Almost Buddhist - 戲‧論

★☆☆☆☆ In case you don’t know, this is the third remake of the original Belgian film. I have no idea why the story’s so welcomed but the film’s a turnoff. Yes, there’s a little bit of suspense in the beginning but it doesn’t carry through. In order to make it a surprise in the end, it over-explains a lot of… senseless stuff. And the characters are paper thin, and have no charm at all. One or two seem to have a mind but turns out they’re like the rest of the mindless people! I wonder why men enjoy having a love affair even if they know it may cause them a lot of trouble, or even their lives. Are they really stupid or what, to believe that what happens in the loft would stay in the loft? A Chinese proverb says, paper can’t wrap up a fire. I guess it’s not that we don’t believe it can’t. It’s just that we need constant stimulation so as to feel alive. Having an affair is just part of the therapy! The irony is, when you feel like you need it so bad to feel alive, you’re actually dy

★★★☆☆ The opening of the film seems like a big joke, probably because of not a heads-up about what’s going on given. The whole picture’s not revealing till the film goes half way down the path of wanting to change the future. This is a film about some guys jumping from one dimension into another using a magic pin, in an attempt to change what’s gonna be by changing what people believe is gonna be! Sounds complicated huh? You bet. Though ‘Tomorrowland’ is distributed by Walt Disney, it’s not for kids. They’ll find it rather intricate, and thus boring. Neither is it for adults like me that really don’t believe there’ll be a better world ahead of us, judging by what we’ve done and what we’re doing. But to be fair, the adventure itself is sort of fun even if the way it presents may cause confusion to some! A gourmet believes we’re what we eat. A fashion designer must tell you we’re what we wear. ‘Tomorrowland’ says we’re what we think, and things are what we think they are. So if

★★★★☆ 個人很欣賞這部台灣電影。可能你覺得故事乏味，我覺得貼近真實生活；可能你覺得對白粗糙，我覺得童言無忌，現實的人說話就是如此；可能你覺得那片青蔥的山水，那種溫暖的鄰里關係，那種和大自然打成一片的悠閒暑假有點過於美化，我覺得是我們城市人呆在「屎坑」裡太久，被染污了，看不清什麼是真，什麼是虛！〈暑假作業〉勾起我很多童年回憶，當中我看到很多兒時生活的影子，有感觸，也有會心微笑。很遺憾，你跟我，我跟他，他跟她，我們大家永遠都無法真的分享大家的感受，因為我們都各自生活在自己的經驗世界裡，受制於我們自身的業力，所謂各自因果各自受，我們注定是孤獨的！ 一個小孩因為父母離異及工作的關係，暑假被送到鄉下的爺爺那裡，他沒想到原本無奈的選擇，最後卻變成一段難忘的經歷。難忘，是因為他發現除了平板電腦，還有其他更值得花時間去探索的東西；難忘，是因為他遇到了一些在城市裡遇不到的「有趣」的人，他們心地淳樸，不擅計較；難忘，是因為暑假雖短暫，卻讓他切身體會到無常是無處不在，生命是脆弱無比。一切來得平平淡淡、點到即止、毫不煽情，卻是那麼刻骨銘心！ 人是獨來獨往，獨生獨死的。戲裡的那位爺爺說，人要習慣孤獨，因為沒有人會陪我們一輩子。他只說對了一半，因為就算你有幸找到有緣人（表面上）跟你走一輩子，面對死亡的時候，你依然是孤家寡人。無論你有多少知心，知你心的永遠只能是你自己，不過有時連你自己都不知自己的心如何，遑論你那些所謂的知心！無論你擁有什麼，有多少好友或家親眷屬，臨終時，你只是一枚無力自主的風箏，隨著業力吹起的風，繼續在恐怖的六道中，孤獨可憐地飄蕩！

★★★★☆ Before entering the cinema for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’, I’d watched none of Director George Miller’s films except ‘Babe’ series probably, and thought his ‘Mad Max’ series were nothing more than the money-making, exaggerated, hollow ‘Fast & Furious’ shows. But I was wrong. ‘MMFR’ is simply fascinating and satisfying in action film genre. The action sequences are down-to-earth, energetic, jaw-dropping, and creative. Sure there’s a slight touch of CGI, but all you see are basically real vehicles speeding, chasing, spinning, crashing and blowing up with crazy warboys charging, attacking and flying all over. It’s a mess, but there’s beauty and rhythm in it, thanks to the ingenious score and editing! The characters are by no means paper thin, especially the heroine Furiosa played by Charlize Theron that’s really a big surprise to me, as I thought it was all about Max, and certainly of silly masculinity. If you feel like ‘ Furious 7 ’ is great, you haven’t checked out ‘Mad Max

★★★☆☆ If Steven Spielberg’s ‘A.I.’ is to move and entertain, ‘Ex Machina’ is to warn and provoke with ideas rather than effects. A.I. stands for artificial intelligence that, instead of being preprogrammed and receiving constant updates like a robot, has the ability to learn and evolve itself to be like a man. What if a machine can do what we do, feel what we feel and think what we think? What would you call it, a man or a machine? And how could you tell? You may argue, even if a machine can do sex like we do, it can't bear babies, can it? But what if it can reproduce itself without having to undergo courtship and pregnancy, as you know love, sex, marriage and stuff are kind of troublesome and hurtful indeed? Some scientists and futurists are worried about us being replaced and ultimately destroyed by A.I. I guess it’s not a bad idea though, if that’s what we deserve. Why must the future necessarily include us human beings anyway? Like I said, ‘Ex Machina’ is about ideas t

★★☆☆☆ I’m not allergic to any ‘Fast’ or ‘Furious’, but not a fan of it either. I unintentionally jumped right into ‘ Fast 5 ’ and ‘ 6 ’ that turned out just okay. I don’t like or dislike them. In ‘Furious 7’, the story is as plain and decorative. The actions now are much more daring and exaggerated than ever before. That’s why they appear to be so preposterous to me. The only thing not bad about it is the cameos like Jason Statham, Kurt Russell, and even Tony Jaa, but y’know they don’t have much show time. I thought ‘Fast 6’ would be my goodbye to the series, but since Paul Walker’s sudden death, I’d felt like I should pay him a tribute anyway by checking it out one last time! To be honest, I don’t feel for most part of the film, but I do feel for the ending and the song that goes with it, where two cars travel side by side but then go in separate ways. The thing is, we never learn to treasure anything till we lose it. We never take Paul Walker or his role seriously till he’s

★★☆☆☆ Arnie’s very good in the film. He looks so vulnerable, battered, and sentimental like you’ve never seen him before. He deserves more time on the screen but this is, as the title suggests, a film about his daughter, Maggie, not him. So often he’s absent for no proper reason at all since his daughter’s under a critical situation turning rapidly into a zombie. The pictures are apocalyptic, poignant, and kind of beautiful in gray color. The story however, is of no thrills, no twists, no climax. It’s more like a long boring MV, visually pleasing but so forgettable! There’s basically not a moment to really feel moved or emotional. It could’ve probably been a great film if it had adopted a realistic backdrop instead of a fictional yet hard-to-believe one. Like I said, Arnie’s good, but obviously he picked the wrong film to act in. I don’t know how it feels to just watch someone die as you can do nothing about it. I saw a dead body or two before with my own eyes, but I’ve ne

★★★☆☆ 近來不是沒有看戲，有些看到一半就看不下去了，有些看了沒甚麼好說的，有些看了不想再老調重彈……或許、是這個世界以及這個世界的人（包括我）讓我越來越啞口無言吧！不過越明白佛法，越覺得沒甚麼想說或可說的！ 電影一開始已經讓我有點作嘔。我有這樣的反應，很大程度上是因為我心裡知道，戲裡那變態的一幕，多少有一定的現實基礎，而現實世界發生的甚至比戲裡的殘酷變態很多很多倍，所以我安慰自己，也不必太過大驚小怪。其實人跟禽獸根本沒甚麼分別，只不過人懂得以「禮」去掩飾包裝自己的禽獸行為而已。 整體來說，我對〈雛妓〉沒甚麼特別好惡。蔡卓妍演戲比以前成熟了，但始終覺得她在很用力地演，相反，任達華就比較自然從容。〈雛妓〉主要不是講雛妓，是 Sara （蔡卓妍）的成長辛酸歷，哦，也不算辛酸吧，除了開頭那一隻禽獸，起碼她往後人生遇到的都是一些比較正常的人。她不算是妓女，只能說援交，應該說情婦比較正確。搞她的高官（任達華）沒有搞完她就算，還一路暗地裡扶持她上大學，教導她走上人生正軌，他們之間不純粹只是肉體上的交易，多少有「愛」的存在。當然，他也不是甚麼好人，事實是，這個世界根本沒有真正的好人，因為人做好事總夾雜一定的私心，人去付出總帶有一定的條件。來這個世界混的，多少帶有「我執」，如果「無我」，就不會生娑婆了。你我都是不正常的，分別是變態的程度輕重而已！ 人生是一個充滿選擇的過程，但無論你如何選擇，結果都絕對是出乎你意料之外的。選擇本身是沒甚麼意義的，我們看似有自由意志去做出選擇，其實一切都是業力使然，所以也不必太介懐每一個選擇，人之所以不自由，是因為我們總是在後悔過往的種種選擇！