Almost Buddhist - 戲‧論

★★★☆☆ Well, seeing ‘Begin Again’ is like listening to an album of bittersweet pop rock/folk songs basically about love. The story doesn’t really matter, does it? But I quite appreciate the ending as a matter of fact, not romantically happy but very encouraging! The problem is, I don’t like Maroon 5’s Adam Levine as a singer or an actor, his voice and the way he sings, very much of a sissy. ‘Begin Again’, Director John Carney’s second musical film since 2007’s ‘ Once ’, appears not as poetic and sad. You may or may not like it but exhilarating and hopeful is how it feels like! Guess most of us are going to come back here to begin again because we’re always hopeful for a better life, but you know there’s no such a thing. What seems better will soon be replaced by something that we think is much better, but it certainly can’t be. It’s like there’s a hole we can never quite fill but we strongly believe we can. Truth is, we’ve come to begin again many many times before to try to fi

★★☆☆☆ 現在的電影都喜歡拍成什麼三步曲 ( 來搶錢 ) ，但越拍越爛的，〈浪客劍心〉算是佼佼者。看過接近垃圾的 第二集 ，來到第三集，依舊是「口水多過茶」，而那些「口水」吐得又慢又乏味，真難熬！以為熬過之後有超越第一集的精采打鬥，結果只見到一個字──亂。故事則稟承第二集，繼續荒謬，有些場面應該笑的，笑不出，不應該笑的，卻差點笑出來！劍心的師傅 ( 福山雅治 ) 更只是一個「不老傳說」的笑話！如果你被 第一集 打動，請保留那份美好回憶，忘記第二、三集。如果你已經看了第二集，也請忘記第三集，除非你喜歡自虐 ( 像我這般 ) ！ 志志雄真實不是被劍心打敗的，他是被自己打敗的！劍心能夠獲勝，也並非他真的技高一籌，而是他終於知道自己到底缺少什麼！如果仔細反省，一路以來，我們都不曾敗給任何人，唯一打敗過我們的那位強敵就是我們自己。一切外在的敵人，其實都是自己心魔的顯現，所以戰勝自己，就等於戰勝一切。這個看似老土而非常真實的道理很多人聽過，也有不少人明白，但真正能夠做到的人少之又少。希望大家無須等到死神降臨的那一刻，才恍然大悟吧！

★★★☆☆ ‘Lucy’ somehow left me pondering for quite a moment what time is; why there’s time; how it’s like before time; what if one becomes time itself; and even ‘nonsense’ like what is the purpose of life? And then I was slapped back to super mundane, routine, safe reality by the call of nature literally! ‘Lucy’ is not so bad like most people think it is. The actions are pretty intense, especially the car chase sequence that’s certainly well edited and jaw-dropping. And I never thought Scarlett Johansson would put on such a great performance in a film like this. It’s just that it could’ve been more impressive if it’d stretched its philosophy and symbolism further and deeper so that it’d be like an action-packed sci-fi phenomenon, not the other way round. Well, this Luc Besson’s latest work is still worth a checkout though. Is he a one-hit wonder? I can’t judge, but I so wish that he could pull it off again like he once did to ‘ Leon: The Professional ’ in the future. This fi

★★★☆☆ ‘Gone Girl’ works like a reminder that evil doesn’t necessarily adopt an obnoxious approach upon you. Instead it could be brutally resourceful and romantic. So inevitably it’d make you feel sick to some extent. I’m not sure if I like this film, but I’m sure I’m not going to watch it ever again. Nick (Ben Affleck) finds his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) missing on their fifth wedding anniversary. The police look into it, and later they dig up evidence against Nick, including his wife’s diary suggesting that she was becoming very afraid of her husband who might kill her eventually. Nick appears decent at first but then we learn that he’s a dishonest and unfaithful person dependent on his wife. He does seem to have a motive. Amy looks innocent but her stares are kind of creepy. Indeed she’s ‘complicated’, a code word for bitch as stressed. So what’s gonna happen next is probably not much of a surprise to you if you’re a fan of crime dramas. To me, it’s more like a horror film th