Almost Buddhist - 戲‧論

  ★★★★☆ 先解下題。 Mauritania 、即是毛里塔尼亞，是西北非一個信奉伊斯蘭教的國家。 The Mauritanian 、毛里塔尼亞人，即是戲中主角 Mohamedou Ould Salahi 。他在 911 恐襲事件之後，被美國人抓去位於古巴的關塔那摩灣軍事監獄，懷疑他是恐怖份子，背後有份策劃襲擊。如果你上網搜尋下關塔那摩灣軍事監獄，你就會知那裡是一塊法外之地，被美軍抓去那裡的囚犯，是得不到如同在美國本土的應有法律保護。 Mohamedou 在那裡坐了十幾年的冤獄，由始至終，美國政府都找不到實質的證據起訴他，只能付諸非人道手段逼他認罪就範。後來 Mohamedou 把自己這段痛苦經歷寫成書，本片就是根據他寫的書拍成的真人真事！ 影片節奏緩慢，真正的戲肉要等到最後二十分鐘，前面的個半小時都是在陳敘和鋪排，文戲為主，如果你抱著一個獵奇心態，想看美軍如何虐待囚犯，我想你多少會失望。事實上，美軍的虐待手法很多不是肉體上，而是意志上的摧殘，影片也運用了一些意識流的手法去表達 Mohamedou 受虐後的精神狀態，看的時候要多加點想像，才能感受到主角所承受的那種精神上的折磨，而不是單純直接的感官衝擊。如果你「捱」得過前面的所謂「沉悶」，最後的二十分鐘會讓你頗為揪心和感動兼無奈！文戲需要好演員，本片有久違的影后 Jodie Foster ，以及昔日的男神今日的演技派 Benedict Cumberbatch ，分別扮演辯護與起訴律師，精彩對戲場面雖然是無，各自也沒有太多空間發揮演技，但也令人看得信服。最令我印象深刻的始終是 Tahar Rahim 飾演的 Mohamedou ，特別是他最後那段視像作證，甚是感人。 Mohamedou 相信美國是一個法治國家，而不是人治。他也提到阿拉伯語的 free 和 forgiveness 其實是同一個字，他選擇寬恕囚禁虐待過他的人，因為那是他信奉的真主－阿拉－要他做的正確的事，而他也不希望自己真的失去「自由」。我不肯定真實的 Mohamedou 是否真的如此寬宏大量，但片尾的真實 footage 讓我傾向相信他確是一個感恩慈悲的人，真的做到了寬恕與放下，他臉上燦爛的笑容是最好的證明。懂得寬恕的人猶如聖人是可敬可畏的，因為寬恕從來都不是一件容易的事！試問如果你現在是緬甸的抗爭者，你會不會、可不可能寬恕殘殺人民的軍...

  ★★☆☆☆ I'm not really into superhero stuff to be honest. As ' The Amazing Spiderman 2 ' is my goodbye to superhero films, I haven't checked out one single typical, commercial superhero film ever since. I know there're two gangs of heroes, Marvel and DC, but I don't know who's dealing with who, who or what they're up against, and which belongs to which! Still Zack Snyder's '300' is one of my favorites, and 'Superman' is part of my unforgettable childhood memories, a reminiscence of my dear mother taking me to the big cinema when I was small. So when Zack Snyder decided to cut his version of 'Justice League' featuring also the Superman, though his ' Man of Steel ' kind of sucks, I felt like I wanted to give it one last try! I didn't check out 2017's 'Justice League'. I don't know the difference between this and that but like expected, Snyder's cut is dark, stylish and of decent touches of slo-m...

  ★★★☆☆ 'Boss Level' is surprisingly more exhilarating than I expected. It's got stars like Mel Gibson, Naomi Watts, and long-time-no-see Michelle Yeoh but stars are never the point. The setup is, where a guy gets to die hundreds of times before he finally gets to find out why and how he's supposed to get out of the loop! That's obviously a bit cliched and senseless of course, but... wait, come to think of it, this sort of setup is not the point either. The point really is, the way it plays out those 'hundreds of deaths', which manages to get you gripped and make you laugh from time to time. Take it a comedy like ' Groundhog Day '. Take it easy. Then you're going to receive a 100-minute runtime joyful experience from an action film that you probably never thought would be capable of delivering so. 'Boss Level' truly feels like a video game as the title suggests, in which our hero keeps fighting and dying over and again till he learns en...

  ★★★☆☆ Trust, as you know, is hard to earn and keep. It takes quite a lot of time and effort to build it bit by bit, but it can be all gone in a flash! And there's no way to regain it intact because once it's broken, there's always going to be some doubt involved. Yet the world as you know it that seems to be running without a problem is, as a matter of fact, built on trust. Without it, things like relationships, love, families, commitments, religions, agreements, deals and stuff, are all going to fall apart. So yeah, trust issue really is a big deal in human world. 'Raya And The Last Dragon', the latest animated feature from Disney, is a film about that if you're still wondering! As you might've figured, things by Disney tend to be too good or ideal to be real, which is different from those by Pixar that tend to be cruel and telling the truth. Set in a fantasy world of Kumandra, 'RATLD' is made to 'educate', that it's not that the wor...