World is Everything

屈指一算已是第五次看Sylvian的現場演出了，第一次是大專會堂那個Japan告別演唱會,第二次在Toronto,好像是Massey Hall, 第三次很特別 ,是backpacking時在意大利無意中看到Sylvian/Fripp的演唱會海佈,那晚專程坐火車去看的。最好看是日本東京那次,是in-between唱片的搵食tour,Sylvian很識做的唱了很多首本名曲,那次的座位和現場氣氛都超正。這一次又在香港跟他相會，去看的多是我這樣的熟男,都是支持他多年的超級fans,聽到舊歌大家都反應很興奮，尤其是他唱我喜歡的Ride ,那一刻我有點毛管「棟」，可惜感動一閃即逝。演唱會後我反覆的問自己，是否現在太老餅所以才覺新不如舊，還是他的新作無論在melody以至arrangement都不及以前？是否脫離了大公司的他沒有商業壓力,所以pop味更少?憑我在演唱會上聽到的,9 Horseshit, I mean horses, 實在淡而無味，我最後捧場的Sylvian大碟是Blemish,碟如其名,令我心裡留下污點!

從網上抄下來的Run-down--大家評評道理,舊歌使唔使攪個串燒medley呀,大佬!

Wonderful World
It'll Never Happen Again
World Citizen/I Won't Be Disappointed/World Citizen
The Day The Earth Stole Heaven
Ride
Playground Martyrs/Transit
A Fire In The Forest/Ghosts
Snow Borne Sorrow
Mother And Child
Waterfront
Atom And Cell
Sugar Fuel
Brilliant Trees/Before The Bullfight/Nostalgia/Before The Bullfight
The Librarian

[1st encore]
Medley: Every Colour You Are/Riverman/Every Colour You Are

[2nd encore]
Wanderlust

Currently reading

A scathing attack on religion. Lucid and well argued.
But can one believe in a God who is not the primer mover, the supreme designer, the creator of the universe?
What if God is not an old man living in the sky, but connected to a part of us, our spirits? Some scientists think consciousness is just a function of brain activity, but to me the strongest evidence it is something more is near death experiences (NDE). People who have no brain functions, who have flatlined on the operating table, for example, have reported startling lucid after death experiences that they are able to recall with accuracy. Some have suggested that this is merely the dying brain randomly firing off neurons, but if this were the case then everyone who have had near death experiences should have the same kinds of visions, but in fact only some do. Also NDEers have reported verifiable out of body visions, like blind people who can see their own bodies. One Dutch study on NDE that has been published in the scientific journal seems to verify its supernatural nature. These studies provide strong proof that we are more than our physical self.

色戒裡的演出

一直在想為何「色,戒」在外地得不到應有的評價?是因為對中國歷史的不了解，還是其他文化的原因？是否戲中的角色不夠忠奸分明，令人難以代入？其中王佳芝這角色的描寫，既不是愛國女英雄又不是femme fatale,曖昧而耐人尋味，正是全片最引人入勝之處。

李安把關鍵放在演出這母題上 (我的theory 是：東方人善於戴著不同的面具做人，所以他們都instinctively明白這個角色的掙扎。)王佳芝的「愛國」情懷在舞台上被激發，當她大叫「中國不能亡」時引起觀眾的認同，這種演出帶來的intoxication是王後來加入刺殺陰謀的重要原因，所以李安把那一場戲設計在劇院裡，起初王一個人在舞台上徘徊，彷彿回味演出時的情境，然後坐在觀眾席的同學叫喚她一起商討大計。後來他們第一次約易太太去街，易太太與他們閒聊，演王的丈夫的同學結結巴巴，鄺裕民也緊張得木口木面(王力宏被批評演技生硬，但他演的正正是個彆腳的演員，一個「愛國學生」的stereotype)，只有王佳芝應對自如，她是一個natural，遠超於其他同學，所以在那屋子中她被孤立了--留意那女同學望著王的表情，往往帶著幾分妒忌。電影跳到幾年後的上海，王一個人容顏憔悴地輪米，回到家後親戚在打牌，被摒棄於另一重要舞台--麻將桌之外。後來她再被安排入易家，第一場就是她穿戴整齊地坐在易太太後面看牌局，與輪米的一場成強列對比，一下子她的自信和glamour都回來了，風情萬種地瞄著剛回家的易先生。(她回歸「舞台」的過程也是循序漸進的，這一場她就像劇場裡的understudy。)

Performance這母題一再在電影裡出現，王與易先生每一次交往、造愛，究竟有幾分真幾分假？真與假之間的張力成為這部片最大的動力，王對那長官的那一場outburst,說易先生善於戲假情真，其實有一半也是說她自己吧，在日本飯店那一幕的「演出」，成功地征服了易先生，也感動了她自己。

舒琪在他的影評裡都miss了這些細節，沒留意到李安描寫這個角色的曖昧性和複雜性，只說她的動機由頭至尾只有一個，就是「暗戀鄺裕民，所以樂意被他擺佈和為他犧牲──直到最後發現他原來也是軟弱的」。若她由頭至尾都暗戀鄺裕民，她便不會在他吻她後只冷冷地說了一句「三年前你本來可以的」，若她那麼簡單地深情，比較煽情的處理應讓她流著兩行淚慨嘆時不與我吧。前文也提到她被槍決一幕拒絕望向鄺裕民。舒琪還說李安沒有拍出小說裡王佳芝的虛榮，但事實上李安都拍了出來，還拍得很好。李安(和編劇)最成功之處就是把書裡面沒有的細節編出來，把原本很barebones的故事很豐富地表現出來，同時又忠於原著的母題。

另外舒琪又提到王與她的同學沒理由那麼容易暪得過易先生和易太太，之前我已提到全都是王佳芝撐場，那個演丈夫的同學之後已被叮走，沒有再參與「演出」。另外當時易先生逃難到香港，人生路不熟，當時又未掌大權，沒有細查王的底細也不出奇，而且片中也沒說易先生深信不疑。第一幕施暴式的床戲，正正表達他的不信任。

Lust, Caution

Finally saw Lust, Caution. Masterpiece!
Can't understand why Western critics panned it. New York Times said it is just "a sleepy, musty period drama". Village Voice called it a soap opera, that it is neither sexy nor thrilling. Is the blindness limited to American critics? Did it win the Golden Lion because of Chang Yi-mou?

The mind boggles. Is it because they are unable to appreciate the film's ambiguities, the fact that one is never sure about the characters and their intentions? Mr. Yee is not your typical villain, nor is Wang what one expects of a patriotic heroine. Up until the end she remains an enigma. When the Lee-hom character turns to look at her, she refuses to turn his way, but instead stares straight ahead , as if to confront her own mortality. During their first love-making scene, Yee ravishes her violently, almost raping her. But Ang Lee ends the scene with a shot of her lying alone in bed, a half smile on her face. Is she savouring the experience, or glad that she's finally succeeded in seducing him? The film is full of these wonderfully suggestive moments.

Ang Lee has taken Eileen Chang's sparsely written novella and managed to craft a purely cinematic masterpiece out of it, once again proving that he is one of the greatest film directors today.

三條窄路

競逐金草莓最爛男配角的大熱演出，為你誠意獻上。

區議會選舉

這個有為青年(不，右邊那個，哈哈)叫馬愉生，是長毛的議員助理(長毛議員的助理?)，年初時去慧貞老師家拜年時見過他，並跟他討論區內事務。他頗有見地，更重要的是他沒有很多香港人(包括我)的犬儒和negativity,人如其名，很正面和樂觀。想不到八個月後又在家樓下碰到他，原來他正為出選區議會拉票，我還做了他的題名人。

除了馬愉生外，社民聯還在黃大仙派出一個叫盧海鵬的31歲候選人，不知能否如長毛般創出奇蹟呢?

矢 志 不 渝

「同志戀人」事件後看到一集「鏗鏘集」，重訪十年前被訪問過的專業人士，談十年後他們對香港回歸後的意見。他們在回歸前都表示擔心香港前途，但仍決定留下來。十年過後，其中一個被訪者說希望見到香港實行普選。於是我去信廣管局說香港普選是具爭議性的議題，該節目中反映支持普選的立場而沒有相反意見，違反了廣播條例中持平的原則。這個案經多月投訴/上訴程序後終於有回信，這答案很值得分享。

廣管局的信中說該節目內「其中一名專業人士表示希望香港實行普選，並質疑內地一黨專政的管治，而其他受訪者則表示信任中央政府及對內地發展有信心。廣管局認為有關節目描述了三名專業人士的不同意見，節目的表達方式並非不可接受，亦無偏袒。」

原來在他們心目中，希望香港實行普選和對央政府及對內地發展有信心是對立的意見，即是說在這些官員到今時今日還認為，希望香港實行普選的都是反中亂港之輩！

(節目重溫可按此)

狗屁的歲月

這幅鬆郁曚的照片是當評審譚家明宣佈亞洲新導演獎得主是市井昌秀時，他太太掩面而泣的情景。當天我跟影展職員一起坐地鐵去戲院時，我們還以典型港式犬儒口吻嘲笑這個獎既沒獎金也沒獎座，只有由sponsor送出的低檔DV機作獎品，但那一刻看到市井的太太的反應，我不由得十分感動，並醒覺到其實獎品是什麼不是最重要，這個獎的意義，(也是整個影展原來的意義)，是給對電影有堅持的電影人肯定和鼓勵。

0506HK

Saw my second HKAFF film last night, Quentin's 0506HK. I didn't have very high expectations of it going in, to be quite honest, but I ended up enjoying it. I liked the fact that there's not an ounce (well, maybe just a gram or two) of pretension in it. He is brutally honest (if not a little too earnest) about himself and those around him. At times he comes across as being self centred, as when he turns every comment from his interviewees, whether it's about Hong Kong politics, culture and what not into ruminations about his own identity and direction in life. But that's Quentin for you. Having opened himself up to critical examination, however, the film doesn't really go far enough. We don't hear much about his love life, or his life in L.A. (what does he do all day? What is it about his LA life that he finds so compelling?) or even how the issues of cultural identity influence his works. Running at 63 minutes, the film could have easily spent another 10-15 minutes exploring those points.

Paris squirming on Letterman

I love the way Letterman just breezes through the first couple of questions, and then go in for the kill. Remember when she just got out and went on Larry King, she talked about how jail was such a life-changing experience and now that she's out all she wants to do is help people? Now she doesn't even want to hear about jail, and wants to just focus on herself, as always!