel of romance and the weirdest yet subtlest sex scene that you may or may not like, but I do, kind of. Can you really fall in love with just a voice that sounds like it understands and knows and loves you? Can you love someone without involving any physical contacts? Or are you just escaping from your fear of incapability to deal with real emotions and relationships? The pictures look a bit pathetic and lonely but it’s true that we’re, as the technology seems to be pulling us much closer, living more far apart from each other in fact. Now we don’t even wanna hear one’s voice. We prefer sending and receiving emotionless cold words instead of calling o...

★★☆☆☆ ‘ The Amazing Spiderman ’ is a sweet, exhilarating and encouraging piece of action entertainment. ‘The Amazing Spiderman 2’ is however, too much and too easy: too much of romance and blah blah blah, and so there ain’t many fights like it’s expected to have; the bitter past too easy to get rid of; the villains too easy to eliminate; everything seems like a piece of cake except Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone)’s death that I’m not convinced and well… I don’t really care at all. I know this Spidey’s supposed to be funnier and much more easygoing in contrast to Tobey’s, but don’t you think it’s getting a bit too off the wall? So far ‘ The Dark Knight ’ seems to be the one and only superhero film that impresses so. I don’t know. Maybe, again, it’s just me. Maybe I’m already tired of such superhero films. Maybe I’m too old, too complicated, too dark, or too mundane for stuff like this. The thing is, the more I get to learn what the Buddha says about Amitabha’s Pure Land that’s compl...