今天下午跟家人看電影「非誠勿擾」，馮小岡導演。
久未看過中文電影，更久未看過如此巧妙的對白，如此傳神的演出（葛優與舒淇）。
故事或許並非港人熟識的提材—網上徵婚，但是稍為對中國大陸文化有體驗、了解或只是興趣的觀眾應該都不難投入。在北京這部電影要排隊購票，在香港，那小戲院中還是空著不少位子的。
翻開明報影評一頁，見此電影所獲四個分數分別為一，二，二點五和四。
影評人：
「把舒淇拍得很難看」—我不同意，我覺這是我看過舒淇最有韻味和深度的演出。
「影片就只靠張愛玲式的機鋒對白支撐冗長又時而穾兀的劇情」—大概拋出張作家的大名可以使影評人顯得較有學識，只可識此片描寫細膩的性格和言語，導演的聰明佈局，都通通給看輕了。
香港影評如此不濟，大概是社會風氣的反映。香港人看爛片看得多，看得慣，漸漸會連精采的幽默，精鍊的演技都不會欣賞；浮誇，荒唐的電影（如愛鬥大）則廣受歡迎…… 沒有好的觀眾，難有好的電影。香港人自欺比大陸人有文化，可能曾幾何時是真的，現在是時候放下成見，虛心學習中國博大精深的文化，否則只會給人狠狠的比了下去。
“The phrase The heartbreak of psoriasis is often used both seriously and ironically to describe the emotional impact of the disease… The term can be found in various advertisements for topical and other treatments; conversely, it has been used to mock the tendency of advertisers to exaggerate (or even fabricate) aspects of a malady for financial gain.”
—Wikipedia, on Psoriasis.
Good Samaritan - name of the orphanage that we visit every Tuesday and Thursday - has new meanings after reading the following passage from The Tipping Point: (more…)
Sometimes the best way to convey a message is by not saying a word. (already too much)
If you haven’t seen the movie, I recommend you to. I suppose you don’t have the time, so here’s the imdb page :-)
It is a classic. No doubt about it. I have seen this movie multiple times when I was young. I might have enjoyed some of the humors in the film, but I don’t think I could’ve enjoyed many of the sarcasms then. Watching it in Africa, right after a trip to the Safari, added even more flavors to this film.
The Coca-cola bottle, i.e. the Evil Thing, was foreign to the bushman family - Sho. Its entering into the Sho life brought great improvements to their daily tasks, thus everyone wanted it. Soon there was a shortage of supply, which unfortunately disrupted the harmonious contentment of the family.
In three days, the old lady will again walk without her cane. At least so believe the attendees of GeorDavie’s preaching today.
Every Sunday at Kisongo, Arusha, GeorDavie preaches to a crowd of over a thousand. Preach might be an insufficient word. He performs. He performs miracles, one after another. They are amazing. Amazing might be a misleading word. They are ridiculously amusing.
People walk up to the stage front, franticly, screaming at the top of their lungs. Their bodies are consumed by the devil. GeorDavie speaks to the crowd with frequent references to a person called Yesu. Then, he blows a mouthful of miraculous air in their faces, and their bodies soften, minds soothed. They lay strengthless on the ground - a clear sign that devil has left their body. In some other cases he pours a handful of Kilimanjaro water (manufactured by the Coca-Cola company) and cleanse the crowd with his splash. The crowd clap their hands enthusiastically after each miracle is performed. (more…)
–Danny Archer to Maddy Bowen, in Blood Diamond.
Between the growingly intense and gruesome massacres in the film, Emily made a comment, “This is not the best place to watch this film… Africa I mean.”
It was the best place to watch the film, I thought.
We tell ourselves, we come here to get a taste of ‘reality’. When we spend weekends at bars and clubs and fancy restaurants that prices quite reasonably for American’s standard, spending 2000 Tsh a beer, 5000 Tsh a bottle of Konyagi–the local form of gin, kind of-and exploding our vehicle with American music, we were so close to reality.
I wonder how close to reality this film is. Far, probably. Despite of that, and the plenty compliments about this film that I have heard, it still exceeded my expectation. It may bother some people that it is another one of these movies where a Hollywood movie star (white one, of course) plays the hero, saves lives, kills 200 villains before getting a scratch. Perhaps it is a little bit of that. But I thought, Leonardo’s part could not be played by an African, or an African American, for that matter. That was the whole point of it. It was about this white guy exploiting Africa, and through his pursuit of the blood diamond blah blah blah realized blah blah blah. It’s the white people. It’s the WHITE PEOPLE.*
I came here with my laptop computer(with which I watched Blood Diamond), my malaria medicine and my little bottles of hand sanitizer and think, hm, I can change the out come.
