钟德胜：用电影来倒影生活

钟德胜：用电影来倒影生活

文字 蓝蝴蝶

很多人都想从电影中看回自己的生活，如果华人的同志只能在西方的电影看回自己的生活，那是很可惜的事情。所以，无论过去丶还是现在会有华人导演拍的同志电影，都会受到很多人追捧，因为我们都很需要在电影看回自己生活的样貌。

钟 德胜毕业于加拿大约克大学电影系，回港后曾任职电视台及制作公司，参与电视节目丶广告以及宣传片制作。他自九六年起从事独立电影制作，作品包括《别 乡》（1996），曾获香港独立短片及录像比赛优异奖及日本Image Forum 电影节Award of Excellence丶《史丹利》（1998）, 曾获西班牙 Cinema Jove 电影节短片金奖以及德国Regensberg 短片电影节评判特别奖丶《心灰》（1999）, 曾获香港电影神话短片比赛优异奖。首部长片《只爱陌生人》（Innocent）荣获多伦多亚洲电影节最佳电影奖。 他是独立电影发行组织「影意志」的创始人之一，现为该组织之董事局成员。钟德胜的最新电影作品《爱到尽》将在香港同志影展2008首映。 今年参与采访与报导本月20日举行的的香港同志影展2008，第一个被访问的人物对于我来说，几乎是陌生的一个。来自香港的独立电影导演钟德胜，一个喜欢去透过镜头来将自己的写出的故事，逐步构思在荧幕上的男人。 钟德胜在访问中说道：「很多人都想从电影中看回自己的生活，如果华人的同志只能在西方的电影看回自己的生活，那是很可惜的事情。所以，无论过去丶还是现在会有华人导演拍的同志电影，都会受到很多人追捧，因为我们都很需要在电影看回自己生活的样貌。」 或 者，从这番话之中可以体会到作为独立电影导演的钟德胜，接二连三的拍摄同性恋的故事丶以及将镜头锁定在人生某个阶段的意图。用镜头来复述一段过往丶或是部 分人的现在，以及是那些牵涉到生活中的每一个细节，就如从他过去作品《心灰》中看到的那位早年丧父丶又有恋父情结的文学青年，不顾世俗的眼光去与年纪老迈 的教授相恋；又如，《只爱陌生人》中，那个因家庭问题丶被逼走到陌生国度而感到迷惘的反叛青年…… 虽然，并不是每个人都会有与他们同样的经历，但他们那份处于青春期的冲动丶反叛丶迷惘，透过影像的诠释绝对会令很多人若有所感，皆因我们都曾经年轻过。 Fridae：其实你很多作品，无论在香港丶还是国际上，都夺得了很多奖项。对于奖项丶与荣耀，其实你是抱着怎样的心态来对待的？ 对我来说，奖项首先会是一种鼓励；其次，也是帮我传播作品的途径，因为我是独立电影人，独立作品本身的传播范围其实很狭隘的，一部独立作品在获得奖项之 后，无疑会引起更广泛的关注。不过，奖项这东西讲求的是运气，要很多人和的东西来配合的，例如评审对你的作品的喜欢，是得奖最基本的要素。我觉得一套电影 的好与坏，并不是用奖项来衡量的，很多时候没得奖的电影，也不见得它是一部不好的丶不卖座的电影。 Fridae：为什么 你会选择走上「独立电影」导演这个职业的？ 其实，我从事电视节目制作的时间并不长。从加拿大毕业回港之后，我在有一段短暂的时候从事节目制作方面的工作，之后就到了一所大学从事技术的工作。从那时 开始，我便开始有空闲的时间来搞自己的创作，之后我便发现有很多在商业电影中无法出现的拍摄手法丶题材都可以出现在独立电影里面，所以我便逐渐地将更多的 时间放到自己的创作里面，进而成为了我今天的工作。 Fridae：拍摄一部独立作品，最好玩的地方是？ 其实，任何拍摄工作都是很好玩的。而且独立电影拍摄工作的本身，不会有限制丶更加不会有公司老板在左右我的思路，只是资金和人手方面会有所限制。但，可以和一群有默契的人，透过自由创作来完成一部作品，会令我很享受这种感觉。 Fridae：你拍摄的独立电影，和其他导演的作品比较，有哪些特点和不可复制之处？ 当然会有，拍一部大制作的电影，要顾及的东西也会随之而增多，例如工作人员会增多丶另外还要照顾到演员的档期丶技术上的要求也会和独立出品的作品有很大的差异。就算是一个一部预算很少的商业作品，他们的制作整容都会比独立出品的作品大很多。 Fridae：你曾经长期担任电视节目丶广告丶宣传短片的制片，所累积下来的经验，会不会对现在的你有帮助呢？ 不会有太大的帮助，因为当时我的职位低微，另外当时做的时间也不长。广告的制作和拍摄电影，其实是有很大的差别的，比如说广告不需要拍摄出来连接的画面， 而拍电影是要很完整和连贯的表现一个故事，所以我觉得以前的工作并没有对我现在导演身份有太大的影响。我觉得，自己的经验是从拍摄电影之后，开始慢慢累积 下来的，因为有很多东西在未接触之前，我是不清楚的。随着我累积的拍摄经验增多，也越来越去愿意去作大胆和创新的尝试。 Fridae：你刚刚开始拍摄独立作品的时候，都是拍摄短片比较多的，为什么 后来到了拍摄同性恋的题材的时候，会突然拍起长片来的？ 这是我一路以来我的拍摄倾向，尤其是当我拍完片长45分钟的《心灰》之后，我就很明确的告诉自己将来所拍的作品，时间会更加的长。对于市场而言，长片可以 发行丶以及去到影展的机会，都比短片的机会要多，而且我自己也越来越倾向于长片的拍摄，因此给人感觉我拍摄的作品是一部比一部长。 Fridae：用拍摄的时间来说，拍摄短片会不会比长片用的时间少，准备的工作也没有长片那样的繁琐呢？ 是的，的确少了很多。可能我拍摄一部长片的时间是要十多天的，而短片需要的时间只是几天而已。 Fridae：在香港接触同性恋电影的导演，到目前来说都是屈指可数的几个。又是什么 目的，驱使你去拍摄同志范畴的作品的？ 首先，我比较熟悉这个范畴；其次在香港的电影圈里面，比较少人去拍摄这一类的电影，所以，既然我要去拍片，我为什么 不去从一些自己熟悉丶而又有空间去发挥的范畴来入手呢？从而，也让同性恋电影在香港，或是华人地区有多点曝光的机会。 Fridae：同性恋这类比较小众的题材的作品，是什么 原因可以令你一部又一部的去拍摄呢，背后会不会有很多朋友去鼓励和支持你呢？ 如果有人支持的话，我拍出来的就不叫独立电影了，我拍片的资金来源，其实大部分都是来自艺术发展局。至于鼓励的话，曾经得过的奖项算是对我最好的鼓励。

巧合

朋友將去日本旅行，打算把兩隻狗兒交來看管。其中一隻是還沒絕育的雄狗，於是我計劃提前為Plato絕育。千辛萬苦親自過海為她預約，本來Book了星期五做手術，星期四早上Plato沒精打彩，走近一看發現地上有血跡，原來接近一歲的她開始發情，手術於是告吹，幸好SPCA不會沒收我的訂金！

Simon Chung ponders the meaning of gay cinema (BC magazine)

His second film spurs Simon Chung to talk about prejudice and what it means to make a gay film

You don’t need to be French to enjoy a French film, so you don’t need to be gay to enjoy a gay movie – right? The logic might be sound but unfortunately it doesn’t do much for the perception that anything gay is for gays only. Independent filmmaker Simon Chung should know. His second full-length feature, The End of Love, which is screening in the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival 2008, has been predominantly marketed at the gay community, even though he didn’t intend it to be so.
As one of the founding members of the independent film organization Ying E Chi, Chung has been making independent short films since 1996. His earlier works, Life is Elsewhere (1996), Stanley Beloved (1997) and First Love & Other Pains (1999) are mainly explorations of homosexuality among coming-of-age Chinese youth. Following his full-length debut Innocent (2005), which focused on the cultural shock experienced by a 17-old-year Chinese gay teen in Toronto, The End of Love touches on two other sensitive issues in Hong Kong’s gay community: drugs and prostitution.

The film centres on Ming, a young man whose mother committed suicide after an argument about Ming’s homosexuality. He turns to drugs as an escape and soon after starts selling his body for money. His boyfriend, Yan, disapproves and their relationship deteriorates. After Ming overdoses, Yan has him committed to a rehab centre where he meets recovering heroin addict Keung. Affection between the two grows and Ming moves in with Keung with disastrous results. Though Chung doesn’t pretend to any grand ambitions to make films that speak for the gay community – or any community, for that matter – he does consider independent film is a medium to tell the stories of people who are marginalized. Actors turned down roles in his film because they didn’t want to associate drugs with homosexuality, but Chung thinks that is a mistake. “If you care about the issue, what you make will not smear the image of the community. I think it is happening in reality so it is worth portraying life as it really is,” he says
While the director agrees The End of Love is obviously a ‘gay film’, he is careful about defining the label. “A lot of people don’t like that label, and I understand why,” he says. “It is not that they are in the closet, it is because that label will limit an audience’s reading of the film.” He cites Taiwanese master Tsai Ming-liang’s I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (2006) as an example – while it is very gay, Chung says, “The film is actually about humanity – the caring of people. It is way beyond homosexuality.”

So, how do we define a film as gay? Is a movie in which two same-sex characters make out a ‘gay film’? From a filmmaker’s point of view, Chung believes the genre is about sensibility: “It is a way to see the world,” he says. He is particular impressed by the work of American director Todd Haynes – most notably Far From Heaven – and Alan Ball’s American Beauty. “They are about the heterosexual world but the attitude is gay – for example, their criticisms on marriage. That you grow up in a straight world and you see the hypocrisy in the straight world. It is more than men having sex with men.”

That is a perception far from the general prejudice that says only gays and lesbians would be interested in a gay festival, a prejudice that would immediately suspect a friend who says his favourite pastime is watching Queer as Folk. Chung, who graduated from film production school in Toronto, has worked in local films and television besides his own independent film endeavours. He says the prejudice is difficult to change, but smart filmmakers are able to break through it and attract straight audiences. “People often think if a film has a gay character then it is for gay people. You cannot do anything about it, especially with straight guys – they won’t come to a film like that,” he says. Brokeback Mountain, however, was a watershed that bears out Chung’s point: “Ang Lee demonstrates that with a good script, good cast and good marketing, people don’t mind watching a gay film at all.”

But even though there was an influx of films with explicit gay elements during the 1990’s – largely due to the decriminalization of homosexual acts in 1991, which shed some light onto the subject – Chung thinks they have not changed attitudes towards sexual orientation. Such films – like He and She (1994), Oh! My Three Guys; Boys (1996), Bishonen (1998) and Queer Story (1998) to name a few – were like gimmicks. And if one wants to talk about the change in local queer cinema in the last two decades, Chung thinks there is nothing to discuss. “There are too few gay films. People are still comparing [films to] Wong Kai Wai’s [Happy Together (1997)] and Stanley Kwan’s [Lan Yu (2001), Hold You Tight (1997)] and say there is progression. But there is actually nothing after those.”

現代法里賽人

最近在Facebook跟基督徒辯論黃成智和家暴條例的問題，一來驚覺某些基督徒對聖經的曲解，另一方面也對他們的無限上崗嘆為觀止，比如一些人會認為家暴條例若包括保障同志，便會令到老師在學校教人做同性戀者，社會下一步便會走向雜交、亂倫、人獸交等等。他們是否知道他們已變成了聖經裡的法里賽人，自以為神聖不可侵犯去處處壓迫別人？

以下是毓民鬧某枚師的非理性恐同，Thank god for 毓民!

Madagascar 2

Watched Madagascar 2 with Sanjog and Rama over the weekend. Surprisingly good. I actually cried twice! It's fast paced and eventful enough for kids, yet full of in-jokes and other witticisms for adult enjoyment. There's so much liberal bias in the film (about equal rights, paternal leave and inter-racial marriage, among other things) that I wonder if it's some sort of covert scheme by left wing Hollywood to brainwash kids in red states. Plus there is some really overt homo subtext--the two male chimps demanding paternal leave, the relationship between Alex and the zebra, and a lion who likes to dance and twirl rather than fight--there is no way it could be accidental.

2008 Year in Review

Top 5 events in my life in 2008:

1. Making "End of Love" under enormous time and budget constraints, and it's the film I'm most satisfied with so far.
2. Selling my flat at the peak of the market.
3. Buying my current one also at the peak of the market.
4. Getting Plato, trouble-maker extraordinaire and the best mate a guy could hope for.
5. Making RTHK drama "Guilt and Repentance", a professional yet deeply personal work.

Best films:

《天水圍的日與夜》
-Hats off to Ann Hui for having the courage and the passion to make a film on this scale about the lives of ordinary people in Hong Kong.

《The Class》
-A classy classroom drama, refreshingly full of interesting dialogue (as opposed to action)

Best Book:

Gregory David Roberts' Shantaram. Taut and eventful, at the same time profound and philosophical. Thanks Madonna for recommending it!
鍾祖康, 「來生不做中國人」 ,中國人的當頭棒喝!

The 80s is back (again)

最近喜歡的兩位女歌手，不約而同都80年代到爆。一位是勁似華納時代憶蓮的謝安琪，另一位是re-invent 80年代電子跳舞歌的Lady Gaga。究竟我是因為她們的80年代而喜歡她們，定係那個under-rated的年代其實是流行音樂的癲峰？